MovieChat Forums > Grizzly (1976) Discussion > The ending (spolier alert, although I'm ...

The ending (spolier alert, although I'm sure you've all seen it)

posted 14 years ago by vklaatu
14 replies | jump to latest

I saw this over 30 years ago, and forgot the downer ending. The effects are pathetic to say the least, and most of the cast is wooden, but it doesn't stop this from being a very unpleasant viewing experience. The three guys left for the third act are very likable. GET THIS THOUGH, Grizzly follows Benchley's original novel's ending more closely, two out of three on the Orca die, and the shark gets away. Here the bear is almost bullet proof at least even if it does get blown up. In Grizzly you get a somber, down beat ending and no dramatic uplifting payoff. This is something it gets right, where I think Benchley and Spielberg dumbed down the script for Jaws.

I've seen an ending like this before, in a movie that does it far too well, Quatermass and the Pit, of all things. James Donald sacrifices himself to stop the monster there, with a dark somber ending, even though he goes down with such a determined look on his face. the movie That film was made in 1969, and I saw it on TV in 1976. Maybe I'm just too Gen X for my own good, i.e. too cynical to appreciate a happy ending.

The ludicrous explosion aside, Grizzly upped the ante with its downbeat ending.

I don't think this is much of a stretch, do you?

[–] OhmsLaw 14 years ago

What was so frustrating about this movie was how nobody seemed to be able to grab a gun fast enough, like that guy on the watch tower. When the bear was shot though, he was like you said, bullet proof.
It was disappointing what happened to Jaeckel, who always played heavies in roles but here was a good guy. You think he is going to make it when he opens those very pretty blue eyes but he gets knocked off anyways. Was that scene just to get our hopes up?
As for Prine, why did he think he couldn't outrun the bear? The others killed never had that chance except the hunter. Standing there with a rifle to beat him off was ridiculous. But I guess the hero was meant to be alone at the end.

[–] Spike64 14 years ago

Grizzly follows Benchley's original novel's ending more closely, two out of three on the Orca die, and the shark gets away.

The shark died at the end of the novel, too. Brody didn't blow it up like in the film, instead the repeated harpoons Quint had stuck in it finally killed it. Brody watched the shark sinking into the sea with Quint tangled in the ropes and strapped to it, ala Captain Ahab. And I wouldn't call having Hooper surviving in the movie "dumbing it down" so much as just going for a feel-good ending. Nothing wrong with that, especially since Universal had a little over ten times more riding on Jaws than the $750,000 spent on this.

You're gonna need a bigger boat.

[–] Nakrophile 14 years ago

Is the ending downbeat (other than Jaekel and Prine dying, which I was kind of expecting anyway)? I can't actually remember it. Doesn't it just end with a Dirty Harry-esque helicopter shot of a man alone? Or is there a final scene back at the town? Hmm... will have to double-check.

Emily? Who's Emily?

[–] ReedEnwright 14 years ago

Doesn't it just end with a Dirty Harry-esque helicopter shot of a man alone? Or is there a final scene back at the town?

The version I saw ended with a crane shot of a field with a smoking helicopter, our hero and a flaming heap of bear. But shouldn't there have been big smoldering bear-chunks everywhere? I guess they left that sort of thing out to stay under an "R" rating.

[–] g_monte 14 years ago

But shouldn't there have been big smoldering bear-chunks everywhere? I guess they left that sort of thing out to stay under an "R" rating.

Or they ran out of money.

I just watched this tonight after years of passing it by in video stores in the 80s. It wasn't quite as bad as I expected (4/10). One thing I noticed is it's pretty inconsistent. In one scene one swipe from the grizzly decapitates a horse; in the next shot one swipe on a man only knocks him to the ground, leaving a few lines of blood across his cheek.

[–] creek_girl 14 years ago

Or, when the camera was only on the feet, it was conspicuously the feet of a black bear. But, that's a minor point. The movie is what it is.

"Psychos do not explode when sun light hits them, I don't give a *beep* how crazy they are!"

[–] monkeycat 11 years ago

The Dirty Harry ending is exactly what I thought. Baddie dealt with, cut to the hero while the camera moves away, although in Grizzly the camera merely drops back to show the chopper too and then holds.

[–] BuddyLove63 14 years ago

In Grizzly you get a somber, down beat ending and no dramatic uplifting payoff. This is something it gets right, where I think Benchley and Spielberg dumbed down the script for Jaws.

I disagree. They didn't "dumb down" the ending in Jaws. Hooper only survives because of the live shark footage that Ron and Valerie Taylor shot where the real shark is battling an empty cage. In the early script for Jaws, Hooper actually dies (like in the book).

In Grizzly there is no way that either of the two men in the 'copter should have died.

[–] Dream_Demon 13 years ago

That I agree on. The pilot could've ran from the bear rather than just stand there using his gun as a club..

Welcome to my Nightmare- Freddy Krueger

[–] Crusader_TM 11 years ago

Run from a bear and you are dead. A bear, like all predators, always attack does that try to run away. And a bear can run much faster than a human. Your only chance is to stand up to it.

[–] lm362 10 years ago

I always thought that Kelly(Christopher George) was looking sadly not only because of all the death/injuries the bear had caused but also because he had not really wanted to kill it, hated having to do so. It made me sad for the bear as well as its victims. In Jaws, the upbeat ending seemed to go against all Hooper had been talking about how magnificent the shark was. It seemed to be nothing to them that they had just killed an animal and that seemed very insensitive to me. Yes! Grizzly's special effects should have been done so much better and the promotional stuff should have agreed with what was in the movie. All through the movie, it is made crystal clear that the bear is 15ft., not 18ft tall as pictured on the promotional posters...very sloppy work. I'm sure there are various camera tricks they could have used to make it appear that the bear was huge. It would have been such a better movie.

[–] cdjunkee-1 10 years ago

Couldn't agree with you more. I liked the downbeat ending and loved the movie despite it's obvious B movie and budget issues. Just got it on DVD recently. The movie surprised me with it's graphic violence and breaking the rule of killing a kid. (Felt bad about the Cub getting killed too)

[–] colonel52 9 years ago

The ending was funny and corny, why would he have the grenade launcher??
The bear can take a lot of bullets, at least a big grizzly can.
Early pioneers were stunned by how hard it was to kill a grizzly.

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[–] 9 years ago

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