10 Biggest Downer Endings In Major Movies

Writer-director duo Joel and Ethan Coen have spent much of their career obliquely pondering the nature of existence, and generally coming to the conclusion that, well, all human life is ultimately a bit pointless.

Sounds bleak right away, but if you catch the Coens in a good mood - much as they were on 1998's The Big Lebowski - there might be an optimistic bent to that seemingly pessimistic worldview. Even if there isn't any real meaning to life, that doesn't mean we can't still have a good time while we're here.

However, 2007 Oscar-winner No Country For Old Men would seem to be the Coens in a far less upbeat frame of mind. Adapted from Cormac McCarthy's novel, the dark thriller shows how a single choice winds up having devastating consequences for Josh Brolin's Vietnam veteran, Llewelyn Moss.

The film repeatedly subverts expectation, first by killing Moss, the ostensible lead, 25 minutes before the end, with the moment of his death not even shown; then finally by allowing the villain, Oscar-winner Javier Bardem, to walk away scot-free (a minor car crash notwithstanding), with the fate of Llewlyn's widow (Kelly Macdonald) left ambiguous.

Finally, we end on Tommy Lee Jones' world-weary Sheriff Bell, now retired with his last case left unsolved, reflecting on a dream that would seem to point to the inevitability of his own death, and the lack of meaning to the few years he has left. Not the happiest of endings, then.