Top 20 Most HATED Movie Endings

This sequel to “Cloverfield” veers in an entirely new direction, abandoning the found footage gimmick and adopting the identity of a psychological thriller. Michelle is kidnapped by an untrustworthy man and held captive in his bunker. Throughout the film, she questions whether he is telling the truth about a supposed apocalyptic event that has recently occurred and poisoned the outside air. Michelle eventually escapes the bunker and learns that aliens have indeed invaded Earth, and the film’s claustrophobic atmosphere is shattered by an abrupt ending and a jarring genre shift. The last confrontation seems rather tacked on, almost like test audiences demanded a final battle with action and explosions. Unfortunately, that’s not what the rest of the movie was attempting to do.

We love an ambiguous ending as much as the next person, but the ending of “The Grey” just felt cheap. The film tells the story of oil rig workers who survive a plane crash and must fend off a pack of wolves while trying to survive in the Alaskan wilderness. Awesome. But after nearly two hours of building tension, audiences were left disappointed by the ending’s abruptness and vagueness. Ottway charges at the alpha male with weapons, and the screen suddenly cuts to black, “Sopranos” style. We don’t get to see the epic showdown, and we’re left wondering what happened to Ottway. Only those who stayed past the credits were rewarded with a proper ending, as we see that both died in the battle.

Here’s proof that how a story is told can be more important than what is being told. This remake has the same ending as the 1973 original, with the protagonist being sacrificed inside a giant wicker man. The only thing is that the original was scary. This was not. Nicolas Cage’s over-the-top performance has been widely mocked, and his screams of terror are often the source of unintentional comedy. In the end, audiences found the whole climactic sequence more laughable than horrifying. That is not what you want for your gruesome finale in which the hero is tormented and killed.

Christopher Nolan’s most divisive film yet, “Tenet” failed to please his legion of fans, and the messy ending certainly didn’t help. Many of the film’s critics agree that Nolan went a little too “Nolan,” resulting in a confounding film that looked pretty but was all sorts of confusing. In the bizarre ending, the Protagonist finds out that he created Tenet and ends Priya’s life, and most viewers were left shaking their heads as to what just happened. The time travel shenanigans are enormously confusing, and the infamous sound mixing drowns out most of the dialogue, making an already-puzzling scene borderline incomprehensible.

For the most part, “World War Z” is a thrilling zombie epic, even if it diverges wildly from the beloved source novel. But then comes the ending. After globetrotting battles throughout most of the film, Brad Pitt’s character finds himself quietly sneaking around a medical facility and avoiding zombies. It’s not scary, and it’s quite anticlimactic compared with the earlier bombastic sequences filled with extraordinary action. And while the film ends with a hopeful note as humanity discovers a vaccine, it also leaves many unanswered questions about the future. It was pure sequel bait, and while one was planned, it was quietly axed in 2019.

Despite being regarded as one of Spielberg’s finest movies, “A.I.” is marred by a rather unfortunate ending that left many disappointed. Sort of a futuristic “Pinocchio,” the film follows an android named David who desires to be real and who has the distinct ability to love. And in the movie’s divisive final minutes, David is granted one perfect day with his artificial mother before presumably dying by himself. Oh, and this happens after a major time skip that is both abrupt and apocalyptic. Many viewers found this ending way too bleak, while others found the Monica stuff too sappy and sentimental. It was a messy mix of emotions that finished the otherwise brilliant film on a sloppy note.

This sci-fi flick tells the story of a woman who gains superhuman abilities after ingesting an experimental drug that allows her to reach 100% of her brain capacity. We can ignore the inherent flaw in the brain capacity plot hole and just go with it, and for the most part, “Lucy” is a fun enough adventure. But audiences felt let down by the film’s abrupt shift into metaphysical territory. You see, once Lucy reaches 100% capacity, she transcends human limitations and becomes some sort of omnipresent divine-like figure who lives inside computers. Yeah, it’s pretty dumb. No, we don’t get it, either.

The second “Transformers” film took a major creative risk by killing off both Sam and Optimus Prime. These were huge moments, and they carried some serious dramatic heft that most people weren’t expecting from the franchise. But wouldn’t you know it, both are ultimately saved by some MacGuffin nonsense that comes out of nowhere. The “Matrix of Leadership” angered fans who felt it undermined the dramatic significance and emotional impact of the characters’ deaths. It also doesn’t help that the main villain is defeated with the help of this random MacGuffin, so it all amounts to little more than lazy storytelling.

Here we go - the fifth and final installment of the “Twilight” series, the movie it has all been building towards! War is imminent, tension is building. And in the climax, all this tension explodes in a brilliant battle! Volturi, Cullens, werewolves - none are safe, and all sides suffer extreme casualties. Dang, this movie is going hard! Oh, nope, it was all a dream. Oh, sorry, a “vision.” Yep, this awesome fight was nothing but a cheap “what if,” and the characters decide not to battle after all, after which we get some final heartwarming concluding moments. This movie actually pulled a version of the “it was all a dream” gimmick. The gall of it.

“The Last Jedi” tried something different, and people didn’t like it. “The Rise of Skywalker” course corrected and tried staying closer to the established tone of the franchise – and people didn’t like it. The movie veered way too deep into the fan service pool, bringing back Emperor Palpatine and not really bothering to elaborate on how he’s alive. The final battle with him was nothing but a retread of “Return of the Jedi” – and a worse version of it, no less. Furthermore, the reveal of Rey’s lineage as a Palpatine and her subsequent adoption of the Skywalker name felt unearned to many. It was a cheap ploy to win back some lost goodwill, and most people saw right through it.

Did Christopher Nolan’s iconic “Batman” trilogy conclude in a satisfying manner? That depends on who you ask. Some saw this as an inferior follow up to “The Dark Knight,” with a rather subpar ending that left many raising their eyebrows. Bruce Wayne seemingly sacrifices himself to save Gotham, and while it would have been a bittersweet ending, it would have been satisfying enough. Yet, in a twist ending that was meant as a happy resolution, he’s later spotted alive in Europe with Selina Kyle. Fans were divided over his apparent happily ever after, especially as he passed the superhero mantle to a random police officer. It wasn’t a great conclusion to Bruce’s character arc, and exactly how he survived that explosion was never properly explained.

When it comes to anticlimactic endings, it’s hard to beat “War of the Worlds.” For about 110 of its 116 minutes, the film is a terrifying examination of an alien invasion and one man’s attempt to keep his family safe. And then it utterly collapses in the final five or so. The aliens randomly die from contracting Earth’s bacteria, and Robbie arrives out of nowhere for a schmaltzy family reunion, even though by all accounts he should be dead. Now, this isn’t entirely Spielberg’s fault, as the novel ends with the same “aliens catch a cold” twist. But come on, that Robbie reveal is just inexcusable, and it adds a further degree of silly to an already silly ending.

While we’re on the subject, let’s talk “Signs”! In the infamous ending to this film, we learn that the aliens are weak against water like some kind of Pokemon, and the invasion ends with a few spilled glasses of H2O. The idea of toxic water is even lamer than catching a cold. In fact, it’s so bad that it’s even mocked within the movie itself, with Morgan saying that the water weakness “sounds made up.” We’re with you, Morgan. Also, the idea of Bo leaving full glasses of water around the house is incredibly contrived, done for no other reason than providing a deus ex machina ending. Oh, and speaking of silly Shyamalan endings, how about “The Happening,” when the outbreak just sorta…stops?

This film from Frank Darabont delivers one of cinema’s bleakest endings, and some viewers were not happy with how it played out. Another invasion film, “The Mist” ends with David and his group driving into an unknown future. This is how Stephen King’s novella ends, but Darabont takes it one step further. Their car runs out of gas, and rather than letting them get taken by the monsters, David euthanizes everyone with a gun. And not two minutes later, the army arrives and cleanses the surrounding area of the mist. While some praise the twist and its gut-wrenching impact, many found it needlessly grim. Some also criticize David’s final scream, thinking it’s too melodramatic and ultimately unnecessary.

Some people feel like the original “Superman” ends rather cheaply, with Clark Kent reversing the Earth’s trajectory and going back in time to save the day. It’s a bit of a disappointment, and it doesn’t make a lick of sense. But whatever, it’s still iconic. What’s not iconic is the ending of Zack Snyder’s divisive reboot. During the epic battle against General Zod, Superman is forced to kill his enemy to save innocent civilians, and he does so by breaking his neck. Many fans were angered by this, believing that outright murder betrayed the character’s strict moral code. One could also say that it was edgy for the sake of being edgy, which is a criticism that Snyder often seems to attract.

Alright, look, we’ll accept face-melting ghosts, magic stones, and the Holy Grail, but we draw the line at aliens. This long-awaited sequel failed to live up to its predecessors for many reasons, including the infamous nuke scene and the divisive ending. We’ve got telepathic skeletons, interdimensional portals, actual aliens, and even a UFO for good measure. Even by the standards of “Indiana Jones,” this was ridiculous. Many fans felt that veering into science fiction was a mistake, especially as the earlier films told more supernatural religious stories. Hunting lost Biblical artifacts is just good, old fashioned fun. But flying saucers? Telepathic aliens? Come on now.

Remember the awesome ending of the original, with Neo donning the sunglasses and flying into the sky? Yeah, let’s just pretend “The Matrix” ended there. The sequels introduced a lot of good ideas, but also a lot of bad, and “Revolutions” ended on a thoroughly disappointing note. Neo and Smith fight in some gargantuan battle straight out of an anime, and then Neo dies in the most obvious Jesus metaphor of all time. Heck, there’s even a cross that forms over his dying body, just in case we missed it. And that’s saying nothing of the deus ex machina that ends the war, which is literally named Deus Ex Machina. Just because you’re self-aware about it doesn’t make it any less terrible.

This is one of the most famous cases of an original ending being way better than what we got. The original is more in keeping with the novel, as Neville realizes that he is the monster in a new world. He is the legend, the fabled boogeyman who steals people in the night. But test audiences didn’t like it, so they scrapped it and went with something else. In the new ending, Neville sacrifices himself and gives the cure to Anna, who in turn delivers it to the survivor’s colony. Now he’s a legend because he saved the world. Baaaarf. Funnily enough, the original ending is now considered canon, as a sequel is currently in development with Will Smith returning as Robert Neville.

It’s not the worst ending of all time, but it’s probably the most insulting. To find out why, please go to our website. We joke, but that’s the stupid ploy that this movie tried to pull. After nearly an hour and a half of story, it abruptly ends with a title card telling people to go to a site “for more information.” No, we’re not joking. The conclusion was widely panned, capping an already-bad movie with one of the worst finales of all time. To make matters worse, the website in question eventually went defunct. So people who watched “The Devil Inside” later either had to use the Wayback Machine or accept the lack of resolution.

Tim Burton was in a lose-lose situation. Either he copies the original’s ending, which everyone already knows, or he tries to better one of the most iconic twists in movie history. He attempted the latter, and while we respect the gusto, this ain’t it. Leo returns to Earth, finding General Thade in place of Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial. Furthermore, the first responders and press members are all apes. Why? We don’t know. Not even Burton knows, admitting on the DVD commentary that it was written to be ambiguous. The hope was that a sequel would answer the resulting questions. Well, no sequel was made, so now we’re left with an ending that, by the director’s own admission, doesn’t make a lick of sense.