20 Horror Movie Endings That Are Practically Perfect

Steven Spielberg's Jaws is an unparalleled horror masterpiece that launched the summer blockbuster, and is that rare movie where pretty much every single scene of it is amazing. That includes, of course, its finale: the final battle between Police Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) and a fearsome Great White Shark.

Fine, the shark model looks fake, but in every other way, this is a masterpiece of a climax in which a relatable, human hero battles a lethal force of nature in a tripwire-tense duel that's crafted to absolute perfection by a young Spielberg. Brody is nearly killed multiple times, but he ultimately destroys the shark through one of the smartest choices in all of horror cinema: he places an explosive gas canister in the creature's mouth and eventually manages to shoot it, destroying the beast in a shower of gore. 

"Smile, you son of a b***h!" *Boom* That'll always have you punching the air. 

After this, anxiety gives way to joy as, in a departure from the (very terrible) source novel, it's revealed that Brody's ally Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) is still alive. The two men celebrate their victory and, merrily joking, begin to swim back to shore, the black cloud of fear finally lifted. 

The triumph of good over evil, the substitution of fraught anxiety with overwhelming joy; this is what we go to the movies for. Few other summer blockbusters have successfully replicated this sense of euphoria, but then again, Jaws is a class of its own.