Best movie endings ever : Twists in the tale

SPOILER ALERT !!!

The heroine and the hero's mother are tied up, strapped to some colourful time bombs. The villain and his gang of goons are all laughing ridiculously, even though technically they're close enough to get blasted if the time bomb explodes. Not to worry however as the warehouse door gets smashed as our hero enters jumping/in a horse/in a jeep. He and his gang of 3 college friends, one servant and one father ( and horse, if applicable ) fight the 35 goons, with the servant defeating his opponents using comical tactics. After beating the crap out of 34.5 goons, the focus turns on the heroine and suddenly the villain remembers he has a remote control for the time bomb as well. But our hero's too quick for him, beating the crap out of him till the police arrive. They arrest the villain. Just as the time bomb is removed and the couple hug, the villain steals the head officer's gun and turns towards the hero. Luckily his bullet hits the diving geriatric father and before he can shoot a second round, the hero takes a gun and kills the villain. Of course, the shot to the old dad is harmless and with the dead body lying there, the couple, the servant, dad and 3 best friends form a line and tell a cheap joke looking directly into the camera. THE END.

There. I'm sorry everyone but I've just told you the ending of 80 % of all Bollywood movies.( 95 %, if this were still the 90's. ) Sure, there maybe variations ( Daddy dies of the bullet wound, there maybe a NRI babe who's been chasing the hero but in the end decides to let the other girl keep him, gives up mini skirts and spends the rest of her life wearing white sarees ), but this was the standard formula, wasn't it ? And that's where we always got stuck. We never knew how to end movies... and the fact is that a good ending always tugs at your heart or mind, depending on what it aims to achieve.

So what were the best movie endings ever ? Here's my list of some movies that raised the bar simply because of a tremendous ending.Please note, there are movie spoilers here revealing the endings, so be warned before you continue reading.

Category I : The "Oh my God !! No way !!" ending.

Excluded : All teenage slasher/gore movies wherein in the last scene the dead villain suddenly comes is seen hidden in the cupboard/under the bed/ in my shorts. So that means no Scream/I know what you did last summer/Urban Legends/Final destination. Because we expected that !!

Consolation prizes : Too many to choose. So I had to leave out quite a few from the final 5 list. Still here are some movies worth the ticket just for the twist in the tail.
* Seven : "What's in the box ?" he asks. I remember this movie more than a decade after I last saw it for the tremendous ending between Brad Pitt as a cop who has no idea what's in the parcel and a very very calm murderous Kevin Spacey.
* The Usual Suspects : Watch it for Kevin Spacey. Avoid the Hindi version - Chocolate.
* Fight Club : Same director as Seven. You feel there's a twist coming up, but you ain't expecting what happens in the end.

* Primal Fear : This is more out of respect to the book really. But still, Edward Norton playing a choir boy with split personality accused of murder and on trial with only a pompous lawyer ( Richard Gere ) to save his ass from the gallows makes for compelling viewing. But somebody's gotta secreeeeeeet....

5.a Memento : You have a guy telling the story backwards. He loses his memory every 15 minutes and we're seeing it from the ending when he's killed someone to the beginning in short 5 minute bursts. It should have been a terribly annoying "creative concept" movie. But the ending when you realise you've been wrong about our hero all along changes the whole way you look at the movie and makes this a classic.

5.b Dead Silence : I really thought this was a cheap B-grade horror movie from the 80s. It's only while doing research to write this bit that I found out it was released in 2007 !!! Let's see. You have a ventriloquist dummy that's around when people die, their face stuck in a horrific pose. And then you have a guy trying to find out how the dummy's involved. Everything about this movie suggests it's gonna be a cheesy, cheap graphic, blood laden movie. Quite the opposite actually. It turns out to be a spooky horror mystery ( yes, with cheap graphics ) with an ending you'd never guess. Oh !! And the reason the dummy here has the same name as the dummy in the Saw series... same director/ writer for both !! Should have known.. should have known.

4. The Ring : Tell me you didn't get freaked out when the kid's face goes into shock when Naomi Watts tells him she saved the little girl Samara. And then you realise that little Samara doesn't want your pity or to be heard, after all. She ain't after redemption.. She's just after you.

That's the last time I'm ever gonna trust a uncombed little Japanese girl who comes out of Tv sets EVER AGAIN in my life.

3. The Prestige : 2 turn of the century magicians spend their entire lives trying to understand and outdo the other. While Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale ( Wolverine and Batman, for crying out loud ) meant eye candy for the girls, the script was totally filled with hidden hints that there was more than met the eye. And the ending revealed just how far both magicians were willing to go to succeed. A smart man's movie. Another movie loosely based on magicians with a good ending - Edward Norton's The Illusionist.

2. Saw : The movie had a pretty creepy feel to it throughout. Two guys awakening to find they're chained in a toilet with a dead man lying in between them. That was the introduction to the phenomenon that was the vigilante serial killer who 'doesn't kill', Jigsaw ( I still say India needs a 100 Jigsaws in real life. Maybe then, people will be a little more scared to commit crimes. ) Anyway, the ending catches you totally unawares. The signature theme music rising to a crescendo followed by awesome 'betcha didn't see that coming' endings would become a trademark of the series. Isn't it weird though that there have been 5 Saw movies even though the villain died in the 3rd part ???

1. The Sixth Sense : Well, really, there's no way this wasn't getting on the list, right ? If you're lucky like me, noone told you the ending before you saw the movie and you enjoyed the moment when Bruce Willis's wife drops the ring and the flashbacks begin, suddenly turning a pretty dull movie into an amazing art of storytelling. Shyamalan has tried repeatedly to repeat this kahani mein twist style of his with terrible results, though Unbreakable had a good ending too which you don't see coming.

I'm sure I've missed out some movies here. Anyway, tell me what you think of this list and if there are any you'd recommend just for their totally unexpected endings.

post-blogpost Recommendations ( In no particular order ) :

21 - Prats

A Wednesday - Nags

Lucky Number Slevin - Brocasarea

The Others - Gazal

Shawshank Redemption, August Rush - The Geekie

Eden Lake - Raj Prasan

Old boy, Donnie Darko, Ek Khiladi Ek Hasina - Careless Thinker

Stigmata, Gupt - Meira

Fracture, Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal Rising, Hannibal - T-Rex

Identity - Sourcebound