Is the ending the best in film history?

What constitutes an ending? Someone nominated Michael Clayton which has a phenomenal penultimate scene, but the actual ending is intentionally ambiguous and low-key, in a way that we've seen before (in fact, Up in the Air has essentially the same ending: George Clooney's character wondering, what now?).

And several folks have mentioned The Lord of the Rings ... but can you really count an ending based on a book whose ending is even more emotional?

I will second the nominations for a bunch of films already mentioned, especially Sunset Blvd. but also The Graduate, Casablanca, Chinatown, Memento, The Searchers, and in the twist category, The Sixth Sense, The Usual Suspects, and Planet of the Apes. The Sixth Sense is especially brilliant because the penultimate scene is, as others have mentioned, incredibly emotional and seems like a perfect ending ... and then the bomb is dropped.

There are a lot of movies I've seen only once whose denouements I remember as terrific (Powell and Pressburger's A Canterbury Tale is downright numinous), but whose actual final scene I can't being to mind.

So here are just 10 new nominations:

Invaders From Mars (1953) (sure scared me as a kid!)
If... (1968)
Brewster McCloud (1970)
O Lucky Man! (1973) (see it right after If...)
Open Your Eyes (1999)
You Can Count on Me (2000)
School of Rock (2003)
Before Sunset (2004) Best next-to-last line.
The Prestige (2006) (last real scene plus coda)
Greenberg (2010) Best last line in years.

Wow ... no less than six of these endings are in some way self-aware or meta (all but If..., Open Your Eyes, Before Sunset, and Greenberg). In no particular order (in case you haven't seen all of them), there's an ending where characters mention that it's the ending, an ending that repeats the beginning, an ending shot at the cast party, an ending incorporating the credits, an ending with a voice-over narration directed at the viewer, and an ending that references the movie title in an original way. Figuring that the only self-aware ending in the list I endorsed is my all-time favorite ending, Sunset Blvd. ... it's clear that I really like meta (but I've always known that!).

Prepare your minds for a new scale of physical, scientific values, gentlemen.

I just watched this film.. it's the first silent one i've seen and i must say i was blown away... especially at the end. perfect.

YES.






"I FELT LIKE DESTROYING SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL"

It's one of the very best. Easily the best in the silent film era, and probably one of the most touching endings of any movie to date.

The ending is plainly awesome; so much expressed with so little... a few glances, smiles, the petals falling from the flower that Chaplin's holding, a couple of sentences : "¿you? ... and the crowning line "Yes, I can see now", simply wonderful.

Another breathtaking film endings that I can think of:

"Morocco"
"Battleship Potemkin"
"Goodbye, Mr. Chips"
"Citizen Kane"
"Going my way"
"2001"
"Paths of glory"
"How green was my valley"
"Sunset Boulevard"
"Planet of the apes"

The simple answer is YES! Certainly there can be no better. To my mind this is the greatest moment in the greatest film of all time.

There is NOTHING ambiguous about the ending. It is not about what will happen next.

For in that moment of recognition, of realization, of knowledge, time stops and becomes eternal. It is enlightenment, nirvana, satori.

All artistic endeavor strives to give hope to the possibility of human connection, of LOVE, even if sometimes the only connection is a commonality of a perceived hopelessness.

Here we are gifted with the most positive of affirmations of all that we may wish.

That one touch is a touch of the DIVINE, the spark of LIFE, that one moment a flood that washes away all darkness, all doubt, that brings us out of the cave of shadows.

It is supremely powerful and it is shocking.

A shock not unlike what Kubrick tried to achieve with 2001. Instead of a prolonged dose of mysticism, here Chaplin takes only seconds amidst the most ordinary.

Remember, everything in this film adheres to a strict logic. Nothing is superfluous, nothing is false. The relationship between Chaplin and Cherril is very real, yet at the same time there are unavoidable misconceptions. It is these misconceptions which allow the relationship to grow.

I could go on and on, but let us return to the beginning, which is the end.

That relationship, touching and meaningful though it was, seems to be over. We see them go on with their lives. It is sad, it is wistful, but there are no regrets.

Then...
And then...

No words can adequately express what happens...so many years later I still choke up.

In that moment, in that touch...

She realizes, she "sees" who he really is...not a tramp, not a benefactor...she sees how all that he did for her is infinitely amplified by his circumstance, that all the kindness, the fondness she felt from him has become transformed in retrospect into the purest love.

He realizes also...that she does not recoil, instead only grasps him tighter, with her eyes and simple words shows not gratitude nor pity but again that pure love in return.

In that moment, they truly and simply recognize each other, beyond appearance, beyond personality, beyond circumstance.

Together, in that moment, what they manifest is a PERFECT love.

It is transcendent.

What more could anyone ask for?

no doubt, the ending for sure, is the BEST of all movie history ever made. from now on, city light's ending will stay at the top of my best ending list and im sure it last for decade.

If not the best, then certainly one of the best endings in film history.

I was completely taken by surprise. That's the beauty of the ending. You aren't told what's happening, but you suddenly feel it. You're overjoyed yet deeply saddened. Emotions that strong catch you off-guard when you're watching a whimsical comedy, at least for me. Then to top it all off, the film just ends right then and there without anything more. It was perfect.