Poor Endings More Severe Than Bad Starts

Pop-quiz. What do the following movies have in common?

· Next (Nicolas Cage)

· The Abyss (dir. James Cameron)

· War of the Worlds (dir. Steven Spielberg)

· The Sphere (Dustin Hoffmans, Sharon Stone, etc.)

· The Colour of Money (Paul Newman, Tom Cruise)

· Devil's Own (Brad Pitt, Harrison Ford)

· Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

· Deja Vu (Denzel Washington)

· Planet of the Apes (dir Tim Burton)

They were all 'great' movies all the way till the end. For me, these ranked as the all-time biggest flops because they broke a cardinal rule of cinema : If the movie ending sucks, the movie sucks. Period.

Most bad movie-endings have to do with plot cop-outs. The script-writer didn't bother tying everything up in a nice way, took the lazy path and simply whipped up an 'external' factor (it's usually aliens, sigh!) to conclude the story. This was clearly the case with Crystal Skull and Next. Or if you want to end abruptly, let it end provocatively and don't leave viewers hanging for the sake of being, uh, hanged. Example of good 'hanging' ending: No Country for Old Men. Bad example? Colour of Money.

As with movies, so with training. You can start slow, you can even lose focus in the middle, but don't you dare mess up the ending. I'm not saying you have to set the fireworks off on stage in the last five minutes (just like good movie endings simply do NOT have to be 'loud' ones). But by all means, don't make it end so poorly people willingly ignore all that came before.

I'm talking here about boring-ass "debriefing" sessions which often up sounding mega-condescending and sermon-like. I'm talking about half-hour 'thank yous' or announcements which have virtually nothing to do with the topic. I'm talking about people lazing around because they've finished their tasks but the rest haven't and there's nothing for them to do but chat, look at the ceiling or get more coffee. I'm talking about talking urgent shop and taking the fun out of the training right at the end.

It's perfectly fine to end 'normally' (e.g. quick closing activity, 5-minute conclusion, etc.). Just don't make people hate the end.