The End Of Oak Street's Most Shocking Death Will Have Every Movie Fan Talking

This article contains major spoilers for "The End of Oak Street."

"The End of Oak Street" delivers an immensely satisfying time-hopping adventure that is easily the best dinosaur movie since "Jurassic Park." That might not be a high bar to clear when you consider the quality of most dinosaur movies outside of the aforementioned iconic franchise, but David Robert Mitchell's thrilling and heartfelt movie is boosted by plenty of Amblin Entertainment energy that feels reminiscent of some of Steven Spielberg's best work, including "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial" and "Jaws," even if the movie doesn't reach the immense highs of those bona fide classics.

That Amblin vibe comes not only because of the suburban sci-fi clash but also because of the family at the center of the story. Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor are both outstanding as Denise and Greg, a couple struggling to make their marriage work during tough times, and they're on the verge of divorce. Their kids, Audrey and Brian (played by Maisy Stella and Christian Convery, respectively) can sense the distance growing between their parents, but they each have their own adolescent and teenage concerns as well, with Brian worried about an older kid threatening vengeance for an accident at school and Audrey starting to seek out romance. 

Frankly, it's not a good time for any of them to have to worry about their neighborhood being mysteriously transported to some kind of prehistoric environment with dangerous dinos suddenly roaming their neighborhood. However, like many Amblin movies, being forced to confront such an astonishing situation does manage to bring the family closer, allowing them to work through their problems in the face of something far more threatening. Unfortunately, that also means having to reconcile the death the family patriarch, Greg, when Ewan McGregor's character is shockingly, devastatingly, eaten by a dinosaur. 

Yes, even after the family has already been through so much, watching neighbors being eaten and coming to terms with the fact that they might never get home, their most crushing blow comes when Greg is killed right in front of them. Granted, he gets a cheer-worthy hero moment when he saves Denise from being eaten by an apex predator by hitting it in the leg and head with a sledgehammer. But that only makes his sudden death that much more jaw-dropping. Believe me when I say that I had a physical reaction to this moment, my hands shooting up into the air in natural shock and disbelief. Of course, Denise, Audrey, and Brian take this loss extremely hard. 

What makes this development all the more crushing is Denise and Greg had just figured out a potential way to get home, stumbling upon a strange spherical portal showing them their own world and time. That portal disappeared after they found it, but it gave them hope that they might be able to figure out a way to get back home. It also helped them understand how their entire neighborhood ended up being transported to this prehistoric time, with Audrey theorizing that it has something to do with wormholes, thanks to scientific details she learned from reading Carl Sagan books.

After dealing with the emotional turmoil of losing Greg, the family will get their chance to go back home when they catch the reflective glint of one of these portals across the neighborhood, hanging in the air outside the house of the local librarian. The family survives even more deadly dinosaurs both inside and outside the house, and they make it back to their own time. In fact, they arrive roughly 20 minutes before their neighborhood was initially transported by one of those time-hopping wormhole portal spheres. And this is where we get yet another Spielbergian sequence.

Having arrived too far away from their house to save themselves from the impending incident (which probably would have been hard to explain), Denise makes a potentially controversial decision, at least if you think about it for too long. You see, Greg lost his job, and he's been delivering pizzas to help them get by. Denise didn't know, and she thought he was just doing extra work that he didn't need to do. But now she's thankful he did, because "The End of Oak Street" ending sees her order some pizza to an address nearby, saving Greg before the neighborhood gets transported back in time. It's a very "Back to the Future" solution, similar to how Marty decided to save Doc by going back in time a little early to stop him from being shot by terrorists.

Granted, if you think about this emotionally satisfying solution for too long, it raises some concerning questions. What happens to the family when they go back in time without Greg? Those versions of Denise, Audrey, and Brian are going to have an even harder time without him. However, the movie does also show that Denise can certainly handle herself well in this unbelievable predicament, so you'd hope they would be okay.

But honestly, those are technically different characters, and then we'd have to start digging into the messy elements of time travel and paradoxes and all that jazz. But for me, the emotional victory from saving Greg and bringing him back into the loving arms of his family was one of the most satisfying moments I've ever had in a movie theater. The tears of joy and smile on Anne Hathaway's face after she sees the little pizza delivery light on top of Greg's car made my heart soar. Maybe that's because, like filmmaker David Robert Mitchell, I lost my own father not too long ago. Perhaps imagining being able to bring him back made that conclusion all the more gratifying. But honestly, I'm not mad about it, and I hope audiences aren't either.

"The End of Oak Street" is playing in theaters everywhere now.