I just caught the last 15 minutes of the movie Cell, (though I’ve seen it a few times). Dayum, that ending is grim. The film in general is pretty meh, but the final scene is a really well done bummer. You think John Cuzack has triumphed and he and his son are on their way to join Samuel L Jackson, only to be presented with an aerial view of the giant, circling horde of the infected. We slowly zoom in on John C., empty eyed and head bobbing in unison with the crowd while the song " You’ll Never Walk Alone" plays. It gets me every time.
The only one that I can think of at the moment that is even drearier is Requiem for a Dream. It haunted me for many days afterward and is one of the very few films I will never watch again; not because it’s bad but because it’s too painful.
Which film’s endings have stayed with you(and not in a good way)?
The Mist stands out as a punch to the gut every time I’ve seen it. It’s probably Frank Darabont’s worst Stephen King adaptation, but damn that ending that did not come from the short story.
That and the Donald Sutherland version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Arlington Road. The protagonist we’ve been following the whole movie has almost but not quite figured out the whole plot by the anti-government militia people. He misses just enough, though, to be set up as a patsy for their latest bombing. He dies, his reputation is ruined, and the bad guys get away clean, ready to do it all again.
It’s been over 15 years since I saw it and it still makes me viscerally angry when I think about it. That ending is the very definition of gratuitous cruelty.
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? During the Depression, desperate people compete in a dance marathon hoping to win the prize money. At the end, outside the building, Jane Fonda’s character is talking to Michael Sarrazin’s character, saying, in effect, “The world is such a horrible place, and I’m tired of it and want out.” She has a gun and wants to end it all, but she can’t bring herself to pull the trigger. So she asks him to, and he does.
One post in this thread reminded me of the Chinese movie Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl. I won’t mention the ending in case anyone ever wants to see it, but you can read it in the Wikipedia plot summary.
I’ve never seen it and don’t intend to, but I have read a plot summary of A Serbian Film and I don’t think I can possibly imagine a story with a darker ending.
I found the ending of Requiem for a Dream to be so cartoonishly over-the-top that (for me) it was about as gloomy as an anvil falling on Wile E. Coyote’s head.
If there is a movie with a more tragic ending than Das Boot, I don’t want to know about it. I wandered around in a weepy daze for a week after seeing it.
ETA: Years ago, a houseguest told me, “oh, you gotta see this movie, it’s great.” So back in the days of renting video cassettes, we acquired and watched it. I was furious that this movie was presented to me as if it were just an absorbing film, with no emotional preparation for the devastating ending.
I got revenge by innocently suggesting we watch “Blue Velvet,” which is a very different kind of film but sure puts the engaged viewer through the wringer. Hah.
Not so much a dismal ending as a whole nervewracking film.
The Arrival of Wang is a great short film. Or it would have been had it not been padded out to 80 minutes with a lot of unnecessary material . But the ending is… notable.
Too many horror films to count, but one of the bleakest endings of a drama I can remember is the Bjork film Dancer in the Dark. It’s by Lars von Trier so I guess expected but damn.