10 Incredibly Bleak Recent Movie Endings

10. The Long Walk

Dystopian movies aren't typically the place to go for happy endings, and The Long Walk was no different. Stephen King's 1979 novel was finally adapted to the big screen in 2025, and was done so in incredible fashion, departing from the source material for an even darker ending than could have been expected.

Yes, there was only ever going to be one winner of the game that saw 50 boys walk until they could do so no longer, but Francis Lawrence's film dropped certain breadcrumbs for a hopeful ending at the very least, something that was snatched away in the final moments.

If Pete (David Jonsson) won the Walk, he was set to use his one wish that could not be turned down to do something good in a world desperate for some good. Ray (Cooper Hoffman) however, was going to use his to kill the Major (Mark Hamill), the face of the Walk and the man who killed his father.

Ultimately, it was Pete that won, but the man who had been the sole shred of light throughout the entire ordeal, who had never so much as considered seeing the darkness of the world rather than the beauty, used his wish not to make the world a better place, but to kill the Major. If even someone like Pete can lose hope, then what chance does anybody else have?