MovieChat Forums > Strange Days (1995) Discussion > The ending ...

The ending ...

posted 8 years ago by Elder_Yautija
22 replies | jump to latest

... ruined it for me.
All that shooting, people dying and getting beat up by police, a man flies off a balcony and the party goes on?
I'll tell you a better way to end this film: Angela Bassett finds a way to show the Jeriko One execution on the big screen for all to see, the two policemen try to stop her, part of the militia joins them, the rest are confronted with an ensuing riot incited by Skin screamingin the lyrics to "Intellectualise My Blackness". The good old police captain stops Angela's lynching and arrests the two policemen. William Fichtner kills himself, Pvt. Pyle is forced to carry his dead body attached to his wrist to the police car. Ralph Fiennes gets out of the hotel all beat up, finds Angela all beat up, they kiss and then they're carried to the hospital and downtown for questioning. The rioters keep on rioting until the execution video ends just as the countdown to NYE starts, so they stop just for a sec to look at the screen and each other. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. The camera pulls out to an aerial shot showing the militia being massacred by the rioting people. Happy New Year!

The end.

Much more realistic, imo.

[–] Tony_R_68 8 years ago

Angela Bassett finds a way to show the Jeriko One execution on the big screen for all to see

Yeah sure... *facepalms*

--- Chuck Norris was in all 6 Star Wars movies......... As The Force. ---

[–] Elder_Yautija 8 years ago

Don't see why not. They can pass images recorded THROUGH ONE'S EYES, wirelessly, from one deck to another, they could be able to pass it on to a screen.
Anyway I didn't mean that she personally finds a way to do that, but perhaps they could have introduced a character who could, or even better they could have avoided killing off the one who possibly could (the first brain-fry, in the van. He was clearly a nerd-type character. He could have pulled it off).

[–] Tony_R_68 8 years ago

Why not ? Maybe because Mace is justa bodyguard, not a technician, maybe because the "replay" was made to go to a brain, not to a screen, and they needed special material too do so.

I don's see your point with the ending as it is anyway.

It was a powerful ending, your "ideas" would just ruin it.

--- Chuck Norris was in all 6 Star Wars movies......... As The Force. ---

[–] Elder_Yautija 8 years ago

You don't see my point? How about you read my comment before replying? That could help you.

I said that the fact that the party just keeps going while people are being blasted to F#@K is absolutely retarded. No one, I mean NO ONE would simply keep on dancing while the guy next to them has just been blasted in the chest with a 38. This happens multiple times while the two cops are chasing Mace and just shooting people in the process. In any real world scenario, people would have f@#ked off faster than the speed of light.
Also, like I said, and this again proves that you don't read, you just go on and type, it's not necessarily Mace who needs to find a way to project the video on the screen. Tick could have done it, if they hadn't decided to kill him off a few scenes earlier, or for that matter anyone with a bit of knowledge of electronics. Nowadays, I can set up my phone so that whatever I do on it is shown on my TV screen. I didn't need a technician to achieve that.
This could have easily been set up before they went to the hotel, and would have required a very minor adjustment in plot. It would have saved us from that ridiculously impossible ending that you called powerful but in reality just dragged a good movie down.

[–] Tony_R_68 8 years ago

Yeah I jumped that part on your second post about tick... but still, the fact that everyone keeps on partying around them is part of the wanted ending. It shows that the world around them just does not give a *beep* about what's happening.

The main characters are in the middle of a storm but "people" just don't care, the world will not change for them.

--- Chuck Norris was in all 6 Star Wars movies......... As The Force. ---

[–] Elder_Yautija 8 years ago

Yes, but if so, then why introduce the character of Jeriko One at all? We already had a sick killer to care about from Lenny's side. Why make Mace give so much importance to Jeriko's preaching and subsequent execution?
If the world keeps on going not giving a $hit (which I can believe until they show bystanders being randomly shot, which will definitely wake up the most passive of nihilists), then why do the main characters (Mace, particularly) make such a big fuss about this particular black man's death if then the writer refuses to use it as any means for the world's perspective to change?
With the ending they went for, it looks like all these people went through was just in order to save a girl's life from possible threat, to find out that a character we thought was good is actually a sick bastard, and for the main couple to express their hidden love for each other. Is that it? All these people dead, Jeriko wrote all those songs and got himself executed, all so that two policemen go to jail and three nobodies go on living while all the rest of the world can think of is celebrate the new year? Sorry, I don't buy it.
When the second coming arrives and Jesus falls from the sky with unlimited fish and bread and wine at hand, if someone starts shooting I GUARANTEE that the party will grind to a halt. And if they show on a big screen that the person who is shooting people up at the present moment is the same one that killed an important political revolutionary (say JFK), and the police defends him like the militia defended the two policemen in this film, trust me, you will see a riot. Now THAT is how you wrap up a film like this, not with a dumb kiss. This is just my opinion, but I do believe that a more "revolutionary" ending would have made for a more satisfying conclusion.

[–] Drooch (5333) 4 years ago

The implication is that the Jericho shooting will now go public, and the public have turned against the corrupt law and order.

We didn’t need to see anything else.

[–] jporter-6 8 years ago

No one would keep on dancing?

You don't see the evening news stories about people walking by dead or unmoving bodies on the sidewalk? People walking past trembling puppies licking their chops? Hear people say "I didn't want to get involved"?

I have to think you are seriously out of touch.

In the middle of a huge rave with no one paying attention to anything else but their own good time, someone is going to notice a guy falling from the top floor?

(And, by the way, I agree that your ending is no very good.)

[–] Elder_Yautija 8 years ago

Wow. You're from Pluto, aren't you?
Because the absurdity of your statements is otherwordly.

"I did not want to get involved?"

That works with a dead body on the sidewalk, or a drowning puppy perhaps, because your life is not at risk too. On this planet, once someone is shot dead in front of you, you either pass out or you start running. Because YOU DON'T WANT TO BE NEXT. That applies to everyone, unless you're autistic or retarded, and don't understand the life-threatening situation.
We, humans, have some sort pf preservation instinct that perhaps your race lacks, so you should probably watch the news on our planet, not yours, learn a bit about us, then talk.

And what about this $hit: "In the middle of a huge rave with no one paying attention to anything else but their own good time, someone is going to notice a guy falling from the top floor?".
You can't be serious, can you? You might need a doctor, I'm really worried.

Again, what planet are you from??? Of course someone will notice! They once stopped a Metallica show, with 40.000 people, for that exact same reason. Someone fell from a balcony, the others noticed.
They resumed the show, in that case, as the guy was alive and was given immediate medical attention. The difference is, cops didn't start shooting randomly at people after that, so the party went on.
See the difference?

Now get real, or go back to Pluto.

[–] esb90 8 years ago

There's a lot of flaws in your logic. I initially liked your premise but your logic is pretty naive if you think people would respond that way. The ending is reasonable just as it is the only thing that bothered me was Fichtner committing suicide and then the other cop pulling his gun in a psycho rage...it was very over-the-top and i think could of been cut from the movie.

[–] Elder_Yautija 8 years ago

I don't necessarily think that people would react the way I wrote it. If you read closely, I mention that they could, might, perhaps, more likely... and so on.
Only thing I'm sure of throughout my hypothetical alternate ending is that the party would stop as people are being killed left and right. The rest are ideas and suggestions, but no one has to like them.
I'm just saying that ANYTHING would make more sense than seeing people dancing freely as tens of people RIGHT NEXT TO THEM are getting mowed down.

[–] lanakael2 7 years ago

You've obviously never been to New Orleans.

Seriously, though, I think the party went on because everyone WAS fixated on their own good time. Society had broken down to the point that the people who might"ve cared didn't want to be at the police station all night answering questions about something they didn't know the answer to, and missing out on the ball drop.

Also, gunshot most likely couldn't be heard over the music and noise of the people. In New Orleans people who suddenly drop are assumed by most people to be drunk and are either laughed at as they're stepped over, or robbed. And if they're found with a few bullet holes not because they're just afraid of getting shot too, but because they don't wanna get tagged for the murder.

People can be sick like that, unfortunately.

[–] Elder_Yautija 7 years ago

Shots couldn't be heard. Ok. Right. Give me a second, I almost fainted.

Alright.

Don't be ridiculous. People were SEEN being shot dead. Which trumps up everything else you wrote and I didn't bother to read.

[–] lanakael2 7 years ago

I said most likely couldn't have been heard, no wasn't heard. Earlier in this thread you jumped on someone else for not reading thoroughly before responding. I ask the same of you.

Also, don't be an asshat. You're so stuck on your own opinion and perceived superiority that you're unwilling to listen to anything else. You keep saying that your comments are merely opinions, but when people post opinions of their own, you belittle them. What's that say about you?

[–] julesfmb 7 years ago

Thank god you are not a Screenwriter...

[–] Elder_Yautija 7 years ago

Oh yes, thank him. This must be your New Year's Day movie. Sorry I pointed out the flaws in it.

[–] never-green 7 years ago

Angela Bassett finds a way to show the Jeriko One execution on the big screen for all to see

That's exactly what I thought would happen when I watched it.
Wow, Bob, Wow.

[–] Elder_Yautija 7 years ago

Right?

Beside the very minor retribution of finding out who is threatening Juliette Lewis' character, exposing Jericho's execution to the world is the ONLY thing that actually matters... and it doesn't happen! They don't even go near it! They'd rather show interracial foreplay and fireworks than actually wrapping up a story with a competent ending. Whatever.

[–] lanakael2 7 years ago

Went does it have to be "interracial foreplay"? Why can't it just be foreplay you have the problem with?

[–] KutWrite (1220) 5 years ago

I like your ending 'til the pause in the rioting and massacre.

I'm not sure who the "militia" is... armed black people?

I did pick up on the similarity between Mace's beat-down and the visual (not the reality) of the Rodney King beating.

I had to think hard to place myself back in 1994/5. We had Ruby Ridge, Waco, the Murrah Building and Rodney King & that riot in pretty short succession (though maybe not in that order). So this film may've been born of that.

[–] MovieManCin2 (26342) 5 years ago

Yep! What a boring, ridiculous pos!

😎

[–] Druff (1447) 9 months ago

The movie and its writing are already mediocre enough, there was no need for you to make it even worse.