# Worst Movie Endings.



## Manurack (Mar 21, 2021)

So I just watched the Jake Gyllenhaal and Hugh Jackman movie *Prisoners.



*
I first watched this movie in theaters when it came out, spent over 2 hours watching it and another movie goer said it sucked so bad while we took a long awaited piss at the urinals in the bathroom. I decided to watch it again earlier to try and understand it better...

Jake Gyllenhaal's character feels a prison of being stuck as a detective who needs to solve every single case and is stuck in his own prison of solving every case.

Hugh Jackman's character is the father of a child who gets abducted. Then he's left in a tomb under a car blowing his daughter's whistle that she lost in the first place, in his own prison.

Another shitty moving ending was in The Mist with Thomas Jane, when the military opens a portal to another dimension, they go through an hour and half of the movie to survive in a grocery store with some Old Testament Bible religious lady, all for actor Thomas Jane to kill his child and everyone in the car only to find that the military comes to save everyone 2 minutes later.




And to end this post, I'll use Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons with his famous quote "Worst Episode Ever"


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## MYGFH (Mar 21, 2021)

Everyone loves 'Mad Max: Fury Road'. But the final scene where he looks over his shoulder instead of keep walking without looking back RUINED THE WHOLE EFFING MOVIE.


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## DudeManBrother (Mar 21, 2021)

I don’t know if it really counts as an ending: but I thought the most recent Ghostbusters started out interesting and mildly compelling for about 30ish minutes; then it’s like they ran out of script and went for unfunny one liners and crappy action the rest of it. It is unfortunate because I really enjoy the comedy of all the leading ladies (except Leslie Jones) but they really missed the opportunity to maintain a story, while developing the characters through the adventure. Hopefully the next one, seemingly with a Stranger Things vibe, can deliver.


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## dr_game0ver (Mar 21, 2021)

Haha yeah! The ending of The Mist. That was a thing... One of the most hated is from Blair Witch 2.


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## Rosal76 (Mar 21, 2021)

dr_game0ver said:


> Haha yeah! The ending of The Mist. That was a thing...



The creature in the Mist....., was a Thing??????







LOL. I was just joking. I knew what you meant.


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## Manurack (Mar 21, 2021)

If Thomas Jane's character in The Mist waited 2 minutes later? His son and the other would have been saved.

Also here's one thing for the Walking Dead fans - the majority of the cast in the Mist: Dale, Carole, Andrea and Morales are all involved in both lol

https://www.google.com/amp/s/screenrant.com/walking-dead-tv-show-mist-movie-shared-cast-members/amp/

Rick Grimes actor Andrew Lilcoln was originally recommended to be played by Thomas Jane, but he turned it down.


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## Hollowway (Mar 21, 2021)

DudeManBrother said:


> I don’t know if it really counts as an ending: but I thought the most recent Ghostbusters started out interesting and mildly compelling for about 30ish minutes; then it’s like they ran out of script and went for unfunny one liners and crappy action the rest of it. It is unfortunate because I really enjoy the comedy of all the leading ladies (except Leslie Jones) but they really missed the opportunity to maintain a story, while developing the characters through the adventure. Hopefully the next one, seemingly with a Stranger Things vibe, can deliver.


Agreed. Chris Hemsworth was awesome in that. The scenes with him and Melissa McCarthy were the best parts of that film.


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## DudeManBrother (Mar 21, 2021)

Hollowway said:


> Agreed. Chris Hemsworth was awesome in that. The scenes with him and Melissa McCarthy were the best parts of that film.


Yeah that was a great dynamic. She’s incredibly funny. Her ability to carry roles can make awful movies enjoyable.


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## Edika (Mar 21, 2021)

I'd consider one of the worst endings in movies I've watchec the ending of Requiem For A Dream. Not because it is bad ending but it is so godamn depressing it's quite unbearable.


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## wankerness (Mar 21, 2021)

The Mist is probably my vote for the worst ending ever, too. I think a qualification of worst ending ever is to ruin an otherwise good movie. Thus, I’ve certainly seen worse endings, but they matched the rest of the movie.


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## DudeManBrother (Mar 21, 2021)

The Village had a cool ending concept but the actual execution was pretty awful in my opinion. Some of the resolutions were lame and it felt rushed, like it had a time constraint, even though there were a lot of parts that seemed to drag on, so it felt like poor time management overall.


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## jaxadam (Mar 21, 2021)

I remember War of the Worlds with Tom Cruise being pretty blah there at the end.


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## mongey (Mar 21, 2021)

jaxadam said:


> I remember War of the Worlds with Tom Cruise being pretty blah there at the end.


to be fair so is the book. 

they get sick. they die


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## Grindspine (Mar 22, 2021)

Contact and Signs... both were just terrible. In both, you expect aliens, what you get are [spoilers]religious revelation![/spoilers]


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## Louis Cypher (Mar 22, 2021)

This one springs to mind for me. Predators (2010) is pretty naff anyway but the ending is one of the worst ever imo when you know what ending Rodriguez really wanted. He actually wanted Brody and the other survivor to have a space ship land in front of them, a load of Predators get out and form a guard of saulte kinda thing as a King/Leader Predator walks out of the ship and as he greets Adrian Brody it is actually Dutch from the original Predator film..... Poss the best fanboy movie ending ever ruined due to contractual issue with Arnie.

side note: I like the ending to The Mist....


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## Edika (Mar 22, 2021)

Yeah Signs started really well in terms of building suspense but towards the end it was just lame


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## Manurack (Mar 22, 2021)

I actually thought Signs had a good ending, it's one of my favorite movies haha all the suspense of Mel Gibson's wife's death in the movie played out perfectly. I like how his daughter Bo had a phobia of drinking water and kept water cups all over the house, then it turned out to be the Alien's worst nightmare and caused them to leave Earth. 

On the topic of alien movies, I like how War of the World's with Tom Cruise kept religion out of it, but it would make sense if Aliens died from the tiniest bacteria and germs that they have never encountered before.

And here's an old school one: Flight of the Navigator. The whole movie was just a dream that David had - but he kept the little critter at the end... Weird.


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## wankerness (Mar 22, 2021)

What? When does Flight of the Navigator's ending imply it was a dream? I watched that multiple times as a kid and always thought it just took him back to the past where he came from. I haven't seen it in probably 15 years though.


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## Demiurge (Mar 22, 2021)

Manurack said:


> I like how his daughter Bo had a phobia of drinking water and kept water cups all over the house, then it turned out to be the Alien's worst nightmare and caused them to leave Earth.



It's interesting to think of a lifeform out the universe that is so chemically-different from what we consider to be foundational to life that water would harm them. 

But then you have to think about the aliens invading this blue planet without it occurring to them that one of the most common substances on it is lethal. I guess there could be lifeforms out there that have mastered interstellar travel but not understand reconnaissance or PPE.


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## Dumple Stilzkin (Mar 22, 2021)

wankerness said:


> What? When does Flight of the Navigator's ending imply it was a dream? I watched that multiple times as a kid and always thought it just took him back to the past where he came from. I haven't seen it in probably 15 years though.


Yeah. I haven’t seen it it in over 20 years. But I remember this being the ending.


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## Steo (Apr 6, 2021)

Got to be The babadook. The whole film, perfectly sets up the kid and his mother are still grieving, and making each other worse (mentally & emotionally). Then that reveal and ending??? Nope. Don't buy it.


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## styphonthal (Apr 7, 2021)

Signs was the worst for me...All this build up, then a poorly written lazy ending. An advanced race with intergalactic technology yet they die when faced with water AND try to invade a planet >70% water??


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## Werecow (Apr 7, 2021)

Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
It's actually one of my favourite comedy films, and although the ending is funny and typically them, i just always want an in-universe ending.


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## John (Apr 8, 2021)

Worst as in downer endings: Requiem for a Dream.

Worst as in production, writing, etc: Godfather III as a pretty clear money-grab of a film.


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## _MonSTeR_ (Apr 8, 2021)

For me it was the Star Wars ‘sequel trilogy’ as an ending to the movie that was my childhood.


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## Demiurge (Apr 8, 2021)

John said:


> Worst as in production, writing, etc: Godfather III as a pretty clear money-grab of a film.



When the film opens with Michael's daughter _aggressively_ flirting with her first cousin at a family event, you know it can only get dumber from there.


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## Choop (Apr 8, 2021)

"I Am Legend" had a pretty garbo ending, completely missing the point of the book. Even the rejected alternate ending still manages to miss the point. It makes the title of the movie not even relevant to the story that it told.


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## profwoot (Apr 8, 2021)

I liked the endings of both the Myst and Contact. I'm a Carl Sagan fanboy though and you definitely have to understand what Contact is about to really get it. If you're expecting a big super-alien reveal at the end you're going to be disappointed. As for the Myst, I just appreciate movies that don't end in the expected way. Even if the movie itself might have been more enjoyable with a "happy" ending, it took one for the team to add some suspense to the 95% of movies where everything works out fine.


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## Quiet Coil (Apr 8, 2021)

Explorers. Why? Because the first two acts were (IMO) absolutely terrific, but the third goes so sideways that it feels like a completely different (and much suckier) movie.


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## Rosal76 (Apr 8, 2021)

profwoot said:


> I liked the endings of both the Myst and Contact. I'm a Carl Sagan fanboy though and you definitely have to understand what Contact is about to really get it.



I enjoyed Contact. At the beginning of the movie, the scenes between Jodie Foster and David Morse made be realize that there was more to the movie than the sci-fi element. That movie Signs (M. Night Shyamalan) made me feel the same way. Both movies has aliens in it but but both have a strong human story to them.


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## BenjaminW (Apr 8, 2021)

_MonSTeR_ said:


> For me it was the Star Wars ‘sequel trilogy’ as an ending to the movie that was my childhood.


I wholeheartedly agree here. The Force Awakens wasn't too bad but was really nothing more than a remake of A New Hope. And then I don't speak of The Last Jedi or The Rise of Skywalker.


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## Drew (Apr 9, 2021)

Steo said:


> Got to be The babadook. The whole film, perfectly sets up the kid and his mother are still grieving, and making each other worse (mentally & emotionally). Then that reveal and ending??? Nope. Don't buy it.


I actually really liked how throughout that movie you legitimately had no idea which of them were going insane.


Edika said:


> I'd consider one of the worst endings in movies I've watchec the ending of Requiem For A Dream. Not because it is bad ending but it is so godamn depressing it's quite unbearable.


The Virgin Suicides are right up there too. I legitimately wanted to kill myself by the end of that one. 



Steo said:


> Got to be The babadook. The whole film, perfectly sets up the kid and his mother are still grieving, and making each other worse (mentally & emotionally). Then that reveal and ending??? Nope. Don't buy it.


I actually really liked how throughout that movie you legitimately had no idea which of them, if either, were going insane.

Not a movie, technically, but let me be the first to mention Game of Thrones.


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## MFB (Apr 9, 2021)

Drew said:


> Not a movie, technically, but let me be the first to mention Game of Thrones.



I just bought a router for my apartment, and it's an ARRIS, so naturally I tried to think of a great Wifi network name and unfortunately the first thing I thought of was ARRIS Targaryean; but honestly with how that series ended, even as a joke name for a WiFi network, I didn't want the association with that fiasco.


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## possumkiller (Apr 11, 2021)

Just finished Challenger: The Final Flight. That ended pretty badly. I feel bad for those crew members that have up their lives for some bureaucratic douchebags.


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## wankerness (Apr 11, 2021)

Just rewatched You're Next, and want to nominate that. The movie's an utter blast up until that clumsy, stupid ending that left a bad taste in my mouth. I mean, the movie's still pretty good, so it's nowhere near as bad as The Mist's ending, but it's still a good example of a bad ending managing to take the whole movie down a few notches single-handedly. And in its case, it's only like 2 minutes!


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## wheresthefbomb (Jul 14, 2021)

Well, I watched Beyond The Black Rainbow, and not only was it painful to sit through the paper-thin characters with zero development (that seemed like they were copied from his other movie, Mandy, which was only slightly better) but to add insult to injury, I never figured out what the fuck a "black rainbow" is supposed to be.

The only redeeming part of the movie was that there was a pool of black LSD (or something???) that was being used for time travel, or something. That was pretty cool, even though it was also basically the same plot device from Mandy. Too bad the rest of the movie failed to live up to that potential. 

This movie was basically psychological abuse porn with cool trippy effects and a flimsy revenge plot, which actually is my same review of Mandy, but at least Mandy had Nicolas Cage.


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## HeHasTheJazzHands (Jul 14, 2021)

Knowing and Rise of Skywalker. Honestly it's hard to say because one ending (and movie) completely fucked a trilogy, and arguably a saga. Another one butchered the fuck out of an interesting premise in such a batshit insane way.


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## Spaced Out Ace (Jul 14, 2021)

dr_game0ver said:


> Haha yeah! The ending of The Mist. That was a thing... One of the most hated is from Blair Witch 2.


I loved the ending to The Mist. I'm also a fan of Book of Shadows. The original film, not so much. Blair Witch Project sucked, and I'm appalled that so many "intelligent" adults couldn't tell that was a work.


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## jaxadam (Jul 14, 2021)

Spaced Out Ace said:


> Blair Witch Project sucked



I went to see it in the theater when it came out, and the most amazing thing happened. Someone’s cell phone rang right as the girl pops her head out of a tent or some shit and says “hello?” and the whole audience erupted. It changed the whole tone for the rest of the movie and it wasn’t very scary or interesting.


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## John (Jul 14, 2021)

HeHasTheJazzHands said:


> Rise of Skywalker



I'm admittedly not that much of a Star Wars fan. But I can see and understand why many despised that and the newer trilogy while we're at it. Apart from the influx of memes, I can at least appreciate the prequels from a fight choreography standpoint.


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## possumkiller (Jul 15, 2021)

profwoot said:


> I liked the endings of both the Myst and Contact. I'm a Carl Sagan fanboy though and you definitely have to understand what Contact is about to really get it. If you're expecting a big super-alien reveal at the end you're going to be disappointed. As for the Myst, I just appreciate movies that don't end in the expected way. Even if the movie itself might have been more enjoyable with a "happy" ending, it took one for the team to add some suspense to the 95% of movies where everything works out fine.


This. Why are people obsessed with happy endings? Fuck happy endings. Happy endings are unrealistic af and completely break the immersion. Just because the ending is sad or depressing doesn't mean it's bad.


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## Carrion Rocket (Jul 15, 2021)

High Tension (2002). The twist ending completely goes against all logic considering how certain events of the film unfold.

I remember hating the ending of Hellboy 2 mostly because I called it within seconds of the elf twins being introduced.


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## Spaced Out Ace (Jul 15, 2021)

jaxadam said:


> I went to see it in the theater when it came out, and the most amazing thing happened. Someone’s cell phone rang right as the girl pops her head out of a tent or some shit and says “hello?” and the whole audience erupted. It changed the whole tone for the rest of the movie and it wasn’t very scary or interesting.


I was maybe 9 or so at the time, and a big wrestling fan. I also knew wrestling was a total work for the most part (aside from shoots, or the more common worked shoot, which was becoming more and more prevalent during the "Attitude Era" and "Monday Night Wars"). Seeing grown adults believe that the Blair Witch Project was real made me realize, at a young age, that adults are gullible dumbasses. I knew as a kid, without seeing the film, that it was a work. Wouldn't you know it: It turned out being a fucking work. 

Then a few years later, I rented it and watched it myself. I couldn't have been more bored if I watched water dissipate. Unfortunately, it affected my enjoyment of Halloween III, which at the time I thought was equally boring, but now realize I was primed to be unimpressed because of this shit film.

I love and loved Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows. It was the first thing I had seen Jeffrey Donovan act in, and I have been quite happy to see his career grow since then. Also, I had a crush on a goth girl at school, and Kim Director looked similar. She was hot then, but even hotter now. Vavavoom!


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## wankerness (Jul 15, 2021)

Carrion Rocket said:


> High Tension (2002). The twist ending completely goes against all logic considering how certain events of the film unfold.
> 
> I remember hating the ending of Hellboy 2 mostly because I called it within seconds of the elf twins being introduced.



Yeah, High Tension is a good one. That's up there with The Mist. It seems like they started filming the movie without deciding on the twist and thus some parts of it don't support it.



possumkiller said:


> This. Why are people obsessed with happy endings? Fuck happy endings. Happy endings are unrealistic af and completely break the immersion. Just because the ending is sad or depressing doesn't mean it's bad.



No one's complaining the end is sad, they're complaining that it's terrible. It's a deus ex machina of the worst variety. I'm saying it's exactly tantamount to a terrible happy ending where the military randomly shows up and kills all the monsters and saves everyone. The military is still randomly showing up and killing all the monsters, the only difference is they DON'T save everyone, adding an extra layer of stupid coincidence. It's even more ridiculous than the widely-lambasted ending to War of the Worlds, where the aliens all just suddenly die from the common cold.

I did get a big kick out of the guy spelling it Myst repeatedly. They should make a movie of that game. It could be a series of images that display for a few seconds each.


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## Spaced Out Ace (Jul 15, 2021)

wankerness said:


> Yeah, High Tension is a good one. That's up there with The Mist. It seems like they started filming the movie without deciding on the twist and thus some parts of it don't support it.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I thought the ending to The Mist was great.


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## bostjan (Jul 15, 2021)

I thought the ending of the Mist was brilliant. I mean, Lovecraft-inspired movie is Lovecraftian after all...

Anyway, movie endings are my personal pet peeve. I generally either love them or hate them. I hate stupid _deus ex machina_ type endings and love bleaker endings. But my taste is certainly not worth anything more than anyone else's and the vast majority of people tend to prefer the protagonist to march away victorious with the girl and the treasure and his best friend and dog by his side at the end of the story. That's fine.

Endings I particularly disliked from movies that were otherwise pretty good.... basically anything M Night Shyamalan touched. I thought _The Sixth Sense _was kind of boring and contrived, but, other than that, most of his films were pretty good up until the damned twist, and I think all of the twists were either dumb as hell or you could see them coming from ten minutes into the movie. Everybody craps all over _The Happening_, and I'm not going to defend it as a great film, but I think it was one of his better attempts, since he didn't try so hard to force a nonsensical twist.

There was a movie I saw a couple (or a few) years ago called _Safety Not Guaranteed_, and the ending was just so unexpected- not sure if it was great or awful, but the ending sort of made the movie for me. The movie sort of dragged here and there otherwise, though.

I hated the ending to Alfred Hitchcock's _The Birds_. Up until the ending, it was an okay movie.

There was a movie called _Remember Me_ that had a really awful ending. I suppose I understand the writer using that ending as some form of catharsis, but it just made my viewing of the movie an experience that I wished I had not had. Really, though, it wasn't a super memorable movie up to the ending.

Remember _Now You See Me_? The trailers looked like a lot of fun. The movie was actually a lot of fun, until the stupid ending. The ending just made no sense and was so forced and dumb. Oh well.

Basically any horror flick where the ending is "it was all just a dream. ...or was it?!" or any slasher film where the 6' 4" killer who chokes victims in mid air and rips people limb from limb with their bare hands ends up being the little 5' 3" early 20's small framed chick - just no. I'm fine with the twists and unexpected character being the killer, but I should be able to rewatch the movie after that revelation without wondering how the heck Mary Kate Olsen lifted Channing Tatum off the floor by his neck and ripped out his spine with her bare hands.


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## wankerness (Jul 15, 2021)

I've never read lovecraft. Was he big on big stupid twists in the last two minutes? I thought he was all about ACTUAL apocalyptic events and the ending would have been "everyone died." Not "the military showed up and killed all the monsters, hooray for humanity!"

If the end of The Mist was "they all kill themselves, the end" I would be fine with it. Or if the end was like in the story, where it basically just ends with them having driven around for months never seeing anyone else and their future looking super bleak, great! If the end was "hey, the military suddenly showed up, the fog and monsters are all suddenly completely gone," it would be very stupid and a candidate for this thread. But "they drive around for a while, give up, kill themselves, then HERE IS THE MILITARY TO SAVE THE DAY! THE HUGE APOCALYPSE THAT COVERED MILE AFTER MILE OF THE US IS SUDDENLY OVER AND PEOPLE ARE BACK IN CHARGE! TOO BAD YOU KILLED YOURSELVES, LOL!" is just some bizarre combination of all the possible endings that becomes dumber than any of them.


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## Spaced Out Ace (Jul 15, 2021)

bostjan said:


> Basically any horror flick where the ending is "it was all just a dream. ...or was it?!" or any slasher film where the 6' 4" killer who chokes victims in mid air and rips people limb from limb with their bare hands ends up being the little 5' 3" early 20's small framed chick - just no. I'm fine with the twists and unexpected character being the killer, but I should be able to rewatch the movie after that revelation without wondering how the heck Mary Kate Olsen lifted Channing Tatum off the floor by his neck and ripped out his spine with her bare hands.


Boy, were you peeved when you finished Rob Zombie's Halloween II. Then again, most people didn't seem to get Halloween 2, so whatever.


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## StevenC (Jul 15, 2021)

The point of the ending of The Mist is that they run out of fuel and have to make a choice. Quick certain death, or gamble that they get rescued before the monster comes. Based on everything they know, they make the right choice.

The guy is left alone at the end and because he's not got any bullets left he has to time think about what has happened while option two plays out for him.

Now the director needs to make a choice. Their choice is based on the question "can I trust the audience to understand the chance of survival was above 0?", so can end the movie with the guy in the car, the guy getting out of the car to see what may come for him, or highlight that the chance of survival was not 0. They choose the third option, but because this is a movie they need to get to the end and for good pacing reasons, can't spend a lot of time having the guy silently mulling over what has happened. 

The ending also changes the audience perception of what just happened. It goes from a very obvious and understandable mercy killing in the apocalypse to does this guy go to jail for murdering his son and 3 others.

If your reading of the ending of The Mist was "that was coincidental" then you are the reason they had to make it so apparently coincidental.


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## bostjan (Jul 15, 2021)

wankerness said:


> I've never read lovecraft. Was he big on big stupid twists in the last two minutes? I thought he was all about ACTUAL apocalyptic events and the ending would have been "everyone died." Not "the military showed up and killed all the monsters, hooray for humanity!"
> 
> If the end of The Mist was "they all kill themselves, the end" I would be fine with it. Or if the end was like in the story, where it basically just ends with them having driven around for months never seeing anyone else and their future looking super bleak, great! If the end was "hey, the military suddenly showed up, the fog and monsters are all suddenly completely gone," it would be very stupid and a candidate for this thread. But "they drive around for a while, give up, kill themselves, then HERE IS THE MILITARY TO SAVE THE DAY! THE HUGE APOCALYPSE THAT COVERED MILE AFTER MILE OF THE US IS SUDDENLY OVER AND PEOPLE ARE BACK IN CHARGE! TOO BAD YOU KILLED YOURSELVES, LOL!" is just some bizarre combination of all the possible endings that becomes dumber than any of them.



Not really any twists at all in Lovecraft's universe. Everyone pretty much makes decisions that seem logically to be the right choice and then everyone ends up dying anyway, because it was all futile anyway.

I don't know if that's at all a fair summary of the ending of the film, but if that's what you got out of it, then I can see why you'd hate the ending.


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## FILTHnFEAR (Jul 15, 2021)

People actually thought The Blair Witch Project was real? Wow.

LOTR ROTK. They went to the effort of creating that awesomely epic battle scene, put the good guys in a desperate position and then have the ghost army just basically come in and flow over the orc army like it was nothing. Battle over. Ridiculous. 

Agreed on GOT. As a fanboy of that series, the ending was just an utter "wtf were they thinking" moment. With how well they did almost everything else, to end it that way was a kick in the face to everyone that couldn't wait for the next episode every week.

The Mist was a pretty cool show, the ending didn't bother me. Same with Signs.

Don't get me started on the cluster fucked, dumpster fire, cringefest that the Star Wars sequel trilogy is. At least the prequel trilogy had some decent parts to it, even if it was an overall shit show as well.


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## Spaced Out Ace (Jul 15, 2021)

FILTHnFEAR said:


> People actually thought The Blair Witch Project was real? Wow.


Yes, quite a few people I knew were over the age of 18, and thought it was real, because the "online website and stuff was really convincing." Some still refuse to admit it was a total work, and think, "Yeah, the _movie _wasn't real, but that still happened. The film was a reenactment."


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## Demiurge (Jul 16, 2021)

When I saw Blair Witch at time of release, I thought that the framing of the story was clear. What's funny is that while the found-footage conceit has become so commonplace in the decades that follow, every creepy old student film that gets uploaded to Youtube gets the ZOMG THERES A CEREAL KILLER ON THE INTERNET reception. Then you realize why movies still have a "This is a work of fiction..." disclaimer at the end because some dipshit will believe that Toy Story is real unless you tell them otherwise.


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## Spaced Out Ace (Jul 16, 2021)

Demiurge said:


> When I saw Blair Witch at time of release, I thought that the framing of the story was clear. What's funny is that while the found-footage conceit has become so commonplace in the decades that follow, every creepy old student film that gets uploaded to Youtube gets the ZOMG THERES A CEREAL KILLER ON THE INTERNET reception. Then you realize why movies still have a "This is a work of fiction..." disclaimer at the end because some dipshit will believe that Toy Story is real unless you tell them otherwise.


After at least a decade of taglines like, "America's most bizarre and brutal crimes!... what happened is true. Now the motion picture that is just as real." You'd think audiences would think everything was a work, even if it wasn't. Then again, some people still believe faces of death was 100% real, when you can look on the internet to find it is not.


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## wankerness (Jul 16, 2021)

StevenC said:


> The point of the ending of The Mist is that they run out of fuel and have to make a choice. Quick certain death, or gamble that they get rescued before the monster comes. Based on everything they know, they make the right choice.
> 
> The guy is left alone at the end and because he's not got any bullets left he has to time think about what has happened while option two plays out for him.
> 
> ...



I really can't follow some of this post. "If your reading of the ending of The Mist was "that was coincidental" then you are the reason they had to make it so apparently coincidental." What?? I think the military showing up 1 second after he kills his kid/friends is too much of a stupid coincidence within the world of the film and the apocalyptic scenario as presented, so it's my fault it was written that way?

Earlier points - you're saying that the point of the ending is that killing yourself is NEVER a good option because there's always hope, I take it? I agree that's what they were trying to convey (which I think is kind of a finger-wagging Christian moral, but that's besides the point). But, you think the director's only options for doing so were the two you listed, or "the military shows up and has completely cleared out the invasion, right after he killed everyone?" There's SO much distance between something like, I dunno, seeing headlights in the distance right after doing so, making him realize there was still hope, and the apocalypse being over *immediately* after he shot his kid with absolutely no warning or hint that it was coming.

I can deal with the moral, I just think it was done in the stupidest manner possible and that if the military had shown up 5 seconds earlier in the exact same way, everyone currently praising the ending would be listing it as one of the worst endings, since it's such an outrageous deus ex machina. 

And I think changing the audience perception so their last thoughts are "does this guy go to jail for murdering his son and 3 others?!" is incredibly stupid and has nothing to do with the other 99% of the movie. It's like if at the end of, I dunno, Halloween, it cut to a courtroom and someone that isn't Michael Myers gets convicted of all the murders, and the audience is left thinking "oh no, is that innocent guy going to get convicted of all those crimes?!" It would be an entirely new question that had little or nothing to do with what came before and made the whole movie thematically weaker.

If the intent was to make them think "oh, is it ever right to do mercy killings," that at least would hold some water thematically with the rest of the movie, but giving a definitive answer that NO, IF YOU DO THAT, EVERYTHING WILL MAGICALLY BE SAVED IMMEDIATELY AFTER[, AND YOU'LL GO TO HELL]!! seems like something out of a movie that would star Kevin Sorbo and Kirk Cameron.


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## StevenC (Jul 16, 2021)

wankerness said:


> I really can't follow some of this post. "If your reading of the ending of The Mist was "that was coincidental" then you are the reason they had to make it so apparently coincidental." What?? I think the military showing up 1 second after he kills his kid/friends is too much of a stupid coincidence within the world of the film and the apocalyptic scenario as presented, so it's my fault it was written that way?


If they had not shown the military rescue then lots of viewers wouldn't consider that there was an ethical dilemma to begin with.


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## wankerness (Jul 16, 2021)

StevenC said:


> If they had not shown the military rescue then lots of viewers wouldn't consider that there was an ethical dilemma to begin with.



I agree with this post, but I don't see that as related to the quoted part of your first post, really. I think there were probably other ways to do it that weren't so silly. And if there wasn't a good way to make that ethical dilemma visible to audiences, then maybe it wasn't a statement worth making, since it's not really integral to the rest of the plot, or anything that the rest of the movie is building towards. I still think the first 98% of that movie is quite good, but that the ending to the short story is vastly superior. They even nailed some of the stuff I thought would be hardest to visualize, like the mysterious super-giant monster that you see towards the end. Ah well. 

I haven't seen the series, but I have not heard good things.


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## mastapimp (Jul 16, 2021)

jaxadam said:


> I went to see it in the theater when it came out, and the most amazing thing happened. Someone’s cell phone rang right as the girl pops her head out of a tent or some shit and says “hello?” and the whole audience erupted. It changed the whole tone for the rest of the movie and it wasn’t very scary or interesting.


 I saw this opening night when I was in high school and the audience was also very loud at the end with a lot of "that's bullshit" or "what the fuck did I just watch?" I think they got a bigger kick out of my friend standing silently with his face in the corner of the theater exit, mimicking the final scene. 

On a similar audience eruption event, we snuck about 30 beer bottles into the opening night of Van Helsing and carefully stood them up under the seats to keep them hidden as we drank them. During one of the more serious parts of the movie, my friend thought it was a good time to take a piss and drunkenly tripped over several seats, sending almost all of the beer bottles slowly and LOUDLY rolling down the floor. 



Spaced Out Ace said:


> I thought the ending to The Mist was great.


I also loved the bleak ending. If I recall, Stephen King was totally on board with the way they changed the ending of his story for the movie. Kinda gave it a very dark twilight zone type of feel to it.


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## wankerness (Jul 16, 2021)

Stephen King said the ending to the movie of The Mist was better than his ending, yes.

Stephen King also says the TV movie of The Shining is better than Kubrick's!


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## Spaced Out Ace (Jul 16, 2021)

wankerness said:


> Stephen King also says the TV movie of The Shining is better than Kubrick's!


Yeah, in the sense that it is more faithful to the book.


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## wankerness (Jul 16, 2021)

I just came up with another candidate, though it's not as egregious:

Rat Race. It's actually a fairly funny movie, with some good long-form gags, but then at the end the whole cast crashes into a frickin Smash Mouth concert and they all sing/dance to All Star! Depending on your sense of humor and mood, this is one of the funniest endings ever just cause that song is such a terrible relic of the era and the ending is comically bad, or it's one of the worst endings ever cause it's completely cringeworthy and followed up a movie that's otherwise pretty good.


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## bostjan (Jul 16, 2021)

When I saw _The Matrix Revolution_ (or however it was punctuated) at the theater, there was a collective groan from the audience when it ended. 

I guess that one didn't stand out to me when I posted before, because the whole movie was kind of just not really much of anything in particular, but I agree with the opinion that the ending was bad.

As much as I think the first Matrix movie was good, I had just seen _Dark City_ not long before I first saw _The Matrix_, so it seemed like such a similar style and general story, so I never really got too invested in the trilogy. But the third movie seemed almost like the screenwriter had gotten to the point where they were like "well, whatever, here's a stupid movie, now are we done with this crap?" Maybe I'm wrong and whoever it was put just as much passion into it as the first movie, but I'd be surprised.

Speaking of third movies that were a mediocre attempt, has _The Godfather III_ come up in this thread? I actually didn't think it was as bad as the loudest reviewers all thought, but the ending (of the theatrical release- I have not seen the new cut) just felt tacked on to make the long movie even longer. In some ways, it was almost comical. Like, there is this new Elvis biopic coming out sometime in the next year or so, and imagine if the story follows Elvis and then the story reaches a climax and wraps up with Priscilla leaving him in 1872, then, suddenly we fast-forward 5 years and Elvis is sitting on the toilet and slumps over and then the movie ends. That'd be kind of oddly and disturbingly funny, no?



wankerness said:


> I just came up with another candidate, though it's not as egregious:
> 
> Rat Race. It's actually a fairly funny movie, with some good long-form gags, but then at the end the whole cast crashes into a frickin Smash Mouth concert and they all sing/dance to All Star! Depending on your sense of humor and mood, this is one of the funniest endings ever just cause that song is such a terrible relic of the era and the ending is comically bad, or it's one of the worst endings ever cause it's completely cringeworthy and followed up a movie that's otherwise pretty good.



I actually forgot about the ending of that movie. The Jon Lotitz storyline is by far the most funny.


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## wankerness (Jul 16, 2021)

Yeah, the Jon Lovitz thing where he ends up at the convention with the "moustache" is a good example of a careful, deliberate set-up paying off spectacularly. Kind of like the ending to the Curb episode "The Doll." Some of the other gags are similarly escalated over a long time with things like Mr Bean and Newman eventually chasing a heart around a field, or Seth Green and his buddy and a cow attached to a hot-air balloon. It's not a masterpiece, but it's definitely got some good laughs.


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## mastapimp (Jul 19, 2021)

Has anyone mentioned the Scarlet Johansson movie, Lucy? She essentially evolves past her human form into an omnipresence, capped off by sending a cell phone text from nowhere.

Although it wasn't a popular movie, the Matthew McConaughey film "Serenity" is up there with an all-time nonsensical ending. The whole movie is unintentionally hilarious and has all the McConaughey tropes you'd expect...if you haven't seen the movie, this review does a great job explaining how crazy the film ends up being: https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a26091448/matthew-mcconaughey-serenity-movie-review/


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