The only thing worse than watching a bad movie is watching a good movie with a bad ending. It’s a unique feeling of disappointment that sticks with you long after the credits finish rolling.
Recently, I started thinking about some of the worst offenders.
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This inspired me to compile 10+ movie climaxes that people absolutely hate. Prepare to be disappointed; spoilers ahead!
*Glass*
Let me get this straight: you wait more than a decade to give audiences the sequel they’ve all been clamoring for, only to have David Dunn drown in a puddle?
Does M. Night Shyamalan just want to make people mad?
*Grease*
The entire movie builds to a complete and utter character betrayal on Sandy’s behalf and then she and Danny just fly off into the clouds in his car without any explanation whatsoever?
Did I miss something here? What the heck is going on?
*Titanic*
Come on, Rose! You’re telling me that you couldn’t have scooched over and let Jack on the door with you? Maybe if you weren’t so selfish and had taken turns, he’d still be alive.
That’s right — I said it. The truth hurts.
*Now You See Me*
So Mark Ruffalo’s character is really a legendary magician who was just orchestrating some elaborate test to gauge whether or not his contemporaries were worthy of him?
This felt so ad-hock it wasn’t even funny. How they ever greenlit a sequel I will never know.
*Identity*
What’s most upsetting about Identity is that it had all the makings of a truly great horror/suspense film.
Instead, they went and dashed it all to pieces by trying to force a psychological element that just didn’t make any sense whatsoever.
*Indiana Jones And The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull*
Can we just all come to an agreement that aliens and Indiana Jones do not mix?
If we’re seriously going to be force-fed yet another Indy sequel that nobody asked for, can we at least keep the action confined to this planet?
*The Dark Knight Rises*
Christopher Nolan chickened out at the last possible minute. He could have been the man who killed Batman; he could have had the final say on one of the most iconic superheroes of all time.
Instead, Batman survives the impossible plane crash and we gobble it up because after all — he’s Batman.
*Jacob’s Ladder*
There is no greater cop-out in all of film and literature as “it was all a dream.” It’s lazy, half-baked, and completely manipulative from an audience’s perspective.
If you thought Lost was bad — you have to see Jacob’s Ladder .
*The Number 23*
We’re supposed to believe that Jim Carrey commits these heinous acts while suffering a psychotic break; writes a book about it; becomes sane, and subsequently forgets that he wrote said book only to serendipitously discover it in a used book store years later.
Yeah. Freaking. Right.
*The Mist*
In the climax of The Mist , David Drayton and his family enter into a suicide pact to avoid being killed by the monsters of the mist. Before David can kill himself, he’s rescued by the National Guard.
The ending isn’t necessarily bad, it’s just heartwrenching.
*The War Of The Worlds*
The fact that the aliens are allergic to humans isn’t a bad ending, in fact, it’s brilliant.
Where the Tom Cruise remake fails is in the presentation and execution of this idea. Watch the original 1953 version starring Gene Barry and you’ll see what I mean.
*The Matrix Reloaded*
That entire conversation between Neo and The Architect was beyond confusing. It was as if the Wachowskis were purposely trying to confuse their audience.
Just because you talk fast and use big words doesn’t necessarily mean that you have anything to say.
*The Village*
In order to truly enjoy The Village , it calls for a complete suspension of belief that many moviegoers simply aren’t able to muster.
Why on earth would people in present-day society want to trick their children into believing they were living in the past? And why the monster get-up?
*Vanilla Sky*
Vanilla Sky is actually one of my favorite movies but I can understand how it can be polarizing.
The idea that David Aames has been frozen for years in cryosleep and all his experiences have been nothing more than one giant-long lucid dream is a lot to swallow.
*Shutter Island*
Instead of trying to make audiences believe that a doctor and hospital staff would go through all the trouble of erecting an elaborate facade for one troubled patient, why not go the more obvious route?
What if Teddy was sane and they slowly made him believe that he was not?
