Unsatisfying or shit endings to films

[bingo_gasstation]

I can't think of one Nolan film that had a satisfying ending. Maybe Insomnia, but I can't remember how that ended. Batman Begins and The Dark Knight ended fine, but they were more just episodic cliffhanger things than endings. Memento kind of began with an ending. That ending/beginning was good.

I still hate the ending to The Mist. Found it hard containing my anger towards it in the cinema - it felt like the last two hours had been a complete waste of time. They were fighting and fighting, against all these odds, then suddenly the hero gives up. That might have been alright, leaving it there, but then having the "oh, if only he'd waited a minute" gag really took the piss. I was really, really enjoying it up to that point.

[MojoJojo]

The problem with the ending isn't that it's a naff hint at a sequel. It's the fact that it totally undermines the entire film, just for a naff hint at a sequel.

I don't think it was a genuine hint at a sequel - the entire film felt like everyone involved was sick of the franchise and just wanted to get it done to fulfil their contracts, it's just a standard thing to do at the end of a film, like Flash Gordon.

And I don't think it undermines the entire film - no one knew it didn't work, so the tension was still there. You could level the same complaint at War of the Worlds - they didn't need to bother doing anything, the aliens were just going to die off anyway!

God knows why I'm defending that piece of crap.

[olliebean]

Unbreakable. I thought it was about to get really interesting. Then it suddenly ended with a caption essentially saying "Nothing else happened." Realising that the entire film was just set-up for something that wasn't going to happen was one of the biggest cinematic let-downs I've experienced.

Apparently in early previews it didn't have the caption, which I think I would have preferred. It would still have been a frustrating ending, but at least I could have imagined there was going to be a fun sequel.

[eluc55]

I suppose with X-Men, a bit like with Superman the whole losing superpowers thing is the main point of tension/threat to use in such films

In Superman that's true, because the character is so insanely overpowered that he can only be seen as vulnerable if you take away his superpowers with kyrptonite or whatever.

In X-Men, the characters call still die, even with their powers - at least in most cases. So you still have tension from that. The first two films managed without any of the characters losing their powers - so it's not clearly essential to the drama/characters.

And they wouldn't use characters no-one cares about because then no-one would care.

True in principle... but there are plenty of core characters in the X-men films, and not all of them are central. They series can do without Rogue, Mystique, etc. They could have lost their powers permenantly, maintaining the drama of central characters being affected, butwithout harming the future films in the process.

Hell, if you really want to have their powers return, do so at the start of the new film - not at the end of the film based around entirely around the implications of losing them.


 

[madhair60]

Spoilers: Magneto can still do magnets

[Blumf]

One that immediately springs to mind is the ending to X-Men 3.

<...stuff...>

I think you're being a bit unfair. For starters none of the characters knew the drug didn't work long term, so their actions are valid, they were fighting against a real threat to their knowledge.

Either way, the point is more down to the social mirroring the film takes. Originally X-Men was a play on the civil-rights movement or the time (Prof X == MLK, Magneto == Malcom X ('X' geddit!?), etc. etc.). The X-Men movies, however, seemed to be making a play on gay-rights and the anti-mutant drug could be seen as an analogue of the various gay 'cures' that are peddled and, overall, the fight for recognition that the gay community has been working on for these past decades. The ending works in that way as the gay 'cures' don't work either.

[Kane Jones]

I still hate the ending to The Mist.

The ending makes the film for me. 

Unbreakable. I thought it was about to get really interesting. Then it suddenly ended with a caption essentially saying "Nothing else happened."

Again, loved the end of this one.  So much better than The Sixth Sense.  I love the fact that the twist is that there is no twist.  Brave move after The Sixth Sense.  Everything he's made since has been shit though.

[Don_Preston]

If Magneto can potentially regain his powers, then what's stopping any of the other characters regaining them as well? And if the injection doesn't work long term, then really there was never any threat to the mutant in the first place - and the whole war and most of the character's choices throughout the film are totally irrelevant. All those characters that took the injection to be cured; give it a few years and their lives will be miserable again.

A metaphor for life itself.

[Ignatius_S]

With X-Men 3, the whole movie is such a dog's dinner that in my opinion, the end was the best thing... because it was finally fucking over.

The troubled production and lack of direction shows... badly. The film took two storylines (one incredibly significant) from the comics and combining them, just didn't work – and the way that the Dark Phoenix arc was treated was just jaw-droppingly awful and I'm hard pushed of thinking of an adaptation more botched. The way that Cyclops was killed off (largely because the actor was already booked for the next Superman film) signposted that this was going to be a stinker of no common order - they were going to deal with the Dark Phoenix in a hackneyed manner and it's a mercy of sorts that it was relegated to the backburner.

One thing that rankled is the way Magneto was suddenly changed to the type of villain associated with Todd Slaughter. To suddenly alter his personality so that he was quite happy for the slaughter of mutants with his Zapp Brannigan battle tactics, meant any kind of continuity was out the window and that they were more than fine with wringing out yet another superfluous sequel.

[eluc55]

The ending works in that way as the gay 'cures' don't work either.

Hmm, now that argument I do find more compelling. I had always assumed the ending was just a cheap hint at yet another sequel... but I suppose, placed in the context of the cure being a false hope for all those mutants that wanted to be normal, the "twist" is perhaps more significant than I'd originally assumed. Maybe. 

[Mini]

I'm in complete agreement with BritishHobo and Noodle Lizard on Inception. It's pretty much "and it was all a dream" dressed up in pseudo-intellectual faux-profundity. People actually discuss that ending, debating whether or not the spinning thing looked like it was going to fall over, as if Nolan had actually given it any more thought than "ooh this would be a clever ambiguous ending." Fuck off, if you're not going to care then why should I?

[grassbath]

While we're bitching about Nolan, the Prestige as well. A film ostensibly about the deceptive but ultimately realistic world of stagecraft suddenly introduces a highly implausible science fiction element. Not to mention the "twist". I hate it when a film tries so hard to blow the audience's mind with a twist that it overshoots all sense of logic and reason. There's too much call for "great twists" these days. Load of fucking cobblers.

[Bored of Canada]

Berberian Sound Studio. I feel I discussed all that to a silly degree back when that first came out.
I understand that people here like the ending, just felt like the filmmaker ran out of ideas and should have stayed a short film.

[Serge]

Regarding 'The Prestige', the twist from the film actually comes a lot earlier in the book, which has an additional twist completely removed from the film:

Spoiler alert

There are scenes set in the present day and at the end of the book it is revealed that Angier is still alive, albeit as a semi-ghost.

[close]

The thing I did find interesting is that in the book,

Spoiler alert

Angier is a far more sympathetic character, and comes across as the 'good guy' far more than Borden, which is reversed for the film.

[close]

'Berberian Sound Studio' was unfortunately saddled with twenty minutes of bollocks at the end, I agree with that.

[El Unicornio, mang]

I remember feeling quite let down by the ending of The Machinist.

I really liked that ending.

The Carlito's Way ending bothered me.

Spoiler alert

Why did I have to go through those incredibly tense last 20 minutes just to see him get blown away by some dude I'd forgotten about? Not fair.

[close]

[zomgmouse]

I really liked that ending.

I think it was mostly that it had such an electrifying premise and so much build-up only to find out that all that was caused by

Spoiler alert

him running over a kid

[close]

. It was mostly just a case of... "Oh. That's it." I kind of appreciate it a bit more in retrospect, but it was still a tremendous let-down.

[billtheburger]

The eighties knew how to end a film. Every bad guy dead then making out with the female lead on a yacht as the camera pans out to a tropical island and the credits.

If this trend had continued, we'd just be complaining about how there is no tension in films because you know what the outcome is going to be,

I glad we have moved into ambiguity now that the MASSIVE TWIST has finished being the in thing.

[Danger Man]

Monty Python & The Holy Grail

[clingfilm portent]

Monty Python & The Holy Grail

has a great ending, I thought. Perfectly suited.

[Harpo Speaks]

Sunshine. Not enough to ruin what I feel is a really good film, but it certainly gives it a go.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

If this trend had continued, we'd just be complaining about how there is no tension in films because you know what the outcome is going to be,

I glad we have moved into ambiguity now that the MASSIVE TWIST has finished being the in thing.

Massive twist has not finished being the in thing, MASSIVE TWIST was the ending to  two of the 4 previous films I've seen, and GARBLED MESS the other two.

I wasn't being serious, I just like how little bullshit there was. I'd be as satisfied with a good bad ending.

[Danger Man]

has a great ending, I thought. Perfectly suited.

Well, we will just have to disagree on that. I thought it was just about as lazy an ending as there ever could be.

How about Psycho? Some bloke turns up and explains mental illness to the audience. What a crap ending.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Sunshine. Not enough to ruin what I feel is a really good film, but it certainly gives it a go.

The first half is nice and interesting, the second half is very formulaic, especially the breakdown and everyone being picked off one by one. I actually thought the end bit slightly compensated for that simply because of how good and almost otherworldly it was, in its visuals and intensity.

As soon as the korean bloke messes up it was a clock watching 'here we go' feeling, here.

[checkoutgirl]

Fight Club What a rip off, he was just a madman talking to himself for days and days. Load of bullshit.

Children of Men Just ends in the middle of it, maybe they ran out of money.

Batman Rises Why couldn't he have just died at the end ? What a swizz.

The Sixth Sense Haven't seen it but even so, how long would it take you to realise that you're a ghost ?

Rutger Hauer films had proper endings. Bad guy gets chopped in half/blown up, the end.

[El Unicornio, mang]

How about Psycho? Some bloke turns up and explains mental illness to the audience. What a crap ending.

I'm not a big fan of Hitchcock endings in general, but yeah that one is pretty bad. Not surprising for the time it was made though.

[Johnny Townmouse]

Once Upon a Time in the West - Well being all violent isn't going to bring them back is it?
Get Carter - Well being all violent isn't going to bring them back is it?
Dead Man's Shoes - Well being all violent isn't going to bring them back is it?
Death Wish - Well being all violent isn't going to bring them back is it?
Munich - Well being all violent isn't going to bring them back is it?

[billtheburger]

I hated Sunshine from the moment the ship's name was revealed to be ICARUS II.

[Ignatius_S]

The one for Hitchcock's own personal favourite, Shadow of the Doubt – what would have been the most satisfying ending (

Spoiler alert

Uncle Charley kills his niece and is able to continue upon his murderous way

[close]

) wouldn't have been possible at the time.

...How about Psycho? Some bloke turns up and explains mental illness to the audience. What a crap ending.

I would certainly agree that the ending of Psycho does have problems. A major one is that that the reveal of who the killer is so well known, that it's just about impossible to watch it for the first time without being aware of it – as a result, that reveal loses all its power. The problem with shock endings is usually, they're only good once.

The explanation of mental illness feels very unsatisfactory and it just tries to things up a little too quickly. Mind you, I think Hitchcock did tend to go in for rather abrupt endings.

One of my friends – and I'm inclined to agree – says it's a great film until just after the shower scene and the uncovering of the murder is comparatively far less interesting.

[Ignatius_S]

Regarding 'The Prestige', the twist from the film actually comes a lot earlier in the book, which has an additional twist completely removed from the film....

'Berberian Sound Studio' was unfortunately saddled with twenty minutes of bollocks at the end, I agree with that.

Worth reading in your opinion?

And, yes!

[billtheburger]

I wasn't being serious, I just like how little bullshit there was. I'd be as satisfied with a good bad ending.

I do realise this and one of the best films of recent years was DREDD and that was just straight up good guys win and back to the office ending.