With the upcoming release of Thor: Love and Thunder, many fans have theorized that the God of Thunder will have an unhappy ending, as the trailer hints at his tragic death. But it wouldn't be the first movie to shock audiences with an emotionally draining final act.
Redditors have debated over which movies have the unhappiest endings, whether it's a criminally underrated Ryan Reynolds movie or a blockbuster action popcorn flick. Between being buried alive, an unfortunate game of Russian roulette, and unfairly taking the blame for a politician's murder, these characters have seen better days.
The Mist (2007)
The Mist is the most popular example of a movie with an unhappy ending. The movie about a mysterious, out-of-nowhere fog full of monstrous creatures ends with a man shooting each of his friends and his son in the head so they don't get picked away by monsters. But the fog then clears and the U.S. military is successfully killing all of the creatures.
Sanity0004 claims, "Probably the ending that stuck with me the longest. I couldn't stop thinking about it for days." Given that this ending wasn't even in Stephen King's original story, it was exactly the little touch it needed to elevate the material from a fun-but-schlocky monster story to a mortifying and emotionally exhausting classic.
Se7en (1995)
Se7en is one of cinema's tentpole serial killer thrillers, as it follows two detectives trying to uncover the serial killer who is seemingly influenced by the Seven Deadly Sins. The movie ends with the serial killer, after already being captured, pulling off his last sin-influenced kill, wrath.
Despite the gut-punch twist, ParadoxicalParadox claims, "It's my favorite ending to a movie ever." However, while Se7en's ending is disturbing and leaves audiences shook for days after, it was still the subject of some hilarious "what's in the box?" memes.
The Departed (2006)
The plot twists in The Departed are why it's Martin Scorsese's best gangster movie, but those plot twists are truly grueling. Theguywiththe notes, "Completely unexpected, though it is really right in the title. It's really the only way it could've ended in a satisfactory way." As the movie is called The Departed, a clue as to how the movie unfolds was right in front of viewers the whole time.
Not only that, but Xs appear in scenes where somebody is about to get murdered too. Almost every main character is killed off, and it reaches its most mortifying when the movie's protagonist, undercover cop Billy Costigan, is uneventfully shot in the head in the last act. But as the movie ends with Sergeant Dignam shooting Colin in the head, it's as close to a happy resolution that audiences could have possibly gotten at that point.
The Dark Knight (2008)
Batman may have caught Joker in The Dark Knight, but that's after the Clown Prince of Crime caused so much chaos, ruined the Caped Crusader's life, and left the citizens of Gotham without any hope whatsoever. The impact that Joker had on Gotham can be felt after he's captured and even eight years later in The Dark Knight Rises. And Gone-wild-commenter thinks the movie's ending was far worse than what people think.
The Redditor notes, "Sure, The Joker was arrested and Two-Face was killed. But the city was scarred and demonized the true hero. Their peace was temporary and built on a lie." In an attempt to keep Gotham hopeful, Gordan and Batman hid the truth that Harvey, Gotham's savior, broke bad and instead had the public believe that it was Batman.
Watchmen (2009)
VanRorie believes the 2009 movie has one of the most unhappy movie endings. The heroes of Watchmen, Rorschach and Nite Owl, essentially have no effect on the narrative. After learning that Ozymandius is behind the plot to murder millions, they also learned that they're too late to stop it, and they just have to let it happen.
The movie ends with 3.5 million people being killed by Ozymandius. However, while he's presented as a villain in the movie with his dark outfit, his evil-looking lair, and, of course, his scheme, there's an argument to be made that he's actually the hero and that the film has a happy ending. Ozymandias killed 3.5 million people in order to avoid World War III where millions of people would have been drafted against their will, and millions more would have died.
The Godfather Part II (1974)
Skalby argues that it isn't just The Godfather Part II that has a depressingly unhappy ending, but all three movies. The Redditor posits, "All the Godfather films. Especially the one where you see the flashback scene where Michael sits alone on the table." The Reddit user is referring to the scene in Part II when the whole family is sitting around the dinner table, and Michael tells them that he's joining the army.
However, while that perfectly depicts how Michael is always alone, Part III's ending is way dourer. The final movie in the trilogy ends with Michael watching his daughter get killed right in front of him, and it then cuts to him dying old and completely lonely. It's a perfect ending and why The Godfather Part III is underrated.
There Will Be Blood (2007)
There Will Be Blood's ending isn't unsurprisingly unhappy, nor does it exactly catch viewers off guard. The final scene carries the same tone and weight as the whole movie. However, it does depict the characters at their most desperate and beaten down to their core elements.
After locking horns throughout the movie about drilling for oil on private land, a business deal between Eli and Daniel has turned completely sour. It leads to Daniel mercilessly beating Eli with a bowling pin as he pathetically crawls away. Wllmsaccnt admits, "There wasn't a lot of happy in that movie to begin with. It seems like the only person that ever made the protagonist happy was his brother."
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
After the excitement and positivity of A New Hope, especially with the final ceremony and Princess Leia handing out medals, The Empire Strikes Back's darker tone came as a huge shock at the time of its release. Not only was it visually darker, and not only was the tone darker, but the themes were as pitch-black as Darth Vader's outfit.
HarryJHook points to all of the major beats in the final act when arguing that the 1980 movie has the unhappiest ending. The Redditor notes, "Luke gets his hand cut off, finds out Vader's his father, Han gets frozen and taken away by Boba Fett. It ends on such a down note. I mean, that's what life is, a series of down endings." Before getting depressingly philosophical, the user makes some great points, and it's hard to imagine anyone but Luke Skywalker springing back from that.
Buried (2010)
Anything that Ryan Reynolds so much as cameos in these days turns to gold, but that wasn't always the case. In 2010, Reynolds starred in the criminally overlooked isolated thriller Buried. In the movie, Paul (Reynolds) wakes up in a wooden box buried underground with no knowledge of how he gets there.
GoldXP argues, "Buried for me. By the end, I was thinking 'Oh no, please be him.' Then it ended." The movie does a great job of making audiences believe there's hope and building excitement that Paul could actually get out of the situation alive. But what actually happens is unsettling and unbelievable.
The Deer Hunter (1978)
The Deer Hunter is one of the toughest Vietnam War movies to sit through, not because it's bad and not because it's three hours long, but because it's so depressing and heartbreaking. Imacp53 notes that even after all of the war and the PTSD when arriving back home, it ends on the lowest possible note. The Redditor posits, "he traveled all the way back to Vietnam for nothing."
The final act sees Michael travel back to Vietnam to bring Nick back home, but Nick has become a heroin addict and frequently plays macabre games including Russian Roulette. And after having so much luck with the game, Nick kills himself in front of Michael.