Even though plenty of science fiction movies can wrap up in a grand way that leaves audiences feeling optimistic or eager as they exit the theater, there are probably just as many that punch you in the gut with a twist and an ending that leaves you feeling bad and anxious, wondering what comes next. This has taken a few forms over the history of science fiction movies. One of the most famous examples of a film that has driven audiences mad with its “cliffhanger ending” is Christopher Nolan’s Inception. The trouble is that the film itself gives perspective as to why the answer isn’t needed (plus, Michael Caine spoiled it for us).
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John Carpenter’s The Thing is another example, with a cliffhanger that leaves us wondering who is real and who isn’t, a challenge put forth by the film itself, meaning there’s no right or wrong answer. Even District 9, which sets up a sequel film and more story, actually ends in a way with a complete narrative. Some films, like The Matrix Reloaded or Planet of the Apes, would actually give us an answer to these questions. The problem, of course, is that not every movie gets that opportunity, leaving us with cliffhangers that elicit only agony as we wait for more (with no indicator later about what happens next).
5) Ex Machina
The finale of Alex Garland’s Ex Machina has a couple of twists, including one that the audience itself doesn’t even fully believe since it comes from the mouth of the antagonist. Though the android Ava has clearly reached a level of consciousness that clears major hurdles, Ex Machina makes her existence distinct in that not only is it revealed she’s so advanced that she’s manipulated Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) into helping her escape, but also that she has no qualms about taking a human life. Not only does Ava kill Nathan (Oscar Isaac), but she also leaves Caleb to die, taking on a fully-disguised human form and integrating into society.
This is where the film leaves us, and though it’s clearly the endpoint for this narrative and the logical conclusion of the story, it presents us with a major quandary: What’s next? There’s a lot of story potential left on the table after Ex Machina‘s conclusion. What is Ava’s next move? How will she integrate into society without being spotted? What’s the fallout of her actions in the film? In the end, the potential for what happens next is actually the point of the film and what its story is really forcing us to consider, so no answer actually is the answer. That said, we still want to know.
4) Brightburn
Before James Gunn put his stamp on Superman officially, he gave the world Brightburn, a horror take on the origins of the superhero, which he produced. The finale of Brightburn reveals that this tiny, homicidal twist on Clark Kent has managed to cover up his various superpowered murders by forcing a plane to crash into his home, but that’s only part of it. As the film wraps up, there’s a tease not only that Brandon will be using his powers to utterly destroy the town he’s been living in, but that his powers could go global. Furthermore, there’s a tease of even more “Evil” takes on classic heroes, with a hint at a villainous Aquaman and Wonder Woman being revealed.
After that, crickets. Brightburn was a commercial success, making over $30 million at the box office against a budget of $6 million, but got a mixed critical reception. The film was also caught in the maelstrom that was James Gunn’s initial firing by Disney, with a San Diego Comic-Con panel for the movie scrapped at the last minute and the film delayed six months. It’s unclear how much of that initially affected the response to the film and its potential future, but Gunn himself has said that the rights to the series are tied up, making an answer to this cliffhanger now appear impossible.
3) Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
After the runaway success of the revived Planet of the Apes movies in the 2010s, the return of the series was a welcome one. The most distinct thing about Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, though, is how it quickly became a bridge between the new films in the series and the classic ones, setting itself hundreds of years after War for the Planet of the Apes and revealing a world that was gearing up toward what we first saw in 1968. That may have been seen as the biggest narrative choice initially, but the finale of the film actually takes that prize.
Though the film introduces the human character of Mae early on, her full motivations are not revealed until the closing minutes of the movie when we discover that not only have humans fully survived the apocalypse for hundreds of years, but they’re all over the globe and, in fact, still healthy. Despite Apes fans knowing that humans have largely either become mute or mutated in the underground, there’s still a thriving planet full of them hiding from the apes and eager to take their world back. The finale of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes sets up another major conflict between the humans and the apes once again, and since the film premiered two years ago…there’s been no confirmation that the story will continue.
2) Marvel’s Eternals
There aren’t that many elements of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that haven’t been addressed or picked up in some way. Among them, the ending of Marvel’s Eternals that saw a frozen Celestial’s corpse stuck in the ocean, which became a major piece of the plot in Captain America: Brave New World. Despite addressing this side of that film, the MCU has failed to offer any continuation of the actual ending of the movie, which has left a lot of characters in limbo.
At the end of the film, after stopping the Emergence, saving Earth, and defeating one of their own, some of the Eternals choose to remain on Earth. What seems like a happy ending in the making ends with a rugpull, as the Celestial Arishem returns to Earth and plucks the remaining Eternals, Sersi, Phastos, and Kingo, into his grasp and accuses them of treason after stopping the Emergence. The giant entity notes he’ll decide the fate of humanity after experiencing their memories, disappearing with the heroes in his hand…and they were never seen again. There’s been no mention of Eternals characters in the larger MCU since this moment, nor any indicator that Marvel plans to address this cliffhanger at all.
1) Alien: Covenant
Alien: Covenant has a slew of surprises up its sleeve across the runtime, but none that land with a bigger impact than its final one in the closing minutes. Having survived their encounter with David and the xenomorphs on the surface of the planet, the crew of the Covenant returns to their ship, believing they’re safe. As Daniels (Katherine Waterston) is placed in stasis, she realizes that Walter the android is actually the malevolent David, and she may never wake up from the sleep she’s about to experience.
The implications of this final moment are deeply sinister and offer almost thousands of possibilities for the series. Having spent decades experimenting with the Engineer’s goo and creating various aliens of his own, David has thousands of colonists, plus a handful of Xenomorph embryos, at his disposal for experiments.
Though Alien: Covenant did well at the box office, it got a mixed critical reception, but more importantly, 20th Century Fox was absorbed by The Walt Disney Company afterward. As a result, Disney has pushed the series into territory that they would prefer to explore, giving fans not only the feature film Alien: Romulus but also the TV series Alien: Earth. Though these projects have opened up the franchise even more and explored new corners, they’ve left this devastating cliffhanger in stasis for almost a decade, with no indicator in sight that it may ever be addressed.
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Image courtesy of Tor Books/Macmillan -
Official art by Bastien Lecouffe-Deharme
