Endings are very important - a bad one can ruin a film, but a great one can save an up-to-then middling affair or elevate a good film to an even higher level. For this list, I don't have any firm rules about what constitutes the film's ending. Some of my choices represent the last scene or two, while others make up the final ten or twenty minutes or more.
Don't forget to check out Kyle's list at his own blog, Enter the Movies!
Of course, MAJOR SPOILERS are revealed in this list.
1. The Shawshank Redemption
Considering how important endings are, it's no surprise that my favorite film of all-time has such a great one. From the moment Warden Norton (Bob Gunton) discovers Andy's (Tim Robbins) escape tunnel, the movie soars. We get to see Andy's plan go off without a hitch - and, in the process, take down Norton and the crooked guards, plus get Shawshank Prison some much needed scrutiny- and see Red (Morgan Freeman) ace his parole board hearing and get his long awaited release. The segment with Red following in Brooks' post-release footsteps initially filled me with dread and I remember being so happy when Red didn't kill himself. The final frames of the film, when Red finally gets back together with Andy, are magical, as well. There aren't a lot of films with strong, platonic male friendships so I've always appreciated that aspect of The Shawshank Redemption.
2. Toy Story 3
I could go back a lot farther and classify the entire final third of Toy Story 3 as the ending and it would still place highly on this list. But for my purposes here, I'm just counting the very final scenes where Andy decides to donate his toys to Bonnie and they spend some time playing together in her front yard. The overwhelming sense of joy on Andy and Bonnie's faces is evidence of how much fun they're having, but the real emotional punch comes from knowing how much the toys themselves are enjoying it. They're getting played with by Andy - their owner and best friend for so many years - one last time and then get handed off to Bonnie, a sweet and loving kid who will no doubt cherish them for years to come. When Andy leaves and goes back to his car, Bonnie makes Woody wave goodbye to the college-bound young man and Andy nearly cries. You can see the emotion rise up in his throat and on his face as he waves goodbye to his favorite toy. It's a moment that always gets to me, no matter how many times I see it. Even now, just thinking about it, I've got tears in my eyes. It's a wonderful way to end such a brilliant trilogy.
3. Chinatown
While one of the final lines of the film - "Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown" - is perhaps the most famous moment of the entire film, the two or three minutes leading up to that moment is breathtaking, heart breaking, and utterly bleak. Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) attempts to escape with her daughter/sister, driving away from her father (John Huston), the police, and our hero, Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson). When the police open fire, they hit the fleeing Evelyn in the head, blowing out her eye and killing her, right in front of the young girl. After all is said and done, the evil monster gets to leave with the girl - no doubt sealing her fate right then and there - and Jack can't do anything about it. It's one of the most depressing and soul crushing endings I've seen, but nothing else would have worked nearly as well. A film like Chinatown couldn't have had a happy ending - it just wouldn't have felt right or fit with the rest of the film. Adding to everything, as the camera pulls back and we watch Jake get led away in shock, the film's fantastic score kicks in. As I've written in previous pieces on this blog, Chinatown gets better and better with each viewing, but I thought the ending was glorious from the first time I saw it.
4. The Departed
The amount of shocking deaths in the final ten minutes or so of this film completely surprised me when I first saw it in the theater in 2006. One after another, almost all the main characters are killed off in a sudden and unexpected fashion. The "elevator" scene with Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Sullivan (Matt Damon) is probably the most shocking - as an audience member, I never had any doubt that Sullivan would be victorious in the end so his untimely execution really caught me off guard. Several other supporting characters meet their grisly demise before the very end when Dignam (Mark Wahlberg) gets his retribution and kills Sullivan. There's a certain level of beautiful barbarity to all these murders - they're not senseless killings by any stretch of the imagination as all the people act in such a way that's true to their character - and Martin Scorsese stages the entire ending with such visceral precision. The audience is put right alongside the characters and it's as if we're there, experience these traumatic events with them.
5. The Sixth Sense
Speaking of surprise endings, The Sixth Sense has one of the best of them. I, like most people who saw the film, had no idea there was going to be a twist ending and was completely blindsided by the reveal that Dr. Crowe (Bruce Willis) has been dead the whole time and has been communicating with young Cole (Haley Joel Osment) as a ghost. The film had already had one emotional climax - with Cole and his mom (Toni Collette) in the car - and I certainly didn't expect another one. When the moment came, I remember being taken aback. I may or may not have audibly gasped. It's the type of reveal that instantly elevated the film and made me want to see it again, to try and piece everything together and see if it all fit. I've seen The Sixth Sense so many times over the years and while the ending doesn't pack that punch to gut like it did the first time - how could it? - it's still highly enjoyable and thought provoking. M. Night Shyamalan's career went off the rails less than a decade later, but I'll always appreciate what he accomplished here.
6. Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
I think Dr. Strangelove as a whole is pretty much perfect and the ending is no exception. This is the shortest of my choices on this list as I'm only considering the nuclear bombs going off as the ending. While the mushroom clouds bloom, "We'll Meet Again" by Vera Lynn plays in the background. The contrast between the images - showing the certain destruction of all life on the planet - and the song - hopeful and melodic, if not downright mawkish - is just one final dark joke in a film filled with pitch black comedy. The ending underscores the futility of everything that came before it, all the arguing and debating and failed diplomacy, and shows that when left to our own devices and hubris, things won't turn out well. Stanley Kubrick was a master of many things and knowing how to end a film was one of them. A Clockwork Orange nearly made this list as an honorable mention and several of his other films were in the running initially, as well.
7. Good Will Hunting
The ending to Good Will Hunting is understated, sweet, and the absolute perfect way to close out such a great film. It does a lot of different things in a short span of time: it pays off an earlier conversation between Will (Matt Damon) and Chuckie (Ben Affleck) when they were talking about their dreams for the future, has a call back to an earlier joke - the wonderful, "Sorry, I have to go see about a girl" - and allows the audience to speculate on what's really going to happen between Will and Skylar (Minnie Driver). When an open ended finale is done wrong, it can really ruin a film, but when it's done right like it is here, it adds something subtle, yet very significant. If you don't want to think too much about it, you can assume the two young lovers will live happily ever after. If you want to delve deeper into things, you can guess all sorts of things based on their character traits, motivations, and goals. I like to think of it as a bittersweet ending - Will is finally breaking free of his routine, taking chances and emotional risks, and getting out of Boston, but I doubt things will work out very well for him and Skylar as a couple. When the inevitable breakup happens, Will will have to decide whether to stay away or come back to his home and friends. I like the option of making those kinds of guesses about a film and not everything has to be spelled out for the audience.
8. Titanic
While there is some debate as to what the ending of Titanic represents - some people think the elderly Rose (Gloria Stuart) is dreaming about her reunion with Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) - I've always been certain that Rose has died in her sleep, finally able to let go and move on since she's told her story and deposited the Heart of the Ocean pendant into the ocean and near the wreckage of the great ship. In the afterlife, she's transported back to her young, beautiful self (Kate Winslet) and reunited with Jack and all the people she got to know on the RMS Titanic. It's a wonderful thought to have, that when you die there's no judgment, no Heaven or Hell, but you get to go back to a time that you were the happiest in your life. In addition to the story elements here, I simply adore how director James Cameron filmed the ending with the wreckage of the ship being transformed into its former glory in front of our eyes. It's masterful filmmaking and Cameron at his best.
9. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Another Jack Nicholson film - the third on this list. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is another film that I've written about repeatedly in the two years since I started this blog, but I never tire of discussing it. After Chief Bromden (Will Sampson) smothers R.P. McMurphy (Nicholson) because McMurphy wouldn't have wanted to live his life as a vegetable ward of the state, he goes to the water fountain and rips it out of the floor, then uses it to smash through the barred windows, granting himself release from the mental hospital/prison. The entire ending calls back to previous moments and discussions that Bromden had with McMurphy, but it took the latter's death to properly motivate the big man into action. As Bromden breaks free, the score swells and the music elevates the entire scene. We get to see Bromden run through the open pasture and away from the controlling, hostile environment and his actions will no doubt influence the other patients. It certainly pleases Taber (Christopher Lloyd) who applauds and laughs with absolute glee after he sees what has transpired. The huge smile on his face and light in his eyes is pure magic - a wonderful little moment in a film full of them.
10. House of Sand and Fog
After reading through this list, it's probably obvious that I like a good, bleak ending. No other ending - with maybe Requiem for a Dream coming closest - is as bleak, depressing, or emotionally draining as House of Sand and Fog. For the most part, the entire film is sad and depressing, but the ending kicks everything up a notch, leaving people both emotionally and physically dead and a family destroyed. When you think about what drove the plot and caused everything to end up this way - a simple clerical error on the county's part that forced one woman (Jennifer Connelly) to wrongly be evicted from her home - it's even more upsetting. The performances from Connelly, Ben Kingsley, and Shohreh Aghdashloo are all first rate, as is the cinematography, editing, and score. All these aspects combine with the heartbreaking story to make up one of my favorite endings.
Honorable Mentions:
I hope you've enjoyed this series of lists! I've certainly had a lot of fun writing them. If you can think of any more lists that would be interesting to do, let me know - I'm always up for more ideas!
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