The 1980s ended a long time ago, but the movies released during that decade remain. And you can watch them end again and again, unlike the decade itself, because you had to be there to see/experience that ending. Movie endings are much easier to talk about, in any event, and are also probably easier to talk about than the ending of a period of time spanning 10 years.
These 1980s movies have some of the best endings of that decade, with some being uplifting, others being memorably soul-crushing, and then the rest falling somewhere in between (most importantly, falling in between effectively). There will be unavoidable spoilers here, but when you’re talking about movies that are between about 37 and 46 years old, the act of spoiling doesn’t feel like quite so much a writing-related crime.
10
‘Stand by Me’ (1986)
Image via Columbia Pictures
If a crowd-pleaser is something that would genuinely prove engaging to anyone who watches it, then Stand by Me would have to qualify, even if it’s not really exciting or action-packed the way more typical blockbuster-scale crowd-pleasers are. See, Stand by Me is very sad, and on the more serious side of things as far as coming-of-age movies go, but it does conclude in a way that feels bittersweet.
Maybe it’s more bitter than sweet, but to add a maybe to that maybe, maybe that’s why it works as well as it does. The central character, a writer in his adulthood (like so many Stephen King characters who grow beyond childhood), reflects that he has never had – and will never have – friends like the ones he did when he was 12. He’s clearly thankful for the time he had with them, but sad they all drifted apart, and devastated that one of them died while still quite young. But he has his memories and a son of his own, so there’s a little by way of sweet to wash down all the bitter.
9
‘Brazil’ (1985)
Image via Universal Pictures
Not much bittersweetness to be found here, because Brazil is nothing but heavy-going, with the ending being especially downbeat. Okay, it is a sometimes entertaining movie, because it’s a dark comedy on top of being a dystopian film, but the humor is exceptionally dark, the whole feel of the movie is nightmarish, and lots of it attempts to be disorientating and ultimately very trippy.
Eventually, Brazil’s protagonist collapses psychologically and is no longer able to tell reality from fantasy.
It succeeds at all those things, so calling Brazil a chaotic watch would be a pretty big understatement. The protagonist here, a man named Sam Lowry, has more and more of his life fall apart as the movie goes along, and then eventually, he collapses psychologically and is no longer able to tell reality from fantasy. Maybe his brain breaking at the very end is almost merciful, considering the hellish time he’d had in the film up until that point, but it’s still very much a miserable and nihilistic ending.
8
‘Ran’ (1985)
On the topic of heavy-going movies that came out in 1985, here’s Ran, which rivals Seven Samurai for the crown of “all-time best Akira Kurosawa film,” if you’re feeling ambitious enough to pick just one movie. With Ran, the story here is about an aging warlord who has three sons who all want to be his successor, and once he reveals his plans regarding his succession, things fall apart rather spectacularly.
Basically, a family conflict explodes into all-out war, and by the end of it, just about everyone’s either dead or in a very perilous situation where death is almost imminent (like a blind character alone and lost on top of a cliff; literally the last place the audience sees him). No one wins in Ran, and the futility of the way it all wraps up contributes quite significantly to the film being an overall masterpiece.
7
‘Scarface’ (1983)
Image via Universal Pictures
Full disclosure: this article was done, and The Thing was originally on here, but then the very silly writer was looking over the article before scheduling it and realized he’d forgotten to put Scarface in the ranking. And that seemed like too big an oversight to just let slide. The ending was just not as cool as Scarface‘s.
You could argue it’s overblown and too simplistic, but seeing the fall hit this hard in a rise-and-fall gangster story is just glorious. Tony Montana doesn’t go down without a fight, and he does indeed die like he lived: ridiculously, violently, profanely, and explosively. It’s a great payoff to a great movie and really elevates the whole movie from (already) great to genuine all-timer status.
6
‘The Last Temptation of Christ’ (1988)
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