"You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell! "
No doubt about it, this scene was one hell of a twist.
Posted on 07/30/2006 1:02:24 PM PDT by MotleyGirl70
I've seen Chinatown a dozen times, and while it's a great movie, two specific things about it stick in my mind: Jack Nicholson's bandaged nose and the final line of dialogue. Acting, directing, a great script… these are essential to any film. But a classic ending, now that can really make a movie.
We spent literally months brainstorming and corralling the 50 films with the absolute best endings we've ever seen. We're not talking about the last half hour. We mean the last minute of movie. You know, the ending.
Needless to say you can consider this entire article one monster SPOILER ALERT. Most of the films here are classics that you've probably seen several times over. But if not, skip past the ones you haven't seen and put 'em in your rental queue, otherwise you're going to ruin a whole lot of good films. Check out the flicks and we promise you won't be disappointed when the credits roll. As always, apologies in advance for the ones we stupidly forgot (and we know you'll be writing to let us know -- yes, Jaws, The Sixth Sense, Seven, Carrie, we're sorry!).
- Christopher Null, Editor-in-Chief
The Sixth Sense. M. Night Shyamalan has spent the rest of his career trying to recreate that perfect ending. Nobody saw it coming, and it took a great horror movie to an entirely different level.
Deliverance. Everybody talks about the scene where Ned Beatty gets raped, but the ending, with the hand coming out of the lake, and Jon Voight waking up screaming was unbelievably eerie. Brain DePalma made an entire career out of ripping off that ending (think Carrie and Dressed to Kill).
Apollo 13. Being true helps, but the joy of everyone at the successful recovery of the astronauts, when Ed Harris hears the radio transmission indicating a safe return and slumps in his chair, totally exhausted, is one of the best "feel good" moments in movie history.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Jimmy Stewart, as an aging politician, blathering in his studied politician voice, and the conductor tells him, "Nothing's too good for the man who shot Liberty Valance." Stewart sits, and thinks of Tom Donophan, who gave up everything he loved, his girl, his dignity, and his reputation, and Stewart had scooped it all up.
Mister Roberts. The scene of Roberts leaving the ship, as the crew who had turned their backs on him said their apologies by being polite, followed by the news he had been killed in combat, sitting in a ward room drinking coffee, and the formerly cowardly Ensign Pulver taking his place.
Stalag 17. If you haven't seen it, see it. "When Johnny comes marching home again, hurrah, hurrah..."
Halloween. Yeah, the ending's pretty lame now, since it's been done in something like five Halloween movies and fifteen Friday the 13th movies, and to top it off, they do the ending every fifteen minutes in every film, but the original Halloween, with actual actors and actresses (Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasance) kept that balance that you just thought "man, this guy's crazy AND tough." The final scene, where Pleasance shoots him multiple times and he falls out the window, then he looks down and he's gone is the first hint that there's something supernatural about the guy.
Devil's Advocate: Al Pacino's great line, "Vanity is my favorite sin."
These are just off the top of my head.
"You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell! "
No doubt about it, this scene was one hell of a twist.
BWAHAHAHA... sufferin' cats. That movie was awful. I am amazed that anyone was actually frightened at any point of the film.
Have you ever watched Memento backwards, that is, starting with the last scene and working your way back scene by scene?
That's a good ending too. The simple score in Halloween adds to the overall scariness of the movie.
I'll add a couple more to my list:
Sleepers
The Graduate
Lol. Nope, haven't tried that one yet.
For me, "The Others" got close to a "Sixth Sense" type ending. While I wasn't engrossed in "the Blair Witch", "the Others" got me hook line and sinker. I remember gasping outloud in the theater when the old woman yanks open the closet doors to reveal the children. I think I yelled out something like "IT'S THE GRANDMOTHER!!!!!!", much to my wife's dismay. Everyone in the row in front of me just turned and looked at me with pity in their eyes.
On another note, the end of "Unbreakable" was also fairly clever- though not on the level of the Sixth Sense.
"Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs comes to mind."
Quite classic, yes. Incredible climax, even though I haven't seen the film in probably 7 years or so. I'm glad someone else has heard of this movie!
What! "Gone with the Wind" didn't make the Top 50! For cryin out loud, it shoulda been #1!
Peckinpah's one of my favorite directors -- The Wild Bunch, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Straw Dogs, The Ballad of Cable Hogue, Ride the High Country, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, Cross of Iron. .....lotta classics.
I always thought the part where it says "The End." was the best.
The Blair Witch project was a good movie to watch once. It was one of those "one shot" concept movies that worked well and pioneered some areas in using the web for advertising. The concept allowed the movie to be shot with practically no budget.
Here are three more good movie endings:
The Mechanic (1972): Jan-Michael Vincent blown up in the sports car just after reading the note left for him by his hit-man mentor, Charles Bronson.
Invasion of The Body Snatchers (1978): Donald Sutherland's pointing finger and inhuman scream.
To Live & Die In L.A. (1985): the chilling realization that John Vukovich has become just like his dead partner Richard Chance, plus the ultra-cool drive through L.A. as the credits roll.
And yet another three good ones:
Zeppelin (1971): The dirigible crashing into the sea as Michael York & Elke Sommer struggle ashore.
Emperor of The North Pole (1973): Lee Marvin throws Keith Carradine off the train: "My road, kid, and I don't give lessons and I don't take partners. Your ass don't ride this train!"
Exposed (1983): No dialogue & filmed with little action, but there is something so exquisite about this scene, as Rudolf Nureyev lays dying in Nastassja Kinski's arms just after shooting the terrorists.
"Unbreakable" is one of my favorite movies, and my favorite by Shyamalan.
I tried watching The Others, but all I was getting out of it was that; the kids couldn't go out in the sun, the husband was fighting in the war, and the housekeepers were weird.
I stopped watching less than half-way through.
I looked on IMDb and it didn't give much of a synopsis, except the house was haunted.
Feel free to fill me in if you want.
The Others is worth checking out, in my "shout at the top of my lungs though no one else seems as involved in the movie as me" humble opinion. :)
I remember watching the Blair Witch and being incredibly bored. The final scene bugged me. I didn't get why anyone would stand in the corner out of fear, waiting to be killed. I appreciated the concept of a low budget horror flick, but the whole thing just seemed badly improvised.
Did you ever see 'The Road to Perdition'? I thought the ending was brutal.
Unbreakable is my wife's favorite M. Night movie. I'm still stuck on Sixth Sense, though I actually liked the Village as a second favorite.
I liked the Village as well. The soundtrack was awesome, Bryce Howard was amazing, and it was filmed in (my opinion) one of the most beautiful places in the world, just north of where I grew up, along the Pennsylvania/Delaware border, in the Brandywine Creek valley.
Consider it done via freepmail.
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