Six suspects, one house, three different killers — depending on which theater you walked into. Jonathan Lynn directs a board-game adaptation built on a gimmick so bold it nearly sank the film, only for that same gimmick to become the reason it never really left theaters.

Written and directed by Lynn from a story by John Landis, Clue reimagines the Parker Brothers game as a fast-talking whodunit, trapping six guests, a butler, and a body count inside one stormy mansion. Tim Curry leads an ensemble that includes Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, and Michael McKean, produced by Debra Hill. The film's signature stunt — three different endings, randomly assigned by theater — split audiences and critics at the time, and Paramount's marketing struggled to explain a joke that wouldn't fully land until home video let viewers see all three. What played in 1985 as a box-office disappointment has spent the decades since becoming exactly the cult object its ending-swap always seemed designed for.

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Three boys build a spaceship the studio never let them finish. Joe Dante directs an autumn tale where childhood wonder meets adult ambition, only to have that conflict play out behind the camera.

Written by Eric Luke, Explorers imagines three suburban kids who build their own spaceship from junk and dreams, only to discover the universe is stranger and lonelier than they'd imagined. Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix lead the young cast in their earliest screen roles, backed by Rob Bottin's creature effects work and a score from Jerry Goldsmith. The production's real story runs parallel to its plot. A regime change at Paramount installed new executives over the film mid-production, and Explorers arrived in theaters incomplete, rushed out before Dante or his collaborators considered it finished.

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Road trip comedy too soulful to sell, too scattered to stick its landing. Kevin Reynolds writes and directs a coming-of-age story about five Texas college graduates on one last drive before the real world catches up with them. Trace how Reynolds' death-defying student film Proof caught Steven Spielberg's attention and how Warner Bros. never figured out how to sell Fandango, the feature-length version that followed. Find transcripts, screenshots and source links at videocassettedays.com.