What was the most shocking or unexpected end to a movie you ever saw?
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Got to be The Mist, surely. A real horror movie ending - even Stephen King said it was better than the ending he wrote himself.
Monty Python And The Holy Grail... I was not expecting that 😅
Two classics from the 70s: Planet of the Apes and Soylent Green. Charlton Heston got us good, both times!
Interestingly, in the book by Harry Harrison, Make Room! Make Room!, on which Soylent Green is based, the big twist doesn't happen. It was original to the film.
The Sixth Sense .. M Night Shyamalan
"Arlington Road" - the best movie nobody knows or remembers; if you don't know what to watch this week, make it this one
Also "Frailty" from and with Bill Paxton
...I know, some might be more shocking, but were listed already...
"Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry" with Peter Fonda. When after they finally succeed in eluding the police and are safely across the state line the criminal's car is hit by a train. Totally unexpected.
"Von Ryan's Express". Colonel Ryan. brilliantly played by Frank Sinatra, succeeds in leading his men on a desperate escape from Nazi occupied Italy. They hijack a train and are headed for the Swiss border with the Nazis in hot pursuit. Running to reboard the train after they had to stop to clear the tracks, Colonel Ryan is shot and kill to the horror of his men. It's not the same ending as the book but it's the one Frank insisted on before agreeing to star in the movie.
Annihilation with Natalie Portman. Not that unexpected, but scary as hell
American Graffiti. Great film with a seriously bleak ending. Alt answer, Ex Machina.
American Graffiti...one of my favorites of all time. I cry at the end every time.
The village. I thought it was such a good ending. My sister hated the whole movie for it.
"Ghost Stories". Best twist ending of a movie I've seen in recent years. A paranormal investigator researching three cases his mentor could not prove false starts seeing things that gradually expose a shocking discovery about himself.
Also, the open ending to Christopher Nolan's "Inception".
Babe! That'll do pig.
Jacobs Ladder.
I have to put "The Usual Suspect" and "Sleepaway Camp" on this list. No one could see those endings coming and my jaw was on the floor with both.
As a teen I was blown away by the ending of the usual suspect. Didn't understand a thing about the movie but the ending was great haha
My grandma had The Watcher in the Woods on VHS and my sister and I watched it repeatedly as kids. I rented it as an adult to watch with my daughter and it had a completely different and totally wild ending! Turns out there were two versions. If you like creepy and weird, check it out.
The Others. When I first watched the movie I wasn't sure where the story was going. I did start suspecting everyone was ghosts or the family was being visited by ghosts. Wasn't expecting the ending to be what it was. It wasn't satisfying, either. I felt the children should have been allowed to move on and whatever happens to the mother happens.
The Sixth Sense. No, I did not expect that ending.
The Barbie movie. I have mixed feelings about that whole movie. I didn't expect that ending.
On a more heartwarming note, when I first saw 50 First Dates. Who knew that was a possibility for someone with that type of memory loss. Imagine the shock of waking up pregnant and not remembering yesterday, and the days and months, years before that.
The best thing about The Others is the way it inverts the horror movie palette. The kids are photophobic, so darkness is safe and friendly, whereas the light is an enemy. (No spoilers - the kids' antipathy to light is established very early). Well, that and Eric Sykes in a rare late-career cameo
The Crying Game.
That was a complete twist to any movie ending I’d seen before. Very well done. I loved how Miramax asked the audience not to reveal the secret regarding Dil’s gender identity.
When I started reading this list I immediately started thinking about this movie but couldn't remember the name of it.......thanks Janina....
Idk about shocking but I was devastated when the main character sacrificed himself in the movie "I Am Legend."
Shutter Island
House of Sand and Fog. The despair at the end is unmitigated and awful.
The Last American Virgin. Supposed to be a teen sex movie and it slaps you across the face
Birdy, with Matthew Modine and Nicholas Cage. Great ending!
The ending to the Of Mice and Men 1992 movie was just as heartbreaking as the book. But it also changed what happens right after the main thing in chapter 6. A character is shown travelling in a carriage or something which implies they left, which never happened in the book.
I know my answer sounds kinda weird I was tryna keep spoilers out of it lol
Karate Kid. Daniel was NOT disqualified and banned from competition forever for the ILLEGAL kick to the head! Pshaw!
exactly! how is no one bothered by this? Plus Daniel was a bully and always wanted the attention
Sweet Girl with Jason Mamoa
I think I stopped watching it because it was all car chases and no substance. If I did watch, I forgot and that's saying A LOT for a Jason Mamoa film.
I felt the Purple Rose of Cairo had the most terrible ending. It made me promise never to watch a Woody Allen film again.
Hatching, incredibly bizarre horror movie and i had no idea where it was going. Also agree with the mist and the village. High tension had a dumb ending that didn’t make sense
Not the ending i think it was quite early in the movie but i dont think anyone the giant lady underneath the house to suddenly appear and kill one of the 2 main characters in barbarian
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I felt the Purple Rose of Cairo had the most terrible ending. It made me promise never to watch a Woody Allen film again.
Hatching, incredibly bizarre horror movie and i had no idea where it was going. Also agree with the mist and the village. High tension had a dumb ending that didn’t make sense
Not the ending i think it was quite early in the movie but i dont think anyone the giant lady underneath the house to suddenly appear and kill one of the 2 main characters in barbarian
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