Crafting a good ending can be one of the most difficult things for movies to do, with plenty of promising films being let down in their final moments. Creating a concept for something can often be much easier than deciding where a narrative will conclude, and the film industry is littered with examples of stories that bit off more than they could chew. With so many pitfalls to avoid when it comes to movie endings, from poorly thought-out twists to abrupt tonal shifts, it’s no wonder that even otherwise brilliant films are muddled by the final stretches of their runtime.
A bad ending can retroactively ruin an otherwise excellent film for a variety of reasons. The narrative or plot implications of a bizarre reveal can muddle earlier scenes in confusion, whereas more abrupt shifts in tone can render the viewing experience as a whole to be too uneven to justify, sometimes even switching genres halfway through. In any case, it’s absolutely devastating when a fascinating story with genuine potential fizzles out before it can stick the landing of a satisfying conclusion.
10 Sunshine
Went From Heady Sci-Fi to Tired Slasher
A hard science fiction film in the vein of Interstellar or The Martian, Sunshine presented a fascinating premise that was squandered by a strange third-act genre switch. The film starts with the weary crew of a spaceship flying to the dying sun in order to re-ignite it with a specialized “stellar bomb”, thus preventing a new ice age from descending upon humanity. Their mission hits a snag when they intercept a distress call from an earlier mission to do the same which failed, prompting a deadly case of curiosity and altruism.
What was an otherwise tense and philosophical science fiction masterpiece gave way to simple shock value, a suspicious last-minute change reeking of studio interference, and the entire experience of
Sunshine
is weaker for it.
Before long, the Icarus II is attacked by the mad captain of the previous mission, the horrifically-burned nihilist Captain Pinbacker. With his in-person appearance, the film quickly devolves into a rote slasher flick, with Pinbacker chasing the crew of the Icarus II through her cramped gangways. Here, what was an otherwise tense and philosophical science fiction masterpiece gave way to simple shock value, a suspicious last-minute change reeking of studio interference, and the entire experience of Sunshine is weaker for it.
9 Remember Me
Exploited Emotions Surrounding a National Tragedy With a Last-Minute Scene
Few films are as woefully impacted by the literal final seconds of their narrative like Remember Me, an engaging romance drama starring Robert Pattinson and Pierce Brosnan. The majority of the plot revolves around Pattinson’s Tyler, who enters a romance with the daughter of a police officer who arrested him with the intention of breaking her heart in revenge, only to genuinely fall for her. Simultaneously, he must also continue to grapple with the suicide of his late brother, reconciling his feelings about his family with his young sister and distant, workaholic CEO father.
All of these elements somehow combine into a very human, palpable drama grounded in emotional complexity. Tragically, Remember Me throws all the goodwill its performances and writing have earned in the literal last minute, in which the camera zooms out to reveal that Tyler is standing in the World Trade Center on the precipice of the September 11 terror attacks. This tasteless twist is so audacious as to almost be laughable, having little to do with the overall plot and really only being there to exist as a cheap final emotional blow.
8 Now You See Me
Interjected a Needless Mastermind Villain
An incredibly creative and largely well-executed summer blockbuster, the magic-themed crime caper was at least well-received enough to inspire an entire Now You See Me trilogy, to varying levels of success. However, it’s the very first film that utterly wastes its talents, quickly becoming too clever for its own good. The movie revolves around a joint FBI and Interpol effort to catch the legendary Four Horseman, a quartet of stage magicians and illusionists who manage to pull off some very real high-profile thefts.
For the most part, No You See Me‘s many tricks only flirt with the idea of outright fantasy, toeing the line of a fun and energetic heist movie that nearly veers on the supernatural. However, the film’s final trick retroactively sours the entire narrative, as it’s revealed that Mark Ruffalo’s FBI Agent Dylan Rhodes turning out to be the true mastermind behind the Four Horseman’s downfall all along. For as entertaining as it is up to that point, the ending of Now You See Me is a bitter disappointment.
7 The Village
M. Night Shyamalan’s Most Infamous Twist Ending Yet
Visionary director M. Night Shyamalan made a name for himself with his many twist endings, the most effective of which being his work in The Sixth Sense. Sadly, as time went on, his twists became less exciting and more unnecessary, with The Village being the beginning of the end of his reputation as a genius screenwriter. The film follows an isolated community living in the early 19th century whose titular village is periodically beset by mysterious beasts.
One villager, Bryce Dallas Howard’s blind maid Ivy, slowly unravels the mysteries of the village in her quest to obtain precious medicine from the outside world. In the end, she learns of her hometown’s true nature; The story actually takes place in the modern day, with the entire village being a project created by the elders to live in the past and raise a community free of the outside world’s influences. This divisive twist, punctuated by Shyamalan’s self-indulgent cameo as a park ranger, completely soils and cheapens what was otherwise a provoking period mystery thriller.
6 Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King
Didn’t Know When to Actually End
Being a part of what is largely considered to be one of the greatest cinematic trilogies of all time, it’s admittedly hyperbole to imply that Lord of the Rings: Return of the King is completely ruined by its ending. That being said, there’s no denying that the final moments of Peter Jackson’s beloved series isn’t exactly a high note to finish on. Picking up where Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers left off, the last installment sees Sam, Frodo, Aragorn, Gandalf, and the rest of the fellowship finally make it to the infamous Mount Doom.
Jackson’s final installment draws out its last moments to an impossible degree.
While the destruction of the titular ring might be the climactic final moment in most other films, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King takes its sweet time with falling action, with almost a whole final third of the film consisting of nothing but multiple endings for the series’ many characters. Jackson’s final installment draws out its last moments to an impossible degree. With each fade to black, the experience seems to finally be over, only for a new scene to start taking place further and further into the future, essentially cramming five endings into the space of one.
5 The Florida Project
Has Simply too Framatic of a Shift in Tone
The Florida Project is something of a depressing movie, but works extremely effectively as a dishearteningly realistic and grounded look about real-world poverty in the shadow of joyous excess. The 2017 indie drama tells the story of a mother and daughter who have fallen on hard times, living month-to-month in a seedy motel just outside of Walt Disney World. With the merrymaking of happy, financially stable families in constant viewing distance, the young Moonee must witness her mother deal with prostitution and drugs in order to put food on the table.
A startlingly true-to-life tragedy, The Florida Project soon begins winding up for a downer ending, as the young single mother Halley loses her daughter to the foster care system. In the wake of the chaos, Moonee runs away on an impromptu visit to Disney’s Magic Kingdom, strongly implied to be a mere dream sequence due to the sudden changes in cinematography. Dream sequence or no, this carefree ending is too abrupt of a tonal whiplash that fits in awkwardly with the established tone, violently pulling audiences from submersion within the otherwise grounded narrative.
4 Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings
From Thrilling Martial Arts Movie to Eyerolling CGI Fantasy
The movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have frequently been criticized for following a rigid formula, right down to their similar ending action setpieces. Tragically, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings presents and instance in which this insistence on conformity actively harms an otherwise intriguing product. The MCU’s first East Asian headlining hero, Shang-Chi spends most of the film battling assassins, cyborg criminals, and ninjas in breathtakingly choreographed martial arts sequences.
This fresh take on hand-to-hand battles in the MCU comes to a bitter end with the third act transition, in which Shang-Chi finally reaches the mystical fantasy city his immortal warlord father has sought entrance to for years. Here, the captivating unarmed combat gives way to yet another tired battle with almost entirely CGI belligerents, not to mention an unearned last-minute redemption of Shang-Chi’s father that is quickly punctuated with a death that holds all the emotional weight of a feather. It’s a shame the film wasted its unique potential to fall prey to the MCU’s same consistent clichés.
3 Hancock
Fell Apart From The Halfway Point Onwards
Despite its premise as a truly unique take on the classic superhero movie, Hancock‘s ending is the continuation of an unpredictable plot development that misuses the film’s potential. At first, Hancock focuses on Will Smith’s titular hero, an amnesiac superhuman who attempts to do good as a vigilante despite his many unsavory vices. Around the halfway mark, Hancock‘s story shifts from one of redemption to an ill-conceived romance drama.
Hancock meets another superhuman, played by Charlize Theron, who lives in secret as a normal woman keeping her powers hidden. The two engage in a groan-worthy will-they-won’t-they as Hancock continues to question his new love interest as to the nature of their centuries-spanning romance and true origins. This decision not only abandons the interesting plot thread established earlier regarding Hancock’s public redemption, but overly mythologizes the origins of the original character to a degree few were interested in seeing.
2 Us
Ruined the Intrigue of its World With Baffling Explanations
Among visionary horror director Jordan Peele’s limited filmography, Us could easily be considered the weakest of his work solely due to its muddled third act. The film begins as a promising home invasion film, pitting a normal family against their evil doppelgängers. Even when further instances of doubles murdering their counterparts are discovered, the movie doesn’t lose its tense horror atmosphere, even if it does begin to over-rely on humor to keep audiences invested.
Us
fails to end on a strong note, with the reveal of a fairly obvious twist lacking the impact the film thinks it has.
It’s only when the origins of the bizarre copies are revealed that Us literally loses the plot, explaining the Tethered as a failed attempt by the government to subjugate U.S. citizens by tethering them to malleable puppet bodies. Even outside this gonzo explanation, which raises more questions than it answers, Us fails to end on a strong note, with the reveal of a fairly obvious twist lacking the impact the film thinks it has. It’s a shame that Us isn’t able to maintain its momentum despite such a striking opening sequence.
1 Beau Is Afraid
A Disappointing End to an Anxiety-Ridden Trip Through Madness
Whereas Jordan Peele only somewhat besmirched his horror filmography with the ending Us, Ari Aster may have completely discredited his own in the final moments of Beau Is Afraid. At first, the film manages to build an intriguing and utterly unique premise for a dreadful parade of nonsensical horror, as the meek Beau finds himself thrown into increasingly bizarre and life-threatening situations in the quest to make it home for his mother’s funeral. It isn’t until the very ending that the film truly goes off the rails beyond the point of no return.
It’s in the final stretch of the film that Beau learns his long-lost father was actually, in all seriousness, a giant phallic monster his mother trapped in the attic. Fleeing from the revelation, Beau somehow finds himself at a mysterious tribunal, only to be sentenced to death, a punishment which is executed by tying him to a small boat and capsizing it until he drowns. Even if this abrupt ending is foreshadowed earlier on, it’s no excuse for a fitting end to the barbarity of the rest of the movie, making Beau Is Afraid a worthless time investment.
