Live-Action Films / Bittersweet Ending

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13 Minutes: Elser is shot years after he was first arrested in Dachau, just weeks before it was liberated by the US Army. However, he was later recognized as a hero of the German Resistance, and Elsa (whose safety he worried about) survived, dying in 1994.
1408: Both the theatrical and Director's Cut endings have this:
- The theatrical ending has Enslin burn down 1408, destroying it completely and escaping his ordeal. He reunites with Lily and moves in with her, finally moving on with a better writing career. While playing his old burnt tape recorder, it plays the recording of when Enslin reunited with Katie, shocking Lily at the realization that the events of 1408 weren't really in his mind.
- The Director's Cut has Enslin die, but destroy 1408 in the fire. Olin tries to deliver Enslin's items to Lily at his funeral, but fails to do so when attempting to explain that Enslin's actions destroyed the Room. While in his car and hearing the recording of Enslin's encounter with Katie, Olin encounters Enslin's charred ghost, but chalks it up to his imagination. The film then ends with Enslin's spirit in 1408, before being called by Katie and walking to the door and fading away, the sound of a door slamming shut.
1917: Schofield ultimately succeeds his mission, calling off the attack in progress and saving hundreds of lives, and delivers Blake's personal effects to his brother Joseph. However, Schofield has seen further incredible horrors, including Blake's death, and thousands more will die before the war finally ends. Worse, there is the implication that this happens all the time, with a colonel wearily claiming that the war will be fought "last man standing."
21st Century Serial Killer: Aaron is never able to bring himself to kill anyone, but ends up being framed for all the murders that Charles committed, and is given the death penalty. Meanwhile, Charles escaped all punishment for the murders and is last seen wooing a girl in what is presumably another town, where he will most likely continue his killing spree. However, since Aaron wanted to be famous for being a Serial Killer, he gladly accepts the blame, and finally achieves the fame he sought. Meanwhile, his wife Erin wrote a book about the experience of being married to a murderer, which has since become a best-seller.
The attacks in 22 July still happen, and Breivik gets what he wants: a platform to spread his ideas. However Breivik still ends up in prison, and most of the public manages to move on with their lives.
3:10 to Yuma (2007) ends with Dan Evans dead and Ben Wade voluntarily boarding the prison train. But, because Dan got Ben to the train, the head of the company Ben's gang was robbing has agreed to lavish Dan's family with a small fortune, perpetual deed to their land, and anything else they might need. Ben killed his own gang for their murder of Dan, of whom he'd become quite fond, and is quite likely to escape from the train.
36 Hours (1965): If you were expecting wedding bells, think again. The winds of war take the lead characters in different directions. But there is a hint that Anna Hedler has regained the ability to feel.
47 Ronin ends with the heroes defeating Kira and avenging their Lord. However, as a result of seeking vengeance, something they were strictly forbidden from doing, the Shogun condemns them to death by seppuku. The only consolation is that Oishi's son is allowed to live, and that Kai retains some hope that he and Mika can be together in another life.
Marc Webb's Comedy Drama film (500) Days of Summer could be perceived of as incorporating this as protagonist Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) begins to develop a positive relationship with a girl named Autumn who it is implied he may become romantically involved with. There are bleak aspects to this, however as the fact that the motif used to chronicle Tom's relationship with Summer reappears before the beginning of the credits may be an implicit warning that Tom may suffer similar trouble with Autumn as he did in his relationship with Summer, resulting in him once again becoming heart broken.
50 First Dates. Henry does get the girl, and the two sail off to Alaska, married and soon to be parents, but Lucy never does regain her short-term memory, and has to make do with receiving a video recap of everything that has happened since the accident when she wakes up each morning. It's an Esoteric Happy Ending.
633 Squadron is about an Airstrike Impossible. The mission is successful, but at great cost: all of the planes are lost, and the crews who do not die will become prisoners. The Norwegian resistance cell is discovered by the Germans, and wiped out.
'71 ends with Gary returning safely to England to take Darren out of the orphanage, but he has left the army after Captain Harris covers up his and Sergeant Lewis' crimes, and Sean is killed despite making a Heel–Face Turn. Also, it is likely that Quinn will kill Boyle, who, while still a member of the IRA, is less violent and more cautious.
9½ Weeks: On one hand, it seems John has lost Elizabeth forever and it’s implied he had come to genuinely care for her. On the other, Elizabeth gets out of an unstable relationship that was very unhealthy for her.

#Alive (2020): By the end Joon-woo has lost his entire family, but he and Yoo-bin are alive and the military are rescuing other survivors.
About Alex: Alex is on the road to recovery and has a new job, Isaac has recommitted himself to Kate and is helping Sarah start her restaurant, and Ben has gotten over his writer's block. However, Ben and Siri are taking time apart and she isn't pregnant, and Josh is still stuck with a worthless and very expensive degree.
Adam (2009). The titular character gets a job as a tour guide at a space center, allowing him to put all his knowledge of Astronomy to work. On the other hand, he ends up alone while Beth, his love interest, becomes famous because of a book based on him.
The Adjustment Bureau: David and Elise can be together after the plan has been re-written to allow it, but they have to live the rest of their lives knowing that nobody truly has free will, that anything bad that happens to them or anyone they care about was deliberately written to be that way, and they can't tell anyone else about it for fear of being mind-wiped.
The Adventures of Galgameth: El El is killed, with Davin becoming the rightful King and marrying Julia, but Galgameth dies by wading into the ocean. However, Davin finds the statuette on the beach, meaning that Galgameth could someday return.
An Affair to Remember: Terry still can't walk and the couple has had to give up their old, fashionable lifestyles, but they're reunited by the end.
Afternoon Delight: Rachel and McKenna will never likely be friends again, but both of them ended up happy, with Rachel and Jeff's marriage being refueled and McKenna starting to run her own strip club.
Against All Odds 1984: Terry is forced to stay away from Jessie so that she won't go down for Jake and Sully's deaths, but they both take comfort in the fact that her mother and Caxton will not control her forever and they will eventually be together again.
The Age of Innocence: Newland and Ellen never get together and live apart from each other, but both of them turn out to have fulfilling lives. Ellen lives in Paris, independently, free of abuse and reproach, while Newland becomes a beloved father and social figure. Newland is grateful if melancholy, that his son would not have to deal with the same problems and pressures that he faced in his youth.
Airheads: Chazz and his band serve 3 months in prison, but they get a record contract.
Alien: Not only a rarity for '70s horror movies, but a double whammy in that only Ripley survives and she is the one that no one in the audience expected to survive. Ripley kills the Alien by blowing it out the airlock of the escape shuttle, but is deeply affected by the loss of her friends and crew.
Alien³: Ripley dies to prevent the Company from bringing back an alien specimen, and all but one of the inmates are dead (Morse survived).
In Alien Cargo, Chris and Theta manage to safe most of their crewmates by transporting them over to the Dolphin, but they can't be rescued themselves due to the severity of the contamination threat. They mark the ship as a biohazard threat, and drift off to die.
Alive: The survivors were rescued at the end, but 29 die throughout the film, only 16 survive.
Amazing Grace and Chuck: The protest was successful, prompting a disarmament agreement between the USA and the USSR. But Amazing Grace is dead and his killer, while exposed, will never face trial, Chuck's innocent childhood is over. The final shot of the film acknowledges the story is unfortunately fiction (nuclear weapons are still in fact very real and the threat of nuclear war did not end in 1987) by simply asking the question "But wouldn't it be nice?"
American History X: Derek has sworn off racism, but not in time to prevent his brother's death in race-related violence.
In the Soviet film Amphibian Man (based on the eponymous 1928 sci-fi novel by Alexander Beliaev), an Argentinian scientist named Dr. Salvador saves his dying son by implanting him a set of shark gills. The boy (named Ichthyander, faux-Greek for "fish-man") survives and grows into a young man, but must spend much of his time underwater, only able to come to the surface for short periods of time. He eventually meets and falls in love with a young woman, but her father wants her to marry the local rich guy, who finds out about Ichthyander and wants to exploit him. At the end, Ichthyander is rescued from the hands of the police, and his Love Interest is freed from her obligation to marry the rich guy, but they can no longer be together, since the cops have kept Ichthyander submerged for days. With his ability to breathe air now atrophied, Ichthyander is now forced to spend the rest of his life underwater.
Anna and the Apocalypse ends with one that leans more heavily on the bitter side. Anna, Steph, and Nick have managed to escape their home town and are trying to find a safe place; however, John, Chris, Lisa, and Anna's dad have all been zombified, and it's unknown if the rest of the world has fully fallen to the Zombie Apocalypse or if there are any safe places left.
Annie Hall: Alvy and Annie run into each other one more time after their final breakup, share a brief but friendly chat and then go their separate ways, as Alvy recalls the highlights of their relationship and muses in the closing narration.
The Anonymous Heroes: The weapons cache is successfully delivered to the La Résistance, who may start their revolution now and overthrow the corrupt local warlord. But by using themselves as distraction, Meng-kang, Tieh-hu and Yin-Fung ends up getting overwhelmed and dying in battle, and worst of all, their names aren’t known to the rebels, ensuring that their deeds will be forgotten as history goes on.
In Real Life and the movie, the Apollo 13 mission was called a "successful failure" by NASA, in that astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert returned to Earth safely, but did not land on the moon as originally intended. And due to their trip around the moon being longer than any subsequent mission, the three hold the current record for having travelled the farthest from Earth, and probably won't get overtaken until trips to another planet (most likely Mars) take place.
Apostle: Thomas mercy-kills the Goddess and rescues Jennifer and Andrea from Quinn, but he is mortally wounded in the process, saying a tearful farewell to his sister as she escapes with the remaining villagers. As Thomas lies dying, fresh grass grows from his blood and infuses with his body, implying that he has inherited the Goddess's role as guardian of Erisden.
Are We Monsters gets one sweet enough to almost be considered a Surprisingly Happy Ending. Everett is unable to convince Connor that Maya should be spared, thus to atone for contributing he lets himself and Connor get killed by the blood moon werewolf. On the other hand, Maya now accepts she is more than a monster and while Luke may have been turned into a werewolf himself now, it saved his life and he no longer has to fear dying, thus the two can now live happy together.
Ariel (1988): Mikkonen dies, but Taisto escapes to Mexico with Irmeli and her son.
Armageddon (1998) stands as one of the more popular "hero dies to save the world" examples in recent years (if you consider 1998 recent, anyway). One could consider the real "bitter" part of the ending to be Bruce Willis being the one who gets killed off instead of Ben Affleck.
Arrival: Louise is able to stop China from firing on the alien ship, the ships all leave peacefully, and presumably the nations of Earth will work together with all the information they learned to create FTL travel. And Louise and Ian will get married and have a girl. However, Louise also knows now that in the future, Ian will leave Louise once she tells him something she knew from the start of their relationship: that their child will get inoperable cancer and die in her teenage years. Chronologically, the last we see of Louise is her walking away from the room where her daughter dies. However, at the present time, she seems at peace with this.
As Above, So Below: While half of the team is killed, the other half manages to survive and get away from the catacombs.
Ashfall: The earthquakes have caused significant damage across the peninsula and Joon-pyeong gave his life to stop them. Some time later later In-chang has his daughter as his own and has also had a healthy son with Ji-young, while the Korean peninsula begins to rebuild.
Attachment: Leah is freed from the dybbuk, while she's preparing to make a life with Maja. Chana however died freeing her, and it's also implied that the dybbuk may return.
At First Sight: By the end of the movie, Virgil's blindness has relapsed, and his relationship with Amy seems to be over. However, the two chaarcters meet again in a public plaza and decide to give themselves a second chance, now that they have a much deeper understanding of each other.
Audition: Shigehiko manages to save his father from a horrific death at the hands of Asami by kicking her down a flight of stairs and breaking her neck. Unfortunately, Aoyama has suffered absolutely horrific torture, and the ending implies he may be just a tad crazy as a result of what he's seen and endured.

The Babadook: Even after Amelia defeats the Babadook, it continues to live in their basement, feeding off of the worms she gathers for it; plus the dog's dead. However, the relationship between mother and son is repaired after the film's events, Amelia is finally able to come to terms with the death of her husband, and it concludes with her lovingly embracing him.
Backdraft: Brian decides to remain a firefighter, Swayzak's political career is likely over, and the arsons are finished. But Bull and Adcox are dead, Brian’s girlfriend left him, and as the ending indicates, there are going to be plenty more fires and arsons.
Bad Girls: Eileen finds love with William and agrees to settle down with him, as well as fulfilling one of her life's dreams by getting a "rich husband" (courtesy of the financial windfall of the shootout with Jarrett, which they share). However McCoy is killed and Cody can't stay in Texas because of the price on her head, while Anita's claim in Oregon is worthless because of her husband's death. Cody, Anita, and Lily ride out to make their way north to the Klondike, knowing they may never see Eileen again.
Bad Reputation: Michelle manages to kill all three of her rapists, the Alpha Bitch and most of the Girl Posse, but the last one fakes sympathy and kills her too.
Balibo has one very heavy on the bitter side, to the point of bordering on a Downer Ending. The Balibo Five were executed in cold blood by the TNI, Roger is executed by firing squad during the invasion of Dili, and East Timor is conquered by Indonesia, leaving José in exile. However, East Timor is liberated in 1999 and José is able to return to his country as a hero.
The Banana Splits Movie: The children are saved, Austin and Paige are starting a relationship, and the Banana Splits have been destroyed. However, much of the main cast have been killed (though admittedly, some really had it coming) and poor Poppy has been driven insane from the traumatic events that happened, she then drives off with the remains of the Banana Splits who all may not be out of commission after all.
Barbarian: Tess is able to put the Mother down and escape the horrors of Barbary Street, but she is very obviously rattled from the events she's endured (having been trapped underground for two weeks, witnessing numerous people die, getting shot, and being thrown off the top of a water tower), and she still has a long way to go to get back to civilization. The two most despicable people in the movie, Frank and AJ, both end up dead, but neither end up being held accountable for their crimes. Also, Keith and Andre, the two ultimately innocent men that Tess encountered, are brutally and unfairly killed by the Mother.
The Basketball Diaries: Jim does get his life back on track, but only after serving 6 months in incarceration once he hits the bottom of his downward spiral. Pedro is still into drugs but is on amicable terms with Jim, while Mickey has a sentence of 5-15 years to do from his Accidental Murder. In the end, only one out of the three really learned their lesson.
Bataan: The Squad of a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits is killed to a man, but bought enough time for General MacArthur to regroup and launch a counteroffensive.
Be Kind Rewind: Jerry, Mike, and Mr. Fletcher convince the neighborhood to help produce a tribute film to Fats Waller's Life, with Mr. Fletcher accepting that they couldn't raise enough to save the building. After the film airs to a small minority, the trio exits the store moments later to the sound of applause, and discover that most of the townsfolk were in the street watching the film through an outside projector. Everyone cheers for them, including the demolition team and the police (who were meant to tear down the establishment for legal reasons).
Bedazzled (2000): Eliot's Deal with the Devil ends with none of his wishes coming true and he Did Not Get the Girl, but he gets to keep his soul, grows as a person, and meets a nice girl who shares his interests and hobbies. Who looks exactly like Allison.
Bedknobs and Broomsticks: The Nazi platoon is beaten and Miss Price and Mr. Browne become the Rawlins children's new parents but Miss Price's workshop was destroyed, ending her career as a witch. However, the kids still have the enchanted bedknob.
A Better Life: Carlos and Luis' successful attempt to get the stolen truck back is All for Nothing as Carlos is imprisoned and eventually deported, abruptly yanking the father-son bonding that Luis has just experienced. They have one final conversation before Carlos is taken away, which gives Luis some closure, but Carlos cannot promise that he'll come back. However, Luis goes to live his aunt, who enrolls him in a better school away from the Toxic Friend Influences of his girlfriend and her gang-affiliated family, and he has the chance to break out of the poverty cycle and live a much better life. Carlos, for his part, embraces the life ahead of him as he and the other deported immigrants begin their journey to Mexico.
Beyond the Pyramids: Legend of the White Lion sees Maria return home, ready to embrace her mother with newfound respect and accept her boyfriend as part of their family unit. However, she left her companion, Moja, for dead when she was made to return home. Lo and behold, there he stands, selling his spears as she saw him doing when they met. Elated, she greets him, but the journey she remembers happened in another world and this Moja is not the same one she bonded with. He doesn't know who she is. Understanding, she buys one of his spears and promises him what she and the other Moja promised each other: to never forget.
Bhediya: Anika succumbs to her bullet wounds, thus Bhaskar is left heartbroken, but the latter accepts permanently being a werewolf if it means being the new protector of the forest.
Big: Josh gets his childhood back, but in the process has to end his relationship with Susan. Though she has a chance to wish she were a kid again to be with him, she declines the offer.
Big Fish: Edward has a stroke and dies, but he's able to find common ground with his estranged son before he does. In the end, his son discovers that his father's stories, while exaggerated, were also true, and comes to understand his father better after his death.
Big Game has the characters thinking they've had an Earn Your Happy Ending - the President is saved, Oskari proves himself to be an adept survivalist to his father, and is awarded the Medal of Honor for saving Moore's life. However, the Vice President is dead and Herbert, who masterminded the entire operation, is still at large and unsuspected.
The Big Lebowski: The Dude and Walter will never be able to prove the Big Lebowski's guilt, fail to get the Dude's rug, and Donny is dead. But Lebowski is traumatized for his swindle, the Nihilists won't bother Dude and Walter anymore, and a little Lebowski is on the way (albeit one that the Dude won't have any involvement in raising). And hey, come what may, the Dude abides.
Big Tits Zombie: As expected from this genre, most of the characters are dead, but at least the Zombie Apocalypse has been averted. And it seems that Rena can use the Necronomicon to summon her friends anytime she likes by the end.
Big Trouble in Little China: Jack decides to ride off into the sunset rather than get the girl, brushing her off in their final scene rather brusquely. As he drives away, it's revealed that a monster has stowed away in his truck, making his future uncertain.
Billy Elliot: The movie ends well for Billy who fulfils his dreams, but not so well for the miners, whose months-long strike was in vain and know that their way of life and former prosperity of their regions is doomed.
Korean gangster movie A Bittersweet Life. Protagonist Kim Sun-Woo manages to kill the people threatening his secret love and exact revenge, only to succumb to the wounds he gained in the shoot-out before he can tell her how he really felt. Lampshaded in his ending monologue:
"One late autumn night, the disciple awoke crying. So the master asked the disciple, "Did you have a nightmare?" "No." "Did you have a sad dream?" "No," said the disciple. "I had a sweet dream." "Then why are you crying so sadly?" The disciple wiped his tears away and quietly answered, "Because the dream I had can't come true."
Bird Box: Malorie finds safety at the end with her children, but everyone else died, and it's unclear how many people in the entire world are left.
Birdman of Alcatraz: Stroud is finally taken off "the Rock", and is determined to take what enjoyment he can from life, but remains incarcerated at the end of the film. (He died a year after its release, still in custody.)
Blackk Klansman: Ron's operation is a success, but the chief orders him to destroy evidence of the investigation. Furthermore, it appears that Ron and Patrice are splitting up because she's not cool with him being a cop, and the last thing they see together is a cross burning near Ron's apartment. Additionally, there are real clips shown from the 2017 Charlottesville riots, along with videos of the real David Duke continuing to spread his rhetoric, driving the point home that the Klan or people like them still have power in the present day.
The Black Six: The Black Six get their revenge, but at the cost of their lives. However, the ending scroll implies that they become ghostly defenders of the African-American community.
Black Sunday (1960): Katia and Dr. Gorobec survive and Asa's influence is purged forever, but the latter's master and the former's entire family except her brother are dead, and he's going to perish from neck wounds.
Black Swan: Whether or not Nina died from her abdominal wound, she at least—in her own damaged mind—achieved perfection. However, Natalie Portman thinks that Nina does not die, but rather her injury represents her killing the girl to mature into a woman.
Blade Runner, in the Director's Cut and the Final Cut: "It's too bad she won't live! But then again, who does?"
Blood Red Sky: Everyone on the plane except Elias and Farid are dead or vampires and Nadja loses her humanity to the point that she no longer recognises Elias, who is forced to kill her by blowing up the plane. On the positive side, there is no indication that any vampires survived, so the infection will not spread any further, and Colonel Drummond is finally convinced of Farid's innocence.
Bloodsuckers from Outer Space: Jeff and Julie escape the bloodsuckers alive and presumably live Happily Ever After. However, a Methodist camp is nuked by mistake, and the bloodsuckers are still around.
Bloodthirsty has one more on the bitter side: Vaughn is defeated and gone, the album is finished and an implicit success, and Grey escapes, but she lives with the regret of unconsciously killing her beloved girlfriend and having to kill her birth father, along with the realization she's a werewolf still experiencing the strong desires to consume bloody meat. While the flashes in the ending performance suggest she's more in control of herself, her condition still may well cause her to harm someone else.
Bloody Pit of Horror: Travis is killed and Edith and Rick escape but everyone else is dead.
Blue Jean: Jean has broken up with her girlfriend, and though they're courteous to each other it doesn't seem like the two will reunite. Lois has been suspended, with it partly being Jean's fault. Still, she's made aware of a fund the local lesbians maintain which could support her if necessary. Jean has come out to at least some people. By the end, it's implied that she's more confident in herself, despite the passage of Section 28.
Blue Velvet: Dorothy is freed from the psychopathic Frank and reunited with her son, but her husband is dead.
The Blues Brothers complete their Mission from God and save the St Helen of the Blessed Shroud orphanage, seconds before being arrested and sent to prison for trashing half of Illinois. The worst part is that the band gets incarcerated too, despite having almost nothing to do with the property destruction. It's all Played for Laughs, but still.
In Bodyguards and Assassins, the Bodyguards succeed in drawing attention from Sun Yat-sen long enough for him to detail the coming revolution against the Qing Dynasty, but at the cost of almost everyone's lives. At least most of them get to go down fighting.
In Bone Tomahawk, Arthur, Samantha, and Chicory escape from the cavemen, and the remaining troglodytes were most likely killed and thus neutralizing the threat they posed to Bright Hope, but Hunt probably died with them, leaving his wife a widow.
Bonnie & Bonnie: Kiki dies, but Yara didn't have to do more than a year in prison apparently. She's seen at a place Kiki liked a year later.
Boogie Nights: The porn industry has changed greatly, and not exactly for the better, but the characters are eventually reunited as a family. Dirk kicks the drugs, and Amber, Reed, and Rollergirl begin to spread their wings outside of being limited to working in the porn industry (Amber directs the commercial for Buck's hi-fi store, Reed launches a moderately successful magic act, and Rollergirl finally gets her GED).
The Book of Clarence: Clarence is crucified in front of all of his loved ones after he refuses to give up Jesus to the Romans. Days later, Jesus arrives at Clarence's tomb to resurrect him.
The Boy: Greta and Malcolm escape the Heelshires home after Greta believes she killed Brahms, but the film's ending shows Brahms is still alive, putting together the broken doll Brahms.
The Boy Who Could Fly: Eric flies away and disappears, and Milly stays while living her life and waiting for his return. In the meantime Louis stands up to his bullies, Milly's mom adapts herself to work, and Uncle Hugo stops drinking. The last scene all but states that Eric comes back to her.
Boyz n the Hood: Ricky and Doughboy are both murdered, but Tre and Brandi make it out of the 'hood and go on to college.
Since Brad's Status only takes place over the course of a few days, we never do get to see what'll happen to Brad, Troy, or Brad's old college friends, and whether Brad's initial fears over Troy's future is well-founded or not. But Brad at least seems to have gotten over his insecurities and finally accepts that he does live a decent life.
Braveheart ends with the Scottish eventually gaining their freedom from England, as well as Wallace's unborn son set to eventually become the King of England. However, this comes at the cost of Wallace being captured and executed by the English. This is hardly historical.
Brazil: Sam gets to live the rest of his life with Jill... in his torture-induced Happy Place.
The Breakfast Club: The teens leave detention resolving to make sure they never become their parents and coming to accept one another. But they still have to return home to abusive and/or neglectful parents, and it's left ambiguous whether they'll remain friends or not.
Brick: Brendan gets his revenge and comes away with only a few cuts and bruises, but his pursuit doesn't bring him closure, and even sees several people (Dode included) getting killed in the process.
Bright: On the bad side, the dirty cops are honored as heroes and despite his heroism, Jakoby is still viewed with scorn from most of the public. On the good side, Tikka turns out to be alive, Jakoby is accepted by his orc brethren, and he and Ward have a closer relationship and are also honoured as heroes.
Bubba Ho Tep: The last shot of the movie is Elvis breathing his last as he looks up at the stars. The mummy has been destroyed and the residents of the nursing home are now safe.
The ButterCream Gang: Pete manages to turn his life around, and even forms his own version of the Buttercream Gang in Chicago—but his friendship with Scott is still broken beyond repair, and nothing is ever the same between them.
The original ending (preserved in the director's cut) of The Butterfly Effect ended with Evan successfully using his mom's home movies to jump back to when he was born, and strangling himself as a fetus. It then shows the results of his actions — Kaylee doesn't fall in love with Evan; thus, she and Tommy go to their mom's house after the divorce, so Kaylee is never abused and Tommy never becomes psychopathic; the blockbuster event never happens, so Lenny grows up normal and marries Kaylee, and everyone lives happily ever after. And all the side effects of previous meddling, like Kaylee's prostitution, Evan's mother's lung cancer, and Tommy's death never happen. It's implied that this may be the reason the prior babies were stillbirths.

In the Camp Rock sequel, Camp Star wins the Battle of the Bands competition, most likely by cheating, but several Camp Star campers find it more fun at Camp Rock and sign up, giving Camp Rock enough campers to stay open next year.
Candyman has Helen managing to save the black baby from the fire and defeat Candyman only to die from the burns. She also somehow becomes a murderous urban legend like him, but her first victim is her cheating boyfriend that decided too late to mourn her.
Cape Fear: The Bowdens are traumatized by the events of the story but survive, while Cady either goes back to prison for life (1962 original) or drowns in the river (1991 remake).
Carlito's Way: Though Carlito dies in the end, Gail makes it out to the Bahamas with their unborn child.
Carmen y Lola: After being forcibly outed, Lola gets disowned. She runs off with her lover Carmen though, and it seems they will build a life together elsewhere. The last scene is of them visiting the beach together, like Lola dreamed they would.
Casablanca: Rick lets Ilsa leave with Victor and is forced to leave Casablanca for his role in the pair's escape. On the bright side, Victor and Ilsa are able to get away from Casablanca to continue to lead the fight against the Nazis for the resistance, and Rick has his sense of idealism revived.
Case 39: Emily manages to kill Lilith by driving into the water and drowning her, ending the child's reign of terror for good. She gets herself out, but is likely to be permanently traumatized and might face jail time. And in the alternate ending where Lilith survives, she does.
Cassanova Was A Woman: Cassanova's relationship with Lola is ended by her cheating, but she's accepted herself as a bisexual woman and resolved she'll always be faithful to future partners. At the end she's in a new relationship with David, and is reconciled with Lola when the pair run into each other.
Cast Away: Chuck Noland returned to society, but he lost his beloved woman. He is now standing in the middle of a crossing, wondering what to do with his "recovered" life.
Chappie: On one hand, the droids have been shut off permanently, Amerika and Yolandi are killed, crime is still pretty rampant in Joburg and Chappie is seen as a monster by the public. On the other, Vincent's reign of madness has been stopped, Hippo is dead and Deon is saved by Chappie putting him in a robot body. If the opening news montage is any indication, Chappie will eventually be accepted by the public in some way after the events of the film have died down.
Charlie Wilson's War: Charlie Wilson succeeds in getting the American government to arm Afghan rebels and drive the Soviets out of Afghanistan. But when it comes time to rebuild the war-torn nation he can't raise one cent, allowing the extremist Taliban to take over Afghanistan. And that all led to the events surrounding The War on Terror.
Charlie Wilson: These things happened. They were glorious and they changed the world... and then we fucked up the end game.
Children of Men: Theo either succumbs to his wounds or passes out from blood loss. Either way, Kee and her baby are alive, and The Human Project is definitely real, giving humanity a fighting chance at survival.
The first adaptation of The Children's Hour, These Three, has a bittersweet ending instead of the Downer Ending the original play (and second adaptation) had. Joe and Karen are together again, but Martha's relationship with Karen is left ambiguous. Whether she still is friends with Karen after admitting she was in love with her fiancé is left unclear. It certainly ended sombrely for Martha, but at least she didn't kill herself like in the play.
Chocolat: Josephine escapes her husband's influence, the Easter Festival goes as planned and Reynaud is caught in the act of trying to sabotage the gift boxes, but Armande is dead and Lansquenet no longer needs Vianne.
The Chocolate War: The key reason why fans of the book tend to dislike the film adaptation. The film differs from the book by finally giving Archie his comeuppance (Archie having to participate in the boxing match instead of Janza). While Jerry wins, he learns shortly afterwards that his actions were not of his own free will, but he ultimately gave into the school's expectations.
The Chorus: "My name is Clément Mathieu, failed musician, unemployed supervisor." The only thing stopping this from being a complete downer is the audience's knowledge of Morhange's glittering future career and the final scene, in which Pépinot meets Mathieu where the bus stops, and leaves the school with him.
Chronicle: Matt kills Andrew before he can cause any more damage, but several people have been killed, including Steve, and we are left with the lingering sense that Andrew's downfall could have been prevented. Also Matt is now alone, injured and implied to be on the run from the government meaning that he won't be able to return to Seattle and reunite with Casey.
Circle: Eric tricks the Little Girl into killing herself for the baby while he votes for the Pregnant Woman at the last second. He and the unborn fetus are the only survivors left, and he returns to Earth after voting to kill the baby. At first, this ending seems like a downer because the character revealed to be the most cold-blooded and manipulative of them all ends up surviving, but Eric then finds the survivors of other circles, and we see that almost half of them are children and pregnant women. This means that in many other ships, everyone else willingly died in order to do the right thing and save those more vulnerable than themselves, which can restore some of a viewer's faith in mankind.
The Circus: The Tramp frees the girl from her father, but loses her, and is left alone, leading him back to tramping again, but he gets over his funk with his usual aplomb and is on his way with his usual hopeful spirit intact.
City of God: Zé is dead, while Buscapé is alive and well on his way to become a photographer. Unfortunately, Mané Galinha and Bené, the only sympathetic gangsters, are also dead, most of the bad guys are on the run, Cidade de Deus hasn't become a much better place and it's about to be the field of an even worse gang war.
The main character of A Civil Action is a lawyer who files a wrongful death lawsuit against two corporations, accusing them of having dumped toxic chemicals into the water supply of a town, causing the death of a number of children. At the end he loses the lawsuit against one of the companies, settles the case with the other for far less than his expenses in pursuing it, and ends up declaring bankruptcy. However, in the film based on the book he finally finds evidence that the two companies were responsible for the contamination and discloses it to the US Environment Protection Agency, which forces the two companies to spend dozens of millions of dollars to clean up the contaminated site. And he proudly states that his experience has made him a better man. Unfortunately, the end of the book and Real Life were much bleaker.
The Clan of the Cave Bear: Ayla defeats Broud in a fight and humiliates him, forcing him to allow Creb to stay with the Clan. However, Ayla must leave the Clan, including her young son; she leaves Durc in the care of Creb and Uba before setting out to find her own people.
Clara: Clara dies from her illness, but her work with Isaac has helped to discover extraterrestrial life, and he's become a better person from being with her.
Clear and Present Danger: Ryan and Clark rescue the soldiers and thwart Cortez's plans, but Ryan is left with the difficult to decision to blow the lid on the entire operation in which both the President and several of his own cohorts had acted without his knowledge, opening the floodgates to a major presidential scandal. Whatever the political cost, Ryan is determined that not even the President will walk for having recklessly authorized a course of action that led to the deaths of several soldiers and civilians on both sides, leaving the fates of the conspirators in the hands of Congress at the close of the film.
Clonus: Richard is killed and put on ice, Lena is lobotomized, and most of the people who helped Richard are murdered. The only upshot is that Clonus is publicly exposed.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind: The abductees are freed, including little Barry, who is reunited safely with his mother Jillian, and the government officials accept the aliens as peaceful visitors. On the other hand, Roy leaves his wife and kids behind to join the aliens on their travels, and a good number of the abductees will soon come to the realization that everyone they ever knew or loved are dead.
Closer: As opposed to the original play's Downer Ending where Alice dies, Dan and Alice break off their relationship and she's been lying about her name the entire time, Anna is still unhappily married to Larry, and Alice returns to New York alone but free of the relationship drama.
Cloud Atlas: Each story ends ranges from tragic to uplifting, so in the end, the story as a whole is bittersweet. The very last chronological story involves civilization fleeing Earth and moving off-world toward an unknown but hopeful future, with Meronym and Zachry Happily Married.
Cocaine Bear: On one hand, a lot of people have been brutally slaughtered, and the coke addicted bear and her cubs are still in the forest, leaving the possibility of another rampage open. On the other, Sari has rescued Dee Dee, a ruthless drug lord is no longer a threat to society, and his son Eddie is ready to move on with his life and be a better father to his son.
Come and See: The Nazis have committed horrible atrocities against the Belarusian people. Flyora has lost everyone he loves and suffered unimaginable trauma. However, in the end, the death squad is killed to the man. The partisans resist the urge to stoop to the death squad's level of brutality, showing that they have retained their humanity even in the face of such evil. Flyora balks at the thought of killing an infant Hitler, showing that he too has maintained his humanity. He joins the rest of the partisans to continue the fight.
The Commitments: Instead of signing the offered record contract that would catapult the titular band to fame and stardom, the clash between the big egos of the band come to a head and the band breaks up in a huge argument. However, the epilogue shows that all the bandmembers go on to lead happy lives, and have fond memories their band days.
The Company of Wolves: The same as most coming of age stories — Rosaleen learns about being an adult, at the cost of childhood innocence.
Concussion: Bennet gets Vindicated by History and ultimately proven right about CTE in football players, even offered a job by the government as an apology for sending the FBI after him, but he sees the allure of football for the new generation and now knows the lengths to which people will go to cover up great scandals. Also many surviving players will suffer the ramifications of having played, and change will come slowly through the NFL lines.
Consumed: Sophie provides damning evidence that Clonestra's GMOs caused her son's rash and health problems in other people, and their CEO resigns in disgrace. But while she's at a football game with her family, Sophie sees everyone around them eating unhealthy, processed junk food like popcorn and hot dogs. And from the look of dawning horror on Sophie's face, which also provides the movie's boxart, she may have finally realized she's fighting a losing battle; people aren't just going to change their eating habits overnight, and she can't hope to keep her son away from unhealthy food forever.
Cool Hand Luke: Luke dies and the camp goes back to normal, but the camp director has been one-upped and his bodyguard is similarly broken. Luke's death also appears to have transformed him into a heroic martyr figure for Dragline and the rest of the inmates.
The Creature Walks Among Us: The newly airbreathing creature walks into the ocean to try to return to his element after being rejected by humanity. He may drown unless his vaguely explained evolutionary ability saves him.
Crimson Peak: Edith and Alan survive their experiences at Allerdale Hall and manage to get away, the village now has the Clay Extractor for the brickworks to hopefully bring them prosperity, and Thomas has apparently redeemed himself and can move on to whatever comes after death. But — if we're going with the standard del Toro view on the afterlife in his films — Lucille and her victims are probably trapped as ghosts forever, just as miserable and despairing in death as they were in life. Though Edith's narration at the end implies that with the violent murders that tied the ghosts to the mansion now being discovered and the murderers killed, it's possible the other ghosts were able to move on, while Lucille will be trapped there forever.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ends with Li Mu Bai killing Jade Fox and avenging his master's death, but dies of poisoning in Shu Lien's arms, finally confessing his feelings to her as they share a Last Kiss. Jen is finally free from her family and is reunited with Lo but the guilt for indirectly causing Mu Bai's death causes her to leap off of Wudan Mountain to make her and Lo's "wishes" come true. It's strongly implied that this is the only way they'll be happy together.
Cruel Intentions: Redemption Equals Death for the Villain Protagonist; Cry for the Devil for his stepsister antagonist, and all other characters are corrupted for life.
Cruz Diablo: At the end of the movie, all conflict is resolved after Cruz Diablo kills Diego de la Barrera and the Marquiss Pedro de Florida and Carlos drifts off with Marcela. However, he ends up dying (because of a gunshot wound), leaving Marcela and Chacho orphaned.
The Crying Game: Fergus is out of the IRA, but in jail. He and Dil seem to be together, though, even if it's a long distance relationship.
Cynara: Poetry in Motion: Cynara and Byron only have a brief relationship, but part declaring they will love each other forever.

Daddy Issues: Maya's relationship with Jasmine ends badly. Her relationship with her father may not ever recover. She's fulfilled her longheld dream of going to Italy though, and also sees a woman wearing a shirt she designed, indicating she's become successful in her art, with them becoming friends as well.
Dances with Wolves: Dances With Wolves is saved by the Sioux, but Cisco and Two Socks are dead, and he feels that he has to go off with Stands With a Fist to live on their own away from the tribe. If that weren't enough, the Sioux have already gone when the military's Pawnee scouts find their winter camp, but we are then told that 13 years later, the last of the free Sioux were forced to surrender to the United States Government.
Dark Age: Numunwari is released far away from humans where it can live out the rest of its life in peace and Besser is dead, but Oondabund was killed in the process by one of Besser's men.
Dawn of the Dead (1978). Only two of the four main characters make it out of the mall alive, and as they fly off in their helicopter, they notice that they're pretty low on fuel. Nonetheless, there is hope, one of them is pregnant, and holing up in the mall turns out to have been, ultimately, a good idea.
Dawn of the Dead (2004). The ending is somewhat upbeat (for a Zombie Apocalypse), only getting a couple of survivors killed in the escape and leaving an infected one behind... until the credits start to roll.
Dead Poets Society: Todd and the other boys supported Keating and all that, but Neil is still dead, Charlie/Nuwanda is still expelled, and Keating still has to leave. It makes it seem kind of pointless, if touching. Was a Tear Jerker as well.
Death Becomes Her: Ernest grows old and dies but he leads a very happy and fulfilling life with a loving wife and family, close friends, a thriving career, newfound fame and respect, many enjoyable passions and hobbies, numerous philanthropic achievements and he dies peacefully and with dignity, fondly remembered at his funeral by the many people whose lives he'd enriched and with a legacy that will live on long after him. Helen and Madeline meanwhile are still alive but stuck with each other in deformed, rotting bodies they can barely walk around in, forgotten by everyone, shut away from the world and left with only one another for eternity.
Death Ship: Marshall and his family manage to escape the Death Ship and are eventually found by the Coast Guard, but Capt. Ashland and all the other survivors are dead, and Marshall and his family will likely be scarred for life mentally as a result of their ordeal. And as the final scene indicates, they will not be the phantom freighter's last victims.
Deep Impact: Despite the fact that the human race is ultimately saved from mass extinction, it comes at the cost of the crew of the ship sent to blow it up, having to sacrifice themselves to destroy it. In addition, tens of millions of people, including several major characters, do die because a large fragment of the comet does still hit the Earth.
The Deer Hunter: Mike and Steven survive the war, but not all in one piece, physically or mentally. Nick dies, but Michael brings his body home and has his funeral in America like he promised.
In Deewaar, Vijay dies, as does the pregnant Anita. On the other hand, he is reconciled with his family first, and the crime bosses have died or been arrested.
In Defence of the Realm the bad guys blow up Mullen (the reporter investigating the coverup concerning MP Markham) and Markham's secretary Nina, but by that time they've gotten the story out and the film ends with a montage of the consequences.
Defendor: Defendor dies, but the cartel he was pursuing is captured and brought to justice. Also, Kat finally starts getting her life on track.
Delicatessen: Clapet's reign of terror may be over, but there's a finite supply of corn and it won't hold out forever. However, the yellow gas is less oppressive in the final scene.
Deluge: Martin is reunited with his family and becomes leader of the town of survivors but the heartbroken Claire commits suicide by swimming out to sea.
The US ending to The Descent has the main character make it out of the cave, but only after going insane, and murdering one of her best friends in a crazy-fueled vengeance killing. Everyone else died.
Dirty Harry. Theoretically we should be feeling triumphant that Callahan has finally blown away Scorpio. Instead we get a muted, melancholic soundtrack and Callahan disgustedly tossing his badge into the river. Although given that he remains a cop in all four sequels, there may be something to Clint Eastwood's theory that there was a long rubber band attached to the badge.
District 9. Wikus, it's implied, is completely transformed into a Prawn, and is stuck in the filthy, crime-ridden slums with the other aliens, unable to communicate with the outside world beyond leaving little hand-crafted tokens for his wife. However, Christopher and his son escaped to the mothership and are going back to their home planet, promising to return in three years time to transform Wikus back and free their people.
In Django Unchained, Django and Broomhilda escape to the north and the hope of freedom - but they leave a hell of a lot of bodies in their wake, including Schultz (whose death was his own fault, not Django's, but still easily preventable). Most of them deserved it, though.
Dog Soldiers: Cooper and Sam the dog both make it out alive and back to civilization, but they're the only two survivors out of the cast and Cooper's entire squad is dead. While Cooper does get word and photos of the werewolves out as the Sarge ordered him to, the closing credits make it seem likely that no-one except for tabloids are going to take his story or the werewolf photos seriously.
Donnie Darko. The success of Donnie's mission comes at a great cost. Donnie fails to realize he has to stop the stable time loop until his girlfriend dies and he kills Frank and after going back to the past where the movie begins he decides to not get out of bed that morning and in a fit of laughter gets crushed by the plane engine from the future and effectively stopping the time loop but forcing his family to go through his death, inspiring his little sister to run away and go through similar events in S. Darko which has its own bittersweet ending, his girlfriend who was probably the only person to understand him never knowing him, and the guy with the child porn will get away with it and no one even realizes he saved the world. At least his English teacher doesn't get fired.
Don Verdean: Verdean is arrested for his crimes after being set up by Fontaine, but Verdean confesses them to Carol and admits he loves her just before the police catch him. Two months later, Fontaine in is hot water for using church funds to get Verdean arrested. Meanwhile, Verdean and Boaz, who was arrested as an accessory to Verdean's crimes, are in prison together, but they reconcile and become friends. Verdean also meets Carol's son, who's serving time for growing illegal marijuana, and makes a connection with him.
Don't Be Afraid of the Dark: Alex and Sally get away, but Kim is captured by the homunculi and soon becomes one of them, as they plot to bide their time and wait to escape. Also, it's obvious that anyone who buys the house next is screwed.
Don't Breathe: Rocky survives and escapes with the money, giving her and her sister a chance at a better life, but Alex and Money are still dead. Worse, the Blind Man survives and, if a news report at the end is any indication, may escape punishment for his crimes, and ensuring Rocky will look over her shoulder for the rest of her life.
Don't Worry Darling: Alice kills Jack, whom she genuinely loved, after learning of his betrayal, and the other women are still trapped in Victory while Shelley usurps Frank and plans to keep the operation going. However, Alice herself still escapes. Her actions also may prompt the other women to rebel and escape, and Alice herself can potentially expose Frank's operation in the real world and have Victory shut down for good.
Downsizing: Mankind is doomed due to all the methane released in the Arctic, but Paul and Ngoc Lan are in love and happy to spend whatever time they have left helping people in the Leisureland slums, and there are other downsized humans who have sealed themselves in a bunker, ready to reemerge when the surface is habitable again.
Dragonheart ends with victory over the evil man and the knight reclaiming his honor and virtue, but the Draco has to be killed by the main character in order to kill the villain, in a massive Tear Jerker. Plus, since the knight was, prior to meeting the dragon protagonist, a dragon-slayer — hoping to run into and kill the dragon who gave half its heart to the villain, which he blames for the villain being a Jerkass (when in fact, the guy would've been a Jerkass anyways) — killing this dragon means that he's killed the last of them. The dragon even explicitly states that he's the very last dragon still alive, due to the knight's efforts. Although the direct to video sequel reveals that Draco being the last dragon is not entirely true.
Dream Scenario: Paul stops appearing in people's dreams after injuring a teacher by accident, but his reputation is destroyed as a result and Janet divorces him. A company develops dream-travelling technology, which is primarily used for advertising, based on what happened to Paul — so capitalism and propaganda will now be able to get at us while we sleep, while it is implied that everyone believes Paul chose to terrorise people in their dreams. Paul writes a book on his experience that doesn't sell well and it's made very clear that he's only going to be remembered for being a source of nightmares. However, he does use the dream-travelling technology to visit Janet, with it being implied she still has feeling for him, and while some still seem wary around him, the public at large no longer seems to hate him.
Duck Butter: Nima and Sergio go their separate ways. However, both are shown to have gotten over their hangups a bit, indicating the experience of being together, even briefly, helped them grow as women.
Duel: David wins the duel, but at the cost of his briefcase and his car, meaning that he is left by a cliff in the middle of nowhere with no visible means to return home.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial: E.T. doesn't die and goes home, but Elliott is separated from his friend and is left in tears.
Earth to Echo: The kids manage to help Echo get home and locate his ship without destroying the neighborhood and the highway construction is called off. Despite all that, Alex and Munch still moved, but the kids meet again sometime later, waiting to see Echo again.
East of Eden: Aron has lost his mind and runs off to enlist in the war, where he will likely die, Adam suffers a stroke that leaves him almost entirely paralyzed, and Cal decides to leave the town to start a new life somewhere else. However, thanks to Abra's encouragement, Adam finally shows some some genuine affection for Cal, convincing the latter to stay by his father's side and leaving open the possibility of a reconciliation between the two in the future.
The Edge: Charles survives and the implication is that he has grown as a person thanks to his ordeal, but both his associates are dead, and his marriage to Mickey is almost certainly over now that he knows for sure that she was cheating with one of them, which very nearly cost him his life. To put even more of a downer on it from Mickey's point of view, she has probably now lost both the men in her life, the only glimmer of hope that Charles may take her back being Bob's dying admission that she had nothing to do with the plan to murder Charles.
Edge of Tomorrow: Cage, Rita, and J-Squad manage to defeat the Mimics and bring an end to the war at the cost of their lives, but no one will ever know that due to the final Reset Button. For all people know, the Mimics mysteriously disappeared one day, Cage is a PR hack who has never seen a day of battle, and J-Squad are an ineffective Ragtag Band of Misfits. Additionally, Europe is a barren wasteland and it will take a lot of time to rebuild. However, Cage has gotten an Earn Your Happy Ending; everybody who died during the battle, including himself, is alive again, he no longer has to go through any more deaths or trauma, and he has the chance to start a relationship with Rita, though that ends on an ambiguous note.
Edward Scissorhands: Retreating to the mansion on the hill, Edward kills Jim to save himself and Kim — and all he can say to her after this is "Goodbye," knowing he has sealed his fate in the neighborhood below. Her response is a kiss and "I love you" before she leaves. Kim convinces the others Edward was also killed. She moves on with her life, eventually becoming a grandmother, while he peacefully, agelessly lives in the castle once more. The sweet part here is that he somehow still manages to create ice sculptures, and as a result brings snow to the neighborhood (the little flakes of ice that fly about as he carves). Only she knows the significance of this — it was when he carved the ice angel that she realized she loved him, in a sequence forever referred to as the "ice dance" — and she always cherishes it.
El Camino (and by extension, Jesse's entire character arc in Breaking Bad): After going through hell and back, Jesse finally manages to make a clean break and escape to Alaska. At the same time, however, he is living under an assumed identity, so he will always be living under the fear of being recognized as the target of an ongoing manhunt. His friends and family may never see him ever again.
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain: The film ends with Louis losing his mother, two of his sisters, and his patron. The family lives in Perpetual Poverty, and Louis never gets the fortune he so desired. However, fans of his are able to raise funds to transfer him to a good home where he spends his last years in peace, and his legacy of weird art and perceptions of cats lives on.
The Elephant Man: Merrick dies, but on the happiest day of his life, doing what he always wanted to do: sleep like he's normal.
Elfie Hopkins: Cannibal Hunter: The Cannibal Clan are defeated, but at the cost of Elfie's parents. Elfie and Dylan start a romance, but this happens just before Dylan leaves for university.
Elysium: Max dies so he can use the information in his head to reboot Elysium, turning everyone on Earth into a citizen of Elysium. The ending shows Elysian ships coming down on Earth, full of 0 and mechs ready to help the new citizens of Elysium.
Empire of the Sun: Jim has lost his innocence from witnessing so much death from the people around him and near the end he finally sees the true colors of the man he looked up to throughout the film, but by the last few minutes he not only survives the war and is rescued, he is also reunited with his parents.
End of Days: The End of the World as We Know It was averted, but Jericho sacrifices himself to do it, although this also means that he can finally be with his family again.
The Enforcer: The mayor is saved and all the terrorists are dead, but so is Kate.
Enter the Dragon: Lee avenges his sister and completes his mission, but Williams and Tania are dead.
Entre Nous (2021): Laetitia has been freed from Simor after being raped, beaten and having a miscarriage as a result. Her loving fiancée Elodie returns to her, with whom it's implied she can at least start to recover. Simon is under arrest, and will hopefully be imprisoned, unable to hurt her again.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind provides an excellent example of this, as Joel and Clementine break up but then have their memories of each other erased, only to meet again, discover that they'd already been in a relationship and then choose to begin the relationship again even though it's implied that they're doomed to eventually break up a second time. The ending also serves as a perfect example of So What Do We Do Now?.
Everest (2015): Beck stumbles back alive against all odds, but Rob, Andy, Doug, Scott, and Yasuko are all dead. If not for Beck managing to survive, it would have been a straight Downer Ending. And even so, Beck is mutilated by frostbite, losing his hands and nose.
Exodus (1960): Israel gains its independence, but full-scale war breaks out between the Jews and Arabs, and Karen and Taha have both been murdered.
The Exorcist: Regan is saved from the influence of Pazuzu, but both of the priests died in the attempt.
In Eyes of a Stranger lots of women have been raped and killed, and the protagonist's sister Tracy has been sexually assaulted (again), but in escaping her attacker Tracy has regained her sight and hearing.
Eyes Without a Face: Christiane is free from her father and Louise, but she's still disfigured and will be until she dies. And she's been declared legally dead, so she's most likely an Un-person at that point.

The Fall ends this way both in the fantasy story and in reality. The story ends with every character except the Black Bandit and his daughter dying. Alexandria eventually recovers from her injuries and goes home with her family but she will never see Roy again and Roy is most certainly permanently crippled. And Alexandria believes he is the stuntman in every film she sees.
Fall: Hunter is dead, but Becky is rescued and reconciles with her father.
The Fallout: Vada resolves to be more in touch with her emotions in order to properly process what happened. She starts opening up to her family once again and begins to form genuine connection with Mia that doesn't revolve around shared trauma and substance abuse. However, she and Nick are still on the outs, and Vada isn't sure if they can have their old friendship back. Furthermore, the film ends on a panic attack after she gets a news notification about another school shooting, showing that her grief isn't linear and that such events will keep happening.
Fanboys: Opinions about The Phantom Menace itself aside, George Lucas allows Linus — and only Linus — to see the movie early. Time Skip to the release of the film and Linus has died from cancer, but Eric now writes and draws his own comic series, Hutch has started his own car detailing business, and Zoe and Windows are together.
Fargo: The bad guys are either caught or dead, but they killed lots of people in the process, the money is most likely lost forever, Jerry's son now has no parents, and nobody really learns from their mistakes. However, Marge, her husband, and their future child supposedly live Happily Ever After.
Fatal Attraction: Ellen's pet bunny is killed and an unborn child doesn’t survive but Alex is finally killed and Dan and his family survive the ordeal, albeit with trauma.
Fatale: While he outs Valerie as a Dirty Cop turned Spree Killer with an audio recording of their final confrontation, Derrick now has to move on from the deaths of his wife, his best friend, his cousin, one of his cousin's friends, and Carter. He'll also have to live with the fact that he's Carter's accidental killer.
Father Figures Not only does Kyle and Peter's father remain unknown, but it also turns out their actual birth mother died in childbirth and given her backstory, their father was most likely a rapist. However, they each create a family of their own and get rich making a "positive messages" smartphone app together.
The Favourite: Sarah's ending is unambiguously unhappy, but given her previous actions, it's not like it's entirely undeserving. Meanwhile, Anne forcing Abigail into an emasculating task implies that the Queen will continue to assert her power moving onward and not let herself be manipulated again. So the villainous Sarah has definitively lost, the villainous Abigail's victory is starting to not look that great, and Anne, the only one whose fully sympathetic, is now on a path to become stronger.
A Few Good Men: The Marines get cleared of their charges of murder but not of "conduct unbecoming of a Marine" and are to be dishonorably discharged following the trial. On the other hand, the right man who ordered the attack has been arrested, Kaffee has become respected and learned to take his job seriously, and the Marines accept that they deserve their punishment.
Finch (2021): Finch finally succumbs to his radiation poisoning, but does so having finally made peace. He also finds out that the western United States is still protected by the ozone and finally gets to feel the sun against his face. Jeff is able to get Goodyear to San Francisco and Goodyear has warmed up to him, and because of the ozone existing, it's hinted that others have survived and arrived in the Bay Area and left notes to their loved ones on where to find them.
Fire in the Sky: Travis is left traumatized by his abduction, Mike's life is ruined, and it's widely believed the loggers' story was a hoax. However, Travis does recover to an extent and marries Dana, and he and Mike reconcile.
Five Feet Apart: Stella’s lung transplant is successful, she finds true love in Will, and the film ends on a heartwarming note with Will setting up a light display for her, Stella looking at a notebook full of his drawings, and a heartwarming vlog by her, however Poe is still dead, it’s established that Will won’t make it, and there’s still no telling what will happen to Stella in the future.
Five Nights at Freddy's (2023): Mike manages to save Abby from becoming William's victim, and, with Mike having resolved to move on from grieving his dead brother and parents in favor of focusing on Abby, the two come out of the film objectively better than their situation in the beginning. But the animatronics are left abandoned in the pizzeria, while Vanessa is gravely injured and may not survive. William also vows to come back while bleeding to death being trapped by the Spring Bonnie springlock suit, which is a bad omen for those who knew his fate from the games.
In Finding Neverland, Sylvia dies from her illness, but Peter Pan is a success, Peter starts writing again, and Emma finally accepts James' presence in the lives of her grandchildren.
First Girl I Loved: Anne is alone at the end of the film, while Cliff, Sasha and Sasha's mom get away with their actions toward her. Nonetheless, she's accepted her identity and gets a new bike.
Flight: Whip confesses that he was intoxicated during the flight, is sent to prison, and may never fly a plane again. But by telling the truth, he is freed from his addictions and guilt, allowing him to reconcile with his friends and family.
Fluke: Fluke leaves Carol and Brian after he realizes he's only been getting in the way of their happiness. He does ensure he'll always be with them as he uncovers his grave. Oh,and Rumbo has reincarnated again. As a squirrel.
The Fly (1958): André the scientist is forced to commit suicide because his fly components are degrading his human mind and they can't find the fly with human components. At the climax of the movie, the inspector sees and gives a Mercy Kill to the fly-human just as it is about to be devoured by the spider. However, this convinces him that the scientist's wife is not a murderer and, with François the brother-in-law, he is able to concoct a plea-bargain that lets her avoid being hanged or condemned to the insane asylum. At the very end of the movie, the mother and son are moving on from the traumatic loss of the scientist, and it is implied that she is falling in love with François, who had always loved her from afar.
Robert Zemeckis's Forrest Gump. Jenny dies, but left her son in Forrest's care, and Lieutenant Dan found the strength to live and love again.
The Fountain: Izzy dies as does Tommy Creo. However, the story is about them coming to terms with death as an inevitable part of life and Tommy and Izzy both accept this as part of the natural cycle. In Tommy's case, he had been unnaturally extending his life.
Free Willy: Willy is finally free to be with his family, having outwitted Dial and the whalers, but it quickly dawns on Jesse that it could be ages before he ever sees him again. However, the two of them now both have a place they can finally call home.
From Dusk Till Dawn: Though the Titty Twister is destroyed and all the vampires have been wiped out, Seth and Kate are the only survivors by the end of the ordeal. Kate offers to go with him, but Seth declines, admitting he is not evil enough to pull her into his lifestyle, and they part ways. Kate is left by herself in her now dead family's RV. It's implied Seth's going to get what he wanted — retire in peace to Mexico — and Kate's free from her family drama.
Frontier(s): Yasmine survives and is able to leave the hostel after killing the Neo-Nazis minus Eva, but all of her friends are dead, she's arguably incredibly traumatized and the movie ends with her delivering herself to the police who stop her car.
The Fugitive: Richard Kimble has cleared his name and caught those responsible for his wife's murder, but when all is said and done, he can never bring her back. And can he ever really rebuild his life and career after everything he's been through?
In Full Metal Jacket, while Joker has survived the battle, the war is far from over, and Joker has a lot more hell in store for him. He's in a world of shit, but he's happy to be alive, and he is no longer afraid.
At the end of Furious 7, Brian and Dom part ways.

The Galaxy Invader: Joe Montague is taken down, but he takes the green man with him.
Gamera the Brave: The film ends with Zedus' defeat, Toto now ready to take on the duties of protecting Earth as Gamera did, Mai recovering from her illness, and Toru and his father having helped save the day. However, Toru has to tearfully bid goodbye to Toto as he sets him free.
Gangs of New York: Amsterdam finally gets gets his revenge and kills Bill, and he leaves New York with Jenny. But New York was devastated by the draft riots, and many on both sides are dead. Despite this, New York will be rebuilt.
Get Out (2017): Chris fights and kills most of the Armitages while escaping the estate, is rescued by Rod while said estate is most likely burned to the ground, and Rose dies of her gunshot wound. However, Georgina and Walter (who were victims of the Armitages as much as Chris was) are dead (along with god knows how many other victims), and Chris is left bloodied, injured, betrayed by the one he thought loved him and most likely traumatized for life along with still having the trigger to go to the Sunken Place, Andre is still hypnotized and trapped in his own body, and the rest of the Order of the Coagula are still at large and go unpunished, though they cannot continue their experiments for now.
Ghost (1990): With a little help from Oda Mae, Sam saves his girlfriend Molly from his colleague Carl, also bringing an end to the money laundering he was behind, and he finally gets to tell Molly he loves her. But after all is said and done, he's dead and can never come back. Though they know she will eventually join him, as their last words to each other confirm:
Sam: It's amazing, Molly. The love inside, you take it with you. See ya.''
Molly: See ya. Bye.''
A Ghost Story: There's no happy reunion, magical miracle or overt epiphany. C is just apparently ready to let go and move on.
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir: Lucy finally ends up with Daniel, but she had to die first.
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai: Ghost Dog kills everyone in Ray Vargo's criminal outfit... except his own "master", Louie, who is ordered by Louise Vargo to kill Ghost Dog to avenge the death of her father. Pearline and Raymond witness the execution, which they are helpless to prevent. But in the end, Louie is fine and alive, Ghost Dog died sticking with his Samurai ethics, Raymond ends up with a hefty stack of money he can use to start a new life, and Pearline is left with Ghost Dog's copy of The Hagakure, allowing her some insight into her enigmatic friend's view of the world and possibly also allowing her to pursue in his footsteps.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife: Gozer is stopped at long last, and the world is safe. The original Ghostbusters get a chance to reunite, Winston decides to reopen the business, Phoebe Spengler is able to learn the truth about her heritage, Trevor and Lucky grow closer, Podcast learns his biggest fan happens to be the Ray Stantz, and Peter is shown to be Happily Married to Dana. The truly bitter part of the film is that Egon, one of the cornerstones to the franchise, is dead, and spent years with the bridges between him, his friends, and his family burnt in a final attempt to prevent Gozer from rising again. But at the very least, his spirit is able to mend those fences with his old friends, his grandchildren, and his daughter, before he peacefully departs. And then the containment unit starts to flash red...
The Gift (2000): The real killer, Wayne, is caught, Annie learns that Buddy killed himself but she did have one last conversation with his spirit, who appeared at peace and it's unknown what became of Donnie and Valerie's marriage. However, Annie takes her boys to their father's grave, implying she's ready to move on.
The Gift (2015): Robin and Simon's marriage is in shambles, but Robin is in a better place. She has seen Simon for the bully he really is all along, and now has the courage and willingness to stand up to him, especially with a young child to protect. This might be one of the "gifts" of Gordo for her.
The Girl and the Echo: The girl stands up to bullies, quickly recovers from her plight and seems stronger than before. But this doesn't change the fact that she is much less innocent now. And the boy is now left alone, abandoned by her and the other boys and morally devastated.
The Girl in Lovers' Lane: Carrie is dead and Bix is deeply shaken about it, but Danny saves him from being lynched and outs Carrie's real killer. The film ends on a hopeful note as Danny invites Bix to come home with him and get a job working for Danny's father.
Gladiator: Maniacal emperor Commodus is slain in battle, but Maximus dies as well, but it's shown that in his death he is finally being reunited with his beloved family. Just before his death Maximus also ensures that Quintus will free Commodus' political prisoners, so that Marcus Aurelius' dream of a renewed Roman Republic before Commodus stole the throne might yet be realized. Also, Marcus Aurelius's dream of making Rome a republic again fails miserably.
Glass (2019) ends with Dr. Staple having the Overseer, Mr. Glass, and the Horde Killed to Uphold the Masquerade, hiding knowledge of superhumans from the public. However, the victory ultimately goes posthumously to Mr. Glass, who had hacked the camera system of Dr. Staple's mental institution beforehand so that the truth would be exposed to the world, rendering her efforts moot.
Glass Onion: Miles destroys the napkin with his lighter and thus disposes of the only piece of evidence that could not only prove he stole creative control of Alpha from Andi, but could also prove that he killed her and Duke to further cover his tracks; but Helen—inspired by Blanc to do so—then uses Klear to destroy both the Glass Onion and the Mona Lisa, knowing full well that Miles will take the blame for both the painting's destruction and for Klear being a proven failure that he bet everything he has upon. The Disruptors also determine that they'll take Helen's side if they have to, knowing full well that he no longer has any power or influence to hold over them, even with their own situations likely not improving during the circumstances too.
Glitter: Dice ends up dead, but not before finding Billie's long-lost and now-sober mother, who she reunites with at the end of the movie.
Glorious: Wes cuts out his liver to satisfy Ghatanothoa, which saves the universe from destruction. However, this causes Wes to bleed to death, and before he dies, he is told that no one will ever know of his sacrifice. Ghatanotha tells Wes it's probably for the best since both of them are monsters who deserve to be forgotten.
Glory ends with the death of Col. Shaw and his brave regiment. But a title card at the end tells us what the movie has always been saying; the sacrifice and bravery of the Union Army's first Black soldiers has inspired the whole country. Furthermore, the tens of thousands of new Black recruits inspired by the 54th's efforts helped ensure Union victory and the final destruction of slavery in America. In a larger sense, the regiment help spur America to take huge strides in Blacks reaching equality in the military and beyond.
God Bless The Child ends with Theresa being forced to give up her daughter Hillary so she can live a life free from homelessness, and it ends with a scene of Hillary crying as she is taken away by social workers. Also counts as an Ambiguous Ending since it’s unknown how Hillary’s life will turn out in the future.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019): Ends with Ghidorah dead, and Godzilla as the reigning Alpha once more and the other Titans submitting to him, helping the Earth rebuild its ecosystems. However, both Serizawa and Mothra sacrificed themselves to make Godzilla powerful enough to defeat Ghidorah for good, and many people died during Ghidorah's rampages, numerous cities around the world were destroyed by Ghidorah's and the Titans' Natural Disaster Cascade, and the Russell family is now further shattered by Emma's death. Worse still, Alan Jonah is still at large and has claimed Ghidorah's leftover severed head for use later.
Godzilla Minus One: The Final Battle results in Godzilla being defeated, with Shikishima ejecting from his plane and parachuting to safety. Afterward, Sumiko directs him and Akiko to a hospital, where Noriko—injured but alive after the Tokyo attack—is staying, although seemingly with radiation poisoning if not something worse. And just before the credits, Godzilla's sinking corpse is beginning to bulge and warp as its Healing Factor kicks in again, suggesting that it will return to attack Japan in the future...
Godzilla vs. Destoroyah. On the one hand, Destoroyah has been killed by the JSDF and Junior has mutated into a full-grown Godzilla. On the other, Godzilla's dead and there's a good chance the radiation he emitted from his meltdown has wiped out a good percentage of Japan's population.
The hero of Gone Baby Gone saves the girl, exposes Jack Doyle's crimes, and gets a little public notoriety for it. But he loses his own girlfriend (who wanted him to leave the girl with Doyle), and ends the movie babysitting the girl while her sucktastic mother goes out on another date without caring for her. It's ultimately left ambiguous whether she would have been better off kidnapped by people who might have taken better care of her.
Gone with the Wind: Even though Melanie has died and Rhett has left her, Scarlett still finds strength in remembering Tara and resolves to never give up.
The Good Son: Henry is dead and Susan and Mark both survive the experience, but Mark is left wondering what would happen if Susan had to make the choice again. And there's the obvious mental scarring. The ending basically leaves you with the implication that there will be many hard years ahead, particularly for Susan.
The Graduate ends with such a subtle one of these that it was actually misinterpreted as being too idyllic abroad. With two characters silently adopting So What Do We Do Now? expressions as they presumably ride off into the sunset, it's easy to miss the fact they're both coming to the realization they have no means of supporting themselves, no plan, no future, and will inevitably have to go back in shame. Director Mike Nichols has said the last scene represents the characters' (unconscious) realization that they're going to end up exactly like their parents. Out of universe, Word of God is that it's more of a case of Leave the Camera Running: the actors thought the scene would be over by then, and their confused expressions are real.
The Grand Budapest Hotel: Gustave is exonerated from any involvement in Madame D's murder and inherits a large sum of her fortune, leaving Dimitri with nothing (though he escapes). However, the hotel falls on hard times, Gustave is shot by soldiers after defending Zero on a train trip, and Zero himself is left all alone after both Agatha and his infant son succumb to a fatal disease. However, the story of the Grand Budapest Hotel lives on long after the building is demolished, immortalized by the Author— his book was apparently so successful that not only was he buried in Zubrowka, where the hotel was, but people come from far and wide to leave hotel keys on his grave.
Gravity: Stone goes through hell and high water (quite literally, since she almost drowns) to finally make it back to Earth. But Kowalski and the rest of Stone's crew are dead, leaving her the only survivor of the entire ordeal.
Green Room: Pat and Amber survive, and end up killing the head of a heroin lab, but almost everyone else dies including all of Pat's bandmates, and Pat's mutilated arm means that he'll probably never play bass again.
Gretel and Hansel (2020): On one hand, Gretel and Hansel defeat Holda unscathed, and the spirits of her previous victims pass on. On the other hand, they go their separate ways with no indication if their paths will ever cross again, and there’s a possibility that Gretel will become a witch as well.
The Grizzlies: While the remaining Inuit students have been bolstered by the school lacrosse team and Russ decides to remain in Kugluktuk, Zach and Roger have committed suicide and everyone still has to live with the trauma and conditions of the community.

In Hangmen Also Die!, Dr. Svoboda gets away with the assassination of Heydrich and Czaka is successfully framed, but a large number of hostages are executed including Professor Novotny. In Real Life, it was even worse; in the film, they talk of hundreds of hostages, whereas the real numbers are estimated to have been thirteen thousand arrested and five thousand killed in reprisals. Moreover, the assassins were killed within a month and the collaborator who sold them out wasn't caught until after the war.
Hannah and Her Sisters: All the parties get a happy ending, but the love triangle is still a bit sad. Despite a shared love, Elliot and Lee don't wind up with each other due to him being unable to leave Hannah and her meeting someone else while he stalled to end his marriage. Meanwhile, Hannah never finding out about the affair helps keep all three happy, but there's still the question of whether it's better that she remain blissfully unaware or would it be better if she knew the truth but was hurt by it.
Harakiri: Hanshiro dishonors the samurai who killed Mamote, and they all end up committing harakiri offscreen. However, the other Ii retainers kill him as he tries to escape, and cover up the deaths as "illness."
Harold and Maude: Maude kills herself, but Harold learns a lesson about living.
Harrison Bergeron: The film version lightens the story's ending a bit. Harrison kills himself in despair after having been forced to recant his broadcast, claiming it's a hoax. However, videos of the old days which he'd broadcast are copied and distributed (by his son included), opening up the possibility things will change.
A Haunting in Venice: Poirot solves the case and returns to his job as detective, but he has to cut ties with his once trusted bodyguard Vitale due to his involvement into Joyce Reynolds' scheme. For the same reason, his friendship with Mrs. Oliver is strained, although they part on speaking terms and there's still a chance for them to make up. While Leopold has lost his father, Olga is willing to accept him into her family, and she promises as well to help Nicholas and Desdemona make their way to America.
The Haunting (1963): Nell crashes into a tree and dies, but the characters surmise that this was probably best for her, as she now belongs to the house. Grace Markway is found unharmed but the ordeal has stunned her into believing in the supernatural.
Heaven Can Wait (1978): Joe finally has the body he wants in Jarrett, who had just died in a freak accident on the field, but he no longer has memories of his old life, meaning that he can't remember Betty. Though the movie ends with a hopeful note that they'll fall in love again as they leave together.
Heist (2001): Joe is going to spend the rest of his life on the run and never able to see his friends again, Pinky is dead and Fran was in cahoots with Jimmy, but Bergman is dead and Joe is rich.
Hell Fest: Brooke and Natalie survive but their friends are dead and the Other escapes the park, likely to carry out another murder spree in the future.
her (2013):
- Once Samantha vanishes into the computational cloud and leaves Theodore alone, Theodore seeks Amy (and likewise) to see if her OS had vanished as well (it did). In the last shot of the film, we see Amy lay her head on Theodore's shoulder. Through the heartbreak of dating an operating system, Theodore and Amy may have learned a little something of what love really is. Maybe.
- Theodore's last lines indicate that he has come to accept the fact that he and Catherine have grown apart, and that his heartbreak over their break-up has finally healed.
A Hidden Life: Franz is executed over refusing to fight, but he didn't go against his conscience. He was later beatified and recognized as a martyr by the Catholic Church as well.
The Hidden: The evil alien is finally destroyed by Gallagher, but officer Thomas Beck is killed in the process. The good alien transfers his essence into his partner's dying body to ensure that his family won't be left alone.
High Noon: Will Kane survives his encounter with Frank and his gang, killing them all with the aid of his wife. But he's left utterly disgusted by the cowardice of the townsfolk, all but two of whom utterly refused to aid him, and makes a point of tearing off his sheriff's badge and throwing it into the dirt in front of all of them before he and his wife leave town permanently.
His House: Bol and Rial both survive and they seem to be rekindling their relationship, and despite the state of their new house they are allowed to stay in England. That being said, the movie ends on several shots of their dead family and friends filling the house and staring at them silently; this serves as a reminder to them (and the audience) that the battle with their trauma is far from over.
The Hobbit: Smaug is dead; Erebor now belongs to the Dwarves again with Dain as the new King; the people of Laketown resettle in Dale with Bard as their new leader; Azog and his son Bolg are dead and their armies scattered and defeated; Sauron loses Dol Guldur; and Bilbo returns to the Shire with a small collection of treasure. However... Laketown is destroyed and hundreds have perished; many more also died during the attack on Dale and the Lonely Mountain, with thousands more that follow during the Battle of the Five Armies; Thorin, Kíli, and Fíli are dead (and Tauriel is left mourning for Kíli after realizing that she truly loved him); Thranduil and Legolas are estranged; Sauron is merely banished back to Mordor where he is explicitly stated to start rebuilding his army; and finally, Bilbo discovers that his fellow Hobbits in the Shire not only did not miss him, but even tried to take his home and belongings. Bilbo is alive, rich and with many stories to tell, but no one will believe them, he mourns the deaths of his friends, especially Thorin, and as Gandalf warned him at the beginning, the journey changed him forever. And of course, there's the question of his ring, but that's another story...
Hobo with a Shotgun: Hobo gives his life to kill Drake and ensure that the citizens who have come to his aid fire the first shots on the corrupt police force. Abby is alive but has lost a hand and spends the end of the film hysterically screaming, and the remaining Plague member claims she'll become a member of them soon (and in the alternate ending included on the Blu-Ray, she does). The town may live or die in the ensuing violence, but either way the tyranny of Drake's crime family has ended.
The Holdovers: Hunham takes the fall for the trip to visit Angus' father, and it costs him his job, but by doing so he ensures Angus isn't expelled and that he won't have to go to military school. Mary also makes peace with her son's death, and for his part, Hunham ventures off to a life outside of Barton for the first time.
How To Blow Up A Pipeline: The pipeline does get blown up as the group planned, while they do inspire others as Xochitl wanted. However, it isn't clear if the consequences are what they want, Xochitl might well spend the rest of her life in prison, Theo looks set to die alone from her cancer and it's implied the authorities might be onto others given Shawn sees a suspicious car near him that might be from the FBI.^note
How to Catch a Cold: The live-action version ends with Jeff still sick, but slightly better.
The Humans: Erik and Deirdre are in a miserable position, but still love and care for each other; Mo Mo is unlikely to survive another year but has reassured the family that she's not afraid; and Aimee and Brigid will survive and manage their lackluster personal lives. The film ends when Erik gets himself out of a panic attack and leaves the hellish Thanksgiving dinner.
Some of the The Hunchback of Notre Dame film adaptations.
- In the 1939 film, Esmeralda is pardoned by the King after Frollo confesses being the real culprit and she can now reunite with Gringoire, but Quasimodo is alone at the cathedral and is saddened because he Did Not Get the Girl. Quasimodo says to the gargoyles: "Why I am not made of Stone like thee?".
- In the 1923, 1982 and 1997 versions, Esmeralda is Spared by the Adaptation and Frollo is killed, but Quasimodo dies.
The Hunger: John and the other lovers take revenge on Miriam and are able to perish while she experiences their And I Must Scream fate for herself. But, rather than dying, the turned Sarah moves to London (taking the imprisoned Miriam along) to start anew with lovers of her own.
The Hunger Games:
- The Hunger Games: Katniss not only survives the Games but succeeds in saving Peeta as well. On the other hand, every other Tribute died, and Katniss has made an enemy in President Snow, a situation which forces her to maintain the appearance of her relationship with Peeta in spite of her own conflicted feelings. She is also noticeably colder in demeanor, with something akin to a thousand yard stare after experiencing (and dealing out) so much death.
- The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2: Katniss suffers even more horror than the previous films combined, as she has to watch many people die, including Prim, her beloved little sister, plus, her friendship with Gale is shattered beyond repair as he has a hand in causing Prim's death. However, Snow has been toppled, and Katniss is given a tip that makes her realize that Coin is just as evil as Snow, hence why she decides to end Coin's regime for good before it even starts by "accidentally" killing her. She is allowed safe return to her hometown and lives out the rest of her life with Peeta. She is even confident enough that the world has changed for the better as she chooses to have two kids, something that she wouldn't even think beforehand.
Hungerford: Human society was decimated by an Alien Invasion, and countless humans are either dead, or vessels for Big Creepy-Crawlies. Cowen's crush is dead, as are some of his friends, and he has no idea where Phillipa is. However, he hasn't given up hope that he will find her safe and sound.

I Am Legend: The main character sacrifices his life by taking a grenade to take down the creatures to save the two other survivors of the plague, who venture out and find a safe sancturary of survivors.

Only in the theatrical cut. In the original DVD cut of the film, the protagonist realizes that the creatures are sentient, and that in his goal to find a cure, he's become their boogeyman, a figure who creeps into their lairs while they sleep, abducts people, performs experiments on them and kills them. He and the kids leave Manhattan to the creatures and the audience feels a bit icky about having liked this guy for two hours. This is based on the book, and so considered the "real" ending by those who know. It's what the title means, that the hero is definitely a legend - a legendary murderous monster from the past world who commits horrifying atrocities while you sleep. Humans Are Cthulhu at its best.
I Was a Teenage Werewolf: Tony dies, but he kills the evil doctor and destroys all traces of his experiment data and werewolf-making chemicals beforehand.
Identity Thief: Diane turns herself in and Sandy is cleared of all wrongdoing. A year later, Sandy and his family now live in a new house with their third child, and while Diane is still is prison, she's getting an education and Sandy offers to hire her when she gets out. He also gives her a birth certificate with her real name: Dawn Budgie. Which they both agree is a terrible name.
Akira Kurosawa's Ikiru ends on a bittersweet note, which is a relief, considering how insanely, relentlessly downbeat and depressing the rest of the film was. Watanabe, before dying of cancer as he was doomed to do, has managed to redeem himself from his meaningless life by making a dump into a children's park, but his coworkers go back to the routine, and his adult children are left crying for having misunderstood him.
I'm Not Rappaport: Midge Carter not only just got out of the hospital after several weeks, but lost his job as well as the generous severance package he had been offered, thanks to Nat Moyer's meddling. Nat, meanwhile, lost his battle with his daughter and has to go to the senior center every day and check in with her regularly. On the positive side, both are still alive, without any lasting injury, and will likely be needling each other in the park for many years to come.
Immaculate: Cecilia kills the three main heads of the convent and kills the antichrist that she gives birth to, but she is forever mentally and physically scarred by the experience.
At the end of Impostor, the hero and his wife are dead and one of their roboclones explodes. Hundreds of acres of forest are destroyed, killing thousands of people and Major Hathaway, who had been trying to prevent exactly that from happening the entire film. The assassination of the Chancellor has been prevented however and Cale gets his sister the medicines that Spencer provided him with.
In Independence Day, the aliens are defeated, but millions (if not billions) of people are dead, most of Earth's cities are in ruins, and almost every military has been destroyed. The city destroyers falling to the ground will no doubt cause some further damage on impact.
Inglourious Basterds: Hitler and the rest of the Nazi high command are dead, the war is likely over, and Brad Pitt gets a moment that prevents a Karma Houdini. However, that's with almost all the Basterds dead. And perhaps worst of all, not only is the true heroine, Shoshanna, and her lover dead, but they will never be remembered as the ones who gave their lives to bring down the Third Reich.
Into the Storm (2009): The war is won, the world is safe But Churchill lost the election and political career, his family life is even more troubled, the British Empire lies in shambles, the looming threat of the Cold War lies in the horizon, England's fate is uncertain, and the age of Imperial power is over for England.
In Into the Woods, Jack's mother, Red's family, and the Baker's wife are dead. Cinderella has left her philandering prince. The Witch is either dead or gone off to parts unknown, and much of the country has been destroyed by the giantess stomping around. The Baker even never gets to meet his long-lost sister, Rapunzel, even though his wife did. But Jack, Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, the Baker, and his child are alive, and all of them have emotionally matured and plan to become a family. Also, unlike the stage show, Rapunzel and her prince presumably survive and stay together.
The Invisible: While Nick is found thanks to Annie giving the location of his body away to the police, Annie ultimately dies of a gunshot wound to the stomach.
The Invisible Man (2020): Cecilia finally, truly frees herself from Adrian's control and gets her revenge for all he's done to her and the people she loves — but Emily is still dead and no one other than Cecilia and James will ever know what really happened; plus James silently realizes that he's an accessory to murder and lawless vigilantism, and their friendship is likely damaged. Cecilia's also hardened from the utter hell she's been put through, including having been forced to resort to killing both Tom and Adrian, and whatever psychological effect this will have on her is anyone's guess, as is whether or how she plans to use the remaining suit.
In a World…: Lake Bell gets a coveted voice-over role, but is told that it was due to positive discrimination and not because she gave the best audition.
Iron Sky seemingly ends with the Nazi threat destroyed by the combined space forces of Earth's nations (except Finland). Then they find the Nazis' stores of Helium-3, and all the spaceships promptly destroy each other over them. Then Earth is engulfed in a nuclear war. However, some of the Nazis survive on the Moon and are looking to Renate (who has recently realized that the swastika is not the symbol of peace she was taught) for leadership. Then there's The Stinger revealing possible humans on Mars.

The trailer for the sequel reveals that this was the President's original plan. She's not entirely human and has been working for Hitler all this time.
It (2017) ends with the Losers rescuing Beverly from It's lair, driving It back into hibernation early, and then swearing a blood oath to return to Derry if It ever comes back. But several children are still dead, including Georgie, which Bill has finally accepted after months of being in denial. Meanwhile, Beverly is moving to another town to live with her aunt, and it's implied that the Losers are beginning to lose their memories of Derry, It, and each other.
It: Chapter Two: Pennywise is dead for good and his evil has been vanquished from Derry, but Eddie dies in the process of killing him, to Richie's grief, and Stan killed himself in order to ensure that the plan worked. Ben and Beverly end up together, Mike moves out of town, Bill becomes a better writer, and everyone finds success and happiness now that the threat of IT is no longer hanging over them. Unlike in the book, the Losers remember each other after splitting ways, and it's implied that they'll still be friends.

Jack (1996): It's a Foregone Conclusion due to Jack's condition, but everybody he knows will sadly outlive him, including his parents, and he'll likely be dead by the time he turns 25. In the film's final scene, Jack, now physically resembling an elderly man, is named valedictorian at his high school graduation; he gives a speech saying not to worry about how much time you have, but to cherish every moment and live life to the fullest, then rides off with his friends, happy to enjoy whatever time he has left.
Jack & Diane: Jack and Diane part ways, with Diane's affliction left unresolved. Plus it seems Jack is now infected. However, Jack gives Diane a cherished possession, showing that she truly loves her.
Jack Frost (1998): Jack reconciles with his son, but ultimately has to pass on.
Jacob's Ladder: Jacob has been Dead All Along, but by finally accepting his death, he is able to ascend to Heaven and reunite with his son.
James Bond: Bond always stops the bad guys' Evil Plans, but at a great cost sometimes.
- On Her Majesty's Secret Service: Bond rids the world of yet another nefarious scheme of SPECTRE. However, Blofeld escaped, and Bond's newlywed wife Tracy gets murdered by Blofeld and Irma Bunt in a drive-by.
- Casino Royale: Bond prevents Mr. White from fleeing with the $150 million prize he won at the Casino Royale poker tournament, which is a big blow to the Quantum organization. Before this however, his Love Interest Vesper Lynd let herself drown, and it would impact him for the rest of his days.
- Skyfall: Bond successfully defeats Raoul Silva and his men at the titular location of the same name, but Judi Dench's M dies in Bond's arms and Bond breaks down in tears. However, Gareth Mallory takes over as the new M by the end of the movie and the old gang is all in place for Bond to take on any new threat to the world.
- No Time to Die has the biggest to date: Spectre is destroyed for good, and a worse threat is obliterated before it can kill untold millions of people — but at great cost. Before dying, Safin manages to shoot Bond in the back multiple times and then inject Bond with nanobots programmed to kill his Love Interest Madeleine and his daughter Mathilde in the final battle. With no way to remove them, Bond completes the mission by opening the Island Base's silo doors to ensure the complete destruction of any nanobots there — including those in his system — and says one last goodbye to Madeleine before dying in the missile strike. Though Bond dies, he dies knowing that he saved the people he cares about, his friends, the woman he loves, and his child, from going down the same fate as Vesper did. And his memory lives on through his friends (Q, Mallory, Moneypenny, Tanner, and Nomi) and family (Madeleine and Mathilde). Particularly in the latter's case, as Madeleine promises to tell her daughter the story of her father.
John Q. ends with John's son getting the lifesaving heart transplant he needed, but it doesn't change the fact that John broke the law to make it happen, and he's going to prison for at least three years. On the plus side, the hostages testify on John's behalf, since he never intended to kill anybody, and his lawyer is going to try to get his sentence reduced to two years.
John Wick:
- In the first movie, John Wick succeeds at getting revenge and has effectively destroyed one of the most powerful crime syndicates in the city, but his wife and dog are still dead along with his friends Marcus and Harry, and his car is still missing. It's made a bit sweeter though since he gets a new dog, a pit bull, from the pound.
- John Wick: Chapter 2: John gets his revenge on Santino, but at the cost of getting himself excommunicated from the Continental and having a $14 million bounty on his head.
- John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum: The only thing keeping it from being a Downer Ending is the fact that John and the Bowery King have (possibly) teamed up. Other than that, by the end of the film, John has lost a finger and fallen off the roof of a building, he’s been betrayed by his former friends, and he now has a bounty of 20 million on his head.
- John Wick: Chapter 4: John reaches the Sacré-Cœur Basilica and ultimately manages to win and kill the Marquis, attaining victory in a manner that secures his freedom, grants Winston the reinstatement of his Continental, and gives Caine and his daughter a way out, but many of his old friends and allies have died and John himself seems to finally succumb to all the wounds he's accumulated over the last four movies, but if he does die, (which is uncertain, as both the Bowery King and Winston admits they themselves are unsure) he dies a free man and in peace remembering the happy days with his wife. John's victory has also forever shaken faith in the High Table amongst the Underworld and he is now remembered forever as a legendary figure who defeated the High Table in their own terms, meaning even if all that John has done to the High Table might not have inflicted any short-term noteworthy damage, there's still a chance their rule could be delegitimatized due to the humiliation of failing to defeat John on their own terms. Caine has killed two of his closest friends and will now forever live with the guilt of doing so, but his daughter is at least safe, and while The Stinger shows that he is now being targeted by a vengeful Akira for the death of her father, setting up what is surely to be a bloody feud, there's still a chance that he could either survive by defeating her and potentially convincing her to let it go, or die but get her to leave his daughter alone.
Jojo Rabbit: Jojo loses his mother and is badly traumatized by the horrors of her execution and the Allies' takeover, but he has a Heel Realization and sees the Nazi party for the fascistic, genocidal, and hypocritical nutcases they were, and ultimately survives the war with Elsa.
Jurassic Park (1993): Dr. Grant, Dr. Sattler, Dr. Malcolm, Lex, Tim and John Hammond manage to escape Jurassic Park alive after the dinosaurs are released. However four people (Mr. Arnold, Mr. Muldoon, Mr. Gennaro and Dennis Nedry) died fairly horrible deaths, and Hammond's dream has been destroyed.
Jurassic World ends with Owen, Claire, and her nephews all making it off the island alive and the I. rex being killed off for good. However, dozens of park security guards, workers and visitors have been injured or possibly killed, and all of Owen's raptors save Blue are dead as well. In the larger scheme of things, Hammond's dream of a functioning dinosaur theme park has been destroyed yet again and the chance of the park reopening is very slim, but at least the dinosaurs will be free to live in peace. What's worse, InGen made off with the dinosaur embryos and are free to repurpose the dinosaurs for military applications.

Keanu: Rell and Clarence's actions were illegal (Rell himself treats his arrest as a "fair enough"), and so they had to spend six months in prison. Clarence's relationship with his wife is much improved, though, and Rell is now going out with Hi-C, who's watching Keanu for him. What's not portrayed in the film however, is that Rell and Clarence's careers are almost certainly ruined due to the stigma of being criminals and having served prison time.
Kid Detective (2020): Abe solves his first murder case, and also solves the disappearance of his friend Gracie from years ago. His reputation is improved, he starts getting regular work and cleans up his act. However, Gracie will never get her childhood and youth back, and the events have exacted their toll on Abe, leaving him an emotional wreck.
Kill Bill: The Bride gets her revenge by killing Bill and assumes custody of B.B., but all of her friends (including her fellow assassins that turned on her) and family are dead, leaving her alone and having to start over from square one. Not only that, but she'll have to figure out how to connect with B.B. after being estranged from her for four years, not even being awake to give birth to her.
Killers of the Flower Moon: Ernest finally decides to come clean about his uncle and tells the court everything after his daughter dies, and both are sentenced to life in prison; Mollie divorces Ernest and finds love with another man, and the Osage nation survives despite Hale's prediction of their imminent demise. However, Mollie has lost most of her family including her young daughter and dies a few years later of diabetes, while Hale and Ernest get released from prison early and both live to old age. Multiple other Osage with no connection with Hale had their murders go unsolved, and the nation soon lost most of its oil wealth. Even the radio show expositing that Mollie Burkhart married again and implied she had a better marriage, the format deliberately treats the epilogue with commercial flippancy.
Most versions of King Kong. The city is saved from the rampaging monster, but we weep for the monster anyway.
The King of Comedy: A closing montage reveals that Rupert's dream of stardom actually seems to come true — after serving less than half of a 6 year sentence at a minimum security prison, he publishes his autobiography (which becomes a bestseller and is planned to be turned into a "major motion picture") and acquires a manager/agent with more offers in the pipeline — but at the cost of having played hell with Langford's and several other people's lives. And that's assuming the whole thing isn't just another of Rupert's insane fantasies playing out.
The Kingdom (2007): Abu Hamza and his cell are all killed, but so is Colonel Faris. It's also implied that Hamza's grandson will continue his grandfather's violence against the Americans.
Kissing Jessica Stein: Jessica and Helen break up, but they remain friends, and it's implied that Jessica gets back together with Josh.
Kitten with a Whip: Stratton is in the clear and won't be faced with a scandal over the events of the past few days, and Jody saves his life after Buck beats him nearly to death. However Jody herself succumbs to injuries she sustained in the car accident when Buck runs them off the road, and only manages to clear Stratton with her dying breaths.
Knock at the Cabin: Sure, the family averted the apocalypse. But witnessing five people die in succession, including one of their own, will traumatize them for life, and tens of thousands of people (if not more) have died to the four disasters that were unleashed already.
Knockout ends with Belle winning the world lightweight boxing championship and getting a Relationship Upgrade with Mario, but this is in the wake of her father, a police officer, being gunned down on duty the week before. Additionally, Belle's friend and fellow boxer Sandra is likely to be paraplegic for life after taking a severe beating in an earlier match.
Komaa ends with Hassan recovering from heart surgery and getting together with Maryam, and Amir leaving for America to rejoin his mother and fiancee. However, Hassan's father dies, whatever is left of Amir's relationship with his own father is destroyed, and the friends will probably never see each other again.
Kruel: Willie has apparently been dealt with, Elliott has been returned to his family safe and sound, and Jo survived Willie slitting her throat. However, Jo's boyfriend was killed by Willie, Jo and her family have decided to move, and Jo isn't fully convinced that Willie is dead.
Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter: Kumiko finds Showalter's stash, and is happily reunited with her pet rabbit in a white field... but her pet rabbit is far and away, the road looked nothing like it did in Fargo, and as anyone knows, the nights in Minnesota can get deadly. Anyone familiar with the original story knows the person Kumiko was based on died.

Lake Mungo: The Palmers understand Alice better and have the closure to move on from her death, but it's implied that they're no longer aware of Alice, who continues to linger on alone.
Lars and the Real Girl: Bianca "dies" and Lars and the whole town are devastated but Lars has grown immensely during their time together and is finally able to start dealing with his issues and maybe even pursue a relationship with Margo.
Last Christmas: Kate makes amends with her friends and family and her benefit concert is a rousing success. However, she and Tom don't get together as he has been Dead All Along. Still, he's always going to be part of her (having donated his heart to her) and helped her get her life back on track after the trauma she went through.
The Last King of Scotland: Nicholas escapes Uganda with his life, as do all but one of the foreign hostages that Amin's forces take that sets off Operation Entebbe, and the whole Entebbe hostage incident has irreparably ruined Amin's international reputation and standing. But Nicholas has to live with the fact that many innocent and noble people, including his paramour, died thanks to him, and Amin is still in power at the film's end and he will remain in power for another three years.
The Last Picture Show: Sonny loses Jacy, who honestly was really not that interested in the first place and used him as a tool to piss off her parents, Duane leaves for the army, the Dying Town gets that much closer to dead as the movie theater closes and poor Billy is struck and killed in the street by a truck. The only thing that leavens the ending somewhat is the reconciliation between Sonny and Ruth at the end, with her taking his hand and saying "Never you mind."
The Last Samurai. Katsumoto, his son, and many others are dead, and the way of the samurai has come to an end. However, Omura has been bankrupted and dishonored, Algren has finally found peace, and the Emperor has realized that Japan must remember and honor its own history rather than fully Westernize.
Last Train from Gun Hill: Morgan survives and rides out on the last train. But he is alone: he can't take in his wife's murderers to face trial (because they're dead), and he was forced to kill his old friend, a man who once saved his life.
In Let Me In Owen escapes his terrible life in Los Alamos and travels with the vampire Abby. Both really and truly love each other and want to be together. However, Owen will never see his parents again, and he and Abby have to live a life as nomads who regularly murder people, regardless of whether she turns him into a vampire or makes her new caretaker.
Liar Liar has this via Fridge Horror. Fletcher has learned to be a good person, a good lawyer, and a good parent, and his family is whole once again... but Samantha Cole completely gets away with her adultery, destroying the life of her faithful husband. Truth in Television in that ethical and moral responsibilities to tell the truth don't always overlap. Fletcher now has a very disgruntled and very embittered former secretary who can come forward with evidence of Fletcher's previous corruption and fraudulent court victories, and she has very little reason not to do so.
Liberal Arts: Jesse and Zibby did not get together, and although she did not take his rejection well at first, they ultimately reconciled and settled as friends. It's also implied that Jesse's positive outlook in life is starting to rub on Dean, meaning he'll likely avoid his suicidal tendencies from now on. And finally, Jesse ultimately finds happiness with Ana. However, Jesse's relationship with Prof. Fairfield is significantly damaged and there's no clarification on what will happen to Prof. Hoberg now since the university refuses to hire him back.
Life Is Beautiful ends with the liberation of the concentration camp by the U.S. Army. Guido's wife and child are saved, but he wasn't so lucky. When the Nazis decided to abandon the camp, they made a final effort to kill all the Jews they could find before they were forced to retreat — and Guido was one of them, shot offscreen by a nameless guard while leading them away from his family.
Lifeboat: The group will be rescued and Willy is beaten to death, but Gus is dead, they're all pretty much fed up with the senseless wastes of war and the plight they had to live through, and may or may not keep the fact that they took Willy on board and then killed him in secret.
Like Crazy: In the end Anna and Jacob have gotten together once more, though their relationship may be doomed due to both of them drifting apart, having been seeing other people while they were separated.
Lincoln: As history dictates, the war ends, the Union is saved, and slavery is abolished, but at the cost of thousands of lives, including Lincoln himself.
Lisa Frankenstein: Lisa has The Creature fry her to death in the broken tanning bed where she conducts her experiments on him after the police come close to implicating her in the murders. Dale and Taffy mourn Lisa, but The Creature is shown to have resurrected her so that they may continue their romance.
Listen to Your Heart: Danny dies after he had gotten back together with Ariana over her mother's effort to keep them apart. However, she's at least able to break away from her controlling mother and live as she'd like to.
Little Miss Sunshine: None of the Hoovers get what they want: Dwayne finds out he can never join the Air Force since he's colorblind; Richard's program doesn't sell, leaving the family's financial future uncertain; Frank's still nowhere close to fixing his life; Edwin dies from a heroin overdose; and after all the trouble they went through to get her there on time, Olive doesn't even win the beauty pageant they drove across three states for (and is in fact banned from ever entering any pageants in California again). But everyone's matured considerably from the whole ordeal and the family is now closer than it's ever been.
Liz in September: Liz dies of her cancer, but her friends and lover Eva remember her with love. Eva even named her daughter after Liz, with two of Liz's other friends also raising kids.
Lola: Lola and Michel get a happy ending, but all the other characters' hopes remain unfulfilled.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King: The Ring is destroyed, the Hobbits are honored, and return to the Shire. But Frodo is changed forever for his burden of the ring. Bilbo never realizes what the ring was, it was just his old ring, lost. So many lives were lost, cities destroyed and emotions scarred. The music as the ships leave, the song for the ending credits, all contributes to a powerful bittersweet ending to the trilogy. And the destruction of the Ring also means an end to the age of magic, elves and Maiar in Middle-Earth. These things retreat west to the Undying Lands and leave Middle-Earth to be ruled by men.
Lorenzo's Oil ends with the title character's parents' efforts directly leading to a successful treatment for their son's terminal disease. However, while the movie ends with a montage of all the little boys who now can have full lives (instead of being trapped in their bodies and dead by age 8), Lorenzo himself and many of the other boys in the movie are too far gone for the treatment to fix the damage (Lorenzo Odone did, however, live far longer than doctors expected - he survived until 2008).
The Lost Boys: On the sweet side the heroes have managed to kill all of David's gang along with Max, the head vampire, and restored both Michael and Star to normal. But on the bitter side as Grandpa reveals to the others, those weren't the only vampires in Santa Carla.
In Love Actually, Karen and her husband Harry decide to continue on with their marriage, even after she discovered he was emotionally cheating on her and she may not fully trust him again. Despite harboring feelings for Juliet (and making them known to her), Mark pulls a I Want My Beloved to Be Happy and may never be truly over her. Sarah and Karl realize that their relationship can't work with Sarah's mentally ill brother always taking priority. But the rest of the couples and families fought for their happiness and got it.
Love Is All You Need? (2016): Emily and Jude survive their respective share of heterophopic abuse and Reverend Rachel gets arrested by the FBI along with some of her most enthusiastic followers. However, Ryan is dead with Jude still mourning him and it's not clear whether Kelly, Paula or Emily's parents will become more accepting towards heterosexuals.
The Loved Ones: Brent was able to kill Lola and her father, escaping in the process. But, he is probably mute for the rest of his life due to having bleach injected in his vocal chords and, considering he was already depressed before, now he has an even bigger trauma to deal with due to being severely tortured. There's also a final scene in the B-plot, where we find out that Lola's previous victim who escaped the basement and caused Brent's car accident, was the police sergeant's son.
The Love of Siam: Tong and Mew doesn't end up together in the end. Sunee never found out whether June is really Tang. We also don't know whether Korn will die or not. However, what keeps it from being a tragic ending is that Tong and Mew confessed their love and it is that love that helped each other grow in the end. In addition, even though we don't know the eventual fate of Korn and Tang, it was implied that things is getting better.
Low Tide:
- Alan and Peter kill Red when he tries to kill them. They dump his body in the ocean and still have the gold coins, while Mary convinces her family not to press charges against them over the burglary. However, Peter is traumatized from killing Red, Alan's relationship with Mary has probably been destroyed after he's tricked into robbing her house, and the brothers may have a hard time avoiding police suspicion.
- Smitty also avoids being killed or arrested and there are hints he may turn over a new leaf in the last scene, but they may be empty.

Ma: The teenagers are traumatized—with Chaz, Haley, and Andy also physically scarred—but they all survive and with Sue Ann's death, Genie is freed from her mother's abuse.
Ma Vie En Rose: The new neighborhood accepts Ludo for who she is, with Chris saying he's to blame for making her wear a dress on his birthday. Mom also admits she treated her child wrong and says she'll accept her the way she is. Even so, it's going to take a while for them to mend their relationship, and Ludovic is still visibly traumatized from how she's been treated.
Mädchen in Uniform ends on an ambiguous but bittersweet ending. Manuela undergoes a Humiliation Conga and is banned from speaking to Fräulein von Bernburg. Fräulein von Bernburg herself is being kicked out of the school when she speaks to Manuela against the headmistresses wishes, though she states she would leave voluntarily nevertheless. The only thing stopping it from being a Downer Ending is that Manuela didn't succeed in killing herself.
Mad Max
- At the end of the first film, Max avenges his family and kills Toecutter and his gang, but is now an empty shell of a man who cares about nothing.
- In Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, the people from the refinery escape from the marauders, and make it to the coast where they live in peace. However, Max finds out that he was just a decoy - the tanker that he thought was full of fuel, and that he risked his life to drive, was full of sand. The fuel was stored in the refinery peoples' vehicles. When we last see Max, he is alone in the desert.
- The third film is much the same. Children Max has saved establish a full-blown Cargo Cult based on the belief that they can make lights bright enough for him to see them from the wasteland and find his way to the home they have made for him. It is unlikely he ever will.
- In Mad Max: Fury Road, not everyone makes it, but the Citadel will likely change for the better. It also has a more positive ending, where Furiosa finally kills Immortan Joe and takes control of the Citadel, restoring some sense of peace to their world.
Maggie & Annie: Just as it looks like Bill, Annie and Maggie will be happy in a polyamorous relationship, Maggie's struck by a drunk driver and later dies. However, Annie is shown happy in the finale, having another girl whom she named Maggie too.
The Magnificent Seven (1960), ends with the villagers rejoicing while the warriors mourn their dead, although the romantic storyline ends much more happily than the original.
Chris: Only the farmers won. We lost. We always lose.
The Magnificent Seven (2016) isn't much better off. Like the original, four of the Seven died, many in town died as well and one of the main 7 never could fully get his revenge on Bogue. Also, the town is in ruins, and the remaining 7 ride off without any further involvement in the town's life. However, the 4 who died are immortalized as heroes by the townsfolk, and the town is safe and free once more with Bogue being killed by Emma.
Magnolia: Earl dies after seeing his estranged son one last time, Jimmy doesn't have long to live and is now a thoroughly pathetic husk of a man, it's unsure what'll happen to Stanley, and Linda is in the hospital recovering from her suicide attempt. But Frank seems to have found some clarity in his life, connects with Linda and Phil, and has the chance to become a better person, and Claudia has reconciled with her mother and has fallen in love with Jim, who wants to begin a relationship with her. While we don't see what'll happen to these characters, it is certain that at least some of them will try to make a better life for themselves.
Mako (2021): At the end of the movie, Rana has finally achieved her goal of getting the film award she's wanted since she was 10 years old. However, by then, five people were killed over the course of the movie, including her husband Sherif. As such, she feels she no longer deserves the award, which she announces at the ceremony.
The Maltese Falcon (1941): The bad guys are exposed and rounded up, but Spade turns over O'Shaughnessy, with whom he's fallen in love, to the cops to avenge his partner. And it wasn't even the real Falcon to begin with.
Mama: Although Victoria comes to love Annabel and leaves Edith for her, Edith refuses to let go of Lily and the latter is likewise too attached to her to trade her for Annabel, and happily goes with whom she considers her real mother. For her part, Lily's unconditional love releases Edith from her grief and allows her to move on. But one way or another, Lily's dead.
Man on the Moon plays with this. Andy Kaufman's increasingly desperate attempts to find a cure for his inoperable cancer fail and he dies, but he leaves behind many people who despite (or even because of) all the strange ways he trolled them still cared about him, and one year later his Alter-Ego Acting persona Tony Clifton even resurfaces. While the final shot leaves it a mystery as to who is now playing Clifton, playfully referencing the belief still held by some that Kaufman faked his death, it has been interpreted as simply one of his admirers. On a larger MetaFictional level, Artistic Licence is taken in the third act to have his most famous stunt (the Carnegie Hall performance) take place late in life rather than at his mainstream peak as well as having everyone important attend his funeral service when in real life they were divided between the service on the East Coast and a memorial gathering on the West Coast. The filmmakers and performers — many of whom actually knew Kaufman — are thus giving him a somewhat happier ending than he had in life by way of remembering and celebrating him.
The Manchurian Candidate:
- In the original film, Marco manages to undo some of Shaw's brainwashing, which allows him to shoot his mother and Senator Iselin instead of the nominee, thereby foiling the communist plot. But the victory comes at the cost of Shaw's will to live, now being unable to live with the knowledge of the things he did when he was "activated."
- In the remake, the plot is also foiled, with Raymond having Marco assassinate him along with his mother. But the film leaves it ambiguous whether Marco will ever fully recover from the entire ordeal.
Mandalay: Opportunistic Bastard Tony is dead as a doornail (good riddance) but Tanya and Dr. Burton are going where the Black Fever is raging with no intention to come back alive.
Tanya: Gregory, we arrive in Mandalay tomorrow. We are two wrecked people.
Mandy (2018): Red kills all the cultists and avenges his wife's death, but Mandy is still dead and it seems to be that Red has traveled to some bizarre alien hell in the process. That, or his mind is broken from what he's gone through.
Manhattan: Mary breaks up with Isaac to return to Yale, despite her saying she didn't want to be a mistress and that she thinks he's a manchild, and the men's friendship is over. Isaac realizes Tracy is his true love, and though he's able to reconcile with her, she's still leaving for London for six months; however, she admits she hasn't had another boyfriend and assures him she'll be faithful to him, and he smiles dubiously at Tracy when she says, "Not everyone gets corrupted".
Maniac Cop: Forrest cleared his name, the people who wrongfully jailed Cordell are dead, and he and Mallory are hailed as heroes, but many good cops and several innocents are dead and Cordell is still on the loose with no one the wiser.
Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence: McKinney is able to clear Sullivan's name which in turn makes her find peace in death and saves her from suffering the same fate as Cordell. He also seemly kills Cordell all the while getting together with Dr. Fowler. However Sullivan still died from her wounds and the last scene suggest that Cordell may be Not Quite Dead.
Marathon Man: Babe survives and has his revenge on those who wronged him but both his brother and his love interest are both dead, add to that his experiences throughout the story have left him traumatised and it's clear that the movie ends on a melancholy note rather than a triumphant one.
Margarita with a Straw: Laila loses Khanum because of her cheating, and her mother from cancer, and is forced to return to India, as her father was never thrilled with the idea of her studying abroad to begin with. However, she also reconciled before this with her mother, and is shown happily in the countryside at the end.
The Marriage Chronicles ends with only two of the three couples deciding to stay married and with the therapist sued for her tactics.
Marriage Story: Nicole and Charlie divorce more amicably than was thought possible and get 55:45 custody of Henry. One year later, Nicole's happily dating someone and enjoying professional success and Charlie has taken a directing job in Los Angeles and will get to be closer to Henry. They even go trick-and-treating as a family on Halloween and Nicole is happy to let Henry stay with Charlie for the night even though it's not his turn. But none of it changes the fact that Nicole and Charlie are divorced and can never recreate the loving life they once had together.
Mars Attacks!: Most of the main cast is dead, including the entire American government (sans Taffy Dale, who's likely the next President of the United States) and likely most if not all World Leaders are dead, and the destruction has taken a massive toll on the world, but at least Richie and his grandmother were able to stop the Martians and Byron reunites with his family and those still alive are already starting to rebuild.
Martyrs: The 2016 remake changes the ending so that Anna is able to escape her captors and rescue Lucie, killing many of the cult members in the process, including their leader Eleanor. However, both she and Lucie succumb to their wounds just as the police arrive on the scene. At the very least, Anna was able to spare Sam from the violence, and the existence of the cult is exposed to the authorities.
Marvin's Room: Bessie becomes terminally ill, but Lee takes her place as Marvin's caretaker.
At the end of The Matrix trilogy, the human race is saved to continue their (albeit bleak) existence, at the cost of Neo and Trinity's lives.
Maybe Baby: Sam and Lucy don't manage to have a baby, but they get over their spat, resolving to love one another for the rest of their lives.
The Maze Runner Series:
- The Maze Runner: Thomas's group end up finally escaping the Maze on a helicopter, with help from unnamed people who ensure their safety, as they get their first look at the outside world. The downside, however, is that Chuck ends up dying in Thomas's arms by Gally, something that hits Thomas the hardest.
- Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials: Teresa ends up betraying Thomas by calling WCKD to their location, resulting in Mary's death, Aris's, Minho's and many Immunes' captures, as well as the breaching of the Red Arm's safe place. Luckily, some of the survivors repel WCKD's forces back, and Thomas begins to formulate a plan to save everyone in WCKD's capture and kill the leader of WCKD, Ava Paige.
- Maze Runner: The Death Cure: Thomas and the Right Arm have settled in a new safe haven that Ava pointed out for them, Janson and Ava Paige are dead, and Lawrence's group have destroyed the Last City with explosives. However, many of Thomas's friends died for Thomas to defeat WCKD, and there are still many others in the world who may be unsafe from the Flare and Cranks.
The McKenzie Break: The murderous, Politically Incorrect Villain Schluter is captured before he can make his final escape and faces possible execution for his crimes, but most of his fellow Nazis get away and the operation fails to capture the German spies in Canada or sink the submarine that was picking him up, both of which may torpedo Connor's career.
Connor: Willi, looks like we're both in the shit house.
The Men Who Stare at Goats: Bill and Lyn are able to redeem themselves by freeing the goats and Iraqi prisoners from the military compound, but are never seen again after that, having presumably died in a helicopter crash. Bob embraces the ways of the New Earth Army and finally realizes his destiny, but his news story becomes a joke and is quickly forgotten. However, Bob vows to get the word out and complete his mission, and is implied to have gotten psychic powers and became a true Jedi, though it is also possible that he was imagining it, since it's never clarified if the psychic powers actually exist or not.
The Menu: Margot manages to escape with a sense of triumph over Slowik and a delicious cheeseburger to boot, but she is the Final Girl. At least the cheeseburger that saved her life was only $9.95, as opposed to the others paying $1,250...and with their lives.
Mermaids (1990): Lou and Rachel's relationship continues, Joe moves away to California but keeps in touch with Charlotte via postcards, Kate recovers from her near-drowning but is now partially deaf, Charlotte gains a reputation at her high school due to her sexual encounter with Joe and Charlotte and Rachel have a better understanding of one another as mother and daughter (not just friends) and the films ends as Charlotte, Rachel and Kate fix dinner together at the table which is something they've never done before.
The end of Miami Vice. Most of the bad guys are killed but the real drug lord escapes before the overseas DEA can arrest him. Crockett also has to let Isabella go into hiding, where he'll never see her again. But Rico's wife Trudy appears to be coming out of her coma (much to Rico's relief) just as Crockett arrives at the hospital to check up on them.
Milk ends with the senseless assassination of Harvey Milk, which would make for a Downer Ending if not for the candlelight vigil and his voiceover of his inspiring words. Realizing how many people he touched and inspired and changed things for keeps it from being depressing.
Mindhunters: Sarah and Gabe managed to survive the night and stop a deadly serial killer's spree but they will still need to explain why/how 7 FBI agents are dead and are likely going to be subjected to a lengthy Federal internal affairs investigation.
Mirrors has Ben Carson's family saved and the demon tormenting them apparently dead, judging by how its final attempt on their lives was foiled, but Ben himself is trapped in the mirror world, unable to go back to his family.
Korean romantic film A Moment To Remember. Protagonists Su-Jin and Chul-Soo fall in love and marry despite differences in social standing (she is the daughter of a wealthy construction company owner, while he is a carpenter working for the same company) and objections from family. It is revealed that Su-Jin has a rare disease akin to Alzheimer's which will eventually take away all of her memories of those she loves most, including her beloved husband, Chul-Soo. The latter half of the film show the struggles of the couple in dealing with the disease and Su-Jin, in a moment of clarity after recalling all her memories, leaves the couple's home and is eventually placed in an assisted living facility. The film ends with Chul-Soo visiting Su-Jin and finally saying, "I love you."
Mona Lisa: Simone jilts George for her lover Cathy. However, after Simone shoots Mortwell and Anderson, George no longer has to deal with them or the criminal underworld, and is free to spend time at home with his estranged daughter Jeannie and to start an honest job as an apprentice mechanic working for his best friend Thomas.
A Monster Calls: It's inevitable Conor's mother is going to die. But Conor, with the Monster's help, has managed to come to terms with it, in as much as a boy his age can.
Monster Trucks concludes with Terravex’s schemes exposed and Creach’s species declared protected with their environment sealed off, but Creach has to return to his home environment, suggesting that he and Trip will remain parted.
Monty Python's Life of Brian has a very different one, which could be considered an inversion. Going by what actually happens, there's no question that it's a Downer Ending—but it really doesn't feel like one.
In Mortdecai, Charlie is able to sell the painting at the auction and keep himself and Johanna out of bankruptcy. However, after the sales tax of the auction and other fees have been paid, there is little left of the auction money once their massive back taxes have been paid. However, they still have the painting with the bank account number - and each other.
By the end of More Than Ever, Hélène is adamant that she doesn't want the lung transplant, meaning that she might die in the near future. Matthieu returns to France following a teary goodbye and it is unknown if or when they will physically see each other again. But she has physically and emotionally reconnected with him and is more secure with her body and fate.
Moulin Rouge!!: Yes, Christian finally gets the girl, but then she dies of tuberculosis in his arms onstage during their triumphal performance. But their love will live forever in Christian's memory and in his writing.
In Mouth to Mouth, supporting character Nancy dies because of the actions of cult leader Harry. However, this convinces the main character and two other members of the cult to leave for good.
In Mowgli, the Netfilx movie adaptation of The Jungle Book, Shere Khan and Lockwood are defeated and Mowgli is no longer in danger. However, Mowgli's best friend Bhoot is gone without Mowgli ever getting the chance to reconcile with him, Akela dies from taking a bullet for Mowgli, and Mowgli loses his faith in humanity and leaves the Man-Village for good.
Mrs. Doubtfire: Daniel and Miranda remain divorced, but the two of them are on much better terms with each other, and Daniel becomes the babysitter for their kids and is allowed to see them anytime he wants and has a thriving new career with Mrs. Doubtfire becoming extremely popular. This was substituted for the original ending where they do get back together, which was opposed by Chris Columbus, Robin Williams, and Sally Field (all divorcees) who thought it would give false hope to children of divorced couples and wanted to show that non-traditional families are just as valid.
The Muppets (2011): The Muppets completely fail to buy back the studio, but are back in the public eye and decide that the studio wasn't that important — what is important is making people laugh. Played for laughs shortly after, in which Tex gets a concussion and decides to give them back their studio. Absolutely NOT related to the concussion.
Murder by Decree: The Ripper and his accomplice are dead, but in a Foregone Conclusion Holmes is unable to save any of the Ripper's victims and Annie Crook is left lobotomized. Warren is disgraced by his handling of the situation but the other government officials involved in the cover up escape any consequences. However, Holmes is able to pressure them into leaving Annie Crook's child alone.
My Days of Mercy: Lucy breaks up with Mercy midway through the film, and moves to California after her father's execution. Months later, Mercy tracks down and reunites with Lucy, still affected by her father's execution. The two awkwardly agree to go on a date.
My Foolish Heart: Although her marriage is over and Walt is dead, Eloise can care for her daughter.
My Girl: Thomas J. unexpectedly dies and Vada’s outlook on life is forever changed with that loss of innocence, but she learns to cherish the good memories she had with him as a friend, patch things up with Harry, become more accepting of Shelley in Harry’s life and gets a new friend in Judy while moving forward with her emotional growth.
The film version of My Sister's Keeper has Kate tired of seeing Anna being forced and tortured by their parents to keep her alive and asked Anna to help her win her lawsuit so Kate can choose to die in peace, knowing that Anna can finally live.
My Way: Jun-shik dies, leaving Tatsuo only his name to live by. Tatsuo last scenes is him as Jun-Shik running and winning the 1948 London Marathon, fulfilling his friend's dreams.
Mystery Team. Yes, they'll always be together... but at the expense of a man's testicles.
Mystics in Bali: The Queen of Leak is destroyed but Cathy dies as well.

Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang: Nanny McPhee has to leave, but Rory is alive and returns to the family (albeit with an injured arm), the kids have learned to get along, Uncle Phil's life is no longer in danger, and the Greens don't have to sell their farm.
Needful Things: Gaunt is allowed to get away with his crimes completely scot-free. But he doesn't call what he has done in Castle Rock a "rousing success" thanks to Pangborn managing to calm everyone down and Dan blowing up Gaunt's store. While there are a few murders, some "lovely" explosions, and considerable property damage, most of the town is still standing and the body count is considerably less. Pangborn and Polly also immediately reconcile after Gaunt leaves.
New Jack City: Nino is gunned down and the CMB is completely eradicated, but the old man who shot him is promptly arrested and presumably jailed for the rest of his life. And even though the city's most notorious crack manufacturer is now dead, it's only a matter of time before someone else will rise and conquer.
Next of Kin (1982): Linda survives but is left utterly broken by her ordeal.
The Night of the Hunter: Harry Powell will be executed and the children have found a new home with Rachel, but they have most likely gone insane (or at least gotten PTSD) and have lost both their parents (and don't even get to keep the money, as it was exposed during Powell's arrest).
Night Swim: Eve, Izzy, and Elliot are able to survive the pool; however, this comes at the cost of Ray sacrificing himself to it. Fortunately, the Wallers make sure that no one ever falls victim to the pool again by staying at the house and covering it up.
Nightbooks: Alex and Yazmin manage to escape and return to their parents, killing the original witch in the process. But the other kids Natacha kidnapped are still trapped in their doll forms, and Natacha survived.
Nobody Sleeps in the Woods Tonight: Zosia survived the ordeal, killed the murderous twins, and escaped. However, everyone from her hiking group is dead, she'll likely be haunted by this experience for the rest of her life, and the killers can come back to life.
None Shall Escape (a 1944 film about a trial against a Nazi officer following the end of the then-ongoing second world war, told via flashbacks from the points of view of the witnesses at the trial): On the larger scale, WWII is over and the Nazis are brought to justice for their crimes, but countless numbers of people have lost their lives because of the Nazi regime. On the smaller and more personal scale, Karl and Marja both survive to testify at Wilhelm's trial, but have lost a son and a daughter, respectively.
No One Will Save You: Brynn survives the night and comes to terms with her guilt at killing Maude but the rest of the town (and possibly the rest of the world) have been killed/replaced/possessed by the alien invaders. Of course, seeing as how Brynn is much happier in a community of alien controlled humans rather than the miserable townsfolk, it's really only bitter for everyone else.

Oblivion (2013) : The Earth is finally saved from the Tet after 60 years of a war that humanity lost, and that which remains of humanity finally will have a chance to rebuild. All that it cost were the lives of the Drone Tech 49 clone of Jack Harper and Malcolm Beech. Julia has a daughter and the 52nd Drone Tech clone of Harper has finally found her after some time looking.
Old People: Aike, Alex, Laura, and Noah have all survived their encounter with the murderous old people, and have escaped on a motor boat to safety. However, Laura's, Noah's, and possibly Alex's parents are all dead, and there are still a lot of violent old people about.
Olympus Has Fallen: Mike successfully rescues President Asher, prevents The Korean War from restarting, kills a serious international terrorist menace and saves the country from being obliterated, but hundreds of lives, including many civilians, were lost.
In London Has Fallen, Mike saves President Asher and the terrorists including Barkawi are dead. However, so are the countless innocent civilians, the other world leaders, and Lynne Jacobs.
The Ωmega Man: The last survivors have been given the cure to the disease, in the form of Neville's blood, and are able to move far away to seek a new life—but Neville is dead and Mathias is still alive, and he may or may not hunt them down eventually.
One Missed Call: The ending of the third (and final) film. While the flow of the curse is finally stopped, it still resides in the last phone it invaded: Emiri's. Jin-wo snatches the phone and dies in Emiri's place, which leads to Emiri's catatonia. However, Emiri and Asuka have mended their relationship and it's implied that Asuka has become Emiri's caretaker. Plus, they manage to visit the beach like they had promised years before.
Only Angels Have Wings: Kid dies in a tragic accident that turned out to be All for Nothing as the weather cleared out of the pass a little bit later. But the airline is going to get the mail contract and stay in business, Bat has his redemption moment, and Bonnie and Geoff have fallen in love.
The Soviet war film Only Old Men Are Going to Battle focuses on the lives of Soviet fighter pilots during World War II and ends with many key characters killed during one dogfight or another. The protagonist, the base commander (played by the director), actually survives. Also, the film ends on a hopeful note, as the Germans have been nearly pushed out of Soviet territory. The protagonist's best friend (who has been melancholic for a long time) regains his youthful vigor... only to get shot down during the next battle. The film ends with a character nicknamed Romeo (for his relationship with a female bomber navigator named Masha), who was a rookie at the start of the film but is now one of the "Old Men" (i.e. veterans), landing his damaged fighter but dying from injuries. As the protagonist is preparing to deliver the news to his Love Interest, he receives news that Masha's bomber was shot down as well.
Ophelia ends much the same as the original Hamlet; Everyone dies and Denmark falls to Norway, but in this version Ophelia survives and escapes to live a peaceful life – albeit mourning that Hamlet ultimately chose vengeance over her – while King Claudius gets what's coming to him; Ophelia also has a daughter who is strongly implied to be her child with Hamlet.
Ordinary People: Beth leaves her family, not knowing if she'll ever be capable of love again. However, Calvin and Conrad finally connect with each other.
Orphan: Max survives and Kate successfully kills Esther, ending her reign of terror for good. But John and Sister Abigail are dead, and Danny's fate is left up in the air, with it being possible that Esther gave him brain damage when she unsuccessfully tried to smother him.
The Orphanage has much the same sort of ending: when the protagonist finds her son, he is dead; however she wishes to be with him again, and is shown very contentedly reading stories to him and the rest of the ghost children, but only because she became a ghost herself. Her leaving her husband alone is the bitter to this (somewhat macabre but still) sweet. He smiles (sadly) when he sort of realizes what happened.
The Others (2001): On the one hand, everyone's a ghost because Grace killed her children & then herself in a fit of madness. On the other hand, at least the kids can walk in the sun now and there's no more reason for fear.

In Pacific Rim, the war against the Kaiju has ended with Raleigh, Mako and Herc surviving to see it but Pentecost, Chuck, the Wei triplets and the Kaidanovskys have died in the effort and all the Jaegers are destroyed.
Palindromes: Aviva returns home after her journey, but is still under the impression that she's going to be a mother. Her sexual encounter with Judah takes her back through all of the different Avivas until she's back right where she started as a young girl, proving Mark right that people don't change.
Pan's Labyrinth: Ofelia dies from her wounds on Earth but is reunited with her true parents of the Underworld. It's also implied her infant half-brother will grow up safe with Mercedes and the rebels.
Pandorum Earth mysteriously disappeared over 900 years ago. The spaceship Elysium has been destroyed, leaving the 1,213 people left to rebuild society essentially from scratch on the planet Tanis. Earth's population had reached 25 billion people by the time it was destroyed and so who's to say that the same thing won't happen on Tanis? Also, an alternate ending scene on the DVD does show Payton/Gallo surviving and draining all the ocean water out of the ship.
Passengers (2016): Jim and Aurora save the ship and their love for each other is mended, but they're unable to save Gus's life, and they live out the rest of their lives with only each other for company.
Patient Zero (2018): The bunker is overrun with infected who kill most everyone in there, but Morgan and Gina manage to escape to continue their hunt for patient zero, as well as care for their unborn child.
Pete's Dragon (1977): Pete finally has a home and a family, but has to say goodbye to Elliot who was his only friend for a long time.
Peter Pan (2003): Though Captain Hook and his pirates have been defeated and Neverland restored to a time of peace, Peter and Wendy must come to terms with the fact that she wants to grow up and he does not, resulting in them parting ways.
Phantom of the Paradise: Swan is defeated and all of the artists under him are presumably freed from their Magically Binding Contracts, but Winslow/The Phantom has had to sacrifice himself to achieve it, as his life and Swan's were linked by the contract he (Winslow) signed.
The Phantom Planet: Chapman escapes but can't be with Zetha, whom he loves.
Philadelphia. Andrew Beckett wins his case against his former employers. Unfortunately, his illness intensifies and he collapses towards the end of the trial-meaning he is unable to be present when the jury rules in his favor-and he dies shortly after its conclusion.
The Pianist: Szpilman survives and resumes his career as a pianist, but his whole family was gassed in Treblinka. And as a further kick in the teeth, Wilm Hosenfeld, the soldier who helped him survive the last few weeks of the war, died in a Soviet prison camp.
The Piano: Ada got a finger chopped off and was nearly raped by the man who was married to her, when he turned psychotic and she nearly drowns after throwing out her old piano due to bad memories from said psychotic ex-husband. But she and her daughter are safe, she's starting to talk again, and is with Baines, who is a good, decent man.
Pig: The pig died the night the two junkies stole her. However, Robin's helped Amir and his father reforge their damaged bond, potentially helping the older man become less of a ruthless jerk, and demonstrates a willingness to open up again by shaking Amir's hand as a friend. The film closes with him finally listening to the cassette tape of his late wife, no longer so emotionally injured that he can't even bear to hear her voice and indicating that accepting the loss of his pig has helped him grieve and move on, beginning to accept the loss of his wife as well.
Piggy (2022): Alpha Bitch Maca is dead; the waitress and the lifeguard have also been killed. Roci and Claudia survive, but Claudia had her hand shot off and both girls must be traumatized. And there is no guarantee Sara won't be bullied again, even if Roci and Claudia learn their lesson. But by choosing mercy instead of revenge, Sara shows strength.
Pirates of the Caribbean:
- At the end of the third film the battle is won and the lovers are finally wed, but at what cost? Lives are lost, the Golden Age of Piracy is over, Elizabeth is widowed and, depending on whether or not you take into account the after-the-credits clip, doomed to single motherhood and Jack loses his ship to Barbossa and may now be permanently off his rocker. Again. Verbinski really did do his best to kill the franchise...
- The fourth film ends with Jack and Gibbs finding the Pearl trapped in a bottle by a voodoo spell and knows how to "extract" it. On the other hand, Barbossa is now in command of a voodoo-powered ship, and Angelica finds the voodoo doll of Jack (whom she blames for her father's death).
Pitch Black: Carolyn not only redeems herself by refusing to leave Jack and Imam, but then risks and loses her life saving the injured Riddick.
- The Chronicles of Riddick: Kyra dies stabbing the Lord Marshall in the back to keep him from killing Riddick.
Pixel Perfect: Loretta dies, and the Zeta Bytes' band career appears to be over for good. But the group was given a proper send-off, Roscoe finally reciprocates Sam's love for him, and Loretta has become their guardian angel.
The Place Beyond the Pines: Avery was elected as the new D.A. with the implications of him and A.J.'s relationship improving in the future. But, Jason decides to leave to parts unknown and sends a letter to his mother with the picture of her, him as a baby, and Luke in front of the ice-cream store.
Planet Terror. The zombie plague destroys most of the world but Cherry leads the few survivors to the Mexican coast which is humanity's last stronghold.
Platoon: Chris survives the war and goes home, but he doesn't really escape the consequences of the war.
Pod People: Trumpy and Tommy are both safe, but Trumpy's mom has been killed and Tommy had to pull the Break His Heart to Save Him on Trumpy, and that's most likely the last thing the poor alien ever heard from him. The final shot shows the poor alien, alone and friendless in the foggy woods, with nowhere to go and no way back to his home planet.
The Possession: Em is okay, and Clyde and Stephanie remain friends. However, the Dybbuk somehow manages to get Tzadok killed in a car accident and is most likely going to be passed on to another unsuspecting victim.
Powder: It's clear that despite the efforts of those who care about him Powder is never quite going to fit in with the rest of the world, because humanity hasn't caught up with him yet, so he rushes out into a field as a lightning storm passes over, and manages to Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence.
Predator: Dutch and Anna escape and the Predator is killed, but Dutch's entire team has been killed as well. The forlorn look Dutch gives at the very end makes it perfectly clear this sacrifice is too much for him.
The Prestige: The surviving Borden twin reunites with his daughter and gets revenge on Angier but he'll live knowing their petty rivalry wrecked both their lives and cost him his wife and brother.
Prime, the protagonists break up, finally admitting that they're at far too different stages in their life to make their relationship work—she's a 37-year old divorceée who's biological clock is ticking, while he's only 23 and just starting out. A year later, they run into each other and even though no words are exchanged, they share a smile, showing that they've each moved on and gotten closure.
The Film of the Book Prince Caspian manages to make the ending — in which Caspian claims his throne and Narnia is liberated, but the Pevensies must return home, and Peter and Susan learn they can't come back to Narnia again — rather more bittersweet than that of the book. But this might also be because they added in the Susan/Caspian kiss. This adds a whole other note to the movie, and ultimately the end of the series as well, since Susan's never coming back period.
The classic Bob Hope movie The Princess and the Pirate ends with the line "Great, I do all the work for 3 reels and some extra from Paramount gets the girl." This is also a fourth wall break and a running gag based around Bob Hope and Bing Crosby's friendship.
John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness. The Sealed Evil in a Can has been driven back and the world has been saved, but in order to do so, the protagonist's love interest had to sacrifice herself and ends up trapped in a parallel universe. In addition, nearly everyone the protagonist knew is dead by the end of the movie. And depending on your interpretation of the ending, the love interest becomes the new Satan or Anti-God, and the protagonist is going to accidentally release her from the other side of the mirror.
Surprisingly, for a film as dark as Prisoners, the film ends somewhat happily, both girls are found alive, and the killer ends up dead, but if Keller survived the film, he's going to prison for a very long time, possibly for life. Hey, it's the least we can expect with a film this depressing and brutal.
The Professional. Mathilda has avenged her family and grown into a more mature and peaceful person than the bratty teen and angry cleaner-in-training she was before, but Leon has died to protect her, and Tony refuses to give Matilda more than $100 of Leon's fortune that Leon had promised to her if anything happened to him.
The Promise (2016): Ana tragically drowns, meaning that neither Mikael nor Chris get the girl, most of the Armenians, including most of Mikael's village, have either been killed or are displaced, and Turkey refuses to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide even to this day. Chris returns to reporting, but is killed in the Spanish Civil War in 1938. But Mikael and the orphans are able to escape, settling in a small town in Massachusetts, with Mikael starting a practice there and adopting Yeva. The orphans grow up into healthy adults and attend Yeva's marriage to a Marine. In spite of all the odds they faced, the Armenian people still live on.
Promising Young Woman: Cassandra is murdered during her quest for vengeance, but the tape of Nina’s assault is released and Al is arrested for her murder, so she at least died knowing her ultimate goal will be fulfilled and Nina will get justice.
By the end of The Proposition, Charlie is forced to shoot his own brother, and — although there is no denying Arthur deserved worse — it's still kind of sad. Also, Mikey dies painfully, the Stanleys' Christmas has been ruined, and Fletcher pulled a Karma Houdini.
Psycho: Norman Bates is arrested and put in jail, but Marion is still dead and the money she stole is completely lost.
The Korean film Psychokinesis ends with the protestors escaping, but despite all his powers, Mr. Shin is arrested and sent to prison, and the shopping arcade with his daughter's restaurant is bulldozed. To add insult to injury, Taesan Construction's planned development never happened, leaving an empty site where the arcade used to be. But on the plus side, four years later, Ru-mi is getting married, and Mr. Shin's powers become a good advertisement for her new restaurant, "Superpower Chicken."
Pulgasari: The Governor and the King are defeated, but Pulgasari has become a danger to the farmers and Ami has to sacrifice herself to stop him.

Race: Jesse repairs his relationship with Ruth and wins four Olympic medals while striking a blow against white supremacist notions. However, President Roosevelt refuses to meet and congratulate him for racist reasons and the Waldorf Astoria's manager refuses to break societal norms let a black man use the front door to enter a party even though he's the guest of honor (although the white elevator boy at the back entrance does show Jesse some hero worship). Adding to the bittersweetness, attempts to boycott the Olympics in defiance of Hitler and to let Jewish sprinters race against the Aryans fail, and Jesse's Friendly Rival Luz dies in World War II.
Raging Bull: Jake is shown to have a promising career as a stand-up comedian, but in the end he's completely ostracized from his wife, kids, and brother, and he pawned off the title he worked so hard to get in order to bail himself out of prison.
Rain Man: Raymond ends up returning to the institution, as he cannot function in everyday society and Charlie doesn't have what it takes to support him. However, their journey together changes Charlie for the better, and he promises to continue to visit Raymond.
Raising Arizona: HI and Ed return Nathan Jr. to his parents and Nathan Sr., upon learning why they kidnapped him in the first place, decides not to have them arrested and gives them advice to help their relationship. HI later has another dream, and given the prophetic nature of them, there's still a chance for him and Ed to have a family, since he sees them as an elderly couple being visited by their children and grandchildren. Nathan Jr. is also a football star in HI's dream, and while he very likely won't remember HI or Ed, at least he'll be happy.
The Rambo series, with Rambo III possibly being the only exception.
- At the end of First Blood, Rambo has got his revenge on the town that wronged him, but he completely breaks down in tears and surrenders himself to Trautman and is arrested.
- In Rambo: First Blood Part II, Rambo succeeds in rescuing the POWs, but was betrayed by Murdock in the process, and Co-Bao, his Vietnamese contact and Love Interest, is still dead. Rambo, after getting his revenge on Murdock, tells Trautman that what he wants is for his country to love its soldiers as much as they love it. When Trautman asks how Rambo will live, Rambo responds with "day by day" before walking away alone solemnly once more, disillusioned as ever with the world, his place in it and his country.
- In Rambo IV, Rambo has killed all the Burmese soldiers, including their leader Tint, but most of the missionaries and one mercenary is dead.
- Rambo: Last Blood: Rambo gets his revenge and completely destroys a ruthless gang of Human Traffickers, including their leaders Hugo and Victor, but Gabriela is still dead, his home is destroyed, and Rambo's peaceful life has come to a permanent end even if the man himself is still alive. And Rambo only stopped the Martinez brothers' organization, which is just a small one out of many working under Don Miguel's massive sex trafficking ring that continues to operate with nobody to stop them, meaning that there are still a lot more girls out there who shared Gabriela's fate.
In Ravenous (2017), Bonin and Tania become zombies in the end and nearly everyone in their group dies at the same time, but at least Zoe survives.
Ready or Not: Despite making it through the night and the Le Domas family getting their just desserts, Grace loses her husband, who betrayed her in the end, and some parts of her sanity, plus receiving some nasty injuries. In the end, her dream of joining a loving family does not come to pass, but she is still alive and set to inherit an extremely large fortune, plus the family won't be able to sacrifice anyone else.
The Rebel Set: Tucker is defeated and John is cleared of murder but he still has to answer for his part in the armored car heist. And how is Jeanie supposed to get home? She spent that dollar an hour ago.
Rebel Without a Cause: Plato is dead, but Jim's dad vows to be stronger from now on, and Jim's parents seem to be on the road to being better.
Red Dawn (1984): At the end, we find that the war came to an end, but almost all the Wolverines are dead, and almost nobody remembers their sacrifices.
Red Dawn (2012): Jed and the Wolverines succeed in defeating Captain Cho and recovering the suitcase, but Jed is unexpectedly killed, and Daryl is left behind due to a tracking device implanted in his body. However, the Wolverines continue their mission and are getting more public support.
Red State: Sure, every member of the Five Points Trinity Church is arrested or killed, but the main trio are all dead as well as Cheyenne, the only redeemable Cooper family member.
Red Zone Cuba: Griffin is gunned down and killed, and his two "friends" are both arrested. Chastain, meanwhile, is revealed to be alive and well and is reunited with his wife.
Reign Over Me: Charlie begins to move on with his life, but it doesn't change the fact that his wife and children are still dead.
Remember the Night: Although both Lee Leander and John Sargent confess their love for one another, Lee pleads guilty to her crime, even though John was throwing the case to avoid her indictment. Who knows if their love will last after her sentence. John is very staunchly in I Will Wait for You territory, so hopefully it works out.
Remember the Titans: The Titans win the state championship and help unite the town as Boone and Yoast finally overcome their personal tension and become friends. However, Gerry is still paralyzed from his car accident and, even though he winds up becoming a successful Paralympic athlete, he winds up dying in another car accident only ten years later. The film ends with everyone having reunited at his funeral to say goodbye to him, making it clear the team still shares a strong bond after all these years and the Where Are They Now credits reveal most of the main characters became successful adults.
Reminiscence: Nick is able to find out what happened to his lost love, Mae, and learns in the process that while she was forced to lie to him, she also genuinely loved him. However, he also witnesses evidence of her death, and subjects her killer to such a brutal fate that his sentence for such an action would normally be "worse than murder". However, for Nick's role in exposing a conspiracy, he is able to cut a plea deal where his "sentence" is to be allowed to relive his memories of his relationship with Mae for the rest of his life.
Rhymes for Young Ghouls: Aila and her father have reconciled. She got her revenge on Popper, and he's dead before he could do her more harm. Gisigu is going to steer her away from further drug-dealing. Joe is going to prison again though, likely for a very long time, and we don't know if he'll ever get out. The schools are still open too, and Aila has many scars from her past.
Riding in Cars with Boys: Bev gets her book published but loses her oldest best friend Fay and Jason leaves to be with Amelia. Still, the relationship between mother and son remains strenuous and is likely to stay so.
In The Ritual, Luke manages to get out of the forest alive and burns down the village sacrificing people to the monster for good measure. However, he's the only one who made it out alive due to Phil, Hutch and Dom having been killed by the monster.
Robin and Marian: Richard Lester's take on the legend ends by a Romeo-and-Juliet-like death, as Marian drinks poison and gives some to Robin, who had been just badly injured by the Sheriff he killed, aware that Robin would prefer to die still in good shape rather than live on knowing he will never be what he was before.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show: One way to interpret the ending (even more so if one ignores the quasi-sequel, Shock Treatment concerning Brad & Janet's marriage). It's up to the viewer... Will Brad & Janet recover from this and grow with their newfound lack of naiveite and prudishness or will they be messed up forever? Though the lines of "Super Heroes" and "Science Fiction Double Feature (Reprise)" seem grim... their fate isn't written in stone, the villain (Frank) has been defeated (by getting killed) and the three principal "good guy" figures (Brad, Janet and the Doctor) are still alive (albeit a bit shaken). Apart from perhaps an existential crisis and a re-thinking of personal views concerning sexuality, they'll hopefully be fine.
Rollerball: Jonathan has survived and become a hero, and it is implied that this victory is a portent of a successful insurrection, but he wins at a horrible cost. He's the sole survivor, all his teammates - and the opposing team - dead or badly injured, winning a game in an arena littered with corpses.
Rory O'Shea Was Here has one of the main characters gain his independence and open his eyes to a new empowered life. The other one, however, dies of Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
Rumble Fish: Rusty James releases the fish and escapes to California. The Motorcycle Boy dies, but with a smile on his face, implying that he has found peace in death.
In the Liam Neeson movie Run All Night, Jimmy Conlon manages to save his son Mike and his family from Shawn Maguire and his men, but he is killed by Mr. Price, whom Jimmy and Mike previously spared before.

The Sadist: Charlie and Judy are dead, but Ed, Carl and several other people are dead and Doris is clearly traumatized from the ordeal.
Santoalla: Carlos confesses to killing Martin, and Julio admits to trying to hide the evidence by burning both his body and his car. They are arrested, and Margo finally has peace. However, Julio, while released from prison, is banned from ever going back to Santoalla, and the scandal forces his parents to leave the village, leaving Margo as Santoalla's only resident.
Saving Private Ryan: The Squad succeed in both holding the Ramelle bridge long enough for American reinforcements to arrive, and in saving Pvt. Ryan, but only Reiben and Upham made it and the rest were all killed. Ryan survived the war, but it's clear that even as an old man many years later he struggles with Survivor's Guilt. The ending paints the sacrifice of Miller and his men as well as all American servicemen as valiant in the face of all the brutality and suffering they faced.
Schindler's List. Oskar Schindler and the Schindlerjuden make it through the war, but... he could have saved more.
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty: After all his adventures, Walter is laid off as LIFE Magazine ceases print publication, but he becomes immortalized as the cover of the magazine's final issue. That, plus the fact that he now has one hell of a resume from his adventures means finding a new and more interesting job should not be a problem. It also turns out that Cheryl hasn't reunited with her husband, giving Walter a second chance with her. In fact, he asks her out and she says yes; they hold hands after seeing the final issue of Life and the cover photo as they walk away.
Serenity ends on a bittersweet note. The Operative has been defeated, the secret of Miranda has been broadcast to the verse, Simon and Kaylee have gotten together, Simon and River may have been taken off the Alliance's wanted list, and River may be showing signs of recovering from her madness. On the other hand, all of the crew's allies are dead, Wash and Book are dead, pregnant Zoe is now a single mother, the Parliament is in uproar, the question of how the verse is going to take the Miranda broadwave is up in the air...
Serpico: Frank succeeds in creating a body to deal with police corruption. But after getting shot in the face in what appeared to be a set up by his crooked colleagues, he bitterly goes into exile in Switzerland.
Seven Samurai. Sure the movie ends with a celebration, but from the view of the surviving members of the original seven it's rather melancholy, considering four of their companions have died their efforts have gone largely unappreciated, and the main romantic storyline ends as quickly as it started with almost no resolution.
Kambei: Again we are defeated. The winners are the villagers, not us.
Shakespeare in Love: Shakespeare and Viola don't end up together, and Viola is destined for a loveless marriage, but they console each other with the knowledge that they will be ageless in each other's memories. The film ends with Shakespeare writing Twelfth Night, with Viola as his muse, as a way to imagine an unlikely happy ending for the two of them.
Shallow Hal: Rosemary, still hurt from Hal's recent behavior and actions, plans on going away on a Peace Corps mission even after Hal pleads for her not to go. So he decides to go with her instead. Rosemary forgives him and the two go back to dating, leaving together as a couple.
The Shape of Water: Elisa leaves with the Amphibian Man but her friends never see her again, Giles only being able to guess how she is.
The Shawshank Redemption, anyone? Brooks and Tommy are dead. Andy wasn't exonerated, and Blatch still got away with his crimes. Red is violating his parole by going to Mexico to meet Andy outside of jail, and they are probably both on the run from the law and in no position to turn to it should anything happen. However, Norton did get exposed as a crook, and ended up shooting himself; Hadley got arrested for his role in the murder of Tommy; and at the very end of the movie, Andy and Red finally get to enjoy their friendship outside of jail, which surely must be refreshing for them. It is for the audience.
Shin Godzilla: Godzilla's been stopped, but at great cost. The Prime Minister and several other members of Parliament are lost, Tokyo is in shambles, large parts of Japan have been rendered uninhabitable due to radiation, and the United States is poised to launch a nuclear missile at the first indication that Godzilla reawakens. Plus, there's the bizarre mutation Godzilla started undergoing before it was stopped, suggesting it was getting ready to birth another monster...
The Shining: Danny and Wendy survive and manage to escape the crazed Jack, but Hallorann is dead, Jack has frozen to death, it's likely that both Danny and Wendy will be forever traumatized by the events of the film, and the hotel will probably still be around so it can mess up more families.
Shot Caller: Jacob will spend the rest of his life in prison, but he has become the undisputed leader of the Aryan Brotherhood there to protect his family, who are ready to move on.
The Shootist: Books dies in a blaze of glory on his birthday. It's accepted that this was a far better fate than succumbing to the cancer that was killing him. The happier conclusion is that young Gillom, after shooting a man to defend the dying Books, throws the gun away in disgust and shows he will not take the path of being a gunfighter. Books is able to favor Gillom with a satisfied smile before expiring.
The Shrine: The mystery of the vanished tourists is solved, but Carmen and Sara are dead, and Marcus was forced to let the priests kill the former to vanquish the demon.
The Sidehackers: Almost everyone, including Rommel, gets killed while JC lives, but he is heavily implied to get arrested afterwards.
The Silence of the Lambs. The monster is slain and his victim saved, but in the process a bigger monster has been unleashed and now bides his time in the darkness, stalking the heroine he has developed an unhealthy fixation for.
Six String Samurai: Death is defeated but Buddy is dead. However, the Kid takes up Buddy's sword and guitar and finishes the journey to Lost Vegas, where he will presumably become its new King.
Sleepwalkers: The Sleepwalkers are dead, and Tanya and Clovis have survived. However, Tanya's parents are presumed dead and multiple cops have been killed during Mary's rampage.
Sling Blade: Doyle is dead and out of Frank and Linda's lives for good, but Karl is, again, locked up in the state hospital. However, it's implied that Karl may have preferred the secure life in the hospital, saying that the outside world was "too big" for him, and he can now stand up for himself against the pervert Charles Bushman.
Slither: The invasion is stopped by Bill, Kylie, and Starla. However, they are the only ones who have survived the invasion which will probably start all over again due to The Stinger.
Snow Falling on Cedars: After discovering the information that exonerates Kabuo, Ishmael is finally able to let go of his love for Hatsue and let her be happy with her newly freed husband.
The Social Network. Facebook is ultimately a wildly successful company. Mark settles his lawsuits and is still the world's youngest billionaire. But he ends up alone, having driven away one friend and been duped by another. He faces the realization that his problems are largely his fault.
Society of the Snow: The remaining survivors are rescued and return home, but are left forever changed by their experiences, and many of their family and friends are dead.
Sodom and Gomorrah: The Sodomite salt mine slaves have been freed and have joined the Hebrews, but many innocent people have died in the title cities' destruction alongside the evil people Jehovah sought to punish. Lot's daughters, Shuah and Maleb, are still angry at him for killing Astaroth, the man they both loved, while his wife, Ildith, gives in to temptation and looks back at the destruction of her former hometown and is turned into a pillar of salt, leaving Lot devastated. And the Hebrews end the film as they began it: wandering the desert in search of their new homeland.
Soldier of Orange: The war is over, but only Erik and Jacques have survived it and reunite to celebrate the liberation.
Someone Great ends without Jenny and Nate getting back together or even reconciling, but her friendships with Erin and Blair will remain secure even after she moves away.
Somewhere in Time. Richard won the heart of the beautiful Elise. As they cuddle up in bed, making future plans, he looks at a present day coin, which immediately drags him back to the present. He is unable to get back to her, and, deeply depressed, stops eating and eventually dies. The sweet part is they meet in the afterlife.
The Son of Kong: Skull Island sinks beneath the sea, taking the friendly Little Kong with it, but Denham, Englehorn, Charlie, and Hilda are able to escape and have a huge gemstone that will make them rich while remembering the brave sacrifice of their friend.
Sorry to Bother You: Cash ends up friends again with Squeeze and Salvador and back with Detroit, but just before the credits roll his nose horrifically contorts into horse nostrils, meaning Lift did mutate him with the coke he snorted in his office. The Stinger shows Equisapien!Cash leading others like himself into Lift's home, presumably to exact their revenge on him.
Spree: Jessie is able to stop Kurt’s rampage, but she had to kill him and not before almost a dozen people are dead, including Kurt’s parents, Bobby, six passengers, a Go Go driver and a cop. And while Jessie is hailed as a hero by the public (and getting a career boost), Kurt becomes a folk hero in the dark web, and it’s implied someone will try to finish what he started.
Stand by Me. Gordie manages to escape his father's toxic influence and become a writer, but drifts away from his childhood friends Teddy and Verne. Chris works hard and gets through the advanced classes at school with Gordie, but is stabbed to death trying to stop a fight.
Stan & Ollie. After a slow start, the aged Laurel and Hardy's 1953 European tour is a thunderous success and they are are finally able to let long-held resentments go and strengthen their friendship. But they are seen as two has-been by the movie industry and Hardy has a serious heart ailment. So, it is clear they will never perform together again.
Stahlnetz, a German series of Made-for-TV crime films, consists entirely of those. Here some:
- The Witness: the innocent man is proven innocent, but his marriage is still ruined. The murder is solved: the culprit is a 12-years-old girl, who will now go to psychiatric ward for years and then "return to the life she hated so much she became a murderer". Not really enlighting.
- The Peeper: The rapist is caught and receives BIG prison time, but his victim is likely broken forever, and the detective's family is in shambles.
- Glas Paradise: most criminals are caught and two boys are rescued, but the third one is killed, and the Big Bad escapes (though he is out of business and lost most of his fortune)
- Even the happiest episode, PSI, is not completely happy. Sure: the girl is rescued, her kidnappers are captured, and she seems to be not THAT traumatised by what happened. However, the latter is partially because she is an outcast in her family (so that she bonds with the second kidnapper much more than with her family, and the police was seriously asking whether she actually ran away), and this is unlikely to change in the long run. And the aforementioned second kidnapper (who is actually a caring father, and was only doing this on behest of his brother) got an (almost literal) Heel–Face Door-Slam, and will now go to jail. Still, this is the most happy film of all.
Stargirl: Stargirl departs with her mom and Leo isn't shown seeing her again. She's touched him and the rest of the school though with her presence, continuing to send him kind gifts over the years.
Star Trek:
- Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan ends with Spock making a Heroic Sacrifice that costs him his life (although he returns in the following film).
- In the following movie, Spock does come back. All it took was the death of Kirk's only son and the destruction of the beloved Enterprise. Oh, yeah, and when the heroes head home, it is virtually guaranteed that at worst, they'll do time in prison, at best, they'll simply be dishonorably kicked out of Starfleet, which they've served all their lives. Come to think of it, Wrath of Khan was downright cheery compared to this. (Although all turns out well in the next movie, as the crew is cleared of all charges due to saving the Earth, except for Kirk whose "punishment" that everyone knows is really a reward, is to lose his rank of admiral, become a captain again, and get a new Enterprise for the crew, which is what he wanted anyway.)
- Repeated with Data, in Star Trek: Nemesis.
- Star Trek (2009): Nero is dead, but so is Spock's mother, Kirk's father, the crews of several starships, and most of the Vulcan race.
- Star Trek Into Darkness: Many people die after the Vengeance crash-lands in San Francisco. Pike, the closest thing to a father figure that Kirk ever had in this universe, is also dead. But Harrison is sealed away until someone manages to unleash his wrath, and the Enterprise is sent on its five-year-long mission to explore the cosmos.
Star Wars:
- The Phantom Menace: Qui-Gon has just been killed, and the Sith have been revealed to exist in the galaxy again after a thousand years in hiding. But peace is restored in Naboo, and Anakin found a master.
- Attack of the Clones: Anakin and Padme got together, but he's lost an arm, his mother's dead (prompting the beginning of his fall to the Dark Side), Dooku got away, they don't even know who the Big Bad is yet, and the Clone Wars have begun. Plus, they'll have to keep the marriage hidden at all costs.
- Return of the Jedi, generally considered to be the end of the Lucas Star Wars movies, ends on one, though mirroring Revenge of the Sith, this time it is more sweet than bitter. Anakin has been redeemed and the Empire is destroyed along with the Emperor, but his actions as Darth Vader leave a lasting impression on the galaxy, which he is unable to make up for. The New Republic is established to replace the old Republic, but (going by the Disney Canon) it is ineffectual and only lasts for about thirty years before the First Order takes control, and (going by Legends or canon) Palpatine finds a way to return before being defeated for good later on.
- The Force Awakens: Sure, they managed to destroy Starkiller Base, Rey found Luke and is probably going to begin her proper Jedi training... but Han was killed by Kylo / Ben Solo, who is also going to be trained properly by Snoke, Finn is comatose, and the capital system of the New Republic has been utterly destroyed, alongside most of the Republic's fleet.
- Rogue One: The protagonists succeed in finding the Death Star plans and transmit them to the rebels, but they all die in the process. The rebel fleet assisting them is also mostly wiped out, with only "Tantive IV" escaping with the plans.
- The Last Jedi: The Resistance lose the bulk of their army, most of their equipment, with a tiny party that can fit the Millennium Falcon with Leia as their only leader. To make matters worse, their survival required Luke Skywalker using a Dangerous Forbidden Technique that cost his life to distract Kylo and the First Order for long enough for the Resistance to escape. Still, the "Ray of Hope" Ending shows the Resistance won't quit, Rey is set to carry on Luke's legacy (she is alive, very strong with the Force, and by saving old Jedi scriptures), and Luke is now an Inspirational Martyr for those opposing the First Order.
- Solo: Han not only splits ways with Qi'ra, but ends up betrayed by Beckett, the latter of whom he is forced to kill in a duel, and both Qi'ra and Beckett end up shattering Han's idealism and turn him into the cynical smuggler he is in the Original Trilogy. On the other hand, the events of the movie are why he and Chewie are friends in the first place, and making him acquaintances with Lando Calrissian, who provides him with none other than the Millennium Falcon, the ship that will go on to save the galaxy time and time again.
- The Rise of Skywalker: The Final Order — the fusion of the First Order and Emperor Sheev Palpatine's Sith Eternal cult — is obliterated, ending the threat that arose all the back in The Phantom Menace. However, Leia dies convincing Kylo Ren to abandon his hatred and Ren, now Ben Solo again, sacrifices his life to resurrect Rey, meaning the Skywalker and Solo bloodlines are gone forever, though Rey takes up the Skywalker name in honor of her teachers.
Steam (2007):
- Elizabeth stands up for herself, cutting off her controlling parents and coming out. She breaks up with Niala over her cheating, but being together inspired this.
- Laurie stands up to her asshole ex-husband, stopping him from getting full custody of their son.
- Doris, however, is left alone again when August dies of a heart attack.
The Strangers: Prey at Night: Kinsey and Luke survive their ordeal with the Strangers and end up killing all three of them, but their parents and the deputy who tried to help Kinsey are dead and they are no doubt permanently scarred physically and emotionally.
A Streetcar Named Desire ends on a bleak note: Blanche, having fully retreated into her fantasies and descended into madness, is sent to a mental institution (and given that this was the 1950s, it means that she'll likely get lobotomized), Stanley has gotten away with raping her, and nothing much seems to have changed around the decrepit apartment complex they live in. The only thing that stops it from being a complete Downer Ending is that Stella finally realizes how much of an awful person Stanley is and leaves him, taking their newborn child with her, though there's a chance she might go back to him one day.
Streets of Fire: Tom Cody saves his ex, Ellen Aim, from the Bombers, they admit their feelings after Cody admits that a reward was involved for the rescue and get back together, The Bombers' leader Raven challenges Cody to a fight, and Cody wins, but for some reason, Cody lets Ellen go as she performs "Tonight is What It Means to be Young". To be fair, Cody admits at one point that he sucks at romance.
The Stuff: The protagonists, with Col. Spears' help, manage to broadcast the Stuff's harmful effects, getting enough people to turn against the product and destroy it. However, despite these successful attempts to stop distribution of the Stuff, the film ends with several people addicted to it smuggling many containers of it away. The Stuff is still out there, with the strong implication that it can't be fully stopped.
Sukiyaki Western Django. The two rival clans are defeated, but nearly every single one of the hero's allies (including his potential love interest) is killed by the end.
Summer of '42 has Hermie going back to Dorothy's house the day after they spent the night together, only to find a note informing him that she's left for good. In voiceover narration, the adult Hermie mentions that he never saw her again or learned what became of her, and notes that his experiences of that summer spelled the end of his childhood innocence. Still, he did get laid.
The Summer of Sangaile: Sangaile and Auste don't stay together, but they're still friends. Both have moved on to live out their dreams, Auste by getting into fashion school and Sangaile becoming a pilot at the air show.
The ending of Sunshine shows that the Icarus II succeeded in its mission. Unfortuately, the whole crew died in the process.
Super: Frank survives, kills the drug-dealers, and rescues Sarah. She leaves him after a few months, but Frank accepts it and moves on, dedicating his life to doing good things and becoming an honorary uncle to Sarah's kids. Frank looks at his wall of accomplishments with his new bunny and seems content. However, Libby has been killed, and the last shot of the film is a tear rolling down Frank's cheek as he looks at a picture of her during their most romantically charged moment.
Survive!: The survivors are eventually rescued, but only 16 out of the original 45 passengers make it out alive.
Synchronic: Steve reconciles with Dennis and saves his daughter, but he may be trapped in the past in the process, and he is dying of a brain tumor anyway.

T2 Trainspotting: Veronika, tired of Renton and Sick Boy's plotting against one another, steals the funding money with Spud's help and flees back to Bulgaria, rendering all of their efforts pointless. Sick Boy lost his "girlfriend" and is stuck in the same desperate spot he was before and Spud's son has written him off. On the positive side, Begbie's thrown back in jail, Renton has seemingly repaired his relationships with Sick Boy and his father, and Spud has managed to kick his addiction to heroin by writing about the events of his life, with his wife suggesting he make it in to [[Trainspotting a book.
THX 1138: THX makes it out of the confines of his totalitarian society. However, his lover LUH is dead and his friend SRT didn't make it, so he's alone in a world he knows nothing about, and he has no idea how to survive. The presence of a bird flying by does reveal that survival is possible above ground, so perhaps there's hope.
Talk to Her: Even though Lydia dies, Alicia eventually wakes up and it is strongly implied that Marco and Alicia end up together.
Talk to Me: Mia manages to save Riley from the hand's curse...at the cost of her life and having her soul bound to the hand. On the plus side, Max, Riley and Jade all manage to survive the ordeal.
Tea and Sympathy: Laura's letter at the end to Tom solidifies this. Although Tom went onto get married and become a successful author, Laura and Bill divorced and Bill was never right as a result. She also affirms that what they did was still wrong.
Teenage Crimewave: Terry is shot and killed by the police but she's able to exonerate Jane with her dying breaths.
Teenagers from Outer Space: The Alien Invasion is stopped and Earth is saved, but at the cost of Derek's life.
The Ten Commandments (1956): The Hebrews eventually reach Israel... but for his Wrath, Moses cannot enter the Promised Land.
The Terminator. Sarah Connor has survived, and the terminator robot has been destroyed. This means that her messiah-son John Connor will be born, and (as this appears to be a deterministic time loop) the eventual victory of humanity over the machines is guaranteed. But Kyle Reese, whom Sarah had loved (albeit briefly) is dead, and both Sarah and John will still have to face the ordeal of living through the coming nuclear holocaust and fighting a bitter war against the machines. Sarah has victory, but she will likely have no peace in her lifetime.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day: The T-800 has to destroy itself, Dyson dies, and his family will have to live on without him. Lastly, the Connors may spend the rest of their lives in hiding from the law, but they stopped Judgment Day, and Sarah notes that "if a machine, a Terminator, can learn the value of human life, maybe we can too."
Terms of Endearment: Emma dies of cancer, but not before reconciling with her mother and allowing her custody of her children.
Terrifier 2: Sienna and Jonathan both survive after apparently killing Art, but Art has orphaned them and killed Sienna's friends. On top of that, the post-credits scene shows that Art isn't as dead as they thought and Victoria has been driven insane, presumably even being brought to the dark side by Art and the entity.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974): Sally makes it out alive and the killers will probably be caught, but everyone else is dead and there's no way she'll be mentally well after all she's been through.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2: Lefty is successful in killing most of Leatherface's family, but sadly he also perishes during the grenade explosion caused by Drayton. And the final shot implies that Stretch became insane as a result of the whole ordeal.
They Live!: The Aliens are exposed, at the cost of Nada and Frank getting backstabbed and dying. At least Nada gets to flip them off as the plot's exposed.
The Thin Red Line: The soldiers manage to take Guadalcanal, but many of the characters don't make it.
John Carpenter's The Thing (1982). The title thing (a space alien) is probably dead, and any threat it posed to the human race with it. The downside? All but two of the men in the base have died, and it's fairly likely that MacReady and Childs, the last two survivors, are going to die as well out in the Antarctic. Plus, it's implied that one of them just may be The Thing after all, which would just go dormant due to the cold temperature once again... at least until someone else stumbles upon the wreckage of the base. All they've likely accomplished is preventing The Thing from leaving for a little while longer.
Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead: All 5 job men die, but The Man With The Plan is alone now his son is dead, and is said to have never spilled any blood again. Lucinda is now pregnant with Jimmy's child, and leaving the prostitution game. Dagney seems to have moved on, and for some reason the 5 job men are seen hanging out together in the afterlife on a fishing trip.
The Third Man has the hero shooting his best friend and losing the girl in the process. It helps that his best friend was a complete sociopath who ran an underground penicillin racket that poisoned countless men, women and children. Suffice it to say the good guy won, but probably wished he'd never wandered into Vienna in the first place.
This is Spın̈al Tap: Tap is still popular in Japan! But once again they have to put all their plans for the future on hold.
This Is the End: The world is destroyed and overrun by demons, and nearly everyone dies horribly. Jonah is possessed by a demon then gets crushed to death, and James gets eaten alive by Danny and his band of cannibals right after he's denied entry into Heaven. Craig, Jay, and Seth are the only ones that end up in Heaven together, but it's not all bad since anything they wish for comes true, and Jay takes advantage of this so they can have a Dance Party Ending with the Backstreet Boys.
This Island Earth: Sure, the Earth is saved, but the entire Metalunan race is wiped out by the Zagons. The Metalunans weren't really evil, just desperate. And the movie ends with Exeter's ship crashing into the ocean in flames.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri: Mildred and Dixon never do find out who raped and killed Angela, as the man Dixon believed was the culprit was actually a soldier who was stationed overseas at the time of Angela's death. The pair have also finally begun to move past the anger that has gripped them for so long and are possibly going to take the law into their own hands, as the movie ends with them driving to Idaho to kill the soldier, since while he isn't their rapist, he is still a rapist. In their biggest bit of Character Development, though, they admit they aren't sure if they want to go through with it, but agree to decide on the way there.
Through Black Spruce: Annie saves both her mother and uncle from the drug dealers, returning home. Will recovers and wakes up. Suzanne is still missing though, along with thousands of young indigenous women in Canada, and probably dead.
At the end of Tiger Bay, Sympathetic Murderer Bronislav redeems himself by rescuing Gillie from drowning, but is consequently apprehended by the police to face being charged with a then capital crime.
Time Trap: Professor Hopper found his missing family, his sick little sister was fully healed, and the Ragtag Band of Misfits who looked for them are all alive and healthy. But they are over ten millennia from their own time, with no way back, and their family and friends in the past never knew what happened to them.
Tiger And Crane Fists: Sing Chen defeats and kills Lu Ting Chu but Liu Kang, Chung Li-Fu and and Cheng Chi are dead.
In To Kill a Dragon, Lancelot slays the Dragon, then deposes the usurping Burgomaster, liberates those who were helping him, saves Elsa and finally becomes the ruler, thus giving him a chance to change people for the better. However most adults have been corrupted beyond repair by the Dragon. Children seem to be the only one who can get their freedom back, and even this is an uphill battle. And this all presupposes that Lancelot doesn't become a tyrant himself.
Tomboy: Laure is forced to be seen as a girl again, the kids humiliate her, and Lisa seems to have broken off her romance with her. But it seems Laure and Lisa are still friends.
Tormented (1960): Tom is killed by falling from the lighthouse, which he kinda deserves... and after his and Vi's bodies are found, Vi's arm slumps over him possessively. The film closes on the newly-widowed Meg's horror and the mentally-scarred Sandy's tears.
Tower Heist ends with Wall Street fat cat Arthur Shaw being sent to prison for life after Josh steals his ledger, which ultimately reveals his Ponzi scheme, and then turns it over to the FBI. However, Josh himself is also sent to prison for vandalizing, and later stealing Shaw's Ferrari, which turned out to be where Shaw hid all the money he swindled (and also where he hid said ledger), as it was made of gold invested from the victims and melted down into car parts. Josh accepts a minimal two-year sentence for masterminding the heist while the rest of the team is released. Slide then leads the retrieval and dismantling of the Ferrari and the team divides the parts among themselves and the rest of the tower's staff.
The Towering Inferno: Despite O'Hallorhan's report that the loss of life in the disaster could've been a lot worse, we are still left with the haunting images of the nearly 200 people who didn't survive the blaze and with a grim lesson in what happens when architectural safety in a high-rise building is compromised. San Francisco loses their mayor, and one U.S. state loses its sitting U.S. Senator. It's unknown whether Sen. Parker is actually a senator from California, or another state. His presence at the party is because Duncan is trying to coax him into giving him funding though the Urban Renewal Committee Parker is the Chairman of. Whatever the case, the film kills him off. And after surviving the explosions and millions of gallons of water being dumped on him, Harlee Claiborne makes it to the lobby only to discover that Lisolette Mueller was killed and isn't waiting for him. He initially refuses to believe it until Jernigan presses Lisolette's cat Elke into his arms. The look of sudden acceptance on his face says it all.
Tower of London: Many people lost their lives because of Richard's conspiracy to seize the throne, but Henry Tudor successfully took back the kingdom and Alice and Wyatt got to be married.
Train to Busan: Su-an and Seong-kyeong, two of the most endearing characters, survive and are rescued by the military in Busan, but everyone they loved are dead, and the country is still in disarray or worse, the zombie plague likely having killed or turned millions or more in just a single day.
Transformers Film Series:
- Transformers. Sure, Earth is safe, but Cybertron is doomed.
- In Transformers: Dark of the Moon, while the Autobots have defeated the Decepticons once and for all, Chicago AND Cybertron are either heavily demolished or completely erased from existence, many allies and innocent civilians are dead, and the fact that Sentinel Prime betrayed them still lingers.
TRON: Legacy:
- The film has Kevin making a Heroic Sacrifice, but Clu has been defeated and Quorra got to see a sunset and is able to bring what Flynn originally wanted into the real world, as well as Sam making peace with his father.
- Quorra's safe, but she's the last of her kind and Flynn was a little sparse with the details on how she was going to change the world. The Grid's a mess. Tron broke his Rinzler programming, but made a Heroic Sacrifice and plunged to his apparent de-rez. Sam may be stepping up to the plate to take over Encom, but he and Alan will have their work cut out for them if the boardroom scene is any indication. Oh, and judging by the Sequel Hook, it looks like Dillinger Jr. is going to be up to "daddy's" old tricks.
True Grit (2010): Mattie ultimately gets her revenge on Chaney, and Rooster and LaBoeuf manages to kill the elusive Ned Pepper and his posse, but Mattie loses her arm to a rattlesnake bite. Fast foward 25 years, and Mattie has turned into a caustic woman, Rooster died before they could meet again, and she hasn't heard from LaBeuf since the shootout with Pepper's gang. Can be seen as a Downer Ending depending on how content you think Mattie is, or how badly thinks ultimately turned out.
The Truman Show: Truman reaches the edge of the world and then chooses to leave, to live his life for real on the outside of a set as the world watches and cheers him on. However, the last moments of the movie add a rather cynical edge to it, as we see that some of the viewers of the show immediately get bored after he leaves and ask what else is on, giving the implication that the viewers even at the end were really only invested in Truman as one might be invested in the series finale of a show they really like. Once the show is over, they quickly move on to something else for entertainment with little true concern for Truman, the real person.
Tucker: The Man and His Dream: Tucker is acquitted of all charges, but the lawsuits drained his personal fortune and his company goes into bankruptcy. The 51 Torpedoes he produced are the only ones that will ever exist.
Turner and Hooch: Turner solves the murder and brings down the criminal behind the drug operation and Hyde, but Hooch is shot and killed in the process. However, he did father a litter of puppies before his death... including a son who behaves almost exactly like him.
At the end of Two-Minute Warning the sniper who has attacked the final game of the national pro football championship at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is killed by the police, but dozens of fans, police officers and stadium workers are dead or injured.

In The Ultimate Gift, Jason finishes all the challenges, becomes a billionaire, and gets together with Alexia... but Alexia's daughter Emily, whom Jason has grown to love, still dies of leukemia.
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg: When Guy and Geneviève cross paths for the first time in years, there's no real reconciliation between them, the Old Flame having gone out long ago. Geneviève's mother passed away the previous autumn, she has had no children with Roland, and he and her daughter are the only family she has. She asks Guy if she'd like to meet her daughter. He refuses. Exchanging only a few words as they part for what is probably the very last time, Guy stands there as Geneviève drives away into the night, as he and Madeline play in the snow with their son.
Unforgiven: A lot of people died violent and probably needless deaths, including Ned. Munny turns back to his terrifying old self, kills Bill and avenges Ned's murder, but he uses the money from the bounty to move out to San Francisco and start a new life for himself, prospering in dry goods. The Schofield Kid also survives, but he's a traumatized wreck who vows to never touch a gun again (and the script suggests he later drowns himself out of shame of being a murderer).
Unlawful Entry: A Pyrrhic Victory that onsets the definition of a satisfactory ending. Pete killed Roy Cole to keep him from interfering with his pursuit of Karen and had Michael locked away for trumped up drug charges. When Karen rejects him by trying to shoot him, Pete loses it completely and resolves to force himself on her (he also killed her friend to get her out of the way before that). Michael, having made bail, comes home and saves Karen by fighting and then gunning Pete down. Though they're traumatized by everything that's happened and have a lot to explain to the Police before being allowed to contnue their lives and put everything in the past (bonus points for the brilliant focus of the Police cars' positions in the concluding shots), their tormentor is dead and they no longer fear for their lives anymore.

V for Vendetta: Britain is finally free of the cruel and inhumane fascist regime that had been ruling the country and the victims of the regime are avenged, but we're not sure whether or not Britain can really take care of itself as a government-free anarchy, and of course, V lost his life in making it that.
Van Helsing: Dracula is dead and his plans are foiled, while Frankenstein's Monster is free to live its life. Anna, however, is accidentally killed by Van Helsing in the process of curing his lycanthropy, but with Dracula dead, she and her family are finally allowed to enter Heaven.
Vanishing Point: Kowalski doesn't make it through the roadblock. He crashes and he dies. However, in doing so, he evades capture, and is put out of the internal torment he is in, to not mention he becomes a folk hero.
Vera Drake: Vera goes to prison, but at only two and a half years, it's clear that she's getting off easy.
A Very Long Engagement: Mathilde finally finds Manech, who is alive and well physically, but has lost all memories of his life prior to the war, including those of her and of their relationship. However, it's hinted they might restart from the beginning, and the doctors also imply he might eventually regain the memories he's lost.
Vikingdom: Thor and Frey are banished and Midgard is saved, but at the cost of the lives of several companions, including Brynna who sacrificed herself to save Eirick. In addition, their tale how they saved the world will likely be forgotten.
The Visit: Tyler and Becca kill "Nana" and "Pop Pop", but are initially traumatized by what they endured and what they had to do, though the final scene shows they largely grew out of the trauma and they seem better than ever. In addition, their real grandparents are dead and Loretta never got a chance to reconcile with them. She urges Tyler and Becca not to hate their father like she hated her parents.
In Von Ryan's Express, where the escapees successfully escape to Switzerland after a big gun fight, although at the cost of the main character's life.

In the Chinese film Wait 'til You're Older, the protagonist Kwong is able to finally accept his stepmother and mend the rifts in his family. However, because of the aging potion he takes early in the film, he only does all of this on his last day of life after he realizes he has no time left. Also, his romantic storyline ends on a similar note. An elderly Kwong checks on his girlfriend who is waiting for him for a date. She doesn't recognize him and he asks if she will be mad if her boyfriend never shows up. She happily states that she won't, and if he never shows up, she still has plenty of time in her life to move on.
Warcraft (2016) ends with most of Gul'dan's prisoners freed, the full-scale orc invasion averted and Garona accepted by the Horde. However, Gul'dan is still alive and in control of the Horde, Llane, Durotan and Medivh are dead, Lothar lost his son and the possibility of peace between two races is likely to be undone by the fact that Lothar saw plainly what he believes to be Garona backstabbing Llane.
In The Warriors, most of the gang, along with Mercy, manage to make it back to Coney Island, bruised and injured but alive, and their names cleared as the Riffs learn the truth and exact their revenge on the Rogues. However, Swan is shown to be disillusioned as he gazes at their neighborhood when they manage to return, Ajax has been arrested, and Cleon and Fox are dead.
The Watcher in the Woods: Karen and the Watcher have returned to where they both belong, Mrs. Aylwood and her daughter are happily reunited, and Karen seems none the worse from her experience. On the other hand, three decades have passed with Karen having not aged while her mother and friends have, leaving the question of her adjusting to being back in a changed world.
Deepa Mehta's Water. Kalyani drowns herself in the Ganges and who knows if Chuyia's going to be okay...but at least the little girl has the possibility of a life outside the ashram, and India is on its way to independence.
The Watermelon Woman: Cheryl and Fae's fates are contrasted at the end. Fae ended up leaving Hollywood and hopes of fame to retire in obscurity, but lived the rest of her life surrounded by family and loved ones. Inversely, Cheryl's pursuit of this project to hit it big has resulted in strained relationships with her best friend and now-former girlfriend.
Waves: Tyler is sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Alexis (he might be paroled after thirty years, but it's a very long time), and Luke's father succumbs to cancer, but Emily and Ronald eventually reconcile.
The Way Back (2010): Several of them make it to India and Janusz is eventually reunited with his wife, but by the time the movie's over half the cast has died pretty horribly.
What Lies Beneath: Madison gets her vengeance by killing Norman and is able to finally move on. Claire is undoubtedly left mentally scarred from everything that's happened, but her visit to Madison's grave seems to imply that she's making steps towards getting on with her life.
What's Eating Gilbert Grape: After climbing to her original bedroom for the first time in many years, Bonnie dies in her sleep... with Arnie discovering her body... still on his 18th birthday. In order to spare their mother from becoming the town joke, the Grape children decide to burn their house with her inside. A year later, the Grape children's lives have brightened up - Amy has a job in a bakery. Ellen is switching schools. Both Gilbert and Arnie are picked up by Becky and her grandmother so they can travel with them, thus allowing Gilbert and Becky to continue their romance.
When Darkness Falls: In the end, all delinquents are caught and will be punished, but considering the events earlier in the movie, you still cannot feel happy and it makes the impression that the characters feel the same way.
Where Hands Touch: Leyna survives, along with her baby, but Lutz is killed trying to help her. She reunites with her mother and brother though. It's also noted at the end that most black Germans also survived, though many were sterilized or imprisoned.
Where the Wild Things Are: Max leaves the Wild Things, with the implication that he will never see them again, but he's happily reunited with his mother, with the implication that he understands her a little better and things might become more peaceful between them as a result.
White Men Can't Jump: Billy and Sidney have gotten enough money so Sidney can move his family to a better neighborhood and Billy can finally pay off the Stucci brothers; not only that, but Billy and Sidney finally seem to be back on good terms, with him intending to get Billy a job. However, Gloria has most likely left Billy for good.
White Oleander: Astrid gets her answers from Ingrid and begins living her own life, but is dirt poor and has nothing to her name save the suitcases she's constructed as memorials to her time with her mother and her time in foster care.
Wilde ends with Oscar and Bosie finally reuniting after Oscar's stint in prison, during which he "knew" that they could never see each other again. Still, his wife is dead, he is quite convinced that no one will ever again read or perform his work because of his disgrace, and he can never see his sons again. If you add the note before the credits that tells us what happened to them next, saying that Oscar and Bosie parted ways again just four months later, you could call it a Downer Ending. But then you consider the fact that we do still read and perform Oscar Wilde's work to this day...
The Wild Bunch: Mapache murders Angel when the Bunch come to rescue him, and the Bunch avenge him but are eventually overwhelmed in the massive shootout that follows. Deke is free of his debt to the railroad, but overcome with grief for the death of Pike. He finds a measure of redemption and salvation in joining Villa's men alongside Sykes. As the old man himself puts it, "It ain't like it used to be, but... It'll do."
The Wild Geese: The villainous Matheson is killed, but Limabni and most of the mercenaries who fought alongside Faulkner are dead, including his friends.
Willy's Wonderland: The Janitor and Liv survive (and have formed a sort of parental relationship) and have destroyed all of the animatronics, ensuring that nobody else will fall victim to them, as well as all of the people involved with the Satanic plot all dying as well, but all of Liv's friends (including her Implied Love Interest) die at the hands of the animatronics.
The Wind That Shakes the Barley. Okay, Ireland is free now, but it's more than dogs that have been shot.
Wind River: All the bad guys die, Cory and Jane survive, and Martin is rebuilding his relationship with his son. It comes at the cost of nearly all of the tribal police force, and everyone still has to live with the trauma and conditions of the reservation.
Winter's Bone: Ree saves the family home and gets a fat chunk of cash in the process. However, her father is dead, she's left to raise her siblings alone, and her uncle will probably get himself killed while taking revenge.
Witchfinder General: Hopkins is dead, and his reign of terror in England is presumably over, but Marshall and Sara are severely traumatised and possibly permanently insane as a result of their terrible experiences.
With Honors: Monty is happy and dating Courtney and Jeff has lightened up but Simon died.
The World's End: The Network has left Earth, but in the process the planet is knocked back to the Dark Ages. Peter and Oliver are both dead, and are replaced by Blanks, and Gary resorts to Walking the Earth, and Andy never sees him again.
World War Z: Gerry returns to his family with a pseudo-vaccine, and people finally seem to be able to defend themselves from the zombie threat. However, the war has just begun. Oh, yeah, and millions of people are dead or undead.

X: Pearl and Howard are killed and Maxine makes it out alive, but all of her friends are dead.
Xanadu: Xanadu the club is a success, but Kira must go back to Mount Olympus. However, Sonny afterwards meets a waitress identical to her.

The Year of Living Dangerously: Guy manages to meet up with Jill on the last plane out of Jakarta, but the tapes for his big story are smashed by the army. Billy Kwan and his adoptive child are dead alongside countless others in the ensuing Indonesian mass killings of 1965-66.
Yentl: Yentl reveals herself to Avigdor and the two part ways, as she will not be able to continue her studies if she marries him, and that she wants more from life than to be a wife. Avigdor and Hadass get back together and Yentl leaves for America, where she hopes to lead a life with more freedom..
You're Next: Assuming Erin survives the gunshot wound, she will definitely be arrested. Not only will she likely be initially blamed for all the murders, including those whom she didn't kill, she'll also be charged with the murder of the cop. However, the presence of the cell-phone jammer that won't have her fingerprints and can likely be traced to whoever bought it, the masked men to whom the police can trace a connection to the masterminds, the camera that took pictures of one of the masked men stalking her with a bloody machete, the fact that she has no motive, and her complete disconnection to the film's very first murders that are clearly done by the same people who attacked the house are equally likely to prove her innocence and self-defense. In all likelihood, prosecutors may not bother trying to charge her with anything, except maybe involuntary manslaughter for the cop. No matter what, she's in for a hell of a traumatic legal ordeal.
You've Got Mail: Sadly, Kathleen's bookstore folds. But after a period of building a bridge between himself and Kathleen, Joe is able to bury the hatchet with her. There are mentions that she has a number of career prospects, which means she's likely to land on her feet, and she and Joe get together in the end.
Young Hearts: Harper and Tilly stay broken up over the difficulties she faced from their relationship, but remain friends, with life overall seeming good for them both otherwise.
Young Sherlock Holmes: The two heroes win the day, but Elizabeth dies and Sherlock is transferred to another school since he's still expelled, separating John from his best friend, It's also revealed that Rathe survived and will become Holmes' future nemesis Moriarty. However, John realizes that he has outgrown his childhood, he'll meet Sherlock again and this is only the first of many adventures with him.

In Zero Dark Thirty, Bin Laden is successfully located and killed. Maya, who refused to drop the hunt even after the rest of the CIA had turned its attention elsewhere, is vindicated, but at the cost of questionable ethics, casualties, bad intel, and the fact she had spent her entire adult life thus far pursuing one man.

Bittersweet Ending / Live-Action Films

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