10 Film Characters Who Suffered Horrendous Fates In Other Media

Part of what made American Graffiti hit home was its brutal post-scipt, which no one saw coming. The entire film takes place over the course of one night before Curt (Richard Dreyfuss) and Steve ( Ron Howard) are set to leave town for college.

By the film's end, everyone's arcs have completed, with Curt leaving and Steve staying, the opposite of what they thought. Then, as Curt boards the plane, it's revealed in silence that he became a writer in Canada, Steve an insurance agent in California, Toad (Charles Martin Smith) is reported MIA in Vietnam and Paul Le Matt's racer is killed by a drunk driver.

The brutal reality of those words after the seemingly harmless night of fun we just spent with them drops like a ton of bricks before the needle hits and the Beach Boys viciously jerk you out of it, leaving you completely discombobulated.

If you were hoping the sequel retconned that bleak ending, you're in for devastation. Terry manages to screw up trying to wound himself in Vietnam, nearly getting firebombed in the process, but instead he deserts, leaving everyone to believe he's dead.

Paul Le Matt's roadster dies, as promised. He's last seen with his lights going down a dark highway. And the leader of the Pharoahs gang is hit by sniper fire in rice paddy.

It wouldn't be much of a leap to assume that Platoon was American Graffiti 3.