Perfect Endings

So I was watching Clerks 2 the other night and as the movie ended with the camera pulling away and the color draining from the scene, I was struck by how appropriate the ending was for the movie.

It got me thinking about other perfect endings to movies, books, shows, etc: ones that have already happened and ones that should happen. For instance, I believe between Marcian and I, we thought it would be neat if The Office ended with Michael marrying Holly, and after Holly says, "I do," Jim says to the camera, "And that's what she said."

Are there any other past or potential perfect endings that come to mind?

Mallrats. Brody gets a show, TS gets the girl.

Barton Fink is a surreal, messed-up movie. The ending fits it perfectly; I clearly remember thinking that at the time.

I also thought the movie Silent Hill's ending fit it perfectly.

Also, Memento.

Lost.

Yes, the obvious answer from me, but maybe not why you think. One of my pet philosophies in life is something I termed "Bookends." I love it when I finish something it mirrors how I started it. For example, when I was graduating, my best friend and I were doing something and he remarked how we hadn't done something like that since our first year and I just smiled. He said he knew I'd get a kick out of it because I loved how things sometimes dovetail into each other.

So Jack's final scene, mirroring/reversing the iconic opening scene not only fed my fanboy appetite, but my philosophy in life. It was just another way I found the finale personally talking to me.

1408 (Theatrical ending).

The Bourne Identity (Damon/Limon version).

Frailty.

Good Will Hunting.

The Last Boy Scout.

Mannequin.

The Matrix.

Night of the Living Dead.

October Sky.

The Princess Bride.

Rocky.

The Shawshank Redemption.

Splash.

Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back.

Terminator 3 - Rise of the Machines.

John Carpenter's The Thing.

Tombstone.

The first PotC film.

The first Back to the Future film.

The first Matrix film.

Detecting a pattern yet?

Tango and Cash.

When they do the manly high five hand clasp thing...that's how every movie should end.

As much as I hated the Stars Wars prequels, if at the end of Revenge of the Sith, the Emperor and Vadar kinda glared at each other but then broke into grins and high fived like that, the movie would have been awesome.

I think M*A*S*H ended really perfectly. They didnt try any gimicks or anything, they just gave you the emotional good bye you wanted.

Actually, concerning the Star Wars Prequels, they did one thing right: Their endings. Especially Revenge of the Sith. No, not Vader's "NOOOOOOO!", but the very final shot. We've seen a movie where everything went wrong for the good guys. The Jedi lost, hard. Then in the final shot, we see Obi-Wan hand off Luke to Owen and Beru and they step outside and watch the binary sunset, just like Luke will in Episode 4. The music swells and... END! See you in A New Hope!

For all their faults, the prequels ended exactly the way they should.

No Country for Old Men. I don't care about a perfect ending, just give the damn movie AN ending!

The Shield.

I loved how Vic lost everything he held dear, including being forced to work a desk job.

Mortal Kombat: Conquest

Raiden sets it all up for the heroes to storm in as a clichetastic rescue right at the end of the last episode only for the villain to then offer proof of the death of everyone who he might have been expecting to save him, villainy at it's finest.

Pulp Fiction: The movie comes full circle.

Dances With Wolves: Avatar done right, and without a happy tacked on ending, showing the bitter truth of what happened mirrored in Dances with Wolves having to leave the Sioux he loves forever.

Seinfeld.

Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal, probably the first was more perfect then the second.

Lecter escapes in both, but in Silence he helps Clarice graduate by giving her the means to catch Bill and at the same time scares the ever-loving daylights out of her by giving her a creepy phone call, leaving her with this face.

My personal favorite ending is the last episode of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG. Spoilers below:















The villain of the season is a manipulative ******* who spends the entire season dodging any legal repercussions for instigating a nuclear war, since very little of it can be definitively traced back to him. He goes as far as to basically mock the heroes a few times by gloating at them without giving anything away or admitting to anything, and is all-around a horrible person. In the final episode, the good guys inform him they finally got a warrant for his arrest, to which he replies that he's exploited a legal loophole to nullify all of the charges against him, and is getting ready to leave the country.

His elevator opens, and inside it is Motoko Kusanagi, who basically informs him that the prime minister has given her authority to kill him if he leaves. He sneers that he doubts it just as she shoots, and there's a super-detailed, wonderfully gory (in a show that usually isn't very bloody, too) close-up of his head being outright shredded by bullets, down to being able to see one of his eyes pop out. It was most friggin' cathartic thing ever after an entire season of trying to hate him to death, and I think I spent about ten minutes just replaying that scene over and over and cackling.














End spoilers!

The ending to my favorite movie ever -- Millers Crossing -- it ends with Tom's debts (personal and monetary) all paid off, but Tom Regan is left as an Irish gangster equivalent of a Ronin, with no real place to set down his roots after all of the double-crosses he pulls throughout the film. His farewell to Leo and that final shot pulling back and away from Tom as the music swells is awesome.

Inception -- the did he make it out / or didn't he nebulous ending was perfect for the movie, and it's kept people talking about a fantastic film.

Casablanca -- "This might be the start of a beautiful friendship" sums it up rather nicely, but this story of self-sacrifice for the person you love brings out the true theme of the film. The hero may not get the girl in the end, but she'll be safe, and that's what's important.

The Prince of Darkness -- John Carpenter delivers one of the best scare moments of his entire film career within the last 60 seconds of this nail-biter.

The Thing -- Carpenter's version, naturally. It's a great ending to a horror movie.

The Wild Bunch -- it's a Peckinpah film, so you know the only way for them to go out is in a massive hail of bullets.

I can't think of any... Hmm...

Maybe...

Arrested Development had to end earlier than the show and I were ready to say goodbye, but I think they tied everything up nicely with it.

The Batman Begins ending was great.