Worst Film & TV Show Endings - A good ending can be exceptional, but a bad one can trespass barriers.

[Nicholas II of Russia]

Like the title says. What is your worst ending to a film or TV show?

For me, the number one pick is absolutely this, from Law-Abiding Citizen. Because allegedly Jamie Foxx himself suggested changing the ending to making the corrupt prosecutor a good guy in the ending, even though he didn't do anything to won that distinction and killing the guy who wanted revenge for his wife and daughter getting killed. And he really thought that people would like the ending more.

I didn't care really much about the movie in itself, but the ending is so unironically bad that it's impossible to not put it in my number one pick.

And the results are as you can expect. Because the movie was critically panned.

 

[The Evil Midnight Bomber]

The St. Elsewhere ending has to be up there. In the last episode it is revealed that the entire show was just happening in the mind of an autistic child.

 

[Toolbox]

The St. Elsewhere ending has to be up there. In the last episode it is revealed that the entire show was just happening in the mind of an autistic child.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=xIT8tgW-SyQ

It kickstarted the 'it was all a dream' trope that kills any worth behind a story we've been stuck with for years, right? I'm sure it wasn't the absolute first work to pull this but it was a popular show and some people actually thought this was a brilliant twist because they hadn't seen it before.

 

[The Evil Midnight Bomber]

It kickstarted the 'it was all a dream' trope that kills any worth behind a story we've been stuck with for years, right? I'm sure it wasn't the absolute first work to pull this but it was a popular show and some people actually thought this was a brilliant twist because they hadn't seen it before.

Apparently this "It was all a dream" shit has been around for hundreds of years in storytelling but St. Elsewhere might have introduced a lot of people to the trope. Some of the comments underneath the video mirror the sentiment that it's a brilliant twist (which it isn't because it has no buildup). To me it just comes off as the showrunners saying "Fuck off we're finished."

 

[Mary the Goldsmith]

And he really thought that people would like the ending more.

Fucking niggers, always ruining shit. I can understand that maybe he didn't want the film to be seen as glorifying domestic terrorism or some shit along those lines, but like you said he does nothing to earn being the good guy at the end.
My contribution to the thread: The ending to Dinosaurs the series, it ends with the world fucked beyond repair and the family basically says their goodbyes as the camera slowly pans out the window, pretty dark ending for a comedy series

 

[sodaboard]

Inception had a gay as fuck ending. No, you leaving the ending amiguous (Was it real? Was it all part of the dream? IDK LOL!!!!) does not make you a visionary director or expert storyteller, it means you're too fucking scared to end the story on your own so you leave it open just to get people talking about it and get good ratings.

The BSG reboot also had a stupid fucking ending that resolved none of the plot points it brought up during the last season. Fucking George R.R. Martin was talking shit about how bad the ending was when it first came out, shittalk which has since aged like fine wine. Or milk, depending on your perspective.

 

[Daddy's Little Kitten]

War of the Worlds. The ayy lmaos died because they caught the common cold or some shit.

 

[The Evil Midnight Bomber]

There is also this interesting little technicality about St. Elsewhere that makes Cheers, Frasier and over 400 other TV shows also part of this kids imagination because of crossovers between the shows. Here is an article about it

 

[Nicholas II of Russia]

Inception had a gay as fuck ending. No, you leaving the ending amiguous (Was it real? Was it all part of the dream? IDK LOL!!!!) does not make you a visionary director or expert storyteller, it means you're too fucking scared to end the story on your own so you leave it open just to get people talking about it and get good ratings.

The BSG reboot also had a stupid fucking ending that resolved none of the plot points it brought up during the last season. Fucking George R.R. Martin was talking shit about how bad the ending was when it first came out, shittalk which has since aged like fine wine. Or milk, depending on your perspective.

It really isn't that ambiguous, because it is seen in the ending that the totem is starting to fall off. So the ending was in the reality and not a dream.

But yeah, I agree on what you say about Nolan.

 

[sodaboard]

It really isn't that ambiguous, because it is seen in the ending that the totem is starting to fall off. So the ending was in the reality and not a dream.

But yeah, I agree on what you say about Nolan.

It was about to fall down, but you don't actually see it fall so that leaves it ambiguous. You can argue semantics but everyone else agrees that there is no "true" ending to it.

 

[Screamer_2]

The BSG reboot also had a stupid fucking ending that resolved none of the plot points it brought up during the last season. Fucking George R.R. Martin was talking shit about how bad the ending was when it first came out, shittalk which has since aged like fine wine. Or milk, depending on your perspective.

I have never rewatched it, but that was an example of a show, like LOST that built up to a point where they had no fucking clue what to do in the final season and just shit the bed.

Battlestar went down the path of, "there's some space gods" and so they could just make up whatever the fuck they wanted. It's magic! I did read recently the final season also had to deal with the writers strike. So they were also probably drafts of scripts.

With LOST, the final episode was fine, the final season was bad. The infuriating part is that the penultimate season involved time travel and literally could have wrapped up many of the plots and mysteries that were dropped in the final season. Which then went on to tell it's own story with a few wrap ups along the way.

 

[Tor Lugosi]

The TV series Dexter had an abysmal ending. Years later it got a mini-series that gave it a second chance and it seemed like it was going well... but then yet again shit the bed with a terrible ending.

 

[mlanguishi]

The BSG reboot also had a stupid fucking ending that resolved none of the plot points it brought up during the last season. Fucking George R.R. Martin was talking shit about how bad the ending was when it first came out, shittalk which has since aged like fine wine. Or milk, depending on your perspective.

The problem for me with BSG's season 4 was that they wasted about half the episodes just wasting time. I liked most oft he ending episode ok, but it was sudden and not well setup. It was clear they'd have to get to Earth and I figured it would be in the past. They never really wrapped up 'the Plan' of the Cylons and even The Plan epilogue episode just said 'we gonna kill the humans'. It's still one of my favorite series, but left on a bit of a whimper.

 

[Oilspill Battery]

Deep Space 9 has a transcendental journey and remains one of the best written politics focused sci fi shows ever surpassing literally everything in the genre that has come out the past 30+ years, and is definitely worth watching just because of it, but the ending is basically a wet fart.

Sisko's original goal was to get bajor into the union which he didn't do and was basically forgotten and the show that up to this point had been about keenly written political intrigue ends with a hamfisted fight of literal jesus vs satan that wasn't even really nessesary for the plot.

On one hand it felt like they were cancelled and wanted to wrap shit up asap, and yeah I guess shit was wrapped up, as I wasn't left feeling "but what about x" but on the other if you want to wrap shit up asap why the fuck did you waste so much time on jesus versus fucking satan that nobody wanted to see???

It could have been better, it could have been worse, its a mediocre ending that thankfuly doesn't ruin or undo or negate what came before it, but still makes you wish it was better.

To be clear how jarring it is, this is a show about failed utopianism, domestic and international terrorism, diplomacy, statecraft, freedom fighting, war between superpowers, the civilians caught in the crossfire, soldiers fighting on the frontlines, crippled veterans, spycraft and fragile political alliances that ends with LITERAL jesus fighting LITERAL satan.

The show had religious themes of false prophets, castes and how religious institutions can help or hinder societies, but it was always in a matter of factly grounded way that worked well with the political intrigue, not literal magical angels and devils duking it out in hell.

 

[PoisonedBun]

Here's an obscure one: Kado, The Right Answer. I became interested in the series just as it began to air, which meant I had the privilege of watching live reactions from /a/ as we all watched it completely go off the rails.

I started to write a big spergy summary of the show, but I realize it's not worth it and none of you are ever going to see it anyways. You shouldn't, really. Basically the show is about this dimension hopping alien Zashuhina who comes to earth. One of the first people he meets is a negotiator for Japan's international affairs named Koujiro, so most of the show focuses on him talking to the alien, learning what it wants, bonding with it, and explaining to human governments his objectives. Long story short, Zashuhina begins to give humanity gifts like infinite power sources and an ability to never need sleep. It's a slow, sci fi political drama exploring a very niche 'what if' kind of scenario. Anyways, the show totally loses it by episode 9. In it, it's revealed that a previously seemingly minor character who hated Zashuhina, is also an alien herself. She manages to convince Koujiro that humanity was never meant to have these gifts, and they need to kill the other alien. They then proceed to fuck in a pocket dimension, have a baby, and then one of the negotiator's friends raises that baby for 16 real life years alone in the pocket dimension, while like a day passes in real life. The half alien half human girl rolls out of the car, and attacks the Zashuhina. Zashuhina realizes he's been betrayed by his one and only friend, then dies. Because he wanted to help humanity.

What happens to humanity's infinite power source and ability to stay awake all the time? Oh, they all just go away. But that's fine. This was how humanity was supposed to be.

It was a huge load of horseshit. The main crowd it attracted were psuedo intellectuals and fujos, neither of which were excited by the sudden action/het romance twist. Supposedly the creator wrote the end of this story first and worked backwards, which is insane if true considering it felt like an ending where the writer had backed themselves into a corner. I'm not saying the alien and the negotiator should have buttfucked or anything but I really do not think he deserved to die, especially not at the hands of some weird mary sue pocket baby.

 

[Raging Capybara]

When Chris Pratt started dancing in GotG I turned the film off and since then I have watched exactly zero capeshit movies.

 

[Gog & Magog]

The ending of Howl's Moving Castle is a little rushed. Not bad but could have been five minutes longer. I must have a strong aversion to badly done endings because I know I've seen some real bad ones yet cannot recall any off the top of my head.

Inception had a gay as fuck ending. No, you leaving the ending amiguous (Was it real? Was it all part of the dream? IDK LOL!!!!)

To be fair, ending a film like Inception in a straight forward manner would come across with a bit of ambiguity itself. I agree with your sentiment a little although to me it wasn't too big a deal. What I got out of it was whether or not the top keeps spinning no longer matters to DeCaprio's character. Only thing in the movie I didn't like is the lack of any real humor. Everything feels dry and cold. I don't need actors winking at me or heroic quips, just some humanity, some warmth.

It was about to fall down, but you don't actually see it fall so that leaves it ambiguous. You can argue semantics but everyone else agrees that there is no "true" ending to it.

I don't care what everyone else thinks. Would DeCaprio's character, John Inception, care what "everyone" else thinks is real? I don't think he would.

 

[Michael Wade]

This is more mediocre then anything else but I just finished watching The last Witch Hunter with Vin Diesel. I actually liked the writing and the effects were fun but you had a perfect closed circle ending where he could have killed the evil and died at peace.

But no we gotta keep him alive for more sequels (that never happened) lol

The show had religious themes of false prophets, castes and how religious institutions can help or hinder societies, but it was always in a matter of factly grounded way that worked well with the political intrigue, not literal magical angels and devils duking it out in hell.

There is literally nothing wrong with ending one of the greatest sci fi shows of all time with a fight against the devil. That was awesome.

 

[Crescent Fresh]

Trollhunters.

Guillermo del Toro’s six-season Netflix cartoon was fairly good up until the finale ruined it at the last possible second with a bizarre, terrible ending that still doesn’t make sense.

Chosen one nearly loses fight. Chosen one’s comic relief friend sacrifices himself to win it. Chosen one gets a chance to travel back in time and save him.

Chosen one instead decides to travel all the way back to the start of the series and give comic relief friend his powers, which effectively would kill everyone eventually as so much of the series was predicated on this specific person being the one with the powers. It’s a dumb way to end a nearly decade long series.

 

[BrunoMattei]

Snyder Cut of Justice League. I was really liking it. It was a dramatic 100% improvement over the Whedon abortion. They defeat the big bad, sequel bait with Darkseid, you get the hero shot of all them posing and it keeps going... And you get that terrible post-apocalyptic scene with Jared Leto Jesus Joker, Batman says fuck, more bits that we saw in the Whedon cut, then another sequel bait this time for Martian Manhunter that's extremely lazy and Ben Affleck gave zero fucks. Here's how you can make your own fan-edit of the Snyder Cut at home: just stop the movie after the hero shot. You're done. You don't need to watch anything past that. Not unless you really want to see Batman say fuck.

Fulci's City of the Living Dead. Slightly dodgy in certain spots like a lot of Eyetalian horror but it carries itself very well up until the true WTF ending which has to be seen to be believed. No one involved in the production could answer why the ending is the way it is. Rumors go on that the last couple of minutes of footage was damaged in an accident or simply Fulci changed his mind and wanted a dark ending and they scrapped something together.

Director's Cut of Terminator 2 that keeps going and shows old Sarah Connor (with bad old age makeup) hanging out in a park and saying that John became a senator and she's with her granddaughter. It's schmaltzy and very unrealistic all things considered; there's no way in fuck you destroy a top 500 company's building, destroying hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars worth of research, summon the goddamn SWAT, injuring multiple officers, work with the prime suspect of the most notorious police station massacre in the history of the country, and maybe working with a rogue assailant assuming the form of a cop (T-1000) and you walk away from that and live a normal life in America. There is no fucking way.

April Fools Day is another one. Fun little slasher but everyone and their mother complains about the same thing: no one actually died, zero deaths, it was all a prank.