comment #1

cinefan says ...

Before I heard the sound clip, I thought you were referring to the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers, a terrific science fiction film with an ending to which, I think, both a) and b) are applicable.

comment #2

Circumvrent says ...

I'm with cinefan, sounded like you were describing Body Snatchers to a t. I hate to sound like a moron, but what the hell movie IS this from?

comment #3

mmcshrry says ...

Ah, yes! The Thing From Another World. Great ending indeed!

comment #4

moviemaniac2002 says ...

Oh yes, you're got to love Dimitri's thunderous
scores...how he loved to musically hammer
home the point of every scene...(few of today's
directors would give their composers this kind
of freewheeling lattitude)
Check out the first few minutes of his
Hitichock scores "Strangers On A Train" and
"Dial M For Murder"...with the orchestra first
rampaging through ominous bombast...then
playfulliy "mickey-mousing" the characters as
they're introduced....I don't think you'll ever hear
the likes of it again.
The other great vocal instruments in "The
Thing" are the pear-shaped radio broadcast tones of Paul Frees, George Fenneman and John Dierkes. Just listening to Dierkes explain how the
Thing won't get through "corrugated steel" has
a wonderfully calming effect.

comment #5

Hickenlooper says ...

Greatest movie ending of all time:

Carl Franklin's 'One False Move.'

Bill Paxton dying in a pool of his own blood as his bastard black son stands over him, staring at the keys on this belt.

"What are those keys for?"

Bill looks at the boy for the first time in his entire life (which is about to expire in seconds) recognizing him as his own.

It doesn't get better than that.

comment #6

Marty Melville says ...

Hawks' wonderful movie retains its super-charged energy to this day... as usual for a Hawks film everybody has the gift of gab and much of the action and suspense is driven solely by the snap, crackle, pop of the dialog.

One of the great things about that final scene is the way it chooses to focus on the supporting cast as the nominal stars (Tobey and Sheridan) take a literal backseat to Douglas Spencer's sign-off.

comment #7

frankbooth says ...

I prefer the ending of Carpenter's version: two guys sitting there, staring at each other. Either one of them is a monster, or they both freeze to death. Either way, they're screwed. Box-office poison, but now everyone calls it a classic, and at least two movies swiped the setting and feel of it just last year.

I agree that One False Move is pretty damned good.

comment #8

frankbooth says ...

I forgot to say SPOILER.

Just in case, you know, you've been extremely busy for last 26 years and haven't gotten around to seeing it.

comment #9

Mgmax says ...

Can anybody say what real-life radio broadcast this is evoking?

Alas, I can't find the audio online, but it was a famous broadcast by Edward R. Murrow from London, in which you could hear bombs in the background, and he warns America that what is happening around him will come to us, too.

Foreign Correspondent ends with Joel McCrea doing a version of this ("Ring yourself around with steel, America!"), and a lot of WWII movies end with someone making a speech like this. Interesting to have it still being the model into the space age...

comment #10

Mgmax says ...

I think my favorite ending is Choose Me. She looks away, love floods her face. She looks over at him, doubt and fear creep back in. She looks away... love. Hollywood ending.

Then she looks at him again, and doubt and fear come back. I think this happens three times in all. A lifetime together summed up in 15 seconds, the entire premise of Hollywood romance (even in a movie as supposedly with-it as The Graduate) devastatingly skewered, Lesley Ann Warren given a moment that will live in Hollywood history forever, once it's rediscovered and appreciated. Perfect.

comment #11

Strolzy says ...

You honestly won't believe what you're seeing at the conclusion of the first season of Lars von Trier's "Riget."

comment #12

Hickenlooper says ...

I'd have to agree that the ending of John Carpenter's 'Thing' ranks as one of the greatest of all time. One also can't forget Jean Luc Godard's 'Breathless' with Belmondo lying in a pool of his own blood. He looks back at Jean Seberg and says "Bitch." I also will mention Bogdnanovich's ending to 'Last Picture Show.' Pretty powerful stuff when Tim Bottoms returns to Cloris Leachman and says "Just Never You Mind. Just Never You Mind." 'Godfather' endings One and Two are pretty damn good but that goes without saying. Oh yes, I also think one of the greatest most underrated films of all time and certainly one of the best endings is Robert Wise's 'The Sand Pebbles.' Steve McQueen get's shot by Chinese Nationals and he lies against a wall taking his last breath and says "What the hell happened?" BOOM. He's dead. Wow... God McQueen was the definition of cool. Which reminds me of the great ending to 'The Great Escape' which his Cooler King ending. And that great music. John Sturges is another great underrated director. Shit, why can't we make movies like these instead of the next 'Plastic Man.' Oy veh.

comment #13

Jeffrey Kunze says ...

Hickinlooper: "Greatest movie ending of all time:

Carl Franklin's 'One False Move.'

Bill Paxton dying in a pool of his own blood as his bastard black son stands over him, staring at the keys on this belt."

I don't understand, out of all the great movies that have been made since the beginning of the 20th century, that you have the lack of scope to call this The Greatest.

One False Move, which I saw recently because of an Ebert and Ebert review (which I should know by now never to trust), is an extremely uninteresting, one-dimensional film. Just because the Thorton and the bad guys were unapologeticly merciless and Paxton's character was an 'unstereotypical' hero, people think the film stands alone, when in retrospect, it's a very SIMPLE story that's been done a thousand times before. Predictable is an understatement.

And I thought it was assumed that Bill Paxton's character lives at the end as well. Wasn't that obvious?

In either case, the last really great ending to a movie that I've seen recently has got to be either Woody Allen's "Hannah and Her Sisters" (now my personal favorite Allen film) or Sidney Lumet's "Running on Empty," heartbreaking stuff.

Honorable mention: Roman Polanski's "The Tenant."

comment #14

K. Bowen says ...

Kinda off-topic, but does anyone else get choked up at the ending of Lawrence of Arabia? For all the great moments in that film, watching Lawrence ride through the desert unrecognizably to the men he had led headed to a home that's no longer a home gets me every time.

comment #15

Mgmax says ...

Okay, so you beat up Hickenlooper over One False Move (which I have to say, you missed what transcends or at least bends genre in it) and then your idea of a great ending is Running on Empty?

Running on Empty has a well-acted ending, the right ending, the only honest ending... but it's the ending you knew was coming from the very first frame. And One False Move is predictable?

comment #16

DarthCorleone says ...

It's obvious, but the greatest ending has to be The Third Man.

I agree that The Thing remake is superior in general and specifically in its ending, which has always been among my favorites. Forgive my youth, but the original plays very dated to me.

Someone already mentioned The Godfather, so I'll also just also make certain that Notorious is included in the discussion. Of course, with Godfather, Notorious, and Third Man, it's as much about that final shot for me as it is about the ending itself.

comment #17

Sax says ...

I hate to have to be the one to say this, but both of Polanski's genre masterpieces have peerlessly bleak endings, even if he had to write the last few moments of Chinatown himself.

comment #18

Hickenlooper says ...

'The Third Man' duh. How could I have not mentioned that. Did you know that Reed got into a huge fight with Selznick over that ending. He wanted Valli to stop where Joseph Cotton was leaning against the jeep and they walk off together. Reed fought to the bitter end to keep Greene's original scripted ending. They also had a huge fight over the zither music as well as Cotton's voice over which was originally narrated by Reed.

Also, no need to attack me personally regarding 'One False Move.' As far as 'Running On Empty' goes I don't even really remember that film. Wasn't Judd Hirsch and Christine Lahti in that - something about SLA on the run?

Anyway, after careful consideration there is only one TRULY GREAT ENDING OF ALL TIME... I should have thought of it before but alas I was focused on the Dodger game last night.

The ONE TRUE GREAT ENDING OF ALL TIME is by far and undisputedly Charlie Chaplin's 'City Lights.' When the blind girl regains her sight and sees the Little Tramp next to her. She touches his hand and suddenly recognizes him. She says 'It's You.' One of the most powerful moments in cinematic history. We end on a close up of Charlie slowly breaking into a smile and then fade to black. It gives me the shivers even thinking about it and I haven't seen the picture in over twenty years. Yes gentlemen and ladies, Charlie Chaplin's 'City Lights' is the winner for greatest ending of all time.

comment #19

K. Bowen says ...

My favorite ending of all time? Definitely Factory Girl. :)

(I mean that in the spirit of playful jest.)

comment #20

Hickenlooper says ...

Well the ending you get in 'Factory Girl' is the Harvey Weinstein ending which to be honest I don't hate. The orignal ending had Edie jumping out of the cab and running into Central Park where she comes upon a NYC cop who is feeding his horse. She stands there out of breath and in tears slowly pets the horse. We fade to black and from there we go to Andy Warhol being interviewed in 1971 and saying 'I hardly knew her.' It was an extremely powerful ending but for some reason Harvey has a problem with animals in movies. Don't ask me why. It just some weird arbitrary phobia that fucked up the original ending of my movie. The original director's cut also didn't have any of the therapist scenes or bloody voice over. The director's cut is superior though I don't hate the cut that Harvey let me put out on DVD. It's closer to what my vision was but not the original director's cut which had a lot more bit and edge. I am thinking of posting the original cut on Youtube. If anyone's interested in seeing it let me know or Facebook me. GH

comment #21

frankbooth says ...

Hickenlooper's last post is depressing. How it works in the real world of moviemaking...

That zither music was a crazy choice that shouldn't have worked. Amazing that it played at all, let alone so well.

Gotta agree on Notorious, of course. Poor Claude Rains walking back inside to face his doom. But "fatheaded guy in love" gets a bad laugh when I've seen it with audiences. Shame about that, but so it goes.

And City Lights, absolutely. Yes, yep, indeed.

comment #22

K. Bowen says ...

GH, that does sound like a powerful ending. But there was already a horse in the movie, no?.

comment #23

Major Calloway says ...

I showed up too late....someone else beat me to 2 of my 3 favorite endings:

THE THIRD MAN
CITY LIGHTS

but not the third:

RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY

comment #24

Cadavra says ...

I find Kubrick incredibly overrated, but the end of THE KILLING is a knockout: the money's gone, the cops are closing in, Colleen Grey's urging him to run for it...and Sterling Hayden merely shrugs and says, "Ah, what's the use?" The music swells and the end title appears not on Hayden, but the two anonymous cops cautiously approaching him. Just phenomenal.

Of course, when Michael Bay remakes it, it will end with a dozen red laser points on his body, followed by a hail of gunfire, exploding squibs, and blood splattering the walls and bystanders.

comment #25

Ghost072 says ...

Love One False Move and Carpenter's The Thing and their endings (just watched The Thing again last week and Rob Bottin's practical effects in that film never cease to amaze me, and Carpenter pulled career-best performances out of each and every actor in the film, IMO).

Some of my runner-up favorite endings include Seven, Shawshank, Searching for Bobby Fischer and Monster's Ball (the musical cue when Halle Berry smiles made me buy the soundtrack). Oh and Jacob's Ladder is pretty good, too.

But the best, in my eyes, for sheer whack-you-over-the-head, devastating emotion, has to Old Boy. A brilliant film in its own right, but the ending just makes it a classic, in my book.

comment #26

Ghost072 says ...

Seeing Kubrick's name made me realize that I forgot the ending that made me want to make movies: 2001: A Space Odyssey. Just watched that on blu-ray the other day and was blown away all over again.