10 Brilliant Movie Endings That Give You The Finger
7. Gone Baby Gone
Gone Baby Gone's tagline reads: 'Everyone wants to know the truth... until they find it.' Viewers won't realize quite what that means until this movie's miserable conclusion.
Ben Affleck's fantastic directional debut follows two private investigators - couple Patrick & Angie (Casey Affleck & Michelle Monaghan) - who are looking for a missing girl. After a long and twisty investigation, they discover that the little girl was kidnapped by police captain Jack Doyle (Morgan Freeman), but not out of malice.
Doyle took young Amanda (Madeline O'Brien) because her mother, Helene (Amy Ryan) was a terrible, neglectful parent and he believes that Amanda will have a much happier life with him and his wife. Patrick is left with an impossible moral dilemma - return the girl to her mother, or keep Doyle's secret.
Ultimately, he does call the police. Sadly, he later discovers that Helene's back to neglecting her daughter, even after everything. Angie disagrees with Patrick's decision so strongly that she breaks up with him, and Patrick is left with the sobering realization that he's probably doomed this poor kid to a life of poverty.
It's a phenomenal, sobering ending that elevates an already kick-ass thriller to greatness. It confronts both Patrick and the viewers with an impossible moral choice and while some will be tempted to judge Patrick for making that call, let's be honest: how many of us would've been able to deprive a mother of her child and let her believe that her daughter was dead?