10 Best "All Hope Is Lost" Moments In Movie History

Though it's generally expected that most movies will send audiences home with a happy ending, the journey getting there can certainly be fraught, in turn making the final triumph feel that much more euphoric.

It's basically screenwriting 101 to bring the heroes down to their lowest point later in the movie - typically at the end of the second act - in turn galvanising maximum drama and tension for the finale where the hero battles the villain and comes out on top.

Some movies go more all-in on the whole "all hope is lost" shtick than others, though, with some pushing things so far you're left to wonder how the Good Guys can possibly come back from it.

And so, inspired by this recent Reddit thread on the very subject, here are the 10 greatest hope-devoid moments in movie history.

These moments saw these heroes not only defeated but often admitting defeat, accepting that there's nothing to be done and they're not going to prevail this time.

That didn't actually turn out to be the case in many of these films, but the filmmakers went so damn hard in selling it to the audience that it was incredibly easy to believe regardless...

James Cameron's Titanic is a virtually peerless spectacle, yet doesn't get nearly enough credit for some of its terrific writing and performances. 

And this is arguably demonstrated no better than during the movie's utterly dread-soaked end-of-second-act meeting between the ship's top brass.

The scene shows Titanic's architect, Thomas Andrews (Thomas Andrews), explaining how dire the situation is onboard, namely that no matter what they do, it's just a matter of time before the vessel sinks.

Andrews' grim prognosis is initially disbelieved by J. Bruce Ismay (Jonathan Hyde), the foppish managing director of Titanic's shipping company, who tells Andrews, "But this ship can't sink!"

Andrews then fires back with, "She's made of iron, sir. I assure you, she can... and she will. It is a mathematical certainty."

At this point Captain Smith (Bernard Hill) asks how long they've got, to which Andrews drops the devastating deadline - "An hour, two at most."

After taking stock of the 2,200 souls onboard, Smith then chillingly tells Ismay, "Well, I believe you may get your headlines."

This is one of those all-time great movie moments that just sucks the air out of any room it's played in, so perfectly teeing up the terrifying destruction to follow in act three.