# Memorable ending scenes in movies (Warning: Spoilers Galore!) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 6, 2002, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-ending-scenes-in-movies-warning-spoilers-galore/107514 "2002-05-06T09:49:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2002, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-ending-scenes-in-movies-warning-spoilers-galore/107514/1 "2002-05-06T09:49:15Z")
Yesterday, as Edlyn and I watched _Officer and a Gentleman_, it occured to us that that might be one of the most memorable endings in the history of cinema. The music builds as the modern knight in shining armor, bedecked in his brand new officer’s uniform, walks briskly into the hell hole where his lady is trapped, and rescues her by carrying her away in his arms to the enthusiastic applause and admiration of all present. Sometimes, an ending scene might be memorable for some personal reason. An example of this for me is the ending scene in _Rudy_, where he’s carried off the field by his jubilant teammates after the sack that he had waited a lifetime for. (I’m a sucker for the overcoming-all-odds plots.) What is your most memorable ending and why? ---
**Author:** ![El\_Elvis\_Rojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@El\_Elvis\_Rojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Elvis_Rojo)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2002, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-ending-scenes-in-movies-warning-spoilers-galore/107514/2 "2002-05-06T09:56:06Z")
Personally, my favorite movie ending is **Dirty Work**. It’s so anti-climactic, it’s fucking hilarious. And the end to **They Live** , where you see the neked woman climb off the newly exposed blue skeletal alien guy who looks at her and says in that jive speaking voice “What’s the matter, baby?” I found the end to **Disturbing Behaviour** interesting as well. Not the end end, but the scene where the car covered in high school students drives off the edge of a cliff. The end to **Psycho** was creepy. The end to the original **Children of the Damned**. The end of John Carpenter’s **The Thing**. Can’t recall the last time I saw a movie with such a dismal ending. Stranded in Antarctica, no food, no shelter, and who knows if either of them is an alien. Nice. I’ll think of more later. ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2002, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-ending-scenes-in-movies-warning-spoilers-galore/107514/3 "2002-05-06T11:15:58Z")
**Thelma & Louise** sticks in my mind. Zooooommmm. My reaction? Well … they’re dead. **2001: A Space Odyssey** Really something to think about. My thoughts? “Maybe I should read the book.” P.S. You can’t go wrong with endings parodied on The Simpsons. ---
**Author:** ![Phlip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Phlip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlip)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2002, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-ending-scenes-in-movies-warning-spoilers-galore/107514/4 "2002-05-06T13:33:05Z")
The end of Jason Goes to Hell when Freddies claw comes out of the ground and pulls his mask into the dirt while you hear freddy laughing ion the background. And dont tell me that any of you expected that to happen either. Unless someone told you about it before you saw that POS movie. ---
**Author:** ![Why\_A\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@Why\_A\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Why_A_Duck)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2002, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-ending-scenes-in-movies-warning-spoilers-galore/107514/5 "2002-05-06T13:39:36Z")
People, we have a spoiler tag, let’s use it! I’ve always like the ending to _No Way Out_: Where we discover that Costner was in fact a Russian spy. ---
**Author:** ![hawthorne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2002, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-ending-scenes-in-movies-warning-spoilers-galore/107514/6 "2002-05-06T14:24:13Z")
The Third Man:Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) has been to Lime’s funeral for the second time. For the second time he sees Anna (Alida Valli) and gets out of the car to wait for her on the tree-lined road. To the strains of the zither, she walks past him without a word or a glance. Brazil:Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) is being tortured to death by Jack (Michael Palin). He escapes in his fantasy. Is this a triumph of the individual? ---
**Author:** ![Yondan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/278dde/32.png) [@Yondan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yondan)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2002, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-ending-scenes-in-movies-warning-spoilers-galore/107514/7 "2002-05-06T14:44:08Z")
So we are going to avoid easy answers, like the endings of **Casablanca** , **Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid** , and **The Great Escape**? How does one do this spoiler thing? ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2002, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-ending-scenes-in-movies-warning-spoilers-galore/107514/8 "2002-05-06T15:41:39Z")
Charlton Heston was always one for great cheesy endings: “Damn you all to _heeeellllllllllll_!” "People! Soylent Green is made of _people_! ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2002, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-ending-scenes-in-movies-warning-spoilers-galore/107514/9 "2002-05-06T15:55:13Z")
Let me try… The good guys win. Surprised? ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2002, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-ending-scenes-in-movies-warning-spoilers-galore/107514/10 "2002-05-06T16:03:11Z")
The spoiler tags are (remove the spaces): [spoiler] insert text here [/ spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2002, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-ending-scenes-in-movies-warning-spoilers-galore/107514/11 "2002-05-06T16:12:53Z")
The spoiler tags are (remove the spaces): [spoiler] insert text here [/ spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2002, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-ending-scenes-in-movies-warning-spoilers-galore/107514/12 "2002-05-06T16:59:27Z")
Lemme try this statement on for size: If Claude Rains is the film, chances are it has an interesting ending. Evidence: _Casablanca_ _Notorious_ _The Invisible Man_ _Lawrence of Arabia_ _Mr. Smith Goes to Washington_… well, maybe a little contrived, but still a classic Capra storybook ending. What do you think? ---
**Author:** ![Anamorphic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anamorphic/32/3057_2.png) [@Anamorphic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anamorphic)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2002, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-ending-scenes-in-movies-warning-spoilers-galore/107514/13 "2002-05-06T17:14:17Z")
I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite, but I just saw **Witness for the Prosecution** … one of those classics that I just never got around seeing until recently. The ending caught me totally by surprise. I love it when a film can do that to me. ---
**Author:** ![andygirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@andygirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andygirl)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2002, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-ending-scenes-in-movies-warning-spoilers-galore/107514/14 "2002-05-06T17:26:03Z")
I dearly love the ending to “Some Like it Hot.” Best curtain line ever. ---
**Author:** ![Honey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honey/32/5074_2.png) [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2002, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-ending-scenes-in-movies-warning-spoilers-galore/107514/15 "2002-05-06T17:27:47Z")
**Shawshank Redemption Homeward Bound I** ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2002, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-ending-scenes-in-movies-warning-spoilers-galore/107514/16 "2002-05-06T17:32:14Z")
**Shallow Grave** : As Ewan McGregor’s character bleeds to death in the flat, the camera pans down to reveal the money hidden beneath the floorboards where nobody will ever find it, while at the airport Kerry Fox breaks down as she realises that the suitcase contains only paper. **The Vanishing** (the original Dutch version): Eventually convinced by the kidnapper that he must allow himself to be drugged in order to learn what truly happened to his fiancee, the main character awakes – to find himself in a coffin buried several feet below the kidnapper’s picnic table. ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2002, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-ending-scenes-in-movies-warning-spoilers-galore/107514/17 "2002-05-06T18:35:08Z")
It’s a sled. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2002, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-ending-scenes-in-movies-warning-spoilers-galore/107514/18 "2002-05-06T19:40:35Z")
I really enjoyed the musical number at the end of **Toy Story 2** for some reason. Probably because I get tickled at the idea of a little squeaky penguin with Robert Goulet’s voice. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2002, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-ending-scenes-in-movies-warning-spoilers-galore/107514/19 "2002-05-06T19:49:50Z")
_Threads_, a movie about nuclear war. Before the war, we are acquainted with a pregnant woman. [spoiler]Fortunately, her daughter is born with no apparent problems. But we then follow, briefly, the daughter, as she grows to a teenager and becomes pregnant. At the very end, the teenager gives birth. We don’t see the baby, but the look of horror on her face as _she_ sees her own child is haunting.[/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Teerious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@Miss\_Teerious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Teerious)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2002, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-ending-scenes-in-movies-warning-spoilers-galore/107514/20 "2002-05-06T19:56:46Z")
I’ve always like the ending scene in _Harold and Maude_. It’s just so hopeful. If you’ve seen it, you know why. If not, go rent it. right now. _shakes fist_ _rent it._ [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-ending-scenes-in-movies-warning-spoilers-galore/107514.md?page=2)