Regarding three act structures, in reviewing the BLACK SWAN screenplay it finally dawned on me that many plots are constructed along a certain structure:

STEP 1: Preliminary Challenge Established then Won, which leads to the bulk of the story.
STEP 2: Final Challenge Established then... Won to "varying degrees".

And that's the inquiry I'm asking for help on here.

With a little consideration, I can think of four industry standard ending classifications:
A - Complete Victory.  STAR WARS, INDIANA JONES, KARATE KID, TOY STORYs, SALT, EASY A, INCEPTION, KUNG FU PANDA, CARS, LETHAL WEAPONs.  
Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy! The protags get everything they were shooting for with winning their Final Challenge.

B - Acceptable Alternative. ROCKY, ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO, AVATAR, LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR.
The protags don't get exactly what they want, but are happy with the alternate option they end up with.
Lose the big prize, but get the girl or credit for trying sort of thing.

SHAUN OF THE DEAD is actually somewhere in between these two.

C - Pyrrhic Victory.  BLACK SWAN, FIGHT CLUB, GLADIATOR, CASINO ROYALE, THE CONSTANT GARDNER, BOOK OF ELI, SPLICE, SKYLINE, DARK KNIGHT, 127 HOURS.
Yeah, the protag got what he wanted, but at such a steep cost you gotta question was it really worth it?
These tend to be rather martyrdom focused.
In Complete Victory & Acceptable Alternative plots pretty much most all the protags come out alive. In Pyrric Victories you lose some or all of the good guys along with the bad guys.

D - Dark Ending. RESERVOIR DOGS, FARGO, SHUTTLE, CABIN FEVER, MONSTERS, NEVER LET ME GO, OPEN WATER.
Everyone f#cking dies. There's no real [expletive] point.
At the end of them you tend to think "Well, that was f#cked up" despite a few chuckles, maybe.

What are some other ending classifications?
Thank you.

Ray, have you seen Once Around?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102590/

I don't want to give away the ending if you haven't. But I haven't got
a clue how you would class that one.

Sandra

These are essentially the endings you can have. The post relates to short stories, but it's the same.

http://sheryltut.wordpress.com/2009/05/26/six-common-types-endings/

Yours seem like examples of Explicit Endings...happy and tragic, to differing degrees. Maybe Fight Club is an implicit ending...not sure.

1.Explicit ending � This is the ending that wraps everything up and answers all the questions. This ending will frequently tell what happens to each of the major characters, and is usually very satisfying in its completeness. Particularly well suited for novels (over short stories), when using this ending, it is especially important to watch for plot holes and missing clues. Example: Watership Down by Richard Adams.

2.Implicit ending � If you like an ending that is strongly based on interpretation, then you like implicit endings. These endings are more common in short fiction. An example is The Nine Billion Names of God by Arthur C. Clark.

3.Twist ending � As the name implies, this ending is unexpected or twisted. As a writer, everything you�ve led your reader to believe gets thrown out at the end, and is replaced by a new revelation when well done. If done poorly, your reader will feel cheated. The TV show The Twilight Zone was known for it�s twist endings.

4.Tie-back ending � This ending ties the end of the story back to clues planted in the beginning. The example provided in the endings class is the short story entitled The Star by Arthur C. Clark, where the story opens with what the main character�s conflict is and ends with why.

5.Unresolved ending � In unresolved endings, the main conflicts are left unanswered, such as in The Lady, or the Tiger by Frank R. Stockton. The reader is left to ponder the outcome. Cliffhanger endings would also fall under this category.

6.Long view ending � These endings tell what happens to the characters a significant timeframe into the future. An example is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling, which ends telling who married whom, who had kids, etc. out into the future.



Here's a usefil list of possible twist endings as well:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twist_ending#Twist_ending

Good list, Rick.

Where would you put a movie like Twelve Monkeys? Tie-back? Long view?

I'm guessing tie back, but it's got a bit of tie back, long view and twist.

Can you give me examples of implict endings, I'm struggling?

I would call the ending of The Sopranos implicit. Same with Inception but to a lesser extent.

I guess they go somewhat hand in hand with unresolved endings. Sort of.

Yes, Inception is a good shout.

Probably the hardest to pull off right, I'd say.

Not seen the Sopranos. Have to get round to it at some point.

Now I'm having trouble coming up with a movie with an unresolved ending, unresolved as in "the main conflicts are left unanswered". I guess Inception also falls into that category but other than that I can't really think of one.

Lost in Translation? Not seen it, just Googled it.

Apocalypse Now also mentioned online, but not sure about that.

A mini one in Lock, Stock and Two smoking barrels.

Ah, got one..the original Italian Job.

Great, I haven't seen Lost In Translation or the original Italian Job - and I can't remember how Apocalypse and Lock, Stock ended

Oooh, you have to see the Italian Job.

Lock, Stock...all issues were resolved, but they find out that the guns they stole are worth a quarter of a million. One of them is at that moment trying to dispose of them off London Bridge, but he's dropped them on a ledge. The other characters are desperately trying to call him.

He's got his phone in the mouth, it's ringing, and he's reaching over the ledge for the bag of guns.

Will he answer the phone, or throw the guns, first?

We never know, it just ends....

Oh yeah, now I remember the Lock, Stock ending. Great curve ball at the end.

Quoted from sniper I would call the ending of The Sopranos implicit.

No, that would be an example of the "Gawd-Awful Sucky Ending" -- which I did not notice on the list...

Quoted from bert No, that would be an example of the "Gawd-Awful Sucky Ending" -- which I did not notice on the list...

Bert, Bert, Bert, will you ever get over that one?

Quoted from sniper Bert, Bert, Bert, will you ever get over that one?

There are some things I will never get over.  The Cabin.  The discontinuation of Freakies cereal.

And the return of sniper to SS.

Thanks, guys, especially Rick. Nice link there.

The only additional classifications I gathered from those six were The Twist ending, like PLANET OF THE APES, and maybe it's red-headed step brother, The Summation, where all sorts of little details throughout the film come to a point at the end. Kinda like THE USUAL SUSPECTS.
Not too many of those.

INCEPTION was a clean Complete Victory.
- Cobb got his freedom and his kids back.
- Saito got his inception planted.
- Everybody lived.
- Everyone went home happy.

Nolan's diagram: http://www.rickypapa.net/wp-content/uploads/inception-plot-diagram-1024x764.jpg

Thank you, again.

Quoted from RayW INCEPTION was a clean Complete Victory.

Depending on whether or not they actually started out in reality. Which is up to interpretation. All we know is that they came back to where they started - which could have been a dream.

Nice diagram by the way.

Quoted from Scar Tissue Films Oooh, you have to see the Italian Job.

Fun fact!  The Italian police chief (whose nice car is crushed near the end) is Heretic's great uncle Robert.

Implicit ending:  How about Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans?  Seems pretty open to interpretation how the character's arc ends, although the plot is neatly wrapped up in an explicit fashion.