Movies that NAILED the ending!

[Chris Lang]

Thread necromancy time! (But hey, there's still only a few pages, and there's still lots of movie endings we didn't get to before ...)

I'd like to add L.A. Confidential to my previous list of movies that nailed the ending. It's where Ed Exley manages to stop the real mastermind behind the series of murders, but agrees to go along with the phony story the LAPD came up with to avoid bad publicity. It fits right in with the whole theme of the movie, where in the opening moments we're told L.A. is all about selling an image of glamour, but behind that image there's corruption and cover-ups. And the use of Johnny Mercer's 'Accentuate the Positive' at both the beginning introduction and during the end credits is the perfect bookend.

[caj]

Forrest Gump
Yes, Jenny died but Forrest is left to raise his son and I thought that was perfect.

[Chris Lang]

Okay, and now for some movies that weren't released back when we first started, but which definitely nailed the ending:

Avengers: Infinity War: Perhaps the greatest cliffhanger ending EVER in cinema, and certainly the most audacious. The 'Snap' was certainly very unsettling to see, even if we knew it'd be undone in the next movie. Tom Holland's Spider-Man's line as he goes is especially emotional. All in all, it was a moment that left us gasping, teary, and wondering just what was going to happen in the next movie (and for those of us who saw it when it first appeared, we had the agony of having to wait a whole year to find out).

Avengers: Endgame: 2019 was full of finales. We had the final season of Game of Thrones, we had Rise of Skywalker, but as far as I'm concerned, only Avengers: Endgame nailed its finale of the long-running Infinity Gems saga. We had lots of emotion, a 'victory lap' revisiting of previous movies, and a truly epic finale featuring nearly the entire MCU united against Thanos' army. It was the sort of epic battle we'd only previously seen on the comic book page. And it culminated in the heroic sacrifice of Tony Stark, and a happy ending for Steve Rogers. All in all, an incredible payoff.

Okay, one last MCU example

Spider-Man: No Way Home: An emotional conclusion to the 'Home' trilogy of Spider-Man movies, as Tom Holland's Peter Parker (after teaming with two other versions of Spider-Man) has to make a difficult choice to prevent his reality from being overwhelmed by incursions from other realities. He also has to grow and mature, and move to a new phase in his life.

And now, a Dreamworks example:

Megamind: This is one of Dreamworks' better movies. The ending, where Megamind faces off against the hero turned villain he created, nails it. Megamind satisfactorily adapts to his new role in the changed status quo.

[Robotman]

Ghostbusters: Afterlife.

I can’t watch the ending without tearing up. It was done so damn well.

I cry when he appears and laugh at Peter’s perfect character response to the most emotional event of the franchise. “I thought you might show up.” Then cry again when he fades away for the final goodbye.

[chachi]

Titanic - boat nailed an iceberg.

[kcekada]

'Carrie' comes to mind. It added a good scare that readers of the Stephen King novel were not expecting. Readers were most likely getting all caught up in the sentimentality of the graveyard screen when ---- yikes! Of course, it was all a dream, but I had trouble getting to sleep that night.

[AnakinFlair]

TERMINATOR 2 is all the more impressive because Cameron had considered a longer, more talky conclusion. Happily, he realized that in this case, brevity was the soul of entertainment.

One of the very few times that you can say 'brevity' and 'James Cameron' in the same sentence.

Okay, and now for some movies that weren't released back when we first started, but which definitely nailed the ending:

Avengers: Infinity War: Perhaps the greatest cliffhanger ending EVER in cinema, and certainly the most audacious. The 'Snap' was certainly very unsettling to see, even if we knew it'd be undone in the next movie. Tom Holland's Spider-Man's line as he goes is especially emotional. All in all, it was a moment that left us gasping, teary, and wondering just what was going to happen in the next movie (and for those of us who saw it when it first appeared, we had the agony of having to wait a whole year to find out).

Okay, one last MCU example

Spider-Man: No Way Home: An emotional conclusion to the 'Home' trilogy of Spider-Man movies, as Tom Holland's Peter Parker (after teaming with two other versions of Spider-Man) has to make a difficult choice to prevent his reality from being overwhelmed by incursions from other realities. He also has to grow and mature, and move to a new phase in his life.

I have a hard time judging Infinity War's ending. As someone who reads the trades, and follows entertainment news sources online, it was hard for me to be shocked at the ending. Black Panther had just made a billion dollars in his own movie, and not only was there a new Spider-Man movie in production, the characters' rights were held by Sony, and I knew they wouldn't kill him off. So I knew everyone would be back in the end. That said, I remember being highly amused at the people around me all being absolutely FLOORED that all of these big characters had just been killed off. One of the few times I wish I was more ignorant of the business.

As for No Way Home- lord knows why it took me so long, but it just hit me that Marvel and Sony basically did One More Day, but they actually did it well. Peter didn't sacrifice his marriage to get his Aunt back; he sacrificed everyone he loved knowing who he was (and that he even existed) to close the breaches and prevents all of those enemies from pouring into his Earth and putting even more people at risk. And that last bit with MJ- then swinging over rooftops in his shiny new suit, that was a perfect ending.

[ChrisIII]

Evangelion 1.0 - up to the final battle the film had been a reasonably good but stiff condensing of the first 6 episodes of NGE with better animation, the final battle of 1.0 made what was the absolute most boring battle of the original series into one of the most epic I've ever seen in anime.

Evangelion 2.0 - from when Mari activates unit 2s special ability to the end of the end credits scene is absolute perfection, the best movie ending I have ever seen.
It's heartwarming and tragic all at once.

Jurassic park - the t Rex saving the main cast and that final roar is eternal

The dark knight

Originally the plan was that Grant was going to use a construction lift to kill at least one of the Raptors by manuevering it into the jaws of the Rex fossil exhibit, with Hammond shooting the other one when he comes with the Jeep.

However, when the production decided to use CG for several shots it was decided it would be better to end it with a more exciting CGI T-rex.

[Godzilla2099]

Planes, Trains, & Automobiles. Come on, if this doesn't make you cry, you have no soul.
Groundhog Day. Should this have won Best Picture over Schindler's List? Maybe! (No, it wasn't nominated.)

Excellent choices and perfect summary

My list:

Rocky III: Probably my favorite ending of all time. Former rivals now friends who keep pushing each other to get stronger and a passion for what they do.

Karate Kid: "We did it Mr. Miyagi!" Close up of sensei proud of his son. This one has my heart

Batman 89: For a dark and violent movie I loved how the ending shows hope, moving forward, and a hero rising.

Flight of the Navigator: I loved the ending of David's Journey. Not taking what he has for granted

[krazijoe]

I agree with a lot of these and want to add Primal Fear and The Sixth Sense

[Rev9]

The Watchmen movie tweak that differed from the comic, helped enhance the ending imo.

[Frobisher]

Robocop has a perfect ending. “Nice shooting, son. What’s your name?” “Murphy.” The man in the machine smiles, cut to iconic theme tune.

[Machine Man]

Has anyone mentioned "Brazil" yet?

The real ending that is, not the happy one.