24 films that feature classic closing scenes

Everything about “The Blair Witch Project” was memorable and remarkable. It basically created the modern trend of the low-budget, found-footage horror movie. The ending, though, with all its eeriness, confusion and abruptness, really stuck the landing. It made it feel like you were watching the last moments of a documentary crew.

We can sum up why the ending of this Jack Nicholson film noir classic is so iconic in one sentence: “Forget it, Jake, it’s Chinatown.” With that line, “Chinatown” was given movie immortality. It’s even more powerful when you see it in the context of the profoundly bleak ending of the film.

Speaking of iconic last lines, the ending of “Casablanca” is definitely cheerier than “Chinatown,” even if it takes place during World War II. Rick has told his former love Ilsa to get on the plane out of town with her husband Victor Laszlo, who has been saved from the Nazis with the help of police captain Louis Renault. As Rick and Renault walk into the distance, Rick utters the now-famous words, “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

For years, “Citizen Kane” has had the reputation as one of the greatest, perhaps the greatest, film ever made. It’s Orson Welles’ masterpiece. It’s a classic film right to its conclusion. For the entire movie, a newsman has been trying to dig up the story behind Charles Foster Kane’s purported final word, “Rosebud.” We find out the answer to that at the end, when we see some of Kane’s many possessions being thrown into a fire. That includes his childhood sled, which has the word “Rosebud” emblazoned on it.

Some movies have definitive, hard-hitting endings. And some leave you wondering. “Inception” is definitely in the latter camp. As the movie ends, Leonardo DiCaprio’s character is spinning a top, his “totem” that he uses to figure out if he is in the dream world or the real world. If it wobbles, he’s back in reality. However, the movies ends before we get to find out, leaving us hanging in suspense for the rest of time.

While real-life revelations have not been kind to “The Usual Suspects,” at the time it was a cult hit, and a lot of that is owed to the ending. For the entire movie, we’ve watched the seemingly mild-mannered, somewhat helpless criminal Verbal Kint tell a tale of everything that happened in a crime gone wrong. It turns out, though, that he’s been playing everybody. Kint is actually the feared criminal kingpin Keyser Soze, and Chazz Palminteri has ruined a perfectly good coffee cup.

Trying to pinpoint where the ending of “Dr. Strangelove” begins is a little tricky. Chaos reigns in the bunker, where various political bigwigs are trying to stop a nuclear war. It’s too late, though, because Major Kong is riding a nuclear bomb like a bucking bronco, and the war has begun. The final moments of the film are truly striking, as we watch footage of nuclear bombs going off to the torch song “We’ll Meet Again.”

One of the most memorable, and most parodied, twist endings, we probably don’t need to tell you what happens at the end of “Planet of the Apes.” Just in case, though, an astronaut from Earth finds himself on a planet where apes evolved from man. As Taylor makes his escape, he stumbles upon a terrifying site. There, buried in the sand, is the Statue of Liberty. He was on Earth all along! He had traveled through time, not space! You maniacs! Damn you all to Hell!

Jack Nicholson apparently knows how to choose movies with powerful endings. “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” was an Oscars darling, winning a few awards, including Best Picture. The end of the film sees the character of Chief finding Nicholson’s McMurphy lobotomized. Chief decides to euthanize his friend, then uses his massive strength to throw a sink through the window in order to escape the corrupt mental institution he’s been stuck in. It’s bitter and sweet combined.

By the end of Paul Thomas Anderson’s magnum opus, Daniel Plainview is a miserable drunk shambling around an empty house alone, aside from his butler. Then preacher Eli Sunday makes the mistake of visiting him to try to get some money. You surely remember the line “I drink your milkshake,” but the very end of the film is harrowing, as Daniel beats Eli to death with a bowling pin. When his butler comes to investigate, all Daniel has to say is the simple declaration, “I’m finished!”

Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson, him remaking himself late in his career and her making her first big impact in a film, have spent the run of “Lost in Translation” helping each other find stability while drifting in Japan. As they go their separate ways, Murray whispers something into her ear. What it is, we’ll never know, but the moment still lands on your chest.

“Logan” is technically an X-Men movie, but it feels like no other superhero film. It’s a brutally violent R-rated outing, as we watch aging Wolverine, aka Logan, and Professor X trying to help out a mutant girl named Laura. Logan succeeds in saving Laura and her fellow young mutants, but it costs him his life. Laura then gives him a funeral, where she recites a speech she heard earlier in the film from classic Western “Shane.” No superhero movie has ever delivered an ending this powerful.

No, we’re not talking about the boombox scene. That happens earlier in the film. By the end of Cameron Crowe’s rom-com staple, Lloyd and Diane are together again, heading off to England for their first post-high school adventure. Diane is afraid of flying, so Lloyd is trying to comfort her. Just wait for the ding, he says, and then everything should be fine. We hear that ding, and then the movie ends.

Never has the sentence “I’m having an old friend for dinner” been so horrifying. Dr. Hannibal Lecter has helped Clarice Starling stop Buffalo Bill, but he’s also escaped from his imprisonment. That’s not great for the world at large, given that he’s a cannibal serial killer. So when he calls Clarice and ends their chat with that line, we know things are about to go really bad for somebody.

“Back to the Future” is a rollicking romp from start to finish. Normally, when a movie is clearly just laying out a sequel, the ending falls flat. That’s not the case with this one, though. Dr. Brown comes, well, back from the future to warn Marty about the future of his (as yet unborn) kid. They need to head off on their next adventure, and this time, where they are going, they don’t need roads.

There are unreliable narrators, and then there is Guy Pearce’s character in “Memento.” He lacks the ability to make new memories, but he’s also dedicated to finding his wife’s killer and exacting revenge. In the beginning of the film, we see him killing Joe Pantoliano’s character. By the end of the movie, though, we find out that Pantoliano didn’t do it and actually is a cop who helped Pearce’s character find the killer. Pearce had used his own memory issues to lie to himself and convince himself Pantoliano did it.

The genius of “The Graduate” is that it gives you an ostensible feel-good ending while also admitting the end of the movie isn’t the end of the journey. Ben has broken up Elaine's wedding, and the two have run off together. However, what comes next? The camera focuses on their faces as they sit on the bus, as we watch them go from smiling to contemplative to smiling to worried and back again. “The Graduate” isn’t afraid to leave us with the question “What now?”

Granted, “Boogie Nights” is riffing on “Raging Bull” with its ending. However, there is one thing that “Boogie Nights” has that “Raging Bull” didn’t. We often hear about Dirk Diggler’s, um, “gift” during the run of this story of people working in the porn industry. As Diggler gives himself a pep talk in the mirror, we finally see what all the hullabaloo was about. It’s certainly a memorable image.

Norma Desmond was one of the biggest stars of the silent era. That era is gone and, seemingly, so is her mind. As such, when the police show up to her house to arrest her for murder, with news crews and cameras arriving as well, she is convinced she is shooting a film. Thus, she delivers the iconic line, “Alright, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my closeup.” Her wild-eyed approach to the camera is haunting.

Yes, this is the third Christopher Nolan movie on the list. Hey, the guy knows how to do a strong ending. “The Prestige” is the most underrated of his films, but it certainly has a memorable ending. Hugh Jackman’s magician isn’t dead. Instead, we find out his clones have been dying in his most popular trick. Christian Bale is dead, but also he isn’t, because his magician character had a twin brother who was also part of the act. That’s how he did his most famous trick. That also means the twin brother is around to exact revenge on Jackman, finally killing him. No trick this time.

This is the most recent film we’re featuring, but “Infinity War” definitely earned its spot. This is not how superhero movies are supposed to go. The Avengers have traveled through space and trotted the globe to try to stop Thanos from wielding the Infinity Gauntlet to end half the life in the universe. And…they fail. Thanos does it. We watch people dissolve into dust, including several Avengers such as Black Panther and Spider-Man. Then, Thanos sits down to enjoy a scenic view, his work complete…and the movie ends there. Sure, “Endgame” undid all that damage, but it was wild at the time.

Where does the ending of “Psycho” start? Is it when we find out Mrs. Bates isn’t alive, and that she’s just a skeleton in a chair? Or that it’s her son Norman that is doing all the murdering, often dressed as his mom, whose identity he has taken on in addition to his own? Or is it when we watch Norman sitting calmly in a chair, a sly smile on his face, thinking entirely in his Mrs. Bates persona? Why, she wouldn’t hurt a fly. The famed shower scene may happen early in the film, but the ending of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic packs a punch of its own.

This is really down to how contemplative and existential you’re feeling. Perhaps how nihilistic you are feeling as well. The aging police officer played by Tommy Lee Jones has failed to capture Anton Chigurh, the seemingly unstoppable killer played by Javier Bardem in an Oscar-winning role. He’s retired now, and he’s telling his wife about a dream he had about his dead father, a dream that had a glimmer of hope to it. Then he simply declares, “And then I woke up.” The camera pulls slowly into Jones’ face, and suddenly the film is over.

We know from the beginning of “The Truman Show” that Truman Burbank has spent his entire life living in a TV show. Everything he’s experienced is a lie. After years in this simulation, Truman is starting to get suspicious, and he takes to sailing. Only as he sails he hits the wall of the studio, and through a talk with the show’s creator he finally finds out the whole truth. He’s given a chance to stay, or to enter the real world. Cheerfully, Truman says goodbye to the show, much to the joy of viewers everywhere.

"Barbie" is fully a work of I.P. adaptation that surely made Mattel quite happy. Let's not pretend it's anything more just because it was a critical hit and got some Oscar nominations and we like Greta Gerwig as a director. That being said, "Barbie" was much better than it needed to be, and the final scene really landed. It's actually fairly important for contextualizing the movie. With so many think pieces and hot takes surrounding the film, it's good to just remember that it ends with a hard joke about Barbie going to the gynecologist. "Barbie" is a breezy, joke-heavy comedy. That's good to keep in mind.