Warning: There are a metric crapton of spoilers ahead. Obviously. This is an article about movie endings. We're kinda gonna have to talk about endings, ya know?
The first movie I personally remember being shocked by was Old Boy. It's a 2003 South Korean horror/psychological thriller. The ending is such a graphic sharp left turn that it gained instant classic status both in Korea and among horror film lovers worldwide.
I'd tell you about it but I don't have time to explain the relevant spiderweb of character relationships ... or for the amount of trigger warnings it would take.
One Reddit user asked:
What movie had the best unexpected ending?
So lets take a stroll through Hollywood history. You probably already know the twists and turns in several of these, but there might be some movies here you haven't been punched in the gut by yet.
Grab some popcorn and enjoy!
Dirty Apes
Planet of The Apes.
It was super surprising seeing the Statue of Liberty at the end. When I first saw it, my 9 year old brain just exploded. The movie doesn't really make sense up until the ending because of the reveal; but even if you saw it coming, its execution was still phenomenal.
Luke ...
GiphyMy son only recently got into Star Wars. When we got to watching Empire for the first time. The thought that he didn't know what was coming, or the impact it would have, didn't even occur to me.
I wished I'd taken a video of his reaction. He was beyond shocked, like absolutely gobsmacked. He also bombarded me with questions for about an hour straight afterwards. It blew his mind!
How To Train Your Dragon
How to Train Your Dragon.
What other kids movie would dare have the main character get maimed/disfigured during the climax?
And then the second movie was even worse cause Stoic dies! Fck, that death hit me so hard.
Major spoilers below if you haven't seen HTTYD 2:
Him and his long-lost wife had just reunited. You finally got to see the soft, loving side of him. He was finally happy. I almost cry every time I think of that song and dance he does with his wife.
Then like 10 minutes later he gets murdered in front of his reunited family. Like every time Hiccup does the brave, strong thing it costs him. The first time it was his foot, then his dad, then later on his town, and eventually his best friend.
That series is frikin dark.
- Eode11
And just to add salt to the wound, he was murdered by lovable mascot best friend Toothless while he was under the effects of mind control. That really takes it over the edge for me.
And Toothless gives that goofy grin and assumes Stoick is asleep shortly after snapping out of it.
- ddh85
Yeah and how Hiccup angrily shoos Toothless away and Toothless's hurt and confused face before running away. It absolutely murdered my feels.
No Resolution
The Birds. The movie ending is surprising in that the movie ends with the protagonists just ... driving off and leaving town with literally no resolution to the actual problem of a town overrun by murderous birds.
I love how bizarre and bleak that movie is. And that there is no "reveal" to make sense what happens.
It starts out like a cute romance. It's charming.
Then there's a few birds acting strange. And then it goes bonkers, and it's all screaming and inexplicable chaos.
So they run away. The end. What the hell just happened?!
But the movie is like, "Fck you. We don't know what happened. The birds freaked out."
- Hithigon
Let's Play A Game
The twist in Saw still ranks up there for me.
Low budget film with no expectations and, Wham, an amazing twist.
- kukulele
I tagged along with a group of friends to see Saw. Didn't know anything about it. Never saw a trailer. Didn't even know what genre it was. Just went because I had nothing else to do. Walked out of the theater two hours later completely terrified. I remember my friend didn't even turn the radio on, on the way home. We all just sat in silence.
First time I watched Saw I was alone, and thought it was fine, pretty neat horror movie. When Lawrence sawed his foot off, I figured that was it, that was the twist everyone was talking about. Kinda underwhelmed, but still all right.
And then it happened.
When I watch movies alone, I don't usually react all that much. Even to horror movies, beyond the odd shudder, I'm usually pretty calm. But this one got me to yell "WHAT?" at the screen.
Fooled By The Prestige
GiphyThe Prestige end lines.
"Now you're looking for the secret. But you won't find it because of course, you're not really looking. You don't really want to work it out. You want to be fooled."
This is the greatest line and set up, because until you get over the twist ending, or "the prestige," you don't realise the whole movies been lying to you.
It's all over the place - during "the turn", the middle of the movie, using unreliable narration of documentation created to distract the rival magicians. We know some of it is a fake diary, but we assume we can take some other information seriously when we can't.
The twist ending was great, but once rewatched you realise you're only ever watching a retelling of events, and as these two famously like to mess with each other what we are being told and shown probably isn't real. More than likely the machine didn't work and Jackman killed off his double to frame Christian bale, and the other tanks probably had dummies in.
We were so willing to be fooled we didn't use our logical thinking skills to break it all down.Well I didn't anyway, not till four or five watches later. We wanted to be fooled and forgot everything after the prestige was revealed.
Even though the movie literally tells us that's what's going to happen!
There's a great video on YouTube explaining it all.
Memento
Memento. Absolutely incredible. The ending made the beginning scene even more disturbing.
Me and a few friends watched this one night in college.
When it all comes together at the end and the black and white past meets up with the color present, I went, "gasp Oh sht." Chills ran through my body.
The movie finished, and we talked about it.
I told them, "when it went from black and white to color slowly it shook me."
They both looked at each other slowly and said, "I didnt..... I didn't even realize that happened until you said that".
We went back and watched again lol
- GibbyDat
Excellent movie, and the highest compliment I can pay it is what happened immediately after the movie on the day I saw it.
Remember, this was released in a time when mid-credits and post-credits scenes were not really a thing. As soon as the credits started rolling, no one, not one single person, got up to leave. I went to the movie alone and thus was able to sit and observe those around me. Everyone sat there, just talking with their companions about what they'd just seen (or thought they had seen). It was probably ten minutes before the first couple finally left.
I've never seen anything like that before or since.
Do you have something to confess to George? Text "Secrets" or "
" to +1 (310) 299-9390 to talk to him about it.
Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.
Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?
But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.
It would be so great to be sure there is something else.
But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.
Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:
"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"
Sensations
Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."
PeachesnPain
Recovery
"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."
"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."
"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."
good_golly99
Take Me Back
"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."
"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."
rayrayrayray
Free
The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."
TooReDTooHigh
This is why I hate surgery.
You just never know.
Shocked
Giphy"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."
Admirable_Buyer6528
The SOB
"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."
"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”
1-cupcake-at-a-time
Colors
"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"
Hannah_LL7
"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"
huntokarrr
The Fog
"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."
"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."
Fluffy-Hotel-5184
Through the Walls
"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."
"She's quite alive and well today."
Hot-Refrigerator6583
Well let's all be happy to be alive.
It seems to be all we have.
Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.
The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.
Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.
Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:
"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"
Redditors didn't see these coming.
Shiver Me Timbers
"I’m always cold now!"
– Telrom_1
"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."
– r7ndom
"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."
– mr_remy
Drawing Concern
"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."
– dee-fondy
"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"
"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."
– LizardofDeath
Unleashing Insults
"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”
"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."
– alanamablamaspama
Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight
"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."
– KeltarCentauri
"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."
– KatMagic1977
"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."
– Jaew96
These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.
Shopping
"I can buy clothes in any store I want."
– WaySavvyD
"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."
– ganache98012
No More Symptoms
"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."
– colleennicole93
Expanding Capabilities
"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."
– Ramblonius
People Change Their Tune
"How much nicer people are to you."
"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"
– LiZZygsu
"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"
"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"
– awholedamngarden
It's gonna take some getting used to.
Bones Everywhere
"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."
– Princess-Pancake-97
"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."
– bekastrange
Knee Pillow
"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."
– snic2030
"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."
– Strongbad23
More Mobility
"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."
"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."
– dma1965
People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.
But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.
That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.