The 40 Most Iconic Movie Endings Of All Time, Ranked

They say the journey is worth more than the destination, but these movie endings could prove them wrong. We’ve gathered 40 contenders for the best film climaxes in Hollywood history to rock your world. Fair warning, though, if you’re not intimately familiar with cinema, tread carefully. Here there be spoilers.

40. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

Ever feel like you didn’t exist? Well, George ‒ the protagonist in It's a Wonderful Life ‒ wished he’d never been born and it came true. He literally missed his own birthday. Luckily, in the end George’s guardian angel reverses time, renewing his man’s verve for life and even earns his wings into the bargain. Everyone’s a winner! 

39. The Matrix (1999)

Machines have technically taken over our world already. But Neo in The Matrix had it much worse as a human unknowingly living within the constraints of a computer program. Things get better for him though. By the end of the film he’s embraced life as a master of his new virtual reality and flies into the sky to liberate mankind in the film’s finale.

38. Inception (2010)

Inception is basically a reverse heist movie set on multiple levels of the dreamscape. Confusing, yes, but thankfully the dream team has a spinning top that never loses momentum on the subconscious plane. Before the screen cuts to credits, it’s shown initially slowing then picking up speed once more. Is Leonardo Di Caprio’s protagonist in a dream or reality? We scream, for we do not know. 

37. Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)

Terminators are robot assassins from the future trying to change their present through murders in the past. Yep, you heard us. But Arnie Schwarzenegger’s Terminator is working for the human resistance and saves mankind. In the climax a sobbing Sarah Conner has to lower her son’s savior into a pool of liquid steel. Then, as Arnie sinks, he offers a final thumbs-up. Who’s cutting onions?