10 Movies You Never Expected To Have A Happy Ending
Because not all movies kill everyone off.
The film industry has always been one that relies on established properties and safe bets, with studios trying to make the movies that'll generate the most money. That's fair enough, it is a business after all. Nevertheless, it's great when films can be a bit subversive and defy audience expectations where they can.
A nice, perhaps underrated way in which a movie can trick its audience is with the tone of its ending. An unexpectedly downbeat ending can be seriously powerful, and similarly, when a mostly dark movie ends on a positive note, that's often thoroughly satisfying. It's a great way to go against the norm, and furthermore, in these chaotic times, a little bit of hope goes a long way.
The following ten movies are all great examples of this. Not all of them were particularly good in the end, but all of them hoodwinked the viewer with their surprisingly upbeat endings, and in each case, it was ever so refreshing. Happy endings are cool, and that should never be forgotten.
Obviously, spoilers lie ahead for all ten of these pictures, starting with...
10. Pandorum
Kicking off the list, we've got Pandorum, a mostly underwhelming Alien knock-off that is nevertheless noteworthy for having one of the greatest endings to a bad movie... probably ever, in all honesty.
Pandorum is set aboard an interstellar ark taking the last of humanity to a new world. The ship is now overrun by mutant humans thanks to the actions of the insane Captain Gallo years earlier, and two surviving crew members - Payton (Dennis Quaid) and Bower (Ben Foster) - try to get the ark to its destination safely.
The movie eventually unleashes its awesome double-twist ending: firstly, Payton is actually Gallo and secondly, the ship landed at its destination hundreds of years ago but it had been left underwater thanks to Gallo's actions. With this knowledge, Bower finally defeats Gallo and releases the surviving humans to the surface of their new world.
This triumphant ending to an otherwise downcast movie, one which suggested a pessimistic future for humanity, leaves a great taste behind and though the movie as a whole was disappointing, it definitely deserves credit for this wonderful conclusion.