Endings: The Sopranos and "Patriot Games" (1992)

Yes, taking up the famous "non-ending ending" of The Sopranos is a fool's errand -- and I'm a fool -- but I remembered this and thought I would bring it up here.

"Patriot Games" is the movie of a Tom Clancy thriller and the first to star Harrison Ford after Alec Baldwin had a shot at playing lead character Jack Ryan in "The Hunt for Red October",

Overall, "Patriot Games" is a political action thriller pitting Jack Ryan against an IRA terrorist on American soil.

After climaxing with a big boat chase and fight on Chesapeake Bay, the movie goes on with a more lighthearted "tag" scene among Ford, his wife, and one child. They are at home awaiting a call about the health of the new baby that Ford's wife is carrying. Ford's wife takes the call. The baby is fine and...the doctors know its sex. Do Ford and family want to know if its a boy or a girl?

They debate the issue. The final vote: yes, they want to know the sex of the baby. Ford's wife takes the information over the phone and turns to tell them the sex of the baby.

Sudden cut to black.

I saw that in a theater and I remember the audience reaction was not dissimilar to the ending of The Sopranos. Surprised shouts, followed by groans (of frustration) followed by some dismissive laughter as the end credits came up.

I don't think anybody really ENJOYED being played like that. It wasn't very substantive information -- boy or girl baby? -- but it felt like we were being jerked around.

Imagine how much MORE frustrating it was with the stakes at the end of The Sopranos.

I'll here skip the usual debate -- I choose "bad ending" and I'm done with it -- but more important is this:

Can we figure that David Chase SAW Patriot Games and had that ending in his head when plotting the end of The Sopranos?

And even if David Chase did NOT see the ending of Patriot Games...it was pretty much the same ending of The Sopranos, which tells us: it wasn't that revolutionary a concept.

And that is all, except for these shots:

ONE: Personally, I think that all that prep in Season Six about "not hearing it when it comes" and OTHER sudden deaths (the guy having dinner with Silvio; Phil at the gas station) WAS meant to lead to the conclusion that Tony was killed but David Chase suddenly found the backlash too strong and refused to answer the question(and what's the point anyway? If Tony's death wasn't on immortal film, there is nothing TO explain. Its like all those other non-answers that Chase gave us on: did Ralphie set the fire? What happened to the Russian? What happened to the rapist? It doesn't MATTER that "David Chase knows all.")

TWO: After letting other writers on his team write some of the best episodes in the series, Chase came on at the end and...wasn't as good as his team. And..

THREE: Chase's "choke at the end" sort of revealed why he didn't make it in movies after The Sopranos. It was a "TV writer ending." (Chase wrote story and much of the script for "The Many Saints of Newark" and was again exposed as such.)

FOUR: The Sopranos wasn't a movie, but our greatest movies have great ENDINGS. (Sunset Boulevard, Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, North by Northwest, Psycho, The Wild Bunch, The Godfather, The Sting, Rocky, Star Wars, Silence of the Lambs and on and on.) The very successful movie star Paul Newman said "the ending is the most important part of a movie."

FIVE: LIFE is nothing BUT endings. The end of high school. The end of college. The end of a job. The end of a love affair. The end of a marriage. The end of a life(funeral.)

I don't want to be accused of being "a bloodthirsty closure junkie" as some wag once wrote against folks like me about this ending....so..

The End.