10 Movies Ruined In Their Final Shot

Law Abiding Citizen is a thoroughly entertaining, shamelessly trashy revenge thriller in which bereaved vigilante Clyde Shelton (a ferocious Gerard Butler) seeks to avenge his wife and daughter's deaths by murdering any legal personnel involved with the lenient sentences given to their killers.

At the end, Shelton plots to blow up City Hall and kill the Mayor as his grand final statement, except he's outsmarted by his attorney Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx), who moves the bomb to Shelton's own cell, killing him.

It's an extremely unsatisfying ending, and one categorically made worse by the movie's final scene, where Nick is shown attending his daughter's music recital - an event he'd previously struggled to attend - implying he's finally found balance and peace in his life.

Given that Nick isn't particularly likeable or sympathetic throughout the film - a rather self-serving legal instrument above all else - painting him as the hero who gets a happy ending left many viewers soured on the entire experience.

Given that Nick's growth wasn't palpably felt throughout the film, the outcome was completely unearned.

Seeing Nick smiling contentedly in the audience in the final shot felt like the filmmakers sticking two middle fingers up at an audience who were largely rooting for Clyde to burn the American legal system to the ground.

It's doubly frustrating as the ending was considerably laboured-over during production.

Though most endings indeed saw Clyde killed by Nick, another proposed ending had Nick kill Clyde and end up in jail himself, at which point he basically assumes the Clyde role and targets the corrupt legal system.

It certainly would've been a more fitting ending, to see Nick pulled down to Clyde's level.