# Worst movie cop-outs **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 10, 2005, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movie-cop-outs/320926 "2005-09-10T02:11:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![SolGrundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@SolGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolGrundy)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movie-cop-outs/320926/41 "2005-09-11T20:11:54Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I disagree with that pretty strongly, as your imagined version would destroy the entire theme of the film by making one of the two antagonists transparently hateful. Killing an innocent animal just to get back at her husband? Almost anything Douglas’s character did after that short of homicide would be forgiveable. He would clearly be the good guy, and Turner the bad guy, and the entire point of the movie is that there’s no clear way to favor one of these characters over the other. Exactly. People have always complained about that scene in _War of the Roses_, when killing the dog would’ve been an even **bigger** cop-out. The whole point of the movie was that they couldn’t live together and just hated each other to the point of destroying each other – there was no one clear “winner.” That’s a lot more dismal than killing a pet for shock value. I also disagree with the _War of the Worlds_ comment earlier, because without it, the movie would have been completely bleak and pointless. It would’ve been better from a logical standpoint if they’d explained exactly how the son had survived and gotten back to Boston before them, but that would’ve dragged the movie out even longer. But having him survive at all isn’t a cop-out; it was just enough to keep the story from being totally hopless, to say that you’re not punished for wanting to fight back against insurmountable odds, that you can survive and it is worth fighting for. Otherwise, the only survivor of the whole ordeal would’ve been the deadbeat dad. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movie-cop-outs/320926/42 "2005-09-11T20:44:21Z")
Don’t know why I didn’t think of this right off – _The Devil’s Advocate_. There are a lot of things to like in the movie: Al Pacino’s performance, good direction, some excellent visuals, and let’s just say that when Connie Nielsen says “Look at me”, I will damn well look. But right at the end:Keanu Reeve’s character, Kevin Lomax, learns that his employer, John Milton (no kidding) is both Satan and Kevin’s father. Satan’s plan is his two children, Kevin and Christabella (Connie Nielsen) to conceive a child together and rule the world. Kevin foils the plan in the only way he can, by killing himself. We see Satan raging and destroying his daughter, but then – suddenly everything gets “reset” to the beginning of the movie, when Kevin faced a moral choice in the courtroom, the choice that started him on the road to damnation. This time he makes a different choice. What the hell were they thinking about? When Kevin puts a bullet through his own head, it’s as close to a “happy” ending as the premise of the movie allows; the additional ending makes no sense at all. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movie-cop-outs/320926/43 "2005-09-11T20:57:14Z")
The movie adaptation of _Fatherland_. Bleargh. (Spoojed a ridiculous “the good guys win, after all!” ending onto it.) ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movie-cop-outs/320926/44 "2005-09-11T21:07:48Z")
The cartoon version of **Animal Farm** had the farm animals revolting against the humans and pigs at the end. And the live action TV-version from a few years ago had a happy ending, too. ---
**Author:** ![Menocchio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Menocchio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Menocchio)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movie-cop-outs/320926/45 "2005-09-11T21:07:50Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > I thought that they oppossed _deep_ cuts. As in, if the entire skin is broken through, then the soul will flee. A small cut isn’t bad, because most of the skin is still intact. And yes, I imagine that, if they had a war, and soldiers had deep wounds, they would not be healed, and some might kill themselves. IIRC, it wasn’t so much a cut, but the opening of the chest cavity, perhaps even a specific (alien) organ. Not the kind of thing that would happen in everyday activity. Not even the sort of thing that would preclude most basic medical care. In fact, the parents seemed shocked that such a thing was even medically possible, so it may be that such a procedure was only possibly in recent times. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movie-cop-outs/320926/46 "2005-09-11T21:14:32Z")
> [@Baldwin](#): > > Don’t know why I didn’t think of this right off – _The Devil’s Advocate_. There are a lot of things to like in the movie: Al Pacino’s performance, good direction, some excellent visuals, and let’s just say that when Connie Nielsen says “Look at me”, I will damn well look. But right at the end:Keanu Reeve’s character, Kevin Lomax, learns that his employer, John Milton (no kidding) is both Satan and Kevin’s father. Satan’s plan is his two children, Kevin and Christabella (Connie Nielsen) to conceive a child together and rule the world. Kevin foils the plan in the only way he can, by killing himself. We see Satan raging and destroying his daughter, but then – suddenly everything gets “reset” to the beginning of the movie, when Kevin faced a moral choice in the courtroom, the choice that started him on the road to damnation. This time he makes a different choice. What the hell were they thinking about? When Kevin puts a bullet through his own head, it’s as close to a “happy” ending as the premise of the movie allows; the additional ending makes no sense at all. I feel obliged to point out the important thing you left out: both connie Nielsen and Charlize Theron appear utterly naked in this movie. For some reason, though, there was no tasteful shower scene showing the two of them comforting each other over…um…oh, who cares. Reaganomics. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movie-cop-outs/320926/47 "2005-09-11T21:20:52Z")
> [@Agrippina](#): > > **The Bad Seed** > > Where Rhoda is struck by lightning at the end instead of surviving and having her mother die. Not to mention the corny ending where the cast bow like at the end of a play and it shows the mother spanking Rhoda. So that’s what that movie was called. I remember seeing it when I was in the first grade, but never knew what it was called. > [@Baldwin](#): > > Don’t know why I didn’t think of this right off – The Devil’s Advocate. There are a lot of things to like in the movie: Al Pacino’s performance, good direction, some excellent visuals, and let’s just say that when Connie Nielsen says “Look at me”, I will damn well look. But right at the end > > Keanu Reeve’s character, Kevin Lomax, learns that his employer, John Milton (no kidding) is both Satan and Kevin’s father. Satan’s plan is his two children, Kevin and Christabella (Connie Nielsen) to conceive a child together and rule the world. Kevin foils the plan in the only way he can, by killing himself. We see Satan raging and destroying his daughter, but then – suddenly everything gets “reset” to the beginning of the movie, when Kevin faced a moral choice in the courtroom, the choice that started him on the road to damnation. This time he makes a different choice. What the hell were they thinking about? When Kevin puts a bullet through his own head, it’s as close to a “happy” ending as the premise of the movie allows; the additional ending makes no sense at all. It makes sense because after he talks to the reporter, having the reporter says he’ll be big because he was a lawyer who was moral and such, the reporter turns towards the camera and says something like, “Pride, my favorite sin.” This shows that yes, Kevin made a different choice, but he’s still so prideful that it will still bring him down, the devil will have to just use another way, but it’s not over. I think it was a fitting ending because after all that happened, Kevin never changed deep down. When I saw that, I said outloud to my friends, “Well, that’s just mean.” ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movie-cop-outs/320926/48 "2005-09-11T22:03:51Z")
In **The Pacifier** Vin Diesel is a Navy SEAL who’s assigned to (essentially) babysit for the family of a murdered army scientist, and under that cover, seek out the scientist’s project. The kids are having a real hard time dealing with their father’s demise, especially a teenaged boy who was pressured by Dad into joining the wrestling team, which is run by an overly macho jerk that constantly puts him down. While performing father-figure duty, Vin is called into the principal’s office, and is presented with a Nazi armband that the teenaged boy had in his pocket. So, it seems like the kid feels some major alienation and needs some serious help, right? Nope…it turns out he’s been _acting_ on the sly and has a role as Rolf in a production of the Sound of Music. He just doesn’t think his dad would have approved of his being in the drama club. Quite frankly, I would have liked to see this have been a real struggle to get the kid away from a really bad crowd rather than the kid be essentially innocent and easy to deal with. ---
**Author:** ![Gr8Kat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gr8kat/32/18668_2.png) [@Gr8Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gr8Kat)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2005, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movie-cop-outs/320926/49 "2005-09-12T01:49:53Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I disagree with that pretty strongly, as your imagined version would destroy the entire theme of the film by making one of the two antagonists transparently hateful. Killing an innocent animal just to get back at her husband? Almost anything Douglas’s character did after that short of homicide would be forgiveable. He would clearly be the good guy, and Turner the bad guy, and the entire point of the movie is that there’s no clear way to favor one of these characters over the other. I suppose. It just always seemed to me that Turner’s character wasn’t convinced that Douglas’s killing of her cat was accidental, and that turn-about then would have been fair play. Further, we never see the dog again. It seems like at the end, if he was in the house, he would have been under the chandelier, or, if he was outside, he would have been following Danny DeVito and the German maid. Dogs are always where the action is. Finally, the scene just _looks_ inserted. I will concede that I’m usually slow on the uptake and have to have things spelled out for me. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2005, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movie-cop-outs/320926/50 "2005-09-12T01:52:05Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > Quite frankly, I would have liked to see this have been a real struggle to get the kid away from a really bad crowd rather than the kid be essentially innocent and easy to deal with. That’s a terrible copout, and petrifyingly stupid to boot… but on the other hand, it’s a _Vin Diesel movie_. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2005, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movie-cop-outs/320926/51 "2005-09-12T03:40:07Z")
> [@Bill Door](#): > > Then, when I’m thinking here it comes, Fraser and Brooks are coming off the roof onto home plate Like Kong came off the Empire State Building, Nebraska decides he will pitch after all, a helicopter comes and lowers him to the field like a mechanical _deus ex machina_, and he pitches to victory. All the clues pointed the other way. Will I get things thrown at me for nit-pickingly noting that all _deus ex machina_ are mechanical? The original _machina_ was a crane with which the god was lowered onto the stage to arrange the satisfying resolution. ---
**Author:** ![soulmurk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@soulmurk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/soulmurk)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2005, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movie-cop-outs/320926/52 "2005-09-12T03:48:58Z")
> [@Case Sensitive](#): > > Will I get things thrown at me for nit-pickingly noting that all _deus ex machina_ are mechanical? The original _machina_ was a crane with which the god was lowered onto the stage to arrange the satisfying resolution. _throws definition 2 of deus ex machina at **Case Sensitive** _ > [@](#): > > 2 : a person or thing (as in fiction or drama) that appears or is introduced suddenly and unexpectedly and provides a contrived solution to an apparently insoluble difficulty ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2005, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movie-cop-outs/320926/53 "2005-09-12T04:02:57Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > The movie adaptation of _Fatherland_. Bleargh. (Spoojed a ridiculous “the good guys win, after all!” ending onto it.) Well, but to be honest, it was the unhappy ending in the book that irritated me: C’mon! Even if he couldn’t face the idea that his son would rat him out, he HAD to know they’d be watching him. He had to know that was the last place he should go. And what was he really goingto do there other than pat him on the head and say goodbye? Better to take what he’d been working for the whole book and hope he can go back and get his son when the government was toppled than…what? he wasnt that stupid. I thought in that case the unhappy ending was contrived. ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2005, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movie-cop-outs/320926/54 "2005-09-12T04:06:03Z")
> [@Agrippina](#): > > The cartoon version of **Animal Farm** had the farm animals revolting against the humans and pigs at the end. And the live action TV-version from a few years ago had a happy ending, too. Yes. The 'merkins showed up to save them. Definatly a cop out…although if they’d let Old Benjamin get in the last word… ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2005, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movie-cop-outs/320926/55 "2005-09-12T05:35:47Z")
> [@soulmurk](#): > > The worst cop-out is deus ex machina. > > It’s like the writers write themselves into a corner and have no other means to extricate the intrepid heros but for the Hand of God[sup]TM[/sup]; used quite literally in: > > Stephen King’s “The Stand” The Superflu caused so much pain, oh! And with evil a raging volcano Flagg’s triumph seemed certain Until King drew the curtain By pulling a _deus ex ano!_ :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2005, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movie-cop-outs/320926/56 "2005-09-12T05:47:00Z")
In _The Bad Seed_ (1956) ([http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048977/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048977/)), based on a Broadway play which was in turn based on a 1954 novel by William March ([http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0880015403/qid=1126504169/sr=8-2/ref=pd\_bbs\_2/103-8889631-7055829?v=glance&s=books&n=507846](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0880015403/qid=1126504169/sr=8-2/ref=pd_bbs_2/103-8889631-7055829?v=glance&s=books&n=507846)), at the end, while her mother is laid up in the hospital following a failed suicide attempt, sociopathic little Rhoda is out at the dock, at night in the rain, fishing for a swimming medal she killed a boy to get; a bolt of lightning hits a tree and a bough falls down, killing her. Classic _dem._ Now, I’ve never read the book or seen the play. But I’d be willing to bet 10 Anh-Morpork dollars against 100 million Slobbovian rasbuckniks that in both of them, (1) the mother dies and (2) the daughter lives, to inflict her evil on an unsuspecting world. But Hollywood just didn’t have that kind of guts. ---
**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:** [September 12, 2005, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movie-cop-outs/320926/57 "2005-09-12T06:54:38Z")
> [@Menocchio](#): > > IIRC, it wasn’t so much a cut, but the opening of the chest cavity, perhaps even a specific (alien) organ. Not the kind of thing that would happen in everyday activity. Not even the sort of thing that would preclude most basic medical care. In fact, the parents seemed shocked that such a thing was even medically possible, so it may be that such a procedure was only possibly in recent times. That was my take on it, too. When the father is talking about the taboo for the first time, he compares it to the slaughtering of herd animals, which would include gutting and skinning them. I think they believed that the sould was held in the thorassic cavity, and being a bunch of pre-technological nomadic herders, there usually wouldn’t be a way to save someone with a wound like that. I also wonder if there wasn’t an unknown biological component, like thier particular species goes psychotic when wounds turn gangrenous, or something, that would be interpreted by primitives as being possessed by a demon. So most of their people who get stabbed in the torso die, and those that survive almost always turn violently insane: obvious conclusion is that the soul lives somewhere in the torso, and escapes when the torso is cut open, sometimes allowing something else to get in. I also wonder if Dr. Franklin had just said, in an offhand manner, “Oh, we’ve developed a special force field that will retain the soul in the chest cavity while we complete the operation,” if the parents would have gone a long with it. From their point of view, that must be no less outrageous and impossible a feat as flying between the stars. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2005, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movie-cop-outs/320926/58 "2005-09-12T07:27:55Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > That was my take on it, too. When the father is talking about the taboo for the first time, he compares it to the slaughtering of herd animals, which would include gutting and skinning them. . . . Correct me if I’m wrong, but I perceive that this story is being discussed in this thread only for the sake of providing contrast. The plot of that particular _B5_ episode scrupulously avoided any kind of a cop-out. (And off the top of my head, I can’t think of any obvious cop-outs in the whole series. That’s one of the things that made it really great, as space operas go.) ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2005, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movie-cop-outs/320926/59 "2005-09-12T07:58:56Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > **Baldwin** , did you ever watch the show Babylon 5? In the first season there was an episode titled “Believers” In it the parents of a boy balked at the necessary surgery to cure his debilitating lung condition. Not to hijack the thread, but that reminds me of the _Star Trek: Deep Space Nine_ novel, “The Seige.” The main plot’s about a murderer on the station, but the backstory has the whole sick alien kid who can’t be treated due to religious beliefs, and the doctor trying to thwart conventions plot going on. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2005, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movie-cop-outs/320926/60 "2005-09-12T11:08:53Z")
> [@betenoir](#): > > Yes. The 'merkins showed up to save them. . I’m really getting tired of that fucking word. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movie-cop-outs/320926.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-movie-cop-outs/320926.md?page=4)