8 Movie Endings You Really Need to Rethink

As opinionated as I am (and I am very opinionated), I love hearing and reading other people’s thoughts on movies and TV shows. I watch these top 10 type videos on YouTube and spend a lot of time on sites like Reddit, just to see how wrong some people can be. No, I kid of course – I really do enjoy ‘watching’ things from others’ perspectives, especially when they make valid points. I love almost nothing more than that feeling when you finish a discussion and think: “Woah, that person almost changed my mind”.
(This doesn’t happen often – I will admit that I am hard-headed as hell – but when it does, man, few things come close to that feeling).

Not too long ago, a couple of my friends and I had a discussion about the ending of the series, Fortitude.
(If you haven’t seen it, I suggest that you go watch it – it is one of the best Television Shows I have seen in recent years)
Even though all of us loved the show, we disagreed on the ending. I personally thought its ending was near flawless, they thought it left the viewer with unanswered questions.

It reminded me of all these discussions and countdown videos I so love to consume. There is one subject that seems to pop up more than others on these forums.

The Movie Ending.

Once I realised this, it felt like every second video was a list of “most ambiguous movie endings” and questions posted on forums were people asking “What is the most infuriating movie ending?” Stuff like that.
People seem to really love listing their best/most (insert adjective here) movie endings of all time.

When you go through all these discussions and lists, you start to see patterns emerging. People see an ending, and without really thinking about it, draw conclusions. Sometimes they believe a movie ended on a happy note when, in fact, it didn’t. Sometimes they ask the wrong questions and end up being dissatisfied by an ‘ambiguous’ movie ending. And more often than not, people are so preoccupied with whether this happened or that happened, infuriated by a so-called ‘open-ended’ ending, that they completely miss the point of not only the ending but the entire movie as a whole.

Here follows my list of movie endings (since everybody’s doing it). The adjective I will be using today is misunderstood.

misunderstood
adjective
1. improperly understood or interpreted.
2. not appreciated.

Some of these endings are not seen for what they are, some are not as ambiguous as you may think they are and some are clear messages from the filmmakers that seem to go over the majority’s head.
These endings have two things in common.
All of them are from some of my favourite films and all of them, in my opinion, need to be reconsidered by the viewer.

Obviously, I will be discussing the endings of the following films, so SPOILER ALERT (duh).

Doubt

Meryl Streep plays Sister Aloysius, a nun that starts to notice the closeness Father Flynn (played by the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman) has with a young altar-boy named Donald. The nun is determined to find the truth and expose Father Flynn and the (alleged) inappropriate relationship he has with the boy.
In the end, we are never told if there was any abuse that took place – all we have is two opposing sides, neither fully confirmed nor denied. People have debated this to no-end. Some say that little Donald was, in fact, the victim of abuse. Others believe that Sister Aloysius was wrong about Father Flynn. I’ve also seen people say that Father Flynn was guilty, but his victim was another boy and not Donald, even citing certain scenes as proof.
What most people missed was the actual point of the film. They can write lengthy essays where they investigate all possibilities and outcomes, and they would still be wrong. It’s not about whether Father Flynn was guilty of abusing Donald or another child or whether Sister Aloysius was right or wrong, it’s about doubt. It’s right there in the film’s title. The ending (and the entire movie, actually) is there to make you doubt Father Flynn, Sister Aloysius, the entire system, even yourself.
It’s about the crippling power of Doubt.

Inception

Inception is a film about a dream in a dream within another dream that takes place in a hallway within another dream. (You get the point, you’ve seen the film; it’s a movie about dreams)
Let’s be honest, the movie was confusing. It’s not something you put on as background noise as you scroll through your phone; you have to actually watch it. That being said, the ending isn’t nearly as ambiguous or open-ended as everyone thinks.
“But, you don’t see if the top stops spinning or not? How do you we know if Cobb is in a dream or not? That is, by definition, open-ended!” I know, I know, but just hear me out.
People have written pages and pages about the ending of Inception, spouting things like “You see the top slowing down and wobbling, it must be real!” or “You don’t really see the faces of his children, so it must be a dream!” and my personal favourite; “Technically, the top isn’t his totem, his wedding ring is. Depending on whether or not he wears his ring, that is how you tell the difference between dream and reality.”
While I truly admire the lengths people go to find answers to their questions, again, I will say, you guys are missing the point.
It’s not about knowing whether he is dreaming or not. Throughout the entire movie, we see Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) obsessing over his totem, tortured by the constant need to know if he is awake or not. For the first time in the film, we see him walk away from his totem before he has confirmation, he doesn’t care if it’s real or not, the only thing that’s important to him (and should be important to the viewer) is that he is reunited with his children and finally happy.

No Country for Old Men

A man (Josh Brolin) finds $2million in cash after he comes across the aftermath of a drug deal gone bad, and as a result, is hunted by a ruthless killer (played flawlessly by Javier Bardem).
In the end, our protagonist is killed off-screen, his family’s fate is left up in the air and the killer gets into a car accident and limps away into the distance, probably never to be seen again.
The movie’s final scene is of Tommy Lee Jones’s character, the recently-retired sheriff, reciting two dreams he had the previous night, both involving his (deceased) father. One was of him meeting his father in town to pick up some money. The second, he travels down a mountain pass at night, he knows his father is ahead of him and will be waiting for him at the place they are both headed towards.
I know a lot of people were furious with this ending. Some felt robbed by not being able to witness the way our main character meets his demise, or not knowing whether his family is safe. Many also disliked the whole deus ex-machina feel of the killer’s accident. And of course, there’s also the what-the-hell-happened-to-the-money-thing.
The viewers were angry that instead of straight-up answers, the Coen Brothers decided to end this suspenseful roller-coaster of a film with an old man talking about his dreams on the morning of his first official day of retirement.
Some would argue that this film was made to challenge traditional story structure and turn a certain genre on his head, others may point out that the point of the ending is that it is meant to be discussed and debated to no-end.
But the one thing that is certain when it comes to the film is that No Country for Old Men ends with an old man talking about his dreams (that symbolise ageing and eventually dying) in a town where these horrible (and hard to deal with) things have happened, that he, as the sheriff, couldn’t prevent.
One can almost say that he is currently living somewhere he has no place in. (You see what I am getting at here, right? Again, it’s right there in the film’s title)

Fight Club

Yup! I’m doing it! I’m talking about Fight Club.
Everybody liked Fight Club. What’s not to love?
It has Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, anarchy, weird trippy sex scenes, cream of mushroom soup, flashes of nudity, soap-making hacks, Bob with the bitch-tits, the list goes on and on (I can honestly do this for hours).
It even came with a (now-infamous) plot twist and happy ending. We find out Tyler and the Narrator are the same person. Good defeats Evil when the Narrator ‘kills’ Tyler and our hero can finally be with the girl he loves as they hold hands and watch buildings being blown up throughout the entire city.
But wait a minute! Tyler (and the Narrator) just blew up half of the city. No way Ed Norton’s character will get away with that. He will either be arrested and go to jail for a very long time or he will have to live on the run for the rest of his life.
Now, you might say that the Club and Tyler’s influence has grown exponentially and members are spread across the globe, maybe the Narrator will get away with it. Yes, maybe you are right, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that our protagonist’s life will never be the same again (and not in a good way).
He will always have to live with the consequences. In one way or another, Fight Club, Project Mayhem and Tyler (even when dead and gone) will always remain a part of his life. Don’t get me wrong, we still love Fight Club and everything that comes with it, even if (and maybe even especially because) the ending isn’t as happy and conclusive as it seems at first glance.
(And for those who want to fight me on this one, the book that the film is based on kinda confirms the not-so-rid-of-Tyler-and-Fight-Club-thing in its last chapter – I am Jack’s utter unwillingness to see it any other way)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Jim Carrey (in one of his greatest roles) and Kate Winslet play Joel and Clementine respectively, two people who meet and instantly connect, despite their polarising personalities, on a long train journey.
As the movie progresses, we find out that Joel and Clementine have met before, and even had a two-year-long romantic relationship that ended badly. So painfully, in fact, that they erased each other from their memories (in this universe, it’s physically possible – as in there is a company that offers this service).
The movie technically ends where it begins, with Joel meeting Clementine (for the second time) on the train.
On the surface, it seems like a story of love conquering all. These two are meant for each other and are destined to end up together and live happily ever after.
So, happy ending, right? Wrong!!
We have seen these two as a couple, and it’s not pretty. They just don’t work together – I mean, they felt that they needed to physically remove every single memory they had of one another from their minds.
They are inevitably going to go through the same process of starting their relationship and after a couple of years of agony, break up (again) and probably erase their memories (again).
And don’t try and sell me on the whole ‘maybe this time it’ll be different’ thing, it won’t. Yes, by the end of the film, they find out that they have a twisted history, but remember, they have no actual recollection of each other or their previous relationship, just the knowledge that they have met and been together. They are going to make exactly the same decisions as before – they have no mistakes they can learn from (well, ones that they can remember anyway).
They will most likely end up in an unending cycle of meet, fall in love, break up, erase memories, repeat.

In Bruges

Colin Farrell plays a suicidal hitman, Ray, sent to Bruges with a colleague, Ken (Brendan Gleeson) after a failed mission. Ray hates the little village he is stuck in, which just adds on to his current mindset. As we get to know Ray we realise the reason for his desire to take his own life; during the aforementioned mission, Ray accidentally killed a small boy.
Unbeknownst to him, his boss, Harry (Ralph Fiennes in all his glory) has ordered Ken to kill Ray, while in Bruges. Ken, on the other hand, has rather a difficult time going through with it, even stopping Ray from shooting himself in one scene.
Things escalate to the point where Harry travels to Bruges to finish Ray off himself. Everything goes to shit, almost everyone dies and we are left with Ray in the back of an ambulance (after being shot by Harry), his inner monologue turning into a plea for his own life before the screen fades to black and the movie ends.
“What!!!??” we shout as the end credits roll by, “What happened? Is he still alive or what?” Again, you are asking the wrong questions here.
The fact that Ray lives or dies is not important, the fact that he has forgiven himself for what he has done is the crucial takeaway from the ending of In Bruges. Throughout the entire film, Ray is tortured and believes that he deserves to die for the unspeakable thing he has done. But in the end, Ray is shot and instead of accepting it and welcoming death with open arms (as he would’ve easily done near the beginning of the film), he begs for his life. He no longer feels that he deserves death, but rather, a second chance.

Joker

The ending of Joker didn’t really pop-up on a lot on these platforms, but I still felt I needed to mention it on this list, because of its absence. From what I have seen, people aren’t really discussing it, this might either be because it is a relatively new film, or because the ending seems pretty straight forward and people might not have been paying attention. I personally believe it’s the latter – if you really go and think about it, the ending of Joker is broader and the meaning behind it runs deeper than one might think.
Like most films, Joker isn’t told from a single character’s POV alone, but it has a clear focalizer; Arthur Fleck in this case. For the most part, we experience and find out things with Arthur (we cannot view anything objectively as most of our info is taken in through Arthur, so to speak). This, as well as the fact that Arthur has been lied to his entire life, and that half of what he experienced during the film was make-believe, makes Arthur an unreliable narrator, at best.
I’m not saying that everything that took place near the end of the movie, didn’t really happen. Arthur probably did shoot Murray, his former hero, in front of a live studio audience, the riots almost definitely took place (they even show Bruce Wayne’s parents being killed – we all know we don’t have Batman without the whole orphan thing). All I’m saying is that everything that happens during the movie (including the ending), should be taken with a pinch of salt.
Even in the end, while in Arkham, Arthur laughs at something, and tells his psychiatrist that he is laughing at a joke she wouldn’t understand. Maybe, just maybe, he is also saying this to the viewer.
The Joker has always been an enigma, which largely is the reason for him being such an enthralling and beloved character in pop culture. The character has so many storylines and different origin stories, and this movie just reaffirmed that. We, as the viewers, aren’t really supposed to ‘get’ the ending of Joker in my opinion. The film, as well as the character, should forever remain a mystery.

The Mist

Based on the Stephen King novella, The Mist tells the story of a town being consumed by a mist infested with monsters.
This movie ending, for some reason, people absolutely despised. This one is always included in the ‘hated’ and ‘infuriating’ categories, and I honestly don’t know why – these are not the words that come to my mind when I think of the film’s ending.
We see the main character, David (Thomas Jane), along with his son and a small group of people, leave behind the supermarket they took shelter in with most of the town’s other survivors and drive out into the mist. When they eventually run out of fuel, the group decides to be ‘euthanised’ rather than getting out of the car and facing the creatures. David takes the last of his bullets and kills everyone in the car (including his son). With no bullet left for himself, he gets out of the car to submit himself to the monsters in the mist.
As he does so, the fog starts to lift and the US Army arrives, onward to the rescue. This ending is gut-wrenching (and also quite unexpected since King’s works, as well as their adaptations, usually end on a relatively positive note). I remember when I first saw it, I sat and stared at the credits rolling by, stunned by what I just witnessed.
I loved the ending of The Mist and was genuinely surprised at how much other people hated it. I actually preferred the movie ending to the original ending (where the survivors take shelter for the night and hear a radio transmission that signifies hope for what’s to come) – an opinion I share with Stephen King, the writer of The Mist, by the way.
The Mist is a monster movie, for sure, but the central theme explores what the ordinary person is willing to do under extraordinary circumstances. And the ending, for me at least, ties in effortlessly with that theme.

Buried

This is another movie ending that seems to get a ton of (unwarranted) hate online.
Ryan Reynolds plays Paul Conroy, a US truck driver, attacked during a job in Iraq and buried in a small wooden coffin, six feet underground with nothing but a half-charged cellphone and a cigarette lighter.
Despite the fact that the entire movie is essentially Reynolds in a small container, having conversations (with both terrorists and military officials) over a crappy cellphone, Buried is one of the most intense and heart-pounding thrillers you will ever watch.
In the end, for a moment, it seems like Paul is going to make it; he is on the phone with the head of the Hostage Working Group, Dan Brenner (the only person that seems determined to save Paul), and you can hear digging over the phone. We find out that Dan and his team were digging in the wrong place, and the coffin they found was not the one Paul is currently lying in. We hear Dan repeatedly say “I’m sorry, Paul” as the coffin rapidly fills up with sand and the light eventually goes out.
This ending, to me, felt real. It seems like most people want a happy ending (we see this with the outrage of The Mist’s ending as well), but a happy ending isn’t always what the movie needs.
Even though Buried isn’t based on actual events, there’s still some semblance of truth behind it. We spend so much time with Paul, we care for him and we are absolutely heartbroken when he dies (seemingly unnecessarily) at the end and that is the whole point of the ending of Buried. So many lives are lost unnecessarily during times of war and hate, it’s a hard pill to swallow, but it’s the truth (I’ll say it again, the ending of Buried felt real), and the movie had the actual balls to come out and say it.
Now, I know a lot of people will tell me “But, Chantal, it’s a movie. We watch movies to be taken away from the horrors of real-life and be entertained.”
Okay, I get it, but then don’t watch these kinds of films when you want to ‘escape’ and then complain about its dark ending – you really expected a movie about a man kidnapped and buried alive to be feel-good fluff?
Entertainment is only a small part of any movie, it is important to remember that filmmaking is an art form. Art isn’t merely there for us to look at and say “ah, that’s pretty”, it’s a means of communication, it conveys messages to the observer through the telling of a story.
In this particular case, the filmmaker is sending us a message through the film and it’s ending about the (oftentimes unnecessary) casualties of war.

I’m not saying all movie endings should be rethought and get hated on for no good reason, some really do deserve all the hate they get (I’m looking at you, Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes).
I’m also not saying that every movie’s ending is a hidden masterpiece underneath a rotting pile of shit or every happy ending is actually a dark message from the filmmaker.
I just feel people don’t think about these kinds of things before making judgements or drawing conclusions.

Good doesn’t always conquer Evil and what happens to a character after a film has ended, isn’t always important (or even any of the viewer’s business – that’s why it’s called the ending).

I don’t believe every movie ever made has the perfect ending, but I know I can tell you exactly why I believed it could’ve ended better.
I try to go further than just saying, “It was bullshit because my favourite character didn’t make it to the end” or “I hated it because we never find out if that guy in that one scene managed to find his missing sock”.
After every movie I watch, even the one’s I despised, I try and think about why the creator made the artistic choices they did, and only then do I form an opinion.

Many filmmakers go through all this trouble to find the perfect ending (in their mind, at least) to their character’s chapters, the least we could do, is just to give them a second thought.