You were supposed to make a bloody sequel! How The Italian Job producers were meant to resolve its cliff-hanger ending by creating a second movie

• Cliff-hanger ending to The Italian Job was supposed to be even more dramatic 
• Producer Michael Deeley says the ending would have been resolved in a sequel 
• Despite having opening sequence written and approved, sequel wasn’t filmed 

The famous cliff-hanger ending to The Italian Job was supposed to be resolved in a sequel that was never filmed, despite the opening sequence having been written and approved by the studio, according to its producer.

The classic film, widely regarded as one of the greatest British movies of all times, ends with a coach full of $4 million of stolen gold teetering on an Alpine ledge. 

Main character Charlie Croker, played by Sir Michael Caine, and his gang are at one end of the van with their haul of gold, stolen from a Turin security van, on another.

Every move they make threatens to send the van crashing off the edge and, in a literal cliff-hanger, the movie ends with the gold slipping out and Croker turning to his gang and saying: ‘Hang on a minute, lads. I’ve got a great idea.’

Now, producer Michael Deeley has revealed how he planned for an even more dramatic cliff-hanger, one that would’ve been resolved in a sequel.

Croker, played by Michael Caine, and his gang in the ending of The Italian Job as their coach teeters over an Alpine ledge with their stolen gold on the other side

The British classic ends with the van teetering over the edge and the movie’s producer has now revealed the ending would have been resolved in a sequel

The follow-up movie was never filmed, however. 

In the more dramatic ending, Deeley said there’d be a helicopter noise, drawing closer to the gang. 

He added: ‘Suddenly there’s a jerk underneath and the bus starts rising up far enough that the gold can slide out the front and the people can slide out the front.

‘You cut upside and see two helicopters with a cable underneath the bus lifting everybody up. But of course, waiting outside is the mafia. That’s how it ends.’

Deeley made the revelations at the The Times and The Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival, and also admitted his disappointment at the lack of a sequel. 

Though its opening scene had been written and approved by the film studio, nothing was ever filmed, despite Deeley saying he was ‘very happy’ with the idea of a sequel. 

It is believed that the lack of sequel to The Italian Job was because of its poor reviews and performance in the US. 

However, Deeley said that this bad performance was partly because of a poster used to advertise the movie across the Atlantic. 

The Italian Job celebrated its 50th anniversary this year, after being released in 1969, and is considered one of the best British films ever

In 2017, The Italian Job came top of a 2017 poll, just ahead of The Full Monty and Zulu, in which Caine also starred, inviting cinema-goers to name the greatest British film ever made

The poster showed Caine with a cup of tea while holding a machine gun and sitting opposite a topless woman.

Deeley said: ‘I was shocked. It showed Michael Caine with a cup of tea because he’s English, which is boring. He had a sub-machinegun, which suggested action but really suggested killing.’

He said the poster couldn’t have represented the movie any worse. 

The Italian Job celebrated its 50th anniversary this year, after being released in 1969. 

Initial reviews in the UK were lukewarm and downright negative in the US but the film is now considered the quintessential British crime caper and perhaps the definitive Sixties movie.

It has one of the most famous car chases in cinema history, as the crooks, led by Caine, make their daring escape through Turin in red, white and blue Mini Coopers.

The rebuke delivered by Caine’s character Charlie Croker, ‘You’re only supposed to blow the bloody doors off’, has been voted the best movie one-liner of all time and has been referenced in songs and movies ever since.

In 2017, The Italian Job came top of a 2017 poll, just ahead of The Full Monty and Zulu, in which Caine also starred, inviting cinema-goers to name the greatest British film ever made. 

Though it never had a sequel, a remake was released in 2003 starring Mark Wahlberg and Jason Statham. 

The director described the remake as a ‘homage’ to the original and it received positive reviews from critics.   

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