And then they all died... Movies that end badly.

We watched Reservoir Dogs last night. It is still one of my favorite Tarantino movies, but you just have to admit--it ends up badly. They ALL die. Not just the really awful guys--but even just the average bad ones. EVERYONE in the movie dies...

Then I started thinking about it. There are more than a few movies and plays that end badly. Hamlet ends badly. Romeo and Juliet is not exactly a lighthearted romp either. In popular movies there are more than few that end up with most of the main characters (and sometimes even the peripheral characters!) dead by the time the credits roll.

The Keep has an unhappy ending--but at least they die for principles, the same thing could be said of any number of other war movies, I guess...

Anyhow, to get to my point: What movies do you really like that end badly? WHY do we watch them?



Laura

Life doesn't always end "good", and being that movies are art, MORE movies should end badly than there currently are.

the hero and all the hostages are gunned down by the bounty killers.

It basically says to me "gee, I couldn't figure out what to do here...so they die" or more generally "look how realistic and emotional I can make this. Someone dies!"

:puke:

There are exceptions of course. Romeo and Juliet had to die, as a comeuppance for the families. In Reservoir Dogs that rocked, that they *all* die. I thought that was different and very, very cool.

The ridiculous bloodbath at the end of Hamlet annoys me....I think it was basically about not leaving any of that psycho lot to rule Denmark, but geez.

There seems to be a trend in "serious" films today that no one can ever be happy at the end, and someone has to be miserable. That's how you know it's a "serious" film. Million Dollar Baby, Boys Don't Cry, American Beauty, etc. etc.

It irritates me.

everyone always dies at the end. That was new for me, and I did not like it at all. Hemingway does the same thing, except the death comes out of nowhere, and for no reason. To me, it is that Hemingway does not know how to end a story and is contemptuous of a happy ending. Happiness is, to some, corny and unrealistic, ugliness and death are real.

His comedies all end with weddings...sometimes mass weddings.

His historical plays end with a mixture of failure and success for the main characters.

and in much later drama, it was important to restore the "rightness" of things. Wrongdoing had to be punished, or else the world was out of balance.

Perhaps death is real because it happens to us all

movie with out thinking there is going to be some kind of gruesome death coming up... Just to manipulate me...

I was waiting in Garden State... Even Napoleon Dynamite...

Seriously, these american "independent" directors "explore" death far too much....

and the fact that it ends "badly", is one of the factors that contributes to its greatness.
Most of my favorites end "badly":
Aguirre, The Wrath of God
The Godfather
Star 80
Midnight Cowboy
Taxi Driver
and many more

were going to end badly....

It's a Wonderful Life
Back to the Future
Star Trek IV
Wizard of Oz
The Breakfast Club

I have not even seen any on your list.

ended badly??? I think that ending is terrific. Chilling.

I agree that the ending is chilling and terrific

realize his goals. The ending would have been much cooler if the wife had caught him in the act and splattered his brains all over the naked Mena Suvari. But no, they had to have the deranged neighbor shoot him.

and Mr. White goes down, as in 1) White shoots Pink, 2) Cops shoot White. Besides, I think Pink had pretty much bled out.

He was not part of the standoff

I was freaked out by the violence level in Reservoir Dogs when I first saw it, but now it's one of my favorites.
I knew a guy exactly like the mobster's son - it was uncanny.

You are told that the police ARE there and they are waiting on Joe (the bossman of the caper) to show up. That whole scene where Mr Orange blows away Mr Blond and then tells the cop he's undercover is where they set it all up. He clearly establishes the fact that the area is sealed off by cops.

Joe shows up, it goes to hell in a very short time and you see Mr Pink run out with the loot. While Mr White is going thru his own personal agony with Mr Orange you hear a huge amount of gunfire outside where Mr Pink just ran out...

I had no doubt that Mr Pink was dead.



Laura

The Chick who meant well and was just trying to help the guy dies and the assholes live and prosper.

A very disturbing movie.

jennifer connelly on her hopeless streak

chinatown also left me wanting

Sure it was neat that Pei Mei taught Beatrice the Five Point Palm-exploding Heart Technique ... but a long moonlit sword-fight on the beach would have been a lot cooler.

Saddest ending ever.

And I suppose I watch such movies because the endings wouldn't be so sad if they weren't great movies to begin with. If the movie was rubbish I certainly wouldn't give half a crap whether the character died or not. I think Edward Furhlong's death in AHX was so affecting because I related so strongly with him which is the product of excellent character development/filmmaking

I love the movie but it is depressing as hell. Just when you start to think there is hope for that family.

yeah yeah give me that he's reformed crap, but he died. and i didn't feel a thing.

I get having a no-tolerance attitude for people who maintain their racist attitudes into adulthood, but this was a young kid growing up in a disfunctional family in a racially charged neighborhood with a father and a powerful, charismatic older brother who helped indoctrinate him into the skinhead gang, which, as gangs do, gave him an identity, a sense of power, friends, etc. and yet he still overcame it eventually.

Maybe you were a particularly erudite adolescent, but I afford some fuck up room for kids growing up in fucked up situations - white, black or whatever.

Everyone dies because Reagan dragged his feet. You watch it because you can't help but confront the fact that Americans viewed this as a gay disease and the power players/ (im)moral majority said "good riddance to bad rubbish"

I saw it in the theater and loved/hated it at the same time. It was cathartic, really, but so very painful...

God, what a horrible time that was to live thru. So many are gone that I loved.


Laura

If Ronald Reagan is not rotting in hell it's because he forgot.

which also has a nice resonance with the "keep pulling me back" line from the Godfather saga, but it's still kind of a Von Ryan's Express type of ending.

True Love, where only the two principals get away

The aforementioned Castle Keep, and the Bridges of Toko Ri.

And of course, Dr. Strangelove. (Talk about an ending where everyone dies...)

Jeez

since the title of the thread clearly indicated there would be discussion of movie endings. But while I'm on the subject, and in no particular order:

The chick is really a dude.
It's made out of people.
Virgil has been lying all along.
He's actually back on Earth.
Darth is his dad.
It's the name of his sled.

More to come as I think of them...

Great now I'm going to have to make a whole new list on NetFlix.
:rofl:

and she melts

His mother has been dead for quite some time.
Alternately: his mom is the killer.
The dog and the boy eat the girl.
The phone calls have been coming from inside the house.

Oh, and up above, when I said "Virgil," of course I meant to say "Verbal."

Reading these titles I was struck by how many Bill is in, so i'll add one. I don't remember the name, it's a western prison camp during the civil war. There's a prison break, bill and his detail catch up with the escapees only to trapped by apache indians. They hole up in a depression and after fighting off a couple of charges the apaches start to rain down arrows from all directions zeroing in on them.
I guess it's a matter of perspective if I were a native american I'd probablly cheer, but as it was I hated the end of that movie.

equating it with "wrong". It's not wrong for everyone to die at the end, if that makes sense in the context of the story and the intent of the artist.

I'm bothered by this kind of language.

To me, a movie that ends "badly" is a movie that has an ending that's a piece of shit; that's either contrite, overwraught, completely against the story-line, or just otherwise awful.

Maybe that would clear up the intent--however it is too late to edit the OP.

My intent was not to criticize the writing of the scripts, but rather to convey the idea that nobody ended up left alive or happy by the end of the film...

Frankly, some of these endings were a blaze of glory--but still everyone you cared about in the film died... Good films, but not exactly the ending where everyone lives happily ever after.



Laura

I was gonna nominate "Killing Me Softly" starring Heather Graham and Joseph Fiennes. The friend that talked me into watching that apologized after it was over. I'll pass on any film involving incest and mountain climbing gear used during sex.

:D

one of those films that make you kinda root for the bad guy, then ruthlessly kills them all.

Since I originally saw it as a play I knew how it ended, but that didn't stop me from being stunned.

When I saw it as a play (with Richard Gere) the entire audience just sat there, speechless, for several minutes. Applause started v-e-r-y slowy and then was a standing ovation.

Ben wards off the undead all night, only to be shot in the head by the zombie hunters.

but it's a magnificent ending IMO. Especially the parallels with a lynch mob sacking a black guy.

And here's the weird part. It's one of the greatest anti-war movies ever made, but it was produced by Rupert Murdoch, whose not exactly known for his pacisfism.

my faith in humanity. I have yet to meet another person who has even seen the movie.

My father (a vietnam vet) loved that movie because he envied being able to make a principled stand against something so evil it was easy to know you were on the good side. We used to watch it on VHS every year when the mood struck him.

It probably isn't that good when compared objectively to other movies, but man will I defend it 'til I die.

is the only movie I can think of where EVERYONE died - even the girl.
Fear is the most primal emotion.

The couple are both eaten by sharks. What a happy fucking movie.

House of Sand and Fog: the very few characters who survived that movie genuinely wished they were dead. Most of the audience was ready to end it all as well.

I nearly jumped off a bridge after watching it. Plus, the female lead looks kinda like a good friend of mine. It was a tad disturbing. Did not like that movie.

The movie about that Tejano singer who was gunned down at age 24.

What a waste. :cry:

Having the heroes shot by anonymous rednecks driving by in a pickup truck- I guess it makes a point, and makes it well, but it's still an extreme bummer.

We never know what happens to Mr. Pink and I like it that way.

you can here Mr. Pink yell to the cops "I've been shot, goddamnit" or something along those lines. My theory is that he survives and takes the fall for the heist.

Happy endings come rarely and should not be expected by the masses. The good guy doesn't always "live happily ever after."

Can you imagine if every movie ended happily? It'd be so boring.

How many do you know that "believe" the "American dream" is something that should be given on the ol' "silver platter"

No one gets out of that one healthy, whole or happy.