10 Movie Characters Whose Fates Are Never Resolved

6. The Puppy - Apocalypse Now

Francis Ford Coppola's war epic Apocalypse Now is a brilliantly thought-provoking film, and one that's left viewers low-key agonised over the ambiguous fate of one beloved central character for 40 years.

Of course, we're talking about the adorable puppy which is informally adopted by the soldiers during their mission, and which bafflingly disappears when they're ambushed later in the movie.

The cute canine serves as a striking metaphor for innocence throughout the film, so perhaps it's fitting that the pup vanishes into thin air along with it.

Given that the dog disappears when the gang is attacked, it's reasonable to deduce that it was either killed or jumped overboard and paddled to shore, but despite its absence being noted to the audience, it's never followed up on.

Then again, Coppola is hardly much of a sentimentalist, so it's not terribly surprising he'd refuse to have the puppy rejoin Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) at the end of the movie after terminating Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando).