5 Best and Worst Movie Endings of All Time

Hi all! I want to start by saying that endings are very important to me. Ask any member of my family, and they will tell you I am one of those people who reads the end of the book first. If the book does not have a conclusive or happy ending then I will probably not read the book. Why waste time reading something that doesn’t end well? But today’s post is not about books (as wonderful as they may be), this post is about movies. Today I would like to share with you the five best and worst movie and series endings of all time. Before I begin I must tell you three things:

1. This post is filled with spoilers.

2. Just because I do not like the ending does not reflect my opinion of the movie over all.

3. I am a little biased in my ending taste.

The second and third are probably the most important to remember. This is the type of ending I like:

 

This is the kind of ending I do not like:

All of that said, let’s get started!

 

Top 5 Best Movie Endings:

 

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

One of the best movie endings of all time! It had a good, conclusive ending. You find out exactly who ends up with who, and nothing is left to chance! In case you have never seen or read the Harry Potter series, the last scene takes place 19 years later. All of the bad guys are defeated, and now Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione are sending their kids off to Hogwarts. It explains exactly what is going on and what everyone is doing now that they have all grown up. I wish every series ended this way. It was a perfect ending to a wonderful series. The Harry Potter series is worth watching simply for the ending.

 

2. The Philadelphia Story

This movie is not your typical, predictable romance, I was never positive as to whom she would end up with. I was a little concerned that it would end abruptly, but was overjoyed when it had a conclusive, happy ending. I was not left wondering what happened, but was shown exactly what happened at the end. The spontaneous wedding made for an entertaining finale.

3. Signs

I loved that the movie “Signs” had an epilogue! That’s not something you see very often in movies, usually only in books. If you haven’t seen “Signs” I’ll give you a brief summary, it’s about a pastor (Mel Gibson) who has lost his faith in God due to his wife’s death. Strange things keep happening around his farm, first abnormally large people running around his house at night, then his dogs get sick, and finally someone cuts his cornfield in an odd pattern. Then the world realizes that we are being attacked by aliens. Finally, it ends with Mel Gibson’s faith in God being restored.

 

4. The Princess Bride

The perfect fairy tale finale! Riding off into the distance to live a carefree life with your princess and two men you barely know, but who just helped you save your princess! Is there anything more perfect?

5. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

Shotgun wedding!

 

Top 5 Worst Movie Endings

 

1. Gone with the Wind

Was there ever a more depressing ending? First, everyone dies, then her husband divorces her. Worst finale ever! I don’t care if she goes back to Tara, it’s downright appalling. The movie ends with Scarlett O’Hara saying, “Tara! Home. I’ll go home. And I’ll think of some way to get him back. After all… tomorrow is another day.” But it never explains if she actually ever gets Rhett Butler back.

 

2. Casablanca

No offense to all of you Humphrey Bogart fans, but I hate the ending of Casablanca. I will give it credit for having some memorable quotes in the last scene, but the scene itself is tragic. He pines after her the entire movie, and then she leaves with her husband. Not that I would have preferred she leave her husband for Rick, but I was kind of expecting him to die or something. Oh well, at least she didn’t leave him, because in the words of Humphrey Bogart, “If that plane leaves the ground and you’re not with him, you’ll regret it. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.”

 

3. The Village

I will try not to include any spoilers in this summary, because this movie is full of shocking plot twist, but I have to include “The Village” on this list. Overall, I love this movie. It is enthralling, and kept me sitting on the edge of my seat the entire time, but the end is not conclusive. After Ivy Walker goes on a challenging journey to get her sick fiance medicine, they don’t even tell us if he get well or if he dies. For all we know he could die the next day. We are left to assume that he gets well, but you should never assume anything when it comes to movies.

 

4. Into the Woods

Happily ever after? Baloney! The horrid ending of this movie starts when Cinderella and Prince Charming’s wedding reception is interrupted by an angry giant. The giant is after Jack, because he killed her husband. She throws the entire kingdom into disarray, and Jack is nowhere to be found. Then Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, the town baker, and his wife all go looking for Jack. While looking for Jack the baker’s wife runs into Prince Charming. They kiss, even though he just married Cinderella and she is married to the baker. After he leaves her she sings a song about their kiss and promptly falls off a cliff. When her husband hears that she died he leaves his newborn son with Cinderella and runs away, but comes back after he has a conversation with his dead father. Meanwhile, Cinderella hears from the birds of the woods that Prince Charming had kissed the baker’s wife, and confronts him. His response is, “I’m suppose to be charming, not sincere.”  The whole last half of the movie stank.

 

5. Sleepless in Seattle

I must admit that the ending of this movie didn’t bother me very much, until my Dad pointed out that they could have broken up five minutes after the movie ended. In Sleepless in Seattle, a young woman named Annie falls in love with a man, named Sam, who she has only heard on the radio. She writes to Sam asking him to meet her on top of the Empire State Building, but he never even reads the letter. His eight-year-old son, however does. His son is convinced that they should meet up with Annie in New York, but Sam is not. That is until eight-year-old Jonah runs away to meet Annie. Sam is forced to go to New York to retrieve his son, and in the process runs into Annie on top of the Empire State Building. Then the movie ends. For all we know they could have gone on one date and then decided they hate each other. Outside of that, Sleepless in Seattle is a very enjoyable movie.