Mediocre films with great endings

Recently an early 80s sci-fi film Brainstorm, starring Christopher Walken, was broadcast on local TV. The film centred on the invention of a device that could record and transmit someone's experiences (all of their senses, not just sight) allowing other people to experience the same thing (an idea that was later used in Strange Days). An interesting idea, but the film itself quickly became boring, not really knowing what to do with the concept. But at one point, one of the scientists testing the new technology dies, and at the end of the film, Walken's character experiences her death that had been recorded. We catch a glimpse of hell (very gruesome) before the soul ascends to the cosmos, towards a heavenly light.... It may have been hokey, but was honestly one of the most stunning endings I've ever seen.

A similar example is Fire in the Sky, which for the most part is incredibly slow-moving and tedious, before the truly shocking abduction sequence in the last twenty minutes.

Any other good examples of this in sci-fi?

 

Brainstorm was Natalie Wood's last film.

I particularly liked the guy who stole a brain-recording of one of his coworkers having sex with the hot chick in the office, and they found him days later, still hooked up.

 

Terminator 3
The da Vinci Code
Equilibrium
Resident Evil
Death Proof
Arlington Road
The Mist
Wild Things

 

Terminator 3 - didn't like the ending at first, thought it was as bad as the rest of the film, but now I think it's quite impressively fatalistic (a pretty bold move that contrasts with The Matrix etc).

Disagree on Arlington Road and The Mist - I thought the entire films were excellent.

 

Yeah, I'd disagree with The Mist as well. I thought the whole thing amounted to what I'd consider to be a minor classic.

Audition was kind of like that for me. It had some really great moments throughout, but really, it kind of plods along until those ferocious, viciously unpleasant last twenty or so minutes.

 

The Devil's Advocate - Just when Keanu Reeves thinks he's got the DeNiro beat, he still loses. Horrible film, but an amazing ending.

 

Pacino, you mean.

 

Dracula 2000.

The final twist regarding Dracula's true identity was clever. Shame it was wasted in a kind of by-the-numbers Dracula movie (Jeri Ryan's involvement nothwithstanding).

 

This is a really cool thread. Thanks.

I will try to think of some others but for now I would like to submit Alien 3 for consideration. Before Alien 4 came out, Ripley's sacrifice made a great end to the series, I thought, even though most of the film was rather blah.

 

Arlington Road and Mothman Prophecies (the Richard Gere one right?) both had amazing endings that redeemed so-so movies.

 

Your welcome! Alien 3 doesn't exactly fall under this description in my own view - the final third of the film is where it really picks up and becomes exciting. That final scene is impressive, though.

 

"You know folks when the day comes that an unemployed iron worker can sit in his Barcalonger with a Foster's in one hand and channel flicker in the other and fuck Claudia Schiffer for $19.95 its going make crack look like Sanka." -- Dennis Miller

 

Disagree that Arlington Road was a so-so movie. Agree that it had a great ending. The ending sequence of T3 was better than the entire movie that preceded it, which is sad.

 

Robocop 2. But it's sort of reverse, It had a GREAT start, but a TERRIBLE middle and a OKAY ending, the ending really felt like they were tring to mimic Paul Verhoevens over the top violence, but failed!

 

I vote for The Passengers - its a recent film that is slow moving, but ends great with a surprise ending.

 

Agreed on 'Dracula 2000' and 'Mothman Prophecies.' The reveal of Dracula's origins was pretty unique and ingenious, so much so that it was hard to believe it was the same people who made the rest of the film. The ending to 'Mothman' was awesome.

The thing about 'Arlington Road' for me is, if it doesn't have that ending, I think it would be utterly forgettable. Not bad by any means, but there wasn't anything that particularly stood out about the rest of the film other than the ending that just leaves your jaw on the floor. I hadn't walked out of a theater that shocked since 'Seven.'

While I fluctuate between loving and hating the whole "Judgment Day is inevitable" thing in T3 because it kind of shits all over the point of the first two films, I have to give them credit for that shocker of an ending. That was a pretty bold choice, and completely unexpected given the pedestrian nature of the rest of the film which just rehashed the first two.

'The Others' was pretty average but had a good ending.

 

I rather liked Arlington Road from beginning to end.

I'd like to submit Battlestar Galactica though ... the new one. I enjoyed the beginning of the show but grew to dislike everything else about it until the final episode. The ending, which surprised me with its positive outlook, was very well done and enjoyable.

Back to movies...

Tears of the Sun.

An OK movie that kind of dragged on until its spectacular end scene.

 

Oops. Yeah, you're right. For some weird reason, I've always mixed up Pacino and Deniro.

 

Alien 3 gets my vote too. That backwards crucifix slow motion thing was one of the best cinematic endings I've seen.

 

LOL Actually, if I'm not mistaken, wasn't the first two thirds of the film INTENTIONALLY done to be plodding and boring (and in a completely different genre) for the express purpose of pulling the shocking swerve in the ending stretch to completely freak out people (though nowadays the cover and the buzz kind of spoil that effect if you're at all knowledgable about J-cinema)... It certainly worked when I showed it to my roommate, who was totally unsuspecting, and was getting completely bored and suddenly...

Ha, ha... good times...