Marketed as a “Taken” style film with Liam Neeson fighting against nature and wolves, “The Grey” actually turned out to be a thoughtful, almost poetic look into man against nature. In the final scene of the film, Neeson’s character John Ottway prepares to fight the alpha wolf, armed with a knife and broken bottles.
We don’t actually get to see the fight, and after the credits, we see Ottway’s head lying prone on the wolf’s body. Did he survive? Will he go on to reach safety after crashing in a frozen wilderness? Is the rest of the pack waiting to tear him to shreds? His fate is unclear, but he still fought.
The Road
At the end of the dramatic apocalyptic movie “The Road,” Viggo Mortensen's character dies, leaving his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) alone in a world full of famine, drought, and cannibals. A family approaches him, wanting to take him in, but he is mistrustful.
They convince him to go along with them, and the movie leaves the audience to decide if this was a good decision or not. Will he be able to live for very long without his father? Will the family treat him well? Like the road the two main characters travel for the movie's duration, the ending is wide open.
Oldboy
There are few movies with as many shocking and disturbing twists as the South Korean action-drama “Oldboy.” At the end of the movie, Oh Dae-Su (Choi Min-Sik) gets his revenge on the person who kept him captive for fifteen years, but then the villain reveals that the woman he's fallen in love with and made love to is actually his daughter.
Reeling, Dae-Su chooses to have a hypnotist wipe his memory. In the final scene, his daughter says she loves him. The enigmatic expression Dae-su has on his face doesn't let the viewers know if the hypnotism worked, or he is stuck with the awful knowledge and unwilling to tell his daughter the truth.
Lost in Translation
While not mind-bending, “Lost in Translation” left viewers with one big question. After watching an aging movie star and a young college grad (Bill Murray and Scarlett Johannson, respectively) develop a friendship while stuck in Japan. Just before the end of the movie, in the final shot, Bill Murray whispers something into Johannson's ear. The film ends.
We don't get to learn what Murray said – in fact, it's been revealed that it was an improvised moment, which means even if we look at the script or talk to the writer, we won't learn a thing. The only one who knows is Bill Murray, and he isn't talking.
A Serious Man
Throughout “A Serious Man,” stress and difficulties pile on Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg). By the end of the movie, he has finally built up peace – his son's Bar Mitzvah goes well, he and his wife have rebuilt their relationship, and it looks like he's moments from getting tenure. At the very end, not only does a doctor need to speak with him about an x-ray, but a tornado is headed right for his son's school.
Is it an illness? Will his son be alright? The film ends right there. It's a look at life in our modern world, with constant issues, but we aren't given any conclusion to the new issues.