Was the ending really that bad?
I never understood why so many people hate the ending. What that tells me is that once viewers latch on to a character, they will continue rooting for that character no matter how morally corrupt that character becomes. I started off rooting for Clyde too but he starting taking it too far. Suffering the unimaginable doesn't justify killing innocent people. Clyde was about to kill a room full of government officials but everyone seems okay with that. Destroying government leads to anarchy which is bad for innocent people.
People need to re-examine Nick's decision to make a deal with Darby. Many people seem to be under the impression that Nick pursued the deal for the sole purpose of maintaining his conviction rate, but I didn't see that way. Nick wanted to put Darby in jail but the DNA was ruled inconclusive. Without hard evidence, it's easy for defense lawyers to get their clients off free. Nick feared that Darby would walk away without any repercussions. I still think Nick should've pursued the trial because that's what Clyde(his client) wanted. However, I don't think Nick's decision was cold blooded the way many people think it was.
I just don't think Nick is as bad as everyone is making him out to be. Nick never killed anyone but Clyde was becoming a mass killer so I don't understand why everyone would still be rooting for him. I was okay with Clyde killing Darby and his accomplice. But he became a monster after that. He had no real reason to kill the lawyer, the judge, the inmate, Sarah, Jonas, and the security guards that were in the car with Jonas. Those security guards had absolutely nothing to do with the Darby case. And the only reason Clyde killed the inmate was because he wanted to move to solitary confinement so he could kill more people. So the inmate basically got killed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The system is not perfect but killing everybody in the system won't make anything better. There are plenty of revenge movies where the victim only goes after the people that are responsible. The victim usually leaves innocent people alone in revenge movies. Clyde is different because he started killing innocent people which is why he lost me. This movie is important because it shows that not everybody can maintain good morals after being victimized. The victim can often become a perpetrator after experiencing trauma.