What movies would be better without a happy ending?

[Chicken Drummer]

Can you think of any?

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Gosh, why are people so against optimistic, uplifting stories? Stories are meant to entertain. Happy endings aren't "unrealistic" guys. Downer endings aren't "realistic". They're just unfun 90% of the time.

[Forogil]

Gosh, why are people so against optimistic, uplifting stories? Stories are meant to entertain. Happy endings aren't "unrealistic" guys. Downer endings aren't "realistic". They're just unfun 90% of the time.

Well, a non-happy ending can be quite fun as well, as in "Dumb and Dumber".

[Kyphael]

Return of the Jedi.

Should have stuck to the original ending of Luke Skywalker going to the dark side, and focused the next trilogy on Luke's sister (who is not Leia.)

[Gabon]

Can't think of any in particular but films about war and history like Anne Frank and The boy in the striped pyjamas - these had sad endings and I think it just showed us all the brutality and reality of the situation.

[Veggie50]

The intern

Loved the movie, hated the ending. It struck me as a series of complex relationships that were in direct opposition of eachothers happiness, only to end with everyone just holding hands saying “welp, we’ll just try harder to understand eachother.”

[ArMeD_SuRvIvOr]

Gosh, why are people so against optimistic, uplifting stories? Stories are meant to entertain. Happy endings aren't "unrealistic" guys. Downer endings aren't "realistic". They're just unfun 90% of the time.

Because movies are overwhelmingly positive, optimistic, naive and heroic. In fact, it's the opposite of what you say: most people are in favor of optimistic and uplifting stories. Most of us who crave downer and bittersweet endings are precisely sick and tired of such positive endings.

Why?

Because happy endings are easy to write, easy to expect (90% of movies end happily, figurative number of course) and thus you already know what was going to happen anyway. How is that fun?

I generally dislike comic book movies like Marvel but Infinity War had it right and it was the best for one reason only: the bad guy wins.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Return of the Jedi.

Should have stuck to the original ending of Luke Skywalker going to the dark side, and focused the next trilogy on Luke's sister (who is not Leia.)

I wouldn't have minded the bad guys winning in the sequell trilogy. The "heroes" were so incompetent and comically outnumbered, they didn't deserve to win.

[exochaft]

Well, a non-happy ending can be quite fun as well, as in "Dumb and Dumber".

Also, in a pre-Disney era, many of the stereotypical children stories-turned-movies of today didn't have happy endings in their source material... because they were meant to be cautionary tales. Nothing wrong having happy endings every now and then, but that's a more recent phenomenon. However, I'm not a big fan of movies that are completely bereft of legitimate conflict and loss while being overloaded with nothing but positivity. I'm also not really a fan (with a few exceptions where it's pulled of really well) of completely nihilistic endings just for the sake of being nihilistic. A nice balance is all I ask for.

Haven't really watched movies in a while, so I can't really think of one off the top of my head. I know I've had many moments of "this villain is so inept and stupid just to make the hero look good" in movies where it'd be more satisfying to see the villain win, their exact names just escape me.

I wouldn't have minded the bad guys winning in the sequell trilogy. The "heroes" were so incompetent and comically outnumbered, they didn't deserve to win.

I think I would've been fine with the bad guys winning in the new trilogy, as well. The last movie's ending sequences combined together are the pinnacle of forcing a happy ending when an unhappy ending would've been waaaaay more interesting. Heck, even TLJ set up an easy platform to go the route of an unhappy ending. For a while, I thought the trilogy was building up Rey to turn to the dark side considering how angry and emotional she was when fighting, sort of context clues to a higher narrative that spanned over three movies... yeah, I gave the movies too much credit in the end.

[Gestopft]

[QUOTE=exochaft;52385478]Also, in a pre-Disney era, many of the stereotypical children stories-turned-movies of today didn't have happy endings in their source material

Like the little mermaid dying in the original story (however she gains a soul and salvation so it's not all bad). Also, the Little Match Girl is one of the most depressing stories ever.

Haven't really watched movies in a while, so I can't really think of one off the top of my head. I know I've had many moments of "this villain is so inept and stupid just to make the hero look good"

"No, Scott, I have a better idea. I'm going to place him in an easily escapable situation involving an overly elaborate and exotic death."

[PACOX]

I don't care about the movies but I think Harry Potter's happy ending is due to Rowling caring about fans who would have been devastated by a sadder one. The style of the latter books set up a tragic ending, it was practically in the book and would have made a lot of sense, but in the end she pulled back and ended with basically a fairy tale ending.

- - - Updated - - -

Also, in a pre-Disney era, many of the stereotypical children stories-turned-movies of today didn't have happy endings in their source material... because they were meant to be cautionary tales. Nothing wrong having happy endings every now and then, but that's a more recent phenomenon. However, I'm not a big fan of movies that are completely bereft of legitimate conflict and loss while being overloaded with nothing but positivity. I'm also not really a fan (with a few exceptions where it's pulled of really well) of completely nihilistic endings just for the sake of being nihilistic. A nice balance is all I ask for.

Haven't really watched movies in a while, so I can't really think of one off the top of my head. I know I've had many moments of "this villain is so inept and stupid just to make the hero look good" in movies where it'd be more satisfying to see the villain win, their exact names just escape me.



I think I would've been fine with the bad guys winning in the new trilogy, as well. The last movie's ending sequences combined together are the pinnacle of forcing a happy ending when an unhappy ending would've been waaaaay more interesting. Heck, even TLJ set up an easy platform to go the route of an unhappy ending. For a while, I thought the trilogy was building up Rey to turn to the dark side considering how angry and emotional she was when fighting, sort of context clues to a higher narrative that spanned over three movies... yeah, I gave the movies too much credit in the end.

Know what's stupid about the ending of the new trilogy? They didn't really beat the bad guys. There is no crippling lose like in RotJ.

In RotJ the Empire lost because they amassed a large portion of their fleet and power structure around Endor to force a final fight against the Rebels. The chain of command was crippled when the second Death Star blew up. Add in new canon, the ones in charge then purposely trashed the Empire to restart as it was deemed a failure if it couldn't win over Endor.

That doesn't really happen in TROS. In TROS we get a glimpse of the larger shadow cult that kept the First Order/Empire/Sith alive for 30 years. Much of the indoctrinated youth of the First Order and the Sith cultists remain. Are we supposed to believe they just became buddy buddy with the rest of the galaxy after a few mostly empty Star Destroyers were lost? Especially when we can old assume that the First Order fleets are still intact.

The end of TROS felt like a single battle was won, not the end of a war.

I know it's popular to dislike TLJ but it set up several happy and sad endings that could happened. JJ went with the worst option. If anything he could have emulated the internal power struggle we see in RoJ with Sidious and Vader but noo....

[Kuja]

I can't remember any movies where I would have preferred a sad ending from the top of my head.

While I prefer happy endings because they make me feel good, it's also fun to get Jebaited by an apparent happy ending, which suddenly goes to everything opposite in the last minute, lol. I recall drag me to hell is a good example, and maybe a few final destinations.

[Sangris]

The 2004 remake of The Stepford Wives. Should have stuck to the original ending.

[Kyphael]

I wouldn't have minded the bad guys winning in the sequell trilogy. The "heroes" were so incompetent and comically outnumbered, they didn't deserve to win.

True, especially considering Kylo Ren was literally the only interesting character and happened to be a villain.

[Rotted]

I personally love having a film released which the bad guy ends up winning, but then as a surprise its announced theres a sequel or trilogy. Which undoes it, but nothing mentioned before hand to give any indication.

I'm thinking along the lines of say, the Mistborne series. Give people a film based on the Lord Ruler prequel so to speak, then bam 2 years later announce Mistborne, That sort of thing

[Morgaith]

Law abiding citizen was ruined because of the "happy" ending.

[McNeil]

Probably the latest Jurrasic World movie. They made it look like it was a happy ending setting dinosaurs free, I wanted to see mass destruction and a complete massacre caused by them afterwards and have the main chaarcters be like ''oh fuck''.

I didn't like how sappy the Game of Thrones ending was either. I always liked how the obvious main and good guy characters weren't always save from dying and getting screwed over (Red Wedding and such), but in the latest season they fully retreated to the generic ''good guy always wins'' with all the bad guys defeated. It would've been interesting to see at least some bad guys remain in power and causing havoc.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Law Abiding Citizen. I HATED that movie's ending with every fiber of my body.

I can't think of a movie other than that where I'd prefer an unhappy ending though. Similarly, I can't think of a movie with an unhappy ending that would've been better with a happy one. Just look at The Mist. LOVED how Darabont changed the ending from the novel.

[Skorpionss]

I dunno about a movie having been better without a happy ending, but I know at least one that could have been better without a depressing one, and that is Uncut Gems. I felt so fucking angry at that ending I can't even express it properly.

[Ayirasi]

Law Abiding Citizen. I HATED that movie's ending with every fiber of my body.

Yes! I remember walking out of the theater unreasonably irritated.

On topic, I'll go with Trainwreck. Aaron deserved better. Amy needed to get kicked to the curb and maybe OD or something.