Every film, of course, requires a strong beginning, middle, and end to be successful. The rarest of films not only land, but also surprise the viewer with a jolting blow in the final phrase. Here are nine films that did just that, saving the best for last with moments that have become indelibly imprinted on film history and popular culture.
1. Casablanca (1942)
Director- Michael Curtiz
Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Rick Blaine, an exiled American and former freedom fighter in Casablanca during World War II, manages the town’s most popular nightclub. Blaine, a pessimistic lone wolf, acquires two important letters of passage. When Nazi Major Strasser comes in Casablanca, sycophantic police Captain Renault does everything in his power to please him, including capturing Victor Laszlo, a Czechoslovak underground leader. Lazslo shows up with Ilsa, Rick’s one-time girlfriend, much to Rick’s delight. Rick is enraged with Ilsa for abandoning him in Paris, but when he realises she had good reason, they plan to reunite via the letters of transit. That was, after all, their initial strategy.
2. Planet Of The Apes (1968)
Director- Franklin J. Schaffner
You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!
A spaceship carrying a crew of four crashes on a faraway planet in the year 3978. One of the crew members died in space, and the remaining three embark on an exploration of the planet. They quickly discover that the planet is very similar to their own. They then discover that the planet is home to intelligent apes. One of the men is slain, and the others are brought to the city of the apes. One is put into a state of living death after undergoing brain surgery. The other befriends some apes but is despised by the majority. Soon, he flees with a female human native to the planet after undergoing ape trial. He and the girl escape into the bush after assisting his ape pals in escaping a religious heresy trial. He discovers that the planet isn’t quite as far away as he thought.
3. King Kong (1933)
Director(s)- Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack
Oh, no! It wasn’t the airplanes. It was Beauty killed the Beast.
Carl Denham, a daring and accomplished filmmaker, sails to an obscure island in 1933 with a huge team, his friend Jack Driscoll, and the starlet Ann Darrow to shoot a picture. The locals worship Kong, a massive gorilla, and they kidnap Ann to present her as a sacrifice to Kong. Jack Driscoll, who is in love with her, Carl Denham, who wants to capture the beast for a New York exhibition, and other members of the crew go into the forest to rescue Ann. Ann is smitten by King Kong, who shields her from threats. However, the gorilla is apprehended and transported to New York. King Kong breaks free in the middle of a Broadway show, causing terror in the Big Apple.
4. Psycho (1960)
Director- Alfred Hitchcock
I’m not even gonna swat that fly. I hope they are watching. They’ll see. They’ll see, and they’ll know, and they’ll say, ‘Why, she wouldn’t even harm a fly.
Marion Crane, a Phoenix office worker, is fed up with her existence. She must meet her lover Sam during lunch breaks, and they are unable to marry because Sam must pay alimony on the majority of his earnings. Marion is entrusted by her employer to deposit $40,000 into a bank account one Friday. Marion leaves town and heads for Sam’s California store, seeing the opportunity to take the money and start a new life. She drives off the main highway and pulls into the Bates Motel, exhausted after a long drive and caught in a storm. Norman, a shy young man who appears to be governed by his mother, manages the motel.
5. The Silence Of The Lambs (1991)
Director- Jonathan Demme
I do wish I could chat longer, but I’m having an old friend for dinner.
Clarice Starling, a fragile and untried F.B.I. trainee, is sent to help Special Agent Jack Crawford in the manhunt after being perplexed by a spate of brutal murders expertly conducted by the elusive mass-killer nicknamed “Buffalo Bill.” In order to gain a better understanding of the psychotic serial killer’s methods, the young detective unwillingly seeks the assistance of another ugly monster: Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist and cannibalistic mass murderer. Clarice now goes a little deeper into the dark psyche of a homicidal lunatic with each visit to the deceptive doctor’s strongly protected prison cell.
6. Ferris Buller’s Day Off (1986)
Director- John Hughes
Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while you might miss it.
Ferris Bueller, a high school student, wants a day off from school and has devised a highly clever scheme to achieve his goal. He persuades his friend Cameron to drive his father’s treasured Ferrari into Chicago for the day, along with his girlfriend Sloane. While they enjoy the sights and sounds of the city, school principal Ed Rooney is convinced that Ferris is, for the second time, skipping school and is determined to capture him. Ferris had foreseen this, much to Rooney’s dismay.
7. Se7en (1995)
Director- David Fincher
Ernest Hemingway once wrote, ‘The world is a fine place and worth fighting for.’ I agree with the second part.
Two homicide detectives are on the lookout for a serial killer who excuses his atrocities as atonement for the world’s lack of knowledge about the Seven Deadly Sins. As the psychopathic “John Doe” preaches to Detectives Somerset and Mills, the film takes us from the mutilated remains of one victim to the next. The sin of gluttony is first, and the murderer’s dreadful ability is brutally shown in film noir’s gloomy and sombre tones. Somerset, seasoned and erudite but jaded, analyses the Seven Deadly Sins in an attempt to comprehend the killer’s method of operation, while Detective Mills, bright but green and impulsive, mocks his attempts.
8. The Thing (1982)
Director- John Carpenter
Why don’t we just wait here for a little while… see what happens…
Early-winter 1982, a US research outpost in Antarctica. A helicopter from a nearby Norwegian research station suddenly buzzes the base. They’re attempting to kill an escaping dog from their base. After the Norwegian chopper is destroyed, members of the US team fly to the Norwegian base, only to find them all dead or missing. They do discover the remnants of a bizarre creature that was torched by the Norwegians. It is sent to an American base, where it is determined to be an extraterrestrial life form. After a while, it becomes clear that the extraterrestrial has the ability to take over and merge into various life forms, including people, spreading like a virus.
9. The Usual Suspects (1995)
Director- Bryan Singer
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist. And like that…he’s gone.
Roger ‘Verbal’ Kint is questioned by US Customs Agent Dave Kujan after a number of people are killed and a cargo ship is set on fire. Verbal begins to tell them what occurred, hesitantly at first, beginning with when he met four men, all criminals, in a holding cell for a few hours. They band together to successfully kidnap a jewellery shipment and flee to Los Angeles to hide. They are called by a lawyer, Kobayashi, who is representing Keyser Söze, a notorious international criminal who wants them to undertake a job for him. As a result, the cargo ship is attacked. Verbal is set free after refusing to testify in the case. Kujan only realises what has transpired after that.
