An unexpectedly abrupt ending can prompt consideration of why the story concludes on such a surprisingly unresolved note. 

Take Small Things Like These, for example. 

This new movie rolls credits immediately after Cillian Murphy’s protagonist makes a momentous decision, even though detailing the subsequent fallout would be more conventionally dramatic than the events depicted over the prior 90 minutes.

This narrative choice seems to suggest that the fallout is almost beside the point. Small Things Like These chronicles the events that ultimately convince him to rescue the girl, consequences be damned. He determines that the unknowable ramifications won’t deter him, and that’s what matters. 

As such, the fallout isn’t the story. The story is what leads him to act without knowing what will happen next, because we can never know in the moment.

And thus, Small Things Like These deprives us of this knowledge.