10 Movie Endings Darker Than You Remembered
3. Josh Basically Ruins Susan's Life - Big
The Tom Hanks-starring comedy Big is one of the most beloved films of the 1980s, and with damn good reason.
Hanks stars as Josh Baskin, who at the age of 12 wishes to be made "big," and wakes up in the body of his adult self. Josh ends up scoring a gig working at a toy company, and his free-spirited personality soon enough wins him the affection of co-worker Susan (Elizabeth Perkins).
Their seemingly happy relationship crashes into a brick wall at film's end, though, when Susan learns the truth and watches Josh turn back into a child.
Though he suggests she should use the fortune teller machine to turn herself into a child alongside him, she decides that being a kid once was enough, and remains an adult.
It's a wonderfully bittersweet ending on the surface, albeit one with far more unsettling psychological implications when you think about it for a moment.
Beyond the fact that Susan is now aware that magic definitely exists, she also has to contend with the fact that she's been in a relationship with a boy in a man's body, and more to the point, has been having sex with this person.
Given that she only half-jokingly tells Josh to look her up in 10 years, she's not only heartbroken but clearly had her frame of reference for romantic relationships completely annihilated. How is she supposed to go about having a normal life now?
Perhaps worst of all is the fact that she's also unable to speak to anyone about this traumatic series of events because they would surely believe her to have lost her mind.
She has to try and get on with the rest of her life while walking around with this game-changing knowledge of the universe. That'd set even the most sane person up for a nervous breakdown.