7 "Perfect" Movie Endings That Are Way More Contrived Than You Think

5. Charlotte Teleports To Downtown Tokyo Ahead Of Bob So He Can Conveniently Spot Her In A Crowd - Lost In Translation

Lost in Translation tells the melancholic but ultimately life-affirming tale of two lost souls, Bob (Bill Murray) and Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson), who spend a week together in Tokyo, eating weird foods, singing karaoke, and generally being "foreigners in Japan." Bob is a faded movie star there to shoot a whisky commercial; Charlotte is a college graduate accompanying her photographer boyfriend on an assignment. They meet in their hotel one night and instantly connect. At the end of the movie, though, Bob must return to Los Angeles ahead of his new favourite person, and he bids farewell to Charlotte in a sad and awkward scene in the hotel lobby. As Charlotte returns in the lift to her hotel room, Bob gets into his limo and drives away, staring solemnly out of the window, wondering what could have been. And then... hey, wait a minute! Downtown, he spots somebody in the street walking amongst the crowds. It's Charlotte! He leaps out of his limo, follows her, kisses her, and whispers something unheard into her ear. The soundtrack kicks in at the point as if to say, yeah, that's the perfect ending we wanted, and the fate of Bob and Charlotte's relationship, though unclear, feels a little more hopeful. Still, what most fail to notice during this scene is how contrived it is in its set-up: how did Charlotte, who went back upstairs in the hotel elevator, suddenly appear in the middle of a street in downtown Tokyo... ahead of Bob? Bob left long before her, remember, and Charlotte has no means of transport. It makes no sense that she'd have been able to be in that specific location for Bob to spot her! It's a lovely ending - perfect in many ways - but it does take a bit of a narrative leap to get our characters into position for their final encounter.