Filmcritic.com just came out with their list of the top 50 film endings of all time. What’s on the list that shouldn’t be? Also, what should be on the list and isn’t? The one that occured to me was the ending to Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry. Not a great flick, but man what an ending!
One that’s missing is the ending of Last of the Mohicans: the climactic fight scene, the suicide, the mournful speech at the end. Packs quite a wallop.
Oh yeah, and the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
They needed to add the ending to the Grade Z Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry. The movie ending I’ve always wanted to do, to so many movies!
Dirty Harry. Cllint Eastwood guns down the killer and then disgustedly chucks his badge in the lake. Completely understated, but chilling in its implications - he’s given up being a cop, but is he turning vigilante? has he just given up on society? Sadly undercut by the sequels, where it’s business as usual.
I thought The Sting had a pretty good ending even if it did take a bit of disbelief suspension.
How about the ending to Carrie? I damn near wet myself!
Braveheart - Wallace yelling “FREEEDOM!!!” while being tortured and Robert the Bruce finally growing a pair.
Saving Private Ryan - We realize the old dude is Ryan, not Capt Miller and he asks his wife if he’s “earned this”.
Mad Max - “The chain in those handcuffs is high-tensile steel. It’d take you ten minutes to hack through it with this. Now, if you’re lucky, you could hack through your ankle in five minutes. Go.”…BOOM
I liked The 40-Year-Old Virgin, but the “Let the Sunshine In” ending just took it to a whole other level for me.
What about the ending to The Sixth Sense? I was convinced that was going to be #1, yet it didn’t even make the list.
And with good reason. I figured it out about 30 minutes into the movie. The same thing goes with a number of other “twist” movie endings.
Are you effin’ kidding me? No The Third Man or White Heat? :rolleyes:
Missing for me are:
No Way Out
All along, we “knew” there was no Soviet mole, and Kevin Costner’s character was constantly on the verge of being falsely accused of being one. In the last scene, it’s revealed that he had really been one all along!
and Life of Brian: How can you beat a chorus of crucified people singing “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”?
I agree. When he first starts singing in bed, I was like “What the fuck are they thinking?” and then about 30 seconds in I’m thinking, “brilliant. absollutely brilliant”.
Anyway. . .my vote would be for John Sayle’s Lone Star when they’re sitting at the Drive In Movie theater and she says
forget the alamo
Nicely turning the original phrase over, it also completely sums up all the themes of that movie. It’s more of just a “last line” than an “ending” but it’s such a perfect last line, that it carries the ending.
There’s some nicely thought out choices on that list. Yeah, you gotta go with Chinatown. . .but the ending of Before Sunset gave me goosebumps. I thought it was about the best movie in 2004.
Also, it’s cool seeing Real Genius on the list. That’s just one of those movies when you’re younger you think, “great ending. What a great ending.” Who can hear “Everybody Wants to RUle the World” without imagining the popcorn coming out of that house.
You gotta put Sixth Sense on it though. I don’t care if some people figured it out 5 minutes into the film. If you didn’t figure it out (which I’m man enough to admit I didn’t), it’s probably the most memorable ending ever.
Buckaroo Banzai - tho that might be “best ending credits” rather than ending per se.
Brian
My thoughts on seeing the OP, before I read the list, were-
Planet of the Apes
A Clockwork Orange
Being There
Brazil
2001: A Space Odyssey
Only the last wasn’t on the list.
An added one- The Bride of Frankenstein… “We belong dead!”
Seems to be a bit of a cop out, I prefer the ending of the Donald Sutherland 1973 film.
There’s also a 1993 remake titled Body Snatchers, not as good as either but somewhere in there a woman displays a nice rack 
Batman Returns!? Of all the movie endings in history Batman Returns is one of the top 50? I liked the film alright, but that seems a really weird choice.
I would agree with you except that the twist wasn’t the end of the movie; another scene followed.
Now that I think about it, I may be misremembering that. The scene at the school play was before the “reveal”. I was thinking it was after.
Never mind.
Sixth Sense should be on the list.