19 Movies That Were Absolutely Brilliant Until Their Third Act

"I was like, 'Wow, this is fun. I can't wait to see what these guys accomplish together.' It turns out—nothing. Nothing at all."

Do you know what's worse than a bad movie? A great movie with a bad ending.

CBS

There's something so infuriating about a film that has an amazing start and then just falls apart at the end. 

So, when u/thehumanpopsicle asked the cinephiles of r/movies "which great movies were completely ruined by their third act?", I knew I had to share some of the responses.

1. Spectre

Sony Pictures

"Spectre was on track to be a solid Bond film until they arrive at Christopher Waltz's base."

– u/Thoughtful_Tortoise

2. Iron Man

Paramount Pictures

"'Ruined' is a strong word as I still liked the movie, but the third act of Iron Man is noticeably weaker than the rest of the movie. Didn’t like how Iron Monger turned into a 'look at me I’m so evil' cliché villain all of a sudden, could’ve been done a bit better IMO."

– u/Pow67

"Jeff Bridges dialogue during the final fight was like out of a late 90’s video game. 'Haha, very clever Tony!' 'You can’t stop me, hahaha!'"

– u/compoundfracture

3. Black Panther

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

"My ranking of Marvel movies is very different when I take into account third acts. I’m looking at you, Black Panther. It makes me really appreciate Civil War: it still ends in a spectacular battle, but it’s character and story driven, and not a simple case of hero defeating villain."

– u/kenwongart

4. Shang Chi

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

"Shang Chi was the one I immediately thought of. The bus fight and the fight on the side of the building were excellent, and the story was decent, and then suddenly we get to that last act and it’s right back to a big CGI battle."

– u/AegisToast

5. Law Abiding Citizen

Overture Films.

"Absolutely fantastic for the first two-thirds. Great revenge thriller and it could’ve been perfect. The bad guy should’ve won. It would’ve been so refreshing. Still love the movie but I find myself wanting to turn it off in the final third."

– u/BrexitFool

6. Downsizing

Paramount Pictures

"Man, this movie's third act was like out of left field. The premise was amazing. They could have done so much with it, but it's like the writer and director dropped acid and hit each other in the head with shovels before they came up with the third act."

– u/Rasputin_mad_monk

7. I Am Legend

Fox-Warner

"We were talking about how I Am Legend had potential to be a better film if the third act didn't fall apart. Don't get me wrong I still enjoy it, not as much as Omega Man or Last Man on Earth, but had it's third act been better it could have been right up there with the other two." 

– u/HistoryISmadeATnight

"The ending of the book is what makes the whole thing. You are suddenly forced to see the entire story from a different perspective, and it gives the title of it so much more meaning. Then the movie just completely ignores that and ruined it."

– u/Toogen=

8. A Simple Favor

Lionsgate

"A Simple Favor goes through the first two acts as a Gone Girl-esque mystery with a hint of comedy thrown in and is actually pretty intriguing, and then the third act honestly seems like it was written by a completely different person. The movie suddenly changes from realistic dark drama to the type of stuff you’d see in a bad made-for-TV movie before just going all in as a slapstick comedy to wrap everything up."

– u/-KFBR392

9. Sunshine

Searchlight Pictures

"'Completely ruined' is probably a little extreme, but Sunshine is one of the prime examples that comes up for this."

– u/Outside_Gold2592·

"I blame the first two acts of Sunshine being so damn good that the third act, while not bad, is just not up to parr."

– u/ga_lex

10. The Force Awakens

Walt Disney Pictures

"The first hour of The Force Awakens is so fucking electric. Anything is possible. Everything is cool and new and weird. We are living in the carcass of the old world. Then, they did that. JJ should never be allowed to end anything I do not know why we haven't learned this."

– u/YoYoMoMa

"When Finn and Poe were piloting the Tie Fighter together, I was like, 'Wow, this is fun. I can't wait to see what these guys accomplish together.' It turns out—nothing. Nothing at all."

– u/musicnothing

11. The World's End

Universal Pictures

"Ticks along quite nicely until they end up in the hidden chamber and then have what seems like an eternity of exposition and the film just dies a death."

– u/jimbocalvo

"I certainly kills the rewatch factor. I’ve watched Hot Fuzz multiple times, but World’s End only once."

– u/FAHQRudy

12. Swiss Army Man

A24

"I wouldn't say ruined, but Swiss Army Man ran out of steam in the third act after such a strong start."

– u/goteamnick

13. Ad Astra

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

"The first two-thirds were a beautiful, gritty take on the dangers and reality of space travel and work. It was dark, dirty, commercialized, with some great action/suspense, amazing space cinematography, and moon pirates! This long journey fell flat in the last act with a minimal plot of a guy going crazy and daddy issues."

– u/metaphysicians

14. The Dark Knight

Warner Bros.

"Dent's transformation into Two Face and becoming a bad guy felt forced/rushed to me and then it gets resolved fairly quickly with his death."

– u/shaffe04gt

"I always thought it should've been two movies, with the first ending when Joker blows up the hospital. They had to wrap up a lot of stuff after that and it really dragged." 

– u/Helen_of_TroyMcClure

15. A.I. Artificial Intelligence

Warner Bros.

"If the movie ends with him at the statue, it's a borderline classic. The movie was beautiful and poignant, which you would think would be difficult with Jude Law's plastic hair, but Spielberg pulled it off. Then the movie just....keeps going for some reason. My suspicion is that, just like I Am Legend or Law Abiding Citizen, test audiences ruined it because it wasn't a super mega happy ending." 

– u/goofy1771

16. War of the Worlds

Paramount Pictures

"One of the best first halves of a movie followed by one of the most boring."

– u/wrigh2uk

17. Avatar

20th Century Studios

"As an environmentalist piece, it was doing really well at telling a fairly grounded story and conveying the message right up until Home Tree was destroyed. Jake's monologue following that event should have been the closing scene of the film to leave the message about how destructive humanity is ringing loudly in our ears.

But no.

The entire third act is some real Disney shit where the forces of Pandora band together through Ewa over a freaking montage scene and go on to defeat the evil sky people...losing the message in the triumph."

– u/YeonneGreene

18. Hereditary

A24

"The first two-thirds of that movie is amazing - amazing acting, crazy twists, moving and meaningful. I just hated the fact it was just “satanists” all along. Like the movie had a deeper meaning when you didn’t know what the fuck was happening with the supernatural aspects of contacting the dead, and I was wondering what would happen next. Like, would she continue to pursue this course just to contact her daughter or would she find closure and let her go? Nope. Just satanists. The ending is ridiculous."

– u/jbod6

19. Prometheus

20th Century Studios

"Great premise, amazing visuals and character development, cutting edge technology. Then, in the second act, everyone goes nuts. Cliché after cliché, stupid dialogues, stupider actions. It's upsetting because I loved the first act."

– u/teetering_bulb_dnd

Note: submissions have been edited for length/clarity.

Shoutout to u/thehumanpopsicle and everyone in the r/movies thread for sharing their hot takes! What other films had a great start and poor finish? Tell us in the comments below.