23 Worst Movie Endings Since 2000

10. Generico Blockbuster Climax - I Am Legend

I Am Legend is a mostly entertaining adaptation of Richard Matheson's titular novel, albeit one that falls at the last hurdle with a spineless, unnecessary action movie climax. Robert Neville (Will Smith) spends most of the movie wandering around New York City with his pet dog Samantha, unaware that there are any other human beings left on the planet after a virus killed 90% of the population and turned 9% into mutated creatures known as Dark Seekers. He eventually manages to capture an infected female and discovers two other survivors, Anna (Alice Braga) and a boy, Ethan (Charlie Tahan), but while Neville experiments with curing the female Dark Seeker, a group of the infected attack. Neville and co., along with the infected woman, retreat, and realise that his latest cure worked. He gives a vial of the woman's blood to Anna, hoping that she can get it to safety and save what remains of humanity, before sealing Anna and Ethan away from the lab, just as the infected begin to break through the glass, and he detonates a grenade, killing himself and the attacking infected. The final scene shows Anna and Ethan arriving at a colony of survivors and handing over the cure. Why It Sucks: The alternate ending was so much better, in which the Dark Seekers make it clear to Neville that they aren't mindless, violent monsters, and the alpha male of the group simply wants his partner (the infected woman) back. Neville returns the woman and apologises, after which the infected leave and Neville realises the grave nature of his experiments on the Dark Seekers, before heading to the colony with Anna and Ethan. The generic blow-em-up finale of the theatrical version is all about dumb, instant gratification, whereas the original climax had considerably greater philosophical impact, and was simply a lot more interesting. Sadly, most audience members will never hear about it.