Movies

5 Movie Endings So Terrible the Only Thing They Leave Is a Bitter Aftertaste, Ranked

5 Movie Endings So Terrible the Only Thing They Leave Is a Bitter Aftertaste, Ranked
Image credit: Paramount Pictures/Warner Bros. Pictures

Even though these five movies are really popular, their endings were this close to ruining the entire thing — and we can’t help but feel there was not enough effort put into them.

5. The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

Well, let’s be honest here: the Star Wars sequels are not exactly beloved by fans in general, each of them worse and more questionable than the previous one. The Rise of Skywalker, however, was the pinnacle in this regard: the ending scene with Rey telling the older woman that her name was Rey Skywalker left fans ultimately disappointed and was very negatively received.

4. World War Z (2013)

Brad Pitt’s biggest blockbuster, World War Z, received quite mixed reviews overall — and especially by the fans who actually read the book. The movie didn’t exactly strive to stick close to the source material, and this problem arose especially in the finale, which came to be way more hopeful and positive than the one in the book. This ending obviously didn’t work well with the rest of the movie.

3. Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022)

5 Movie Endings So Terrible the Only Thing They Leave Is a Bitter Aftertaste, Ranked - image 1

The Fantastic Beasts franchise turned out to be the complete opposite of the Harry Potter movies: while the latter only grew more popular with each new film, the former just kept getting worse from installment to installment. The Secrets of Dumbledore was, by far, the worst Fantastic Beasts movie — and its ending was nothing short of terrible, with Jacob marrying the woman who mind-controlled him for months and served Grindelwald.

2. I Am Legend (2007)

Will Smith ’s most famous movie (well, except for Men in Black) was quite hyped-up — but also notorious for its terrible and useless ending. In the finale, the protagonist sacrificed himself for the two characters he’d met along the way, but his death was completely unnecessary. Actually, it’s impressive how the creators managed to mess this one up since they had two great alternative endings: the book version and their own.

1. Serenity (2019)

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It must be really hard to mess up a movie with Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway in the lead roles, but Serenity managed to do just that. While, for the most part, it was an amazing thriller, the ending actually ruined it entirely when the protagonist trying to save a woman from her abusive husband turned out to be the character in the video game created by her son. It was just… duh.