# 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:** 7
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2022, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/121 "2022-07-06T19:30:18Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Stephen King’s short story / novelette ‘The Mist’ was a nice sci-fi horror in which scientists opened a portal to a parallel dimension that unleashed a monster-carrying mist that devastated the Maine town nearby. Ugh. I hated the cinematic ending. I’ve always thought that the novella ended in the best possible way it could have- they’re _probably_ screwed, but just might make it. The movie’s ending was like the mist was saying “Screw this one guy, right here, in particular.” I enjoy the movie, but always turn it off right before the car runs out of gas. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2022, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/122 "2022-07-06T20:02:32Z")
My example is a classic, “African Queen”, a really good movie, and I’m surprised it hasn’t been mentioned yet. So there’s the story of two polar opposites of characters bound together by destiny to survive an adventurous journey, one being an uncouth, unkempt, down-right dirty and hopeless cynical alcoholic and the other an uptight female missionary, a spinster of course with a stick up her ass. They bitch and bitch throughout the whole movie, while slowly gaining their mutual respect, and that’s all played exceptionally well. But what happens in the end? They fucking _marry_, which is totally against the grain of the whole setup. I couldn’t believe this ending, it ruined the whole movie for me. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2022, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/123 "2022-07-06T20:09:05Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > 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. If she had been careful, her groove would never have left in the first place. Stella was a poor custodian of her groove. mmm ---
**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 6, 2022, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/124 "2022-07-06T20:33:39Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > But what happens in the end? Another “Happy Ending” to the movie is that the _African Queen_, although it sank, still protrudes enough above the surface so that the Louisa can run into it, this setting off the torpedoes that would have run into her if the African Queen hadn’t sunk. So they actually succeeded in the end. In C.S. Forester’s book, that didn’t happen – a British gunboat sinks the _Louisa_ I can’t say it spoiled it, though. Without that success, Charlie and Rose’s efforts would have been completely wasted. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2022, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/125 "2022-07-06T20:39:27Z")
Somebody mentioned “Clerks” in a recent thread. Here is the original ending: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/7J9vyoAIQRs/maxresdefault.jpg "Clerks - The Snyder Cut") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J9vyoAIQRs) He wasn’t even supposed to be there that day! ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2022, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/126 "2022-07-07T13:01:18Z")
**Noises Off** is about a production of a stage play that keeps going wrong no matter how hard the actors try. The 1992 film adaptation ends with them…finally getting it right. ---
**Author:** ![tullsterx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tullsterx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tullsterx)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2022, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/127 "2022-07-07T14:47:43Z")
I love the _ending_ of The Mist movie. That’s the only good thing about it. I haven’t read the story. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2022, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/128 "2022-07-07T15:20:17Z")
> [@solost](#): > > How about, not to thread-Jack, but a polar opposite example, just for fun: a movie improved by a darker ending. This is the only example of that I can think of: > > Stephen King’s short story / novelette ‘The Mist’… > [@Lightnin](#): > > Ugh. I hated the cinematic ending. I’ve always thought that the novella ended in the best possible way it could have- they’re _probably_ screwed, but just might make it. > [@tullsterx](#): > > I love the _ending_ of The Mist movie. That’s the only good thing about it. I haven’t read the story. Yeah, you have to have a stomach for grim endings, but I liked the movie ending because it was a twist that still flowed naturally from the story, and defied the typical happy Hollywood ending. It is a horror story after all, so a horrific ending is appropriate. ---
**Author:** ![2\_More\_Bits](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/2_more_bits/32/4148_2.png) [@2\_More\_Bits](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2_More_Bits)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2022, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/129 "2022-07-07T15:22:10Z")
That makes two of us. I’ve watched that (imperfect) film 4 times and each time came away with that feeling. (Admission: I always thought they were aliens) ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2022, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/130 "2022-07-07T23:34:01Z")
The remake of _The Little Shop of Horrors_. The ending of _Pretty in Pink_. Both sucky endings due to audience reaction from previews. ---
**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 8, 2022, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/131 "2022-07-08T11:30:08Z")
I’ve never seen it, but the 1975 movie **Lucky Lady** reportedly had up to three endings, one of them a “happy” ending. I’m not sure if any of them worked. > [@](#): > > In the original script, the two male leads were killed by government agents and the final scene happened ten years later with Liza Minnelli’s character married to a boring businessman remembering the men she once loved. The writers said when they sold it, “The studio loved the script, and at that point no one objected to the ending.”[[8]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Lady#cite_note-new-8) > > “One of the first images in our minds when we began to work on the script was the ending,” said Katz. "The idea of this woman remembering the two men she loved. We worked backwards from that. To us, the romance of the piece was in the idea of separation and loss.[[8]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Lady#cite_note-new-8) > > Because the film was booked in for a Christmas release, Donen only had three months to edit the film. During this time Donen became concerned about the ending, feeling that the film had become much lighter than originally intended, and tried several different ones, including simply cutting off the final ten minutes. He eventually decided the film needed a happy ending and Fox agreed to finance a reshot scene. Because Minnelli was filming _A Matter of Time_ in Rome, Donen, Hackman and Reynolds flew to Rome in November and shot a new ending.[[8]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Lady#cite_note-new-8) The ending consisted of the three characters in bed together ten years later.[[18]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Lady#cite_note-end-18) > > Huyck and Katz wrote the new ending, albeit reluctantly. “To us the original ending made a comment about the choices a woman has to make. But instead of making it the story of this woman, Stanley has made it a story of three people. That’s valid. It’s just different from what we originally intended.”[[8]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Lady#cite_note-new-8) > > Garth Wigan, a Fox executive at the time, later recalled, “We previewed the movie nine times. The 2-hour, 30-minute version was wonderful. Burt Reynolds and Liza Minelli died at the end and everything was set up for them to die. But market research told us they shouldn’t die, so we started chopping a bit here, a bit there. We took the seriousness out. The only good preview we had was when the film broke, and Stanley Donen, the director, did a dance for the audience while it was being spliced.”[[19]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Lady#cite_note-19) > > It was decided that the new ending was not suitable, in part due to poor make up. So a third ending was used, which cut off the last ten minutes of the film.[[18]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Lady#cite_note-end-18) > > Minnelli later criticized Donen for taking “out the part that made you feel like the three of us are in peril. I saw the finished picture and I never once was afraid for us. Most of the serious moments were removed too.”[[14]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Lady#cite_note-liza-14) > > Reynolds and Minnelli both criticized the new ending, requesting that the studio show the three different endings to the press. Donen refused and since he had final cut the studio backed him. Donen called Minnelli an “emotional child” for this criticism.[[18]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Lady#cite_note-end-18) > **[Lucky Lady](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Lady)** > > Lucky Lady is a 1975 American comedy-drama film directed by Stanley Donen and starring Liza Minnelli, Gene Hackman, Burt Reynolds and Robby Benson. Its story takes place in 1930 during Prohibition in the United States. > The film is notable for serving as a storefront\[clarification needed\] for George Lucas and Gary Kurtz who were looking for crew to assist with the look of Star Wars. Both visited the set during production and were impressed with what they saw. Several of the predominantly British ... ---
**Author:** ![Moonrise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moonrise/32/14764_2.png) [@Moonrise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonrise)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2022, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/132 "2022-08-16T18:43:13Z")
Not a movie but **Mozart** ’s _Don Giovanni_ has a happy ending that feels tacked on to a modern audience. The titular character has just been dragged to hell by the statue of a man he killed at the very beginning of the opera. It’s one of the most spectacular scenes in the whole repertoire and the music is among the most haunting and intense that Mozart ever wrote. It is followed by as light-hearted concluding ensemble in D Major where [Donna Anna, Don Ottavio, Donna Elvira, Zerlina, and Masetto arrive, searching for the villain. They find instead Leporello hiding under the table, shaken by the supernatural horror he has witnessed. He assures them that no one will ever see Don Giovanni again. The remaining characters announce their plans for the future: Donna Anna and Don Ottavio will marry when Donna Anna’s year of mourning is over; Donna Elvira will withdraw from society for the rest of her life; Zerlina and Masetto will finally go home for dinner; and Leporello will go to the tavern to find a better master.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Giovanni#Act_2) It feels so artificial to a modern audience that some performances omit it, finishing on the dramatic comeuppance of the unrepentant Don Giovanni. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2022, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/133 "2022-08-16T18:56:31Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > 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??? Heh, someone should make a SF/Horror movie where we see: > THE END. > . > . > . > (Really, it is the end; the monster’s dead). ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2022, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/134 "2022-08-16T19:30:10Z")
The same device turns up in parodied form at the end of P.D.Q. Bach’s opera _The Stoned Guest_: after every character has been killed or falls over dead, the entire ensemble suddenly jumps up to sing one last chorus in praise of happy endings. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2022, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/135 "2022-08-17T02:49:31Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > Stella was a poor custodian of her groove. It’s shit like this that make this The Coolest Fucking Website Ever. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2022, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/136 "2022-08-17T03:19:48Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Well, right off the bat…they aren’t aliens. They’re advanced Mechas. And the reason they treat David so well is because he’s their only collection to the mythical “humans” that created them. That’s why they give him the lie of seeing his mother again. That was all a simulation. David was so unsophisticated that the mechas couldn’t “fix” him, so they did the best they could. They gave him what he wanted, even if it wasn’t real. And he was happy. Not only did they give him “what he wanted,” once they did that, they effectively robo-euthanized him (put him to sleep forever). It’s only a happy ending if, like David, the viewer lacks the sophistication to comprehend what is really happening. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2022, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/137 "2022-08-17T04:19:49Z")
Mid-90s, hell. Spielberg fucked up _ **JAWS** _ in 1975 with an ending (to quote _ **MAD Magazine** _) “not even a shark could swallow.” I have a copy of _ **Pygmalion** _ with the original ending, in which Eliza walks out on Higgins, and Shaw’s reaction to the contrived “happy ending” that was tacked on later. ---
**Author:** ![dummygladhands71](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c0e974/32.png) [@dummygladhands71](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dummygladhands71)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2022, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/138 "2022-08-17T04:31:48Z")
The Horse Whisperer. Eff Redford for what he did to that book. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2022, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/139 "2022-08-17T05:12:34Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I have a copy of _ **Pygmalion** _ with the original ending, in which Eliza walks out on Higgins, and Shaw’s reaction to the contrived “happy ending” that was tacked on later. Yup, [a delightful essay.](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3825/3825-h/3825-h.htm) > [@](#): > > The rest of the story need not be shown in action, and indeed, would hardly need telling if our imaginations were not so enfeebled by their lazy dependence on the ready-makes and reach-me-downs of the ragshop in which Romance keeps its stock of “happy endings” to misfit all stories. […] > > […] people in all directions have assumed, for no other reason than that she became the heroine of a romance, that she must have married the hero of it. This is unbearable, not only because her little drama, if acted on such a thoughtless assumption, must be spoiled, but because the true sequel is patent to anyone with a sense of human nature in general, and of feminine instinct in particular. > > Eliza, in telling Higgins she would not marry him if he asked her, was not coquetting: she was announcing a well-considered decision. […] Eliza’s instinct tells her not to marry Higgins. It does not tell her to give him up. It is not in the slightest doubt as to his remaining one of the strongest personal interests in her life. […] > > And now, whom did Eliza marry? For if Higgins was a predestinate old bachelor, she was most certainly not a predestinate old maid. Well, that can be told very shortly to those who have not guessed it from the indications she has herself given them. […] > > This being the state of human affairs, what is Eliza fairly sure to do when she is placed between Freddy and Higgins? Will she look forward to a lifetime of fetching Higgins’s slippers or to a lifetime of Freddy fetching hers? There can be no doubt about the answer. Unless Freddy is biologically repulsive to her, and Higgins biologically attractive to a degree that overwhelms all her other instincts, she will, if she marries either of them, marry Freddy. > > And that is just what Eliza did. […] > > That is all. That is how it has turned out. It is astonishing how much Eliza still manages to meddle in the housekeeping at Wimpole Street in spite of the shop and her own family. And it is notable that though she never nags her husband, and frankly loves the Colonel as if she were his favorite daughter, she has never got out of the habit of nagging Higgins that was established on the fatal night when she won his bet for him. She snaps his head off on the faintest provocation, or on none. […] Nothing but some emergency or calamity great enough to break down all likes and dislikes, and throw them both back on their common humanity—and may they be spared any such trial!—will ever alter this. She knows that Higgins does not need her, just as her father did not need her. […] But when it comes to business, to the life that she really leads as distinguished from the life of dreams and fancies, she likes Freddy and she likes the Colonel; and she does not like Higgins and Mr. Doolittle. Galatea never does quite like Pygmalion: his relation to her is too godlike to be altogether agreeable. ---
**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:** [August 17, 2022, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749/140 "2022-08-17T15:13:48Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > > [@TimfromNapa](#): > > > > Ruined not only the story, but also any chance of continuing the series as Douglas Adams wrote it. > > Adams wrote the screenplay. > > [The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (film) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy_(film)) Adams didn’t write the screenplay. Not exactly. The article you posted says the final script was based on his final draft. His final draft was not filmed. Without reading his final draft we can’t see how close it was to what was filmed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-ruined-by-happy-endings-so-spoilers-i-hope/966749.md?page=8)