How to make a satisfying movie series finale—and how to screw one up

Making movies is hard. Now try making a movie that neatly wraps up stories threaded across two, three, or heck, eight other films. Given the expectations that come with concluding a decades-long, multi-chapter saga as well as the rigors of production and, well, it’s a miracle filmmakers don’t just run off to the mountains to become monks. Who can take all that pressure?

Serials, of course, have been a Hollywood staple since the silent era, but finale films are a more recent breed, borne of the IP-driven tentpole. From Star Wars to The Lord Of The Rings to, at some point, Fast & Furious, the right combination of ingredients can result in a memorable final act or a forgettable lost opportunity. With Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny being the last crack of the whip for Harrison Ford’s archaeologist adventurer, this is a good time to look back at other franchise-enders to see what went right—and what went wrong.

Defining our parameters—especially in an age when, for instance, the series finale Toy Story 3 unexpectedly led to the series finale Toy Story 4 which unexpectedly will lead to another series finale in Toy Story 5—requires some tap dancing. For our purposes, we’re looking at films specifically designed to end stories, not movies that ended a franchise because they were a dud. We’re also playing it fast and loose with Marvel, which often ends a story while its cinematic universe spins seemingly forever.

Rule 1: Finish the main character’s story

The most obvious rule for a series conclusion is the one that’s most often taken for granted: bring the main character’s story to a definitive end. No matter how large an ensemble becomes or how impossibly dire the stakes, the critical thing is how the protagonist gets to the finish line. Even when the movie is messy, like Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, it was clearly the story of Bruce Wayne/Batman (Christian Bale).

And death doesn’t need to loom for things to feel real. It’s a fun coincidence but not an accident that the defining fantasy sagas of the 2000s—The Lord Of The Rings and Harry Potter—succeeded because of the storytelling surrounding their main characters. This is why their respective final films enjoy immortality even when audiences knew the endings from the books. Maybe no one ever feared that Frodo would die. But when he stands on the precipice of Mount Doom to destroy the One Ring and hesitates, the climax is pregnant with tension and anticipation. What Frodo does next makes the previous nine hours spent in Middle-earth so worthwhile.

Some sagas lose sight of whose story they’ve been telling; this is among the many problems that plagued both Revenge Of The Sith and The Rise Of Skywalker. Some franchises that never had a real main character only adopted one based on audience reaction (The Hangover Part III) or seemed to choose one arbitrarily (Dark Phoenix). And then there’s Halloween Ends, which accomplished all it should have with 2018’s Halloween, thus leaving everything after to feel strangely episodic, even the final confrontation between Michael Myers and Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis).

Basically, filmmakers should know whose story they’re telling before cameras roll on even the first movie. When they get to the final installment, they’ll always have that as a north star.

Movies that did it right: John Wick: Chapter 4, Toy Story 3 and 4, Star Wars: Episode VI—Return Of The Jedi, The Dark Knight Rises, The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King, Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2, Logan, The Matrix Revolutions, The Matrix Resurrections

Movies that did it wrong: X-Men: Dark Phoenix, Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge Of The Sith, Star Wars: Episode IX—The Rise Of Skywalker, Halloween Ends, The Hangover Part III

Rule 2: Be spectacular

Another obvious point, but one that still bears mentioning: Give the filmmakers the chance to go big. By the time the series finale rolls around, the stage is primed for stories to conclude in spectacular fashion, and the directors ought to go out with a bang. This isn’t a matter of budgets or scale; rather, it’s about making sure sagas end with the appropriate sense of both emotional and storytelling weight. This could be large-scale battles (Return Of The King) or a one-on-one showdown (John Wick: Chapter 4) or something in between (The Dark Knight Rises). Whatever it is, filmmakers need to know how to approach their finales with clarity, vigor, and most of all, the know-how to inspire awe.

Consider Rocky V and the unexpected sequel Rocky Balboa. Rocky V was meant to be the end of Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone). But it ends with an underwhelming street fight, a dramatic fall from grace for a former champion and an unsatisfying send-off for the character. Thankfully there’s 2006’s Rocky Balboa, which replicated the uncanny feeling of a bonafide pay-per-view main event.

Movies that did it right: John Wick: Chapter 4, The Dark Knight Rises, Star Wars: Episode VI—Return Of The Jedi, Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King, Logan, The Matrix Revolutions, Avengers: Endgame

Movies that did it wrong: Rocky V, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 2, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn—Part 2, The Hobbit: The Battle Of Five Armies, Avengers: Endgame (yes really)

Rule 3: Close the door on additional sequels

Say what you will about Twilight and Hunger Games—those franchises knew what it meant to end a story. As the theatrical IP era of Hollywood begins suffering through an existential crisis, anyone who gives a damn about movies should consider that familiar exhaustion when movies set out to end a story only to tease more sequels anyway.

This tends to be a Marvel issue, but let’s not forget when The Dark Knight Rises ended with Bruce Wayne, alive and well (with Catwoman!) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s rookie cop John “Robin” Blake inheriting everything in the Batcave. Nolan’s final Batman movie opened just after The Avengers, when Hollywood seismically changed into a shared universe mindset. Nolan’s artistic intentions make clear that Robin “becoming” Batman is more about the symbolism of the never-ending story of superheroes, and how their legends rise, fall, and repeat. But that didn’t stop fellow moviegoers in 2012 from immediately asking if Joseph Gordon-Levitt is now playing Nightwing in the next movie.

While there are a number of reasons why the worldwide box office is cooling, consider how movies like Thor: Love And Thunder failed to entertain audiences despite so much of its promotional material advertising the end of Thor’s story. And while Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 earned slightly higher marks from critics and audiences, its wildly open sense of “closure” is still kind of a cop-out.

Movies that did it right: The Lord of the Rings: The Return Of The King, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn—Part 2, Back To The Future Part III, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 2, Toy Story 3, Toy Story 4, Ip Man 4: The Finale

Movies that did it wrong: Avengers: Endgame, The Dark Knight Rises, Thor: Love And Thunder, Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3

Rule 4: Avoid two-part bloat

It maybe worked for a select few and it may work with Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part 1 and Part 2. But it takes unbelievable goodwill and absolute domination of the culture to convince audiences to commit to seeing both parts of a finale, and making us all forget the painfully obvious goal to double box office revenue.

Other than Harry Potter and The Avengers—and maybe Mission: Impossible— no finale should end in a two-parter. It reeks of a story and characters that are too bloated. People want to be reminded that movies work because we care about the stories they tell, not because they’re products. If you’re a franchise trying to end things, you get one movie. Make every minute count.

In this continuing age of corporate IP, where a movie franchise has to support a horizontally integrated army of theme park rides, toys, books, spin-off TV shows, video game tie-ins, and the occasional toaster, saying goodbye to any beloved movie series means leaving money on the table, which is one sure way for a studio chief to get fired. But for those brave enough to realize that a series has no more story left to tell, filmmakers have a responsibility to send their characters into the franchise afterlife with some dignity.

Movies that did it wrong: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Parts 1 and 2, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 and Part 2, Fast X and Fast 11