MovieChat Forums > Cop Car (2015) Discussion > Weak Ending (full of spoilers obviously)

Weak Ending (full of spoilers obviously)

posted 9 years ago by audiopinions
19 replies | jump to latest

I was pretty immersed in this film and liked it, but the end was a letdown.

First, the one thing I appreciated was that the kid didn't crash the car and kill them both while speeding to help. I say that because the movie kept me wondering where it was going and felt really original until everything started to feel so Hollywood and trite at the end.

I guess it just seemed too scripted. The very same lady that saw the kids before is the one and only other person to show up on that road. It bothered me the more I thought about it too, like why would that lady drive all that way just to get a piece of pie or cup of coffee or whatever she was having at the restaurant and then drive back. That's more my nitpicking and reading too much into it with information that isn't given, but still they could've had a totally new stranger stop to investigate and move the plot forward in the same way without it feeling so convenient.

You know she's dead from the second she gets out of her car. The shootout ensues and the guys die, which didn't really bother me....except Kevin Bacon didn't die. He comes back to life for a chase scene which ends with him hitting a cow. It just felt like it belonged in a different movie what with the bad guy popping back up for one last failed attempt like a slasher film.

Also, it was so obvious what was going to happen the first time the kids bring up the idea of shooting the gun at the window. Kids playing with guns in confined spaces only leaves so many dramatic outcomes.

I don't know how I would've liked things to play out from when the Sheriff arrives at the Cop Car to the very end, but the way it does unfold just felt like the writers got lazy before they finished.

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] creatorof2002 9 years ago

I would have preferred a happier more resolved ending. I would hate for an innocent child to die and we never find out if they get him to a hospital soon enough to save his life.

I would have liked for an "epilogue" scene where he and their families are visiting his friend in the hospital where he is recovering after surgery and expected to make a full recovery from his gunshot wound and maybe something where instead of getting in a load of trouble for stealing the cop car they end up getting rewarded as heroes for helping bring down a totally corrupt sheriff who among other things is a murderer and drug dealer.

I just don't like unresolved endings like that especially when it could mean the death of a small child.

[–] Hurry_up_N_buy 9 years ago

Technically, in the eyes of the law, they're far from innocent, even for children.

People hate what's popular and people jump on bandwagons. The rest of us are in the middle. Done.

[–] creatorof2002 9 years ago

Technically yes Hurry up N buy but unlike we the audience the people inside the fictional realm of the story were not aware of all the actions the kids took and never would be since the witnesses were killed and compared to corrupt sheriff/murderer/major drug dealer/kidnapper etc they were small potatoes.

It is my belief that they would end up facing no criminal charges. To boot there were probably other corrupt cops in cahoots with Kevin Bacon and these kids were the catalyst that brought it down. No way any DA or prosecutor would waste the time putting those 2 kids on trial. Those kids (assuming the injured one survives) would be seen by the media and community as heroes and no jury would want to convict them. The worst they would face would be their parents grounding them for a while and even then the parents would probably be proud of them for their "heroics".

I wish there had been an "epilogue" to deal with all of that, it was a short movie, an hour and a half even if you count the credits, plenty of room to make it a little longer.

[–] alexdelliott 9 years ago

I don't know about a happier ending as such, I think that would have just made the whole thing a bit cheesy, like a cheeky buddy comedy where everything always turns out alright in the end and characters are rewarded for their stupidity. I like that the film went into darker territories. I mean they were two kids playing with guns I think one of them had to at least get injured.

[–] Mikkelkbh88 9 years ago

You should go and see some of the best Nicolas Winding Refn movies <<

[–] mamporrero 9 years ago

A happier ending would have been for both children to die. At least there's some comfort in the implication that at least one of them wouldn't make it, but I would have preferred something more definitive. Children used to die in fables all the time for making much smaller mistakes; these two act as stupid as humanly possible throughout the story and still survive. The only victim ended up being the woman.

[–] IMDbeans 9 years ago

Agreed, last 20 mins were a real let-down after a decent build-up.

[–] bainz 9 years ago

there were quite a few illogical or unbelievable moments in the film but to me they were forgivable because the movie did have a lot of things going for it! If it was any other film the plot holes would have really bogged down my final rating.

[–] emvan 9 years ago

That it's the same lady didn't bother me at all. You should always give a story one coincidence, because life has them. And this wasn't totally coincidental. It's been established that she drives down that road, as you say. It seems to be the road from the sticks where she lives, into town. Based on the time that passed, she probably had a bunch of errands there.

Yeah, the Sheriff would have been better off dead. His not being dead is definitely the writers going for something conventional, when the movie so far has been anything but. Like you, I thought the chase scene added nothing, and it also forced the less bold kid to drive way too well to be believable.

That the ricochet wound was predictable isn't really a weakness. In a suspense movie, you want some things that the viewer sees coming and dreads. And you want more of them than actually happen. It was also predictable that a kid would shoot himself or the other after accidentally taking the safety off, but that didn't happen.

How would I have ended it? The Sheriff is dead, the road isn't straight, the kid drives off it, but they get rescued. Perhaps you've set something up that isn't obvious that allows the dispatcher to figure out where they are. Had there been one more minor plot thread that led to the rescue (maybe the lady's husband was on his way to meet her), it might have been even better.

I have it sneaking into an 8/10 because my brain just values the good in a movie more than the bad, and this was really good and completely original until the ending.

Prepare your minds for a new scale of physical, scientific values, gentlemen.

[–] mcmingus 9 years ago

For the kids, this is their initiation into the adult world where cars really go backward and forward, real guns shoot real bullets killing and hurting real people, and you can't tell the good guys from the bad guys so easily - like the kids can in their video game world.

In the final scene, the lights in the distance signify the relative safety of town, but no longer the safety of childhood fantasy. The life and death struggle they stumbled into now forcing them back home, they have no idea what they face upon their arrival, only that they need desperately to get there.

When they do reunite with their adult caretakers, they will surely not be the naïve kids they were when they ran away from them that morning. Their innocence shot full of holes like the Cop Car that brought them back.

*Danny's not here, Mrs. Torrance*

[–] johnnymonsarrat 9 years ago

You are right. I think the kids could have shot their way out, or faked death and jumped out when the sheriff opened the back door.

Or they could have shown the kids being brave enough to break the speed limit and pass a speed trap.

Or back up the story and introduce an element of knowledge. The kids learn some of the knowledge and trade it for freedom.

For a great example of how kids can be smart without Disney level silliness, see Cloak & Dagger (1984), which stars the kid from E.T.

[–] nathang-1 9 years ago

The lady showing up again fits. She was probably one of those nosey women who after reporting the car was probably ridiculed, or at least ignored.

Kevin Bacon coming back was kinda outta place. Maybe he did a lot of that coke? Not very realistic. The scene didint even need his added tension. I thought the deus ex cow-ina was stupid, but then I realized that the boys opened the fence hours before that allowed that cow to wander out and that made me smile. My guess is that instead of going through the motions of the rest of the "story" the director decided to just end it with the kid talking to dispatch. I believe that is enough to show the boy would get saved, or maybe the director just wants us to imagine what happens next ourselves?

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When Congress is in secession, no American is safe. --Mark Twain

[–] yssboern 9 years ago

The boy talked to the dispatch and there's no more plot left.
The other boy may die or be saved but it doesn't depend of their actions or decisions.

[–] jeanpirise 9 years ago

Yes Hollywood ALWAYS makes a happy ending, because it suggests ejaculation, "happy ending", and so encourages people to waste their semen.
Technically, you can assume the REAL ending of every movie is terrible...just imagine the opposite of the happy...it's really tragic and scary. Your subconscious knows this!
Films inspire terror, keeps the herd in line...

Oh what a day. What a lovely day!

[–] MrBelette 9 years ago

Yes we always have the ones who want to hear the bells of the Hollywood crappy unrealistic happy ending. And first of all if there are kids in the movie never allow them to die. Even if the irresponsibility or stupidity of their actions caused the deaths of innocent people, no matter what, don't make them die in the end. As if killers would spare kids in real life. If you can buy a happy ending you can also buy any implausible actions from these kids happening before in the movie. If it's a movie nothing is real then.