# Final film shot
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [January 21, 2020, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764 "2020-01-21T19:38:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Personal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Personal)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2020, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764/21 "2020-01-21T23:53:16Z")
Midnight Cowboy where Voight is holding the lifeless Hoffman on the bus.
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### Author:  [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2020, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764/22 "2020-01-22T00:01:05Z")
Tom Reagan donning his hat and tilting his head toward the camera, at the end of _Miller’s Crossing_.
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### Author:  [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2020, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764/23 "2020-01-22T00:03:18Z")
[School of Rock](https://youtu.be/6r--cnkpcaQ?t=49)
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### Author:  [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2020, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764/24 "2020-01-22T00:05:37Z")
The last 5 minutes of _[Harold and Maude](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPqxNzhyp7w)_ are a master class in film making, with the cuts between Harold pacing the hospital waiting room and speeding along the highway…
culminating in his car plunging off the cliff to smash on the beach below while you think he finally went through with the suicide he was always faking. And then the camera pans up to the top of the cliff for the final shot, where Harold walks into the distance plucking the banjo and dancing.
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### Author:  [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2020, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764/25 "2020-01-22T00:37:27Z")
> [@TroutMan](#):
>
> The last 5 minutes of _[Harold and Maude](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPqxNzhyp7w)_ are a master class in film making, with the cuts between Harold pacing the hospital waiting room and speeding along the highway…
>
> culminating in his car plunging off the cliff to smash on the beach below while you think he finally went through with the suicide he was always faking. And then the camera pans up to the top of the cliff for the final shot, where Harold walks into the distance plucking the banjo and dancing.
Indeed, one of my favourite fillmakers - Hal Ashby - cut his his teeth as an editor.
At the end of _Being There_, HA takes on a more [introspective, absurdist approach,](https://youtu.be/Bow1ZJTV4L4?t=207) with Chauncey walking out on the lake. (Love the score.)
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### Author:  [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2020, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764/26 "2020-01-22T00:37:28Z")
The end of _[Ferris Bueller’s Day Off](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRJ38y4Jn6k)_ was pretty groundbreaking, back before end credit scenes were a thing.
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### Author:  [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2020, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764/27 "2020-01-22T00:47:22Z")
Bullitt
The last shot of Steve McQueen washing his face exhausted and sickened after having no choice but to kill the bad guy. The simple but beautifully poignant Lalo Schiffrin score putting the exclamation point on it all. Still moves me after many viewings.
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### Author:  [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2020, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764/28 "2020-01-22T01:19:26Z")
The final shot of _Psycho_ with Norman Bates sitting in the chair with a voiceover by “MOTHER” about how she wouldn’t hurt a fly signifying her personality as taking over Norman while it fades to Marion Crane’s car being pulled from the swamp.
Also the Giant Space Baby ending of\* 2001: A Space Odyssey\*.
And the twist ending of the original _Planet of the Apes_ in the final shot.
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### Author:  [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2020, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764/29 "2020-01-22T01:30:29Z")
Nice Mephistophelian sending off in [_Live and Let Die_](https://youtu.be/nvVgHQI9evk?t=257).
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### Author:  [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2020, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764/30 "2020-01-22T01:36:16Z")
The droid with a watering can at the end of _Silent Running_.
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### Author:  [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2020, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764/31 "2020-01-22T01:47:37Z")
As effective and poignant as most of these examples are, is there any ending to a movie that captures the feelings evoked by
> [@](#):
>
> Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
> Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
> The lone and level sands stretch far away.
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### Author:  [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2020, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764/32 "2020-01-22T01:52:49Z")
The end of Jaws, where Brody and Hooper paddle their improvised raft back to shore.
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### Author:  [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2020, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764/33 "2020-01-22T01:53:27Z")
The final scene of The Thing. MacReady and Childs staring each other down and sharing the scotch.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2020, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764/34 "2020-01-22T02:37:43Z")
“Louie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
The final shot of _Greed_, where McTeague has killed Marcus, and realizes he’s handcuffed to the dead man in the Death Valley heat with no water.
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### Author:  [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2020, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764/35 "2020-01-22T03:39:47Z")
The ending of _I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang_. Paul Muni’s character has a former love who calls out as he leaves her to go on the run, “But how will you live?” Everything goes dark and the answer comes back, “I steal!”
Accidental or planned, it’s chillingly perfect.
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2020, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764/36 "2020-01-22T04:07:34Z")
> [@TroutMan](#):
>
> The end of _[Ferris Bueller’s Day Off](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRJ38y4Jn6k)_ was pretty groundbreaking, back before end credit scenes were a thing.
But if those count: that final shot of The Avengers, after their big battle — you know, when they’re just sitting around in a busted-up shawarma restaurant.
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### Author:  [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2020, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764/37 "2020-01-22T04:32:28Z")
Maybe the most disturbing ending I think I’ve ever seen (so I won’t link it) - in _Looking For Mr. Goodbar_, Diane Keaton gets raped and repeatedly stabbed, and as she lays dieing, gasping for air, we see the final images of just her face, looking terrified up at the camera, in the intermittent light of a strobe light, until finally one, last, strobe, and then black.
Chilling.
as.
fuck.
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### Author:  [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2020, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764/38 "2020-01-22T05:28:59Z")
> [@Guest-starring\_Id](#):
>
> Speaking of trains, the one _penetrating_ the tunnel at the end of _North by Northwest_.
Not exactly Hitchcock at is most subtle 😉
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2020, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764/39 "2020-01-22T05:31:31Z")
> [@Rocketeer](#):
>
> Not exactly Hitchcock at is most subtle 😉
Speaking of, there’s the iconic spinning top at the end of _Inception_.
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### Author:  [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2020, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764/40 "2020-01-22T05:33:31Z")
As finales and final film shots go, it’s hard to top _Dead or Alive_ (1999). Here are the last 8 minutes. Needless to say, for full impact, the whole film should be viewed in its entirety (especially since the opening is pretty incredible as well):
[- YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZak64C_D) QE
NOTE: This clip is a bit gory, so I have separated the last few characters from the link in accordance with the site’s “2-click” rule.
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