# Stories Where the Hero Loses (Spoilers possible)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-the-hero-loses-spoilers-possible/968209
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [July 19, 2022, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-the-hero-loses-spoilers-possible/968209 "2022-07-19T16:56:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2022, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-the-hero-loses-spoilers-possible/968209/1 "2022-07-19T16:56:36Z")
In fiction, the good guy always wins, right?
Not 100% of the time. Sometimes the good guy flat out loses. Sometimes there may be a moral victory, but it’s not resolved into an actual victory.
There are two classic examples I can think of.
_To Kill a Mockingbird_ - Atticus may have done a better job than any other attorney in history in defending Tom Robinson, but he still lost the case. To make it worse, Tom tried to escape and was killed.
_Rocky (the first)_ - Yeah, Rocky’s whole goal was just to get to fight in a real championship bout, and he put up a good fight, but he still lost. If the movie hadn’t been so successful to make _Rocky II_ possible, it would have ended right there.
Of course there are tragedies like _Romeo and Juliet_, where the heroes not only don’t win, they end up dead. Maybe the families made up, maybe they didn’t.
Any other great examples?
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2022, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-the-hero-loses-spoilers-possible/968209/2 "2022-07-19T17:03:02Z")
The original _Bad News Bears_ is another example. They actually lost the final game but celebrated like it was a victory.
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### Author:  [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2022, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-the-hero-loses-spoilers-possible/968209/3 "2022-07-19T17:07:10Z")
A recent clear cut example is Avengers: Infinity War, where Thanos emerges victorious and wipes out half of life in the universe.
For less clear cut examples, the slasher movies of the 1980s (Halloween, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street) typically end with the villain being defeated only temporarily. They are always revived / resurrected for the next sequel.
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### Author:  [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2022, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-the-hero-loses-spoilers-possible/968209/4 "2022-07-19T17:07:14Z")
Pretty big spoiler so,
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Also, Brazil and, I think, Pink Floyd’s The Wall.
ETA: American Beauty
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### Author:  [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2022, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-the-hero-loses-spoilers-possible/968209/5 "2022-07-19T17:11:44Z")
The Parallax View Not only does the hero NOT expose the assassination conspiracy, he gets killed and framed for a different assassination. And his friends that helped him get killed, too.
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### Author:  [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2022, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-the-hero-loses-spoilers-possible/968209/6 "2022-07-19T17:11:44Z")
More spoilers, but the film [Miracle Mile](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_Mile_(film)). It’s set up as a traditional romance/adventure film where probably everything will end up okay for the protagonist. Then at the end it doesn’t.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2022, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-the-hero-loses-spoilers-possible/968209/7 "2022-07-19T17:13:42Z")
**Watchmen** , arguably — they fail to halt the incredibly destructive scheme, in both the original graphic novel and the 2009 film.
So also in **Avengers: Infinity War** , although much was set right in **Avengers: Endgame**
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2022, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-the-hero-loses-spoilers-possible/968209/8 "2022-07-19T17:15:49Z")
_The Empire Strikes Back_. The first act features the Rebellion being routed from their main base, and being forced to flee. By the end, Luke has abandoned his Jedi training too early, and been defeated by his foe (losing his hand in the fight, and coping with the revelation that Vader is his father), and Han has been frozen in carbonite, and hauled off to Jabba the Hutt. Not a happy ending at all.
But, like _Avengers: Infinity War_, mentioned upthread, the losses are there to set up the victories in the next film.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2022, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-the-hero-loses-spoilers-possible/968209/9 "2022-07-19T17:16:37Z")
As I’ve mentioned frequently here (and did so recently), in C.S. Forester’s novel **The African Queen** Charlie Allnut and Rosie fail in their effort to sink the _Louisa_, unlike the movie. The _Louisa_ is sunk, but not by their efforts.
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2022, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-the-hero-loses-spoilers-possible/968209/10 "2022-07-19T17:20:08Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#):
>
> A recent clear cut example is Avengers: Infinity War, where Thanos emerges victorious and wipes out half of life in the universe.
I don’t think movies that are part 1 of 2 or such count. We all knew it was a two part story.
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### Author:  [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2022, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-the-hero-loses-spoilers-possible/968209/11 "2022-07-19T17:20:15Z")
Beneath the Planet of the Apes Taylor explodes the Doomsday Device, killing every living thing on the planet. (Dr Zaius was RIGHT! Man IS a danger.)
The Omega Man Neville dies at the end, but at least maybe humanity has a chance. So maybe the hero won. Or maybe not. Evil was doing pretty well at the end of the film.
Soylent Green I’m said before, just because Thorn yells the famous phrase, I don’t think it will make a difference. The oceans are still dead, humanity is still dying.
The 70s were really big on this. And they loved casting Heston.
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### Author:  [@Esprise\_Me](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprise_Me)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2022, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-the-hero-loses-spoilers-possible/968209/12 "2022-07-19T17:20:17Z")
I wouldn’t quite call this “losing,” but I’ve always appreciated how the movie _Crazy Heart_ doesn’t end with the hero getting the girl. He gets his shit together, fulfills his quest to stop drinking, find his muse and start writing songs again, and… it’s too late. She’s moved on. And that’s OK, because she is a human person with her own arc and her happy ending doesn’t involve him. And he accepts it, because as he acknowledges, she deserves the good man she’s now engaged to. It’s so unsexist it still makes me misty-eyed.
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### Author:  [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2022, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-the-hero-loses-spoilers-possible/968209/13 "2022-07-19T17:23:44Z")
Not the movie version but the book Cujo ends with the mom winning the battle with the dog but losing the war to save her kid.
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### Author:  [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2022, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-the-hero-loses-spoilers-possible/968209/14 "2022-07-19T17:24:40Z")
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
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### Author:  [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2022, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-the-hero-loses-spoilers-possible/968209/15 "2022-07-19T17:27:28Z")
_Time After Time_. Poor Jack gets launched into an Infinite Vortex of Timelessness.
What? Wasn’t Jack The Ripper the Hero?
Nevermind…
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2022, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-the-hero-loses-spoilers-possible/968209/16 "2022-07-19T17:27:40Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#):
>
> The 70s were really big on this. And they loved casting Heston.
You reminded me of another one from that era: _They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?_
It takes place during the Great Depression. The main characters (played by Michael Sarrazin and Jane Fonda) are competing in a dance marathon, hoping for the cash prize.
By the end, they discover that the winning prize will be much smaller than promised, and they drop out of the competition; Fonda’s character becomes despondent, and begs Sarrazin’s character to kill her. He shoots her, and is then hauled off by the police.
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### Author:  [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2022, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-the-hero-loses-spoilers-possible/968209/17 "2022-07-19T17:29:04Z")
Vanishing Point I’m not sure what Kowalski was trying to do, but dying in a huge fireball crash probably wasn’t it. I’m pretty sure he wasn’t trying to commit suicide. I think he saw the V formed by the bulldozers as the titular escape. He thought he made it. Right until the last second.
Cool Hand Luke I’ve never been a fan. I just don’t think dying to prove you can’t be “tamed” is any kind of victory; moral, spiritual, or whatever. Yes, Luke, you sure showed them! I’m sure The Man forgot by dinner time.
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2022, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-the-hero-loses-spoilers-possible/968209/18 "2022-07-19T17:31:17Z")
A classic story where the hero loses…in the process giving up something very important:
A Tale of Two Cities
> [@Kent\_Clark](#):
>
> _To Kill a Mockingbird_ - Atticus may have done a better job than any other attorney in history in defending Tom Robinson, but he still lost the case. To make it worse, Tom tried to escape and was killed.
On the other hand:
An outcast becomes an unlikely hero.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2022, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-the-hero-loses-spoilers-possible/968209/19 "2022-07-19T17:32:39Z")
Going way back, there’s the poem “[Casey At the Bat](https://poets.org/poem/casey-bat).”
And, depending on which version you listen to, the story of John Henry. ([“Dumb smart-aleck, thought he could beat a steam drill.”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FuC5-vmgRs))
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### Author:  [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2022, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-the-hero-loses-spoilers-possible/968209/20 "2022-07-19T17:35:34Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#):
>
> You reminded me of another one from that era: _They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?_
I saw that one when it was pretty new, but I think I was too young to get it. Maybe I should give it another chance.
Race With the Devil, another 70s film done in depress-o-vision They lose.
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