Is This The End?
At Zimbio, Joe Robberson lists the ten greatest surprise movie endings:
9. Brick
8. Fight Club
7. Mulholland Drive
6. Dark City
5. The Usual Suspects
4. Barton Fink
3. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
2. Memento
1. The Shawshank Redemption
I suppose when it comes to surprise endings, we need to remember how we first felt about them, since they can't surprise you a second time. This may be one of the reasons surprise endings are looked down upon--once the shock wears off they can reveal themselves to be pretty shallow.
My first problem with the list, as so often happens, is it's all modern films. There's nothing made before the 90s. Is there really no surprise up through the 80s worth mentioning? Are those just "old" film where Robberson already knew the ending before he saw it?
Anyway, let's start with Unbreakable. I'm not a huge fan of M. Night Shyamalan and his surprise endings, but you've got to be perverse not to pick his most famous--The Sixth Sense. Unbreakable, by comparison, has a surprise at the end that has some fans but has more often been derided as silly.
Brick isn't that well-remembered. It's essentially a modern teen version of a film noir, including the surprise discoveries of who's been doing what to whom at the end. The film is an interesting balancing act, but I wouldn't call the ending so memorable--it didn't make me go wow so much as recognize yep, they're continuing with the parody of a certain style all the way to the end.
I wouldn't say Mulholland Drive--easily the best film on this list--has a "surprise ending" so much as a bewildering final act, where everything is turned on its head. Though not everything is made clear, it does change your perspective on all that came before.
Dark City has a decent secret lurking beneath, even if the film wasn't that celebrated (though it was Roger Ebert's favorite movie of the year). Still, it all comes rather suddenly and is resolved too easily.
The Usual Suspects is considered a classic surprise ending, but not by me. I've always felt it was absurd, not only making a hash of everything we've seen, but going against what little we can garner of the character of Keyser Soze.
I had to try to remember if I was surprised by Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind. Like other Charlie Kaufman scripts, the story is labyrinthine, but if you could follow what was happening, I don't think the ending is surprising. A bit depressing maybe (or hopeful, if you're an optimist), but if we pay attention we sort of know what's been going on.
Memento is a classic surprise ending, especially in that the ending shows us how everything started. Christopher Nolan's logical unfolding can keep us at arm's length, but he keeps it basic enough here--even with all the twists--that it means something.
The Shawshank Redemption has a surprise ending? I guess it's a bit unexpected how Andy Dufresne finally gets out, but is it a surprise? We're expecting something to happen, and his escape, lovingly described after the fact, isn't a surprise so much as a satisfying plot development.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:02 AM
6 Comments:
SPOILER ALERT if anyone cares.
Where's the one where Jimmy Stewart shot Broderick Crawford? (Sorry forgot the name)- and the last scene is a only a surprise compared to the next to last scene
How is "Star Wars - Empire Strikes Back" not on the list. It was certainly a surprise to the people who saw the film the first night it played.
And how about "The Crying Game," though the surprise isn't quite at the end? For that matter, I think the "surprise" is even more effective in Jim Carrey's "Pet Detective," and certainly a lot funnier!
On my list, Memento would be the best surprise ending I've seen (and been surprised by). Believe it or not, I've never seen "Fight Club" - so don't tell me (though I think I know it).
I would also put "The Prestige" on the list, although I mostly felt cheated by that surprise ending. It simply changed at the end all the rules by which we had been judging the events in the film .
I think it's okay to "change the rules" by which we judged things if it's honestly earned, if it doesn't feel like cheating.
What I liked about The Crying Game is I'd been told there's a twist that you don't see coming, and before that, there's actually another minor twist that you figure is it, so when you see the real one, it truly is a surprise.
Did you feel The Prestige "twist" was honestly earned?
Okay - spoiler alert.
The film is about how much is one willing to do to earn the Prestige. The old Chinese magician has pretended to be an invalid for 40 years so that no one would suspect he accomplished his magic by pure strength. The first twist, discovering that Bale's character is actually a twin, is definitely earned - a great surprise that I did not see coming. But the second twist - essentially real magic (or scientific miracle, if you like) takes the film right out of our world and puts it into fanatsy. That's why I felt cheated, because up to that moment, the film could have really happened in our world.
Of course, it comes back to the main theme - Jackman's character is willing to essentially kill himself over and over again to earn the Prestige. But it felt like a cheat.
I'm a huge Nolan fan, but "The Prestige" is actually my least favorite of his films. I always think he came up with the idea after seeing that classice Bugs Bunny Cartoon, where Daffy is trying to get greater audience support than Bugs, and ultimately wins by blowing himself up. Final lines:
Bugs: That's a great trick Daffy. They love you!
Daffy: Yeah, I know, I know. The problem is I can only do it once!
I haven't seen The Prestige since it came out, but aren't there some indications earlier on that Tesla's machine can duplicate things? (Actually, the part that annoyed me the most was when Hugh Jackman found a lookalike--played by Hugh Jackman--for his walk across the stage. The plot point was that poor Hugh didn't get to enjoy the applause, his double did--except that's ridiculous, since the way that trick would be done in any real magic show is you'd work it so the double walks in the door and the real Hugh Jackman walks out the other.)
The early indications were that Tesla's machine didn't do anything. They set it up so you thought Bale's character had pulled a fast one on Jackman, making him think there was a way to "transport" a man through space. That really worked, because we all know it's impossible. And it looked like Tesla was in on it - that he just wanted Jackman's money and would promise anything.
It was suppose to be a matter transporter, but suddenly it works, and it's a duplicator. That's what bothered me. This wasn't a sci-fi film to start with, yet ends up turning on an old Star Trek meme (the transporter screwed up again!). I was rivetted by the film, but I thought it violated the rules of surprise endings - which is there had to be clues by which one might have guessed the twist (as in Sixth Sense). It's not as much fun if the solution is "then the impossible happened."
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