Why does everyone say they cut to blank mid sentence at the end?
They clearly didn't.
shareIt was the joke from Family Guy.
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Which featured better writing that the Sopranos ending did...
I've never seen a more polarizing ending to a show. I thought it was absolutely brilliant. He's dead. It's exactly how it would be in 'real' life. No dramatic music building to a crescendo, just a snap of a finger and you're gone. It's exactly how a mob hit would feel like.
shareI agree it was a great ending for the show. Tony was definitely shot in my opinion but they left enough ambiguity there to leave it to people's own minds and keep them discussing and asking the question for years to come. The set up was really well done too with you trying to work out who it could be.
The people that didn't like it, what exactly did they want? For the family to sail off into the sunset, or to make it 100% certain Tony was shot and killed? Prefer the ending they gave us.
To me this is crazy because I don't get how it's ambiguous. What else could it mean? The guy in the jacket goes to the bathroom. He comes out and it cut to black midway through a verse. Earlier in the season, they talk about how you die and it's exactly like this scene is described. I mean, to me it's badabing badaboom done!
shareIt's ambiguous in that they didn't show him get shot, or we didn't hear any gunshot. While it might be obvious he was shot from the clues given, it fading to black can be interpreted by the viewer to mean he either got shot or if you wish, that nothing happened, and the episode simply cut off suddenly with Tony and family continuing their evening.
shareI feel like it's ten years ago. I'll leave it with this, which is really why I believe it...
The man in the Members Only jacket... Throughout the show’ hitmen wore Members Only jackets. The hitmen who shoot Sil and Bobby are wearing Members Only jackets. The hitmen who killed the guy vying for control of New York during their civil war wore Members Only jackets.
Most important is the cut to black. In an earlier episode that season there is the comment that when you die, you ‘never see it coming’ and everything goes black. Tony didn't see it coming and it went black.
I think Chase a couple years later realized he could do prequels or side stories and kind of went back on his vision, or he just wanted to #@$@#$ with people. Probably the latter.
I'm not going to argue with any of those points as I agree and am firmly in the 'Tony got shot camp'. All I'm saying is, without it being shown, it allows the chance for the view to interpret it another way. That's why it was done the way it was, and Chase has even said it's up to the viewer to interpret it how they wish. I like that they did that.
shareSorry about that! I'm not trying to argue. To me it's as obvious as the nose on my face and I honestly am just confused people don't get it... so maybe I am argumentative? I dunno...
I think I'm just passionate about it because it's such a brilliant ending. There was no struggling "I love you" to his family, no dramatic music, no heartbeat sensor slowing down to a beeeeeeeeep, no drama at all. Just BAM gone. Just like how Jackie Aprile, Jr. got whacked.
You’re right, it’s clear that he got shot, Chase said ‘it’s all in there’ referring to the final episode. The pattern is set up - the bell rings, we see a shot of Tony looking up, we see what he sees (somebody entering the restaurant). On the final bell ring to announce Meadow entering, Tony looks up... the next shot is what he sees - Black. Silence.
The fact that Chase took pains to set up the Member’s Only hitman, his hiding in the bathroom where he’ll have a clear hit and run path plus the reminder flashback to Bobby’s ‘you don’t even hear it coming’ and the ending is unmistakeable.
The sad thing is that Meadow enters to see her father’s brains blown out, and Carmella and AJ probably get a face-full.
You do realize this show was a work of fiction and nothing was ever filmed to show that he got shot. The creators simply ended the series.
share🤫SHHH...THAT IS WAY TO RATIONAL FOR THIS CONVERSATION.
shareA lot of people do forget that actually. Since it's fiction, anything not actually shown is supposition only.
If Gandolfini lived and they decided after hiatus to do another two seasons or a sequel movie, no one would be squealing on how they changed the canon of Tony being killed. There is nothing in that last scene that showed Tony dying or anything else for that matter, so they could have done a sequel movie with no protestations.
Even David Chase contradicted himself several times on the ending. Some say it's brilliant, but I think it's lazy writing. Family Guy's snarky comment was better written.
For me, the clues laid out in the final scene is that Tony was whacked by Members Only guy. You don't shoot a POV shot of him warily peeking over his shoulder and eyeing Tony and expect that to be an incidental part of the sequence. I remember upon first viewing this scene my initial reaction was BOOM, HE DEAD! The quick cut out and black screen said this all to me. I never understood the confusion over this, but I guess people wanted to see the blood and the reaction from his family, to them I would like to say take a look at your grandpa's friend over there on the wall (referring to his trophy kill)
share"Clues" are - well- clues... There is nothing in that scene that says anybody killed Tony or anyone else in that restaurant. You don't see the hit because it never happened. Chase wrote the scene open ended meant for people to decide what happened to Tony if anything. It's lazy and it's also a big middle finger to the fans that wanted something to happen; either Tony get whacked, Tony being arrested by the federales, or Tony just having a peaceful meal for once with his family.
Again, would you or anyone scream in indignation if Gandolfini lived and did an almost certain movie? What would you say? Members Only guy peeked over his shoulder at Tony so that means Tony is dead!!
Maybe the movie (had Gandolfini lived) would have had the first scene in the restaurant where Members Only dude is an FBI agent who drags Tony out in handcuffs. Maybe Members Only dude is the bastard child of Tony.
There's no canon in that last episode. Chase could have done what he wanted with that series after the HBO run ended - including a movie- and that's why he left it totally unresolved.
Well, assuming James never had that fatal heart atack and IF Gandolfini returned to the role in a story taking place later on then David Chase's mysterious ending would be ruined for posterity.
You say you didn't see any clues, I say I did. Agree to disagree
I didn't say there are no clues, I just said it was left open ended despite them. I've seen the videos and have read the explanations on the clues and they are indeed compelling, it's just that there would be no problem if a sequel happened later on.
and I said the clues that I saw point to him being whacked. Okay, if you don't think it was him getting whacked then I'm willing to tone it down and say that the Members Only Jacket man was a Federal Officer and that Tony was arrested the moment the screen went blank, but to me is almost a wishful alternative to him getting whacked. Either way, the clues aren't that vague and it indeed implies that something drastic happened resulting in the black out.
A sequel would not an issue if Chase had A) Tony whacked and then we get to see who is in charge after his departure, B) Tony is arrested and charged and the series picks up with him awaiting trial, or C) the "hit" was not a success and Tony survived but the series picks up with him trying to leave the life so he can live out his days with his family and the new series plays that whole scenario out.
Agreed. It was a great ending. I guess there are some that like to have everything spelled out, or want a happy feel-good ending where all the primary characters live. The Sopranos was never about either of those things, so the finale shouldn't have been either.
The reason the ending is always talked about is because David Chase intentionally crafted it as utterly ambiguous and then he clips it off with blank out which quickly reminds everyone about earlier quotes and scenes with previously whacked characters like Bobby ("You probably never hear it when it happens").
Seriously, I get your point about not having everything being spelled out, but the final scene wasn't done in a natural way anti-climactic way as Chase brilliantly has done in so many previous episodes. The shot of the family together as Meadow finally arriving the camera pulling out as they just enjoy a basic evening meal would have been perfect and anti-climactic enough. Instead, Chase intentionally creates an open-ended cut-off with too many implications to just "let it go".
I think Tony choked to death on a piece of rare steak.
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