Grease is a fairly realistic movie about two high school teenagers who fall in love. It’s filled with musical numbers, but there’s nothing to suggest any sort of supernatural element in the film…except the ending. After Danny and Sandy finally decide to be together, they get into a car that then drives into the air and flies away.
While some fans have suggested that Sandy was actually dead for the entire film, the filmmakers have rebuffed their ideas. It’s likely that the moment was simply a bad editing decision to end the film on a high note. Literally.
Mulholland Drive
When an aspiring actress moves to Los Angeles, her plans are slightly derailed when she finds an amnesiac woman living in her aunt’s home. The film sets itself up for a solid story, but it goes off the rails, especially when it shows random vignette’s about other, seemingly random characters.
Director David Lynch refused to comment on the meaning of the movie, but one critic claimed that the film is meant to be about nothing. Roger Ebert said, “The movie is hypnotic. We’re drawn along as if one thing leads to another, but nothing leads anywhere.”
Drive
Drive finished on an interesting cliffhanger. As Ryan Gosling’s driver speeds away at the end of the film with a painful stab wound, viewers are left wondering if he lives or dies.
Unfortunately, the driver doesn’t make it. Earlier in the movie, Gosling asks the mob boss if he is familiar with the story of the Scorpion and the Frog, which ends with both animals dying because they must be true to their natures. By asking this question, the driver makes it clear that he knows he’s going to die because neither he nor the boss will resist their nature.
Pi
While Darren Aronofsky has appeared on this list more than once, his directorial debut proves that he’s always been a fan of confusing endings. In Pi , Max Cohen believes that everything can be solved by numbers, though he can’t fix his own medical problems.
While Cohen spends his life making stock predictions, he can’t overcome the headaches and hallucinations that plague him every day. Eventually, he is driven to total madness and performs a lobotomy on himself to end the pain forever. While it’s a dark ending, it’s the only way Cohen believed he could save himself.
A Clockwork Orange
In typical Stanley Kubrick fashion, A Clockwork Orange takes a much darker turn than the book it’s based on. In the story, Alex undergoes conditioning and brainwashing after his suicide attempt in an effort to rid him of his violent ways.
In the movie, however, Alex seemingly makes a return to his aggressive behavior by the end of the film. The book, however, takes a happier approach. It shows that Alex does clean up his life and moves forward after realizing the toll his behavior has taken on those around him.