“I Thought It Would Never End”: 23 People Who Lost A Year Of Their Lives After Watching A Very, Very, Very Long Movie Where The Director Forgot How To Edit
“When my wife and I finished this, we both looked at each other and said something to the effect of: ‘God, I think they could have cut about half of that movie.'”
Sometimes, a long, well-edited movie can really comfort the soul. On the other hand, a horrible long movie can literally feel like it sucked your soul right out of you. So when Reddit user Plus-Statistician80 asked: “What movie made you say, ‘Holy shit, there is still an hour left?'” over 10,000 people shared their opinions, and boy, they did not hold back. Here’s what they said below:
1. “I remember having the DVD copy of Pearl Harbor that came in two discs, and when the first disc ended, I thought, ‘That’s a strange way to end a movie,’ and then I got the ‘insert disc two’ message, and I was like ‘What the fuck?'”
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“My dad and I accidentally watched this movie in the wrong order. We put the second DVD in first, and honestly, I feel it works better that way!!! You start with romantic tension, and the training montage, and the middle climax is the death of that one guy. Then you get a flashback to the friendship and romance, which is more impactful, knowing one of them dies. And the whole time, you know, this big event happens somewhere in the movie, but unsure when, so it’s kind of hanging over the plot ominously. Then you end with the big explosions and pageantry of the bombing of Pearl Harbor.”
3. “Gangs of New York on cable TV, so with the commercial breaks, it was five goddamn hours long.”
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“Gangs of New York could cut about an hour of fight scenes and not lose a second of plot development.
The fight scenes were gratuitous to the point of being wholly unnecessary.”
4. “A friend came to the theatre for the first The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. He knew nothing about it and was just coming because everyone was going, and it was hyped up. The movie finished with Frodo and Sam looking at Mt. Doom, and he said, ‘That’s how it ends?! That’s stupid.’ We informed him that it’s a trilogy. And he said, ‘I have to watch two more of these fucking things now?!'”
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5. “Sorry, Nolan, I like your stuff… but Oppenheimer… I don’t really dislike the movie, but damn, it was drawn out too long.”
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“Going into the movie, I thought the big explosion everyone talked about would be the climax/end of the movie. So when that happened, I definitely thought to myself, ‘Wait, there’s an hour left??'”
—CPOx
6. “Meg 2: The Trench. I was sure I was at the end of the third act, but somehow, there was another movie left.”
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“You didn’t like the part where he replaced all the air in his body with water, then swam at the bottom of the ocean in the dark while bleeding, trying to avoid sharks?”
7. “Australia (2008). They spend two hours riding horses across the outback, then they get to town, and it turns into an hour-long combat movie. Don’t watch it.”
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“YES, OH MY GOD. I only watched it once, but I remember there were six different fade-to-black moments that we thought were the ending of the last fifteen minutes of the movie.
Pan-out shot of the coastline. ‘Ah, it’s over — oh wait, there’s more.’ Quick fade after a quippy line. ‘Finally done. Wait, no, not yet.’ Another fade out promptly followed by another scene change. ‘OH, FOR FUCKS’ SAKE, JUST END IT ALREADY.'”
9. “Avatar: The Way of Water was kinda like that, even though I knew it was long.”
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10. “The remake of King Kong. I swear, they spent an hour just talking on that damn boat.”
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“It felt like three movies.
An amusing comedy about show business. A fucked-up sci-fi adventure/horror film with gross monsters. A high camp send-up of greed and hegemony.”
11. “Not exactly an hour, but seeing Wicked Part 1 and having to pee really badly during the “Defying Gravity” escape sequence was the longest goddamn 45 minutes of my life.”
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12. “All of the Hobbit movies.”
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“Walked into work where they were watching it. It was, I swear, like a fucking 15-minute scene where they are floating down a river, twirling around in barrels and fighting orcs. Just some cartoon-ass cheesy shit.
Hadn’t read the book since I was like eight, but I remembered it being so much cooler, like I swear that was a harrowing and intense part, not some Disneyland ride bullshit.
I’d love to see a Hobbit movie, but that’s not the one for me.”
14. “My boys wanted to go see Dune: Part Two with me, and my daughter, who was considerably younger, wanted to go as well. About halfway through the flick, she had been in a quasi-fetal position in her chair for most of the movie. She looked up at me and said, ‘It feels like we’ve been here for a DAY already.'”
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“I did the exact same thing when my brother brought me along to watch it with him. It had nice shots, but it was SO SLOW. The only parts that got me excited were the parts with sandworms.”
16. “The Wolf of Wall Street. Hit a point where I was sure it was wrapping up, glanced at my phone, and went, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’ Still loved every minute though, even if my drink was empty and my legs were cramping.”
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18. “Gone With the Wind. My college girlfriend made me watch it with her. I had no idea that you had to wait flipping hours for the famous ‘Frankly, Scarlet’ line.”
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“Apparently, my grandparents went to see it on a date when it came out, and my grandfather decided it was over when the film went to intermission. My grandmother (claims) she thought it ended there for YEARS.”
19. “I fell asleep twice trying to watch Zack Snyder’s Justice League at about the two-hour mark, where Wonder Woman meets Cyborg in the street. The movie hasn’t really even begun at this point, and there are two more hours to go.”
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“My buddy and I are both superhero fanboys. I picked up the extended edition of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice to watch with him and his kids. At about the two-hour mark, his kids point out to me that their father has fallen asleep. Thinking they were concerned that I would just leave, I thought to assure them, ‘Don’t worry, we can finish the rest before I head home.’ These kids looked at each other, then turned back to me to say, ‘That’s ok, you can take it.’ To this day, I don’t know if they were just tired of me or the movie, but I have my suspicions.”
20. “Les Misérables. I saw the movie in theaters with my friend, who absolutely loves the play. I thought the movie was coming to an end and thought, ‘Oh, thank God.’ My friend sighed emotionally and said, ‘Ah, the intermission!’ I nearly cried.”
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21. “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. Man, that last half felt almost like a different movie.”
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“The book felt like it, too. Kinda like how Mockingjay was completely different from the first two books. The story went past just the Games themselves. I guess by the time the prequel came out, we’d already read through two full Games. We’ve got the gist, and it awarded us (and the author) the freedom to explore post-games more.
Having said that, this was the first movie I’ve ever had to leave the theater to pee. Turns out it was like 20 minutes before the end, ha!”
22. “A.I. Artificial Intelligence had at least four places where I was like, ‘OK, it’s going to end here,’ and it just kept going. I remember really having to use the bathroom in the theater but having no idea how much time was left.”
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23. “Tenet. I couldn’t understand anything anyone was saying, and the plot itself was too convoluted. There were some good parts, but it should have been way shorter.”
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“It would have been cool if they just aimed to make a straight-up James Bond-type movie.
The plot made no sense, just fucking overcomplicated everything to give the illusion of depth. And yeah, the sound design, or whatever you call it, fucking abysmal. It’s like they didn’t watch the movie before releasing it. Stupid shit shouldn’t require subtitles to watch.”
