What sort of ending do you prefer in your narrative and why?
1. Happily Ever After - All conflicts are neatly resolved. Boy gets the girl. Bad guy is in jail or dead. Protagonist is content and all is well.
2. Bitter Sweet - There is a satisfactory resolution but at a heavy cost.
3. Cliff hanger - This ending shows the protagonist left to an uncertain fate and makes the viewer wait the next installment to find out what happens next.
4. Swerve - The ending comes out of left field. It's something that the viewer didn't anticipate and may leave them feeling unnerved.
5. Nebulous - The ending leaves the climax unclear. There is an unresolved action, decision or revelation that leaves the viewer having to speculate what occurs as the story ends.
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1-4 and mainly Happily Ever After, Adrian-Asia Petty. But it depends on the story.
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A very good question. I like them all and it depends on the story and the character arch. I do like the nebulous ending, it creates a good conversation post viewing. Or they could be like the 1985 Clue movie that has different endings.
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1-4 are all great. #5 usually annoys me. LOL
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I am a sucker for a happy ending!
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Adrian-Asia, I like endings 1-4...and to me, which one to use really depends on the story.
Still...I lean toward happy endings because people (in general) want to feel good about what they've seen on the big screen or the small one.
Only two times I've used different endings: "Rapunzel and Lady Godiva" had a bittersweet ending (Sandy and Trever didn't stay together after getting back together as lovers...but Sandy and her sister Candy decided to keep their dueling pianos act intact), and "Got Any More Bullets, Sister?" closed out with a swerve ending (Florence didn't really die...despite the two Cleveland Police officers walking away thinking they'd bumped her off).
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"A great ending is a surprise, but at the same time such a natural extension of the story that the reader [viewer] can't imagine a better way it could have ended." - fiction magazine editor Randy Dannenfelser
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2 & 4 are my favorite! I feel like "Happily Ever After" isn't realistic within the realms of reality.
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Willem Elzenga "Happily Ever After" is not realistic because I think it perpetuates the idea that problems can go away and everyone can ride off into the sunset. If it worked for your film, that's amazing. In real life, we are never free of problems, which means after conflict, life will present another conflict, therefore, I don't agree with conflict being resolved in film where everyone can cartwheel into love or whatever. However, some films are an exception, and I'm not a stickler for this rule. I'm not saying that I hate all films that go by the "Happily Ever After" ending narrative. Also, remember, this is just my opinion and what I like.
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I do like a tragedy. Someone that could have avoided their end but didn’t.
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I like the in-between happily ever after and bittersweet. Less 'happily ever after" and more "at peace", where the character's conflict is resolved but it's an imperfect yet acceptable resolution
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I agree with what people have said, but definitely for comedy (in the traditional sense) I love 1, and for a tragedy, 2 makes the most sense. There are some projects, though where the other endings just work so well.
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Best wishes with this!
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I am fine with everything, but nebulous. If it is an extremely deep and moving subtle story rich with heavy ethical themes, and the nebulous ending is just a comma in the process, that is fine. Outside of that, I HATE those types of endings. Maybe it's because I tend to get so invested in the story I require a proper wrap up so it doesn't haunt my dreams.
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I prefer an ending that keeps you pondering…
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I like endings that you don't necessarily see coming, cliche endings at times can, at least for me, ruin the movie. Endings that you don't see coming and make you think are some of the best endings.
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I don’t care what the ending is as long as it leaves a mark. If the ending doesn’t have an emotional gut punch, whether that be positive or negative, it was a fail.
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It really depends on my mood and how well the story pulls it off, like a good happy ending is great but a poorly done one is just too convenient and boring, a bad nebulous ending feels messy but a good one can be so haunting.
I would say the swerve is the most hit or miss for me because if I can't look back on the story and see where that swerve is set up then it feels like it was just pulled out of the writer's ass, if it is set up to much it feels obvious, and if it is set up "wrong" (which is subjective to everyone) then it feels too smug.
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I prefer whichever solidifies the thematic message in the most commonly experienced way. Romeo and Juliet wouldn't be such an impactful criticism of how feuding families can hurt their children if they'd lived. Die Hard wouldn't be a fulfilling film about a guy doing everything he can just to make sure his last communication with his wife wasn't an argument if he'd been killed.
It needs to match the audience too though. I Am Legend had a great ending (based on the novel) where it turned out Will Smith's character was effectively the villain in the world of infected zombies that actually have feelings. They had just been defending themselves from his violence all along and trying to rescue one of their own back that he'd taken as a test subject. It did not play well with a general audience though and was changed to something more heroic where he sacrifices himself after creating a cure, allowing two others to escape, find other survivors, and start rebuilding the world.
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I think that may depend on your goals as a screenwriter. If writing for myself, it would be wherever the story took me (personally I like the bitter sweet like Good Will Hunting). If I'm writing to break into the business and pitching specs, I'd be focused on the happy, satisfying ending that helps ensure a large, international audience leaving the theater, telling their friends what a great time they had. If you're already establish, you can go back to my first point - wherever the story takes you. In the end, though, write from your heart and enjoy your creations.
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@CJ Walley good call on audience expectations and I Am Legend - I believe most people who liked that book (myself included) really disliked the film ending exactly because the "genius super soldier who commits heroic self sacrifice" tone is never present in the book. Similarly, there's nothing in Act 1 and 2 of the $150M star-powered action movie to set up for a dark introspective ending. To me, any surprise or twist ending has to have a subtle foundation laid throughout the story that you can pick up on in retrospect - overwise it just feels like a cheat.
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Samuel Minier I agree wholeheartedly.
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Adrian-Asia Petty Adrian, it depends on the story you are telling. Mind you happy-ever-after just never cuts it with me, unless you are writing a fairy story.
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Craig D Griffiths: Good catch. I actually blanked on mentioning the tragic endings. Shakespeare's dramas didn't really match any of the ones that I mentioned.
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I like the No. 4 ending, where there's a swerve surprise at the end, yet the pieces were all there for those with eyes to see. Years ago I recall a movie where the family is all bent out of shape because the father left for another woman. Yet, a year later, they discover he didn't fly off to Europe with the woman. Instead, he fell into a hole on the family property and slowly died over weeks. The family turmoil over what they thought he did, kept them from guessing what might have actually happened. Such movies are good life lessons.