10 Unforgettable Movie Endings That Will Stick With You Forever

It could be argued that the ending of a film is the most important part of the narrative. It is the culmination of every event, action, and word spoken throughout the movie. Everything leads up to the film’s ending scene. The ending wraps up the central story and either confirms or denies what the audience has been thinking about the plot. The finale drives the themes and messages home. It is the last chance for the film to answer the audience’s burning questions or tie up loose ends. Sometimes, the ending leaves you with more questions than answers.

A movie’s ending can essentially go one of three ways. A film could nail the ending and make audiences feel like they have just witnessed a masterpiece. An ending could feel mediocre and not leave a lasting impression on viewers. Or, it could be so objectively awful that it makes the viewer never want to watch it again. No matter how the ending is perceived, each film demands a different ending to fit that narrative.

Some film endings craft such a compelling ending that it demands the viewer’s attention long after the credits roll. If you are still thinking about an ending after the movie has finished, it likely means the filmmakers succeeded in creating a worthwhile viewing experience. So, here are 10 movie endings that will stick with you forever (be warned, there are spoilers ahead for the films listed).

10 Requiem for a Dream (2000)

Darren Aronofsky’s intense drama Requiem for a Dream is a harrowing trip through the lives of four Coney Island residents, who are all affected by drugs in some way. Sara (Ellen Burstyn) is a retired widow living in a small apartment who desperately wants to be on her favorite reality show. Her son Harry (Jared Leto) is an addict who dreams of making it big as a drug addict with his best friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans). Harry’s girlfriend Marion (Jennifer Connelly) has the potential to be a fashion designer or artist but gets swept up in his drug-centric world.

An Utterly Depressing Ending

Drugs unfortunately rule the four main characters’ lives, despite their efforts to turn their lives around. Harry and Tyrone wind up in prison after their addictions fully take over their lives, and they will never be able to take control of their lives again. Poor Sara just wanted to be a guest on a reality show, but she inevitably began abusing amphetamines to lose weight in hopes of making an appearance on the show. Ultimately, it destroys her cognitive functions.

The most upsetting demise of all four characters is arguably Marion, who lost the chance at having a successful career in an utterly dehumanizing way. She ends up selling her body to perform for despicable human beings in exchange for money to pay for drugs. It is an intense film with a tragic ending that will make you wish they were never involved in each other’s lives at all. Stream on Peacock Premium or Tubi.

Related: 15 of the Most Nihilistic Movies Ever Made

9 Triangle (2009)

In Christopher Smith’s horror thriller Triangle, single mother Jess (Melissa George) sets sail on a yacht with a group of friends for the day while her son is at school. All is seemingly well, except that Jess cannot shake the feeling that something isn’t right. Her suspicions are confirmed when a storm hits, and they are forced to board a massive ocean liner to get to safety.

Despite the ship appearing to be abandoned, Jess is convinced she has been there before. However, they are not truly alone, and someone is bent on hunting them down. Jess unknowingly holds the key to end the terror.

A Mind-Bending Ending

Triangle is completely and utterly mind-altering. It is a trip from start to finish, and at no point can you truly guess which direction the film is going to take. Time is simply a construct in the film, and Jess and her friends are forced to bend to its will. It is an inventive time loop movie that revitalized the overused trope and created something unique. As the story unfolds, you begin to realize that Jess has been trying to get out of this loop for possibly years.

Nothing can prepare you for the end when it is revealed that Jess is actually a horrible mother and accidentally kills herself and her son in a car crash. Jess is essentially stuck in a never-ending hellscape as punishment for the mistreatment of her son when she was alive. It is an ending that will have you thinking about it for years. Stream on Shudder or Tubi.

8 Enemy (2013)

One of Denis Villeneuve’s first English-language films is his unsettling thriller Enemy, starring Jake Gyllenhaal. It follows Toronto history professor Adam Bell (Gyllenhaal) who lives a rather monotonous life. After renting a movie one day, he notices the main actor bears a striking resemblance to himself. Adam quickly becomes obsessed with finding and eventually meeting his double, named Anthony Claire (Gyllenhaal). After realizing that they are physically identical, down to a scare they both have on their face, Anthony himself becomes obsessed with Adam, but for different reasons.

A Trippy, Strange Ending

Menace and danger seep through every frame of this film. Those sentiments are still present at the end, but extremely heightened. One way to interpret the film is that it is about the way we trap ourselves in simplistic yet complicated boxes as human beings. It’s about the lives we could have led and the paths we could have chosen. It could also be about Adam and Anthony being two halves of one whole.

Any way you slice it, the film is inherently difficult to decipher considering the enormous spiders that frequently take over a shot. The spiders are never addressed, but many have speculated they represent order and chaos in life. Whatever the meaning may be, it doesn’t change the fact that the film’s final shot shows Anthony’s wife transformed into a giant tarantula in their bathroom. It is so jarring and unexpected that you will be thinking about it for weeks after watching. Stream on Kanopy.

Enemy

Release Date

December 31, 2013

Runtime

90

7 La La Land (2016)

Damien Chazelle’s gorgeous homage to Golden Age Hollywood musicals is a touching masterpiece. La La Land centers around two young artists trying to catch their big break in the City of Angels. Mia (Emma Stone) is an aspiring actress working as a barista in a studio coffee shop where she serves movie stars. Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) is a struggling jazz pianist who scrapes by performing at dingy cocktail bars. The two meet and fall in love, but must reconcile their differing aspirations as both of them start to gain recognition.

A Beautifully Tragic Ending

Mia and Sebastian’s love story is reminiscent of those from classic Hollywood films with a touch of modernity. They are one of the most beloved couples in modern cinema. Once Mia is finally offered a leading role, her career takes off at the expense of their relationship. Years later, when she is a hugely successful movie star and married, she walks into a jazz lounge with her husband.

That lounge is owned and operated by none other than Sebastian. We see what their lives would be like if they had stayed together, only to have that dream snatched from us as we realize they will indeed continue to go their separate ways. They share one final knowing look, and it is a moment that will live in your mind forever. Stream on Tubi.

La La Land

Release Date

November 29, 2016

Runtime

126

6 Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)

David Lynch is a master at making the audience guess what his films mean. His endings are especially ambiguous, and his feature-film follow-up to his beloved show, Twin Peaks, is no different. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me takes place during the last week of Laura Palmer’s (Sheryl Lee) life. Fans of the show already know how she died, but the film expands on what Laura’s life was really like in those harrowing days leading to her death, including her two vastly different boyfriends, her drug addiction, and her complicated relationship with her possibly unstable father.

A Devastating, Unsettling Ending

Despite knowing that Laura dies a rather horrible death, it never makes watching the prequel film any less horrifying. Laura was a troubled teenager who didn’t have any reliable authority figures in her life. She unwillingly attracted unwanted attention from men who took advantage of her, and no adult could see that she needed help. Coupled with the unbelievable mystical elements that the town of Twin Peaks harbors, Laura never stood a fighting chance.

The end of the horror film sees Laura brutally attacked and eventually brought to the infamous Red Room from the show. Special Agent Dale Cooper’s (Kyle MacLachlan) hand rests on her shoulder as she cries in between defeated laughs, while an almost transparent angel hovers in the corner of the room. It is a devastating, unsettling ending that will never leave your thoughts after viewing. Stream on Max.

5 Train to Busan (2016)

There’s no shortage of zombie media in the film industry, but South Korea’s Train to Busan is one of the best zombie films of all time. It follows a distracted businessman named Sok-woo (Gong Yoo) who seems incapable of putting his phone down, even when his young daughter Soo-ahn (Kim Su-an) comes to stay with him. While on the ultra-fast KTX train from Seoul to Busan to drop his daughter off at her mother’s house, a zombie outbreak occurs. Sok-woo and the rest of the passengers are left to defend themselves against the rabid flesh-eating monsters.

A Bittersweet Ending

Sok-woo, Soo-ahn, and the allies they make along the way spend the entire film endlessly fighting off hordes of ferocious undead as they watch human beings ripped apart and eaten alive. Through this traumatic experience, Sok-woo learns to put others before himself and realizes that the most important thing in the world to him is his daughter.

So when he ultimately has to sacrifice himself to the army of the undead to save Soo-ahn and the pregnant woman who had been on the train with them, it is deeply upsetting. As his body starts to succumb to the zombie infection, he remembers the day Soo-ahn was born, and he falls into the mob of zombies with a smile on his face. It is a truly bittersweet ending that will leave a lasting impression on you as the tears inevitably stream down your face. Stream on Netflix.

Train to Busan

Release Date

July 20, 2016

Director

Sang-ho Yeon

Cast

Yoo Gong , Yu-mi Jeong , Dong-seok Ma , Su-an Kim , Eui-sung Kim , Woo-sik Choi

Runtime

118

4 Incendies (2010)

Before directing cinematic masterpieces such as Arrival or sci-fi epics like Dune, Denis Villeneuve directed the harrowing familial drama Incendies. It revolves around twin siblings, Jeanne (Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin) and Simon (Maxim Gaudette), who journey to the Middle East to fulfill their mother’s dying wish to discover their complicated roots. Their journey leads them on the path to discovering deep-rooted hatred, never-ending war, and enduring love.

An Utterly Devastating Ending

Jeanne and Simon learn of the horrific atrocities that occurred in their mother’s home country and the nearly impossible challenges she had to face before finally landing in Canada to raise her twins. Their mother, Nawal (Lubna Azabel), faced numerous hardships and encountered firsthand the evil of war. The film doesn’t shy away from showing the terrible things Nawal had to witness or partake in.

She is eventually captured and sexually assaulted while in captivity by one of her captors, named Nihad. However, in the film’s final moments, it is revealed that the firstborn son she had to give up years prior was captured and turned by nationalists. Nihad was Nawal’s captor, making him not only her twins’ half-brother, but their father as well. The end of this film hits you like a ton of bricks, and it will take up space in your brain forever. Rent on Prime Video or Apple TV.

Incendies

Release Date

September 4, 2010

Cast

Lubna Azabal , Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin , Maxim Gaudette , Rémy Girard , Abdelghafour Elaaziz , Allen Altman

Runtime

130

3 I Saw The Devil (2016)

South Korean cinema is incredibly detailed and moving, but some of their films are not for the faint of heart. Korean horror pushes even the most hardcore horror fans to their limits. Kim Jee-woon’s film I Saw The Devil is just as much horror as it is a revenge thriller. It follows secret agent Kim Soo-hyeon (Lee Byung-hun) in his violent revenge mission against local serial killer Kyung-chul (Choi Min-sik), who brutally murdered his fiancé.

A Bloody, Disturbing Ending

Kim Soo-hyeon treats his revenge mission like a game of cat and mouse. Every time he catches Kyung-chul about to take his next victim, he brutalizes him and leaves him stranded. Kim Soo-hyeon doesn’t dole out regular beatings either. Instead, he tortures Kyung-hul, giving him just a taste of the torment he has inflicted upon others. Inevitably, Kim Soo-hyeon’s revenge consumes him, resulting in the death of his fiancé’s sister and the vicious beating of his father-in-law.

Still bent on vengeance, he traps Kyung-hul and leaves him stuck in a contraption designed to kill him when his estranged family opens the door to his torture chamber. The final shot sees Kim Soo-hyeon listening to Kyung-chul’s death as his family screams, and Kim Soo-hyeon is forced to reckon with his grief and accept his role in dishing out revenge. It is a scene that will burrow itself deep in your mind and come back to haunt you when you least expect it. Stream on Hulu or Prime Video.

I Saw the Devil

Release Date

August 12, 2010

Cast

Byung-hun Lee , Gook-hwan Jeon , Ho-jin Jeon , San-ha Oh , Yoon-seo Kim , Min-sik Choi

Runtime

144

Related: 10 Best Korean Movies Like Oldboy to Watch Next

2 The Mist (2007)

Based on the novel by Stephen King, Frank Darabont’s The Mist takes place in a small Maine town the day after a ferocious storm hits. David Drayton (Thomas Jane) decides to take his son Billy (Nathan Gamble) and their neighbor Brent Norton (Andre Braugher) to the local grocery store to pick up supplies. A mysterious mist has settled over the town, and once inside the grocery store, David and the other shoppers realize the mist is home to terrifying creatures waiting to kill the humans inside.

A Heartbreaking Ending

David takes it upon himself to try to lead the rest of the store’s occupants in an attempt to keep his young son safe. The unlikely group is divided on how to proceed, mostly because of the local religious follower, Mrs. Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden), inciting arguments. David fights to keep everyone inside, but eventually, he realizes they must venture into the mist if they want a chance at finding help.

David, his son, and three others narrowly escape the deadly creatures and make it to his truck. After driving for what seems like hours, David and the other adults realize there is no hope. He shoots the four of them to spare them a worse death by the creatures, only to notice soldiers transporting survivors as the mist finally clears up. It is one of the most heartbreaking, frustrating endings in movie history, and it is something you will think about forever. Stream on Starz.

The Mist

Release Date

November 21, 2007

Runtime

126

1 Oldboy (2003)

The second film in South Korean director Park Chan-wook’s narrative vengeance trilogy, Oldboy is one of the best revenge thrillers ever made. After spending 15 years in prison for a reason he is unaware of, Oh Dae-Su (Choi Min-sik) is suddenly released and given five days to figure out why he was imprisoned and taken away from his wife and daughter. He meets a young woman named Mi-do (Kang Hye-jeong) who helps in his quest for revenge.

A Traumatizing, Disturbing Ending

Oh Dae-Su enacts revenge on anyone who was involved in his kidnapping and imprisonment. On his journey, he becomes involved with Mi-do and uncovers pieces of his past that lead him to discover the truth behind his 15-year exile. When he was in high school, he inadvertently spread a rumor that his classmate Woo-jin Lee (Yoo Ji-tae) had groped his sister, which Woo-jin Lee claims led to her suicide.

Woo-jin Lee then gives Oh Dae-Su a photo album with pictures of his daughter throughout her life. To enact his own revenge mission, Woo-jin Lee imprisoned Oh Dae Su for 15 years, so he wouldn’t be able to recognize his daughter as an adult and would instead become attracted to her. It is one of the most disgusting, gut-wrenching endings in film history that is guaranteed to stick with you for the rest of your life. Stream on Netflix.

Oldboy (2003)

Release Date

November 21, 2003

Cast

Choi Min-sik , Yoo Ji-tae , Kang Hye-jeong , Kim Byeong-Ok

Runtime

2hr