Today, I want to know which film’s ending raised your enjoyment of the film the most.
Pop Culture Theme Time is a feature where I put a question to you to see what you think about a particular theme. I might later revisit the theme for a future Drawing Crazy Patterns or Top Five.
Endings of movies are obviously a big deal, but most of the time, the movies with the best endings, like, say, Casablanca, were already really good movies BEFORE the ending, ya know?
Sometimes, though, a great ending can really make you enjoy a movie better. I’d like to know what movie’s ending had the biggest improvement on your enjoyment of said film.
For me, it’d have to be David Fincher’s The Game, a fairly standard dark thriller that ended with a dramatic twist that was, well, the opposite of drama (see the movie to understand what I mean). Such a great, out of nowhere ending.
Okay, that’s my pick. How about you?
Thanks to Geno P. for the suggestion! Everyone, feel free to suggest future Pop Culture Theme Time topics to me at my new, much shorter e-mail, brian@poprefs.com!
The end of Manhattan Murder Mystery revealed that the semi-tepid comic thriller was actually about the survival of a pretty good marriage (not to mention a great off-screen friendship).
I have go even with though all these years later now seems cliche, Planet of the Apes, seeing the Statute took it to a whole other level.
Vertigo
The Game is a very good choice. The ending really comes out of left field, but it fit nicely with the story that came before.
I also enjoyed the ending of Haunted Honeymoon. There were so many little inconsistencies and nonsensical moments that made sense thanks to the reveal at the end.
vertigo also great choice probably my second choice out of many I considered(Rebecca, The Sting, The Empire strikes back, escape from the planet of the Apes, and The Purple Rose of Ciaro)
How can the answer not be the Sixth Sense?
I’m thinking maybe
Memento
A really dark twist that adds to and boosts what came before.
An alternative (more upbeat) possibility could be a Japanese film I’ve seen
My Secret Cache
I’m trying to avoid spoilers or giving away the whole plot so I’ll just say that sometimes the journey is more important than the destination.
John King, I went back and forth on Memento. The whole thing is amazing, but the twist elevated it at the end. I still remember watching that back in the day, hitting the ending, setting my VCR to rewind while I used the bathroom, and then coming back to watch it again. I don’t think a movie has done that to me either before or since.
werehawk, I think that that whole movie was good as a psychological ghost story, so I’m not sure the ending–while amazing–elevated the movie that much.
Yeah, I think both Memento and Sixth Sense were already good movies before their excellent twists (same with Usual Suspects and Se7en).
just to clarify why I mentioned of My Secret Cache
the ending spelled out the character development of the protagonist – she is truly no longer the same as she was at the beginning but instead had become a better person as the result of her experiences
Salvage. The plot involved a young woman named Claire Parker getting killed over and over so I knew there had to be some sort of twist, one that the movie would probably succeed or fail on. I wasn’t able to guess the twist in advance, but when it was finally revealed everything that had gone on before made perfect sense. It’s a movie where once you know the explanation, you can rewatch it and it’s almost like experiencing a different movie.