Alternate versions

A director's cut was released with 39 minutes of additional footage which included the following material:

• When Rosco 1138 was shot in the theatrical version he died, but in the directors cut he survived
• A scene when Jobe Smith is attacked by Rosco 1138, but Rosco looks at his pupils and sees he is not a threat
• Dr. Angelo gives some soldiers a briefing on capturing Rosco
• Jobe speaks to Rosco thinking he is a comic book super hero called Cyboman
• Father McKeen finds Rosco with Jobe and calls V.S.I., Dr. Angelo's place of work
• The soldiers go to Jobe's house and Dr. Angelo wants to get Rosco alive, but the soldiers kill Rosco and Jobe starts to cry
• Father McKeen talks to Jobe and tells him how he endangered the church by letting Rosco in his house
• Jobe and Terry McKeen are at the gas station and Jobe tells Terry and Jake about Cyboman and Jake makes fun of him
• Dr. Angelo talks into his audio journal and wonders why Rosco bonded with the retarded man Jobe
• In the theatrical version Dr. Angelo's wife leaves him, but in the director's cut she goes out with her friends. Dr. Angelo follows her to her car and she leaves; then he talks to Peter's mom [Carla Parkett] and they talk about how Peter reminds him of himself at that age
• Terry McKeen and Jobe are in a diner and Jake starts harassing him about Cyboman
• Father McKeen sees Jobe reading and yells at him and Terry defends him and tells Father McKeen to let Jobe be a man. Then Father McKeen leaves and tells Jobe he'll teach him to drive, but he learnt how already with the V.R. treatments he has been getting from Dr. Angelo
• Jobe is with Dr. Angelo on the way to V.S.I. and asks if he is going to do to him what he did with Rosco
• Jobe is scared because he can read minds; he asks Mrs. Angelo where Dr. Angelo is and he reads her mind
• Dr. Angelo asks his wife where Jobe is and she does not respond because she is under Jobe's control
• Dr. Angelo is tied up and his wife asks if he and Jobe need anything, still being under his control
• The agents are going to pick up Jobe and Dr. Angelo when Jobe tells Dr. Angelo "Now you will witness the impossible" and makes Dr. Angelo watch his wife kill an agent and then is killed by the other two while he watches through V.R.

When Stephen King pushed for his name to be removed from the movie, his short story credit was dropped on some editions. On home video, it's still included on some versions of the 1992 4:3 director's cut (but not others) and the 1997 widescreen director's cut laserdisc. It's absent on the old New Line DVD and 2017 Shout Blu-rays (theatrical and director's cut). If the credit is there, it appears shortly after the four executive producers, over a shot of Angelo and the next shot of Peter getting smacked; it says "Based on a Short Story by STEPHEN KING". If it's not there, the same footage is seen, just without any text.

Shout! Factory's Blu-ray editions of the film (both the theatrical and director's cut) are missing the first second of it, a piano note of score that plays over black before the New Line logo comes into view. They also both omit the Stephen King credit.