In a time when we are constantly looking for something to watch, but rarely have time to sit down and enjoy something, picking a good film can be tricky. No one likes to watch a whole movie to get to the ending and have it be so disappointing that you wished you didn't watch in the first place.
Ask Reddit gave us a list of the movies that have the worst endings, and sometimes the worst beginnings and middles too. If you're wondering what to watch next, this list should help narrow down what to avoid all together.
Redditor Asap_lucky69 asked:
"What is the worst ending you have seen in a movie?"
Spoilers ahead, so readers beware.
Passengers was overall pretty creepy.
"That Jennifer Lawrence/Chris Pratt movie where actually she doesn't mind marrying her stalker who took her utopia life away and living just the two of them forever and ever."
The comments got into a little debate over Jennifer Lawrence reaction to the criticism of the film.
"Passengers is the movie I believe you're talking about."
"Although I will add that it annoyed me how after the internet called it out as a creepy relationship. Lawrence said she agreed and if she had noticed it while reading the script she'd have swapped the characters around. No. That's just as creepy."
"The better ending would have been one of the planned ones, where Pratt's character dies in the finale. Then it cuts to like 6 months later and shows Lawrence's character deciding to open someone else's pod up. Showing that humans crave social interaction."
"Lawrence said she agreed and if she had noticed it while reading the script she'd have swapped the characters around."
"That's not what she said, or what others were saying. The criticism, which she agreed with, is that it would've been more palatable if Pratt waking her up were a twist revealed more than halfway through the film instead of showing him doing it early on."
"That would've made it so that there wasn't any underlying issue known to the audience as the two characters' relationship progresses. We would've found out about what Pratt's character did the instant Lawrence's character does, and we would have to reconcile with it just as she had to. One of the main themes of the film is forgiveness, but it's harder for the audience to forgive Pratt's character when they're watching him go into that relationship knowing the truth, rather than being surprised by it."
Wonder Woman wasn't such a wonderful ending.
"WW84"
"Yeah, like, ok, the entire world gets wishes granted and nobody ever mentions it again WTF."
"Especially Bruce Wayne who would've wished his goddamned parents back to life."
"Not only does the entire world get wishes granted, but they are all willing to take their wishes back to stop the apocalypse. No way."
"Man I hope nobody wished their dead spouse/ kids back to life then had to undo that willingly. That's the sort of trauma that f*cks you beyond repair."
"Also, it's weird that nobody wished for the apocalypse, considering how nut jobs like the Joker are running around in this universe. Are they really saying not one nihilistic a**hole would wish for a meteor to crash into the planet just for funsies?"
The Forgotten was an ending we wish we forgot.
"The end of 'The Forgotten,' with Julianne Moore was straight trash."
"I was in the edge of my seat the entire time, then it ended with, 'It was aliens.' F*ck was that disappointing."
"I enjoyed that movie for its peculiar jump scares. It's also the first instance I can remember of the 'surprise T-bone crash' which a million movies have done since, but it was effective in this movie. But, whack conclusion, especially how everything was nearly undone, and she was the only one who could remember the film's events."
"Aliens with advanced, seemingly incomprehensible technology - who decided to just re-wallpaper that kids room and call it a day."
"Everything about that was ridiculous. Alien space magic deletes memory! Close up of protagonist looking confused. But wait! Her uterus hurts! It can only mean one thing! And then an alien gets yeeted... which, honestly, was pretty funny."
"Rest of the movie was decent."
Signs didn't really make sense in the end.
"'Signs' -- Maybe next time you decide to invade an entire planet, make sure it's not mostly made of instant death sauce."
"They could have made the ending great if in the last scene they zoomed out from the field as the automatic sprinklers turn on and you heard aliens screaming."
- jdiben1
People Share The Scariest Thing They've Ever Experienced While Home Alone | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
"It makes a lot more sense if you consider the creatures to be demons rather than aliens and that the little girl was turning all the water into holy water (remember they said an angel was seen at her birth)."
"Not saying that it makes the movie better, just that it makes the movie make more sense."
"I thought that was the entire point of the movie. We never technically see a flying saucer, the aliens don't really seem all that intelligent, and the movie is about a priest who has lost his faith. They even make a point that the way to defeat the 'aliens' is found in one of the holy cities of the middle east."
"That's the twist of the movie. You go in expecting a film about aliens, but it turns out their were not aliens, but rather demons, and all the signs of alien invasion were that of a demon invasion misinterpreted."
- Nambot
"That's plausible but still stupid. The explanation I like is that the trip to Earth is an alien frat house hazing ritual. That's why they show up naked to the acid planet. Also they're drunk the whole time, which is why they can't open doors."
- Porrick
"I love this theory to death and that's exactly what I'm going to imagine is happening the next time I watch Signs. You have just improved that movie so much for me, thanks!"
The movie musical My Fair Lady.
"My Fair Lady. She just goes back to the man who disrespected her like she has Stockholm syndrome."
"That p*ssed me off too! The original play it's based on apparently ends differently (I think she does plan to marry the other guy) and I was mad they changed it. It was completely out of character for her, the moving ending with her staring sentimentally at the back of his head. Ugh."
"That's a great movie though. Rex Harrison's ability to get cast in multiple musicals with 0 ability to sing is astounding."
"And the 1938 movie Pygmalion, based on the play, also has her come back to Higgins in the end. The playwright, George Bernard Shaw, was disgusted with that. (I've never seen My Fair Lady, but Pygmalion would be my answer to the original question. That ending sucks.)"
- Temmere
"I've heard that the author (book) never wanted them to end up together. Henry Higgins was meant to be a gay man."
"Throughout that movie he is referred to as a 'confirmed bachelor,' which is old-time-y speak for gay."
Batman vs Superman missed some opportunities.
"Batman vs Superman"
"'Hey Boss, what do we do if Superman tries save his mom.'"
"Lex: 'Oh torch her as soon as you suspect something'"
"'What if a different caped jackass shows up?'"
"Lex: 'What like just some guy? I want you to fight him, one by one. Don't use your guns. Hold your guns but just run at him face first. And of course if your mothers have the same name just take the night off, we all have our limits.'"
"Is it cheating to pick a movie that also has a bad start and middle?"
"They missed an opportunity for Aquaman to talk about 'Thomas' in Justice League and have Batman lose his sh*t."
"'WHY DID YOU SAY THAT NAME?'"
"'Calm down, it's my dad's name. And my mom's your ex.'"
"Superman could just burn Batman with his laser eyes at a safe distance. Superman has super powers. Batman has a toolbelt. The entire premise is crap."
The new Predator ended up being ableist.
"The new Predator movie (2018)."
"Turns out the aliens were really after our autistic kids. Also the last 10 minutes was them so desperately building for a sequel. completely unnecessary and so insanely cringe"
"Let me rephrase that: The Predators in this movie didn't hunt for sport but to unironically weaponize autism."
"They're speaking the actual truth. Predator is after Earth's autistic kids because apparently autism is the next step in the evolutionary chain and they want to exploit it."
"Because the kid's autism powers were so great he managed to learn their whole language in a single day and now they want to splice his genes or something."
"And it pulls the trick of managing to think it's smartly trying to show autism in a positive light while actually reinforcing the same damaging trope as most movies with autistic characters. That it's OK they're weird, because they get to be super smart. Which, spoiler alert, is not how autism is for most people."
War of the Worlds.
"Spielberg's War of the Worlds. The reunion in Boston which apparently none of the Martians bothered to attack, with the teenage son somehow having survived when no soldiers had and walked to his grandma's house and realized he really loved his Dad after all. Did I mention it was a Spielberg movie."
"I will give the movie credit for sticking to the book's original ending, though."
"Some people felt it was anticlimactic, but I felt it was brave, when they could so easily have copped out and gone for a big "Tom Cruise action hero" type ending instead."
Happiest Season did not come to happy ending.
"Did anyone here watch Happiest Season? Kristen Stewart's character spends the entire film being harassed by her girlfriend's (who by the way seems to have 0 redeeming qualities herself) toxic family. Oh and she meets a hot, wonderful lesbian that validates her feelings and she should have ended up with."
"And then after she dumps the girlfriend for being awful the girlfriend (who by the way has previously assured people she'll be better and did not) and her family have a cathartic shouting match and are magically better people. So the girlfriend does a dramatic run-after-her moment and she goes back for some reason??? And hangs out with the toxic family? Run girl! Run!"
"Oh I know that movie was just HORRENDOUSLY bad. What was baffling was the fact that it was directed by a lesbian. Like... why would you agree to this?"
"Ugggh this movie. I liked it, generally. Tbh movies about stress in relationships almost always stress ME out, so I avoid them. I stuck it through this one, just knowing Aubrey was going to get the girl and it was going to be so cute and I'd probably cry happy tears. Instead I ended up sitting on the edge of my boyfriend's bed repeatedly exclaiming "f*cking WHAT?!""
"Mission Impossible 2. Every character turned out to be another character wearing a mask. The movie came out in 2000 and the masks were so detailed that you could make out with your arch-enemy and think it was your boyfriend."
- han7nah
"The worst mask scene in that movie is when Tom Cruise puts a mask of himself on some thug and tapes his mouth shut and they kill him. Why, in the ever loving f*ck, would anyone carry a mask of THEMSELVES with them."
"The plot was a rip off of the movie Notorious. I saw MI2 first and then was on an old movie kick and saw Notorious and suddenly realized how much similarity there was."
"I think they ripped the idea from a Scooby Doo episode. Both of it has people wearing masks and doing crime as a main plot point."
Thank goodness this Redditor asked this question. There are definitely some movies to avoid after reading this list.
What we're still wondering, is how did these get from the writing room, to the filming set, to the editing floor without someone saying, "Hey, maybe this isn't that good!"
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