Do you hate predictable endings?

[Miss Chicken]

To either movies or books?

I was talking to a friend about a book I love but she disliked because she said the ending was too predictable and she saw the ‘twist’ very early on. My opinion was the twist was not really a twist at all and that I liked the book because of the characters rather than the plot.

 

[think]

Predictable endings are kinda boring but if the plot and setting is great then I guess it’s ok. Writing style and presentation or production are important too..

 

[fireproof78]

My biggest answer will always "It depends." Even if I can predict the outcome I can still appreciate the journey taken along the way, either getting to know the characters, the banter between them, or just insights in to personal motivations.

Honestly, I've always liken this to knowing the score of a sports game. Some people find it completely outrageous to know the outcome. Myself-Couldn't care less. I want to see the drama of what unfolds. So it goes with shows.

 

[DonIago]

I think a factor in this is whether it's a good ending or not.

 

[Mojochi]

Depends on how it services the whole. Sometimes the journey you're taken on should end predictably, because everything until then is unfettered. Reservoir Dogs has a predictable ending. Gangster crooks conspire on a heist & end up turning on each other in a Mexican Stand-off, where the undercover cop is revealed & they all end up dead. Doesn't get more predictable than that... Still a damn good ending.

Cartoonist Max Fleisher, the creator of Popeye, & Betty Boop, was asked why when he made the Superman series it was so starkly different in design, so straight-laced & standard looking compared to his earlier work. His response is an absolutely brilliantly simple tenet I take with me to this day

He said because with Popeye, the story & concept is rather plain, a gruff sailorman who's always getting in dustups with his nemesis, usually over the female interest. It's so simple that in order for it to be creative, you have to make the visuals the creative bit. You make them look ridiculous, & make the production absolutely insane

But with Superman, the story is literally an alien from another world, comes to Earth with godlike superhuman powers, & becomes the savior of countless people in need. That is an outlandish tale indeed, & that's why you make it look rather straight-laced. It's balance

 

[Mrs. Silvercrest]

To be honest sometimes I find it very relaxing to know the ending. Just sit back and read and let it happen.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Not inherently.

If it's the kind of show or movie all about twists and setting up a big mystery, and it's predictable, it's a problem. But if the mystery isn't the point of the show and it does the predictable thing really uniquely and well, it's fine.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

After so many years of TV and movies especially, are there any more unpredictable endings?

Like others have said, if it's a good/well done sort of thing, I'm OK with that. A good, well written and well acted movie or show is the important thing to me.

 

[shapeshifter]

It's not just endings anymore, every trope under the sun is signalling where the story, plots, characters ect. are going next. I very rarely enjoy movies as before.

 

[Velocity]

Well sometimes (most times) you know the star crossed lovers will get together at the end, but it's the path to that end that is interesting, depending on the skill of the author.

 

[ThankQ]

Journey ≠ Destination

 

[Captain_Nick]

I like to be surprised by the unexpected.

 

[Gov Kodos]

I like to be surprised by the unexpected.

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[DonIago]

I don't know whether the fact that I got my degree in Writing has any bearing on it, but I've found that I can predict how stories will develop to a level that may be more often than usual. As such, I may be biased on this question, in that it's more common for me to find endings predictable. There is a certain satisfaction in having an ending go as you foresaw, though there can also be a lot of fun in seeing an ending go in a direction you didn't anticipate. As such, to go back to my earlier message, whether it's a good ending is very relevant.

Perhaps the worst case of a "predictable" ending was when a few friends and I were watching a movie that a couple of other friends had talked up to us and were very fond of. The ending of the movie involves the protagonist riding a motorcycle along a highway, and a smartass friend who was there quipped, "Watch him get hit by a truck..." We all chuckled a little bit at his comment, but then...well, suffice to say we found it hilarious, but the friends who were fond of the movie were incensed with the lot of us.

 

[Australis]

Better not watch Easy Rider then...

 

[maneth]

No, I don't hate predictable endings most of the time. I'm more annoyed by complete surprise endings, because usually the whole movie or book is based on that, and once you know it, there's nothing to enjoy anymore. M. Night Shyamalan's movies, for example, there's no point in watching those again once you know the ending.

I tend to read books for the plot and setting rather than the intricate intrigues. I also tend to re-read books a lot, which is pointless if you read them for the surprise ending.

 

[Non Sync]

I also hate endings that...

 

[Owain Taggart]

I'm more annoyed at when there's not any ending at all in the general sense. I'm not talking about ambiguous endings where someone's fate will be left to the imagination, but rather the type of ending that ends abruptly without more being said. For example, recently watched a Romanian movie on Netflix about a mountain rescue. Father's son and girlfriend go missing out on the mountains, and as a retired military officer, uses his influence to organize a search operation. Over the course of the movie, they triangulate the son's position and they start digging along the mountainside. Through passage of time, you see them digging for hours until everyone but him has returned to base, and he's still digging and digging and... hey wait, where's the rest of the movie? It'd be one thing if they had wanted to leave it ambiguous as I'd have more respect for it then, but a moment later there's a line of text on the screen saying what happened, as it's based on a true story. I'm sorry, but if I'm spending over two overs of time on a movie, I'd want the time I spent to be respected. Endings like these make a movie feel like they've run out of budget.

 

[DonIago]

There's a couple of Hitchcock films that I remember ending in ways that made me think, "That's it??" I'm sure it was done for effect to some degree, but I just found it annoying.

 

[JD]

Like a lot of people have said, it depends. If the rest of the movie is good, and what happens doesn't have a huge effect on the rest of the movie, I'm fine with it. But if it's something where the whole movie focused on getting to that end, like if the characters are searching for something the whole movie, and when they find it, it's disappointing, that can ruin the rest of the movie.