Your favorite movie "surprise" endings!
 

Here are some assorted favorites that come to mind ...


Smoke Signals - Spoiler: I can't explain why but Vincent's cry on the bridge when he spreads out his father's ashes to the river gets me every time ... it's a cry of defiance, pride, love, pain and sorrow simultaneously.

The Vanishing (the original Dutch film, not the Hollywood remake) - Spoiler: After years of searching for his missing fiancee, the guy confronts her captor who promises to show him the truth if he allows himself to get knocked out. The guy wakes up in a coffin buried alive .... probably one of the most disturbing endings I've ever seen.

Dead Zone - Spoiler: What would you do if you could see the future and you forsee that a popular senatorial candidate will one day become president of the U.S. and start a nuclear war in a moment of psychosis .... would you assassinate him in cold blood?

Casablanca - (obvious choice) Spoiler: "Ilsa, I'm no good at being noble but it doesn't take much to realise that the lives of three people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world!"

Frailty - Spoiler: I won't ruin the ending for you if you haven't seen it. The scariest PG-13 film I can recall ... well done

Kill Bill - Spoiler: "Is she aware that her daughter is still alive?" That line came across perfectly ... chills.

Empire Strikes Back - Spoiler: "Luke, I am your father!"

Ok, may I make a suggestion here? How about putting the title of the movie in plain view, and the surprise endings in spoiler boxes? That way those of us who want to participate can do so while seeing only those endings that we already know and/or want to see.

Gilda

No kidding. Also, I nominate The Usual Suspects.

...and Titanic. :)

And the 1972 classic Sleuth. Which actually has a surpise middle, two more surprises in the second act, and a surprise at the end.

I am just going to list the movies:

The Game
The Others
Vanilla Sky

I added in the spoiler tags.

Signs is probably my favorite surprise ending. Spoiler: The name of the movie, Signs, leads you to believe that it is referring to the crop circles. Then you are surprised to learn that Signs actually is refering to signs of faith. Brillient film.

Janghwa, Hongryeon (A Tale of Two Sisters) - Spoiler: Su-yeon is dead and Su-mi is insane with grief. She and her father are the only people in the house.

Fight Club - Spoiler: The narrator and Tyler Durden are the same man.

The Usual Suspects Spoiler: When Agent Kujan put two and two together and we find out that Verbal Kint is really Kaiser Sose

Arlington Road is my favorite, if you have never heard of it, the movie was about terorism and was released a bit after the some terrorism attack so the movie was pushed asside by most, its a wonderful thriller with a real twist at the ending.

Ooh, and The 6th Sense.

If you haven't seen He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not , it has a truly wicked midway revelation.

See it, you'll thank me later.

Spoiler: The title of the movie gives away the secret if you think about it very much.

Gilda

I love the movie casablanca - but the ending wasn't the least bit suprising... if it had gone the other way - it would have been a surprise actually...

I'd have add in Fargo, The Big Lebowski, or any Coen brothers movie... they rarely end the way i expect them too..

The Cooler... the ending was unexpected, but was.. .good.

I'm gonna throw in The Shawshank Redemption.

Spoiler: I'm not sure how obvious it really was that Andy was not going to kill himself, but regardless, how he gets out of Shawshank and starts a new life is some of the most life-reassuring stuff I've ever watched... The way it affects me catches me off guard every time I see it, so I'll call it a surprise.

I got chills the first time I saw Diggstown. Not a great movie, overall, but a fantastic ending.

thanks ... I'll press the edit button so I can see how it's done.

yeah I have to nod along with Usual Suspects and Shawshank Redemption. Great endings. But I think for me Fight Club totally takes it.

... I laughed when I saw that you even tagged the spoiler for Empire Strikes Back ... I'm almost afraid to meet someone who isn't familiar with that one ... :thumbsup:

Employee of the Month - A funny movie which should have gotten more recognition. Spoiler: Probably the most plot twists I've ever seen in the shortest amount of time... interestingly enough they were over the closing credits.

I'll second that vote for Shawshank Redemption

Good call on Fight Club, too. Can't believe I missed that call.

To Live and Die in L.A. - another classic action film Spoiler: Who would have guessed that the hero of the film would get a facefull of buckshot just before the climax of the film? I was totally disoriented when that happened and didn't know what to expect next.

Chinatown - this one really disturbed me. Spoiler: Faye Dunaway who is trying to flee with her daughter is shot dead in front of her daughter .... while John Houston, her evil millionaire dad who had raped her and is the father/grandfather to her daughter lives and takes his "granddaughter" away into his "care." John Houston was just waaay too convincing in that role ... he turns my stomach whenever I see him now in any movie ... even his old films

Dogs of War - with Christopher Walken - great action film - Spoiler: Corporate interests hire a band of mercenaries led by him to overthrow the tiny African republic of Zangaro so that they can install a puppet dictator. In the dawn after the successful and bloody coup, Walken and his remaining men sit among the ruins of the palace as the new dictator and his corporate sponsors arrive by helicoptor "late" for the extraction (endangering the lives of the mercenaries). "Looks like you'll have to buy it all back," Walken says as he draws his pistol and shoots the dictator between the eyes and walks away ..." wow.

Band of Brothers - probably my favorite war film/miniseries - Spoiler: And in the end you learn that the WW2 veterans (whose words and stories punctuate the beginning and/or ending of each episode) are the actual characters depicted in the epic .... until that moment you might have assumed that the characters and situations were fictionalized because their stories were so amazing ... gives me chills even now.

Memento: Spoiler: Does he just keep doing this over and over? He clearly fools himself later by destroying/altering his own clues so as to keep up the hunt.

I thought Se7en's ending was pretty creepy and surprising. I sat on the edge of my bed for about 20 minutes just saying "Wow.... wow... wow... WOW...wow" over and over.

I agree with The Sixth Sense, Shawshank and The Usual Suspects (I swear I can never watch that movie again... the ending is TOO brilliant).

The Others had a pretty "Surprise" ending, too.

What about Saw?

Spoiler: The killer was the "dead body" in the room the entire time

I hated the new Dawn of the Dead Spoiler: but it was pretty awesome when you think they've gotten away to safety and the island is already infested with the undead

City of Angels has a pretty good twist at the end.

I definitely agree with Se7en, The Sixth Sense and Fight Club.

The Usual Suspects is my all time favorite, I can watch that movie over and over again and still see little hints I had previously missed.

Memento is another big one.

I like surprise endings where the surprise isn't the only appeal in watching. Memento and The Usual Suspects are both incredibly high on the replayability scale for me.

Spoiler: Yeah, Teddy's a crooked cop (or possibly just impersonating one, though I think he is) who has been using Leonard's handicap and obsession to kill drug dealers to steal their money. Leonard is actually a serial killed and is going to keep killing, but without Teddy pointing him at drug dealers, who knows whick "John" is going to get it next?

And Saw 2

Spoiler: Everything you see on the videotapes happened hours before. The cops never had any chance of saving anybody. The trap door leads to the same room from the original Saw.

The Usual Suspects never really did anything for me beyond the twist at the end. Fight Club I liked, but likewise didn't think was great.

Gilda

Saw
Six Sense
Fight club.. They've all been mentioned so no need to explain them so here's a few that hasn't been mentioned yet that I really enjoyed.

Fallen: Spoiler: This movie was awesome. There was never a reason to suspect that the narrator was the demon, not the detective. I can't stop whistling that song either.

Primal Fear: Spoiler: Now this was a great suprise ending.. When Ed Norton started clappin after Richard Gere figured out the truth and explained things.. needless to say I was stunned.

I didn't know this until a few minutes ago, but Fallen and Primal fear had the same director :P

Sixth Sense
The Shawshank Redemption is my most fave...

High Tension

not one of the most popular movies in the States, but it has an "insane" twist ending, one that I'm still not sure, even after a few viewings, is even possible given the sequence of events. Still high on the "WTF?!?' meter.

Frailty: Rent it and see it if you haven't already.

Spoiler: One big revelation after another. It's actually Adam, not Fenton at the FBI office. Dad really was seeing visions of the people comitting horrible acts. Adam killed Fenton and framed him for the Hand of God murders. Doyle is on the list, which Adam planted on Fenton, and Adam believes he killed his mother. The pregnant sheriff's deputy is Adam's wife. The FBI tape doesn't show Adam clearly, so everyone thinks it was Fenton who talked to Doyle and killed him.

The best part is that after seeing all the revelations, it still isn't clear whether Dad and Adam were psychotic serial killers or demon slayers, though I have a theory that they're actually basically decent people who have been fooled by a demon into doing his work, thinking they're working for an angel.

The Parallax View:

Spoiler: : Parallax was responsible for the Senator's murder and subsequent coverups. Frady is allowed to investigate to set him up for a subsequent murder, which he is unable to stop, is framed for, and subsequently killed. The commission investigating concludes that he was the lone gunman.

The Conversation

Spoiler: : The line isn't "He'd kill us if he got the chance," it's "He'd kill us if he got the chance." The couple he was spying on were planning a murder. Harry never finds the bug, and we're never told where it is, but there's a hint.

Gilda

Gilda's Right, Frailty is an excellent movie. Go rent it.

Identity with John Cusack and Ray Liotta is also pretty crazy. Maybe not as good as Frailty, but worth watching for sure.

edit: I just remembered Brainscan with Edward Furlong. I loved that movie when it came out..

Anyone remember eXistenZ? Jude Law and Jennifer Jason Leigh? Weird ass movie there.. I love it.

Definitely remember it - it's quite odd, but strangely enjoyable. I love it as well! :)

the Crying Game

The ending to "The Life of David Gale" really got me. What a good movie!

Rocky IV
Spoiler:
Not only does Rocky not die of brain damage, but he then goes on to end the cold war with a stirringly incomprehensible oration...


Didn't see it coming.

Got to agree, with the above, in Usual suspects, empire strikes back, and shawshank redemption.

I wouldn't really consider Shawshank Redemption as having a "surprise" ending. There wasn't much buildup to his Spoiler: apparant suicide and it was realized quickly. The surprise endings are movies like Sixth Sense, et cetera.

My List:
Saw I and Saw II: Spoiler: The moment Jigsaw stood up in the end, especially with the music playing, was brilliant and bone-chilling at the same time.
Primal Fear: Spoiler: Edward Norton's character was brilliant and Richard Gere's reaction was excellent as well. Great ending.
Sixth Sense: Spoiler: This one is just obvious

A final note on M. Night Shymalan's films (Signs, The Village, etc): I think he is a good director up until the last 15min of the films he makes. All of the surprise endings above make logical sense and are well written. His endinds are nonsensical and making the consumer mad at the film for having such a preprosterous ending (umm..The Village). He needs to make a good horror film without ending with an ill-placed ending just so people can say you have "twist" endings.

I can't believe nobody has listed The Others yet.

Spoiler: When it was revealed that the protagonist family were the ghosts and the ghosts were live humans, I was shocked for about an hour after the movie. Still gives me the chills.

I'd have to disagree here. Of the four so far, I was completely caught off guard by The Sixth Sense, missed the big final revelation of Unbreakable, and liked the moody atmosphere of Signs. The Village didn't work for me, and I saw the ending coming from a ways off because I've read at least two different versions of that same basic story, but liked the excecution nonetheless.

The thing with the twist endings is that none of them were tacked on. They were all integral to the story, and the plot was built around that twist. These movies don't exist without that ending driving them.

There's more to these movies than the twist endings, too. The way Unbreakable was shot makes it a visual feast--it's mostly long takes with complex composition. Take the initial scene in the hospital. While we're getting the speech from the doctor in the foreground, one of the last patients to survive the train wreck is dying in the backround, and the doctor makes reference to this late in the shot, drawing our attention to something that was happening in front of us the whole time, but we were disregarding to focus on the main characters. Nice. The movies are filled with little touches like this that make them somewhat more than just thrillers with twist endings.

Gilda

One of my recent favourites, and since no-one has mentioned it, is

The Long Engagement

a really simple film with clever plot twists and an old-fashioned tenderness about it that I can't quite put my finger on. Worth watching even if just for the beautiful photography.

The Forty Year Old Virgin's ending surprized me and made me laugh. Didn't see it coming.