Happy endings - who doesn't love them? After all, we go to see films to be entertained, to escape from the hum drum of daily life where things are far less certain. Let's face it, life can be a let down a lot of the time and the last thing we need when venturing into the fictional realm of cinema is another reminder that things don't always work out in the end. Most movies end happily and most of the time this makes sense. It fits a character arc to reach a satisfying conclusion - we enjoy seeing them grow, learn and develop, overcoming the obstacles put in their path or defeating an evil force that threatens to engulf them. Besides, sad endings leave us feeling as if we've been cheated, as if paying to feel miserable is the last thing we expected when buying our tickets. But sometimes a happy ending feels out of place; tacked on to satisfy audience expectations of how a movie should end. Sometimes it is the studios who insist on changing a downbeat ending into an upbeat one, even when such a change feels completely out of place in the context of the rest of the film. At other times, a happy ending sits at odds with the source material, turning it on its head just to make the film appeal to a wider audience. Here are ten such movies where a happy ending wasn't such a great thing after all - films which end on an upbeat moment which is annoying or out of place rather than heartwarming. Readers should take it as a given that we're about to enter spoiler territory...
