A good ending is hard to pull off. It is also one of the most important aspects of an excellently executed story. If everything else is compelling but the ending drops the ball, it brings down the whole experience. The films below fall into a certain, special category.
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On the surface, these endings are upsetting in one way or another. Ultimately, though, they are perhaps the most perfect ending the film could have. Anything different would have made the movie less special. They all make you think or elicit an unexpected emotion. Some even change the way viewers watch it for a second time.
Warning: Spoilers Ahead
7The Mist
Frank Darabont’s 2009 horror movie follows a group of people surviving an attack by strange monsters spawning from a fog that covers the whole town. Eventually, the main characters leave together in a car. When the car runs out of gas, the patriarch makes the painful decision to kill everyone in the vehicle, including his son, instead of letting thembecome monster food.
The real kicker comes when the military arrives just a minute later to disperse the mist and save everyone. The ending was not in the original Stephen King story, and the writer commended the director for coming up with it. As upsetting as it is, it is a good lesson to viewers to never give up hope.
6Brazil
Terry Gillam’s science fiction dystopian masterpiece is endlessly imaginative. The protagonist, Sam, is charged with treason and is about to be tortured right before he is saved by rebels and is able to reunite with his love interest. Unfortunately, this is all a lie and Sam is still strapped to the chair undergoing torture.
His mind is still clearly in the fantasy land where he can live happily ever after. It is dark,but the director doesn’t view it as such. To him, Sam is still free because the government hasn’t corrupted and stolen his mind, despite his captivity.
5The Day Shall Come
Chris Morris’s politically chargedblack comedyis about the CIA intentionally leading a clearly unstable man into attempting an act of terrorism. The ending is so upsetting because it ends up exactly where the movie says it is leading itself the whole time.
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The protagonist does get himself in trouble and ends up behind bars despite being led along and tricked by the authorities the whole time. It would be funnier if the movie was not inspired by true stories. Such darkly political themes mixed with comedy is nothing new from Chris Morris, also known forFour Lionsand the BBC news parodyBrass Eye.
4Come And See
This grizzly 1985 war movie from Belarus was made in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the Soviet Union’svictory in World War 2.It is hardly patriotic, though, and instead focuses purely on the horrors of war and the suffering Belarus experienced. The ending sees the main character shooting at a portrait of Hitler on the ground as archival footage of the Third Reich plays backward, progressively speeding up.
Shots ring out until the archival footage stops at a picture of Hitler as a baby and the gun runs out of ammo. The hero is then called back into formation and marches on. It seems unsatisfying but leaves viewers with a powerful message. Time cannot be reversed and the damage cannot be undone. The best thing one can do is remember and ensure it never happens again.
Abel Ferrara’s crime dramafollows an unbelievably corrupt police officer played by Harvey Keitel. The film follows him as he indulges in his lusts, addictions, and other various crimes. Simultaneously, he is investigating the sexual assault of a nun.
By the end, the assailants are identified, but the Nun chooses to forgive them. The protagonist lets them go, has a nervous breakdown at a church where he sees a vision of Jesus Christ, and is then killed presumably by the people he is indebted to from badly placed bets.
22001: A Space Odyssey
Stanley Kubrick’sscience fiction epicends with a confusing series of images and effects that seem to indicate something is happening.
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The director initially planned for there to be a narration explaining what was happening on screen, but decided to leave it out in favor of something more ambiguous. Fortunately, there is a novelization that clearly explains the events. Once viewers realize the process displayed is the merging of a human and another alien life form, it makes more sense.
1Night Of The Living Dead
In the mid-1960s,upsetting and unfair endings had not yet become commonplace for horror movies.Night of The Living Deadis certainly one of the first. After enduring the horrific night and surviving the zombie attacks, the main character emerges and is shot dead by some humans disposing of the remaining zombies.
The movie fully reflects the nihilistic mood of the 1960s some were feeling with increasing distrust in government, heightening racial tensions, and the assassination of public figures such as JFK, Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X.
