All-time best movie endings

[JasonEvans]

So I watched Inception again tonight (like the 5th or 6th time) and I just cannot get over how much I love the ending with the top wobbling and then the cut to black.

Anyway, it inspired me to make a list of the all-time greatest movie endings. I'll put a few here and then have all of you add a few more. Once we have a nice workable number, we'll do a poll to see which one we think is best.

It'll be a fun activity for the basketball off-season.

So, here are a few nominees on my list--

• Inception - Is he dreaming or is he awake and finally home? Did the top fall?
• Memento - The ending is the beginning. Leonard wanted to kill Teddy so he tricked himself into doing it. This one is too complex to explain -- if you have not seen it, rent this movie NOW!
• Planet of the Apes - Statue of Liberty!??! We've been on Earth the whole time.
• The Usual Suspects - We find out who Keysar Soze was. Bonus points for the great shot of Kevin Spacey walking with a limp and then the limp instantly goes away.
• Empire Strikes Back - "Luke, I am your father." Should this count? It was not the final scene of the movie...
• Fight Club - Brad Pitt is Edward Norton and vice-versa. Whoa!!
• The Sixth Sense - Bruce Willis has been dead the whole time.
• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - Bolivian Army vs Redford and Newman... and FREEZE!
• Boogie Nights - We finally get to see his _________.
• Seven - Don't look in the box, Brad Pitt!!
• Glory - Denzel and Matthew Broderick go down in a hail of bullets.
• Soylent Green - "They're people!!"
• Silence of the Lambs - "I'm having an old friend for dinner"

There are more... so many more... but that is enough for now. Please ad to this list and we will come up with a poll some time in the next few weeks. Note, I really want to go with final scenes of movies for the most part. In fact, I think Empire Strikes Back is not a candidate for this poll if you ask me.

-Jason "I am sure I left out some obvious ones" Evans

[Jim3k]

"Louie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."-- Casablanca. Should also include the beginning of the end after Rick shoots the Major. Renault: "Round up the usual suspects." And the plane in the fog as it turns onto the runway with Lazlo and Ilsa aboard.

[sue71, esq]

Completely agree with The Usual Suspects and Silence of the Lambs. 100%

I'll also throw in The Godfather, with Michael in the study, as the door closes on Kay who's looking in at him, realizing he's the new Godfather.

Good topic, Jason!

[Deslok]

Some eclectic ones to add to the list:
The Prestige... doubling the doubles?
Say Anything... ding?
12 Monkeys... whose responsible?
Psyco... mother?
Dr. Strangelove... mein fuhrer, I can walk!
Some Like it Hot... nobody's perfect

[Udaman]

My all-time favorite: Cinema Paradiso

Others (besides those on the list like Sixth Sense)

Titanic (yes, I cried like a baby with Jack waiting for Rose on the stairs and all the crew/passengers clapping)

Carrie (lots of scary movie endings are great, but Carrie and Friday the 13th were the best)

No Way Out

The Jagged Edge (very underrated movie, by the way)

Angel Heart

Incidentally, many movies now try to leave you with the "aha" ending that makes you rethink everything. The worst example of this I have seen in a long while was The Book of Eli. (spoiler)



OK, he was blind all the time? No way. I've watched it again. He can clearly see. He's following things with his face. Now maybe they are saying that God gave him sight...but there is no way that the entire movie he was actually blind but just acting on instinct. No way. Really, really disliked that ending.

[davekay1971]

Raiders of the Lost Ark, with the Ark being wheeled in a featureless crate into a massive government warehouse of featureless crates. Great, humorous way for the Ark to be Lost once again.

Blade Runner, The Director's Cut: The unicorn origami showing that the Blade Runners had been there, and Deckard and his squeeze on the run, the implication I always took away from that being that they'd earned a head start, nothing more.

Star Trek II, the death of Spock, the funeral. For a geek like me, an incredibly emotional moment, not even ruined the slightest by Shatner's facial contortions as he works out the husky word, "human."

The Mission: the native boy retreiving Robert DeNiro's sword as the survivors of the tribe head out into the jungle. The message to me: of all the things the natives could have learned from the Europeans, this is what they ultimately take away: violence.

Toy Story 3, Andy driving away and Woody letting him go, emotionally, and turning to embrace his new life with his new kid and her toys.

Up: Carl sharing having an ice cream cone with Jordan, who's dad was always too busy.

The Thing: (probably my all-time favorite ending), with MacReady and Childs in a stand off, the fires dying down, knowing only that either they're both human, and they're going to freeze to death, or that one is the Thing, and it'll live on to start the terror all over again.

Wow, they are so many possibilities. Absolutely agree with many of the others already listed, and I'm sure I'm forgetting many, many more. Maybe if we're going to do a poll, I'd suggest truly limiting it to endings (avoiding great penultimate scenes such as the one Jason mentioned in Empire Strikes Back, or one I almost listed, the phenomenal crash-up-smash-up on the roads of Moscow in Bourne Supremacy).

Which reminds me of: The Road Warrior - 15 minutes of utter automotive mayhem ends up with us, and Max, finding out the precious gas tanker was filled with sand!

[davekay1971]

Three more:

Saw: when the dead guy in the middle of the room gets up and it's the killer...

The Iron Giant: Simply a great, great movie by Brad Bird who later gave us The Incredibles and Ratatouille. If you haven't seen it, see it. If you haven't seen it, I'll simply say it breaks your heart, then lifts you right back up.

Lord of the Rings: Thank you, Peter Jackson, giving us the most beautiful rendition imaginable of the Grey Havens, having Frodo leave Sam and Middle Earth, and finishing with Sam returning home with the exact same last line as in the book, "I'm home." Bonus points for having Sean Astin's daughter playing the role of Sam's daughter.

[OldPhiKap]

"Unforgiven" -- masterful.

"Rocky" -- the hero falls short, but still is victorious. Not cliche, like every other Rocky after that.

"Pulp Fiction" -- Ezekiel interpreted, sorta.

"Raising Arizona" -- great way to finish out. Maybe in Utah.

"Blues Brothers" -- c'mon, as far as fitting the feel of a movie, absolutely rocking. Everybody in the whole cell block, dance to the jailhouse rock. What a great line-up of talent, too.

Wholly agree on Casablanca, Memento, and Usual Suspects which came to mind as soon as I saw the thread title.

Didn't see anyone mention Citizen Kane, which I think is way overrated but I'm sure I am just missing it.

[Reddevil]

Citizen Kane: Rosebud the sleigh, representing the only time in his life that he was truly happy is thought of as trash....and burns.

[OldPhiKap]

Citizen Kane: Rosebud the sleigh, representing the only time in his life that he was truly happy is thought of as trash....and burns.

Of course, looking at your avitar, a dancing gopher is a great way to end a movie too!

[PSurprise]

Shawshank Redemption. What a great movie.

[DevilWearsPrada]

Shawshank Redemption. What a great movie.

Love Shawshank Redemption: "Get busy living, or get busy dying."


Gone With the Wind: Scarlett O'Hara "I'll think about that tomorrow. For tomorrow is another Day."

Wizard of the Oz: Dorothy Gale "There's no place like Home."

Gone with the Wind and Wizard of Oz both released in 1939. Two of the best films ever made!

[Olympic Fan]

Some eclectic ones to add to the list:
The Prestige... doubling the doubles?
Say Anything... ding?
12 Monkeys... whose responsible?
Psyco... mother?
Dr. Strangelove... mein fuhrer, I can walk!
Some Like it Hot... nobody's perfect

Agree about Some Like It Hot ... the greatest closing line in screen history although Casablanca ain't bad.

I have another favorite, although not as well known -- Preston Sturges' The Lady Eve ... as William Demerest slips out of the stateroom where Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwick are consumating (or is it re-consumating?) their marraige, turns to the camera and says, "I still say it's the same dame!"

Which leads to another Sturges masterpiece, the final line of The Sin of Harold Diddlebock, "THAT"S what I was doing all day Wednesday!"

Both pretty racy (in context) for the 1940s.

[DevilAlumna]

This should also be called the ultimate spoiler thread! If you haven't seen some of these movies, reading the ending here is just cruel.

Did anyone mention 6th Sense yet?

[Udaman]

Toughest Ending to a Movie: Gallipoli

Dumbest Ending to a Movie: All the Right Moves

Strangest Ending to a Movie: Mulholland Drive

Best Ending to a Sports Movie (where the Book was 100% the Opposite): The Natural

Worst Ending to a Sports Movie: Rocky IV

Best Horror Movie Ending: Carrie

Worst Horror Movie Ending: Alien Ressurection

[Reddevil]

Of course, looking at your avitar, a dancing gopher is a great way to end a movie too!

Yes, but unfortunately Rodney's cornball exclamation preceding the "gopher dance" ruined what would have undoubtably been a classic ending.

It should have just ended with "Moose, Rocko, help the Judge find his checkbook"...and cut to dancing gopher. I know - timeless.

[OldPhiKap]

Yes, but unfortunately Rodney's cornball exclamation preceding the "gopher dance" ruined what would have undoubtably been a classic ending.

It should have just ended with "Moose, Rocko, help the Judge find his checkbook"...and cut to dancing gopher. I know - timeless.

Worst drop-off for a sequel>

Caddyshack - > Caddyshack 2.

[camion]

I like the penultimate scene in Bladerunner
- Time to Die


To Kill a Mockingbird
- Neighbors bring food with death, and flowers with sickness, and little things in between. Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a knife, and our lives... I was to think of these days many times. Of Jem, and Dill, and Boo Radley, and Tom Robinson, and Atticus. He would be in Jem's room all night, and he would be there when Jem waked up in the morning.

[NashvilleDevil]

Field of Dreams

[OldPhiKap]

Three words: Life of Brian.