The perfect movie ending caps off the entire story, resolves the film's questions and themes, and makes audiences talk. Achieving the perfect balance with these elements is challenging, therefore there are very few perfect film endings. Some films end on anticlimaxes or provide vague closure, while others feel satisfactory but leave potential plot threads hanging or questions unanswered.

However, few film endings make little sense, even with a forgiving audience. They may be mired in such deep symbolism that only the creator can understand the intended climax. Similarly, some finales introduce nonsensical elements seemingly out of nowhere. Other dénouements defy explanation, even when viewed more than once. Even a rewatch can't make these movie endings any better.

Updated on March 14th, 2024 by Fawzia Khan: There is no such thing as a perfect movie ending, but satisfying ones are not hard to come by. Unfortunately, some of the greatest films had bad endings that just didn't match up to the rest of the plot. This list has been updated with fresh formatting, new information, and images about these movie climaxes.

25 The Matrix Reloaded Had a Nonsensical End

Many fans consider The Matrix Reloaded the better of the two The Matrix sequels. The second film in the series features a relatively simple plot: Neo and his team break into a hidden building that contains the Source of the Matrix. However, this simple plot becomes far stranger in Reloaded's final moments. Even ignoring the infamous scene with the Architect, Reloaded breaks all of its own rules.

Neo appears to be an ordinary human who only has powers inside the Matrix, but he somehow manages to control the machine Sentinels attacking the Nebuchadnezzar and shut them down. It would've been a decent cliffhanger if The Matrix Revolutions made sense of it, but Revolutions leaves it ambiguous, rendering Reloaded nonsensical. This made the Matrix movies age poorly.

24 Interstellar Became More Fiction and Less Science At The End

Interstellar leans on science as much as possible as it deals with long-term spaceflight, time dilation, and the most realistic depiction of a black hole ever put to film. As such, it's very jarring when Interstellar's ending leans on much more speculative science fiction, with some spectacular leaps in logic.

Cooper appears to sacrifice himself by jumping toward a black hole. However, he finds himself in a five-dimensional construct that's somehow built inside it. He then travels to points throughout his life to send a message to his daughter. The ending involves the power of love, time-traveling humans from the future, and other strange elements.

23 Wonder Woman 1984 Was Underwhelming, Especially In Its Conclusion

Most fans consider Wonder Woman 1984 a significantly underwhelming follow-up to the beloved Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman 1984's plot is less epic, its villains are less compelling, and Diana Prince is much less likable, but the ending is even worse.

Society begins to fall apart due to Maxwell Lord's wishing abilities, and the only way to stop the world from ending is for everybody to renounce their wishes. The entire world does so at the same moment, which makes no sense. This ending doesn't even consider the practicalities or personal selfishness of such an event. This seems particularly unlikely with Wonder Woman 1984's grim take on humanity.

22 The Happening Never Explained How The Protagonists Survive

The sheer vagueness of M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening has led fans to believe that the film's main threat is mass paranoia. The Happening suggests that plants begin weaponizing pheromones to cause mass extinction. This is hard to swallow, even without the film's strange final moments.

In The Happening, the deaths start to happen to smaller and smaller groups. This realization leads the three protagonists to accept their deaths and walk outside, but the outbreak ends that second, and they somehow survive. The reason for it stopping, and maybe starting again months later, is never explained. It's among many reasons that fans consider The Happening Shyamalan's weakest film.

21 Monty Python And The Holy Grail Had An Intentionally Absurd End

Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a beloved treasure of nerdy comedy. It's stuffed with comedic takes on the King Arthur story, common fantasy tropes, and modern-day society. The entire film plays fast and loose with common sense and continuity, but Monty Python's ending is deliberately nonsensical.

Arthur and his knights prepare to assault a French castle in Monty Python and the Holy Grail's final scene. Before they can, however, modern-day police arrive and arrest them for an earlier murder. One of them breaks the camera, and the film ends. This is a common way for Monty Python sketches to end, to avoid having to create a punchline or climax.

20 Birdman's Conclusion is Open to Interpretation

Birdman uses surrealism and magical realism throughout. Its plot deliberately blurs genres, conventions, and the line between fantasy and reality. This all comes to a head in its ending when protagonist Riggan lands himself in hospital after a mental health crisis.

In hospital, Riggan speaks to his Birdman character one final time and then sees some birds outside a window, which he opens. Birdman doesn't actually show his next actions; instead, his daughter Sam sees the open window and panics. When she reaches it, however, she looks into the sky and smiles. Birdman, which turns 10 in 2024, deliberately ends on a note that doesn't make sense, and fans can interpret it in many ways.

19 IT: Chapter Two's Deceptively Simple Ending Worked Against It

IT: Chapter Two is an enjoyable film on its own merits, but it fails to recapture the success of IT: Chapter One. Its adult cast doesn't quite reach the same effortless chemistry that Chapter One's child actors had, and its plot gets bogged down in far too many details. However, the climactic fight with one of cinema's most terrifying clowns, Pennywise, presents some glaring issues.

Much of IT: Chapter Two is spent preparing for the Ritual of Chüd, a Pennywise-banishing spell created by a Native American tribe. However, the ritual proves nonfunctional. Instead, the Losers defeat Pennywise just by laughing at him. It's strange for the Native Americans to miss this simple solution while using a grand ritual, and it requires the characters to ignore their fear of a monster seconds after it murders their close friend.

18 Casino Royale Had No Logical End

Daniel Craig's debut as James Bond isn't the only version of Casino Royale put to film. 1967 saw the release of a spoof adaptation of the novel, which takes heavy liberties with the plot, tone, and logic of the story. David Niven stars as one of many, many James Bonds in this version of Casino Royale.

Casino Royale has poor reviews for being disjointed and nonsensical, but this is most obvious in its ending. Every faction begins shooting one another before an explosion sends almost every character to heaven. There is no foreshadowing, no logic, and no real payoff — something that even several rewatches couldn't solve.

17 Fight Club's Brilliant Twist Didn't Add Up In Many Places

Fight Club is one of director David Fincher's best films. It featured palpable chemistry between Ed Norton and Brad Pitt, a commentary on capitalism and masculinity, and a condemnation of extremist movements. Fight Club's plot twist is central to the story and has become one of the better-known twists of all time, but it leaves some fans divided.

There's a flash of brilliance in Fight Club's revelation that the Narrator and Tyler Durden are the same person. However, the twist's detractors point out its sheer illogicality. Some inconsistencies include the Narrator doing things in one location while Durden does something else at the same time. It's also hard to move past the improbability that a man punching himself would inspire a movement.

16 The Shining's Final Shot Was Confusing

Few film endings have generated more conversation than the coda to Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. The Stephen King adaptation focuses on one of horror's most unlikable protagonists, Jack Torrance. The ghosts of the Overlook Hotel push him over the edge, and he attempts to hunt down and murder his family.

Jack chases his son Danny into a frozen hedge maze where the former perishes. However, The Shining's final shot shows him in a very different context. The Shining reveals Torrance as one of the revelers at an Overlook party in the 1920s, long before the film. There are many theories about The Shining's finale, but none adequately tie up the loose ends of the final twist.

15 Doctor Strange: In The Multiverse Of Madness Left Unanswered Questions

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is one of the most divisive films in the MCU's Phase Four. While critics praised Doctor Strange 2 for its performances, direction, and themes, they criticized its writing. Nowhere is this criticism more warranted than in the movie's ending. The final shot of the film ends things on a compelling note, but its mid-credits scene deflates an effective ending.

Minutes of screen time after the Darkhold corrupts Strange, he carries on, going about his day-to-day business. Clea approaches Strange and tells him that he's caused an Incursion, so the two travel into the Dark Dimension together. How Strange has dealt with the Darkhold's corruption, why he follows somebody he's never met before, and many more questions go unanswered.

14 Enemy Relied Too Heavily On Symbolism

Enemy is a labyrinthine psychological thriller by Denis Villeneuve. It's about two men - Adam and Anthony - who realize they are physically identical. Despite this indistinguishable physical appearance, the two have radically distinct personalities. They both develop an obsession with the mystery and one another. Enemy ends abruptly with Anthony's death after he attempts to seduce Adam's wife.

In the final scene, Adam tries to speak to Anthony's wife but receives no answer. He walks into the bathroom and finds her transformed into an enormous tarantula. Viewers have speculated that the spider represents Adam's issues with women, but this metaphor's true meaning is open to interpretation.

13 Friday The 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)

The Friday the 13th films don't typically have detailed plotting. Every Friday the 13th movie typically revolves around the infamous masked killer Jason Voorhees, who murders countless teens. Still, the series reaches its nadir with Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, which is especially notorious for its ending.

Contrary to the title, Jason spends most of the movie stalking his prey on a cruise ship before arriving in Manhattan. In the climax, Jason's victims work to cover him in the sewer's toxic waste. This kills Jason and inexplicably transforms him into a childlike version of himself, which doesn't make sense on any level.

12 Mother! Became Overly Chaotic

Mother! clearly operates on an allegorical level. The film is an epic psychological thriller that retells biblical stories. At the same time, it deals with humanity's exploitation of planet Earth and women. Mother! begins with Him (Javier Bardem) restoring his burnt, dilapidated house while a young woman, Mother (Jennifer Lawrence), materializes on the bed.

After this restoration, Mother and Him receive an increasing number of visitors. During the wild finale, Mother fights back against brutal treatment from their guests. She sets fire to the house and kills everyone inside except Him. Mother is then reborn in the violent cycle. Aronofsky's message gets lost in Mother!'s chaotic finale, which leaves fans with uncomfortable questions.

11 Source Code Broke Its Own Laws

Critics praised Source Code for its action, performances, and intriguing premise. The movie stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Colter Stevens, a soldier who explores a virtual reality that's made from the last memories of bombing victims. He then embarks on a mission to discover the bomber's identity.

Source Code operates in this potentially limited storytelling device until the end. On the verge of death, Stevens requests to enter the simulation one last time. Stevens finally stops the bombing and, much to his surprise, lives beyond the eight minutes. Stevens' actions somehow create an alternate reality within the program, but none of this matches with Source Code's rules.

10 Triangle Takes Too Many Tropes And Confuses Audiences

Triangle is a well-made slasher film for much of its runtime. A killer stalks Jess and her friends aboard an abandoned cruise ship, but things take a hard turn when Triangle reveals Jess is the killer. Triangle's third act is even stranger.

Triangle adopts a time loop narrative. Jess attempts to escape the ship, save her friends, and improve her life. However, the time loop thwarts all of her attempts. The exact rules are never made clear to the audience, and there are several fake-outs to catch viewers off-guard. All of this turns an entertaining film into a much more confusing story.

9 Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise Of Skywalker Strains Viewers' Suspension of Disbelief.

Fans have constantly criticized Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker's story, which is rushed and inconsistent with the events in prior films. It even opens on a contentious choice: reviving Palpatine through cloning. However, The Rise of Skywalker's ending combines everything into one underwhelming, nonsensical blur.

The Rise of Skywalker's third act attempts to introduce too many new elements without taking the time to explain them. Rey and Kylo Ren somehow form a Force Dyad. Lando manages to rally the entire galaxy against the First Order and navigate them through the near-impossible route to Exegol. Kylo brings Rey back to life with the Force. The Rise of Skywalker doesn't explain any of this, and it strains suspension of disbelief.

8 2001: A Space Odyssey Has a Debatable Ending

Occasionally, creators don't try to make a conclusive or coherent ending. Instead, some filmmakers attempt to convey large ideas or symbols. Such is the case for 2001: A Space Odyssey, which isn't a straightforward film. However, the final portion of A Space Odyssey abandons all semblance of its narrative.

The main character, David Bowman, experiences inexplicable phenomena of shapes and colors. He watches himself rapidly age into an older, bedridden man. He then reaches out to a monolith that transforms him into a glowing fetus floating in space above Earth. Fans and critics still discuss, celebrate, and debate this ending.

7 General Thade's Dominance Made No Sense in Planet Of The Apes

Two versions of Planet of the Apes have fans discussing their endings. However, while one features a celebrated twist, the other falls flat. The 1968 film ends with the revelation that the titular planet was always Earth, which completely recontextualizes the movie. Tim Burton's 2001 Planet of the Apes reboot attempts to top this.

Astronaut Leo Davidson discovers the titular planet is still Earth. However, he also travels back to before humanity was wiped out. Leo finds the Lincoln Memorial transformed into a monument for ape General Thade, teasing that apes have replaced human society in the past. The logic, mechanics, and sense of this don't ever ending get an explanation. It just becomes a meaningless puzzle.

6 Donnie Darko Became Infamous For Its Final Moments

Donnie Darko is famous, or infamous, for its dense narrative. The 2001 cult classic involves time travel, alternate universes, and surreal symbolism. Consequently, the movie's ending is just as confusing as the rest of the film. Donnie Darko begins with a man in a bunny suit leading Jake Gyllenhaal's Donnie away from his house to watch a jet engine crash into his bedroom.

After saving Donnie's life, Frank convinces Donnie his world is in danger and, without action, will end in 28 days. Donnie's life implodes around him, and friends and family die. Using a "time tunnel," Donnie travels back in time to remain in bed. He dies in the explosion, seemingly to try and save his loved ones. It's hotly debated whether any part of Donnie Darko makes sense.