In order to tighten up this video's pacing, I cut 7+ minutes of content, including a 5th example. I have enough material for a "Bad Endings vs Good Endings ROUND 2" so let me know if there's anything you'd like to see in a sequel video. Thanks for watching and for all your support!

@Cholata123

Жыл бұрын

What do you think about "temporary endings" (for example the endings of the first two books of a trilogy), should they have a significant change or should they follow the same principles as these endings?

@gamewriteeye769

Жыл бұрын

Some more examples: - the *rushed* ending(surprised it wasn't included) - the *no danger ending* after a high stakes precedent was set by the main conflict - the twist/surprise ending - the woke ending(I'm sure you can figure this with a lot of portrayals of strong female characters being mouthpieces instead of characters)

@jacindaellison3363

Жыл бұрын

A couple of bad ending examples that come to mind: -the undeserved sad ending -the ending where a character has to face consequences but the movie goes overboard with it-like yeah, they have to face punishment but they didn't deserve THAT! -endings that leave a lot of questions unanswered or rarely answer them

@KeysofIDproductions

Жыл бұрын

Return of the King had what I'd call "non-ending endings" where you think the story ends, but it doesn't.

@bellatorpoeta

Жыл бұрын

The Tragedy Out of Nowhere or Sudden Downer Ending I mentioned in a comment elsewhere.

“Until Karen and her great boobs are tragically gunned down.” This is why you are the sensei-Perfection that made me laugh out loud.

@WriterBrandonMcNulty

Жыл бұрын

Hahaha thanks!

@mauriciovillegas7285

10 ай бұрын

But her boobs are alright, right?

@danielalva2

10 ай бұрын

i was about to say the same thing!

@duskieWuskie

9 ай бұрын

I was watching this on the subway and then burst out loud into laughter as well

@NorseGraphic

8 ай бұрын

She just wanted to complain to the manager….

One of the best cliffhanger endings is John Carpenter's The Thing from 1982. The music, the two men happy to be surivors but still wondering if one or the other had been taken over by the alien. It was one of those cliffhanger endings that just didn't need a sequel.

@Hundeputzmunter

Жыл бұрын

Right up there with the 'proper' Bladerunner ending (ie when the elevator doors close)

@WriterBrandonMcNulty

Жыл бұрын

The Thing has an amazing ending. Great call.

@jacindaellison3363

Жыл бұрын

That is a cool ending! Especially where one of them says maybe it's best they don't survive because they don't know if one of them or both were infected by the thing.

@lettylunasical4766

Жыл бұрын

Oh yeah, The Thing has a fantastic ending! Still discussed to this day.

@scottwallbank4794

Жыл бұрын

Exactly. You still see people conjecturing over it decades later, which is a mark of a good ending that perfectly fits the tone and theme of the film itself.

My favorite ending is from The Shawshank Redemption. After all the satisfying twists and resolutions during the film’s climax, the happy ending is dead simple but hits like a ton of bricks. Those guys _earned_ that ending.

@WriterBrandonMcNulty

9 ай бұрын

Absolutely

@reubenmanzo2054

7 ай бұрын

Nice, but that wasn't the question. The question was what was the WORST ending you've seen.

@dr.zoidburger7515

6 ай бұрын

​@@reubenmanzo2054 yet in the video he gives examples of good endings in contrast to each bad ending so

@trevorclive

16 күн бұрын

Fun fact: that scene where they reunite on the beach was not in the film originally. The studio told the director that the movie was so harsh that the audience needed something happy at the end. The director disagreed. The studio said, "just shoot the scene. If you don't like it, you don't have to use it."

"Keep them brief" Return of the King has entered the chat

@ramahawk13

2 ай бұрын

Terrible ending, from the anticlimactic battle once the green ghosts appeared to the many, many resolutions...yes, there were a lot of characters and plots to resolve, but it was just bad and ultimately unsatisfying. (Unlike The Two Towers, which was solid from top to bottom)

@fredsmith1970

Ай бұрын

Each one of the ten endings for RoTK were fairly brief 🙂

@Isthisjoebiden

Ай бұрын

​@fredsmith1970 😂😂😂 You're not even lying, I remember watching as a kid and every time I thought it was over, it wasn't!

Finally, a channel with Good, quick, and straightforward advice from someone who understands what it's like starting out. No jokes, no diciphering, just advice like a claymore: front facing toward enemy. Going to be listening to every one of these.

@WriterBrandonMcNulty

Жыл бұрын

Thanks!

@HasekuraIsuna

10 ай бұрын

"no jokes" Karen's great boobs disagree : p

@ponponpatapon9670

9 ай бұрын

this is an unusually beautifully written comment

One thing I really appreciate about your videos is that you don't fall into the trap of only taking the scenes/movies everyone loves to hate on. It is great and refreshing to see bad examples taken from otherwise good movies as well as good examples taken from otherwise bad movies. Keep making great videos.

@WriterBrandonMcNulty

Жыл бұрын

Thank you!

@machonacho91

11 ай бұрын

And the fact he takes both good and bad examples from the same movie - because few movies do everything perfectly, if any

One of my favourite it was all a dream endings was the ending to Inception. It’s not necessarily it was all a dream, but it leaves it ambiguous over whether Dom is still in the dream by showing the spinning top but then not showing the result, leaving the audience speculating over whether he actually escaped the dream. At the same time it’s a good resolution because it showed that Dom finally decided that what he really cares about is being with his kids and he no longer cares if it’s a dream.

@joshualavender

Жыл бұрын

The ending to Inception works at a fundamental level because the whole story is about dreams and the risk of becoming trapped inside them. And it's a reversal of the climax, when Cobb rescues Saito from just such a trap.

@walternolasco9052

Жыл бұрын

This is the exact ending I was thinking of that just works for the reasons both of you stated and also it fits all the things this video said! Inception is a movie I feel is underrated!

@charlesgbertrand

Жыл бұрын

My thought for “It was a dream” is . . . . . . the very last “Twilight” movie. I do not know if that part should be considered a good ending or a bad one (the actual ending, I felt, was saccarine awful) Regarding the dream, though, They establish the context, early on, by describing the two characters whose powers that resulted in the “dream” (prediction power and mind reading) and I felt it was a a meaningful change up. However, all the deaths (both good and bad) simply got erased.

@TheBalisongBear

10 ай бұрын

Excuse me, but if a top wobbles, it falls. I know, you can still hear the top at the end of the credits... BUT IF A TOP WOBBLES, IT FALLS 😡

@JRec-ql5fc

9 ай бұрын

@@charlesgbertrand i thought of this one too! i feel like the movie did it better than the book by giving us our cake and letting us eat it. here's my take. Stephanie Meyer gave us a good intense fight scene in the third book and the set up for the same in the last book but the tension builds and builds and then everyone goes home. really? ok, i guess. everyone's alive. yay. not terrible, but it left me amped up and then empty because all that tension peaked and then went no where. The movies on the other hand gave us a great battle scene in Eclipse and we all went in to the last movie like, "how are they going to end it? fight? no fight?" etc etc. well boom, they fight. awesome! we got another battle scene! and then wait, what? they just killed, but they aren't supposed to die, how the hell, etc. it was just a premonition. "oh thank the lord, everyone go home." by doing it that way we got to see exactly how the battle would've ended up, got that gut wrenching feeling of some of our favorites dying and the satisfaction of all the bad guys dying even if it was vision. guess what? you're gonna die, jack, no matter how you spin this. you lose, lick your wounds and go home. sorry, a little long winded but i think it was the only way to give the audience what the wanted and do the source material justice. maybe even make it better.

i'm a sucker for "They all lived happily ever after." i don't think we see that enough anymore, everything's gotta set up a sequel. no room for stand alone stories anymore

@cooliostarstache5474

Жыл бұрын

Same

@velocitor3792

Жыл бұрын

It got overused over the last few decades, to the point that some people actively avoid it. The pendulum will swing back

@rithrius5384

Жыл бұрын

It's mainly because of Marvel Studios. Everything has to be a universe now.

@Corn_Pone_Flicks

Жыл бұрын

A film can have a downer ending and not be in any way a sequel set-up. Seven comes to mind.

@GoddessOfWhim2003

Жыл бұрын

@Corn_Pone_Flicks no not everything needs a happy ending as you pointed out, but movies nowadays don't seem designed to be stand alone, like Seven. i miss stand alone movies

I feel like an ending to a story should be like a conclusion to an essay, it restates the main idea and point and it pays off all the development and hardship the characters go through and it stays consistent. Like in the ending of Harry Potter where Harry is an adult with his own kids

@WriterBrandonMcNulty

Жыл бұрын

Before/after snapshots are a great way of thinking of the beginning/ending

@Kal_Kestis

Жыл бұрын

Good stories are essays in essence: you need proof to back your argument as to why something or someone in an established story changes, typically you have a beginning a middle and an end, and the audience should be moved/convinced once the conclusion is wrapped

@jalin8039

Жыл бұрын

i personally felt that the harry potter ending was quite unsatisfying. in my opinion they should have stopped before the time jump. it just felt very unnecessary

@bird1729

Жыл бұрын

​@@jalin8039there were so many unresolved issues too

@LoudWaffle

Жыл бұрын

@@jalin8039 Same, although I agree with the main point of stories working like essays.

Another type of bad ending is the "Tragedy out of Nowhere" when something bad happens at the very end that wasn't foreshadowed. I watched an indie martial arts flick that did this. The hero defeats a street gang, they get sent to jail, and then in the very last scene days later when he is calling his friend, an unseen gunman shoots and kills him. It felt like a cheap shock tactic.

@jacindaellison3363

Жыл бұрын

Oh my gosh, I freaking hate that, too! Why would they end it like that?

@KeysofIDproductions

Жыл бұрын

Reminds me of Godfather, Part III.

@kid-ava

Жыл бұрын

I'd be so pissed if I watched that

@jacindaellison3363

Жыл бұрын

@retrotuna who's idea was to think that was a great idea to end a movie like that?

@therussianwanderer4851

Жыл бұрын

​@@KeysofIDproductions And Choujin Sentai Jetman.

The most legendary twist ending imo is M. NIGHT’s “THE SIXTH SENSE”, the twist reveal gave me the chills, which matched the tone of the story perfectly. Everything just came together full circle so well, it was so good it made my family and I return to the theater for the first time to rewatch a movie. Then on the other end of bad twist endings, by the same director ironically, M NIGHT’s “THE VILLAGE”. Where they reveal the identity of the monster, right before the final confrontation. With so much intense buildup the finale should of been terrifying, instead they deflated the climax…really strange execution.

@feartrain1282

Жыл бұрын

Also the plot for your book “ENTRY WOUNDS” is intriguing! Might have to check that one out!

@johnnygraz4712

11 ай бұрын

Was gonna say this. It's almost like an "it was all a dream ending" but done exceptionally well.

@StayFractalesque

2 ай бұрын

Honestly, The Village is probably his most under-rated film.. ..not sure why everyone hates that one so much, its really the only film of his i would prefer to rewatch out of any of them.. the reason they reveal what the monsters are, supposedly not a threat, then the audience is still left wondering then wtf is stalking her in a monster costume.. it leaves the question up in the air a bit longer if the monsters arent real, then why is a monster actually chasing her.. besides, the important reveal is nothing to do with the monsters at all..

@TheDaleSwitzer

7 күн бұрын

I came to this page specifically to say this, but you already did.

I really liked the ending of the first Pirates movie. We were pretty certain that we would have a sequel given all the hints about Will's father and what Jack's next adventure might be. But the movie tied up everything nicely.

@alexp6712

Жыл бұрын

The third pirates, while not that great overall, has a really good ending too.

@ltb1345

Жыл бұрын

@@alexp6712 That movie and its ending were awesome.

@edwingonzalez4558

Жыл бұрын

*spoilers* Dead Man’s Chest was also pretty good if you follow the “tragedy matching tone” ending. Overall, nothing but bad things happened and we are left to wonder what will be the fate of the Pearl’s crew. Everyone is noticeably sad and the only person who is happy is Beckett, who was just handed the key to destroying all pirates. The surprise return of Barbossa even gave us a cliff hanger that draws the audience into watching the next movie, but it wasn’t too cheesy because the conflict in this movie was resolved.

@jyrlan2596

Жыл бұрын

​@edwingonzalez4558 underrated movie tbh

@charlesgbertrand

Жыл бұрын

Heh, I thought you meant the movie that is actually just called “Pirates” . . . . . . which circularly ends on almost the exact same scene as the start, wherein the two characters are stuck alone on a raft, carrying a wealth of treasure, in the middle of the sea.

While so many authors feel they have to put out bland videos for their brand, I appreciate your quality videos filled with thoughtfulness. I am not even a fiction writer, but I appreciate your analysis and how to think through stories. Anyway, thank you for contributing insightful videos of your profession and not merely generic "content"

@WriterBrandonMcNulty

Жыл бұрын

Thank you so much. This video took a lot longer to make than expected, so comments like this are very much appreciated

@treasonouspigeonpeckers957

Жыл бұрын

I don't even write and I love this content. Gives me a great appreciation when a movie writes a good story

Worst ending: the 2001 "Planet of the Apes." It was trying for a twist every bit as mind-blowing as the original. The trouble is that it made no sense. Few people wanted a sequel to explain it, because we already made up our minds that no explanation would suffice.

@taragnor

Жыл бұрын

A good twist ending needs to be something the audience could potentially see coming. There needs to be subtle clues placed along the way. That's what made the original ending so mind-blowing. The remake ending was just dumb.

@TheZetaKai

Жыл бұрын

LOL, the funny thing is that the twist ending of the 2001 remake is far closer to the ending of the original French novel than the ending of any other movie in the Apes franchise, for good or ill.

@Alpha1918

Жыл бұрын

oh boy I forgot how bad that was. I got the movie for like 5 cents too XD

@DaPhunkPhenomena

Жыл бұрын

The actual ending of Tim Burtons's Planet Of The Apes was a reshoot due to spoilers of the original ending spread through the internet. Still love that movie though (and I don't like Burton movies, so that says a lot).

@Tommykey07

Жыл бұрын

​@@taragnoryou would think that the apes could read and speak English would make Taylor realize he is on Earth! 😂

Worst ending: a romcom called "He's Just Not That Into You," which is based on a relationship advice book by the same name. The message: don't make excuses for guys who aren't responding, breadcrumbing, etc. Basically, "if he wanted to, he would," book-length. So in the movie, there are several plotlines about single women learning to see through lame excuses, plus a woman whose partner doesn't want marriage like she does. They all get stronger and more realistic. BUT THEN, for the ending, for no damn reason, all the guys pull a 180 and become exactly what the women have been wishing they would be- the player becomes obsessed with the woman who's been following him around, the partner miraculously decides he wants to be a husband (even though he was already committed and solid, but had solid reasons for not wanting to be legally married.) It's a totally contradictory, stupid, pandering ending that isn't brave enough to see the premise through.

@sheriffwoody6233

Жыл бұрын

At least Bradley Cooper’s story wasn’t a happily ever after. He cheats, gets neither girl and gets a divorce.

@PhoenixCrown

Жыл бұрын

Agreed. Real shit movie.

@marchingham

5 ай бұрын

YES. Especially the whole "I'm the exception" part. I haaaaaated it. Although I love Justin Long and Ginnifer Goodwin, I still couldn't excuse it.

@Isthisjoebiden

Ай бұрын

Ugh, youre so right 😂

The "it was all a dream" ending that hit me the hardest was that one episode of scrubs. The last 30 seconds crash into you like a train full of bricks and recontectualises the entire episode and it's happy tone into a much sadder one before fading to credits with no music.

@SurfClimbRob

Жыл бұрын

Are you talking about "Where do you think we are?" That's a beautiful scene!

@patrickrusso9919

Жыл бұрын

​@@SurfClimbRobif so, then you also need to credit the show for giving subtle clues to tell you that something is amiss and not as it appears.

@turnerjazz7872

Жыл бұрын

Such a fantastic and heartbreaking episode!

@chrisVNZ

Жыл бұрын

That episode... Wow. Years later it still hits me. Shear genius in concept and execution.

@Slampigreloaded

Жыл бұрын

Are you talking about the episode where the doctors brother died of cancer? Cause I still think about that episode to this day

I always struggle with this one. I tend to write 3 endings. A good ending, a bad ending, and an alternate ending. Then I just see which one fits the story better.

@WriterBrandonMcNulty

Жыл бұрын

Endings are always tough because you tend to have many possibilities for outcomes. Easy to overthink things, too.

@QuanticDreamer

Жыл бұрын

Pretty good advice!

@HellAintHalfFull

Жыл бұрын

@@QuanticDreamer From Brandon or my comment?

@QuanticDreamer

Жыл бұрын

@@HellAintHalfFull Both!

@HellAintHalfFull

Жыл бұрын

@@QuanticDreamer Glad you think so. Write on!

In Rocky, the end is a great example of subverting expectations as well. You expect Rocky to win since it's set up to be a rags to riches story where after all his training you expect him to win and become champ. Instead he loses, which causes the audience to ask what happens next and from that we get both rocky II and III.

@WriterBrandonMcNulty

Жыл бұрын

The fact that he loses in 1 also makes the sequels more suspenseful. Every time he fights, you can’t call it a guarantee (same with the Creed movies)

@jeremyvettech5562

10 ай бұрын

But he didn't lose in terms of his goal - to go the distance and prove he wasn't a bum. He was absolutely a winner.

The best example of tying up loose ends: The last scene of The Terminator. I was 15 and for the first time in my life I was consciously blown away by great writing. The action and the effects, as incredible as they were, took a back seat to the writing.

@domhuckle

8 ай бұрын

And T2 - "there's one more chip" and "I know now why you cry" talk about impact

That is why Spiderman 2002 will forever be the Spiderman movie buried in my heart even after 20 years. The impact just outshine the other

I really liked the ending of "Edge of Tomorrow". Spoiler: A "good" ending for everyone except the main character because no one knows that he is the hero and how much he suffers. But a glimmer of hope at the very end that he may get his love.

@flengord

Жыл бұрын

I love that film (I've watched it an embarrassing number of times), but I felt cheated by that ending. It's the they-died-for-the-war-but--nah-not-for-real consequences-free trope. You make a really good point about the main character carrying the truth around alone, but it felt weak to me. (Hasn't stopped me loving the movie though, obvs.)

@wcjerky

Жыл бұрын

If you want the source material for that one, it's a manga called _All You Need is Kill._

@PhoenixCrown

Жыл бұрын

I agree, and to one of Brandon's recurring points: Be willing to have the MC be silent. I should know the director of that movie... cuz he cut Tom Cruise's smile perfectly. The whole movie is a romance in one light, and it takes Cruise FOREVER to finally win over Blunt. The ending suggests he has just as big of an uphill battle ahead of him as dying repeatedly fighting aliens... and he's happy to face it. Love this ending.

@BasicShapes

Жыл бұрын

I just watched that a few days ago for the first time. It was great, but I was really, REALLY itching for Cage to finally say to Rita "Your middle name...is Rose."

@Tommykey07

Жыл бұрын

One difference at the end is that he is an officer when he enters the building to meet Rita and the other soldiers stand aside for him out of respect for his rank.

please keep doing this good bad series.

"You are poor." Was a legitimately great line. Then it all went to hell.

The whole Arthur being an unreliable narrator and us not knowing exactly what happened plays so damn perfectly into the character of the Joker

Best "was it all a dream?" ending: Total Recall (90s version) Best cliffhanger ending: Star Trek Next Generation "Best of Both Worlds Part 1"

@je-nas

Жыл бұрын

Just wanna register that, for me, best cliffhanger ending ever was the ending of Back to the Future II.

@meganc1539

Жыл бұрын

What works about the original Total Recall is that MAYBE it is all a dream.. you don't get to know either way. Also, that completely works with the entire premise of the movie... it was set up from the beginning and so maintains the circularity.

@GradKat

2 ай бұрын

I HATE “was it all a dream”! That is THE worst kind of ending ever, in my book.

@BrianWelch-vc7xy

6 күн бұрын

Best "was it all a dream?" ending is Jacob's Ladder.

The ending of the rise of Skywalker pissed me off to no end. The whole movie is about accepting yourself, accepting your legacy and rising above it, being better than your predecessors; than your family name. It mimics the exact same journey Luke followed, rising above the cursed Skywalker name and accepting it, bowing to undo all the damage his father caused, proving he's not destined for evil. Rei accepting her family name at the end of the movie rather than claiming an unearned one would have made for an ending 10 times better, and all it'd have taken is changing a single word in the script.

@nathancrossen2224

Жыл бұрын

I cannot impart how much I agree with this.

@WriterBrandonMcNulty

Жыл бұрын

Yep, I’ll be discussing RoS’s ending when I do round 2

@grizzly_manbanimation8436

Жыл бұрын

@@WriterBrandonMcNulty I can’t wait to see it

@Corn_Pone_Flicks

Жыл бұрын

That ending was so weird. They managed to get one really good line from Carrie Fisher, "Never be afraid of who you are," a line which really felt like a theme, only to then contradict that theme with the final line. I personally felt her earlier line "I'm just Rey," would've been just fine getting a reprise for that scene.

@joshuahogan-gsuarchivist758

10 ай бұрын

Absolutely correct. I really just wish that whole trilogy hadn't been made because of the final movie. The second movie wasn't very good, but that last one was a stinker, and the whole Rey Skywalker thing was my single biggest beef.

"Leia says they have everything they need, and that's quite a 180, especially considering that just before Luke arrived, she was saying the Resistance was doomed and the spark had gone out." Behold, the Star Wars sequel trilogy.

Christopher Nolan's Inception has my favorite ending of all time. It's both a cliffhanger sorts of and "was it all a dream"? The way it's set up makes the viewer completely immerse themselves in the spinning top, is it going to fall or not, hoping that it falls so Leonardo gets back to his children. But it keeps it suspended all the way to the end, but gives a tiny glimmer of hope during the very Last fractions of second, when the top starts to tremble, signalling that it might be soon falling, right before the movie ends and the viewer snaps out of it, as if they themselves had been in a dream all along. It's heart-breakingly beautiful.

Oh my gosh dude. You killed it with Robby from War of the Worlds. So so so true! I dont Spielberg would let it end like that if he made it today. I think we all grow out of the nativity together collectively but dang, it took me seeing this to notice that about Robby’s non-arc. Great great video dude.

@WriterBrandonMcNulty

Жыл бұрын

Thanks! And yeah, Spielberg’s stories usually have warmth to them, but this was much too much

@TheZetaKai

Жыл бұрын

Spielberg should have known better; it's not like he was some sweet summer child in 2005.

@menckenwolf

11 ай бұрын

And the whole area they arrived at was untouched where the rest of the world shown was devastated. I mumbled something about the aliens being real estate agents leaving the good properties intact.

@Isthisjoebiden

Ай бұрын

​@@TheZetaKai😂😂😂

One example I can think of for a long, drawn-out ending that still serves a purpose is The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (the book) After the Ring is destroyed and the army of Mordor is defeated (the climax) there is still a good 150 pages left before the book ends. Although it is very long (and sometimes very boring) it serves a purpose. Since there are SO many characters in The Lord of the Rings, there are a lot of loose ends to tie up, and the book does very well at it.

@BrianWelch-vc7xy

6 күн бұрын

The Scouring of the Shire chapters cleverly subvert the "happily ever after" aspect of the post-war denoument (even though there was quite a bit of mourning and the whole occasion is rather bittersweet). After everything the hobbits have been through, to be denied their own happy ending is quite a reflection of the true cost of war.

Personally, I really like the alternate "it was all a dream" ending for breaking bad where it turns out it was just an episode of Malcom in the Middle. Freaking brilliant.

@DCshandle

Жыл бұрын

Reminds me of my 3rd grade story I had to write for Halloween. It’s lazy and so cliche

@rmessenger23

Жыл бұрын

They took that from the end of Newhart.. referencing The Bob Newhart show

@Ouvii

Жыл бұрын

@@rmessenger23 yeah not the first time a TV show has parodied Newhart, and Newhart wasn't the first to do it anyway. I personally don't have any context for any other of the numerous times this has happened, but I did think it was executed in a surprisingly satisfying way with Breaking Bad/Malcolm in the Middle.

@sumeragicrow

Жыл бұрын

It worked because it wasn't the actual ending of Breaking Bad. That would've been very underwhelming.

@dionmcgee5610

Жыл бұрын

Wow! How did I miss that? A Malcolm in the Middle dream. Y'know, it all makes so much more sense now. Of course it was. What was Better Call Saul a dream of? Mr. Show?

One of the best endings in my opinion is guardians of the Galaxy 3, the song choice everybody dancing the catharsis, everything is just perfect

"Arrival" comes to mind, a good example of a perfect, bittersweet ending

@viktorfant9182

Жыл бұрын

I love that movie

For bad endings...virtually every Kids in the Hall sketch ever. I just remember them not knowing how to end a great sketch, so they just ended them all poorly and awkwardly.

In terms of "Bad Ending," back in the '80s there was a popular show called 30something. And they spent an entire season covering the breast cancer of one of the main characters, Nancy, played by Patricia Wettig. And going into the season finale, the network hyped the episode by saying a main character would die. And so everybody tunes in, thinking that Nancy will succumb to breast cancer. But she gets treated, the surgery is successful, and her prognosis is good. And then off camera, Gary dies in a bike accident. WTF? The writers are just playing games with the audience. I felt the same way at the end of Lost, season 2. Guy who had been a moral, good character for the better part of two seasons just commits some murders. As far as I was concerned, that was the end of my interest in Lost. Not a coincidence that JJ Abrams was involved both there and in the Star Wars sequel trilogy. He seems to have fun including plot twists that have not been earned.

@sntreulfravn2321

10 ай бұрын

Are you talking about Michael? It's extremely obvious why he committed those murders and what led to him doing such a thing, earlier in the season he was shown to want to do absolutely anything to get Walt back and is always shown to act very impulsively and based on emotions, it's very reasonable that his character would make the decision to kill Ana Lucia in the moment out of desperation(remember he didn't go there to kill her, she just got in his way and he acted impulsively to get his son back) I just don't know where you got the impression that it was somehow unearned considering that moment had been built up for at least half the season prior.

One of my favorite "It was all a dream" movies is Jacob's Ladder with Tim Robbins: PERFECTLY-executed use of that trope. The text at the end of the movie arguably ruins some of the interpretations of the plot, but it is still an excellent, highly-underrated film

Rocky was inspired by a real fight between Chuck Wepner and Muhammad Ali. Chuck almost went the distance and even knocked Ali down (trip, but it counted) then he was TKO’d round 15. Pretty interesting fight and story for anyone interested.

brandon, your channel is an absolute gem 🙏🏼🙏🏼 I think another horrible type of ending is when something ridiculously horrible happens to a character[s] at the end of the story, right when they were just about to succeed!! I think this is done to have an emotionally impactful, deep and memorable ending, when that same effect could be achieved with a happier, more realistic and EARNED one

@WriterBrandonMcNulty

Жыл бұрын

I actually was going to include a Forced Twist ending as example #5!! I’m hoping to do Bad/Good Endings #2 sometime in the future, so I’ll get to it then

@xaviermm5506

Жыл бұрын

Except if it's foreshadowed and makes sense, kinda like the red wedding. SPOILERS FOR GAME OF THRONES!!! What do you think about the red wedding? It's an "ending" for the characters of Rob and Cat. It's so tragic but it makes sense.

@kid-ava

Жыл бұрын

@xaviermm5506 I've never watched game of thrones, so I have no opinions lol. but I guess if the ending foreshadowed, it can make more sense, but it really depends

@ElJefe3126

Жыл бұрын

Subverted in Sorcerer. After that horrible slog through the jungle, it's heavily implied that the only survivor gets tracked down and bumped off at the end. But it works, because we see him become a marked man at the beginning and the whole thing is so brutal and relentless about killing off everyone else.

@nerdock4747

Жыл бұрын

This was 100% done in Layer Cake. What was an average movie took a turn for the worse and became terrible right at the end.

Love this channel and the effort you put into your videos. I'm picking an easy one: Game of Thrones had a terrible ending, being rushed and not paying off many of its prior setups.

@domhuckle

8 ай бұрын

Game of Thrones will be giving people "what no to do's" in every aspect of story-telling forever and ever

The best way I’ve heard good verses bad cliffhangers described is through a door analogy. End of your story, a character opens their door and looks looks at who’s there. We don’t see a reaction, or the person there, but are left wanting to know who it is. A good cliffhanger shows you the person at the door, and maybe the initial reaction of the character who opened the door.

The worst ending that I can recall is The Langoliers TV miniseries from 1995 by Stephen King. Spoilers for those who haven't seen it: The entire story revolves around a small group of random people trapped in an airport in Maine that has been frozen in time, and they have to unravel the mystery of why, get back to the flowing time of the present, and escape the titular Langoliers, which are a mysterious looming threat. In the end, many of the group die, and only four of them survive. Despite the tragedy and horror that they barely escape, the four survivors are upbeat, happy, and seemingly untraumatized as they lock arms and leap through the airport, ending on a freezeframe. The tone is a bizarre 180 shift, the lock-arms jump is pure cheese, and the freeze frame is grossly inappropriate for a story involving the horror of people trying to escape frozen moments in time. Even more than all of that, the ending is so abrupt that the audience is left stunned in disbelief, with the whole post-climax taking no more than two minutes, with no resolution of any storylines other than the main plot. The Lovecraftian flying monsters that were the Langoliers were really cool, even if the mid-90's CGI was more than a bit dodgy, and the reveal that they exist to devour all of reality after every moment has passed as the garbage collection system of the universe is profound and horrifying in its implications. But the story doesn't give that concept its due time to sink in, and the characters silly actions in the ending undermine the horror, making the sudden end laughably bad.

@insensitive919

Жыл бұрын

I distinctly remember as a teen staying up late to see the ending, just to go to bed pissed off at how lame it was. 😅

@gnarthdarkanen7464

Жыл бұрын

"Look, Mommy! The NEW people!!!" ... ugh... NOT one of King's more stellar moments, even if it had to be adapted to the screen... ;o)

@missmeaghanj2482

Жыл бұрын

The movie ends with them laughing and holding hands meanwhile Dinah's corpse is still on the plane.

@Hundeputzmunter

Жыл бұрын

It had such a fantastic atmosphere the whole way through.....and then the monsters turned up and undermined everything that had come before

@hey_mickey1981

Жыл бұрын

Classic Stephen King, he writes amazing stories with great details, complex characters, disturbingly evil villains, but he rarely pulls off a satisfying ending. The Mist has one of the most memorable gut punch movie endings, but it was Frank Durabont that came up with it, the book ended frustratingly ambiguous.

I've read hundreds of books, but the worst ending for me, it was from a game, not a movie or a book. It is an old one from the 90s called "Realms of the Haunting". I love the game, the idea and tone is so cool, the lore is very interesting and special and it touches many spiritual themes. There are a lot of dialogues and it's quite difficult so you have to give it all in order to complete it. -(Spoilers)- After months playing it every day I reached the ending and the reveal was... that everything was false. The entire game events were made up by the main character who never was a hero who saved the world and his father's soul in a beautiful way but a crazy weirdo in an asylum. I was so invested in the story and at the end the entire experience was just about a crazy criminal telling lies to his doctor. During that scene I was angry but laughing at the same time, it was so unsatisfactory. It felt like all this "travel" was for nothing.

@justacat869

Жыл бұрын

That's similar to the "it was all a dream" trope, which annoys many people, myself included. You get so invested in the story only to realise that it was all made up in the protagonist's head.

@jacindaellison3363

Жыл бұрын

@@justacat869 to an extent, I never understood why writers think it's a good idea to have "it was all a dream" plot twist. Because it's realistic?

@justacat869

Жыл бұрын

Lazy writers use it often as a Deus Ex Machina when things get too bad and the protagonist is in an inescapable situation. The dream plot twist can be done well, but the writers have to give subtle hints and foreshadowing throughout the story that the events are happening in a dream.

@jacindaellison3363

Жыл бұрын

@Bloomy interesting. I've seen a movie where that "it was a dream" plot twist, and, looking back, it absolutely MADE NO SENSE. And the characters had won. So, there was no reason to the majority of the plot all made into a dream.

@justacat869

Жыл бұрын

Yeah that one is also annoying because it pretty much means the journey the characters have been through was not real. It also removes all the stakes that were built throughout the story.

Really enjoy the forensic breakdown of scenes both good and bad. We can learn from all of them. Thanks for sharing.

@WriterBrandonMcNulty

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching!

If Source Code had ended with the joke told on the train it would have been the perfect statement of finding meaning in life despite the inevitability of death. But it continues for another ten minutes in which new plot developments about alternate timelines are abruptly introduced to try to patch what's gone before.

@RobinClower

Жыл бұрын

God source code had a terrible ending. He just took over this random dude's life because he liked a girl.... Like what are the guy's friends and family going to think when he rocks up with a completely different personality and doesn't know who they are!?

An awesome "it was all a dream" ending was the one from American Psyco. The story is told from the perspective of Bateman, and therefore, the audience is left as confused as the main character.

@turnerjazz7872

Жыл бұрын

And that one's great because we don't really know if any of it happened or not. Maybe it was in his head or maybe he really did it all and the corporate guys are all so interchangeable that nobody realized his victims were gone. Could go either way.

That war of the worlds movie seems like it had the potential to have one of the most tragic endings ever, if the rest of the family was already dead when they arrived

I used to think I was just being paranoid about realism in a story when all others I’ve watched growing up kept writing completely “normal” stories where heroes get the perfect ending.

Empire Strikes back is a stronger middle trilogy movie ending when considering example #3. Same for Back to the Future, Part II.

@WriterBrandonMcNulty

Жыл бұрын

I love the ending image of ESB. Everyone staring out with wordless concern for Han and the future of the rebellion. It’s not a flashy ending but it does the job well

@landonbohinc8146

Жыл бұрын

And Across the Spiderverse did it really well. Jesus loves you, God bless!✝✌

@glentz716

3 ай бұрын

@@WriterBrandonMcNulty I always thought it could have used more work. It felt flat to me. It needed a little dialogue on the medical frigate.

Proposal: Good evil protagonists vs Bad evil protagonists. (As in the protagonist is a villain, but good vs bad writing. i.e: The Joker, Walter White, Light Yagami, Tony Soprano)

@NakAlienEd

Жыл бұрын

Can't forget Frank Underwood! Was a great villain protag that turned into a boring one.

@BroZilla-vh3tu

Жыл бұрын

Eren is an interesting case. Up until now he's pretty great, but after the final episode drops I bet people are gonna sour on him

@WriterBrandonMcNulty

Жыл бұрын

I like this idea!! Just need to think of some bad ones

@leolightfellow

Жыл бұрын

If it's just poorly written evil protagonists (not villain protagonists), I can think of two. Samuel L. Jackson's character in "The Man" (2005) and John C. Reilly's character in "Cyrus" (2010). I think Cyrus is the worst movie I've ever seen tbh, and I have no idea how it has a 74 on metacritic. I find that suspicious. The Man is also pretty bad. And neither are bad in a funny way.

@thebiologist8662

Жыл бұрын

Evil protagonists are hard to pull off. You've gotta make the audience like and empathize with someone that's doing something evil and/or criminal. So, most of the time, they are well-written. I'm having a hard time thinking of badly written evil protagonists myself.

the best ending for me is "6th sense". I don't want to spoil it for people who haven't seen it, but the way it reinterprets all we have seen and turns it on its head is fantastic.

I think Total Recall is another good example of a movie that was all just a dream. When Douglas is put into the situation and wakes up in the van, it's left ambiguous if he is still in the simulation or if this is an actual reality. There are also several points later on in the film that challenge the idea of if the events are real or not.

@billyfarmerii1669

7 ай бұрын

Dang, I thought you were talking about the original. The remake SUCKS!!

@duckbert3314

7 ай бұрын

@@billyfarmerii1669 I thought there was just the one? With Arnold Schwarzenegger?

@billyfarmerii1669

7 ай бұрын

@@duckbert3314 yeah the original has Arnold. I thought you were talking about the remake when you said he woke up in a van. But i see now you were talking about the cab lol

I think the original Total Recall did the "It was all a dream" ending in a good way as well

Man, what a content. You are a breath of fresh air speaking about how clear you write down all these scenario movie-pshycologial features. Got so much from your videos. And the length is ideal, I think. Not so long and not so short. Very comfortable to watch

Worst ending would be a show for me. Game of Thrones. Last season. The whole season was the worst. Bran Stark saying I knew I would be King the whole time after not wanting to be earlier was by far the worst thing I ever seen.

@Fan-wj9mx

Жыл бұрын

It just needed to be an evil ending. Pointing out how the three eyed raven, posing as Bran, manipulated his way to become king. We got smiles, no one questions anything, everyone going on new adventures.

@Lilitha11

Жыл бұрын

The game of thrones tv show just has a horrible final act period. The ending is bad but the whole thing went off the rails by that point too.

Vanilla Sky is how to do "it was just a dream" right... gives clues all along the way, and the main character is transformed by the characters and events of the dream, even though they didn't happen, because they tell him something about himself.

I've been complaining about the bad cliffhanger ending for years. It was nice to see it well articulated by someone else. Even worse is the bad cliffhanger that is resolved within the first 5 minutes of the next installment of the story. So not only was it manipulative, but it had no actual stakes to begin with. It's just swept under the rug because the writers got their undeserved emotional hook.

@JR-sx3gl

10 ай бұрын

Hobbit Desolation of Smaug, am I right? 🤦‍♀️

@JDub-TV

10 ай бұрын

@@JR-sx3glIt's been a while since I've seen that, so I'm afraid I forget how it went.

@JR-sx3gl

10 ай бұрын

@@JDub-TV At the end of the second part (DoS) Smaug leaves the mountain and flies towards the nearby town. End. In the opening of the third part Smaug burns the town and gets killed by a dragon killing arrow, which takes around ten minutes of run time. The rest of the film feels very separate to the beginning. No reason to divide a nice scene like that and lose the momentum.

@JDub-TV

10 ай бұрын

@@JR-sx3gl The whole movie feels separate from the series. XD

@JRec-ql5fc

9 ай бұрын

@@JR-sx3gl shit, i clicked to expand the replies to throw this in there and it's the first reply. hell yes you're right.

A good “it was all a dream ending” (even tho it really isn’t) is shutter island, one of my favorite movies ever.

@Corn_Pone_Flicks

Жыл бұрын

It works because it's not actually the final scene. We learn what comes after that, and why it happened to begin with.

@ElJefe3126

Жыл бұрын

Does The Shining also fit this? There's certainly ambiguity. Has Jack always been at the Overlook Hotel? Has the Overlook's reality now been cosmically retconned to include Jack? Is Jack doomed to cycled through incarnations, always bringing a family to the hotel and then attempting to murder them? Etc.

@akmonra

4 ай бұрын

my theory is Inception is actually just in the head of the same character. psychotic dead wife, wanting to see his children again, suppressing horrible events of the past by inventing intricate conspiracies for himself.

Thank you for putting time stamps under each movie for spoilers. That was super considerate!

I have been watching your videos for the past hour. The way you address the viewers on what makes a good ending as well as informing us on how an ending could become unnecessary and just straight up terrible, while giving examples of good and bad endings. This particular video actually helped me with how I can end my book, I already have an ending for some of the stories in my book, but thanks to this video, I can have some idea on how I could bring closure to all of the stories in my book, while making sure it has a good affect on the reader. And for that, I thank you. 😊

@WriterBrandonMcNulty

Жыл бұрын

Thrilled you found this helpful. Best of luck with your story!

What's the worst movie ending you've seen? Let us know, and be sure to give a SPOILER WARNING before giving any details

@-441-

Жыл бұрын

I'm so glad you asked!! Black Widow!! Prob one of THE worst movie endings I've ever witnessed. Epsecially from a big budget movie studio like Marvel. Shocking!

@kayeelling7151

Жыл бұрын

I hated the ending of Rogue One, mostly because it went so far against the log line of the movie. Star Wars stories at the time didn't **SPOILERS** end with nuclear explosions killing absolutely everybody as soon as the main objective had been achieved. I get why the filmmakers wanted to prove that the franchise is versatile and didn't want messy character arcs in the later timeline, but the SW universe is vast, and why not retire at least some them out of the conflict to maybe hook them back in later? I left the cinema feeling depressed and cheated.

@Steelrat1994

Жыл бұрын

@@kayeelling7151 I felt that for once they had the guts to kill their main characters and keep the theme and the stakes of the movie serious instead of providing them cheap convenient escapes (as every other SW movie does). That was a good ending in my book.

@lordmarcel902

Жыл бұрын

Spoiler Warning for Pirates of the Caribbean 5 I hated that ending, mostly because I loved the tragic ending with Will and Elitzabeth in the third movie. But then the fifth movie comes and reverses it. Will's curse is broken by a stupid McGuffin, that can destroy just every curse. Will didn't do anything to earn this. His son did all the work. And then Elizabeth is showing up and we hear the soundtrack from the third movie again, because the movie wants us to feel emotions like back then. It's unearned, cheap and too good to be true. Barbossa's death was the only thing in this movie that really had consequences, but this storyline with his daughter felt so forced and unfitting written in, that it just doesn't work for me.

@Q_YWRM

Жыл бұрын

Not really a spoiler for Across the Spiderverse and Dune since it was announced, but SPOILER WARNING for Across the Spiderverse and Dune. This is because of #4, manipulative cliffhangers. It felt like the main beats setup during the movie were not resolved. Now it's far from the worse and there is a way of viewing the ending that makes it better, but I still felt lied to over the course of the movie once I got to the ending. I would really like at some point in the future to cover these Part 1 endings and how to do them correctly. So many movies are doing it now. Infinity War, Across the Spiderverse, Dune, Fast X, Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning. So far I think Infinity War does it the best as it felt complete.

"It was just a dream" must the worst of the worst type of endings.

Your advises are simple and entertaining. Exactly what I need. Great videos.

Total Recall and Brazil kind of have the "it was all a dream" ending, but it's done really well. I still refuse to believe Quaid was dreaming though, I can't handle that.

The ‘it was all a dream’ ending that I thought of right away was the Futurama episode ‘The Sting.’ (Spoilers, of course. It’s a good example so I do recommend watching.) What I like about the ending is, the episode already sets up the idea that most of the episode is a bunch of hallucinations, so the relatively small twist that Leela dreamed Fry’s funeral is way more reasonable. Also, the ending strengthens the emotional impact instead of taking it away. Fry being by Leela’s bedside the whole time not only retroactively gives more meaning to parts of the episode, but it further cements the bond the two have.

I searched this up hoping how to write a good bad ending, but still a great video!

So well analyzed and explained. Lover your videos. Good handling of spoilers, too.

Wisdom’s ending is probably the worst I’ve seen.

@PatMcAnn

10 ай бұрын

At least it fits with the awfulness of the movie.

@jetnova3788

10 ай бұрын

@@PatMcAnn I am truly shocked that I made it all the way through that turd

Man, I really think that "It was all a dream" endings can work, although they need to be carefully crafted. One example I can remember was the movie "Click" from Adam Sandler, where he had a dream-like vision of his future and saw where his stupid ass decisions and attitudes would lead him. We, as an audience, get profoundly miserable with the character at the disappointing end of his life, but are pulled back at the very last second by him waking up from the dream in that matress store, and feel revigorated and rewarded because the wake up was the second chance the character was granted to make things different with his life. I understand that not many stories would benefit from that kind of ending, but I just wanted to point out that it can be done and be a good and satisfying ending. And also, great video!

@mashafalkov

5 ай бұрын

That movie is so incredibly underrated.

This actually makes me want to see the movie Wisdom. That bit of dialogue makes it look really fun

Peter was all like "I missed the part where that's my problem"

The was one exception to "It was all a dream" being a bad ending. The Newhart Finale was perfection.

@truefirstmagic

Жыл бұрын

Have to agree. Perhaps because it was comedic and appealed to our nostalgia.

@PatMcAnn

10 ай бұрын

Also, the entire series of St Elsewhere…

I think I see now, why "12 Monkeys" (despite being anything but a happy ending) always felt so satisfying to me.

"John, Karen, and her great boobs" I laughed hard at that

good to know I nailed the ending in all of my novels and I left a few threads to spin sequels.

Can you do good villains vs bad villains, some examples of good villains would be Eren Jaeger, Darth Vader, Voldemort and bad villains could be Milo from Morbius

@WriterBrandonMcNulty

Жыл бұрын

I'll add it to my list. Thanks!

@NB-nh6um

Жыл бұрын

The one from monster johan liebert is top tier or hans landa

@setiawan2791

Жыл бұрын

I want to see this too

@jacindaellison3363

Жыл бұрын

​@@WriterBrandonMcNulty If it's ok with you, would you do a video about Good vs Bad jerk protagonists? How sometimes a tragic backstory doesn't automatically make them sympathetic for us to understand why they're a-holes. That they don't always need tragedy to be jerks, ect.

@TheZetaKai

Жыл бұрын

Hans Gruber from Die Hard is a villain that needs to be on this list, as well as the Joker from TDK, and Anton Chigurh from NCFOM.

Thanks for your help. I will keep that in mind, when I'll finally write the ending of my story in about a year :D Of course I have my ending already planed out, but there are always some little things to improve. And these videos, especially the examples of bad stuff, help a lot. I always check my own story for this, when I watch your videos. :D

@WriterBrandonMcNulty

Жыл бұрын

Glad to hear these videos are helping. Best of luck with your story. And don’t stress out too much about your ending-sometimes it comes naturally while you’re revising/editing the middle of your story

Your videos are so good, they're so well organized and so well explained! Thank you for making these informative videos, im making a storyline as well and this is gonna help me out a lot!

I just discovered your channel earlier today and am binge-watching all of your videos now. i love all of your writing tips videos: they're clear, direct, to the point, and use great examples from both novels and films. you earned my sub on the second video of yours i watched. keep up the amazing work, and thank you for keeping me inspired

I would love to see you put together a similar video with opening scenes. I know you have touched on opening scenes/chapters/lines, but this good/bad setup really illustrates it well. And thank you for the warning about Wisdom - what you showed in the video was enough to p!ss me off - I can't imagine sitting through an hour and half and then getting robbed like that! 🤣

@WriterBrandonMcNulty

Жыл бұрын

I’ll add Good/Bad Opening Scenes to my request list, thanks. In the meantime, did you see my Bad Prologues vs Good Prologues video?

@tattoodude8946

Жыл бұрын

@@WriterBrandonMcNulty I did, and it was both helpful and timely as I am editing/rewriting the second book in a trilogy (the dreaded middle book of the series). I am faced with the dilemma of recapping and building what happened between part one and two and a prologue may do the trick. Although I am now coming at it at a different angle that may work as well. It never hurts to write a couple options though. Your videos have been tremendously helpful.

Another good example for an ambiguous ending is Inception because it raises the question if Cobb is still dreaming. He reunites with his kids, but his top is still spinning before the movie ends, which if he's still in the dream world, it just keeps spinning. Also the music is just.... so good 🥺

@brandonbuchner1771

Жыл бұрын

And a bad example of this (even though it's an ending i actually enjoy) was the ending of The Gray with Liam Neeson.

@tulliusexmisc2191

Жыл бұрын

That's exactly how I expected Inception to end. But (in the cut I saw at the cinema), it spun way, way too long, leaving no room for doubt. One of the most blatantly missed opportunities in cinema history.

@PhilDockery

11 ай бұрын

But at the end of the last shot of the film the top begins to wobble, something it NEVER did in the actual dreams in the film.

The blue jays outside your window are breaking my immersion

Very good ending: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone). Thanks for the great content 🙏

As you laid out your 5 points for a good ending, all I could think was that the Russos hit every one of those for the ending of Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

@WriterBrandonMcNulty

Жыл бұрын

Yep. Great movie. That was peak MCU IMO

I like ambiguous endings, but in subtle way, so you continue to think what happened afterwards. Not the "What?!?" open ending, that just make people frustrated. To me the worst kind is the nice wrap up ending to sort everything up in a positive and morally good way. It often feels like a studio decision, where the ending that got best response from a test audience was chosen.

Lucky Number Slevin is a movie that I feel is quite underrated, and I love how its ending ties the whole story up

Nice video. Thanks for the attention on labeling the sections with spoilers 🙏

@WriterBrandonMcNulty

Жыл бұрын

You're welcome!

I don't have something in mind right now, but the type of ending that is delivered poorly most of the time is the open ending. The writers must be very causious when deciding to write an open ending because even if its purpose is to leave the audience/ reader speculating it must still be tuned in with the rest of the story and resolve at least the majority of plotlines. Otherwise, it feels like the writer couldn't come up with an ending and just wrote something just to conclude the story.

@domhuckle

8 ай бұрын

Or endings that tease a sequal that will never come due to how badly the first was received?

That War of the Worlds ending is extra rough. The first 2/3 of that movie is excellent A perfect dark reflection of early 2000s anxieties. The third act, and es[ecially the ending, just feels like they had boxes to check off and gave up, completely undermining the pacing and feel of the first part of the movie.

@WriterBrandonMcNulty

Жыл бұрын

Yep, ties up everything way too neatly.

@nateh6441

10 ай бұрын

​@WriterBrandonMcNulty War of the world's trashes a great movie with an awful Disneyland ending. The kid charges into an inferno of exploding tanks and makes it to Boston A-OK

Face it. It's all been downhill since, "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

Amazing video!!!

Just. Absolutely. Brilliant. Your insights into not merely the "How" but the "Why" of good vs bad endings - and other important aspects of story-telling - blows me away time and again. So glad I discovered your channel recently, Brandon, and I'm about to start reading the copy of Entry Wounds I just bought. Thanks!

@WriterBrandonMcNulty

Жыл бұрын

Thanks so much! Glad you’re getting a lot out of these videos. And I hope you love Entry Wounds. Please leave a brief review when you’re done

As a writer, when I start writing a story, I've already got an idea of how it ends. I pick an ending state for a character and then write the story of the conditions that lead to the character being where they are. That seems to work a lot better for me than methods where I create the journey and then adapt the end and helps steer my vision when developing the plot and characters.

Your videos are amazing man, please keep it up!

@WriterBrandonMcNulty

Жыл бұрын

Thanks!

I really enjoyed the video and it made sense. Thank you.

I, for one, was thoroughly annoyed by the ending to Infinity War, because I knew that most, if not all, of the heroes that were snapped out of existence had already signed contracts for more movies. It completely undercut the apparent consequences to the situation.

@YurtTheTurt

Жыл бұрын

There aint much the writers can do about that lol

@gkoymnbxykfb

Жыл бұрын

Some of those movies could have been prequels or "what ifs"

@LoudWaffle

Жыл бұрын

As someone who doesn't pay attention to behind the scenes stuff I was completely unaware of this and thoroughly loved Infinity War and its ending. Imagine my horror when my buddy tells me as we're leaving the theatre that people already know there's going to be a followup where everyone gets revived.

Worst ending? Signs. It's not just the ending, but the entire setup is just so cheap. Combining a menacing threat with pseudoscientific events? Sweet! Invasion of powerful aliens?! SWEET! And then ... water. Oh, the shame ... water. Like: Hey, we're super advanced and stuff. But that pretty basic molecule that's like 70% of your planet ... THAT we simply can't deal with.

@taragnor

Жыл бұрын

The twist ending Signs needed was that the aliens were peaceful. You had these aliens that were super strong that got caught in a pantry, but somehow couldn't escape. They also deliberately drew a bunch of symbols on the guys house instead of trying to outright murder them. It'd explain why the aliens, who have mastered intergalactic travel, decided to basically show up naked without any advanced weaponry or technology of any kind.

@jacindaellison3363

Жыл бұрын

Nostalgia Critic: Probably should've thought that through before attacking a planet MOSTLY COVERED IN WATER!!!

@starman5234

Жыл бұрын

I liked signs. All alien invasion movies are stupid. Any race that can do interstellar travel would not need anything we have. The aliens are just the obstacle for the hero to overcome.

"I am Rey" "Rey who?" "Rey Skywalker"

@WriterBrandonMcNulty

Жыл бұрын

I'm saving that for the sequel to this video haha

Another great video

For bad endings, the one that sticks out to me was the first Michael Bay Transformers movie. It's not the ending-ending, but it's a key part of it. I'm going to specifically call out the tone here. Spoliers For those of you who (lucky enough?) haven't seen it: the movie's climax is a battle between the evil Decepticons and the heroic Autobots. These are sentient transforming robots who can feel emotion like humans, who have literally spent millions of years at war. So, the Autobot named Jazz and, the Autobot leader, Opitmus Prime have been fighting side-by-side for longer than humanity has existed. And then Jazz dies. Shockingly, gets ripped in half in the middle of the battle by the Decepticon leader, Megatron. So at the end of the battle, what does, Optimus Prime, his comrade-in-arms (of millions of years!) say? Not much. While holding Jazz's broken body, nonchalantly, he notes that it's sad that they've lost a good friend... but that they are happy to have made new human friends. Seriously. That's it. The tone is upbeat - moving towards uplifting, when there should have been a great grief. Something perhaps we could not even understand. But this? This throw-away line that leads to "well at least we've made new friends"? Staggeringly awful shift in tone.

@ThanhTriet600

10 ай бұрын

It's completely in character for Optimus Prime to react like that. He is not good or heroic, he's a military general driven by a single-minded purpose to destroy the Decepticons, who happen to be evil. And as he's been fighting an endless war with them for millions of years, he's already come to accept the eventual deaths of himself and everyone close to him. He's also psychopathic when it comes to Decepticons, who are also sentient. He takes no prisoners and just wants to kill them all, no questions asked. And when he does so, he's often much more violent than necessary, goring them to pieces. He also kills humans who work with Decepticons without a second thought. Imagine a real world analogy where he were an American general and just wanted to kill all [Insert current bad country] people, no matter whether where they were on the chain of command, whether they surrendered, or any other consideration. My point is that Optimus is not human and should not be interpreted as such.

@j.c.jeggis1818

9 ай бұрын

​@@ThanhTriet600 Sure, movie Optimus is darker and more violent than most other incarnations, but "not good or heroic" is a wild statement. His violence is directed against literal 80s cartoon villains that seek to harm innocents and bring about unfathomable destruction to entire planets. Because the Decepticons in the Bay movies aren't any more complex than their G1 counterparts. There's not much to them other than "wreck shit, be evil, rule the galaxy". A better real world analogy would be a general that wanted to defeat an invading army of super-Nazis and went a bit psycho in the thick of it.