10 Great Films With Soul-Destroying Endings

This bumpy ride of a movie follows the exploits of gambling addicted jewellery store owner, Howard.

He manages to smuggle a giant black opal out of Africa in hopes of selling it for around one million dollars, making him a tidy profit and enabling him to clear huge debts he has to his loan-shark brother in law, Arno.

After a successful bet that should have earned him six hundred thousand dollars is revealed to have been called off, he once again can’t clear his debt and is savagely beaten by Arno and his lackeys. His only other big earner is the black opal which sits in the hands of a major basketball player, for which he finally accepts a lower price.

In a last-ditch attempt to make some more profit, he bets the money he received from the opal on a basketball game, locking Arno and his goons in the jewellery store with him so they cannot cancel his bet as they did last time.

A tense match unfolds and in a moment of bliss, Howard wins one point two million dollars- more than enough to pay off his debts. By this point, however, Arno’s men are frustrated and with absolutely no warning they execute Howard and then their boss too.

After over two hours of non-stop tension as the sharks chased him, Howard is killed in a moment of rage by a point-blank shot to the head. It’s a short, sharp shock that leaves the audience feeling unbelievably deflated.