Anyone in storytelling will tell you that a good ending is hard won. That beginning a film, building up a world and getting to know it’s characters, is one thing, but that figuring out how to leave them is another. When the lights come up, and eyes adjust, how do you want your audience to leave the theatre? Elated? Resolute? Horrified? In tears? Changed?
You’ll need a good ending and, if you’re a real pro, a good final shot. It’s the last thing the audience will see before the credits roll and, done well, the image that will follow them home. You know what they say about last impressions.
Some closing shots provide unexpected answers to big questions. Others let questions dangle endlessly; leaving it to the audience to decide for themselves how the film closed out. Some provide resolve. Others double down on tragedy.
Below we’ve assembled the fifty best, ranked. Enjoy.
One of my favorite endings (well kinda favorite shot, though it’s not a shot of much) is in The Last Valley:
— Alan
they are missing at least one classic:
My pick made Number 11, so I’m happy with that.
No Sleepaway Camp? Throw out that trash list.
No Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind? Meh.
Wim Wenders’s The End Of Violence wasn’t an especially great film (though it had its moments), but its final shot, a long, long zoom out from the end of the Santa Monica Pier, is really, really beautiful.
Escape from New York and Escape from L.A. should be there right next to The Thing. Carpenter is the master of that.
I kept reading through, expecting to see the final shot of The Road Warrior in there - Max standing in the dust, fading into darkness with that haunting last line lingering in the air “And the Road Warrior? That was the last we ever saw of him. He lives now… only in my memories”
Fantastic closing shot, with the narration as the kicker. Dunno how it didn’t make the list!
I guess it’s almost reached cliche level now, but the Rosebud ending of Citizen Kane is still a classic in my mind.
Also, the final scene of Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch? Unforgettable.
Nope.
#3: The Third Man
#2: The Graduate
#1: 2001: A Space Odyssey
(Admittedly, I’ve never seen the Searchers.)
Surprised to see the Graduate only at 4. I mean, that’s about as iconic as it gets.
The Omega Man not on the list. Phooey on the list.
The final shot of The Man Who Would be King is also worthy:
I thought the list was kind of …random and ill-thought out…like the Star Trek episode list @divedivedive shared out the other day. Not having the “Rosebud” sled seemed like a whiff.
Dave, take a lap for even including Escape From L.A. anywhere near a “good movie” conversation.
Aww hell no.
One of my favorite endings of all time. Just perfect. Matthau’s expression as the music kicks in…
I have a threshold. It is different for each movie. I call it the ‘Yeah right’ moment. That point where I just can’t suspend my disbelief any longer. Like I said, it varies. I watched all of Big Trouble in Little China without a problem. Magic and all.
The surf scene in Escape from LA was my yeah right moment.
A pivotal moment in my childhood was when a ‘friend’ spoiled the end of Planet of the Apes days before I had planned to go see it. I truly have never gotten over it. This was before the word ‘spoiler’ existed as a word, of course.