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Bad Endings for Films - Spoilers Beware (1 Viewer)

I am Legend...  The original ending showed the mutants attacking Robert Neville to rescue the ones he's experimenting on.... which brings into question who is actually the monster in the film, which also brings all kinds of moral questioning into the picture.  Pretty cool ending IMO.  Instead, we get Will Smith tragically sacrificing himself to destroy the monsters and save the day.

 
I just watched Above the Rim the other night. They actually gave goofy a## Marlon Wayans character (played horribly btw) the privilege of killing off MF'ing 2pac's character. Like what the hell man.

Also shoutout to the corny 90s ending where everything turns out perfectly for everyone.

 
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Logan's Run. As much as I liked most of this movie, how weak of a computer run society was it if Michael York's brain destroyed the entire city just by being so non conforming?

 
facook said:
The Mist.  Not sure it was bad, but the ending was pretty danged depressing.
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I gotta agree. As much as I think Riggs dying at the end of Lethal Weapon 2 would have made it a better movie, the end of The Mist made me want to puke. 

 
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The Wrestler. What happened to him? 

Grease. Kid qualifies for baseball try outs next year because the throws a pie? Ruined the whole film for me.

The Artist. Silent film my a##.

 
Being John Malkovcih - Keener plays an obnoxious character and Cusak, after being treated like crap by her, is still obsessed with her?

Actually the last 15 minutes was bad, too.

 
encaitar said:
I am Legend...  The original ending showed the mutants attacking Robert Neville to rescue the ones he's experimenting on.... which brings into question who is actually the monster in the film, which also brings all kinds of moral questioning into the picture.  Pretty cool ending IMO.  Instead, we get Will Smith tragically sacrificing himself to destroy the monsters and save the day.
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Could not agree with this more. The ending you mention is closer to the plot of the book, which was an amazing twist on the moral question you mention. In the book Neville goes around killing the mutants in their sleep (they sleep during the day like vampires) and you as the reader hardly blink an eye because that’s what heroes do - they kill monsters. And then at the end of the book, you realize that the mutants do have a method of communication and have a society of sorts. They catch Neville and at that point you realize that Neville is their boogeyman, their legend - the monster that kills them in their sleep. It was a great book with a great ending. 

And then there was the BS ending of the movie. Horrible. 

 
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Politician Spock said:
I gotta agree. As much as I think Riggs dying at the end of Lethal Weapon 2 would have made it a better movie, the end of The Mist made me want to puke. 
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The Mist ending is fantastic in how excruciatingly horrible it is. If the movie ended like the book, pretty much everyone would have hated it. 

 
I hate the ending of "It".  To have this mythological pedophile/serial killer terrorizing this town, this insane clown as a figure of horror....to turn into some alien tarantula?  Gimme a break.  What a letdown.

 
How about Tusk? So he’s just hanging out at an animal sanctuary and his friends visit him once a year and feed him mackerel. 

 
NorvilleBarnes said:
The Wrestler. What happened to him? 

Grease. Kid qualifies for baseball try outs next year because the throws a pie? Ruined the whole film for me.

The Artist. Silent film my a##.
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The Wrestler ending was perfect IMO. Love that movie. 

I'll toss out Vision Quest. Similar to the Wrestler, I wanted the movie to end when he stepped on the mat. The story was about the journey (and, eh, an attempted rape that didn't age well). I didn't want to see him win because it shouldn't have mattered. 

 
Deepster said:
I hate the ending of "It".  To have this mythological pedophile/serial killer terrorizing this town, this insane clown as a figure of horror....to turn into some alien tarantula?  Gimme a break.  What a letdown.
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Book ending was better and far more complicated. But killing the monster required the Ritual of Chudd so...

 
Bracie Smathers said:
No Country For Old Men

The Cohen's have the single greatest dialogue in film.  They are intimately aware of every nuance of their craft and the effect it has on the audience so they knew what they were doing at the end.

Basically mind-Fng the audience who had been with them every step of the way to the emptied rudderless crestfallen ending.  

Such a good flick up to that point, great scenes, acting, impeccable dialogue/characters/setting.  Everything magnifique but such a Lucy ripping the football out from under Charlie Brown ending.  Arghhhhhhhhhhh.
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Horrible take. 

Tommy Lee describing his dream is perfect. 

 
bigmarc27 said:
Horrible take. 

Tommy Lee describing his dream is perfect. 
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Agree.  Everything about No Country for Old Men is perfect - especially the ending(s).  If anyone was rooting for Llewelyn Moss and didn't understand 1) the necessity of him dying 2) the genius of Moss dying offscreen 3) the honest, random cruelty of Carla Jean's ending 4) the brilliant metaphor of Anton Chigurh's car accident and 5) the poetic beauty of the Sheriff's final dream/monologue...well then am sorry to say, but you just didn't understand the movie.  Sorry if that comes across as pretentious, but gotta call it like I see it.

 
Morton Muffley said:
Agree.  Everything about No Country for Old Men is perfect - especially the ending(s).  If anyone was rooting for Llewelyn Moss and didn't understand 1) the necessity of him dying 2) the genius of Moss dying offscreen 3) the honest, random cruelty of Carla Jean's ending 4) the brilliant metaphor of Anton Chigurh's car accident and 5) the poetic beauty of the Sheriff's final dream/monologue...well then am sorry to say, but you just didn't understand the movie.  Sorry if that comes across as pretentious, but gotta call it like I see it.
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Exactly. 
 

It followed McCarthy’s novel pretty damn closely and it’s a classic. In another 30 years it’ll headline every modern lit college class. 

 
Zow said:
I'll toss out Vision Quest. Similar to the Wrestler, I wanted the movie to end when he stepped on the mat. The story was about the journey (and, eh, an attempted rape that didn't age well). I didn't want to see him win because it shouldn't have mattered. 
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That is exactly how the novel ends for that exact reason. 

 
Zow said:
How'd the book end?
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Here’s a synopsis of the ending I found on line:

David and company run out into the Mist where they finally get their first glimpse at some of the creatures, like a giant spider that shoots acidic webbing, giant squid, and giant lobster-like creatures.  Although about half the group falls prey to the creatures, once David and the rest get into the car and shut the door, his theory is proved correct, as the creatures retreat.  David attempts to go back to find his wife, but as he begins to approach his street, he can hear several creatures in the woods, and knows that his wife did not make it.  Instead, he turns around and makes a break for another state, hoping the Mist has not spread everywhere.  On their way out of Maine, they drive under a creature much larger than any of the ones seen outside the store, this one being the size of a building and having several of the mosquito like bugs clinging to its underbelly.  The story ends with David and his son continuing to drive, hoping that they will find a place where the Mist has not reached, but uncertain of what will happen when the car runs out of gas.
Re: the bolded, you basically are left not knowing what happened.  And this isn’t the good kind of open-ended yet hopeful ending like at the end of Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption.  No this was the very frustrating kind of unresolved ending that pisses you off.

 
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bigbottom said:
Here’s a synopsis of the ending I found on line:

David and company run out into the Mist where they finally get their first glimpse at some of the creatures, like a giant spider that shoots acidic webbing, giant squid, and giant lobster-like creatures.  Although about half the group falls prey to the creatures, once David and the rest get into the car and shut the door, his theory is proved correct, as the creatures retreat.  David attempts to go back to find his wife, but as he begins to approach his street, he can hear several creatures in the woods, and knows that his wife did not make it.  Instead, he turns around and makes a break for another state, hoping the Mist has not spread everywhere.  On their way out of Maine, they drive under a creature much larger than any of the ones seen outside the store, this one being the size of a building and having several of the mosquito like bugs clinging to its underbelly.  The story ends with David and his son continuing to drive, hoping that they will find a place where the Mist has not reached, but uncertain of what will happen when the car runs out of gas.
Re: the bolded, you basically are left not knowing what happened.  And this isn’t the good kind of open-ended yet hopeful ending like at the end of Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption.  No this was the very frustrating kind of unresolved ending that pisses you off.
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Book ending was better. It’s a little saccharine to think two wanted felons can make their way to Mexico no problemo, especially with one of them being black (to be fair, Red was Irish in the book).

 
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bigmarc27 said:
Exactly. 
 

It followed McCarthy’s novel pretty damn closely and it’s a classic. In another 30 years it’ll headline every modern lit college class. 
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Cormac McCarthy is a great author and he writes great books, No Country wasn't received as well as others he wrote.  The Cohens are great film makers and made an adapted version of No Country.  They are attracted to black comedy and love to push the envelope with idiosyncratic characters as they see how much they can subvert audience expectations.

To subvert expectations they create high expectations with all-time classic scenes like the gas station/coin toss scene.  That scene can't happen without creating one of the all-time greatest protagonists 'antagonists' Anton Chigurh who they have established as a remorseless psychotic who kills without hesitation.  The scene crackles with tight-economic pitch-perfect dialogue and sub-text of anticipated violence that they play-with and masterfully build-up only to dramatically diffuse.  

They created one of the all-time best scenes in any movie ever.

They set the bar high.  The most difficult thing to do in writing a script is to end on a high note and that film did not end on a high note.  The ending was not beautifully ugly.  It was a disappointing ending because it came from the Cohen's and they can do much better.

 
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I have to agree with Bracie's take on NCFOM. The Cohen Brothers decided to have a David Lynchian ending instead of one of their own.

 
bigmarc27 said:
Horrible take. 

Tommy Lee describing his dream is perfect. 
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I think people that hate it just don’t get it. I’ll admit I hated it the first time but after multiple viewings, I agree it was a perfect ending. And I also like that they left some things to the imagination and didn’t feel the need to put a tidy bow on everything.

 
Hate Rose throwing the stone into the ocean more than any other ending.

Never cared much for the end to Thelma and Louise either.

 
The Karate Kid

No way Danielson would've beaten Johnny Lawrence.  Crane technique my ###.

 
Mama - it's a great horror movie until the 10 minute long reveal at the end sucked the fright out of mom.

 
Morton Muffley said:
Exactly.  And also why I don't understand people complaining about the ending of Castaway.  What was in the box NEVER mattered.  
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I wanted to know what was in the box.  I know it didn't matter and why it kept him going but I still wanted to know.  Because of that I didn't like the ending.  

 
Morton Muffley said:
Agree.  Everything about No Country for Old Men is perfect - especially the ending(s).  If anyone was rooting for Llewelyn Moss and didn't understand 1) the necessity of him dying 2) the genius of Moss dying offscreen 3) the honest, random cruelty of Carla Jean's ending 4) the brilliant metaphor of Anton Chigurh's car accident and 5) the poetic beauty of the Sheriff's final dream/monologue...well then am sorry to say, but you just didn't understand the movie.  Sorry if that comes across as pretentious, but gotta call it like I see it.
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Dr. Octopus said:
I think people that hate it just don’t get it. I’ll admit I hated it the first time but after multiple viewings, I agree it was a perfect ending. And I also like that they left some things to the imagination and didn’t feel the need to put a tidy bow on everything.
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My criticism is they had everything to make the ending perfect but they failed.

I would give you everything you want and I would not change anything other than setting up Chigurh's twisted conception of morality where he is bound by chance as the basis of his ethics.

After clearly establishing his hit man morality make one change.

Move the gas station/coin flip scene to the very end.  By having that scene too early in the movie they buried the lead which is he operates on one code and that is chance but if you had only showed his blood thirst up to that point the audience would not know if he would or would not slaughter the gas station owner.  That audience uncertainty would build up the tension even higher and would have been the perfect note to end the movie.  Chigurh would have done everything to satisfy the lit-club's need for random violence, for killing the protagonist and his wife and where he got away from the car accident with the loot, etc et el.

Placing the gas station/coin flip scene at the end would have established he is truly bound by his own twisted moral code of chance by letting the old man live. 

The perfect note at the end while sticking the landing.

 
It’s not really in the spirit of the thread because it’s not a poorly done or ridiculous ending or anything of that sort, but man the ending to Arlington Road is such a tremendous gut punch.

 
Bracie Smathers said:
My criticism is they had everything to make the ending perfect but they failed.

I would give you everything you want and I would not change anything other than setting up Chigurh's twisted conception of morality where he is bound by chance as the basis of his ethics.

After clearly establishing his hit man morality make one change.

Move the gas station/coin flip scene to the very end.  By having that scene too early in the movie they buried the lead which is he operates on one code and that is chance but if you had only showed his blood thirst up to that point the audience would not know if he would or would not slaughter the gas station owner.  That audience uncertainty would build up the tension even higher and would have been the perfect note to end the movie.  Chigurh would have done everything to satisfy the lit-club's need for random violence, for killing the protagonist and his wife and where he got away from the car accident with the loot, etc et el.

Placing the gas station/coin flip scene at the end would have established he is truly bound by his own twisted moral code of chance by letting the old man live. 

The perfect note at the end while sticking the landing.
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I think that is the difference between us.  You see him as a killer with a code and that code is chance.  I see him as chance itself. He's a metaphor.

 
Bracie Smathers said:
My criticism is they had everything to make the ending perfect but they failed.

I would give you everything you want and I would not change anything other than setting up Chigurh's twisted conception of morality where he is bound by chance as the basis of his ethics.

After clearly establishing his hit man morality make one change.

Move the gas station/coin flip scene to the very end.  By having that scene too early in the movie they buried the lead which is he operates on one code and that is chance but if you had only showed his blood thirst up to that point the audience would not know if he would or would not slaughter the gas station owner.  That audience uncertainty would build up the tension even higher and would have been the perfect note to end the movie.  Chigurh would have done everything to satisfy the lit-club's need for random violence, for killing the protagonist and his wife and where he got away from the car accident with the loot, etc et el.

Placing the gas station/coin flip scene at the end would have established he is truly bound by his own twisted moral code of chance by letting the old man live. 

The perfect note at the end while sticking the landing.
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<_<

 
Not that it's a good movie, but the ending to the Tom cruise war of the worlds is an all time stinker.

They make a huge deal about the son "dying" because he just had to watch humanity's last stance in the battle against the aliens. He goes over the hill, the huge blast goes off. He should have been dead.

Having him just magically be alive in Boston when they get there is just absurd. All it did was add a completely unnecessary happy ending because his survival adds absolutely nothing to the plot of the movie. It was literally the last thing you see. There wasn't even any dialogue after. 

Just brutal. Worst I've ever seen.

 
I always thought A.I. would’ve been better (low bar to clear, but anyway...) if I had ended underwater at the Blue Fairy with him just blissfully staring at it for all eternity until his power source failed. 

 
Don’t know if this qualifies, but the concept of the movie Yesterday (where something happens and the main character is the only one who knows The Beatles songs) had so much potential.

...to go the rom-com route and on-stage confession felt cheap.

 
TheDirtyWord said:
Don’t know if this qualifies, but the concept of the movie Yesterday (where something happens and the main character is the only one who knows The Beatles songs) had so much potential.

...to go the rom-com route and on-stage confession felt cheap.
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I didn’t have a problem with the ending. He meets Lennon and realizes that while he led a quiet life without fame, it was also with love and contentment. This led Jack to his solution of giving up his fame and gifting the music to the world so that he could lead a happy life with what’s her name. I thought it worked.

Anyway, my favorite scene in the movie was the songwriting competition with Ed Sheeran. 
 

https://youtu.be/NtruUKyO-ho

 
bigbottom said:
I didn’t have a problem with the ending. He meets Lennon and realizes that while he led a quiet life without fame, it was also with love and contentment. This led Jack to his solution of giving up his fame and gifting the music to the world so that he could lead a happy life with what’s her name. I thought it worked.

Anyway, my favorite scene in the movie was the songwriting competition with Ed Sheeran. 
 

https://youtu.be/NtruUKyO-ho
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agree.  no problem with that ending.  and that scene was great.

 
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Morton Muffley said:
I think that is the difference between us.  You see him as a killer with a code and that code is chance.  I see him as chance itself. He's a metaphor.
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He’s much more historically important than a metaphor. I see him as a cordless drill. 

 
I'm going to predict that in the future, Rocky 12 will have a terrible ending.  I'm sorry, but a 78 year old Rocky should not be the heavyweight champion.

 
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