History Main / HappilyEverBefore

* ''Film/{{Challenger}}'', the 1990 MadeForTVMovie about the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster is particularly egregious-- it ends right at launch, fading to black ''seconds'' before the actual moment of disaster.

* At the end of ''[[VisualNovel/GyakutenKenji2 Ace Attorney Investigations 2]]'', Edgeworth has solved several cases and took down the BigBad, now with a newfound resolve to reform the legal system as a prosecutor. [[VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney Five days later, a certain magician is found dead in his hospital room, and a certain defense attorney gets disbarred for presenting forged evidence]].[[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies The Dark Age of the Law is about to begin]]...

* At the end of the sequel of ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigationsMilesEdgeworth'', Edgeworth has solved several cases and took down the BigBad, now with a newfound resolve to reform the legal system as a prosecutor. [[VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney Five days later, a certain magician is found dead in his hospital room, and a certain defense attorney gets disbarred for presenting forged evidence]].[[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies The Dark Age of the Law is about to begin]]...

* Shakespeare's ''Theatre/HenryVIII'' ends shortly after the birth of Elizabeth, with Henry and Anne happily married - yeah, that went well.

* ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Challenger_%281990_film%29 Challenger]]'', the 1990 MadeForTVMovie about the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster is particularly egregious— it ends right at launch, fading to black ''seconds'' before the actual moment of disaster.

* The SpeculativeDocumentary ''Series/TheFutureIsWild'', which is about what animals could eventually appear on our planet's surface in the distant future, apparently begins with the start of a new ice age, and ends with the formation of a new supercontinent. The last episode apparently ends with a closeup of the Sun in the sky, because it's going to play an important role after the series...

* ''Theatre/TheLastTrial'': The ending usually played ends with the VillainProtagonist causing the destruction of the universe, which is prevented via time travel in the ''Literature/DragonlanceLegends'' book trilogy on which it's based. [[ZigzaggedTrope However]], there is an occasionally played alternate ending that follows the books more closely.

Please note: given this is an ending trope, spoilers are unavoidable. You have been warned.

* The ''Manga/ShadowStar'' anime. The only thing the audience got there was a half-assed LeftHanging "ending" -- which may ''still'' have been preferable to what the manga [[DownerEnding ended with]].
* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamUnicorn'' ends with the Federation and Zeon finally resolving their conflicts and the implication that [[BittersweetEnding peace would finally be achieved]] in the Universal Century after so much bloodshed. That is if you didn't watch any of the Gundam series set after that. Chronologically, ''Unicorn'' takes place decades before the brutal [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamF91 Cosmo Babylonia War]][[note]]and a supplementary manga prologue even has yet another battle with the final(really-for-real-we-mean-it-this-time-honest!) Zeon remnants[[/note]] and, much later, the even more gruesome [[Anime/MobileSuitVictoryGundam Zanscare War]], which may be even worse than the One Year War, the Gryps Conflict and the various Neo Zeon incursions. Nevertheless, by revealing the contents of Laplace's Box, Banagher and Mineva ''finally'' put a hopeful end to a century awash in blood and tears, even if for just twenty-odd years.
* The ''Anime/{{Suzuka}}'' anime ends with the OfficialCouple getting together. The manga ends with [[spoiler:an unplanned pregnancy]] forcing the OfficialCouple to abandon the dreams that drove the [[SportsStoryTropes Sports Story]] side of the plot.

* The ''Manga/WanderingSon'' anime ends just when Nitori's voice is starting to break and before the puberty related drama really hit. The ending is comparatively much happier than the manga counterpart, as Nitori seems fine with her voice changing while in the manga she reacts with a blank expression.

* Played with when ''Manga/{{Saikano}}'' was first translated by fansubbers; at the end of episode 10 (when Shuji and Chise reunite and run away to forget about the war and just live together) the fansubbers added a public service announcement that this was the end of any happiness in the series, and if viewers didn't want to be made incredibly sad by subsequent episodes they should just stop watching here and pretend this was the last episode.

* Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon:

** Many novelizations of ''WesternAnimation/{{Bambi}}'' stop right before Bambi's mother's infamous death scene.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Balto}}'' ends happily with Balto bringing home the medicine to save the sick children, getting the girl, and finally being accepted as a hero by the town that previously hated him. The real Balto's life went quickly downhill after that when his {{Jerkass}} owner sold him to be paraded around in circuits for profit. Unsurprisingly, the sequels ditch the first movie's pretension of being based on true events and focus on a story made up out of whole cloth about Balto's fictional offspring.
* The animated film of ''WesternAnimation/PlanetHulk'' ends with the Red King's overthrow, rather than going through with the horrible events that led up to ''ComicBook/WorldWarHulk'' in the comics.
* While the animated adaptation of ''Literature/HaloTheFallOfReach'' doesn't end on the best of terms, with [[spoiler:Samuel-034's HeroicSacrifice]] and the still looming threat of the [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Covenant]], the series avoids the titular battle that results in the destruction of Reach, one of humanity's last strongholds and [[spoiler:the [[NotQuiteDead assumed]] deaths of all the other [[SuperSoldier Spartan-IIs]] besides the Master Chief]]. Instead, the animated series ends with [[BadassCrew Blue Team]] and most of the other Spartans alive and together. This was likely done to avoid confusing players who had not seen most of the ExpandedUniverse when Blue Team is shown together in ''VideoGame/Halo5Guardians'', because the series was included with the [[LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition Limited editions]] of the game.

* Actually used to [[BolivianArmyEnding brilliant effect]] in ''Film/ButchCassidyAndTheSundanceKid'': [[spoiler:the last shot of the movie freeze-frames literally the instant before the two heroes are gunned down, leaving us with a final image of the two in which they are very much alive, and doing what they do best.]] Considering the rumors of the real Butch Cassidy surviving the shootout, this makes it rather interesting.
* The ''[[Film/TheGoldenCompass Northern Lights/The Golden Compass]]'' film famously dealt with the cruel twist at the end of the novel by [[NoEnding ending ten minutes early]]. Yes, it was a DiabolusExMachina, but it was also a little crucial to the rest of the story happening ''at all''. It was intended instead to make that scene the [[DownerBeginning opening]] of the second part of the trilogy [[StillbornFranchise that they didn't make]]. The stage adaptations of the trilogy also go with this, though at least there you can find out how it ends. The really, really irritating part is that the entire DownerEnding was ''actually filmed'', but it was [[ExecutiveMeddling cut at the last minute]]. That footage is sitting on some editor's hard drive somewhere, but we'll probably never get to see it. What little of it appeared in the tie-in game actually looked pretty good.
* ''Film/ThePrincessBride'' ends with the heroes riding off into the sunset, leaving off the book's more ambiguous ending in which they are slowed down by various mishaps and the villain is shown to be on their trail. Then again, so did the book, kinda. (See the Literature section for details.)

* This ''almost'' happened with ''Film/OnHerMajestysSecretService'', with the original ending being [[Film/JamesBond Bond]] and Tracy driving off happily. When George Lazenby [[RealLifeWritesThePlot announced he would quit]], Blofeld and Bunt killing Tracy was put in, rather than being saved for the sequel.
* The film adaptation of ''Literature/TheGrapesOfWrath'' ends as the Joads are driving down the highway in a car and Ma offers some words of hope that were in the novel. The book ends with the remaining Joads in a barn after a flood, and the same words which wrap up the movie are spoken right before things start to go downhill.
* The film version of ''Film/TheGetaway'' omits the final chapter of the book.
* The "Love Conquers All" ending of the American screening of ''Film/{{Brazil}}'' is this, ending the movie right after a bizarre and trippy sequence that Sam discovers is AllJustADream... but before the camera pulls away to show us that [[spoiler:it was all just a dream because his mind had snapped due to his torture.]]
* ''Film/TheManWhoLaughs'' does this, ending with Gwynplaine and Dea declaring their love for each other and sailing off together into the sunset. In the book [[spoiler:they both die shortly thereafter]].
* Peter O'Toole's ''Franchise/SherlockHolmes and the Valley of Fear'' cut the downer ending. Unsurprising, since a) the adaptation was written for children and b) there wasn't enough time provided to establish the ending as a legitimate downer. What is surprising is that all explicit reference to ''Moriarty'' was removed.

* The behind-the-scenes/rehearsal documentary ''Music/MichaelJackson's This Is It'' never acknowledges that the actual ''This Is It'' concerts didn't take place because Jackson died of a prescription drug overdose before they were scheduled to begin; in fact, it doesn't even mention Jackson's death at all (not even an "in loving memory"). Drew [=McWeeny=], in his negative review at Hitfix.com, pointed out that this made the film useless as a documentary, since it was all buildup and no payoff -- for example, how did his death affect all those excited backup performers and musicians seen at the start of the film?

* ''Film/MyWeekWithMarilyn'' ends on a happy note with a [[Main/WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue]] that mentions only Creator/MarilynMonroe's highly successful next picture, ''Film/SomeLikeItHot'', and not her death (and probable suicide) only three years later at an age of 36.
* ''Film/LesMiserables1998'' ends with [[spoiler:Javert committing suicide in front of Valjean.]] The last thing shown is [[spoiler:Valjean running away, now free to return to a peaceful life with Cosette]]. This conveniently cuts off before either Valjean decides to leave to protect Cosette's good name (the theater adaptation) or is driven away by Marius (the book), and Cosette and Marius only find Valjean again on his deathbed (both). The 1935 version starring Fredric March also ends this way.
* ''Film/TheGreatWarriorSkanderbeg'' concludes with the titular character having secured Albania's independence from the Ottoman Empire for decades and the movie closes with him giving him a triumphant speech about their freedom being guaranteed. In real life, Albania eventually fell to Ottoman occupation a decade after Skanderbeg's death.
* ''Film/FirstMan'' ends on a hopeful note, showing that Neil and Janet's marriage remains strong despite the incredible stress his career put on the family. In real life, the marriage was on tenuous ground and the two eventually divorced[[note]]In retrospectives, family and friends noted that that the two had difficulty relating to one another (in part, due to Neil's taciturn nature) and that Neil had a tendency to take Janet for granted (such as leaving her in charge of managing their farm while he went off to do more glamorous business work)[[/note]].

* The 1990 MadeForTVMovie [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Challenger_%281990_film%29 about the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster]] is particularly egregious— it ends right at launch, fading to black ''seconds'' before the actual moment of disaster.

* In universe in ''{{Literature/Animorphs}}'', when Jara Hamee tells Tobias the story of his people in ''The Hork-Bajir Chronicles'', he stops with Dak and freshly [[ShapeshifterModeLock mode locked]] Aldrea [[InterspeciesRomance sharing a kiss]], and Dak believing that there must be more hope that he can't see. While this isn't ''happy'', it's ending on as happy a note as the story could get. This is at a ''very'' dark moment in the story, after Aldrea's people have betrayed them and Dak and Aldrea have [[NiceJobBreakingItHero accidentally released the Quantum Virus]]. Hork-Bajir, we're told, don't think of true stories as having actual endings; they continue on to today, and Jara skips past telling about the effects of the virus, surviving Hork-Bajir being rounded up, the increasingly doomed resistance of Dak and Aldrea, their deaths, and the capture and enslavement of their son, and any other implications. He jumps right to how his young daughter Toby is [[ChildProdigy special]], just as Dak had been.
* A number of adaptations of the ''Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms'', especially the comics or animated versions, tend to end with the battle of Chi Bi, where Wei's army is resoundingly defeated by the alliance of Wu and Shu. It's the last time that things go so well, [[spoiler: as Wu and Shu turn against each other almost immediately after, culminating in the deaths of a number of major characters.]] And of course, the movies have a tendency to focus solely on that same battle.

* In '''''1''' [[Literature/BooksOfMaccabees Maccabees]]'', TheHero died two chapters after the events related at the end of ''2 Maccabees''. The book then goes on to the leadership periods, and deaths, of the Hero's brothers. And there were only two, [[PopculturalOsmosis not six]].
* ''[[Literature/TheBible The Book of Acts]]'' leaves [[SupportingLeader Peter]] as an influential church leader and ends with [[SupportingProtagonist Paul]] under house arrest in Rome. They were both executed soon after during Nero's persecutions.
* Parodied in ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents''. A few pages before the end of the first book, the LemonyNarrator addresses the reader, telling them to put the book down at that point if they want a happy ending. Doubles as a SnicketWarningLabel.

* ''Literature/{{The Dark Tower|2004}}:'' After the scene of Roland entering the tower but before the narrative shifts inside, King suggests the reader pull this by putting down the book and considering it to have ended happily.

* Some cast albums of musicals end on a happier note than the show does, since older musicals tended not to fully score their more downbeat moments. An egregious case is ''Theatre/GoldenBoy'', where the original cast recording's "Finale" ends with the crowd cheering at the conclusion of the big fight; the show's continuation, however, reveals that [[CasualtyInTheRing the loser died]], the knowledge of which causes the winner to be DrivenToSuicide.

* The stage adaptation of ''Literature/{{Trainspotting}}'' ends with Renton moving to London and swearing to stay off drugs and avoid his old waster friends. In the book, he reconnects with them for a drug deal and then steals their shares of the money.

* ''VideoGame/SamuraiJackBattleThroughTime'' is a subversion: the default ending cuts to credits immediately after the death of Aku, making it seem like this, only for the GoldenEnding to continue with a concluding scenario that completely ignores the show's CruelTwistEnding.

* At the end of the sequel of ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigationsMilesEdgeworth'', Edgeworth has solved several cases and took down the BigBad, now with a newfound resolve to reform the legal system as a prosecutor. [[VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney Five days later, a certain magician is found dead in his hospital room, and a certain defense attorney gets disbarred for presenting forged evidence.]] [[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies The Dark Age of the Law is about to begin...]]

'''Lisa:''' ''[consulting a scroll]'' Hmm, well, actually it looks like we're in for forty years of wandering the desert.\\

'''Lisa:''' ''[nervously]'' Uh-huh-hum, more or less -- hey, is that manna?

* ''Literature/ThePlagueDogs'', which ends with the title characters swimming off to their inevitable death. The book ''almost'' ends like this, but then they get [[DeusExMachina rescued by a boat]]. Then again, the last scene is of [[EarnYourHappyEnding the wooded island they've been seeking]], so [[spoiler:it's just possible they made it.]]

* ''Film/LayerCake'': While the book ends with the protagonist recovered from being shot and living a tranquil life in the Caribbean, the movie ends with the shooting in a way that implies his death.

* The Website/{{Twitter}} account [[http://twitter.com/spongecaps2 Spongecaps - Rehydrated]] truncated certain ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episodes in this manner:
** "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS6E14DearVikingsDitchin Ditchin']]" had [[https://twitter.com/search?q=(from%3Aspongecaps2)%20since%3A2020-02-28%20until%3A2020-02-29&src=typed_query&f=live the flashback of Mrs. Puff reminding SpongeBob to return the bathroom key, followed by the final sequence]] to make it appear as though [=SpongeBob=] actually drowned in the Bikini Bottom Tar Pits. [[SnapBack Not that it has any bearing on the subsequent episodes...]]

* The ''[[Film/TheGoldenCompass Northern Lights/The Golden Compass]]'' film famously dealt with the cruel twist at the end of the novel by [[NoEnding ending ten minutes early]]. Yes, it was a DiabolusExMachina, but it was also a little crucial to the rest of the story happening ''at all''. It was intended instead to make that scene the [[DownerBeginning opening]] of the second part of the trilogy [[StillbornFranchise that they didn't make]]. The stage adaptations of the trilogy also go with this, thought at least there you can find out how it ends. The really, really irritating part is that the entire DownerEnding was ''actually filmed'', but it was [[ExecutiveMeddling cut at the last minute]]. That footage is sitting on some editor's hard drive somewhere, but we'll probably never get to see it. What little of it appeared in the tie-in game actually looked pretty good.

* Originally, the "Rite of Spring" segment of ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'' which is more of a documentary about life on the planet, was actually going to extend into the Cenozoic era after they show the dinosaurs going extinct, complete with appearances of different extinct mammals such as wooly mammoths and saber-toothed cats, before finally ending with the appearance of mankind and their discovery of fire. However, due to ExecutiveMeddling, all of this was actually cut from the final version of the film, and as a result, all of this was replaced by a scene where the entire Earth gets lashed by earthquakes before finally being flooded by a massive tidal wave caused by a solar eclipse.

* The anime version of ''{{Manga/Berserk}}'' ended with [[spoiler:Guts losing his hand and eye and Casca getting raped by Griffith as Femto]] and leaving out [[spoiler:the two of them being saved by the Skull Knight in a BigDamnHeroes moment]] from the manga. This was mainly because, unlike the manga, [[spoiler:the Skull Knight]] didn't appear at all in the anime as the anime's focus was the Golden Age arc and how Guts got from there to his circumstances in episode one, and [[spoiler:having him and Casca saved like this]] would have been rightly viewed as a DeusExMachina.

* Originally, the "Rite of Spring" segment of ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'' was actually going to extend into the Cenozoic era after they show the dinosaurs going extinct, complete with appearances of different extinct mammals such as wooly mammoths and saber-toothed cats, before finally ending with the appearance of mankind and their discovery of fire. However, due to ExecutiveMeddling, all of this was actually cut from the final version of the film, and as a result, all of this was replaced by a scene where the entire Earth gets lashed by earthquakes before finally being flooded by a massive tidal wave caused by a solar eclipse.

** ''WesternAnimation/TheSwordInTheStone'' cuts off right after [[Myth/KingArthur Arthur]] finds the sword and gets declared king, sparing kids the saga of his doomed love life and the dissolution of everything he ever worked for. And it is perfectly justified, T. H. White's ''The Sword in the Stone'' ends there as well, but the rest of ''Literature/TheOnceAndFutureKing'' covers Arthur's reign and final fall, which simply never got animated, thus adapting faithful the adaptation of the myth that did it first. Trying to fit together [[ContinuitySnarl all of the different parts]] of the Myth/ArthurianLegend into one coherent line would be [[YourHeadAsplode frustrating, to say the least]].

** ''WesternAnimation/TheSwordInTheStone'' cuts off right after [[Myth/KingArthur Arthur]] finds the sword and gets declared king, sparing kids the saga of his doomed love life and the dissolution of everything he ever worked for. And it is perfectly justified, T. H. White's ''The Sword in the Stone'' ends there as well, but the rest of ''Literature/TheOnceAndFutureKing'' covers Arthur's reign and final fall, which simply never got animated. It merely adapts the first book before things went to hell. Trying to fit together [[ContinuitySnarl all of the different parts]] of the Myth/ArthurianLegend into one coherent line would be [[YourHeadAsplode frustrating, to say the least]].

* The ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRings Lord of the Rings]]'' film trilogy is divided up differently than the books.
** ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheFellowshipOfTheRing The Fellowship of the Ring]]'': The book ends with Boromir trying to steal the Ring, the departure of Frodo and Sam for Mordor and the capture of Merry and Pippin by the Uruk-hai. The film includes the first chapter of ''Literature/TheTwoTowers'', which has the redemption [[spoiler:and death]] of Boromir and the Three Hunters giving chase to the hobbits' captors, arguably ending on a more positive, hopeful note.

* The ''[[Film/TheGoldenCompass Northern Lights/The Golden Compass]]'' film famously dealt with the cruel twist at the end of the novel by [[NoEnding ending ten minutes early]]. Yes, it was a DiabolusExMachina, but it was also a little crucial to the rest of the story happening ''at all''. It was intended instead to make that scene the opening of the second part of the trilogy [[StillbornFranchise that they didn't make]]. The stage adaptations of the trilogy also go with this, thought at least there you can find out how it ends. The really, really irritating part is that the entire DownerEnding was ''actually filmed'', but it was [[ExecutiveMeddling cut at the last minute]]. That footage is sitting on some editor's hard drive somewhere, but we'll probably never get to see it. What little of it appeared in the tie-in game actually looked pretty good.

Compare AdaptationalAlternateEnding where the ending may not even be part of a pre-existing plot and where everything could be ''alternate'', BolivianArmyEnding.

** ''WesternAnimation/RobinHood1973'' ends with the evil prince John in chains and Richard Lionheart back in power. But the real Prince John ended up succeeding Richard as the ruler of England.

** ''WesternAnimation/TheSwordInTheStone'' cuts off right after [[Myth/KingArthur Arthur]] finds the sword and gets declared king, sparing kids the saga of his doomed love life and the dissolution of everything he ever worked for. T. H. White's ''The Sword in the Stone'' ends there as well, but the rest of ''Literature/TheOnceAndFutureKing'' covers Arthur's reign and final fall, which never got animated. Trying to fit together [[ContinuitySnarl all of the different parts]] of the Myth/ArthurianLegend into one coherent line would be [[YourHeadAsplode frustrating, to say the least]].

** ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'' does something similar, ending with the heroes as small business owners in mid-1920's USA. The Great Depression started in 1930. (Of course, they'll still be royalty.)

** ''WesternAnimation/TheJungleBook1967'' ends with Mowgli about to go to the human village. In [[Literature/TheJungleBook the book]], he goes to the village and is rejected there, too. It ends on a fairly depressing note, with Mowgli lamenting that there's nowhere he belongs. The sequel, however, does show Mowgli having trouble adjusting to village life.