10 Movies They Didn't Know How To End

6. War Of The Worlds (2005)

It's no secret that H.G. Wells' 1898 novel on which this film is based ends on one of the most famous anti-climaxes in pop-culture history, with the alien invaders eventually succumbing to the "hostile" nature of Earth's atmosphere.

And it's fair to say that Steven Spielberg couldn't find a way to rectify this for contemporary audiences in his otherwise pretty decent 2005 adaptation, with the director himself eventually admitting that he couldn't figure out how to end the film and wasn't satisfied with how it concluded.

But beyond its non-event of an ending, there's also the infuriating, inconceivable survival of protagonist Ray's (Tom Cruise) idiot son Robbie (Justin Chatwin).

Mid-way through the movie, Robbie runs off into the battle and a gigantic explosion engulfs the area...but he miraculously shows up in Boston at the end of the film with no believable explanation for his survival.

Even for a sentimentalist like Spielberg, this came off extraordinarily hokey and implausible.

Given the movie's relatively grim tone, Robbie dying for real wouldn't have been outside the realm of possibility, while subverting Wells' original ending with something a little more satisfying for the blockbuster crowd probably would've been the smart call also.