Most satisfying film ending? (Beware of spoilers)

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We were watching Back to the Future tonight and I couldn't help thinking it had one of the most satisfying endings ever. Now in this case, I would say that what I regard as the ending really starts at the climax sequence next to the car, when the the loose ends begin to tie themselves off. George's moments of redemption, as it were, are just too cool, too danged satisfying. And Doc's choice in the end as well.

I'm being deliberately vague, however. By it's very nature, this thread could spoil a lot of film experiences so either keep your comments vague, post a nice big warning and the movie title clearly, or just give the name of the film and those who have seen it will likely nod in agreement...

In any case, there are many threads similar to this, I'm sure, but what I'm thinking of here is any film that was truly successful at delivering what it had made you want through the whole story, any film that built up to it and then gave full satisfaction, whether on a high or low note, at least in some way if not fully. Night of the Living Dead, for example, would be a film that did not do this, as brilliantly startling as the ending was. SpiderMan II has one of these moments. Some Kind of Wonderful has a lovely one. But of course, it's easier with mush...

this is technically not a spoiler as i am describing an alternate ending which i greatly preferred to the piffle ending of The Crying Game- in this most satisfying alternate ending, the protagonists walk off together into the gray english sunset.

Totally agree about "Back to the Future"

Agree that it's relatively easy, if not at all guaranteed, with romantic-comedies.

A few of my favourites ( for very satisfying endings ):

"Desperately Seeking Susan"
"Mulholland Drive"
"Sixth Sense"
"Trading Places"
"Clockwise"
"Memento" ( sort of "time-travel" :lol )
"Shawshank Redemption"
"Capricorn One"
"Deja Vu" ( another time travel one )
"Les Visiteurs" ( first of the three, in french ... and yet another time travel one :lol )
"Gladiator"
"Die Hard"
"Dune"

... Two things struck me while making this list:

1 ) How many of my all-time favourite films are actually flawed or weak or simply very "obvious"/cliched/glib in terms of endings, despite brilliance in alll/most other areas of what counts for me, and so aren't listed.

2 ) And how many of the films whose endings I find particularly powerful and satisfying involve time travel or prophecies/predictions, ( and the supernatural ), etc. ...

The most impressive, moving, satisfying, memorable endings for me are those which are pointed to/set up explicitly ( and apparently accurately ) beforehand, and/or whose endings credibly succeed in matching our expectations *against the most overwhelming odds* OR overturning/confounding our expectations while still fulfilling all previous clues/pointers/events etc.

The extra emphasis on what is expected to happen, then confounded/surprised, or satisfied against all the odds ...

It occurs to me that this "effect" might have something to do with the real difference between plot and story ... They are not the same thing, and may indeed end differently, one as a tragedy, one as a happy ending, or can turn what according to the *plot* was the end into a beginning, as in "Back to the Future" ie. the ostensible *plot* ending, ( ie chronologically, because after all he goes BACKwards in time, into the past ), is that Marty's family is under the thumb of that bully, but in fact the *story* manages to change that ostensible ( chronological ) "ending". The film is inspiring example of how can "change plot with story"/use story to overcome plot.

... ( and as such is vulnerable to being classed as "mere wishful thinking/pure escapism", as is ... )

And interestingly the same sort of "trick" applies to The Shawshank Redemption", ( based on the real difference between Protagonist and Main Character, who when they are the same person are called the "hero", but don't *have* to be the same person at all ), in that the film carefully "leads us" ( the way it introduces us to the characters ) to believe that because Andy is the "Protagonist" therefore he must be the "Main Character" too, so we "trust" his story line as we see it, and are surprised by what is discovered about his activities ... when in fact it is Red who is the Main Character, who has not seen everything.

And the same sort of thing applies to "Sixth Sense": who exactly is the protagonist and who the main character? It matters, it shapes our perception of whose "story"/perception" of things we "trust".

It's very clever/subtle manipulation ... I wonder if there are parallels in literature ... particularly powerfully satisfying endings based on similar manipulation of our view points whether temporal or spatial/located in a person.

Fascinating subject, irishwhistle, thank you for posting the thread.

NB. Interestingly the "power ( for good ) of story over plot" is a very 80's theme, when all was going well ( financially etc ) ... whereas the message of "Memento", from the 21st century is that stories bear little relationship to reality, *BUT* we believe them all the same, and continue to tell ourselves them anyway ( and I suppose does still suggest that stories do have power over what happens ... just not necessarily for the better!! ! ... ) ! lol And "Mulholland Drive" was made at the cusp, when people/society began to fumble and drop belief in one set of stories, ( "perpetual growth" for instance ), in the limbo between one working hypothesis/story/narrative and the next set, such that the previous "story" looks suddenly like a dream. Like taking the ... ( red or blue? ) pill in "The Matrix"! :lol
.

PS. Actually "Memento" suggests that story and plot are in continuous relationship with each other, informing and influencing each other, but unreliably, so that a plot point may be "perceived" in almost any number of ways by the story, as in the car park chase scene when Leonard says "So, I'm chasing this guy?" only to revise this "story" when the guy shoots at him, "Ah, no, he's chasing me"". :lol

I suppose what I'm getting at is that how satisfying an ending will feel to us depends on the story that we are telling ourselves, whether our story *is* that story has power or good over plot/reality, for instance.

And this would explain why some films that I used to love, whose endings I used to love, no longer have that effect on me; I no longer believe in the story that that ending satisfied.

But about the 'dream like" nature of a story that one has stopped believing in: films like "Mulholland Drive" show brilliantly the staggering effect of the transition from one story to another, and I am just thinking that "Inception" may have been trying to look at this, with the "kick" that moves them from one story to another, until they realise that all stories are equal, that "can never leave" ( stories ), and so simply pick the one that makes them happy, it's irrelevant whether the totem spinning thing keeps spinning or not. ... But the ending of "Inception" feels glib! :lol ...

Perhaps because the film suggests at the same time that Cobb has attained some sort of pure transcendant perception of reality as a result of processing his pain etc ... I think "Memento" is far better, and "The Prestige" too, about our story-making relationship with the unknowable, practically non-existent thing we call "reality". ...

"Back to the Future" is very smooth, and I still love "that moment" ( George and the car "parking" ), and it's still "nice" to think that a "story"/narrative has such power for good, but I don't believe that we have the power to choose the story that makes us feel happy, nor in it having a reliably positive effect on things. ...
.

Se7en
Falling Down
Identity
Primal Fear
Forever Young (typical happy ending but a great one)
The Rapture (anyone who's even heard of the movie let alone seen it gets brownie points)
Friday the 13th Part 1 (only time a movie has ever legitimately scared me)

The ending to Kick Ass(the movie) was definately much better than what happened in the comic book.

the downer ending of all downer endings



see "falling down" above
a truly depressing examination of fundamentalist belief. only the eye candy of mimi rogers kept me watching. after slogging through this to the "end" [or was it another beginning?] i had to wash it out of my system by watching "freebie and the bean." i felt much better afterwards. rogers is the babe of babes but also is a b*llbreaker, which is why cruise left her for his next difficult arm ornament.

Off the top of my head, both Snatch and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels had very satisfying endings that brought many threads together in very enjoyable ways. Another of beat crime film I admire for this trait is Lucky # Slevin, a great revenge flick that a lot of people missed.

The thing is with Falling Down...I liked both characters. Robert Duvall to me represents the guy that feels the same way as Douglas but didn't go apesh*t. Also Michael Douglas wanted to die. They weren't suggesting that he's the bad guy...just that society views him as a scapegoat. By the ending...I wasn't referring to the fact that Michael Douglas dies...but the showdown in general at the pier and the cinematography and acting by both Duvall and Douglas.

The Rapture...I just found the movie interesting. I have no religious beliefs and I'm not athiest either but I found the desperation of Mimi Rogers fascinating...and I respected her decision to stand by her uncertainty and not just pretend she believed in God to get to Heaven. But yeah, not a movie to watch for entertainment lol kind of like Sex, Lies and Videotape in that regard. Also, in The Rapture...a guest cameo by Kane Hodder as the bodyguard in the office.

The thing is with Falling Down...I liked both characters. Robert Duvall to me represents the guy that feels the same way as Douglas but didn't go apesh*t. Also Michael Douglas wanted to die. They weren't suggesting that he's the bad guy...just that society views him as a scapegoat. By the ending...I wasn't referring to the fact that Michael Douglas dies...but the showdown in general at the pier and the cinematography and acting by both Duvall and Douglas.

>>> Coincidently during the LA riots which erupted when the movie was being filmed, there was a news clipping of a Korean store owner, who looked nearly identical to "Mr. Dfens". Wore similar attair, black rimmed glasses with similar hair. Who was portrayed as an angry hatefilled psychopath... rather than a store owner who is trying to defend what's left of the past 10 years building up a life, prosperity to enjoy life after giving up everything to move him and his family to America. And living an HONEST life of a productive American citizen, for a cowardly Traitor (ALL THIEVES, CRIMINALS are traitors to the sweat and tears that honest Americans whoever the ethnicity puts into a slow but HONEST life), to come and take it all. Why

>>> to answer the question: I'd have to say the ending for Last Emperior of China. Puyi Asingoro, a newly reformed war Criminal as Emperior of Manchuria, (Present day North East China. (The Dragon head looking thing). Is walking home from work as a gardener. He tries to climb onto his old Throne, but a young Pioneer (those kids with the red scarfs), commands him not to. The Emperior responds it's ok I used to be the Emperior, of course the boy doesn't believe him. The gardener can prove it, and gives him a jar with his pet cricket in it, STILL ALIVE AFTER 60 years. (talk about animal abuse) from under the seat of the throne. The boy inspects it, and turns to the gardner who has vanished. Symbolizing the end of the Last Dynasty of China. (if you don't count this oligarchy party made up of omnipowerful God like party members who have the power of life or death).

The Ending of Cool Runnings, where team Jamacia carries their bob sled on their shoulders (DESPITE suffering a terrible accident), in reality they pushed the cart across the finish line themselves. I was watched it.

Cloverdale, instead of the typical surviviors fly off on a helicopter bleeding and wounded. They atypically and realistically die.

Indiana Jones 3, where Indy meets his father after a prolonged absense, and his father satisfied he had recieved "Illumination" (scientific, and emprical proof that God exists and that there may be SOME truth to legends, and that he was satisfied enough to know this, for Indy to let it go....( the Grail, that he loved his son), and that the Athiestic Indy (FACT not "Truth" as he lectures), is slowly awakening to this fact. Plus througout the movie he is increasingly impressed with Indy's abilities. "I didn't know you could fly". (Indy flying a plane).

I'm shocked that no one has mentioned Toy Story 3 yet. Talk about an amazing end to an amazing trilogy...and an animated Disney film no less. It's the perfect ending that just says that one chapter ends but life will still go on for these toys. To make a TS4 would be blasphemy.

the ending of the original true grit, in which john wayne says to kim darby, "come see a fat ol' man sometime!" and [stuntman?] leaps his horse over a fence and rides off into the distance.

Pee-week's Big Adventure

How could anyone not like the bike chase scene? And the ending with the cheesy Bond-esque movie. Awesomeness.

Up had a good climax/ending as well.

The ending to The Fountain. It involves death by supernova.

i thought that SILENT RUNNING had a great ending.

the rapture was a film i would normally despise but the ending was quite unexpected and saved the day. bring it on, to quote a former commander in chief. would be quite fun to see the mass panic.

Silent Running's ending made me cry so hard. I'm very fond of wildlife and am going into biology, so much of the movie was brutal on me. I felt Freeman Lowell's pain.