Northern Lights

The Original Opening Sequence

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Very little is known about the original opening sequence, apart from it would have echoed the opening of 'The Subtle Knife' Book. We see the consequence of this later in the deleted material.

Lyra & Pan meeting a cat from our world

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This short scene is from just after the original opening and features a cat that has traveled from our world to the alternate reality of Lyra's world.

Thorold delievers the Tokay

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A very small scene, but it fixes a continuity issue. One minute the bottle of Tokay is not in the retiring room, the next minute it's appeared. Thorold was supposed to put it in the room prior to the Master arriving.

Extended Retiring Room Discussion

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The retiring room scene was originally longer. What content was lost we can only assume; however a few images and video clips have appeared to give a hint.

Extended dinning hall scene in Jordan Collage

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In the cutting down of scenes some footage from the dinning hall scene, where Lyra meets Mrs Coulter for the first time, an interesting snippet is lost. This scene being filmed can be found on the official b-roll footage of the movie.

Roger captured by the Gobblers

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Shown in a few trailers and featurettes is an alternate version of Roger being caught by the Gobblers. The biggest difference to this scene is that Billy Costa is not present with Roger. Strangely this scene was most likely filmed so they could remove the death of the spy later in the film.

Mrs Lonsdale's fairwell to Lyra

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Many of the characters who play small parts had their scenes cut or removed. Mrs Lonsdale is one of those, and before the Master gave Lyra the Alethiometer, she had a tearfull fairwell scene.

The Master of Jordan Collage is arrested

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The original movie had more tension in, with the magesterium being a real threat to each person. Their control was shown early on with the arrest of the Master of collage. Quite a bit is known about this scene.

The Death of a Gyptian Spy

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Part of the scene that Lyra meets Lord Faa needs it's own section. The gyptian's witness one of their own dying - this scene would take place just before the spy fly attack.

Lyra speaks to Serafina Pekkala & Coram on the boat

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Possibly one of the most touching scenes of the film was cut. Lyra learns about Farder Coram and Serafina's relationship while reading the alethiometer at Serafina's appreance on the gyptian boat. They're then interupted...

Fra Pavel meets with the head of the Magesterium

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According to the commentary on the DVD, 2/3rds of this scene has been left on the cutting room floor. On top of that it was digitally edited to remove a religious refrence. Some of the removed content can been seen in trailers.

Lyra's escape from Bolvangar

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When Lyra escapes from Bolvangar in the theatrical cut, she does this by herself, and the alarm is set off by the explosion. In the original version, Lyra sets off the alarm and gathers the other children to watch as she destroys the intercision machine.

Lee flirting with Seriffina

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Roger at the bear fight

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Originally when Iorek reaches Svalbard, Roger had got there too. It's unclear how this happens, either Mr Scrosby catches up or Roger was originally riding Iorek. Roger needs to be there for the ending - so many of the scenes in the theatrical cut you'll see a space beside Lyra (where Roger should be!).

The Death of Ma Costa

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This scene was never filmed, and it's unknown how late into the film the idea was played with. At one point the script did include the death of Ma Costa. A few leaked storyboards show this and can be seen here.