Just End It...

Ladies and gentleman, football is BACK, and I could not be happier! That being said, I’m not a sports writer, so I figured I’d treat you all to another lesson on movies. (I’m doing everything I can to not scream at my TV, and this is the only thing helping right now.) In previous articles, I’ve written about Title Sequences, Trailers, and going to the theater. My article on Writer’s Block touches on ending a piece of writing, but today I wanted to take the time to examine, in my opinion, the most important part of any film, and that’s the ending. 

Also, this should be obvious, but this article is going to contain A LOT of major spoilers for multiple films, so navigate this minefield as you will. 

The ending of any movie is usually the most memorable part. Filmmakers use endings to really stick the landing on a movie. If the ending is mediocre, or even poor, then usually the viewer leaves the theater feeling dissatisfied. The best example of a great movie with a sub-par ending in recent memory for me was 2025’s Weapons. Everyone who had a hand in this film brought their A-Game, especially actors Amy Madigan (Marquette Alumni, fun fact) and Benedict Wong. The dialogue, acting, editing, and direction were all on point for this movie. But, for some reason, the ending just doesn’t hit for me. Thematically speaking, having the tone switch from a spooky, brutal fight between the two primary protagonists, to the antagonist getting chased down in slapstick fashion completely took me out of it. Then, in a last second hail mary attempt to redramatize the film, the narrator explaining what happened to some of the children just felt… I don’t know, lazy? For what was otherwise a brilliant movie, the last five minutes did not carry the weight that the scene required. 

Okay, this article isn’t meant to lambast Weapons. It’s a great movie, and Madigan 100% deserved the Oscar she won. Today I want to examine 3 films that I think have perfect endings. Each picture I’ll touch on today has an ending that perfectly wraps up its story, and all three do so in a different way. One creates a cliffhanger, another leaves the ending ambiguous, and the third completely changes the story with a twist unlike any that came before it. These movies are: 

1995’s The Usual Suspects by Bryan Singer

2010’s Inception by Christopher Nolan

2023’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson

Once again, major spoilers lie ahead.

All three of these movies are spectacular. The first viewing of The Usual Suspects is one of those canon events in a film fan’s life. Speaking of canon events, the cliffhanger at the end of Spider-Man still has me stressing 3 years later. When it comes to endings that will keep you up at night, Inception has had viewers wrestling and debating over the spinning top for 16 years. 

The first film I’ll examine today is Inception. It’s no secret that I absolutely adore Christopher Nolan as a writer and director. I’ve discussed The Dark Knight in like 4 articles, and many of his other films have been mentioned on this blog in the past. That being said, my opinion stands that none of Nolan’s films will ever have a better ending than Inception. Nolan builds the ending from the onset of the film. The spinning top totem is one of the first plot devices shown in the film, and it is crucial to the story. The totem is used by Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) to determine whether or not he is dreaming, so if the top falls, he is awake, and if not, his dream continues. Inception’s ending works for a few reasons. Throughout the entire third act, the viewer is unsure whether or not Cobb even wants to return to reality. His late wife does whatever she can to convince him to stay in Limbo with her, he’s a wanted man, and he has pretty much every reason to stay with Mal (Marion Cotillard). Except for his children. During multiple heist scenes, Cobb’s children are seen briefly, playing with each other and reminding Cobb of the last time he saw them. But we never see their faces. Cobb’s biggest regret is that before he left, he never called out to see them again. So, after he lands in Los Angeles, supposedly made a free man by Saito (Ken Watanabe), and returns home, it is monumental that he is finally able to see their faces again. The relief the audience feels, that we can confirm that Cobb has truly returned home, and ditched the dream reality, is palpable. Zimmer’s score quiets, Cobb’s children turn and see him, and their family is finally reunited. But then he remembers something. Cobb needs to be sure. He places the top on the table, and revolves it one last time. Except, he decides that he doesn’t care. He walks away from the top, and embraces his kids like any dad would. Cobb walks out of frame, and the camera pans down. The audience is now alone with the top. Suddenly, that relief is gone.

It’s still spinning. Why is it still spinning? Shouldn’t it topple? Oh thank god. It’s wobbling…it’s about to topple. No it can’t be! The screen went black! What happened? Did it fall? I need to know! 

Nolan never answers this question. Inception has a truly ambiguous ending that has woken me up from deep sleeps more times than I’m comfortable admitting, and I love it for that reason. 

Movies based around a multi-verse normally annoy me. Honestly, I think opening the multi-verse in the MCU was one of the main reasons it fell off so hard. It worked really well in season one of Marvel’s What If…?, but that was mostly because each episode acted more as a vignette, rather than an actual story. Sure, the episodes funneled into an over-arcing storyline, but in general, each episode was just a fun look at alternate realities. However, when they brought an actual multiversal element into the MCU’s main timeline, I think that’s when the other shoe dropped. It makes things far too complicated when a cinematic universe made up of dozens of characters opens the doors to even more universes. That being said, when a singular main character’s universe is then opened to a Multi-Verse format, and done with nuance, it can work. This is exactly what happened in the Spider-Verse franchise. 

In 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the audience is given a taste of the possibility of a multi-verse, however the filmmakers keep it grounded. There are characters from different universes, but the adventure stays in one singular universe (Earth-1610). We get used to the art style of Earth-1610, the characters, and the general feel of this universe. When the other Spider-Men are introduced, we’re given slight glimpses of their realities, including their own respective art styles and vibes, such as Gwen Stacy’s watercolor inspired universe, or the cartoon reality that Spider-Ham calls home. But the adventure stays in Earth-1610. In the 2023 sequel, Across the Spider-Verse, the filmmakers turn this on its head. The second and third acts of the film leave Earth-1610 behind, and Miles is exposed to the rest of the Spider-Verse. 

Side note: If you haven’t watched the Spider-Verse movies, give them a chance. They’re animated to perfection, and the soundtrack and score in both films are insane. The way that the animators play around with framerates and art styles, just to make them all clash with each other is one of the most impressive displays of art this century. Just look at the chase scene. Drawn entirely by hand, this scene supposedly took a team of animators almost 5 years to complete. These movies are a testament to comic books and man-made art in the best way. 

The ending of ATSV has to be one of the best cliffhangers in decades. While other superhero films like Avengers: Infinity War leave audiences with cliffhangers as well, the slow burn reveal of ATSV’s ending is truly masterful. The reveal that Miles is in the wrong universe is bone chilling. In the first movie, the whistling theme is used during Miles’ “puberty phase.” It’s heard in the background after he is bitten by the radioactive spider, signaling that he is undergoing a change, and that something is different. In the sequel, it is conversely used to show that Miles is that different something. On the first viewing, most audience members didn’t realize the subtle differences in art styles between Earth-1610 and Earth-42. They look very similar, however Earth-42 leans more on pointillism, rather than 1610’s computer generated design. Then, the score builds even more, to reveal none other than Uncle Aaron, alive and well. After Aaron realizes something is up with Miles this evening, Miles 1610 gets knocked unconscious. He awakens tied to a punching bag, and we find out the cold hard truth. In Earth-42, not only is Miles not Spider-Man, HE is the Prowler. It is a brilliant reveal, and the filmmakers could have just cut the film there. Everyone would have been satisfied, but instead, they extended the run time just a little more. They show the other Spider-People rallying, joining forces to save their friend. This changes the tone of the ending, shining light on an otherwise dark situation. And finally, the film closes on Miles-1610. They show him confident and ready to fend for himself. What we will see in Beyond the Spider-Verse is that Miles’ mission is clear, and this is Spider-Man at his best. 

Okay, I’ve given you two spoiler warnings already. But for this next film, I’m begging you, if you haven’t seen The Usual Suspects, please stop reading. This is the movie that inspired this article, and I can promise you it has one of the best endings in cinema history. Don’t even look it up, just watch it. You’ll thank me later. 

I saw The Usual Suspects for the first time when I was younger, however I rewatched it for the first time a few weeks ago, and I was completely blown away. I knew the twist, but I’d completely forgotten how brilliant the ending was. Throughout the entire film, Keyser Söze is the most feared name spoken by any character. The film is framed around a conversation between U.S. Customs Agent David Kujan, (Chazz Palminteri) and the crippled small-time criminal Verbal Kint (Kevin Spacey). Kujan and Verbal discuss the robbery of a boat that was supposed to be smuggling $91 million worth of cocaine, and Verbal tells Kujan that he and his crew were hired to lift the drugs. However, the boat ends up getting blown to smithereens, and almost everyone on it, or involved in the heist, dies that night except for Verbal and one Hungarian gangster. 

So, what happened on the boat? That’s what Kujan is determined to figure out. He grills Verbal in the police sergeant’s office, and Verbal tells him what happens, despite repeatedly going on tangents about unrelated things, such as the time he spent singing in a barbershop quartet, near Skokie, Illinois. Throughout the film, Kujan wants information from Verbal in order to pin Dean Keaton (Gabriel Byrne) as the enigmatic and elusive criminal mastermind Keyser Söze. He wants to learn more about Söze’s lawyer, Kobayashi, and the middleman they interacted with, Redfoot. Eventually, after hours of interrogation, Kujan is able to get Verbal to both realize and admit the truth. Söze really is Keaton. There were no drugs on the boat, only the one man who could identify the notorious criminal, and Verbal and the other members of the crew were set-up to help complete the hit. Keaton is the bad guy, and Verbal was just the lucky cripple that Keaton allowed to get away. In the process of getting the answers he so desires, Kujan breaks Verbal’s heart. He makes Verbal realize that his friend never cared about him, and that he was just a pawn. Verbal leaves, and a satisfied Kujan finally steps back to examine the story’s bigger picture. Everything has fallen into place quite well. Sure, he doesn’t have his man, but Keaton has to know how close Kujan got to him. Then, he sees the corkboard’s manufacturer: 

Quartet. Skokie, Illinois. 

On that corkboard is a wanted poster, with known aliases listed, the final name being Redfoot. Kujan drops his coffee mug. The manufacturer is none other than Kobayashi. As Verbal leaves the police station, he straightens himself out. He stops limping, walks straight, flexes his bad hand, and lights his own cigarette unassisted for the first time in the film. 

It was all a lie. 

The ending of The Usual Suspects is one of the best twist endings in cinema history. The end reveals that what the audience has watched over the last hour and 48 minutes was all a ploy. Maybe it was all real? Maybe it wasn’t? Kujan doesn’t know, and neither do you. 

Every part of a film leads to that final cut to black. When it’s done like these films do it, that cut to black, and silence is the brightest and loudest part of your day. 

“The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist. And like that, he’s gone.”