10 Near-Classic Movies Ruined By Terrible Endings

9. No Country for Old Men

One of the most divisive endings in recent film history didn't stop the Coen Brothers' revisionist western from scooping Best Picture honours at the Academy Awards. No Country for Old Men is, for most of its run-time, a riveting slow-burn thriller about the desperate dash by various forces to secure a suitcase full of cash. Perhaps we should have been clued-in that the Coens were going to opt for minimalism following the underwhelming demise of protagonist Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) mid-way through the film, where we don't even see him die, just his corpse being discovered post-shootout. While the film seems to end naturally on a potent note of villainous, Terminator-esque psychopath Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) escaping, the Coens over-extend themselves in cutting back to dejected Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), who ends the film on an inconclusive whimper, regaling a friend with a dream he had in which his father rode ahead of him on a horse (obviously symbolising his impending demise).