I Love Open-Ended Movies Because They Reflect Real Life
Life isn't always beautiful and happy.
People everywhere seem to hate open-ended movies, cliff-hangers, whatever you want to call them.
In fact, whenever a movie ends a cliff-hanger—everyone believes that the movie's crew did it intentionally to set it up for a second movie.
Which, a lot of the time, the production company will make because $ (thank you, capital America).
Then guess what happens when the sequel and the trequel and quatrequel are made? Everyone is mad that the movie is not as good as the original.
My favorite movies and I'll be honest, I watch a lot of independent films—are the ones that leave you hanging. I find it refreshing to watch well-made films that break the rules.
Here's why:
Movies romanticize a lot of aspects of real life.
Even if you didn't see Marley die in "Marley and Me," you still know the dog will eventually die. Even if the couple ends up together in the end, they could break up a week later. Even if the couple stays together, one of them could end up getting bored and having an affair after years of marriage.
I get it—everyone wants a happy ending, but that sets us up for failure.
Life isn't always beautiful and happy.
Sometimes life is filthy and painful—and I think in a way, that's what life is really about. Focusing on the good is healthy—but it is unhealthy not to recognize that there is bad, too.
I like movies where you don't know if the couple ends up together, movies where you don't know if the main character relapses.
I like movies where you don't know how it ends.
Because that's life.
I know not all movies that end this way are necessarily realistic, for example, "Inception," "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," or "The Wizard of Oz."
They still have a deeper level meaning though, representing how unpredictable life is in a way—how you never really know how the story ends.
I like that, I like not knowing—because there is an endless amount of possibilities of what could have happened. Thus, these movies reflect life and the countless amount of ways in which one person's life or one person's story could pan out.
Typical movies that follow the same plot—like the formula chic-flics and generic horror films, just plain bore me. Like, yes, the couple could end up together despite it all, and yes, there could be one lone survivor but in real life, is that what is likely?
I like movies with ideas that make you think and challenge you—and movies that leave you wondering.
I also have noticed that I tend to not only take a liking to open-ended movies more, I think about them for a much longer period of time—like my brain is digesting all of the possibilities.
With this, I encourage you to try to look at movies in a different light and appreciate the crew and their true intentions—let it sit in your brain for a while.
Imagine your life as a movie, imagine all the possibilities of what could happen next.
