 SPOILER: The character of Ellen, Petes girlfriend, was supposed to  survive until the end of the film. This changed when Jean Tafler,  the actress who played Ellen, got another job that was going to make  it impossible for her to keep working on this movie. As a solution,  she was "written out" of the script in a rather spectacular way,  while Kathy (played by Karen Tighe) wound up being the one who  survives.