Midway through the film, Derek is kidnapped by the Killer. Sidney receives a call: come to the frat house alone, or Derek dies. When Sidney arrives, she finds Derek tied to a cross in the frat house basement. The Killer forces her to choose: save him or run.
For years, fans have debated which script was better.
Just like the first movie, there was a second killer. Originally, the second killer was going to be Cotton Weary (Liev Schreiber). However, after the "Derek death" scene was cut and the script was retooled, Cotton was saved for a heroic turn in Scream 3 . In some earlier versions of the draft, Mrs. Loomis (Billy’s mother) was the mastermind, but the mechanics of the ending were rewritten to give Hallie the spotlight as the sole mastermind or primary antagonist.
In the pantheon of horror sequels, Scream 2 (1997) holds a unique, sacred place. It is the rare follow-up that not only matches the meta-genius of its predecessor but arguably expands upon it. The film gave us the harrowing car escape, the explosive film-school premiere, and the shocking reveal of Mrs. Loomis (Laurie Metcalf) and Cotton Weary (Liev Schreiber) as the architects of the new Woodsboro massacre. scream 2 original script
However, for nearly three decades, a ghost story has haunted the legacy of Scream 2 —a story not about a masked killer, but about a script that was thrown away. The "original script" for Scream 2 has achieved near-mythic status among horror fans, a tantalizing "what if?" that promised a radically different, darker, and more controversial sequel. What happened to that script? Why was it scrapped so late in production? And most importantly, who were the real original killers?
The sequence where Ghostface attacks the sorority house was originally much bloodier, with several background sorority sisters meeting gruesome ends. The "Dummy Script" Myth vs. Reality
Mrs. Loomis was always intended to be the ultimate puppet master pulling the strings. However, her interaction with the other killers was vastly different in the first draft. Major Plot Differences: Original Draft vs. Theatrical Cut Midway through the film, Derek is kidnapped by the Killer
The most controversial change: in the original script, in the theater’s prop room. She survives long enough to kill Derek, but the final scene takes place in an ambulance where Cotton Weary visits her — not as a suspect, but as a hero who saved her.
The script reportedly went online after a producer’s laptop was stolen, or via an assistant’s copy — details are murky. Williamson has said the leak was devastating: “I had to start over in one week.” The result? The much leaner, cleverer Scream 2 we saw in theaters (December 1997).
This created some memorable moments on set. Timothy Olyphant, who played Mickey, was one of the only people who knew he was the killer. He recounted an amusing encounter with his co-star: “I remember Sarah Michelle Gellar came up to me and said, ‘Who do you think the killer is?!?’ and I was like… ‘I don’t know,’” Olyphant recalled, having to keep a straight face. The stress was so high that pages were often finished the same morning they were filmed. Wes Craven even joked that after the first 40 pages showed up online, they had to “do backflips” to rewrite key sequences. The Killer forces her to choose: save him or run
What we got instead: The rewritten ending keeps Sidney alive, victorious, and more hardened than ever — but Cotton gets the final line (“You forget one thing about Sidney… she fucking survives”), not Sidney herself.
This leaked, early draft, which showed a completely different killer lineup and climax than the final film, created significant production challenges. Share public link
That depends on what you want from Scream . The original script is — losing her best friend and her boyfriend as betrayers. But the final film is sharper, more satirical, and gave us one of the most chilling Ghostface monologues (Mrs. Loomis’s “I’m full of rage, Mickey”).