# Happy ending, but we know better **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 24, 2015, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-ending-but-we-know-better/710733 "2015-01-24T05:03:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2015, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-ending-but-we-know-better/710733/61 "2015-01-29T21:39:07Z")
> [@MovieMogul](#): > > You and I clearly have very different ideas of what constitutes a “happy ending.” My thoughts exactly! My vote is for Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Methinks that there are going to be some mighty unhappy marriages there after ten or so years. Then they’ll write the song, “Where have all the cowboys gone?” ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2015, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-ending-but-we-know-better/710733/62 "2015-01-29T22:08:17Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > At the end of _ **One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest** _, the Chief kills the lobotomized McMurphy then breaks out of the asylum. > > Yay, Chief! GO, BE FREE! > > Except… the Chief, like almost all the other inmates, was in the mental hospital voluntarily. He could have asked to leave any time! All he had to do was say, “I feel much better now,” and he could have walked to freedom out the front door. > > But now? Now he’s an escaped murderer! The cops will probably shoot on sight if they see him. And if he’s captured alive, he’ll be sent to a maximum security hospital for the criminally insane, FOREVER! It’s been a long time since I read the book or saw the movie, but I thought it was implied that Chief was one of the few others besides McMurphy who were involuntarily committed? Anyway, he did his friend a favor as far as the book was concerned, I think that plus regaining his freedom was the “happy” ending. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2015, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-ending-but-we-know-better/710733/63 "2015-01-29T22:31:32Z")
Anyone born after 1910 can see why [McLintock!](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McLintock!) won’t end well… ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Prize](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d2c977/32.png) [@Sir\_Prize](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Prize)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2015, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-ending-but-we-know-better/710733/64 "2015-01-30T03:55:19Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > Of Mice and Men: George’s troubles are just beginning as he tries to explain how he wrestled the Luger away from Lenny and, in self defense, shot him in the back of the head. I don’t think he cares at that point. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2015, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-ending-but-we-know-better/710733/65 "2015-01-30T03:59:37Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > While not a ‘we know the future’ situation, but John Cusack is definitely going to get dumped again in “Say Anything”. Hopefully he’ll at least get a nice pen out of the deal. ---
**Author:** ![tripthicket](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripthicket/32/297_2.png) [@tripthicket](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tripthicket)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2015, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-ending-but-we-know-better/710733/66 "2015-01-30T07:14:08Z")
It’s even mentioned at the end of _Joe Versus The Volcano_, but being stuck out in the middle of the ocean is no laughing matter. The happy couple may never actually make it to land; can you imagine how they and their trunks would fare in a storm at sea? 30-foot waves, that’s all I’m sayin’. Oh, and supplies run out. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2015, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-ending-but-we-know-better/710733/67 "2015-01-30T07:24:12Z")
OK, here’s something I wonder about the Endor Holocaust theory: doesn’t the ending of RotJ prove that it didn’t happen? I mean, all the principal characters are with the Ewoks, under a night sky with no falling debris, and they obviously survived after that, so doesn’t that pretty much put the whole thing to rest? You can argue all you want about WHY it didn’t happen, but the fact is, it didn’t, and that’s plainly on the screen. What am I missing? ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2015, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-ending-but-we-know-better/710733/68 "2015-01-31T15:35:42Z")
Betty Smith’s “Joy in the Morning” (made into a movie starring Richard Chamberlain & Yvette Yvette Mimieux] had Carl Brown graduating from law school and taking his wife and child to his new job as a lawyer…in June of 1929. _CRASH_ ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2015, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-ending-but-we-know-better/710733/69 "2015-01-31T15:38:25Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > While it isn’t _happy_, the moment when the 1972 film version of _Cabaret_ ends is darker for the viewer than it is for the characters. After the MC says goodbye, we see that the audience at the Kit Kat Club is full of Nazi officers. We know what’s coming, and the characters don’t. > > I specify the film version because [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabaret_%28musical%29#Act_II) tells me that some of the more recent revivals of the stage version of _Cabaret_ end with the MC in a concentration camp. They do know they’re going to get busted, what they don’t know is how bad it’s going to be. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-ending-but-we-know-better/710733.md?page=3)