>> Speaker 1: There are two parts of any story, the ending and everything else.
We're here to honor the former, and needless to say spoilers abound.
You have been warned.
These are the top 10 final shots of all time.
>> [MUSIC]
>> Speaker 1: Kicking us off at number 10,
we're looking at some of the awesome films that left us pondering over the symbolic.
And that might be Bram Stoker's Dracula craning up into rafters,
Seven Samurai, and the results of their sacrifice, or
Werckmeister Harmonies' long gaze into eyes of a bloated whale.
>From Never Let Me Go or North by Northwest, or even Andrei Rublev.
There's a lot of badass closing shots we wanted to talk about today, but for
our number ten, it's got to be from the one and only, 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Okay, yes we know, you can read the shot literally as well as symbolically.
But if you think Kubrick is only operating in a literal mode,
may we direct you to Room 237.
The most commonly accepted theory is that Dave has been transformed by the monolith
into Starchild, the next step in human evolution, and
has been sent back to Earth in order to guide the species further.
And this is a pretty interesting read, but you don't have to look much further than
Kubrick himself to realize that there is no single explanation that is cannon.
Kubrick specifically set out to avoid intellectual verbalization.
To paraphrase Arthur C.
Clarke, they were dealing with mystery of the universe.
By definition, it couldn't be understandable.
>> [MUSIC]
>> Speaker 1: After symbols, we've got themes.
Like the fundamental equivalence of cop and criminal in heat,
the victorious march of Hushpuppy atop a levy from Beasts of the Southern Wild,
the mental circus from 8 1/2, and the titular blood from There Will Be Blood.
However, for thematic brilliance,
there's nothing like the approaching storm from A Serious Man.
In a film where the suffering is endless and the answers are nowhere to be found,
what better way to end than with a whirlwind of biblical proportions,
a fate unknown, and the impending promise of more punishment?
Of course, it's beautiful and inscrutable, and lacks any kind of closure whatsoever,
but that's by design.
And the film's response is the same as Danny's.
Just a little more Jefferson Airplane.
>> [MUSIC]
>> Speaker 1: Moving on to number 8, we'd be kidding ourselves if we didn't reserve
a spot on our list for the visually stunning.
Symbolic, thematic or not,
many a filmmaker has decided to leave the viewer with a final beautiful image,
a bold coda that hangs in their memory as the credits roll.
And some of the best come from films like Gladiator, Sarah's Keys,
Bat Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, A Very Long Engagement, Down by Law, and
Stray Dogs.
However, for our favorite aesthetic pick, we've got to hand it to
the eerily beautiful underwater still life from The Piano.
>> Speaker 2: At night, I think of my piano in its ocean grave.
>> [MUSIC]
>> Speaker 2: And sometimes myself, floating above it.
>> Speaker 1: This underwatched New Zealand film ends in a one of a kind
tableaux, the main character hanging lifeless attached to her sunken piano in
a fantasy of her aborted suicide that she claims lulls her to sleep.
It's a complex way to end a complex movie, but it's morbid serenity makes for
a shot you're unlikely to forget.
>> [MUSIC]
>> Speaker 1: At number 7, we wanna honor final shots that are not only gorgeous,
but visually inventive as well,
using the filmic medium in the unique kind of way that only cinema can.
Shots like Julia's eyes and the more recent Solaris, and yeah,
we know that Russian Art was only one shot, so
technically its last shot is its first shot is its only shot,
but there's a very specific final moment that deserves its own runner-up mention.
However, we're not ones to squeak by on a technicality.
So our number 6 actually goes to the 150 years shot from Gangs of New York.
>> Speaker 3: And no matter what they did to build this city up again, for
the rest of time,
>> [MUSIC] >> Speaker 3: It will be like no
one even knew we was ever here.
>> Speaker 1: From mid-19th Century Manhattan, to Brooklyn Bridge,
to Empire State, to the World Trade,
this multi-layered shot perfectly visualizes the growth of New York,
in a city's relationship with the history upon which it is built.
In a movie that arose from Scorsese's curiosity about the origins of
the New York City he grew up in,
this shot's visual conceit really brings the thematics home.
So much bloodshed and violence only to fade into obscurity, overgrown,
overshadowed, and forgotten.
But on the backs of New York's corrupt political machine
grew one of the greatest cities our country has ever seen.
>> [MUSIC]
>> Speaker 1: Next up at number 6,
we've got what I like to call the cherry-on-top shot.
The story serves you up a satisfying conclusion,
wrapping up all the character arcs, sub-plots, and loose endings, and
then the final shot comes along and tops if off like the perfect ice cream sundae.
It's your classic ride off into the sunset.
Think Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade.
It's the dancing tableau from Rushmore.
The house by the waterfall from Up.
The glider from Castle in the Sky.
And the reunion on the beach from Shawshank Redemption.
So because we have to, our number 5 cherry on top goes to Fight Club.
>> Speaker 4: You met me at a very strange time of my life.
>> [MUSIC]
>> Speaker 1: It's the kind of fairytale ending that every little boy and
girl dreams about, hand in hand with the chain-smoking love of their life that they
finally won over from their other personality, brain dripping out
through a bullet hold in the back of their head, watching the bastions of American
capitalism crumble to the ground in the sexiest domestic terror attack ever.
This shot is an immaculate culmination of every single plotline.
The narrator free, together with Marla, his mission complete,
all visually represented at once in stark, violent silhouette,
while the Pixies play in the background.
And don't blink or you'll miss it, but there's one more secret shot that
Fight Club has hidden in here for your viewing pleasure.
At #5, sometimes a shot doesn't perfectly capstone a film, so
much as it takes your mind home, tells it it's got pretty eyes,
and [BLEEP] it before sneaking out by dawn.
We're talking about the cliffhanger slash twist ending shot that's basically
the last page of a Goosebumps book in cinema form.
Think Brazil, The Quiet Earth, or Planet of the Apes.
The Shining comes in second in the mind [BLEEP] of photo finish,
in favor of our actual number 5.
None other than the spinning top from Inception.
>> Speaker 5: Daddy!
>> Speaker 1: Never has there been a single shot that's inspired so
much speculation.
There are reams upon reams of fan created literature attempting to puzzle out
the mystery behind this shot.
It's falling, it's not falling, it's not even his actual totem.
We're not sure what the answer is, and
we're sure you'll tell us what you're sure the answer is.
But the point is, it doesn't matter.
Any single shot that inspires this much deep analysis of character, plot,
and theme, along with the underlying philosophies and
mythologies of the film is automatically a massive success.
>> [MUSIC]
>> Speaker 1: For our number 4, we're looking at the summary shot.
The ending note that concludes a story by showing where the plot has led us,
what the changes cost, what damage has been done.
And those are shots like Amadeus' King of the Madhouse.
Raft of Death, and The Godfather's closing door.
But in terms of summary, no one did it more brilliantly than The Searchers.
That's right, this is the second film, along with Fight Club,
landing on our best of list for both opening and closing shots.
And honestly, The Searchers opening shot mostly made the cut
riding on the coattails of how perfectly it complemented this one.
After every major relationship is wrapped up happily,
it ends on John Wayne as Ethan, without a place to come home to, a discarded
tool of a more violent time, the door closing on him just like it did Kay.
Closing in at number 3,
some final shots just leave us haunted in their emotional impact.
Those like Once Upon a Time in America, An Autumn Afternoon, and Dancer in the Dark.
Those like Raging Bull, the Social Network, and The Sweet Hereafter.
We like Beau Travail, and I Saw the Devil,
but the master of the haunting final shot has to be Tarkovsky.
And while nostalgia is pretty beautiful,
nothing can really stand up to the surreal,
quiet poetry followed by the powerful roar that is the last shot of Stalker.
>> Speaker 1: [SOUND] Here's another enigma, and another story that
even the authors admitted defy an easily verbalized explanation.
The psychokinesis might be a half-granted wish, the roar of the train is probably
the future rushing towards us, but again, does it really matter?
This shot is bursting full of tone and emotion, of an unspoken sense of sadness,
and pain, and mystery, of things unknowable and unknown.
It is such a delicate shot, hinting at so much hidden power, and
it takes out breath away every time.
[SOUND] Runner up at number 2, we're talking freeze frames.
And while The Breakfast Club, Butch Cassidy, and Thelma and Louis are all
memorable in their own right, how could we give it to anything but The 400 Blows?
The definition of open-ended,
Antoine's look is basically the cinematic version of the Mona Lisa smile.
Is he happy, hopeful, uncertain, disillusioned?
Is he paralysed and trapped?
Or condemning the sociality that failed him?
The look is anything and everything at once, meaning something new to everyone.
And to Truffaut, he he just wanted Antoine to stare at the camera.
So when he looked away after a brief second, Truffaut froze him in time with
an optical, and just so happened to create one of the best shots ever in the process.
Finally finishing us off at number 1, we've only got space left for
the classics.
And that might be Ozu's Akiru, or Wilder's Sunset Boulevard.
It might be The Third Man, or Modern Times.
But we'd be fooling ourselves if we picked anything other than the long walk down
a foggy runway from Casablanca.
Is there any shot more iconically classic Hollywood?
>From medium close to extreme wide,
there's no better way to say goodbye to a well-loved character in story.
They're not riding off into any sunsets.
They're just strolling because, well, there's nothing else left to do.
Bogart's Rick Lane is nothing other than the coolest mother [BLEEP] to
ever hit the screen.
And this shot captures it perfectly without even trying.
Which is why we think it's the best final shot of all time.
>> [MUSIC]
>> Speaker 1: So what do you think?
Do you disagree with some of our picks?
Did we leave out any of your favorite shots?
Let us know on the comments below, and be sure to subscribe for
more Cinefix movie lists.
>> [MUSIC]