Over the years, Hollywood has produced many films that have remained the cinema classics we know today. Unfortunately, the reputation of many films is tarnished as a mere result of unsatisfactory endings.
Whether an inadequate ending is a direct result of the lack of vision from the script, the director, or post-production, no viewers are eager to waste two hours of their life being invested in a story that ends half-heartedly. All art is subjective, including film, but even the most ardent enjoyers of these films have to admit the endings were a bit of a let-down.
‘500 Days of Summer’ (2009)
500 Days of Summer is considered one of the best romantic comedies of all time. The film is told in a non-linear narrative and follows the story of a trained architect, Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who works as a writer at a greeting card company and gets dumped by his girlfriend, Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel), an assistant to Tom’s boss (Clark Gregg). Tom reflects on the 500 days (thus the title 500 Days of Summer) they had together and where their romance went downhill.
Despite being a well-executed film, some have been left to wonder whether it was the best decision to let the movie end the way it did. Although the ending successfully “emoted” what heartbreak might feel like, it almost didn’t do justice to Tom. Instead of moving into something greater and not relying on being with another person to be happy, the film ends with Levitt’s character meeting another woman named after another season, Autumn (Minka Kelly), and the day counter resetting to Day 1.
‘Man of Steel’ (2011)
Though Superman was created nearly ninety years ago in 1933, he still stands as one of the most beloved superheroes today. Henry Cavill made his debut as Superman in Zack Snyder’s 2013 Man of Steel movie and has kept his role as Superman to this day. Although the Man of Steel movie was iconic in its own right, it didn’t accumulate particularly great ratings; 7.1/10 on IMDb and 56% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Christopher Nolan and writer David S.Goyer had previously taken a darker approach to Batman, and it proved successful through The Dark Knight trilogy. However, Goyer’s decision to take this approach did not work for Superman in Man of Steel. Many fans were surprised with how it ended; Clarke Kent destroys most of Metropolis to fight off alien militant Zod (Michael Shannon) and, in the end, kills him by snapping his neck. In the comic books, Superman is a man of high morals and has never killed a soul. Superman: Birthright comics author, Mark Waid, was highly unimpressed by the Man of Steel film ending and told himself he “was upset because Superman doesn’t kill. Full-stop, Superman doesn’t kill.”
‘This Is The End’ (2013)
This Is The End is an apocalyptic-comedy film written, directed, and produced by dynamic duo Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (also their directorial debut). The film stars Rogen’s frequent on-screen counterpart, James Franco. Rogen and countless celebrities such as Rihanna, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Emma Watson, and more are invited to Franco’s housewarming party in Los Angeles. All the celebrities play as themselves (the dramatized versions of themselves).
Many out-of-the-ordinary things happen in the film: a ‘demonic’ sinkhole opens up in Franco’s backyard, indicating the end of the world, killing many celebrities, Jonah Hill and Jay Baruchel get possessed by a demon, and Channing Tatum is a sex slave to Danny McBride. If that wasn’t crazy enough, Rogen and Baruchel ascend to Heaven as they are the only two left on Earth. As they arrive in Heaven, all the ludicrousness that happened on Earth doesn't seem to matter, and everyone starts to dance to the Backstreet Boys performing "Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)."
‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ (1975)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest nabbed an impressive five Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay. Although many expressed their admiration for the film, others were disappointed with how it concluded. For instance, Roger Ebert described the movie as, while great for the most part, “insisting on making larger points than its story should carry, so that at the end, the human qualities of the characters get lost in the significance of it all. And yet, there are those moments of brilliance.”
The New York Times’ Vincent Canby further commented on the film as “a comedy that can’t quite support its tragic conclusion,” Although there is nothing coherently wrong with the ending of the film, the weight it carries doesn’t equate to the lightheartedness and comedy that had been shown throughout the film.
‘Titanic’ (1997)
Titanic is based on the real-life incident of the RMS Titanic passenger liner, which sank in 1912. Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a struggling artist who won a third-class Titanic ticket through a poker game. At the same time, Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet) comes from an upper-class family and is engaged to a wealthy man named Caledon “Cal” Hockley (Billy Zane). Rose is unhappy with her loveless engagement with her fiancé, and upon meeting Jack on the ship’s deck, they become infatuated with each other.
Things turn for the worse when the Titanic hits an iceberg, and the ship slowly starts to sink. Rose and Jack, who have developed feelings for each other, try to keep each other alive. As things are treading on thin ice, Jack lifts Rose up on a wooden door buoyant, sacrificing himself, and then dies of hypothermia. Many have spotted that the buoyant was more than enough to carry the weight of two people and that Jack didn’t have to die. When director James Cameron was asked about the decision to let Jack die, he told Vanity Fair that it was an “artistic choice” because if he had lived, “the ending of the film would have been meaningless.” Cameron also wants fans to let go of the “Could Jack have fit in the door buoyant?” debate to end and get over Jack’s death.
‘Grease’ (1978)
Adapted from the 1971 musical of the same name, Grease has remained one of Hollywood’s most iconic musical classics. The film follows the story of a high school boy, Danny Zuko (John Travolta), who meets an Australian girl on vacation, Sandy Olsson (Olivia Newton-John), and they fall in love. Sandy is upset with Danny, who maintains his bad-boy persona while in front of his gang, and this causes a disturbance between them.
After not speaking to each other for some time, Sandy watches Danny race cars from afar and realizes she still loves him. They both realize they have changed for each other, Danny has become a letterman while Sandy is a greaser girl. They then take flight in the Greased Lightin’ car (yes, the car flies away). To this day, many viewers still don’t understand why directors Randal Keiser and Patricia Birch chose to end the film the way it did and why the characters had to change their personalities just to be liked by someone else. Perhaps it is a metaphor that means “Danny and Sandy are quite literally flying into the sunset for their happy ending.” But it still feels obscure that a film that has throughout been a teen comedy suddenly jumps into magical realism right at the end.
‘I Am Legend’ (2007)
I Am Legend is based on the Richard Matheson book of the same name. The cannibalistic mutants in the film known as the Darkseekers are vulnerable to sunlight and prey on a few uninfected people, such as army virologist Robert Neville (Will Smith). Neville’s only companion is his German Shepherd, Sam. As a virologist, Neville is consistently trying to make a cure for the virus and eventually manages to find a female Darkseeker as the subject of his experiment.
Anna (Alice Braga) and Ethan (Charlie Tahan), among the few immune humans, came to Neville upon hearing his broadcast. Later, Neville, Anna, and Ethan find themselves in an unideal situation amongst the Darkseekers. With little to no option left, Neville hands his cure to Anna and, with a grenade, dies together with the Darkseekers. Anna and Ethan return to the survivors’ camp, hand Neville’s cure to the rest of the survivors, and talk about Neville’s sacrifices to save humanity. The film (and the ending) has been described as "a movie which builds to an electric crisis point and then throws it all in the bin with unnecessary new characters, a religious message, and a faux happy ending that no one needed.”