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Top 10 Worst Endings Every now-and-then an absolutely brilliant film will fall to pieces in the last act or the closing moments. To be honest, many things can ruin a great film, bad writing, awful acting, ridiculous premises, 20th Century Fox. I find a terrible ending to be one of the worst insults any film maker can bestow upon its audience, almost as if to say, "You sat through it, you know it was shit, we know it was shit, now get out - moan if you like, we still have all your fucking money!" Another reason it irritates me so terribly is that only sometimes a director or editor can be blamed, on every other occasion the errors were in the script, which means everyone involved had the opportunity to say, "Hey, this ending is terrible!" I wouldn't think it necessary to add this but the following contains spoilers and ruins the ending of the film, if you haven't already seen it. 10. Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King [2003] Directed By: Peter Jackson As Peter Jackson's marathon trilogy finally comes to a close we are subjected to ending-after-ending including a gay hobbit pillow fight, sailing off into the sunset and a wealth of other loose ends tied up. I understand the ending is the way it is because of the book and that all the exposition was necessary but the theatrical release was three and a half hours long - we just wanted to go home! 9. Contact [1997] Directed By: Robert Zemeckis Contact was a very average film but the ending was such a piss-take. To quote South Park: "Sat through that entire movie to see the alien and it was her goddamn father!" 8. The Magnificent Ambersons [1942] Directed By: Orson Welles The ultimate case of studio interference. Over two reels of Orson Welles' creation were cut and this spiritual upbeat ending was slapped in that made little-to-no sense. Disgusting actions taken by RKO. 7. Ocean's Eleven [2001] Directed By: Steven Soderbergh Rather than following the humorous ending of the original Ocean's Eleven, in which the money is accidentally cremated, George Clooney's bunch get away with it; and why? All to setup a sequel! 6. Fast Food Nation [2006] Directed By: Richard Linklater A rather messy film, agreed but the ending was just horrendous. Evidently it was thought that the concept of exploiting Mexicans, slacker kid employees who mistreat your food or excrement in meat wouldn't put audiences off fast food, so cue the slaughtering of cows! I must confess, I wasn't exactly phased, I've seen animals slaughtered and as long as it's done humanely, I'm not opposed. The letting of blood and the spasm that the animals suffer are just procedure and nerve endings. I don't agree that people of unstable minds who enjoy torturing the animals before death should be employed but just because you play some sad music and show me a few shocking images, I'm not going to turn vegetarian for crying out loud. Just disgusting heart-string pulling that insults the actual message. 5. Magnolia [1999] Directed By: Paul Thomas Anderson Granted, this film was very good and a web of deep and intricate character studies but what the fuck was with the ending? How can we settle everyone's problems in one go? Oh, wait, I know! A meteorological anomaly that causes what appears to be a storm of frogs. Fracking stupid. 4. Jurassic Park III [2001] Directed By: Joe Johnston It's Jurassic Park, we all knew the ending would be fairly cop-out but this was just obscene. Without cause, reason or justification, Dr. Ellie Sattler manages to convince (or sleep with every Senator in Washington) the US Government to send a whole fleet of marines to save a handful of stupid citizens. Absurd and outright insulting. 3. A.I.: Artificial Intelligence [2001] Directed By: Steven Spielberg I'm not even sure where to start with this one. The film wasn't great but it wasn't awful. Visually it was interesting, the political issues were fairly engaging but overall it was a little average. Then there was the ending, where this doll child is frozen underwater for aeons before being dug out by fucking aliens! What the fuck!? 2. Planet Of The Apes [2001] Directed By: Tim Burton A wholly unnecessary reimagining of a Sci-Fi cult classic but rather than just realising it was Earth, screaming "God damn you all to hell!" and settling down with the natives, Mark Wahlberg gets in his ship arrives in an America identical to ours.. except for monkey heads. So abysmally horrific!! 1. War Of The Worlds [2005] Directed By: Steven Spielberg An amazing film in which Cruise plays an unconventionally cold, cowardly character, who after the aliens are defeated needs to explain to his child that her mother is dead. Not only that, he has to confront the truth that he was only bringing the kids to their mother because he was a terrible father. As it turns out, the street on which the mother lives appears to be largely untouched by the invasion. That still leaves the death of the first born to explain to the mother... oh wait, it's alright, he got there a few hours earlier and was just sitting down to a spot of lunch. FUCK YOU, SPIELBERG! Not only is this a terrible ending because it undercuts everything the film was pressing for but it cheapens H.G. Well's original, insightful finale. Disgraceful.