Tania Branigan
Tuesday March 4, 2003
The Guardian
It was cinema’s greatest cliffhanger. But now Michael Caine has blown the gaff on the ending of The Italian Job.
More than three decades after the release of what has become a cult film, the star has solved the riddle playing on the minds of so many fans: what exactly happened after the credits rolled as his gang’s getaway coach teetered on a precipice?
“Hang on a minute, lads. I’ve got a great idea,” Caine’s cockney rogue blurts as the robbers’ £4m haul of gold bullion threatens to send them over the side of a mountain.
In a BBC1 documentary to celebrate his 70th birthday, the actor has revealed that the gang were meant to escape.
“The next thing that happens is you turn the engine on,” he said. “You all sit exactly where you are till all the petrol has run out, which changes the equilibrium. We all jump out and the gold goes over the cliff.
“And at the bottom are the French mafia, sitting waiting for the gold.”
Far from being a masterpiece of suspense, it emerges that the ending was intended merely to pave the way for a sequel. Once the gang has escaped, “we are off trying to get it back and that is the next movie,” Caine told the Hollywood Greats documentary, to be screened on March 11.
“[The sequel] was never made, because the film didn’t do well in America.” Nevertheless, The Italian Job has gone on to be seen to epitomise its era thanks to its style, sassiness, and jaunty Quincy Jones soundtrack.
Best known for its cheekily choreographed Mini Cooper car chase and the line: “You’re only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!”, the film centres on a heist in Turin.
Caine and his gang organise a huge traffic jam, snatch the gold, and escape in Minis, only for their coach to veer off a mountain road as they celebrate their success.
Two years ago the film’s scriptwriter revealed that the cast and crew disliked the now famous climax.
“None of us liked the ending at the time,” Troy Kennedy Martin told Esquire magazine.
“I didn’t even write the final scene in the film. Michael Deeley [the producer] added it after they’d run out of money.”
The director, Peter Collinson, hated it so much he made his assistant film it, Kennedy Martin said.
He added: “I never thought the film would be iconic; I don’t think Michael did either. The reviews weren’t that good either, and of course it didn’t have a traditional ending. We didn’t realise just how good it was.”
Fans who have recovered from knowing the film’s “real” ending face more trauma: Paramount is remaking the film for release this summer, with Mark Wahlberg playing Caine’s character, Croker.
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