# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/41 "2011-03-14T00:44:41Z")
They ran out of money, not ideas, at the end of _MP&THG_. Just paying the extras they hired for that big army at the end probably porked their weekly budget but good. ---
**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 14, 2011, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/42 "2011-03-14T00:46:18Z")
> [@KarlGrenze](#): > > 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? Yes, that was always the ending. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/43 "2011-03-14T03:15:46Z")
_The Bad Seed_ lightning strike. The curtain call spanking scene was even worse. ---
**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 14, 2011, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/44 "2011-03-14T03:18:44Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > The biggest laugh I got out of that movie was that Hannibal’s grandmother taught him kung fu. 😃 His aunt, Lady Murasaki. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/45 "2011-03-14T03:27:42Z")
> [@davidw](#): > > I love Steven Spielberg. I think he’ll go down in history as one of the greatest filmmakers ever. But man, he is the king of botched endings. AI, Minority Report, War of the Worlds, Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, Munich. I thought every one of those movies was fantastic, but they all had problematic endings. I disagree with you on just about every one of those. ---
**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 14, 2011, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/46 "2011-03-14T03:46:11Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > I think the phrase “worst ending” implies there was something good about what preceeded it. The special effects in **Skyline** weren’t bad, but the characters… well, let’s just say that after the initial attention-grabbing intro, I soon wanted every human character I saw to STFU and die faster, thanks. In fact, I hated the characters so much that I ranted to my husband afterwards about how I hated [Jarrod](http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1505593088/tt1564585) (played by Eric Balfour) so much that I found myself starting to hate [Richard Patrick](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Patrick) (lead singer of Filter) by extension of resemblance, just because I hated staring at Jarrod so much. And I **like** Filter, so that seriously pissed me off. 😛 As far as I can tell, the actors are decent. I just really, really hated the characters. And please don’t remind me of that ending again. _gag_ ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/47 "2011-03-14T04:14:21Z")
> [@davidw](#): > > I love Steven Spielberg. I think he’ll go down in history as one of the greatest filmmakers ever. But man, he is the king of botched endings. AI, Minority Report, War of the Worlds… Well, you can blame H.G. Wells for that last one. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/48 "2011-03-14T07:36:32Z")
I also didn’t like the end to Holy Grail. It was made worse by the lack of any end credits. We thought the video tape was busted LOL. > [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](#): > > On a lighter note, I made the mistake of watching PRINCE OF PERSIA, the end of which is they roll back time and none of the movie ever happened. SHeesh. You are hereby stripped of your license to watch time travel movies. > [@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. It was definitely unconventional. I loved it but I could see how others might hate it. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/49 "2011-03-14T07:59:15Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > Though “Lost In Translation” was one of the most over-hyped, critically fawned over, yet thoroughly-mediocre-in-every-way films of the past decade or more, the ending (which many Sundance wannabe types seemed to view as an all-time defining moment of cinema) was even more pretentious and forced than the rest of the movie. > > I can’t for the life of me understand how Lost In Translation received such high praise and adulation, when it was so void of any redeeming qualities. Ditto to all of the above (“In my opinion” obviously). _The Scarlett Letter_ with Demi Moore was a hemorrhaging mess of cliches and bad writing and ham performances all around, but if somehow it had all been redeemable up to the end (which it wasn’t) it would have ruined it. Open Spoilers: In the novel Hester Prynne and the Reverend Dimmesdale never get together, the fact that at the end of the book she’s still married and he’s dead being two of the bigger obstacles that separate them. In the movie he lives and they ride off together in a wagon. I suppose they called this (and the other 903 changes to the text) “fixing” the Hawthorne novel. Except… Then a voice over tells us that he died in an epidemic in South Carolina a few years later. Um… why give him the stay of execution? If you’re going to change the ending to a classic novel why not let him and Hester grow old, have 8 kids who all become dentists and architects and trail blazing civil rights lawyers, and ultimately die peacefully from heart attacks during an intense orgasm together when they’re 82? _Pirates of the Caribbean 3_ is to me a gauge of bad huge budget movie making, but the ending particularly sucked walrus. Hooray, yeaaaaa, we won… we blasted apart the bad East India Company’s flagship! The fact that there are about 6,200 more ships a half mile away… let’s not worry about that. They’ll probably turn around and go home now that they see we sank one. Then Will comes there for his 1 day off every 10 years to spend some quality dry land time with Elizabeth and she’s standing there with a 9 year old son. That’s sweet. Of course in reality she’d probably also have her 7 year old daughter, 4 year old twins, 2 year old younger boy and be pregnant, because ain’t no good looking woman with all of her wits going to remain true for a decade to a man who kills sailors and lives underwater anymore than any guy who isn’t a total jerkwad is going to ask her to remain true to him. And of course _Revenge of the Sith_ owns this category. I understand that Liam Neeson was supposed to make an appearance but scheduling didn’t permit- in which case this is Lucasfilm/Industrial Light and Magic- use some footage of him from the earlier film and make it look ghostly, don’t just have Yoda say “Oh, by the way, coming back from the dead for jam sessions Qui Jonn is!” I’ve had old relatives see dead people and think Vanna White’s in the room before, Obi Wan would probably do what I did: “Oh really? It must have been nice for you to see him… would you like some more apple sauce?” Then the “We’ll put the girl in this family who is rich and powerful and able to protect a foundling and completely unassociated with Annakin or Padme to further throw off the scent. And the boy we’ll send to live 3on the farm where his dad’s mom is buried a half hour from where his dad grew up and under his real surname” thing they never really cared to expound upon the logic of anymore than explaining how Obi Wan couldn’t remember R2D2. ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/50 "2011-03-14T08:50:24Z")
The Mist’s ending was just ludicrous. (spoiling it, because seriously, fuck that movie). Some protagonists decide to drive off into the mist to see what they can find and escape the grocery store, and when they run out of gas they decide to just end it all via head shots? THEN the mist clears, the army saves the day, WTF?? I much preferred the book ending which was ambiguous. They were writing their story in an abandoned hotel registry book, spending the night and not knowing if they’d find the end to the mist. ---
**Author:** ![Labtrash](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/labtrash/32/528_2.png) [@Labtrash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labtrash)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/51 "2011-03-14T10:55:47Z")
> [@EvilTOJ](#): > > The Mist’s ending was just ludicrous. (spoiling it, because seriously, fuck that movie). Some protagonists decide to drive off into the mist to see what they can find and escape the grocery store, and when they run out of gas they decide to just end it all via head shots? THEN the mist clears, the army saves the day, WTF?? I much preferred the book ending which was ambiguous. They were writing their story in an abandoned hotel registry book, spending the night and not knowing if they’d find the end to the mist. Damn. Came in to say just that, and there it is in the LAST post !😃 Fucking movie should’ve ended 2 minutes earlier.:mad: ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/52 "2011-03-14T12:45:28Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > _Pirates of the Caribbean 3_ is to me a gauge of bad huge budget movie making, but the ending particularly sucked walrus. Hooray, yeaaaaa, we won… we blasted apart the bad East India Company’s flagship! > The fact that there are about 6,200 more ships a half mile away… let’s not worry about that. They’ll probably turn around and go home now that they see we sank one. Yeah, I never understood this. Giant whirlpool sword battles, I can suspend my disbelief for. An entire frigging navy turning around because they lost one ship - um, no. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/53 "2011-03-14T13:13:17Z")
PotC3 - they lost two ships - the flagship and the _Dutchman_, which was invincible. Not that it wasn’t a bit stupid, but it wasn’t completely stupid. And I’m going to assume (based on nothing) that the pirate fleet consisted of more than the just the nine captain’s ships. Joe ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/54 "2011-03-14T14:02:40Z")
Re “War of the Worlds” – given the time it was written, I think H.G. Wells’ ending is just fine. What many people don’t like in Spielberg’s ending is the way he reunited the family. And regarding “Pirates of the Caribbean” – I love the first movie SO much, that I just pretend the other 2 don’t exist. (sequels? What sequels? No need for em except to line pockets with $). Lame, I know. But sometimes people should just leave pop culture perfection alone. Should I even mention ‘Return of the King’ and how the changes Jackson made to the ending were unnecessary? Nah. At least the first of the three LOTR movies was wonderful, and at least I got to Frodo crawling up Mt. Doom in the 3rd. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/55 "2011-03-14T14:26:01Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > 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** The [Agony Booth recap](http://www.agonybooth.com/recaps/Casino_Royale_1967.aspx?Page=13) of Casino Royale (1967) sums up the worst part of a bad ending: > [@](#): > > In accordance with all “madcap” comedies made in the late '60s, _Casino Royale_ completely goes off the rails in the final minutes, and drops all semblance of story, continuity, character, and plot. Maybe it’s because I wasn’t around at the time to understand the trend, but to me this type of ending feels like a massive _fuck you_ to anyone in the audience who just spent two hours following (or in this case, desperately _trying_ to follow) an actual story with, you know, characters. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/56 "2011-03-14T14:29:04Z")
> [@well\_he\_s\_back](#): > > At least the first of the three LOTR movies was wonderful, and at least I got to Frodo crawling up Mt. Doom in the 3rd. But he didn’t. The weak-willed, whining little bastard had to be carried up by the real hero Samwise Gamgee. ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/57 "2011-03-14T14:43:23Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > But he didn’t. The weak-willed, whining little bastard had to be carried up by the real hero Samwise Gamgee. I won’t quibble with you, as I see both as heroes, with Frodo the main hero, but that’s from my book perspective. We’ll agree to disagree. Anyway, my comment about the movie ending still stands - many poor choices by Jackson. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/58 "2011-03-14T14:50:25Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > I really didn’t like the ending of No Country for Old Men. I don’t mind a downer ending now and then, but this ending was just pointless. The story essentially ended 20 minutes before, so everything afterwords was just strange, pointless crap. That’s the one I came in here to say. Yeah, I get what they were going for. But dammit, they spent the whole movie setting you up for a big showdown, and then…nothing. The film was all build-up with no payoff. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an otherwise great movie. But the ending is one big WTF moment. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/59 "2011-03-14T14:52:16Z")
_Ransom_. Shoulda ended with Gary Sinise taking the reward, disappearing to the Bahamas or whatever. Instead we get the Hayes-ish tacked on “just desserts” ending. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/60 "2011-03-14T15:07:56Z")
I hesitate to mention it, since I’ve never actually seen it, but everyone I know who’s ever seen James Cameron’s **the Abyss** has made the same comment “What a STOOPID ending that was!” As far as films I have seen, I think the prize-winner has to be **the Life of David Gale** has got to be the most idiotic, only partially because the film-makers clearly thought that this was an ingenious twist. David Gale (Kevin Spacey) is an anti-death penalty activist who is sentenced to death for murdering his assistant. It turns out that his assistant was suffering from a terminal illness, committed suicide, but that she deliberately framed Gale (with his help!) for her death to _prove_ that innocent people can sometimes be sentenced to death! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512.md?page=4)