# Worst Happy Ending **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 3, 2018, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508 "2018-05-03T14:16:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508/101 "2018-05-10T12:01:20Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > My take on it is that Mrs. Iselin (played by Lansbury) was a communist who was pretending to be an anti-communist conservative so that she could gain power and destroy the U.S. government. I got the idea that she didn’t care about communism or capitalism, she just wanted to have the unlimited power of a dictator. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508/102 "2018-05-10T13:21:02Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > We saw Miss Gulch in the tornado, but that was only after Dorothy’s house was ripped off its foundation. Since Dorothy wakes up and her house is fine, I assume that Miss Gulch in the tornado is part of the dream. She may have avoided the tornado entirely. I saw a community theater production of _Wizard of Oz_ in which Auntie Em explicitly said that Miss Gulch had been killed by the twister, so Toto was now safe. Whether this was actually part of the theatrical script, or added by the director, I don’t know. Either way, it’s definitely not in the movie. ---
**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:** [May 10, 2018, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508/103 "2018-05-10T14:03:06Z")
> [@erysichthon](#): > > At least now she knows that if there’s another tornado, her aunt and uncle will lock her out of the storm shelter without a second thought. > > To add insult to injury, that creepy Professor Marvel is still around; he shows up at Dorothy’s bedroom window in the final scene to see how she’s doing. Think about it: _he already knew which window was her bedroom_. “That must have been a storm of extraordinary magnitude!” ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508/104 "2018-05-10T15:50:17Z")
_ **The Runaway Bride** _ Julia Roberts is selfish and cruel, and breaks hearts all over the place on a whim. But Richard Gere “proves” that it’s because the men in her life didn’t really know her or appreciate how awesome she is. Why, those bastards didn’t even know how she liked her eggs! What a crock. A selfish egomaniac hurts everyone she gets involved with, but it’s the MEN’S fault. _ **Grease** _ Sandy, the only character who ISN’T a moron and a complete loser, decides to become a moron and a loser, just to fit in. Rizzo nearly got pregnant and dropped out of high school at the age of 45, so she’s a GREAT role model. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508/105 "2018-05-10T16:16:48Z")
**Changing Lanes** Gavin Banek (Ben Affleck) and Doyle Gipson (Samuel L. Jackson) engage in an escalating feud in which each commits acts that should have ended with them in jail. The result is that both their lives are nearly ruined. But then, at the end of the movie, Banek sees the light and magically fixes everything (the magic includes an off-screen converation with Gipson’s ex-wife in which he convinces her to forgive Gipson). To me, this happy ending was forced and unbelievable. The movie would have been better if it ended with both men staring into space wondering how they could have screwed up their lives so badly. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508/106 "2018-05-10T16:19:17Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > _ **Grease** _ > > Sandy, the only character who ISN’T a moron and a complete loser, decides to become a moron and a loser, just to fit in. Rizzo nearly got pregnant and dropped out of high school at the age of 45, so she’s a GREAT role model. To be fair, if you haven’t finished high school by 45, perhaps it’s time to explore other options. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508/107 "2018-05-10T16:47:42Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > To be fair, if you haven’t finished high school by 45, perhaps it’s time to explore other options. I hated Rizzo when I saw her in the Broadway version of Grease back in 1975! But I hated her even more in the movie because Stockard Channing was old enough to play the PRINCIPAL! ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508/108 "2018-05-10T17:54:15Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > “That must have been a storm of extraordinary magnitude!” HA! I had forgotten that scene. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508/109 "2018-05-10T18:20:02Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > I hated Rizzo when I saw her in the Broadway version of Grease back in 1975! But I hated her even more in the movie because Stockard Channing was old enough to play the PRINCIPAL! It doesn’t bother me all that much when actors’ ages don’t match their characters. Sometimes I don’t notice. If it’s really egregious I just kind of roll my eyes and try to enjoy the story. But yeah, Rizzo’s not a nice character; she spews a lot of venom and pretty much gets her way in the end. I still remember the way Mad magazine phrased it, that to get the guy of her dreams, a girl has to become a slut. I think it might be more accurate to say that the movie is very pro peer pressure. That’s not a message I particularly like. ---
**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:** [May 10, 2018, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508/110 "2018-05-10T19:08:21Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > My take on it is that Mrs. Iselin (played by Lansbury) was a communist who was pretending to be an anti-communist conservative so that she could gain power and destroy the U.S. government. In other words, she was the American equivalent of a beefsteak Nazi\* (Brown on the outside but Red on the inside)? :dubious: \*Communists who voted for Hitler on orders from Moscow in order to subvert the Weimar government. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508/111 "2018-05-10T19:23:52Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > [Obligatory link to SNL’s “lost ending”](https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/its-a-wonderful-life-lost-ending/n9521) Can’t you also just say what the “lost ending” is so I don’t have to open another link? ---
**Author:** ![caligulathegod](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caligulathegod/32/9685_2.png) [@caligulathegod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caligulathegod)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508/112 "2018-05-10T19:31:59Z")
At least you saw Grease in 1975, before it was infected with those terrible anachronistic songs from the movie. I’d love to see a production without the Olivia Newton John songs. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508/113 "2018-05-10T19:41:20Z")
I was troubled by the end of _To Hell and Back_, where the hero is decorated with a fancy medal for taking a bullet in the ass. There is a nice formal ceremony on the parade grounds. On August 6th of 1945. That date just obscures the happiness of the ceremony. Oh, and Audie Murphy lives. ---
**Author:** ![caligulathegod](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caligulathegod/32/9685_2.png) [@caligulathegod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caligulathegod)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508/114 "2018-05-10T19:45:07Z")
> [@Enright3](#): > > Can’t you also just say what the “lost ending” is so I don’t have to open another link? They discover that Old Man Potter kept the money so they form a lynch mob and then kick his ass. ---
**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:** [May 10, 2018, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508/115 "2018-05-10T21:13:16Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > I was troubled by the end of _To Hell and Back_, where the hero is decorated with a fancy medal for taking a bullet in the ass. There is a nice formal ceremony on the parade grounds. On August 6th of 1945. That date just obscures the happiness of the ceremony. > > Oh, and Audie Murphy lives. You know, of course, that it’s a true story? :dubious: > **[Medal of Honor](https://audiemurphy.com/decorations001.htm)** > > Official website and an educational resource on Audie L. Murphy, most decorated American veteran of World War II. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2018, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508/116 "2018-05-10T23:14:20Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > The ending of “Speed” has always bugged me. Literally hours after his partner has been blown up by the mad bomber (with a bunch of other cops, presumably friends), Keanu and Sandra are locking lips in the smoldering wreckage of a derailed subway train. It always makes me roll my eyes when movie characters are going through, or have just been through, what would be the most traumatic experience of anybody’s life – and decide that’s just the perfect time to start making out. For my contribution to the thread, I’ll add _Sex and the City_. Over the years, Carrie was dumped, ghosted, cheated on, and generally treated like shit by Mr. Big. But he’s rich, so I guess we were supposed to be happy she landed him at the end of the series. But to make matters even worse, in the movie, he ditches her _on their wedding day_. Yet she _still_ ends up with him in what is supposed to be a happy ending. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2018, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508/117 "2018-05-11T18:23:51Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > It always makes me roll my eyes when movie characters are going through, or have just been through, what would be the most traumatic experience of anybody’s life – and decide that’s just the perfect time to start making out. This is actually a thing in real life, for some people anyway. You go through an intense experience with someone and bond. But what happens when it’s next Tuesday and the guy who seemed so perfect when he was punching velociraptors in the face doesn’t seems so great when he’s getting fired from his 14th job for punching his boss. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2018, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508/118 "2018-05-12T04:51:11Z")
I always thought people acted too happy at the end of the Star Trek TOS episode “The Ultimate Computer”. The M-5 computer prototype installed on the Enterprise malfunctions during war games, killing everyone on the Excalibur and 53 on the Lexington. The genius scientist who designed it is driven insane. Alright, Kirk manages to defeat the computer and save further lives on the three remaining Star Fleet vessels plus his own. But it is a major disaster for Star Fleet. Poor Spock. He had such a light in his eyes when he thought the right computer came along. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2018, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508/119 "2018-05-12T09:39:15Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > Similar movie: “The Heartbreak Kid” from 1972. For some reason, Cybill Shepherd marries this nobody, Charles Grodin, who is obsessed with her, for the simple reason he just pursues her single-mindedly and will. not. be. stopped. Her father tries to scare him off, buy him off, and he politely but firmly will not be deterred. She, with every privilege and the world hers for the taking, marries him! And at the end he is sitting there alone at the wedding reception, humming to himself, staring off into space. Wonder how THAT marriage is going to work out. > [@terentii](#): > > You neglected to mention that Grodin \*\*dumps his new bride \*\*(who was actually pretty hot!) **while they’re on their honeymoon** so he can spend the rest of the movie stalking Cybill Shepherd! _Thank you both!_ When I saw this thread, I was instantly reminded of that movie, even though I probably hadn’t thought of it for ~40 years, and couldn’t remember the title or the names of any of the actors, so it was going to be one hell of a challenging Google search. It was gonna drive me nuts, I knew. Anyhow, totally agree. A world-class stupid happy ending. I vaguely recall some implausible plot turns along the way, too, but damned if I’m gonna re-watch it to jog my memory. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2018, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508/120 "2018-05-12T09:44:57Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > “The Graduate” - on the bus Ben and Elaine come to the realization of how much they’ve just messed up their lives and what an uncertain future awaits them. > [@enipla](#): > > A perfect ending to a great movie. Wasn’t supposed to be happy. This. That they have no idea what they should do next is the whole _point_ of that ending. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-happy-ending/813508.md?page=7)