The end of the year seems the perfect time to think about memorable movie endings.
The Chicago Tribune feature writers recently compiled this list.
I'm sure we can agree with some, disagree with others and come up with titles of our own.
"All the President's Men" (1976): (over the
teletype machine) "Nixon resigns." --Alan Solomon
"Animal House" (1978): It became a cliche, but the
freeze-frame on major characters with text explaining what became of them is
perfect here. --M. David Nichols
"Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969): Paul Newman and
Robert Redford facing the blazing Bolivian army guns. --Jeff Lyon
"Fargo"
(1996): This comical, violent, unpredictable, disturbing Coen Brothers movie
ends on a simple note: Marge, the pregnant police chief, and her husband, Norm,
are in bed, watching TV. He tells her that his painting of a duck is going to
be on a new 3-cent stamp. She tells him how proud she is. --Tim Bannon
"Ferris Bueller's Day Off" (1986): Principal Ed Rooney being
forced to take the school bus home. --Lauren Viera
"The Godfather" (1972): Michael Corleone saying "no"
to Diane Keaton--lying--then accepting tributes. --Alan Solomon
"Goodfellas" (1990): Ray Liotta in a bathrobe getting the
morning paper; a former mobster living like a "schnook" in Witness
Protection. Punctuated with quick flash of Joe Pesci's psychotic (and dead by
this time) Tommy shooting right at the camera. --M. David Nichols
"Kelly's Heroes" (1970): In this wacky World War II
rob-a-bank-behind-the-lines tale, the exciting conclusion comes as the
Patton-like General Colt (Carroll O'Connor) is entering the town just as Kelly
(Clint Eastwood) and the gang are loading up the captured gold. Big Joe (Telly
Savalas) tells the mayor of the French town that a general is coming. The mayor
doesn't understand, so Big Joe shouts, "De Gaulle!" The citizenry
goes nuts and swarms General Colt shouting "De Gaulle! De Gaulle!"
General Colt is soon stalled while Kelly and company escape with the ingots of
their desire. --Michael Esposito
"Limbo" (1999): We see from the pilot's perspective as
castaways David Strathairn and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio stand on the beach,
looking up at the approaching plane, and neither they nor we know whether the
plane is coming to rescue them or murder them. And the screen goes dark. I
loved the fact that John Sayles, writing a movie about randomness and
uncertainty, had the guts to follow it to its logical conclusion and the art to
construct it to build to a moment where the uncertainty was total. Moral: You
never know. You never can know. --Beth Botts
"Mister Roberts" (1955): Spoken by Frank Pulver (Jack Lemmon)
to an urpy Capt. Morton (Jimmy Cagney): "Captain, it is I, Ensign Pulver,
and I just threw your stinkin' palm tree overboard! Now what's all this crud
about no movie tonight?" --Alan Solomon
"Nine Queens" (2000): The last scene of this Argentine film is
a masterful wrapping-up of a long con game. I think most viewers, like me, know
from the beginning that it's a con game involving the two main characters but
don't know who is conning whom, then see that it isn't a con game (thus being
conned themselves by the screenplay), then see it be resolved in favor of the
somewhat-nicer guy. In the last two minutes, all the pieces of the puzzle are
made clear in such a way that as you play the film back in your mind, each
scene is an "aha." --Marshall Froker
"North by Northwest" (1959): The train-in-the-tunnel long shot
(snicker). --Phil Vettel
"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1975): Chief Bromden puts
lobotomized McMurphy out of his misery, smothering him with a pillow, then
takes his cue: ripping the hydro-therapy station from the floor, tossing it
through the window and fleeing the institution. --M. David Nichols
"Picnic" (1955): Kim Novak's bus following William Holden's
freight train, with that amazing music. --Alan Solomon
"The Professional" (1994): When dying Leon (Jean Reno) hands
crooked-cop Stansfield (Gary Oldman) the grenade pin. Boom! --Michael
Esposito
"Raiders of the Lost Ark"
(1981): The government's "top men" wheeling the boxed up ark into a
warehouse to be lost amid a sea of identical boxes. --M. David Nichols
"Reservoir Dogs" (1992): You know it's a good movie
when everyone dies. (See also: "The Wild Bunch"). --Robert
K. Elder
"The Searchers" (1956): John Wayne walking that walk, away. --Alan
Solomon
"Silence of the Lambs" (1991): Hannibal Lecter (Anthony
Hopkins) walking down the beach on the trail of his prey. --Jeff Lyon
"The Sixth Sense" (1999): I know some people say they
saw it coming, but I never did. My jaw dropped and my mind raced back through
the movie, mentally calling up scene after scene to find a hole in the closing
premise. But I couldn't come up with a single false note. My reaction can best
be expressed thusly: Wow. --Denise Joyce
"Some Like It Hot" (1959): Osgood (Joe E. Brown) to fiance
Jerry/Daphne (Jack Lemmon), who's just confessed that he's a man: "Well,
nobody's perfect." --Alan Solomon
"Son of Paleface" (1952): Roy Rogers rearing Trigger in the
sunset, saying farewell; Bob Hope doing the same with his jeep. --Alan
Solomon
"Stalag 17" (1953): After the Nazi guards gun down an
"American POW," camp commander Oberst Von Scherbach (Otto Preminger),
in full smirk, flips the body over in the mud. Exit smirk when he sees the dead
man is the Nazi spy who had been undercover as a POW (Peter Graves). --Michael
Esposito
"A Star is Born" (1937, 1954): Spoken by the brave widow
played by either Janet Gaynor or Judy Garland: "Hello, everybody. This is
Mrs. ... Norman ... Maine" --Alan Solomon
"To Catch a Thief" (1955): The "mother will LOVE it
here" end. --Phil Vettel
"The Wizard of Oz" (1939): Dorothy (Judy Garland) surrounded
by Auntie Em, Uncle Henry and Kansas farmhands
(and their Munchkinland doppelgangers) Hunk (Ray Bolger), Zeke (Bert Lahr) and Hickory (Jack Haley):
"Oh, but anyway, Toto, we're home. Home! And this is my room, and you're
all here. And I'm not gonna leave here ever, ever again, because I love you
all, and--oh, Auntie Em--there's no place like home!" --Maureen M. Hart
"You've Got Mail" (1998): Central Park,
and Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) is waiting for her anonymous Internet beau to show
up and sweep her off her feet. Who walks around the corner? Her business rival
and recent reluctant friend Joe Fox (Tom Hanks). Tears, a kiss--a complete
sweep. --Linda Bergstrom
EvilDirector's Top Ten
10) Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan-
The rebirth
of the Trek franchise after it's near death after the abysmally long
and critically-maligned The Motion Picture, the film which inspired two
excellent television series (Next Generation and DS9) and two average
ones (Voyager, Enterprise), and even inspired another Trek movie
(Nemesis): Wrath of Khan accomplished this all, and much of it
is due to the wonderful ending. Trek director's have been trying (and
failing) ever since to portray starship combat in such an engrossing
matter, and no one since has made James Kirk such an absolute warrior
and captain. Easily one of the best science fiction/fantasy films of
all time, the emotional scene with Spock's death was completely
unexpected, and sent shock waves throughout the fan base. Add to that
the promise of a sequel, with Spock narrating the famous Trek "To
Boldly go" speech as we pan away from his photon torpedo coffin on
Genesis, and you get our number 10 entry (X2 fans will note the
startling, and purposeful, parallelism Singer used in the X2
ending...too bad all we got as a follow-up was the lukewarm "The Last
Stand")
Monumental Ending: Spock's sacrifice and death( "The needs of the many...outweigh... the needs of the few. Or the one.")
9) Braveheart
8) High Fidelity
Another film
responsible for a host of imitators, Mel Gibson's directorial debut
made it possible for Hollywood to make 3 + hours movies, and for
audiences to accept them. Epics became the "in" thing: Titanic, Gladiator, The Patriot, The Perfect Storm, Gangs of New York, Troy, Alexander,
etc. For those unfamiliar with Scottish history, the ending came as a
complete surprise: most watchers expected an elaborate escape scene
remeniscent of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Instead, with
James Horner's wonderfully somber music playing in the background, we
watch William Wallace being tortured to death...until the crowd, moved
by his nobility (Freeedddoommmm!), demands his quick death. Cut to
months later, with Wallace's battered veterans lined up behind Scottish
nobleman Robert the Bruce (whose story in this film is better that
Wallace's), ready to receive English "endorsement" of a Scottish crown.
Instead, Bruce, perhaps finally coming around to Wallace's way of
thinking, orders a charge on the unsuspecting English.
Monumental Ending
: Wallace's sword flying through the air and slamming point first into
the ground as the Scot's charge...then it slowly swaying in the wind as
Gibson narrates a few closing lines ("...and won their freedom.")
Easily
one of the greatest romantic comedies ever made. It's humor is easily
missed by the Adam Sandler/Chris Farley/American Pie type of viewer, so
"Waterboy" fans might easily wonder at this inclusion. Trust me, it's
funny. It has, in abundance, an older form of humor not seen much
nowadays: wit. Yeah, I'm being facetious.
Monumental Ending:
John Cusack's Rob, settling into his easy chair, delivering a great
character speech before turning up Stevie Wonder's "I Beleive When I
Fall In Love" (I'm starting to make a tape, in my head, for Laura. Full
of stuff she'd like. Stuff that would make her happy. And for the first
time...I can kinda see how that's done.)
7)The Last of the Mohicans
This
film is so full of "great" that it's almost absurd. And it does it
without breaking the two hour mark. Wonderful performances, sets, and,
oh my god, music set this film apart...FAR apart. Of all of
Michael Mann's filmography, this is the one film that stands out the
most, even though it seems to be criminally overlooked in favor of his
later masterpiece, Heat.
Monumental Ending:
Chigungachook taking apart the renegade Huron's one by one, damn near
without pausing in stride, on the way to avenge the death of his son.
Hawkeye (Daniel Day Lewis) keeps pace and clears the way, but the
ending belongs to the Last of the Mohicans...who proves why you
shouldn't really mess with them in the first place, even if you are Wes
Studi.
6) Conan the Barbarian
Arnold's breakthrough role, pre-Terminator.
Anyone who has dismissed this previously as an "Arnold" flick is doing
themselves a great disservice. A bloody, violent, dark film which bears
no resemblance to it's sequel (The dreadful the Destroyer), CTB is one of the best fantasy films ever made, primarily because it takes itself seriously (part of the greatness of the LOTR films).
It's also a very masculine film, straightforward in it's abject worship
of strength, violence, and friendship/love that needs no words
(primarily because of Arnold's accent). This film features THE best opening credit sequence ever, along with some of the best fantasy music ever.
Monumental Ending:
The two warriors, Conan and Subatei, awaiting the approaching hordes of
Thulsa Doom in the Sacred Rocks. As the large group of villains ride
towards them, Arnold gives a great speech before proceeding into an
epic battle sequence. (Crom...I have never prayed to you before...I
have no tongue for it. No one, not even you, will remember whether we
were good men, or bad. Why we fought, or how we died. No. What matters
is that two stood against many. That's what is important. Valor pleases
you Crom...so grant me one request: grant me revenge! and if you do not
listen...then the hell with you!)
5)The Shootist
Despite what
detractors might say, John Wayne had more screen presence that any two
modern day actors put together; also despite what detractors might say,
he was an excellent actor. Witness True Grit, In Harm's Way, The Searchers, or, most especially, his last film: The Shootist.
At this point the Duke was terminally ill with a second case of lung
cancer, and the word was out that this was his last film. Ironically,
the movie is about a famous gunfighter who, finding out he's dying of
cancer, tries to decide how to spend his last days. Fill the cast with
Wayne, James Stewart, Lauren Bacall, Ron Howard, and a host of others,
add in Wayne delivering his best performance ever, plus the fact that
the entire film is eery in it's similarity to real life...and you get a
great film.
Monumental Ending: JB Books last
fight, in the fancy bar in Colorado. As Stewart, as his doctor, tells
Wayne early on in the film: "One more thing...This is not advice, it's
not even a suggestion, just something for you to reflect upon while
your mind's still clear. I would not die the death I just described.
Not if I had your courage."
4) Jaws
Hitchcock once
said, "A bomb's taped under a table and it explodes. That's surprise. A
bomb's taped under a table and it does NOT explode. That's suspense".
That philosophy made Hitch's films great, and it does the same for
Spielberg's breakthrough film. Jaws is filled with more passion and
masterpiece acting and directing in five minutes then current summer
blockbusters can drum up in their entire lengths. One of the greatest
monologues of all time is Quint's speech at sea, recalling the sinking
of the USS Indianapolis. (So eleven hundred men went into the water, three hundred come out, the sharks took the rest...)
Monumental Ending: The Orca dipping below the waves as the Shark makes it's way towards the hydrophobic Chief Brody ("Smile, you son of a *****!")
3) Citizen Kane
Modern audiences
can't always discern why CK garners the acclaim it gets. Sure, people
say, it's a great film...but why the best of all time? Well, aside from
having excellent acting and cinematography, it pioneered so many of the
cinematic elements which we take for granted now. Take, for instance,
the sporadic time structure of Pulp Fiction, which would have been impossible without Citizen Kane leading the way.
Monumental Ending: The
vast collection of Charles Foster Kane in Xanadu, as the camera pans
over crate and crate and miles of statues...until we pan in on a huge
furnace. Worker's toss in a simple sled, and we see a simple word
bubble and burn away as the sled is consumed: "Rosebud".
2) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
The film which made a career for Robert Redford and brightened the star of Paul Newman, BCATSK proved that a film could be witty and dramatic.
The interaction between Redford and Newman is so crucial to the film
that one can't help but wonder what the film would be without it,
balancing the serious undertone of dangerous situations with the light
comedy of their dialogue.
Monumental Ending: Butch
and Sundance, weary and worn, surrounded by soldiers, talking vainly
about their next trip: To Australia. Then they jump out of the room,
guns ready....and the film stops, the picture turns sepia and we pull
out, frozen on that last moment, hearing nothing but the roaring of
guns...
1) Casablanca
The
best film ever made. One of the only films with the staying power of
great literature, it's still as romantic, exciting, and witty today as
it was over fifty years ago when it was made. And, watching the
restored edition DVD, you can add beautiful to the list. If rumors that
Ben and Jen are seeking to remake this with themselves in Bogie and
Bergman's place are true, I will go on a rampage.
Monumental Ending: Louis
and Rick walking off into the fog at the airport, Ilsa by now just a
spot in the sky as her plane flies off, "I think this is the beginning
of a beautiful friendship."
"There Comes a Time in Every Man's Life When He Must Spit on His Hands, Hoist the Black Flag, and Start Slitting Throats."
-HL Mencken
Nice movies
Thanks for these OnSetChicago and Evildirector. Some I haven't seen and some I want to see again. And thanks for the beautiful pictures of the beautiful men.
For a non Hollywood ending, I just saw <em>Once.</em> I picked it off the shelf at Blockbuster. Seems I'm one of the few who hasn't heard of this little gem. It is great. Lots of great songs and the ending is definitely not a Hollywood one. And did I say the songs are awesome?
http://www.myspace.com/oncethemovie
Some of my favorites
are alredy listed above in both list
here it is some more in no particular order
1- Breathless. Dir. Jim McBride (Richard Gere, Valérie Kaprisky)
2- The General´s Daugther. Dir. Simon West (John Travolta, Madeleine Stowe...)
3- Pretty Woman. Dir. Gerry Marshal (Richard Gere, Julia Roberts)
4- The Untouchables. Dir. Brian de Palma (Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Charles Martin Smith, Andy Garcia, Robert de Niro...)
5- Rocky. Dir. John G. Avildsen (Silvester Stallone, Talia Shire...)
6- Monalisa Smile. Dir. Mike Newell (Julia Robert, Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles, Marcia Gay harden...)
7- Angel Heart. Dir. Alan Parker (Mickey Rourke, Robert de Niro...)
8- The Ilusionist. Dir. Neil Burger (Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti, Jessica Biel...)
9- The Elephant Man. Dir. David Linch (Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt, Anne Bancroft...)
10- Scent of a Woman. Dir. Martin Brest (Al Pacino, Chris O´Donnell...)
Once
I saw "Once" recently as well. I enjoyed the movie and I also liked the
extras in which the director and producers talked about making the
decision to film it with non actors for $100,000.
I do have to admit that we used the subtitles as the accents and
quality of audio made it difficult to understand what was being said at
times (and I'm not talking about when they were speaking Czech;-)
One of the songs from the film Falling Slowly tops a recent online list of "The best songs of 2007 that you probably haven't heard".
"The greatest journeys are the ones that bring you home."--The Namesake
Falling Slowly
Clips from "Once" set to Falling Slowly:
"The greatest journeys are the ones that bring you home."--The Namesake
Good choice
Hey Jan.
I've watched all of the extras, too. They are pretty inspiring, aren't they? The above video is such a great choice. That song along with the performance gave me an instant crush on Glen Hansard, the guy in the movie. I'm definintely making a click to Amazon to buy the DVD plus the soundtrack and probably the Frames' new cd as well.
I found Once inspiring.
Donna May
Behind Blue Eyes
Alright then:
The Mist (if you haven't seen it, god help you) , Oldboy, A Clockwork Orange, The Ususal Suspects, The Insider, Halloween, The Howling, Man on Fire (the alternate ending, which is far better than the theatrical), The Shawshank Redemption, Seven, Audition, Bad Taste, Death Proof, and of course, Soylent Green.
If it's just ridiculous, it's bad.
IF IT IS RRIIIDDDIICCUUULLOOUUSS, then it's okay.
"American Psycho"
"This entire confession...
...was for nothing."
"Baffling the critics since 1971."
Great Idea Jan! I'm
Great Idea Jan!
I'm totally in Love with the ending of this films, specially Breakfast at Tiffany's.
1. Breakfast at Tiffany's
2. Pretty Woman
3. Grease
4. Hook
5. Schindler's List
6. Memoirs of a Geisha
Talking about Breakfast at Tiffany's, i think it's ending it's the perfect romantic classic ending... It's sooooo Magic how the director transformed a taxi scene into a Magistral Ending of the film...
How the cat, it's abandoned.. and it started causing some pitty on the viewer, the rain... the acting, the discover of the cat, how the feelings are hidely contucted by that little car...
OMG, it's pure cinema pleasure... :
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