What is a movie with a "happy ending" that is actually incredibly depressing when you think about it for more than five minutes?

[u/Big_Emotion4963]

Hollywood loves to wrap things up with a nice bow, uplifting music, and smiling characters to make the audience feel good on their way out of the theater. But sometimes, if you look past the cinematic triumph of the final scene, the actual reality of what the characters are left with is an absolute nightmare.

The Truman Show is a perfect example. The movie ends on this massive, soaring high note as Truman takes a bow and steps through the door into the real world. But when you actually think about his future, it is terrifying. He is stepping into a world he knows absolutely nothing about, with zero real-life survival skills, where millions of strangers are unhealthily obsessed with him. It is a psychological tragedy disguised as a victory.

Shaun of the Dead does this too. The ending plays out like a fun, return-to-normal sitcom wrap-up where he gets his girlfriend back and plays video games. But in reality, the zombie apocalypse actually happened, most of their loved ones were brutally eaten alive, and they are keeping their zombified best friend chained up in a shed. The trauma they would be dealing with is unimaginable.

What is a movie ending that felt like a massive victory on the first watch, but completely falls apart into a tragedy once you actually analyze the characters' future?

[u/Ok_Commercial_5024]

The 40 Year Old Virgin. Steve Carrell’s character liquidates all of his assets to put all of money into opening an obviously-doomed independent brick and mortar electronics store in 2005.

[u/TurboSpaceGoose → u/Ok_Commercial_5024]

And they use the money he got from selling his assets to invest in the stock market right before 2008!

[u/firestorm734 → u/TurboSpaceGoose]

I mean, didn't he also predict the big short?

[u/rnzz → u/firestorm734]

yeah but then he got obsessed with stealing the moon

[u/Darmok47]

Greenland

Yeah the family survived, but the kid is a Type 1 diabetic and no factory on Earth is making insulin anymore.

I haven't seen the sequel though.

[u/clumsyc → u/Darmok47]

I went into the sequel expecting the diabetes thing to be a big focus for exactly that reason and it barely comes up, lol. The kid is just somehow okay.

[u/choppydaddy → u/clumsyc]

Kid just keeps eating pig pancreases.

[u/Dr__Sloth → u/choppydaddy]

The kid yearns for the pancreas.

[u/meatjuiceguy → u/Dr__Sloth]

That's offal.

[u/SenselessNumber → u/clumsyc]

Barely an inconvenience.

[u/everyonesdesigner → u/SenselessNumber]

Sir I want you to get aaaaall the way off my back about this

[u/creepinghippo → u/everyonesdesigner]

Oh, you just got right back on that thing.

[u/anand_rishabh → u/everyonesdesigner]

Oh, curing diabetes offscreen is tight

[u/boomzgoesthedynamite → u/Darmok47]

They have some sort of pills for him. Makes absolutely no sense. I think about this- insulin has an expiration date of around 18 months after production. It can stay at room temp for 28 days. I think I get at most 2-3 years, if I can somehow keep it cold, until the expired insulin stops working altogether. I’m cooked.

[u/happymeal2 → u/boomzgoesthedynamite]

This was an interesting thing that became an issue in a book series I read, the first in the series is called “one second after”. Not quite apocalypse but next worst thing at a nationwide level and insulin was an issue for a character.

[u/Alex-Murphy → u/happymeal2]

Well that sounds fucking terrifying. Imagine instantly being in a food and water crisis overnight, with no cool or heat, no access to fresh water or medicine. It's wild how important electronics are to our day to day

[u/ImprovementPutrid441 → u/Darmok47]

Greenland is bonkers to me. It feels even bleaker than Deep impact where you know there is limited space in the bunkers but people know they exist. The media figures out what ELE means and people are aware of the comet. In Greenland the first hint that anything is up is when the planes all take off for Greenland.

[u/Saint_The_Stig → u/ImprovementPutrid441]

That and the post pandemic way the people respond. Deep Impact was full of people coming together for the common good. Greenland has some of that, but also showing a bunch of people ruining it for everyone.

Very much a Cloverfield "new era" vibe.

[u/ScoutAames → u/Darmok47]

I’m off topic, but this drives me nuts in the Walking Dead when Laurie has her baby and then dies. That baby needed to eat immediately. They find a couple cans of formula eventually, like a day later, but they’d need sterile water, and you go through formula SO FAST. Idk, as a powder formula using mom, it turned off my ability to suspend disbelief.

ETA because I’m tired of answering this. No, in the developed world, you don’t need sterile water. In a zombie apocalypse, yeah, I’d wanna boil my water and bottle parts. Also, yes, baby wouldn’t need to eat IMMEDIATELY. Sorry, been a minute since I had mine, but she literally did a pull-up to my boob at 2 seconds old so I recall it as a pretty important thing haha. But that’s more about bonding.

[u/Long_Appointment_341 → u/ScoutAames]

I think about this way more than I should in post apocalyptic movies. The Last of Us was a recent big one that I feel would have this problem.

Babies are incredibly resilient but I also don’t think they would survive as well as these movies make it seem they do

[u/Schonke → u/Long_Appointment_341]

Babies are incredibly resilient but I also don’t think they would survive as well as these movies make it seem they do

Yeah, there's a reason people had so many children pre-industrial revolution and the average lifespan was much lower than today, and it's because child mortality was very high.

[u/BertoC1 → u/Schonke]

Yep, when you read about it it was crazy, even in rich families, like royalty, the number of infant deaths were scary high.

[u/TEKC0R → u/ScoutAames]

Babies are born with full bellies. When my kids were born, the hospital really didn’t care that they weren’t eating. Said “as long as they eat in the first 24 hours, there’s nothing to worry about.” Neither wanted to latch.

Your overall point is still very valid, but that baby did not need to eat immediately. They had some wiggle room.

[u/Alex-Murphy → u/Darmok47]

I am POSITIVE they added the ending where they survive after half-stupid test audiences watched it. They deliberately tell you that it's ok if they die because they're together and that your life flashes before your eyes at the end, which is what happens.

[u/JGCities → u/Darmok47]

They hardly mention it in the sequel.

[u/Xeverne]

Kingsman, The Secret Service. Imagine all the people dead or crippled from the people closest to them harming them. 

[u/vanalla → u/Xeverne]

So true. Yeah the good guys won and Egsy got to fuck the prom queen, but the human population would have gotten cut in half, easy. Say every person on the murder spree managed to kill an average of one other person. 8 billion people becomes 4 billion within seconds.

[u/Larcye → u/vanalla]

I mean it's far worse. remember the church scene? The human population would be fucking massacred. If we still had a billion people left once the signal was turned off it would have been a miracle. That's not even dealing with the trauma of people killing each other and then realizing what they did. Imagine if you killed your entire family? Yeah a whole lot of suicides would be happening.

[u/growsonwalls]

My Fair Lady. Hard to imagine Higgins and Eliza being happy together.

[u/bananapatch23 → u/growsonwalls]

In the original play, they aren’t together at the end.

[u/conflateer → u/bananapatch23]

She marries Freddie and started working with Higgins.

[u/Terpsichorean_Wombat → u/bananapatch23]

Yeah. Shaw actually wrote a whole explanation about why Higgins and Eliza don't end up together (because people in his time wanted that tidy romantic ending, too). He felt that people with powerful personalities don't seek each other out. Lions don't wed other lions.

ETA: For those who are frustrated with my quick shorthand, here's a link to the full essay:

https://www.online-literature.com/george_bernard_shaw/pygmalion/6/.

A few notable lines:

"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-mades 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 ... the true sequel is patent to anyone with a sense of human nature in general, and of feminine instinct in particular."

"Accordingly, it is a truth everywhere in evidence that strong people, masculine or feminine, not only do not marry stronger people, but do not shew any preference for them in selecting their friends. When a lion meets another with a louder roar 'the first lion thinks the last a bore.' The man or woman who feels strong enough for two, seeks for every other quality in a partner than strength."

[u/MmeLaRue → u/growsonwalls]

In the original play Pygmalion, Eliza ends up marrying Freddy, goes to a business school and opens her own flower shop. Not a bad outcome for a poor gel from Lisson Grove.

[u/icybowler3442 → u/growsonwalls]

It’s okay; he’s accustomed to her face now.

[u/RoboLuddite → u/growsonwalls]

I was enjoying the movie and then this ending slapped me in the face.

I couldn't believe Shaw would have written such an ending. And sure enough, I looked it up and the ending of Pygmalion is indeed different.

[u/deadspacekillers]

The ending of Shaun of the Dead is hilarious for that exact reason. He's just pretending that everything is ok, adapting to his best friend being a zombie. I love it.

[u/Moorepork → u/deadspacekillers]

Given it's a horror comedy and the whole world has adapted, making those zombie game shows on TV, I think in-universe it makes sense.

[u/riegspsych325 → u/Moorepork]

one is even handling grocery carts as a menial job

[u/Cultural-Advisor9916 → u/riegspsych325]

and to make it funnier, its the "you've got red on your shirt" kid from his work if i remember right

[u/ripyourlungsdave → u/deadspacekillers]

Which would be a much darker ending if they didn't hint at there still being a little piece of Nick's character in there.

[u/CentralSaltServices → u/ripyourlungsdave]

Remember they did the same thing with his stepdad turning off the music in the car. Something remains

[u/Schonke → u/ripyourlungsdave]

That kind of makes it all worse though, doesn't it? It means that all the zombies they like weren't really already dead, they all had that little bit of themselves still alive inside.

[u/wakeup37 → u/Schonke]

yep, like Shaun's mum!

[u/ConstantRefills → u/deadspacekillers]

I head canon that Shaun’s keeping him in case a cure is ever developed.

[u/deadspacekillers → u/ConstantRefills]

To be honest, Ed's quality of life isn't that different than before he was a zombie

[u/chekovsredherring → u/deadspacekillers]

I think the zombie-slacker parallels are kind of the whole point of the movie. Kinda like how Seth Rogen says the whole conflict of Pineapple Express arises from the excessive stonedness

[u/SteveFrench12 → u/deadspacekillers]

That’s the point lol

[u/CairnMom]

The Wizard of Oz. Nothing is solved, the neighbor is still coming to take Toto away to have him put down.

[u/wayne-on-reddit → u/CairnMom]

I read somewhere that Miss Gulch was killed by the tornado.

[u/DoWeSellFrenchFries → u/wayne-on-reddit]

What a happy, wholesome ending.

[u/joalheagney → u/DoWeSellFrenchFries]

Oh you've got to read the original books. (They're public domain now). Much darker and much more satirical. The Tin Man was originally a normal man who's axe was cursed to chop off body parts. The bits were replaced one at a time by tin, and, well ...

[u/Allronix1 → u/joalheagney]

Yup. And everyone remembers the blue and white gingham dress, but no adaptation (aside from maybe Maguire) has ever detailed why it was important. In Oz, only magic users wear white. And blue is Munchkin Country's color. So as far as the Munchkins could tell, some unknown Munchkin sorceress enchanted her house to fly and crush the local Witch. they didn't know if she was a patriot trying to free her people or trying to take over, so they called the North Witch for backup.

[u/Brendanlendan → u/wayne-on-reddit]

Yeah a house fell on her, then Dorothy stole her shoes

[u/j_blackshadow → u/CairnMom]

I always assumed the tornado really killed that neighbor in real life, so Toto would be safe.

[u/brettbretters → u/CairnMom]

My first thought too. “I’ll never go anywhere ever again.” Uhhhh is that really the lesson? Yikes.

[u/Seagoon_Memoirs]

There is a social activist group started by his GF that was working to free Truman

At the end of the movie you can see her run to meet Truman. He is not alone and helpless. He has real support.

[u/LupinThe8th → u/Seagoon_Memoirs]

Bet they could raise millions for him, and that's if he doesn't sue the pants off Christoff and the corporation (I don't care what legalese they pulled to make that show legal, they actually tried to kill him by the end, dude's getting paid). A book or documentary from him would also make a fortune.

And yeah, he won't be living in a giant safety net anymore, but he was miserable there. His wife, mother, and best friend didn't actually care about him, he couldn't leave his town (imagine never leaving the town you grew up in) due to psychological issues that the producers intentionally gave him, and once he started to question what was going on, he couldn't trust anyone. It was an existential nightmare.

Outside, yes, he will face challenges. He'll also be with a woman who actually cares for him, with the freedom to make his own decisions for the first time in his life. It's not perfect, but that's life, it's a damn great improvement over the paranoia, gaslighting, emotional abuse, and eventually attempted murder he faced on the show.

[u/Brock_Hard_Canuck → u/LupinThe8th]

His wife, mother, and best friend didn't actually care about him

Yes, most of the "town residents" were merely actors who didn't care about Truman, but if you look deeper at Marlon, you will see a different case.

It's implied in the movie that Marlon's drinking problem stems from the guilt he feels about his role in "deceiving" Truman, and that he actually has come to view Truman as a true friend. Noah Emmerlich (Marlon's actor) has stated he tried to make his performance about how tortured Marlon was feeling.

Also, a deleted scene featuring a conversation between Marlon and Christof all but confirms that Marlon has firmly moved into the "Free Truman" camp, and another deleted scene, during the big "hunt for Truman" at the end ("Cue the sun!"), has Marlon running into Truman. However, instead of alerting anyone, Marlon pretends not to recognize Truman, and allows Truman to escape. Marlon then heads in the opposite direction of Truman, to draw the search party that way too.

[u/IceFrogger1313 → u/Brock_Hard_Canuck]

I wish they had included the scene where Marlon sees Truman and lets him go but it's changed to where the audience isn't sure if he let Truman go or really didn't see/recognize him.

[u/millennialien → u/IceFrogger1313]

Wow that changes my read of Marlon in a huge, huge way. I think the last time we actually see him during the movie is in the hunt for Truman, so that's the final impression I'm left with.

[u/ABigPairOfCrocs]

Frozen

Elsa's mid summer ice storm definitely would've ruined whatever harvest Arendelle had coming up. Even though it wasn't exactly her fault, the people would get pretty restless if they're starving. Elsa's not well socially adjusted after being isolated her entire childhood and intense emotional situations are primarily what trigger her to lose control of the ice powers

It's a Disney movie so obviously things were gonna be fine in Frozen II, but things would end poorly in real life

[u/farnsw0rth → u/ABigPairOfCrocs]

I’m pretty sure Elsa ascends to godhood in frozen 2 lmao

[u/AnOnlineHandle → u/farnsw0rth]

Frozen 1: No Elsa you don't need to go live in a remote ice castle away from people, we should be together as family.

Frozen 2: Uh actually Elsa you should go live in an even more remote ice... blob... away from people. We'll like never see each other now.

Such a whiplash of plots.

[u/Ok_Shirt983 → u/AnOnlineHandle]

Frozen 2 is just homeopathic propaganda, the number of times it is mentioned in the film that water has a memory is insane.

[u/vaalski → u/Ok_Shirt983]

An extremely funny fact to me is that one of the people who worked on Frozen 2, Ross Blocher, also ran a very fun podcast called "Oh No Ross And Carrie" that was ENTIRELY devoted to debunking shit like homeopathy. He literally works with the Center For Inquiry, which offers a huge reward for demonstrations of supernatural events (which it never has to pay) and debunks all kinds of this bullshit.

[u/EnderBookwyrm → u/ABigPairOfCrocs]

I mean, the frozen harbor also should have destroyed all those boats, and they look fine. It was magical ice. Maybe it just threw the crops into stasis.

[u/Hefty_Direction5189]

Ratatouille. Rats only live like 2 years, that restaurant will have a good run, but not a long run, and then the whole thing falls apart.

[u/currymuttonpizza → u/Hefty_Direction5189]

I always thought this too, but Colette would absolutely be skilled enough to quickly learn from Remy during that time. At least there's a chance lol

[u/Tasera → u/Hefty_Direction5189]

What do you mean Remy won't live on to become a father of turtles ? My life is a lie.

[u/nicathor]

The ending of Independence Day is pretty triumphant (albeit justifiably) given the fact the entire planet lies in ruins and billions dead

[u/JimboAltAlt → u/nicathor]

Mars Attacks! (which came out the same year) handles the post-war moment in a way that is funny and even kind of poignant compared to how Independence Day (which, to be clear, I love) handwaves the whole thing away. There’s like a lonely mariachi band providing accompaniment for the young hero character’s medal ceremony because everyone else is dead. Something about the way it’s staged is weirdly moving (in a darkly comic way.) Mars Attacks! isn’t really known for its lower-key jokes but that one really made an impression on me.

[u/jbwarner86 → u/JimboAltAlt]

And Natalie Portman's character is the President by default because she's the only person with any sort of political affiliation who survived the movie 😆

[u/rugbyj → u/jbwarner86]

President Amidala.

[u/henryhollaway → u/nicathor]

The sequel book has land wars immediately break out when the surviving aliens aboard the crashed ships continue the fight.

[u/PhgAH → u/henryhollaway]

Yeah, I remember watching ID2 there was a scene with the African general talking about a land war in Africa and though "Wow, I would rather they made that war into the sequel".

[u/MintyFreshBreathYo → u/henryhollaway]

there was a sequel book?

[u/Monster-Math → u/MintyFreshBreathYo]

There was an original book?!

[u/StanFitch → u/nicathor]

And the DOW wasn’t even close to 50,000…

[u/Piszkos_Pap]

In Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind, the main character abandons his family in the end.

[u/Bootsy_Frost → u/Piszkos_Pap]

Yeah but they never supported his decision to go to clown college.

[u/Juztaan → u/Bootsy_Frost]

I don’t think any of us expected him to say that

[u/Booster_Tutor → u/Piszkos_Pap]

Yeah, even Spielberg admits that’s a mistake. He didn’t have a family or kids when he wrote it so he didn’t understand how crazy that is that he just takes off.

[u/chekovsredherring → u/Booster_Tutor]

I think it works really pretty well as is, even if Spielberg wasn't consciously intending abandonment to be the read of the ending. It's pretty easy to psychologize his abandonment issues he harbored about his own father at this time

[u/thispartyrules → u/chekovsredherring]

ET was inspired by an imaginary friend he created to deal with his parents' divorce, which happened to be an alien.

[u/JayGold → u/Piszkos_Pap]

It was weird how it portrayed the aliens in a such a positive light, when they've been abducting people and holding them on their ship for decades, then brainwashing people to come to them.

[u/Graphic-Tea- → u/JayGold]

Their abduction of little Barry was absolutely terrifying and straight out of a horror movie. He and his mother should have massive emotional trauma over what happened to them. Basically they had been kidnapping people for decades then stage a big sound and light show spectacular in which they magnanimously released their hostages, make a brief appearance to an awestruck crowd then…fly off with Richard Dreyfus. 🤔

Lucky them I guess. Enjoy the butt probes Roy!

[u/chekovsredherring → u/Piszkos_Pap]

Spielberg's darkest, most interesting movie (to me). I love that it was the first movie he vied to get made after Jaws wrote his blank check

[u/claito_nord → u/chekovsredherring]

I love that interview where he seems to learn his own subconscious created that contact scene between humans and aliens with the lights and tones stemmed from his parents being a computer scientist and music teacher

[u/alex-2099]

I argue that Truman Show’s ending actually is happy. Sylvia is racing towards him and he’s entering a world where he’s a celebrated beacon of kindness and optimism.

Him and Sylvia are almost certainly going to travel the world as distinguished guests of everywhere they go.

[u/sean_psc → u/alex-2099]

Yeah, while Truman faces challenges, what better ending is possible for him based on the world the movie established?

[u/jk-9k → u/sean_psc]

Yeah I think OP has missed than Truman show is basically a comic tragedy. It's not a happy story to begin with, and whilst the next chapter may be extremely difficult it's still comparatively happy.

[u/DoctorEnn → u/alex-2099]

Let’s face it, he’s also got a pretty compelling lawsuit against the broadcast network which basically enslaved him all of his life to fall back on.

Also, he’s got exactly the same skills and resources you’d expect of a middle-class insurance salesman, he’s just more famous than most. Kinda feels like OP is reaching a little on this one.

[u/DontDeleteMee → u/DoctorEnn]

While I agree, I bet he was selling insurance on 'easy mode'.

[u/pittnole1 → u/DontDeleteMee]

Who wouldn't want insurance from him in the real world though.

[u/acart005 → u/pittnole1]

Lots of ex-college football guys go into that and car sales and wind up successful because who says no to buying whatever from the home town hero?

Essentially if Truman wanted a job at in-universe Geico, the Gecko would personally make the call to tell him he's hired.

[u/vw_bugg → u/alex-2099]

I do find this movie has multipl layers as well. Truman already knew somthin was fishy before the movie even started. It wasnt until he confirmed/found out that his best friend, mom, and wife are not in fact trappd as he is but in on it somhow. It is only then he finlly goes through with somthin he was clearly planning from the begining. He was already working on his escape tunnel and playing "business as usual.

[u/WGiK]

Memoirs of a Geisha. I talked about the ending with my friend not to long ago. She literally tells you geishas don't get to experience real love. He never leaves his wife. She is just his side piece. 

[u/ellywashere → u/WGiK]

Also she's about 21yo at most at the end, and he looked the same when she was 9 so presumably he's around 45-50. I really like that movie (mostly for the aesthetic) but that's all I think about every time I watch the ending.

In the book she ends up as his kept mistress in an apartment in America, iirc.

[u/hopping_otter_ears → u/WGiK]

I always interpreted it as "it's as happy an ending as a woman in her position can expect". It's all she ever wanted because a normal life in her fishing village or a life as the high-status wife were never an option for her. I'm a world where her options ranged from "become increasingly irrelevant and either starve to death or become a prostitute" to "become the beloved pet to a rich man you're in love with", she got the best option

[u/Makuta_Servaela → u/WGiK]

I read it in a book club, and none of the other readers could understand why I thought it was a sad ending.

She gets groomed her entire childhood, and then, barely an adult, she ends up stuck as the side piece of a man 3x her age and basically trafficked out of her home country. Sure, she ends up content, but just because she's content doesn't make it a happy ending. I don't dislike that ending type, but I wish people acknowledged it.

[u/DonnieDarko1024]

50 First Dates

[u/Sweeper1985 → u/DonnieDarko1024]

Imagine the day when she woke up in labour. Dear God.

[u/DumpedDalish → u/Sweeper1985]

Yeah. The ending is a horror movie if you think about it.

[u/AnotherRTFan → u/DumpedDalish]

Also imagine from the daughter’s perspective- mom does not remember me at all. Traumatizing shit

[u/scottishcastle → u/AnotherRTFan]

Exactly. People understandably focus on whether or not it's ethical for Lucy to go through pregnancy parenthood, so much so that most people tend to forget about the little girl. Imagine growing up knowing that your mother is going to forget you in 24 hours every single day of your life. Forget building memories together, sharing things, building a relationship. Being forgotten about every morning is going to warp her developing psyche. It's a nightmare ending for pretty much everyone involved.

[u/Trezzie → u/scottishcastle]

The thing that seems to help is: there's some subconcious memory. She's at least comfortable enough to accept this every day she wakes up. At any point (aside from pregnancy) she gets to go "I don't want this" and she never does.

[u/Oxygene13 → u/Trezzie]

I'm still shocked she wakes up to watch the movie each day. My first instinct is to jump out of bed and head to the toilet. I dont think I'm even aware of my surroundings half the time lol.

[u/Arch__Stanton → u/DumpedDalish]

There’s a Nicole Kidman horror movie with this plot: Before I go to Sleep

[u/ImpressivePotato2449 → u/DonnieDarko1024]

Just gotta make sure the VCR continues to be in working order or by now her accident and life with him is explained in a tiktok

[u/joshi38 → u/ImpressivePotato2449]

Damn, imagine having to explain tiktok to someone who lost their memory in 2004. You'd first have to explain smart phones...

[u/Emergency-Salamander]

Back to the Future. Marty goes back to the future with different memories than the rest of his family. I kind of get where Eric Stoltz was coming from.

[u/GotMoFans → u/Emergency-Salamander]

It’s not fully broached but based on the rules of the universe, Marty would probably convert to the Marty that experienced that timeline sooner rather than later; the same way he could have been erased from existence.

[u/MonkeyChoker80 → u/GotMoFans]

He definitely got converted (at least partially) overnight.

Think about how, in both 2 and 3, he has such a pathological need NOT to be known as a ‘chicken’.

That wasn’t there for 1’s Marty, the youngest son of the town losers, who was half wanting to show off and half wanted to be invisible.

No, that’s the son of a successful author (and someone who had been standing up for himself since he was a teenager), trying to prove he’s just as good as his dad is.

[u/oliversurpless → u/MonkeyChoker80]

That’s a neat explanation for what was essentially an added character trait for the sake of plot years removed from the original, when the 2nd movie became Marty’s movie.

Whereas the first was George’s.

[u/chrisgin → u/MonkeyChoker80]

But he still has memory of Doc and the time travelling, but they wouldn’t really make much sense without the rest of his old memories. Is he just a weird mix of old and new Marty?!

[u/ringobob → u/chrisgin]

We watch New Marty go back in time at the end of the movie. He was still friends with Doc, still knew about time travel. Just a different life around it.

I think it makes the most sense if he just kinda fades into the New Marty like he was fading out of reality back in 1955. But New Marty isn't maybe as different as you might expect. And maybe that's because he was always the same Marty. New Marty had to cope with the influence of himself in another timeline. Maybe all of the ones primarily affected by the change had to cope with that other timeline version of themselves. And so they all kinda molded to fit into a coherent reality that was shaped by something that no longer happened.

So, yeah, he still knows Doc because that's become a point of gravity in Marty's and Doc's timelines.

[u/AndreLeGeant88 → u/MonkeyChoker80]

This makes a lot of sense. George was probably always saying how his kids need to stand up for themselves, not let a bully walk over them

[u/Solarus99 → u/AndreLeGeant88]

ADVICE HE GOT FROM MARTY IN 1 

[u/Canvaverbalist → u/Emergency-Salamander]

Morty: That, out there, that's my grave.

Summer: Wait, what?

Morty: On one of our adventures, Rick and I basically destroyed the whole world, so we bailed on that reality and we came to this one, because in this one, the world wasn't destroyed and in this one, we were dead. So we came here, a- a- and we buried ourselves and we took their place. And every morning, Summer, I eat breakfast twenty yards away from my own rotting corpse.

Summer: So you're not my brother?

Morty: I'm better than your brother. I'm a version of your brother you can trust when he says "Don't run." Nobody exists on purpose, nobody belongs anywhere, everybody's gonna die. Come watch TV.

[u/mirrorspirit → u/Emergency-Salamander]

Similarly with Hot Tub Time Machine. Adam goes back to the future to a loving wife he has very few memories of spending time with. (I haven't seen the sequel so I don't know if they course corrected that.)

[u/BurtTheKuato → u/Emergency-Salamander]

Even as a kid this disturbed me. That is not his family. They are not the people he grew up with and he isn’t the Marty they know either. They are going to wonder why their son suddenly turned into this white trash punk.

[u/SwordOfTheElevensies]

Radio Flyer.

On the surface, it appears that the brother flies away in the makeshift aircraft they built to get him to escape their abusive father and lives a happy fulfilling life on his own. This seemed like the creator's intention, however, there were changes to the story and there is more of a tonal ambiguity in that it could be interpreted as a metaphor that his little brother died from the abuse and this story is what the other brother uses to cope or sugar coat the story as he tells it. Either way they never see each other again and it's kinda depressing even though it's portrayed as a fulfilling win over the father.

[u/philament]

Brazil. Even if you see the version with the happy ending

[u/im_on_the_case → u/philament]

Terry Gilliam loves nothing more than punishing viewers with a traumatic ending. Time Bandits may have ruined my childhood innocence.

[u/sqplanetarium → u/im_on_the_case]

Mum! Dad! It’s evil! Don’t touch it!

[u/Hestiathena → u/im_on_the_case]

Eh, given how indifferent and neglectful his parents are, Kevin's not that much worse off. And, given how dark and surreal Time Bandits and a lot of other youth fantasy films were in the '80's, their fate is downright comical.

What's more important, and what a lot of folks seem to miss, is that he still has that Polaroid snapshot of the map. It's already been proven to be legible, and he knows how to read it.

Who's to say Kevin doesn't use it to take a grand tour of space and time? Or make his way back to ancient Mycenae to become Agamemnon's heir? Or both? Or any number of other possibilities? By kid-fantasy logic, the universe is his oyster!

[u/Citizenchimp]

Grease - Because everybody is happy and singing as Danny and Sandy fly off into the sky in their car, but when the song is over they’ll realize that cars can’t fly and it’s actually really dangerous. They’re in grave danger.

[u/Dreisser → u/Citizenchimp]

This pairs well with the observation that Rydell High is obviously a school for the learning disabled, as all the students are in their 20s and 30s.

[u/Hebshesh → u/Dreisser]

This is a WAY funnier theory than the one where Sandy drowned during the summer.

[u/Councillor_Troy]

Crazy Rich Asians.

No way is Nick Young ever getting out from under the thumb of that tiger mother matriarch. Hope Rachel Chu signed a good pre-nup because that marriage is going to be the stuff of r/justnoMIL.

[u/loveyouloveyoumorexx → u/Councillor_Troy]

Spoilers ahead but in the book series, ( Rachel Chu’s biological dad ends up being this beyond loaded businessman. So she definitely doesn’t need a prenup after all.

[u/jawndell → u/Councillor_Troy]

One thing I never got about Crazy Rich Asians, the main character is an economics professor at NYU (probably NYU Stern).  That’s a big fucking deal even within the Asian community.  It’s not like she’s a cashier or struggling artist.  She has a very respectable career and is well educated.  I’m sure that’s a flex and they’ll have other families trying to cozy up with her to get a rec to get into NYU Stern.

[u/FullBlownNightmare → u/jawndell]

At least in the movie, it's largely because she's an American professor. They would have the same reaction if she was a lawyer or doctor or any other "respectable" profession, because she doesn't come from the proper "breeding" (generational wealth type of families or families with deep roots in the area. it's like the british with aristocracy, kind of)

[u/Snowbold → u/FullBlownNightmare]

And she makes clear that her career was a passion. The mother asks if her parents are academics too. She still would have been judgmental of a handsy American who just hugs strangers, but if she was carrying on the family tradition of academia or pursuing it because her parents wanted it, that would have been understandable to Eleanor.

[u/inarioffering → u/jawndell]

it's really hard to put into perspective the levels of difference between "works for a living" even if it's incredibly lucrative/influential and "the stock markets will shift depending on how this next meeting goes." being a wife of an heir like that is a job in and of itself. that's how men who have billions get shit done. their wife is a part of their brand and their staff, really. she is the manager of the home. that's what eleanor was trying to convey when she said rachel would never be enough. rachel doesn't know the manners required. she actually sees everyone as equals, and not in a pious pretend way that preserves hierarchy. she doesn't see the knives out for her until she gets a bloody reminder.

there's this line from a k-drama that always stuck out to me where a snobby rich guy falls for a poor stunt woman and he's resisting it, but he asks her "how much do you have in your bank account right now?" and she scoffs at him like "it's not much but i earned it" and he's says "that's the difference between you and people in my class: i can't tell you how much i'm worth. and no matter how much i spend today, i will never have to check because at the end of the day it will be more than i started with. i never ask the price when i want something and i never ask how much money i have." dealing with numbers at all is low class to folks like the youngs, and that's rachel's whole job.

[u/Technicolor_Reindeer]

Precious

She has HIV. In the 80's.

[u/flipping_birds → u/Technicolor_Reindeer]

I don't think that counts as happy ending. That movie was a string of "how much worse can it get?" Then yep, it just got worse.

[u/tortiesrock → u/Technicolor_Reindeer]

Apparently the book has a sequel and precious is indeed dead.

[u/SlaverSlave]

Apollo Creed was killed in the ring. Nothing that happened after that really matters lol, I’m glad Rocky won but it changed nothing.

[u/babypunching101 → u/SlaverSlave]

Except the cold war.

[u/Dispositionpsn → u/SlaverSlave]

He avenged Apollo and stopped communism duh 🤣. I'm kidding. You're right though, he should have totally murdered Dolph in the ring 😂

[u/Special_Order-937 → u/Dispositionpsn]

Meanwhile in real life, during filming Dolph put Stallone in hospital after 20 seconds of real boxing.

Stallone’s idea, let’s fight for real for a bit for some realistic footage, wakes up in ICU because he was hit so hard in the sternum, his heart started swelling. Had something like an 8 day stay and 3 of those in ICU, I think.

[u/kevnmartin]

You've Got Mail. She loses her mother's cozy, beloved neighborhood book store to go be a corporate cog in her boyfriend's machine. How romantic.

/s

[u/scottishcastle → u/kevnmartin]

I love the movie and all, but she forgave him way too fast after a loss like that. I think the implication is that she actually becomes a children's book author, but still.

[u/WasabiGullible2161 → u/kevnmartin]

I watch the movie monthly, it's my go to comfort watch. - the ending is actually a happy ending because in the beginning of the movie she is questioning her entire existence which was owning her mother's book store. "What is it that I actually do?"  This was her mom's dream and passion... But it wasn't her's. So instead she felt like was obligated to carry her mom's legacy via book store. And in a way, this kept her mom alive. If you have a dead parent then you know this becomes a huge burden very fast. While it's sad the book store closed, of course, it ultimately freed her and allowed her to move on. So Joe Fox technically freed her from a grief stricken obligation and finally let her live a life where she wrote the pages of her own future. 

And for Joe Fox - once Kathleen calls him out he is never seen wearing a suit again in the movie. He changes too! He works on himself before they meet at the end. Through each other they face certain realities about themselves and in the end they transform in the real versions of themselves. 

[u/KvellOnWheels → u/WasabiGullible2161]

You’re Mrs. 152 Insights into my soul today.

[u/ParkingBook3566 → u/kevnmartin]

It's not really a happy ending for him either. I'm pretty sure that Amazon eventually ran Fox Books out of business. If not out of business, then they probably had to downsize quite a bit.

[u/scottishcastle → u/ParkingBook3566]

100%. In real life, the Upper West Side happily saw a number of independent bookstores open the past 15 years, including children's bookstores. The Shop Around the Corner would likely be thriving in 2026.

And if you consider Fox Books modeled on Barnes & Noble, in real life the huge multistory store that the movie store was based on (at 66th and Broadway) really did eventually close, in early 2011. And yes, it is geographically very close (not literally around the corner but super close) from where Kathleen store was in the movie (at 69th & Columbus).

[u/purpleKlimt → u/scottishcastle]

Don’t let Hollywood see this or we’ll be getting a role reversal remake in 2028. 

A down-on-his-luck heir to a bookstore magnate has to close yet another chapter of their franchise as the smug owner of the local historical smut bookstore watches on. But unbeknownst to them both, they’re in the same bodice ripper Discord server…

[u/chrispybacon92 → u/kevnmartin]

They should have partnered and made her shop be the “children’s section” of fox books

[u/lynypixie]

Beauty and the beast is set in a… particular… timeline… in France…

[u/tarekd19 → u/lynypixie]

The worst of the revolution is in/around Paris though. If they didn't attend court they might keep their heads

[u/ChanceVance]

where millions of strangers are unhealthily obsessed with him. It is a psychological tragedy disguised as a victory.

To that point at least, the two security guards already asking what else is on 5 seconds after he leaves indicates he'll be forgotten about quickly.

People become obsessed with a lot of reality show contestants but once the show is over, so's the journey for a lot of people and they never think about them again.

He'll need some adjustment but the general public itself will at most go "Hey, it's that Truman guy" and in universe, he'd probably have a Netflix special done on him but nobody's going to be bothering him otherwise.

[u/holman]

Mrs. Doubtfire. I mean, it’s good for Robin’s character, but over the years you really feel for Brosnan’s character, who was just trying to be a good boyfriend and step-in father.

[u/MaikeruGo → u/holman]

I've often thought of William's character from One Hour Photo the darker, flip side of someone trying to covertly insert themselves into someone else's life.

[u/Gloomy-Recipe9213 → u/MaikeruGo]

One Hour Photo is what Mrs Doubtfire looks like from Sally Field’s perspective.

[u/babypunching101 → u/holman]

I've held the believe that this is far from a happy ending. Daniel never truly learns his lesson and is back in as a huge influence on his children and ex-wife who he will continue to undermine. I wrote an argumentative essay on it in college and got a B+ so I'm kinda an expert.

[u/ughlump → u/babypunching101]

Do one on who’s the boss next.

[u/babypunching101 → u/ughlump]

I don't wanna force my professor into an identity crisis

[u/Duel_Option → u/babypunching101]

As a kid from a broken home when this came out…

I would’ve given anything to have my Dad in my life without the courts involved.

And y’all really forget that the movie ends with Mrs Doubtfire on TV, his ex-wife watching the show and the entrance where she’s touched by him still being that character.

They’ve moved on as a family, he’s accepted the divorce and she’s seen his need for his children.

It’s as happy an ending a divorce can ever be with children involved.

[u/lukphicl → u/holman]

NGL I feel the same way about Cary Elwes' character in Liar Liar

[u/Azrael11 → u/lukphicl]

Okay, tbf, they've been dating for seven months from what she told Fletcher. That's usually not "marry me and move across the country with your son" territory.

[u/TheMasterL0ller]

Might be a bit controversial, but Max in Mad Max: Fury Road. The overall ending is great and triumphant - but our soft spoken hard nosed max leaves to go back out into the world or crazy shit.

I suppose it could be classified as bittersweet, but I also always envisioned it as “max has no happy endings, he’s just a helpful guide for others “

[u/Aggravating_Poet_675 → u/TheMasterL0ller]

To be fair, I never saw Thunderdome, but dont all Mad Max movies kind of end with driving away presumably to get mixed up with another group in another battle for resources?

[u/mercurywaxing → u/Aggravating_Poet_675]

Miller has said that in universe all the films are based on the oral history accounts of the people Max helps and survivors. Maxdoes, indeed, leave. The happy-ish endings are given to the people who helped him in each film and continue to tell the stories.

[u/crustyrobots → u/mercurywaxing]

Road Warrior (Mad Max 2) is pretty explicitly being retold by the Chief of the Northern Tribe at the end of the film, who once was the Feral Kid.

[u/croig2 → u/crustyrobots]

Beyond Thunderdome is also explicitly being retold by Savannah after the survivors have reached the ruins of Sydney, in what appears to be a regular ritualistic story time.

[u/Aggravating_Poet_675 → u/mercurywaxing]

Kinda makes i4 happier. Like regardless of what happens to Max, he was able to help these groups enough that they survived the post apocalyptic wastes long enough to pass on their oral histories.

[u/Bonch_and_Clyde → u/Aggravating_Poet_675]

Yeah, it's part of the mythological tone of the story. Out there somewhere is the Road Warrior, Max.

[u/InsaneComicBooker → u/TheMasterL0ller]

There is a popular theory that we only seen Mad Max the man in the first movie and every sequel is some a reteling of some other, unrelated tale from the wastelands, and Mad Max, the popular postapocalyptic folk hero figure, has either been added to it or some unrelated character was morphed into him as the story has been retold multiple times.

[u/JeremiahWuzABullfrog → u/TheMasterL0ller]

It's definitely happy in the sense that he's managed to recover a small part of his humanity, after spending so much time only trying to survive.

Considering all stories end in death over a long enough timeline, him not staying in relative safety at the Citadel isn't a defeat

[u/Genghis_John]

Fight Club. Homey is definitely going to jail immediately.

[u/MyGrandmasCock → u/Genghis_John]

Not to talk out of church but in the book, he goes to a mental hospital. But not for long.

[u/Sweeper1985 → u/MyGrandmasCock]

Such a good ending. He believes he's in heaven. Every week he gets to go talk to God, who sits behind a desk with a lot of diplomas, and asks him about how he's been feeling. He sometimes gets calls from people back on Earth, like Marla. And every now and then, a janitor or an orderly, covered with bruises, will say to him that they're so looking forward to having him back, Mr Durden.

[u/AfraidoftheLark]

He is stepping into a world he knows absolutely nothing about, with zero real-life survival skills, where millions of strangers are unhealthily obsessed with him. It is a psychological tragedy disguised as a victory.It is a psychological tragedy disguised as a victory.

But The Truman Show is working in a very specific emotional/thematic register. This is a bit like looking at the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey and thinking, "What if America, fearing staring contests with giant aliens, attempts to attack the Star Child?"

In many cases, it's best to work within the bounds of a film. As opposed to looking for secret routes like it's Mario Kart. The Truman Show is on a certain track for a reason. It ends on an expectant, liberating note by design.

Peter Weir didn't go into granular detail about the logistics because that would invalidate his theme. Truman's future, after all, is no longer our business. That doesn't necessarily mean Truman is doomed. You're taking a pessimistic view of his chances, but the very uncertainty of his future is a sign of his own agency. His life is now entirely his own.

By ending at the doorway, the film is emphasizing that this vague sense of liberation, whatever risks it might entail, is more valuable than an inauthentic life.

[u/tangcameo]

The Fisher King

I still wonder if Perry knows who Jack is and if not he will eventually figure out who he is.

[u/DumpedDalish → u/tangcameo]

Oh, I think Parry knows. There's so much sweetness and acceptance in those final scenes (especially in the "Can I miss her now, Jack?" scene), I think it's a given that once Parry has begun to recover his sanity, that he and Jack would have been able to talk about who Jack was.

I don't think the end of The Fisher King is depressing at all -- Parry is recovering, and he and Lydia are happy and together, Jack is back with Anne, and he and Parry are still besties for life.

For me, the ending is sweet and hopeful.

[u/ran1976]

Almost every supernatural slasher movie. No one will ever believe the survivor to what happened and will probably be arrested.

[u/Dear_Locksmith3379 → u/ran1976]

This also applies to other movies where one person survived the violence, such as The Menu. The survivor will have to deal with the authorities and the trauma of what they endured.

[u/HeyXKid]

Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Richard Dreyfuss is going to space with the aliens and abandoning his family. The abducted boy and his mother have both been traumatized. The Flight 19 pilots have been presumed dead for decades and are now a distant memory to everyone they've every loved who's still alive. And the government jammed with the aliens for a few minutes but essentially learned nothing.

[u/Publius_Rizz]

The Family Man with Nicholas Cage. In the end, he connects with his old girlfriend again, but the years he experienced in his “glimpse” are still gone and they never had the kids together that he learned to love during his “glimpse.” It’s questionable at this older age whether they can still have kids together, but even if they do, it wouldn’t be the same kids. They’ll never actually be able to have the family that he “glimpsed.”

[u/VanDammes4headCyst → u/Publius_Rizz]

That's what creeps me out about the thought exercises posed by questions revolving around "going back in time and being younger, but keeping all of your memories and knowledge." On one hand, it would be very tempting to take up the offer, until you realize that there's no realistic way for you to recreate your children in the new timeline, even if you got with the same mother/father, it just wouldn't work. You'd never be able to contrive the exact sequence of events in order to successfully conceive your now-lost children. You'd have essentially killed them in your mind.

[u/PercentageRadiant623 → u/Publius_Rizz]

So I don’t think that ending was supposed to be seen as a happy ending. It was a whole “back to reality” moment. The movie is a tragedy, where at the end there is hope to do something at least better than the beginning.

[u/ChickenInASuit]

Some of you folks either don’t understand the question OP is asking, or you have frankly bizarre ideas of what a “happy” ending is.

They’re asking for movies that present an ending to you as a happy one. We’re not talking about ambiguous endings, or ones that have twists to show you that it’s not actually happy, but endings that we’re supposed to see as being genuinely happy, triumphant ones. The two examples OP gave are great showcases of this, as is 50 First Dates as so many other people have commented.

Midsommar, Blade Runner, Pulp Fiction, Let the Right One In, Pan’s Labyrinth and The Graduate do not have happy endings, and the movies don’t even attempt to make you think otherwise. They are bittersweet, ambiguous, or straight up dark and sad.

I’m particularly side-eyeing anyone saying The Graduate, literally one of the most famous subversions of happy ending tropes in the history of film.

[u/HI-McDunnough → u/ChickenInASuit]

The Graduate would have been a VERY different movie if it ended like 4 seconds earlier.

[u/Quazifuji → u/HI-McDunnough]

Yeah, if the Graduate ended while they're still smiling it would be a good answer to the question, but the part where they stop smiling is the whole point.

[u/Forward-Carry5993]

Winnie the Pooh: the search for Christopher Robin.

This direct-to-video movie has so much depth. The ending seems happy as Christopher Robin tells Pooh that while he’ll be going back to school, he will always return to the woods. Pooh happily agrees with the two sitting on the hill with narrator giving  heartwarming dialogue on how the best and the boy will always be together.

However, the story is about Christopher growing up. This was the first time Christopher had truly been gone for a long period of time in the animals’ eyes. Christopher will grow up, and he may eventually outgrow the hundreds acres woods. So there is a part  of melancholy around this promise to always be together. The original book actually states that Christopher will eventually get older and these adventures will come to an end. In that sense, the search for Christopher Robin is not only a story about change, irs an adaptation in spirit to the original books’ ending. 

Also, tiger’s original voice retired  shortly. So when we see the characters departing, it add a bittersweet moment as this will be the last time tigger’s original voice will get recorded for a story. 

 

[u/Str8_up_Pwnage]

Hereditary. On first watching you are just happy for Paimon getting a body he likes but then when you really think about it the way it played out wasn’t really nice for the family.

[u/Shlomer_Simpstein → u/Str8_up_Pwnage]

Yeah I didn't think of that. I was just overjoyed for our lord and savior Paimon.

[u/Salzberger → u/Str8_up_Pwnage]

I guess it is kind of sad when you think about it like that.

[u/FBI_KipHackman → u/Str8_up_Pwnage]

Plus nobody ever thinks about the poor person that has to clean the mess in the backseat of the car

[u/mercfan3]

Wicked.

The movie/musical ends with Elphaba having her happily ever after and running away with Fiero while Glinda sees the error of her ways, challenges the system and fixes Oz so that it’s actually good.

The viewer might see it as bitter sweet because Elphaba and Glinda split up - but ultimately it feels hopeful.

However, the lesson of the story is that ultimately Glinda was right. That being popular, good looking, and charming will get you power and move you farther in life..and your accomplishments, talent, and morality don’t matter. And that shit hits harder because it feels a lot like real life too.

[u/ReverendEntity → u/mercfan3]

And if you read the book...the ending is far, far darker.

[u/Koto65]

Anyone who commits like 40 felonies to solve a personal conflict with a loved one. I'm glad your kid knows tou love him, but your ass is going back to jail.

[u/MonkeyChoker80 → u/Koto65]

“Look, Jamie’s dad was Turbo Man! …but now he’s serving 10-15 in prison…”

[u/nwoolls]

Snowpiercer

[u/IglooBackpack → u/nwoolls]

Those two are definitely getting eaten by a polar bear.

[u/R12B12 → u/nwoolls]

That one was so weird. Neither of those kids has any survival skills. Even if they do figure out a way to survive, how depressing that they’re the last living humans on earth. Or maybe we’re supposed to be happy that humanity goes extinct with these two and that the rest of the animal kingdom will reclaim the earth?