10 Most Perfect Movie Endings of All Time, Ranked

A movie can only ever be as good as its ending. It’s what audiences walk out of the theater with, the moment (or moments) that will be freshest in their minds and have a monumental effect on how they feel about the overall experience. A bad ending can ruin even a phenomenal film; but a great ending? One so legendary that it ends up going down in history as one of the best in the history of cinema? That’s what cinephiles’ dreams are made of.

Several of the most beloved and iconic films of all time have had some of the best endings in movie history. Whether it’s a comedic ending meant to get a laugh out of you, a tear-jerker bound to have you diving for the tissue box, or a mind-blowing moment that recontextualizes the entire narrative, a truly great ending can contribute tremendously to making the movie in question be remembered as one of the best ever.

Needless to say, there will be spoilers ahead for the ending of each entry.

Steven Spielberg‘s first-ever nomination for the Best Picture Academy Awards came in 1983, for what’s now remembered as one of the most quintessential Hollywood classics of the 1980s: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, a family gem inspired by an imaginary friend that Spielberg created after his parents’ divorce. By the time he made this, Spielberg was already well-established as the king of Hollywood blockbusters, but E.T. proved that he still had enough gas left in the tank to keep revolutionizing the art form.

E.T. is one of those feel-good movies that should ease anyone’s existential dread, and much of that feel-good tone comes from the movie’s touching ending. Following their escape through the forest on flying bicycles, Elliot and the other children bid an emotional farewell to E.T., who promises to be in their memories forever before flying back home on his UFO. Aside from being perhaps the best-scored ending in film history, all thanks to John Williams‘ magical “Escape / Chase / Saying Goodbye” track, the finale is pure, unadulterated, beautifully emotional movie magic.

9

‘Some Like It Hot’ (1959)

Billy Wilder was a filmmaker who was constantly ahead of his time, always finding clever ways to dance around the Hays Code during Hollywood’s Golden Age. He made Some Like It Hot right as that period of the American film industry’s history was coming to a close, and frankly? It might just be his single most ahead-of-its-time film, treating themes of gender dynamics with surprising nuance and progressiveness considering the time that it was made.

All of that comes to a rousing close in the film’s third act, where the two genres that the movie has spent the last two hours juggling—romantic comedy and gangster comedy—come to a clash. Osgood helps Joe, Sugar, and Jerry escape the mob on his boat, thinking that he’s rescuing his beloved Daphne. But after Jerry rips off his wig and reveals that he’s actually a man, Osgood’s iconic response is “well, nobody’s perfect.” Osgood, one of cinema’s biggest bisexual icons, is only one of the myriad of reasons why this is one of the best classic comedy masterpieces.

8

‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ (1946)

Another Golden-Age Hollywood filmmaker who was constantly ahead of his time was Frank Capra, as he demonstrated in the first film he made after serving in the U.S. Army during World War II: It’s a Wonderful Life, now widely remembered as the biggest and greatest Christmas movie classic of all time. It also features one of the best crowd-pleasing endings of all time, which is no small reason why it has proven so timeless.

Christmas only plays a relatively small part in It’s a Wonderful Life. As a whole, it’s a beautifully touching story of family, male mental health, and anti-suicide messaging, and the ending brings all of that to a marvelous close. After having been shown what his town would have looked like if he had never existed, George Bailey returns home to hug his family, as the rest of the town comes in to donate money to them and celebrate Christmas. Incredibly sweet without being saccharine, the ending of this classic masterpiece is enough to warm even the coldest hearts.

7

‘The Empire Strikes Back’ (1980)

The Star Wars franchise, being the single biggest transmedia franchise in history, requires no introduction. Just as well-known is the fact that Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back is widely regarded as the best installment in the series, and for good reason. Grand, ambitious, exciting, and magnificently directed and written, it’s fantasy sci-fi at its very best.

Following one of the best fantasy movie sword fights ever and the most iconic plot twist in movie history, Empire Strikes Back reunites Luke with the crew of the Millennium Falcon—save for Han, who has been kidnapped by Jabba. What makes the ending so unique is that, by every metric imaginable, the good guys are the ones who lost here; but director Irvin Kershner makes it so that the conclusion still feels as hopeful as Star Wars has always been.

6

‘Whiplash’ (2014)

Whiplash was Damien Chazelle‘s sophomore directing effort, as well as the film that put him on the map as one of the most exciting young voices in Hollywood. Based on his own 2013 18-minute short film of the same name, Whiplash is one of the greatest films about artistic obsession out there, as well as one of the most exciting drama movies of all time.

That excitement keeps simmering throughout the runtime through the terrifying Terence Fletcher’s outbursts of rage and violence, until boiling over during the film’s grandiose final set piece. Having humiliated Neiman at a jazz festival, Fletcher is shocked to find his student reclaim the drum kit to lead the band in a rendition of “Caravan.” Concluding with a lengthy solo, the pair simply exchange looks in a bittersweet ending that makes its implications clear: Neiman has won, proving himself to be a tremendous artist; but so has Fletcher, showing that his perfectionist philosophy had its intended effect on Neiman. Emotionally complex, thematically profound, and completely free of dialogue, this ending is perhaps the most perfect of the 21st century as a whole.

5

‘Stalker’ (1979)

There are plenty of great movies from countries that no longer exist, and a considerable portion of those great movies include the filmography of Andrei Tarkovsky, the greatest Soviet filmmaker that ever lived. The question of what Tarkovsky’s magnum opus was can bring up many different answers, but there’s one that there’s no going wrong with: His minimalist sci-fi masterpiece Stalker, perfect for those who prefer their science fiction slow-burning.

Stalker is one of the most thematically nuanced, intellectually engrossing, and poeticlaly filmed sci-fi masterpieces ever.

Based on Arkady and Boris Strugatsky‘s Roadside Picnic, Stalker is one of the most thematically nuanced, intellectually engrossing, and poeticlaly filmed sci-fi masterpieces ever. It’s a flawless story about faith and hope, where a man leads a Writer and a Professor a mysterious Room that allegedly grants its visitors’ innermost desire. Once they finally get to the Room, however, the Writer and the Professor refuse to enter. In one of the most ambiguous, artsy, and widely debated endings of any ’70s sci-fi film, Stalker concludes with the titular man lamenting to his wife how humanity has lost its capacity for faith. This conclusion doesn’t lend itself to easy answers, and that’s precisely what makes it so brilliant.

4

‘Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles’ (1975)

The vast majority of the time, movies are designed to be entertaining. Chantal Akerman‘s Belgian-French masterpiece Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, on the other hand, is specifically meant to be boring and mundane. It is, after all, 201 slow-burning minutes of following a single mother as she does domestic chores over the course of three days. A celebration of domestic labor and a sharp critique of the way it’s been made invisible over the years, Jeanne Dielman is one of those ’70s masterpieces that everyone should watch.

Over the course of the three days of the story, it’s revealed that sex work is one of the ways in which Jeanne pays the bills. This is treated as nothing more than a part of her routine, but that routine is broken when she experiences an orgasm with her second client, something that upholds and destroys the rest of her otherwise entirely predictable routine. She goes on an ever-so-subtle downward spiral that, in the movie’s ending, concludes with her stabbing the third day’s client in the neck with a pair of scissors. This scene comes as a jaw-dropping moment of shock in a film that prior seemed incapable of being so shocking; and as the audience is forced to sit with a bloodied Jeanne at her dinner table for several minutes, that jaw stays on the floor throughout.

3

‘Chinatown’ (1974)

“Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown.” It’s a line as iconic and memorable as Chinatown itself, one of the most important neo-noir movies of all time. The majority of films in this genre start with a mystery that seems far too large at first, but slowly and compellingly, the movie’s protagonist keeps finding answer after answer that eventually leads to a conclusion that, in retrospect, seems like the only logical choice. Not Chinatown. Here, what at first seems like a simple enough mystery starts transforming into more of a complex, messy, and chaotic conspiracy that no man is big enough to fully understand.

That conspiracy is what leads to the film’s legendary ending, where Cross reveals that he is behind both the water shortage and the land grab in the Northwest Valley. A cat-and-mouse game ensues that ends up getting Evelyn killed, and lets Cross get away with his daughter, Katherine. It’s one of the most intensely bleak endings in film history, where the villain gets absolutely everything he wanted and the heroes are unable to save the day.

2

‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ (1968)

There is no sci-fi movie better or more legendary than Stanley Kubrick‘s 2001: A Space Odyssey, and there’s no sci-fi movie ending more iconic than this one. This space epic is full of drop-dead gorgeous visuals, stunning moments that are virtually devoid of any dialogue, and profound yet ambiguous themes. All of that reaches its pinnacle as the film comes to a close.

Once his spaceship reaches Jupiter, Bowman is pulled into a vortex of light and then finds himself in a large bedroom where he starts rapidly aging. A new monolith then appears at the foot of his bed, and as he reaches to touch it, Bowman transforms into a fetus floating above Earth. What, exactly, happens in this ending or what, exactly, it all means is entirely up to analysis and interpretation—and that’s what makes it so great. If 2001 is the best sci-fi movie of all time, it’s because it treats its audience with the same level of intelligence displayed in its own conclusion.

1

‘Casablanca’ (1942)

The question of what the most romantic film ever made is can elicit multiple different answers, but one that’s bound to come up more than most is Casablanca. Made right at the height of World War II, this magnificent classic (widely credited with serving as the film that gave birth to the cult cinema phenomenon) works equally well as a war flick, a romance drama, and a profoundly moving melodrama.

Casablanca does all of this through its wonderful performances, amazing music, gorgeous cinematography, and some of the best and most genius dialogue in any film in history. Its ending is particularly brilliant, where Rick bids farewell to Ilsa as he forces her to board the plane to Lisbon with Laszlo, telling her that she would regret it if she stayed. Bittersweet, romantic, marvelously acted by Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, and—of course—with some of the most quotable dialogue in movie history, this is undoubtedly the most perfect ending in the history of cinema.