[Closed] film endings you never understood?

Sleeples in Seatle. What is this love thing of which they speak?

My understanding on the ending of 2001 was that it was rubbish and I'm never going to watch it again.

The Fountain took me a while to understand, but I think I've got my head wrapped around it now. Fantastic film.

Getting in there nice and early with Primer - just wtf.

Mulholland Drive - so they woke up and it was all a dream? I can remember being told that was an awful ending to a story back when I was 8 years old. So I can't understand how that ending got made.

Clearly I'm a bit thick and I'll not doubt evoke the wrath of STW here but 'the eternal sunshine of the spotless mind' made little sense to me. The film is simple to understand and I like that it's a bit cleverer than normal hollywood films but I fail to understand the point of the film.

I understand far more complex films but this just did nothing for me.

now you see, Primer. That's not a great film but it's very difficult to understand. You get that front the start and you realise it's a challenger and engage it at that level. You think about it and start to understand it.

Lost in Translation - it definitely was lost on me.

The Fountain took me a while to understand, but I think I've got my head wrapped around it now. Fantastic film.

Seconded.

Hmm... trying to think of my own now.

Donny Darko.
Well, sort of. I thought I got it but also thought it had something a bit deeper going on.

Shane

how come he didn't shoot the kid ?

toy story, it was a bit over my head.

now you see, Primer. That's not a great film but it's very difficult to understand. You get that front the start and you realise it's a challenger and engage it at that level. You think about it and start to understand it.

I was fine with it, up until the point when he put a time machine in another time machine. Then I pretty much gave up trying to understand it, and it just got worse and worse. It's almost a film to be studied rather than watched. Very complex.

Clearly I'm a bit thick and I'll not doubt evoke the wrath of STW here but 'the eternal sunshine of the spotless mind' made little sense to me. The film is simple to understand and I like that it's a bit cleverer than normal hollywood films but I fail to understand the point of the film.

A great film IMO, but if you didn't like it you could try Garden State, Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World, or even Wristcutters: A Love Story. Similar sort of films, basically a love story at heart, but different from normal stuff you see.

+1 for Mulholland Drive. I've watched it again and still didn't really get it.

The ending of the second matrix film isn't an ending as such, as the 3rd film just carries straight on (think of 2 and 3 as one film, with an interval.)

No Country For Old Men - how did the Mexicans suddenly get involved and what happened to the money???

Tyger the guy in the tower block who got shot by Chigurh hired them, thats why he got shot. Chigurh says you use one tool. Not sure about the money 🙂

The ending of Cabin in the woods- not so much I didn't understand more where did that come from?!

Dead Mans Shoes - How does he know (Richard) that the last guy is not lying about what he did to his brother and then decide to let him go?
American Psycho - Did he actually kill those people?

Clearly I'm a bit thick and I'll not doubt evoke the wrath of STW here but 'the eternal sunshine of the spotless mind' made little sense to me. The film is simple to understand and I like that it's a bit cleverer than normal hollywood films but I fail to understand the point of the film.

Because they chose to forget their past mistakes they were doomed to repeat them.

Magnolia - but then I watched it years ago whilst drunk so might be a bit clearer now.
Lost in Translation was a bit odd as nothing really happens. Was the whole point of it that it's a chance meeting between 2 randoms who both become connected and have a "spark" but then have a sadness because they go back to their old lives and realise they'll never meet again?
I liked it. Reminded me of holiday romances in my youth. 😀

+1 Donnie Darko. Also Memento took me a while and I'm still not sure I have it right.

Memento strikes a great balance of making you not understand it but making you believe that you probably could. Very clever.

THe King's Speech - once they'd found out after 20 mins that they could cure his radio stutter by making him wear headphones, why did the film go on for another hour?

And I know for a fact that Deckard was NOT an android.

At the end of The Deerhunter the friends assembled for Nick's funeral sing "God Bless America". I never worked out whether they sang in bitter irony or genuine patriotism.

Another for Donnie Darko.
Read all the explanations, but doubt that anyone would have worked it all out by themselves.

Had to watch The Prestige twice before I fully got it.
Musn't have been paying attention!

Titanic

Daft bint. WTF did she chuck the jewel overboard???

Lost Highway had me confused. Might have to watch it again soon.

titanic was utter bollox
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American Psycho, haven't seen the film but I got the same feeling from the book - not sure it wasn't all in his mind.

Solaris - got to the end and couldn't understand how that pile of navel-gazing effluent was ever made. It still winds me up that i wasted the time watching it. Soderberg is heavily overrated and half his films are just hand-shandys to his artistic bent.

Otherwise i didn't understand who would have been driving the boat at the end of taken 😉

2001: the guy becomes the star child to oversee the creation of a new world in 2010 by converting Jupiter to a sun using mostly black bricks.

The kill list. Starts off really grim as it was described to me, but just goes off on a really bizarre tangent.

with Memento, try watching it with this in mind: black and white is in the right order, everything in colour is backwards. (or the other way around... its been a while since i watched it)

Can we talk about the Tim Burton Planet of the Apes?

The lady in the water?

Not just the ending which is bad enough, the whole film is like " WTF"

The key to Mulholland Drive is remembering that the scenes are not in chronological order.
It is still not easy to work out but at least it starts to make some sense.

Titanic

Daft bint. WTF did she chuck the jewel overboard???

Titanic again.
Daft bint again. There was like LOADS of room for two people on that plank.

Besides which it was an awful awful awful awful film.

The opposite of the OP:

Sphere. The WTF ending from the book is changed giving it a clear ending and destroying the whole point of the film.

Primer. I've seen it about 5 times now and only just started making sense of it when I saw that somebody had made a flow chart to help explain it.

There was like LOADS of room for two people on that plank.

Mythbusters covered it, both could have made it out alive.

A Tale of Two Sisters. Great film with a totally bonkers last 20 minutes that I still don't think I understand.

Kill List is a horrible film.
The violence is totally gratuitous, shocking lack of imagination.
Nowt wrong if justified.

The end of The Wicker Man is so much more shocking.

Debbie does Dallas , never did make it to the end

Neverending Story. It ended. 🙁

Fight club.....epic film, but it took a Wikipedia search to fully get it!

inception, did he get stuck in his head or was he back in reality?

(or was the meaning of the film that we should question the nature of reality and our perception of it)

I've never understood why The Usual Suspects doesn't end as Spacey's foot finally straightens and he begins to walk normally. I cannot figure for the life of me why you'd throw away one of the best film endings ever for the sake of those not quite bright enough to catch on.

Dead Mans Shoes - How does he know (Richard) that the last guy is not lying about what he did to his brother and then decide to let him go?

He never intended to kill the last guy, he was always going to get the last guy to kill him. that's a worse punishment than killing him, blood on his hands, something he'll never forget or forgive himself for, whereas the guys he killed couldn't care less.

You can tell STW is mainly made of up male, IT/engineering types. 🙂

The Shawshank Redemption, with the tacked on stupid "feel good" ending no doubt for the US audience. The film clearly should end as Red is carried away on the Greyhound bus, doing the voiceover, saying "I hope i meet my friend again" etc etc. The WHOLE film is about hope, that's the point. Hence, we totally don't need the soppy & naff "friends meeting on the beach" scene that is added on afterwards. Next time you watch it, turn off after the bus scene and see how much better the film is!!!

Mulholland Drive - it starts off with her falling asleep (although this isn't made that clear), the rest of the film bar the very end is all a dream, hence the randomness of order etc

I couldn't follow "A Serious Man" when I tried to watch it, gave up in the end although reading some of the background it makes a bit more sense, still think it's garbage though.

Edit: Oh and Prometheus - what was all the running about in a comedy style avoiding the crashing spaceship all about, was it meant to be comedic? If it was meant to be dramatic then I'm confused.

Warton - Thanks, that does make sense.

The last Matrix film. Especially when everyone interprets it a different way, leaving me more baffled.

Fantasia, great theme music but the dialogue was completely lost on me

Dude Where's My Car.

Where did all the hot chicks go after the big chick exploded?

Going off on a tangent, I don't get the comments about Kill List being OTT. I thought it was a bit dull with an off ending.

I never quite got the end of the Usual Suspects either.

The end of the Cabin in the Woods was odd (thought the whole film was utter sh*te though).

mulloholland drive great film but as it was all a dream i thought was bit poor plot.

the fountain great film,confusing as but only sort of understood it by reading on the web haha

Star Wars - A New Hope

Slight tangent, but Se7en. Film is totally ruined for me by the fact we get to know what is in the box. Would have been so much stronger if we never really find out definitive reason for Brad's rage.

Clerks 2

No-way that ugly knob Dante ends up with Rosario Dawson.

+1 Donnie Darko. Also Memento took me a while and I'm still not sure I have it right.

With Memento there is an option on the DVD to watch it in sequence. Makes everything much clearer, but also spoils the film.

As far as I know a awful lot of people have tried to dissect and find fault with Memento (in terms of trying to find an error with its narrative) but it's yet to have been done. Nolan, in an interview, was quite proud of that fact.

I never found it particularly confusing to be honest but it is a film that only comes together at the end but its a great revelatory moment. I don't know how some have come to the conclusion it doesn't make sense?

vanilla sky ????

Donnie Darko really needs a couple of careful watches but it can be followed. Directors cut was easier to make sense of.

I like the star child idea on 2001, I had always thought the wtf ending was supposed to be something to do with time, life, death and immortality. I'm probably wrong but I liked it. It got 10.1 on my weirdometer.

Solaris. Now that was chuffing odd and Event Horizon too.

The Book of Eli, was Denzel Washington meant to be blind from the start? I mean, where was his stick?

I hate the ending of the Italian Job. Die or escape for gods sake please!

In a 2003 documentary for the BBC, Michael Caine explained how the gang could have made their escape. "The next thing that happens is you turn the engine on," he said. "You all sit exactly where you are till all the petrol has run out, which changes the equilibrium. We all jump out and the gold goes over the cliff."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/jan/23/italian-job-ending-solved

Source Code. How can he send emails from an alternate timeline before the train crash that put him there happened?