# Movies with the worst endings **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 13, 2011, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512 "2011-03-13T07:40:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/21 "2011-03-13T18:40:39Z")
> [@sandra\_nz](#): > > I"m surprised not to see **Skyline** in here already, but perhaps I was the only one stupid enough to go see it. No. I was trying to repress memories of the ending, thank you. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/22 "2011-03-13T18:41:14Z")
As I mentioned back when it recently opened, The Tourist has an ending that will make your eyes roll back so far it hurts. The ending of the Adjustment Bureau is not particularly great. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/23 "2011-03-13T18:42:54Z")
> [@Pitchmeister](#): > > I suppose I’m going to get flamed for this, but I never particularly cared for the ending of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I just found it way too silly and sudden. The movie is great, but it really feels like they were running out of ideas and said: “Screw it, we’re just not going to have an end at all!” Not so much running out of ideas. The original ending was going to be some kind of insane, huge battle scene. The problem was that they simply didn’t have the money to do it. The ending as filmed was simply what they could manage. ---
**Author:** ![Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7cd45c/32.png) [@Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glory)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/24 "2011-03-13T18:55:32Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > Just saw [The Next Three Days](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1458175/) and found the ending boring and predictable. But not the worst ending to a flick i’ve ever seen. > > That honor goes to [The Last American Virgin](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkPQinEEB94). What a depressing ending. I mean, Gary is a pussy who needs to wise up to the fact that Karen is a self centered adolescent cunt, but I still wonder how many teens went home and blew their brains out with their pops handgun in the nightstand drawer after seeing that. I mean, fuck! They roll the credits over Gary’s devastated face and everything! > > Comment on TLAV ending and give me a worse one, if you can. I actually love the ending of the Last American Virgin. It had been a fairly typical teen sex romp, the ending really elevated it, made it real. In real life, the girl usually ends up with the good looking asshole, not the heart-of-gold guy. ---
**Author:** ![davidw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c4cdca/32.png) [@davidw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidw)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/25 "2011-03-13T19:30:55Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > Schindler’s List? > > How is that a bad ending? Eh, I guess it wasn’t too bad. But Schindler’s “I could have done more speech” just rubbed me the wrong way. ---
**Author:** ![fusoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecccb3/32.png) [@fusoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fusoya)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/26 "2011-03-13T19:41:10Z")
Screw what anyone says, No Country was JOSH BROLIN’s movie, not Tommy Lee Jones’s. When he died, so did any shred of interest in the story. I know the book was the sheriff’s story, but too much of his character was left out of the film for him to be the focus of it. Also, those were aliens, not robots at the shitty ending of AI. When I watch AI, I turn it off right when the lights burn out on the submarine. **The Station Agent** was a great film, but I always hated the way the film just STOPS and goes to credits the moment Fin realizes he has a friend. Also, I never got around to seeing Spamalot, but did they tack on the ending from LIFE OF BRIAN for it??? ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/27 "2011-03-13T19:53:21Z")
I thought the ending of “Hannibal” was one of the all-time worst Hollywood-ending hatchet jobs, at least compared with the ending in the novel. [spoiler]The novel has Clarice’s FBI career ruined by corrupt, malicious supervisors. They pull her off the pursuit of Lecter, at which point she goes rogue and attempts to rescue Lecter from an intended revenge execution by one of his victims. In the ensuing shootout, she’s wounded. Lecter rescues her and nurses her back to health. He also brainwashes her and the two go off to spend their lives together. A provocative contrast of the FBI’s institutional evils versus Lecter’s brand of it, with a subtext of how similar Lecter’s and Clarice’s personalities were (Lecter is revealed to have been scarred by horrific childhood experiences during WW2 - the implication is that he wasn’t born insane/evil, as was more or less implied prior to the novel “Hannibal”). The movie reduced the impact of the malicious supervisors and never showed Lecter to have redeeming qualities, with the exception of his volunteering to slice off his own hand rather than Clarice’s to escape from her handcuffs, which fitted the pre-“Hannibal” zeitgeist of him being insane. Basically, in the movie, everybody was either good or bad, and the bad guys all lost (Lecter escapes, minus a right hand) - hurray for Hollywood.[/spoiler]The movie “Hannibal Rising”, while suffering from a number of flaws, did do some exploration of this angle on Lecter’s life and personality. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/28 "2011-03-13T20:12:41Z")
“The Town”. All plotlines and themes pointed to Ben Affleck getting caught/killed, as per the book and the original movie ending. But test audiences felt bad about the ending, so the ending was refilmed so that he miraculously escapes to Florida, unpunished for his crimes; it wasn’t his fault that he was raised that way. ---
**Author:** ![Jman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jman/32/4416_2.png) [@Jman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jman)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/29 "2011-03-13T20:35:35Z")
_Magnolia_ All this great character development…(even if it was a bit long). I keep expecting some great payoff where all the stories will come to a head in a meaningful and interesting way…and then… Frogs? Really? I mean, I sort of get what they were going for, but it was so patently absurd, and there was no payoff for all the plots, IMO, and it made me leave the theater thinking “wow…fantastic acting, great character study, but the movie sucked.” I’d like to see it again to see if I’d ‘get’ it more the second time, but I have this feeling I’d just be pissed off again. ---
**Author:** ![jordanr2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@jordanr2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jordanr2)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/30 "2011-03-13T20:55:00Z")
> [@fusoya](#): > > Screw what anyone says, No Country was JOSH BROLIN’s movie, not Tommy Lee Jones’s. When he died, so did any shred of interest in the story. I know the book was the sheriff’s story, but too much of his character was left out of the film for him to be the focus of it. _shrug_ well, that’s you. I found Tommy Lee Jones’s character compelling, and Kelly McDonald’s also, and of course Chigurh. When Brolin’s character dies (not using a spoiler tag, since you already gave it away), the other major characters don’t just blink out of the fictive existence the story’s given them. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/31 "2011-03-13T21:00:04Z")
> [@sandra\_nz](#): > > I"m surprised not to see **Skyline** in here already, but perhaps I was the only one stupid enough to go see it. I think the phrase “worst ending” implies there was something good about what preceeded it. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/32 "2011-03-13T21:05:18Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > AI: Artificial Intelligence had a great ending and then ruined it by tacking on a stupid ending instead. I still wonder what was the point of the aliens coming to rescue Haley Joel. > [@shijinn](#): > > they weren’t aliens. they were the legacy of Humans - robots with advanced AI come to learn more about their creators(? indirect creators? ancestral creator?) through an earlier model. I think shijinn just go whooshed. The whole idea of them being aliens is a long running gag interpretation on the internet. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/33 "2011-03-13T21:35:45Z")
Also, wasn’t that ending (the one AI got), the one that Stanley Kubrick had left behind in his sketches/writings/ideas? So what Spielberg did was follow on what Kubrick had planned out? My contribution is Blair’s Witch Project. I liked the movie up until the ending. Then it stopped being scary. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/34 "2011-03-13T21:47:14Z")
> [@jordanr2](#): > > The story ended “20 minutes before” only in the sense that the narrative of Josh Brolin’s character ends at that point. There are other crucial plot threads that don’t end then, though. And those never were resolved either. The money is still in the field, Chigurh is in limbo, and Tommy Lee Jones is completely lost. After the Brolin storyline ends, it’s like the beginning of a new movie got tacked on. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/35 "2011-03-13T21:49:11Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > I think the phrase “worst ending” implies there was something good about what preceeded it. Meh, it was so-so. Essentially, they ripped off the District 9 ending, which is marginally better than ripping off the Signs ending. During the end of the movie, I was chanting: “not the signs ending..not the signs ending…not the signs ending…” ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/36 "2011-03-13T21:51:10Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > I thought the ending of “Hannibal” was one of the all-time worst Hollywood-ending hatchet jobs… Heh that might start a new thread in and of itself. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/37 "2011-03-13T21:58:46Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > The movie “Hannibal Rising”, while suffering from a number of flaws, did do some exploration of this angle on Lecter’s life and personality. The biggest laugh I got out of that movie was that Hannibal’s grandmother taught him kung fu. 😃 ---
**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:** [March 13, 2011, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/38 "2011-03-13T23:16:05Z")
At the risk of being called a Blasphemer, I hate endings that look as if they simply couldn’t figure out how to end the damned movie, and this includes some favorites: **Monty Python and the Holy Grail Blazing Saddles Casino Royale** (the awful 1960s version) The TV series **The Prisoner** ---
**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:** [March 13, 2011, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/39 "2011-03-13T23:59:23Z")
> [@Pitchmeister](#): > > I suppose I’m going to get flamed for this, but I never particularly cared for the ending of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I just found it way too silly and sudden. The movie is great, but it really feels like they were running out of ideas and said: “Screw it, we’re just not going to have an end at all!” > > Maybe I’m just showing a profound misunderstanding of the Pythons, but that’s what I’ve always thought. That’s exactly what they were going forthey. That’s why it’s a great ending. Also, the ending was set up throughout the film, not tacked on. ---
**Author:** ![Maiira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Maiira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maiira)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/40 "2011-03-14T00:32:45Z")
> [@Pitchmeister](#): > > I suppose I’m going to get flamed for this, but I never particularly cared for the ending of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I just found it way too silly and sudden. The movie is great, but it really feels like they were running out of ideas and said: “Screw it, we’re just not going to have an end at all!” > > Maybe I’m just showing a profound misunderstanding of the Pythons, but that’s what I’ve always thought. I agree with you, but someone on TVTropes posted something interesting in the Fridge Brilliance section about it: The ending involves all of the main characters being arrested by the cops, right? So it’s quite literally a COP-out ending. So the ending’s still stupid, and I have no idea if the troupe actually did that on purpose, but for some reason that just made it a little better for me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512.md?page=3)