23 Worst Movie Endings Since 2000

A movie is only ever as great as its ending, and regardless of how much we might be enjoying a film, a naff ending can well and truly sink all the good work up to that point. These 23 films vary wildly in quality, but the common thread is that each concluded on an awful note, often laughably so, forever dooming itself to be discussed largely for its final misstep rather than for anything it actually delivered upon up until that point. An ending is supposed to provide audiences with closure and catharsis, yet these movies often eschewed that in favour of a frustrating cliffhanger, or a ludicrous plot twist that simply wasn't warranted. What else makes for a bad ending? We've got shocking tonal shifts which betray everything that came before, dissatisfying anti-climaxes, craptacular special effects, awful celebrity cameos, cheap tricks and things that just plain don't make sense! Some of the already-terrible movies on this list at least delivered horrible endings that made us laugh, but for the highly anticipated blockbusters or almost-good movies on this list, it was truly heartbreaking to see them climax in such disastrous fashion.

23. Neo Is Dead...Or Is He? - The Matrix Revolutions

The third and (apparently) final Matrix movie was tasked with tying up the war between the machines and Zion, as well as Neo's (Keanu Reeves) war against Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving), who had grown beyond the control of The Matrix. Near the end of the movie, Neo brokers for peace with the leader of the Sentinels on the condition that he can bring Smith down. During the final battle, Neo, who is connected to the Matrix through the machines, is assimilated by Smith, at which point the machine leader fires a burst of energy into Neo, which in a domino effect destroys both Neo and the millions of Agent Smiths inhabiting the Matrix. With Smith destroyed, Neo's body is carried away by the machines, and we see the Matrix reboot, complete with a beautiful new sky (pictured above). The Architect and the Oracle, the "father and mother" of the Matrix, meet in a park, agreeing on a period of peace and to offer all humans the opportunity to leave the Matrix should they wish. The Oracle then tells Sati, an exile program introduced at the start of the film, that she thinks they'll see Neo again one day, and the movie ends on the above picturesque shot. Why It Sucks: Given how much investment fans had in the franchise, we deserved something more complete than this shockingly open-ended conclusion. So, Neo is dead but might come back and the Matrix still exists? How terrible unsatisfying. What makes it worse is that the triumphant score and "poignant" final scene suggests that the Wachowskis truly thought they were making an emotional, fitting climax to the series, when in actuality it was nothing short of a lazy cop-out.