# Movies that DON'T cop out. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 12, 2005, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-dont-cop-out/321324 "2005-09-12T20:38:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-dont-cop-out/321324/41 "2005-09-13T06:23:59Z")
> [@Little Nemo](#): > > There’s little motivation to tack on an unhappy ending that’s out of place and they’re fairly rare. I thought _The House of Sand and Fog_ had one. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-dont-cop-out/321324/42 "2005-09-13T06:26:23Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > How about _Deep Impact_? You’re kidding, right? The asteroid should have done the universe a favor and obliterated that planet of mealy-minded morons, but _nooooooooooooooo…_ ---
**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:** [September 13, 2005, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-dont-cop-out/321324/43 "2005-09-13T06:31:39Z")
Most of the great sports movies have endings that go against the grain of the film; comedies where they lose the Big Game or tragedies where they win. To _The Bad News Bears_, add… **The Hustler** **Slap Shot** **Rocky** ---
**Author:** ![snorlax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@snorlax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snorlax)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-dont-cop-out/321324/44 "2005-09-13T10:14:21Z")
_Vertigo_ had an additional, more optimistic, scene at the end which was only shown in some European countries and is available on the DVD. In it, Scotty is listening to a radio report which describes Gavin Elster’s arrest. I believe this was due to European film codes that villains needed to be punished by the end of the film. In any event the cop-out was minor as the main events at the climax are unchanged. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-dont-cop-out/321324/45 "2005-09-13T10:35:26Z")
It was probably a book or something before it was a movie, but _Hamlet_ has a pretty bleak ending; the writer (whatever his name is) could easily have copped out by having the antidote serum arrive at the last minute and save the life of the hero. ---
**Author:** ![Martiju](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@Martiju](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martiju)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-dont-cop-out/321324/46 "2005-09-13T10:40:36Z")
One of the first I saw that pleased me with a realistic ending (ie. not necessarily happy or sad, but true to the likely nature of events) was Breathless with Richard Gere. What I liked especially is that it seems to be heading for the happy - but unlikely outcome - and I was beginning to get that feeling that I’d been cheated when WHAM! Sucker punch as the credits roll. I love that film! ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-dont-cop-out/321324/47 "2005-09-13T11:24:19Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > I don’t think the orignal ending of _Blade Runner_ was a copout. It’s supported by earlier scenes and chopping it leaves the movie incomplete. Heresy! Even ignoring the whole “Deckard was/n’t a replicant” debate, _which_ earlier scenes support Deckard and Rachel flying off to a pastoral never-never-land, when the whole movie has been given over to showing what a grubby shithole the world has become? Where _is_ this utopia, when the place is such a dump that the powers-that-be are urging people to emigrate off-world? Oh, and **Chinatown** : no cop-out ending there. Someone mentioned **LA Confidential** in the cop-out thread, which I whole-heartedly agree with: a fantastic movie, but there’s no way Bud White should have survived, let alone driven off into the sunset with his squeeze. **Chinatown** avoided precisely that ending: LA was a nasty, corrupt shithole, and Jake Gittes couldn’t even save the girl, let alone do anything about the corruption. “Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown.” ---
**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:** [September 13, 2005, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-dont-cop-out/321324/48 "2005-09-13T11:35:33Z")
> [@](#): > > No kidding. This makes me suspect that Kubrick, like Spielberg, was an excellent director who couldn’t write to save his dick. I don’t buy it at all. Kubrick’s first big film was **The Killing** , with a pretty non-cop-out downbeat ending. It’s hard to believe that he’d suddenly change to an inapperopriate sweetness and light director. Besides, the film goes on for quite a while _after_ the climax, and that doesn’t look like a late change. On top of which, I don’t think _any_ of Kubrick’s film have a happy ending, **2001** included. ---
**Author:** ![Dusty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@Dusty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dusty)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-dont-cop-out/321324/49 "2005-09-13T11:36:31Z")
Watching silent romances, you generally expect a sappy illogical ending to come swerving out of left field at the end bringing all the characters happiness ever after and punishing the people who stood in their way, but for most of the Garbo silents, that thankfully doesn’t happen. (_The Temptress_ not included, although the real, decidedly unpleasant conclusion is available as an alternate ending.) People usually talk about her most popular ones like _The Torrent_ or _Flesh and the Devil_, but I particularly like _A Woman of Affairs_. The movie itself is excellently filmed, but the ending is perfectly in keeping with the setup: by the end of it, not only does noöne get what they want, more than one have nervous breakdowns, and half the main characters are dead, including Garbo’s. Another Kubrick film with a non-cop-out ending is _Barry Lyndon_. It’s realistic, but not entirely unhappy; like _Brazil_, the conclusion seems dismal on the face of it, but arguments can be made that it was the best possible outcome the character could have hoped for. In this case, Barry attained exactly what he set out to, only at that point realizing that what it actually meant was nothing like he expected. All the same, he’s the better for it, in spite of what it cost him. If Barry’s end was sad but uplifting, the ending for the other characters is altogether more humbling. The coda, where the Lyndons are in the sitting room doing the finances and Lady Lyndon is signing the checks, perfectly sums up what has become of them and where they’re inevitably going, and in comparison how petty their problems are and how small and unimportant their fine family actually is. The epilogue, of course, further drives it home. (Most people don’t pay enough attention to notice the pivotal part of that scene. When she pauses to read the name on the check, take note of the date written in the corner.) ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-dont-cop-out/321324/50 "2005-09-13T11:44:02Z")
I’m forgetting _The Thing_ {the John Carpenter version that **The X-Files** utterly pillaged}: no surviving hero who’s finally beaten the beast in a fire-and-fist-fight; just two exhausted guys eying each other warily, either of whom {or both of whom…} might be the monster. ---
**Author:** ![Angua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8baadc/32.png) [@Angua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angua)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-dont-cop-out/321324/51 "2005-09-13T12:03:41Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I thought _The House of Sand and Fog_ had one. In what way? I actually thought that it wasn’t too bad, and not really a tacked on unhappy ending, particularly the bit where Kingsley’s son dies. They could have had prayer and “bargaining” with God saving the day, but they didn’t which, incidentally, is entirely in line with Islamic teaching. ---
**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:** [September 13, 2005, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-dont-cop-out/321324/52 "2005-09-13T12:10:05Z")
> [@](#): > > I’m forgetting The Thing {the John Carpenter version that The X-Files utterly pillaged}: no surviving hero who’s finally beaten the beast in a fire-and-fist-fight; just two exhausted guys eying each other warily, either of whom {or both of whom…} might be the monster. For me the Thing had the opposite of a cop-out ending – the “Let’s make it as bad as possible” ending. The original Campbell story has a “happy” ending (The monster is finally and completely killed, although lotsa guys buy it and the camp gets trashed) that is pwerfectly believable. Lancaster and Carpenter went out of their way to make the ending downbeat and ambiguous, to no obvious advantage. It’s as bad as Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tales – having achieved a happy ending with “The Steadfast Tin Soldier”, Anderson then goes on out of his way to tack on a sad ending (all of which he made up – Anderson wasn’t repeating a traditional tale here, as the brothers Grimm were) in which everyone dies. Didn’t bother me at all when Disney didn’t use it in Fantasia 2000. ---
**Author:** ![Blackclaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e68b1a/32.png) [@Blackclaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackclaw)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-dont-cop-out/321324/53 "2005-09-13T12:18:27Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#): > > On the B-movie teen flick front: > > _The Last American Virgin_: the main character gets screwed over all throughout the movie. Even when he does a gallant thing like paying for a girl’s abortion (she got knocked up by his “friend”), he ends up losing her at the end of the movie when she returns to the “friend”. He drives off at the end, nearly in tears, as the credits roll. > > It went against nearly all the teen flicks of its era. It’s true, the movie doesn’t “cop-out.” Perhaps it should get credit for showing how crappy life sometimes is and how stupid people often are. But by the end of the film you find that you have just spent your precious time watching an air-headed bimbo, an asshole, and a fool. You can spend time with air-headed bimbos, assholes, and fools in the real world for free. The movie doesn’t offer its audience anything. ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-dont-cop-out/321324/54 "2005-09-13T13:08:20Z")
_Mystery, Alaska_ is another good sports film that doesn’t cop out and go for the cheesy happy ending. It does end on an upbeat note, though. _In Good Company_ (which was better than I anticipated) also doesn’t cop out for the happy ending. Again, it’s another upbeat one, but it’s not the “our hero gets the girl and rides off into the sunset” cliche. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-dont-cop-out/321324/55 "2005-09-13T13:11:39Z")
> [@Blackclaw](#): > > The movie doesn’t offer its audience anything. …other than a welcome change from happy-fests like Sixteen Candles and Fast Times at Ridgemont High. The main kid in TLAV was, at least, likeable enough. ---
**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:** [September 13, 2005, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-dont-cop-out/321324/56 "2005-09-13T13:18:23Z")
My all-time favorite films don’t cop out: **The Seven Samurai** – Ultimately, just about everyone is a mixture of good and evil. The Bandits are pretty pure evil, exploiting and killing the peasants. The samurai, though, exploit the peasants, too. The peasants kill the samurai when they’re down. The Seven defend the village anyway, for no pay, because it’s the Right Thing, even though four of them get killed. At the end, two of them walk away, practically ignored by the town they helped save. Their reward is that they did The Right Thing, and that’s enough. **A Man for All Seasons** – Sir Thomas More holds to his moral center, defending it with verve and wit. When his enemies finally do him in )by cheating) he gets executed, but he goes with wit and dignity. ---
**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:** [September 13, 2005, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-dont-cop-out/321324/57 "2005-09-13T13:27:10Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > Sure, but that’s not what I’m seeing in this thread at all. I’m getting the distinct impression that some think that the presence of a “downer” ending is _in of itself_ a sign of “realism” or “quality.” At the very least, I see a preference FOR the “downer” ending for ANY movie that could accomodate either, and that’s what I think is unfair. I totally agree. “Downbeat” != “Non copout”. “Happy” != “Copout”. And life _does_ have happy endings, regardless of what a previous poster stated. ---
**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:** [September 13, 2005, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-dont-cop-out/321324/58 "2005-09-13T14:03:19Z")
I hate it when kids and animals get a free pass in movies. Example, the dog in **Independence Day** , which leaps to safety just as the wall of fire sweeps past (and what a bitch Vivica Fox’s character is for calling to her dog to save it while _people_ are out there. Does she call to the people? “I found a safe place, come on in and live”? No she does not). So I was pleased when Tim Burton had the gonads to include the murder of a child (although an off-screen one) in **Sleepy Hollow**. The Headless Horseman enters a home and kills both parents, then proceeds to chop through the floor to reach the hiding child. The kid screams, there’s a short cutaway, and the next shot is the Horseman exiting the house, casually zipping the pullstring shut on his bag o’ heads. Got that kid, you betcha. ---
**Author:** ![cbawlmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cbawlmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cbawlmer)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-dont-cop-out/321324/59 "2005-09-13T14:16:02Z")
> [@Blackclaw](#): > > It’s true, the movie doesn’t “cop-out.” Perhaps it should get credit for showing how crappy life sometimes is and how stupid people often are. But by the end of the film you find that you have just spent your precious time watching an air-headed bimbo, an asshole, and a fool. You can spend time with air-headed bimbos, assholes, and fools in the real world for free. The movie doesn’t offer its audience anything. Yeah, sure, why would anyone want to watch a movie featuring characters who might possibly remind them of themselves and their friends and actual human beings who sometimes make bad decisions and aren’t the best possible versions of themselves by the age of 16? :rolleyes: Another movie with a strong, realistic ending is _Blonde Venus_ with Marlene Dietrich. ---
**Author:** ![Crab\_Rangoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Crab\_Rangoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crab_Rangoon)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-dont-cop-out/321324/60 "2005-09-13T14:35:11Z")
Now that was a downer ending - although I don’t think it was a “cop out” ending, the fact that the “wizard” got killed on the way to the rendezvous might be seen as one. If he had made it, Jack Nicholson’s character would have been considered a hero instead of a crazy selfish bastard. The ending left room for the debate on whether what he did was worth catching the bad guy, since he had to lie and use the little girl as a pawn. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-dont-cop-out/321324.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-dont-cop-out/321324.md?page=4)