5 'Ambiguous' Movie Endings That Are Actually Pretty Clear On Second Thought
Although the debates about them continue to this day, these finales are not ambiguous at all when you look at them more closely.
Leaving a movie with an open or ambiguous ending is a bit of a gamble for filmmakers, as it can leave audiences unsatisfied, have them discussing and theorizing about the movie for years to come, or maybe even both.
However, sometimes an ending that seems ambiguous is actually pretty clear when you think about it.
So here are 5 not-so-ambiguous endings that still spark debate among fans to this day.
Inception ( 2010)
Ah, the good old "was it all a dream" debate, because at the end of Christopher Nolan 's sci-fi action film, we see Cobb's "totem" (an object that allows you to distinguish dream from reality), a spinning top, wobbling.
Not only does it do so for the first time in the entire movie, as it remained perfectly still in previous dream sequences, but Michael Caine has already revealed that the scenes in which he appears (including this one) take place in the real world.
Prisoners (2013)
This 2013 thriller from Denis Villeneuve ends rather abruptly, with Detective Loki overhearing Keller Dover, trapped in a pit in a killer's backyard, blowing his daughter's whistle.
Considering how dedicated and even obsessed Loki is with the case throughout the movie, it seems highly unlikely that he won't investigate the sounds.
Blade Runner ( 1982)
Of course, with the release of Blade Runner 2049, it is now clear that Rick Deckard is not a replicant himself, despite the subtle hints given by its predecessor.
However, this theory never made sense in the first place, as Deckard contradicts many of the typical replicant traits: he is too old, too slow and too weak, getting beaten up by his targets several times throughout the original film.
American Psycho (2000)
For some reason, even though it is clearly stated at the end of the movie that Paul Allen, one of Patrick Bateman's many "victims," is alive and well, some fans remain unconvinced.
But even if he had secretly killed all those people without arousing suspicion, his shootout with the police, which ended with a car explosion, would definitely have led to a huge manhunt, which didn't happen.
Whiplash (2014)
Damien Chazelle's 2013 psychological drama ends with Andrew Neiman seemingly overcoming Fletcher's sadistic teaching techniques and delivering a great performance, raising hopes in many viewers that the two would finally reconcile.
Sadly, not only is there no way this temporary peace would last, but the director himself confirmed in an interview that Andrew was completely broken and would die of a drug overdose.