I was thinking about this and thought I'd get some other opinions - What do you think is the best and worst endings in the movies? Whether it's a good movie with a bad ending or a bad movie with a horrible ending - doesn't matter! Oh, and you should be aware of spoilers if you haven't seen any of the films!

One of the worst endings I suffered through was PAY IT FORWARD when HJO was gutted in the school yard, and the whole town stood in his front yard, holding hands, singing "Michael Row the Boat Ashore" and crap! Thought I'd vomit.

I'm sure I can think of others!

Yeah, Spielberg tends to be overdramatic.

On that same note, the ending(s) to AI were absolutley horrible.

Empire Strikes Back, Signs, Taxi Driver, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and the first Back to the Future all have awesome endings..

Pearl Harbor has a pretty **** ending (when Affleck raises Josh Hartnett's son)

the best ending is in the godfather( the first one)

Lord of the Rings: Return of the King had a bad ending (but not terrible) in my opinion. I kept wanting it to end, but the film kept rolling, just to annoy me! Ok, so they made it back to the Shire. That would have made a good ending. But no, Sam marries that girl. Then Frodo finishes Bilbo's story (another good ending). Then they travel to the harbour and sail off into the horizon (that would have been a good ending). And then you see Sam with his family.

Another poor ending was in Fame. Now that film definitely had some issues in terms of tying up loose ends. So they give the final performance, and the moment they finish, the credits roll up. No reaction from the audience, no indication as to what they do after finishing school. And you never find out whether Leroy passes (he was illiterate, and his teacher said that he couldn't pass unless he passed English).

And yeah, I agree that the ending to Taxi Driver was a real anti-climax, given that it was implied that he would shoot that politician.

Oh, and then there was the ending to Monty Python and the Holy Grail, where they're about to enter the castle to take the Holy Grail and they get arrested by the police for killing that historian. I mean, WTF?!!

In terms of good endings, I really liked the end to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It's the kind of ending that you can't possibly describe to anyone who hasn't seen the film.

There are loads of films with great beginnings, but why do they always have poor endings?

Also, this link may interest you:
http://www.cus.cam.ac.uk/~pjg20/mecca/end.htm

I had forgotten about the novel-sized ending for LOTR III.

zzzzzzzzz

i found The Last Samurai had a really flat ending. it was based on a true story, so maybe they had no choice though.

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it was based on a true story, so maybe they had no choice though.

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Please don't take offense, Titanium - but I can't remember when keeping the facts straight ever worried Hollywood!

As for ending that I liked:

TEXAS CHAINSAW (original) - with Leatherface swinging the chainsaw in the air!

JAWS - when it came out, it was just plain good and suspenseful, even though you knew Brodie wouldn't get eaten!

BLAZING SADDLES - Cowboys riding off in the sunset in a limo.

12 ANGRY MEN - the entire movie the jurors are referred to as numbers. At the end (after the last holdout changes his mind), two jurors leave the courthouse and introduce themselves to each other, then part ways.

BONNIE AND CLYDE - A brutal ending for it's day. Great slo-mo of the machine-gun death-dance!

Just a few off the top of my head!

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Originally posted by Mark M:
Please don't take offense, Titanium - but I can't remember when keeping the facts straight ever worried Hollywood!

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haha - exactly why i think they could have done better!

The Usual Suspects. From both a storytelling and filmmaking point of view, that is perhaps the most brilliant ending I've ever seen.

Good One JW!

For some reason, endings never quite satisfy me no matter what movie it is. Very few have acheived my standards (hope I don't sound arragant when I say that).

despite Napolean Dynamite being an awesome movie, the ending seemed sudden and not applicable. You know, when he was walking around and everybody was happy. Lalalala.

LOTR: The Fellowship had a good ending. (If yo can call it that).

You have this feeling of that everyone still doesn't have a clear idea of what there up against, but they're still willing to fight on.

USUAL SUSPECTS had an absolutely a great ending, JW!

The best ending I have ever seen before in my life was from the 1984 film "Birdy" with Mathew Modine and Nicholas Cage. Just amazing. Others that I really like are:

To Live and Die in L.A.
Requeim for a Dream
Damn near every Kubrick film
American Psycho
Apocalypse Now
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Bonnie and Clyde
Pi


Now for the ones I hate:
All the President's Men
Vanilla Sky
The Graduate
and any film that ends "To Be Continued..." or in a way that you know a sequel is inevitable (this means you Spiderman!!!)

Good ending: In America, you get this feeling that some hokey dramatic event is going to occur but it never does, it manages to keep it's cuddliness all the way through.

-Elliott

worst ending- minority report. spielberg just couldnt do without a happy ending and ruined the whole movie. yeah, i actually liked it up till it got eye rolling bad.

best ending- lower depths (kurosawa version)

spoilers
when one of the inhabitants kills himself during a party it zooms up to a close up of this guy who says something to the effect of "that selfish bastard, he ruined a great party" and then cuts to black. best ending ive seen yet.

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Originally posted by MeGrimlock:
you get this feeling that some hokey dramatic event is going to occur but it never does

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That's what I thought about the end of Mystic River. That parade scene made it seem like there was going to be some huge twist or revelation, but nothing happens. I thought that was weak.

Yeah, but even so... the best twists are those where you have absolutely no idea that they are going to happen. Like in American Beauty - he says that he's going to die at the beginning, but you don't know how or when, so it comes as a surprise. That's what makes it such a great ending.

Great Endings:
America Beauty
Vanilla Sky
O
Signs
25th hour
cabin fever
the life of david gale

Butterfly Effect had an awesome ending.

Oh yea. What am I thinking? Memento had the greatest ending ever.