10 films that never explained themselves — and that’s the point

Films, when predictable, become boring halfway through the plot, but films that never explain themselves leave a void in everyone's heart. These films toss viewers into the void without any warning or instruction, and hope that they will swim. Although these films are confusing and frustrating, you have to admit there is a special fun about watching such films, which cannot be explained.

These are the films that make you ask, 'Wait, what just happened?' giving rise to hundreds of fan accounts and subreddits that discuss the plot in order to make sense of them.

Films that never explained themselves are sometimes called art films, sometimes they are called utter nonsense, and sometimes the director just wants people to see what his mind sees. Either way, they bend the viewers' minds forever.

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10 films that never explained themselves

Here are 10 iconic films that never explained themselves, with mysterious plotlines and ambiguous endings.

10) Under the Skin (2013)

The first film on the list is Jonathan Glazer's Under the Skin, starring Scarlett Johansson, who plays an alien disguised as a woman. She roams around the streets of Scotland, seducing lonely men and luring them into a mysterious void where their bodies are harvested. Things take an unexpected turn when she encounters a kind-hearted man who makes her experience human emotions.

This emotional shift makes her abandon her mission and flee, only to be attacked by a stranger in the woods, revealing her true alien form. The film is often described as less of a traditional sci-fi film and more of a slow-burning horror with a disturbing, twisted ending.

9) The Tree of Life (2011)

Among all the films that never explained themselves, The Tree of Life is arguably the most unsettling. Directed by Terrence Malick, the film follows Jack, a middle-aged man, as he reflects on his 1950s childhood in Texas, recalling a time when he was emotionally torn between his strict father and gentle mother.

What's bizarre about the film is its juxtaposition of intimate family moments with cosmic imagery, from the beginning of the universe to the age of dinosaurs.

The viewers are taken through a poetic, non-linear journey, whereby the film explores three important elements of existence: God, life, and death. Eventually, Jack comes to terms with the death of his brother by understanding that love, happiness, and suffering are a part of existence.

8) Eraserhead (1977)

David Lynch is known for making films that mess with your brain, and Eraserhead is the epitome of the genre. The story follows Henry Spencer, a man who is left to care for a deformed baby after his girlfriend, Mary, leaves after being overwhelmed by the mutant infant.

Henry's life soon takes a turn for the worse when he begins to experience nightmares, surreal visions of a woman performing on a stage inside a radiator, and weird characters that blur the lines between dream and reality. After his mental state deteriorates, he kills the baby only to see his reality collapse in front of him.

7) Synecdoche, New York (2008)

After his wife leaves him, theater director Caden Cotard (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman) wins a MacArthur Fellowship grant to build a huge, ever-expanding New York City replica inside a warehouse and direct an honest play about real life.

He hires actors to play real people, including himself, and becomes obsessed with the project, eventually losing sight of who he is. The film thus offers an eerie, existential meditation on regret, loss, mortality, and the desire to control one's life.

6) Following (1998)

The film Following marks the rise of an exceptionally talented filmmaker, Christopher Nolan. This black-and-white thriller laid the groundwork for the complex and nonlinear storytelling he came to be known for.

The film is about a young writer who enjoys following strangers for inspiration. He meets a charismatic burglar named Cobb and becomes fascinated by him. But what seems fun and thrilling at first soon becomes dangerous when the writer discovers that Cobb has been manipulating him and wants to pin a crime on him.

5) Inception (2010)

This list has another Christopher Nolan classic, Inception, arguably one of the best examples of films that never fully explain themselves. Inception ends on such a cliffhanger that just mentioning the final scene is enough to spark heated debate among cinephiles.

In this film, Dom Cobb (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) is a skilled thief who extracts information from his victims' minds in their dreams.

Cobb is offered a job where, instead of extraction, he needs to perform an inception (planting an idea) on his victim, Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy). The job would secure his return home. It seems like an easy job until demons in Dom's head surface during the inception, and viewers are left to decide whether the mission was a success or it was all a dream.

4) 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

2001: A Space Odyssey is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential movies ever made. It is also one of the best films that never explained itself. It was written and directed by the ace director Stanley Kubrick. It tells the story of scientist Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea), his team, and AI HAL 9000 who are onboard the spaceship Discovery One. They are sent to investigate a monolith on the moon.

Unfortunately, the AI HAL 9000 malfunctions, killing everyone onboard, except Bowman, who successfully deactivates it. By the end, another monolith is discovered near Jupiter, and Bowman enters it and goes through a bizarre space-time journey. What happens to Bowman and how the third monolith affects human evolution form the rest of the story.

3) Enemy (2013)

Before giving his fans the Dune trilogy, Denis Villeneuve bent their minds with Enemy, starring Jake Gyllenhaal. The film is about Adam (Gyllenhaal), who finds his doppelganger, an actor named Anthony, and becomes obsessed with him.

As the plot deepens, tensions begin to arise between the two men, with their respective partners bearing the brunt. The film ends on a shocking note that leaves viewers questioning the film's reality.

2) Mulholland Drive (2001)

If you love watching films that never explain themselves, then this one is a must-watch for you. Mulholland Drive is a film about a woman named Betty (Naomi Watts), an aspiring actress who moves to Los Angeles and meets an amnesiac woman, Rita (Laura Harring), who is recovering from a car accident.

As they try to learn more about Rita's identity, a shocking revelation is made about Betty herself. The film is a perfect representation of love, obsession, illusion, and Hollywood's brutal reality.

1) American Psycho (2000)

The film follows Patrick Bateman (played by Christian Bale), a yuppie Wall Street investment banker by day and a ruthless serial killer by night. The film employs dark humor and elements of horror to portray Bateman's disturbing personality. As the story progresses, viewers see his growing detachment from his colleagues, friends, and victims.

Why does American Psycho occupy the number one spot on this list? Because just when you think this sadistic psycho killer is about to pay the price of his crimes, an unexpected twist will fry your brain to a crisp. Directed by Mary Harron and based on Bret Easton Ellis' controversial novel of the same name, the film never explains itself. To this day, fans continue to speculate about the meaning of the ending.

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The best part about films that never explained themselves is their ambiguity, the kind that makes viewers rewatch them all the time to make sense of them. These 10 films prove that sometimes, there is fun in not knowing. So, next time a film makes you scratch your head, embrace the confusion and enjoy the art.