10 Movies Saved By Their Final Shot
These movies brought it all back from the brink in the final seconds.
The final shot of any movie is so, so important in crystalising the viewer's relationship with the experience as a whole.
A memorable or especially evocative closing image can linger in the audience's mind for years after the end credits roll and forever colour their perception of the film entirely.
And while terrible final shots won't necessarily ruin a film, it's fair to say that a masterfully executed departing image can absolutely elevate a mixed bag of a movie.
That's most certainly the case with these 10 films, each of which heavily polarised audiences, and yet were saved from being written off wholesale thanks to a smart, alluring, or wildly unexpected final shot.
These shots, whether neatly tying up the central narrative, encompassing the film's overall ideas in a concise final image, or simply offering up some gorgeous cinematography, all made us all sit back and say, "Y'know what? It really wasn't that bad."
Much as there's only so much a single shot can ever do, these films proved they can still be enormously powerful in forever changing how you regard the rest of the movie...
10. Thor: The Dark World
Thor: The Dark World offers up a rare example of a last-minute "they survived, actually" ass-pull which fans were genuinely ecstatic about.
Up until recently, the second Thor movie was quite clearly the consensus-worst Marvel Cinematic Universe film, and even in light of clunkers like Eternals, Ant-Man and the Wasp, and The Marvels, it's still right at the bottom of the pack.
From its lackluster, forgettable villain to its flat, washed-out visuals, and toe-curlingly corny comic relief, it's the colour beige writ cinematic large.
But the final scene, where it's revealed that Thor (Chris Hemsworth) hasn't been talking to his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins), but actually a still-alive Loki (Tom Hiddleston) in disguise, was its absolute saving grace.
Given that Loki was both the best part of the movie and unceremoniously killed off at the end of the second act, to have him return from the dead and assure audiences that he'd be back basically saved the film from enduring an even worse reception.