20 Movies Where The Hero Winning DIDN'T Matter
Hard fought victories that were ultimately all for nothing.
Audiences need to be given a reason to invest in any film they are watching, whether this comes from the characters or the story. Ideally, it'd be both. For anyone to care about what actually happens, there typically has to be stakes and potential consequences at play.
However, "typically" doesn't always apply when it comes to any art form, because expectations are subverted, and people love to be surprised. So with that in mind, there are plenty of movie endings that genuinely didn't matter, whether because the themes ran a little deeper than a surface victory, things stayed the same anyway, or even in some instances the writers seemingly didn't think everything through enough.
WhatCulture has previously looked at those moments when it didn't matter that the hero lost, but there is of course the other side of that coin. What about when the protagonist a viewer has been rooting for over the last two hours wills themselves to a win, often incredibly hard fought, only for it to end up meaning nothing?
Victories have been hollow in the face of overwhelming grief, characters have won small battles that likely went unnoticed amidst huge wars, and in some cases, triumph was merely a catalyst for more pain in the very near future...
20. The Hunger Games
The thing with dystopian game shows, as will be explored multiple times on this list, is that when you are shoved into what is typically a fight to the death against your will, even winning isn't really winning. The prize may be life, at least for the time being, but at what cost?
When Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark (Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson) were thrown into the Hunger Games arena, they under the idea that only one could survive. Until however, they threatened to both lose, leaving the Games without a winner, and in the process outsmarting and embarrassing Donald Sutherland's President Snow and his entire regime.
A victory of course, but not one that lasted long. When they left the arena, all they had done was paint a target on their backs, with Snow still very much in control of their lives. Haymitch (Woody Harrelson) told them as much, that they were enslaved to him forever, even as victors. This was proven in Catching Fire, when they were thrown back into the arena once again on the whim of Snow.
Winning the Games wasn't really winning, something that stretched even further than just the competition. When they ultimately overthrew Snow, there was another in Julianne Moore's Alma Coin, ready and waiting to step into his shoes and continue his megalomaniacal work.