History Main / AmbiguousEnding

* Website/CollegeHumor:
** Defying this trope is the whole point of "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ntY4Ty3KGU Ambiguous Endings Resolved]]". ''Film/TheWrestler'' ends with Randy possibly jumping to his death, but his doctor suddenly interrupts his match to tell him his heart is actually fine; ''Film/LostInTranslation2003'' reveals that Bob Harris and Charlotte [[LoveConfession declared their love for each other]] during their hug at the end and discuss how to [[MurderTheHypotenuse kill Charlotte's husband]]; ''Film/NoCountryForOldMen'' ends with the deputy interrupting Sheriff Bell's solemn ending monologue to inform him that they caught Anton Chigurgh; ''Film/TheGraduate'' has Elaine and Ben realizing how inappropriate it was to run away at her wedding; and ''Series/TheSopranos'' reveals what happens after the notorious NoEnding in the series finale--Tony Soprano has been shot and killed by some rival mobsters.
** ZigzaggedTrope by "''Film/{{Inception}}'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wee1OlbIkcc Ending Extended]]", which ended by leaving open the possibility that it was AllJustADream. The credits go back and forth between the spinning top, the top stopping, the top spinning again, etc.

* At the end of ''ComicBook/TheLongHalloween'' it is unclear who the Holiday Killer is. [[spoiler:Alberto Falcone]] confesses to the killings, but [[spoiler:Harvey Dent]] is suspected to be to be the real killer. However at the very end [[spoiler:Gilda Dent]] confesses in an inner monologue to some of the murders while believing [[spoiler:Harvey Dent]] is responsible for the rest of the murders. Not mention Batman repeatedly suspects [[spoiler: Calendar Man]] is the killer. There is plenty of evidence supporting and disproving all four suspects for one, some, or all of the murders.

* The short story "Literature/TheLadyOrTheTiger", written in 1882 by Frank R. Stockton, has an ending that is purposely left ambiguous, with the author saying that he is in no position to reveal how it ended, letting the reader make his own opinion, based on what he believed one of the characters - the princess - would do. The plot of the story is a no-win situation where someone faces a SadisticChoice, and it is up to the reader to decide just which choice she made.

* Tan&eacute's ending in ''Literature/ThePrioryOfTheOrangeTree''. She visits the statue of her ancestor Neporo, one of the warriors who first fought the Nameless One and whose descendants carried the Waning Jewel stiched into their sides, and goes to sleep beneath it. The chapter ends by saying that a while later, there was "blood on her side" while a butterfly (believed in the East to carry the spirits of the dead) is cupped in her hand... and that's it.

'''Since this is an EndingTrope, beware of spoilers.'''

* ''Theatre/PilotProgram'' is about a modern Mormon couple called to serve in the restoration of polygamy. The main character is the first wife, Abigail, and it ends without her coming to any firm decisions about her new life. She's not content and settled in the new polygamous marriage, but neither is she thinking of divorce. The author has commented that this is because it's not a play about the long-term outcomes of polygamy, it's about the ''start'', and that any long-term conclusion would retroactively color the beginning.

* ''ComicBook/UltimateXMen'': The team ceased to exist, along with all the ComicBook/UltimateMarvel universe, during an incursion in ''ComicBook/SecretWars2015''. The universe was restored at the end of ''ComicBook/SpiderMen'' II, and we saw Parker back as Spider-Man and a new line-up of the Ultimates, but the fate of the X-Men is not elaborated.

* During ''Literature/TheElectricState'' by Simon Stålenhag, Michelle and her RobotBuddy Skip travel across California toward an uncertain destination. When they get there, it is revealed that Skip is her little brother, who has been stuck in a "neurocaster" (a kind of virtual reality device) and has been controlling the robot remotely. Michelle manages to feed him a little, but is nervous about unhooking him from the device. She knows she will have to try, though. We see, in pictures, the aftermath of her attempt, with her car and the inert robot at the beach, but whether Skip survived is never stated.

* Joriko's ([[GenderFlip female Jotaro Kujo]]) chapter in ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/34059328/chapters/95254876 The Joestar Chronicles]]'' has her fall in love twice: first her fellow Crusder Noriaki Kakyoin before his canonical death, and second with Marino (the male version of Jotaro's canon wife). The chapter ends with the [[AlternateTimeline Irene-verse]] following ''Chronicle's'' own version of ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStoneOcean'', with Joriko's reincarnate waking up next to her partner, who is deliberatly left vague if he is the Irene-verse version of Kakyoin or Marino.

* Charlotte Bronte's ''Villette'' ends with [[spoiler:the narrator refusing to tell the reader whether or not her LoveInterest survived his trip to the West Indies and returned to her. She says that the reader can believe so if s/he likes.]] It comes across as a SnicketWarningLabel without what comes after the label - something akin to a BolivianArmyEnding.

* ''Storm Thief'' is probably the best example: the golem is floating randomly in the ocean, unable to control himself; the flotilla trying to escape the island has got away, but what they'll find on land (assuming they reach it) is totally uncertain; and the entire city is in the grip of the mother of all probability storms, meaning pretty much anything is possible there.

* ''[[Film/TheVanishing2018 The Vanishing]]'': The film's opening text makes it clear that the three main characters disappeared without trace. The ending, however, only makes the fate of two of them clear. Whether Thomas joined them in the sea, or made off alone with the gold, is left ambiguous.

* While the main plot of ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' unambiguously ends on one of the most infamous {{Downer Ending}}s of all time, the appendix, which details Newspeak, is worded in such a way that it could be interpreted as being set in the book's universe, and it notably talks about Ingsoc in the ''past'' tense and in Oldspeak. This could imply that at some point after the book, O'Brien will be proven wrong and the future will ''not'' be a boot on someone's face forever. Either that, or readers are desperately trying to look for a glimmer of hope in a very bleak book.

* The short story "The Lady or the Tiger," written in 1882 by Frank R. Stockton, has an ending that is purposely left ambiguous, with the author saying that he is in no position to reveal how it ended, letting the reader make his own opinion, based on what he believed one of the characters - the princess - would do. The plot of the story is a no-win situation where someone faces a SadisticChoice, and it is up to the reader to decide just which choice she made.

* ''LightNovel/IHadThatSameDreamAgain'' ends with Nanoka and Kiryu in an art gallery. What's said between them in the last page isn't revealed, but they apparently left together and it's implied that he asked her to at least be his girlfriend, if not full-on proposed to her.

* At the end of ''LightNovel/SDGundamTheLastWorld'', [[spoiler:Gundam The Gold is beaten and realizes that the G-Souls were his allies all along. He then decides to take all of G-Souls with him to his world in order to prevent its destruction. At that point the story stops, not showing whether he succeeded or not.]]