Top 10 Worst Ways to End a Movie

These are some of the worst ways I can think of to end a movie.
The Top Ten
1 Cutting off a sentence and cue the credits

The Spongebob episode of the Krusty Krab ended with the narrator saying "The secret krabby patty formula I" then credits.

It's a pretty lazy way to end any movie.

2 Killing off the main characters

Even though it's not a movie, Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans is a great example of how killing off the main character at the end can ruin something.

Oh, I don't know...Even though Misery only had two main characters, somehow I didn't feel cheated when Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates) was killed off.

I actually disagree. This isn't overused to the point of it being a big cliche, and not all movies have to end all happy

Depends on the execution of the character's(s') death. Gladiator is a good example of the (SPOILER) main character dying and still maintaining a satisfying ending/

3 Ending it on a cliffhanger

Especially if a sequel will never be made.

So you hated the ending of Iron Man?

Unless there's a sequel

4 Making a terrible pun before the end credits appear

I actually laughed out loud just from reading this because I could totally picture that. I feel it would work if Simon Pegg did it.

5 Using a cheap jumpscare to scare the audience

Done to death in horror movies especially Unfriended...

6 Making the plot convoluted for no reason other than to quickly end the movie

This explains itself.

7 Having it all be a dream

One of my least favorite cliches, this is just a cheap way to pull an ending to a movie out of your ass.

This has been done to death...

8 Dance party ending

While the Shrek movies mostly used this method a lot when concluding their movies, it's been done to death in many other animated movies. Most of the time, I'm fine with it if it's relevant to the plot or it's well-executed, but other times, it just feels tact on and more like kid-pandering. That means you, The Emoji Movie...

This has been done to death.

9 Making the screen go static

No movie I can think of has done this yet but still it would be a cheap way to end a movie.

10 Making the main character learn nothing at the end

Protagonists learn and change like normal people and if they don't learn or improve then they're terrible protagonists.

If this happens in a movie, you know you screwed up.

The Contenders
11 Explaining the entire plot while the viewer already understands it

Imagine that you're watching a movie, and you understand the plot before the movie ends. Then, the movie ends with a 10-minute monologue explaining the entire plot, while giving you the exact same information that you already found out yourself during the movie.

12 Having a generic plot twist that's predictable to end the movie
13 Ending it with a cheap explosion

There's been enough Michael Bay movies like that.

14 Unexpectedly changing the plot, tone and setting of the movie for no reason
15 Random scene with no purpose.
16 Happy ending

Some movies do deserve an ending where the protagonists achieved what they set out to do and are rewarded. Many great stuff like "The Shawshank Redemption", "The Lord of the Rings" and many of the Mario games have happy endings and wind up praised.

Yes, there are darker endings that do work as well, but happy endings are sometimes deserved depending on what genre a fiction is based upon.

17 Characters split up

Like what happens in every Disney sequel from Wreck it Ralph 2 onwards. Even Frozen 2 had this.

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