Click here to read our 20 worst movie endings ever

20 Se7en
David Fincher, 1995

Kevin Spacey’s gruesomely creative serial killer takes the Seven Deadly Sins as his inspiration for a series of horrible and slightly sanctimonious murders. Can Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman catch the killer before he dispatches all of his targets?

The “head in a box” denouement is a jaw-dropper of an ending. Pitt and Spacey’s characters take on the mantles of Wrath and Envy, respectively: Spacey’s jealousy of the cop’s domestic bliss with bride Gwyneth Paltrow causes him to chop her head off; Pitt’s rage and grief prompts him to execute the killer on the spot. WENDY IDE

19 The Blair Witch Project
Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sanchez, 1999

After numerous screen freak-outs, lost students Heather (Heather Donohue), Mike (Mike Williams) and Josh (Josh Leonard) are in a deserted house. Heather screams, Mike is killed by an unseen assailant and the last shot we see, in Heather’s grainy video footage, is of Josh standing in a catatonic stupor, facing the corner walls of the basement, like a punished child. Creepy. KEVIN MAHER

18 Memento
Christopher Nolan, 2000

Leonard (Guy Pearce) is so traumatised by his wife’s murder that he is incapable of remembering anything, bar the occasional jigsaw-like flashback. As he pieces together the clues and tracks down the man who killed his wife, we share his revelations and his triumphs, sympathising with his need to remind himself of what he’s done using notes and tattoos. Then we realise that Leonard is on his way to kill an innocent man. As Leonard drives away his satisfaction at killing his wife’s “murderer” is, we realise, only temporary. We have been had. Leonard’s amnesiac quest for revenge has turned him into a serial killer, doomed to repeat his actions ad infinitum. And we have been on his side. NIGEL KENDALL

17 Planet of the Apes
Franklin J Schaffner, 1968

Dignified seminaked astro-hunk George Taylor (Charlton Heston) has finally escaped from his brutish gorilla overlords, and is taking a coastal canter when it happens. First the mangled torch creeps into shot, then the crown of lady Liberty herself. Taylor realises that he’s not on another planet but on postapocalyptic Earth! “You maniacs!” he screams. “You blew it up! Damn you! God damn you all to Hell!” KM Read the Times review

16 The Shawshank Redemption
Frank Darabont, 1994

Having endured decades of wrongful incarceration, beatings, rape and false hope, Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) escapes from his gothic jail. After gleefully detailing Dufresne’s flight, Darabont was unsure whether to show his subsequent reunion with jail buddy Red (Morgan Freeman) on a Mexican beach. He wisely chose the even more uplifting option – as his editor noted: “Tell me that smile on Morgan’s face isn’t going to leave the audience as high as a kite.” ED POTTON

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