Science fiction is easily one of the most creative genres, with the potential for some incredible endings, but while some films hit the mark, there are many others that fail to wake up. Science fiction is a genre known for pushing boundaries and introducing new concepts and methods into cinema. Although science fiction begins as spectacular, far-fetched images and stories, the way these films are filmed ends up influencing the rest of cinema.
However, films also feature powerful endings that leave audiences in awe. Many films feature big twists or some kind of question mark ending, but not all of them seem so inspiring. For every film, like the original Planet of the Apeswhere the ending leaves audiences surprised, there are a dozen that seem to raise more questions than they answer, and not in a good way.
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Great ending: Ex Machina
AI has become one of the most prevalent themes in modern science fiction films, with many of these films exploring what the future of AI could be like. To Ex-machineAdvances in AI have resulted in people struggling to fully separate artificial intelligence from natural, human intelligence. In the film, Caleb, a young scientist, falls into this trap when he meets and has the opportunity to interact with the highly advanced robot Ava.
Ava convinces Caleb that she has genuine feelings for him, which he reciprocates. In a complex strategy, the pair come up with a plan for Ava and Caleb to escape together, but when it’s time for the duo to make their big break, Ava turns against Caleb. Instead of flying off into the sunset together, Ava leaves Caleb trapped in the cell where she spent most of her life. Whether she feels any pangs of guilt or remorse, her sense of justice and self-preservation win out, as she takes the helicopter and leaves the humans who had been watching her like a lab rat to fend for themselves, alone and trapped as she was. .
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Disappointing Ending: Artificial Intelligence AI
On a very different note, Steven Spielberg also weighed in on the AI ​​film genre in 2001 with AI Artificial Intelligence. Spielberg’s vision is brilliant in many ways, as a young robot, named David, is given to a family to help them overcome the grief of their sick son. However, when his biological son recovers, David becomes jealous. In this film, David experiences emotion as he becomes attached to the mother who took him in and treated him like a son, until her own son returns home.
David’s journey after being rejected from his home takes him down many dark paths, but for the most part, the film is extremely intriguing and provocative until the end. The film’s final scenes show David fulfilling his wish to be with his mother again, 2,000 years in the future, thanks to advanced robots that reconstruct his memories. The problem is that this version of his mother only lives one day, and David then lays down to rest with her. It’s a strange payoff in a film that offers no real growth or resolution.
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Grand Final: Arrival
Several science fiction films deal with alien invasions, with varying degrees of success. Arrival was a 2016 film directed by Denis Villeneuve in which a group of aliens come to Earth with a mysterious message for humans. Of course, the humans initially perceive the aliens as a threat, and much of the film follows their struggles to come to an agreement on how to respond.
The ending, however, shows the humans making peace with the aliens, understanding what their message is more comprehensively, and comes with a clever time travel twist. While no one physically travels through time in an unconventional way, learning the aliens’ language unlocks your perception of time in a non-linear sense, essentially gaining the ability to see the future. This twist is already exciting, but the way it connects the beginning of the film to the present and future is simply remarkable.
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Disappointing Ending: War of the Worlds
Another alien-focused film comes from the incredible and innovative mind of the late, great HG Wells. THE War of the Worlds has been adapted several times, but the 2005 film starring Tom Cruise added a significant change that altered the ending and distracted from the film’s central themes. In the midst of an alien invasion, humans are dominated by incredibly powerful aliens whose technology is far superior to anything on Earth.
Ultimately, the aliens are eventually wiped out by lowly bacteria, which the aliens were never exposed to, and thus become deathly ill. However, the problem with the 2005 film’s ending comes from a strange choice to have one character, Robbie, rush to almost certain death at the beginning of the film, only to appear again at the end, safe and sound. It’s a happy reunion, but the choice to add this conflict and resolution felt unnecessary and pointless.
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Grand Finale: Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back
The original trilogy of Star Wars films are often praised as being one of the greatest science fiction films of all time. Featuring a large, complex world against the backdrop of the newly designated space opera, these films became incredibly popular and their popularity endures to this day. However, some of this success can be attributed to the sequel, The Empire Strikes Backreleased in 1980.
Today, the ending of this film has become one of the most iconic endings of all time, as Luke Skywalker finally comes face to face with the Empire’s terrifying leader, Darth Vader. Luke’s training prepared him to fight this monster, but when Darth Vader reveals his true identity, as Luke Skywalker’s father, it completely rocks the young man’s world. Having been convinced that this was the man who killed his father, Luke despairs when he discovers that Vader was his father all along.
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Disappointing ending: Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker
However, later entries in the incredible saga haven’t handled these big revelations as neatly. In the sequel trilogy, Rey becomes a central protagonist, whose fate appears to be tied to the future of the Jedi in some significant way. Rey experiences a powerful connection to the Force, and even a psychic bond with her supposed rival, Kylo Ren, but all of this happens without Rey fully understanding who she is. For this reason, Rey’s heritage became a central mystery that demanded to be solved.
However, when it was revealed that Rey was actually the granddaughter of the Emperor himself, Palpatine, it came with Palpatine’s unexpected return. This ending is disappointing in two ways, with Palpatine’s return coming out of nowhere and feeling pointless, and Rey’s heritage reinforcing the message that she had to be someone. It would have been better to simply make Rey a nobody but the world of Star Wars instead, it has chosen to promote a chosen narrative that feels empty and overused.
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Great ending: beginning
Christopher Nolan has often been praised for his incredible directing and storytelling skills. In 2010, he delivered one of his most enduring and powerful projects, Startwhich became one of his most elaborate and mind-bending films to date. Much of the film explores the dream world, with a concept of how deep people can go into these imagined realities and when reality disappears and blurs along with the dream world.
The film promotes this powerful narrative and the concept of what is real and what is simply a dream, but only in the final moments does the film decide to leave the audience in a feeling of limbo. After exploring dreamlike levels, the film ends with the protagonist, Cobb, reuniting with his children. However, in the moments before this, he uses his totem, a tool to help discern when one is dreaming, but leaves it spinning without worrying about what the true outcome is. With a sharp cut to black, the audience is also left unsure of what is true, but ultimately the answer is less important than the journey.
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Disappointing Ending: Lucy
Lucia takes a very different path by exploring how humans interact with reality. This film explores what happens when a young girl gains increasing access to her brain. The premise comes from a flawed myth about how humans only use 10% of their brains, but the action and exploration are utterly intriguing.
However, when Lucy reaches the point where 100% of her brain is available to her, she transcends her physical body, disappears into the ether, and becomes a sort of god-level being. This ending is underwhelming and feels like a cop-out as Lucy stops being an advanced human and essentially becomes an idea and some digital information floating in space.
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Great ending: Matrix
The Matrix it completely redefined science fiction films and provided an incredible insight into perceived reality that remains prescient to this day. Throughout the film, the digital world is explored and revealed to be a hoax set up by machines that harvest humans and feed on their life force. Meanwhile, one man is given the opportunity to see the truth for himself, while the other rebels around him seem to believe he is a mysterious individual known as The One.
After denying this and struggling to accept his destiny, Neo eventually becomes a competent soldier, but only when his beloved Trinity reveals her prophecy does he accept his identity as The One. From this moment on, Neo changes the game and finds new ways to interact with the Matrix and challenge the robot overlords that threaten the future of all humanity. A powerful ending that ticks all the boxes for action, romance, and self-realization.
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Disappointing ending: signs
M. Night Shyamalan is known for creating films with great twists, but not all of these films arrive in the same way. When it comes to SignsIt sits roughly in the middle of the pack in terms of Shyamalan’s best films, but has received some negative attention for the film’s ending. Although the film is set up as a film about an alien invasion, the resolution brings the story into a narrative about faith.
This isn’t inherently bad, and the twist was presented well in the film, which helped make it feel like a natural conclusion, but it’s also underwhelming for a film about aliens. In a way, this reframed the entire film as a film about faith rather than a science fiction film, and that can be appreciated on a rewatch, but it initially feels like a bait and switch. Overall, it’s one of the most disappointing endings to a science fiction film, which fails to make the film stand out in the genre.