Ace Ventura: Pet Detective could have been a heck of a lot darker than it turned out. While it’s known as one of Jim Carrey’s more well-known and highly over-the-top comedies, earlier drafts of the script included gruesome beheadings and one guy’s suicide by shooting himself through the mouth. Though these moments were featured in the original script (available online) and the commentary track from director Tom Shadyac, these script scenes are causing a viral storm online.
A Reddit user found the original script at DailyScript.com and took a screenshot of these scenes, which was then posted to the content-sharing platform through Imgur. The first scene details how different the pet detective's encounter with Lt. Lois Einhorn’s goons could have gone. Standing on top of a machine and brandishing a 200 lb. metal hook attached to a chain from the ceiling, Ace "gently releases" the hook, which inadvertently decapitates his assailants. As blood is spurting from their headless corpses, Ace starts freaking out before claiming (to God) it was all self-defense, and wiping his fingerprints off the hook. Hopefully the reason this scene was cut is fairly obvious.
The second scene in question details an interaction between Ace and a gas station attendant named Fern. The man wants to commit suicide, though the pet detective foils his first attempt. After Ace leaves the gas station, Fern tries again but is interrupted by another customer. He remarks, "Can’t get anything done around here…" According to the director’s commentary, Ace returns later to find a blood splotch on the wall. You can read snippets from both of the scenes at the link here.
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective featured Carrey’s first appearance as the absurdly iconic character with a supporting cast that included Courteney Cox and Sean Young. The private investigator is hired to find a missing Bottlenose dolphin named Snowflake. The animal is the mascot for the Miami Dolphins and was snatched just two weeks before the big Super Bowl game. It turned out that the culprit was Einhorn, who was actually a vengeful former Dolphins footballer named Ray Finkle before he underwent gender reassignment.
Another scene deemed too dark for the final cut involved a dream sequence: Ace dreams a flock of pigeons swoops in and dismembers him. This was one of the points detailed by Film School Rejects in a feature on Shadyac’s commentary. The director said that if any of these darker scenes made it into the film, they wouldn’t have jived with the comedic vibe he was going for. As if watching Ace rip off the clothes of a trans woman to try and out her wasn’t edging towards that line already.
