# Movies that cop-out in the end **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [January 27, 2026, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-cop-out-in-the-end/1027099 "2026-01-27T18:16:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![GrunthosTheFlatulent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grunthostheflatulent/32/21319_2.png) [@GrunthosTheFlatulent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrunthosTheFlatulent)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2026, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-cop-out-in-the-end/1027099/201 "2026-02-04T05:55:36Z")
_The Daytrippers_ _is a_ nice movie ruined by a brutal homophobic ending. ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2026, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-cop-out-in-the-end/1027099/202 "2026-02-04T06:28:08Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I think the last 30 minutes of the movie takes place in Anderton’s head while in prison. I think dialog supports this. Do you know which bits in particular? I’m just curious. I love that film (more than others on this thread, clearly!) and although I have seen that theory before, I don’t think I’ve read what the potential giveaways are. I read the PK Dick story years ago but really can’t remember how much of the film follows it (it is probably like _Do Androids_… –\> _Bladerunner ,_ i.e. not much!). ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2026, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-cop-out-in-the-end/1027099/203 "2026-02-04T06:59:55Z")
> [@iamatractorboy](#): > > Do you know which bits in particular? I’m just curious. Not enough to support my opinion - it’s been too long. But it was some line about “in the prison, people dream whatever they want to be happy”, or whatever the exact was. Plus how easy it was to get the eyes to bypass security. From memory. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2026, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-cop-out-in-the-end/1027099/204 "2026-02-04T07:07:13Z")
Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Originally it was going to end on a rather grim note. Supposedly that didn’t play well with test audiences or something - so a prologue and epilogue were added showing the pods being discovered before the invasion could go much further. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2026, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-cop-out-in-the-end/1027099/205 "2026-02-04T11:27:50Z")
I already mentioned this upstream. Supposedly, Kevin McCarthy didn’t like that his character wasn’t seen shouting about the invasion as seen from _inside_ one of the cars, and Philip Kaufman gave him just such a scene in the 1979 remake. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2026, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-cop-out-in-the-end/1027099/206 "2026-02-04T11:50:46Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > But… imho… this was a cop out. A far, far better ending would have been showing that _Kennedy just sucked at being President_. This was part of the plot of a Doctor Who novel I read years ago - the Master stops Oswald from carrying out the assassination because, in the timeline where he lives, nuclear war breaks out and the First Doctor is killed before he can begin his adventures. The book’s protagonist arrives too late to stop the Master from taking out Oswald and decides he has to kill Kennedy himself to preserve the timeline, but before he can take the shot an assassin on the grassy knoll does it - and he recognizes an older version of himself pulling the trigger. Once he reaches the age where he looks like the version of himself that he saw, he writes the book to let the world know the truth before travelling back in time again to carry out his destiny. > [@ParallelLines](#): > > An aside, there is an common complaint that King has a problem with convincing, final endings _in general_ so as stated in the quoted section above, a poor/incomplete ending is very much in his wheelhouse. “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.” ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2026, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-cop-out-in-the-end/1027099/207 "2026-02-04T13:52:30Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Stephen King’s 11-22-63 Yep. But that book (and presumably the adaptation) is all about the journey. Stephen King wrote a book about the journey, in the style of Frederick Forsyth (e.g. “The Dogs of War” or “The Day of the Jackal”). …but where Forsyth excelled in “all about the journey” as well as “nailing the landing”, King didn’t do the latter. ---
**Author:** ![JohnnyEcks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnnyecks/32/18197_2.png) [@JohnnyEcks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnnyEcks)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2026, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-cop-out-in-the-end/1027099/208 "2026-02-04T13:53:09Z")
If I remember correctly, the ending of Minority Report originally included a postscript informing the viewer how many people were murdered since pre-crime was abolished. I don’t know if it’s a cop out to remove that, more of an Endor holocaust- a logical consequence that the film ignores for the sake of a happy ending. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2026, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-cop-out-in-the-end/1027099/209 "2026-02-04T14:04:32Z")
I am also disappointed by the ending of Holy Grail, but I’m not sure what a better ending would have been. Maybe they find the grail, but it is a plain cup ala Indiana Jones - do I need to blur this? and Arthur says something like “That’s it? there were better grails at the farmer’s market we passed by last fall”\* In any case, disappointed \neq cop-out Brian \* IANACW (I am not a comedy writer) ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2026, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-cop-out-in-the-end/1027099/210 "2026-02-04T15:13:36Z")
IIRC in the original Arthurian legend they never found the Grail. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2026, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-cop-out-in-the-end/1027099/211 "2026-02-04T15:18:28Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > IIRC in the original Arthurian legend they never found the Grail Which is kind of a cop out in its own right. All that searching, and we still don’t know if it’s real or not? People trying to establish the reality of the scriptures, and we still just have to take it all on faith? Bogus! ---
**Author:** ![f.coli](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eada6e/32.png) [@f.coli](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/f.coli)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2026, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-cop-out-in-the-end/1027099/212 "2026-02-04T15:30:48Z")
I’ve seen three versions of Les Miserables, starring Frederic March, Michael Rennie, and Liam Neeson as Jean Valjean, and all three end with Valjean walking free. Only the musical ends with Hugo’s original, downer ending. Although even that one implies that Valjean went to a better place. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2026, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-cop-out-in-the-end/1027099/213 "2026-02-04T15:34:53Z")
Okay, refreshed my memory on the Grail legend. According to _Le Morte d’Arthur_ the Grail was unfindable except by someone of absolute saintly purity, which turned out to be Galahad. And to do so he had to be so holy that immediately after finding the Grail he bodily ascended into heaven; making the whole endeavor rather pointless from any worldly goal. ---
**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:** [February 4, 2026, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-cop-out-in-the-end/1027099/214 "2026-02-04T16:04:51Z")
Just FYI, the 11-22-63 series didn’t have the cop-out. While it didn’t go so far as to say “Kennedy sucked ass”, it also did not have the supernatural elements which compelled the protagonist to reset his reset. The world of the future was just sucky and it _implied_ that Kennedy somehow over-reached in the electorates eyes given that George Wallace was elected President in 1968, which is when the world _really_ changed. I got a chuckle when the protagonist “returns” to the modern age, sees a bunch of bombed-out devastation, and the first thing he asks somebody is “what happened to the diner?” Really? That’s the first question which popped in your mind? ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2026, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-cop-out-in-the-end/1027099/215 "2026-02-04T17:24:33Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Okay, refreshed my memory on the Grail legend. According to _Le Morte d’Arthur_ the Grail was unfindable except by someone of absolute saintly purity, which turned out to be Galahad. His willingness to face the peril of Castle Anthrax was noble, indeed. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2026, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-cop-out-in-the-end/1027099/216 "2026-02-04T18:07:52Z")
Instead of a “farmer’s market”, change it to what they might buy at a Renaissance Faire where they sell crude pottery flagons. Or set the whole thing inside a RennFaire but the Python crew don’t realize it until they walk out into the parking lot. That’d be a stupid (but plausible) ending. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2026, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-cop-out-in-the-end/1027099/217 "2026-02-04T18:16:22Z")
For whatever it’s worth, in _Spamalot!_ (the Broadway musical version of _Monty Python and the Holy Grail_), Arthur and his knights do find the Grail. It’s hidden beneath one of the seats in the audience (“It was behind the fourth wall the whole time!”) I guess Eric Idle decided that for the musical they actually needed to have a proper ending to the story. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2026, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-cop-out-in-the-end/1027099/218 "2026-02-04T21:09:37Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > IIRC in the original Arthurian legend they never found the Grail. Galahad did find it. > [@Lumpy](#): > > And to do so he had to be so holy that immediately after finding the Grail he bodily ascended into heaven; making the whole endeavor rather pointless from any worldly goal. Sorta. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-cop-out-in-the-end/1027099.md?page=10)