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The Thin Red Line.

Emmkay wrote:End of The Departed, best turn around I've seen in ages

qft, total redemption for that with the way it ended.
I do love the ending to American History X, but it was kind of f'd up.

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:And of course the final half hour or so of Blazing Saddles.

The one movie I can quote almost ever single line from. Honestly, do you think anybody could get away with this movie nowadays?


Couple of my other favorite endings would have be:
A Scanner Darkly
Leon:The Professional
The Boondock Saints
And the greatest ending of all

The Devils Rejects.

Yeah, Usual Suspects was awesome!

Orlanth wrote:The best ending is the end to the worst film you had no choice but to sit through.

I agree with that idea ,

inb4 "Nice Boat" for anyone that know what ending that is lol

I rather like the ending to Dan Gildark's 2007 "Cthulhu".

Seeing as it's not well-know, and it should be, here's a brief summary:

Russel is Chairman of the History department at a West Coast University and a gay men with an unsatisfying personal life. One day he wakes up to receive the call that his mother has died, and he's been named executor of her estate so he has to go back to the small town he left as a young man. Going back there things go from weird to worse, arriving late for the funeral because of a car crash, and finding his father is wearing a purple jump-suit and running the same whacky Esoteric Order of Dagon cult. He meets up with a high school friend he was into and gets raped by Tori Spelling.

At the end of the film, after a long and drawn out pan across the tide rolling in and Deep Ones lurching up the strand towars the welcoming cars of the townspeople, Russel's father is demanding that Russel sacrifice the man that he loves to the newly awoken Cthulhu, holding the old high school friend and new lover's head up to be staved in with a ceremonial piece of rock. Russel makes a decision, looks at his father and his lover, and screams with rage as he pulls back the rock to strike.

Then the credits roll accompanied by a really nice little folk number. It's a wonderfully ambiguous ending to a nice low-budget interpretation of H.P. Lovecraft's "Shadow Over Innsmouth" encoding the Lovecraft's themes of alienation and self-loathing into modern gay film tropes of...alienation and self-loathing!

It's a nice little film, despite some muddy composition, and some parts that only make sense if you're taking notes. However, the last 20 minutes of the movie when Cthulhu arises and drives the world mad is really atmospheric.

er...donnie darko...duh...
oh and we were soldiers...
lord of war?
oh the ghost in the shell movie were the major fights the tank in the end
...erm..im sure theres loads more

No Country for Old Men. Possibly Tommy Lee Jones' single best monologue ever followed by a cut to black. Absolutely perfect.

Brazil was an interesting film but I personally don't like the unsureness of whether something is a dream or not - I find it irritating or if I'm more into the film (like I was when I watched Brazil a while back) upsetting and desturbing to a point of unpleasentness...

@jamessearle0: Ooooh yes! Lord of War was a good one!

Blake wrote:Brazil was an interesting film but I personally don't like the unsureness of whether something is a dream or not - I find it irritating or if I'm more into the film (like I was when I watched Brazil a while back) upsetting and desturbing to a point of unpleasentness...

In the original take it's quite explicit that Sam was just imagining the daring escape. In the orginal edit, after the extremely far fetched escape, you have the two interogators saying 'He got away from us', 'You're right, he's gone'. Then you see Sam in the interrogation chair, humming to himself. It's explicit. It was just the US edit that confused things by leaving that part, basically ruining the movie.

That said, it's not completely clear whether this is a happy ending or not. Remember this is a different take on Orwell's 1984, which said that if they want to control your mind they will, and ultimately they will believe what they want you to believe. In Brazil, in a sense, he does escape, not physically but into fantasy, which may be better than Winston Smith's fate. Or it may be a different ending, but but still soul crushingly depressing.

I'm not sure, I didn't like Brazil that much, but the ending was interesting.

I don't quite get the 'paper' thing?

The Blues Brothers- 30 minutes of non-stop escalating climax that leads into Jailhouse Rock. Greatest Ending Ever.

Honorable Mentions:

The Sand Pebbles

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

DarthDiggler wrote:The Usual Suspects is one of the best endings I've ever seen. It was the Sixth Sense ending before the Sixth Sense.

Agreed. The twist ending was first created in 1994 with The Usual Suspects before the concept was stolen by The Sixth Sense in 1999. No movie before it ever attempted a twist ending. All Hail Bryan Singer

The Last of the Mohicans

Shawkshank Redemption

The main ones for me,

House of Flying Daggers (The three way stand off at the end, is just stunning. Plus its one film even though I don't expect to see a follow on, I'd love a sequel.)

Shawshank Redemption (Basically from where Red leaves prison is just awesome, after what has been an amazing movie up until that point anyways.)

Grave of the Fireflies (Something about the two spirits of the characters sitting at the end is quite moving)

The Truman Show (The catchphrase goodbye always brings a smile to my face.)

Ironman (Just love the press confrence at the end, can't wait for number two.)

Lord of the Rings - Fellowship of the Ring (from the arrival of the Urak Hai. For someone who hadn't read the novels, the film left so much promise, but the other two didn't live up to the feeling the first gave me.)

The Usual Suspects (as others have said, just brilliant.)

Hancock (I liked the twist, I alsoloved the Hospital scene, geat film, once again looking forward to number two.)

toy story two was just about the best movie ever

That is difficult to argue against.

I would have loved AI if it had ended at Blue Fairy.

I enjoyed the Lady in the Water (I know there are people who hate it).

Field of Dreams. Movies don't make me cry, but this one comes close. I know it's a cheesy movie that tries to play on your emotions, but there's an honesty in the father-son dynamic that gets me every time.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I'm considering the ending there from the whole death scene in the cave with Li Mu Bai and Yu Shu Lien (which is two good actors at the top of their game) on to Jen's suicide off the mountain. I know not everyone gets it, but I find it all so *beautifully* sad.

2001. The almost completely silent scene where Bowman's old and in bed, reaching out for something which is revealed to be the monolith is just spooky/strange/disturbing/wtf. Then the music kicks back in, swells, and the Starchild is revealed. Not sure I get it, but I'm not sure it's something we're supposed to get. And that's okay sometimes.

Star Wars. I'm not a fan of the series, but I don't think you can overlook the ending (which I'm calling the destruction of the Death Star to the awards ceremony). Because it's all such a part of pop culture, I think people forget how thrilling it all was the first time.

@Dienekes -- The Usual Suspects wasn't the first, but it's probably the best.

@Morathi -- The thing I found really interesting about House of F. Daggers is that the entire movie to that point used the usual hyperstylized martial arts action. But that final fight in the snow is a grueling, gritty slugfest, which really worked to underscore the intense feelings of the two in the fight. You really felt that fight viscerally. I was more a fan of the ending than I was the rest of the film.

@malfred -- Really? M. Night lost me after Unbreakable, which I think is highly underrated (because it's so understated -- hey, I made a rhyme!). Seems like he might have lost something after that movie too, because IMO his movies got schlocky and formulaic after that. Although schlock isn't bad once in a while.

It's not the most entertaining, but Saving Private Ryan is probably the most tear-jerking.

Remember the Titans.

warpcrafter wrote:

youngblood wrote:Michael Clayton.

I totally forgot about that one! He finally redeemed his whole worthless life.

Not only that but he gives a giant feth you to Tilda Swinton.

Scanners. For one, Cronenberg is my favorite director of all time. Either way, it ends with you seeing the hero die a completely grisly death, complete with a side character looking at the nastily charred body, only to see the "villain" confront the side character and speak in the lead character's voice. Super cool.

Easy Rider has a great ending.

Agree about No Country For Old Men, that's a good one too.

Reservoir Dogs is pretty intense at the end.

youngblood wrote:

warpcrafter wrote:

youngblood wrote:Michael Clayton.

I totally forgot about that one! He finally redeemed his whole worthless life.

Not only that but he gives a giant feth you to Tilda Swinton.

I love how conflicted that ending is. He's doing the right thing, he's certainly knows it's the right thing, but a large part of his motivation is out of spite towards Tilda Swinton. He hasn't magically transformed, but it isn't completely cynical either, it's somewhere in between.

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. A movie I loved the whole way through, but the ending was gold.