# Movies ruined by "Happy Endings". So spoilers, I hope **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [June 24, 2022, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749 "2022-06-24T15:26:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2022, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/61 "2022-06-25T01:07:39Z")
I feel literally the only reason for that framing device is for the “twist” ending which really isn’t needed. It just adds running time to an already bloated movie. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2022, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/62 "2022-06-25T01:11:45Z")
I don’t think it’s supposed to be a “twist”, per se. Not like we were initially led to believe the old guy in the cemetery was someone else… at least, once Tom Hanks dies. I agree that it’s arguably superfluous. But it certainly doesn’t _detract_ from the film, to me. And the idea of being worthy of others’ sacrifice is a powerful one. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2022, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/63 "2022-06-25T01:13:28Z")
The bookending cemetery scene in _Saving Private Ryan_ isn’t a “happy ending”. It’s part of the trick to make you think it is Capt.Miller visiting the grave site. Then you get faked out, and Ryan gets to wonder if he was a “good man”. A happy ending would have been Miller walking up behind Ryan, "I’m not dead, that’s a mistake. They really need to fix that headstone. " A happy ending would have been Miller getting home to his wife and life. Who da fuck cares about that asshole Ryan? I think once he told Miller that story about the ugly girl, Miller realized what an asshole he was, and really started hating the mission. It’s a damn shame Ryan lived and Miller died. Thanks Steven. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2022, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/64 "2022-06-25T01:34:32Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > What is it specifically that you object to? Because it’s certainly common for people to object to the present-day-cemetery-framing-device, which I don’t mind at all. To me its not hollywood adding a happy ending (its still absolutely not a happy ending, almost everyone is still dead). Its the other hollywood crime of insisting on shouting at the audience, and printing in glowing dayglo 12 foot high letters, what would have been far better leaving as sub-text. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2022, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/65 "2022-06-25T03:07:38Z")
There are exceptions. I can’t offhand recall a movie, but Rodgers and Hammerstein saw Molnar sitting in the audience of _Carousel_ in tears, and thought he was crying because they’d ruined his original play, _Liliom_ (for “Lily”, the hero’s ironic nickname). But afterwards, when they spoke with him, it turned out that he had tried and tried to find a way to give the story a happy ending, but hadn’t been able; he was weeping for joy that someone had found the answer. ---
**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:** [June 25, 2022, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/66 "2022-06-25T03:16:30Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > In my opinion, the movie that suffers the most for the dumb and so very much not needed “happy ending” is A.I. Artificial Intelligence. The very sad but appropriate ending was David sitting at the bottom of the ocean waiting for his mom to come love him. The tacked on alien bullshit was dumb. In that thread Slithy\_Trove gives an example of the good happy ending being ruined by a tacked on sad ending. I think there are much less of those but would be happy to see examples. Any others? You know those were robots, not aliens, right? ---
**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:** [June 25, 2022, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/67 "2022-06-25T03:52:43Z")
I recently watched _Saturday Night Fever_ and I feel the movie leaned in this direction. The main thread of the narrative was Tony Manero’s growing awareness that he was trapped in a dead end life. His ability to dance let him avoid thinking about it but when he lost that, he realized he had nothing else. The movie’s ending where Tony basically decided he was now going to go out and make something of his life seemed wrong to me. Tony didn’t suddenly develop any life skills he hadn’t had earlier in the movie. So even if he made the decision, why should we expect that he was able to go anywhere with it? But the movie ended at that exact point so we didn’t see the follow-up (unless you were one of the unfortunate people who watched the sequel). The original magazine article (“Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night” by Nik Cohn) didn’t have this ending. In the article, Vincent just acknowledged he was stuck in his life and had no better future ahead of him. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2022, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/68 "2022-06-25T05:13:49Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Then, while the movie was being made, Sid Sheinberg became head of Universal. ? Sid Sheinberg was head of Universal from 1973 to 1995. He is also the man who, more than any other, can claim to have ‘discovered’ Spielberg. And yes, you are correct on all the other particulars (as I recall them), but whatever happened between Sid and Terry didn’t happen because Sid was (or was becoming) the new Universal Studios boss. Sid was in charge of Universal, releasing _Jaws_ the same year (1975) Gilliam was drawing a BBC check, releasing _Holy Grail_. > **[Sidney Sheinberg](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Sheinberg)** > > Sidney Jay Sheinberg (January 14, 1935 – March 7, 2019) was an American businessman, lawyer and entertainment executive. He served as president and CEO of MCA Inc. and Universal Studios for over 40 years. > Sheinberg, the son of Jewish immigrants, a Ukrainian mother, Tillie (Grossman), and a Polish father, Harry Sheinberg, grew up in Corpus Christi, Texas where he was born on January 14, 1935. In 1955, Sheinberg graduated from Columbia University and subsequently attended Columbia Law School, as... ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2022, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/69 "2022-06-25T05:35:37Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > District 9 and Elysium in particular (Elysium most of all). Really great sci-fi, generally not conforming to the obvious hollywood tropes, ruined by a trite final act with every dumb hollywood happy ending trope going. You and I must have watched two completely different movies called District 9. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2022, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/70 "2022-06-25T07:26:11Z")
I’ve always LOATHED the ending to As Good As It Gets, with Helen Hunt winding up with Jack Nicholson. There was ZERO chemistry between the two characters. Yes, he grew and became a better person because of associating with (and helping) her - but that did not require them to become an item. It felt stilted, and really ruined the movie for me. My Fair Lady (movie and of course the play) ends with Eliza returning to Henry Higgins’ house after running out because he’s been so verbally abusive. That was the “happy ending”. George Bernard Shaw wrote Pygmalion, the play MFL was based on, and thought the idea of Eliza and Higgins winding up together was wrong. Again, no chemistry or hint of any kind of real friendship was ever given in the show - the authors of the show clearly decided that there Must Be A “Happy” Ending. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2022, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/71 "2022-06-25T08:05:43Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > My Fair Lady (movie and of course the play) ends with Eliza returning to Henry Higgins’ house after running out because he’s been so verbally abusive. That was the “happy ending”. I didn’t read that as “happy” so much as bittersweet in the sense of “well, we can’t stand each other, but what other choice do we have”. A happy ending would have had Higgins say “I love you” instead of “Where the devil are my slippers?” ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2022, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/72 "2022-06-25T14:04:35Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > My Fair Lady (movie and of course the play) ends with Eliza returning to Henry Higgins’ house after running out because he’s been so verbally abusive. That was the “happy ending”. George Bernard Shaw wrote Pygmalion, the play MFL was based on, and thought the idea of Eliza and Higgins winding up together was wrong. The most recent revival I saw at Lincoln Center a few years back ended with Eliza leaving and walking off the stage, through the audience and out of the auditorium so Higgins says his lines alone. IIRC it was a bit controversial but I thought that was the only ending that made sense with the story we had just seen. ---
**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:** [June 25, 2022, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/73 "2022-06-25T15:58:34Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > To go back a ways, “And Then There Were None” – the best known version of the movie has a happy ending tacked on. The book version is a dark story about how ordinary people are capable of killing, sometimes accidentally but without remorse, sometimes casually and without regret, sometimes in the grip of powerful emotions. It is a book about the pernicious influence of social class and of colonialism. It has a message beyond the puzzle, unlike most Christie books. Most of that message is lost by the substitute ending. Yeah, that’s the first version I ever saw. Acorn has a more recent version that is true to the original and very dark. Where’s Louis Hayward riding to the rescue??? So much more satisfying with the original book ending. Although I do love Judith Anderson in the movie. > [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > George Bernard Shaw wrote Pygmalion, the play MFL was based on, and thought the idea of Eliza and Higgins winding up together was wrong. Watch the movie of Pygmalion, instead. Wendy Hiller is miles above Audrey Hepburn. ---
**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:** [June 25, 2022, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/74 "2022-06-25T16:19:04Z")
In the silent film _The Last Laugh,_ the original ending had the protagonist utterly defeated when he’s demoted from the high prestige job of a hotel doorman to becoming a men’s room attendant. Also, one of the film’s techniques is to eschew intertitles; you only saw the action on the screen. But in the end, the tragedy was glossed over with the only intertitle: > Here our story should really end, for in actual life, the forlorn old man would have little to look forward to but death. The author took pity on him, however, and provided quite an improbable epilogue. So the ex-doorman inherits a fortune from the millionaire A. G. Money (who was never introduced before) and visits the hotel as an honored guest. Clearly tacked on, as the title admits. ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2022, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/75 "2022-06-25T19:57:27Z")
_The Day of the Triffids_, which has a happy ending tacked on which is not in the book. ---
**Author:** ![Asympotically\_fat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2022, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/76 "2022-06-25T20:24:17Z")
The ulimate example is the 1993 remake of The Vanishing. In the orignal 1988 flim the dark ending is what the entire film sets up and is the pay-off. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2022, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/77 "2022-06-25T20:25:30Z")
I don’t know if it was a tacked on ending, or if was intended to have a happy ending from the beginning, but I thought the 1994 movie “The Scout” was going to have a much darker ending than it had. It’s about a baseball scout played by Albert Brooks who was sent to Mexico and there, finds a phenomenal pitcher named Steve Nebraska (Brendan Fraser). In the Mexican village he is currently pitching in he is treated as a virtual god, being carried to the field on a chair decorated with flowers. Brooks convinces him to come to New York for a Yankee tryout, but it turns out Steve is mentally unstable and the Yankee organization forces him into therapy. Along here there’s some foreshadowing, Steve watches the movie “King Kong”. When; before his on field debut, Steve has a panic attack and climbs to the roof of Yankee Stadium, closely followed by Albert Brooks in a helicopter, I figured Chekhov’s gun was going off, and Steve was coming down like King Kong. Instead, Brooks talks Steve into coming down, and Steve pitches a perfect game one of the world series, striking out 27 batters on 81 pitches and hitting 2 solo home runs. It was kind of a let down for me. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2022, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/78 "2022-06-25T20:38:21Z")
I guess people speak as they find but at the end of AI I felt pity, dispair and grief. Which, if that was _supposed_ to be a happy ending, suggests it failed pretty hard in my case. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2022, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/79 "2022-06-25T22:00:42Z")
If we’re talking tacked on bad endings there’s a ton of sci-fi horror movies with the terrible THE END… OR IS IT??? Twist which just makes the ending predictable and stupid. The ending to the 90s The Blob remake is the perfect example of this, it’s an overall fantastic movie EXCEPT for the horrendous come out of nowhere ending where the minor character of the fire-and-brimestone small town Preacher suddenly becomes evil and starts threatening Biblical Armageddon because he’s still somehow have a piece of the blob creature in a glass bottle? I know famously the original The Blob had the **?** ending but if they had just kept that open-ended ending it would have made the film so much better especially since now with accelerating climate change it makes that ending so much more timely and horrific since we know EVENTUALLY the blob will break out of it’s artic prison. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2022, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/80 "2022-06-25T22:18:40Z")
I volunteered in a juvenile theater company where the director purchased the rights to Pygmalion but grafted the music from My Fair Lady into it (cheaper that way than purchasing the rights to MFL, and easier to stage.) The show ended with Eliza leaving and Higgins singing “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Your Face” on an empty stage – possibly the only time in history the director of a youth theater group shot for an _ **even more** _ unhappy ending than the original. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749.md?page=5)