Best and Worst Movie Endings
August 7th 2006 16:26
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Here's something more wordy for movie afficianados out there. It's a list of Best and Worst Movie Endings compiled with information from usatoday, digg.com, filmcritic.com, slashfilm.com and agonybooth.com. It's not an official list but nevertheless makes an interesting read. But be warned: There is a substantial amount of popular movies listed together with the spoilers/endings, so don't yell and scream if you happen to read anything you didn't want to.
Ready? Ok go.
BEST ENDINGS
Great movies with even greater endings
1) Shawshank Redemption
Tim Robbins has been digging a hole through his jail cell and escapes. The movie ends with him and morgan freeman re-uniting.
2) Fight Club
Norton and Pitt are the same person. Norton shoots himself in the chin and "Pitt" dies.
3) The Usual Suspects
"Verbal" Kint (Kevin Spacey) is Keyser Soze. He's the bad guy the whole time.
4) Boogie Nights
One of the most unexpected endings in cinema history. Mark Wahlberg's faded porn star stand in the mirror and yanks his penis out, saying with complete conviction, "You're a fucking star."
5) Citizen Kane
"Rosebud" refers to the sled Kane owned as a young boy; it symbolizes his lost innocence and ultimate dissapointment with life. It's been called one of the best movies of all time.
6) The Sixth Sense
You know the drill. Bruce Willis is dead the whole time.
7) Se7en
What's in the box?
Out in the desert, John Doe (spacey) starts to ramble about how much Envy he has for the life that detective Mills (Brad Pitt) shares with his wife Tracy (Gwyneth Paltrow), reveals that he knows about Tracy's pregnancy (a fact that Mills himself didn't know), and then gives Somerset (Morgan Freeman) a box with Tracy's head inside. Mills, representing Wrath, shoots and kills Spacey, which is just how he planned the killings to end.
8) Primal Fear
One of Edward Nortons greatest performances. He tricks not only the court, but his lawyer into getting away with murder. He reveals this to Gear that he's not crazy, and it's too late to do anything.
9) Casablanca
"The beginning of a beautiful friendship" and one of the best movie endings. the last scene is now the stuff of cliché, but that's because there are so many dang quotable lines.
10) China Town
It's the very end that punches you in the gut: The bad guy gets away and Nicholson's Jake Gittes, after solving the case, is told to forget the whole affair. Ow.
11) Blair With Project
The final seconds -- wherein a member of the cast is spotted, back turned and facing a corner, as an unseen spirit does away with the remaining member of the crew, who's been filming all of this in a panic-stricken run through an abandoned house -- rank as some of the most terrifying moments ever put to film.
12) Fargo
Carls body getting stuffed in a woodchipper. And the audience never finding out what happens to the buried money.
13) Resevoir Dogs
Mr. Orange (Tim Roth) is an undercover cop. Everyone dies by the end of the movie, except Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi), who gets out with the diamonds. A careful listen will show that he is caught after off-screen shootout with Police.
14) Silence of the Lambs
Find me a better last line uttered by any villain than "I'm having an old friend for dinner." with wit, charm, and unyielding bravado.
Other mentions: Being There, Pulp Fiction, Godfather, Wizard of Oz, A Clockwork Orange, Magnolia, Rushmore, Some Like it Hot, The movie where the chick is actually a dude, Bonnie and Clyde, Green Mile.
Worst Endings
These movies were good....until the last few seconds.
1) Pay It Forward
The movie was supposed to end with Spacey, Hunt, and Osment all in one family. And then they go and stab the kid WTF. So unneccesary.
2) Saving Private Ryan
Beautiful Movie. Until, in the last few seconds of the movie, they decide to kill everyone single main character in the movie. They turned a wonderful movie into a "cliched gun battle".
3) Vanilla Sky
Pretty much nothing in the movie ever really happened. Instead he signed up to have his body frozen until his condition could be treated, and then killed himself. His entire existence, including the murder, subsequent arrest, and psychiatric treatment, are just part of a virtual reality run by the L.E. company.
4) Platoon
During a raid by the Vietcong on the Americans in the final scene, the commander calls in for the bombs to be dropped, killing nearly everyone there, both Vietcong and American, but securing the site. Both Taylor and Barnes survive, and in the aftermath Taylor finally confronts and kills Barnes for Grodin.
5) Closer
The reason everyone hates this ending is because they changed the original ending from the play version. The play versions ending was a lot better.
6) LA Confidential
Chris W. wrote in and reminded me of some other useful information: reporter Sid Hudgens (Danny DeVito) is killed; Sergeant Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey), a good guy taking minor kickbacks, is killed; Lynn Bracken (Kim Basinger) leaves town with the badly injured Officer 'Bud' White (Russell Crowe); Detective Lieutenant Edmund Exley (Guy Pearce) is the one who solves the mystery, and sticks around L.A. to pick up the pieces. Messy enough for ya? Dudley (James Cromwell) is behind everything. He's taking over Mickey Cohen's rackets, and his own hand-picked cops will be the new franchise holders.
7) The Village
The movie was good until that terrible, TERRIBLE ending. The movie actually takes place in present day. The elders built the village to protect them and their families from violence. Those red monsters are actually the elders. lame enough?
8) Unbreakable
Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson) believes that his physcial condition (and his very existence) can only be justified if he is a real-life example of the comic book super-villain archetype. In order to validate his theory, he needs to find a superhero to be his nemesis. He caused the train derailment and the other disasters mentioned in the film, hoping that an "unbreakable" survivor like David (Bruce Willis) would appear.
9) Matrix Revolution
It was just stupid. A lot of people were disappointed.
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Comment by Sisi
Comment by Mitzy
Comment by Anonymous
Adrian Lyne's Jacob's Ladder- think the Sixth Sense with depth.
Alan Parker's Angel Heart- Robert De Niro, Mickey Rourke- The devil sends our boy to hell in an elevator
Franklin J Scaffner's Planet Of the Apes - It was earth all along
John Frankenheimer's Seconds- anyone who has seen it will know I speak the truth.
Sam peckinpah's The Wild Bunch- bloody, poetic carnage that is the end of an era.
Coen Brothers Miller's Crossing- Gabriel Byrne finaly catches up with his hat.
Billy Wilder's Sunset boulevarde- "Im ready for my close up Mr DeMille
Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko- do I have to explain it?
Lawrence Kasdan's The Empire Strikes Back- What more could you want in the finale for the second instalment of a trilogy?
William Friedkin's The French Connection- Understated, ambiguos and profound. Real life comes crashing down in the conclusion of this masterful cop drama.
Comment by Anonymous
WORST: Alfred Hitchcock - The Birds (what the hell?)