10 Sci-Fi Movies Where Evil Won
6. The Empire Strikes Back
The greatest Star Wars movie to date is also by far the grimmest, no matter that it was only the middle entry into a trilogy which, of course, ultimately resolved well for the heroes.
But The Empire Strikes Back is nevertheless notable for handing a decisive - if temporary - W to the bad guys, given that it ends with Darth Vader (David Prowse) chopping Luke Skywalker's (Mark Hamill) hand off before announcing his parentage, while Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) is forced to watch as Han Solo (Harrison Ford) is captured and frozen in carbonite.
Despite clearly setting up a third film to restore the balance, Empire nevertheless saw the heroes physically and psychologically broken in the most intimate and intrusive of ways.
There's a reason why it remains the blueprint for franchise cinema's "dark middle movie," because the victory of the villains is so deeply felt, and fans had to wait a whole three years to see it finally resolved. Imagine if Marvel did that with Avengers: Infinity War.