Best Movie Endings

SPOILER ALERT! When a movie starts, within less than three hours (with some exceptions), it ends (duh!). Some endings are predictable (“Derailed”), while others ruin the entire movie (“Stranger than Fiction”). And there are some you will never discover because you cannot sit patiently through the entire movie (“I Am a Sex Addict”). There are endings however, which add a new perspective to the movie or alter the one you had or leave you with questions that can only be answered when you click FAQ on IMDB.com or naively satisfy you because they tie a cute little ribbon to the movie package. Here are some of the movies that popped to my head whose endings, I deem, to be memorable.

“Donnie Darko” (2001)

This is a movie whose ending can be said to be the sole factor behind its 8.3 imdb rating. The ending turns the otherwise psychological journey of a high-schooler story into an intellectual journey through time and space. The ending saves the sleepy-eyed Donnie Darko (played by Jake Gyllenhaal) from being another cliché portrayal of psycho kids and the “demonic bunny” (as the back of the DVD cover claims) he sees from being unintentionally funny. Earlier in the movie, a jet engine, whose origin is mysterious, crashes into Donnie’s bedroom. Donnie survives the accident because of his somnambulism. The demonic bunny has told him that the world will come to an end in less than a month. Unsure how it might happen, Donnie goes on following the bunny’s instructions only to crash another jet engine in his bedroom. But this time, with the second crash, he saves the world. Confused? Go watch the movie and let the ending surprise you.

“The Usual Suspects” (1995)

Who is Keyser Soze? This is the question which is at the heart of this movie but is left unanswered until the end. And when the answer is revealed, there is nothing one can do but be a gawking partner to the federal agent, Dave Kujan (played by Chazz Paminteri), in the movie. A boat is destroyed, leaving 27 dead and two survivors. One of the survivors is a crippled suspect, Verbal Kint, (brilliantly portrayed by Kevin Spacey). Throughout the movie, we sit patiently listening to horror stories of Keyser Soze and to the story that led to the destruction of the boat. Then the end discloses one of the most powerful twists in the cinema: Kint fabricated the entire story. (One of my favorite figments is that Kint made up the name of Soze’s lawyer, Kobayashi, from the brand name of the porcelain cup Kujan was drinking his coffee from.) Now, if you are still confused as to who Soze is: Is he the crippled Kint? Or Kint’s boss and Kint, his personal secretary? Or is Soze just a mythic creation of Kint? Or is he the true devil who has convinced that he does not exist except in people’s mind? To know, you need to watch the remaining one and half minutes of the movie.

“Children of Heaven” (1997)

A poor Iranian boy, Ali, loses his sister Zahra’s pair of shoes. To avoid adding more financial burden on (and most probably beating from) his father, he and his sister agree to remain mum until he finds her another pair somehow. Toward the end of the movie, he finds a solution. There is a long distance running race for his grade in the province and if he can come third, he will get a pair of sneakers as the prize. Though he runs in his old worn out pair of shoes, he unfortunately wins the game. The last scene, however, is what I judge to be one of the most breathtakingly optimistic scenes in any movie. Ali returns home dejected and meets Zahra outside on the courtyard by the pool. Zahra realizes that he has failed in keeping his promise and she goes inside the house when their baby sibling cries. Ali takes off his badly tattered shoes and puts his blistered feet on the water. Then we see a school of radiant goldfish gathering around his feet and nibbling at his toes. Ali does not know what we know, that his father is retuning home with two new pairs of shoes; one for him and one for Zahra. Although we cannot tell this to Ali, who goes on contemplating the possible miseries ahead, we know that the fish are silently assuring him that everything will be okay pretty soon.

“Heat” (1995)

This was an entertaining movie but if it were not for the cast, it could easily have been forgotten. We all — well most of us — have watched Al Pacino and Robert De Niro share the story in “Godfather II.” In “Heat,” they share the screen as well. There are two such moments and one of them is the final scene. Al Pacino plays an efficient but a troubled detective who is after a team of professional thieves led by the character played by Robert De Niro. Because both of these characters have virtues and flaws in them (and are played by two of the most powerful actors in Hollywood), you are not sure whose side you are on. In the end, one of them has to die — mostly likely the good thief — but you do not want that. You are ready to accept the unrealistic and cheesy endings, and are desperately hoping that both of the characters find some sort of reconciliation and live happily ever after. But in the climactic chase scene near the airplane runway, one of them is shot by the other. The dying then holds out a hand because he understands that his killer shot him out of duty and in self defense. The closing scene shows the two locking their hands in a handshake. And the pain, not pride, felt by the killer is noticeable in the slumped shoulders of the killer.