10 Movie Endings Darker Than You Remembered

Damien Chazelle's expertly assembled drama Whiplash ends on such a cathartic display of jazz drumming skill from protagonist Andrew (Miles Teller) that it's easy to get swept up in the sheer majesty of it while forgetting its more unsavoury implication.

Yes, Andrew gives the performance of his young life to date and finally earns the approval of sadistic jazz instructor Terence Fletcher (J. K. Simmons), but at what cost?

Look past Andrew's satisfied smile and the brilliance of his final performance, and we have a young man who has cast his humanity aside in pursuit of his obsession, pushed to excellence on a foundation of abuse yet utterly broken inside.

Director Chazelle even suggested in interviews that Andrew was likely being pushed towards a tragic fate:

"Fletcher will always think he won and Andrew will be a sad, empty shell of a person and will die in his 30s of a drug overdose. I have a very dark view of where it goes."

Star Miles Teller had his own, slightly less-depressing view of how Andrew ends up, but it's still extremely bleak compared to the vibrancy of that final performance:

"I think [Andrew] lives a pretty lonely existence, just working on his craft and becoming one of the greatest drummers of all time, but being pretty miserable [and] alone. People say you are probably going to die alone. That's Andrew."