15 Most Anti-Climactic Movie Showdowns

The Showdown: As the blind Ivy (Bryce Dallas Howard) ventures through the woods to retrieve medical supplies for her wounded lover Lucius (Joaquin Phoenix), she finds herself being hunted down by one of the dangerous red-cloaked creatures who act as gatekeepers of the forest.

The Anti-Climax: The idea of a blind woman taking on a mythical monster has all sorts of chilling potential, but this quickly unfurls when Ivy manages to trick the "monster" into falling down a pit.

It then turns out that the creature was, in fact, the local simpleton Noah (Adrien Brody) in disguise, and while it seemed for a moment that the town's ruse to stop the citizens leaving their fake period experiment was going to actually pay off with real monsters, it's ultimately just another lame fake-out.

This anti-climax is especially significant as it marked a major turning point for writer-director M. Night Shyamalan, who began to develop a reputation for making movies with unsatisfying, unecessary plot twists.