10 Greatest Fake Out Endings In Movies

Anyone who saw The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in the cinema will surely remember the absolutely maddening experience of believing the film was about to end numerous times before it finally did.

Director Peter Jackson delivers an ending running almost 30 minutes in length, in which the film appears to end at least four times before it actually does.

First off, Jackson deploys a lengthy fade to black when Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) have destroyed the Ring, then another fade at the end of the iconic bed scene, another prolonged transition after Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) is crowned King, an ending-baiting fade as Frodo stares at Sam during his wedding, a fade to white after Frodo departs Middle-earth, and finally, it ends for good with Sam and his family at the Shire.

It's all great material of course, even if there are fair arguments to be made that it's just too much.

Anyone who saw the movie upon release will likely recall the swaths of people repeatedly readying themselves to leave the cinema, only to have to sit back down again for another bladder-busting epilogue scene.