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23 greatest movie endings of all time, ranked
Jul 2, 2025
Final scenes are incredibly tough to pull off – and they can make or break the viewing experience. and Louis Chilton pick 23 of the greatest movie denouements in cinema history
A bold statement but: there is no more important moment in a film than its ending.
Depending on the screenwriter and filmmaker, final scenes are a crucial opportunity to evoke a particular feeling from the viewer. There are the endings that are an extension of the movie you’ve been watching – a fitting full stop culminating with a memorable wisecrack or a symbolic visual emphasising the trajectory of the characters you’ve spent the last few hours watching.
Then there are the endings that like to startle you. These climaxes can drop a twist that pulls the rug from under your feet, or end on an ambiguous note designed to confound the viewer; they can pose more questions than reveal answers. While denouements such as these might leave people feeling short-changed, a skilful deployment of such an ending can scintillate and make you reassess everything you’ve just seen.
It was hard to pick just 23 film endings to include on this list. It was a fun opportunity to highlight some of our personal favourites alongside the more well known – so some of your top picks might not have made the cut this time around.
Below are what we believe to be a good selection of the 23 greatest final scenes in movie history.
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