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Endings are important; they can often make or break a film, and there are a lot of different factors that go into making one that’s satisfying. Not all endings are meant to be satisfying, but the ones that are often genuinely feel so much better than those that are purposefully obtuse, ambiguous or unfulfilling. They can leave an audience contented with a conclusion or excited for future installments, or often both. The most satisfying endings often end with applause, tears or joy or even a bittersweet feeling in saying goodbye, but they don’t confuse, enrage or disappoint.
The most satisfying movie endings have come from blockbusters, old classics, long-running franchises, animated family films and even R-rated exploitation. They wrap up their respective films in a way that almost assures that no other ending could possibly be more satisfying. Even in a ranking as subjective as this, it’s hard to object that these ten endings are among the most satisfying of all time.
10
‘The Natural’ (1984)
There’s no better way to end than with triumph, and if there’s anything that offers a better form of it than movies, it’s sports. Sports have given us real-life underdog stories, thrilling climaxes, and unexpected victories. Movies have been mining sports for feel-good endings for years, with some of the best examples including Rocky, Hoosiers, Miracle, and the most magical of all, The Natural. Directed by Barry Levinson and starring Robert Redford, this baseball movie leans hard into the nostalgia and sentimentality of the sport. It treats baseball as mythology, and the ending is appropriately mythic.
As Redford’s Roy Hobbs steps up to the plate in the climax, he’s bleeding, risking his very life by continuing to play. That’s when he hits a home run that shatters a stadium light, showering Roy with sparks as he rounds the bases. It’s pure schmaltz, but it’s impossible not to be won over by its emotionally manipulative magic, especially as the soaring music by Randy Newman swells. The coda of Roy sharing a game of catch with his son is simply the sweet cherry on top of this saccharine, satisfying ending.
9
‘Inglourious Basterds’ (2009)
On the other end of the spectrum is the satisfaction of sweet revenge. Revenge is a dish that’s often far more savory on screen, and there are lots of movies that serve it well. Many are viscerally satisfying, but there’s one Quentin Tarantino takedown that’s even better, and it involves a Nazi getting a masterpiece of a swastika carved into his head. Inglourious Basterds has, by the time it’s reached its ending, already killed Hitler, so it’s hard to imagine how it could get any more violent.
Then, Brad Pitt’s Aldo Raine turns the tables on Christoph Waltz’s Hans Landa and slices the Nazi symbol into his forehead so that he’ll be marked as one long after he’s taken off his uniform. It’s an event foreshadowed earlier in the film, made all the more gratifying by how much Waltz has made his character so easy to hate. Nazis are easy villains for Hollywood to depict as ghoulish monsters, but what makes Landa particularly insidious is how charming he is while committing his atrocities. It makes his comeuppance feel more than justified, and the ending vengefully satisfying.
8
‘Batman Begins’ (2005)
Superhero endings are often among the most satisfying. They almost always end their respective films victoriously, and often with the promise of more adventure to come. Batman has always been more brooding, which has made his endings slightly more melancholy. In the Tim Burton era, this meant endings with the Caped Crusader perched on a rooftop, a watchful protector over Gotham. Christopher Nolan’s tenure with the character brought some more variety, most memorably in The Dark Knight, where Batman went on the run. That’s a potent ending for sure, but not nearly as satisfying as the end of Batman Begins.
As the catalyst for gritty reboots in the mid-2000s, Batman Begins brought the character back down to earth, jettisoning the campy elements for something far more grounded. It detailed the transformation of Bruce Wayne into Batman through the culmination of singular elements. By the end, almost all the familiar elements are in place: the Batmobile, the Bat Signal, and the various other Bat-themed accessories. Then, just before the credits, Nolan gives us a tease of what’s to come. Batman meets with Jim Gordon on a rooftop, where he gives him the calling card of a new criminal in town, the Joker. It’s a hell of a promise for Batman fans, and one that the sequel delivered on in spades, making the ending all the more satisfying.
7
‘Casino Royale’ (2006)
Coming just one year after Batman Begins, Casino Royale gave the gritty reboot treatment to James Bond with a back-to-basics, gadgetless spy adventure that remains the high watermark for the franchise. Much like Batman, Bond comes with a history and many distinctive motifs that have been repeated throughout the long-running franchise. Casino Royale subverts many of these motifs, such as the iconic gun barrel opening, and outright removes others. The film also cleverly withholds two key elements of the character, his iconic theme song and introduction line, until the end for maximum satisfaction.
After completing his first mission as a double-o agent and losing the first love of his life, Bond is back on Her Majesty’s Secret Service and ready to track the secret organization responsible. He starts with the enigmatic Mr. White, shooting his legs out from under and introducing himself as Bond, James Bond. Cue the Monty Norman theme. Most Bond films prior to Casino Royale ended fairly similarly, with Bond lying with a woman after having saved the world once again, with a variable sex pun often thrown in. Both On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and No Time to Die are major exceptions, as both end tragically, but Casino Royale is a proper reintroduction to the character that left audiences shaken, stirred, and satisfied.
6
‘Monsters, Inc.’ (2002)
Victory, revenge, and fan service are all very satisfying ways to end a movie, but there’s something to be said for something that makes you cry happy tears. Animated movies can make us feel like we’re chopping onions better than most, and endings from movies like The Iron Giant and Toy Story 3 are among the most tear-jerking. Pixar, when operating at its peak, was better than any studio at making this kind of ending, and there’s no greater satisfaction to be felt than in Sully’s reunion with Boo at the end of Monsters, Inc.
Pixar excels at creating lovable duos. Woody and Buzz. Marlin and Dory. WALL-E and Eve. They’re all fan favorites, and so are Sully and Mike Wazowski, but if there’s one duo that tugs hardest on the heartstrings, it’s that same big blue monster and his surrogate daughter. The relationship between Sully and Boo is the core of Monsters, Inc., and it’s the biggest absence felt in the entertaining but less emotionally engaging prequel Monsters University. When Boo is returned to the human world, and her door is shredded so that Sully can never visit her again, it shreds our hearts as well, which makes Mike’s reassembly of the door at the end of the film so much more moving. Few single words can elicit more welcome tears than a little girl saying “Kitty” in this emotionally satisfying ending.
5
‘When Harry Met Sally…’ (1989)
Few genres engage in emotional manipulation more than romantic comedies. Most of them follow such a set formula that you can set your watch to them until they get to their inevitable ending, where one of the leads makes a grand declaration of love. It’s still satisfying to see these onscreen couples get together, but it often rings hollow. It takes real heart and talent to make the romance feel real, and few filmmakers had a bigger combination of the two than Rob Reiner, who gave audiences an all-time romantic ending in When Harry Met Sally…
This classic rom-com benefits from a sharp script by Nora Ephron, which lets us see the relationship between Billy Crystal‘s Harry and Meg Ryan‘s Sally develop over the years. We see them cross paths, get together, and break apart, all of which leads to one fateful New Year’s Eve when Harry decides to make his grand declaration of love. It’s a scene that’s never been bettered since, and Crystal nails the delivery while Ryan gives the perfect reaction. The film was originally meant to end with Harry and Sally remaining friends, which both Ephron and Reiner thought was more realistic, but they knew it wouldn’t be nearly as satisfying. They were right.
4
‘Jaws’ (1975)
Summer blockbusters are designed to be satisfying. Most of us don’t go sit in the dark during the brightest days of the year in order to get bummed out — we want to laugh, scream, maybe cry and jump out of our seats with excitement. That’s the ultimate goal of the blockbuster, and it all started with Jaws. Sure, movies were big and fun before Steven Spielberg‘s summer horror classic, but they’d never been released like Jaws. The film was promoted as a major event and released nationwide so that audiences could experience it as a community. Spielberg, ever the showman, knew that audiences would need an ending that would make them want to cheer, and he knew the ending from the original novel wasn’t going to cut it.
In Peter Benchley‘s book, the shark dies a quiet death after succumbing to its wounds, sinking into the ocean and dragging shark hunter Quint’s body with it, in an allusion to Moby Dick. That’s far from cinematic, so Spielberg devised something literally more explosive. The shark gets an oxygen tank lodged in its mouth, Roy Scheider climbs the wreckage of Quint’s fishing boat with a rifle, and blows the killer fish into a column of bloody chum. Is it completely unrealistic and slightly ridiculous? Yes. Is it totally awesome and utterly satisfying? Yes.
3
‘Star Wars’ (1977)
After Spielberg set the bar for blockbusters with Jaws, his friend George Lucas was the first to clear it with the original Star Wars. The epic space opera fantasy completely redefined what audiences would come to expect from their big screen escapism, and, in many ways, it’s never truly been topped. It simply isn’t possible to recreate the circumstances that existed when Star Wars premiered, or the ebullient feeling that audiences felt walking out of it. Other than the fact that Chewbacca doesn’t get a medal alongside Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, there’s not a single issue to take with the film’s ultimate crowd-pleasing ending.
The destruction of the Death Star is one of the most iconic and triumphant moments of cinema, and Lucas, much like Spielberg after blowing up the shark, knows better than to overstay his welcome. A quick reunion of the characters is then followed by an award ceremony that gives them all a curtain call before the credits roll and John Williams‘ legendary score begins to play. It’s still exciting almost fifty years later, and it remains the most satisfying ending in the entire franchise.
2
‘Casablanca’ (1942)
Sometimes the best ending isn’t the happiest, but it can be the most satisfying. As happy as audiences might have been to see Humphrey Bogart end up with Ingrid Bergman at the end of Casablanca, it would have felt empty. The entire movie is built on Bogart’s Rick coming to terms with the emotional loss he experienced when Bergman’s Ilsa left him behind for the husband she thought he was. He’s become an island unto himself, running a nightclub in the titular city under the control of Vichy France, and when she walks back into his life, it causes all kinds of emotional upheaval. He’s given a second chance at love, to run away with her to America, but instead, he puts her on a plane with her husband.
It’s a bittersweet ending, but it’s still so satisfying to watch Rick do the right thing, the selfless sacrifice that we want from all our movie heroes. It’s what we like to imagine we would do if put in the same situation, even though deep down most of us know we’d turn Ilsa’s husband in and board that plane with her in a heartbeat. Every line is iconic and memorable from this ending, from Rick telling Ilsa how she’d regret it if she stayed with him to his declaration that he and Claude Rains are at the beginning of a beautiful friendship. It all amounts to something much greater than a hill of beans, and it’s unbelievably satisfying.
1
‘The Truman Show’ (1998)
Peter Weir‘s moving and prescient The Truman Show was made well before most people were digitally recording every minute of their lives. The difference between today’s perpetually online narcissists and Jim Carrey‘s Truman is that they are all well aware they’re being filmed. The Truman Show may be predicated on an existential nightmare of a premise where one man’s existence is nothing more than a television show created for mass entertainment, but in its final moments, it finds a beautiful satisfaction as Truman finds his freedom.
After the cracks in his fake reality begin to show, Truman seeks the truth behind his life. He sails the waters surrounding his fake town until he reaches the end of the soundstage. In defiance of the director who created his entire reality, he says his catchphrase one last time, takes a bow and steps out into the real world. That’s the end of the story for the audience, but just the beginning of Truman’s. It’s moving and powerful, and that collective joy is captured in snippets of viewers around the world rejoicing for Truman. Then they change the channel to see what else is on. Sweet satisfaction.
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William Smith
Almontather Rassoul
