Lenny Nero
10-10-2001, 10:58
Ok, I see how most people love to be surprised by unpredictable and unusual endings, which are mostly non-happy ones, where everyone dies, or something bad happens, or the "bad guy" gets away with it. My top favourite movies consist mostly of films like that and I'm sure many would like to see similar films but haven't heard of them yet and so do I. I'll post movies like that with an explanation of why it is on this list in the spoiler tags, which will include the ending so if you haven't seen the movie yet, just remember the title for later when you're looking for something excellent to see; and add anything that you have seen and is not here or in subsequent posts yet with the description of the ending.
The ending is the last thing we see and in many cases it makes the movie, period, or makes it so much better that we wanna see it again and again, if it's done well, here is a list of films I love with that kind of ending, now this is "off the top of my head" and even though I watch loads of movies it is in no way complete and I would love to find out about others so please reply if you know any.
Angel's Dance (James Belushi, Sheryl Lee)
http://members.tripod.co.uk/BRDeckard/angel.jpg
{This is a big one but do read it even if you haven't seen the film, might make you want to check it out even more!**
James Belushi's hitman Stevie Rossellini trains a rookie sent by a mob boss to him to gain more experience and replace his father who was hit by a truck making a hit a day prior {this movie is very funny intentionally**, they pick a target practice out of a phone book by throwing a knife "look you got all the way to the 'C's" heh, and try to kill this opressed woman {Angelica Chaste or Angel of the title** whose mother left them when she was a teen and her dad is in a psychiatric house, but when she gets attacked by a hitman her nerves go out of control and she finally lets out all her built up anger, starts to learn about self-defense, how to fire various pistols, etc,{she is a do-it-yourself type, rents books from libraries to fix her fridge for example** it's an excellent twist on La Femme Nikita kind of woman. Anyway, I should only be talking about an ending here, so, in the end, the rookie guy {Tony** has fallen in love with her, the moron, tries to stop Rossellini from killing Angel and shoots him in the hand while he was stating his admirations in how professionally she's handled a few men before him in a shootout, and then Tony goes on with this nice sweet speech about how he likes her and wants to have a family with her and that he's realized that he's not up to being a hitman, etc, while Rossellini says "You dumbass she'll kill you" and even though she does start to smile a little at the thought of a family etc
---now in the hollywood ending way, they would kill Rossellini or testify against him and put him away, while living happily ever after with Tony but here---
but her smile then wipes off her face suddenly, and she shoots Tony, one to the heart, one to the head, YES! And aims at Belushi, he says "Just don't miss {the heart** or I'll have to be dissapointed in you" and closes his eyes awaiting the shot, which never comes, so he opens them and she says "let's talk" and he smiles. I was so tense at that moment on my first viewing that I let out a loud YES because I so didnt want him to die, he is a very sympathetic and moral hitman, has a very sarcastic and cynical view of the world as is established throughout the movie. And so it ends with them both making a hit for the Mob boss on his former accountant who is to testify against him in court soon, and she offs him and they drive off in a cool car. Isn't that wonderful?!
Sorry it's so long, I just had to say all that in the first one so you see why I like the other endings and why they are so "unhollywood", so the rest will be brief.
It's the Rage (Excellent cast is listed on DVD cover)
http://members.tripod.co.uk/BRDeckard/rage.jpg
Lots of intertwined and related stories all shown in bits as happening at the same time, getting shorter and shorter in a big build up to the end where almost everyone shoots and kills somebody in rage of emotions.
Hurlyburly (Sean Penn, Robin Wright Penn, Kevin Spacey, Meg Ryan, Chazz Palminteri, Anna Paquin and Garry Shandling)
Skeptically sarcastical and depressed Eddie argues and questions various mostly deeply philosophycal subjects, his best friend Phil dies and in the end nothing is solved or answered, he's left standing in the room at night in his hollywood hills house
The Pledge (Jack Nicholson, Robin Wright Penn, Aaron Eckhart, Helen Mirren, Mickey Rourke, Tom Noonan)
http://members.tripod.co.uk/BRDeckard/pledge.jpg
The retired detective Jerry Black played by Nicholson promises the dead raped and killed little girls' mother that he will find the one who did it to her, and becomes obssessed, even buys a gas station in the area where similar murder/rapes were commited recetly and uses a single mother with her daughter to lure in the killer, it builds up progressively and intensly, you await for a resolution, you are like this bubble that is so big it's going to blow, ... any second... here it comes.. here it comes.... . . . and it never does, it leaves you hanging along with Jerry Black as he goes basically crazy, mumbling something looking all old and dirty near his broken up gas station.
Very powerful, Sean Penn's 3rd movie.
The Thing (Kurt Snake "I thought you were dead" Plissken Russel...ehh.. yeah.)
Well, basically, everyone gets infected by this worm and kills each other and dies. Everybody dies.
Swordfish (John Travolta, Halle Berry, Vinnie Jones, Hugh Jackman)
Well, what's not to like, John Travolta's Gabriel Shear runs around robbing billions, killing people extravagantly, saying stuff like "They kill one american, we kill a thousand of them, they bomb one building, we destroy their whole city" about terrorists, and, getting away with it all in the end! Yeah!
Suicide Kings (Christopher Walken & Dennis Leary kick some ass)
This was the first movie in hollywood history to go from a happy go lucky ending to a more realistic, gritty and sad one based on testings, which actually indeed makes the movie and fits its intentional flow so to say. Walken and Leary kill the girl and the guy who concocted a plan to skip away with a million bucks of Walken's former mafia boss' money. Bam bam both in the head, with Leary being so delightfully sadistic and funny throughout the whole film
Tailor of Panama (Pierce Brosnan, Jeoffrey Rush, Jamie Lee Curtis)
http://members.tripod.co.uk/BRDeckard/panama.jpg
Brosnan's anti Bond corrupted, seducing, cunning spy Andy Osnard uses Rush's tailor and his made up stories to start an international intrigue and in the process gets away on a private jet with almost 15 million dollars, screwing everyone! I love the part where he walks through the corn fields with the two heavy suitcases of money. This is the second movie in history to go from a "happier" ending to the current one, the deleted alternate ending on DVD shows Andy get shot in those corn fields by the tailor, the scene is great as Brosnan is wonderful in it, dying with this angry ****** off face saying something like "you stupid moron" more angry cause the tailor wouldnt skip with him and the money rather than of his actual death. I'm glad they changed it though.
Under Suspicion (Liam Neeson) Not yet on DVD
Neeson is indeed the killer and noone finds out and he gets away with it all
Presumed Innocent (Harrison Ford)
Ford's wife is the killer of his former coworker and girlfriend and he keeps quiet about it and she gets away with it.
Hardware (Stacey Travis...oooh yeah, and Dylan McDermott) Not on DVD either.
After battling the government's prototype robot the whole movie, the prominently occuring throughout radio DJ Angry Bob (Iggy Pop) states his final announcement as the film's closing line, a very satiric, ironic, sad and cool ending, while Public Image LTD's The Order of Death plays ("This is what you want, this is what you get, this is what you want, this is what..."):
"************, Angry Bob comin' at you loud and clear on W A R Radio somewhere on your dial and I'm gona wake you aauuuup. We got some good news this morning from Fair Isle Electronics, the Deeeefense Department has just given them the go-ahead to mass produce the new M.A.R.K.13 cyborg and as a result 800 wonderful new jobs are to be created on the main assembly line. So get your unemployed asses on down to Fair Isle electronics and get yourselves a job huuuh.":D
Things to do in Denver When You're Dead (Andy Garcia, Christopher Walken, Steve Buscemi, Treat Williams, Fairuza Balk, Cristopher Lloyd, Glenn Plummer)
A hit is put on the whole group of guys after they screw up a job, they have got to either run from Detroit or die. Well, they all die.
King of New York (Christopher Walken, Larry Fishburne, David Caruso, Wesley Snipes, Steve Buscemi)
The mob boss, Walken, dies in the end in a taxi while cops with guns drawn slowly move in.
Panic (William H. Macy, Donald Sutherland, Neve Campbell)
http://members.tripod.co.uk/BRDeckard/panic.jpg
Macy plays a hitman, trained by his father Sutherland since he was a kid, goes through midlife crisis, pressure etc builds throughout the film and in the end when he finds out his father took his son out to the field to shoot a squirrel just like he did with him, starting to put him on the same path, he goes in and kills his father, gets shot by a cop who was on the case after Macy's shrink whom he was seeing ratted him out, who he was suppost to kill. Both die.
Truth or Consequences, N.M. (Kiefer Sutherland)
A group of outlaws on the run from the cops after a rather unsuccessful and violent robbery and shootout with the cops finally get tracked down in the title city and everyone gets shot and killed, including the two supposedly main characters, a guy and a woman who are so sweetly in love with each other and just want to get out of it all.
Way of the Gun (Ryan Phillipe, Benicio Del Toro, Julliette Lewis, Taye Diggs, James Caan)
Very violent featuring some of the most realistic and loudest gunfire not counting Heat. Two main outlaws get all beat and shot up and left lying in the desert hotel almost dead after all they've been through for some ransom money, they're left with nothing and most likely die there.
U-Turn (Sean Penn, Jennifer Lopez, Nick Nolte, Claire Danes, Billy Bob "I'm Angelina Jolie's boyfriend" Thornton, Joaquin Phoenix, Jon "I'm Angelina Jolie's Father" Voight)
Very gritty and violent, everyone kills each other off of distrust and over money, with Sean Penn's character left bleeding and dying after his car breaks in the end exactly the same way it did in the beginning which started the whole thing in the first place.
Escape From L.A. (Snake Plissken...eh.. Kurt Russel, Steve Buscemi, Pam Grier, Peter Fonda)
Snake Plissken uses satellite network of EMP weapons to wipe out all electronics on the whole earth, shutting it down completely and returning mankind to the dark ages..."heh, welcome to the human kind"
THE best ending!
Eye of the Beholder (Ewan McGreggor, Ashley Judd)
Judd plays a psychopathic killer, deeply hurt by her childhood and life, for whom noone feels sympathy besides me and the McGreggor character, she dies in the end just after realizing who the obsessed follower was, in his hands. Very sad.
A Simple Plan (Bill Paxton, Bridget Fonda, Billy Bob "I got Angelina Jolie's Blood on My Neck" Thornton)
After all the killings, cover ups and sacrifices all over the money, which are traceable and they have to burn them and end up with nothing and lots of skeletons in their closet. A Sam Raimi Film...YEAH!
The House of Yes (Parker Posey, Freddie Prinze Jr {actually good here**, Parker Posey, Tori Spelling {annoying but in the character**, oh and... PARKER POSEY!!!!) This has got to be my most favourite black comedy along with Hurlyburly.
Parker's Jackie-O disballanced, neurotic and a little crazy sister has actually slept with her own brother who now brought his new girlfriend to their house where she lives with her widowed mom. They like to re-enact Kennedy's assasination, all dressed up in appropriate closings, and then make love :D She is very possesive and does not want him to marry or be with any other girl, so she asks him for one last Kennedy reenactment, only this time the gun is really loaded, she kills her own brother, they {with her mother** bury him in their yard and just live on! Excellent :cool:
Oooh, how could I forget these 2:
Reservoir Dogs, you all know why and
The Last Seduction (Linda Fiorentino! and Bill Pullman)
Well, she goes on lying and screwing people for her own gain, jails her poor husband and gets away with a bunch of money in a limo, I love brunettes!
Oookay, this took me half an hour, I hope someone at least reads it. Hope you like it and would love to see some replies with comments or more unhollywood endings!
*sleeeeep, sleeeeeeep* walks off like a zombie
The ending is the last thing we see and in many cases it makes the movie, period, or makes it so much better that we wanna see it again and again, if it's done well, here is a list of films I love with that kind of ending, now this is "off the top of my head" and even though I watch loads of movies it is in no way complete and I would love to find out about others so please reply if you know any.
Angel's Dance (James Belushi, Sheryl Lee)
http://members.tripod.co.uk/BRDeckard/angel.jpg
{This is a big one but do read it even if you haven't seen the film, might make you want to check it out even more!**
James Belushi's hitman Stevie Rossellini trains a rookie sent by a mob boss to him to gain more experience and replace his father who was hit by a truck making a hit a day prior {this movie is very funny intentionally**, they pick a target practice out of a phone book by throwing a knife "look you got all the way to the 'C's" heh, and try to kill this opressed woman {Angelica Chaste or Angel of the title** whose mother left them when she was a teen and her dad is in a psychiatric house, but when she gets attacked by a hitman her nerves go out of control and she finally lets out all her built up anger, starts to learn about self-defense, how to fire various pistols, etc,{she is a do-it-yourself type, rents books from libraries to fix her fridge for example** it's an excellent twist on La Femme Nikita kind of woman. Anyway, I should only be talking about an ending here, so, in the end, the rookie guy {Tony** has fallen in love with her, the moron, tries to stop Rossellini from killing Angel and shoots him in the hand while he was stating his admirations in how professionally she's handled a few men before him in a shootout, and then Tony goes on with this nice sweet speech about how he likes her and wants to have a family with her and that he's realized that he's not up to being a hitman, etc, while Rossellini says "You dumbass she'll kill you" and even though she does start to smile a little at the thought of a family etc
---now in the hollywood ending way, they would kill Rossellini or testify against him and put him away, while living happily ever after with Tony but here---
but her smile then wipes off her face suddenly, and she shoots Tony, one to the heart, one to the head, YES! And aims at Belushi, he says "Just don't miss {the heart** or I'll have to be dissapointed in you" and closes his eyes awaiting the shot, which never comes, so he opens them and she says "let's talk" and he smiles. I was so tense at that moment on my first viewing that I let out a loud YES because I so didnt want him to die, he is a very sympathetic and moral hitman, has a very sarcastic and cynical view of the world as is established throughout the movie. And so it ends with them both making a hit for the Mob boss on his former accountant who is to testify against him in court soon, and she offs him and they drive off in a cool car. Isn't that wonderful?!
Sorry it's so long, I just had to say all that in the first one so you see why I like the other endings and why they are so "unhollywood", so the rest will be brief.
It's the Rage (Excellent cast is listed on DVD cover)
http://members.tripod.co.uk/BRDeckard/rage.jpg
Lots of intertwined and related stories all shown in bits as happening at the same time, getting shorter and shorter in a big build up to the end where almost everyone shoots and kills somebody in rage of emotions.
Hurlyburly (Sean Penn, Robin Wright Penn, Kevin Spacey, Meg Ryan, Chazz Palminteri, Anna Paquin and Garry Shandling)
Skeptically sarcastical and depressed Eddie argues and questions various mostly deeply philosophycal subjects, his best friend Phil dies and in the end nothing is solved or answered, he's left standing in the room at night in his hollywood hills house
The Pledge (Jack Nicholson, Robin Wright Penn, Aaron Eckhart, Helen Mirren, Mickey Rourke, Tom Noonan)
http://members.tripod.co.uk/BRDeckard/pledge.jpg
The retired detective Jerry Black played by Nicholson promises the dead raped and killed little girls' mother that he will find the one who did it to her, and becomes obssessed, even buys a gas station in the area where similar murder/rapes were commited recetly and uses a single mother with her daughter to lure in the killer, it builds up progressively and intensly, you await for a resolution, you are like this bubble that is so big it's going to blow, ... any second... here it comes.. here it comes.... . . . and it never does, it leaves you hanging along with Jerry Black as he goes basically crazy, mumbling something looking all old and dirty near his broken up gas station.
Very powerful, Sean Penn's 3rd movie.
The Thing (Kurt Snake "I thought you were dead" Plissken Russel...ehh.. yeah.)
Well, basically, everyone gets infected by this worm and kills each other and dies. Everybody dies.
Swordfish (John Travolta, Halle Berry, Vinnie Jones, Hugh Jackman)
Well, what's not to like, John Travolta's Gabriel Shear runs around robbing billions, killing people extravagantly, saying stuff like "They kill one american, we kill a thousand of them, they bomb one building, we destroy their whole city" about terrorists, and, getting away with it all in the end! Yeah!
Suicide Kings (Christopher Walken & Dennis Leary kick some ass)
This was the first movie in hollywood history to go from a happy go lucky ending to a more realistic, gritty and sad one based on testings, which actually indeed makes the movie and fits its intentional flow so to say. Walken and Leary kill the girl and the guy who concocted a plan to skip away with a million bucks of Walken's former mafia boss' money. Bam bam both in the head, with Leary being so delightfully sadistic and funny throughout the whole film
Tailor of Panama (Pierce Brosnan, Jeoffrey Rush, Jamie Lee Curtis)
http://members.tripod.co.uk/BRDeckard/panama.jpg
Brosnan's anti Bond corrupted, seducing, cunning spy Andy Osnard uses Rush's tailor and his made up stories to start an international intrigue and in the process gets away on a private jet with almost 15 million dollars, screwing everyone! I love the part where he walks through the corn fields with the two heavy suitcases of money. This is the second movie in history to go from a "happier" ending to the current one, the deleted alternate ending on DVD shows Andy get shot in those corn fields by the tailor, the scene is great as Brosnan is wonderful in it, dying with this angry ****** off face saying something like "you stupid moron" more angry cause the tailor wouldnt skip with him and the money rather than of his actual death. I'm glad they changed it though.
Under Suspicion (Liam Neeson) Not yet on DVD
Neeson is indeed the killer and noone finds out and he gets away with it all
Presumed Innocent (Harrison Ford)
Ford's wife is the killer of his former coworker and girlfriend and he keeps quiet about it and she gets away with it.
Hardware (Stacey Travis...oooh yeah, and Dylan McDermott) Not on DVD either.
After battling the government's prototype robot the whole movie, the prominently occuring throughout radio DJ Angry Bob (Iggy Pop) states his final announcement as the film's closing line, a very satiric, ironic, sad and cool ending, while Public Image LTD's The Order of Death plays ("This is what you want, this is what you get, this is what you want, this is what..."):
"************, Angry Bob comin' at you loud and clear on W A R Radio somewhere on your dial and I'm gona wake you aauuuup. We got some good news this morning from Fair Isle Electronics, the Deeeefense Department has just given them the go-ahead to mass produce the new M.A.R.K.13 cyborg and as a result 800 wonderful new jobs are to be created on the main assembly line. So get your unemployed asses on down to Fair Isle electronics and get yourselves a job huuuh.":D
Things to do in Denver When You're Dead (Andy Garcia, Christopher Walken, Steve Buscemi, Treat Williams, Fairuza Balk, Cristopher Lloyd, Glenn Plummer)
A hit is put on the whole group of guys after they screw up a job, they have got to either run from Detroit or die. Well, they all die.
King of New York (Christopher Walken, Larry Fishburne, David Caruso, Wesley Snipes, Steve Buscemi)
The mob boss, Walken, dies in the end in a taxi while cops with guns drawn slowly move in.
Panic (William H. Macy, Donald Sutherland, Neve Campbell)
http://members.tripod.co.uk/BRDeckard/panic.jpg
Macy plays a hitman, trained by his father Sutherland since he was a kid, goes through midlife crisis, pressure etc builds throughout the film and in the end when he finds out his father took his son out to the field to shoot a squirrel just like he did with him, starting to put him on the same path, he goes in and kills his father, gets shot by a cop who was on the case after Macy's shrink whom he was seeing ratted him out, who he was suppost to kill. Both die.
Truth or Consequences, N.M. (Kiefer Sutherland)
A group of outlaws on the run from the cops after a rather unsuccessful and violent robbery and shootout with the cops finally get tracked down in the title city and everyone gets shot and killed, including the two supposedly main characters, a guy and a woman who are so sweetly in love with each other and just want to get out of it all.
Way of the Gun (Ryan Phillipe, Benicio Del Toro, Julliette Lewis, Taye Diggs, James Caan)
Very violent featuring some of the most realistic and loudest gunfire not counting Heat. Two main outlaws get all beat and shot up and left lying in the desert hotel almost dead after all they've been through for some ransom money, they're left with nothing and most likely die there.
U-Turn (Sean Penn, Jennifer Lopez, Nick Nolte, Claire Danes, Billy Bob "I'm Angelina Jolie's boyfriend" Thornton, Joaquin Phoenix, Jon "I'm Angelina Jolie's Father" Voight)
Very gritty and violent, everyone kills each other off of distrust and over money, with Sean Penn's character left bleeding and dying after his car breaks in the end exactly the same way it did in the beginning which started the whole thing in the first place.
Escape From L.A. (Snake Plissken...eh.. Kurt Russel, Steve Buscemi, Pam Grier, Peter Fonda)
Snake Plissken uses satellite network of EMP weapons to wipe out all electronics on the whole earth, shutting it down completely and returning mankind to the dark ages..."heh, welcome to the human kind"
THE best ending!
Eye of the Beholder (Ewan McGreggor, Ashley Judd)
Judd plays a psychopathic killer, deeply hurt by her childhood and life, for whom noone feels sympathy besides me and the McGreggor character, she dies in the end just after realizing who the obsessed follower was, in his hands. Very sad.
A Simple Plan (Bill Paxton, Bridget Fonda, Billy Bob "I got Angelina Jolie's Blood on My Neck" Thornton)
After all the killings, cover ups and sacrifices all over the money, which are traceable and they have to burn them and end up with nothing and lots of skeletons in their closet. A Sam Raimi Film...YEAH!
The House of Yes (Parker Posey, Freddie Prinze Jr {actually good here**, Parker Posey, Tori Spelling {annoying but in the character**, oh and... PARKER POSEY!!!!) This has got to be my most favourite black comedy along with Hurlyburly.
Parker's Jackie-O disballanced, neurotic and a little crazy sister has actually slept with her own brother who now brought his new girlfriend to their house where she lives with her widowed mom. They like to re-enact Kennedy's assasination, all dressed up in appropriate closings, and then make love :D She is very possesive and does not want him to marry or be with any other girl, so she asks him for one last Kennedy reenactment, only this time the gun is really loaded, she kills her own brother, they {with her mother** bury him in their yard and just live on! Excellent :cool:
Oooh, how could I forget these 2:
Reservoir Dogs, you all know why and
The Last Seduction (Linda Fiorentino! and Bill Pullman)
Well, she goes on lying and screwing people for her own gain, jails her poor husband and gets away with a bunch of money in a limo, I love brunettes!
Oookay, this took me half an hour, I hope someone at least reads it. Hope you like it and would love to see some replies with comments or more unhollywood endings!
*sleeeeep, sleeeeeeep* walks off like a zombie