Ten great endings

M
2001: A Space Odyssey
8 1/2
The 400 Blows
Some Like It Hot
The Passion of Joan of Arc
Modern Times
The Graduate
Citizen Kane
Casablanca

Pretty cliched.

In the original version of the Flight of the Phoenix… (james stewart, etc.) was good…

The ending is:

You learn that they are all actually dead.. and it was their ghosts that were wandering around the desert.. unable to rest in peace until the bodies were found and taken home.

The remake of this movie done a few years back…. was a dud

LOVE EXPOSURE!

Fat Girl

I’m fairly sure that the ending to Love Exposure was intentionally as silly as the rest of the film.

The way Syd, the protagonist in “High Art,” looks at the camera, then exits, has always stayed with me as an extremely memorable ending

The Graduate has an amazing ending as well

Here’s ten that aren’t cliched (but should be, they’re all so great):

Irreversible
The Seventh Continent
71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance (hell, all Haneke films)
Martyrs
Paths of Glory
Revanche
Vive l’Amour
Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
The Fountain
Before Sunset

the ending of every Tarkovsky film.

^ I’ve only seen three, but I’ll give you two of them: Stalker and The Sacrifice. Brilliant, no doubt.

antonioni’s 3 mgm films are memorable too all together.

Sadly, I have an Antonioni deficiency.

I second Tarkovsky.

5 Words:

Mein Fuhrer, I Can Walk!

Other than that:
The 400 Blows – First use of a freeze frame, so it has to get a mention
Irreversible
Casablanca

That’s all that I can think of at the moment…. Shame on me.

The Lives of Others has like three great endings, imo. Can’t think of the other seven right now for a list.

The 400 Blows
A Serious Man
The Blair Witch Project
Chinatown
Don’t Look Now
The Birds
Memento
Brazil
Wait Until Dark
8 1/2

Darling

Out 1

The Happy Ending

Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train

Pink Flamingos
Cries and Whispers
Barton Fink
Thelma and Louise
Vivre Sa Vie

Meanwhile… One TERRIBLE Ending:
Through a Glass Darkly

A Tale of Winter/Conte d’hiver (1992)
Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
Fear of Fear/ Angst vor der Angst (1975)
Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965)
Pursued (1947)
Sunset Blvd. (1950)
Pinky (1949)
Cléo de 5 à 7 (1962)
Nathalie… (2003)
Good Bye Lenin! (2003)

Don’t know if these are the best, but, in no particular order, these are the ones that stick out in my mind:

Nashville
Tristana
Rosemary’s Baby
Taking of Pelham 123 (orig)
Some Like it Hot
North by Northwest
Freaks
Halloween
The Wrestler
Birdy
Midnight Cowboy
Klute
Chinatown
Waking Ned Devine
Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (78)
Giant

I’m always surprised that people don’t remember what a sledgehammer the ending of the original Planet of the Apes is if you don’t know it’s coming. Think back to the first time you saw it. Brilliant.

Also, thanks to those who mentioned 8 1/2 and Before Sunset.

Out Of The Past.

Easy Rider

Old Boy
Fargo
Inland Empire
Knife in the Water
The Seventh Continent
Aguirre: Wrath of God
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (probably my personal favorite)
Dr. Strangelove
The Conformist

Au Hasard Balthazar
The Third Man
400 Blows
Jules et Jim
The Sacrifice
Winter Light
Five Easy Pieces
Rififi
Blow Up
Naked

Andrey Rublev
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
The Seventh Seal
Wild Strawberries
The Third Man
Aguire
Fitzcaraldo
Stroszek
The Green Ray
Miracle in Milan

Baraka

Days of Being Wild
La Jetee
What Time is it There?
A Man Escaped
The Beaches of Agnes Varda
Raging Bull
The Wild Bunch
Rear Window
The Exiles
The Fallen Idol
Blue (Kieslowski)
The Last of England
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
Night and The City
The Naked City
Breathless
My Brother’s Wedding
Blow Up

We can list films with great conclusions, but there is no need to list them in OVERLY SPECIFIC detail (Themis, I’m looking at you). I think the reason is obvious.

Film titles should be enough to pique someone’s interest. Then they can go and discover the films and their great endings for themselves.

Lemonglow: there are several great choices on your list!

Jaspar Lamar Crabb: “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” (1978) is an excellent choice! It’s possibly the best ending to a science fiction-horror movie. The movie as a whole is terribly underrated and it’s one of the few examples of a remake that improves in several ways upon its classic predecessor. If anyone hasn’t seen it (and the 1956 original), please do so: they are NOT schlocky as the name might suggest! The book by Jack Finney has some rather imaginative ideas, too.

Okay, my list? Here’s ten right off the top of my pretty blonde head, and to make it more interesting, I’ll keep it to ones not yet listed in this thread.

In no particular order…

NETWORK (Sidney Lumet, 1976): I’m talking about the final scene of the whole film, but yes, this film in a way has two endings: the last time we see Max and the last time we see Howard.

THE HOSPITAL (Arthur Hill, 1971): Paddy Chayefsky wrote this film as he did the above. What a heartbreakingly magnificent finale!

THE LAST EMPEROR (Bernado Bertolucci, 1987): This one floored me. The final still, final line and everything immediately before it…as beautiful as it could be.

ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST (Milos Forman, 1975): Nobody has mentioned this until now?

MERRY CHRISTMAS, MR. LAWRENCE (Nagisa Oshima, 1983): Brilliant, just brilliant.

LAST TRAIN TO FREO (Jeremy Sims, 2006): The whole film takes place in real time on a suburban train, so the film is really one big scene. For me the ending is the revelation that ties everything together and the astonishing reaction of the protagonist (I’m being vague for those who have yet to experience it).

NOISE (Matthew Saville, 2007): As long as I’m mentioning Australian films…

THE SEDUCTION OF MIMI (Lina Wertmüller, 1972): That final pullaway shot…

THE LONGEST YARD (Robert Aldrich, 1974): After the game.

IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (Frank Capra, 1946): I’m surprised nobody has mentioned this one until now.

Can’t stand Adam Sandler but watched ‘50 First Dates’ with my partner cos like ‘The Wedding Singer’. Got into the film as Drew and Adam work well together. I was so convinced there would be a cop-out ending that would spoil everything – but they didn’t. A decent ending to a romantic comedy in this day and age who’d thunk!!