# 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:** 6
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2022, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/101 "2022-07-03T17:11:58Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > _The Threepenny Opera_ (the one that gave us the “oh the shark bites…with his teeth dear” song) was adapted from The Beggar’s Opera, so presumably, it, too, has a ridiculously happy ending. But I’ve never seen it. The ending always made perfect sense to me. Macheath was the worst criminal in all of London, so quite naturally he was made a duke. ---
**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:** [July 3, 2022, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/102 "2022-07-03T17:55:34Z")
Movies ruined by “Happy Endings”. Well, my escort ruined the climatic stomach-burster scene in Alien when she gave me a Happy En… Oh, wait…never mind. _Boxing Helena_ Would have been better if it wasn’t revealed to be a dream. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2022, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/103 "2022-07-03T20:17:45Z")
> [@eschrodinger](#): > > On seeing the topic, my first thought was Blade Runner. Ruined not just by the happy ending, but by the pedantic voiceover. Exactly my reaction as well. ---
**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:** [July 4, 2022, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/104 "2022-07-04T00:32:30Z")
> [@Mike\_Mabes](#): > > Shawshank. I believe the original cut ended on the bus with “I hope.” Didn’t ruin the film, but the beach scene was unnecessary Yeah, a very tough call in the editing room for the filmmakers. I do think they did the right thing, but I also could see them pulling the plug after “I hope”. I still think that would be a happy ending, though, just not shown fully to us. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2022, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/105 "2022-07-04T09:48:48Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > The ending always made perfect sense to me. Macheath was the worst criminal in all of London, so quite naturally he was made a duke. Reminds me of the ending of _The Pirates of Penzance_ in which the pirates are revealed to all be “noblemen who have gone wrong” and therefore get forgiven. And married off to the Major General’s various daughters. It is very silly, but at least the whole operetta is consistently silly. ---
**Author:** ![Stanislaus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stanislaus/32/3391_2.png) [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2022, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/106 "2022-07-04T10:18:21Z")
The 1954 _Animal Farm_ animated movie ends not with the famous “the animals looked from pig to man and from man to pig” bleakness but with Benjamin leading a triumphant rebellion against the pigs. This is probably something to do with the [movie’s uncredited producers](https://www.bl.uk/20th-century-literature/articles/an-introduction-to-animal-farm): > In her study of the CIA’s cold war culture-war Frances Stonor Saunders describes how the CIA covertly acquired the subsidiary rights to _Animal Farm_ from Orwell’s second wife and widow Sonia.[[2]](https://www.bl.uk/20th-century-literature/articles/an-introduction-to-animal-farm#footnote2) The film was produced in England and released in 1954, the ending radically changed to predict the eventual overthrow of swine-human totalitarianism by the unquenchable forces of Western democracy. It was a wholly non-Orwellian happy ending. ---
**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:** [July 4, 2022, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/107 "2022-07-04T18:47:18Z")
> [@Stanislaus](#): > > The 1954 _Animal Farm_ animated movie ends not with the famous “the animals looked from pig to man and from man to pig” bleakness but with Benjamin leading a triumphant rebellion against the pigs. This is probably something to do with the [movie’s uncredited producers](https://www.bl.uk/20th-century-literature/articles/an-introduction-to-animal-farm): This is the George Orwell movie I referred to above that at least one site claims is responsible for the story that there exists a “happy ending” version of **1984.** ---
**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:** [July 4, 2022, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/108 "2022-07-04T19:37:49Z")
Wasn’t the original a happy ending? After all, he loved Big Brother. ---
**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:** [July 5, 2022, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/109 "2022-07-05T01:24:05Z")
“What I told you was true, Luke…from a certain point of view.” ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2022, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/110 "2022-07-06T04:39:39Z")
There was a fun little movie I watched a while ago called **Die in a Gunfight**. It is a modern-day take on Romeo and Juliet and there are gunfights at pivotal moments during which anyone could die. The main character tells the audience quite clearly that he expects to die in a gunfight. There is a gunfight at the end of the movie. The main character does not die in a gunfight. ---
**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:** [July 6, 2022, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/111 "2022-07-06T04:56:01Z")
On a similar note, there’s _John Dies at the End_, in which John doesn’t die, at the end or at any other point. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2022, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/112 "2022-07-06T04:58:54Z")
If you want your title to tell the truth, watch _Penn And Teller Get Killed_(1989). ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2022, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/113 "2022-07-06T05:22:42Z")
Or The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance, where Liberty Vallance is shot, by a man. ---
**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:** [July 6, 2022, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/114 "2022-07-06T05:35:11Z")
I have never seen _How Stella Got Her Groove Back_, but it is my understanding that by the end of the film Stella does, in fact, reclaim her groove. ---
**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:** [July 6, 2022, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/115 "2022-07-06T05:39:16Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > If you want your title to tell the truth, watch _Penn And Teller Get Killed_(1989). Technically only Penn got killed. Teller killed himself. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2022, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/116 "2022-07-06T05:40:15Z")
He still got killed, didn’t he? ---
**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:** [July 6, 2022, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/117 "2022-07-06T06:01:34Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > Or the alternate ending to Big. Reported. 😉 ---
**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:** [July 6, 2022, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/118 "2022-07-06T06:07:05Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > He still got killed, didn’t he? It’s two in the morning. I am not going to be drawn into a grammatical debate over the distinctions between Teller is killed and Teller gets killed. ---
**Author:** ![TCMF-2L](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tcmf-2l/32/16553_2.png) [@TCMF-2L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TCMF-2L)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2022, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/119 "2022-07-06T11:28:41Z")
**The Man Who Killed Hitler And Then The Bigfoot** did… But if I understood the film correctly that’s not really the point. TCMF-2L ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2022, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/120 "2022-07-06T13:14:39Z")
But did the main character in _Don’t be a Menace in South Central While Drinking Your Juice in The Hood_ manage to NOT be a menace to South Central while drinking his juice in the hood? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749.md?page=7)