10 Movie Endings Way Darker Than You Realise

On the face of it, Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof has a seemingly "happy" ending, when the murderous Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell) is captured and beaten to death by the three women he's been terrorising, Abernathy (Rosario Dawson), Kim (Tracie Thoms), and Zoe (Zoë Bell).

But wait a minute, what about their friend Lee (Mary Elizabeth Winstead)?

Ahead of the movie's third act, Lee is left as collateral with the sublimely creepy Jasper (Jonathan Loughran), while Abernathy, Kim, and Zoe test-drive Jasper's for-sale 1970 Dodge Challenger.

We never see Lee again once her friends leave to take care of Mike, and so it's easy to presume that something very unsavoury happened. For starters, Jasper gives Lee some seriously leering looks, and the fact that her pals told Jasper she's a porn star wouldn't have made matters any easier.

In the very least, it's easy to appreciate that Jasper may have forced himself upon Lee - it's also probably noteworthy that actor Jonathan Loughran previously played a rapist for Tarantino in Kill Bill Volume 1.

And so, it's highly likely that Lee was assaulted by Jasper if not even killed in a potential struggle, and in the very least she may have felt obliged to have sex with him in order to buy her pals time to kill Mike.

Death Proof may not be a great movie, but Lee's unresolved fate is nevertheless one of Tarantino's most agonising cliffhangers.