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  1. #1
    Spectacular Member harpier's Avatar
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    Default Movies that NAILED the ending!

    Inspired by the thread that bemoans pesky endings to otherwise excellent movies, I thought I'd start one to celebrate movies that really landed the ending with style, much better than anticipated, and sometimes against steep odds. Sure, there are some obvious ones—Citizen Kane, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Usual Suspects, or the first (and only clever one) Saw—but what are the more unexpected ones?

    Obviously, *SPOILERS* ensue.

    Recently, The Lego Movie is a perfect example. It was truly surprising to me how clever this movie was, given that I thought it was going to be little more than a product-placement-driven fiasco, but even as I was enjoying it all the way through, I never saw its sweet, poignant and oh so satisfying conclusion coming. When it topped that with yet another funny, adorable parting joke, it won me over as probably the best ending of any movie in 2014.

    But, I'd also add: Jean-Pierre Melville's endlessly cool, neo-noir classic Le Samouraï, which succeeded both in the leads' wordless final exchange and the opening of the revolver after the final shootout; Carol Reed's nearly perfect The Third Man, whose brilliant cold-shoulder ending is sometimes eclipsed by its legendary mid-movie entrance; whimsical, meta-gem Stranger Than Fiction, which allows its characters a sweetly happy ending even as it questions the storytelling integrity of doing so, and it's all the better for both; the double, bittersweet gut-punch of "I"'s leaving his best friend to grow up and get on with his adult life and Richard E. Grant's exceptional Hamlet soliloquy in Bruce Robinson's hilarious cult classic Withnail & I; and the nightmarish ending to George Sluizer's 1988 horror-thriller The Vanishing (not the spineless English-language 1993 remake from the same director).

    However, top of the pile, with an ending that turned a still-stellar B-movie classic into a bona fide juggernaut of horrors and biting social critique, and made all the more excellent by one massively fortuitous accident of casting, George Romero's inceptional zombie flick Night of the Living Dead.
    Last edited by harpier; 01-12-2015 at 11:04 AM.

  2. #2
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    "Seven." How often do you see the bad guy both die and win at the same time? And to have someone who wasn't even involved in the action and should have been sheltered from it end up dead in the end, and in as shocking a way as it was done- I heard there were people who fled the theater because they couldn't handle it. And those things were on top of the surprise in the middle as to what actor was playing the bad guy, actually kept secret from everyone until the moment of the reveal.

  3. #3
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    The Usual Suspects. The first time you see it, it's jaw dropping. The best part is, after you get over the shock, you're still left wondering if we've seen Keyser Söze, or if Söze's exactly what Keaton so doggedly maintained all the way through the film, or whether anything in the story we've just heard has even a grain of truth in it.

    Inception. You have to decide what happened for yourself.

  4. #4
    I'm great at boats! Alastor's Avatar
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    Toy Story 3. I grew up with those movies and I was about a year away from high school graduation when I went to see the third movie, so I saw a lot of myself in Andy.
    "Tell me there's something better. Go ahead, try."

  5. #5
    Fantastic Member Amibo_Amore's Avatar
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    I'm not the biggest fan of the first Hunger Games movie, but that final shot of President Snow walking away was great. From that point on, the stage is set for his vendetta against Katniss, who outwitted him during the Games.
    Last edited by Amibo_Amore; 01-12-2015 at 03:07 PM.

  6. #6
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    Original "Halloween." Michael Meyers really is a supernatural boogey man and vanishes into thin air upon death, end of story. Personally I would have been happy if there'd never been another one.

  7. #7
    Invincible Member Kirby101's Avatar
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    Some that come to mind, Inception, Blow-Up, 2001, The Maltese Falcon, Planet of the Apes, Fight Club, A Beautiful Mind, Brazil.

    One more that works only in the extended Directors cut, The Abyss.

  8. #8
    Ultimate Member Mister Mets's Avatar
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    The acknowledged classics of American Cinema (Casablanca, Citizen Kane, The Godfather, Gone With the Wind, It's a Wonderful Life) tend to have fantastic movies, though Casablanca's ended with several of the all-time best movie lines, and a terrific reversal.

    The last half-minute of The Departed probably got Marky Mark his Oscar nomination. That was an excellent departure from the original Infernal Affairs.

    I really liked the end of Spider-Man 2 (Peter & MJ are together, Harry Osborn has his father's weapons) although it didn't lead to a good finale to the trilogy.
    Sincerely,
    Thomas Mets

  9. #9
    Spectacular Member harpier's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by edhopper View Post
    Some that come to mind, Inception, Blow-Up, 2001, The Maltese Falcon, Planet of the Apes, Fight Club, A Beautiful Mind, Brazil.

    One more that works only in the extended Directors cut, The Abyss.
    Blow-Up is so good! It's a strange, hypnotic ending to a surreal story that (for a while, at least) tricks you into thinking the murder in the park might be what the movie is about.

  10. #10
    Spectacular Member harpier's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mister Mets View Post
    The last half-minute of The Departed probably got Marky Mark his Oscar nomination. That was an excellent departure from the original Infernal Affairs.
    In a career of masterpieces and many films that fall just short, The Departed might very well be my favorite Scorsese movie. Acknowledging that it was already based on a very strong movie, it was just so perfect from beginning to end. But you're right about Wahlberg's last scene. It gave a layer of nuance to everything he'd done with the character before that, which had for much of the movie seemed like little more than a one-note, short-fuse company man, even if he was one that played so well off of Alec Baldwin's Ellerby.

  11. #11
    Astonishing Member dzub's Avatar
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    Pulp Fiction
    What we used to call life has very little worth these days. Welcome to the very edge.
    --Prince Namor (Earth-616)

  12. #12
    Astonishing Member Lady Warp Spasm's Avatar
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    Seven, Blow Up, Night of the Living Dead, Escape from New York, the original Planet of the Apes...and almost every single Italian genre film I've watched (but darn it if Tenebrae and the Big Racket do not run away with my current favorite endings in Italian films.)
    archer * magician *soldier * spy

  13. #13
    Taker of notes. SuperCooper's Avatar
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    Always been a fan of the ending to Rocky. When they're announcing the scores and all Rocky wants to do is be with Adrian, gives me goosebumps.

  14. #14
    Extraordinary Member Zero Hunter's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DrNewGod View Post
    The Usual Suspects. The first time you see it, it's jaw dropping. The best part is, after you get over the shock, you're still left wondering if we've seen Keyser Söze, or if Söze's exactly what Keaton so doggedly maintained all the way through the film, or whether anything in the story we've just heard has even a grain of truth in it.

    Inception. You have to decide what happened for yourself.
    That shot of Spacey walking down the street in the end is a classic.

  15. #15
    Astonishing Member Arfguy's Avatar
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    I love the ending of:

    Casino Royale
    SE7EN
    Terminator 2: Judgement Day
    The Shawshank Redemption
    Collateral
    Spider-Man 2
    Iron Man

    and so many more
    Find me on Instagram and Twitter - @arfguy
    https://whoaskd.com/

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