MovieChat Forums > Urban Legend (1998) Discussion > The Ending?

The Ending?

posted 14 years ago by Leaborb192
17 replies | jump to latest

So RGH kills all those people, supposedly dies by drowning in the river & then enrolls at university later on to tell the new students the UL story? Is that what happened? Wouldn't RGH be declared "dead" at the end of the film? How the hell was she able to attend university again? And if she didn't die at the end of the film, just kind of float in the river...wouldn't she be arrested for committing murder? I'm pretty sure they don't let you attend university if you're a murderer. Can someone make sense of the end for me?

Thanks.

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[–] litwickproductions 14 years ago

Well, it has been literally years since I have seen this movie, but I would assume that she filed under a different name. With some money and friends in low places, you can get a new identity. SPOILER ALERT: She actually shows up in a later sequel as a nurse.

For me.

[–] billwenham 14 years ago

The point of the ending was that the entire movie was supposedly an urban legend. When she says, "Here's how it really happened..." it's supposed to be tongue-in-cheek because she played the murderer in the version we just watched, and of course because if the movie is an urban legend in itself it's exaggerated and changed each time someone tells the story.

It wasn't supposed to truly be that she survived. They're basically winking at the audience by having that ending. I thought it was clever.

[–] mitchelllamar 13 years ago

Holy crap!!!! I never thought it like that... Makes the movie jump from 4 to 6
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[–] Matt-fBR 13 years ago

If you considered the way the ending suggests that everything it was shown was a version of what became an urban legend, maybe her name wasn't even Brenda to begin with...

And if the facts shown were actually the "true story", the supposelly Brenda could've been using a fake name troughout the whole thing as a way to prevent herself from been caught, since aparently, she planned to revelead herself to Natalie as the killer at the end, then kill her and go on with her life.

When I first whatched the movie back in 1999 I actually thought the ending was kinda clever, but after rewatching it recently, it sounded more like an lame attempt from the writers to make us overlook the big amount of plot holes the script has.

[–] LangleyA-1 13 years ago

Billwenham hit it on the nose perfectly. I mentioned something similar to what happened in the end with the killer but only one person actually gave me kudos for it lol. I guess people are really dense these days.

[–] iamskwishi83 13 years ago

I guess people are really dense these days.

Ha, that's funny. I was just at the Valentine board and, ten years later, people are still scratching their heads over the ending and the killer's identity. They are at least a dozen threads devoted just to figuring it out, and some of the theories are pretty funny.

I agree that the ending seems like it was constructed to hide and dismiss some rather large plot holes in Urban Legend's script, but I still find this movie an enjoyable guilty pleasure. And I always get a kick out of Rebecca Gayheart's performance, big frizzy hair, CA-razy eyes and all.

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[–] Dash99 13 years ago

Also at the end they are at a party? She might not even go to the college, shes just there for the party and people are just telling stories.

But I love that ending, its extremely clever. However the rest of the film, not so much.

[–] Sweetheartt130 13 years ago

Omg I remember seeing this movie like 5-6 yrs ago on demand w/ my sister & we thought it was pretty good. I loved that ending! Its sort of like a gag at the audience u know lol.

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] CrestOfLove93 12 years ago

I just saw it as Brenda imagined herself as the killer whilst the story was told. Probably wrong, but that's what I got from it when I watched it for the first time today.

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[–] lucy_122 11 years ago

i thought the ending was like this- she survived and went away for a while to recover, then came back, changed her name and enrolled into uni again, so she could do it all again and murder new people.

[–] miaangel345 11 years ago

I didnt get it either! I thought it basically was saying "oh look the killer is right here, she never died!" which would have to be impossible...

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[–] Dash99 11 years ago

Oh please everyone knows when you watch a horror movie if you don't see the killer actually be killed you can assume they survived. And when I say killed I mean decapitated or shot in the head.

[–] dave626 10 years ago

Well, given that the university didn't do a thorough background check on Witt's character, Natalie, who was involved in a vehicular homicide, "Brenda" could've used a fake identity to get in. Plus, the scene never stated she was actually a student. As for the body, if you actually listen to the story being told, the body was never found...hence she shows up. Of course, both Paul and Natalie are long gone so who else other than Reese would recognize her? If Reese is even there at all still either. The ending wasn't that confusing if you listened.

Plus this is from the IMDB trivia page...
At the end of the movie, students from an unnamed college recount the movie's events as an urban legend.
Not even the same university.

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[–] tinkerbells_sweetheart 9 years ago

If people had been listening at the end the guy telling the story states the name of the school and it's not Pendleton so the ending is a different school that's why no one recognizes her. And people saying that the whole movies being an urban legend story being told are seriously over-reaching or trying desperately to explain the movies plot holes but every movie and especially horror movies have plot holes so why make up some bullsh*t theory to try to excuse them? Brenda survived her fall into the river and some amount of time later enrolled at a different school to start her reign of terror all over again. It's not that difficult to understand.

[–] Stratego 8 years ago

And people saying that the whole movies being an urban legend story being told are seriously over-reaching or trying desperately to explain the movies plot holes but every movie and especially horror movies have plot holes so why make up some bullsh*t theory to try to excuse them? Brenda survived her fall into the river and some amount of time later enrolled at a different school to start her reign of terror all over again. It's not that difficult to understand.

I'm sorry, but it's clearly you who didn't understand. The whole scene at the end is a reference to the scene in the beginning when the whole group was also discussing urban legends. The fact that Rebecca Gayheart says the story is wrong and starts telling her version, shows that that what we saw was an urban legend. Possibly based on true events, but still not a correct depiction.

[–] Seth_Rogue_One 9 years ago

I just asumed that she had asumed a new identity, or simply only pretended to be a student there so she could find some new victims or whatever...

A part of the ending before the actual ending I found interesting was when the 'rent-a-cop' got shot they just left her and drove away and they talked about it in the scene after

Alicia Witt was like: "I don't know if we should have left her there"
Jared Leto was like: "She'll be fine the paramedics will be there any minute"

Like A. they couldn't even wait to make sure that she didn't bleed to death and wait for the ambulance cause they were in such a rush to go home and get some sleep?

B. they fled a crime scene

All just setting things up for the killer to return in the backseat of course, but they could have set that up alot smoother

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