“Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown.”
Sorry…I did miss it.
The Rapture. Though I suppose the lead character at least had agency in the ending.
Jake gets paid. He’s a pragmatic man to his core, just got mixed up with some dizzy broad for a time is all. The end is cool, for Noir that’s a good ending even if not uplifting. War films are similar, even a ‘triumphant end’ still has loads of dead people to ponder over.
(Carpenter’s The Thing)
I agree. The ending is perfect.
Martyrs (the original French version, haven’t seen the remake)
The Perfect Storm. The slow zoom out as Clooney, having sent Wahlburg to his likely death by drowning, slowly retreats back into the submerged cabin. Crazy.
Carlito’s Way. DePalma cranks up one of his best-ever pursuits and then just as you think Pacino’s getting away: “Remember me? Benny Blanco! From the Bronx!” Blam! What a gut-punch.
Do you mean the entire ending or just the refrigerator scene ( which is over the top)? You have a steelier heart than I 
1984. Anything other than a dismal ending would have been disappointing.
All of it.
The end of the Road ends with the boy being saved and joining a family and getting a dog.
You’re right, but I don’t disagree with the inclusion of The Road in this thread due to the unremitting bleakness of the entire movie. And that pervasive bleakness makes it clear that family-and-dog or not, the boy’s remaining life is going to be harsh and (likely) short.
“Georgy Girl” where Lynn Redgrave marries James Mason, the sleazy old letch who’s been stalking her through the whole movie. Because she needs a daddy for the baby her boyfriend and her roommate abandoned. It’s a bit like the ending of “Osama”.(See above).
Only “Osama” wasn’t supposed to be a comedy.
Oh yeah! I hated that movie.
I only saw this once years ago, so hopefully I’m not mis-remembering. What a dismal ending!
A movie from 1957, All Mine To Give, was about a large pioneer family in Wisconsin who all get sick during an epidemic. The parents die, and at the end of the movie the oldest boy trudges around through the snow pulling his siblings on a sled. He stops at various cabins and gives away his siblings one at a time. The last scene is of the boy trudging off alone into the snowy wilderness.
Melancholia (2011) is a profound exploration of depression and existential dread, and its dismal ending (collision with the rogue blue planet, Melancholia) is both emotionally and thematically fitting for the story it tells. Things don’t get much bleaker than that.
I just rewatched The Poseidon Adventure (1972) on cable. The ending is pretty dismal with only 6 survivors on an ocean liner that had a thousand or so passengers and crew.
Grave of the Fireflies.
I don’t recall if the reveal is really the end, but Dear Zachary.
In the book the ending is different. The group that followed the ship’s doctor to the bow of the ship is also saved. Also people who just stayed where they were and never went on the adventure, they are saved as well, not going through the muss and death of the adventure.
So more people live, yay. But the adventure seems less worth it, boo. There were a couple of characters dropped from the adventure, the parents of the two kids were there in the book but not in the movie. But most of the characters that lived or died were the same, with the exception of the little boy who knew everything about the ship. He dies in the book. Presumed dead anyway, he wanders off during a rest break halfway through and is never seen again, presumed dead.
Great contributions, everyone. I totally agree with the mentions of films I’ve seen, and the ones I haven’t I’ve added to my watchlist.
Cabaret fits, I think. Even though we all know what eventually happened, seeing the singing and dancing juxtaposed with the NAZIS in the audience just leaves one with a dreadful feeling.
I was coming in to mention Brazil but someone already has. I’ll go with another Terry Gilliam movie 12 Monkeys.