10 More Movie Heroes You Didn't Realise Probably Died Horrible Deaths

This generation of films might well be the death knell of the over-arching importance of the hero moment - or at least in the idea that being a hero is enough to guarantee a happy ending.

With miserablist directors making the downer ending more impactful than the age old "and they all lived happily ever after", and shocks and unexpected stingers (usually the death of a major character) becoming increasingly important currency, there's less room for sugar and happiness. Perhaps that's why watching happy endings - even of classic movies - has turned into something entirely different now. Where once blind acceptance meant that happy endings landed without question, now cynicism means the full-stops of movies are scrutinised.

It's no longer enough to accept that they lived happily ever after: there has to be solid proof, because fans have been hurt before, and a hollow happy ending that hides horrific consequences is far from actually happy.

And when so many films leave ridiculous plot points open for interpretation, or just brush them aside in the quest for a happy ending, it's not hard to pick away at the surface and find a number of heroes who probably didn't live happily ever after for very long before cruel fate snuffed them out.