# 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:** 6
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2024, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047/101 "2024-09-15T17:22:37Z")
Maybe not quite as bad as some of these, but AI. The company’s goal was to create a robot that was capable of love. What they didn’t realize was that the robots they already had were capable of love, but that David wasn’t. And then they redesign all of their robot lines based on David. And then, in the far future, when the descendants of those unloving robots recover David and he decides to destroy his mother’s soul just so he can spend one more afternoon with her, they all just go along with it. ---
**Author:** ![Ellecram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellecram/32/18948_2.png) [@Ellecram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellecram)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2024, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047/102 "2024-09-15T17:38:24Z")
Another artificial intelligence type movie that has always stayed with me is Eva (2011). It’s a beautifully shot Spanish movie set in the not to distant future. The ending crushed me. ---
**Author:** ![Pavelb1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2024, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047/103 "2024-09-15T19:45:07Z")
Soylent Run to Escape From Westworld: The Dome. My fave. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2024, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047/104 "2024-09-15T19:47:10Z")
Speaking of artificial intelligence movies –_The Matrix Revolutions_ (and the original Matrix trilogy) ends with the human city of Zion being spared and any human that wants to leave The Matrix being allowed to. Uplifting right? Not really because: First, the real world is dismal wasteland( and there’s no hope of rebuilding because the sky is still blacked out so the Earth cannot recover. And second, any humans freed from the Matrix will go through physical and psychological trauma (as shown in the first film) in exchange for their freedom to live in Zion, which is an underground cave where humans live in poverty and it’s implied resources are limited. ---
**Author:** ![mozchron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@mozchron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mozchron)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2024, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047/105 "2024-09-15T19:52:27Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > Grave of the Fireflies. This. Never again in a million years. ---
**Author:** ![Pavelb1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2024, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047/106 "2024-09-15T20:04:48Z")
Heaven Can Wait (1978) If you think about it too much. The insane activist who hooks up with NFL quarterbacks at the drop of a hat. The LA Rams losing THREE quarterbacks before the Super Bowl ends. The dissolution of Joe’s consciousness, and how will it feel when he dies in 2025 and snaps back to himself. The butterfly effect of the backup QB living when he was fated to die during the Superbowl and the effect of that on the rest of the world. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2024, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047/107 "2024-09-15T20:56:36Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > If there is a movie with a more tragic ending than **Das Boot** , A bunch of nazis die? That is a happy ending. And a great film. > [@CalMeacham](#): > > No one’s mentioned **Brazil** , yet? Yep, unless it is the alternate ending? _Pennies from Heaven_ (1981 film) that Steve Martin film that could depress a hyena. > [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Going back to my teen years, **Lord of the Flies** (1963 version) It is important to note that IRL, young kids do NOT go all “Lord of the Flies” and that the film was _fiction_. (I know, but people think otherwise) ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2024, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047/108 "2024-09-15T21:09:16Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > Grave of the Fireflies. There is a picture online from the 1940’s that shows a little Japanese boy holding his brother’s dead body on his back while he waits in line to incinerate him. I think of it when I see that movie. I know this doesn’t happen in the movie, but they are intertwined. Won’t link to the picture here, but easily findable. Edit: It’s called: _The Boy Standing by the Crematory_ and has a Wikipedia entry. ---
**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 15, 2024, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047/109 "2024-09-15T23:41:03Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > It is important to note that IRL, young kids do NOT go all “Lord of the Flies” and that the film was _fiction_. Thank you for the condescension. Are you under the impression that a film can’t be depressing if it’s fiction? Or that events like this could not ever happen in real life? ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanubv.2/32/3260_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUBv.2)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2024, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047/110 "2024-09-16T02:48:42Z")
**Ghost Stories** (2017)I am going to hide the ending on this one because I think it’s really good and hope those that haven’t heard of it will give it look. A paranormal investigator is challenged by his hero - a fellow investigator- to debunk three cases that he himself is unable to solve. We go along with him as he investigates. it turns out he is in the hospital, on a ventilator and suffering locked in syndrome after a failed suicide attempt… The characters in the three cases are actually people at the hospital. Yes, it’s a “it was all in the character’s mind” ending but in this case it’s just sad AF ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2024, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047/111 "2024-09-16T06:56:35Z")
I also had seen it only once when I was very young and this is about all I recalled. I asked about this a few years ago and some kind doper ID’ed the movie for me. My library system actually has a copy of the DVD, which I checked out and watched. The ending is as you stated, except the boy is walking to a local logging camp where he was hoping to get a job. A classic tear-jerker. ---
**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 16, 2024, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047/112 "2024-09-16T15:51:26Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > It is important to note that IRL, young kids do NOT go all “Lord of the Flies” and that the film was _fiction_. (I know, but people think otherwise) It’s good to note that there are plenty of fictional cases, from both before and after _Lord of the Flies_, where a colony of stranded kids _don’t_ go feral and downright homicidal. The 1957 novel _The Coral Island_ by R. M. Ballantyne was one such, and it inspired Wiliam Golding to write LotF because he thought its rosy outcome was so unlikely. Jules Verne’s _Deux ans de vacances_ (“Two Years’ Vacation”) from 1888 tells a story of a group of pre-teen and early teen boys who get stranded without adults on an island for two years. They are able to survive through their own efforts and defeat a group of mutineers. Robert Heinlein’s _Tunnel in the Sky_ tells the story of a group of high school students taking a survival class who are marooned on a distant planet. They band together to survive and form a government. Heinlein’s group, unlike the others, is co-ed. The book came out a year after LotF, and some people think it’s a response to Golding’s grim vision. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2024, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047/113 "2024-09-16T19:29:10Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > It’s good to note that there are plenty of fictional cases, from both before and after _Lord of the Flies_, where a colony of stranded kids _don’t_ go feral and downright homicidal. The 1957 novel _The Coral Island_ by R. M. Ballantyne was one such, and it inspired Wiliam Golding to write LotF because he thought its rosy outcome was so unlikely. > > Jules Verne’s _Deux ans de vacances_ (“Two Years’ Vacation”) from 1888 tells a story of a group of pre-teen and early teen boys who get stranded without adults on an island for two years. They are able to survive through their own efforts and defeat a group of mutineers. > > Robert Heinlein’s _Tunnel in the Sky_ tells the story of a group of high school students taking a survival class who are marooned on a distant planet. Nice ones. ---
**Author:** ![YamatoTwinkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/cc9497/32.png) [@YamatoTwinkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YamatoTwinkie)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2024, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047/114 "2024-09-16T20:14:36Z")
_Aniara (2018)_ , a swedish sci-fi film about a spaceship containing a few thousand passengers on a three-week voyage from Earth to Mars. After getting knocked off course, headed out to deep space and unable to recover, the final scene is 24 years later, with only a handful of people left surviving in almost complete darkness, huddled together in a trance-like state, as the ship continues to drift into empty space. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2024, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047/115 "2024-09-16T20:27:39Z")
> [@YamatoTwinkie](#): > > _Aniara (2018)_ , a swedish sci-fi film about a spaceship containing a few thousand passengers on a three-week voyage from Earth to Mars. Hmm, very much like Avenue 5 on HBO, but that is more of a black comedy. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2024, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047/116 "2024-09-16T20:47:56Z")
> [@YamatoTwinkie](#): > > After getting knocked off course, headed out to deep space and unable to recover, the final scene is 24 years later, with only a handful of people left surviving in almost complete darkness, huddled together in a trance-like state, as the ship continues to drift into empty space. Ooh, Aniara is such a dark movie and I kind of loved it. Yes, a very dismal ending. ---
**Author:** ![Nacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7bcc69/32.png) [@Nacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nacho)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2024, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047/117 "2024-09-17T01:12:28Z")
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Some people regard it as fluff, but I was seriously distressed by the ending. It didn’t help that I watched it in a classroom full of middle school students, several of whom were trying not to cry. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2024, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047/118 "2024-09-17T11:43:29Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > I don’t recall if the reveal is really the end, but Dear Zachary. The reveal is indeed at the end. It caught my wife and I by surprise. We were in a furiuous mood for about three days – no joke. Hated the world. (For those who don’t know, it’s a documentary, but not of a very famous incident). ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2024, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047/119 "2024-09-17T13:12:52Z")
Your post convinced me to watch _Aniara_, and I have to say, I enjoyed it, even though it had its share of scientific flaws and lacked strong character arcs. It’s almost like the antithesis of _2001: A Space Odyssey._ Where _2001_ is filled with hope, transcendence, and the potential for human evolution, _Aniara_ paints a far more bleak and existential portrait of humanity—adrift in the vastness of space, weighed down by its own limitations with no way out. **Evolution vs. Stagnation** : _2001_ is fundamentally about evolution—humanity’s constant progression, nudged along by an enigmatic force. It suggests that there’s always room for growth, that we are part of some grand cosmic design. The _Star Child_, for me, represents consciousness reaching a point where it’s no longer bound by the physical, by time or space. It reminds me of quantum entanglement, where things are connected across unimaginable distances. It’s like the ultimate evolution—our minds existing in a way we can’t yet understand. On the other hand, _Aniara_ takes us in the opposite direction—towards stagnation and inevitable decay. The passengers aboard the ship gradually slip into nihilism, lost in an endless void. They cling to a virtual reality machine, replaying memories of Earth, but as they do, they become more detached from reality. There’s no progress, no forward momentum, only a slow regression as they cling to the past, mentally unraveling. Unlike in _2001_, there’s no transcendent force or higher purpose here, just the slow march of entropy and the overwhelming futility of life floating endlessly in the void. I’d love to have seen a Kubrick/Clarke treatment of _Aniara._ That would be frightening indeed! ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2024, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047/120 "2024-09-17T13:15:34Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > The reveal is indeed at the end. It caught my wife and I by surprise. We were in a furiuous mood for about three days – no joke. Hated the world. I actually grabbed my wife about 15 minutes before the reveal happens and exclaimed, “Oh no…she’s gonna…” and I accurately predicted what would be the case. I would not chosen that movie to watch with my wife had I known how it ended. It was beyond sad. I think it out-sads Graveyard of the Fireflies. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dismalest-movie-ending-spoilers/1007047.md?page=7)