General Discussion

Hey there Screened Pups, I'm working on building a list of some of the best and worst endings to movies and I was curious to get your opinions. Feel free to leave as many suggestions below and try to keep them spoiler free (or at least use the spoiler bumper tool).

Nice idea! Here's two just to get the ball (of film) rolling:

Best - Pee-wee's Big Adventure

The device of having Pee-wee at the drive-in checking in with pretty much every character/s we've come to love is brilliant. Not only is it a super efficient way to tie up all the loose plot ends all at once (Simone found amour!), but it helps to create the perfectly happy ending that a movie that Pee-wee needs.

Worst - The Return of the King

There are plenty of shitty endings to shitty movies, but I'm using this one as an example of a way to cap off a great experience by leaving a poopy taste in your mouth. Give your movie 3 different endings. Now, I'm not really blaming the folks who made this. It's a general problem with adapting books; you can have epilogues that go on way longer than makes sense in another medium. But when your epic adventure has to spend 40 minutes wrapping itself up, it kinda takes the wind out of the audience's sails.

Best (I know.) - Observe and Report

Say what you want about the film as a whole, but you cannot deny that seeing Seth Rogen's murderous-ass chase down a naked man in slow-motion over a kick-ass cover of Where is my Mind? ending in an out of nowhere gunshot is fucking gravy. Plus, the entire over-the-top happy ending of it all works great towards that Taxi Driver-like "delusions of grandeur" mindset. Is it a dream? Did he really win this hardcore? Who knows, but regardless, Ronnie is still a fucking psycho (just one that you can hug as he fires a big gun down a shooting range with death in his eyes.)

Worst - The Devil Inside

Not saying much, considering the film itself is the worst, but damn is this ending fucking retarded. If you close your film out with an advertisement for a website before the goddamned credits roll, something is wrong. Then again, something is wrong when your film is this shitty.

Best - Snatch

Worst - Mass Effect 3 (It transcends mediums!)

Best - Casino Royale

Worst...well, I can't really think of one that stands out above the rest. I can think of a few movies with really dumb endings, though, like Skyline and Repo Men.

Best - Oldboy. Those last 15min or so always leaves me wanting to find someone and just yell "Holy shit!" at them. No matter how many times I see it.

Worst - Mystic River. I said it in another forum but I would be hard pressed to think of a more egregious example of someone just phoning in the of his movie. I mean seriously, you just found out that your childhood friend wrongly killed your other childhood friend who was dealing with deep issues and the only thing we get is a shot of his kids sad while the 2 main characters practically mentally hi-five each other as to say "Well....we're still doing alright. And now he doesn't have to deal with his issues anymore because he's dead. Win-win y'all!" What a waste of a story.

Best- Departed ends the movie on a huge high after the tension just keeps getting ratcheted up

Usual Suspect obviously

127 Hours I love movies that end with the huge swelling music which is mostly sports films like Moneyball (if it had ended 10mins earlier) and Fighter but the sense of being free after feeling confined for so long makes it such a great experience for me

Worst- Source Code I don't think there was enough justification for her killing the guy at the end

Smokin' Aces for similar reasons

Best- World's Greatest Dad, Rushmore, Drive, Harold and Maude, Young Adult, Pi, Boogie Nights, Lost in Translation, The Grey, Let the Right one In, God Bless America, The Guard, The Brothers Bloom, Kill Bill Vol. 1, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, My Dinner with Andre, Adventureland, The Wrestler, The Vanishing, The Cabin in the Woods, A Clockwork Orange, The Graduate, The Life Aquatic, Princess Mononoke, 127 Hours, Jeff, Who Lives at Home, Thirst, Carnage, A Separation, Friends with Kids, The Social Network, Inception, The Fighter, Pulp Fiction... Yeah. Those are really just some of my favorites, not necessarily the best endings of all time or anything. More like some movies that I like that have good endings.

Worst- True Grit, Splice, Super 8, The Perfect Host, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call of New Orleans, Hannah Takes the Stairs, Chronicle, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, The Kid with a Bike... Again, not the worst endings of all time, but just some that were either really disappointing to me or just plain bad.

@Vincemaster: Thanks for reminding me of the puppet show at the end of Forgetting Sarah Marshall, its reasons like those that make me love Jason so much.

But I am going to have to disagree with a couple of your worst: Hannah, while not a fan of the film, I liked the quick cut to title at the end, Super 8 even if you didn't enjoy the sappiness of the ending you can't say the credits scene was bad, and for True Grit was it just the little scene with her as an old women because besides that scene I liked the ending.

@TheFaithfullyDeparted: Yeah the end credits scene at the end of Super 8 was pretty good... True Grit's ending was fine also, but yeah, that epilogue scene at the end kind of killed it for me. Although I will not budge on my opinion of Hannah Takes the Stairs or its ending haha.

@nofx4208: Yes! The ending to Jeff, Who Lives at Home was incredible, nearly had me in tears.

Best? American Beauty. It wasn't a huge surprise, but it just works so well. A movie about how living life makes other jealous around you finds a way to force to people to move on and live their own life.

Worst? That has to be No Country for Old Men. I love the movie, I will give it rave reviews all day long, but it builds and builds and builds...then just ends.