Films Ruined By Their Endings

[AsparagusTrevor]

Can't think of many off the top of my head, but it'll be interesting to see what others think.

Not exactly ruined, but Angel Heart, the shot at the end where the young kid has devil eyes is just so daft and funny that it undermines the tone of the film somewhat.

[Jemble Fred]

We've had this debate before, but I was absolutely fuming at the last few fucking SECONDS of Pan's Labyrinth, where the carefully-structured ambiguity of what is real and what isn't is instantly shat all over by a final completely Disneyfied cut to the 'fantasy' world, which made it seem clear to me that everything that had happened outside of the real world had been all in Ofelia's head. It's been so long since I saw it now I can't remember the details, and some folk argued that the ambiguity remained, but certainly when I saw it I had no doubt that it was a hamfisted ending.

[non capisco]

28 Days Later should have ended with him

Spoiler alert

seeing the aeroplane

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, everything after that is a bit rubbish.

For a more recent example The Last Exorcism which is a reasonably interesting riff on all the old Exorcist cliches until the last 3 minutes when it all suddenly turns jarringly stupid.

[madhair60]

Haute Tension/Switchblade Romance.

Fucking bollocks.

[Phil_A]

The Last Broadcast. Maybe not so much "ruined" the film wasn't great to begin with, but the twist ending is so poorly thought out it manages to make the whole experience of watching the movie a complete waste of time.

[TotalNightmare]

Although I haven't seen the film itself (nor do i want to), the recent Robert Pattinson film "Remember Me" pissed off a large selection of the audience during it painfully bad taste ending.

I doubt many of us are running out to see this film, but nor do I want to spitefully spoil it here - so I will stick in the details of the offending scene in those lovely spoiler bars...

Spoiler alert

Pattinson plays a troubled and distant teenager with daddy issues and that gets in the way of sorting out his life and falling in love etc. After all the typical trials and tribulations he manages, in the final moments, to come to terms with his problems and make a better life for himself. All looks well and a new life will begin for him... Until the last few moments of the film, where the camera pulls out of the office Pattinson is situated to reveal that he is about to start work in one of the towers at the World Trade Centre in New York. We already know the time line in which this film is set, so we are well aware that Pattinson's happiness will be short lived... and buried under thousands of tonnes of rubble.

[close]

I don't know what the intention is with that ending, but its fucking awful if accurate (again, I won't be checking it out on DVD anytime soon).

So I submit that.

And if any of you bastards mention the ending to The Mist being awful, I will reign a great wrath down upon you!
Its a perfect ending.
You have been warned.

[Nik Drou]

Donnie Darko.

[madhair60]

And if any of you bastards mention the ending to The Mist being awful, I will reign a great wrath down upon you!
Its a perfect ending.
You have been warned.

_{It is a load of arse.}

[Benjie Trufflesnort]

Donnie Darko.

To be fair, it's also ruined by the beginning and the middle.

The ultimate ruined by its ending is the US remake of The Vanishing, surprisingly by the same director, but 100 per cent totally fucked his own child in the eye socket there.

[rjd2]

A recent example would be the last exorcism, its no masterpiece but up to the end it was very enjoyable and then well it turned shit. We got a twist for the sake of it and rather shitty Blair Witch ending. Thanks.

I always remember been underwhelmed by the ending of The Pledge and Mystic River especially, which basically has a really tv movie esque twist which pissed me off hugely at the time. It just felt really cheap sadly.

[Santa's Boyfriend]

So, Terminator 2...

[AsparagusTrevor]

Haute Tension/Switchblade Romance.

Fucking bollocks.

Oh yeah, forgot about that one. A tacked on twist for the sake of having a twist, and one that makes the rest of the film not actually make sense. Shame, because it's an otherwise very tense and brutal take on the slasher genre.

[Dead kate moss]

It's a great ending, but really at the end of The Planet Of The Apes.... Shouldn't Charlton Heston think "Now that I think about it, of course this is fucking Earth! Trees, horses, 24 hour days... even homo fucking sapiens!! FFS..."

[Mister Six]

Candyman. The film takes great pains to avoid stating explicitly whether there's an actual supernatural creature killing everyone or whether the protagonist is just a fractured psychopath. Finally, she burns to death in what is either a great sacrifice or a borderline suicide. Awesome. And had the film ended there it would have been perfect. But no! Instead we have to watch her ex-husband saying her name in front of a mirror in a scene so contrived you'd have to be genuinely brain damaged not to guess what happens next. And look! She comes back as an evil spirit and kills him. There goes your ambiguity, then. Stupid fucking thing.

[AsparagusTrevor]

Yeah I fully agree about Candyman, we didn't need a confirmation of what was going on, a more ambiguous ending would've fitted better with the overall atmosphere. Plus the dude happening to say her name exactly five times in the mirror was just silly, as was seemingly setting up to frame the hot young mistress with the pokie nipples with the murder. Good film apart from the last 5 mins.

[Tommy Trumpet]

We've had this debate before, but I was absolutely fuming at the last few fucking SECONDS of Pan's Labyrinth, where the carefully-structured ambiguity of what is real and what isn't is instantly shat all over by a final completely Disneyfied cut to the 'fantasy' world, which made it seem clear to me that everything that had happened outside of the real world had been all in Ofelia's head. It's been so long since I saw it now I can't remember the details, and some folk argued that the ambiguity remained, but certainly when I saw it I had no doubt that it was a hamfisted ending.

I don't remember the bit you're referring to, but I was sure there was a part quite near the end which makes it clear that it definitely was all real. Although it didn't really bother me, personally.

[Tommy Trumpet]

And if any of you bastards mention the ending to The Mist being awful, I will reign a great wrath down upon you!
Its a perfect ending.
You have been warned.

I saw this the other day and it was quite a bad ending. It was an interesting idea, but not very well executed. It seemed to all happen too quickly and the film wasn't good enough to have 'earnt' an ending like that.
For comparison, there's a far more powerful scene along similar lines in The Road when

Spoiler alert

Viggo Mortensen is preparing to shoot his son if necessary

[close]

[chocky909]

Exactly. The rushed pacing of that last scene made it comical. It could have been done a lot better. I did enjoy the film but The Road did conveyed that sense of hopelessness much more successfully.

[Santa's Boyfriend]

I thought THe Mist was excellent and pitch-perfect for much of the film, but just like Shawshank the last shot should have been dropped.  In my mind it would have been a better (and frankly much bleaker) ending if

Spoiler alert

he'd shot his companions, got out of the car and simply walked off.

[close]

The reason is  that

Spoiler alert

the ending as it is states that the world is going to be ok, whereas seeing that massive creature walking across the landscape, along with the long drive, suggests that the entire world has been covered in the mist - possibly having actually merged with the other dimension or something.  Without that ending where the troops come along and clear the mist, it suggests there is no hope whatsoever, and that it would be better to simply die.

[close]

Shawshank is another one.  The film is all about the power of hope, and the last line is quite simply "I hope".  Andy acts almost as a phantom or a guardian angel, disappearing once his job is done.  To

Spoiler alert

show Red and Andy meeting again at the end undoes this.  The film really should have ended on the shot of the bus going over the hill, leaving us with the hope that they will meet.

[close]

[Desi Rascal]

according to imdb the studio pressurized the director into adding the final scene to SR, the redemption is Reds since he's the provides the narration and exposition it's essentially his story about how he has to save some dofus named andy from getting into scrapes, frankly the film should have been called "The Amazing Adventures Of Red and Some Maths Guy"

/Disengage Morgan Freemans Agent mode

[Desi Rascal]

double post

[El Unicornio, mang]

Have to disagree, I think the shot of them meeting on the beach is lovely, and the beautiful scenery is such a stark contrast to the dark grey of the rest of the film.

[thugler]

We've had this debate before, but I was absolutely fuming at the last few fucking SECONDS of Pan's Labyrinth, where the carefully-structured ambiguity of what is real and what isn't is instantly shat all over by a final completely Disneyfied cut to the 'fantasy' world, which made it seem clear to me that everything that had happened outside of the real world had been all in Ofelia's head. It's been so long since I saw it now I can't remember the details, and some folk argued that the ambiguity remained, but certainly when I saw it I had no doubt that it was a hamfisted ending.

Right, well I saw the ending completely differently to you. I thought the film had been hinting at it all being a child's fantasy and trying to emphasize it was her way of escaping from the horrors of reality. If the ending had left it ambiguous or made out that the fantasy stuff was real I would've hated it. The ending worked perfectly to me. That was exactly the function of the fantasy scenes to me, nothing literal about them, and they had nothing to do with the story other than what they tell us about the girl.

You would've preferred an ending with all the magic stuff being real? I would've been sick. It would've massively detracted from the point of the film.

[Mary is not amused]

Del Toro's DVD commentary is quite illuminating about this matter, IIRC.

[Custard]

Not a film, and pretty obvious, but LOST. BLOODY CUNTING LOST.

The whole final episode of The Prisoner i took as the writers openly pissing in the eyeballs of the mums of every viewer, too.

28 Days Later is a good choice, but i go off it about 2/3 of the way through when

Spoiler alert

the army rapists waddle into view

[close]

I love The Mist's ending.

Spoiler alert

Incredibly bleak and harsh, but it certainly stays with you!

[close]

Some people loved the end of Broken Flowers, but I didn't.

Spoiler alert

I guess i just really wanted to know who his son was.

[close]

[Serge]

The whole final episode of The Prisoner i took as the writers openly pissing in the eyeballs of the mums of every viewer, too.

Are you talking about the original or the remake? The last episode of the original series is one of my favourite hours of TV ever! Absolute insanity, I still can't believe McGoohan got away with it.

Some people loved the end of Broken Flowers, but I didn't.

Spoiler alert

I guess i just really wanted to know who his son was.

[close]

Well, you do

Spoiler alert

find out, don't you? Well, the way I took it, anyway.

[close]

[Harpo Speaks]

Del Toro's DVD commentary is quite illuminating about this matter, IIRC.

Can you remember what was said?

[Custard]

Are you talking about the original or the remake? The last episode of the original series is one of my favourite hours of TV ever! Absolute insanity, I still can't believe McGoohan got away with it.

Well, you do

Spoiler alert

find out, don't you? Well, the way I took it, anyway.

[close]

The original series. Yeah, i loved the show up to that point,

Spoiler alert

and i did find the last episode bizzarely entertaining, but to be honest, i really expected (and hoped for) a few answers. I guessed about 15 minutes in that this wasn't gonna happen, and i remember feeling really deflated.

Funnily enough, the recent US remake actually provided a semi-decent explanation, that left me a lot more satisfied. The series itself wasn't a fifth as good, mind.

[close]

Broken Flowers -

Spoiler alert

Yeah, but i didn't like that it wasn't confirmed, and that Bill Murray's character just sorta shrugged his shoulders and went home. Just seemed like a complete anti-climax. I wanted some kind of clear, happy ending, i guess.

[close]

I really don't mind open-endings usually, but those two examples above just left me feeling unsatisfied on the whole.

[Serge]

Interesting, as I pretty much realised before the fact in both cases above that there wasn't going to be a tidy ending, so it didn't bother me.

Now, the last five minutes of 'Inception'....

[Custard]

Heh, I really liked the end of Inception!

I'm gonna nominate War Of The Worlds, too. I enjoy that film, up to the seriously duff ending.

There's a fan-edit on yer interwebs that is far superior (cutting out many shitty or overlong bits, including Tim Robbins' role), and has an absolutely perfect ending, methinks.