10 Movie Happy Endings That Ignored One Devastating Thing

5. He's Probably Going To Burn Out Horribly - Whiplash

The Happy Ending

Just as La La Land is about the cost of following your dreams (or achieving them, more specifically), Damien Chazelle's Whiplash is very much about what it costs to be truly great. Miles Teller's Andrew learns that you have to put blood, sweat and tears in and endure bullying to be improved.

But the film ultimately sees him overcome as he shrugs off villainous teacher Fletcher's attempted humiliation on stage by returning and playing the complex Caravan defiantly. He and Fletcher even seem to share a moment of clarity and mutual respect as Andrew "wins" the moment.

But Wait...

All Andrew does in "beating" Fletcher is prove he was right to treat him the way he did. The undercurrent of the movie focuses on the ideal of it being better to die in a blaze of glory than to fade away in obscurity. And by returning to Fletcher and to drumming, Andrew has basically condemned himself to realise his dream but to probably either burn out or worse die young in the continued pursuit of it.