THAT'S A WRAP

Jacob Stolworthy and Louis Chilton pick the greatest movie endings of all time, from The Godfather’ to Monsters Inc’

- Jacob Stolworthy and Louis Chilton

A bold statement but: there is no more important moment in a film than its ending.

Depending on the screenwriter and filmmaker, final scenes are a crucial opportunity to evoke a particular feeling from the viewer. There are the endings that are an extension of the movie you've been watching - a fitting full stop culminating with a memorable wisecrack or a symbolic visual emphasising the trajectory of the characters you’ve spent the last few hours watching.

Then there are the endings that like to startle you. These climaxes can drop a twist that pulls the rug from under your feet, or end on an ambiguous note designed to confound the viewer; they can pose more questions than reveal answers. While denouements such as these might leave people feeling shortchanged, a skilful deployment of such an ending can scintillate and make you reassess everything you’ve just seen.

It was hard to pick just 23 film endings to include on this list. It was a fun opportunity to highlight some of our personal favourites alongside the more well known – so some of your top picks might not have made the cut this time around.

Below are what we believe to be a good selection of the 23 greatest final scenes in movie history.

23. Yi Yi (2000)

Eight-year-old Jonathan Chang is at the very heart of Edward Yang’s coruscating family drama Yi Yi, but his character, Yang Yang, spends much of the film in its peripheries – bearing witness to the sweet, sad and profound turns of the adult world without fully comprehending it. Only at the end, while speaking at the funeral of his grandmother, does he let loose with a shattering monologue. “I am old too,” says the child – a line guaranteed to make you crumble. LC

22. The Long Good Friday (1980)