Some films come to a close with a bang, while others do so quietly. Or perhaps you just sigh heavily or roll your eyes at the conclusion. Even though the movie may have been wonderful up to that moment, it fell flat. On the other hand, it's possible that a movie had a bad start and that's why its bad finale seemed so appropriate. We can all think of a movie or two that we really liked up until the climax when everything practically falls apart.
In either case, these are the terrible climaxes in movie history. Regardless matter how much we may have loved the remainder of the film, they all left us with a terrible taste in our mouths. There will also be significant spoilers, of course. Here are the top 10 movies in which t
he endings are so horrible that the whole movie is ruined.#1 “Planet of the Apes” (2001)
When Charleton Heston discovers that it was indeed Earth all along in the original "Planet of the Apes," the scene is legendary. On the other hand, Tim Burton's remake's finale is terribly dull. The entire film is a letdown, but when Mark Wahlberg returns to his planet after time travel, he discovers that the Lincoln Memorial has been replaced by a monument honoring an ape general. It's just absurd.
#2 “Grease” (1978)
Since so many kids watch and enjoy "Grease," there are a lot of odd things about it. The conclusion is doubly bizarre. Sandy first chooses to entirely transform herself into a leather-clad bad girl for Danny Zuko (who had in turn become a preppy for her). Then, in a film that up until that time had nothing supernatural in it, they got in a car, and it takes off. What do you think of this ending?
#3 “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” (2018)
The girl in the movie is first shown to be a clone, just like so many dinosaurs before her. The movie's true resolution occurs when our heroes choose to set the dinosaurs free rather than let them perish. This indicates that dinosaurs are roving the planet, consuming both urban areas and natural areas. It's kind of cool in a way, but the execution is terrible, and the "Jurassic Park" franchise's prequel film is also the worst.
#4 “Lucy” (2014)
Basically, "Lucy" gives the notion that "We only use 10% of our brains" a Luc Besson spin. In other words, it's really ridiculous. Even if you are enjoying the ride, the finale is essentially absurd and unworkable. When Lucy's brain reaches 100%, does she then...disappear? Alters into a supercomputer, perhaps? What about a flash drive? We only know that she is "everywhere" right now because her voice can be heard on the villain's cell phone.
#5 “Knowing” (2009)
It's hardly unexpected that "Knowing," a Nicolas Cage film from after the millennium, is both awful and mad. The worst of the lot is "knowing," though. Children are transported aboard interstellar arks at the movie's conclusion by aliens or angels in order to preserve mankind. Then, we witness a solar flare destroying the entire earth. Sure, the ark rescues the children and transports them to a new world, but everything is so absurd and pointless.
#6 “The Grey” (2011)
It seems like the whole running time of the movie is spent setting up Liam Neeson's confrontation with the wolves. He has a knife and wine bottle fragments taped to his hands as he stands in front of a pack of wolves at the film's conclusion. This ought to have sparked a huge, epic conflict between man and nature. Neeson instead charges the wolves, and the film ends with the credits. That's bad enough on its own, but then we learned that a post-credits scene shows Neeson standing next to the dying alpha wolf. Even less satisfying is that.
#7 The Shape Of Water (2017)
Many honors were given to The Shape of Water for its stunning visuals. The plot of the film is lovely, and the spectator can sense Elisa's and the amphibian man's love. The narrative itself is one that readers of fairytale books would recognize. The film's finale, however, fell short of the excellence of the rest of it.
The cliche that they lived happily ever after serves as its conclusion. The audience, however, was left in the dark and free to come to their own judgments. Elisa grows gills towards the book's conclusion and dives into the ocean with her partner. It was a rather powerful film, but it finished on a straightforward, surreal note.
#8 War Of The Worlds (2005)
Yes, there is a problem with the "War of the Worlds" conclusion, when the aliens perish because they are unable to deal with the bacteria on Earth. But that's not the actual issue at hand. Who miraculously managed to live is how the narrative is summarized on Wikipedia, which pretty well sums it up. The characters played by Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning are reunited with Cruise's wife and kid despite the fact that the former's home was destroyed and the latter joined the Marines in battle before they were all wiped out. It seems absurd that they are all still alive and have a handy place to gather.
#9 The Accountant (2016)
The Accountant is a good choice. It has lots of action and an interesting plot. A shocking revelation occurs as the movie draws to a close, undoing all that has gone on. The surprise wasn't as spectacular as it should have been since the shocker had no build-up.
The viewer learns that the figure played by John Bernthal is Affleck's sibling. This sequence would have been more of a confirmation for the audience if there had been some sort of build-up. Instead, the unveiling became a startling discovery that marred the film's climax.
#10 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
In Crystal Skull, the "inter-dimensional entities" have the conventional appearance of aliens from 20th-century popular culture (big heads with tall, slender bodies), and they even travel between dimensions in a flying saucer straight out of a 1950s sci-fi B-movie. Even the movie's attempts to explain what the beings were doing on earth when they first came here all those years ago (they are described as being, in essence, archaeologists studying the cultures and history of the planet) come off as a clumsy way of saying they are extra-terrestrials... but they aren't. The majority of casual moviegoers arguably think of them as aliens, so if Crystal Skull had simply stated that they are aliens, some, if not all, of this unnecessary confusion would have been eliminated.