12 Unanswered Questions From Famous Movies That Are Still Killing Us

1. Did Max Throw Himself Into The Garbage Truck? - Once Upon A Time In America

Once Upon A Time In America is a less popular but totally awesome crime movie that ranks up there with The Godfather. Butchered and edited into versions that didn't do it justice for a long, long time, it's now possible to actually watch the film as its director, spaghetti western maestro Sergio Leone, originally intended, so go do that if you haven't already. I'll wait. A sprawling epic if ever there was one, right?

The movie tells the story of Noodles, a gangster played by Robert De Niro, as we follow the span of his entire life, from plucky teenager to regret-filled adult. To explain the plot of Once Upon A Time In America in a few paragraphs would be like trying to tell you how to solve a Rubick's cube without mentioning the names of any colours, so I won't bother. Let's just say it contains a large ensemble cast, and that in the final moments of the movie, Noodles confronts his old friend, Max (James Woods), who feels guilty about the way he treated Noodles when they were younger men.

We're totally primed for a final resolution. Just when we think Noodles is going to kill Max, though, he doesn't, and the two characters part ways. Noodles goes outside, and then there's a weird scene with a garbage truck, where it's implied that Max - who we see briefly walking next to it as a drive does the street towards Noodles - throws himself into the back of, committing suicide.

There's no proof of this, of course, and nobody is exactly sure what this moment is about. Even James Woods said he didn't know what happened and that a different actor was used to portray him to make it unclear. Geesh.