great thriller endings

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great thriller endings

It's taken me a lot of reading and watching (and a bit of writing too) to realise that great thriller endings are few and far between.  The opening hook and middle passage so often promise more than the climax can deliver.  I'm ruminating on the ones that really work, fiction and film, and how they do it.  I'd like to hear your comments and any reminders of outstanding examples, like:  The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Hombre, They Shoot Horses Don't They, Thelma and Louise, The Third Man, Minority Report, and Chinatown - - - there must be some more recent cases.  I've got an idea why these work but I've only just started to think it through and would love to hear your views.  simon   

I would call it a thriller, but Pulp Fiction has a great ending  . . . or is it the beginning? wink

 

You're right I need to check Elmore Leonard ( who years before wrote screen play for Hombre) ---

Stories based on reality are often better than fictionally made up ones, because they may be unexpected, more complex, or just seem more real.
I would often rather see a good ending than a bad one, because I like to feel uplifted at the end of a film.

Right Kurt, or the stories work well enough to be credible, they could've really happened, and I agree you feel uplifted by a great ending even if it shocks you and isn't the pink sunset you'd been hoping for.  I have another case that fits the formula --- The Good Shepherd, horribly credible but a great climax.

PS that course should read "horribly credible AND a great climax"', the one feeds the other.

Cool Hand Luke

Good points raised here...

I've always thought that writing a good thriller required the writer to become fully emerged in the actions of the plot to appreciate the reader's perspective completely. In that regard I've imagined that many writers must have been quite uncomfortable throughout the writing process, especially when constructing the 'edge of the seat' parts within their storyline. I've always assumed that when a lack of real impact at the end is lacking... it's because they've fallen off their seats!  wink

Diver --- thanks for contributing to the great thriller endings forum and let me think  through what you say, but meantime I just spotted this is today's Guradian Review -- the exact same preoccupation: "We want answers dammit!  TV history is strewn with the battered corpses of mystery thrillers that merrily posed riddles, only to then toss out a finale that failed to give fans the closure they craved.  As Tom Rob Smith's intoxicating London Spy concludes, is it doomed to let us down?"

I'm not sure doomed is the right word (as if some external force was responsible) but I am sure The Hour did a better job with Ben Wishaw's talents -- it had credibility and a finale --- but let's see if LS delivers.  Whatever it manages it just goes to show how hard it is to hit that top gear at the right moment.  

Diver --- thanks again for your contribution from the other end of the globe.  You raise an interesting point.  Too bad we don't have any of the authors of our list to comment (including Jack Seale whose piece I cited from the Guardian preview) because as you suggest, the creation and consumption of thriller endings are exact opposites, writer and reader, obvious right? But at the same time you're dead right --- the writer has to live with the characters and anticipated readers in parallel, except what the reader gets (especially when the ending delivers) is an explosive moment, the merest fraction of the hours the writer has spent distilling the plot into a shocking yet (on reflection) inevitable finale.  My feeling is that the noir tradition is not full-on tragedy, there's always a sense things will work out for the best, but all those hopes are dashed in one final moment ---- a moment we should've seen coming.  To this extent I think the falling off the seat moment for the reader is one of stock still concentration for the writer ---  the steelier the stare the better.