# Films With Endings That Feel Inevitable
When a movie ends, sometimes you feel like it couldn’t have ended any other way. The story builds toward that final moment so naturally that when it arrives, it feels like the only possible conclusion. Several films have achieved this rare quality where the ending feels not just satisfying, but absolutely necessary.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day stands out as a perfect example of an inevitable ending. Throughout the film, director James Cameron builds a deep bond between the T-800 killing machine and young John Connor through small moments. The T-800 learns to smile, gives a thumbs up, and becomes the protective figure John never had. By the time the ending arrives, where the T-800 must be lowered into molten steel to prevent the technology from being misused, the audience understands why this moment had to happen. The T-800 knows that if humanity is to survive, the final example of Terminator technology must be destroyed, and that means destroying himself. The thumbs up gesture as he descends into the molten steel feels earned because the entire film has prepared us for this sacrifice. The ending has emotional context and a finality that makes it feel like the only way the story could possibly conclude.
The Shining presents a different kind of inevitability. After Jack Torrance descends into madness and pursues his family through the Overlook Hotel with an axe, the film moves toward its climax in the hedge maze. Danny carefully backtracks to mislead his father while Jack rushes ahead without a trail and becomes lost in the maze. As Jack freezes to death in the snow, the story reaches its natural conclusion. The hotel’s supernatural influence has consumed Jack, and his death in the maze feels like the inescapable result of everything that came before. Kubrick then ends the film with a long camera shot moving down a hallway toward a central photograph on the wall, showing previous good times in the hotel. This visual puzzle reinforces the sense that the hotel itself is eternal and inevitable, trapping its victims across time.
Not all films achieve this sense of inevitability. Jaws, for instance, builds tremendous tension through its middle sections with the famous Indianapolis speech and the growing conflict between the characters. However, when the ending arrives with Brody jamming an air canister into the shark’s mouth and firing at it, the conclusion feels disconnected from what came before. The explosion is sudden and lacks the emotional beats that defined the rest of the film. Director Steven Spielberg wanted a big rousing ending rather than the quieter conclusion where the shark dies from its wounds, but this choice created an ending that feels at odds with the film’s careful buildup.
The difference between these films shows that an inevitable ending requires more than just a logical conclusion. It demands that every scene, every character moment, and every emotional beat throughout the film points toward that final moment. When done well, audiences leave the theater feeling that the story could not have ended any other way.
Sources
https://entertainment.ie/movies/movie-news/the-final-scene-terminator-2-judgment-day-394276/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shining_(film)
https://entertainment.ie/movies/movie-news/the-final-scene-jaws-392355/
