Cliffhanger Endings – Did it work for you?

Many years ago I saw a television film that, to my knowledge, has never been shown on UK screens again. As the years rolled by, I’d occasionally think back to that film and the ending which left me on a cliffhanger. The film made such an impact on me that, some twenty or so years later, I was determined to discover its title. Armed with a search engine and a few choice key words, I set about on my mission and hit the jackpot - a film titled Murder by Natural Causes.

In the film, a mind reader with a weak heart – played by Hal Holbrook - is targeted by his cheating wife who, with the aid of her lover, plans to murder him by literally “scaring him to death”. The mentalist, however, is aware of the plot and turns the tables on them. As the film draws to a dramatic conclusion, Holbrook utters his final line of the film and the screen blackens. It was the ultimate “will he – won’t he” scenario, and the viewer is left dangling with the possibility of two alternate endings. Usually I don’t like this kind of stuff, but in Murder by Natural Causes it was the perfect ending.

So my questions relate to this:

Do you like films that leave you dangling with a choice of possibilities, or do they leave you feeling dissatisfied?
Which films have you seen that end in this fashion, and did it work well or not?

The Italian Job springs to mind, about as literal a cliffhanger as you can get. I find them annoying, just smugness on the filmmaker's part.

Galted wrote:The Italian Job springs to mind, about as literal a cliffhanger as you can get. I find them annoying, just smugness on the filmmaker's part.

I can understand that sentiment, Galted. Sometimes you get the feeling filmmakers aren’t quite sure how a film should end, so a cliffhanger is written in to resolve the problem. Why not just leave it for the viewer to decide! Then there's the other option: film both endings and bring out “The Director’s Cut” some years later.

I get annoyed with any ambiguity, even if it's not left until the end of the film. I form intricate theories about films like Blade Runner & Total Recall which I can never remember.

I always hate these things. They make me feel like I've been cheated out of the ending.

More to the point, they make the film seem like it was never finished. Almost like the film itself just gives up at the end.

The exceptions of course are films that are part of a series like Empire Strikes Back & The Two Towers, though must be a bit of a bitch if you die before the next instalment hits the screens.

Cliffhanger endings - Stallone kills Lithgow by dropping a helicopter on his head...worked for me!

Best way to get the Cliffhanger effect is to watch films at 3am, that way you'll fall asleep and miss the ending

Layer Cake also has one of these endings. You are left not knowing whether he lives or dies. Am I right in believing The Matrix: Revolutions is the same?

Didn't they say Layer Cake had two endings, one where he drives off into the sunset with Sienna Miller and the other one?

Hmm, a life of having to endure her squarking about how she can't get any decent roles and bring up Jude Law every five minutes vs having to sh!t into a bag.

It's a tough call to make