# Movies that cop-out in the end

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-cop-out-in-the-end/1027099>\
**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:** 1\
**Showing post:** 31

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**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2026, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-cop-out-in-the-end/1027099/31 "2026-01-27T23:54:24Z")

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> [@Sherrerd](#):
>
> It’s true that Python prepared for the ending by interspersing scenes of the Modern Day events throughout.
> 
> I don’t see that as setting up the ending as a _logical_ outgrowth of the story, though. It was just provident of them.
> 
> (Also, it happened AFTER the Mel Brooks use of the device.)

No, Mel Brooks was just using the same technique as W. C. Fields and the Marx Brothers, who often ended their movies with a chase scene (e.g., _The Bank Dick, The Big Store)_ because they had no other idea how to end it. Nothing about the ending of _Blazing Saddles_ was a logical outgrowth of anything that happened before; it’s Brooks just giving up and throwing in the kitchen sink of gags.

The Pythons knew enough to set up the ending as the payoff of a clear subplot of the movie. Brooks did nothing to indicate that the film was anything but a western parody until he needed an ending; Python knew to break the illusion early on and use that for a payoff. It was based in story logic; Brooks’s ending was not.

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