13 Times Terrible Endings Happened To Good Movies
Beginning. Middle. End. Those are the basic bones, upon which all stories are hung. Films don’t always have to be packaged in pretty little three-act structures to be effective, but a great ending can save an otherwise mess of a movie, just like a bad ending can totally destroy a good movie. The audience needs a satisfying payoff, a sense of closure, something that says “The two hours you invested here were worth it.” That’s just a basic principle of storytelling. Because a bad ending can ruin everything you might have enjoyed about a film. Imagine it as a delicious three-course meal – that ends with a cockroach in your parfait.
Below are 13 examples of how an unsatisfying ending can make or break the whole story:
Remember Me
Not that 2010’s Remember Me is a “good” movie by any stretch of the imagination, but I feel that its terrible ending qualifies it for this list alone. What should’ve been a nice little bummer romance, about two attractive people in sad situations finding love or something, instead chooses to crank it up a notch and throw in an even more depressing twist ending. As Robert Pattinson sits in his estranged father’s office, about to get some sort of resolution, the camera pulls back to reveal he’s in one of the Twin Towers. On September 11th. A totally unnecessary twist that feels offensive and insincere, as well as completely over the top. We get it: These people aren’t going to be happy, but you don’t have to rub our noses in it and needlessly bring a completely disproportionate level of tragedy into it.
Funny People
George Simmons (Adam Sandler) is a former stand-up comedian / current sell-out movie star who just been diagnosed with leukemia. He meets Ira (Seth Rogen) at a small comedy night and hires him as his assistant. They form a relationship, help each other overcome stuff, with Judd Apatow framing their improv throughout. And I was totally on board with that movie. I didn’t sign up for a second movie, but for some reason, where Funny People should be wrapping up, George decides to track down his ex-fiance (Leslie Mann) and try to get her to leave her husband (Eric Bana). The movie then rolls over on itself, trapping us in a really uncomfortable, second part / ending that feels like a different movie.
Trainwreck
Speaking of Judd Apatow… his newest film, Trainwreck, sets itself up as not another dum-dum Rom-Com; we follow Amy Schumer’s hard partying single gal, as she dates and disposes of dudes with abandon and self deprecation. When she meets Bill Hader’s normal-dork doctor, she realizes she actually likes him, and is forced to evaluate her lifestyle. But she does so via typical girl-loses-guy conflict, and she wins him back with a big song and dance number, right before the credits roll.
The film tries so hard to convince you that you’re watching a non-traditional romantic comedy the whole time, then pulls a move that wouldn’t be out of place in a Saturday afternoon Hallmark Movie marathon. I had high hopes for Amy Schumer’s screenwriting debut, as well as for a Judd Apatow film finally not written by him, but Trainwreck wraps itself up in too neat a package at the end, one that seems completely out of character.
It
It ruined clowns, It ruined drains, and It ruined itself.
The 1990 miniseries adaptation of Stephen King’s hefty novel It ruined clowns for a generation of kids, but Its ending also ruins a pretty great horror movie. Told through terrifying flashbacks as a group of childhood friends (now adults) gather in their hometown to battle It again, for the first time since they were kids. But when they finally assemble and venture into the sewer at the end, Tim Curry’s nightmarish clown, Pennywise, is replaced by a huge spider bug monster with a glowing thorax. It even lumbers off screen slowly and stupidly after the friends (kind of) defeat it. A pretty crappy switch for one of the most psychologically damaging films of our generation.
Meek’s Cutoff
In 1845, a small group of settlers make their way along the Oregon Trail, to the Willamette Valley. Their guide insists on taking an unmarked shortcut through the desert, but after wandering in circles for weeks, they begin to suspect that their guide is a crook or a hack. Meanwhile, they’re almost out of water.
Kelly Reichardt’s 2011 Western gives you the high desert of Oregon, as well as some pretty high stakes: They capture an Indian wanderer in hopes that he’ll lead them to water. Problem is, nobody knows if he’ll actually lead them to water or into a deadly ambush. The film builds this tension with laborious takes and long silent shots, prompting some to refer to Meek’s Cutoff as the Mumblecore Western, but then the film abruptly ends with the settlers looking at a tree. We never know if they find water, or if the Indian leads them into a massacre. The production ran out of money and this ambiguous ending is the best they could do.
Full Metal Jacket
The first half of Stanley Kubrick’s 1987 film about a band of young Marines during the Vietnam War is where most of us civilians get our concept of bootcamp – complete with Military brainwashing, soap beatings and Gomer Pyle’s “major malfunction.” But by losing the two most interesting characters in one scene before we even get to war, we have to spend the rest of the film in Vietnam, just watching Matthew Modine’s character lose his humanity. And it’s a drag.
The Forgotten
Julianne Moore stars in this movie from 2004, about a woman who thinks her son died in a plane crash 14 months prior. One morning she wakes up and is told she never had a son. All her memories are intact, but all traces and evidence of him have vanished. Even her husband and doctor and friends deny his existence. The film plays as an intriguing psych-drama – until the end – where she finds out he was abducted by freaking aliens and that she was part of an experiment to test the strength of her “mother love.”
I Am Legend
The 2007 adaptation of Richard Matheson’s novel starring Will Smith seems to make everyone’s list for Good Movie, Bad Ending, but it bears repeating: The original ending is better. Without Neville’s realization that HE has now become the monster, the title doesn’t even make sense. By hunting and experimenting on the creatures in an effort to find a cure, Neville has become the Legend that the monsters now fear. It’s an existential moment that provides worth and weight to a post-apoc action flick, and makes audiences think about the power of perspective. But the official release replaces that ending with Neville sacrificing himself in a big explosion so the chick can escape with the cure. Boo-urns.
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
Peter Jackson’s 2003 closer to his massive fantasy epic trilogy kept audiences in their seats for 45 minutes after the climax and resolution. And when you’ve had to pee for 2 hours and 15 minutes, this is completely unacceptable.
Man on Fire
In Tony Scott’s 2004 movie, Denzel Washington plays John Creasy, a former CIA Op / Marine turned bodyguard, who goes on a rampage after his employer’s nine-year-old daughter, Pita (Dakota Fanning), is abducted in Mexico. When he believes her to be killed, that’s when he really tears things up, leaving a wake of dead bodies behind as he tries to find the kidnappers. In the end, the girl is still alive, and all is revealed to be an elaborate set-up by the father to get the kidnapping insurance money. Denzel’s revenge rampage is now rendered pointless, but some reason he feels the need to sacrifice himself to the kidnappers in exchange for Dakota Fanning. For no real reason. Maybe he was just tired.
The Dark Knight Rises
Batman Begins and The Dark Knight were terrific films that rebooted the Batman story beyond WB’s expectations; Chris Nolan crafted a dark Michael Mann-y version of Gotham that feels like a gritty mobster action movie spiked with super hero mythology. But The Dark Knight Rises detours from the first and second films, focusing more on Bane and this whole 99%er plot line than on Batman – whose role feels almost like a cameo in this bloated 3 hour snooze fest. Sure there’s a bunch of fighting and stuff, and some Batman lore is explored, but I checked my watch like 10 times during this movie, and literally sprang to my feet when it was finally over. Maybe Bane was just too much of a cartoon character to take seriously, in a very established non-cartoony world, but this movie makes the list for derailing the otherwise great series, and ending the trilogy with a giant misstep.
No Country for Old Men
I know the Cohen Bros. delighted critics and fans with their bleak post-modern Western in 2007, but the ending offers no real resolution, at least not one that feels satisfying, and basically leaves us feeling like Javier Bardem’s sadistic killer is the hero of the movie, in a way. The film definitely does some amazing things – through cinematography, mood, tone, performances, etc. – but No Country didn’t offer enough of a pay off for me to tout it as a masterpiece, at least not in its storytelling.
Identity
Basically a rehash of Agatha Christie’s 10 Little Indians, this 2003 John Cusack thriller starts off as an intriguing who-dun-it with possible supernatural elements and elaborate conspiracies. 10 people are stranded at a motel during a freakish storm, and as bodies start piling up, the strangers try to unravel who wants them dead and why. The cast is solid – Ray Liotta, Amanda Peet, John Hawkes, Alfred Molina, Clea DuVall, Jake Buesy, and John C. McGinley. By having so many recognizable faces, it makes it harder for the audience to guess which one could be the killer.
Problem is, none of them are the killer, in fact, none of them are even real. They are all different personalities of Malcom Rivers, a character we have never seen before, on trial for murder. By killing all of his “Bad Personalities” through this elaborate Are You Afraid of the Dark? story, the judge is convinced Malcom is insane and sends him to a hospital instead of prison. The St. Elsewhere Snow Globe ending does not work for murder mysteries. It’s insulting. Just like a fart in your mouth.
