10 Most Confusing Movie Endings People Don't Understand

8. Planet Of The Apes (2001)

One of the most vocal complaints about Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes remake was that the general plot and especially its ending confused the hell out of people.

The film concludes with astronaut Leo Davidson (Mark Wahlberg) travelling back in time to the Earth of the present, only to be greeted by apes in the place of humans.

The abrupt ending left many fans scratching their heads, especially as it was such a sharp 180 from the iconic conclusion of the original film, where George Taylor (Charlton Heston) learns that the supposedly alien planet was Earth all along.

It's never precisely explained how this new reality came to be, though fans are left to assume that the villainous Thade (Tim Roth) somehow beat Leo back to Earth and instigated all the changes, fashioning himself as an Abraham Lincoln-like figure in the process.

For his part, Burton claimed that the ending wasn't really supposed to make sense beyond providing an intriguing cliffhanger to set up a sequel, but ultimately most were left more baffled than excited by it.