And now my Favourite Final Scenes; I’ve picked a few due to the nature of – how can I decide on one – with an attempt to target a range of feelings left on me, and its impact on my subsequent life, let’s get this moving!

And so, this is the end of Critical Popcorn, in this form that I’m so very aware of. Sure, this might seem a bit self-congratulatory, but I’ve had an absolute blast, it’s been more positive than difficult, and more heartwarming than I ever expected.

Please check out all the other articles here, there’s some great writers I’ve had the pleasure of working with – and reach out to them accordingly! See you out there.

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Good Will Hunting

To say Good Will Hunting changed my perception not just on films, but on life itself, isn’t an understatement. Huge in scope, yet so focused on character and honesty, as the key pair at the centre – Will (Matt Damon) and Sean Maguire (Robin Williams) – are lost and desperate, but one is fighting their prospects, with the other given up on trying. It spoke to me when I first saw it, just at the right time. After seeing Jurassic Park as a young kid, this was the film to inspire me with its poignant beauty.

Take a young Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, fairly fresh in the movie game, as they put together an excellent script they’ve written while travelling across the country for different jobs, sharing ideas and stories as they go. Then capture the mind and talent of one of the absolute all-time greats in comedy while we still had him, Mr Robin Williams, and it became a critical moment in time. It gave Robin a deserved Academy Award as Sean, Will’s high school-based therapist, who not only helps him to stop being a ‘scared-shitless-little-kid’ but also aids his own grief to a place he can manage it and move on.

But one of my favourite moments, beyond the timeless pond speech from Robin, is that end scene, where Sean picks up his mail from outside his house only to discover that Will has left him a letter (and Chicago) to go ‘see about a girl’, which is stirred by a story Sean tells Will during one of their more profound therapy sessions.

Williams then also gets to say the final line, before we cut to Will’s old car driving down the freeway, assumingly towards Minnie Driver’s Skylar, which is ‘Son of a bitch, he stole my line’ which not only encapsulates how far they’ve both moved forward, it’s also a literal nab of a credits roll and, let me tell you something, Chief, it’s a moment that leaves it open, and feels perfect as a snapshot of both of their lives.

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Donnie Darko

Donnie Darko stuck with me in my early twenties, a vivid yet dreamlike and wonderfully weird situation where an outsider within his own world in his head becomes central to everything, and yet ultimately a part of nothing. In a sense of the classic ‘lightning in a bottle,’ then Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko caught it and brought it, in this incredibly unique film.

While much of the movie is Jake Gyllenhaal’s Donnie trying to find out why he’s seeing a massive, somewhat evil-looking rabbit called Frank in his sleepwalking and daydreaming worlds, it also examines existential question, including the possibilities of time travel, the nature of trust and relationships, how friends and families treat each other, all wrapped up in an enigma of how desperate Donnie feels, and how alone he believes he is.

After he strikes up a relationship with Gretchen (Jena Malone) at school, and they clearly like each other, Donnie still knows that something isn’t right as a whole, and eventually it’ll all link back to the giant bunny rabbit he sees in his head. While in the ‘real’ world, an airplane engine falls randomly from the sky and everyone survives, Donnie starts to wonder if he can change tragic outcomes by playing with time and space, because he believes he can see beyond the reality of the ‘now.’

While Donnie Darko’s themes can be discussed and interpreted in many ways, forever, in the film things become brutal in its self-realisation, as Donnie decides that the only way to save those he loves is by being somewhere in the past that will take away the pain from the future. It’s sad in many respects but if it helps everyone else, and especially Gretchen, then this might just be the best course of action: Effectively time-travelling and taking away any anguish before anything bad even happens.

This is the scene for me, when his understanding is key, he laughs, he’s happy for the first time, the world will end and it’s welcomed, rather than feared. And it’s unexpectedly liberation for all involved. Tremendous.

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The Truman Show

Now so far ahead of its time, Peter Weir’s The Truman Show arrived in 1998 and surprised everyone and may still do to this day. While the concept of a reality show in 2025 doesn’t seem too extreme – whether that’s a good or dreadful thing, I’ll let you decide – back then it was barely a TV dream. The film also took the high-profile Jim Carrey into the stratosphere (beyond the dome) with an insanely great dramatic performance which hadn’t been seen quite like this before, as the man whose literal life has been a show, but he doesn’t know until things begin to unravel.

It’s not just the setup, this could have been a silly, dreamy film but instead it questions our individual humanity, a collective desire to play god (whatever you believe), and then it’s a comment on the freedom we keep inside. Eventually, it’s a testament to the spirit of the individual and the realisation that even if you were to give someone everything ‘you’ thought they needed, you still don’t really know someone, until you let them be themselves. It says that we’re always evolving, positive and surprising– despite what the news in the day-to-day might say.

And then there’s the big finale, even after all the grief and fear they throw at Truman, he keeps going, his desire to live now feels strangely fitting in the modern era of digital life, and 24/7 entertainment coverage. You’ve got to remember; the digital world didn’t really exist 1998 like it does today. In the film, he’s flailing and drowning in the sea, with a storm raging, Truman clings onto the edge of his boat, about to give up on the only truth he knows and yet suddenly, his boat hits the clouds.

His boat punches the fringe of reality and breaks through, like a fist through a dry wall. All those doubts, all those doubts of his life are instantly changed, as the dark clouds break, the sunshine filters through and eventually Truman finds some steps in the side of ‘reality’ and decides to leave the world that has been built just for him. He chooses his own freewill – even when he could be protected forever – to just see what happens, even though he can’t control it and he doesn’t even know what it’ll be. And that, my friend, is a beautiful way to live.

And he’s got one more thing to share before he steps off the screen, a line he uses regularly in his TV life, which is a brilliant way to go…

 “And in case I don’t see you, good afternoon, good evening, and good night!“

Dan Bullock

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