# Movies with non-ending endings (contains boxed spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 23, 2006, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-non-ending-endings-contains-boxed-spoilers/345803 "2006-02-23T16:49:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2006, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-non-ending-endings-contains-boxed-spoilers/345803/1 "2006-02-23T16:49:29Z")
Not really movies that leave a loose end in case of a sequel but rather ones that have absolutely no resolution–they just end. I caught _Two Lane Blacktop_ last night and was caught off guard by the “melting film” ending. I wonder if G.T.O. guy’s last wacky story was intended as a representation of what the ending was supposed to be, possibly with the roles reversed. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2006, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-non-ending-endings-contains-boxed-spoilers/345803/2 "2006-02-23T16:57:09Z")
From what I remember of _Last Year at Marienbad_ it would fill the bill. Nothing really happens, but it doesn’t happen several times from a number of different perspectives. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2006, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-non-ending-endings-contains-boxed-spoilers/345803/3 "2006-02-23T16:57:39Z")
The ending of Monty Python and the Holy Grail always bugged me. ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2006, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-non-ending-endings-contains-boxed-spoilers/345803/4 "2006-02-23T17:39:53Z")
Sam Peckinpah’s _Cross of Iron_. Great flick, right up to the very end where it looks like Peckinpah just turned off the camera in mid scene. Very much worth watching, but be forewarned that the ending basically leaves the story unresolved and is very unsatisfying. ---
**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:** [February 23, 2006, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-non-ending-endings-contains-boxed-spoilers/345803/5 "2006-02-23T17:42:48Z")
_Memento_ ended at the beginning. And the beginning, which was the ending, was rather abrupt as well. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2006, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-non-ending-endings-contains-boxed-spoilers/345803/6 "2006-02-23T17:48:18Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > From what I remember of _Last Year at Marienbad_ it would fill the bill. Nothing really happens, but it doesn’t happen several times from a number of different perspectives. That description is absolutely perfect. ---
**Author:** ![batsto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b2d939/32.png) [@batsto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/batsto)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2006, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-non-ending-endings-contains-boxed-spoilers/345803/7 "2006-02-23T20:14:19Z")
the ending of K-Pax bugged me to no end also. I didn’t really consider it an ending, since I had been waiting for some kind of resolution or explanation and was just left confused. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2006, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-non-ending-endings-contains-boxed-spoilers/345803/8 "2006-02-23T20:37:06Z")
You and Me and Everyone We Know. I liked it, a lot, but it sorta felt like the middle of a movie. We meet the characters in the middle of changes in their lives, and while there’s natural progress, it felt like it never got past the middle. When the screen went black, I said “That’s it? I want more!” ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2006, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-non-ending-endings-contains-boxed-spoilers/345803/9 "2006-02-23T20:47:14Z")
**Pulp Fiction** has no real ending since the parts are out of order. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2006, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-non-ending-endings-contains-boxed-spoilers/345803/10 "2006-02-23T20:49:47Z")
[Mission to Mars](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0183523/) ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2006, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-non-ending-endings-contains-boxed-spoilers/345803/11 "2006-02-23T21:05:39Z")
Dances with Wolves. Pissed me off royally that I had sat through over three hours of that movie and then it just…ended! No resolution, not even a scrawl to tell you what happens. Just ends. ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2006, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-non-ending-endings-contains-boxed-spoilers/345803/12 "2006-02-23T21:21:03Z")
Spike Lee’s _School Daze._ It looks like he just ran out of film and decided to end the movie in the middle. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2006, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-non-ending-endings-contains-boxed-spoilers/345803/13 "2006-02-23T21:24:33Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > **Pulp Fiction** has no real ending since the parts are out of order. It’s out of order 'cause Tarantino was focusing on a particular character arc. The “ending” is the epiphany at the end. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2006, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-non-ending-endings-contains-boxed-spoilers/345803/14 "2006-02-23T21:35:46Z")
I’d say that **Broken Flowers** falls into this category. The movie ends with absolutely no resolution as to which woman had written the note telling him of his son, or if the whole thing was a hoax by his disgruntled ex. Of course, the movie is really about his character’s development as a human being and the whole road trip/investigation is just the backdrop to this change - but still, it ends without giving any real answers at all. In my opinion, if the note was real - I think it was Francis Conroy who had the child…there was a lot of subtext/body language in the scene’s with her and her husband that seem to indicate this. ---
**Author:** ![Spiff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiff/32/9852_2.png) [@Spiff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiff)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2006, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-non-ending-endings-contains-boxed-spoilers/345803/15 "2006-02-23T21:38:11Z")
The Apartment, with Jack Lemmon and Shirley McLain. ---
**Author:** ![Charger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df788c/32.png) [@Charger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charger)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2006, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-non-ending-endings-contains-boxed-spoilers/345803/16 "2006-02-23T21:48:50Z")
When I was in college, my girlfriend and I rented _Poop Floats_… Okay, the title is _Hope Floats_, but I kept calling it _Poop Floats_. It was supposed to be a romantic movie. To be fair, we were focusing a lot more on each other than the TV screen, but when the credits started rolling we both looked at the screen and each other and said, “Is that the end?” ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2006, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-non-ending-endings-contains-boxed-spoilers/345803/17 "2006-02-23T22:19:17Z")
There’s no such thing as a real ending, so MOST movies get it wrong. The only honest ending, in most movie contexts, is a non ending. My favorites–the ones that come to mind–are \*Limbo \*and _Zabriskie Point_. ---
**Author:** ![Odinoneeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/97f17d/32.png) [@Odinoneeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odinoneeye)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2006, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-non-ending-endings-contains-boxed-spoilers/345803/18 "2006-02-23T22:39:11Z")
> [@batsto](#): > > the ending of K-Pax bugged me to no end also. I didn’t really consider it an ending, since I had been waiting for some kind of resolution or explanation and was just left confused. I disagree with that. The movie definitely ended. They just never explain if he was or wasn’t an alien. It’s up to the audience to decide. I really liked the ending. ---
**Author:** ![Interrobang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/interrobang/32/17463_2.png) [@Interrobang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Interrobang)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2006, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-non-ending-endings-contains-boxed-spoilers/345803/19 "2006-02-23T22:47:10Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > There’s no such thing as a real ending, so MOST movies get it wrong. The only honest ending, in most movie contexts, is a non ending. _Limbo_ is a great non-ending. _Some Like It Hot_ is a great ending. Are you proposing that, because real life does not have endings, movies are somehow flawed if they provide endings? I don’t buy it, but maybe I’m misunderstanding your point. ---
**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:** [February 24, 2006, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-non-ending-endings-contains-boxed-spoilers/345803/20 "2006-02-24T01:39:29Z")
> [@garygnu](#): > > The ending of Monty Python and the Holy Grail always bugged me. This was exactly what I came in here to mention. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-non-ending-endings-contains-boxed-spoilers/345803.md?page=2)