It doesn’t matter how amazing the bulk of a movie is; if it fails to stick the landing, it could ruin the whole experience and leave a nasty taste in audiences’ mouths. And Redditors have their fair share of movies that were ruined for them when the final act arrived.

  • It is hard to come up with a fantastic ending to a story, and this is even more discouraging when the rest of the movie was great until the ending deflated the audience. A great example is the 2022 Netflix movie Spiderhead. Based on the critically-acclaimed short story of the same name, the movie has people submit themselves to experimental drugs. However, as the drugs begin to ruin their lives, and in some cases kill the test subjects, the movie changed the end from the original, creating a “happy ending” that left many fans disappointed because it also ruined the entire message of the tale. It is when movies end like this, and leave viewers wondering what happened, that Reddit becomes a hotbed for movie fans to break down where it all went wrong.

Between a thrilling mystery movie that fails to tie everything together, a Stephen King adaptation that strays from the source material, and a clever X-Men movie that becomes too clichéd, these films are great for the first 1.5 hours. And while most of these are in line with the general consensus, there are a couple of massively unpopular opinions about which films were ruined by their conclusions.

Old (2021)

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M. Night Shyamalan is one of cinema’s most polarizing filmmakers. While no one can deny his talent, it is the endings of his movies that leave people hating the experience. For every twist ending fans loved, there is a movie like Old where many fans felt it fell short of delivering the message Shyamalan intended.

TheOwlBlind wrote on Reddit that he is a fan of Shyamalan, but Old “not only is the ending of Shyamalan’s film ludicrous on both a conceptual and ideological level, it’s also structurally a complete mess - ending about seven times before finally limping off the screen”

The Devil Inside (2012)

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The Devil Inside is a found-footage horror movie and was a solid addition to the subgenre for much of its running time. However, this movie had what critics and fans agreed was one of the worst endings in movie history. That is because it didn’t have an ending.

The movie ended abruptly with a title card that told viewers to get on the internet and go to a website to see how the story ends. Since the website no longer exists, ThreadbareAdjustment explained it on Reddit, writing, “the movie doesn’t even have a third act, it just abruptly cuts and then asks you to visit a website to find out what happened, (to add insult to injury the site is no longer active and when it was, it was simply a standard movie promo site with things like character bios and cast and release info, it does NOTHING to resolve the ending).”

Signs (2002)

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When it comes to movies that people loved, but then fell out of love with at the end, M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs is a good example. Shyamalan did a lot right in this movie, including keeping the aliens mostly hidden until key moments.

However, all the dread and creepy atmosphere seemed to fall apart when it turned out the aliens’ one main weakness was water, and they chose a planet that was almost all water to invade. Purityprydain wrote “Advanced aliens travel across the galaxy to our planet (a world covered 75% in WATER no less) only to be undone by “swing away, Merrill, swing away”. A brilliant 99% movie completely ruined by a 1% nonsense ending.”

Serenity (2019)

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There are two major movies called Serenity. One is the sequel to Firefly, and that was a movie made for fans who loved the TV series. However, this is a movie made in 2019 that starred Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway.

The movie is a thriller where a fishing boat captain is asked by his ex-wife to kill her current abusive husband. As expected, nothing was as it seems, but for Redditor ThreadbareAdjustment, the twist that McConaughey’s Dill isn’t even a real person ruined the entire story. “This ending is beyond bad. Like you couldn’t come up with a worse ending unless you were actually trying. The whole movie being just a dream would’ve been a better ending.'

I Am Legend (2007)

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The biggest problem with the ending of I Am Legend was that the movie changed the original source material’s ending, and therefore changed the entire purpose of the story. For those who didn’t know the story, it wasn’t a problem, but for those who loved the original, it ruined an otherwise great horror movie.

The change was that Neville learned in the original story that he was the monster now, terrorizing and killing the vampires who wanted to live in peace. However, the movie changed the ending to a typical story where the vampires had to be cured. “They ruined a movie that could have had a decent story and translation from the book, nbamahanna wrote on Reddit. “Just for a second imagine how bad The Usual Suspects would have been with a bad ending. It is all about a good resolution for movies like this.”

Now You See Me (2013)

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Now You See Me is a fun action crime movie, and the series has enough fans that there’s a huge demand for Now You See Me 3. But as entertaining as the movies are for the way magic tricks are used as set pieces and catalysts for massive action sequences, the first film falls short at the final hurdle. Tortuga808 argues that “the ending makes the entire movie unnecessary.”

At the end of the film, it’s revealed that the Horsemen team was created by Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo), the very FBI agent who was on the case, as a way to exact revenge for his father’s death. The big reveal causes so many plot holes that no magic trick could possibly hide, and another deleted Reddit user notes that “Ruffalo looked embarrassed during those final scenes.”

The Wolverine (2013)

There are loads of things The Wolverine got right, such as the darker themes and the Japanese setting, both of which are reasons why Ryzenraider thinks the first two acts of the movie are great. However, that’s right up until “they shoehorn in the Silver Samurai, just threw in a huge tonal shift, and resolved everything with an over-the-top VFX fight.”

It was impossible for the James Mangold-directed The Wolverine to be worse than its predecessor, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but that’s setting the bar low, and Silver Samurai kept the 2013 release from being a top-tier X-Men movie. The same could be said for Logan, which was also directed by Mangold. The film tells an even better story about Wolverine as Old Man Logan, but in the final act of the movie, he’s simply facing a clone of himself.

The Mist (2007)

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While most Redditors call to attention final acts that are criticized by the majority, MikeyMGM is one of the few with a massively unpopular opinion. The Redditor claims that The Mist was ruined by the very final scene, which is one of the most shocking and emotionally exhausting moments in cinema history.

As David knows that his whole family is going to be torn apart by the creatures, he keeps that from happening by shooting each one of them in the head. But moments later, the mist quickly dissipates, revealing the military coming to everyone’s rescue. In fairness, Stephen King’s original novel has a different ending, but King loves the twist that director Frank Darabont added.

The Matrix Resurrections (2021)

The Matrix Resurrections was the last sequel anybody was asking for, but despite its polarizing reception which caused the movie to bomb at the box office, there are some great moments, and it does have a huge fanbase of its own. Shrek3onDVDandbluray is one of those fans who enjoyed the meta approach it had to the franchise, and that’s one of the ways the Matrix series can continue.

But the Reddit user thinks the movie failed when it turned into a by-the-numbers action film, arguing that it “went from an interesting movie and setting to the most generic plot and ending.” In the final act, Resurrections devolves into a shell of its former self, and action sequences don’t hold a candle to the ones that influenced a generation in the 1999 original.

Us (2019)

Following up his spectacular directorial debut Get Out was a tough task, but for the most part, Jordan Peele achieved it with the even more terrifying Us. The film follows a family who is being hunted down by their doppelgängers, and it’s soon revealed that the same thing is happening to everyone in America.

Warm-Phone1077 explains that though they think the movie is great, “the ending is slightly illogical and makes everything that happens before it less scary the more you think about it.” The movie has a clever twist, but the more times viewers watch it, the less sense it makes as more plot holes are exposed. Us is almost the opposite of movies that gets better with each rewatch.

Downsizing (2017)

TVuniverse thinks the ending of Downsizing ruined what was otherwise a great movie. Fans tend to know what to expect from movies written and directed by Alexander Payne; an irreverent comedy about a middle-aged protagonist who has some kind of nihilistic outlook on the future. That’s no different with the sci-fi comedy Downsizing, except the tone and even the genre change completely in the final act of the movie.

The 2017 film turns into a Charlie Kaufman-esque absurdist dramedy about climate change. It still goes in an interesting direction, but given that Downsizing was totally mismarketed as an outright laugh-out-loud comedy, the ending undoubtedly angered most audiences.

Lucy (2014)

The Luc Besson-directed Lucy is a great cross between the action of John Wick and Nikita, a french movie also directed by Besson that follows a female assassin. But Gvondra has a problem with the ending, claiming that “the whole movie requires maximum suspension of disbelief. But the shallow sophomoric ending trashes it all.”

There are a few too many double-crosses, almost to the point where it’s comedic. And while the action sequences are inspiring, the ending holds it back from being talked about as one of the most exciting action movies of the past decade. But it was still good enough that fans want to see a sequel, even if it isn’t totally possible.

Point Break (1991)

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Point Break is an entertaining and ridiculous movie in which an FBI agent (Keanu Reeves) becomes an undercover surfer to infiltrate a group of criminal bank-robbing surfers. It’s a 90s classic and sees Reeves in one of his most iconic roles, but HardSteelRain has a major problem with the movie’s ending.

The Redditor rhetorically asks, “you’re letting him do what? After what he did?,” referring to how FBI Agent Johnny Utah lets a criminal go surfing instead of detaining him and then throws his badge into the ocean. While it is ridiculous, it’s no more ridiculous than anything that came before it, and it’s perfectly in keeping with the theatricality of the movie.

The Box (2009)

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Richard Kelly is a one-hit-wonder director, as his directorial debut was the incredible cult hit Donnie Darko, but since then, he has failed to match that success. The closest he came was with The Box, but ThreadbareAdjustment comments that It got a rare “F” grade from CinemaScore and I think the ending is the sole reason why.”

The 2009 movie raises an incredible moral dilemma, and it would ordinarily make for a fascinating narrative. In the 2009 movie, a couple is given a box with a button on top, and if they press the button, they’ll be awarded a million dollars, but a random person will be murdered. For the first two-thirds of the movie, more mystery and intrigue are created, but it, unfortunately, fails miserably to pull it all together.

Last Night In Soho (2021)

Like the literal content of the film itself, the narrative of Last Night In Soho is all smoke and mirrors, which is what makes it so edge-of-the-seat thrilling. Unfortunately, Nayapapaya reckons that the ending undoes anything great about the first hour and a half of the movie.

The Redditor argues, “the entire final act of that film, once we get to the reveal, is so poorly written that it actively refutes any point the film was trying to make about the issues it tried to address.” Just like with Wright’s previous release, Baby Driver, the 2021 film failed to stick the landing, even though the fast pacing and inventive camera techniques make most of the movie such a wild ride.

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