To clarify, endings in which the fate of one or more characters is ultimately left in the air.

What's everyone think about them? Do the work or is it just lazy writing? I would say it should be decided by a case by case basis but it seems like most of them have the same effect, regardless of the film itself. The audience always seem to leave feeling unsettled. But not always in a bad way.

Anyway, it's something I've been thinking about lately and I thought it'd make a good topic for discussion as they seem to be becoming more and more prevalent nowadays. I figure a good number of writers here have used them or at least thought about using them before.

If done right it works really well. The Dawn of the Dead Remake had an awesome ending and you never really know what happened.

~Zack~

I hate them when it isn't clear what has happened to a said character, did they die or didn't they?  I think this is lazy!

When the outcome is obvious, I think it's fine to leave it out and let the viewer decide how they went out.  Sometimes by not showing it, can have a stronger and more lasting impact.

To be honest, I quite like them and have used them often.

Marty, my favorite film of all time, has a somewhat ambiguous ending where it ends with....

SPOILER


Marty calling Clara on the phone, after pretty much listening to everyone around him and brushing her off the night before.  You never really figure out what happens between them, but you're still left with a positive feeling nonetheless.

END SPOILER

I just noticed that the entire film is available on YouTube.  I've embedded the first part below, which leads to the others.  I can't recommend this film enough, and even more so now that it's available for free online.

If the film itself is good then I don't mind ambiguous endings.  If the film is bad then I'm going to hate the ending.

I haven't been able to think of an ambiguous ending myself, maybe others here have wrote them into their work?

I guess a classic example would be the original Italian Job, did they save the gold or did they go over the cliff?

Quoted from alffy I guess a classic example would be the original Italian Job, did they save the gold or did they go over the cliff?

You have to hear the Director Comments on the DVD. You'll have the answer...

To answer your question about ambiguous ending, I'm in. Audience is smart. You don't have to spoon-food them. I like to get out of the movies theatre, or after seen a DVD, asking to myself: "and if..." Of course, it's all depend of the movie. Sometimes directors find this way when tehy don't know how to solve a story.

I like the idea to make the audience think about the movie after the end and let them think about several possible resolutions .  The greatest power of a movie is to make people think about it once it's over.

Michel

As someone above said, it all depends. As long as there is still some sort of closure, ambiguous endings are fine. I actually prefer them. Two of my favourite scenes have ambiguous endings:

- In Bruges: Does Ray live, or does he die?
- La Haine: Who shoots who?

As I said, both above films have some sort of closure before the ambiguous ending comes into play. Other times, when too much stuff is left open, ambiguous endings fail very badly, and just don't seem satisfying.

Another thing. After colkurtz8's advice, I watched "Memento" and I found the ending very ambiguous. Or maybe it's just me.

But my mind it's still working about it. A good thing, but I hate it though.

Michel

I enjoy ambigiuity all the way around...especially at the end.  Asl long as there's different possibilities that make sense, I say go for it.  As someone else commented, anytime you can get people discussing the movie after it's over, that's a good thing.  I think audience's like the ability to percieve what they want to.  It makes it fun.

Now, it's important that the ambiguous ending leaves things open for discussion, as apposed to leaving the audience scratching their heads.  Those kinds of endings blow and are defintely lazy writing and film making.

Thanks for the thread, James.

As Jeff said, there's a difference between endings that leave things open to interpretation and endings that leave people scratching their heads.

The difference between the two can be a vague line for the writer to walk. For instance, in the short that was just up a couple days ago: Jesus at the Hotel

There was a lot that was there on the page, even though it wasn't there. I could sense it, but also, I knew, that there wasn't quite enough and everyone was going "What the hell?" That's why our critique friends are so important. They can say, "Hey bro, you totally screwed up there." And you can take another look and nod stupidly and say, "Yup, you's right."

But how? How do we leave certain things undone, unsaid and still make it satisfying. That, we could definitely discuss. It would be an interesting thread I think if people wanted to discuss movies that left them with that weird "no end" feeling, but in a good way.

Sandra

Quoted from Sandra E. But how? How do we leave certain things undone, unsaid and still make it satisfying. That, we could definitely discuss. It would be an interesting thread I think if people wanted to discuss movies that left them with that weird "no end" feeling, but in a good way.

I think it's down - in a lot of cases - to one's own perception. What can seem vague to one person, can be an abyss of possibilities to another.

Whether or not there is a universal metric to say what is what, I don't know, but I do enjoy a story that leaves me with some work to do.

Andrew

Yeah, I agree.  Every time I get a chance to draw my own conclusions, I thank the makers of the movie.  So many flicks end on such a poor note, that it irritates the shit out of me.  When they end on an open note, I can make my own ending up and I appreciate that very much.

It's funny, cause I know people who get upset with ambiguous endings and I just don't get it.  I think the creative types like tehm, the non creative types need to have everything nicely wrapped up so they don't need to think about it.  You know, most movie goers spend their 2 hours in the theater, leave, and never think or talk about it again.  I spend lots fo time afterwward going back over everything and drawing my own conclusions.

Different strokes for different folks...every time!

Quoted from Andrew I think it's down - in a lot of cases - to one's own perception. What can seem vague to one person, can be an abyss of possibilities to another.

I definitely agree with this.  It is very much up to the individual.  The ambiguous ending of No Country for Old Men divided audiences.

Other movies I can think of with open endings are:
American Beauty: What happens to Annette Bening, Chris Cooper, Thora Birch etc
Fight Club: What happens next?
Donnie Darko
Memento

I think the best ambiguous ending I've seen is the ending of The Wrestler. When I left the theater, I was a little frustrated with the lack of closure but I did enjoy chatting about it with the person I saw it with. I think it gave just enough information that it could've gone either way. I was also talking to my roommate, also a movie buff, about the subject of ambiguous endings not too long ago. At first, he said he didn't like them and when I brought up The Wrestler, he initially was very insistant that it ended a certain way. But then, he decided it was only his interpretation. I think that's because the ending gave just enough that you could feel secure in whatever your interpretation was. I think other endings of the sort should do the same.