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Michael Caine Reveals the Ending of THE ITALIAN JOB

by Christina 123 | November 29, 2008 at 05:57 am

904 views | 25 Recommendations | 3 comments

SIR MICHAEL Caine has revealed the ending to the Italian Job, a forty year secret. The 1969 Mafia-themed film ends on a literal cliff-hanger.

The Royal Society of Chemistry are currently running a competition to see who can dream up the best plausible alternative ending.

My ending? The occupants of the car go over the cliff, two - including Caine- jump out just in time, whereas the others land with the car in a lake in the ravine and manage to escape by rolling down the car windows as the car sinks to the bottom.

Years later, a salvage company headed by James Bond, Secret Agent 007 (Licensed to Kill) recoups millions of pounds of gold bullion hidden in the boot, after one series of gangs after another - all baddies wearing shades - try to locate the wreck to no avail.

The mystery of The Italian Job's cliff-hanger has been resolved after almost 40 years by Sir Michael Caine.
The 1969 film ends with a gang of gold thieves hanging over a ravine in a bus. Every step they take towards the loot threatens to tip them into the abyss.
"Hang on lads, I've got a great idea," says Sir Michael's character, Charlie Croker... and then the credits roll.
The star says he would have saved them by "switching on the engine", burning off petrol until it righted itself.
"I crawl up, switch on the engine and stay there for four hours until all the petrol runs out," he said.
"The van bounces back up so we can all get out, but then the gold goes over."
In the film, the gold is smuggled out of Turin in Mini Coopers before being loaded onto the bus "There are a load of Corsican Mafia at the bottom watching the whole thing with binoculars. They grab the gold, and then the sequel is us chasing it."
Sir Michael first revealed his version of the events in a BBC One documentary marking his 70th birthday, but gave fuller details at the 2008 Visit London Awards this week - where he was named London's favourite Londoner.
He even suggested that the alternative ending had been filmed in 1969, but producers later decided

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Uwe Paschen

at 09:26 on November 29th, 2008

I really like your ending.

Amy Judd

at 10:39 on November 29th, 2008

This is so funny - I love this movie!

I would have them jump out the back of the bus (is that possible actually?) and then they lose the gold as it goes over - sort of a 'teach you a lesson' ending.

Jordan Yerman

at 06:53 on January 23rd, 2009

The Telegraph has a short-list of Royal Society of Chemistry Italian Job Ending contest winners... the schemes range from the esoteric (see blockquote below) to the brilliantly simple.

Croker creates solutions of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid by dissolving the gases in the gang members' urine. The two liquids form "aqua regia", which will dissolve gold. The fluid from the bars flows out of the back of the bus, leaving it to right itself, with only a small amount of gold lost.