10 "Ambiguous" Movie Endings (That Totally Aren't)

Jeff Nichols' outstanding psychological thriller Take Shelter is certainly an ambiguous movie up to a point, but absolutely not in its chilling final moments.

The film is centered around Curtis LaForche (an incredible Michael Shannon), a man who begins to have a series of apocalyptic visions about a coming storm, and debates whether to protect his family from the storm or his own possible mental decline.

At the end Curtis, his wife Samantha (Jessica Chastain), and their deaf daughter Hannah (Tova Stewart) take a beach vacation, where Hannah suddenly signs the word "storm."

The family then witness thick, oil-like rain pouring down just as in Curtis' visions, before a gigantic storm is shown rolling in as Curtis prophesised, and Samantha whispers, "OK," just as the scene suddenly cuts to black and the movie ends.

To some, this remains ambiguous - was Curtis indeed correct about the storm or is the family now experiencing a shared hallucination?

But really, the storm has to be real. For one, the "shared hallucination" theory feels like a massive stretch, and if the point of the film is to see Curtis and his family weathering the oncoming turmoil together, shouldn't it be something they can actually collectively, tangibly experience, like a physical storm?