The idiosyncrasies piled up if the key to a good ending was a feeling, we’d surrender to impulse. We began with an absolute morass of nominations, hundreds of finales that stuck in at least one Vulture staff member’s maw. Our goal from the jump was never to determine a set formula for the Great Movie Ending. (Dark, uncertain, marked by a significant amount of human flailing.) Sometimes, we did go for the cathartic, bring-happy-tears-to-your-face finale, but we frequently found ourselves opining the sorts of stories that lack that release.

Maybe that was a reflection of the times we were living. In compiling a list of the greatest endings in movie history, we had many arguments over many months about this very dynamic, and found ourselves drawn to certain types we deemed successful more than others: Ambiguous, dark endings endings that purported to explain something but secretly did not endings that denied us (and the characters) closure endings that featured people dancing, but not always in joyous, triumphant fashion. It is, arguably, the most important part of any film - how a filmmaker wants you to feel when the lights go up is often the key to what that picture was really about. The reverse is also true: We’ve all had that experience of watching a ho-hum flick that became instantly unforgettable thanks to an awesome conclusion ( famously, or more recently). Not every great movie has a great ending. Clockwise from left to right: Lust, Caution Moonlight Some Like it Hot The Last Days of Disco Beau Travail The Searchers Losing Ground Big Night Grave of the Fireflies The Thin Blue Line.

A serbian film ending scene