# Biggest WTF-endings in movie history **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 30, 2007, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-wtf-endings-in-movie-history/413654 "2007-07-30T06:26:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2007, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-wtf-endings-in-movie-history/413654/81 "2007-09-01T13:54:43Z")
[QUOTE=MHaye] … And don’t get me started on the subject of proper footwear for Balrogs.) [/QUOTE] Heretic! Balrogs don’t HAVE feet! Er, wings. Oh, never mind. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2007, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-wtf-endings-in-movie-history/413654/82 "2007-09-01T18:20:33Z")
[QUOTE=essell] **The Ninth Gate**. Take an old idea with new twists and a great build up and then finish it with nothing. [/QUOTE] Yeah, that pissed me off too. Such an original film, great story, great acting, a protagonist who actually uses his brain, and… fizzle. ---
**Author:** ![MHaye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bbe5ce/32.png) [@MHaye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MHaye)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2007, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-wtf-endings-in-movie-history/413654/83 "2007-09-01T19:08:41Z")
[QUOTE=Laughing Lagomorph] Heretic! Balrogs don’t HAVE feet! [/QUOTE] Whether or not they have feet, there are many people convinced that that Balrog… wore bedroom slippers. ---
**Author:** ![Yesterdog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/d07c76/32.png) [@Yesterdog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yesterdog)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2007, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-wtf-endings-in-movie-history/413654/84 "2007-09-01T19:56:49Z")
**Hostel 2**. Don’t know why I watched it. The dang chick cuts off the dudes johnson at the end of it and they show the whole thing. (excuse the pun.) Then she feeds it to the dogs. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2007, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-wtf-endings-in-movie-history/413654/85 "2007-09-01T21:04:21Z")
The problem I have with the ending of \*\*The Ninth Gate \*\* isn’t the stylish understatement of the ending – which I think is sublime – but the way the plot cheats (in two ways!) to have Corso defeat Balkan, when both men were equally fooled by the forgery of the ninth engraving. Corso can’t figure out why the Devil failed to accept Balkan, and “Green Eyes” had to tell him the ninth engraving [gate] was a forgery, and point him in the direction of the Ceniza Bros. to collect the bona fide original. But she wouldn’t have done either, any more than saving and assisting Corso on previous occasions, if she hadn’t favored (in every meaning of the word) him from the start. Methinks that Corso’s youth and physical attractiveness had as much to do with his victory as his puzzle-solving skills. :rolleyes: BTW, you guys _did_ see the Devil briefly silhouetted in a second-story window in that castle, didn’t you? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2007, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-wtf-endings-in-movie-history/413654/86 "2007-09-01T23:45:22Z")
[QUOTE=The Scrivener] The problem I have with the ending of \*\*The Ninth Gate \*\* isn’t the stylish understatement of the ending – which I think is sublime – but the way the plot cheats (in two ways!) to have Corso defeat Balkan, when both men were equally fooled by the forgery of the ninth engraving. Corso can’t figure out why the Devil failed to accept Balkan, and “Green Eyes” had to tell him the ninth engraving [gate] was a forgery, and point him in the direction of the Ceniza Bros. to collect the bona fide original. But she wouldn’t have done either, any more than saving and assisting Corso on previous occasions, if she hadn’t favored (in every meaning of the word) him from the start. Methinks that Corso’s youth and physical attractiveness had as much to do with his victory as his puzzle-solving skills. :rolleyes: [/quote] I’ve heard more than one preacher say that God’s favor to Jacob/Israel over his twin brother Esau cannot be explained. It’s just a matter of “election,” for reasons mortals cannot understand. Perhaps Satan’s psychology is just as inscrutable. (Certainly, in this case, it can’t be explained in moral terms – Satan presumably would favor the evil, and Corso, while no better than he should be, is a saint compared to Balkan.) [QUOTE=The Scrivener] BTW, you guys _did_ see the Devil briefly silhouetted in a second-story window in that castle, didn’t you? [/QUOTE] Missed that. ---
**Author:** ![MyglassISfull](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bbce88/32.png) [@MyglassISfull](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MyglassISfull)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2007, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-wtf-endings-in-movie-history/413654/87 "2007-09-02T03:32:42Z")
[QUOTE=Robot Arm] **Magnolia** definitely belongs on this list, although I kinda liked it. [/QUOTE] When all the characters meet their ‘crisis point’ and then realise ‘It’s just got to stop/change or I’ll be in this spot forever’. The frogs are a way of signifying that life go’s on whether you like it or not. It’s my favourite film. ---
**Author:** ![Jolly\_Roger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/91b2a8/32.png) [@Jolly\_Roger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jolly_Roger)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2007, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-wtf-endings-in-movie-history/413654/88 "2007-09-20T14:11:41Z")
[QUOTE=Lightray] Apparently, the Evil Chimp Dude found Marky Mark’s spaceship-moped thing in the swamp, took a break from chasing Marky Mark and Monkey Bohnam Carter to fly back in time to Earth, conquer it in the name of the chimps, and then fly back to Ape Planet to continue chasing Marky Mark and Monkey Bonham Carter. But I think that was explained only in the DVD special features, and in no way mitigates its WTFness. [/QUOTE] That makes no sense whatsoever. especially since General Monkey guy had no idea how to fly a ship or use advanced technology in the first place. Stupid fucking movie. ---
**Author:** ![Oredigger77](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oredigger77/32/3181_2.png) [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2007, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-wtf-endings-in-movie-history/413654/89 "2007-09-20T14:55:09Z")
Well I’ll add my latest WTF ending to the list the new 3:10 to Yuma. The original was a classic and while none of the new movie added up to the old one the ending twisted so far away that it makes no sense. ---
**Author:** ![anamnesis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb8c5e/32.png) [@anamnesis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anamnesis)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2007, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-wtf-endings-in-movie-history/413654/90 "2007-09-20T15:53:22Z")
**The Departed.** I’m in a profound minority of people who are left wondering why the film is so universally lauded with praise. It started out well enough but seemed to me, at least, to get worse and worse on a logarithmic scale as it went along. The last ten minutes of the film essentially consist of every major character abruptly shooting another major character in the head. Was this done to be shocking? Gratuitous? Just plain stupid? I vote all of the above. It certainly wasn’t good storytelling. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2007, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-wtf-endings-in-movie-history/413654/91 "2007-09-20T16:05:48Z")
[QUOTE=PunditLisa] Ditto “ **Eyes Wide Slut**.” In fact, the whole movie was basically a WTF moment. [/QUOTE] I think you may have rented a different version. Perhaps the better one. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2007, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-wtf-endings-in-movie-history/413654/92 "2007-09-20T16:12:01Z")
[QUOTE=anamnesis] **The Departed.** I’m in a profound minority of people who are left wondering why the film is so universally lauded with praise. It started out well enough but seemed to me, at least, to get worse and worse on a logarithmic scale as it went along. The last ten minutes of the film essentially consist of every major character abruptly shooting another major character in the head. Was this done to be shocking? Gratuitous? Just plain stupid? I vote all of the above. It certainly wasn’t good storytelling. [/QUOTE] It was done to make a sophisticated point we would never understand without the sublime stylings of a true auteur: criminals are bad. You think I’m kidding, but I don’t think I am. A lot of these movies have all-but-glamorized criminals…in this one, he wants to get the audience (and the money) for glamorizing crime, but then “undo” it all at the end by showing how arbitrarily and casually these petty criminals take each other’s lives. “See, it’s real, it’s not Hollywood!” Sailboat ---
**Author:** ![kingpengvin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9dc877/32.png) [@kingpengvin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kingpengvin)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2007, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-wtf-endings-in-movie-history/413654/93 "2007-09-20T16:18:59Z")
[QUOTE=John DiFool] The night sky should have clued Heston in (criminy he’s an astronaut who typically would need the stars to navigate by). Yeah in 2,000 years some of them would have moved around a bit but most would still be in the same places and constellations pretty much recognizable. If Alpha Centauri and Sirius are more or less in the same location he would have to conclude that he is on Earth. [/QUOTE] Well they do deal with that discrepencey in the begining with two lines A) Taylor’s erronious assrtion that they are on a planet in the constellation of Orion. B) Dodge says that there is no Moon and no Stars visible due to the Luminus night sky (Radiation?) Add to this the bizarre electrical storms and no recognizable geological reference point (You know as they aren’t used to a giant desert in the middle of New York) They may just take everything else as coincidence. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2007, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-wtf-endings-in-movie-history/413654/94 "2007-09-20T16:20:19Z")
[QUOTE=Lust4Life] Cant say about the end cos I walked out but Highlander 2,in the original the immortals dont know why they dont age but in 2 it turns out that they came from another planet but forgot all about it ,all of them. [/QUOTE] It didn’t get any better. _Highlander 2_ was a horrific insult to primate intelligence throughout. From memory: The early scene involving the fight on the catwalk over a road is painfully over-telegraphed. See, they’re fighting on a catwalk…over a _road!_ In the distance we see a truck start up. Closeup of truck pulling out _into the road!_ One character looks meaningfully, almost _calculatingly,_ down at the road and approaching truck. The _other_ character looks meaningfully, almost _calculatingly,_ down at the road and approaching truck. The truck gets closer. The fight continues. Finally, after about 3 minutes of everyone in the theater knowing it’s coming, the two guys fighting _roll off the catwalk onto the truck!_ **HA!** Bet you didn’t see THAT coming! There’s more, but I have to step away. 😛 You’re saved! Sailboat ---
**Author:** ![Baffle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dec6dc/32.png) [@Baffle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baffle)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2007, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-wtf-endings-in-movie-history/413654/95 "2007-09-20T17:16:52Z")
[QUOTE=Sitnam] **Gummo** Actually the entire movie is WTF. [/QUOTE] Sad that I missed this before; this entire movie became an inside joke to my group of friends towards the end of high school. We even called a specific section of town ‘Gummo’. Hilarity. I was surprised anyone else had heard of it, but now I see that a couple of actors from the movie have gone on to slightly more success. I’m surprised about that, because the movie was crap. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-wtf-endings-in-movie-history/413654.md?page=4)