Endings are super hard. Like, very hard. Whether you're talking about a novel, a play, a sketch, or a film, it is very difficult to come up with that perfect ending that not only encapsulates everything that's come before, but also is the highest note in your, uh, symphony.
I can certainly think of plenty of totally awful movie endings that betrayed everything in the movie:
Unbreakable: Ending with a perfunctory title card that spoke more to an inability to end the movie than any sort of plot element.But what about really kick-ass, perfect endings? Those are tough, and I think, also imply that the whole movie was also pretty good, to support a great ending. I'm not talking about something like Catwoman popping up at the end of Batman Returns. That's more of a fun bonus tag, than part of the movie.
The Thomas Crown Affair: "If you ever do that again, I'll break both your arms," implying that at some point in the movie, she broke one of his arms.
Godzilla: "Who was that?" "I don't know... Just some French guy." No comment.
I can only think of two off-hand:
The 40 Year Old Virgin: Singing "Aquarius" to end the movie perfectly answers the question, "What is it like to lose your virginity at age 40?" There was no real satisfying way I could picture of ending the movie, but this nailed it. And, ends on a musical number. Can't get much bigger than that. Speaking of musical numbers....Are there others? Sure. "Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid" has a pretty great ending. "Breaking the Waves" has a perfectly heartbreaking last shot. And there are probably plenty more.
Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey: Best movie ending of all time. After two movies of wondering, "How do Bill & Ted create a perfect society?" they take a year in their time machine for intense guitar training, travel back to the Battle of the Bands just in time, and through a fluke created by the villain, are able to play Kiss' "God Gave Rock & Roll To You" for the entire world, bringing everybody together in perfect harmony.
But none of them have Bill & Ted rocking out to Kiss.
1 comments:
Children of Men has a truly great last shot - clear indication of "this is where *our* story, not *the* story ends" that's actually necessary, thought-provoking and affecting, vs. seemingly weak - you end up *more* involved in the characters because of the ending.
Worst recent ending that comes to mind is AI, which actually fades to black on ending-type events, what, 6 times? Like a sketch that tries to get in one last non sequitiur joke after the train has lef thte station.
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