# Dismalest movie ending (SPOILERS!) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [September 10, 2024, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047 "2024-09-10T06:00:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kelby2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ebca7d/32.png) [@Kelby2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kelby2)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047/21 "2024-09-10T14:18:56Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > 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. Das Boot is one of my favorite films. The irony of a German U-boot surviving impossible odds in battle while at sea only to be destroyed by air power after safely docking at home port has never left me. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047/22 "2024-09-10T14:26:59Z")
The end of Infinity War was pretty dismal. I remember not being able to go see it right when it came out and people at a Marvel themed attraction in Las Vegas being very kindly spoiler free to my family so the shock of the ending was a genuine surprise. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047/23 "2024-09-10T14:28:13Z")
**The Road** , in the opening scene if one of the parents had killed their entire family and then themselves it would have been a better life for everyone. I would say this about all of Cormac Mc Carthy’s stories, so like Lovecraft it’s good for me these worlds exist only in the crazed mind of the author. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047/24 "2024-09-10T14:33:28Z")
**On the Beach** is pretty bleak, but then, like all nuke war movies, it’s supposed to be. Other nuke film downers: **The War Game** (not to be confused with the upbeat Matthew Broderick film “War Games”) **Threads** **The Day After** **When the Wind Blows** **The Last War** (Japan, 1961) **Dr. Strangelove** **Fail Safe** **Testament** ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047/25 "2024-09-10T14:40:36Z")
**Penn & Teller Get Killed** ends with… everyone getting killed, including a lot of suicides. I’m not troubled by that ending. It was their way of emphasizing the atheist viewpoint and that we all only get one try at life. But it could be seen as a downer ending in an already quirky movie. My takeaway was that if P & T were anything like that in real life, I wouldn’t want either of them as enemies OR friends. But it was all a fiction, or at least exaggerations of them. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047/26 "2024-09-10T14:40:53Z")
> [@dirtball](#): > > Yeah, pretty much inevitable. Allow yourself time to watch an episode of _Community_ afterward. There are some pretty depressing episodes of _Community_, though, so you have to be careful. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047/27 "2024-09-10T14:56:39Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > So does the John Carpenter version of **The Thing** Or _does_ it? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![dirtball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dirtball/32/18772_2.png) [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047/28 "2024-09-10T14:57:13Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > There are some pretty depressing episodes of _Community_, though, so you have to be careful. Yeah, I was just in “quick, think of a silly-ass sitcom” mode, and for whatever reason, that was the first one that came to mind. I’m sure there would be better suggestions. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047/29 "2024-09-10T15:01:10Z")
_Osama._ The protagonist is a girl who poses as a boy in Taliban Afghanistan in order to work. Eventually, her ruse is discovered by an old man, who marries her. In the final scene, we see the old man taking a bath. Innocent on the face of it, but it was established beforehand that a man must make ablations after sex. The clear implication is that he raped her. The girl is a very sympathetic character; seeing this is heartbreaking. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047/30 "2024-09-10T15:15:56Z")
**The House of Sand and Fog** Only saw it once and walked away with “OMG, well that was depressing.” The message if there even was one seemed to be don’t bother trying to do the right cause people suck. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047/31 "2024-09-10T15:20:48Z")
Going back to my teen years, **Lord of the Flies** (1963 version). Yes, the lead boy gets rescued, but the damage is done, and Piggy was murdered. This counts as another nuclear war downer movie already, because there is no _deus ex machina_ to rescue the world from the fire it is going through. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047/32 "2024-09-10T15:22:35Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#): > > Or _does_ it? 😉 Well, there’s two of them out in the antarctic wilderness, temporarily basking in the heat of the burning camp and having deliberately destroyed just about all their transportation and resources. Eventually it’s going to cool down and they’ll die. Unless one or both of them are “things”, in which case they’ll go into hibernation. But even then it’s a downer for them if they’re never discovered – perpetual hibernation isn’t practically different from death. So it’s arguably a possible win. But only for the Thing. If it didn’t already lose. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047/33 "2024-09-10T15:36:59Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Eventually it’s going to cool down and they’ll die. Or they get rescued. In one of the storylines explored (which I guess makes it non-canon), it turns out one of Windows’ SOS transmissions actually _did_ go through, and MacReady gets rescued (and is tested and found to be normal). I think the ambiguous ending is perfect, though. The whole movie was a study in paranoia and mistrust. There shouldn’t be a tidy conclusion. ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047/34 "2024-09-10T16:16:39Z")
_Deluge_ (1933) – Post-apocalyptic drama of swimmer hooking up with swell guy lawyer, only to be elimidated when the lawyer’s wife and kids turn up alive at the end. She takes (presumably) her last swim at the end. _Out of the Past_ (1947) – Hero Robert Mitchum outwits and pwns the unsavory types trying to manipulate him…until the end. _Creature from the Black Lagoon_ (1954) – I cried the first time I watched the ending (without knowing about the sequels). I always root for the monster. _Paths of Glory_ (1957) – Having failed to take the Ant Hill, French soldiers face punishment from their lame-ass commanders. Survivors get a moment to sing before going back to war, but it hardly compensates for the bleak future they face. _The Key_ (1958) – Navy man William Holden hauls ass to get to the train station before Sophia Loren (who thinks he’s dead) splits. Masterful crosscutting really involves the audience in the drama. He doesn’t make it. Fuck you, movie. _Harakiri_ (1962) – Clan hypocrisy triumphs despite Tatsuya Nakadai’s attempt to expose it. _Night of the Living Dead_ (1968) – As dismal as it gets. _Chinatown_ (1974) – Evil wins. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047/35 "2024-09-10T16:21:09Z")
Some I have not seen mentioned yet: - Leaving Las Vegas - To Live and Die in LA - Brazil ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047/36 "2024-09-10T16:30:23Z")
Grave of the Fireflies. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047/37 "2024-09-10T16:43:47Z")
I refuse to watch it, but the end of **Come And See** is likely as horror show as the rest. A film about the Nazi occupation of the Eastern Front is something I can image and that’s bad enough. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047/38 "2024-09-10T16:51:54Z")
_Raise the Red Lantern_. A young woman with large potential in Warlord China is forced into bad circumstances through the death of her father. By the end of the movie she is completely broken and has been driven insane. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047/39 "2024-09-10T17:16:46Z")
**To Live** , another Zhang Yimou film. I can’t describe it all because it’s basically a culmination of all of the events of the film. It’s the story of a well-off man and his family surviving through the Chinese Civil War and the Communist Revolution There’s no real single event that’s particularly tragic, the tragedy is the entire movie. **Sicario** - That final scene of Mexican kids playing soccer with their families on the sidelines, then everything suddenly stopping while everyone looks towards the sound of not-so-distant automatic gunfire, then simply resuming their game a few moments later when the shots end. This is just their daily life. 😢 ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047/40 "2024-09-10T17:17:05Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Some I have not seen mentioned yet: > > - > - Brazil You missed my entry, then. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047.md?page=3)