Deceptively dark movie endings

Started thinking about a few movies yesterday that seemingly have happy endings that are actually not very happy when you stop and think about what comes next.

Like in Independence Day. The aliens are defeated, the world is saved ... except for the millions of now-dead aliens rotting away in their city-sized spaceships, some of which are over the craters of what used to be civilization, and most of which probably have God only knows what kind of lethally hazardous materials on board. The world is saved, yes, but civilization is still destroyed.

Or Halloween II. Michael Myers is burned up in a fire and his killing spree has been stopped ... only the entire hospital staff of a small town has been wiped out, along with an unknown number of innocent patients, and the hospital itself has been destroyed.

Or Armageddon. The world is saved from a giant asteroid ... except Paris and a number of other cities have been obliterated, millions are dead, society is in chaos because of its brush with destruction, and there are still plenty of smaller asteroid fragments raining down and wreaking havoc in scenes like we saw throughout the movie.

I'm sure some of these endings were dealt with in sequels and other media. And then there are other endings that are intentionally dark and ambiguous (like Terminator 3 and Fail Safe). But what are some other movie endings where we're supposed to be cheering at the end, but the world is still pretty screwed?

 

All the Avengers movies.

 

I always thought that about "Independence Day." Munchkin says "Happy Independence Day" to Dad/President and they are all happy. Except their entire country -- and most of the Earth -- is destroyed, and millions of earthlings are dead.

 

Well, when you think about all these mass shootings we have - and even if the shooter ends up dead - isn't that the plot of most action movies? All the Die Hards, particularly II where an entire jumbo jet is taken out, but hey....

 

And her mom/his wife was killed the day before.

 

The way I viewed the ending to “The Graduate” changed dramatically as I aged.

 

The List:

Director's Cut

 

I give a bit of a pass to the Avengers, just because dealing with the aftermath of their battles has been such a big plot point in so many other MCU movies.
The entire plot of Civil War, for example — plus a good chunk of Infinity War — hinged on the fallout from a major screw-up by the Avengers and the aftermath of one of their major battles. The Kate Bishop character was inspired by seeing Hawkeye fight the Chitauri in the first Avengers movie, and Spider-Man: Homecoming had the fallout of that battle as a major plot point as well. And then, of course, you've got Wandavision and Doctor Strange 2.
The Avengers create a lot of collateral damage, but the MCU has been very smart about showing how it does carry plenty of consequences for everyone.

 

Die Hard 2 is a good one. After the jumbo jet full of bad guys blows up at the end — courtesy of a disturbingly psychopathic John McClane — you almost forget that another jumbo jet full of innocent people crashed two hours earlier, and that rescue crews should have still been out extinguishing fires and combing through body parts when the second one exploded above their heads. Or that a third large cargo plane also blew up in between those two.
They might have landed all of the planes at the end, but Dulles should have been closed until President's Day to clean up that mess.

 

Caddyshack. Now stay with me here.

Danny throughout the movie is trying to find himself through others. He thinks college will be it. He thinks sucking up to the rich trust fund kids will be it. Or getting laid. Or going Zen.

In the end, he learns to be himself (shocking) and rejecting what the Judge Smailses of the world want him to be. He’s carried off the hero. It’s a happy ending.

Except

The nice Scottish girl he banged who he cared for likely cheated on him.

His shot at a scholarship is toast (not that he wanted to go anyway).

He doesn’t have a job while the club is repaired from the bombing.

His job prospects are basically a construction yard, when his talent show he could do more.

What is his life going to be in 15 years? You can only be the aloof guy who forgets where his lumber yards are if you just have the money first.

 

Even worse for Ty Webb. He ended up over there at the Rejects board.

 

LOL that took me a minute