10 Sci-Fi Movies That Pissed Audiences Off In The Final Scene
2. War Of The Worlds (2005)
The resolution to the alien invasion scenario in H.G. Wells' original The War of the Worlds novel is fundamentally divisive, with the extraterrestrials succumbing to Earthly pathogens they have no immunity for, but Steven Spielberg's otherwise-stellar adaptation went one step further.
The sequence in which the aliens are defeated is totally fine, but what follows is a toe-curlingly treacly Happy Ending which feels like a parody of every bad word ever said about Spielberg's "sentimental" filmmaking tendencies.
Once the alien invasion is over, the final scene shows Ray (Tom Cruise) returning with his daughter Rachel (Dakota Fannning) to the home of his ex-wife Mary Ann's (Miranda Otto) parents.
The kicker comes when Ray is greeted by not only Mary Ann but also his son Robbie (Justin Chatwin), who was believed to have been killed earlier in the film while fighting back against the aliens.
Robbie's death seemed like a pretty ballsy move, so it was such a typically Hollywood decision to undo that, all the more so because it's incredibly difficult to believe he could've survived the gigantic fireball he ran headlong into.
His survival is never explained - we're just expected to be happy that he's alive, no matter how little sense it makes, nor how aggressively corny it is.