Will Smith’s sci-fi movie Men in Black spent millions on monsters and we never saw it

Men in Black is one of the definitive milestones of the sci-fi genre and features Will Smith in one of his finest roles. Fans think the film is perfect. But originally the main character was supposed to fight against a huge alien robot in the finale. The makers then rejected the idea, because they found the film too boring.

Will Smith’s fight against sci-fi robots in Men in Black was too boring

The revealed director Barry Sonnenfeld, writer Ed Solomon and production designer Bo Welch in an interview with Inverse. Originally, the giant cockroach alien in the film’s finale was supposed to be from a incredibly expensive animatronic robot instead of in CGI form will. The huge mechanical frame was very immobile, however. And Sonnenfeld needed action and movement for the end of the film:

I kept saying, “This is an action-adventure comedy with too little action and too little adventure.” Our technician had spent about a million dollars on an animatronic monster. It could bend but not walk. [Daher] the original ending was a long conversation between Will and the alien. Finally our producer said: “We can’t rotate this ending.” So we did it with CGI.

By using computer technology, the creators were able to create the Alien into an action scene with rapid movements. It was the right decision. Even if the pixel monster looks visibly aged today, the finale is still one of the most dynamic sequences in the film.

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Would you have liked to see an animatronic monster in the finale?