All martyr stories involve the death of the hero. From real history: Socrates, Spartacus, Jesus, Lincoln, Ghandi, MLK, etc.
~Max
Orwell’s 1984. RitterSport’s mention of Brazil immediately brought to mind Orwell’s novel, seeing as how it’s basically a dark comedy riff on it.
Your spoilers bring to mind The Pledge.
Not only does the hero of the movie lose everything — his friends, his reputation, the love of his life — the movie ends with him still believing the serial killer he was desperately trying to stop is still out there (as opposed to, y’know, having died in a mundane car accident).
The first that comes to mind is Gallipoli. Despite Mel’s valiant attempt to get to the commander in time, he is unable to stop the charge where his friend is killed
Another (great) Australian movie also comes to mind: Breaker Morant The expected formality defense lawyer ends up presenting an extremely good case, which pretty much disputes almost all the charges against the heroes. But the since the sacrifice of the heroes is all political, their fate is sealed
Which makes me think of another courtroom drama that doesn’t end as well as you’d like ala “To Kill a Mockingbird”: A Few Good Men. Though Tom Cruise and team are able to get Col. Jessup to admit to ordering the “code red”, the defendants are still punished for their actions. The truth of the matter comes out, but their actions were still wrong
A bit different, but I think (the original) Planet of the Apes fits the description. Taylor is able to prove that humans were more advanced than the present ape society. But then comes to realize he’s back on earth and that the whole planet has been wiped clean and has started over with the apes now in charge
(one could also argue that the ending of Beneath the Planet of the Apes is quite the “loser” ending as well.)
The 2007 adaptation of Stephen King’s The Mist.
Minutes away from rescue, the hero shoots his kid in the head and prepares to meet his doom.
Three. Two to Sweden, one through France to Spain.
The Great Race
Good one.
No, Leslie didn’t “lose.” He quit the race just short of the finish line and let Professor Fate win. Fate, understandably enraged by Leslie spoiling the plan, demanded a rematch, which Leslie agreed to.
I see Cuckoos Nest has been mentioned a few times. I’ll submit Nelson Algren’s The Man With The Golden Arm. Written in America in the 40’s featuring one of the first morphine addiction storylines.
I don’t know how to do spoilers, so let’s just say that Frankie Machine loses in the end.
Detour The protagonist is picked up by the police at the end, after he kills the woman who drove him. Technically, it’s an accident, but it’s doubtful he could prove it.
Jean de Florette Jean puts in a heroic effort to save his farm, and it destroys him. His daughter gets revenge in the sequel.
Brute Force A group of prison inmates rise up against their sadistic guard (played by, of all people, Hume Cronyn). It does not go well.
King Kong.
Apocalypto - more of an “ominous” ending more than the hero “losing,” and really only because we know what happened after the Conquistadors arrived in Mesoamerica. But still.
Casino - “Ace” loses everything and ends up right back where he started in the beginning, just running a local sportsbook.
Dark City - Murdoch defeats the Strangers, but he’s still stuck on their spaceship with no way back “home.” If you’ve never seen this movie, it’s essentially The Matrix, with much less explanation.
The Descent - to be fair, in the US version our hero makes it out of the cave, but in the original UK version, her “escape” is just a hallucination, she’s still in the cave, and it’s implied she’s just about to be killed.
You know, I don’t feel bad at all when the hero takes a fall.
That title brought to mind John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness. One of his mixed-quality lower budget films. Starts strong setting an atmosphere, something Carpenter is good at, then peters off into a more standard horror movie which ends with a stinger.
Eh, the real guy died a comfortable millionaire in 2008. Not quite on top of the world, but as losers in his particular line of work went, not a bad retirement.
Speaking of John Carpenter The Thing(1982) the heroes lost. Either Mac and Childs might be The Thing and they are both soon to die anyway.
Also his In The Mouth of Madness ended with a victory for the bad guy, so to speak.
One of my favorite movies The Sand Pebbles (1966) ends with star Steve McQueen bleeding to death in a courtyard after a disastrous rescue attempt for two people who didn’t want it (but did end up needing it).
Wicked.
In the play, several characters get transformed, but still live - e.g. Fiyero gets turned into the Tin Woodsman, and he and Elphaba wind up together (I forget the details, maybe it was implied that they left Oz).
In the book - which I only managed to slog through about 2/3 of - Fiyero dies (disappears, but it’s strongly implied that he was assassinated), and Elphaba also disappears at the end. Similarly with a few more characters.
All in all, the play was much, much less depressing.
Murphy’s war (1971) (although it was a deadly tie with the bad guys)
That is a curious bit on how memory does trick you when it is from the far past, When I saw the movie on TV in the late 80s as I just became an adult, somehow I remembered clearly that Roger Moore starred in that movie and that made go in a goose internet chase, It was actually Peter O’Toole sinking together with the Nazi submarine that his character had managed to sink almost single-handedly in a river in South America.