![]() ![]() A complete story, in many people’s minds, is one that answers all their expectations and questions, leaving no loose ends for them to fret over. It’s sometimes not enough to know that the characters lived happily ever after, or walked off into the sunset, if the audience doesn’t have a mental picture of what comes next. Audiences want to know what happens to the characters of a story beyond the bounds of the film’s run time. Schaffner.īut what separates a “good” ending from a “bad” one? Typically, what I notice most people point to in an ending they like–more often by way of criticizing an ending they don’t– is that it’s “satisfying”. Would Planet of the Apes (1968) have been anywhere near as enduring had it not ended with the ruins of the Statue of Liberty? And, on the other side of the coin, would Spielberg’s War of the Worlds (2005) have been remembered more fondly as the thrilling adventure it is had it not gone out on such a flaccid note of unearned happiness? Or could Danny Boyle’s pensive sci-fi flick Sunshine (2007) have entered the annals of science fiction greatness if it hadn’t deteriorated into a head-scratching slasher film in the third act? Planet of the Apes. Dir. The Usual Suspects (1995), for example, is a mostly unremarkable crime film, but through the virtue of its indelible Keyser Söze twist ending it has stayed relevant in pop culture well beyond what its shelf-life might otherwise have been. While a bad ending won’t always sink a great movie, a great ending can often save a mediocre one, just as a terrible ending can be the demise of an otherwise solid one. The ending of a movie is the last thing the audience will see, and thus remains the freshest in their memory. ![]() Endings, perhaps more so than any other structural element of a narrative, are the most important to get right. ![]()
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