As fun as it is to watch a great movie, there’s no guarantee that you’ll walk out of the
theater feeling good yourself.
Here are a few fantastic flicks where the last few minutes are so monumentally depressing
that they’re almost guaranteed to wring a few tears from the audience.
If you only saw the last three minutes of End of Watch, you might think this cop drama
was ending on a happy note.
The final scene features two buddies having a laugh over a crazy story on what looks like
a pretty good day.
Unfortunately, context is everything.
In actuality, the camaraderie between Officers Brian Taylor and Mike Zavala is an incredibly
bittersweet flashback scene, one that jumps back to a moment before Zavala was gunned
down by gangsters.
Taylor and Zavala are super cops.
In fact, they're such good cops that they try to take down the Sinaloa Cartel… only
that doesn't pan out too well.
After disrupting the cartel's business, the officers are ambushed by heavily armed thugs,
and despite their bravery, Taylor is gravely injured, and Zavala is murdered.
After learning about his partner's death, Taylor is absolutely shattered.
Zavala was his best friend in the world, and at the funeral, Taylor is so grief-stricken
that he can only muster four powerful words that make all those happy moments heartbreaking:
“He was my brother.”
Thanos first appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe all the way back in 2012, but when
he finally arrived on Earth with the Infinity Gauntlet, Earth's mightiest heroes were completely
overmatched.
With a single snap of his fingers, Thanos wiped out half the population of the universe,
including the majority of our beloved heroes.
Black Panther, Doctor Strange and even poor Teen Groot went up in smoke.
The most painful death to watch, though, was Peter Parker's.
“Mister Stark, I don’t feel so good.”
Even though he just fought the toughest villain in the MCU, Peter's still just a kid, afraid
of fading away.
Avengers: Endgame will undoubtedly undo a lot of the damage, but when a horrified Captain
America - the team's strongest and most optimistic member - is this wrecked, you know things
have gone bad.
Infinity War might have the darkest ending of any major blockbuster ever.
There's no moral victory here; there's no feel-good speech.
For the first time ever, the Avengers have truly lost, and it all ends with Thanos admiring
his handiwork, smiling as the sun rises on a "grateful universe."
Despite their god-like superpowers, the Avengers are a sad bunch of people, and the most tragic
might just be Steve Rogers, a man out of time.
In Captain America: The First Avenger, the star-spangled superhero decides to sacrifice
his life, crashing a Hydra plane into the Arctic ice.
In those final moments before taking the plunge, Cap promises to take his new love Peggy Carter
dancing as soon as he returns.
Obviously, neither expect Steve to make it back home, but, well, you’ve seen the movies.
“I understood that reference.”
When Cap finally returns, he learns that he’s been asleep for nearly seven decades.
It's a gut punch of a moment, and the look of shock and sadness on Cap's face is heartbreaking.
Yeah, he survived the suicide mission, but the world he knew is gone, and he’s been
separated from the woman he loves for most of a century.
When Fury finally asks if Cap is going to be okay, all his pain is summed up in one
sentence:
"Yeah.
Yeah, I just — I had a date."
War movies aren't really known for their upbeat endings, but when it comes to pure tearjerking
power, nothing goes after your heartstrings like 1989’s Glory.
This Civil War flick tells the story of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, which was the
first African-American regiment to fight for the Union army.
The regiment was led by Colonel Robert Shaw, played in the film by Matthew Broderick, and
after overcoming all the racism you’d expect from the 1860s, Shaw and the 54th wind up
leading the charge in the film's climactic battle.
Unfortunately, that battle doesn’t go their way.
After being surrounded by Confederate soldiers, Shaw charges the enemy, hoping to inspire
his men, and he's quickly gunned down.
Enraged, Private Silas Trip, a role that earned Denzel Washington an Academy Award, picks
up the flag and charges after the colonel, only to be shot down seconds later.
Their sacrifice inspires the rest of the 54th to rush out of the ravine and continue their
charge, but despite their bravery, the heroic soldiers are no match for cannonballs, and
all the characters we've come to love - played by the likes of Morgan Freeman, Cary Elwes,
and Andre Braugher - are blown to oblivion.
If that wasn't sad enough, the movie ends with Shaw's and Trip's bodies being buried
side by side in a mass grave.
Gone Baby Gone isn’t exactly a feel-good film to begin with, and the ending is appropriately
downbeat.
Based on the novel by Dennis Lehane, this thriller follows two Boston detectives - Patrick
Kenzie and Angie Gennaro - who are hired to find a little girl named Amanda.
At first, they believe the kid was murdered by a local drug dealer, but as they dig deeper
into the case, they discover a surprising conspiracy.
As it turns out, Amanda's concerned uncle kidnapped her from her abusive, addict mother
with the help of several high-ranking cops, but Patrick isn't a big believer in moral
ambiguity, and brings brings the conspiracy down and has the little girl sent back home.
“You may not regret it when you get home.
You may not regret it for a year.
But when get to where I am, I promise you, you will.”
Sure enough, it doesn’t take long for regret to set in when Patrick goes to visit Amanda.
He sees that her mom is just as awful as ever and realizes he might've damned Amanda to
a life of poverty, neglect, and mistreatment.
In the final few moments, he volunteers to babysit Amanda and sits beside her, watching
the traumatized, lonely girl as she stares at the television.
It might seem weird to say this about a movie where a gorilla fights a helicopter, but Rise
of the Planet of the Apes has more than its fair share of emotional moments.
Nothing can top the finale, when Caesar, ably played by mo-cap master Andy Serkis, says
goodbye to his human friend, Will Rodman.
Their relationship is the emotional crux of the story.
Caesar has known Will his entire life, and the biologist is basically his adoptive dad.
In fact, Will is the guy who gave Caesar is above-average intelligence.
But after Will is forced to put Caesar in a primate sanctuary, the chimpanzee decides
it's time for a revolution.
After sparking a full-blown primate rebellion and a battle on the Golden Gate Bridge, Caesar
and his army disappear into a redwood forest.
But before vanishing into the trees, Caesar is confronted by Will, who begs the chimp
to come back home.
That's when Caesar pulls his foster father close and whispers into his ear.
"Caesar is home."
With those three powerful words, Caesar and Will realize nothing will ever be the same.
Tom Hanks movies generally leave audiences feeling pretty good, but Road to Perdition
is a bloody exception to that cheerful rule.
This gangster flick finds Hanks playing Michael Sullivan Sr., a mob enforcer out for revenge
while trying to make sure his surviving son, Michael Jr, doesn't wind up dead too.
That's easier said than done when you're being hunted by a psychopathic hitman.
For a moment, it seems like everything might be okay.
Then, Michael's violent past catches up with him when he's ambushed by the assassin.
After taking two bullets to the back, Michael lies dying as the psychopathic hitman assembles
an old-timey camera and begins taking photos of his bloody victim.
Michael Jr. shows up with a gun to interrupt the hitman’s sick hobby, but unlike his
dad, the boy isn't a killer.
Fortunately, the distraction gives his father enough time to gun down the assassin before
shuffling off this mortal coil.
What really seals a deal and cues the sobbing, though, is Michael Jr.'s final lines, answering
the question of whether his father was a good man:
"I always give the same answer.
I just tell them he was my father."
Directed by Martin Scorsese, Shutter Island is a frightening film noir that finds Leonardo
DiCaprio as Teddy Daniels, a detective who's investigating a disappearance on an Alcatraz-style
mental hospital.
But as Teddy and his partner dig deeper into the case, Teddy makes a horrible discovery:
he isn't really Teddy.
In reality, he's Andrew Laeddis, a World War II vet who killed his mentally ill wife after
she murdered their kids.
His partner is actually his psychologist, and the whole investigation is an elaborate
role-playing game meant to bring Andrew back to reality.
And if the game doesn't work, then poor Andrew has to get lobotomized.
After this shocking twist, it seems that Andrew reverts back to his Teddy persona, forcing
his doctors to perform the lobotomy.
But before he's taken away to his mind-numbing fate, Teddy looks over at Chuck and asks a
haunting question:
"Which would be worse?
To live as a monster, or to die as a good man?"
It’s a simple line, but it conveys the crushing sadness of Andrew’s story.
The experiment worked.
Andrew knows exactly who he is and what he’s done, It’s his guilt that leads him to accept
his grisly fate.
Arnold Schwarzenegger movies aren't generally considered tearjerkers, but the ending of
Terminator 2: Judgment Day has caused so many sobs from macho movie fans that it’s basically
the action movie equivalent of The Notebook.
“You think I’m unemotional, don’t you?
I can be emotional!
Jesus, I cried like a child at the end of Terminator 2!”
Sent from the future to protect teenage John Connor, the T-800 starts out this sci-fi flick
as an ice cold killer robot.
As he spends time with the future resistance leader, however, the T-800 becomes the teen's
best friend and father figure growing increasingly lovable as he battles with a shapeshifting
android.
He's picking up slang words, developing human emotions, and learning you can't just go around
killing people.
He also realizes that if humanity is going to survive, then all Terminators need to be
destroyed.
After defeating the T-1000, Arnold realizes that if he doesn't destroy the advanced AI
inside his own head, that tech will eventually give rise to the robot rebellion that will
doom mankind.
So despite John's pleas for him to stay, the T-800 slowly lowers himself into a pit of
molten steel.
He gives a thumbs up before disintegrating completely, letting John know everything is
going to be okay.
But, despite that reassurance, poor John is in tears, and so is everybody watching the
saddest ending in Schwarzenegger's career.
"I know now why you cry, but it's something I can never do."
With movies like Requiem for a Dream in his filmography, it's safe to say that Darren
Aronofsky loves a truly depressing ending, but of all the films he's ever directed, none
have caused as much sobbing as The Wrestler.
This gritty and grim drama follows the story of Randy "The Ram" Robinson, a professional
wrestler who's far from his in-ring glory days.
This dude has a lived a hard life and made some bad decisions, and now he's all alone.
His daughter doesn't want anything to do with him, his romantic life isn't working out,
and the world outside the ring is nothing but pain and misery.
Lonely and depressed, Randy gets back into the wrestling game, where at least the fans
respect and adore him.
But stepping back into the ring comes at a high price.
Randy has a bad heart and knows that another match might be his last.
However, when he hears the cheers of the crowd, the wrestler climbs up on the turnbuckle to
perform his signature move… even as his heart starts to fail him.
When he leaps down onto his opponent, we know it's the last time he'll ever do the legendary
"Ram Jam,” but it's all worth for it Randy, because he's living and dying for the only
family he's ever known, the fans… who now have to watch their hero die in the ring in
front of them.
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