10 Movies That BRILLIANTLY Avoided Huge Cliches

1. There's No Final Showdown - No Country for Old Men

Watchmen Ozymandias
Paramount Pictures

As taut and brilliantly executed as No Country for Old Men is, on an initial viewing it nevertheless seemed to be headed towards an incredibly typical final showdown between our "hero," Llewellyn Moss (Josh Brolin), and the ruthless killing machine Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem).

But in a wonderfully bewildering end-of-second-act twist, Moss is unexpectedly killed off-screen - not by Chigurh, but by a group of Mexicans who have been following him.

And it gets even better, as the audience is then led to believe that Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) will take over from Moss and be the one to take Chigurh down, except he just... doesn't.

The film instead ends with Bell retiring and effectively admitting to himself that he hasn't got what it takes to deal with the likes of Chigurh, who manages to escape into the night with the money.

The Coen brothers' slippery approach left some casual-minded audiences underwhelmed, but damn if it wasn't a trip to see a pair of filmmakers totally upend our expectations of how a film like this is supposed to wrap up.

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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.