# Movies With Ambiguous Endings **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 18, 2013, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-ambiguous-endings/650643 "2013-02-18T00:08:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2013, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-ambiguous-endings/650643/101 "2013-06-08T20:52:49Z")
I think the sheer number of times people have gone back and forth on Blade Runner in this thread alone qualifies it as an ambiguous ending, regardless of what was said to whom. ---
**Author:** ![irritant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@irritant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irritant)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2013, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-ambiguous-endings/650643/102 "2013-06-08T22:12:32Z")
_The Conversation_ _Martha Marcy May Marlene_ _Zodiac_ Deckard’s a replicant if Greedo shot first. ---
**Author:** ![Wolf333](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf333/32/3460_2.png) [@Wolf333](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolf333)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2013, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-ambiguous-endings/650643/103 "2013-06-08T22:33:22Z")
> [@Ibn\_Warraq](#): > > I don’t think the ending is that ambiguous and don’t think he’s wounded so badly it might be mortal. > > Shane on the other hand(at least the movie not the book) is a better example of that where its not clear if Shane is dying or not(I think he did but Sam Jackson disagrees). Kevin Spacey is on your side. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2013, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-ambiguous-endings/650643/104 "2013-06-08T22:51:36Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > Eh, I don’t believe it. Yeah. Why would she smile? Unless he told it like a joke or something. But that would only be funny to the actress, not the character, so we’d have to take it as just goofing off and irrelevant to what “actually” happened. ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2013, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-ambiguous-endings/650643/105 "2013-06-09T01:58:11Z")
> [@MacCat](#): > > Although a thread **about** endings, a Sopranos ending spoiler alert > > The ending of **The Sopranos** was very ambiguous, prompting reactions that ranged from positive to extremely negative. I was okay with it, but _not_ with the cut to static. Had they instead simply rolled the credits, the ambiguity would have been at least thought provoking, if not satisfying. The static, at a time of intense drama just took me out of the story, instantaneous first thought being WHAT HAPPENED TO THE TV?!? Second almost instantaneous thought was sabotage, until the credits rolling made me realize that _was_ really the end. > > A terrible and unnecessary distraction/interruption to one of the most highly anticipated finales ever. The Sopranos ended with a cut to a black screen with no audio, not static. After about 10 seconds of black, they did indeed simply roll the credits. So either your cable/satellite went out and came back with incredible timing, or you’re just remembering wrong after 6 years. ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2013, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-ambiguous-endings/650643/106 "2013-06-10T07:17:57Z")
> [@Satchmo](#): > > One of the things I liked about The Shining (1980) was that up to the point where he was locked into the walk-in fridge, everything could be explained as Jack going crazy. Then the Outlook let him out. I’d have really preferred him getting out on his own, the rest of the movie playing out as it did, then that picture at the end would REALLY have been an ambiguous ending. I haven’t watched the book, but in the movie there is no ambiguity - The hotel is haunted. And the kid has powers - as does Halloran ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2013, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-ambiguous-endings/650643/107 "2013-06-10T07:24:49Z")
One that’s been discussed here before is the ending to A League of Their Own - Did Big Sis drop the ball on purpose of by accident? ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2013, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-ambiguous-endings/650643/108 "2013-06-10T15:24:04Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > I haven’t watched the book, but in the movie there is no ambiguity - > > The hotel is haunted. > > And the kid has powers - as does Halloran I’m sure you’re aware that King has written a sequel, _Dr. Sleep_. ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2013, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-ambiguous-endings/650643/109 "2013-06-11T02:56:12Z")
Wasn’t aware - but now I am going to have to look for it. ---
**Author:** ![Ashley\_Pomeroy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c68b51/32.png) [@Ashley\_Pomeroy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashley_Pomeroy)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2013, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-ambiguous-endings/650643/110 "2013-06-11T22:52:53Z")
_Two-Lane Blacktop_ springs to mind - the entire second half is essentially a long, ambiguous ending. It’s a metaphor for America or something. I suppose for an ambiguous ending to work, the rest of the film has to give the impression that it’s building up to _something_. Otherwise I could pick e.g. Fellini’s _Satyricon_, which is two hours of ambiguity. [The ending is ambiguous](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i-4sckKTDA&t=120m0s), but no more so than the rest of the film. Robert Altman’s films often had ambiguous endings - _Nashville_, _Short Cuts_, _3 Women_ etc - but really they didn’t have _endings_, they just stopped. When I think of ambiguous endings I think of New Hollywood, _Five Easy Pieces_ and so forth. _Deliverance_ is another one that comes to mind, although it wasn’t quite New Hollywood. Did they kill one of the assailants, or just a random mountain man? Is his body going to float up to the surface of the lake, just like in the dream, or not? _Manhattan_ and _Annie Hall_ both come to a stop, but there’s a sense that the characters continue to live and develop beyond the end of the film. Will Woody Allen hook up with Muriel Hemingway when she gets back from Yerp? In lots of films it feels that the characters were conjured purely to tell a single story, and are disposable once the story is told, whereas in the cinema of Woody Allen and Robert Altman we’re watching a small slice of people’s lives. _THX 1138_, there’s another one. Robert Duvall escapes, but to what? Strictly speaking _The Empire Strikes Back_ has an ambiguous ending, although of course all was resolved in _Return of the Jedi_. Look, [here’s Wikipedia’s list of New Hollywood films](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Hollywood#List_of_notable_New_Hollywood_films), they _all_ have ambiguous endings. _Rosemary’s Baby_, At the back of my mind I’m thinking “these people have picked _Blade Runner_ twelve times and _The Shining_ six times and _Lost in Translation_ three times and _have they seen any more films_?”, and another voice is saying “don’t be a film snob, these people are probably too busy raising a family and getting by in a cruel harsh world to watch lots of films”, and also “you haven’t even seen _Firefly_, perhaps it really is that good”, and “you shouldn’t call them QUOTE these people UNQUOTE because it’s dehumanising”, so I forgive you, Straight Dope. You’re individual human beings with lives and feelings like my own, not just evil robots. I guess you have to have a little faith in people. I’m tempted to leave this post with an ambiguous ending. You know, Siouxsie Sioux looks absolutely gorgeous in the video for “Kiss Them For Me”. Close-up on Avon, as Federation troopers surround him; he smiles, raises his gun; cut to black, the sound of gunfire. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2013, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-ambiguous-endings/650643/111 "2013-06-11T23:08:19Z")
> [@Ashley\_Pomeroy](#): > > …so I forgive you, Straight Dope. You’re individual human beings with lives and feelings like my own, not just evil robots. Don’t be ridiculous. Of _course_ we’re evil robots. Also: if you’re going to define ‘ambiguity’ as something like \*‘lack of certain knowledge of the course the lives of the characters will take after the story ends’ \*then you’re going to end up classifying most stories told since (at least) the Industrial Revolution as having ambiguous endings. The ancient Greeks may have declared that Hero A was raised to eternal life on Mount Olympus, and the brothers Grimm may have assured readers that Heroine B was “granted happiness for her whole life”…but since the invention of the novel, such ironclad resolutions are few and far between. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-ambiguous-endings/650643.md?page=5)