Sci-Fi Endings: The Best and the Worst

[Luckyflux]

Not going to rehash all of the great choices already mentioned....but I never liked the ending of The Ninth Gate. It was purposely left as uncertain I guess?


SPOILERS BELOW!!! (I think)


It has been a awhile but for some reason Johnny Depp starts banging the chick, actually the chick is banging him! then she starts to turn into a demon and the gate opens up and he walks of into the mountain side toward the figure in the sky??? I might have that all messed up but I remember liking the movie alot, but getting disappointed about the ending.

 

[Agent Richard07]

Speaking of tape stopping, when I was taping the finale of Battlestar Galactica, the tape stopped just after the Galactica jumped away from the Cylon base into the direction of Earth and before the scenes taking place on Earth. In the beginning, I was angry that I didn't have enough tape to cover the whole finale but after watching the part I wasn't able to tape, I would have felt better it had ended with the shot of Galactica heading towards Earth leaving it to our imagination what happens next like the Sopranos ending.

That would have been Voyager all over again.

 

[Harvey]

And, although the sequels are not as good, I'd say the endings of part two (Beneath the Planet of the Apes) and three (Escape from the Planet of the Apes) are just as good. I won't reveal them, in case people haven't seen these films (they should).

I won't either, but partly because I only dimly remember them. At this point my most vivid memory of the Planet of the Apes sequels is wanting to crawl into a pit and die, I didn't enjoy a single one.

I'm just more of a glutton for punishment than you, Kegg. Why, I've seen Iron Man, too.

Though, I sort of like the sequels, save for the last one (and even that has John Huston). They don't have anything on the original film, of course. And each one does some serious ret-conning of the previous film(s) in order to explain its existence. Still, the ending to the second film, which is probably the darkest ending to a Hollywood movie that's ever been filmed. A shame I can't find it on Youtube.

 

[Mistral]

And, although the sequels are not as good, I'd say the endings of part two (Beneath the Planet of the Apes) and three (Escape from the Planet of the Apes) are just as good. I won't reveal them, in case people haven't seen these films (they should).

I won't either, but partly because I only dimly remember them. At this point my most vivid memory of the Planet of the Apes sequels is wanting to crawl into a pit and die, I didn't enjoy a single one.

I'm just more of a glutton for punishment than you, Kegg. Why, I've seen Iron Man, too.

Though, I sort of like the sequels, save for the last one (and even that has John Huston). They don't have anything on the original film, of course. And each one does some serious ret-conning of the previous film(s) in order to explain its existence. Still, the ending to the second film, which is probably the darkest ending to a Hollywood movie that's ever been filmed. A shame I can't find it on Youtube.

One of the darkest, that's for sure.

 

[Silvercrest]

Anyone see "Annihilation Earth" recently? It was another typical Skiffy cheesefest, but the ending was gutsy.

 

[Neroon]

Anyone see "Annihilation Earth" recently? It was another typical Skiffy cheesefest, but the ending was gutsy.

Gutsy? In what way?

 

[RoJoHen]

I loved BSG's finale, though I understand there are a lot of people who didn't. And while I can understand where their opinions are coming from, I completely disagree with them. Frankly, that finale surpassed my expectations.

Farscape is also fucking amazing and probably my favorite.

TNG's finale "All Good Things" is also really awesome and remains one of my favorite episodes of anything ever.


As for worst...

Honestly, I don't know. I really haven't seen too many shows with bad finales. "The X-Files," maybe? It wasn't necessarily bad, but I was really upset they resorted to the clip-show style of storytelling.

I didn't stick with ENT long enough to see its finale, and I'm okay with that.

 

[Jan]

Worst? Jeremiah. In the ending, events were rushed and compressed that begged further elaboration. All because the people behind the scenes couldn't do their jobs. That's right-they failed at their jobs. I include J Michael in this. Their job, when the day was done, was to deliver the viewing experience to the consumers but they were so busy fighting amongst themselves they couldn't do that. So, worst ending.

To be fair, there was no reason why the last episode of Jeremiah should have been an end to the series. There was no reason why MGM/Showtime couldn't have hired a new showrunner and gone on to more seasons. If they had, I'd say that JMS left it at a good place with some threads tied up and others that could have been picked up if the new showrunner had wanted to.

I wish they had continued it.

Jan

 

[Silvercrest]

Anyone see "Annihilation Earth" recently? It was another typical Skiffy cheesefest, but the ending was gutsy.

Gutsy? In what way?

Well,

 

[DevilEyes]

^ Did you put something in the tag, as in (putting <> instead of [] for obvious reasons) <spoiler="whatever">something</spoiler>?

Spoiler: whatever

something

It won't work otherwise.

Spoiler

doesn't work this way

 

[Tom]

BSG was good but it 'Over Ended' if there is such a thing.

 

[JiNX-01]

Then Mackie got a job in front of a computer and learned how bad Windows Vista was.

As a victim of Dell's promotion of Vista, I contend that is an ending that matches TATV as the Worst. Ending. Ever.

 

[RoJoHen]

BSG was good but it 'Over Ended' if there is such a thing.

I actually found the extra stuff a bit refreshing. It gave the ending time to wind down. I find most finales to be a bit too jarring and rushed.

 

[Goji]

My favorite film ending is probably still the third of the 90's Gamera films. Sort of a "Butch Cassidy" ending on a planetary scale.

Deep Space Nine and Farscape continue to have the best endings in the realm of televised science fiction. But if "The Undiscovered Country" can be taken as the true end of TOS, I'd rank it fairly high as well. A very classy, dignified exit for the original crew, and the one-sided fight against the cloaked Klingon ship is one of my favorite space battles.

 

[RoJoHen]

Deep Space Nine and Farscape continue to have the best endings in the realm of televised science fiction. But if "The Undiscovered Country" can be taken as the true end of TOS, I'd rank it fairly high as well. A very classy, dignified exit for the original crew, and the one-sided fight against the cloaked Klingon ship is one of my favorite space battles.

The final voiceover with the Enterprise flying towards the sun still chokes me up a bit.

 

[Silvercrest]

Anyone see "Annihilation Earth" recently? It was another typical Skiffy cheesefest, but the ending was gutsy.

Gutsy? In what way?

Let's see if I can make the spoiler tags work this time.

Well,

Spoiler: "Ending"

they, y'know, annihilated the Earth. In most Skiffy features, someone generally saves the day at the last second, no matter how unrealistically.

Besides, this was portrayed as a guy making a choice. He had to decide between the advice of his friend and the orders of his superiors. And there's some implication that he knew what he was doing when he made his choice.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Anyone see "Annihilation Earth" recently? It was another typical Skiffy cheesefest, but the ending was gutsy.

Gutsy? In what way?

Let's see if I can make the spoiler tags work this time.

Well,

Spoiler: "Ending"

they, y'know, annihilated the Earth. In most Skiffy features, someone generally saves the day at the last second, no matter how unrealistically.

Besides, this was portrayed as a guy making a choice. He had to decide between the advice of his friend and the orders of his superiors. And there's some implication that he knew what he was doing when he made his choice.

Spoiler: spoiler

Had to end that way. Listening to Marina Sirtis horrible "American" accent one second longer would have doomed the Earth anyway.

 

[Silvercrest]

True. No wonder he did it on purpose.

 

[Kegg]

I'm just more of a glutton for punishment than you, Kegg. Why, I've seen Iron Man, too.

I saw Iron Man too (just not in theatres.) My off-the-cuff dissing of it was at least based on experience. I really wouldn't condemn a film I haven't seen, which is why I'm reluctant to get involved in, say, Twilight bashing.

And hey, I've seen my fair share of awful movies, often intentionally. Nothing better than riffing a bad movie with a friend. Why, this Halloween I saw both Heavy Metal pictures. I guarantee you I endured more horror that night than anyone else on the board, unless they were marathoning Battlefield Earth and Manos or something. (On topic: They have awful endings. Awful beginnings and middle too, so that might not count.)

Sadly, I saw the Planet of the Apes sequels alone. This might be the cause of the bad memory. Anyone considering watching 'em: Even the ones people argue to be good (number four and three, usually, right?) aren't exactly cinematic classics, so settle down and riff them. Number two and five are particularly dire, also, so a degree of mockery is required to survive the spectacle.

Still, the ending to the second film, which is probably the darkest ending to a Hollywood movie that's ever been filmed. A shame I can't find it on Youtube.

Yeah, that's a great overblown ending. Not to spoil anything, but it seems to be an ending designed to make sequels impossible, which is of course why we had three more. Number three had a similarly bleak ending. But somewhere along the way they even lost that.

 

[Greg Cox]

Best: The original PLANET OF THE APES, by a long shot.

Worst: Not sure it's the worst ever, but I never liked the ending of BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES. It was just bloody and nihilistic . . . as opposed to ingenious and disturbing like the Statue of Liberty scene.