10 Movies That Got Real Dark, Real Fast

For a movie based around World War II, Jojo Rabbit was a light-hearted joy of a movie, for the most part. Such is the impact of Taika Waititi when he gets things right, and doesn’t go too far Love and Thunder style.

For all its comedy however, there was a deep, emotional thread throughout, based around Jojo’s mother, Rosie. While her son was a member of the Hitler youth, she herself risked her life to hide a young Jewish girl from the Nazis.

There's a scene in the movie where Rosie is standing at a higher level than Jojo, so her shoes are directly in his eyeline. The audience thinks nothing of it at the time - it’s just a mother playing with her son - but it comes back in a haunting, devastating way later in the movie.

As Jojo is following a butterfly through the town square, he once again comes upon those same shoes at his eyeline, only this time, there is nothing underneath: she has been hanged.

Jojo Rabbit had plenty of laughs and things never got too dark, which made this hugely impactful moment all the more heartbreaking.