10 Infuriating Movie Endings That Pissed Fans Off
Cliffhangers, false endings and fake-outs that have inspired the ire of a thousand buffs.
One of the only things that gets a film fan's blood boiling more than an article poking holes in their favourite cinematic property is a movie that ends on the wrong beat.
No matter the budget, writer, director, cast or popularity of a production, all fall foul of a poorly executed third act, meaningless twist and studio cancellation once in a while, and it is the fans who pay the price.
Whether it's cliffhangers that go unresolved, narrative tricks that erase a portion of the picture - or, worse yet, the canon - or just good old bad storytelling leaving audiences high and dry, these ten infuriating films well and truly pissed fans off.
10. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 concluded Andrew Garfield's relatively brief stint as the web-slinging, straight-shooting, bespectacled student from Queens. While much about Garfield's tenure as Peter Parker was reviled by fans of the source material and previous films - the skateboarding, the devil-may-care 'cool dude' with artistically tousled hair, etc. - this film was never intended to be his swan song.
There is some debate as to whether it was the fan backlash, the middling reviews, or simply the misjudged messiness of the production itself that killed any hope for a sequel, but one thing is for sure: the ending did not see this coming.
Teasing one of the biggest Marvel villain team-ups and a fan favourite group from the Spider-Man universe, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 set up a sequel, and perhaps spin-off series, following the Sinister Six. In the closing scenes of the film, Harry Osborn/Green Goblin (played by Dane DeHaan) is approached by The Gentleman, and they talk of forming a new team, utilising the technology developed by Oscorp, which includes Vulture's wings and Doctor Octopus's arms. They agree to begin by breaking Rhino out of prison, and the film concludes on the opening of a Spidey/Rhino showdown, with the latter sporting an Oscorp-enhanced mechanical rhino suit.
It is not necessarily the ending in and of itself that pissed off fans the most (though Gwen Stacy's grim fate did it no favours), but that it set up such a keenly anticipated comic book adaptation without ever paying it off. Nevertheless, with Sony still brandishing its hottest property at every screen in sight, the future may look that little bit brighter for fans' cinematic dreams of the Six.