Unlike the final sentences of a novel, the last shot of a feature film has, in the medium's brief lifespan, already acquired its own formal language, certain camera movements and musical cues ('the camera cranes up, the soundtrack swells!') having conditioned viewers to read some final shots in a different way than they do the hundreds of others that comprise the movie.

Porter ended 'The Great Train Robbery' with a scene divorced from the main narrative in which one of the outlaws comes back from the grave, stares down the lens of the camera, and fires a couple of rounds directly at the audience. In many prints, that footage opened the film, but the fact that it's since settled into its place at the end speaks volumes as to its profound effect as a coda. Like the final sentence of a novel, the closing image of a film has the power to color the entire narrative, echoing just a little bit louder than everything that has come before it. Filmmakers have understood the value of an unforgettable last shot since at least 1903, when Edwin S.

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