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  • The hardest part of a script to nail is the ending. Everything has been building up to

  • this one moment, and if the writer doesn’t deliver, the movie could be doomed. Audiences

  • love finality in movies, and prefer it if they understand what happened in a film. But

  • sometimes, the conclusion throws them for a loop, and theyre more concerned about

  • figuring out those last moments than anything else. Here are Screen Rant’s 10 confusing

  • movie endings finally explained.

  • Inception

  • One of the most famous movie images this decade is Cobb’s top spinning on the table before

  • Inception cuts hard to black. This launched countless theories debating whether Cobb was

  • in a dream or reality. But audiences were missing the point. An interpretation Christopher

  • Nolan agrees with suggests the point of the scene isn’t to tell where Cobb is. It represents

  • an arc in his mindset. After concerning himself with thedream or realityquery, Cobb

  • simply didn’t care after seeing his kids and walked away from the top. No matter where

  • the hero is, he got the happy ending he deserved.

  • American Psycho

  • This is another case where audiences are left wondering if the events actually happened

  • or all took place in the main character’s head. When he confesses his grisly crimes,

  • Patrick Bateman is simply ignored by those he tells, hinting that it was all a hallucination.

  • The author of the source novel says if that were the case, the entire point of the book

  • would be moot. American Psycho is a satire tale poking fun at the shallow mindset of

  • yuppie culture. The reaction to Bateman’s confession shows that even when a serial killer

  • owns up, nobody cares since it doesn’t effect them directly.

  • No Country for Old Men

  • After failing to capture notorious killer Anton Chigurh, retiring sheriff Ed Tom Bell

  • recalls a dream he had about seeing his father riding past, going somewhere to set a fire.

  • The movie fades to black when he’s done telling his story, so many were left wondering

  • what just happened. Bell is reflecting upon his life and realizes that it’s time for

  • him to move on and join his father wherever he went to light that fire. Viewers were so

  • invested in the Llewelyn vs. Chigurh pursuit that they missed the main theme of the film.

  • It’s all there in the title.

  • Interstellar

  • In this space epic’s third act, Cooper drops himself into a black hole and lands in a fifth

  • dimensional tesseract placed by future humans. He uses his love for his daughter Murph to

  • communicate back to Earth and save mankind. How did the tesseract get there? One explanation

  • is that the movie deals with alternate realities and universes, making a non-linear timeline

  • possible. Thepresent dayhumans were in dire times during Interstellar, so it’s

  • unlikely they became the samefuturehumans depicted. Beings from another dimension

  • were reaching out to lend a helping hand. For what? Well leave that up to you.

  • The Wrestler

  • The final image of Darren Aronofksy’s sports drama is protagonist Randy jumping off the

  • ropes and then cutting to the end credits. His fate is left up to the viewer, but there’s

  • strong evidence that he dies in the match. Randy has a serious heart condition and is

  • told by doctors continuing wrestling could kill him. But Randy has damaged all relationships

  • he has and goes back to the ring where he can feel alive. Aronofsky even agrees with

  • this interpretation, saying in an interviewif not now, when?” in regards to Randy’s

  • death.

  • Shutter Island

  • Leo DiCaprio sure likes to keep viewers guessing. In Shutter Island, his Teddy Daniels is in

  • for a rude awakening when he learns he’s actually a patient at the Ashecliffe Institute,

  • following the trauma he suffered when his wife murdered herself and their children.

  • At long last, his doctors think his illness is cured, but Teddy appears to relapse, leading

  • to a haunting lobotomy. But Teddy’s last words are a major clue. In his mind, living

  • as the monster who killed his family would be worse than dying as the good man who came

  • to terms with it all.

  • Total Recall

  • When Quaid’s adventure plays out a little too close to the description offered by the

  • Rekall officials, many are wondering if the events were all just a dream. It was intentionally

  • left ambiguous, but director Paul Verhoeven believes it all took place in the hero’s

  • head. This could happen by Quaid’s mind having a violent reaction to the implant process

  • and incorporating things from real life to populate the dream. The name of the program

  • is even Blue Skies on Mars, and love interest Melinda is a fantasy girl that Quaid chose

  • himself before the implant. Things are just a tad coincidental for it to all be real.

  • 2001: A Space Odyssey

  • The floating star child that’s featured in 2001’s final shot is a part of cinematic

  • history, but what does it all mean? Stanley Kubrick himself tried to provide some answers.

  • The entire film serves as a metaphor for mankind’s evolution, beginning with the apes billions

  • of years ago and working up to futuristic intergalactic travel. The main astronaut Bowman

  • is reborn as an enhanced being and returns to Earth to take the next big step for the

  • species. In a way, that’s inspiring, since it portrays everything as hopeful and always

  • looking ahead to better ourselves.

  • Birdman

  • When recovering from his self-inflicted gunshot wound in the hospital, actor Riggan Thomson

  • opens the window of his room and we never see him again. The last shot is his daughter

  • Sam looking out that same window, smiling at something in the sky. One possible theory

  • is that Riggan committed suicide by jumping out the window, at peace with himself after

  • he starred in an acclaimed Broadway play. What Sam sees is her father’s free spirit

  • floating up to the heavens for eternity, and she’s happy for him. It’s dark, but it

  • gives Birdman a poignant finale that taps into strong emotions.

  • Memento

  • Were not done with you, Chris Nolan. In the director’s breakout hit, he takes viewers

  • on a non-linear journey that shows how Teddy became Leonard’s John G. Teddy reveals that

  • Leonard killed therealJohn G. a while back, and has been hunting others so Teddy

  • can get rid of some bad guys and keep Leonard happy. There’s a photograph of Leonard that

  • suggests Teddy’s telling the truth, and Leonard even admits he lies to himself sometimes.

  • If he’s willing to bend the truth to fit his needs, it’s not out of the question

  • he would change his target to Teddy.

  • These are our best explanations for the most confusing endings in popular films. Are there

  • any we missed? Which ones left you scratching your head? Let us know in the comments section

  • below and be sure to subscribe to our channel for more fun videos like this one!

The hardest part of a script to nail is the ending. Everything has been building up to

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