The Best Movie Endings

1. ruby
   July 10th, 2008 at 11:14 am

   I know! I know!

   I love the ending to “Forrest Gump”. After all he has experienced and been through in his quest - his Jenny dies and it is he and his son at the end waiting for the bus to take little Forrest to school. His son gets on the bus and introduces himself to the bus driver…who I love!

   It was so sweet….!

2. NY
   July 10th, 2008 at 11:34 am

   Endings are fine - but here is an idea for a future story, JUST for Neatorama readers…..

   What are the Greatest Movie BEGINNINGS?

3. Johnny Cat
   July 10th, 2008 at 11:38 am

   Raiders of the Lost Ark
   Gladiator
   Terminator 3 (all the terminator movies end nicely, but this one really wowed.)
   Dances With Wolves
   Apocalypse Now
   Amelie

4. bean
   July 10th, 2008 at 11:55 am

   First, Blair Witch Project does not belong on that list. Then I’d add A Scanner Darkly and The Dirty Dozen.

5. Nicholas Dollak
   July 10th, 2008 at 12:26 pm

   (Release dates are approximate; my video collection is still in boxes, and I can’t leave this website without losing my spot. I should be close enough…)

   “Much Ado About Nothing” (1992). I know, it was a play long before it was a movie. But the director decided to end it in a very cinematic way, in a single moving camera shot that takes us through rings of dancers, showers of rose petals, and up over the Tuscan villa. When this film played at the cinema where I worked at the time, the audience applauded at the end!

   “Time Bandits” (1980). “Mom! Dad! It’s Evil! Don’t touch it!” BOOM!

   “Excalibur” (1981). The last five minutes of the film alone are worth the price of admission, especially with the sword hurtling through the air into the hand of the Lady in the Lake, and the vision of Arthur’s body borne away to Avalon, accompanied by three faery women… very much a cinematic ode to Tennyson and the Pre-Raphaelites. The use of Wagner’s music was also very inspired.

   “The Thief of Bagdad” (1926 and 1940). Both the original silent version and the remake with Sabu have wonderful, mythic endings, with the hero riding off on the flying carpet. If you can find it, be sure to watch the silent version in which music by Rimsky-Korsakov was used for the soundtrack; the music is used most effectively during the final shots. And of course Miklos Rosza’s score for the 1940s remake brings a tear to the eye as well. “You got what you wanted. Now I’m getting what I want — an adventure, at last!”

   Quite a few Hitchcock films when he was in his prime: “Rear Window,” “North by Northwest,” “Vertigo,” even his remake of “The Man Who Knew Too Much.” — “Sorry we’re late; we just had to pick up our son.”

6. JohnA
   July 10th, 2008 at 12:43 pm

   What, no fight club? the destruction of corporate america set to the pixies “where is my mind” - brilliant (the big reveals quite good as well)

   Also Monty Pythons Holy Grail should be on there. no credits, no continuity, no explanation. Just King Arthur being arrested and the police confiscating the camera

7. Edman
   July 10th, 2008 at 1:03 pm

   I’m a little surprised Oldboy isn’t on there.

8. Diego
   July 10th, 2008 at 4:54 pm

   Best ending ever: the edited (theatrical) release of Cinema Paradiso.

9. JC
   July 10th, 2008 at 6:24 pm

   Gladiator, Braveheart and Forrest Gump are my choice.

10. V
    July 10th, 2008 at 9:52 pm

    Das Leben der Anderen has one of the best endings I have ever watched.

11. JMM
    July 11th, 2008 at 7:52 am

    It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

    Such an outpouring of love. I cry every time I see it and I’m a grumpy old guy.

12. tripleX
    July 11th, 2008 at 9:47 am

    Many mentioned movies have endings that are great, but I have to think a few seconds before I remember the ending.
    But there are some movies with an ending I remember immediately:

    Easy Rider (!!!) (not mentioned once on the Times-site)
    Don’t Look Now
    The Bodysnatchers (with D.Sutherland)

    Offcourse Citizen Kane should be nr 1 in the list.

13. tripleX
    July 11th, 2008 at 9:52 am

    I meant offcourse: ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’

14. seekshelter
    July 11th, 2008 at 3:58 pm

    ive always liked the ending of Evil Dead 2… and Last of the Mohicans..(daniel day lewis version)

15. tripleX
    July 12th, 2008 at 4:06 am

    The first Evil Dead
    Rosemary’s Baby (with that music)
    L’Empire des Sense (In the Realm of the Senses)

16. Funkycpaman
    July 12th, 2008 at 2:15 pm

    I like “Wanted Dead or Alive” with Rutger Hauer and Gene Simons. Rutger’s character will receive a bonus if he brings in Gene’s character alive. Rutger says “F___ the bonus!” and blows Gene’s head off with a grenade he had taped in his mouth. Of course, maybe this should be on a list of great last lines.

17. Homer J. Simpson
    July 12th, 2008 at 9:06 pm

    I would add Mario Bava’s Bay of Blood (aka Twitch of the Death Nerve)

    “Gee, they sure are good at playing dead, aren’t they?”

18. t
    July 21st, 2008 at 11:28 pm

    primal fear

19. Joy
    August 8th, 2008 at 10:23 pm

    Looking for a movie that ends with a couple at a trian station and one disapears, when a train goes by

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