Do you like books or movies that leave parts of the plot unresolved?

Absolutely not. I can still enjoy the book or movie as good but I much prefer a complete ending. I hate creating it myself because I watch/read fiction primarily for entertainments sake. Popular Example: “I am Legend”. Ick hated the ending and I actually watched all the various endings on the DVD and read about the books ending until I came up with something I liked, lol.

Now I love “unsolved mysteries” but that is non-fiction. I am okay with non-fiction being unresolved.

I don’t always like everything to be wrapped up in a neat little package. I like having something more to think about when I’m finished.

When it’s done really well, I can dig it. But more often, I prefer to learn “the truth” by the end. (At least the superficial truth that explains the bones of the plot… the deeper meanings or ramifications behind that can, and often should, be left a mystery.)

Only if it’s done well, which is rarely. There is nothing I hate worse than a bad ending to a movie/book that leaves too many unanswered questions. It’s so unsatisfying. I feel like the whole book/movie was a waste of my time. I need some sort of closure.

I thoroughly dislike open endings and loose threads. I get annoyed and feel cheated in a way. I don’t want to finish it off myself since I’m sure that the author has an ending or solution in mind, or at least a more legitimate guess than I ever will. It’s not that I mind finishing other peoples work (don’t I do it all the time?!?) but rather that I don’t want to mess with something that I like and spoil it. (If I don’t like it I don’t finish it.)

So, what is the consensus on the ending of “The Sopranos”?

It seems like people either hated it or loved it.

I’d like to separate the notions of “unresolved” and “ending it.” I’d say it hinges upon the satisfaction one gets upon finishing the book, and that feeling satisfied – whether resolvedly or unresolvedly – is essential to an ending. I think that an author can leave a work unresolved and still make a satisfying ending of it – in Silk, for example. Likewise, an author can wrap everything up and it can still be an unsatisfying ending. Like after finishing The Chronicles of Narnia, I remember thinking that C.S. Lewis had created the only fiction series I’d read so far that had that resolved everything completely. But it wasn’t all that satisfying. More like, is that all there is to it?

In response to the question, I like books that end well, whether they resolve everything or leave parts of the plot unresolved.

At first, it always irritates me as in the series finale of Sopranos but then after I let it settle and think about, I really enjoy open-ended endings. But I do think if you create conflict, there should be some resolution, good or bad.

I read the sequel to one of my favorite books (day of the triffids), called Night of the Triffids, and it begins with an extraordinary event, which NEVER GOT EXPLAINED! It’s the first thing you read in the story, and they never resolved it!
Pissed me off to no end.

I think I prefer unresolved endings to a “deus ex machina” ending which magically comes in and solves the debacle that the whole movie had laid out.

To give an example, in “The Usual Suspects”, I was much happier to see Soze walk away than to know what ever came about.

Life doesn’t always have an answer to all your questions. Sometimes that element of absence adds to the plot by being conspicuously absent.
For example, Pulp Fiction would have been much different if Tarrantino went into depth about the contents of Marsellus Wallace’s briefcase.

However most of the time this happens, it’s due to poor writing and/or screenplay rather than an intentional story telling tool.

I just read the book “In The Woods” by Tana French. I was hooked from the first sentence. Her words were like music to my ears. It was so well written and a page turner from beginning to end. HOWEVER, at the end, half of the plot was left unsolved. I was horrified that the author would do that, I felt it personally. She has another book out, but through the reviews that I’ve read regarding it, I’m afraid I won’t be reading it because she does the same thing in the new book too.

I was upset that I had found a new author that I loved and I can’t read her work because she obviously enjoys tormenting her readers. It is not cool at all.

@filmfann There’s a sequel to Day of the Triffids?Awesome! I’m going to have to read it regardless, you know – but thanks for the warning.—

Most times I enjoy the absence of completely resolved and clarified endings/aspects in movies or books. I view this as the unspoken acknowledgement of my own ability to figure things out for myself. after I had finished watching the latest version of Pride and Prejudice, I explored the Special Features where I found the American ending. It was so complete and conclusive, it spelled everything out in bold letters, as though I couldn’t have worked that all-out for myself. I find that rather insulting

There are places to leave things mysterious and unknown or uncertain, but there are some instances in which it seems like it wasn’t done intentionally. I get annoyed mostly when it seems like a storyline was just dropped somewhere for convenience’s sake (this happens a lot of TV shows when actors leave and whatnot), and I get just as annoyed by the quick-fix resolutions (like someone waking up to realize that everything was just a dream).

I do like when, like @The_Compassionate_Heretic mentioned, the unknown element is an asset to the story, like in Pulp Fiction with the briefcase, and in Memento. Those are obviously deliberate and not just some forgotten element.

@wildpotato Be warned. Different author, and not nearly as good.

In some cases, these endings can be brilliantly constructed, and yes, I love those types of vague stories. But most of the time, they are done badly, especially in films, and they are utterly annoying, after you’ve spent all this time trying to figure out the answer, and then realise the scriptwriter has just done a lousy job and didn’t know it either. Makes you want to throw things at the screen (or burn the book, after firmly attaching it to the author).

There’s movies that are open ended and there’s the ones that just end. I hate the latter. I saw Cache. It one of those one that leaves it so you have conversations afterwards about what happened. Movies like Silent Hill, grrrr. Where the mom and kid are really dead and have been the entire time (sorry if I ruined anything) and then it ends. grrrr.

Funny that this question was resurrected. Despite what maybe some of you thought, I’m still working on that novel from NaNoWriMo. I’m up to 53,000 words! I am not going to make it “just end”. There will be a decent ending. It’s just that it’s not going to be fully explained. All the parts will be there and it will be up to the reader to put them together and there are several different combinations possible. I’m writing the novel from the perspective of a third person watching the main characters, not a third-person god. The narrator doesn’t know everything, just what they see and what the characters feel and think. But the characters themselves don’t quite figure out what happened.