Most Disappointing Ending

[Pete B6K]

I thought about this after watching 'The Blob' (the original). It was going pretty well and building up for over an hour how tough, deadly and indestructible the blob is. Then out of nowhere someone has an idea and 30 seconds later the blob is defeated, everyones happy and the film is over.

I also thought the same about the end of 'Return of The Living Dead'  but then realised it's supposed to be a stupid ending and can appriciate it for that.

What are your thoughts on the most disappointing ending ever.

[Dano]

Brotherhood of the Wolf has an incredibly disappointing ending.  This wicked, indestructable monster turns out to be a trained lion with a suit of bizarre iron and wicker armor.  By the end of the movie, it is a helpless lump and the real villains are this weird cult with all the obvious suspects being members.

[AndyC]

I think a lot of the horror movies of the 50s just kind of carry on for as long as they need, then end conveniently. Look at the Amazing Colossal Man. They go through all kinds of scientific hokum, concoct a plan to inject Glen with a cure, and go to a lot of trouble to carry it out. Then, before the cure has a chance to work, the army simply blows him away, and he falls off the Hoover Dam. The End.

That's at least a little better than the movies where the monster rampages until somebody manages to pull out a gun and shoot it.

I actually thought the ending of Return of the Living Dead was pretty clever. "Hey, sounds like they had a plan for just this situation!" Then we see the nuclear shell slide into the breach and Louisville goes up in a mushroom cloud. Even better, it just makes things worse.

I would have to add AI: Artificial Intelligence to the list, as well as Pearl Harbor. These were disappointing because they passed by a perfectly good ending and kept right on going. AI should have ended with little Haley Joel under the ice, praying to the Blue Fairy for all eternity. Pearl Harbor should have ended when Mako said his "awakened a sleeping giant" line. That would be a nice, subtle reminder that this was a turning point in the war. Better than shoehorning in the entire Doolittle raid so the Americans could win in the end.

[StatCat]

I love the ending of the return of the living dead- I mean did you realy expect that to happen, no happy ending here just a government cospiracy the whole point of the movie to me.

Dario Argento's Opera comes to mind right away for bad ending- quite random and pathetic compared to the movie as a whole. It really just needs to be cut out we see enough of those- the killer is alive and on the loose! endings just when you believe he's dead. In opera's case it occurs in the artic hills of Scandinavia or someother area if I remember making absolutely no sense.

[J.R.]

The Gift- A terrifically acted and directed film, but the ending feels tacked-on. It feels like the post-Sixth Sense syndrome: We're making a supernatural movie, so it must have a twist ending. The twist is kind of confusing and it really doesn't fit in with the rest of the movie.

The Blair Witch Project- I sat through 90 minutes of boredom to see a camera fall down. Wow.

[Evan3]

Panic Room, honestly it was the best two thirds of a movie I have seen, than the director either died or said, Im tired of this, lets make a dumb ending

[J.R.]

The Game- A cool thriller hampered by a childish and implausible ending. It's like the capper to a short story written by a 10th grader.

Color Of Night- The "twist" ending is obvious to anyone with a pair of eyes and an attention span within the first fifteen minutes, so the entire movie is a waiting game for the big reveal and credit roll.

Harry Potter- This movie had no climax! There was that chess game and then a brief glimpse at Valdemort, who turns out to be a puss, and that's it.

[Pokethulhu]

Andy Campbell wrote:

> I would have to add AI: Artificial Intelligence to the list,
> as well as Pearl Harbor. These were disappointing because
> they passed by a perfectly good ending and kept right on
> going. AI should have ended with little Haley Joel under the
> ice, praying to the Blue Fairy for all eternity. Pearl Harbor
> should have ended when Mako said his "awakened a sleeping
> giant" line. That would be a nice, subtle reminder that this
> was a turning point in the war. Better than shoehorning in
> the entire Doolittle raid so the Americans could win in the
> end.


These two would be my best contenders for this category, too.

But I think A.I. already started to come apart, when David reaches Manhattan. And his creator tells him it was all a test, to see if he would follow his dream. Which was pretty strange, because never in the entire movie, it even occured to David, the the Blue Faerie could not be real.

It totally screwed up, when it doesn't stop with David praying to the Faerie.
I remember sitting through A.I. and talking to a few peapola about it afterwards. One said it was pretty clear, at which point Spielberg took over.

[AndyC]

I thought the whole experiment thing was a little strange, considering the string of events that brought David to Manhattan. It's been a little while since I saw AI, but it seems to me that David's interest in Pinocchio, his family troubles, his being dumped in the woods, and everything that happened afterward could hardly have been planned.

As you said, it also really struck me as odd that David seemed to lose his grip on reality where the Blue Fairy was concerned. Perhaps this was programmed into him, but that would certainly void the results of the experiment.

[wheresthecarrot]

Basically what you got there was a great movie spoiled by the "Spielberg happy ending...."  He can't let anything just end badly, can he?

[Creepozoid]

Andy Campbell wrote:
 
> I would have to add AI: Artificial Intelligence to the list,
> as well as Pearl Harbor. These were disappointing because
> they passed by a perfectly good ending and kept right on
> going. AI should have ended with little Haley Joel under the
> ice, praying to the Blue Fairy for all eternity. Pearl Harbor
> should have ended when Mako said his "awakened a sleeping
> giant" line. That would be a nice, subtle reminder that this
> was a turning point in the war. Better than shoehorning in
> the entire Doolittle raid so the Americans could win in the
> end.

In MAD's excellent spoof "Hurl Horror" they said that the Doolittle Raid had to be shown because with the way kids are being taught histrory these days kids would leave the theatre thinking Japan had won the war and the events of Pearl Harbor itself aren't nearly as important as the love story between two horribly annoying people.

[Chris K.]

The ending for CHANGING LANES might be different for some, it is just so disappointing. I mean, Ben Affleck's character ruins most of Samuel L. Jackson's life in the film, and in the end they both decide to apologize instead of duking it out? Sorry, but if my life were ruined by a pencilneck lawyer I would go for his throat immediately.

The movie was good, but it just was ruined by that ending.

[AndyC]

I think that was the point of the movie. If they hadn't kept trying to get even with one another, they could have saved themselves a lot of pain.

[Fearless Freep]

I see a lot of movies where the endings are a let down because of the production/budget did not allow a decent ending that you would expect or hope for based on where the movie was going.

Among those that come to mind are "HorrorVision", "Forever Evil", "Dark Angel: The Ascent".  All decent low budget movies that have some interesting ideas and you really can kinda get into the movie, but either the writer/director didn't have a good vision to get it all to climax, or the budget didn't allow to really pull off a good ending, so the ending ends up kinda flat

Then there was "Unknown Origin" where the 'surprise ending' invalidated most of the last third of the movie.  Similar to "Killer Instinct". I don't mind movies that have surprise twist endings, but I'd like to be able to see the twist and look back on the movie and see that the twist actally makes sense.   Suprise endings that contridict or invalidate much of the movie are really annoying

[Chris K.]

I might have missed the point, but still to me it was a disappointing ending. Maybe I need to watch it again, but for now I still say Samuel L. Jackson should have been strangling Ben Affleck at the end.