10 Movies With Annoyingly Abrupt Endings

9. Reunion - War Of The Worlds

Steven Spielberg's adaptation of War of the Worlds is quite possibly the most brilliant and most frustrating blockbuster ever made; it's crammed with both great moments and questionable moments in equal measure. And so whilst the first half of this alien invasion yarn is near-on perfect, the ending is an awkwardly abrupt affair.

After battling the invaders to protect his children, then, it looks like it's all over for single dad Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) when he comes up against a tripod. But then the alien inside turns out to be dying, for some reason: phew. Cut to a brief scene of Ray delivering his daughter, played by an insufferable Dakota Fanning, to her mother, grandparents and brother who have holed up in Boston ("Thank you," sobs the mother), and that's kind of it.

Turns out that bacteria has destroyed the aliens because they haven't adapted to our environment over millions of years, the silly chaps - information relayed to us via the voice of Morgan Freeman. Spielberg got his ending from the original book, of course, and that's fine: it's the way he delivers it to the audiences that jars, though, like it's a mere afterthought. There had to have been a way to divulge this with a bit more skill, surely?