8 Movies That Failed Because They Didn't Kill The Main Character

3. Mr. Brooks

RIP: Earl Brooks

Mr. Brooks was a thriller released in 2007, and starred Kevin Costner as Earl Brooks, a wealthy family man with a dark secret: he's a serial killer. Throughout the film Brooks realizes that his daughter harbors the same darkness that he does, and has committed a murder of her own. He helps cover it up, hoping that she will be able to resist the urge to kill again.

At the end of the film, Brooks kisses his daughter goodnight, and then is surprisingly (and brutally) murdered as she stabs him in the neck with a pair of scissors. He bleeds everywhere, a look of horror on his face, before his daughter dons his glasses and presumably follows in his murderous footsteps. Unfortunately, it's only a nightmare. Mr. Brooks abruptly wakes up, horrified, and then the film carries on from there.

How awesome would it have been if the film had ended with the murder-by-scissors? What a chilling, shocking final image that would have been, and could have turned an okay thriller into a memorable one. Instead, the filmmakers say "psyche!" and give the film a much less awesome (but more crowd-pleasing) ending.