Films Redeemed By Their Endings

[Maybe Im Doing It Wrong]

I rewatched Driving Miss Daisy recently. It's only a so so film I think, and quite sentimental and so on, but it does have a very good ending

Spoiler alert

which is very low key. Both the main characters are very old, and Miss Daisy is in a retirement home and Morgan Freeman is feeding her her food. It's just sort of quiet, and sad, and the antithesis of the usual Hollywood ending.

[close]

Any others like this?

[AsparagusTrevor]

Terminator 3... almost.

[Nik Drou]

Terminator 3... almost.

That's a terrible ending that undermines the point of the second movie and, under the guise of being 'daring', serves only to help greedy bastards make yet another Terminator film...and another...

Sorry.  Anyway, the only film I can think of right now in regards to this thread is eXistenZ.  Not a terrible movie, but the ending does go a way to 'explain' the stilted acting and seemingly technophobic subtext that precedes it.

[AsparagusTrevor]

They'd already been greedy and undermined the second film by making T3, the downer ending made sure they couldn't just keep rehashing the 'terminator sent through time' plot. Of course, they still managed to fuck it up further with the next sequel.

[kittens]

'Big Man Japan'. It's a bit of fun most of the way through, but the ending is absolutely brilliant.

[Icehaven]

the only film I can think of right now in regards to this thread is eXistenZ.

As soon as I saw this thread title I thought of this film.

[Maybe Im Doing It Wrong]

The Devil's Advocate has a pretty good, pretty outrageous ending.

[Santa's Boyfriend]

That's a terrible ending that undermines the point of the second movie and, under the guise of being 'daring', serves only to help greedy bastards make yet another Terminator film...and another...

That may be so, but the second film completely undermines the first movie anyway. 

To me the second movie is little more than a re-run of the first movie but more humour and without the sense of inevitable doom.  If any sequels at all had to be made of The Terminator, they should have been entirely to do with the war, and the final movie ending just before the first movie begins, forming a perfect circle.

[Jumble Cashback]

That may be so, but the second film completely undermines the first movie anyway. 

To me the second movie is little more than a re-run of the first movie but more humour and without the sense of inevitable doom.  If any sequels at all had to be made of The Terminator, they should have been entirely to do with the war, and the final movie ending just before the first movie begins, forming a perfect circle.

To be fair, the only way they could make it a perfect circle is to show the events following on from the first film which lead up to the war.  Which is kind of what they did, even with T2.  It would have made no sense for Sarah Connor to just drive off at the end of the first film and make no attempt to prevent the future holocaust.  I didn't really like the last two films, but at least they served the exact purpose you're talking about.  Considering that the first film is definitely set in the 80s (it's even mentioned in the film that it's the eighties) and the robot uprising is not until the late nineties, if they'd just gone straight into the war with the next film, that 'perfect circle' would have had a sizeable gap in it.  And that's not a circle, that's just a big curve.  Besides, T2 is great.

Anyway, Futureworld (the ill-conceived sequel to Westworld, a film not dissimilar to The Terminator in a lot of ways) is pretty dire, but the very end is great.  One of those little flashes of humanity that feel like exactly what you would do in that situation, but which most filmmakers wouldn't think of putting in.  Plus it actually showcases the benefits of humanity over roboticism, something which even Blade Runner spectacularly fails to do.  Blade Runner is still good for a lot of reasons, but real humanity is really never showcased and therefore the whole human vs. replicant issue doesn't really hold the weight it should.

[AsparagusTrevor]

I won't have bad words said against T2, it's a movie that does everything right and, from experience, bears numerous repeated viewings.

_{(First film is great too by the way)}

[Bad Ambassador]

Control.

I found the distant, chilly tone of the film hard to engage with, even though the build-up to Curtis's death was tough to watch.

But then the final section of the film kicks in, and Atmosphere starts up on the soundtrack as Curtis's body is found, his friends assemble and grieve together and finally wisps of smoke billow from the crematorium chimney. I broke down crying.

[mr. logic]

Obvious one I know, but The Usual Suspects is actually pretty boring up until the ending.

[boxofslice]

I won't have bad words said against T2, it's a movie that does everything right and, from experience, bears numerous repeated viewings.

_{(First film is great too by the way)}

Could've done without this though:

[Jemble Fred]

You could easily argue that that's an iconic moment of sci-fi cinema – it's certainly one that thousands of kids copied every day in the playgrounds all round the world. So it'd be a bit daft to not have it really...

There's nothing wrong with T2. It's where the whole franchise comes to its natural close – nothing carrying the name 'Terminator' which has come after it even exists, as far as I'm concerned.

[AsparagusTrevor]

Yeah, I always wish they'd used the alternate ending for T2, which shows old Sarah and grown-up John in a peaceful future. Would've made it a lot harder to carry the franchise on after that.

Terminator Salvation didn't even feel remotely like a Terminator film, human-looking cyborgs and (plasticy CGI) Arnie aside.

[SavageHedgehog]

To me the second movie is little more than a re-run of the first movie but more humour and without the sense of inevitable doom.  If any sequels at all had to be made of The Terminator, they should have been entirely to do with the war, and the final movie ending just before the first movie begins, forming a perfect circle.

I got the feeling that's the direction they were trying to go with (one that was previously tried, to some extent, with the Planet of the Apes sequels) in Terminator: Slavation. I find it an interesting way to go, but the film itself was unbelievably dull.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Obvious one I know, but The Usual Suspects is actually pretty boring up until the ending.

Really? That's not one that I would have called obvious.

[vrailaine]

I enjoyed Rocky Balboa but it looked like the fight near the end was far too evenly matched.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Burn After Reading - the first hour just felt a little messy and all over the place to me, with only the final 30 minutes feeling like a proper Coen Brothers movie.

[Junglist]

Haute Tension/Switchblade Romance.

Fucking brilliant.

[Ignatius_S]

Really? That's not one that I would have called obvious.

Nor would I - particularly as I don't think the end was a massive surprise.

Spoiler alert

After 15 minutes or so, it's clear that  all we getting is Verbal's account of the story - a character who is a fraudster, yet we're meant to accept that he's telling the truth unquestioningly, setting up a 'twist' ending.

[close]

[phantom_power]

Haute Tension/Switchblade Romance.

Fucking brilliant.

that is a terrible ending. it makes no sense whatsoever.

[Junglist]

Wasn't being deadly serious, chap.

[sirhenry]

  Plus it actually showcases the benefits of humanity over roboticism, something which even Blade Runner spectacularly fails to do.  Blade Runner is still good for a lot of reasons, but real humanity is really never showcased and therefore the whole human vs. replicant issue doesn't really hold the weight it should.

As the entire point of the book was that there is no discernible difference, only the existence of caritas in some humans, it was good to see that the film didn't turn the whole thing on its head and destroy it entirely.

[Serge]

Yeah, I have to disagree with 'Usual Suspects', too - I remember when I first saw it in the cinema that I felt the

Spoiler alert

fake, 'Keaton was Keyser Soze!' ending

[close]

ruined what had, up until then, been a great, fabulously entertaining piece of work. Of course, when I realised

Spoiler alert

that that wasn't the real ending,

[close]

I realised I might have seen a work of genius.

[SavageHedgehog]

I wouldn't say redeemed, but the ending of The Chronicles of Riddick made me want to see The Further Chronicles of Riddick (or whatever) even though up until that point the film had bored the crap out of me.

Also I'm intrigued by a second Human Centeipede only because the ending of the first doesn't seem to leave them much room to do one, even though they've planned one from the start.

[Ignatius_S]

...Also I'm intrigued by a second Human Centeipede only because the ending of the first doesn't seem to leave them much room to do one, even though they've planned one from the start.

A third one has been mooted - basically, it just sounds like if the second one makes money, they'll do it.