Cinephiles who love director Rob Reiner's Misery likely know that the most brutal scene in the film is actually quite a bit tamer than its counterpart in the Stephen King book on which it's based. The movie features Annie Wilkes using a sledgehammer to break the ankles of captive writer Paul Sheldon, but the novel sees her go a step further and straight-up chop his feet off. It's easily the adaptation's most famous change from the source material – but there is actually another even more violent scene that didn't make it into the feature, and Kathy Bates was very much against its exclusion.
This past weekend, Misery screened at the TCL Chinese Theater in Los Angeles as part of the Turner Classic Movies Festival, and Bates and Rob Reiner participated in a post-screening Q&A that had them reflecting on the making of the phenomenal Stephen King movie. The Oscar-winning actress was asked about her relationship with the book prior to making the film, and she explained not only that she had read the novel, but that she was upset when she learned about a standout scene not being included in screenwriter William Goldman's script. Said Bates,
I read the book, and in fact, I remember being at St. Louis and us having a phone call. I don't know if you remember this, but I was doing something else, and I'm kind of a literal minded person, and I remember saying... I don't know if it was about her rolling over the guy with the lawnmower. Remember that? I was crushed because you took that out.
That's right: there is a scene in Stephen King's Misery where Annie Wilkes full-on rolls over a guy with an active lawnmower. Said "guy" is actually a cop who rolls by the Wilkes farm investigating the disappearance of Paul Sheldon, and Wilkes first stabs him with a cross before trying to destroy the body with landscaping equipment. In what could be said to be the film's equivalent scene, Annie simply fires a double-barreled shotgun into the back of Richard Farnsworth's Sheriff Buster (a character who is entirely invented for the adaptation) and pushes his body into her basement.
So why was the scene cut? According to Kathy Bates, Rob Reiner explained at the time that the moment was overkill for the film he wasn't to make and would be a step too far. In her words,
You thought that was jumping the shark. But anyway, that would've been wild.
As Rob Reiner explained, however, the decision to change the famous hobbling scene in Misery was a bit more nuanced. It wasn't because he thought that chopping off Paul Sheldon's feet was too violent; he thought it was too extreme for how he wanted to end the protagonist's story.
The filmmaker said that the James Caan character endures so much pain over the course of the story, both psychologically and physically, and he didn't feel it was appropriate to reach the end of Misery with the character not being fully intact and able to heal. Said Reiner,
It wasn't because I wanted it to be less gruesome or whatever. It was pretty gruesome as it is. The thought I had was he goes through this whole experience of being essentially tortured in jail by this number one fan. And he's wanted to break away from Misery. He's written this other book, which she makes him burn. And my thought was, he always wanted to just go beyond Misery. And I wanted him to leave being intact. I mean, he's still hobbled and all that, but he's now a full person. So I didn't want to have him not have feet at the end.
Rob Reiner's Misery celebrates its 35th anniversary this year, the film first premiering in November 1990, and it is as brilliant as ever, with Kathy Bates delivering what I see as one of the most incredible performances in the history of cinema. It's a masterpiece from Reiner – even better than his other genius Stephen King adaptation, Stand By Me – and if you haven't seen it in a minute, do yourself a favor and give it a watch.
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