Cinema knows no end, but these endings defined the medium. Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most memorable and iconic movie endings of all time. This list reveals the endings of some classics, so here’s a spoiler alert.
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00:00 "Cameras...
00:02 What is it, Megs?"
00:05 Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks
00:09 for the most memorable and iconic movie endings of all time.
00:12 This list reveals the endings of some classics,
00:15 so here's a spoiler alert.
00:17 "If you could have found out what that rosebud meant, I bet that would have explained everything."
00:21 Number 10. The Graduates
00:24 Mirroring young Americans' disillusionment in the midst of the Vietnam War
00:28 and the countercultural movement,
00:30 this 1967 classic parodies the traditional Hollywood ending.
00:34 "He's alive! He's alive! He's alive! He's alive!"
00:40 "Help!"
00:42 In the final scene, college graduate Benjamin Braddock rescues Elaine Robinson from her own wedding.
00:49 The two run off together and board a bus for parts unknown.
00:52 But as the camera lingers on them, the adrenaline drains away,
00:55 and they're left only with each other.
00:57 They don't fall into a lustful embrace.
00:59 "Hello darkness, my old friend."
01:06 The reality of their situation seeps in,
01:09 and the uncertainty of their future clearly shows in their faces,
01:12 as that haunting Simon and Garfunkel song plays over the soundtrack once again.
01:17 "Now streets of cobblestone,
01:21 beat the halo of a street lamp."
01:25 Number 9. The Shawshank Redemption
01:27 Although this one disappointed at the box office,
01:30 time has been kind to its great performances,
01:32 emotional heft, and uplifting message.
01:35 "Remember Red, hope is a good thing. Maybe the best of things."
01:40 The Shawshank Redemption follows Andy Dufresne and Red Redding,
01:44 two inmates who forge a friendship over their 20 years at Shawshank State Prison.
01:49 "I'm an institutional man now. It's like Brooks was.
01:53 Well, you underestimate yourself."
01:56 After Andy's escape and Red's eventual release,
01:59 the two are reunited on a Mexican beach.
02:01 For the first time, Red is hopeful for his future.
02:04 Director Frank Darabont was not a fan of the ending
02:07 and originally wanted the movie to end with Red on a bus to Mexico.
02:10 Luckily for us, the overwhelming responses of test audiences convinced him to keep it.
02:15 Number 8. 2001 A Space Odyssey
02:19 Stanley Kubrick's genre-defying science fiction epic
02:22 was a landmark achievement in visual effects and cinematic myth-making.
02:26 "Open the pod bay doors, Hal."
02:29 "I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that."
02:34 Its final sequence sees pilot and scientist Dave Bowman
02:37 pulled into a dimensional wormhole by a floating monolith.
02:40 The hallucinatory sequence ends with Bowman being reborn as a star child,
02:44 hovering over the planet Earth like its guardian.
02:47 Summary doesn't do it justice.
02:49 Defying narrative tradition, 2001 A Space Odyssey
02:52 is a deeply metaphorical and philosophical masterwork.
02:55 Nothing in its mostly wordless finale is spelled out with any certainty.
03:00 For some, it may be a frustrating and challenging watch.
03:02 For many, it's the pinnacle of cinema.
03:05 Number 7. Psycho
03:15 After treating terrified audiences to some of the most horrific murders
03:18 ever captured on film, Alfred Hitchcock hit the audience with a twist
03:22 that no viewer in 1960 could have predicted.
03:25 Unless they'd read the book, that is.
03:27 The climactic revelation that mild-mannered motel proprietor Norman Bates
03:31 had a dissociative disorder and donned his mother's clothes
03:34 and personality to murder people was a huge twist.
03:38 The ending pushed the boundaries of acceptable themes in Hollywood movies.
03:41 Its closing narration, played on screen by Anthony Perkins
03:45 and in voiceover by actress Virginia Gregg,
03:48 is one of the most chilling endings of all time.
03:50 "They're probably watching me.
03:53 Well, let them. Let them see what kind of a person I am."
03:57 Many movies have tried to outdo Psycho in chills and shocks.
04:01 Few have come close.
04:03 "In Norman's case, the battle is over.
04:06 And the dominant personality has won."
04:09 Number six, The Godfather.
04:11 Francis Ford Coppola's masterpiece is shockingly old-fashioned
04:14 for such a violent movie.
04:16 Its themes of immigrants raising from nothing to achieve the American dream
04:19 through crime and the moral rot that results
04:22 have been a favorite subject of Hollywood since the 1930s, at least.
04:26 The Godfather's last few minutes perfectly encapsulate
04:29 how far Michael Corleone has fallen.
04:31 "Don't be afraid, Carlo.
04:33 Come on, you think I'd make my sister a widow?"
04:36 From wanting no part in his family's business to becoming the head of it,
04:39 Michael's transformation into a hardened crime boss is complete.
04:43 He shows no guilt or shame for having his enemies murdered,
04:46 including his devastated sister's husband.
04:48 "You killed my husband.
04:50 You waited until Papa died so nobody could stop you,
04:53 and then you killed him."
04:54 The film ends as the door closes between Michael and his horrified wife, Kay,
04:58 who no longer recognizes the man she fell in love with.
05:01 [Music]
05:09 Number 5. Planet of the Apes
05:11 Charlton Heston plays Taylor, an astronaut stranded on a mysterious planet
05:15 run by sadistic apes who treat humans as slaves and test subjects.
05:19 Escaping from his captors, he and a young woman, Nova, ride off on a horse.
05:24 Following the coastline, he comes upon the ruins of the Statue of Liberty.
05:28 "Oh my God. I'm back. I'm home."
05:36 The whole time, Taylor's thought he'd been on some desolate and distant planet
05:40 when he's been on a post-apocalyptic Earth.
05:42 "Damn you! God damn you all to hell!"
05:49 His melodramatic reaction is iconic enough,
05:52 but there is something incredibly eerie and depressing about the final reveal.
05:56 It stayed with audiences and has been referenced and parodied
05:59 more times than we can count.
06:01 "Damn you! Damn you all to hell!"
06:09 Number 4. Sunset Boulevard
06:11 You're probably wondering how he ended up in this situation.
06:14 Told in flashback, Billy Wilder's dark and twisty film noir chronicles
06:18 the delusions of silent film star Norma Desmond
06:21 and the struggling screenwriter pulled into her orbit.
06:24 Norma's final descent into madness is the saddest and most glamorous thing you've ever seen.
06:30 "That's a lie. They want me. I get letters every day."
06:34 After murdering her screenwriter, she fully surrenders to her delusions.
06:38 "What is the scene? Where am I?"
06:43 She descends her grand staircase, believing the amassed cops and reporters
06:47 have gathered to film her comeback project.
06:49 Saddened by the sight, they play along.
06:52 Actress Gloria Swanson utters Desmond's immortal line
06:55 before she appears to evaporate into the camera lens forever.
06:58 "Alright, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up."
07:01 Number 3. Bonnie and Clyde
07:20 Audiences at first weren't sure what to make of Bonnie and Clyde.
07:24 Inspired by the real-life bank robbers, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway's
07:28 rowdy 1930s gunslingers came to represent very modern ideas.
07:33 "I'm Miss Bonnie Parker, and this here's Mr. Clyde Barrow. We rob banks."
07:39 Their glee at robbing and killing was embraced as a response to the growing counterculture
07:43 and anti-establishment feeling among America's youth.
07:46 However, Bonnie and Clyde's deaths at the hands of G-men hiding in the bushes with Tommy guns
07:51 put a sobering and vicious end to their crime spree.
07:54 "Hey."
07:55 The movie doesn't shy away from its brutality.
08:01 Even decades later, it can haunt a first-time viewer.
08:04 Number 2. Citizen Kane
08:06 Orson Welles' controversial and innovative drama portrayed the life of Charles Foster Kane,
08:11 a wealthy newspaper magnate driven to disillusionment and loneliness by his own greed.
08:16 "Rosebud."
08:18 A reporter intent on discovering the meaning of his last word, "Rosebud," comes up empty by the film's end.
08:26 "Did you ever find out what it means?"
08:28 "No, I didn't."
08:29 But we are treated to the answer as Kane's discarded belongings are thrown on a fire.
08:34 The name is printed on his childhood sled, a memento from his last happy days as a child,
08:39 where he had wealth, fame, or power.
08:41 Not only has Kane's wealth alienated him from others,
08:44 but instead he's completely surrounded by things that have value but no meaning.
08:48 Even in death, he is impenetrable.
08:50 "Rosebud."
08:52 Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
09:00 Gone with the Wind
09:01 After four hours of fighting, starving, and surviving,
09:04 Scarlet O'Hara goes home.
09:06 after all tomorrow is another day"
09:10 Rocky, Rocky loses the fight but wins the woman he loves.
09:24 "I love you, I love you, I love you"
09:37 Seven, a vengeful detective succumbs to a diabolical killer's manipulations.
09:42 "David, if you kill him, he will win"
09:54 "Oh god, oh god, oh"
09:56 Thelma and Louise, two best friends end their cross-country crime spree on their own terms.
10:05 "Okay then listen, let's not get caught, what are you talking about?
10:11 Let's keep going"
10:15 E.T. the extraterrestrial, Elliot's alien friend returns to his home planet.
10:20 "I am the one who will save you"
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10:51 Number one, Casablanca, the Hollywood love story that defined all future Hollywood love stories.
10:58 Casablanca was never meant to be a lasting masterpiece but it ended up just the right
11:02 mix of star power, studio era ingenuity and timing. America had only just entered World War
11:09 II. Without hammering the point too hard, Casablanca humanized the dilemma that American
11:14 couples faced in those early days. "What about us?" "We'll always have Paris, we didn't have,
11:20 we we lost it until you came to Casablanca." Even without this context, the image of Humphrey
11:25 Bogart and Ingrid Bergman saying their final agonizing goodbye at the airport is an indelible
11:31 screen image. "It doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount
11:35 to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you'll understand that. Nana
11:42 is looking at you kid." Aided by endlessly quotable dialogue and sweeping music,
11:51 Rick and Ilsa realize and accept that the fate of humanity is more important than their problems.
11:56 "Goodbye Rick. God bless you."
12:00 What movie do you think has the most iconic ending? Let us know in the comments below.
12:04 Do you agree with our picks? Check out this other recent clip from Ms Mojo,
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12:15 [Music]