The 1970s were a fascinating time in cinema. The major Hollywood blockbuster was born in this decade, with Steven Spielberg changing the game with Jaws. However, at the same time, auteur filmmakers were in full force with directors like Francis Ford Coppola, Stanley Kubrick, and Milos Forman creating cinematic masterpieces.
These directors were driven by the idea of creating something that moviegoers would remember forever, and one of the best ways to ensure a movie never leaves someone's mind is to add a pitch-perfect final scene that everyone will talk about. Whether it is dramas, horror movies, science fiction, or fantasy movies, the 1970s had some of the most iconic final shots in movie history.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) - Available To Stream On Prime Video
In 1978, director Philip Kaufman remade the classic 1950s science fiction movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which is generally recognized as one of the best horror remakes ever made. The cast is great, with Veronica Cartwright as Nancy, a laboratory scientist, and Donald Sutherland as her close colleague Matthew. The movie features an alien invasion where the aliens can take the forms of any human they encounter.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers plays on the Cold War Communist scare of the 1950s era and ends with an iconic final shot, as Nancy goes to find Matthew, only for him to point at her and squeal, revealing that he is now an alien, her most trusted companion now corrupted forever.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) - Available To Stream On HBO Max
Tobe Hooper directed one of the first slasher movies in 1974 with The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. The movie features a group of kids on a road trip who make a fateful stop and end up in a fight for their lives. They encounter a family of cannibals who kill people for meat products, which they then sell to the local townspeople.
The most iconic member of this twisted family is Leatherface, a deranged killer who wears the faces of his victims. The final shot shows Sally escaping with Leatherface chasing her with his chainsaw, raising it into the air in anger.
Halloween (1978) - Available To Stream On Shudder
John Carpenter's Halloween is the movie that popularized slasher films in the 1970s for mainstream audiences. Halloween begins in the past when a young boy named Michael Myers murders his sister in their two-story house. He is subsequently locked away at the Smith Grove Sanitarium for 15 years.
By the film's conclusion, the boy has grown up to become Haddonfield’s “boogeyman” by randomly killing innocent teenagers in his hometown. However, the final shot takes viewers back to the beginning by showing the now dilapidated two-story house, indicating that Michael Myers’s reign of terror is far from over.
THX 1138 (1971) - Available To Rent On Prime Video
Before George Lucas made his name by creating the Star Wars franchise, he made a very different science fiction movie called THX 1138. This movie takes place in a dystopian future where android police keep the peace and all humans have to take drugs to suppress their emotions.
When THX and a woman named LUH stop taking the drugs, they fall in love and end up in prison. The final shot in THX 1138 shows THX escaping from the prison and realizing the entire city is underground. He walks outside for the first time in his life and witnesses the sun setting as the movie ends.
Stalker (1979) - Available To Stream On The Criterion Channel
Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker is a Russian science fiction movie that was released in 1979. The movie is based on Arkady and Boris Strugatsky's novel Roadside Picnic and tells the story of a man called the Stalker who takes two men, one a writer and the other a professor, to a restricted site known as the Zone. It is here that they will find a room that reveals their every desire.
The Stalker had become despondent in the end, believing that those without faith will never find what they need in the room. However, the final shot of Stalker sees his daughter seemingly using telekinesis to move glasses off the table, possibly showing that her faith is still strong.
The Godfather (1972) - Available To Stream On Fubo
Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather is a story about a good man who wanted to live a pure life outside his father's crime-ridden world. However, as the movie illustrates, there is no escaping this world. When both his brother Sonny and father Vito die, Michael Corleone realizes he has no choice but to take up the mantle of the new Godfather, thereby giving up his dreams of living as a good man and becoming as morally corrupt as his family.
The final shot in the movie showcases Michael’s moral downfall when his wife Kay watches him sadly from another room. Michael casually closes the door between them, separating husband and wife both physically and spiritually.
The Wicker Man (1973) - Available To Stream On Prime Video
The 1973 British movie The Wicker Man, directed by Robin Hardy, begins as a routine police detective story. A young girl is missing and Police Sergeant Neil Howie flies to Summerisle, an island he believes holds the secret to what happened to the young girl. When he arrives and finds the Islanders praising a pagan god, the movie abruptly changes to a horror movie.
Summerisle hides a very dark secret. The people of this island believe they need to give their god sacrifices, with Howie being the next in line to be slaughtered. In the final scene of the movie, Howie is trapped in the Wicker Man construct as the Islanders light it on fire, dancing and singing as Howie burns to death. The camera focuses on the burning Wicker Man in the last shot before panning up to the setting sun.
Star Wars (1977) - Available To Stream On Disney+
George Lucas created the most successful science fiction franchise in movie history with Star Wars. The story is well known, as a young boy named Luke Skywalker dreams of becoming a pilot for the Rebel Alliance against the evil Galactic Empire. He meets a smuggler named Han Solo, who proves in the movie that he is more than a scoundrel.
The final shot shows the glory of their victory over Darth Vader. With Princess Leia bestowing Luke and Han awards for their bravery, the two Rebels stand and receive applause from their fellow fighters.
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) - Available To Stream On HBO Max
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a 1975 movie by Milos Forman based on the 1962 novel by Ken Kesey. In the movie, Jack Nicholson stars as a petty criminal named Randle McMurphy, who pretends to be mentally ill so he can spend his sentence at a psychiatric hospital instead of a prison. However, he meets a ruthless nurse named Ratched and soon helps the patients rebel against her.
He pays for this rebelliousness with his freedom as Ratched has him lobotomized in the end. Afterward, another patient named Chief suffocates Randle to put him out of his misery and then escapes. The final shot of the movie sees Chief running into the woods, showing the freedom most the patients can only dream of but never possess.
A Clockwork Orange (1971) - Available To Stream On Netflix
Stanley Kubrick directed the dystopian movie A Clockwork Orange in 1971. The theme of the movie asked whether taking away a person's free will to keep them from committing crimes was good or immoral. Malcolm McDowell is Alex, a delinquent who hurts people constantly for fun, but when he is arrested, the government uses psychological conditioning to prevent him from committing any crimes without becoming violently ill.
By the end, the government realizes they were wrong and cures him. The final shot of the movie shows Alex dreaming of the violence and evil acts he plans to commit in the future.