Between some huge twists, a 10-minute musical explosion, and a cathartic wrap-up of an epic trilogy, it’s hard to dispute these Redditors’ arguments.
Even if a film isn’t that great, an incredible and shocking ending can elevate it from an OK movie to a classic. With the newly released Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, everyone is talking about the film’s show-stopping ending. The final 10 minutes of the new MCU movie is one shock twist after the next, but it’s far from the first film to have impressed Redditors with a jaw-dropping ending.
Reddit users have debated over not just what the best movie twist is or the best final shot is, but the best final 10 minutes of a film. Between a deep conversation between the hero and villain, a 10-minute musical explosion, and a cathartic wrap-up of an epic trilogy, it’s hard to dispute these Redditors’ arguments.
The David Fincher-directed Se7en is one of the most unforgiving neo-noir thrillers ever made, and once the serial killer, John Doe, is caught, that’s only the beginning. HalfChineseJesus mentions, “Granted, it may be more like 20 mins, but that ending still f***s me up.” The final few minutes of the movie see the serial killer and Detective David Mills speaking at length about the killer’s reasoning behind his actions. And while it’s one of the most memed-to-death scenes, nothing can take away from how shocking it still is.
There are so many subtle clues about the twist ending of the movie, which makes watching it the second time around even better. And that’s the case with many of Fincher’s movies, as Fight Club has a twist ending too, and just like Se7en, it’s teased and hinted at for the full two hours leading up to it.
The Prestige is about two competing magicians, but as is typical of most Christopher Nolan-written and directed movies, not everything is as it seems. Zeldamaster702 notes, “What a roller coaster that ending is!” Everyone knew a twist was coming, but few people could put their finger on what was going to happen.
Though some claim that The Prestige’s twist is predictable when it’s revealed that Alfred has a twin brother, the whole movie is tied together and everything suddenly makes perfect sense. It’s one of the most satisfying final 10 minutes of a movie, and while Nolan’s Inception has an incredible cliffhanger, it doesn’t pull off a final sequence half as engaging as the one in The Prestige.
Whiplash follows a toxic relationship between a music teacher and a jazz drummer, who puts himself through hell to try and gain a spot at the prestigious JVC Jazz Festival. After 90 minutes of anger, humiliation, and immoral behavior between the two men, the final 10 minutes is an explosion of all that energy, only they don’t fight with words or fists, but with music.
As a conductor and drummer, the two musicians throw curveballs at each other on stage in front of a thousand people, trying to embarrass each other. RunJun claims, “I fairly often watch the last 10 min of Whiplash. Not only is the movie great. I think the final 10 min would count as one of the best short films I’ve ever seen.” No words are spoken, and it’s the music that does the storytelling.
After all of the deep philosophical conversations and forcing audiences to question reality, The Matrix explodes into one of the biggest movie battles ever. Jdy24 reckons that the jaw-dropping final sequence “starts with, ‘guns, lots of guns,'” one of the franchise’s most iconic lines.
The final 10 minutes of The Matrix almost feel like a final level of a video game and end with a boss battle, only it’s elevated by all the emotional stakes that have been built up over the last two hours. Between the lobby shootout, the rooftop “bullet time,” and the helicopter scene, the final 10 minutes of The Matrix are packed with the very best action of the 1990s.
At the core of Black Swan, the terrifying 2010 psychological horror, is a drama about a woman who is tortured by her obsession with becoming the best at her art form. And that’s exactly why Izzynk3003 thinks the final 10 minutes of the movie are so powerful.
The Redditor explains, “Just the intercalation between shots of what’s happening in real life vs what she is seeing in her head… And then the death… And the crowd clapping even after the credits started.” The ballerina is dying but still trying to give the performances of a lifetime, and as she dies, the movie fades to white instead of black. And it has one of the most impactful final lines in a movie too, as she whispers, “it was perfect, I was perfect.”
Luenrd thinks The Truman Show has the best final 10 minutes of any movie, claiming, “God, I love that movie so much.” After Truman finds out at the age of 29 that he has been the subject of a reality TV show his whole life, he has a final discussion with the show’s creator about the meaning of his life, and the creator even begs Truman to stay on the show. The final moments also feature an expert use of the movie’s catchphrase, “In case I don’t see ya, Good afternoon, good evening, and goodnight.”
Fans would love to see a sequel to the 1998 movie, as seeing Truman struggling to adapt to the real world could make for a mortifying drama. But the way the final minutes play out in the original film is so perfect, and any attempt at a follow-up could ruin that.
Sicario is made up of one intense and suspenseful sequence after the next, whether it’s the scene on the highway or crossing the border at night with night vision goggles. The film does such a great job at making viewers feel the anxiety and stress that anybody in that government task force would feel. The final 10 minutes of the movie are almost like a cool down, but they’re far from stress relieving.
RobertWithHumanHairV notes “Oh lord, the last few sequences turned that movie into something else.” The Redditor is referring to Alejandro getting revenge for the death of his family, and then the final altercation between him and Katy. The two scenes alone show how terrifying of a human being Alejandro is and how he’s low-key one of the greatest cinema antiheroes.
The Dark Knight Rises faced impossibly high expectations, as it was following a movie that was praised to no end and features one of the greatest performances of all time. For the most part, Nolan pulled it off, but many fans have pointed to the almost countless plot holes in the final moments over the years.
However, in what is somewhat of an unpopular opinion, Longluca1496 argues, “you can’t deny that the ending wasn’t cathartic as hell.” In fairness, despite the plot holes, it was the culmination of an epic trilogy, and though the series started dark and gritty, Bruce Wayne got the happy ending that he deserved and that audiences wanted.
Ly_can thinks that La La Land has the best final 10 minutes ever, and at the very least, it can’t be watched without a box of tissues by viewers’ sides. The Redditor notes, “Last 10 minutes of La La Land are every emotion at once.”
In the final ten minutes alone, there’s the emotional toll of Mia and Seb breaking up, the uplifting moment of Seb being happy and owning his lounge bar, and Mia and Seb seeing each other one last time, not speaking to each other and only locking eyes. The closing moments of what was sold as a fun musical about Hollywood are emotionally exhausting, to say the least.
Writer-director Darren Aronofsky has a talent for creating intense final moments in his movies. Along with Black Swan, the filmmaker directed Requiem for a Dream, a grueling movie about addiction, whether that’s an addiction to recreational drugs, sex, pain meds, or cosmetic surgery.
Technical_Flamingo54 notes that the intentionally off-putting movie has the best final 10 minutes in a film. And while the final 10 minutes of Se7en are what makes the film so rewatchable, the Redditor argues the opposite about Requiem for a Dream. The Reddit user posits, “The whole movie builds to that insane, destructive climax. It’s what makes the movie so unwatchable for a second time.” There’s no happy ending in the 2000 film, and it ends just as miserably as it begins.
Currently residing in Madrid, Stephen Barker has been a staff writer at Screen Rant since 2020. Since graduating from Manchester Metropolitan University with a bachelor’s degree in Film, Television, and Cultural Studies in 2014, he has written for numerous movie and music websites. Stephen has been obsessed with movies since he first watched Jurassic Park on VHS, and with a deep interest in screenwriting, he loves 70s character-driven movies. But he’s just as much of a defender of Batman & Robin, The Fast and the Furious, and Small Soldiers. Visit Stephen‚Äôs personal blog, Quaranste, where he writes about guilty pleasure movies, his latest musical discoveries, and how he stays creative during global pandemics, or contact him directly: Quaranstine@gmail.com.
10 Movies With The Best Final 10 Minutes Ever, According To Reddit – Screen Rant
