It’s more difficult than it might seem to craft a movie that works from the start right to the finish. Ending a story on the right note can be challenging: it needs to make sense given the story’s elements and themes, and can’t leave the audience disappointed.
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Even for universally applauded films, endings don’t always stand up under careful scrutiny, either because they don’t make sense or don’t treat the characters how they would deserve. Movies with bad endings can still be great, but those final scenes do influence how the audience views them as a whole. The films below are works of art, but their conclusions don’t measure up to the rest of the story.
Updated on June 12, 2025 by Ritwik Mitra:There are a wealth of amazing movies that people can check out, with these films featuring amazing stories, great cinematography, and incredible acting that elevates this medium to a whole new level. However, even the greatest of movies around can leave a sour note in the mouths of fans if the ending falls flat. The following movies are guilty of this, which is a shame since they were absolutely excellent for the majority of their runtime.
15I Am Legend (2007)
I am Legendisa great zombie flickstarring Will Smith in one of his best roles. Zombie apocalypses might seem like a rather lazy idea right now, but it was pretty fresh around the time ofI am Legend’s release.
However, the ending shoehorned a tragic climax that felt pretty forced. The alternate ending that was shot for this movie feels more fitting in this regard, with the zombies retaining a sense of their humanity as they leave the survivors alone at the end.
14Rat Race (2001)
Rat Raceis one of the funniest films of all time, featuring hilarious performances across the board as a bunch of random inept people are chosen to be a part of a twisted race to secure a ton of money. The shenanigans that ensue are pretty hilarious.
However,Rat Racethrows all its good elements out of the window in favor of forcing a happy and meaningful ending. This made no sense, and an ending that played more to the sly personalities of the people in this race would’ve been way better.
13The Batman (2022)
The Batmanis a brilliant movie, withRobert Pattinson serving as a perfect Bruce Waynewho injects a ton of life into the movie. This movie takes on more of a detective-thriller vibe and is all the more fascinating for it.
That being said, the runtime of this movie is a problem and can take some viewers out of the experience. It doesn’t help that the final few moments of this film feel stretched to an unnecessary extent.
12Hancock (2008)
Hancockis another movie starring Will Smith on this list, and it just so happens to be a superhero movie as well! Unfortunately, a problem with this movie stems from its conclusion, which feels like a massive tonal shift from the comedic nature of its first half.
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WatchingHancockget more and more vulnerable throughout the movie gets really old really fast. The fact that he moves to a different city isn’t the most engaging ending either and feels like more of a cop-out.
11Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011)
One of the biggest points of theHarry Potterbooks was the fact that Voldemort was nothing more than a mortal,as opposed to the great being he wanted to be known as. This is reflected in the book, where Harry ridicules Voldemort by calling him Tom and ending his life in a way that his body falls down like a normal wizard, reflecting the fact that he was anything but a lord.
The film completely misses this point and sends both Harry and Voldemort flying all over Hogwarts — something that never happened in the book and made no sense either. To top it all off, Voldemort dies in an ostentatious fashion, disintegrating in front of everyone instead of dropping down like a normal human.
10Superman (1978)
Long before theMCUand theDCEU, Superman already shone on the big screen, played by Christopher Reeve. The first movie is the highest-rated one featuring Reeve as the Man of Steel, and for most of its run, it works. The only major issue is how the movie decided to solve Lois Lane’s death.
When Superman learns that Lois had died, he snaps and flies so fast around the Earth that he turns back time. That might not have been so bad if there had been any indication or foreshadowing Superman was capable of this. What’s more, it took away the stakes. From that point on, the audience could assume that Superman would easily turn back time whenever things wouldn’t go the way he wanted.
9Grease (1978)
Greaseis one of the classicsof its era, and it still has a lot of charm. The musical is both catchy and fast-paced. However, there are a few problematic aspects to the story’s resolution. The first one is that to win Danny over, Sandy drastically changes her personality and acts like a completely different girl. This message is dubious at best.
What’s more, the very ending of the movie in which the car flies away seems like something taken out of a completely different story. It just doesn’t fit with anything else that happened beforehand, and left audiences confused.
8Titanic (1997)
Titanicis a legend, and for a good reason. Winning 11 Academy Awards, the movie is emotional, captivating, and doesn’t bore the audience even though it lasts three hours. There’s one aspect of its ending many viewers weren’t happy with, though, which they continue to point this out to this day.
Instead of Jack and Rose trying harder to fit on the floating door, they give up after just one try. As a result, Jack freezes to death, and Rose almost dies too. It’s clear why this had to happen, but the film could have killed Jack in another, more realistic way.
7Identity (2003)
Finishing a story with “it was all a dream” is one of the biggest storytelling mistakes any wannabe writer can do. This movie pulls a similar trick at its audience, and it doesn’t work out so well.
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Initially,Identityis full of tension and it builds a strong atmosphere when a group of people trapped in a hotel starts dying. The problem is that instead of offering the identity of the killer, it turns out all the characters were simply the personalities of a murderer, so technically, nothing that the viewers see in the movie really happened.
6War Of The Worlds (2005)
In a movie about an alien attack, it would be understandable for the audience to expect to see the aliens at least for a moment. However, that’s not what happens in this adaptation of H.G. Wells’War of the Worlds. Instead, Tom Cruise and his children spend the better part of two hours running from the disaster.
Just when it seems like the movie would culminate in an epic showdown, the audience discovers the aliens aren’t able to survive in the planet’s atmosphere. All of a sudden, the invasion ends and the previous careful build-up leads to nothing.
