# Movies in which Everyone Dies; unavoidable spoilers, but try to be kind **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 26, 2012, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-everyone-dies-unavoidable-spoilers-but-try-to-be-kind/620044 "2012-04-26T19:04:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Paranoid\_Randroid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paranoid_randroid/32/18_2.png) [@Paranoid\_Randroid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paranoid_Randroid)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-everyone-dies-unavoidable-spoilers-but-try-to-be-kind/620044/1 "2012-04-26T19:04:59Z")
This discussion inevitably involves spoilers. Apologies for that and for the possibility that I overlooked some previous thread on this subject. Although I did find threads about movies in which the main character dies, here I’m more interested in scenarios involving the death of _every_ principal character. (This comes to mind as I reflect on one of my more stupid little repetitive jokes in which I inform my SO that I’ve already seen whatever she’s watching, and that ‘everyone dies at the end’.) Clearly there must be a lot of horror movies meeting that criterion. What about otherwise? I’d say that every arguably major character must die; that implied-only deaths probably shouldn’t count (thus disqualifying e.g. 2005 British horror film The Descent); and that any antagonist, monster, or murderer should die as well. Suggesting Open Spoilers, but in this post I’ll try to be kinder. I’m having a rather embarrassingly difficult time coming up with examples, particularly ones that aren’t in the horror genre. A couple: 1968 horror: Night of the Living Dead, really the only example I can think of which unambiguously fits the criteria 1992 crime/thriller: Reservoir Dogs, arguably, possibly disqualified by the above criteria 2010 british fantasy realism/horror: Outcast; counts as long as you don’t consider the love interest a principal character — certainly the main protagonists and antagonists all die ---
**Author:** ![Paranoid\_Randroid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paranoid_randroid/32/18_2.png) [@Paranoid\_Randroid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paranoid_Randroid)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-everyone-dies-unavoidable-spoilers-but-try-to-be-kind/620044/2 "2012-04-26T19:07:57Z")
I’ll also note that if you don’t like my criteria, feel free to make up your own and post. I don’t want to be a thread-starter-nazi. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-everyone-dies-unavoidable-spoilers-but-try-to-be-kind/620044/3 "2012-04-26T19:11:16Z")
Cheesy Scifi 1970 \* Beneath the Planet of the Apes\* ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-everyone-dies-unavoidable-spoilers-but-try-to-be-kind/620044/4 "2012-04-26T19:11:44Z")
Okay, there’s a current hit that fits the bill: _ **The Cabin in the Woods** _; it ends with the gods destroying the entire world There’s also a 1970s sci-fi film that sort of cheats: _ **Beneath the Planet of the Apes** _ ends with Charlton Heston blowng up the entire Earth. Of course, they “cheated” by making a sequel in which a few of the chimps escaped ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-everyone-dies-unavoidable-spoilers-but-try-to-be-kind/620044/5 "2012-04-26T19:12:47Z")
> [@Paranoid\_Randroid](#): > > This discussion inevitably involves spoilers. Apologies for that and for the possibility that I overlooked some previous thread on this subject. Although I did find threads about movies in which the main character dies, here I’m more interested in scenarios involving the death of _every_ principal character. (This comes to mind as I reflect on one of my more stupid little repetitive jokes in which I inform my SO that I’ve already seen whatever she’s watching, and that ‘everyone dies at the end’.) > > Clearly there must be a lot of horror movies meeting that criterion. What about otherwise? I’d say that every arguably major character must die; that implied-only deaths probably shouldn’t count (thus disqualifying e.g. 2005 British horror film The Descent); and that any antagonist, monster, or murderer should die as well. > > Suggesting Open Spoilers, but in this post I’ll try to be kinder. I’m having a rather embarrassingly difficult time coming up with examples, particularly ones that aren’t in the horror genre. A couple: > > 1968 horror: Night of the Living Dead, really the only example I can think of which unambiguously fits the criteria > 1992 crime/thriller: Reservoir Dogs, arguably, possibly disqualified by the above criteria > 2010 british fantasy realism/horror: Outcast; counts as long as you don’t consider the love interest a principal character — certainly the main protagonists and antagonists all die Your British horror movie had an alternate ending in the USA, in which there WAS a survivor. There was a sequel based on that alternate ending. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-everyone-dies-unavoidable-spoilers-but-try-to-be-kind/620044/6 "2012-04-26T19:15:11Z")
A 1970s thriller (recently re-made) comes to mind: Charles Bronson’s _ **The Mechanic** _; both hit man Bronson and his protege Jan-Michael Vincent are dead at the end. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-everyone-dies-unavoidable-spoilers-but-try-to-be-kind/620044/7 "2012-04-26T19:15:23Z")
I assume Dr Strangelove fits the bill. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-everyone-dies-unavoidable-spoilers-but-try-to-be-kind/620044/8 "2012-04-26T19:18:31Z")
I don’t think I need a spoiler for this: all the principal characters are dead at the start of [Grave of the Fireflies](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grave_of_the_Fireflies). (The movie then goes backwards in time to show how they died.) ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-everyone-dies-unavoidable-spoilers-but-try-to-be-kind/620044/9 "2012-04-26T19:20:12Z")
I can think of a classic book in which everyone dies, but while there have been several movie versions, the movies usually cheat and allow for survivors. Are there any excpetions? I dunno- I haven’t seen all the movie versions. In Agatha Christie’s \*\*\*And Then There Were None \*\*\*(also called \*\*\*Ten Little \*\*\*_ **Indians** _), the Judge murders everyone on the island (all of whom were murderers who’d escaped justice) and then commits suicide, leaving an unsolvable mystery for the police. In the two movie versions I’ve seen, they changed the ending, so that one of the suspects was really a detective and the cute female was innocent of the murder the Judge accused her of (in the book, she was guilty as sin), and those two live happily ever after. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-everyone-dies-unavoidable-spoilers-but-try-to-be-kind/620044/10 "2012-04-26T19:24:14Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > I assume > > Dr Strangelove > > fits the bill. No- the President and a small number of important people will suvive in bunkers and repopulate the Earth. ---
**Author:** ![tullsterx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tullsterx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tullsterx)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-everyone-dies-unavoidable-spoilers-but-try-to-be-kind/620044/11 "2012-04-26T19:24:30Z")
Well, concerning. . . Cabin in the Woods, you don’t actually see all of the characters die, but, it’s very STRONGLY implied. I don’t really like your implied condition. . . John Carpenter’s The Thing . . . but, I guess the last two deaths in the frozen destroyed camp, are implied Sunshine. . . I don’t think that’s implied, but you really don’t see him die. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-everyone-dies-unavoidable-spoilers-but-try-to-be-kind/620044/12 "2012-04-26T19:27:56Z")
I can think of an Eighties horror-comedy… In _ **Return of the Living Dead** _, the Army is notified of the zombie plague, and they nuke the area, killing both the zombies AND the people who’d managed to survive ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-everyone-dies-unavoidable-spoilers-but-try-to-be-kind/620044/13 "2012-04-26T19:29:30Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > No- the President and a small number of important people will suvive in bunkers and repopulate the Earth. I thought they were making their plans to survive in bunkers when the bombs went off before they could ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-everyone-dies-unavoidable-spoilers-but-try-to-be-kind/620044/14 "2012-04-26T19:48:38Z")
I’m not going to spoiler a 400-year old work. Doesn’t every adaptation of \*Hamlet \*count? The biggest character to survive is Horatio. ---
**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:** [April 26, 2012, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-everyone-dies-unavoidable-spoilers-but-try-to-be-kind/620044/15 "2012-04-26T19:54:26Z")
If you want a TV series, there was **Dinosaurs**. Especially notable because it was a family comedy. ---
**Author:** ![MyFootsZZZ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/myfootszzz/32/12580_2.png) [@MyFootsZZZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MyFootsZZZ)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-everyone-dies-unavoidable-spoilers-but-try-to-be-kind/620044/16 "2012-04-26T20:01:30Z")
Six Feet Under …is a TV show where everyone dies. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-everyone-dies-unavoidable-spoilers-but-try-to-be-kind/620044/17 "2012-04-26T20:26:17Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > If you want a TV series, there was **Dinosaurs**. Especially notable because it was a family comedy. Or three out of the four Blackadder series. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-everyone-dies-unavoidable-spoilers-but-try-to-be-kind/620044/18 "2012-04-26T20:30:22Z")
1988 indy nuclear war-themed drama Miracle Mile ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-everyone-dies-unavoidable-spoilers-but-try-to-be-kind/620044/19 "2012-04-26T20:46:04Z")
Do alternate endings count? 2008 Australian/American co-production horror film The Ruins has all the characters dead, but only in the alternate ending. I’d argue that by the film’s logic, even in the theatrical cut the death of the survivor[s] is implied even though they are shown “escaping”. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-everyone-dies-unavoidable-spoilers-but-try-to-be-kind/620044/20 "2012-04-26T21:02:35Z")
I could be wrong about this (I only saw it once), but … In **Contagion** , I believe the last scene hints that Patient Zero was mis-identified, so we are led to believe that the contagion isn’t contained at all and therefore … everyone dies. Eventually. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-in-which-everyone-dies-unavoidable-spoilers-but-try-to-be-kind/620044.md?page=2)