10 Sci-Fi Movie Endings No One Understands

WhatCulture

The twists, time loops, and surreal head trips which left viewers wondering "What the..."

Transcript

00:00Some sci-fi movies are almost impossible to understand. Sure, there are plenty of Star Wars and-

00:05Star Treks to go around, but outside of the genre's more approachable side, there are always more stra-

00:10thoughtful and downright surreal offerings which defy all explanation. With that in mind then-

00:15Despite the fact that we don't know what's going on, spoiler warnings are in full effect because I'm psych-

00:20for whatculture.com and these are 10 sci-fi movie endings no one understands.

00:25Number 10, 12 Monkeys. What was the point of time traveling? Released in 1999-

00:30Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys may be one of the perpetually studio-stifled former pythons-

00:35most beloved films. However, like his equally acclaimed earlier effort Brazil, it's also one of the-

00:40filmmakers' bleakest hours. The film follows our potentially insane hero Cole after an episode-

00:45the epidemic wipes out much of the world. Sent too far back in time and ending up in an asylum-

00:50he attempts to inform himself of the danger in order to stop the tragedy ever occurring. However, Cole is-

00:55soon stuck being bounced back and forth between intersecting timelines in a story which becomes more bizarre and-

01:00byzantine the further it progresses. By the end of the film our nominal hero is dying in front of-

01:05his younger self embodying a nightmare he's had throughout the whole movie. But why?

01:10Why send him back if he was doomed to repeat this fate? What would have happened if he hadn't gone back?

01:15This complex film posits that you can change what you take from the past even if you can't all-

01:20to what happened back then through an uncompromisingly bleak and convoluted plot.

01:24Number 9

01:25Coherence

01:26What will M do next? Coherence's story can technically be followed-

01:30on first viewing but requires numerous spreadsheets to successfully untie every knot.

01:35His underrated 2013 sci-fi follows a group of friends at a dinner party who are besieged by Odokoro-

01:40only to discover that they are accidentally able to walk into an alternate simultaneously occurring.

01:45reality alongside their own. By the time the film's surreal ending rolls around you may well be-

01:50last as the friends have encountered and clashed with so many versions of themselves that it's impossible to-

01:55remember which reality the film has settled in. Not only is the cause of this temporal anomaly never explain-

02:00beyond one mention of a passing comet, our heroine is now stuck with a group of people who have no idea-

02:05about the emerging multiverse realities. So good luck explaining whatever the mind f that-

02:10it was that viewers just witnessed to these versions of your friends, M.

02:14Number 8

02:15The Qu-

02:15Quiet Earth

02:16Where is the Beach?

02:17Released in 1985, this New Zealand sci-fi film is-

02:20still an underrated slice of post-apocalyptic action. The Quiet Earth follows the fate of three survivors-

02:25after the end of the world, a scientist, an aboriginal man, and the love interest who the pair are soon competing-

02:30facing for the affections of in a love triangle that turns metaphysical fast. At first the film's-

02:35intense and interesting action is fairly easy to follow with the unlikely trio attempting to survive as well as-

02:40trying to understand what happened to their devastated planet. Then comes the film's infamously strange-

02:45ending wherein our hero crashes a truck rigged with explosives and wakes up on a dark beach-

02:50watching cloud formations as they emerge from the ocean in front of him. The imagery in this one may feel impossible-

02:55to decipher but the director insists it's a pretty easy to uncover metaphor for purgatory-

03:00Maybe it helps if you share his lapped Catholicism but luckily set director also conceded that any-

03:05enigmatic is good. Just as well he thinks so given the fact that almost no viewers understand what's happening-

03:10the first time they see it. Number seven-

03:12Stalker was the wish granted-

03:15Released in 1979 the deeply confusing and complex Stalker is often singled out-

03:20as the finest film from Solaris director Andrei Tarkovsky. The body of the film's actions-

03:25the titular guide bring a heartbroken writer and their disagreeable professor companion through the zone.

03:30in a space which is said to contain a room that grants the wishes of its visitors. All manner of metaphysical-

03:35arguments proceeds from here as well as plenty of stunning scenery and strange surreal imagery and of course-

03:40an enigmatic ending. It's impossible to decide for certain whether our young heroine monkey has moved-

03:45in glasses with their mind or the passing trains soon seen by the viewer are causing them to shake along with the rest-

03:50of the house. Thus the viewer is left to decide for themselves whose desire was granted and how real-

03:55or imaginary the zone's supposed power was after all. Thus Stalker leaves viewers no-

04:00clearer than they were at the beginning. Number six-

04:02Number six- A scanner darkly. What's the motive-

04:05Who would you trust more? A pharmaceutical company or the feds? No matter your answer, the ending of this-

04:10Philip K. Dick adaptation is likely to leave you heartbroken. A scanner darkly is likely the most-

04:15personal of the many stories mined from the prolific sci-fi writer's back catalogue. It's tale of an undercover-

04:20cop who falls in with a crowd of drunk users and grows to care for them more than his shadowy superiors was based on-

04:25Dick's own experience with drugs and the gradual dissolution of his friend group through the tragedy of addiction.

04:30So, appropriately enough, the end of this dark 2006 adaptation sees Keanu Reeves' paranormal-

04:35anti-hero become addicted to substance D. He appears to be blissfully ignorant of the fact that he-

04:40was farming the flowers used to synthesize the drug for the mysterious and dangerous company who produce it.

04:45But then-

04:45Then he steals a sample to-

04:47Provide his superiors, meaning he's still undercover.

04:49Provide for himself-

04:50Since he's still addicted-

04:51Or provide to his friends who the viewer is pretty sure are dead and gone.

04:55It's hard to tell, but whatever the answer, it's probably better than being stuck farming drugs for your enemies.

05:00Number 5-

05:01Life Force-

05:02What's going on with the space vampires?

05:04Poor Toby-

05:05The horror genius behind the Texas Chainsaw Massacre created what is undoubtedly one of the most inten-

05:10intense horror films in cinema history with his 1974 mega-hit.

05:13However, in the decades since-

05:15he never really reached the same staggering heights artistically with a string of interesting but flawed films-

05:20following his initial blockbuster success.

05:22Case in point, 1985 sci-fi vampire-

05:25The horror life force has a killer premise which soon becomes drowned in overly complex plotting.

05:29The movie follows-

05:30The movie follows a set of scientists as they attempt to study a trio of astronauts who appear to have transformed into space vampires-

05:35a conceit with plenty of potential provided it doesn't become needlessly convoluted.

05:39The film's-

05:40The problem is epitomized by its bizarre ending, one of which remains a point of contention for sci-fi and horror fans-

05:45alike.

05:46So, one of our heroes was a space vampire the whole time unbeknownst to himself due to-

05:50the movie hitherto unmentioned psychic Bond-

05:52and said space vampires arrive and leave Earth based on the passing-

05:55of Haley's Comet?

05:56And they simply transform our hero included into a vanishing column of energy-

06:00to disappear at the end.

06:01Of course!

06:02What could have been clearer?

06:03And here this one seemed confusing-

06:05Number 4.

06:06Planet of the Apes 2001.

06:08How did the apes change reality-

06:10It's pretty much impossible to overstate the influence of the ending featured in 60s sci-fi-

06:15classic Planet of the Apes.

06:16The otherwise solid Charlton Heston vehicle became instantly iconic and spawned-

06:20an entire franchise thanks to its killer twist.

06:23The reveal that, as Troy McClure would put it-

06:25it was Earth all along was an unheralded and dazzling ending which would still-

06:30make the likes of Hitchcock and M. Night Shyamalan proud.

06:33So the oddly chosen director Tim Burton's two-

06:352001 remake of the classic had pretty sizable shoes to fill in this regard.

06:39The film attended-

06:40The film attempted to outdo the original bombshell twist but instead left viewers with a brain-melting,

06:44time-twisting-

06:45paradox of alternate histories to untangle.

06:47By the time this version reaches its close our hero has-

06:50returned to his own time but the apes have gotten their first somehow.

06:53Not only that, they've gone and replaced the-

06:55statue of Abraham Lincoln with a villainous future ape.

06:58Well presumably they've done more than that whilst-

07:00rewriting history but good luck working out how they managed it on first viewing.

07:04Number three-

07:05The-

07:05The Black Hole

07:06What's in the Black Hole?

07:07Now most of the entries on this list do have explanation-

07:10which can untangle their initially impossible to decipher meanings but your guess is as good-

07:15as ours on 1979's The Black Hole and its strange surreal closing coda.

07:19Your interpretation-

07:20is also as good as the directors too-

07:22as the film's creators admitted they never had an ending in mind when-

07:25working on this Disney flop.

07:26All that can be said for sure is that yes, our heroic captain finds her-

07:30father's long lost spaceship near a black hole and decides to board the vessel in order to solve the mystery-

07:35behind his disappearance.

07:36But from there on out, trippy 70s sci-fi psychedelia takes over-

07:40proceedings and maintains a stranglehold on the plot until the infamous ending.

07:44No matter the elastic-

07:45of your interpretation-

07:46all that appears to be clear is that yes, the characters enter and later leave-

07:50what looks like hell through the titular black hole at the film's close.

07:54The film then sees-

07:55with its characters plunging towards a far away star that-

07:58might be heaven, might be the way back-

08:00home to earth.

08:01It might just be a star.

08:02Who knows?

08:03Number 2.

08:04Vanilla Sky

08:05What is tech support?

08:06Released in 2001, Vanilla Sky is one of director Cameron Crowe's-

08:10most underrated cinematic offerings, as well as being a major tonal departure for the almost-

08:15famous filmmaker.

08:16This Tom Cruise vehicle is a surprisingly cerebral and dark thriller which sees our hero-

08:20thrust into a world of mystery and intrigue.

08:22It all starts in the iconic sequence wherein he awakens-

08:25to an empty New York City, a surreal sight which serves as a warning that all is not-

08:30as it seems.

08:31And indeed, the viewer eventually learns that this isn't New York at all.

08:35The protagonist-

08:35has been in an induced coma this entire time, and the glimpses of his real life have been glitches in-

08:40the system.

08:41Well, don't expect any answers from the film's ambiguous ending anyway.

08:44So-called tech support-

08:45offers the above explanation, but there's no way of knowing if they're telling the truth,

08:48if this is all a dream, or if it's a dying-

08:50hallucination in the moment since his car crash.

08:53In the end, the viewer knows our hero is choosing-

08:55to wake up, but whether he's dead, alive, in heaven, in purgatory, in a coma-

09:00or anywhere else, is very unclear.

09:02Number one-

09:03Beyond the Black Rainbow-

09:04Every-

09:05Everything about it.

09:06Released in 2010, Panos Cosmitos' Beyond the Black Rainbow signalled-

09:10the arrival of a singular new talent in the world of psychedelic sci-fi.

09:13Garnering understandable comparisons-

09:15to the work of Alejandro Jodorowsky.

09:17The film saw the visionary director turn the story of a telekinetic-

09:20and the shadowy doctor experimenting on her into a total brain-melter.

09:24How much so when-

09:25the world movie manages to make a shot of some carpets into a trippy, nightmarish, prolonged sequence.

09:30So its take on telekinesis, mind-melding, and new age transcendence are understandably pretty-

09:35insane too.

09:36But as confusing as the bulk of this film's action is, the ending truly takes the biscuit-

09:40with a wild and impossible to decipher psychedelic odyssey which makes Kubrick's 2001 look easy-

09:45to follow in comparison.

09:46Suffice it to say that the viewer never learns the mysterious origins or intentions-

09:50of the Arborea Institute outside of the eponymous doctor's attempts to achieve transcendence-

09:55a goal which ends with him maybe succeeding?

09:58Definitely becoming something more than human and-

10:00and very dangerous.

10:01As for our heroine, she may be free to roam the earth, but the viewer still has no idea-

10:05where she came from, how she acquired her powers, or what's next for her.

10:09And that's the li-

10:10let us know what you thought of this video down in the comments below.

10:13Which of these sci-fi movie endings blew-

10:15to your mind the most.

10:16And of course, let us know of any others that we missed.

10:18Make sure you like this video, share it with your friends-

10:20subscribe and hit that notification bell.

10:22Head over to whatculture.com for more content every day.

10:25I've been CypherWattCulture and have a good week.

Category

Transcript

Comments

Recommended