10 Movie Happy Endings That Ignored One Devastating Thing

7. The Abductees Lives Are Utterly Ruined - Close Encounters Of The Third Kind

The Happy Ending

Whether you believe the end of Close Encounters is happy probably depends on your point of view but for Roy Neary, his obsessive search for UFOs and proof of life on other planets pays off as he's taken on some intergalactic travels by the aliens who have come to Earth. His family probably aren't as happy, since he just plain buggers off and leaves them, but it's not really their story and they were just in his way anyway.

On top of Roy leaving, the aliens also return some of their former abductees including animals, little Barry Guiler and the missing crews of Flight 19 and the SS Cotopaxi, who were taken years ago. Everyone rejoices.

But Wait...

The abductees haven't aged a day, which is fine for Barry as he's not been gone long and who really cares about the animals? More concerning are the pilots and Cotopaxi crew, who were missing for DECADES.

It's all well and good bringing them back, but their families are probably dead and the Earth will have changed massively since they were abducted. Their reintegration - which will probably include years or government probing and press invasion - is pretty much going to be impossible.