Best Closing Scene of a Movie

Days of Heaven

“Nights of Cabiria”. I cry every time.

Her intended was a bad man after all who robs her rather than killing her. She’s lost all her money. She sold her home. But as she trudges back, the young people appear.

The stage version of “Sweet Charity” had a completely different final scene but the movie’s ending is more inspired by this one. The young people are now hippies.

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg - the ultimate 'French' ending to a love story.

The endings of both The Color Purple and The Sixth Sense had me boo hooing in the movie theater.

AI Artificial Intelligence. Ending broke my heart.

Longtime Companion

Casablanca...

It's the beginning of a beautiful friendship... and the ending of a perfectly written movie.

Some Like It Hot

I wasn’t a fan of the stage show, but the “Wicked” finale blew me away.

I know a lot of people didn’t like it, but the ending of Anora was perfect I thought.

The Third Man

Billy Wilder's "THE APARTMENT".

Francois Truffaut's "THE 400 BLOWS".

Jean-Luc Godard's "BREATHLESS."

Phantasm

In honor of Mother's Day, PSYCHO.

Daniel Craig's masterful performance in the closing scene of 2004's "Layer Cake." (a/k/a Layer Cak)

Dawson taking the fiftieth load.

Another deliciously French movie close - Sautet's 'Un Coeur En Hiver / A Heart In Winter'

The last searching look Emmanuelle Béart gives as she gets into the car, as Daniel Auteuil is left in the cafe, gently withdrawing back into the safety of his emotional prison.... all set to the gentle strains of Ravel's sonata for violin and cello.

Destroys me every damn time.

Further to "Layer Cake," above: an earlier scene in which I was certain we were witnessing Daniel Craig passing the torch to the new James Bond.

To date nothing has come of that "tease," but stranger things do happen.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

A gorgeous and enigmatic close to the film after the tragic climax.

What is the ultimate freedom from societal constraints and the haunting sadness of past failure and loss? Enlightenment and ego death? A melding of the self with the clouds, leaving the earthly plane to drift away into nature? Oblivion? It strikes me differently each time I see it, and I’ve seen it many times.

I love the movie (& book) Housekeeping. When they cross the bridge to get away from their oppressive town.

The Last Picture Show

I’m reply20. The end of Brooklyn always touches my heart!

The Long Good Friday is up there.

Roman Holiday

“The Varsity Drag” number at the end of “Good News.” Absolutely perfect!

Sunset Boulevard needs to be on this list

Morocco

Carrie, which I saw it in a theater when I was young.

The ending caught me so off-guard, I thought I was gonna end up in the seat behind me.

Cinema Paridiso makes me cry everytime

the big reveal at the end of 'Body Heat'

"Aftersun"

The last scene in “All About Eve” — there’s always a new, conniving Eve waiting in the wings and Karma can be a bitch.

“Pillow Talk” - After Rock Hudson grabs Doris Day and carries her down the street with the cat chasing the electric blanket cord. Then he tossed her on the bed of the apt that she decorated so ugly to punish him. Then she flips the switches and the door locks and the player piano starts playing “You Are My Inspiration.” They both break out into such warm spectacular smiles at each other. Next - Rock Hudson smiling walking excitedly down the office building hallway. The nurse and doctor try to stop him . Rock tells him he is in a hurry and says he has to tell Tony Randall that he is going to have a baby. The Dr and Nurse drag him down the hall. Then it cuts to Doris’s Pillow talk them with the pink and blue pillows that say “not yet.” It is just a silly happy hopeful romantic ending.

Apparently, I'm the only DL'er who's seen Thelma & Louise?

The 1974 version of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three.

Atonement. The happy ending on the beach.

"Crimes and Misdemeanors." And I'm a sucker for the final scene of "The Lives of Others."

'Melancholia' - the end of the world was never more beautiful.

The Usual Suspects

Jackie Brown is a favorite because the ending is perfect, and the bookending technique amplifies the symmetry of the story.

Final shot of Alan Rudolph’s Choose Me, with the just-married Keith Carradine and Lesley Ann Warren sitting at the back of a bus. The prickly, wary Warren initially looks as though she regrets their hasty wedding, but as the camera lingers, she allows herself to at last be happy as she melts into an unexpected, radiant smile. It’s tremendously satisfying, and a wonderfully uncynical response to the final shot of The Graduate.

R25 — nearly perfect. Check out the woman in pink two three people away from June at the 3:04 mark. But that Peter Lawford sure was pretty.

All of the Selznick films have great endings. “Farewell to Arms” ending with Rock Hudson in peak gorgeousness walking away from his wife’s deathbed with the background music blazing particularly excellent.

The final scene of "The Lives of Others."

Working Girl

Peter Lawford was hot! Not sure why MGM allowed June Allyson to sing, especially with the talent they had under contract.

The final scene of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, with the romantic reunion and that wonderful score...

The "Before" trilogy movies all have memorable, very satisfying endings.

The scene in the backyard in "Ordinary People".

"Good Will Hunting," because I'm a sentimental and easily manipulated sucker.

R46, I am with you... why let June Allyson sing? Was there no one available to dub her horrible voice?

Pan's Labyrinth.

The Last Days of Disco scene on the subway.

ON THE BEACH

"A Star Is Born" 1976 - the iconic shot of Streisand. Often imitated, but never duplicated.

"Cabaret" packs a punch too, if you're in the right kind of mood (and even if you're not)

OP - Please give me those 5 minutes of my life back.

From Here to Eternity has a fantastic ending as well

"Field of Dreams".

V for Vendetta, when the Palace of Westminster explodes and fascism is defeated.

Braveheart

R48 the ending scene where they show all the places in Viena they were in, except all silent and empty at dawn....ugh the onion cutting begins

"Sunset Boulevard"

"The Unbearable Lightness of Being"

"Some Like It Hot"

"The Last Picture Show"

"The Graduate"

Rs46 & 51 — I don’t disagree with you about June Allyson, but at that time her husky speaking voice and slightly offkey singing were considered charming, individual and “real” — to use that word in a way that it wouldn’t have been in 1947.

La Strada...Fellini....Zampano was human after all

Dangerous Liasons

Yeah, I guess the end of The Graduate is the template for the endings of Long Good Friday and Jackie Brown.

Apartment Zero

Gallipoli

Close Encounters of the Third Kind when the little kid comes back and Richard Dreyfus gets on the ship.

Jeanne Diehlman, with that unforgettable shot of Delphine Seyrig sobbing at the table, knowing it's all over.

The near wordless finale of Whiplash 2014

The ending of Death Becomes Her.

There are lots, but OP gets me with "Paris, Texas". I am pretty stoic and not a crier, and that is the only scene in a film to date that has made me shed real tears—and when I mean real, I was BAWLING. I think I probably responded that way because it brought up a lot of feelings from my own childhood and my mother's absence after she left my father. I was watching the movie alone by myself at home and I was embarrassed for myself by how much it made me cry. It remains in my top 10 list of favorite films ever to this day.

r74 I have early abandonment issues (I'm adopted) and I had a similar reaction when I watched this scene. I think part of it is the emotional buildup created by the entire film (which perhaps r57 doesn't appreciate). There is something so raw about their reunion. "Your hair. It's wet."

Porky’s Revenge

Dancer in the Dark

ELAINE!!! ELAINE!!!

"The Graduate" was mentioned upthread, but here's the clip. The "what have we just done?" looks as the credits roll are classic.

The Bride of Frankenstein

The Apartment: "Shut up and deal!"

The final scene of John Frankenheimer's underrated horror classic "Seconds," with Rock Hudson in what I think was his best performance.

Parting Glances.

Hope in the face of tragedy.

Cecilia and Robbie's "happy ending" in the final scene of "Atonement."

I don't know if it's the BEST closing scene of a movie, but the way the characters' fates are revealed in those final minutes is a devastating punch to the gut. I remember seeing this movie in the theater, and no in the audience got up and left as the credits rolled. It was like everyone was too emotionally spent to move.

White Chicks

Tom Hanks's improvised breakdown at the end of "Captain Phillips" is a stunner. I just can't remember if that was actually the last scene.

Stella Dallas

GWTW

I know this may be controversial but I gotta throw Gigli out there. Excellent closing scene.

The film had finally ended.

Norma Shearer in The Women.

Check out the woman in pink two three people away from June at the 3:04 mark.

R42 - I never noticed that before. I guess I was focused on June in the foreground.

R83 can't watch any movie with Saorise Ronan in it because that movie made me hate her damned guts or however you spell her name

R91 She played that evil little bitch to perfection, didn't she?

R92 she did. I don't usually overlap my dislike of a character with the actor but she's the exception. The pretentiousness of her name does not help.

Fatal Attraction! She's dead...finally! And then...nostril air bubble...

Five Easy Pieces at the Gulf station when Bobby gets in a big rig and then Rayete comes out of the coffee shop and looks around and the car is gone. Great crane shot of the scene.

Godfather 2....the birthday party flashback and then cut to lonely pensive Michael with nothing but his memories.

Godfather sucked (it kind of contradicts the Godfather 2 ending, for starters) but Michael remembering the 3 dances with the 3 women he loved before dying alone almost made up for it

R96 meant to say Godfather 3, obviously

R44 — I watched that movie on a Friday night and had to rewatch it first thing Saturday morning. Incredible and the closing scene really is astounding.

Has it been said already? Inception. Perfect from a storytelling point of view and artistically. Beautifully shot yet brilliantly doesn’t compromise its premise.

The end of Atonement brought out my waterworks.

Pulp Fiction.

Unfaithful

The Departed

The ending (and movie) that dealt the final death blow to the Motion Picture Production Code (aka Hays Code) and ushered in the New Hollywood and rating system (G, PG, R, X; much later PG-13 and NC-17).

Chinatown (for shock value)

Further to R89 I now think that's not the last scene of The Women. I think the last scene is Norma running to meet her ex-husband with arms outstretched in the most arch way.

For some reason I am having a hard time thinking of the final final scene of some of favorite films. I didn’t want to ruin OP’s requests of a closing scene. I can only think of the closing sequences.

The Third Man

Citizen Kane

I love the end of Working Girl, r45, when Carly Simon sings Let the Jism Run

1963's 'The Haunting'

"It should be burned down and the ground sewn with salt"

Titanic.

Chinatown and Silence of the Lambs, with their expensive crane shots.

I love the ending of Sideways. Miles finally found a legit reason to be happy, so I have to believe that on the other side of the door is Maya & their happily ever after. Even though the story takes very different turns in the book's sequels, it makes me feel better believing in Miles & Maya's potential taking off as soon as she open the door.

The original "Planet of the Apes". Surprised this hasn't been mentioned yet. (apologies if it has been0

You blew up the thread, R114, you blew it up! Damn you all to hell!!!

The Rapture. For a limited budget they managed to make that ending haunting, jarring and quite moving.

It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World (‘63) Ethel Merman gets her just desserts

Cinema Paradiso

The Usual Suspects

Brief Encounter

The Innocents

Evil Dead. The first one

The Sixth Sense(I don't care what any of you bitches say you didn't see it coming)

Thelma & Louise

And my God the ending of The Best Years of Our Lives. When he's in the cockpit of one of the decommissioned planes in the plane junk yard.

Robert Aldrich's Kiss Me, Deadly

1978s Invasion of the Body Snatchers

God's Own Country

Seven

I haven't seen all the movies so I'm in no position to say which is the best.

What-th in the tha boxth??!!

Robert Aldrich's Whatever Happened to Baby Jane

E.T.

Chunking Express - a romantic sugar rush that had me skipping out the movie theater.

R29

That’s always my answer. Watching him watch all of the cut kissing scenes destroys me.

R121, a fine scene in probably the best post-WWII movie Hollywood produced (Fred Derry working through the war experiences that keep banging around his brain), but that is not the final scene.

The final scene is Wilma and Homer's wedding, beautifully stage by Wilder (Fred and Peggy a part of the ceremony and yet apart from others).

And btw, government officials in Washington DC put a lot of pressure on Hollywood to stop producing movies like TBYOOL. DC really didn't want to show unhappy veterans... men who were severely injured or men who were suffering from what we call PTSD.

R132 Iit was called 'shell-shocked" back then.

[quote]And btw, government officials in Washington DC put a lot of pressure on Hollywood to stop producing movies like TBYOOL.

TBYOOL? Sounds lijke Tidy Bowl.

R130 one of my true loves too.

More Aldrich: The Killing of Sister George

The end of House of Sand and Fog had me sobbing aloud in a very crowded theater.

I love the very last line.

R132, THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES was directed by William Wyler not Billy Wilder.

Also, the post you are referencing, R121, doesn’t show up here for me, seems to have been deleted. Is that a thing?

The post at R121 is indeed there. Perhaps you blocked the poster? (You can check boa your 'Ignored' posts tab.)

Twin Peaks:fire Walk with me and Lost Highway have great endings

Damn... Wyler/Wilder - I've made that mistake before, mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa R138 and others.

Another Aldrich film from 1968 The Legend of Lyla Clare which ends with a commercial for Barkwell dog food A commentary perhaps on the dog-eat-dog world of Hollywood. Sorry for the poor quality.

Wild Strawberries.

"Some Like it Hot"

Funniest line in the history of cinema.

I had forgotten about that r142. It was great!

Two beautiful movie endings

David Lynch’s The Straight Story

Robert Benson’s Places in the Heart

Best? Nah. Cheesy? Probably.

But memorable? Absolutely. And I love it.

Rear Window

Showgirls because it ended.

The end of The Color Purple was ridiculously emotional.