While some movie endings are a little too ambiguous, Vanilla Sky director Cameron Crowe has complained that his ending wasn’t vague enough. The film follows Tom Cruise’s character, who suffers a terrible experience that leaves him horribly disfigured.
As the movie progresses, we learn that Cruise’s character is actually in a dream. In the end, he can choose to live the dream again, or he can fall off a building and wake himself up. The final scene is Cruise opening his eyes, showing that he chose to live in the real world rather than existing in his fantasy.
Matrix Revolutions
The third installment of the Matrix saga ends with Neo sacrificing himself to allow the robots to use him to defeat Agent Smith. However, Agent Smith is supposedly part of the machine, which makes Neo’s decision confusing. Thankfully, we have the answer.
While Agent Smith is part of the machine, he also wants to take over the real world. By sacrificing himself and becoming a martyr, Neo creates a sense of peace between man and machine. He dies, but the robot leader is able to use his body to destroy all the clones. It’s not the happiest ending, but it works.
Blade Runner
The ultimate question sitting on everyone’s tongue at the end of Blade Runner is whether or not Rick Deckard himself is a replicant. The answer, it seems, would be yes. In the final scene, Deckard finds an origami uniform left for him by Eduardo Gaff.
Earlier in the film, Deckard dreamed about a unicorn. The only way Gaff could have made that connection and supplied an origami unicorn is if the dream itself was implanted into Deckard. Since Gaff knows the contents of Deckard’s private dreams, Deckard must be a replicant.
Birdman
The director of Birdman once stated that the ending “could be interpreted as many ways as there are seats in the theater.” At the end of the film, Riggan (Michael Keaton) jumps out the window to his supposed death. When his daughter rushes to the window, however, she looks up instead of down.
Some fans took this to mean that Riggan found the freedom he was searching for and flew away. In reality, his daughter’s upward glance is likely a red herring. The ending is probably exactly what it looks like, with no redemption for this destructive character.
Taxi Driver
Taxi Driver stars Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle, a former U.S. Marine who takes on a new job as a taxi driver in New York City. Struggling with a severe lack of sleep, Bickle goes on a killing spree that ends with him trying to shoot himself. Before he can take his life, the police arrive on the scene.
The very next scene, however, shows Bickle back to business as usual. While fans thought that the killing spree was a dream, director Martin Scorsese confirmed the murders did happen, though he didn’t say if Bickle died or not.