10 Movie Characters Everyone Was CONVINCED Would Die (But Didn't)

One of the few non-blockbuster entries on this list now, with 2019's acclaimed drama The Farewell. The film follows a Chinese-American family who decide not to tell their grandmother, Nai Nai (Zhao Shu-zhen), that she's suffering from terminal lung cancer.

The movie uses this framework to explore the difference in how Chinese society approaches death and family compared to more individualist Western cultures, but ultimately, everybody watching expects the story to end with Nai Nai's death, because why wouldn't it?

But The Farewell instead ends with protagonist Billi (Awkwafina) returning home to the U.S. after saying goodbye to Nai Nai - who still has no knowledge of her illness - before a final title card states that, six years later, Nai Nai is still very much alive and doesn't know about her illness.

Even more incredibly, Nai Nai is based on writer-director Lulu Wang's own grandmother, who according to Wang herself only found out she had cancer when she saw the movie. Wild.