Top 30 Most HATED Movie Endings

This sequel to the 2012 reboot could have been so much better. While the critics did praise the romantic chemistry and the visual effects, the overstuffed plot featuring both the Green Goblin and Electro was a great detraction. Stopping Electro wouldve been a serviceable enough climax, but they had to pile on Peter foiling the Green Goblin and losing his girlfriend, Gwen. Guilt-stricken, Peter quits being Spider-Manonly to change his mind when a new threat arises, inspired by Gwens graduation speech. These plot points would have been fine if they had time to breathe. But as it is, its a lot to take in.

This sci-fi thriller follows a group of astronauts as they try to save a dying Sun and prevent the Earth from freezing over. This could have been a mind-bending psychological survivor film with commentary on climate disaster if it werent for the ending. Instead, the film chooses the slasher route à la Alien. It turns out the captain of a lost ship, Captain Pinbacker, is still alive. Now gone mad, he tries to kill the rest of the crew. The Icarus II crew succeeds in their mission, but their film never quite recovers from this sudden shift in genre.

Psychological thrillers are always tricky to pull off. This interesting 2022 film caused major discourse when it premiered at the 79th Venice International Film Festival. Dont Worry Darling follows a couple in the seemingly idyllic 50s company town, but of course, all is not what it seems. Soon, the wife, Alice, learns her reality is a virtual simulation. The women are trapped there while the men are free to come and go. Alice fights back, killing her husband and finally leaving the simulation. The ending is riddled with plot holes. If Alice escaped the simulation, wouldnt there be others in real life waiting to kill her? Its a head scratcher, all right, and not in a good way.

The faults of this film are too great to be reckoned, especially by diehard fans of the original animated series. The ending was especially insulting. When Aang and his team visit the Northern Water Tribe to master waterbending, the Fire Nation attacks. Only this time, Iroh and Zuko find their loyalties to their nation tested. The plot is much like the season finale of the animated series, except with worse pacing, dialogue, and performances. The films short runtime, way under two hours, did not help matters. Without the time to develop character and plot, The Last Airbender ended not with a bang, but with a whimper and a cliffhanger that went nowhere.

This sequel to Jurassic World made bank at the box office, but its ending nearly ruins everything it has going for it. When the government learns of an impending volcanic eruption, the question becomes whether the dinosaurs should be saved from it. While the U.S. Senate opts for the dinosaurs to die natural deaths, Claire Dearing and her allies decide to save the animals by relocating them. In the end, the dinosaurs are freed and now roam the earth. Didnt the original Jurassic Park come to the opposite conclusion? Also, an ending where the dinosaurs are let loose upon humankind without any other help is an inherently cursed one. Its lazy writing that should have been given more thought.

The first, controversial Joker had the grace of being a standalone film. This musical sequel, however, seems to undo everything the first film had accomplished. For one thing, the movie deliberately resists telling a Joker origin story, instead focusing on Flecks trial and relationship with Lee Quinzel. The last straw for fans came with the ending. When Fleck renounces his Joker persona, he is killed by an inmate, who begins to carve a smile on his face. This suggests that Fleck was not meant to be the Joker in the first place, and that the real Joker had been another guy all along. Talk about disappointing fans, which we guess mightve been intentional.

Based on the 1986 novel by Stephen King, the 2017 film established the evil clown, Pennywise, stalking the Losers Club. Now adults, the friends return in the sequel to stop Pennywises reign of terror once and for all. All well and good but just how do they stop this murderous entity that can take on any form? Simply put, by showing they are not afraid of It anymore. They call the giant clown-spider a jerk, and Pennywise shrinks. Really? This film is no psychological thrillerthe clown is very much real. If no longer fearing the clown was the key to destroying him, then why didnt Pennywise die at the end of the first film, when the Losers overcame their fears? What a weak conclusion.

Films about simulations seem to have the worst endings. This M. Night Shyamalan film showed promise as a tense period thriller. The film follows a 19th-century village as it is attacked by mysterious monsters or is it? It turns out the village is actually in a 21st-century wildlife reserve, isolated from the rest of society. The monsters turned out to be a lie by the elders, meant to keep the villagers from going out. The twist struck many as cheapening the genuine creepiness of the premise and setting. And of course, a lot of plot holes arise when you take the implications seriously.

This film follows four Robin Hood-esque magicians in pulling off heists. The FBI creates a task force, led by Agent Dylan Rhodes, to try to stop them. Fun as the premise is, the movie disappoints in one key respect: The finale. It turns out Rhodes was the son of a disgraced magician, seeking revenge for his fathers death. He had been secretly helping the magicians all along, foiling the FBIs attempts to capture them. Its a novel twist that nevertheless feels cheap and half-baked. Also, it raises a lot more questions than answers.

This action thriller follows engineer Clyde Shelton as he witnesses his wife and daughter get murdered. When attorney Nick Rice is unable to prosecute the criminal, it sets Clyde on a hunt to hunt down the killer, seeking vengeance on the justice system as a whole. Its a tense narrative, to be sure, although one riddled with illogic. It is also one let down by its ending. The finale shows Clyde hoisted by his own petard in his prison cell, almost quite literally, now at peace in his revenge quest. Honestly, the movie should have just let him win.

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 films 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, thats 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 endings abruptness and vagueness. Ottway charges at the alpha male with weapons, and the screen suddenly cuts to black, Sopranos style. We dont get to see the epic showdown, and were 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.

Heres 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 Cages 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 Nolans most divisive film yet, Tenet failed to please his legion of fans, and the messy ending certainly didnt help. Many of the films 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 Priyas 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 Pitts character finds himself quietly sneaking around a medical facility and avoiding zombies. Its not scary, and its 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 Spielbergs 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 movies 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 films 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, its pretty dumb. No, we dont 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 werent expecting from the franchise. But wouldnt 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 doesnt 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 didnt like it. The Rise of Skywalker course corrected and tried staying closer to the established tone of the franchise and people didnt 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 hes 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 Reys 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 Nolans 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, hes 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 wasnt a great conclusion to Bruces character arc, and exactly how he survived that explosion was never properly explained.

When it comes to anticlimactic endings, its 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 mans attempt to keep his family safe. And then it utterly collapses in the final five or so. The aliens randomly die from contracting Earths bacteria, and Robbie arrives out of nowhere for a schmaltzy family reunion, even though by all accounts he should be dead. Now, this isnt entirely Spielbergs 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 were on the subject, lets 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, its so bad that its even mocked within the movie itself, with Morgan saying that the water weakness sounds made up. Were 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 sortastops?

This film from Frank Darabont delivers one of cinemas 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 Kings 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 Davids final scream, thinking its too melodramatic and ultimately unnecessary.

Some people feel like the original Superman ends rather cheaply, with Clark Kent reversing the Earths trajectory and going back in time to save the day. Its a bit of a disappointment, and it doesnt make a lick of sense. But whatever, its still iconic. Whats not iconic is the ending of Zack Snyders 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 characters 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, well 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. Weve 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, lets 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, theres even a cross that forms over his dying body, just in case we missed it. And thats saying nothing of the deus ex machina that ends the war, which is literally named Deus Ex Machina. Just because youre self-aware about it doesnt 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 didnt 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 survivors colony. Now hes 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.

Its not the worst ending of all time, but its probably the most insulting. To find out why, please go to our website. We joke, but thats 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, were 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 originals 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 aint 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 dont 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 were left with an ending that, by the directors own admission, doesnt make a lick of sense.

What other films do you think had an abysmal ending? Let us know in the comments down below!