50. The Blair Witch Project (1999)
49. A History of Violence (2005)
48. Batman Begins (2005)
47. All That Jazz (1979)
46. Dead Again (1991)
45. Pulp Fiction (1994)
44. Fargo (1996)
43. Shane (1953)
42. The Terminator (1984) -
41. Say Anything... (1989)
40. The Thing (1982)
39. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
38. 8 1/2 (1963)
37. Rocky (1976)
36. Jacob's Ladder (1990)
35. Back to the Future (1985)
34. King of New York (1990)
33. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
32. Being There (1979)
31. Magnolia (1999)
30. Pickpocket (1959)
29. Wait Until Dark (1967)
28. Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
27. The Searchers (1956)
26. Rushmore (1998)
25. Real Genius (1985)
24. The Bank Dick (1940)
23. House of Games (1987)
22. Brazil (1985)
21. The Usual Suspects
20. Before Sunset (2004)
19. Memento (2001)
18. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
17. Planet of the Apes (1968)
16. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
15. The Godfather (1972)
14. The Tenant (1976)
13. Citizen Kane (1941)
12. The Birds (1963)
11. The Graduate (1967)
10. Some Like It Hot (1959) - Jack Lemmon finally drops his drag and reveals his true gender to his horny suitor (the perfect Joe E. Brown), who couldn't care less. "Nobody's perfect!" he says, the final cherry on top of a whipped-cream and chocolate-covered sundae of a comedy. -DW
9. Don't Look Now (1973) - Donald Sutherland chases the little child in the raincoat he's seen for the whole film and then Roeg's nightmare springs one last terror on you. That face under the red raincoat is no child, and it will stay in your nightmares for months... or else you'll put it as your computer's desktop picture like my roommate. -CC
8. Big Night (1996) - The old term "silence is golden" has never seemed so appropriate. After a grand night of arguments, fantastic food, and a no-show crooner, the two idealistic opposites (art vs. commerce) sit down to a simple omelet with their waiter, knowing their lives will go separate ways (and bankruptcy is a near certainty) but not needing to talk about it. Soulful, delicate, and bypassing tearjerk-o-rama, directors Stanley Tucci and Campbell Scott create a sincere goodbye to their lovely, little film. -CC
7. Night of the Living Dead (1968) - Without a hint of being self-conscious, Romero's horror masterpiece raised the middle finger to all modern narrative constructions. The family dies, the young white couple dies and the black protagonist, surviving the gruesome night, is shot by the cops. It's complete film rebellion, and you can't help but savor it. -CC
6. Boogie Nights (1997) - One of the most unexpected endings in cinema history. Mark Wahlberg's faded porn star stand in the mirror and yanks his penis out, saying with complete conviction, "You're a fucking star." The soul of the inept, underage star still resides in the aged, coke-snorting loser. Its pathetic grandeur (both the ending and the unit on display) is unmatched. -CC
5. Bonnie and Clyde (1967) - The constantly underrated Arthur Penn brings his great, gritty tale of the criminal lovebirds to an end with a scene of unyielding violence and shock. Think of it as the alternate ending for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, which ends exactly the same way but stops the film about 20 seconds earlier. -CC
4. Casablanca (1942) - "The beginning of a beautiful friendship" and one of the best movie endings – so good it was recycled as the ending of at least one great film, Woody Allen's Play It Again, Sam. Like the rest of Casablanca, the last scene is now the stuff of cliché, but that's because there are so many dang quotable lines. -DB
3. Chinatown (1974) - "Forget it, Jake, its Chinatown." Chinatown has nothing to do with Chinatown, but it also has everything to do with Chinatown. Explaining its intricacies could fill a book, but it's the very end that punches you in the gut: The bad guy gets away and Nicholson's Jake Gittes, after solving the case, is told to forget the whole affair. Ow. -CN
2. Fight Club (1999) - No matter what you think of David Fincher's translation of Chuck Palahniuk's pre-iPod, post-post-punk nightmare, you have to admire an ending that foresaw things that are still being talked about today. The film predicts the emo-boy nation that we swim in these days, but the ending, with the Pixies' raucous "Where is My Mind?" wailing in the background, sees self-terrorism and numb romance as the new, essential way of life. -CC
1. Dr. Strangelove (1964) - You may remember otherwise, but the climactic scene where Slim Pickens rides the bomb down is not actually the ending of Strangelove (though even if it were, it would still be #1 on our list). Rather, there is a strange scene afterwards in which the leaders of the free world wait for the end of the world while having a demented argument about how to survive the impending nuclear winter ("We must not have a mine shaft gap!"). Then, signaling apocalypse, Peter Sellers' titular mad scientist, wheelchair-bound for the entire movie, stands up and begins to walk, before the War Room (and the rest of the world) explodes to the tune of "We'll Meet Again." It's all weird but absurdly logical, like everything about Kubrick's masterpiece. -DB