The Original, Unused Ending of 1996's Space Jam Revealed

Play ball! Ahead of Space Jam: A New Legacy's long-awaited release in the summer of 2021, Entertainment Weekly took a look back at the 1996 original (now streaming on Peacock) that blended the wild popularity of Michael Jordan with the zany antics of Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes characters.

Speaking with the movie's director, Joe Pytka, EW learned that the ending scene where Jordan makes it to his baseball game in time (right after defeating the Monstars in a high-stakes basketball match) was originally supposed to be a longer hat tip to 1984's The Natural. In all fairness, though, Pytka had no scruples about the fact that he merely "ripped off" the Robert Redford sports classic.

Space Jam's Final Baseball Sequence Was Originally A Lot Longer, Director Says

"It's a tight game, the stands are full, and Michael looks up and his son gives him a sign to widen his stance, a call back to something he said at the beginning," he recalled. "Then Michael hits a home run and trots around the bases like Robert Redford, with all these flashes popping. Instead of everything falling from the broken lights like in The Natural, I had this special effect with everyone taking pictures with those little cheap cameras you could buy for a dollar."

The sequence ended up cut, which, according to Pytka, sort of undercut Jordan's tight schedule in the movie.

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"There was an urgency for him to come back for the game but then he comes back and there's no game," he continued. "It always pissed me off that they didn't put that in there. The ending should have been him hitting the home run. Maybe it was running too long or it was too expensive to do [the effect]. Ivan Reitman, the producer, admitted to me they never knew how to end the film. It kind of meandered."

Instead, the story leaps forward as Jordan returns the stolen talent taken by the Monstars and comes out of basketball retirement. "I don't want to trash the film because it was such a success but it would have added a slight dimension to the film," Pytka said of the axed baseball scene. "Maybe people thought it was too corny."

Space Jam is now streaming on Peacock.