10 So-Called Happy Endings That Absolutely Aren't

Roland Emmerich's not-that-bad 2012 is notable for being the most 'Disaster' disaster movie to ever disaster, given that it features what is probably the most epic apocalypse ever committed to film. It also has one of the least-happy 'happy endings' of them all. 

The ending scenes do have a refreshingly hopeful tone that might fool viewers at first. Protagonist Jackson Curtis (John Cusack), his family, and several of the film's other characters have survived by getting onboard one of the various arks constructed by the world's governments in order to survive the cataclysm. The three arcs that were completed are shown travelling together, and around 400,000 people are onboard in total. 

Well, it's a miracle anyone made it at all, but that's still the majority of humankind dead. Furthermore, the arks weren't done in a fair way, as transport was only offered to the world's elite and also to the Chinese workforce that helped to build them. Africa is the one continent that wasn't submerged, so it's possible some people survived there, but most of the human race is gone whichever way you cut it, and that's pretty bloody depressing.

Furthermore, the many disasters that happened throughout the picture will continue to affect the Earth for years to come, such as the ash clouds from the super-volcano that erupts in Yellowstone. Really, the happiest thing one can take away from this ending is that 2012 was lambasted for its factual inaccuracies, and a disaster of this kind is scientifically impossible.