"Top 5 Worst Movie Endings"

Part of what makes the best movies great is a great ending. Whether it’s an original ending like  “Casablanca” or “Rear Window”, or a stock ending where ‘they live happily ever after’ or ‘they all die in the end’ like “When Harry Met Sally” or “Hamlet”, or even ambiguous endings like “Inception” that can haunt an audience and keep them guessing for years to come, the right ending makes the story complete.

Traditionally, a film or screenplay has three parts or acts. In the first act, the characters are introduced. The first act ends where the second begins; with the inciting incident. In the second act, the situation develops. About halfway through the second act, there is some sort of revelation about the situation, and the protagonist faces further obstacles. The second act ends where the third act begins; with the point-of-no-return, where the protagonist faces their final confrontation, resulting in the climactic moment in the story, and maybe some kind of aftermath. The purpose of the confrontation and climax is to provide some sort of catharsis and closure to the audience.

But there are many ways that an ending can go wrong. It may be out of place, like if, just as Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks are about to meet at the top of the Empire State building, King Kong would reach out and grab Meg Ryan. There might be no confrontation, no catharsis, like if, just after the cops get the camera feed from the bus to loop, Dennis Hopper had just blown up the bus. It may just be that the final confrontation is too easy, like if Dorothy had just spilled water on the witch when she first got brought to the castle.

The wrong ending, or an absence of one can ruin a movie. The following are, in my opinion, the five worst, and should be viewed as a cautionary tale to any potential storytellers.

As a final warning, while in most of my reviews, I attempt to avoid spoilers at all costs, I am speaking in these cases directly about the endings to the films, so, be aware: Here there be spoilers! (if you didn’t read that in a pirate voice, try it now)

1. They (2002)

It’s difficult for me semantically to say that this movie has the worst ending when it really has no ending to speak of, it just stops.

In “They”, Julie Lund is asked for help by a childhood friend. After he eats a bullet right across the booth of a quaint little diner that they share, she begins seeing the same monsters-in-the-shadows which had previously plagued her friend. Her visions of these creatures continue to grow more intense, and, each time, as she flails to protect herself, she lashes out against anyone who might try to help her, while those same people continually grow more wary of her sanity.

Shortly after her well-meaning boyfriend has her committed, she is finally abducted by the creatures which have stalked her. When her doctor and an orderly come to check on her, she has disappeared from her locked room, and is shown as trapped in the invisible, parallel world of the creatures, unable to break free. Fade to black. Roll credits.

As I said, this movie has no third act. It’s as though the writer and director reached the point of no return, saying “We’ve just painted this girl into a corner and don’t know how to get her out” and then just gave up and made the movie anyway.

2. House On Haunted Hill (1999)

This is the first of three films in this list which, to me, fall under the category of ‘cheating’.

The premise of “House On Haunted Hill” is simple. The ‘house’ was once a mental institution, in which the inmates were all burned alive while the staff escaped. Now, the current owners of the house have invited a group of people to a macabre dinner party where the survivors of the evening will each have an equal share of $5 million. Unbeknownst to them, the ‘house’ has arranged so that the guests at the party are all the descendants of the staff who had escaped, so that it may have its revenge.

By the end of the movie, the house has taken all but two of the intrepid party-goers, one of whom has managed to escape, supposedly because she wasn’t actually the person the house was after, only masquerading as her. The other has just gotten trapped, and is staring into the gaping maw of the conglomeration of the hundred vengeful maniac ghosts, and he shouts at it, “But I’m Adopted!!!”, then manages to escape. Then the filmmakers just leave our heroes stranded on a ledge on top of the three-story evil house with the $5 million and no hope of rescue.

3. Ocean’s 12 (2004)

There is a phenomenon in mystery stories where the sleuth waits till the final reveal and ensnaring of the perpetrator to give the one piece of evidence needed to know whodunit, to the frustration of everyone else present, particularly the audience. In the bookending “Ocean’s” movies, the twists and turns of the cons and flimflams which permeate the “caper” movie genre are all revealed in due time with style, fun, and appropriate timing. However, in “Ocean’s 12”, one key clue is deliberately withheld from the audience until the very end.

In the film, Danny Ocean’s band of grifters and scoundrels, in order to pay off their debt to Benedict, take a job in Europe, namely a challenge by a rival cat-burglar to steal a rare Faberge egg from a museum before he does. One-by-one, each of the Ocean clan are nicked by the cops, and the cat-burglar gets away with the egg. However, once Ocean and his friends are released and regroup with the cat-burglar, they reveal to him that they had swapped out the egg with a fake before it ever made it to the museum.  That’s cheating on multiple levels.

4. Signs (2002)

I read an article recently of 'Pixar's Rules for Writing, and one of the rules was something like, 'coincidence which is a hinderance for the protagonist makes for a good story; coincidence which helps the protagonist is just cheating'.

In "Signs", Mel Gibson plays a former priest who lost his faith when his wife dies, and then aliens begin to invade slowly. In the last moments of the movie, when one of the aliens invades his home, he ‘sees’ that confluence of coincidences as more than just that, but as a pattern, a ‘sign’ of how to save his family.

5. Red Lights (2012)

An ending doesn’t matter if it doesn’t make sense.

“Red Lights” had such potential. It’s the story of a pair of scientists, Matheson and Buckley (Sigourney Weaver and Cillian Murphy) who debunk psychics.  When they go after a particularly notorious and blind one, Simon Silver (Robert De Niro), bad, creepy things start happening to Buckley, and Matheson dies. After Silver undergoes a series of laboratory tests to try to confirm his legitimacy, Buckley confronts him at his ‘triumphant return show’ where the interior of the theatre begins to shake and fall apart (in much the same way as had been done previously in the story). Then, when the pseudo-quake stops, Buckley throws something at Silver who catches it, revealing in front of his audience that he can see, and, as Buckley is leaving, Silver is shouting over and over “How did you do that?”, and Buckley flashes back over all the creepy things that happened to him throughout the movie.

I don’t get it. Is Simon asking Buckley how he figured out that Simon could see? Or is he asking how Buckley shook the theatre, and is actually psychic? I don’t mind ambiguous endings, and love some of them, but there is a big difference between ambiguous and just flat out confusing.