10 So-Called Happy Endings That Absolutely Aren't

7. Old

Kingsman The Secret Service Valentine Samuel L Jackson
Universal

M. Night Shyamalan's rock-solid horror-thriller Old focuses on a group of tourists who go onto a mysterious beach that causes them to begin rapidly aging. In the end, only Trent and Maddox, who went on the beach at the age of six and 11, respectively, are left alive. They have now aged up to adults in their 40s or 50s. 

This particular ending is definitely one of the most unsettling 'happy endings' in any recent film. It turns out that the beach is a way for a pharmaceutical organisation to monitor the effects of various medicines and witness 'years' of progress in the space of a day or two. Trent and Maddox do manage to expose them, and as such, no-one else is going to suffer their horrible fate, but even so, how much of a life are these two going to have now? 

At the end of the day, they're children stuck in adult bodies who've lost decades of their lives, and there doesn't appear to be any way to reverse the process. They really were dealt an awful hand here. 

Contributor

Film Studies graduate, aspiring screenwriter and all-around nerd who, despite being a pretentious cinephile who loves art-house movies, also loves modern blockbusters and would rather watch superhero movies than classic Hollywood films. Once met Tommy Wiseau.