Unsatisfying or shit endings to films

[Garam]

You're all fucking mental. Psycho's ending is a classic. I wouldn't hurt a fly?? That's not good to you? Don't know you're bloody born.


Also, The Master's ending is everything from Hoffman's last lecture, through the motorcycle ride, through revisiting his lost love's house, the trip to England etc. All of that is the ending. It's a great ending.

[Paaaaul]

Worth reading in your opinion?

And, yes!

The Prestige is well worth a read in my opinion.
The film only covers about 50% of the story.

Also worth noting that the end of the film is hinted at in the very first scene.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Also, The Master's ending is everything from Hoffman's last lecture, through the motorcycle ride, through revisiting his lost love's house, the trip to England etc. All of that is the ending. It's a great ending

It was always going to end that way so I didn't find that unexpected, I just don't see the entertainment value, or actually the intellectual value in that choice.

Lots of interesting scenes, but an unsatisfactory sense of continuity.

[Johnny Townmouse]

Do you know what, I think I agree with this.

I really was open to just about anything, and prepared for a non-ending, or something more wacky, or even far less plotted. But I thought the choices were quite banal, and I like that film a great deal.

[Serge]

Worth reading in your opinion?

Absolutely. In fact, I keep meaning to get around to reading more of Priest's stuff....

[Don_Preston]

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

Oh really...?

[Paaaaul]

Absolutely. In fact, I keep meaning to get around to reading more of Priest's stuff....

The Glamour(similar in style to The Prestige, but deals with invisibility), The Space Machine(which combines The Time Machine and War Of The Worlds into one story) and The Affirmation(mega-meta story about a guy writing a book) are all excellent next reads.

[Big Jack McBastard]

It's been a while since I've seen it, but I remember 'A Scanner Darkly' ending pretty succinctly. 

Spoiler alert

The rehab place Keanu gets sent to has its patients farming the Substance D flower, and he collects one as evidence for Winona Ryder and the other detectives.  Basically, they'd sent him there undercover (without him knowing) because they suspected the rehab place of producing the drug.

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.

I've read the book and it's been a while since I last saw it but the last scene is him being

Spoiler alert

sent out as a harvester of the flowers

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yes?

Then

Spoiler alert

he's only 'collecting one for Winnona and co' in a bittersweet sense as he throughout the film he's been on it and now actually is one of the broken minded, D-addled patients who only vaguely remembers life outside, the implication is he's considered so far gone by that point he's never going to be released and so they can use him to expand/fill a spot in the hidden operation without him being able to articulate or expose it.

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The ending to The Mist was awesome, some genuine 'Oh fuck me!' moments all packed up nice and close.

[babyshambler]

I remember being confused and disappointed by the ending of Time Bandits, but I was only about 12 or 13 at the time. Maybe I need to revisit.

[Zetetic]

Then

Spoiler alert

he's only 'collecting one for Winnona and co' in a bittersweet sense as he throughout the film he's been on it and now actually is one of the broken minded, D-addled patients who only vaguely remembers life outside, the implication is he's considered so far gone by that point he's never going to be released and so they can use him to expand/fill a spot in the hidden operation without him being able to articulate or expose it.

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Spoiler alert

Yes, he's burnt out now, but the implication is that he's still going to (not exactly consciously) expose the secret operation as he'll still be able to give it to his 'friends' at the New Path clinic.

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[Mini]

You're all fucking mental. Psycho's ending is a classic. I wouldn't hurt a fly?? That's not good to you? Don't know you're bloody born.

It's perfect, gives me chills just thinking about it.

[zomgmouse]

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.

But it's like with any thing that has some kind of twist element. Knowing that it's

Spoiler alert

Norman

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doesn't mean you know everything about what happens, and even knowing what happens means that you get that dramatic irony element. Watching the murder investigation unfurl is still suspenseful precisely because you know what's happening.

[Garam]

It was always going to end that way so I didn't find that unexpected, I just don't see the entertainment value, or actually the intellectual value in that choice.

Lots of interesting scenes, but an unsatisfactory sense of continuity.

The continuity works for me cause i feel it reflects the blackout drunk character of Freddie Quell, think about the opening - from the end of the war to meeting Dodd - that's 5 years in the movie with no time passing title cards to let you know, no montages or anything like that. Just fragments of years, with little linearity or connection. Drifting. He's totally soused through the entire thing, and the structure reflects the lead, just like Punch Drunk Love and There Will Be Blood. I'm sure this will continue with Inherent Vice, cause the lead in that's a total stoner, there'll be lots of missing parts and hazy explanations.

Don't want to come across as a PTA fanboy or anything, but he's the last director working today you could ever accuse of saying 'fuck it'. He has a good reason for everything he does, whether you enjoy it or not.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

There Will Be Blood had a very traditional narrative structure and it is a timeless piece of work. I'm sure The Master would've been a better film with one, as it does have lots of individually interesting scenes and great performances too, but it doesn't have the necessary level of exposition or plot development to induce the sort of emotional attachment people have for truly great films.

[Kane Jones]

You're all fucking mental. Psycho's ending is a classic. I wouldn't hurt a fly?? That's not good to you? Don't know you're bloody born.

A-fucking-greed. One of the best endings to a film ever. Probably a bit 'old' for the little babies around here, I guess.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Film endings with sign-offs have gone out of fashion. I'd really enjoy going to see a modern film that ends with a really swift, brutal not dwelled on bad ending[nb]ie - not with some philosophical good guy narrator cushioning the blow[/nb], or a witty line that cuts through the crap.

[Drogo]

Oslo, August 31st.

The unsatisfying ending is part of the film for this one. Like I can't get no (satisfaction) is an unsatisfying rock and roll song. I found this film very moving. The story is simply this:

Anders is a recovering drug addict in an Oslo rehab clinic. On the 30th of August, he is given a day's leave to attend a job interview in the city center. After visiting his friend Thomas, he proceeds to his appointment. In the interview, he admits to being a drug addict and storms out. He then wanders the streets of Oslo for the rest of the day and night, meeting, and sometimes confronting, people from his past. The film ends the next day, August 31st. Anders, who has bought some drugs on his day away from the rehab clinic, retreats to a room and injects.

It's about him going through everyone he knew looking for a reason not to make a felo de se. But there isn't really one in his unsatisfying conclusion. He only ends up upsetting and insulting the people.

[Mark Steels Stockbroker]

-The neverending mystery. The film concludes with a reveal posing more questions than it answers (A Scanner Darkly)

To be fair, that's because the film is an extremely faithful adaptation of the book.

[Mark Steels Stockbroker]

I'm not normally a cynical type, but the preceding film was so dull that the big mysterious ending struck me as existing purely to create a question Nolan hoped would live on on message boards and in discussion of cinema for years to come. Might as well have had a tramp dance by wearing a sign saying 'Ooooooh, mysteeeeeeerious!' for all the fucking worth it had.

What was the twist ending? I found the whole thing so tiresome I can't remember it.

I thought Now You See Me had an intolerable level of exposition in the early stages, I wanted to jump in to the film and knock Morgan Freeman's smug face off, and yet the twist ending still made no sense if you think about it for 2 seconds, and smells strongly as if it was the result of a last-minute rewrite to beef-up the suspense.

I think the main problem is it couldn't decide if it was a slick heist-thriller like Inside Man, or a wacky ensemble-piece, or a weirdy paranormal/conspiracy story. Wiki has it as a "caper film", but that doesn't fit.

[Mark Steels Stockbroker]

Absolutely. In fact, I keep meaning to get around to reading more of Priest's stuff....

Inverted World is good, even more so when you find out that Martin Amis wrote a sneery review of it. The Affirmation is a great idea but I don't think Priest quite has the talent for it. Ian McEwan would have made a masterpiece of it, but the writing is just too flat. Indoctrinaire is a curiosity with a few odd ideas in it, I don't think it's even in print anymore and his writing developed a lot more after it. I've heard that A Dream Of Wessex is good but I'm waiting for a reprint.

He's roughly the nearest thing to a UK version of Philip K.Dick.

[Cerys]

Another vote for the ending to Psycho.  Lovely stuff.

[Wet Blanket]

Film endings with sign-offs have gone out of fashion. I'd really enjoy going to see a modern film that ends with a really swift, brutal not dwelled on bad ending[nb]ie - not with some philosophical good guy narrator cushioning the blow[/nb], or a witty line that cuts through the crap.

Killing Them Softly ends like this, on both counts. One of the few films I've found to genuinely have a punchline.

There's been lots of films this year that seem to just happen, with little emphasis on plot or dialogue: To The Wonder, Spring Breakers, Field in England, Only God Forgives, even Man of Steel. I bet by 2113 films will just be a series of unrelated images and colours designed to create a certain mood.

"Two adults for 90 minutes of sad please"

"£40,000.99"[nb]Inflation. [/nb] 

[Alberon]

Just found this thread so sorry about going back to Inception.

I generally enjoyed the film though the end shot is irredeemably lazy. What surprised me about the film was that it wasn't about the nature of reality, which I was expecting, but mainly a simple heist movie.

Sunshine was spoilt by the last section of the film. The madman from the first Icarus harks back to that 1950s film cliche where a character says there are things that man is not meant to know. When I first saw it I didn't dislike it too much but a recent rewatch brings home how completely it buggers up the entire film.

A more recent film I watched is Perfect Sense in which the world's population starts losing senses one by one. First smell, then taste, hearing and sight. How the world deals with each loss is handled fairly well. But the ending is just horrific.

Spoiler alert

At the end with just touch left and sight about to go our hero and heroine find each other after realising they do love each other after all. It's presented as uplifting, a moment of true love and the film ends. But you can't help but think what happens next. With just touch left they can't communicate and will just stumble around trying to find food and water and will probably die of thirst, starvation or exposure in the next few weeks at the very best. It's even more likely that touch will go as well and they will die of thirst while their minds are suffocated in total sensory deprivation. Also earlier in the film it is announced that elsewhere in the world a baby has been born with all five senses intact and this is presented as hope for the future, but how could this baby survive with all adults deprived of all senses?

One of the bleakest endings to a film and it isn't what the filmmaker intended it to be.

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[Pepotamo1985]

Sunshine was spoilt by the last section of the film...a recent rewatch brings home how completely it buggers up the entire film.

Yeah, absolutely. There I was generally enjoying Sunshine, slightly concerned that there'd be some kind of bullshit deus ex machina or other coming further down the line, but still optimistic. And then, when they did that clunky 'shock' reveal of there being five people on board, I was like..."really?". Have absolutely no interest in seeing it again, despite there being some great stuff in there.

[Default to the negative]

Beyond The Black Rainbow - I liked this film but I was hoping it would end with a good twist or at least attempt a mindfuck of some sort. What actually happens is

Spoiler alert

the film cops out in the last ten minutes, abandons all the trippy stuff, and ties things up with a generic slasher ending. Oh, and the villain dies by stumbling on a branch and bumping his head on a rock. Incredibly half-arsed.

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[Mini]

I just watched Shutter Island and immediately thought of this thread. So it turns out

Spoiler alert

the whole 2 hours was basically a role-play? Then why did you make me watch it?

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More like Shitter Island...

[HappyTree]

I started to watch Shutter Island but as soon as he got into the place it felt really disturbing, not in a cool, theatrical way, but more in a "I will be unhappy if I continue to watch this" way. Nice to see I really didn't miss anything!

[Mister Fahrenheit]

Regarding Psycho, no one is protesting the

Spoiler alert

"She wouldn't even harm a fly"

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ending. The scene in question precedes it, wherein a doctor explains to the characters (and the audience) Norman Bates' issues. This scene is disliked by many, for telling rather than showing, and critic Pauline Kael called it "arguably Hitchcock's worst scene." I've only seen the film once, had not read the backlash, and didn't find it jarring, but will remind myself to be annoyed at it during future viewings.

[phantom_power]

Isn't the point of the end of Inception not whether the top spins or falls but rather that Di Caprio no longer cares. He is happy in whatever reality he is in.

The end of the Prestige is great as well. You were watching a sci-fi film all along!

I have sympathy with bad endings because they are difficult to do. There is a fine line between satisfying and trite, oblique and confusing. No-one complains too much if a film starts badly but a bad ending can kill all goodwill you have previously built for it.

[Alberon]

Isn't the point of the end of Inception not whether the top spins or falls but rather that Di Caprio no longer cares. He is happy in whatever reality he is in.

I think if that was the case then he should have picked up the top when he walked away. Otherwise, he could come back later and see that it had stopped/was still going.

Cutting to black before we see is just far too trite and obvious.

I sort of halfwatched a bad film years back called 'Boxing Helena', which, as far as I can remember, involves some guy amputating limbs from this woman and then keeping her in a box. At the end

Spoiler alert

it turns out to have been nothing more than an extended dream sequence.

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