Over The Top And Ridiculous Endings To Great Comedies From The 1980s

Comedies in the 1980s were just built differently. Sure, there are plenty of examples of movies that have been reevaluated for their questionable humor in more modern times, but one thing even the controversial ones did well was their over-the-top endings. It became a staple of the genre in the decade to end in the most ridiculous ways. Here is our list of some of our favorite examples of such endings. The list is hardly exhaustive, that would be impossible, but if you're looking for a good '80s comedy to watch with one of your subscription services, these are all great choices.

The Blues Brothers

The Blues Brothers, starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, is an action movie as much as it is a comedy. Well, it's also a musical, but the purpose of this list it's an action movie. The car chase at the end of the movie is legendary. Dozens, if not hundreds, of cars were trashed while shooting the scene, and it'll forever go down as one of the most famous car chases in Hollywood history.

Airplane!

It's a little absurd to include the crazy ending of a movie as wild as Airplane!, but we shouldn't discount the ridiculous ending just because the whole movie is ridiculous, right? The flop sweat pouring out of Ted Striker (Robert Hays) as he tries to guide the plane down with no help from the inflatable autopilot is worth this list alone.

Caddyshack

Carl Spackler (Bill Murray) spends most of Caddyshack at war with the gopher. Sure, he finds some time to get wasted with Ty Webb (Chevy Chase) and do a quick loop with the priest, but mostly it's about the Vermin Kong. In the end, he blows giant holes all over the course in one last desperate attempt to take the gopher out, but the rodent prevails, and Danny's putt falls into the cup. Everyone but Judge Smails (Ted Knight) and Carl is happy.

Ghostbusters

Has there ever been anything sillier than a giant Marshmallow Man rampaging the streets of Manhattan? When the creators and writers of Ghostbusters imagined how to end their movie, they couldn't have known how iconic it would become. The only thing funnier might have been a 500-foot-tall zombie of John Belushi, but they found another way to fit him into the movie as Slimer.

Stripes

Remember, in the words of John Winger (Bill Murray), it's not like they were going into Moscow at the end of Stripes in a heavily-armed recreational vehicle. They were going into Czechoslovakia, it's like going into Wisconsin. The band of misfit army trainees still manage to pull off their incredible stunt and rescue their platoon sergeant (and "big toe"), Sgt. Hulka (Warren Oates).

National Lampoon's Vacation

It was never hard in the 1980s for a Chevy Chase character to prove that he was the biggest jerk in the room, and National Lampoon's Vacation is no exception. On one hand, you can't really blame Clark for losing it, after the disastrous drive cross country ends in an empty Wally World parking lot because the park is closed. Buying a gun (real or not) wasn't the right answer, but it sure was funny, especially with John Candy as the hapless security guard.

Back To School

Rodney Dangerfield is still responsible for some of the funniest quotes in comedy history, and quite a few come from Back To School. None of Dangerfield's hilarious quotes are quite as ridiculous as his dive, the Triple Lindy, that he does at the end of the movie. The faces he makes alone make it worthy of inclusion here. Something like that could only be "learned" on the Atlantic City Boardwalk.

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

Struggling with a big school project is something everyone can relate to. Maybe that's what has made Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure so endearing and so enduring. Nah, it's really the two knuckleheads that go on that adventure through time and ultimately bring back half a dozen historical greats for their final presentation. Party on, dudes!

The 'Burbs

The ending to The 'Burbs is crazy. Houses are blown up, the block is destroyed, and Tom Hanks has one of his best meltdowns. The escalation in the movie just keeps growing and growing until their nice, suburban street is left in literal rubble.

Real Genius

The popcorn scene at the end of Real Genius is, for lack of a better word, genius. Not only is it a great prank to pull on the main character's annoying professor, but they actually used real popcorn!

Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Like a few other movies on this list, it feels a little weird to call the ending of Who Framed Roger Rabbit "ridiculous" when the whole movie is meant to be pretty darn absurd. Still, we couldn't leave it off the list, either. It's when we find out that Judge Doom (Christopher Lloyd) was a toon (and why he never blinked) when he melts into ink and dies.

Trading Places

People can quibble about whether or not the ending of Trading Places is financially accurate or not, but it doesn't matter. The whole third act of the movie, from the train ride to the beach scene at the very end, is just insane. Insane in the very best way.

Better Off Dead

There are two things that make Better Off Dead's ending ridiculous. First, skiing the "K12" with one ski. This is a mountain that Lane (John Cusack) couldn't ski with both skis for most of the movie, but then he completes it with one? Oooookay. Then, somehow, he ends up on the field at Dodger Stadium making out with Monique (Diane Julian). Still, while it may be one dark comedy, it's the "comedy" part that hits the hardest.

Police Academy

It's easy to forget that the original Police Academy was a monster hit in the spring of 1984. It was, in fact, one of the biggest movies of the year, and it explains why there were so many (mostly terrible) sequels. Still, the original is a classic, and the riot that ends the movie is completely ridiculous and completely hilarious.

Christmas Vacation

Clark Griswold is back up to his shenanigans in Christmas Vacation, only this time, it's not really his fault that the end of the story is so insane. It's really Cousin Eddie's fault. Eddie (Randy Quaid) kidnaps Clark's boss, which is crazy enough, but the SWAT team crashing through every window in the house is way over the top. It's wonderful.

Big Trouble In Little China

The ending of Big Trouble In Little China is lot to explain, and it's best that if you aren't familiar with the movie, go watch it right now! the closing battle is, frankly, awesome, and it makes the comedy into more than just a movie that brings some great laughs and some iconic Kurt Russell quotes. Still, will we ever find out what happened with Wild-Man? Where's the sequel??

Little Shop Of Horrors

This one has a little caveat to it. The ending of the movie that we all saw in Little Shop of Horrors was honestly pretty standard: the guy saves the day and gets the girl. Why it's on this list is what it could have been. The original ending (and the ending in the play) saw Audrey getting eaten by the plant, and Seymour, realizing that a corporation wanted to sell more plants, tries to kill the plant. He fails, and the plants propagate worldwide and become forces of massive destruction, including Godzilla-like moments where they destroy buildings. Oh, what could have been had test audiences not hated it!

Top Secret!

Yet another ridiculous movie on this list with a ridiculous ending. Top Secret! was Val Kilmer's first movie, and will always be one of his best roles, and the ending, including the bar fight underwater, is a big reason why.

Revenge Of The Nerds

Revenge of the Nerds is one of the movies from the '80s that is problematic on so many levels, but that doesn't take away from its huge popularity in its day. The final song, with all the Lambda's joining on to win the fraternity cup thing, is and always will be a total banger. Cancel it for all the reasons it should be canceled for, but leave the song alone!

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!

Major League superstar and future Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson trying to kill Queen Elizabeth II? Yeah, that's gonna land a spot on this list every single time. The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! is a stone-cold classic, and the ending is so over-the-top it has to be here, and that's not even including Norberg (O.J. Simpson) flying off the top deck of the stadium!

Ghostbusters II

When the team of Ghostbusters returned for their second adventure, you knew they had to up the ante from the original's ending. How about a Statue of Liberty that has the ability to walk and destroy the city, ala the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man? Add in the banging music, and you've got an all-time great ending, especially for a sequel.

The Goonies

At the end of The Goonies, after the kids have saved the day, a reporter sums it all up when he describes a pirate ship, One-Eyed Willie's pirate ship, floating out into the sea off the coast of Oregon. Sure, there might have been a squid we never saw, but it was mentioned at the end, and even without it, the pirate ship qualifies the movie for this list.

Risky Business

It's a good thing everything worked out for Joel (Tom Cruise) in Risky Business, and wow, did it take until the last moment for things to do so. If only his mom hadn't noticed that crack in her crystal...

A Fish Called Wanda

A Fish Called Wanda is such a forgotten classic. It's not a true Monty Python movie, but it does feature Michael Palin and John Cleese, alongside Jamie Lee Curtis and Kevin Kline. Palin's character running over Kline's with a cement roller is the reason it's on this list and one of the things that make it a true classic.

Heathers

Christian Slater and Winona Ryder became Gen X icons in large part due to Heathers. The dark comedy will forever be one of that generation's touchstones, though many don't remember how over the top the ending was. Slater's character, J.D., tries to blow up the school, and while Veronica (Ryder) stops him from committing mass murder, he does manage to blow himself up. Things really escalated quickly!

The Cannonball Run

Dom DeLuise's character in The Cannonball Run is the biggest nut among a sea of crazy people, and while he has a chance to win the crazy race, he gets sidetracked, leaving the win to another team. His ridiculous character ruins it all, and it's brilliant. Plus, it set up the sequel nicely.

Romancing The Stone

Romancing the Stone is on this list for one reason. Jack (Michael Douglas) not only hauls a giant yacht through the streets of Manhattan looking for Jane (Kathleen Turner), but the sails on the boat are raised! Have you ever walked down the concrete canyons of New York City on a windy day? What would happen to a full sailboat with its sails up? Yikes!

Armed And Dangerous

The end of Armed and Dangerous is a crazy chase scene with John Candy doing some of his best, and most under-appreciated work. It's not always the best movie, but the ending does make up for some of that.

The Couch Trip

Too many people aren't familiar with The Couch Trip. It's a hilarious movie with a stellar cast including Dan Aykroyd, Charles Grodin, and Walter Matthau. It ends with Matthau having to be rescued off the top of the Hollywood sign, which in and of itself is worth the price of admission.

The War Of The Roses

Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas made some great movies in the eighties, and by far the darkest was The War Of The Roses. It's one of those movies that just keeps getting crazier and crazier as the two Roses fight over their house and everything else in the divorce. It ends with the two of them lying on the floor, barely alive, but still fighting.

Weird Science

A nuclear missile, catatonic grandparents, and a grotesque-looking older brother. That's more or less how Weird Science ends (though everything is fixed in the end. It's a wild ending to a John Hughes classic.

Beverly Hills Cop

If you're not aware, Beverly Hills Cop was originally intended to be an action movie starring Sly Stallone in the lead. Instead, we got one of the funniest movies of the 1980s with Eddie Murphy playing the cop from Detroit avenging his friend in L.A. The shootout at the end seems kind of out of place, and it's a wild shootout, until you realize the movie's origin story.