10 More Disturbing Plot Twists In Non-Horror Movies
4. The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas - Bruno And Shmuel Die
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, based on John Boyne's novel of the same name, tells the story of the friendship between Bruno (Asa Butterfield) and Shmuel (Jack Scanlon). Shmuel is a Jewish boy imprisoned in a concentration camp, Bruno is the son of the Nazi who runs it.
Though a largely solid historical drama, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is probably the weakest film on this list, and it has, much like its source material, been criticized for its many historical inaccuracies. Arguably the key reason why the film is still remembered today is that ending.
Given that it's told through children's eyes, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is fairly restrained in its depiction of the Holocaust, for the most part. That is likely to lull the audience into a false sense of security, as it eventually delivers one of the most harrowing twist endings of them all. Bruno breaks into the camp to help Shmuel find his father, and the two boys are immediately seized by guards and sent into a gas chamber. The two little boys, not knowing this is the end, hold hands as they die.
Since this is a Holocaust film, an unhappy ending of some nature was to be expected, but for those who hadn't read the book, it's unlikely they were expecting anything quite as overwhelmingly bleak as this, especially from what was otherwise a fairly ordinary, by-the-numbers movie. Is this one of the most depressing endings ever? Quite possibly.