Every year, as I cautiously accept the world’s impending ending, I find myself asking the same question over and over again: did this person deserve that.
Sadly, given the fact that the past few years have been the years of Grift™, making did they deserve that? is the question to end all questions. It’s one I ask, on average, about five times a week. Did Melania’s exec producers deserve that? Did Lauren (yes, that Lauren) deserve that? Did Sam Levinson deserve that? You bet your beautiful ass. I didn’t know it until now, but that question was laying the foundations for my annual ranking of final scenes. I have had a blast keeping score. I hope you have a blast reading my verdicts.
The theme of this year’s inaugural final scenes list is comeuppance, which might appear boringly simple, but trust me when I say I had a fun and furious time1 writing about all of these (and rewatching some of them on MUBI).
And, like any good jury, I am merciful: some of you are getting lighter sentences. Some of you are going away for a long time. Did you deserve that? If you made it onto this list, the answer is mostly, without question, yes. Now, onto the rankings.
top 30 final scenes, ranked by how much the protagonist had it coming
30. requiem for a dream (2000) // Sara
No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. My sister had a theory that Margo Stilley’s character in 9 Songs (2004) – where she plays a sexually adventurous and curious woman who is seeing a much younger man – is actually Sara Goldfarb at a second chance at life. That makes sense to me, because Sara is one of the most tragic characters in cinema history. She is the epitome of hope, desire, and ambition, though completely misguided. I don’t want to think about her ever again. I can’t look at the photo of her in the red dress without crying. Also, Jared Leto can rot.
29. I, daniel blake (2016) // Daniel
Sadness, devastation, and anger were bouncing around in my head after I, Daniel Blake ended. Daniel Blake is a man who dedicated his life to helping others, who never hurt a soul, who spent the entire movie fighting against a system that only exploited him. He was beaten down time and time again and he never lost hope — until his heart, worn down by the fight, finally gave out. I wanted to scream at the universe, how dare you take this kind, gentle man from us, from his friend, from the mother he fed and fought for. How dare you let the very system he was fighting kill him.
Daniel Blake deserved better. We all deserve better. If you are going to leave people like Blake to the hands of a cruel, uncaring bureaucracy, at least give them the dignity of a peaceful death.
28. promising young woman (2020) // Cassie
I have to admit that despite her cleverness, Cassie’s death in Promising Young Woman left a bad taste in my mouth. Clearly I was meant to feel the sting of a horrible injustice, but that only partially worked for me. Maybe it’s because so much of the movie felt like a horror film — the tension, the creepiness, the ominous music — so when Cassie met her grisly end, it felt reductive. Or maybe it’s because the film flirted with Cassie falling in love and being happy, only to pull the rug out from under me. Had it been a lower budget feminist revenge story, I think it would have resonated more. But Cassie's elaborate Rube Goldberg machine of a death only felt tragic, and barely deserved, because the film needed her dead more than it needed her to have earned it. Cassie's an antiheroine, sure, but she's a little too much like the ghosts in the 2018 Suspiria for me: a cruel punisher who meets a cruel end.
27. beasts of the southern wild (2012) // Hushpuppy
I'm going to say no, Hushpuppy did not deserve this. Sure, I fucking can't stand the way she talks, and sure, she's a spoiled, violent little monster who spends the whole movie being unmanageable. But the film wants me to read her staring down a herd of aurochs until they kneel as some grand coming-of-age moment, and I'm not buying it. She's still just a kid raised by her single father who's never had to actually face consequences for her own behaviour. Somebody give this child a bedtime and a time-out corner, not a nature documentary about her own greatness.
26. happy together (1997) // Fai
I feel like a coward admitting that Wong Kar Wai's films are often too beautiful for me to fully appreciate, but Happy Together is the exception. I love how unromantic it is about romance, how unapologetically pitiful and self-destructive Fai is. The ending, like the rest of the film, is raw and haunting. The focus on the falls he never got to share with Po-wing, and the kitsch lamp that started it all, drives the point home. By the time Fai finally makes it there, Po-wing is no longer part of his life. I can't bring myself to say Fai deserved it. He's already spent the entire film punishing himself.
25. 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days (2007) // Otilia
I was shocked when my heart immediately sank at the sight of Otilia alone at that table, as if I didn't know that was coming. Twenty-four hours ago she was risking expulsion and her own future for Gabita, and now she's sitting there completely alone. That's what gets me every time. Otilia walks away from the worst day of her life carrying absolutely everything, while Gabita barely seems capable of acknowledging what she's done to the one person who never stopped choosing her. Mungiu cuts away before either of them has to say it out loud. He doesn't need to. I still cry thinking about it.
24. the godfather part II (1974) // Michael
I’m going to be contrarian here and say that Michael is not deserving of this final scene. Sure, he's spent the last three hours being horrendous, killing Fredo, destroying his marriage to Kay, and torching whatever goodwill he had left with everyone around him, but he's been so horrendous that it feels like he's lost the plot of who he actually was, and that guy, maybe, deserved better than this. That last Christmas at the family table, the one where he announces he's enlisted and Sonny loses his entire mind and Fredo, of all people, is the one who's got his back? That's the last time anyone in that family looks at him like he still belongs to them. It's not his fault nobody left him a copy of The Godfather Part III.
23. parasite (2019) // Ki-woo
Okay, is Ki-woo the richest person in this entire movie? I mean he's a little urchin with a rich man's English accent, and nowhere near as clever or resourceful as his sister. But he's the one who survives, the one who dares to imagine buying the house, the one who dreams of rescuing his father from that bunker of fat rats. I wish that he and his family had never come to that house at all, but by the time they’re all at the dinner party, it’s clear that he and his family are the one variable the Parks were never prepared for.
I do think Ki-woo meant it, that letter. And that's why his fate is all the more tragic — he'll never have the money to buy that house. And his sister Ki-jung is dead because of it.
Was any of this deserved? With Ki-woo? No. With the rest of his family? Maybe.
22. the piano teacher (2001) // Erika
This would be a 10 out of 10 if I could say yes, but unfortunately she’s just too funny. I feel like I have to preface this in every piece I do about a Haneke movie, but allow me to say it again: Haneke is the funniest filmmaker in the world. Why else would you put an “older” (heavy air quotes!) woman whose sexuality is wilfully rooted in early 20th century tropes in a big black long leather coat with no lapels, and then take her to Cannes. Obviously Haneke meant for us to take Erika’s capitulation to the musical gods as a somber moment of tragedy. But I see it as something else entirely — a woman in her late forties, excited by the power given to her in a pair of satin gloves, trying to find the light in a place that doesn’t want her. Stabbing herself in the shoulder is just her last fatal attempt to be seen. The best part, of course, is that it doesn't work. She walks out into the street, pain and wound open (a new part of the film’s joke).
"Oh fuck she's an Oscar I can do this," says the dolly zoom as she exits. Poor woman never had a chance.
21. we need to talk about kevin (2011) // Eva
In this house, we believe Eva Khatchadourian just wanted a fucking hug. Everyone’s favourite Evil Mother was never going to be rid of the consequences of her son’s actions, but what she got in that final scene was unnecessary. I’d understand if the neighbours were retaliating against a red-paint murder house (murder house by Jeffrey Dahmer 100% on that Netflix docuseries), but they couldn’t be more different from Tilda’s character in the film: understated, and undecorated. I know we’re supposed to feel like we’re in this with the ‘unmother’ and her house of horrors to echo that she can never escape it, not even there – but speaking as a member of the Tilda Swinton Kinship, I’d like to raise a grievance. Eva just wanted a motherfucking hug. Sometimes, all a girl needs is a hug from her son who, after all, never actually committed matricide.
20. toni erdmann (2016) // Ines
A hard maybe, but it’s time to be real, and that means admitting I smile every time I think about it. My Vengeance scorecard requires strict consistency, but every once in a while a scene gets so silly and goofy and hysterical that it's like Conradi and I are the only two people on earth who get the joke (her dad, unfortunately, thinks he's hilarious too), and I can't help but do an evil cackle laugh at the humiliation she’s just endured. She's had the worst day, and now her dad has turned her own birthday brunch into the latest leg of his practical joke. I forgive everything about this movie (even the fart cushion he sprung on her at the office, please) because when Ines (that is, Hüller) starts laughing…oh my god. I want to cry just thinking about it! What a perfect thing. Do you think she had any idea he was going to break out the giant troll suit? And the fact that she is so far gone with laughter by the time they tumble down to the floor suggests that even if she had, it might not have made a difference. That’s Toni Erdmann, baby.
19. the mist (2007) // David
I’m probably in the minority here, but I think the ending fits the crime. David’s entire arc is predicated on his deep love for his son Billy, and so the core tragedy here is that his love is the thing that leads to their demise. He loses faith in God, in humanity, in reason, in the hope that they will survive the mist, and that ultimately blinds him to the love right in front of him. He succeeds in his mission to save Billy from the monsters, only to become the monster himself.
I would find it disappointing if writer-director Frank Darabont didn’t have the chutzpah to end the film this way. It’s not the first time I’ve seen it done, but in this case it felt like a necessary conclusion to David’s descent. Even still, it has earned its place here because the ending is bleak, and unshakeable in a way that I still think about years later.
18. gone girl (2014) // Amy
I’ll admit, I wanted Amy to get away with her crimes. She’s emblematic of the sort of woman who gets shamed for wanting to do whatever it takes to tie a man to her when he goes through a midlife crisis (the sort of woman I am, honestly). However, when the movie pulls back to reveal that Amy is a complacent suburban housewife, I’m forced to reckon with the consequences of her reign of terror. Amy’s not getting away with anything really; she’s imprisoned by her own plan. In the closing moments, I was unsettled in a way that made me realize the true crime of Gone Girl: domesticity. She’s free to plan her next move on Nick, but she’s also trapped with him in a loveless, violent marriage. It’s her life sentence. And that’s what makes me love it even more.
17. wild strawberries (1957) // Isak
The winner of the “Most Peaceful Final Scene” award. I am skeptical of the very notion of forgiveness, but nobody ever really gets what they deserve in the end, do they? I’m happy to make an exception for this cold-hearted man. Don’t pout, Isak! Your mom is being reincarnated into a dolphin as we speak! (And your dad is going to be a very naughty monkey!)
16. portrait of a lady on fire (2019) // Marianne
Yes, she fully deserved to be this miserable for the rest of her life. She agreed to deceive Héloïse by posing as her companion while secretly painting her for the husband-to-be waiting in Milan, only to break her heart once the truth came out. Nasty business. Marianne gets to fall in love, confess it, make promises she can't keep, and then walk away with the one thing Héloïse never gets to have: a choice. Of course the universe sends her to an orchestra years later to sit there watching the life she could've had. Anyway, can you tell that I'm still mad about this movie? Héloïse if you're reading this I'm team you 100%.
15. mulholland drive (2001) // Diane
Did Diane Selwyn deserve this? I think so, right? She’s a murderous, maybe tax-dodging, Hollyweird elite who probably had a few people blacklisted during her rise to stardom. Flawless skin, though. I would kill to pull off that messy bob with a beautiful bone structure like hers. You can’t win them all!
14. the headless woman (2008) // Verónica
When I first watched The Headless Woman, I found Verónica’s ending incredibly bleak. After a second viewing, I’ve come around. Verónica is an immoral woman who thinks she can erase her way out of a crime. Yes, she was probably suffering from concussion symptoms, but her actions afterwards were premeditated. It's ironic that hitting a dog is the version everyone insists on, because it's her own survival instincts, the denial, the erasing, that end up choking her long after the impact itself is over. Plus, the ending is poetically just, reminding us that Verónica’s crime will always come back to haunt her, even if temporarily. The only difference is, she has no one to come home to anymore.
13. the favourite (2018) // Abigail
Had it coming, sorry! Abigail is no innocent lamb. She’s ruthless, conniving, and willing to sacrifice anyone for power. She’s a Thatcher in the way she exploits the weaknesses of her close friend, Anne. I have a soft spot for Rachel Weisz, so in a way, Abigail gets what’s coming to her. And yet, even in her most depraved actions (and there are many!) I maintain a grudging respect for Abigail. She’s a woman in a patriarchal world, and she constantly subverts expectations. As much as I love Sarah, Abigail’s ascent is thrilling. She enters unapologetically, climbs to the top, and finishes on her knees, a clear victor in a rigged game but an emotional loser. She has the power and the rooms, but her smile mimics Anne’s rabbits in the end: unfeeling, and alone. Abigail had it coming, and the universe owes her nothing, but it still stings.
12. paris, texas (1984) // Travis
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how Travis had it coming, and trying to convince myself that the universe doesn’t owe him an apology. I love Jane and Hunter so much — more than I love Travis, if I’m being honest — and I want them to be left alone to make a life together. But even when Travis seems the most selfish, he’s doing exactly what’s needed to try to make things right. He confesses to Jane, then drives away so that she has the choice to stay with her son or pursue something with him. He’s a man who loves too fiercely, a man who is only ever driven by love. In another world, he would’ve deserved something better, and Jane would’ve still had her chance. But all of that exploded in Houston. Travis can’t stay. He made his choice when he walked out of the desert, and now he has to live with it.
11. ratcatcher (1999) // James
Supremely deserved. I say this as someone who was rooting for James for the duration of the film, and who felt gutted by that final dreamlike image of his family walking toward him through the sunlit field: there’s a baseline selfishness to James’ desire to leave his family behind, one that makes the almost fairytale-like ending of Ramsay’s film feel more like a curse than a blessing.
10. grave of the fireflies (1988) // Seita
I’m stuck between two arguments: that Seita is a selfish, foolish boy who fails to protect or provide for his innocent little sister, and that he is a child himself who has suffered unimaginable loss and hardship. I think most people would end the film on the side of the latter, as both Seita and Setsuko are victimized mercilessly by war, causing them to turn to each other as their only solace. Their bond is beautiful, but ultimately Seita tries to be an adult before he’s ready, and his failure to navigate the world as a teenager leads to the death of his child sister.
Maybe I would have felt differently if the film hadn’t opened with Seita’s death — but I think it’s intentional, and that the viewer is supposed to feel the same devastation that Seita does when he realizes he’s lost everything. It is an punishing tragedy that is both heart-wrenching and merciless. I conclude that the ending absolutely fits the crime.
9. chinatown (1974) // Jake
Did Jake Gittes deserve this? Yes, he did. Not only does he get the most faithful reproduction of a classic noir ending (blonde femme fatale dies, detective walks away resigned) out of any of the movies on this list, but he deserves it the most because he’s the biggest loser of them all. He’s a dumbass who got tangled up in something totally beyond his understanding and competency, and so instead of being smart and adaptable, he dug in his heels and insisted on acting like a hard-boiled detective, doing the role he thought he had to perform. In the end, he’s not a tough guy, he’s not an anti-hero, he’s a stupid idiot. And I love it. Hats off to you, Jake Gittes.
8. atonement (2007) // Briony
What’s fascinating about Atonement’s ending is the way it undercuts Briony’s self-serving fantasy. We’ve been given a happy ending, perhaps the harshest in all of cinema — only for it to be taken away from us seconds later. Cecilia and Robbie didn’t make it. The war claimed them both. While the fantasy itself is beautiful, it rings hollow when you realize how many people had to die in order for Briony to get her happy ending. Elderly Briony might tell herself that she’s making up for the lives she ruined, but the truth is that she has never atoned for her crime, and living to 77 as a celebrated novelist is proof.
If I could have it my way, she would have died alone and bitter. That would have been true atonement. But then again, that wouldn’t have been nearly as elegant or romantic. It’s hard to fault McEwan and Wright for that.
7. before the devil knows you’re dead (2007) // Andy
Andy Hanson has the most expensive ego in American cinema. Give that man a minor inconvenience and he’ll respond with a felony. He’s short of cash, so he robs his parents. There’s a witness, so he kills him. His family is falling apart, so he keeps lying, confident that if he creates enough problems, one of them will eventually solve the others. Watching him improvise like this feels like watching a man insist he can juggle while slowly setting fire to the circus, while Philip Seymour Hoffman makes arrogance look so sweaty (I miss him so much 😭). Half the film I wanted somebody to hand him a glass of water and the phone number of a decent accountant. Unfortunately, for everyone involved, he only marches deeper into the illusion that he's the smartest person in the room. I can’t help but think this is because he is mortally embarrassed? Everything he does is an attempt to avoid the feeling of looking like a failure. Sir, you have destroyed your family, your marriage, your brother, your future, and very nearly the concept of planning itself. Read the room.
6. no country for old men (2007) // Sheriff Bell
Mega deserved. I didn’t like the guy. If you’re an unremarkable white man who serves his community faithfully and turn out to be a cowardly and defeatist piece of work, the Coen brothers will find you and they will do numbers on you. They will also leave your final scene without any real conclusion, because you don't even deserve the satisfaction of one. My favorite shot in No Country For Old Men is a lonely pit bull, but my second favorite is Bell finishing his dream out loud to his wife, and the screen just cutting to black before either of them can make sense of it. Bell had every opportunity to become the sheriff he imagined himself to be. Instead, he retired. Good riddance.
5. the act of killing (2012) // Anwar Congo
Obviously, yes, but it feels like the most underwhelming possible punishment for a man who spent his life terrorizing others. He should have gotten it way earlier, he should have gotten it much worse, and he probably should have had to experience it in a way that allowed him to understand what was happening to him. I know they say not to bring a knife to a gunfight, but what about bringing a gun to a literal genocide? I guess it’s more important for me to enjoy Anwar Congo’s delusions than it is for the universe to deliver him appropriate justice. And isn’t that a shame?
4. burning (2018) // Jong-su
Yes, and more! I laughed maniacally when he got his comeuppance. Who does he think he is, this petty little assassin who mistakes obsession for love?? Burning is a perfect movie.
If one awkward date, a cat that may or may not exist, and a guy who yawns too much are enough to convince you you’ve cracked the case of the century, therapy was 100% going to be cheaper than homicide. Burp. Murdering the only person who most likely knew what happened to Hae-mi because you couldn’t cope with not knowing is an incredible own goal. What else can I say? Burp. I was rooting against him from that weird attempt at kissing Hae-mi. The scene where he lets himself into her empty apartment just to mope around is still one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. He’s the loser of the movie. Hae-mi is gone. Ben is dead. Jong-su is left with the one thing he could never live with: himself.
3. uncut gems (2019) // Howard
Yes, without question. I have never felt such contempt for an odious little gremlin in my life. I have a theory that Howard Ratner is what happens when a man confuses an adrenaline kick for a girlfriend. He is not a gambler but a guy who cannot feel his own pulse unless he’s about to lose everything. This tells us the win was always going to bore him and the death was always going to be the only thing that could hold his attention. Anne Carson once wrote about how the death you’re owed always manifests as an interruption, yet Howard’s ruin manifests like a man clearing his throat behind you. He deserved it. He’d have done it again the next morning, grinning, and I’d have applauded that too.
A 10 out of 10 comeuppance.
2. the handmaiden (2016) // Sookee & Hideko
(My ranking, my rules. Sometimes what somebody has coming is ✨happiness✨)
The Handmaiden is a masterclass in feminist revenge and almost no one deserves a happy ending more than Sookee and Hideko. After months of pretending to be a thief-turned-maid for the con artist Fujiwara, Sookee has fallen in love with her mark. Fujiwara plans to marry Hideko, have her committed to an asylum, and steal her inheritance. And yet! He turns on Sookee, has her committed, and attempts to carry on the scheme himself. Betrayed, Hideko teams up with Sookee to turn the tables on the men. I shed happy tears as Sookee and Hideko sail off into the sunset. Every man who tried to use them ends up dead, taking the other down with him. And then they sail away free. Perfect.
1. barry lyndon (1975) // Barry
You absolute social-climbing weasel. I don’t even know where to start with you. You spend the entire runtime charming, lying, and marrying your way up a ladder you built yourself, and you still act surprised when it collapses under you. Married for the house. Smiled for the title. Wore the good coats for a woman you clearly never loved for one second, and the second the money and the leg and the stepson’s goodwill are gone, you’ve got nothing left, because there was never anything under any of it to begin with.
I don’t even feel bad watching you limp out of your own movie. I feel great. I feel amazing, actually. You built a life out of other people’s money and other people’s names and other people’s patience, and when all three ran out at the same time, so did you. Nobody pushed you. Nobody set a trap. You simply continued being exactly who you always were until the bill came due, and then you paid it, in full, alone, with absolutely nobody left in the room to see it happen. Good. Bye bye, Barry. Don’t write.
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This is so good.
How is Colin (Matt Damon) getting whacked by Staff Sergeant Dignam (Mark Wahlberg) in The Departed not on this list? That has to be the most satisfying peripeteia end scene ever.