10 More Happy Movie Endings That Ignored One Devastating Thing
Some movie happily ever afters come with a sting..
“And they all lived happily ever after.” Strong words, when you think about it. In what world can anyone claim to be happy every minute of a single day let alone “ever after”? It’s unreasonable, even in the most wide-eyed Disney of worlds.
So when a movie ending comes along that seems to suggest unquestionable happiness has been achieved you can forgive us all a little cynicism. Particularly when the writers (and the characters) appear to have completely missed the ominous parts of said ending that suggest that not everything is quite as rosey as it seems.
Some happy endings won’t last and - even worse - some people’s happy endings are another person’s miserable ones...
10. There’s A Child-Murdering Peadophile On The Loose - Con Air
Con-Air is a classic and Cameron Poe will fight anyone who says otherwise. And so will I, somewhat less impressively.
It ends as you’d expect - with the hijacked plane full of cons brought to justice and Poe reunited with his family. Cue celebrations.
But Wait...
Not only does the ending come at some considerable cost to Las Vegas, where lots of people are probably killed in the plane crash, but we’re expected to accept that the film’s most dangerous inmate has wandered off into freedom.
Yes, Steve Buscemi’s Garland Greene doesn’t kill that one little girl, but he’s a cold-hearted killer whose problem was never that he didn’t understand morality. He’s driven by it and his psychopathy.
He’s not innocent of his crimes simply because he managed not to do ONE. His victims get no justice because he resisted once. It’s all a mess, so forgive me for thinking that him merrily wandering into the Vegas night to kill and rape again isn’t actually that happy an ending.
9. He Literally Stole That Guy’s Body - Source Code
The happy ending tacked onto the end of Source Code might not exactly be earned, but at least we get to see Jake Gyllenhaal’s Colter Stevens given a chance at life and love.
Instead of his life simply ending and the source code sticking to its own established rules, he discovers that he’s able to live in the alternate universe that the technology gives him access to.
But Wait...
Putting aside concerns that none of this actually makes sense, the happy ending given to Stevens might as well be a right royal middle finger salute to the unseen victim in this whole situation.
Why does nobody think about Sean Fentress?!
You know, the guy who owns the body that Stevens repeatedly Quantum Leaps into to try and stop the terrorist attacks. The unwilling body-snatch candidate who presumably never consents to his part in the mission.
And if that wasn’t enough, Stevens just flat out steals Fentress’ body in the only alternate reality in which he isn’t blown up. Which seems like a fairly unfair ending for an innocent victim, don’t you think?