Q&A: Favorite Ambiguous/Unhappy Endings?
It’s no secret that Hollywood loves its happy endings but for many people, it’s the unhappy or ambiguous conclusions that end up being the most memorable ones. The question of the week is: What are your favorite unhappy/ambiguous endings?
Note: This Q&A is obviously going to be full of spoilers. Read at your own peril!
Few movie endings can match the bleakness of the conclusion for 1995 crime thriller Seven. Word is that star Brad Pitt had a clause in his contract that prevented anyone from altering the film’s controversial ending or he would walk off the set. Absolutely no one at the time expected this dark of an ending in a movie featuring the playboy from Legends of the Fall and the guy who was Driving Miss Daisy (Morgan Freeman).
Throughout the entire story, the viewer is hammered with the hopelessness and decay that pervades David Fincher’s world. When we are offered one tiny ray of light, Gwyneth Paltrow and her unborn baby, it’s crushed with one of the most atrocious ending in film history: Her severed head in a box and Brad Pitt’s character completing John Doe’s cycle by committing the seventh deadly sin.
Your turn! What is your favorite ambiguous or unhappy movie ending? Let us know in the comments!
The question of the week is an opportunity for you to open up and reveal more about yourself and your movie taste. Have a question you would like us and the readers to answer? Don’t hesitate to Email Me.
61 Comments
Absolute best ending of all time- Inception. Not only does it make us think about what happened afterwards, but we have to think about everything that happened before too. The whole film literally depends on the ending.
My second favourite ending is Before Sunset’s. Just brilliant.
Also, since I am watching it right now, Marie Antoinette, because I love the fact that it does not show her dying. It is so much sadder and more beautiful.
Love that you mention Marie Antoinette. First off, I adore that film. Second, when I saw it in the theater the people sitting next to me asked, when it ended, “Why didn’t they show the best part?” As in, the beheading. And I just wanted to start screaming at them.
So… why didn’t they show the best part?
Interesting that you liked the Inception ending so much Nikhat. Certainly, it leaves you pondering whether it was all reality or just a dream within a dream of a dream that started as a dream but ended up in someone else’s dream of another person’s dream. Absolutely fascinating!
I don’t think Inception’s ending is ambiguous. At first, I thought it was, but If you analyze the movie you realize that the whole thing was an inception to Di Caprio’s character. So at the end he’s not in a dream. It may look like that, but if you go deeper you find that this ending is not ambiguous at all.
@aparmisen
Good question and yes I totally agree, love the ending of Se7en.
There are many good endings out there but the one that I like quite a bit and it’s not really an ending because it happened about 15 minutes before the film ended.
Spoiler alert of course.
In To Live and Die in L.A., a very underrated action thriller from the 80s, the hero of the film got his face shot off by the bad guy 15 minutes before the film ended. The first time I saw that film, I almost shit my pants because I totally didn’t see that coming and it was so unexpected. This was the 80s! And the film was a buddy cop action type so I thought our hero and his sidekick would go and blow the shit out of the bad guys, not the other way around. A great movie though.
I think Se7en and Legends of the Fall are two Brad Pitt films I like and the lack of happy ending actually adds to the film’s enigma.
I agree w/ Nikhat about Inception and in a way The Dark Knight also didn’t end happily w/ one of the main characters killed and the hero being on the run. I wouldn’t want it any other way!
Wait until Nolan kills off Batman!!! (I hope)
Hi, Nick and company:
Excellent catch on ‘To Live and Die in L.A.’, Ted!
Love John Pankow’s final quip to Chance’s girlfriend snitch, Ruth. As she thinks she’s finally free. Packing and getting ready to split.
Would also include the last five minutes of John Frankenheimer’s ‘Seconds’.
And the same final minutes of Alan J. Pakula’s ‘The Parallax View’.
Haven’t seen To Live and Die in LA so I had to restrain myself from reading that spoiler ahah. But yea, I’m watching that soon!
The saddest ending that just kills me is Bicycle Thieves. If you seen that film, believe me. Streaming tears down your face isn’t enough to describe what I saw in that film.
The Bicycle Thief? Added to my Netflix queue!
Here are some of my faves:
All Quiet on the Western Front (Unhappy)
Shame (Amb)
Layer Cake (Amb)
The Birds (Amb)
Vertigo (Both)
Children of Men (Both)
Stalag 17 (I really hope Sefton made it)
I’ve read the book but haven’t seen the movie for All Quiet on the Western Front. What happens at the end? I don’t remember.
Paul gets sniped at the end when looking at the bird or butterfly.
The story in general is so sad and is a great testament to the futility of war.
Ah yes I remember now. Indeed, a tragic ending especially given that the war is basically over at that point, if I remember correctly.
Correct!
My favorite sad ending is Atonement. Although you could debate if it’s REALLY sad since Briony gives them “their happiness” but still…..
I guess that’s what I find perplexing. A lot of my favorite movie endings are “technically” sad even though they make me incredibly happy, like Black Swan or Shakespeare In Love or Bonnie and Clyde or The Heiress and so on and so forth.
That’s because you are such a sick, sick person!
Yea, Atonement’s ending was memorable although for me, not that emotional.
Yeah Atonement is a good call. I was sad and frustrated. Their “happy” ending is so heartbreaking.
The Heiress – I LOVE that ending.
To call the ending to “Inception” the best ever is to insult and dismiss 100+ years of cinema. To make an ending ambiguous is not analogous to genius, and amateur critics seem unable to grasp that.
The ending of “Don’t Look Now” is at once shocking and absurd, and it’s what makes the film iconic. The ending of “Chinatown” is similarly despairing; if the good guys win, “Chinatown” betrays its own ideologies. “Vertigo” is also a strong contender for best ending.
But I think the subtle sorrow that permeates the ending of “Casablanca” is one of the saddest endings ever, and definitely one of the most misunderstood. Yes, Ilsa gets away with Lazlo and yes, Rick forms a friendship with Claude Reins. But Ilsa loves Rick, not Lazlo, and she’s ultimately lying by leaving with Lazlo, who now falsely believes that Ilsa loves him. Is there anything more devastating than unrequited love?
Finally someone mentioning Casablanca! No hoopla, or flashy emotional scenes with the Rick and Ilsa in tears and that makes the ending even more powerful.
I’m not particularly enamored with the ending of Inception myself, mostly because I saw it coming from 20 miles away with the whole “was it real?” and that gave the movie a false feeling that it was more complex than it really was.
I actually much prefer the ambiguous ending of two other Nolan movies:
- The Prestige
- Memento
One of my favorites is No Country for Old Men. That ending worked on two levels for me. One: I actually found it genuinely moving and a perfect coda to this movie dealing with themes of old people coming to terms with a changing world they can no longer understand or relate to. Two: My inner prankster loved that the Cohens managed to pissed off most viewers with this ending.
Yup, love the ending to No Country for Old Men, I was afraid The Coen Brothers would change that ending from the book, thankfully they didn’t Hollywooded up. I was actually quite shocked how close that ending was to the novel.
Nice mention Dave. I was about to mention it in my post along with Se7en but ended up leaving it out to someone else
I remember so many people were irritated by that ending and the fact that Tommy Lee Jones never even got a glimpse of Anton Chirguh.
Se7en is definitely in my favorite list.
I also like Black Swan, Sunshine, and many more I can’t quite think of them right now
Yea I liked the ending of Black Swan too. There was no other way for the movie to go anyways.
As the old guy in the lot, I’ll take this back to the 70s with my pick: Chinatown (1974). Screenwriter Robert Towne envisioned a totally different, more hopeful, ending. One of the few times the acclaimed writer’s instincts didn’t work. Thankfully, Roman Polanski changed it. Many still believe Polanski’s take reflected his downbeat view from the death of pregnant wife, Sharon Tate, by the Manson gang in ’69. I love this quote from the Salon.com article on the subject:
That’s a great quote and interesting insight on the ending of the movie. I have yet to see Chinatown, believe it or not but that’s something I shall keep in mind when I do see it.
The Wrestler. I didn’t like it at first, but I honestly can’t think of a better or more appropriate ending.
I wouldn’t say I didn’t like it but it was so abrupt and I really want to know more about what happened ahah. A bit frustrating I guess.
And by the way, one of the unhappy endings I like most is the ending of ‘Arlington Road’. I wasn’t expecting that. I think it’s one of the best worst endings that exist. It leaves you like: “OMG! WTF! That cannot be happening!” That’s why I like it.
Can’t fail to mention ‘Inception’. Like others have said, completely changes the rest of the movie.
For unhappy endings, ‘Dancer in the Dark’ is definitely up there for me. One could use most of von Trier’s films, I suppose.
Not unhappy by the standards that have been discussed so far, but the ending of The ‘Iron Giant’ gets me to cry every time.
“The White Ribbon’ keeps the ending pretty open as well, even though we get the impression that it was the children (who possibly grow up to be Nazis.)
Ah yea, loved that ending for The White Ribbon. One of those only Haeneke can churn out.
Oh now that I’ve seen Casablanca, I’d add that one as a fabulously ‘unhappy’ endings. I wouldn’t want it any other way.
Yea definitely up there as one of the most iconic movie ending of all time!
No Country for Old Men is my personal favourite. Se7en is also up there – perfectly captures the essence of neo-noir in just 2 lines of dialogue. Big influence from Chinatown which is also up there. Casablanca and The Bicycle Theives worth a shout too.
Coincidently all of these films are in the exceptionally small percentile I believe to be perfect – I do love ambiguous endings!
“Ernest Hemingway once wrote, “The world is a fine place and worth fighting for.” I agree with the second part.”
Yea I love them too!
“The Grey Zone,” a little-seen Holocaust film written & directed by Tim Blake Nelson. Made Ebert’s list of Great Movies, and is unapologetically depressing. Also, and people don’t believe me when I claim this, it features a solid, understated performance by David Arquette. Seriously.
Added to my Netflix queue. Thanks Salazar!
The ending of A Serious Man knocked me flat, especially as it cut to black and Grace Slick’s voice. I’m sure I could think of others that I liked more, but it’s the first one that came to mind, and it’s worthy.
Unhappy endings? I could list 100 of these. I can’t think of a Bergman film that ended happily, for instance. Gran Torino was neat because it turned the Eastwood mythos of the invincible gunslinger on its head. Mouchette ends with… well, it doesn’t end happily. Requiem for a Dream, There Will be Blood, The Empire Strikes Back, etc…
Oh yes, I totally forgot about A Serious Man. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the movie as a whole but the ending was priceless! Plus, it was shot in my backwoods
Scorsese’s Taxi Driver has an ambiguous, hallucinatory atmosphere, the ending leaves you wondering.
Yea it does. And it’s a bit too surreal to take literally. But at the same time, you could argue either way.
The ending to “The Red Shoes” is also phenomenal. And “Les Diaboliques” has an amazing climax but the final 2 or 3 minutes completely ruin it, unfortunately.
Also, that “Inception” was mentioned 10 times and “Citizen Kane” not mentioned at all makes me a little sad.
Ahaha you are such an Inception hater Greg!
I’m purposely not reading all of these closely in case I haven’t seen the movie yet, so I’m not picking the big ones since those are likely already said.
An ending that I really enjoy is the conclusion of John Sayles’ Limbo, with the three main characters waiting on an abandoned island as a plane flies towards them. Does it promise their rescue or certain death? That’s up to the viewers.
It’s an interesting move because it’s mostly a character drama and doesn’t feel like the type of movie that would have an ambiguous ending. However, it works perfectly.
Dan your selection of Limbo cracked me up. I have not seen the film and you may totally in the right. However I am reading Christopher Null’s Five Stars!, film criticism book and he list Limbo as an example of pretentioness in the the chapter I just finished.
Not picking on your selection just cracked me up as I had read it this morning.
Limbo is definitely one of those movies that’s going to be loved by some (especially John Sayles fans) and strongly disliked by others. I can’t get enough of it, but I can see what Null is saying.
I am not sure if it my favorite, but certainly the one most fresh in my mind is the ending of the Danish film Terribly Happy. When they deal Robert into their card game, it seems he is on the edge of compromising his own moral compass and throwing in his lot with the townspeople. In his defense they do sort of have him by the cojones.
Obviously the Ending of Take Shelter has to be right up there as well.
The ending of Take Shelter was solid but I thought it would have been nicer to keep us guessing whether it was a premonition or just a mental illness. Andrew Crump had a great idea for an ending, having the protagonist watch his young daughter starting to behave in the same way as he did would have made for a great ending too.
Castor I am not sure that a lot of people feel the ending is so cut and dry. I have had a post concerning interprtations of the ending, up for a few of months now. I am still getting comments from people with some pretty wild ideas about the films conclusion.
I very much enjoyed Seven and am glad it ended the way it did.
Some favorites (with unhappy endings): (500) Days of Summer, My Best Friend’s Wedding, Inception.
There’s many others, probably mostly movies I have yet to see but are on my watch list right now.
Fun topic, Castor!
(500) Days of Summer, I need to see that flick again
Time Bandits is up there for me, I recently read a couple reviews for it and especially for the fact that it’s a kids movie, but at the end the main character’s parents and house are gone and who knows what he’s going to do next.
Two movies that come to mind for me are Million Dollar Baby and Requiem For A Deam.
Although it’s recent and probably makes me look like I don’t watch many films, I’d have to say Martha Marcy May Marlene. It’s the very definition of a valid ambiguous ending. I’m know there’s a few dozen films that also have ambiguous endings which are the point of the film and no other ending would be acceptable, but MMMM is the ultimate.
I heard a lot of people talk about the ending of MMMM so that’s definitely a good one to raise. I haven’t seen the movie yet but I’m looking forward to see what the hoopla is all about
Good call Seven is hard to beat! La Haine, Requiem for a Dream, The Mist, The Grey very recently was good. Love a good bleak ending. Ambiguous ones can go either way. Loved Inception, wasn’t so keen on Marth Marcy May Marlene, though I liked the rest of the film.
La Haine, great ending! After the night the characters have, you are relieved that they are all going home and then boom, you get that ending. It’s like a punch in the guts. Loved Vincent Cassel’s character.
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