History CruelTwistEnding / LiveActionFilms

* The film adaptation of ''Manga/AsTheGodsWill'': After surviving a marathon of [[DeadlyGame deadly children's games]], [[TheHero Shun,]] Ichika, [[TheSociopath Amaya]] and the other survivors are given popsicle sticks to eat to celebrate their success and own survival... except ''that'' one's another DeadlyGame [[LuckBasedMission which determines whenever you live or die based on what it says on the stick]]. Only Shun and Amaya get to live as the former's forced to watch Ichika and the others die before [[ItMakesSenseInContext they emerge out of the giant cube and find a whole crowd of people cheering for them and calling them 'God's Children'.]] While Amaya relishes in the glory, Shun cries out there is no God, except he gets told there ''is'' a God and it's a homeless man from earlier in the movie.

* The film adaptation of ''Manga/AsTheGodsWill'': After surviving a marathon of [[DeadlyGame deadly children's games]], [[TheHero Shun,]] Ichika, [[TheSociopath Amaya]] and the other survivors are given popsicle sticks to eat to celebrate their success and own survival... except ''that'' one's another DeadlyGame [[LuckBasedMission which determines whenever you live or die based on what it says on the stick]]. Only Shun and Amaya get to live as the former's forced to watch Ichika die before [[ItMakesSenseInContext they emerge out of the giant cube and find a whole crowd of people cheering for them and calling them 'God's Children'.]] While Amaya relishes in the glory, Shun cries out there is no God, except he gets told there ''is'' a God and it's a homeless man from earlier in the movie.

* ''Film/ExMachina'' first appears as though it will end on a happy note, with [[RobotGirl Ava]] free, her abusive creator Nathan dead, and she and her rescuer Caleb becoming a couple and starting a new life together. It appears to be leading that way in the closing scene of Ava putting on skin and clothes to cute music, in a CallBack to a previous scene where she dressed and asked Caleb to be her date, until she locks him in Nathan's room and leaves. He has no hope of escape with the power out, Nathan dead, the windows too tough to break, and no one else in the world knowing he's here or what was happening in the compound.

* ''Film/TheBaby'': Ann manages to save Baby (a twenty-year-old man forced to act and behave as a baby by his abuse family) from his relatives... except she didn't do it for his own sake, but because she wanted a playmate for her husband, who was reduced to mental infancy after a car accident. Baby is in a slightly ''nicer'' GildedCage than before, but he's still doomed to being infantilized for the rest of his life.

* The ending twist in ''Film/MurderByNumbers'' seems a heck of a lot like one of these. Yay! The evil villain who reminded Cassie of her abusive husband has met his richly deserved death! Justin's turned to the side of good! He was just a misunderstood and lonely teenaged boy! PSYCH. It was him all along, sorry. Have fun in prison. (Though it's not exactly a twist at all if you have enough knowledge of foreshadowing and/or the Leopold and Loeb case. Which, sadly, did not end in a shootout in an abandoned cabin.)

** The last survivor in ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968'' is mistaken for a zombie and shot dead. It's deliberately left unclear whether the protagonist was actually mistaken for a zombie, or if the rednecks saving the day just saw a good opportunity to shoot a black guy without a fear of punishment. It wasn't originally deliberate, since Ben's part was written for a white man. [[AscendedFanon George Romero is fine with taking credit for the alternate interpretation now, though.]]

* ''Film/TalesFromTheDarksideTheMovie'', has this example in the third and final story. A down on his luck artist witnesses a gargoyle-like creature killing and eating one of his drinking buddies late at night. He tries to run, but the creature captures him. The creature agrees to spare his life, if he promises not to tell anyone what he witnessed. He agrees. Not long afterwards, he meets an attractive woman walking alone at night. He takes her back to his place, warning her that it's dangerous. The two get to know each other and soon enter a relationship. Because the woman happen to have connections in the art world, she helps his career take off. Years later, the artist is now rich. He married the MysteriousWoman and has two kids with her. Not able to get what he witnessed that night out of his mind, however, he draws the creature in perfect detail. He tells his wife about it, making it clear that the creature was the reason he insisted she come home with him that night. The twist comes in, when the women reveals that she is the creature in human disguise and that he broke his promise. She transforms back into the gargoyle creature. The children also turn into gargoyle creatures. She kills him and flies off.

* In ''Literature/TheMist'' the main characters leave the doomed grocery store in a car. When the car runs out of gas, the father takes a pistol, and shoots everyone in the car, [[OffingTheOffspring including his own son]]. Out of bullets and unable to kill himself, he notices the mist dissipating, and hears a strange noise which turns out to be the military, destroying the monsters. So, if he had waited literally one minute before killing everyone, they all would have survived. What makes it worse was the realization that one of the objects in the background of the reveal scene is army-standard temporary housing. They weren't being followed by the military, ''they were driving through a military outpost''! One film critic was so bothered by the ending that he spoiled it (with ample warning) in his review to keep people from being blindsided by it.

* ''Film/LittleShopOfHorrors'': both the original 1960 non-musical film and the musical stage play end with both the protagonists EatenAlive by the killer plant, and an army of murderous plants wiping out all of humanity. This was filmed for the much better-known 1986 musical film but then was replaced with a more heroic ending after screen tests showed it caused audience opinion to plummet. The original ending was retained as an alternate ending which becomes an extremely cruel twist for anyone used to the regular version of the film (although some consider it FanPreferredCutContent, especially since its production values are remarkably high as it was fully intended to be the original ending). Ironically, for anyone who was used to the original versions, the released 1986 version would have been seen as having a ''positive'' twist ending.

* The original ending of ''Film/{{Clerks}}'': After Dante goes through hell on Earth during what was supposed to be his day off, [[DiabolusExMachina a robber comes in and murders him]]. The end.
** Of course, your mileage may vary. According to the most common interpretation, it's fitting as an homage to ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack''. Dante chose it as his favorite movie specifically because [[DownerEnding it ended on such a down note]].