Top 20 Biopics That Left Out the Real Ending

#20: “JFK” (1991)

It wouldn't have served Oliver Stone’s case to mention what happened to Jim Garrison after the events of the controversial conspiracy epic “JFK.” The district attorney’s career was devastated by the acquittal of Clay Shaw, whom he accused of conspiring with government officials to assassinate President Kennedy. His subsequent perjury charge against Shaw was so petty that an injunction was issued. Garrison failed to get reelected in ‘73 amid widespread scrutiny of his methods, and eventually became a judge. Still, he’s best-known for continuing to pedal conspiracy theories in the media. Even former colleagues suspected that this was Garrison’s true objective, noting increasingly flimsy theories and grudges. With these questions of Garrison’s integrity came further questions of “JFK’s” credibility.

#19: “Amistad” (1997)

Not much is certain about Joseph Cinqué past the ruling that his 1839 uprising on a slave ship was self-defense. “Amistad” ending on his return to Sierra Leone may be either too optimistic or not triumphant enough. After losing his family in a civil war, Cinqué became a prominent figure who worked with missionaries. His descendants claim he helped Christianize the region. It’s also widely believed that he became a successful merchant, with some rumors suggesting that the slave trade survivor even sold his own people. It’s likely that some of his fellow Amistad rebels took up this terrible practice after returning home. As for Cinqué himself, what little we do know about his life could produce another epic film.

#18: “The Aviator” (2004)

With what “The Aviator” shows us, legendary entrepreneur Howard Hughes muttering to himself may say more than any epilogue could. It would have said that his mental health and expensive ambitions eventually led to him losing control of his empire by the 1970s. He then became so reclusive that Clifford Irving didn’t count on being publicly called out for fabricating Hughes’s autobiography. And despite his severe germophobia, Hughes allowed his health and hygiene to deteriorate to where he was unrecognizable upon his death from kidney failure in ‘76. It was indeed more of the same, but knowing that Hughes spent the next 30 years never getting the help he needed makes “The Aviator’s” ambiguous ending even more devastating.

#17: “Remember the Titans” (2000)

Disney would rather just remember the uplifting parts of the first T. C. Williams High School football team under Herman Boone. “Remember the Titans” downplayed his harsh coaching methods, which Greg Paspatis claims were more cruel than disciplinary. Rumors of verbal and physical abuse resulted in Boone's firing in 1979, eight years after the Titans’ historic undefeated season. Even more upsetting is the truth about Coach Bill Yoast’s adorable little girl Sheryl. She died in 1996 of an undiagnosed heart condition, at age 34. Coach Yoast was also upset that his three other daughters didn't make the cut, but that just goes to show how “Remember the Titans” didn't want things too complicated for the audience.

#16: “Hacksaw Ridge” (2016)

World War II medic and Christian pacifist Desmond Doss saved around 75 lives from both sides in the Battle of Okinawa. “Hacksaw Ridge” ennobled the injuries he sustained as a seemingly minor cost for his heroism. In fact, permanent damage to Doss’s left arm ended his carpentry career after the war. And treatment for tuberculosis he contracted during deployment cost him several ribs and one of his lungs. He even blamed his hearing loss on an overdose in antibiotic treatment. Doss’s wife Dorothy worked as a nurse in order to supplement his meager pension. Though their good spirits through this hardship was further testament to Doss’s strength, his spirit in the battlefield was surely more cinematic.

#15: “Ed Wood” (1994)

It’s not exactly a secret that the ending to Tim Burton’s “Ed Wood” was overly optimistic. “Plan 9 from Outer Space” did indeed immortalize the earnest filmmaker behind the ultimate bad movie. At the time, however, it cemented Ed Wood’s bleak artistic and financial reputation in Hollywood. His latter filmography consisted entirely of exploitation and adult films. All the while, he and his wife Kathy struggled with alcohol, depression and periodic homelessness. They were living in abject poverty by the time Wood died of a heart attack in 1978, two months after turning 54. His Oscar-winning biopic is a tribute to the legacy he leaves on cult cinema, but disregards the sad reality of laughing at someone’s work.

#14: “A Beautiful Mind” (2001)

A brief hallucination ends “A Beautiful Mind” with a reminder of the constant challenges facing people with schizophrenia. It’s still not as simple as John Nash walking away with his family. There was no triumphant speech when he accepted his Nobel Memorial Prize in 1994, as there was concern for pressure on his mental health. His beloved Alicia was present, but had not been his wife since 1963. It took about seven years for them to reconcile after the divorce, and another 31 years for them to remarry. Standing by a loved one with mental illness is harder than Hollywood implies. The fact remains that John and Alicia Nash supported each other throughout the rest of their lives.

#13: “My Left Foot” (1989)

It’s hard to not be touched by artist Christy Brown and nurse Mary Carr falling in love at the end of “My Left Foot.” That is, unless you’re familiar with their marriage. Brown’s deteriorating health and an autopsy following his death in 1981 sparked theories that he was abused by his wife. Georgina Louise Hambleton’s biography, published after a destitute Carr died in 2007, suggests that she neglected Brown, exploited his cerebral palsy, and was a sex worker. Brown’s sister Ann even claimed that he confided in her a fear for his life. Whether the evidence was solid enough back when “My Left Foot” was made, it sours the film’s inspiring legacy.

#12: “Unbroken” (2014)

From crashing in shark-infested waters to surviving a POW camp, Louis Zamperini overcame a lot in the Pacific War. But it was a bit early to declare him “Unbroken” when his blockbuster biopic ended with his liberation. The 2018 independent sequel “Unbroken: Path to Redemption” picks up where that left off. Zamperini struggled with severe PTSD and alcohol use disorder, which nearly destroyed his marriage. Only after becoming a born-again Christian was he able to get his life back on track. He even visited Sugamo Prison in Tokyo to forgive the war criminals who imprisoned and tortured him. Zamperini continued his athletic and evangelism work until he passed away, just before “Unbroken” came out with just half the story.

#11: “Conviction” (2010)

Betty Anne Waters went all the way to law school to personally clear her brother Kenny of Katharina Brow’s murder. The filmmakers behind “Conviction” didn't want to leave audiences with the knowledge that this victory 18 years in the making lasted only six months in 2001. Kenny was walking home when he attempted to jump a fence for a shortcut, only to lose his footing and die in the fall. Despite this tragic twist of fate, Betty Anne takes comfort in her brother's brief but happy time as a free man, and continues advocating for the wrongly convicted through the Innocence Project. Fifteen years after “Conviction’s” release, Brow’s real killer was identified.

#10: “The Motorcycle Diaries” (2004)

Based on the memoir of the same name, “The Motorcycle Diaries” concerns Ernesto Guevara’s motorcycle trip across South America, in which he encounters various social and political injustices. The journey shaped Guevara’s outlook and turned him into a political revolutionary. By its nature as a coming-of-age film, “The Motorcycle Diaries” says little about Guevara’s later life even in the epilogue. He would come to be known as Che Guevara, a guerilla leader who helped spearhead the Cuban Revolution of the 1950s. He later held several important positions within the new Cuban government, and his actions helped lead to the infamous Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. He was eventually assassinated by Bolivian Army sergeant Mario Terán, leaving behind a divisive legacy.

#9: “Ray” (2004)

Unlike many biopics, “Ray” ends in the middle of the story. The film spans from Ray Charles’s childhood to 1979, when he overcame substance use disorder and received a formal apology from the state of Georgia. The epilogue then alludes to his other triumphs, not including his controversial 1981 show in South Africa or his career-reviving work with contemporary artists. It does, however, acknowledge his death shortly before the film’s release. The events in between aren’t really important to the story “Ray” was telling, but they’re very telling about Charles’s continued relevance in modern music.

#8: Straight Outta Compton (2015)

While this film mostly remains true to the real story, a few events were fabricated near the end to make for a more emotional conclusion. For example, Eazy-E is left destitute from the collapse of N.W.A. and the feud with Jerry Heller. According to publicist Phyllis Pollack and his own son, Eazy died a multi-millionaire. And speaking of Eazy’s death, the movie depicts him suffering a seizure and collapsing during the band’s reunion, resulting in his HIV diagnosis. In reality, Eazy went to the hospital because of a persistent cough. And as for the brief reunion, Dre reportedly never committed to one before Eazy’s passing in 1995.

#7: “Kinsey” (2004)

This is a biopic of Alfred Kinsey, an academic sexologist who controversially studied sexual behavior. The movie ends on a bittersweet note, as Kinsey falls into drugs and suffers a heart attack while losing financial backing for his research. However, he continues to enjoy a strong personal relationship with Clara McMillen. The movie ends without delving into the turbulent final years of Kinsey’s life. Unfortunately, he was never able to recover from the intense controversy surrounding the 1953 publication “Sexual Behavior in the Human Female.” Both the drugs and the stresses of his collapsing reputation quickly took their toll, and he passed away from a heart ailment in 1956, just three years after the publication of his contentious book.

#6: “The Greatest Showman” (2017)

It’s no secret that “The Greatest Showman” is a very sanitized version of the P. T. Barnum story. The feel-good ending that sees Barnum reuniting with Charity was completely made up for the movie, as they remained happily married until her death in 1873. And they remained happily married because the real Jenny Lind did not have a romantic attraction to Barnum, and therefore did not kiss him on stage. Furthermore, playwright Phillip Carlyle did not selflessly give Barnum his money to open a new circus, as Phillip was completely made up for the movie. Following Charity’s death, Barnum married a woman 40 years younger than him, and he eventually died of a stroke in 1891.

#5: “The Imitation Game” (2014)

The ending to “The Imitation Game” is a tragic one, indeed. After helping to end World War II with his revolutionary computer, Alan Turing undergoes degrading treatment under the UK’s anti-gay laws. This leaves him mentally devastated, and he takes his own life in 1954. However, this supposed fact has long been questioned. Turing reportedly had little problem with his hormone treatments, which greatly contrasts with his depressive state in the film. Furthermore, Turing expert Jack Copeland posits that Turing accidentally died from inhaling potassium cyanide while melting gold. But even this thesis has its detractors, including biographer Andrew Hodges, who argues that Turing staged the scene as an accident to placate his mother. Unfortunately, the truth remains ambiguous.

#4: “The Social Network” (2010)

The primary theme of “The Social Network” is loneliness. While Mark Zuckerberg creates the most popular social media site in the world, he simultaneously and ironically suffers from loneliness and isolation. In the end, he is seen repeatedly refreshing a friend request sent to his ex-girlfriend, desperate for any sort of human contact. This makes for a great and meaningful ending, but it’s totally fabricated for storytelling purposes. The real Zuckerberg has been with his now-wife Priscilla Chan since 2003. This was the same year that he created the rating site Facemash, a crude precursor to the now-iconic social media site. By the time Facebook went public in 2006, Zuckerberg and Chan had been happily dating for years.

#3: “Finding Neverland” (2004)

A beautiful movie about family, “Finding Neverland” follows the relationship between author J. M. Barrie and the Davies boys. Understandably, the movie ends before the tragic fates of the Davies boys could be revealed. The story concludes with the death of Sylvia Davies, which occurred in 1910. Five years later, George was killed during World War I. In 1921, Michael drowned with his friend and possible lover Rupert Buxton. Barrie believed it was a pact and called Michael’s death “the end of [him].” Jack died from a lung disease in 1959, and his younger brother Peter took his own life just seven months later after his entire family was diagnosed with Huntington’s disease. So much for childhood innocence.

#2: “Braveheart” (1995)

A thrilling and epic piece of cinema, “Braveheart” is nevertheless a travesty of history. While quite a brutal film, it downplays the severity of William Wallace’s grotesque demise. Wallace suffers a degree of torture before famously yelling “Freedom!” and getting the axe. In reality, Wallace received a particularly hideous method of execution reserved for cases of high treason. Wallace was dragged naked through the streets of London before he was tortured and executed in Smithfield. We won’t go into details, but suffice to say it was significantly nastier than what is depicted in the film. Despite its notoriously graphic violence, “Braveheart” wanted to at least grant Wallace some dignity in death.

#1: “Erin Brockovich” (2000)

Underdog stories don't get much more Hollywood than that of Erin Brockovich. Her legal victory against the Pacific Gas and Electric Company for contaminating Hinkley, California launched a high-profile advocacy career. We all know about Brockovich’s story after her biopic came out, but not many know about Hinkley’s before. PG&E’s $333 million settlement was insufficient for the more than 600 plaintiffs after the lawyers’ unusual 40 perfect cut. Their options were limited because the case never went to trial. Depopulation followed, and the small town’s housing market collapsed as the whole world associated it with permanent environmental damage. Hinkley was essentially doomed from the beginning, but that's rarely the best way for a movie to end.

What are some other biopics with more story to tell? Share your epilogue in the comments.