15 Movies That Effectively Begin with the Ending

Why do some movies begin with the ending?

There’s no single answer to how you should structure a screenplay. Different structures work for different reasons.  Structure is less about hitting specific beats at certain page numbers and more about deciding what type of framework you want to build your story on, and how that framework helps to tell that story.

One particular structure — Fabula/Syuzhet Structure — usually entails showing the ending of the movie first. Fabula/Syuzhet Structure comes to us from Russia, using terms that originated from Russian formalism and employed in narratology (‘the branch of literary criticism that deals with the structure and function of narrative and its themes, conventions, and symbols.’)

Fabula is the meat of the story while the syuzhet is the narration and how the story is organized.

This specific structure employed by American cinema often utilizes original organization by showing the end first, and having the audience view how they got there. The story is about the journey and focuses on the how as opposed to the what.

How does beginning your script with the ending service the story itself? There are several benefits to employing this type of cinematic story structure in your screenplays.

Offers an Instant Hook

Screenwriters are instructed that they need to hook the reader or audience within the opening pages of the screenplay. But that provides a conundrum for many writers because they also need to introduce their characters — often in their Ordinary World — and set up the upcoming conflict.  So how can you serve the story in that fashion while also offering an engaging hook?

Beginning with the ending is an effective way to hook the audience. We’re thrust into the story and characters without really knowing them yet. This adds immediate and compelling mystery in the first few pages of your screenplay as we transition to the beginning of the story after a vital third act scene or sequence teases the reader or audience about what is to come.

And it’s pretty cool — from a studio reader’s perspective — to open a script with an immediate cliffhanger. When done right, we’re engaged and compelled to read on.

Builds Instant Anticipation

Because we’ve seen a vital third-act story-point — and hopefully have experienced a well-written opening cliffhanger — anticipation as to how the characters got there is instant.

When the script skips back to the beginning, we’re always going to have that cliffhanger in mind. We’re always going to be looking for seeds, plants, and clues as to how those characters are going to get to that point.

And an additional screenwriting trick is to flashback to those characters and showcase them in the exact opposite frame of mind and situation. If you open with a character tied to a chair, bleeding from their face with a gun to their head, and then flashback to them happily walking the halls of their high school, it pulls us into your story even more. We’re curious.

Buys You Some Pages of Character Introduction and Development

When you open with the ending and leave us on a narrative cliffhanger — big or small — you’ve hooked us. You have our attention. We want to know more.

This allows you to then transition to the character’s Ordinary World and spend some time letting the audience get to know them. Had you opened the script with this character introduction and development, we might not have been as engaged. And you would run the risk of losing your reader in the first act.

But when you begin with the ending and write it well enough where we’ll need to see how it ends, you buy yourself a few pages of that otherwise slow-burn character introduction and development.

This Structure Choice Works in All Genres

Beginning with the ending openings aren’t just for action flicks and thrillers. It works in comedy, horror, and drama just as effectively.

As you’ll see with the films that utilize this listed below, this structure choice works in any genre. The secret is to pick the right moment towards the ending that will offer the most compelling hook or cliffhanger.

Here we share fifteen of the most effective “beginning with the end” movie examples and briefly elaborate on why these endings are such great beginnings...

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