The most important part of your story is the ending. Think of a fireworks show where the big finale occurs at the end and leaves the crowd satisfied. Without a big bang at the end, your story will feel incomplete.
The key to creating a big bang at the end of your story is to put several different people in danger. First, your hero risks death, either physically or emotionally. The end is where the hero finally makes an irreversible choice that will either end in disaster or victory.
The easiest way to threaten your hero is to threaten their life. In “Die Hard”, John McClane faces Hans, the villain for the final showdown. Either John McClane will win or Hans will win.
Rather than physically threaten the hero’s life, many movies threaten the hero emotionally. In “Little Miss Sunshine”, Olive decides to go on stage despite her entire family trying to convince her not to compete for fear she’ll just embarrass herself. Yet Olive makes that decision to compete anyway and now the big bang occurs when we want to know will Olive humiliate herself on stage or not?
Besides threatening the hero, the ending should also threaten someone the hero loves. In “Die Hard”, John McClane is trying to save his wife. If Hans the villain wins, not only will John McClane likely be dead but his wife will be dead or hurt as well.
In “Little Miss Sunshine”, Olive competes on stage and puts her emotional life at risk. However, she also risks embarrassing her parents and family members as well who fear Olive can’t compete against the other more experienced contestants. So not only is Olive in danger, but her entire family is at risk as well.
By putting someone the hero lives in danger, the hero’s decision to fight takes on added meaning. It’s bad enough that the hero might suffer, but it’s even worse when someone the hero loves risks suffering as well.
Finally, put others at risk. In “Die Hard”, John McClane has to save himself, his wife, and the hostages. In “Little Miss Sunshine”, Olive has to save herself, her parents, and her family members.
The big bang at the end of every story means the following is at risk:
- The hero
- Someone the hero loves
- Innocent people
Look at how the big finale works in the end of “Top Gun: Maverick”. First, the hero, Maverick, is at risk of getting shot down and dying when he runs out of ammunition and counter measures against an enemy pilot. Second, Maverick has Rooster in the back seat of his plane, so if the enemy pilot shots Maverick down, Rooster will also die. Although this enemy pilot doesn’t really threaten any innocent people, he still represents a general threat to the rest of the world as a representative of a rogue nation. Watch this ending scene to see how the threat to the hero (Maverick) and someone he loves (Rooster) makes the consequences of failure far more emotional.
The more people who risk getting hurt if the hero loses, the greater the suspense of your ending. So make sure you threaten your hero, someone the hero loves, and as many innocent people as possible. This is the way to make your ending larger than life and greatly improve your story.
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