MovieChat Forums > The Reef (2011) Discussion > This was actually really good but the en...

This was actually really good but the ending RUINED IT

posted 14 years ago by vinnychase
53 replies | jump to latest

From the moment the four of them got in the water after the boat sank I was on the edge of my seat. But as they caught view of that piece of land I started to dread the ending. I knew what they were going to do but I just hoped for once...they wouldn't fall into that unoriginal trap. So the first guy dies, then his girlfriend. So now you have Luke and his ex girlfriend who reveal that they love each other and all that non sense. They are within arms length of the reef and what happens? The girl survives and Luke DIES. Are you ****ing kidding me?

I am so unbelievably sick of this ridiculous, feminist catering ending we get from pretty much every movie these days. The man dies and the woman survives. For no reason at all. There was no reason to kill off Luke and let his girlfriend survive. He was the survivalist among them all and did what he could to keep them all alive. This story was supposed to be based on true events. Well guess what? In real life the MAN survived and the woman died. But no they just had to follow that typical female, white knighting script of making sure the lone female makes it to the end. And then they had the audacity to write that text at the end that explains how the girl was rescued to fool people into thinking that actually happened in real life when in reality the man was rescued instead.

Not trying to sound sexist at all I'm just so god damn sick of it because I just watched the movie "Frozen" and the same thing happened in that movie. The girl in the movie was unbelievably stupid and she gets to survive even though she made the most survival mistakes.

[–] eagle79-1 13 years ago

The ending ruined it indeed. I wasn't that impressed with the rest of the movie anyway since i saw the mother of all shark films (JAWS) back in the day & have since seen Deep Blue Sea, Open Water 1 & 2 & so on & so on.
I would have preferred that the two of them had been able to get on top of the reef & embraced & cried in relief. Then they look around & notice the reef is littered with skulls, bones & shredded rotting meat from human & animal carcasses. They slowly realize that they been lead by the cunning monster shark to this spot. Shark jumps spectacularly out the water & catches BOTH of them in one single chomp, in one single shocking take. Fade to Black.

;)

[–] RoadSideAssistance 13 years ago

About 15 minutes into the movie I saw the girl that survived and said aloud, "She lives." Everyone was like, "Huh?" And I was like, "Just watch."

*SPOILERS DIFF. MOVIE!*
I knew the same thing would happen in Frozen right from the start. "Girl lives."

[–] saprater 13 years ago

I agree. I liked the fact that they didn't rely heavily on CGI and used real footage to create the illusion of a shark stalking and attacking. Good editing job. Good job of creating suspense.

Then they start in on the obvious. Red shirt and his screaming gal-pal bite it. I was expecting that, so it wasn't too bad. However, the ending just stunk. Was it just me or did it look like girl 2 was pulling like a weak toddler? Perhaps if they'd shown her putting more effort into it...feet grinding into rock, actual straining, desperate clawing. Something that conveyed more than "whew, are my arms tired."

I'll never understand why movies like this blow it with crap endings. Same for the Exorcism.

[–] apocalypse_please24 13 years ago

I am so unbelievably sick of this ridiculous, feminist catering ending we get from pretty much every movie these days. The man dies and the woman survives. For no reason at all.

(from wikipedia) The final girl is a thriller and horror film (particularly slasher film) trope that specifically refers to the last woman or girl alive to confront the killer, ostensibly the one left to tell the story. The final girl has been observed in dozens of films, including Halloween[1], Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and its remake, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Hellraiser, Alien, The Strangers, Terror Train, and Scream. I identify as a feminist but to the point where I actually find offense in them needing to do this all the time. It makes every movie like this predictable as hell because that one female always survives at the end, and in cases like this one, it's totally unrealistic to have the guy die when he was survivalist, as you said. I liked the movie as a whole but that tacked on 'the guy dies and the female is the sole survivor' just made me roll my eyes. I thought the same of Frozen, though that was a good movie as well.

[–] Meushell 13 years ago

Don't care about sticking to the true story. It's better and less disturbing that way anyway. I thought all four should have died. Warren, who stayed on the boat, should have been rescued in the end.
-
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[–] egregarious 13 years ago

Thank you original poster! I too get so irritated with this cliche. We live in a time when men and women are equal. Bending the events to have the woman survive is actually very chauvinistic, and I'm surprised that women (or whoever supports the lead female always surviving) themselves often don't see that.

Way too many movies have just the lead female survive and the lead male dies. It makes sense in some cases (like Alien). Many also have both the lead male and female survive too. But VERY FEW have the lead female die and lead male live, I can literally only think of two movies and I LIVE for survivor type movies so i have seen hundreds. They're pretty much all i watch. It is just one cliche that needs to change as we move into the next decade of horror films.

Spoiler alert, but The Ruins movie was also "ruined" by this cliche. They changed the book events so the dumbass girl could survive. Seriously something needs done about this.

[–] jajceboy 13 years ago

Hm, how about "Deep Blue Sea?". There we have TWO MEN surviving, and one of them is the black guy.

Back to topic, I thought they would all die. I kept thinking the shark would finish off Katie as well, or that she would die of shock, or dehydration or something.

Maybe that would've been even more predictable, but I think it would've worked better.

[–] cocobug1 12 years ago

Yeah I agree, additionally all the other killings have a surprise factor where this death really didn't

Mind you, I wouldn't mind going that to my ex lol

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[–] DaliParton 12 years ago

I am so unbelievably sick of this ridiculous, feminist catering ending we get from pretty much every movie these days.
...
But no they just had to follow that typical female, white knighting script of making sure the lone female makes it to the end.

So which is it - feminist or white-knighting? Those two adjectives are polar opposites. Your rant says more about your personal issues than it does about problems with the movie.

And then they had the audacity to write that text at the end that explains how the girl was rescued to fool people into thinking that actually happened in real life when in reality the man was rescued instead.

In real life there was only 1 woman and 2 men, also the surviving man swam for hours after the woman was eaten before he reached shore. So it isn't like the writers made one small change to the ending.

[–] jharmon64 12 years ago

good movie, liked it a lot

not a bad ending, just predictable

[–] johnonei 12 years ago

This is probably the biggest trope in horror movies, slashers in particular. Well, I guess I shouldn't really say slashers because that generally involves a crazed serial killer. It's a cliche in movies where the characters are picked off one by one until only one is left. In fact the only exception I know of is Ash in the first Evil Dead (and big surprise, his character equivalent in the remake isn't so lucky) and some like MacReady in The Thing, but that movie had an all male cast. There's a few where a man survives along with a woman, but never the sole survivor.

But this isn't really a feminist thing. Feminists tend to have a problem with the female characters dying slower or experiencing more terror than the male victims, and criticize the last girl as a form of idealism, or sometimes even see her as "masculine". I doubt anyone of them would be upset that the character who eventually triumphs (if any) is reserved almost exclusively for a female role. Go figure. I agree with the part that points out that the female characters tend to experience more horror (sometimes). To be honest though, I'd love to see more male characters get tortured and otherwise hurt or frightened if it means a greater balance between male and female survivors.

I do hope to see a future where this trope no longer exists. Somehow though, I have a feeling that even if it dies, someone's not going to be happy.

[–] cspence5 12 years ago

the cliche ending i see the most of now are the endings where everyone dies and evil prevails.

It was cool and different at first, but now everyone does it.

Ive come to expect it from everywhere horror movie made past 2011. The girl surviving is a close second but even the girl usually dies now.

[–] Posh_babe 11 years ago

I really don't think that any feminism was intended by the director.

If the film is really based on true events and the guy lives then I would have made the film that way if someone wants to lend me a few million!

Seriously a better ending would be for Luke to survive though. He was the best equipped to deal with the situation. I didn't like it when he helped her up onto the rock but he couldn't get up and then....she couldn't pull him up even a little bit? Even with his torso out of the water the shark bites Luke and they have to try to survive on the rock until help comes with Luke rapidly losing blood. The island luckily has a radio/flare gun and she fires it. Help is coming but will it be in time?

Or she can't pull him up but trying to she falls back in or over rock the other side and the shark gets her.

Or she dies on the island as there is no water and rescuers find her body.

Or they all die and Warren is found in serious condition but stable.

I would have preferred if the guys Matt and Luke had lived as they were always thinking of the others. Matt even told them to stay away from him after he was bitten.

[–] benman46 11 years ago

It doesn't matter about different endings as in reality the girl survived end of story.

[–] marcus_stokes2000 11 years ago

No she didn't, idiot. The guy did.

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[–] Jennifer1277 11 years ago

Just finished watching this on Netflix, also thought it was a great movie until the end, grrr. I wanted both Luke and Kate to survive. I was so pissed when she was "pulling" him up, like some others have said, she barely looked like she was trying. I seriously was yelling "pull him up, b*tch!!!". Annoying! Other than the ending I thought it was a great film though. I was also sad to see that poor Warren didn't survive.

[–] fibreoptic 11 years ago

Yep Deep Blue Sea isn't favourable towards women. It's all about movie rules. It was Luke's idea to swim for it which makes him more eligible to bite the dust.

[–] tanisaur 10 years ago

I agree, Kate didn't even seem to be trying! She was so pathetic! Luke should've just pushed her out of the way, climbed up then tried to pull her up. Movie was good till this point.