Do you have examples of movies that have a huge spike in stakes almost at the end?
Examples: Se7en, Rogue One
Please use spoilers if you want to explain why
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Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. It’s a Sorkin TV series that was interrupted by a Hollywood writers strike and cancelled so they had to wrap it up. And it was an amazing ending.
There will be blood
As excellent and twisting as that movie is, nothing about it is 15 minutes.
Oh ya it’s super slow, except for the last 15 min
No One Gets out Alive
Although that’s more like it goes from 75 to 10,000 in the last few minutes.
If you go in without knowing the story, it starts off like the plot arc of a sports movie:
- An outsider joins, and struggles to fit in with a close-knit team
- The team is trying for a promotion
- We see teaching of the team’s methods
- Victory at a smaller event
- Outsider is accepted as part of the team
- Long period of training for the big event
Unlike the sports movies, the last few minutes of this are not at all victorious…
The rental. It goes from being a drama into a horror hard at the end.
Return to Sender (2015)
The ending is 0 to 100 fucking insane. It’s like Rosemund Pike decided that she wanted to make a Gone Girl 2. It’s a horrible film, but incredibly memorable due to that crazy ending.
From Dusk Til Dawn
Eh not really the last 15 minutes, more like the second half.
Still, it’s the best example of an extreme shift of both tone and genre that I’ve seen.
dancer in the dark
Parasite.
Maybe even Joker.
Does Neon Genesis Evangelion count? It starts as a pretty slow sci-fi action and ramps hard into abstract psycho-theological weird territory.
It’s not the last 15 minutes, but Hot Fuzz has an amazing shift in tone.
The same applies for the other two movies of the Cornetto trilogy.
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. It felt like mostly nothing happened for 2 hours. There was some decent dialogue and a lot of references to 1950s and 60s Hollywood. There is some build up, but not much payoff until the last 20 minutes. Then everything goes off and you are reminded that this is a Tarantino film.
That was exactly my wife and I’s assessment of that film. We thought it was a slightly entertaining but mostly boring film… then the last 15 or so minutes we laughed our asses off. Once Brad Pitt’s character makes the clicking sound we were “ohhh shiiit”
The Sound of Music, surprisingly. The first like 90% of the movie is them singing and frolicking through fields, then it ends with them being chased by nazis. It’s such a radical shift in tone.
Really??? I only had the first VHS in the two tapes set, so I’ve never seen the second half. I thought it was just an upbeat musical.
There are a few hints at the Nazis early on and throughout, but yeah. The last 15-20 minutes are car chases, tense hiding scene, and a standoff. Nothing like the movie up to that point.
Fuck Rolf!
Well Liesl was definitely down. At least in the first act. But yeah, Rolf brought some serious intensity to the ending scene.
I assume it’s probably meant to be like how it happened in people’s actual lives. Rumors of Nazis, things happening, and then suddenly they are there and your life has been completely upended.
This episode looks made for you: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/717/audience-of-one-2020/act-three
The Incredible Weight of Massive Talent
Such a great film!
I would say, the Invitation. It’s quite slow, a bit bizarre in its set-up, and took me years to watch it after checking it out once and thinking “This is the movie people are excited about?”
But hang in there for the last 25-30 mins, and it really pays off. I think about it all the time now.
