Top 20 Most HATED Movie Endings
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00:00I've got a bad feeling about this.
00:02Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most notorious movie endings that left viewers infuriated.
00:08No, no, this isn't right. This can't be right.
00:12We're not necessarily saying these are all bad endings, but many saw them as unjustified letdowns.
00:17Spoilers ahead.
00:19Number 20, 10 Cloverfield Lane.
00:21This sequel to Cloverfield veers in an entirely new direction,
00:25abandoning the found footage gimmick and adopting the identity of a psychological thriller.
00:29Michelle is kidnapped by an untrustworthy man and held captive in his bunker.
00:33Throughout the film, she questions whether he is telling the truth about a supposed apocalyptic event that has recently occurred and poisoned the outside air.
00:41They weren't as lucky as you.
00:43It's the air, Michelle. That's what happens when you get exposed.
00:46Michelle eventually escapes the bunker and learns that aliens have indeed invaded Earth,
00:50and the film's claustrophobic atmosphere is shattered by an abrupt ending and a jarring genre shift.
00:56The last confrontation seems rather tacked on, almost like test audiences demanded a final battle with action and explosions.
01:03Unfortunately, that's not what the rest of the movie was attempting to do.
01:11Number 19, The Grey.
01:13We love an ambiguous ending as much as the next person, but the ending of The Grey just felt cheap.
01:18The film tells the story of oil rig workers who survive a plane crash
01:21and must fend off a pack of wolves while trying to survive in the Alaskan wilderness.
01:25Awesome! But after nearly two hours of building tension, audiences were left disappointed by the ending's abruptness and vagueness.
01:32Show me something real!
01:34Otway charges at the alpha male with weapons, and the screen suddenly cuts to black, Soprano-style.
01:40We don't get to see the epic showdown, and we're left wondering what happened to Otway.
01:49Only those who stayed past the credits were rewarded with a proper ending, as we see that both died in the battle.
01:55Um, hooray?
01:57Number 18, The Wicker Man.
01:59Welcome, Mr. Malus. You have come of your own free will to keep this appointment with the Wicker Man.
02:05Here's proof that how a story is told can be more important than what is being told.
02:09This remake has the same ending as the 1973 original, with the protagonist being sacrificed inside a giant wicker man.
02:16The only thing is that the original was scary.
02:19This was not.
02:21Nicolas Cage's over-the-top performance has been widely mocked, and his screams of terror are often the source of unintentional comedy.
02:28Oh, God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God!
02:33In the end, audiences found the whole climactic sequence more laughable than horrifying.
02:38That is not what you want for your gruesome finale in which the hero is tormented and killed.
02:43Who must die? The crowd!
02:47Number 17, Tenet.
02:49Just saved the world. Can't leave anything to chance.
02:52Christopher Nolan's most divisive film yet, Tenet failed to please his legion of fans, and the messy ending certainly didn't help.
02:59Many of the film's critics agree that Nolan went a little too Nolan, resulting in a confounding film that looked pretty but was all sorts of confusing.
03:06In the bizarre ending, the protagonist finds out that he created Tenet and ends Priya's life, and most viewers were left shaking their heads as to what just happened.
03:14The time travel shenanigans are enormously confusing, and the infamous sound mixing drowns out most of the dialogue, making an already puzzling scene borderline incomprehensible.
03:23I realized I wasn't working for you. We've both been working for me. I'm the protagonist.
03:28Number 16, World War Z.
03:30If he uses anything he took from that left case, he's dead anyway.
03:35For the most part, World War Z is a thrilling zombie epic, even if it diverges wildly from the beloved source material.
03:41But then comes the ending.
03:43After globetrotting battles throughout most of the film, Brad Pitt's character finds himself quietly sneaking around a medical facility and avoiding zombies.
03:51It's not scary, and it's quite anticlimactic compared with the earlier bombastic sequences filled with extraordinary action.
03:57And while the film ends with a hopeful note as humanity discovers a vaccine, it also leaves many unanswered questions about the future.
04:04It was pure sequel bait, and while one was planned, it was quietly axed in 2019.
04:08We still don't know how it started.
04:10The World Health Organization has created a vaccine that works as a kind of camouflage, making people who receive it invisible to the infected.
04:18We bought ourselves some time.
04:20Number 15, A.I. Artificial Intelligence.
04:23If we bring your mother back now, it will only be for one day.
04:28Despite being regarded as one of Spielberg's finest movies, A.I. is marred by a rather unfortunate ending that left many disappointed.
04:35Sort of a futuristic Pinocchio, the film follows an android named David, played by Hilly Jo Osment, who desires to be real and who has the distinct ability to love.
04:44And in the movie's divisive final minutes, David is granted one perfect day with his artificial mother before presumably dying by himself.
04:51Oh, and this happens after a major time skip that is both abrupt and apocalyptic.
04:56Many viewers found this ending way too bleak, while others found the Monica stuff too sappy and sentimental.
05:02It was a messy mix of emotions that finished the otherwise brilliant film on a sloppy note.
05:06And for the first time in his life, he went to that place where dreams are born.
05:18Number 14, Lucy.
05:20This sci-fi flick tells the story of a woman who gains superhuman abilities after ingesting an experimental drug that allows her to reach 100% of her brain capacity.
05:28We can ignore the inherent flaw in the brain capacity plot hole and just go with it.
05:32And for the most part, Lucy is a fun enough adventure.
05:35But audiences felt let down by the film's abrupt shift into metaphysical territory.
05:39What is she doing?
05:41She's looking for energy and matter.
05:43You see, once Lucy reaches 100% capacity, she transcends human limitations and becomes some sort of omnipresent divine life figure who lives inside computers.
05:52Yeah, it's pretty dumb.
05:55No, we don't get it either.
05:57Where is she?
06:07Number 13, Transformers Revenge of the Fallen.
06:10The second Transformers film took a major creative risk by killing off both Sam and Optimus Prime.
06:15These were huge moments, and they carried some serious dramatic heft that most people weren't expecting from the franchise.
06:21But wouldn't you know it?
06:23Both are ultimately saved by some MacGuffin nonsense that comes out of nowhere.
06:26The Matrix of Leadership is not found, it is earned.
06:31The Matrix of Leadership angered fans, who felt it undermined the dramatic significance and emotional impact of the characters' deaths.
06:37It also doesn't help that the main villain is defeated with the help of this random MacGuffin, so it all amounts to little more than lazy storytelling.
06:44I arise, you fall.
06:48Number 12, The Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn Part 2.
06:52It doesn't matter what I show you.
06:56Even when you see, you still won't change your decision.
07:00Here we go, the fifth and final installment of the Twilight series.
07:04The movie it has all been building towards.
07:07War is imminent, tension is building, and the climax, all this tension explodes in a brilliant battle.
07:13Volturi, Cullens, werewolves, none are safe.
07:16And all sides suffer extreme casualties.
07:19Dang, this movie is going hard.
07:21Oh, nope, it was all a dream.
07:23Oh, sorry, a vision.
07:25Now you know.
07:27That's your future.
07:29Yep, this awesome fight was nothing but a cheap what-if.
07:32And the characters decide not to battle after all.
07:35After which we get some final heartwarming concluding moments.
07:38This movie actually pulled a version of the it was all a dream gimmick.
07:43Oh, the gall of it.
07:45Number 11, Star Wars Episode IX, The Rise of Skywalker.
07:49The Last Jedi tried something different, and people didn't like it.
07:52The Rise of Skywalker, of course, corrected and tried staying closer to the established tone of the franchise.
07:57And people didn't like it.
07:59The movie veered way too deep into the fan service pool,
08:02bringing back Emperor Palpatine and not really bothering to elaborate on how he's alive.
08:06Stand together, die together.
08:10The final battle with him was nothing but a retread of Return of the Jedi,
08:13and a worse version of it no less.
08:15Furthermore, the reveal of Rey's lineage as a Palpatine
08:18and her subsequent adoption of the Skywalker name felt unearned to many.
08:21It was a cheap ploy to win back some lost goodwill,
08:24and most people saw right through it.
08:26Rey Skywalker.
08:33Number 10, The Dark Knight Rises.
08:36A hero can be anyone, even a man doing something as simple
08:39and reassuring as putting a coat around a young boy's shoulders
08:43to let him know the world hadn't ended.
08:45Did Christopher Nolan's iconic Batman trilogy conclude in a satisfying manner?
08:49That depends on who you ask.
08:51Some saw this as an inferior follow-up to The Dark Knight,
08:54with a rather subpar ending that left many raising their eyebrows.
08:57Bruce Wayne seemingly sacrifices himself to save Gotham,
09:00and while it would have been a bittersweet ending,
09:02it would have been satisfying enough.
09:07Yet, in a twist ending that was meant as a happy resolution,
09:10he's later spotted alive in Europe with Selina Kyle.
09:13Fans were divided over his apparent happily ever after,
09:16especially as he passed the superhero mantle to a random police officer.
09:20It wasn't a great conclusion to Bruce's character arc,
09:22and exactly how he survived that explosion was never properly explained.
09:27Number 9, War of the Worlds.
09:36When it comes to anticlimactic endings,
09:38it's hard to beat War of the Worlds.
09:40For about 110 of its 116 minutes,
09:43the film is a terrifying examination of an alien invasion
09:46and one man's attempt to keep his family safe.
09:48And then, it utterly collapses in the final five or so.
09:52The aliens randomly die from contracting Earth's bacteria,
09:55and Robby arrives out of nowhere for a schmaltzy family reunion,
09:58even though by all accounts, he should be dead.
10:01Now, this isn't entirely Spielberg's fault,
10:03as the novel ends with the same aliens-catch-a-cold twist.
10:06But come on!
10:08That Robby reveal is just inexcusable,
10:10and it adds a further degree of silly to an already silly ending.
10:18Number 8, Signs.
10:23While we're on the subject, let's talk Signs.
10:26In the infamous ending to this film,
10:28we learn that the aliens are weak against water,
10:30like some kind of Pokemon,
10:32and the invasion ends with a few spilled glasses of H2O.
10:35The idea of toxic water is even lamer than catching a cold.
10:38In fact, it's so bad that it's even mocked within the movie itself,
10:41with Morgan saying that the water weakness sounds made up.
10:44We're with you, Morgan.
10:45Also, the idea of Bo leaving full glasses of water around the house
10:48is incredibly contrived,
10:50done for no other reason than providing a deus ex machina ending.
10:53Oh, and speaking of silly Shyamalan endings,
10:55how about the happening, when the outbreak just sorta...
10:58stops?
10:59What?!
11:00This was an act of nature, and we'll never fully understand it.
11:03Number 7, The Mist.
11:05This film from Frank Darabont delivers one of cinema's bleakest endings,
11:09and some viewers were not happy with how it played out.
11:11Another invasion film,
11:12The Mist ends with David and his group driving into an unknown future.
11:16This is how Stephen King's novella ends,
11:18but Darabont takes it one step further.
11:27Their car runs out of gas,
11:28and rather than letting them get taken by the monsters,
11:31David euthanizes everyone with a gun.
11:33And not two minutes later,
11:34the army arrives and cleanses the surrounding area of The Mist.
11:37While some praised the twist and its gut-wrenching impact,
11:40many found it needlessly grim.
11:42Some also criticized David's final scream,
11:44thinking it's too melodramatic and ultimately unnecessary.
11:52Number 6, Man of Steel.
12:01Some people feel like the original Superman
12:03ends rather cheaply,
12:04with Clark Kent reversing the Earth's trajectory
12:06and going back in time to save the day.
12:08It's a bit of a disappointment,
12:09and it doesn't make a lick of sense,
12:11but whatever, it's still iconic.
12:16What's not iconic is the ending of Zack Snyder's divisive reboot.
12:20During the epic battle against General Zod,
12:22Superman is forced to kill his enemy to save innocent civilians,
12:25and he does so by breaking his neck.
12:27Many fans were angered by this,
12:29believing that outright murder
12:31betrayed the character's strict moral code.
12:33One could also say that it was edgy for the sake of being edgy,
12:36which is a criticism that Snyder often seems to attract.
12:50Alright, look,
12:51we'll accept face-melting ghosts,
12:53magic stones,
12:54and the Holy Grail,
12:55but we draw the line at Aliens.
12:57This long-awaited sequel failed to live up to its predecessors
13:00for many reasons,
13:01including the infamous nuke scene
13:03and the divisive ending.
13:04We've got telepathic skeletons,
13:06interdimensional portals,
13:08actual aliens,
13:09and even a UFO for good measure.
13:11Even by the standards of Indiana Jones,
13:13this was ridiculous.
13:14Many fans felt that veering into science fiction was a mistake,
13:17especially as the earlier films
13:19told more supernatural religious stories.
13:21Hunting lost biblical artifacts
13:23is just good, old-fashioned fun,
13:25but flying saucers?
13:26Telepathic aliens?
13:28Come on, now.
13:31Space?
13:33Not into space.
13:35Into the space between spaces.
13:45Remember the awesome ending of the original,
13:47with Neo donning the sunglasses
13:49and flying into the sky?
13:50Yeah, let's just pretend the Matrix ended there.
13:53The sequels introduced a lot of good ideas,
13:55but also a lot of bad,
13:56and Revolutions ended on a thoroughly disappointing note.
13:59Neo and Smith fight in some gargantuan battle
14:02straight out of an anime,
14:03and then Neo dies in the most obvious Jesus metaphor of all time.
14:06Heck, there's even a cross that films over his dying body,
14:09just in case we missed it.
14:10And that's saying nothing of the Deus Ex Machina that ends the war,
14:13which is literally named Deus Ex Machina.
14:16Just because you're self-aware about it
14:18doesn't make it any less terrible.
14:20He did it.
14:23He saved us.
14:25He saved us.
14:27Number three, I Am Legend.
14:29This is one of the most famous cases
14:31of an original ending being way better than what we got.
14:34The original is more in keeping with the novel,
14:36as Neville realizes that he is the monster in a new world.
14:39He is the legend,
14:41the fabled boogeyman who steals people in the night.
14:44But test audiences didn't like it,
14:46so they scrapped it and went with something else.
14:48I can fix this!
14:50I can save everybody!
14:51In the new ending, Neville sacrifices himself
14:54and gives the cure to Anna,
14:55who in turn delivers it to the survivor's colony.
14:57Now he's a legend because he saved the world.
15:01Funny enough,
15:02the original ending is now considered canon,
15:04as a sequel is currently in development
15:06with Will Smith returning as Robert Neville.
15:14Number two, The Devil Inside.
15:16She's gonna be here overnight.
15:17Overnight? No, that's not possible.
15:19Why is that?
15:21There's something wrong with her.
15:22It's not safe here.
15:23It's not the worst ending of all time,
15:25but it's probably the most insulting.
15:27To find out why, please go to our website.
15:29We joke, but that's the stupid ploy
15:32that this movie tried to pull.
15:33After nearly an hour and a half of story,
15:35it abruptly ends with a title card
15:37telling people to go to a site for more information.
15:40No, we're not joking.
15:42The conclusion was widely panned,
15:44capping an already bad movie
15:45with one of the worst finales of all time.
15:47To make matters worse,
15:48the website in question eventually went defunct,
15:51so people who watched The Devil Inside later
15:53either had to use the Wayback Machine
15:55or accept the lack of resolution.
15:56I don't know what to say.
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16:15I have to leave now.
16:17I have to take a chance to get me back.
16:20Tim Burton was in a lose-lose situation.
16:22Either he copies the original's ending,
16:24which everyone already knows,
16:25or he tries to better one of the most iconic twists in movie history.
16:29He attempted the latter,
16:30and while we respect the gusto,
16:31this ain't it.
16:33Leo returns to Earth,
16:34finding General Thade in place of Lincoln
16:36at the Lincoln Memorial.
16:38Furthermore,
16:39the first responders and press members are all apes.
16:42Why?
16:43We don't know.
16:48Not even Burton knows,
16:49admitting on the DVD commentary
16:51that it was written to be ambiguous.
16:53The hope was that a sequel would answer the resulting questions.
16:56Well, no sequel was made.
16:58So now we're left with an ending
16:59that, by the director's own admission,
17:01doesn't make a lick of sense.
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