Best Movie Endings ever

Yes, I had to start this thread because (a) there's a worst endings thread and (b) I'm a contrary bitch like that. What's the best ending, in your opinion - the one that really surprised you, made you happy or scared the bejesus out of you?

• For me there can be no other: Color Purple. The moment at the end when the two sisters reunite still wrecks me to this day. "CELIE!!!!!!! NETTIE!!!!!!"

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• I really liked the ending of Spanking the Monkey. The use of "In Spite of Me" by Morphine was just perfect.

• "Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison" - I figured that one of them would be killed by the Japs and it would end with the other kneeling at the grave as the Yanks arrived.

• Invictus. They win. Hooray!

• There can be no other answer than "The Sixth Sense."

• Hard "to top the shawshank redemption for a great ending

• The end of "Frailty" was good and surprising. Turns out Paxton wasn't crazy after all.

• 12 Monkeys and Brokeback Mountain. And for sentimental reasons, An Officer And A Gentleman.

• Kathleen Turner on the beach in "Body Heat"

• Birdy

• The endings of these movies were unforgettable: "Planet of the Apes" (original, of course) "Bonnie and Clyde" The Vanishing (original, of course) "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" "Deliverance" "American Graffiti" "The 400 Blows" "Au Revoir, Les Infants" "Testament" "Annie Hall" "Das Boot" "Brazil"

• The best movie endings are Billy Wilder's SUNSET BOULEVARD and SOME LIKE IT HOT. Period.

• Any Gwyneth Paltrow movie where she dies at the end...

  Winona%20Ryder

• "Valley of the Dolls"! Of Course. That little broad rollin' around in the alley screamin' her ass off! That's an ending. HA! Now, get your lousy tail in gear and make me a drink!

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• Nashville. A perfect ending. McCabe and Mrs. Miller isn't too bad either.

• Female Trouble!

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• R14, that's not how VOTD ends. Have you seen it?

• Shawshank Redemption. Best movie ending ever. After all that pain the chacaters go through, I still leave the movie smiling and in tears with how it ended for the two leads..

• Dancer in the Dark... Kidding!

• The ending of River Phoenix's "Running on Empty" is the most gut wrenching ending ever. I haven't seen the film in fifteen years, and I still can recite it.

• Cabaret

• Sixth Sense ending was a TOTAL surprise.

• Midnight Cowboy. From Here to Eternity. I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang. All Quiet on the Western Front. Many I'd have chosen are already posted.

  anonymous

• Carrie. Worked for a theater at the time this came out, and we always knew when to throw the doors open for the crowd's exit -- right after the screaming.

• Casablanca.

• Brokeback mountain so very sad and poignant.

• Amour Some Like It Hot Hannah and Her Sisters Bringing Up Baby The Heiress A Christmas Carol (Alistair Sim) A Tale of Two Cities (Ronald Colman) Gone With The Wind Pan's Labyrinth The Nun's Story Carrie Notorious Queen Christina The Sixth Sense Roman Holiday Smiles of a Summer Night Sunset Boulevard Children of Paradise The Little Foxes Now, Voyager] Crimes and Misdemeanors

• The midget in Don't Look Now!

• Well,That's how it ends for ME baby! Listen r14, I know the film actually ends with Annie finding her voice, leaving Lyon and swinging that god damned stick around. I know! Let an old pro like me have a little fun. Will ya? Now where the hell is the god damned Scotch?

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• Sorry make that r17!

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• Purple Rose of Cairo

• I liked the amazing ending to Saved by the Bell: Wedding in Las Vegas when Tiffani's fat face explodes and the gang raises money by selling friendship bands to put it back together again. Tiffani Thiessen Fat Facer

• Psycho

• The unexpected ending of Cinema Paradiso.. heartbreaking and joyous at the same time. Simply stunning.

• Pixar movies have wonderful endings. [italic]Wall-E[/italic] - when the shot pulls back to reveal the sea of green saplings. It always makes me gasp a little; absolutely fucking gorgrous. [italic]Monsters Inc.[/italic] - Sulley opens the door.'Boo?' [italic]Up[/italic] - the clouds part, and we see Carl and Ellie's house having finally landed by the waterfall. Beautiful.

• Thelma and Louise. Children of Men.

• Femme Fatale

• Lots of good choices on here. Definitely agree with Shawhshank and The Heiress Also was moved by the ending of Schindler's List Places in the Heart Platoon Sophie's Choice The Horse Whisperer For some reason the closing credits (not necessarily the ending scene) in Cast Away also moved me. Just the sound of the waves cresting as the credits rolled. It just sort of drove the point home how lonely we can all get at times on our own 'island'. (Mary!)

• Burn After Reading is the absolute best.

• "Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown."

• I second both Thelma and Louise, and Brokeback Mountain. The former because it manages to be both tragic and uplifting at the same time. They beat the men, but they're, uh, dead. (Sorry, spoiler alert.) And the latter because it is just so heartbreaking. There's never a time when I put more than one shirt on a hanger when doing laundry that I don't think about that ending.

• Babe. I always quote the final line after a hookup.

• It's A Wonderful Life Dinner at Eight It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming Cold Turkey The Producers Life of Brian Charly Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe? White Heat Soylent Green Halloween Fight Club

• Before Sunset "Baby, you are going to miss that plane."

• The Usual Suspect ! You see him modify his gait and disappear and you know that the policeman will never find him! And you cheer, even if Kaise Sozë is a terrible man. I also love the ending of Shawshak Redemption and Cinema Paradiso. Psycho is unforgettable. It kept me from sleeping the first time I saw it as a kid. The shower scene didn't scare me, even though it is intense, because the movie is famous for it and I knew it was going to happen before seeing the movie on tv. I knew the old mother was dead and the son was wearing his dress to go and kill people. Didn't expect Norman Bates to be "really" in character. His spirit is dead and he is leaving as a evil old lady. The look on is face at the end was one of the scariest thing for me at the time! And that's the final shot!

• I was going to post Looking For Mr Goodbar as a joke but really it was a very powerful ending that everyone who has seen the movie, remembers.

• first to come to mind: Blair Witch Project. (for the ending, not for the movie overall) No Country for Old men.

• The Vanishing (the original - Spoorloos) Kieslowski's Trois Couleurs: Rouge

• I actually screamed out loud when the ring fell to the floor in "The Sixth Sense"...the ending totally surprised and shocked me. I cried so loud like a baby at the end of "Brokeback Mountain" that it took an hour for my friends to calm me down. I tend to embarrass my friends at the theater, because I tend to become a drama queen.

• [quote]Shawshank Redemption. Best movie ending ever. After all that pain the chacaters go through, I still leave the movie smiling and in tears with how it ended for the two leads.. Yeah, the ending was so uplifting

• [quote]The midget in Don't Look Now! I saw that when I was very young, and that scared the heck out of me.

• I love the ending to (the original) "Taking of Pelham, One, Two, Three"--detective Walter Matthau catches the last surviving subway hijacker (Martin Balsam)literally in the last frames of the film. Matthau's character has been communicating with the ringleader (Robert Shaw) via two-way radio; the only other hijacker he hears is Balsam's character, who has a bad cold and has been sneezing--and getting "gesundheits" from Walter--throughout the movie. You're kind of pulling for Balsam because he's not a ruthless killer like his accomplices; he was brought in because he's a former train conductor who was fired unfairly. If he hadn't spent those 30 seconds mouthing off to Matthau he would've gotten away with the one million dollar ransom money! It's Matthau's face at the end that makes the scene!

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DXK3D1Fxk8UQ

  Anonymous

• Apocalypto

  anonymous

• Laura All About Eve

• Who Framed Roger Rabit. The whole cartoon animation song and dance while the real life figures enter into the cartoon sunset background was so over the top cheesy. Maurice. Scudder and Maurice together while Clive remembering fondly the good ol' times where he and Maurice were still buddies. Romancing the Stone. Michael Douglas in crocodile boots kissing Kathleen Turner, the love romance novelist on a boat.

• Glad someone mentioned Pan's Labyrinth.

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• Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn. There's no place like home.

• A Passage to India. Judy Davis's wordless facial expression when she looks out of the window into the rain, thinking about Dr. Aziz's final letter to her, is just unforgettable. And then someone calls her away from the window, and the moment is broken forever.

• Trainspotting!

• The Apartment ("Shut up and deal") 2001: A Space Odyssey To Kill a Mockingbird The Blair Witch Project The Shining Oceans 11 (1960) Melancholia (scary/devastating) Rosemary's Baby (ambiguous) Titanic Sorry Wrong Number The Graduate (ambiguous) and another vote for The Wizard of Oz, Shawshank Redemption, Thelma & Louise and White Heat

• And Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

  R60

• Color Purple, Wizard of Oz, and Field of Dreams.

• Manhattan The Last Picture Show Grease

• Final report of the commercial starship Nostromo, third officer reporting. The other members of the crew, Kane, Lambert, Parker, Brett, Ash and Captain Dallas, are dead. Cargo and ship destroyed. I should reach the frontier in about six weeks. With a little luck, the network will pick me up. This is Ripley, last survivor of the Nostromo, signing off. Come on, cat.

• Some Like It Hot "Well, nobody's perfect!"

• Humor: "Some Like it Hot." Surprise: "The Sixth Sense." Shock: "Psycho." Despair: "Breaker Morant." Revenge: "The Heiress." Joy: "The Search." Sports: "Hoosiers."

• "Grease?" You must be kidding. That movie SUCKED! The ending was trite and predictable.

• I just liked how everyone was so happy and the car went up in the air. I know it's silly and trite, but it makes me smile R67.

• Mikey and Nicky.

• Depressing: Melancholia.

• Romcom- "Roman Holiday" by far. It's just too damn bittersweet. Gregory Peck claimed that he and Audrey Hepburn were, in the 70s, willing to be in a sequel but for reasiins not stated, it never happened. I'm glad about that. Drama- The Godfather, Part II. Michael has been alone all of his life. Drama- another vote for "Body Heat." The villain thrives! Too many more to mention...

  Della

• The first Paranormal Activity. Scared the beejeezus out of me.

• "The Mist" (2007) From an old Stephen king novella, the movie ending was TOTALLY UNEXPECTED and 100% Non-Hollywood.

• My favorite ending of all time is Young Sherlock Holmes with Nicholas Rowe. You have to wait for the very ending, and I mean AFTER the credits, for what I can only describe as a killer movie moment.

• I saw Carrie in a theater when I was young, and the end caught me so off guard and made me jump so high, I thought I was going to end up in the row behind me. Umberto D's end is heartbreaking I really loved the end of Taxi Driver when Cybill Shepherd is in DeNiro's cab. The look in his eyes in the rear view mirror is so beyond creepy, it's no wonder the last few notes of the closing credits score is identical to the music that ends Psycho. (Bott movies were scored by Bernard Herrmann.) Planet of the Apes The Truman Show, when he happily goes through the dark doorway to an unknown future City Lights ("You!") The voice of Vincent Price is heard at the end of Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein

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• Not perfect, but I still enjoy the ending of "Groundhog Day". You hear "I Got You Babe", think that the day is repeating again and then realize that Bill Murray has won over Andie McDowell and then they both go out to enjoy the new day.

• Ditto on Carrie, The Color Purple, and Hoosiers. After Carrie, all the horror movies copied the extra scare at the end, but with Carrie, no one expected it. I'll add Star Wars, Ordinary People, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Titanic.

• Clue, all 3 endings.

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• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Casablanca Planet of the Apes (1968) The Maltese Falcon The Good, The Bad & The Ugly Dirty Harry Being There High Plains Drifter

  Marty

• Brokeback Mountain gutted me. When it came out I'd taken a year off from school to try to play professional baseball. I wasn't out and was passing myself off as a straight jock, which wasn't hard to do at all. On a whim, I went to a midnight viewing of Brokeback in Orlando, Florida. When I got out I was so affected and upset that I went into a full fledged panic attack. My hands drew up and my face went numb because I'd completely hyperventilated. I lived in fear of panic attacks for about two months, then I said, "Fuck this," and quit the minor league camp I was in and went back to school. I came out of the closet about a month or two later. I knew that even if I managed to be a successful ball player (which I probably wouldn't have) I'd never be able to be an authentic version of myself. Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist sorta' saved me from a life of hiding. I still can't watch that film, though. Jesus, it's just too fuckin' sad. Hiding who you are never works. It just doesn't.

• Funny Girl The Way We Were Claudine (maybe no one here knows this movie with Diahann Carroll and James Earl Jones, but the uplifting ending is great).

• "The Bad Seed", and they filmed a request after the ending asking that movie-goers refrain from spoiling the experience for others by revealing the ending before they see the movie.

• I told you ending are the best part.

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• 'Cuckoo's Nest', sad/uplifting as that thin poignant tune gains force, and The Indian finishes Jack's work. 'Close Encounters', original cinema cut, when Dreyfus glances back with a look of childlike adventure, set to follow some extraordinary future, which glows with optimism. 'King's Speech', Rush sidelined now, but knowing he's changed Firth's life immeasurably. The King can 'take the stage', even if his therapist now never will.

• Uhura: It's Starfleet, Captain. They're requesting that we return home... to be decommissioned, sir. Spock: If I were human I believe my response would be "go to hell."... If I were human. Commander Pavel Chekov: Course heading, Captain? Captain James T. Kirk: Second star to the right and straight on 'til morning.

  Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country 1991

• Can't be bothered going through all of these, but hope someone has mentioned Before Sunset. Perfect ending to an almost perfect movie. So looking forward to the third instalment but a bit nervous as the first 2 are so brilliant and don't want anything to spoil that. Also brokeback mountain which rips me apart every time i see it. And of course the end of some like it hot is iconic.

• Some Like It Hot's ending is iconic.

• I still get a chill when I think of the ending to the original "Lord of the Flies". Many titles here have been nominated many times. Maybe it's time for someone to take the most mentioned ones and put them it a poll that we all can vote on.

• Dawson's movie. That 50th load just makes me weep with joy.

• Hugs, R80. That movie makes me think of all the poor "ex-gays" out there. I just want to take them by the shoulders and shake then and tell them repeatedly "You can be happy!" until they believe it.

• Black Swan ended with a high, but tragic note.

• An oldie: King of Hearts, when the "sane" Alan Bates soldier returns to the insane asylum.

• The Usual Suspects

• Brokeback Mountain affected so many gays at that time, and it's very hard to watch. Beautiful film, but extremely tragic. It's not for gays that get very emotional or sensitive.

• R86, I have a good friend who saw the 3rd "Before" movie and he said, it might well be the best of the three. He couldn't stop gushing. This is someone whose taste I trust. So here's hoping!

• R79, you beat me to it. I was also going to say Being There. I always hoped for a sequel and it is a shame that Peter Sellers is dead and could not reprise the role of Chance.

• Chinatown Mildred Pierce

  Anonymous

• Biodome

• The end of Deliverance. It's Carrie-like. (But before Carrie) Of course, it's not a horror movie, that's why I jumped even more: I didn't expect it. You are almost getting sleepy with the protagonist and then: Boo!

• Thanks R95 - read some reviews and they are overwhelmingly positive so I have high hopes. Not sure anything can top the 2nd movie though.

• Empire of the Sun I saw it not long after my mother died. Just being held in his mother's arms and that look of relief and pure bliss on his face. I blubbered like a baby. In fact I am tearing up right now.

• I like the ending of "Signs", even though it's contrived or whatever.

• Oh, yes, R101, Empire of The Sun has one of the most touching, sober endings. It must have been hard to sit through this scene after the death of a loved one. I,M sorry you went through this.

• That's very sweet of you, R103. It was hard but uplifting. Made me very happy for those who have their mothers.

  R101

• The Empire Strikes Back

• The Sixth Sense. I didn't see that coming.

• Jaws

• The Grave of the Fireflies -- you knew it wasn't going to have a happy ending but damn, that ending gets you crying

• Some Like It Hot. Planet of The Apes. Gone With the Wind. City Lights. The Miracle Worker. Les Diaboliques. The Innocents.

• Se7en

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• "Brokeback Mountain" - I was a mess in the theater and, really, for days afterwards. It's still heartbreaking all these years later. I will never forgive the Academy.

• The Dream a Little Dream dance that ended Beautiful Thing.

• [quote]I will never forgive the Academy. That [italic]deserves[/italic] a "MARY!" but I totally agree with you.

  Mary%202

• Brokeback Mountain - gutted me Tekkonkinkreet - Hopeful-ish? Sunshine - flawed third act, but I still loved the overall mood and message. I didn't appreciate what happened with the other ship, but I'd have been very upset if it had ended any other way (which had nothing to do with the contrived horror-ish storyline). But then, I'm a Danny Boyle fan. YMMV.

• Yes, Se7en was a good ending.

• who didn't cry at the end of Brokeback?

• Just posted in the favourite movies thread which reminded me of the ending of The Lives of Others, absolute lump in throat every time i see it.

• [quote]Yes, Se7en was a good ending. Any movie that ends with Gwyneth's severed head in a box is a good ending.

  Noni%20R.

• The greatest ending for any movie ever is to my mind in "The Palm Beach Story." It explains the joke behind the credits, which make absolutely no sense when you first watch it (though it does have an explanation). By the end of the movie, you've almost forgotten about the credits, but then the plot can only be worked out BECAUSE of the underlying situation the joke is about (that no one has referred to until just that second).

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• The Godfather. I can't watch the whole thing often but the final scenes where all the heads of the familed are whacked in different settings while the baptism is going on is great.

• "And Then There Were None", or "Ten Little Indians" The Enchanted Cottage.

  anonymous

• 1958's The Blob Hands down the best movie ending ever.

• Like all threads requesting movies to be named, eventually every movie ever made will be listed, helped by those who take the opportunity to list every movie they can remember. If a movie had an ending, you will find it here.

• Nuh-uh.

• This one. Tingles!

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• Breakfast at Tiffany's - the all time greatest scene in any movie. Black Swan Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

• Fascinating, R125. I'd never even heard of that movie before. My curiosity has been piqued.

• Big Fish.

• The ending of Costner's "No Way Out" was pretty darn awesome!

• The ending of "Crash" was stupendous. So powerful.

• Sister Act II: Back in the Habit

• 131 posts (and a helluva lot more movies named) and STILL no-one's mentioned [bold]Dr. Strangelove Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb[/bold]?

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• Death Becomes Her. Goldie's head spinning around upside down - "Do you remember where you parked the car?"

• Many mentioned above, and "Lars And The Real Girl." A sweet ending to a perfect movie.

• Someone already mentioned it: The Vanishing/Spoorloos (later remade but with a different, less scary ending) Don't Look Now - the ending is haunting and spooky The Wicker Man

• The endings of 'The Goodbye Girl' and 'It's a Wonderful Life'

• And we learned that each of us is an athlete, a brain, a rebel, a princess, and a basket case. Does that answer your question? Fist pump!!!

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• r34, Cinema Paradiso still gets to me to this day. You’re not a true film aficionado if you’re not moved by that ending. I created a Pandora station titled “Brokeback Mountain” that plays tracks from the soundtrack plus romantic music or music with a new age aesthetic, mostly instrumental. Whenever I hear the closing tune to Brokeback, I have to get quiet with myself and just take it in and I can see that “Jack, I swear” and that glorious last shot looking out of the window as clear as day. Yes, it’s sad but it never fails to move me because it reminds me what a truly beautiful picture that was.

• Sorry, R125, that is boring. Someone posted that before in a thread and I thought the same thing then. Not into barbershop quartet or choral type singing at all.

• Disagree about The Bad Seed r82. The movie ending was totally changed from the book and not for the better.

• Valley Girl.

• Les Miserables - because the piece of shit was finally over.

• [quote]I really loved the end of Taxi Driver when Cybill Shepherd is in DeNiro's cab. I think that's supposed to be a fantasy on Travis' part. That he becomes some kind of hero for saving Iris, which is highly unlikely. Some people argue that everything that happens after the shoot out is imagined and that Travis dies, possibly killing himself. We see him pantomime shooting himself in the head. In any case, I don't think the final scene with Shepherd can be taken as happening in reality.

• Close Encounters Brokeback Mountain And are we allowed to include a TV movie? Because I thought "The Spell" from 1977 had a fan-fucking-tastic ending that I still remember so vividly to this day. When the teenage witch who had causing so much havoc and destruction tried to use her power on her mother but was taken aback when her mother used HER power on her, then screamed "How can this be! I've got the power!" to which her mother replied "Where do you think you got the power from?" Fucking loved that shit.

• Kill Bill

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• I loved the ending to Shakespeare in Love, sorry.

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• The " I drink your milkshake" scene in There will be Blood. The music that followed that scene was a great choice for the ending as well. Among the best acting I have ever seen. Well it's a PTA movie.

  Anonymous

• Whatever Happened to Baby Jane. One of the greatest ironic TWIST endings ever. Turns out, the villianous Jane was the victim all along, and the victimized Blanche was actually the villain. "and all this time we could have been friends!..." BRILLIANT!

  Anonymous

• Dancer in the dark. It changed me.

• Yep R148, I remember watching it as a kid and being really surprised by the ending and the revelation. [quote]I thought "The Spell" from 1977 had a fan-fucking-tastic ending that I still remember so vividly to this day. When the teenage witch who had causing so much havoc and destruction tried to use her power on her mother but was taken aback when her mother used HER power on her, then screamed "How can this be! I've got the power!" to which her mother replied "Where do you think you got the power from?" Wow, I'm pretty sure I watched this back when it aired in the 70's and I'd forgotten all about it over the years, but your description brings it all back - great ending!

• Eyes Wide Shut

• So many fantastic films mentioned here. This really is DL at it's best. I loved the ending of Jaws when I was a kid. I literally wet my pants when the head popped out of the boat earlier in the film and sat there in a damp state of terror until the damn shark was blown to pieces. Schneider's "Smile, you son of a bitch" was music to my little Aussie ears.

• Blazing Saddles!