### Author:  [@ArrMatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArrMatey)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2020, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764/81 "2020-01-23T16:43:59Z")
Big Night. The two brothers, after having perhaps a family-destroying night, sit in the kitchen and eat breakfast together. They’re still family. Life still goes on.
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### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2020, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764/82 "2020-01-23T17:00:46Z")
The Blues Brothers
Everybody on the old cell block
Was dancing to the jailhouse rock.
Bet Closing Credits Ever
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### Author:  [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2020, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764/83 "2020-01-23T17:34:40Z")
Karen Black, crouching by the front door with a giant knife in her hand, waiting for her mother to arrive. Then she smiles, baring her sharp, animal fangs.
For anyone who isn’t familiar, the made for tv movie is _Trilogy of Terror_.
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2020, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764/84 "2020-01-23T17:42:34Z")
> [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](#):
>
> Not a shot, but the final intertitle card at the end of Peter Jackson’s _Heavenly Creatures_ was one of the biggest gut-punches I’ve ever had at the movies. The entire theatre exited in complete silence after that one.
What was it? It’s been a long time since I’ve seen that movie, which I really liked.
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### Author:  [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2020, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764/85 "2020-01-23T18:12:41Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#):
>
> I remember that!:eek: Not sure if I covered my own eyes at the end or have chosen to forget it. I remember the self eye gouging but not that they showed it.
> \ Annnnnnnd now I do :eek: 40+ years of successfully blocking out that vision and now I can relive it.
And the eyes have it!!! The most horrifying movie ending ever. :eek::eek:
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2020, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764/86 "2020-01-23T18:22:15Z")
> [@ArrMatey](#):
>
> Big Night. The two brothers, after having perhaps a family-destroying night, sit in the kitchen and eat breakfast together. They’re still family. Life still goes on.
Ooo, good one.
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### Author:  [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2020, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764/87 "2020-01-23T18:25:52Z")
I appreciated the (original) ending of _The Descent_: pull out, the last light is extinguished, into darkness.
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### Author:  [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2020, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764/88 "2020-01-23T21:19:22Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#):
>
> What was it? It’s been a long time since I’ve seen that movie, which I really liked.
“In the hours following Honora’s murder, a police search of the Rieper house unearthed Pauline’s diaries. This resulted in her immediate arrest for the murder of her mother. Juliet was arrested and charged with murder the following day. After Pauline’s arrest it was discovered that Honora and Herbert Rieper had never married. Pauline was therefore charged under her mother’s maiden name of Parker. In August 1954, a plea of insanity was rejected by the jury in the Christchurch Supreme Court trial, and Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme were found guilty of murder. Too young for the death penalty, they were sent to separate prisons to be ‘Detained at Her Majesty’s Pleasure.’ Juliet was released in November, 1959 and immediately left New Zealand to join her mother overseas. Pauline was released two weeks later but remained in New Zealand on parole until 1965. It was a condition of their release that they never meet again.”
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### Author:  [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2020, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764/89 "2020-01-23T21:37:28Z")
> [@MovieMogul](#):
>
> “In the hours following Honora’s murder, a police search of the Rieper house unearthed Pauline’s diaries. This resulted in her immediate arrest for the murder of her mother. Juliet was arrested and charged with murder the following day. After Pauline’s arrest it was discovered that Honora and Herbert Rieper had never married. Pauline was therefore charged under her mother’s maiden name of Parker. In August 1954, a plea of insanity was rejected by the jury in the Christchurch Supreme Court trial, and Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme were found guilty of murder. Too young for the death penalty, they were sent to separate prisons to be ‘Detained at Her Majesty’s Pleasure.’ Juliet was released in November, 1959 and immediately left New Zealand to join her mother overseas. Pauline was released two weeks later but remained in New Zealand on parole until 1965. It was a condition of their release that they never meet again.”
My recollection, which could be wrong as it has been over 25 years since I saw the film, and I’m at work so I can’t look for the clip on-line, was that the last sentence was either on its own card, or appeared after a gap following the other text. Really emphasized the utter futility and stupidity of the girls’ tragic actions, which they undertook so as not to be separated by their parents.
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### Author:  [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2020, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764/90 "2020-01-23T21:37:48Z")
From _Sweet Smell of Success_, which I feel I must “spoil”:
Susie Hunsecker, walking forthrightly out into the morning sun of a new New York City day, a packed bag in hand, off to reunite with her boyfriend and in so doing escape the clutches of her clinging, and well-deservedly broken, brother.
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### Author:  [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2020, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764/91 "2020-01-23T21:46:34Z")
> [@Rough\_Draft](#):
>
> John Wayne left all alone on the porch at the end of _The Searchers_
As a bit of trivia, the [reason](http://screenprism.com/insights/article/what-does-the-final-shot-of-the-searchers-mean)Wayne cradles his arm like he does is as a tribute to his old friend Harry Carey, Sr., who often held a similar pose. 🆒
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### Author:  [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2020, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764/92 "2020-01-24T04:22:33Z")
_Walkabout_ - The Girl’s husband coming home and telling her the ‘exciting’ news about his job and her with a far off look imagining what could have been. Then the credits rolling over the shot of her and her brother’s school clothes on sticks. One of the most beautiful endings to a great film.
_Knife in the Water_ - The husband and wife in the car sitting at the crossroads literally and figuratively.
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### Author:  [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2020, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764/93 "2020-01-24T05:02:39Z")
At the end of _Drive_, he… drives off into the night.
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### Author:  [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2020, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764/94 "2020-01-24T05:41:22Z")
> [@lingyi](#):
>
> _Walkabout_ _Knife in the Water_ - The husband and wife in the car sitting at the crossroads literally and figuratively.
A simple yet oh-so-brilliant ending to one of my fave RP flicks. Neat jazz score in it too.
Ok not the final scene, but next-to-final one, so give me a mulligan on this because seriously - [this 7-minute tracking shot,](https://youtu.be/ke2CFuLQ6t8?t=61) from _The Passenger_, is ridiculous.
Quite fascinating lowdown on “the shot”, from [**wiki**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Passenger_(1975_film))
(I’d recommend checking out the first link before seeing how Antonioni pulled off the amazingly sneaky shot)
> [@](#):
>
> The location of the hotel is stated to be Osuna in the film. However, the bullring at the edge of the square is recognisably that of the one in the Spanish town of Vera, in the province of Almería.[3][4] In a DVD commentary, decades later, Nicholson said Antonioni built the entire hotel so as to get this shot.
>
> Since the shot was continuous, it was not possible to adjust the lens aperture as the camera left the room and went into the square. Hence the footage had to be taken in the very late afternoon near dusk, in order to minimise the lighting contrast between the brightness outside and that in the room.
>
> The square was windy and the crew needed stillness to ensure smooth camera movement. Antonioni tried putting the camera in a sphere so the wind might catch it less, but this would not fit through the window. In the scene, it appears that the bars may have been adjusted to be removed as the camera approached them.[citation needed]
>
> \*\*The camera ran on a ceiling track in the hotel room and when it came outside the window, was meant to be picked up by a hook suspended from a giant crane nearly 30 metres high. A system of gyroscopes was fitted on the camera to steady it during the switch from this smooth indoor track to the crane outside. Meanwhile, the bars on the window had been given hinges. When the camera reached the window and the bars were no longer in the field of view, they were swung away to either side. At this time the camera’s forward movement had to stop for a few seconds as the crane’s hook grabbed it and took over from the track. To hide this, the lens was slowly and smoothly zoomed until the crane could pull the camera forward.[Note 1] Then the cameraman walked the camera in a circle around the square, giving the crew time to shut the window bars before the camera returned to look through the window from the outside this time. Antonioni directed the scene from a van by means of monitors and microphones, talking to assistants who communicated his instructions to the actors and operators.
\*\*
screw it - that whole last paragraph needed to be bolded
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### Author:  [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2020, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764/95 "2020-01-24T05:47:37Z")
Great thread.
> [@madsircool](#):
>
> 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.
QUOTE=snfaulkner;22093583]The final scene of The Thing. MacReady and Childs staring each other down and sharing the scotch.
[/QUOTE]
I was going to post both of these.
> [@SykoSkotty](#):
>
> The end of “Silence of the Lambs,” with Hannibal slowly walking behind his “old friend for dinner…”
>
> “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” - Donald Sutherland’s scream.
Two more good picks.
> [@Labdad](#):
>
> The original “The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3”: Walter Matthau saying “gesundheit!”
I see this one differently. To me the original TTOP123 was a terrific and somewhat disturbing thriller that was undermined by far too many humorous one-liners. All the “light moments” kept yanking me out of the picture, and Matthau’s face in the doorway immediately after “gesundheit” struck me as the wrongest note possible for the fadeout.
Of course this hasn’t kept me from watching the film repeatedly since I saw it first-run in the theater - it’s been in my VHS \> DVD library forever.
> [@divemaster](#):
>
> Stephen King opined that (“…The man with X ray eyes”)
> …was “almost” perfect. All it needed was Milland screaming in horror: _I can still see!_
I _think_ I remember reading, back in the 60’s, that those last four words were in the original film but were cut at the last minute.
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### Author:  [@Guy\_Incognito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guy_Incognito)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2020, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764/96 "2020-01-24T15:23:08Z")
Just another final shot to offer:
Taxi Driver - Travis Bickle finishes dropping off Betsy at her building and drives off in his cab. He looks in the rear view mirror a time or two as she walks into the building and continues driving. Then a few moments later, the saxophone playing in the soundtrack is interrupted for a brief moment as Travis’s eyes dart back to the rear view mirror almost in a panic. Then, he continues driving on.
Maybe it’s just a final hallucination as he’s bleeding out in the fleabag hotel after the big shootout?
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2020, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764/97 "2020-01-24T18:02:41Z")
Thank you **Moviemogu** l and\*\* Chockfull\*\*
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### Author:  [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2020, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764/98 "2020-01-24T19:05:03Z")
[The Mission](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mission_(1986_film)), both the pre-credits shot, and the post-credits shot. (This was long before post-credit stingers became common.)
The Portuguese and Spanish teamed up to destroy the mission. Both the pacifist priest (Jeremy Irons) and the warlike priest (Robert De Niro) are dead meat. The Native Americans dig through the rubble to get a few belongings, before heading off to the jungle. One of them salvages one item from western civilization that he thought was worth keeping: a musical instrument.
[Young Sherlock Holmes.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Sherlock_Holmes) Throughout the film, we are introduced to Holmes, Watson, and Lestrade. Throughout the closing credits, one side of the screen shows a horse-drawn sleigh travelling along a snowy road. After the credits, it pulls up to a hotel. The movie’s villain, who apparently did not die in the film’s climax, checks in and signs the register, using his new alias: Moriarty.
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### Author:  [@Capn\_Carl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capn_Carl)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2020, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764/99 "2020-01-24T22:29:18Z")
_Shane_ riding into the Tetons, while Joey tries to call him back.
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### Author:  [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2020, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764/100 "2020-01-25T05:16:01Z")
Two more.
_Seven Samurai_ - The mounds and swords of the four fallen samurai, including Kikuchiyo.
_Oldboy_ - Dae Su’s smile turned grimace.
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/final-film-shot/846764.md?page=4)