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“Manchester by the Sea” was easily one of the best films of 2016. The drama about a man coming to terms with the loss of his family, as he attempts to become a caretaker of his young nephew features an incredible cast, with an Oscar-winning performance from Casey Affleck. But according to one of the producers on the film, Matt Damon, ‘Manchester’ almost had a different, perhaps more emotional, ending.

In a recent episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast (via Collider), Damon reveals what writer-director Kenneth Lonergan had in mind for an alternate ending to his film. And while it doesn’t seem that much different than what was in the finished product, Damon explains why he thinks it would have been great, but also why it couldn’t happen.

READ MORE: Casey Affleck Discusses Sexual Harassment Lawsuits And “Trying To Find My Own Culpability”

Needless to say, spoilers ahead for “Manchester by the Sea.”

Damon says:

“I love ‘Manchester,’ I’m incredibly proud of it, but Kenny had an ending—there was this scene where they were on the boat that the whole movie’s kind of about, and it was a flashback to before Casey’s kids had died, before his brother had died, when he was still married to Michelle [Williams], and they were all on this boat and they were whale watching. It’s this incredible moment of joy and you see this family all together and then these whales start breaching out of the water. You needed [a] fucking drone cam, I mean it was one day of shooting and you gotta get lucky with the whales, but either way we could’ve figured that out. It was this epic [scene], so as the camera pulls back as this family is experiencing this incredible joy—and you know it’s about to go horribly wrong for them—the camera’s pulling up, up, up and it reveals all of these other boats all around it, and it’s all of these other families watching these whales and it’s like this is one little story in this sea of stories. It was epic and it was beautiful and it tied the whole thing together, and we ran out of money (laughs). It was like, ‘fuck.’”

With budgets of major tentpole films easily eclipsing $200 million regularly, sometimes it’s difficult for film fans to understand how some projects just can run out of money and have to make sacrifices. It appears that the original ending that Lonergan had in mind would have been incredible, but thankfully, the film probably didn’t suffer immensely from this sacrifice.

Instead of the beautiful overhead whale-watching scene, audiences saw a more reserved, personal ending, which featured a flashback to fishing on a boat. Similar, but the smaller scope of the ending doesn’t reveal the “sea of stories” message that Lonergan and Damon were hoping for.

That being said, you can’t imagine the duo, or anyone involved with the film for that matter, being disappointed with what was presented to audiences. But it’s interesting to imagine what could have been.