1. Planet of the Apes
2. Beneath the Planet of the Apes
3. Night of the Living Dead
4. The original AOD ending
5. Omega Man (the Christ pose was classic Heston)
1. Fight Club-Jack does everything he can only to find out that his efforts are meaningless.
2. Donnie Darko-This one always brings a tear to my eye. Not only is the ending itself a serious "mindf**k" but it is also extremely sad. The shots of each character with Gary Jules' cover of Mad World playing always brings a tear to my eye.
3. The Sentinel-By far one of the freakiest endings to any film to come out in the 70s. Actual malformed humans were used for the ending. All of the demons from hell are real people.
4. The Game-This film threw me for a loop the first time I saw it. So many twists in the very end. Perfect. David Fincher, you are a God.
5. Session 9-Rented this one a few weeks ago, and I haven't stopped raving about it since. Amazing brute force ending that made me want to kill myself. Not a happy one, but by far one of the most powerful endings I have ever seen in my life.
1) "Blow Up" by Brian DePalma. Wondeful movie, and one of the best endings I have ever seen.
2) "Carlito's way", another DePalma film.
3) "Chinatown". The most bitter ending I have ever seen in a classic movie.
4) "Duel in the sun". Do I need to explain?
5) "Screamers" (1995). Many people feel cheated by the ending, but I feel it makes quite a lot of sense. It is a movie where machines and humans fight for the survival of their species, and what ends up deciding the fate of mankind is a human, emotional act.
Seconds - Rock Hudson finds out where the cadavers come from. Great ending.
Count me as one of the people who felt cheated by Screamers. The movie was, for the most part, pretty faithful to Dick's original story, but the ending was entirely bass ackwards to the original. For those who might be confused, this was not the Screamers with the fish men.
I think the action leading up to th udden ending is what really strikes a chord with the viewer.
In no particular order:
* INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (the Donald Sutherland version)
* RACE WITH THE DEVIL
* ROSEMARY'S BABY
* THE WILD BUNCH
* PHANTASM
* PLANET OF THE APES (as previously mentioned)
* SECONDS (as previously mentioned)
* NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (as previously mentioned)
* FUNNY GAMES
* THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY
Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry
All-around great film.
the ending to adaptation was great in my opinion, or at least the five minutes or so before the end.
I liked Screamers but didn't care for the ending...one two many "suprise, we're not over yet!"
Screamers? The Indi Sci Fi flick with the intelligent, homicidal robots?
Loved the movie, teddy bear ending was only bad part.
Liked end of:
Cemetary Man
AOD (both endings)
Clerks (original ending, guy gets shot closing store)
28DL (1st ending crashing gate, happy ending was too sappy)
AI (Yeah I know, but the 1st ending was good, should not have had anything after)
Every Sean Connery & Roger Moore James Bond Movie ever made!
Night of LD (original 1969)
Six String Samurai
Relic (that monster was Dead forever!)
Any Peter Cushing / Christopher Lee Hammer movie circa 1965 - 1971 movie (for exactly the opposite of last item)
French Connection
Big Jake
Best Ending:
Monty Python's Life of Brian and Meaning of Life (tied, but I did like the crucified guys sings "always look on the bright side of life" while doing a cancan!)
Rob
Kirk wrote:
"Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry"
I totally agree. I've been waiting very impatiently for a DVD release!
Also - VANISHING POINT (which is available on DVD in some countries outside the U.S., but it's pretty expensive . . . I just sold my VHS copy on Ebay)
I vote for PRINCE OF THE CITY. That last look at Treat Williams' pained face conveys VOLUMES about the true heroism of doing what your conscience tells you to do even if it invites the contempt of your fellows.
I also vote for the HBO movie GOTTI, with that subhuman piece of filth ending up in a cell where he belonged yet still spouting his grotesquely delusional praise of himself while the distorted image of him in the mirror shows us the real monster within.
A SOLDIERS STORY with Howard Rollins and Adolph Caesar also gets my vote. In this day of increasing race baiting I love the moving ending where Rollins's character struggles to contain his outrage at the murder Denzel Washington's character committed while asking: "Who gave you the right to decide...the right to JUDGE...who is FIT to be a Negro...and who is not?"
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and CHINATOWN were already mentioned, but I love those endings too.
And of course I love the "WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED" ending to the classically bad movie THE MUMMY AND THE CURSE OF THE JACKALS but for all the wrong reasons...
Se7en.
I didn't see this ending coming because it was too dark to imagine. David Fincher really drove this one home. It's hard to watch now that I'm a father.
I would have to say one of the best endings I have seen to a movie by far goes to :
Wanted:Dead or Alive with Rutger Hauer and Gene Simmons
the castle of cagliostro
young frankenstein
the road to perdition
blazzing saddles
army of darkness
spider man
Soylent green "PEOPLE SOYLENT GREEN IS MADE FROM PEOPLE!!!"
Planet of the apes
Army of Darkness
Shaw Shank Redemption
The Truman show
American History X
Fight Club
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
Dunners wrote:
> spider man
>
>
Obviously you dont realize, that this was not the end, but the beginning of MUCH more angst for young Parker.
Here are my favorites.
# 1. Primal Fear: twist in the middle and the end
Devil's Advocate
Memento!!!
American History X
American Beauty
He Man: Masters of the Universe
The Omen
Not having always been a minister . . . I have in my time seen GASP Pornography . . .
How do you tell if you're in the middle beginning or end of a pornographic movie? They all start with sex, have a few words between scenes (such as "Hey! Let's $%#@" [aka "lets's have sex"]), so is there actually a more formulaic medium, or even more ending, than porno? I saw on O'reilly (on Fox News) an interview with one relatively young . . . uhh . . . performer? . . . entertainer? She had been in over 600 movies (she was 23 or 24 / Jenna James I think), the question I would like to have asked is "how do you keep from getting bored"? At least with B-Movies they change the script and you can tell the beginning from the end . . .
I guess I'm getting old . . .
Thoughts?
Rob
How could I forget? John Carpenter's The Thing.
I would have liked to have seen American History X with the original ending--I think it's on the DVD but I haven't seen it--it has Edward Norton shaving his head and becoming a Nazi again, which is a lot more realistic in my opinion.
Roger Corman says he doesn't recall if he actually filmed it or not, but the rumored ending of X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes with Ray Milland doing the Oedipus Rex on his eyes and then turning to the camera with bleeding sockets and intoning "I can still see!" would have been superbly chilling.
Return of the Living Dead's ending is very ironic with the army nuking Louisville, KY to destroy the zombies only to have the rain carry the trioxin to another location.
Darn, I got on here hoping no one would have said this yet, but I believe the Greatest movie ending was the end of American Beauty.
Also:
Planet of the Apes
Road to Perdition
and
Shawshank Redemption
Thanks to those who agree with me ;).Rob Phillips wrote:
If it hasn't already been mentioned here, Carpenter's remake of "The Thing" had a pretty damned good ending.
Many wonderful endings listed here, with some redundancy --
One that's just the best ever, and nobody mentioned it, is:
CASABLANCA
I just had occasion to see it again recently:
"Major Strasser has been shot . . . Round up the usual suspects!"
"Louie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship . . ."
The whole final 10 minutes of this film contain some of the greatest lines ever written for the screen, and they all build upon each other until . . . stirring music, fade to black. Show map of Africa.
Perfection!!
peter johnson/denny crane
I won't spoil it but The President's Analyst has a great ending. There is even a joke to it.
Sleepaway camp
3====D~~~lol~~~
I always thought that ending would have been more effective if it had been the fetus in the box.
Actually I withdraw that. I just realized how stupid that is since she was only a few weeks pregnant. Maybe thats why I dont write scripts for a living.
And I'm replying to a post from over a year ago! OK, now I'm officially a complete idiot!
Oh, I must add one more ending...I really, really, really, liked the ending to Pay it Forward. I thought it was the perfect way to end such a great movie.
And, this post isn't over a year old.
bono_212 wrote:
> And, this post isn't over a year old.
Some threads are worth reviving. There's still some life left in this one.
Interesting that many of the endings mentioned here are ones that broke from tradition. The filmmakers had the guts to do an ending where everything didn't necessarily turn out all right for the protagonist, where the hero didn't get the girl, where the good guys didn't win. I have to admit, it allows for more surprises.
Interesting to think that AI might have had one of the more memorable endings, but instead ends disappointingly because of the happier ending that just feels tacked on.
Post Edited (11-19-04 13:12)
I love the ending for The Crow, where Draven feels himself dying AGAIN, and then falls asleep at his fiancee's grave, and then sees her spirit walking towards him.
Then again, I love EVERYTHING about that movie. The acting, the direction, THE STORY, the music...one of the greatest films ever made, man.
ahhh come on the greatest ending is scarface, starwars empire strike back and
Metal Gear Solid one on know the last one is a game but it was pretty good ending.
Just thinking of another great ending that was ruined because it wasn't happy. Anyone recall the original series finale of Magnum PI? Thomas is shot by mobsters, and the show ends with him strolling off into the afterlife.
Now, I liked Magnum PI, and I liked Thomas Magnum, but this ending was gutsy, it was imaginitive, it was cool. It was the ending the show deserved. But, the fans squawked at the idea, so they had him come out of the coma for an 8th season, and finished that with him rejoiing the navy. Yawn.
I used to really enjoy Magnum PI and you're right AndyC, that ending was the way it should have been.
As for the Road Warrior, that was the last anyone saw of him. He lives now, only in my memories.
Bubba Ho-Tep's ending almost had me in tears. Yet it was so simple and executed so easily. But the conclusion to the story, and the message it gave was so incredible and brilliant.
Cube (1997)
It left off right where it should and left an air of mystery around the whole thing.
BORN IN EAST L.A. when Cheech Marin brings waves and waves of people across the border with the song "Coming to America". Love that film.
1 Jack Frost
2 Jack Frost 2
3 Slugs
4 The Brain
5 Sherlock Bones
How could you lr=eave out the usual suspects??? The greatest ending ever!
Killer Party and don't laugh, though the movie was on the bad side, the ending was excellent. One of those "You can't escape" endings.
Ah, not to mention The Wicker Man, another you 'almost' can't survive ending.
How about: (not necessarily in order)
Citizen Kane -- the sled burning sequence
Chinatown -- "Forget her Jake, it's Chinatown."
The Magnificent Ambersons -- George Minaver's "comeuppance"
(yes, I know this is not quite at the end of the film, but the ending
tacked on by Robert Wise is soooo bad!)
Casablanca
The Shawshank Redemption
The Green Mile
Raging Bull -- "I'm the boss"
Goodfellas
The Godfather II -- Michael Corleone reflecting on his bloody past