Starting something is definitely important. Getting a year off to a good start can put one in high spirits for the 12 months to come. People who haven't heard a song before might want to keep listening if you put something interesting in the first few seconds. A piece of writing can have a good introduction that doesn’t waste too much time.
Uh, but endings are also important. The greatness of a movie’s beginning, for example, could well be undermined if the way it concludes proves disappointing. As a result, films that end on a high note naturally merit celebration. There are too many great endings from cinema history to count, but the following are some of the absolute best, encompassing conclusions sad, joyful, surprising, and suspenseful… sometimes even all of the above.
10. "Whiplash" from 2014
Whiplash is a movie that starts strong, and only gets stronger on a pretty much scene-by-scene basis. It follows one extremely determined young drummer who wants to achieve fame and perfection in his chosen field, being the immovable object that an unstoppable force of an instructor comes into contact with. There is mental turmoil and a lot of stress as a result. Everything builds to one of the most exciting climaxes in movie history that doesn’t feature some kind of direct physical conflict.
The rivalry/uncomfortable bond between the two central characters reaches a fever pitch in this final stretch of the movie; one where there’s so much at stake, and the ease with which it could all collapse is minute. It’s the cinematic equivalent of being right next to a bomb while someone desperately tries to defuse it for about 10 minutes. It’s awesome.
9. 1940's "The Great Dictator
Charlie Chaplin always knew how to end his movies on the right note, so consider the endings to both City Lights and Modern Times to be runners-up here. His best ending, though, can be found in The Great Dictator, which sees Chaplin – previously so beloved for his silent films – delivering a passionate speech pretty much to the camera, breaking the fourth wall (just about) while seeking to unite a planet that was, unfortunately, pretty much already at war.
Still, it’s the effort that counts, and the speech found at the end of The Great Dictator is still moving. Also, Chaplin does speak earlier in the film, but by design, nothing hits quite as hard or feels as meaningful as the monologue he saves for The Great Dictator’s remarkable final scene.
8. 'Schindler's List' (1993)
While The Great Dictator was made right around the time World War II began, Schindler’s List was released about half a century on from its conclusion, and aimed to celebrate what Oskar Schindler did during a dark period in history. Schindler was an industrialist who used the money he had to save more than 1000 Jewish lives, employing them and also keeping them from being sent to concentration camps.
The ending of the main portion of the film has Schindler breaking down over not saving more lives, which is a powerful note to end things on, but the epilogue – which features the real-life survivors and descendants of the survivors – commemorating Schindler at his grave is even more moving. Schindler’s List is a heavy but always respectfully done film; one of Steven Spielberg’s very best, and a film with a staggeringly impactful final couple of scenes.
7. 'The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King' (2003)
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King has been criticized by some for taking too long to end, but with all due respect, those critics have no idea what they're talking about. If you took The Return of the King on its own, maybe, but as an ending to the trilogy that was The Lord of the Rings, the final few scenes – all of which encompass what can be called an ending – work magnificently here.
If an ordinary movie can get one or two scenes to wrap up, then The Return of the King – which concludes about nine hours of film (and that’s if you just stick to the theatrical edition) – more than earns the right to have a few more scenes to wrap up. In the best possible ways, everything is moving, sweet, and completely conclusive. It’s emotionally satisfying, as an ending to a long, long journey, and then some.
6. 'The Shawshank Redemption' (1994)
Speaking of emotionally satisfying endings, The Shawshank Redemption has an absolutely knockout one. The entire movie is about persevering through hardships and holding onto hope, even in a place as hopeless as Shawshank prison, where life for prisoners is cheap, those who hold power are often corrupted, and life for those who complete their sentences sometimes proves impossible to adjust to.
Andy Dufresne endures a ton throughout the film, and does eventually manage to break free, against all odds. Red, Andy’s closest friend in prison, also completes his sentence at a point, and manages to reunite with Andy outside prison walls. The fact that viewers don't hear or see anything about the two's lives after the reunion makes it all the more powerful to see them emerge from so much misery. There’s no need to. Everyone knows they live happily ever after, and they more than earned it.
5. "Chinatown" from 1974
Sorry to sour the mood a little, but a movie ending can also be iconic if it’s particularly miserable, and oh boy does Chinatown conclude on a legendarily downer note. A private detective gradually uncovers a conspiracy with some startling revelations attached to it, but the ultimate mastermind gets away with it, and the woman who first hired the private detective – who he also fell in love with – ends up getting killed.
This all happens within the final minutes of Chinatown. The main character, Jake, is obviously taken aback, but he is told to "forget it" because "it's Chinatown." It’s pretty much a message to the audience, too, saying, “This is Chinatown. You want a happy ending? Forget about it.” But it’s more than shock value. It feels right, even with it being undeniably heartbreaking and frustrating. This lack of traditional closure is, in its own strange way, the perfect way to close a perfect film like this one.
4. 'All That Jazz' (1979)
One more iconic bummer ending before things get a little more bittersweet: All That Jazz is stylish, inventive, and uncomfortably self-reflective for so much of its runtime, and then shoots into a previously unseen stratosphere in its closing moments. The entire film is about a stand-in for director Bob Fosse who leads a chaotic life, splits his time between too many projects, and eventually ends up in the hospital because of his life.
Things don’t get better, and actually get bad enough that he ends up dying… but he imagines going out in a blaze of glory, with an epic musical number that sees him saying farewell to those he knows, and “bye-bye” to life in general. It’s almost a blend of happy and sad, but then it cuts back to reality; a body bag being zipped up, another life been and done. It’s even more powerful watching the film now, with the knowledge that Fosse, through All That Jazz, pretty much predicted the way he’d eventually pass away in real life.
3. 'Cinema Paradiso' (1988)
Cinema Paradiso is, from start to finish, a love letter to cinema as a whole, but it gets literal right at the end. The protagonist, whose journey from young boy to middle-aged man is tracked throughout the film, receives a gift from his now-deceased mentor, and he watches it inside a cinema. It is a compilation of various love scenes that were cut from movies due to a priest who was obsessed with censorship.
It’s many scenes of love, the compilation was a gift of love, the music that plays throughout the scene is lovely, and everything is just a perfect blend of bitter and sweet. Love is all around. All you need is love. It would take a few more paragraphs to explain how many feelings this final scene in Cinema Paradiso evokes and why it does so, but they might all be unnecessary in the end. What matters is how the scene hits at the end of an already touching, sentimental, and quite sad film.
2. 1966's "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
If you want a Western with just three main characters to run for about three hours, you better know what the hell you're doing, or you better be Sergio Leone. Indeed, Leone made this work. He made an epic Western, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, where the characters are mostly trying to avoid the epic stuff happening (like the Civil War), all being more focused on finding a buried fortune somewhere in the desert.
The character interactions, betrayals, and moments of uneasy allyship throughout the first two hours and a bit of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly are all great, but it’s the three-way showdown at the climax that’s legendary.
1. 'Casablanca' (1942)
Casablanca is, throughout its fairly brisk runtime, a war movie, an achingly romantic film, and a well-acted drama, all the while also being pretty funny and suspenseful in places. It’s great and timeless entertainment for a handful of reasons, but the primary one might well be the fact that it balances so much tonally – and genre-wise – never contradicting itself or making one false move narratively or emotionally.
Naturally, the fact that Casablanca has possibly the greatest or most perfect ending of all time is another reason why it is legendary. There’s suspense, heartbreak, heroism, and hope, all on display thanks to things coming to a head so cleanly, and every line of dialogue being iconic and essential. You could turn your nose up at the somewhat theatrical acting, or criticize the airport for not looking realistic, if you wanted to be a jerk, but as far as emotional endings go? Casablanca can’t be beaten. And as far as well-written endings go?