The hardest part of a script to nail is the ending.
Everything has been building up to this one moment, and if the writer doesn’t deliver,
the movie could be doomed.
Audiences love finality in movies, and prefer it if they understand what happened in a film.
But sometimes, the conclusion throws them for a loop, and they’re more concerned about
figuring out those last moments than anything else.
Here are Screen Rant’s 10 confusing movie endings finally explained.
Inception
One of the most famous movie images this decade is Cobb’s top spinning on the table before
Inception cuts hard to black.
This launched countless theories debating whether Cobb was in a dream or reality.
But audiences were missing the point.
An interpretation Christopher Nolan agrees with suggests the point of the scene isn’t
to tell where Cobb is.
It represents an arc in his mindset.
After concerning himself with the “dream or reality” query, Cobb simply didn’t
care after seeing his kids and walked away from the top.
No matter where the hero is, he got the happy ending he deserved.
American Psycho
This is another case where audiences are left wondering if the events actually happened
or all took place in the main character’s head.
When he confesses his grisly crimes, Patrick Bateman is simply ignored by those he tells,
hinting that it was all a hallucination.
The author of the source novel says if that were the case, the entire point of the book
would be moot.
American Psycho is a satire tale poking fun at the shallow mindset of yuppie culture.
The reaction to Bateman’s confession shows that even when a serial killer owns up, nobody
cares since it doesn’t effect them directly.
No Country for Old Men
After failing to capture notorious killer Anton Chigurh, retiring sheriff Ed Tom Bell
recalls a dream he had about seeing his father riding past, going somewhere to set a fire.
The movie fades to black when he’s done telling his story, so many were left wondering
what just happened.
Bell is reflecting upon his life and realizes that it’s time for him to move on and join
his father wherever he went to light that fire.
Viewers were so invested in the Llewelyn vs. Chigurh pursuit that they missed the main
theme of the film.
It’s all there in the title.
Interstellar
In this space epic’s third act, Cooper drops himself into a black hole and lands in a fifth
dimensional tesseract placed by future humans.
He uses his love for his daughter Murph to communicate back to Earth and save mankind.
How did the tesseract get there?
One explanation is that the movie deals with alternate realities and universes, making
a non-linear timeline possible.
The “present day” humans were in dire times during Interstellar, so it’s unlikely
they became the same “future” humans depicted.
Beings from another dimension were reaching out to lend a helping hand.
For what?
We’ll leave that up to you.
The Wrestler
The final image of Darren Aronofksy’s sports drama is protagonist Randy jumping off the
ropes and then cutting to the end credits.
His fate is left up to the viewer, but there’s strong evidence that he dies in the match.
Randy has a serious heart condition and is told by doctors continuing wrestling could
kill him.
But Randy has damaged all relationships he has and goes back to the ring where he can
feel alive.
Aronofsky even agrees with this interpretation, saying in an interview “if not now, when?”
in regards to Randy’s death.
Shutter Island
Leo DiCaprio sure likes to keep viewers guessing.
In Shutter Island, his Teddy Daniels is in for a rude awakening when he learns he’s
actually a patient at the Ashecliffe Institute, following the trauma he suffered when his
wife murdered herself and their children.
At long last, his doctors think his illness is cured, but Teddy appears to relapse, leading
to a haunting lobotomy.
But Teddy’s last words are a major clue.
In his mind, living as the monster who killed his family would be worse than dying as the
good man who came to terms with it all.
Total Recall
When Quaid’s adventure plays out a little too close to the description offered by the
Rekall officials, many are wondering if the events were all just a dream.
It was intentionally left ambiguous, but director Paul Verhoeven believes it all took place
in the hero’s head.
This could happen by Quaid’s mind having a violent reaction to the implant process
and incorporating things from real life to populate the dream.
The name of the program is even Blue Skies on Mars, and love interest Melinda is a fantasy
girl that Quaid chose himself before the implant.
Things are just a tad coincidental for it to all be real.
2001: A Space Odyssey
The floating star child that’s featured in 2001’s final shot is a part of cinematic
history, but what does it all mean?
Stanley Kubrick himself tried to provide some answers.
The entire film serves as a metaphor for mankind’s evolution, beginning with the apes billions
of years ago and working up to futuristic intergalactic travel.
The main astronaut Bowman is reborn as an enhanced being and returns to Earth to take
the next big step for the species.
In a way, that’s inspiring, since it portrays everything as hopeful and always looking ahead
to better ourselves.
Birdman
When recovering from his self-inflicted gunshot wound in the hospital, actor Riggan Thomson
opens the window of his room and we never see him again.
The last shot is his daughter Sam looking out that same window, smiling at something
in the sky.
One possible theory is that Riggan committed suicide by jumping out the window, at peace
with himself after he starred in an acclaimed Broadway play.
What Sam sees is her father’s free spirit floating up to the heavens for eternity, and
she’s happy for him.
It’s dark, but it gives Birdman a poignant finale that taps into strong emotions.
Memento
We’re not done with you, Chris Nolan.
In the director’s breakout hit, he takes viewers on a non-linear journey that shows
how Teddy became Leonard’s John G. Teddy reveals that Leonard killed the “real”
John G. a while back, and has been hunting others so Teddy can get rid of some bad guys
and keep Leonard happy.
There’s a photograph of Leonard that suggests Teddy’s telling the truth, and Leonard even
admits he lies to himself sometimes.
If he’s willing to bend the truth to fit his needs, it’s not out of the question
he would change his target to Teddy.
These are our best explanations for the most confusing endings in popular films.
Are there any we missed?
Which ones left you scratching your head?
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