Give me... 10 films whose endings let me down

You know the feeling: You're watching a movie, it's great and all, it's nearing its end and suddenly there's a shift in tone and something totally silly or outrageous happens, something that simply doesn't sit right with the rest of the film. It's a major bummer and will leave a bitter taste in your mouth, sometimes even ruin the rest of the experience for you. That made me think, what movies had the most out-of-place endings or endings that simply didn't work in the context of the film. That also includes endings that throw a curveball at the audience, endings that seem tacked on, make something essential in the plot obsolete or just water down the whole experience of the film. So here's my list of 10 movies with endings that let me down in one way or the other. Prepare yourself, there's some SPOILERS waiting for you here, consider this a warning.

1. The Butterfly Effect (theatrical cut) (2004)

"Dear Diary, I think Demi doesn't like me anymore."

Let's start off easy with this ludicrous (but quite entertaining) Ashton Kutcher time travel insanity. The premise of the film is that Kutcher plays a guy that can time travel via old diaries, pictures et al. and by doing so is able to change the present. However instead of fixing his mistakes, every time he goes back in time he makes his current situation worse for himself, his family and his friends. What it boils down to is that his friendship with Amy Smart is the key to all the malaise so the film ends with him going back one last time and preventing them from becoming friends in the first place. When I saw the film for the first time in theaters my dumb 16 year old self quite liked it and didn't see anything wrong with it. Fast forward to about half a year later when I saw the director's cut with the ORIGINAL ending which sees Kutcher going back even further to when he was still in his mother's womb and ends up strangling himself with the umbilical cord in order not to affect anybody's life and get rid of his time travel curse. It's way more powerful and expressive for Kutcher's character than the ending of the theatrical cut which turns out is the result of poor test screenings. In short, the studio pussied out and trusted the reaction of a small random group of people more than the ideas of the director and scriptwriter.

2. The Witches (1990)

Even in her 50s Madonna still looked young and fresh

I guess I can make it short with this one since I just recently wrote a longer review about it. It's the adaptation of Roald Dahl's children's book, it's scary and funny in equal parts and can be wholeheartedly enjoyed by everyone. That is until you get to the ending, oh that awful ending. Main character Luke is turned into a mouse by the witches and in the book he stays a mouse, accepting that he will have a very short lifespan and will probably die around the same time his grandmother will. Quite an ending for a children's book. In the movie, however, a good witch conveniently shows up at the end, turns him back into human form and then disappears. It's an ending that doesn't look like the rest of the film, that doesn't match the tone of it and that has no reason for existing other than to throw a needless happy ending into the audience's faces.

3. Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

The adventures of the Enterprise crew: Fighting a miniature Benedict Cumberbatch right in front of their faces

This is another one that I have already covered to some degree but let's get a little bit more explicit. The film pays homage to (read: blatantly copies from) Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Same villain, the infamous Khan yell and of course the death of a major character. In the old one it was Spock who bit the dust in a scene that still has geeks around the world breaking down crying like babies. In the new one however it is Kirk who sacrifices himself for the greater good. I found it quite ballsy that they actually did go that route and kill off one of the most essential characters. But I should have known better. In a ridiculous twist it turns out that Khan has some kind of superblood that pretty much makes him invincible. Quite convenient for the plot, so once Khan is defeated, Kirk is quickly brought back to life using Khan's blood. Not only does it start as a rip-off of the older movie, but it then pulls back, shies away from the controversy and eventually introduces the fact that any character can technically now be invincible, creating a great headache for the screenwriters to bring any kind of tension to the sequels. So consider this one a triple tick off on my end.

4. Brazil (Love Conquers All cut) (1985)

Melanie Griffith, pushing the boundaries of plastic surgery

Don't get me wrong, Brazil is an amazing movie and there is not a single frame in it that requires changing. That is, not a single frame in the cut that is approved by director Terry Gilliam. It's no secret that when he made Brazil he had more than one problem with producing studio Universal who went ahead and created their own cut of the film, infamously dubbed the Love Conquers All version. Gilliam's original version is a bleak vision of a bureaucratic society full of dark humor and bitter satirical bite, all of it set in a disturbing dystopian future. Universal head Sid Sheinberg test-screend it, didn't like the responses, took the footage away from Gilliam, recut it and created a mess of a film. Not only is the Love Conquers All version absolutely incomprehensible (no wonder when you cut something down from 142 minutes to 94 minutes), it also features an enraging happy ending that doesn't have any right to exist. The Love Conquers All cut is terrible in pretty much every way but the ending of it is really the icing on the shit cake. Luckily this version has slipped into obscurity (but can be still be found on the Criterion edition) and Gilliam could release the film the way it was intended to.

5. The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)

The ONE scene in the movie without shaky cam

Everyone seems to be OK with the Bourne movies (that is, the ones starring Matt Damon) and actually, so am I, they are great entertainment. The movies work well together and there's not much that feels out of place. That is, if you don't look at the ending of the third movie. What do we know at that point? Bourne has figured out his past, he found the people that made him a killing machine and his actions have brought down the ones responsible. And then he gets shot, falls from a building into a river and presumably dies which makes sense as there is nothing left in the character to be explored, the trilogy is complete and so is Bourne as our protagonist. Or maybe not. We get an ending scene with Bourne floating seemingly dead underwater when suddenly he moves again and swims out of frame. This is really just a minor gripe from my end but there's only one reason I can see for this scene to exist and it's not particularly flattering: MONEY!!! The three Bourne movies are crazy cash cows, forking in more than a billion dollars in combined ticket and DVD sales. Not killing off the main character is simply a way for the producers to keep Bourne around for more potential sequels to drain even the last cent out of the franchise. That's why I'm quite pleased that neither star Matt Damon nor director Paul Greengrass are interested in returning to the franchise.

6. The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

The Bruno Mars performance at the Super Bowl Halftime Show 2014 was different than expected

Here's another movie I've already talked about. It's a decent film and while it's a step down from The Dark Knight, it's definitely one of the better blockbusters of recent years. But then there's the ending. Batman apparently flies the batcopter out to sea with the super giant ultra bomb attached to it. The bomb detonates and Batman aka Bruce Wayne supposedly dies, sacrificing himself for the city of Gotham. That's a nice way of wrapping up the trilogy I thought, it gives closure to the character while also providing some gravitas. But Nolan just couldn't let that one go. In the actual final scene we see Alfred sitting in a café in Florence when he suddenly spots Bruce Wayne sitting at another table. That of course raises the question of how Batman escaped the deadly detonation. Granted, there are some reasonable explanations to it but that's not even my point. To me it felt like a cheap and unnecessary copy of the ending of Inception, Nolan's previous movie. Is it real what we are seeing? Or is Alfred just a good ol' loony? You see, in Inception the ambiguous ending makes sense since the entire film deals with the concept of dreams and imaginary worlds. The Dark Knight trilogy however is perfectly rooted in reality so the uncertain ending feels like an unwarranted afterthought.

7. Toy Story 3 (2010)

Even these two CGI plastic dolls had more chemistry than Edward and Bella

There's nothing substantial that could be criticized about the Toy Story movies, these films are pretty much without any major flaw. But luckily there's guys like me to find something to nitpick anyways. I saw Toy Story 3 in theaters and let me admit right away, I did cry, this film really got to me. Funny thing is that it's probably not the scene you are thinking about. It's not the ending that brought me to tears, it's the incinerator scene. Woody and his friends end up in a giant incinerator, doomed to be burned alive (which brings up the question, how do these toys die?). There's no major dialogue, the toys are slowly descending towards the flames and all the emotions come from the silent interactions between them. They face certain doom and accept the fact that they are about to die. But they do it together, they grab each other by the hands and simply let go of life, as friends and family. It's by far the most powerful scene in the film and even gets grown men to shed a tear. Of course they get saved at the last moment and get to share one last time to play with Andy in the end when he's handing off his toys to the little girl. The problem here is that these very last moments simply lack the emotional gut punch that was delivered by the incinerator. It's all warm and fuzzy (albeit with a bittersweet tone when they see Andy go) but it feels somewhat sobering and doesn't fully live up to what came before.

8. War of the Worlds (2005)

"... and when I take off your blindfold you will have accepted Scientology as the one true religion."

This one definitely comes down to the writing and acting. Aliens attack Earth, Tom Cruise tries to save his kids and his own skin, then the aliens just die of some infection, the end. I don't really mind the major plot, it's more Cruise's kids in the film that drive me up the wall. Both of them incredibly annoying, it's definitely his son Robbie, played by Justin Chatwin, who's the taker of the cake. He has a bad relationship with his divorced Dad (hello cliché!) and generally behaves like a total twat, bitching and moaning about everything, dismissing his Dad's attempts to communicate, and just being absolutely obnoxious. So you can probably understand how delighted I was when he peaces out in the middle and apparently dies in an alien attack. But Spielberg at his whimsical worst couldn't let it be at that. In the end when Cruise and his movie daughter reach their destination Boston, against all reason Robbie shows up, just to be united with his Dad and forget about all the conflicts they had previously. This ending is so falsely sugarcoated and doesn't ring true on any level that it becomes alienating to the audience considering that the rest of the film is fairly grim.

9. Source Code (2011)

"Let me explain the ending of Donnie Darko again."

Time travel + Me = Instant Fit. Jake Gyllenhaal plays an Army pilot who is sent back in time to find the man responsible for a train bombing. Gyllenhaal can only go back to a specific time window and for a limited time. On top of that he is in another person's body. He eventually figures out who the bomber is and prevents the detonation from ever happening. But then the film goes off the rails and presents us a fairly obscure resolution where Gyllenhaal keeps living in that alternate timeline, replacing the person whose body he is in just we can get a happy end and see him united with love interest Michelle Monaghan. What let me down about this ending is the fact a good chunk of the film is dedicated to detailing the scientific background of time travel in this world, but the ending simply dismisses that and pretty much makes up random stuff that has no relation to anything mentioned before. It's a wannabe twist ending to warm your heart but ultimately just remains remarkably awkward and unreasonable.

10. I Am Legend (2007)

Will Smith, hiding from riotous crowds after the release of After Earth

I Am Legend's ending really stands out not just because it misses the tone of the rest of the film (which is surprisingly dark for a major blockbuster) but also because it totally misinterprets the message of the novel it is based on. Will Smith is trying to find a cure for an epidemic that turned the few survivors into mutant vampires allergic to light. When he finally finds the cure he hands it off the conveniently available other survivor Alice Braga and sacrifices himself to ensure her safe escape. She then walks away, stumbles across a settlement full of other survivors and shares the legend of Smith, the savior. And by that point I Am Legend has deteriorated to the lowest common denominator, serving another happy ending where there is none needed. See, in the novel he is captured by the vampires and then executed, as he is not part of a new emerging society, based on the mutants and not humans. He is treated as a murderer and he realizes that they have the same hatred for him that he has for them, he's become a legend to them as the one remainder of a dying human society. My point is that the novel stuck to its bleak tone until the bitter end and raised questions about humanity and society. The film however absolutely misses that point and makes Smith out to be a Jesus figure fighting the good fight against the evil mutants. It throws away the opportunity to make an interesting point and instead goes the safe route of making Smith the ultimate Goody Two-shoes, just like every other average adventure movie out there.