End it when it ends • 04.13.10
When reading scripts, and rarely watching movies (because most good ones don’t do this!), I often notice that the story drags on far past when it should have ended. As with an ineffective prologue opening, a drawn out denouement can ruin and otherwise solid structure by extending the story past the natural end of its arc.
Despite changes to the medium, storytelling hasn’t changed from its early days. Stories begin right before the action does-“Once upon a time…” and should end right after the main action does, right after the mystery is solved, the princess is saved, and everyone goes off to live “happily ever after.”
When stories extend past the happily ever after phase, it feels like it’s taking forever to end, and your reader and audience will grow tired and bored with the whole thing. Not a good note to end on when hoping for a recommend from a reader, or a good review from an audience or critic.
Basic screenplay structure teaches that the climax occurs in Act Three, usually fairly near the end. The climax is when the hero and the villain face off, when the lovers finally get together, when the mystery is solved. The climax is when Woody and Buzz race to get into the moving van after narrowly escaping death at Sid’s house, or when Elle wins the court case and proves both her client’s innocence and her own talent and intelligence in Legally Blonde.
After the climax, the story can just end, or spend a little time tying up loose ends and explaining what is going to happen to the characters now, how they’re going to live happily ever after. Toy Story dwells for a moment on the toys in their new house, but not long, because the story is over. We get a quick look at the graduation and some text explaining what the characters are doing next in Legally Blonde, but it doesn’t go on to show Elle planning her wedding and working as a lawyer, because that is an entirely different story (and one told poorly in a sequel that never should have been made).
Writers often decide that after the main story problem is resolved, they should also include other endings, or start new little stories, presenting the characters with additional problems to solve before the script finally stops. This just doesn’t work, and makes the story feel, however long the page count, overlong and boring. Any subplots should be resolved either before the main climax ends, or at the same time as it does, not long after. No new problems requiring much more screen time should be presented after the climax. All we should see are the characters walking off into the sunset, going on to live their lives. We shouldn’t actually see much of their new life, because it’s probably boring. There’s a reason we don’t watch Cinderella and Prince Charming’s honeymoon, and it’s the same reason why so many sequels fail. Once the story is over, once the problem has been solved, the goal has been accomplished, the arc has been completed, there is no more of this story left to tell.
Though there aren’t many, because it doesn’t work, good examples of endings that dragged on past when they should have are The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. While these were both great movies with huge box-office appeal, they are so epic and large in scope that, like their titles, they go on far too long after the main part of the story should end. If they weren’t based on well-loved and established literature and were stand-alone, purely cinematic stories, these endings would have hampered their success. They still do, to some extent. Sit through either and you’ll more than likely find yourself squirming and bored at the end, hoping for credits.
