Movie endings that were shocking upon initial viewing?

Atonement, I was heartbroken.

They Shoot Horses Don't They? Although the title is a bit of a hint, ha.

Gone Girl

Rosemary's Baby

Jacob's Ladder

The Innocents

Seven

The Day of the Locust. It was like I was having a horrible nightmare.

Vertigo.

THE SIXTH SENSE, obviously.

I remember seeing its trailer a week before. I groaned at the breathy "I see dead people," then groaned again when Bruce Willis appeared, and my companion and I vowed then and there to hate-watch it on its opening day.

Our 'tude seemed justified by the movie's stately pace, so we didn't take it at all seriously -- which meant that we were really gobsmacked by the ending. Whatever's happened to/with Shyamalan since, that was a legitimately thrilling moment.

The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone (1963)

My aunt said the audience literally collectively gasped at Sean Connery showing up at the end of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Nowadays, you can't get away with keeping a secret like that.

[quote] My aunt said the audience literally collectively gasped at Sean Connery showing up at the end of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Nowadays, you can't get away with keeping a secret like that.

That happened when I watched it. It wasn't a very good film, but the ending was a surprise.

Psycho

I have this strange love for films where there's a horrible twist ending, but it finally explains everything you've not understood so far about the plot, and suddenly everything makes sense. This is the effect M. Night Shyamalan is always going for, but he's terrible at it--you can either always guess it way ahead of time, or you don't care.

Examples, though, of where this kind of narrative set-up really worked for me:

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

Hereditary

Don't Look Now

I just saw one last week which I'd forgotten, and the ending was probably more shocking today than it was then. Check out the original Three Days of the Condor.

Initial viewing? "Body Heat".

That the end scene shows a villain who isn't dead but alive, thriving, rich and living a luxury life based upon leaving a child destitute, a man in prison, and a few dead bodies along the way surprised me on first viewing.

Villains are supposed to get their comeuppance.

Pauline Kael hated "Body Heat". I love it.

The one with Richard Gere and Edward Norton. Primal Fear. It's not the best, you knew something was up, but the full reveal was still effective. The Usual Suspects, ditto.

I agree with R10. Shyamalan always telegraphs his endings. I've not been surprised, never mind shocked. Hitchcock did this a bit too, though he was masterful, he just made his weird central characters a bit too suspect in general. You may not have known that Norman's mother was a skeleton upstairs, but you for sure already knew that she was dead and he was doing the talking for her. Vertigo would have been his greatest with a better actress than Novak. It is a very good movie that she ruins by not being able to convince us that she is anyone specific at all. In either role. Makeup and costumes have to define the characters for her. She was atrociously bad in that film.

Don't look Now with that one quick hazy exchanged glance at the end. It's brilliant.

Memento is too complicated, but a real surprise.

Looking for Mr Goodbar-I knew Diane Keaton’s character wouldn’t live happily ever after but wasn’t quite prepared for the brutality and strobe light effect…

Fat Girl

The shock dream ending of "Deliverance," which freaked out Brian de Palma so much the first time he saw it he almost directly lifted it for even the more shocking dream ending of "Carrie."

But then when De Palma did "Dressed to Kill," he tried it again but everyone was by this time used to a shocking dream ending because he had done it before.

"Carrie." The fist from the grave.

Everyone knows it but still a great ending.

Unexpected. And very sad.

There Will Be Blood. And there was, just so random the way it unfolded.

[quote]THE SIXTH SENSE, obviously.

I had had root canal the day I went to see it and was still loopy, so that may have colored my response -- I spent the movie knowing that Bruce Willis was a ghost and when that was revealed as the twist, I thought: but they said so early in the movie?

They killed themselves because they knew they'd never get justice for all the crimes they committed, you stupid fuck. That's why Thelma says: OK let's do it - let's not get caught.

If by "ending" you can mean the last 1/4 of the movie: "Mulholland Drive." (Which I still love.)

The Crying Game

"Titanic."

r22: Temper, temper.

Are there any "shocking" endings that are humorous or happy?

[quote]Looking for Mr Goodbar-I knew Diane Keaton’s character wouldn’t live happily ever after but wasn’t quite prepared for the brutality and strobe light effect

Yes, the ending left me stunned

"The Wizard of Oz" -- bitch, you were HAPPY to end up back on that miserable farm with a woman who still wanted to kill your dog? You could have been the Queen of OZ!

The usual suspects The others Donnie Darko The prestige Identity The skeleton key The mist Triangle

Eden lake

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

I Loved The Mist Triangle! The Prestige Identity was no The Bourne Identity though.

I went to see a screening of Looking for Mr. Goodbar at the Egyptian Theater in LA about 12-14 years ago. The programmer did the introduction and asked how many people had seen it before. Very few people held up their hand. (I was one of them.) It was a Saturday night and I would say the theater was about half full. I had brought a friend who had never seen it.

At the end of the movie, you could have heard a pin drop. I noticed that no one in front of us was getting up. I turned around and hardly anyone had left. (There was no Q&A after and no 2nd feature.) I hadn't seen an audience that shocked/affected by a movie's ending in quite some time.

The Others. That ending made my head spin.

The Bad Seed (1956).

Obviously Primal Fear

[quote]Are there any "shocking" endings that are humorous or happy?

Not really shocking but surprising and funny is the end of "Birdy" (Matthew Modine and Nicolas Cage).

[quote]The Bad Seed (1956).

That ridiculous "curtain call" was more shocking than the divine retribution in the form of a lightning bolt.

Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) - it didn't have an ending. No resolution and to this day it remains so mysterious.

The Last Wave (1997) - another early Peter Weir film. The ending is great. Richard Chamberlain emerging from the city drains out into the beach only to sea a huge title form.

Kiss Me, Deadly 1955

The Collector 1965

Happiness.

[quote] The Last Wave (1997) - another early Peter Weir film. The ending is great. Richard Chamberlain emerging from the city drains out into the beach only to sea a huge title form.

Honey, there couldn't be more wrong with those two sentences.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels has a unexpected and humorous ending, R27.

Bonnie and Clyde 1967

Thank you, R22! I read all the replies just to confirm that someone made that comment and, if not, do it myself.

Last Summer 1969

[quote]Richard Chamberlain emerging from the city drains out into the beach only to sea a huge title form.

I suggest you lay off the horse de-wormer, R40.

Mommie Dearest

'Child's Play' 1972

Chinatown 1974

The wonderful, underrated Margaret's Museum with Helena Bonham Carter.

Faye Dunaway was such a force in "Mommie Dearest," and the movie itself so surreal, I half expected her to suddenly rise from the coffin at the end and start throttling Christina.

I can understand why OP made that comment about Thelma & Louise. Yes, they shot a man and broke other laws many times over, but they had a very sympathetic cop chasing them, and most films don't treat protagonists like criminals and the audience expects things to be settled in their favor.

The psychological horror movie called "The Uninvited". The ending hits you with two instead of one revelations and both left me so unnerved.

The Stepford Wives

The Big Heat with the amazing Gloria Grahame has a pretty great unexpected ending. Maybe not shocking for B level film noir, but lurid and touching.

The end of Woody Allen's masterpiece, Crimes and MisDemeanors lingers in the air. For quite a while.

[quote] Richard Chamberlain emerging from the city drains out into the beach only to sea a huge title form

Richard Chamberlain emerged out of enormous sewer pipe onto Bondi Beach only to see a huge tortoise farm.

I saw Sarandon discussing Thelma and Louise (I think it was with Larry King on his last show)

She said they got tremendous flack for the ending. People thought it endorsed suicide. Probably cost them a Best Picture nomination.

She also said someplace else that she insisted that they tell her if there is any chance they'd cave and change the ending after bad test screenings. She wanted to know because she wanted to act it like Louise was a bit suicidal and unhappy from the start. They guranted her she'd die but said if the testing is really bad they'll have Geena Davis live.

That ending is more annoying than shocking. As said above Harvey Keitel is quite sympathetic to their plight. They could have not been treated that badly especially Thelma who didn't shoot the guy. Thelma seems to find happiness in their journey. It's sort of out of character that she just gives up at the end.

Earthquake is shocking. The hero dies. Heston demanded that for some strange reason. (It's so stupid too. Ava Gardner has a guy step on her hand and she acts like it's been severed off. Let's go of the latter and falls into the water. He goes after her when there is no chance of saving her. But Chuck wanted it that way.

Escape from the Planet of the Apes. I still can't believe they killed off our beloved Cornelius and Zira.

[quote] The Others. That ending made my head spin.

That had the same ending as 6th Sense, same guy did the movie.

no r64 different directors

I remember the ‘holy fuck’ moment when the Statue of Liberty appeared at the end of the original Plant of the Apes. I remember Dressed to Kill being pretty shocking at the end reveal, too.

I was only six when it came out, but when Jon Voight died at the end of The Champ and Ricky Schroeder sobbed over his lifeless corpse, that was shocking to a young me. I don’t think I even know what the concept of death was at that age.

The Crying Game.

Also Deathtrap

Ira Levin loved those shocker endings. Three of his books/plays make the list: Deathtrap, Stepford Wives and Rosemary's Baby.

Pan's Labyrinth. I was prepared for many endings but not that one.

69 posts and no mention of ORPHAN (2009)?

Esther will cut a bitch!

Titanic

I was stunned when I saw my sheltered girl-boy from the shtetl, Yentl/Anshel, morph into Fanny Brice and sail to America singing "Papa, Don't Rain On On My Parade" at the top of her lungs on a boat. I never recovered from the shock. Oy.

The end of The Crying Game isn’t a shock. Fergus dressing Jody as a boy?

Michelle Pfeiffer and Jodie Foster were originally cast as Thelma and Louise, but then dropped out because pre-production was taking forever and the start of production kept getting pushed back, leading to both leaving for other projects.

Goldie Hawn and Meryl Streep were attached after but ended up not doing it too.

Geena Davis was fighting for the role of Louise and doing all she could to get it, but they ended up casting Susan Sarandon in the role and Geena then agreed to play Thelma, and agreed with the filmmakers she would be better as Thelma.

William Baldwin was originally cast as JD but Geena Davis fought for Brad Pitt after meeting some of the guys who auditioned for JD and she knew that’s who her JD was. She kept pushing for Pitt until the part was recast with him.

What? "The Last Wave"? Never heard of it and now I gotta see it.

I adore Richard Chamberlain.

Believe you me, the premiere "The Thorn Birds" was event TV at it apex. Every straight female in my family, including me as a teenager, knew like the back of their hand that Chamberlain was gay and we Swooooooned during his love scenes Rachel Ward.

And no, not because anybody was turned on a "gay going straight" but because he was perfectly cast as De Briccasart, handsome as all get-out, and, of course, he's a very talented actor, underrated imho.

No Country for Old Men

Was the ending of Nashville considered shocking?

Why do posters like r75 ramble so much? I almost feel nothing they say makes sense.

R75 The Last Wave is available on Blu Ray in Australia and is region free.

Lots of great movies here. R12, agree on Body Heat, one of my favorites and heck with Pauline Kael. I add Red Rock West but that was so twisty trroughot that it was hard for anything at the end to be really shocking. Also, Apartment Zero with Hart Bochner as finally the permanent roommate.

Kingdom of the Spiders

The ending of “Newhart” — IT HAD ALL BEEN A LIE!

The Skeleton Key

Munster Go Home.

Some Like it Hot for a twist humorous ending

Sleepaway Camp shocked me. Maybe as an adult I would have figured out what was going on but as a kid I had no idea it would end like that.

the first Friday the 13th

I watched "Sweet Dreams" with a 30ish friend who liked a couple of Patsy Cline tunes but had no idea she was dead..

I wept, loudly, screaming with emotion and thoroughly embarrassing everyone in the lounge room when I saw the end of The Color Purple.

[quote] I watched "Sweet Dreams" with a 30ish friend who liked a couple of Patsy Cline tunes but had no idea she was dead..

What a fucking moron.

Clark Gable saying "Frankly my dear I don't give a damn."

The Departed

Seven

OP, when "Thelma & Louise" came out, several critics said it was a female version of "Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid." The way that movie ended, you kind of expect Thelma and Louise to end up in a similar situation.

Cruising was just a big WTF? I was expecting more of a resolution. It feels like the filmmakers had just decided to wrap it up ten minutes earlier. Incomplete.

The Crying Game was shocking not in regard to what was revealed, but in the way it was revealed -- full frontal nudity.

The Sixth Sense ending was not a surprise to me. I had walked into the theater late and missed the first ten or fifteen minutes of the movie. Pretty quickly, I picked up on the fact that the only character who was talking to Bruce Willis was the kid.

I love the movie Vertigo and it's not the ending that's shocking as much as the reveal that takes place toward the end -- that totally blew me away because I was only about 14 when I saw it, so I was young and naive enough to think that Judy was played by a different actress.

The ending of Battle Royale was fucked up, and the ending of Mother (Korean) surprised me. I'm like r95-- I figured out The Sixth Sense early in the movie and then never saw another one of that guy's movies again.

Soldier Blue - 1970. I think the US release was cut? The UK cinema release was brutal. The only time I’ve been aware that a packed cinema was completely quiet as it exited.

The fist from the grave

Aw, R17, you’re sweet to remember

Lowenstein, Lowenstein, Lowenstein.

[quote] I watched "Sweet Dreams" with a 30ish friend who liked a couple of Patsy Cline tunes but had no idea she was dead..

Didn’t she just take a meeting with Frederick Douglass, who is an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is getting recognized more and more, I notice.

The Dutch version of The Vanishing.

Skip the American remake.

I remember being a kid and seeing "Citizen Kane" the first time. I gasped at the end, realizing (da Da DAH) the meaning of "Rosebud."

The revelation of the Crying Game wasn't even the ending.

The revelation was the penultimate moment of the Crying Game, but the ending was still a surprise and probably shocking to some. Fergus didn't beat Dil to death, he sacrificed himself for to spare his friend's love. And he loved her/him too. From prison. It's still a major kind of movie. What it's really about is not the plot of the film at all. Trans Women hate this film. Which is good enough reason to watch it.

"Thelma & Louise," because they destroyed that 1966 Thunderbird.

The Legend of Lyla Clare 1968

Bay of Blood

Broke Back Mountain, hello?

Fat Girl as someone mentioned was a sick shock.

The Game. David Fincher, Michael Douglas and Sean Penn. Pay attention. It's very underrated.

Mother, The 6th Sense, The Others, The Wicker Man, The Vanishing, Looking for Mr Goodbar

Those are many of my favorites, R111. A good list.

Would Maurice count as shocking? A gay themed movie with a happy ending and none of the leads dying?

Sleepaway Camp 2, when Molly, seemingly having survived all the “bad campers” and escaped Angela “The Angel of Death” perky counselor/serial killer, wanders bloody and exhausted onto a country road. She is relieved to see an old pickup truck approaching her and she flags it down for help, only to discover Angela in a Cowboy hat grinning “Howdy, Partner!”. The camera tightens on Molly’s horrified face in a series of progressive close-up stills, with a classic horror sound effect. Very nice.

Night of the Living Dead.

You survive the zombie apocalypse only to be shot by a soldier either mistaking you for a zombie or just being plain racist.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Was the ending of the dark comedy Little Murders starring Elliot Gould considered a shocking twist?

“Irreversible” truly horrendous what the character endures for what feels like 20 minutes or more.

R109 Thanks, I’ve been trying to think of the name of that movie for a couple days. I wanted to add that, but all I could remember was the end at the rest stop and how messed up it was. Truly a fucked up ending.

R78, we're lonely and like to get some comments in that don't strictly relate to the topic. I noticed that in myself and will try to curb my enthusiasm.

She told her to stay away from her family !

Original/Alternate ending for Fatal Attraction.

Glenn Close is a pain in the ASS. Fatal Attraction is not a feminist film.

Judi Dench's character had that wonderful last scene in Notes on A Scandal. Of course Barbara was heartbroken about the loss of Sheba and all that happened. So, she moved on to her next internal need. That's what sexual sociopaths and general narcissists do.

It takes some looking and grooming. And it's often unsatisfying. Barbara will probably never find another Sheba. But she had someone before her and no doubt before that. She WILL have a similar object of desire and fixation again. As we see....

Fatal Attraction is just a dumb movie about a not too hard to seduce Michael Douglass. Glenn Close in his face with a wild perm offering every king of freaky sex. Anal. Then his wife comes home and Glenn says NO Dan. Dan? DAN! I'll cook your bunny. There is no good or bad ending to Fatal Attraction. Glenn should be grateful that she got to show what she could do. She's really good in that bad movie. But she doesn't deserve an alternate ending. Alex was NUTS. Kill yourself bitch. Anne Archer is pretty.

Lady in a Cage 1964

R123, are you Rex Reed?

Yes. I am.

Do you sleep in the nude R125?

Easy Rider 1969

Someone above mentioned "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn." People today truly can't imagine how shocking it was to hear a major actor in a major film say "damn." It was still shocking into the 1960s, when there was a Civil War Centennial re-release.

People today have no idea what innocence is or how innocent people used to be.

Trivia:

Selznick finally got it past the Hayes office by claiming it was it was directly from a major work of literature, which sometimes did get films past the Code. For example, suicide wasn't allowed but Romeo and Juliet was allowed to be filmed as written. Juliet, thinking Romeo is dead, kills herself, remember?

And in fact, that's not the way it is in the novel. Selznick himself added the "Frankly."

For protection, there was an alternate take of "Frankly, my dear, I don't care."

Contrary to popular belief, the Hayes Office didn't simply give in based pm the exemption for literary classics Selznick cited. He was still required to pay a thousand dollar fine for violating the Code.

The Hill 1964

I was watching "Anatomy of a Murder" recently, and I was [italic]scandalized[/italic] when Miss Kathryn Grant Crosby, on the witness stand, pulled out Miss Lee Remick's character's neatly folded panties from her pocketbook and handed it to Jimmy Stewart, who unfurls it for all the world to see. Can you imagine how 1959 audiences must've reacted to that scene?

[quote]Can you imagine how 1959 audiences must've reacted to that scene?

Lot of raincoats over the males' laps.

The shocking parts of The Prestige and The Crying Game weren't the endings, though.

Spoilers, I guess.

The shocking part of The Prestige is when you realize that Hugh Jackman's duplicate killed the original when he was first working on the duplication trick. I guess at the end when Michael Caine's character does that birdcage trick and kills those birds (we were shown earlier that the trick only worked if you crushed the birds) is kind of shocking.

The shock in the Crying Game is pretty early on, relatively speaking, when we find out Dil is a man.

Cruising isn't incomplete, r94, you're supposed to wonder who the killer is.

I've never understood the people on here who talk about the killer as if it's a settled matter. It isn't. There's about five people it could be.

"Waiting to Exhale (Shoop Shoop)" was an absolute shocker with an unexpected twist. To take us on that journey through the women's lives with that tantalizing a title and then not even show them exhaling and shoop shooping at the end? Just how long were they going to hold their breath for? The suspense is excruciating!

The song was sung R134. Exhale.

No Way Out. My husband figured out the ending but I hadn’t & was really surprised but disgusted they didn’t dub someone’s voice over Costner’s with his ridiculous pronunciation.

The Mind of Mr Soames. I think I was one of about 100 people worldwide who saw that film

For want of a better way to say it, I "collect" movies like this. So there may be a few in this list that are not well known, but all of them are worth watching if you like shocking/twist endings.

First, some older flicks: Seconds, with Rock Hudson; Fail-Safe, with Henry Fonda; the Children's Hour, with Shirley MacLaine and Audrey Hepburn (although most of us here know how that ended); the original of The Fly; and The Manchurian Candidate.

Foreign films: Una Noche, which, unless you have no heart, will leave you devastated; Abre los Ojos, or if you must, Vanilla Sky; The Skin I Live In; and Incendies.

Finally, some domestic films: House of Games, House of Sand and Fog, Sophie's Choice, The Ice Storm, The Grifters, Dark Matter, and We Need to Talk about Kevin.

And may I suggest as a comedy with a shocking ending, Some Like it Hot? That was certainly a shocking ending for the time!

Oops, sorry -- I didn't realize someone else had already mentioned Some Like it Hot.

The last two scenes of “The Shining”. Jack Nicholson’s frozen rictus and the slow close-up of the old photo.

When I was a kid, especially shocking when the penny dropped.

Gosford Park, when that maid got away with murder!

I'm shocked at how many movies I've seen that I don't even remember the ending.

[italic]Sorry, Wrong Number[/italic]!

[quote] Let's go of the latter

Oh, DEAR!

[quote] "The Wizard of Oz" -- bitch, you were HAPPY to end up back on that miserable farm with a woman who still wanted to kill your dog?

Dude! Spoiler alert!

The end of "The Unbearable Lightness of Being." I hadn't read the book.

Fine movie. I never could watch it again.

Now I don't watch a movie unless I know the ending.

The call is coming from INSIDE the house!

When Fraulein Maria started to sing a reprise of "So Long, Farewell" and pushed the children off the Alps one by one when the Captain wasn't looking just because she wanted to enjoy her time with Georg's Austrian sausage without constantly being interrupted by his seven brats.

Umm, R147, that wasn't the ending of the movie, it was the beginning.

R149 R147 Could be referring to Black Christmas (1974)

I thought the ending of The Mist wasn't shocking or thought-provoking or sad, just cruel. I know I sound like a huge Mary but it was just a cruel. Sadistic almost.

But how was that a surprise, R150? We knew that's where he was calling from midway through.

Shocking not surprising R152

Many legally blind people saw "The Crying Game" it seems.

R152 in Black Christmas 1974 the audiences knows that Keir Dullea was not the murderer and it ends with Olivia Hussey alone in the house with the phone ringing

Yes, I know that, but we all know the calls are coming from the house well before the cop tells Hussey.

R156 Did you see R155? Hussey is left alone in the house with the murderer as the film ends.

Yes, and I've seen the movie more than a dozen times. It's one of my favorite horror films of all time. Nothing you're describing is a shocking or surprising ending. Anyone with half a brain can figure out that Dullea is not the killer, and we all know midway through the film that the calls are coming from inside the house. This thread is about shocking/surprising endings. Black Christmas is a fantastic film, but it does not have such an ending (unless you've never seen a film before.)

I know it may not be a popular trilogy, but the ending to Glass. I love Unbreakable, and Split too.

Was. disappoint.

R158 The shock is that the murderer is still alive and in the house at the end while the police and Hussey believe everything is OK now that Dullea is dead and Hussey is left alone in the house with the murderer.

I understand what you're saying. I'm not agreeing with you. It's not a shock. It's a tired trope. And even though I consider Black Christmas to be the grandaddy of this type of movie (well before Halloween, which is thought to be the originator), the ending was no surprise even back in 1974.

R161 That's your opinion! Others I know found it shocking that Hussey was still in peril

People were surprised by the original Halloween's ending.

Good for you, R162, that you are still naive enough to be shocked by something that has been done hundreds of times.

It still doesn't fit here.

R161 How old are you? How many movies before 1974 had the gimmick of the killer in the house and an unresolved ending where the danger is still lurking?

Pick several horror films from the 60s and 70s. Hell, Giallos were doing it long before BC.

R166 any specific well-known titles?

R166 I picked some: The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Suspiria, Night of the Living Dead, Four Flies on Grey Velvet, The Exorcist. Last House on the Left, The Haunting. What's the Matter with Helen?, The Killing Kind, Circus of Fear, Race with the Devil none of which have an ending or revelation similar to BC.

"Last Summer" (1969); privileged teen Bruce Davidson out-of-the-blue rapes sensitive, overweight, less-privileged Cathy Burns as Barbara Hershey and John-Boy pin her down. Then the rapists just walk off, leaving Cathy on the beach. Will she kill herself? Who cares? The end.

"Bonnie and Clyde", not because no one knew the outcome, but because of the brutality. Previous takes on the story ("Gun Crazy" and "They Live By Night", for example) showed them getting shot once and dying almost instantly. "B&C" showed them getting turned to Swiss cheese for a good 30 seconds (Dunaway's scream as the bullets slam into her had to be unsettling). "Bonnie & Clyde" ushered in a new era of screen violence.

For me, it's definitely "Looking for Mr. Goodbar." I had a similar experience as R34, but in my case is was during the film's opening weekend and the house was full. Nobody spoke a word at the end and everyone just shuffled silently out of the theater like zombies.

I was also a bit shocked at the ending of "Melancholia," since I hadn't read any spoilers.

Isadora (1986)'s ending is shocking if you don't know her life story. Redgrave's "dancing" was also laughable.

Dawson's 50 Load Weekend.

Mondays were never the same.

Seconding Some Like It Hot, for a lighthearted one. I first saw it when I was 15 with my older sister and was floored something that ended like this was made in the 50s!

'Director Bob Clark was the first to put a bunch of teenagers to face a serial killer and was unbelievably creative in the way the story develops. We never get to see the killer and seldom was a horror-finale so nail biting as this one'

MIDNIGHT MOVIE REVIEW on Black Christmas

Along Came A Spider. I totally didn’t see the twist with Monica Potter’s character at the end.

Witness for the Prosecution

This is one of the best treads I’ve seen in a long time. A lot of these movies I am ordering. Thanks for the suggestions.

R1 I was gonna say "Atonement," too. The ending was a complete shock and left me stunned.

The original Black Christmas directed by Bob Clark 'virtually invented the slasher film and inspired genre classics like 'When a Stranger Calls' and 'Halloween'

-from the NY Times review of the 2006 remake

from TV Guide review of 1974s Black Christmas

'and a nicely handled twist ending, which provides a genuine shock'

Nocturnal Animals, although I don't know if I'd say the ending was "shocking" as much as it was mysterious. It certainly was unexpected.

R164 Done hundreds of times, but you can't name one title pre 1974!

High Tension. 2003

I'm stunned Disney got away with Malificent's taunt in "Sleeping Beauty" before she turns herself into a dragon.

"NOW, shall you deal with ME, O prince....and ALL THE POWERS OF HELL!"

And when he stabs the dragon in the heart, it oozes purple blood.

The Parallax View The Game Charade Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978 edition) The Ghost Writer Layer Cake

The Deer Hunter with the Russian roulette. Holy fuck!

Funny Games.

R164 ' It still doesn't fit here' look at R175 R180 R181

“Wait until Dark.” I won’t spoil but I have never seen an audience jump in unison before. The gimmick was the last 10 minutes or so is in the dark. The theaters would turn off all the lights on cue with the movie.

I've seen a few replies with regard to the ending of Atonement, which I really can't recall at all. Not surprising, I friggin' hated that movie and that bratty little girl. To this day, I tend to stay away from any movies with Saiorsie Ronan, although I did see Ladybird a few years ago which was just okay.

Prizzi's Honor. I hate it when the girl dies but it sure makes for a memorable ending.

[quote] The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone (1963)

I saw this sad, small film 20 years ago. I don't remember anything 'shocking' about it.

The Village was supposed to be a shock but you could see it coming a mile away.

'A Serious Man' (2009) has a very unusual ending. ;)

The Baby (1973)

Race With the Devil

Scream 4. I thought Rory Culkin was the killer. I never suspected Emma Roberts. So I got it half right.

What’s the shocking ending of “Some Like It Hot”?

R191, I think it refers to the sister and her boyfriend portrayed as living together as a couple, after the war. The reality is that both were killed during the war, never having been reunited. The author Briony writes them a happy ending as atonement for ruining their romance.

R198 The ending of "Some Like it Hot" implied that Jack Lemmon and Joe E. Brown were going to be together (although it really is kind of a stretch).

[quote]The ending of "Some Like it Hot" implied that Jack Lemmon and Joe E. Brown were going to be together (although it really is kind of a stretch).

I think the ending implied that Joe E. Brown knew all along that "Daphne" was a man, and he didn't care. Such blurring of gender lines would definitely be shocking in 1959.

R200 Yes, you said it better than I was trying to.

"The call is coming from inside the house" had been part of a famous urban legend about a babysitter for years before it was used in Black Christmas. And it was probably inspired by the true story of a babysitter who was murdered inside her clients' home in 1950.

[quote]Usual Suspects

Because he was gay the whole time!

Basic Instinct when she picks up the ice pick at the end.

R204 She doesn't pick up the ice pick at the end. It's under the bed.

R193 Mrs. Stone allows the vagrant seen several times hanging around her apartment near the Spanish Steps into her home and as the movie ends he moves toward her and the camera eventually blocking it. T The film ends on an ambiguous and disturbing note. 'Sometimes a slit throat can be a convenience'-Mrs. Stone

Identity (2003). Personally, I think you could've seen the twist about them being imaginary personalities inside Pruitt Taylor Vince's mind coming from a mile away. However, I was shocked when the little boy was revealed as the killer at the end.

Douglas Sirk’s “Written on the Wind:” Dorothy Malone with a toy oil well.

The ending of The Mechanic still get me shook.

Meant to say “toy oil Derrick”

Is it really that hard to understand? Olivia Hussey's character is already dead.

Remember that "Billy" only makes a call after he kills someone.

R56 you would probably like A Tale Of Two Sisters, the original Korean film that was remade as The Uninvited.

I enjoyed both.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid….so much gorgeousness gone to waste.

The Usual Suspects

I was shocked by the ending of the 1940 movie version of "Our Town," in which Emily doesn't die but lives happily ever after with her husband.

The ending of THE SIXTH SENSE truly shocked me when I saw it, and I thought it was brilliant -- until I started to think about the rest of the movie in retrospect and realized that it's riddled with inconsistencies and doesn't make any sense under the circumstances.

R14 amazing to think Diane Keaton in the same year she made Looking for Mr. Goodbar made Annie Hall. La de dah…

Other side of midnight…when you find out what happened to Catherine Alexander (Susan Sarandon’s character).

[quote]And may I suggest as a comedy with a shocking ending, Some Like it Hot? That was certainly a shocking ending for the time!

Love it.

Several people have mentioned "Some Like It Hot."

Jack Lemmon was terrific in that movie, so much better than Tony Curtis

Final Destination 5

I should've guessed that the main characters would be a victim of the plane crash in Part 1, revealing it was a prequel all along. They did make a huge deal out of the guy wondering "Should I take the job in France or not?" after all, but somehow I was completely shocked. And as if that wasn't enough, then there was the other twist involving the "kill someone else and you can save your own life and live the remainders of theirs..." concept revealing the guy would've died within 3 days anyways. I didn't see that coming either.

JFK

[quote] I was also a bit shocked at the ending of "Melancholia," since I hadn't read any spoilers.

The opening scene with the planets didn't clue you in? It perfectly shows how the other planet misses earth at first, but then circles back to collide.

[quote]I never understood why they would rather die than just go get questioned.

Ride or die...

R219

They went to the SheBoygan conservatory of music ;)

Ending of Last American Virgin (based on the Lemon Popsicle series) has become the flag of incels.

The end of No Time to Die, which by now everyone knows about.

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest

The Conversation

I remembered being stunned at the ending of On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

Being John Malkovich (very last scene) was surprising and also disappointing in some ways once you realized what had happened. Although I guess it depends on your perspective.

The final scene of "House of Cards", the British version with Ian Richardson as FU.

This …and it’s a great shot

"The Vanishing" (1988) It has been described as "an unorthodox love story and a truly unsettling thriller, Dutch filmmaker George Sluizer’s The Vanishing unfolds with meticulous intensity, leading to an unforgettable finale that has unnerved audiences around the world." Do not, repeat, do NOT see the American remake. The remake was a piece of shit and gave the movie a different ending.

"Grace" (2009) An effective little horror film about a very devoted mother and her strange baby. At a screening of this movie a couple of people fainted after seeing the ending.

"The Descent" (2005) A very well made horror movie about five intelligent, athletic, adventurous women who go spelunking in an unexplored cave. Make sure to see the UK version; the ending is devastating. The US version had a different ending, a rather stupid one. The film was a success, so a sequel was spawned. Do not see it. It sucked, as sequels more often than not do.

So creepy!

The Empire Strikes Back

The whole film of The Descent was shocking to me because my friends and I all thought the whole drama was going to be these women get stuck in a cave and can't get out.

The other elements were such a surprise (it pays not to read reviews.)

Brokeback Mountain would have been shocking but evil Charlie Rose spoiled the ending on his show when talking to Ang Lee. I'm surprised Lee didn't make him edit it out, or was it live?

It's interesting how many people believe they actually saw the baby at the end of Rosemary's Baby.

Witness For the Prosecution. (Original)

The Spy Who Came In From the Cold.

Bonnie and Clyde 1967

No Time To Die

R240, You didn't know how they died?

Not saying this to toot my own horn, but I guessed the ending of The Sixth Sense when I first saw it. It kept irking me what that opening scene had to do with the rest of the movie. Then the restaurant scene with him and his wife tipped me off.

Sophie's Choice. Felt devastated.

Anyone see Alien when it first came out?

That must have been shocking. Stories?

Brit people are saying that the ending of the latest Bond movie shouldn't be revealed.

But others are saying that the movie itself isn't very good,

Oh honey, R243, we all figured it out. It was basic directing.

Bruce Willis’ character is shot. Zoom in on Willis. Fade to black. Slight pause. Fade back up from black. It means the guy is dead. Shamalan couldn’t have been more obvious if he had flashed “he’s dead” in giant red letters. Knowing he was dead gave me a completely different view of the movie and the other characters reactions (or non-reactions) confirmed what I already knew. Still a good movie.

My partner did not appreciate when I turned to him when it faded back up from black and said “he’s dead.”

Eldergays, was the ending of A Clockwork Orange considered shocking at the time? I imagine a lot of folks would take issue with unleashing the "cured" Alex back onto society with a government job, plus the novel's ending has Alex naturally tiring of the ultraviolence.

Similarly I imagine the ending of Dr. Strangelove was shocking in that it was a comedy ending in nuclear catastrophe.

I guessed the ending of "The Sixth Sense" also, when I realized that the kid was the only one who conversed with Willis. You know, the kid who sees dead people.

Not so much shocking, but Memento had a great surprise ending.

Same with The Usual Suspects. One of the best surprise endings ever constructed.

[quote] Eldergays, was the ending of A Clockwork Orange considered shocking at the time?

The book had a shocking ending to me. I read it before the movie was made and I thought it was one of the lamest things I’d ever read. Alex is 17 or 18 and is carrying a picture of a baby from a magazine advertisement around in his wallet, taking it out, looking at it and getting all misty eyed. This, according to Burgess, means Alex is growing up. Of course. All teenaged boys eventually get misty eyed at babies & carry photos of advertisement babies around with them …..because they’re growing up and want to have a baby of their own!

My friends and I agreed it ruined the whole book. But then, we thought Burgess invented a whole new language (nadsat) for the book, which we thought was wildly creative and gave the book a real science fiction edge. Then I went to college a few years later, took Russian and found out nadsat was just basic Russian vocabulary….so basic that “nadsat” means “teen” in Russian. The whole genius of the book was a fraud. Russian vocabulary + rhyming slang. Bezoomny, droogie.

I couldn’t see the movie when it came out because it was rated X. I had to wait for it to be re-released a few years later. I thought the ending was meh, but not as lame as the book ending.

Seven.

Shutter Island

R252 You must have been a precocious reader in your youth.

No Time to Die

Kramer Versus Kramer was sort of shocking even though I only saw it like 3 years ago.

I figured she'd give him joint custody.

(odd that that idea never occurs to either them, their lawyers or the judge.)

R249 I'd say the ending of Dr. Strangelove was more sobering than shocking. You pretty much knew that's where the film was headed. It certainly imprinted We'll Meet Again on the minds of a new generation.

[quote]Bruce Willis’ character is shot. Zoom in on Willis. Fade to black. Slight pause. Fade back up from black. It means the guy is dead. Shamalan couldn’t have been more obvious if he had flashed “he’s dead” in giant red letters. Knowing he was dead gave me a completely different view of the movie and the other characters reactions (or non-reactions) confirmed what I already knew. Still a good movie.

But the thing is, there was all that action in the film to throw you off as to Willis's character being dead, and I'm sorry, but so much of it didn't make any sense at all. Like, first of all, why does Willis appear as a normal person in normal clothing? Are we supposed to believe that ghosts appear to people in whatever clothing they were wearing when they died? That's quite a stretch, wouldn't you say? And so many other inconsistencies, for example: Several times throughout the movie, Willis's character goes to open a door to the basement of his home but is unable to do so because it's apparently locked. Later, we find out it isn't locked, he can't open it because there's now a table in front of it (that he can't see, for some reason). Ummm, what? So, if he keeps finding that he can't open the door, what does he do next each time? Does he just leave it "locked" without trying to open it, and does he then forget about it till the next time he tries to open it and can't?

The idea of the movie is brilliant but the execution is very problematic.

Anyone surprised by the Sixth Sense ending wasn't paying attention.

I knew the ending of The Sixth Sense before I even saw it.

I knew the end before they made it.

Thé Whales of August.

Didn’t see September coming?

I knew the ending when it was only "The Fifth Sense."

R14, You know it's a true story, right?

[quote]The Whales of August.

I know! I was so shocked when Lillian Gish and Bette Davis decided to take a walk down by the ocean to see whether they could spot any whales!

Admittedly, I had some doubt they could still walk.

[quote] I know! I was so shocked when Lillian Gish and Bette Davis decided to take a walk down by the ocean

Didn’t one of them croak?

Oh, that was Beaches. My bad.

[quote]Didn’t one of them croak?

Nope. Not even Ann Sothern. And if one of them had, how would that have been shocking?

It's shocking because we don't expect she will do it---"The Heiress," on TCM Monday, 10/18, 6:00 p.m.

(To digress: 10/19 and 10/20, TCM is showing some great British movies, 1959-1965.)

Titanic.

They kept saying the ship couldn't sink - then it did.

"The Wizard of Oz." It was all a dream!

Vertigo

Lady in a Cage 1964 Still brutal and shocking

Vertigo is psychobabble nonsense that was reviled by critics when it opened but, for some strange reason, later came to be acclaimed as great art. I for one stand with most of the critics who recognized it for what it is when it was originally released.