Today, when a story reveals it was all in the character's head or they were dead all along, it could be accused of being unoriginal and lazy. However, a few writers still manage to do it well, but these are the exceptions. In my opinion the trope is becoming very tired, but some writers seem to disagree. If the writer is still at school and already used 'then a helicopter came and saved them' too often then it's excusable. But don't forget the obligatory 'and my mum was calling me to come down and eat breakfast' ending. If the writer isn't a child they might want to consider how often the trope has been used before, and maybe not go with the first idea they have.
To paraphrase Dr Seuss, some are good, some are bad, some are very, very sad.
Obviously this is all spoilers so don't read it.
This post comes after several Facebook discussions about series finales, cop outs, poorly thought-out narratives and bad finales. Curious to know how overused this trope has become, I did some research. The following list includes early uses (e.g. The Wizard of Oz), clever uses that inform the audience about a deeper narrative (e.g. The Matrix), surprise endings that pull the film together (e.g. Fight Club), deliberately vague endings you may love or hate (e.g. Inception), possible interpretations (e.g. Pan's Labyrinth), and cop out endings that stick two fingers up at the audience and laugh at them for investing time in a story that never actually happened (e.g.well, you decide which ones fit that description).
To limit the spoil and cut down the word count I offer no details here and I mostly avoid saying which is dream and which is the afterlife. You may disagree with some and I'm sure you will have some to add to the list. Feel free to do so in the comments.
Disclaimer: I haven't seen or read all of the below titles so in some cases I'm relying on other people's interpretations.
I make it 65 films, 13 TV series and 19 books. Some of these are wide open to interpretation, but you can be sure there are many more I've missed.
Below this point it's nothing but spoilers.
You have been warned.
Films:
1. The Wizard of Oz
2. Return to Oz
3. American Psycho
4. Secret Window
5. The Number 23
6. Boxing Helena
7. Swimming Pool
8. Source Code
9. Total Recall (sort of)
10. Pan's Labyrinth (maybe)
11. The Descent (kind of)
12. Atonement
13. Vanilla Sky
14. Time Bandits (implied throughout, then inverted)
15. Brazil (ending only)
16. The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (blurring the boundaries)
17. Give My Regards to Broadstreet
18. Phantasm (maybe)
19. MirrorMask
20. Mulholland Drive
21. The Matrix
22. Click (maybe)
23. Inception (maybe)
24. The Slayer
25. The Cabinet of Dr Caligari
26. Shutter Island
27. Waking Life
28. Dead Man's Shoes
29. The I Inside
30. Dead End
31. Reeker
32. Jacob's Ladder
33. Pale Rider (unfinished business rather than purgatory)
34. Dead End
35. Menace II Society
36. The Life Before Her Eyes
37. Hellraiser Inferno
38. Hellraiser Hellseeker
39. Point Blank
40. An Occurrence at Owl Creek
41. Fight Club
42. Sixth Sense
43. The Others
44. A Beautiful Mind
45. Being There (implied - "Life is a state of mind".)
46. Sucker Punch
47. Contact (or is it?)
48. Dreamscape (deliberately confused by the train conductor)
49. The Science of Sleep
50. Stay
51. The Thirteenth Floor
52. Living In Oblivion (repeatedly)
53. The Forbidden Kingdom (then averted by vagueness)
54. The Shining (read Roger Ebert's discussion)
55. Invaders From Mars
56. The Woman in the Window
57. The Wizard of Gore
58. The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T (or was it?)
59. I Married An Angel
60. Nightmare City/City of the Walking Dead
61. Shadow
62. Repo Men (partial)
63. Robot Monster
64. The Pirate Movie
65. The Smurfs 2 (I know, right!?)
TV:
1. Dallas (honourable mention)
2. Life on Mars
3. The Prisoner (maybe, but who knows?)
4. St Elsewhere
5. Newhart
6. The Brittas Empire
7. Season 23 of Doctor Who
8. Battlestar Galactica (it's complicated)
9. Lost
10. Quantum Leap
11. Ashes to Ashes
12. Promoted to Glory
13. Running Late (one-off Peter Bowles TV drama)
Books:
1. Chronicles of Narnia, The Last Battle
2. Alice in Wonderland
3. Through the Looking Glass
4. Mars Is Heaven
5. The Dark Tower (might as well be)
6. Sophie's World (in a way)
7. The Futurological Congress
8. The Queen and I
9. The Roads We Take
10. Son of Rosemary
11. The Chimes
12. The Man Who Was Thursday
13. Just A Dream (obviously)
14. The Great Divorce
15. The Pilgrim's Progress
16. The Hated
17. 1990 Degrees F
18. An Elegy for the Still Living (possibly)
19. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
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