# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![Sakuma\_Drops](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sakuma\_Drops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sakuma_Drops)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/81 "2011-03-15T02:01:26Z")
> [@kushiel](#): > > Crankypants romantic me is sad they cut all the Faramir and Eowyn stuff out. At least they included it in the Extended Edition DVD of _ROTK_. Better than nothing, I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/82 "2011-03-15T02:09:05Z")
Gone with the Wind should have ended right after Rhet Butler says, "Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.’ and walks away into the mist ---
**Author:** ![Roadfood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc348/32.png) [@Roadfood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roadfood)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/83 "2011-03-16T06:05:48Z")
> [@Don\_Draper](#): > > 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! For me, the worst part near the end was when they trotted out that horrible, terrible, trite, needs-to-be-banned-forever cliche of the person rushing to save him and having car trouble. My nominee: **Twelve Monkeys**. As with the above, the ending was a tired, worn-out cliche, straight out of “Time Travel Writing 101”, the ending that anyone who’s ever watched or read more than one time travel story would be thinking throughout the movie, “Nah, that’s just so trite and obvious, they couldn’t possibly be going there”. But they did. Ooo, it’s his older self in his childhood memories. Ooo, he actually caused (or allowed, whatever) the plague he was sent back to prevent. Made the entire movie (which otherwise wasn’t bad) totally pointless. ---
**Author:** ![vandal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/858c86/32.png) [@vandal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vandal)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/84 "2011-03-16T06:21:40Z")
**Heat**. I always thought it should have been Pacino who dies and not De Niro. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/85 "2011-03-16T06:40:24Z")
> [@LH75](#): > > Gone with the Wind should have ended right after Rhet Butler says, "Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.’ and walks away into the mist Let’s get some fusion going in this thread, and say that it would have been better if Rhett had walked away into The Mist, where he’s eaten by an extradimensional tentacle monster. ---
**Author:** ![Trepa\_Mayfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@Trepa\_Mayfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trepa_Mayfield)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/86 "2011-03-16T06:49:46Z")
> [@Roadfood](#): > > My nominee: **Twelve Monkeys**. As with the above, the ending was a tired, worn-out cliche, straight out of “Time Travel Writing 101”, the ending that anyone who’s ever watched or read more than one time travel story would be thinking throughout the movie, “Nah, that’s just so trite and obvious, they couldn’t possibly be going there”. But they did. Ooo, it’s his older self in his childhood memories. Ooo, he actually caused (or allowed, whatever) the plague he was sent back to prevent. Made the entire movie (which otherwise wasn’t bad) totally pointless. That’s more a problem with Time Travel stories, though, isn’t it? There’s only a few ways to end a time travel story without breaking logic in half, and once you’ve seen them all, they get kind of predictable. I know I wouldn’t go into a time travel story expecting to be surprised anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/87 "2011-03-16T06:53:14Z")
> [@davidw](#): > > Schindler’s List Such a manipulative lie. Pissed me off. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/88 "2011-03-16T06:54:57Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > As I mentioned back when it recently opened, The Tourist has an ending that will make your eyes roll back so far it hurts. But you had to see it coming from miles and miles away. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/89 "2011-03-16T06:56:56Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > The curtain call spanking scene was even worse. Ding ding ding… I think we may have a winner. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/90 "2011-03-16T06:58:21Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > 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_ I can’t remember it - oh wait. I just did. Holy mother of god. The thing that made me crazy in that movie was the ridiculous “I can’t be around cigarette smoke” scene. Are you fucking KIDDING? ---
**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 16, 2011, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/91 "2011-03-16T10:49:49Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > The thing that made me crazy in that movie was the ridiculous “I can’t be around cigarette smoke” scene. Are you fucking KIDDING? Yeah, I think that was supposed to be her “I’m OK with becoming a mommy” scene but still, WTF, priorities. Besides, I’m pretty sure that stuff getting vaporized outside and sucked into the ventilation system (as long as that was still running) would be worse for you. > [@Odesio](#): > > Wow. Funny how people can have such different opinions. I thought the ending of Blair Witch was really effective. Especially with that one guy standing facing the wall like the children we had heard about earlier in the movie. I agree, I was vehemently disliking much of **Blair Witch** until that scene, which was really effective for me. Prior to that I was loathing the characters fairly deeply and merely annoyed with them. ---
**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 16, 2011, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/92 "2011-03-16T11:18:48Z")
I’m gonna say the original movie of **The Producers** , although it’s not so much the ending as the whole third act. The movie is brilliant right up to the point that they discover that the show is a hit, and then…the inspiration vanishes and the rest of the film is just a quick and dirty wrap-up, completely with comedy vaudeville drunk sitting on a dynamite detonator. This was fixed in the musical version - the ending, while still farce, was at least consistent with the rest of the show - but without Gene Wilder it just wasn’t the same. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/93 "2011-03-16T14:27:07Z")
Heaven’s Gate is widely acclaimed to be a big disaster, sure. Wild West, 1870. Cattlemen vs. a group of immigrants horning in. Shooting. Blasting. Battles. Hero falls for a madam of a bordello. Horses. Dust. At the end, our hero is on a yacht some years later. A woman on the yacht (I don’t believe was even in the movie at all) asks him for a cigarette. The. End. 😕 I haven’t seen this movie in decades, and there may have been a more fitting ending re: the cattlemen vs. the immigrants. This dumb last scene seemed just tacked on (maybe because there was a yacht available and they wanted to use it). If it’s germaine to the story, please correct me. ---
**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/94 "2011-03-16T14:38:18Z")
> [@Sakuma\_Drops](#): > > At least they included it in the Extended Edition DVD of _ROTK_. Better than nothing, I suppose. IIRC, they just hold hands. I wanted that kiss, damnit! I was a teenager when the movies came out, so that’s my excuse. 😛 ---
**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 16, 2011, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/95 "2011-03-16T15:03:03Z")
> [@](#): > > My nominee: Twelve Monkeys. As with the above, the ending was a tired, worn-out cliche, straight out of “Time Travel Writing 101”, the ending that anyone who’s ever watched or read more than one time travel story would be thinking throughout the movie, “Nah, that’s just so trite and obvious, they couldn’t possibly be going there”. But they did. I’m no big fan of **Twelve Monkeys** , by any standard, but I have to defend it on this point. Whether you’re aware of it or not, 12M is a remake/expansion of a classic French SF film **La Jetee** – one of the earlier time-travel films (despite being made circa 1960), back when this cliche hadn’t been done to death in cinema. Of _course_ they were going to end it that way – it wouldn’t have any point if they didn’t. They’d be making a completely different, non-remake movie. it makes as much sense to fault them for this as it would to fault a remake of _Gone with the Wind_ for including the line “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn!” because it had been used so many times. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/96 "2011-03-16T15:23:29Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > I agree, I was vehemently disliking much of **Blair Witch** until that scene, which was really effective for me. Prior to that I was loathing the characters fairly deeply and merely annoyed with them. I loathed everything about it, the camera work most of all. ---
**Author:** ![lisacurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/41988e/32.png) [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/97 "2011-03-16T16:01:39Z")
The ending of _The Bad Seed_ was changed because of the Hays Code. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/98 "2011-03-16T16:41:54Z")
> [@lisacurl](#): > > The ending of _The Bad Seed_ was changed because of the Hays Code. 'Splain? Did the brat fail to get her comeuppance? It’s been a while since I’ve seen it. Though it’s not precisely in the spirit of the thread, I’ve always been grateful to the Dope for keeping me from seeing _The Village_, which I’m sure I would have hurried off to eventually. The ending is the big reveal and precisely the plot, but I think I might have killed something if I’d of had to sit through it. ---
**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:** [March 16, 2011, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/99 "2011-03-16T17:15:26Z")
> [@Ellen\_Cherry](#): > > 'Splain? Did the brat fail to get her comeuppance? It’s been a while since I’ve seen it. [Wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bad_Seed_(film)#Censorship) ---
**Author:** ![lisacurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/41988e/32.png) [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512/100 "2011-03-16T17:27:37Z")
Pretty sure that in the book, the mother tries to off the kid with some pills, then kills herself in a more decisive way… kid survives, mother does not. In the movie, I think the mother tries to kill herself, survives, but God strikes the sociopath kid down via lightning bolt. Edit to add - or check the wiki link given by Superdude. I just remembered it was censored because the atmosphere of the times wouldn’t allow the psycho kid to go unpunished or unchecked. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-worst-endings/574512.md?page=6)