Movies are, by and large, pretty good at letting their audience know when an ending is happy, or sad, or a little more complicated. Characters smile, the music swells. Characters cry, the music fades out. Characters look off into the middle distance in silence and contemplation. We let it wash over us, we understand, we accept. In most cases, especially with the good movies, we can’t imagine it any other way.
Except for the times when we can. We’re not talking about movies that “should have been” one way or the other. But we are talking about movies that completely misunderstand their final acts—movies that, no matter how far we stretch it, just can’t convince us that whatever happened in the final scene was what was supposed to happen. More often than not, these movies end on a blissfully happy note. And more often than not, we see right through that.
These are the movies that, while great, leave us feeling that some intrinsic aspect of their plot remains unexplored. Movies that try to wrap everything up in a nice bow, only to leave us with a sour taste in our mouths, a sinister edge to their final moments. Are these characters really happy? Or are they just coping? How will they deal with the fallout from what has just occurred? Where could they go from here?
From romance to fantasy to science fiction to musicals and beyond, these movies try to convince us that everything’s just peachy while we’re stuck wondering what could possibly happen next. Sorry, Hollywood, you can’t pull the wool over our eyes that easily!!
10 Happy Endings in Movies That Are Way Darker Than They Seem
We’re not convinced by these apparent happily ever afters.
Gallery Credit: Emma Stefansky
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