10 So-Called Sad Movie Endings That Are Happier Than You Think

Pain & Gain, Michael Bay's black comedy based on true events, has another rather misleading ending. 

This revolves around a group of dim-witted and frustrated bodybuilders - Daniel (Mark Wahlberg), Adrian (Anthony Mackie) and Paul (Dwayne Johnson) - who carry out a kidnapping and extortion scheme in order to get rich. They ultimately murder two people and get caught, with all of them being sent to prison and two of them even being sentenced to death. This is a tragic ending, right?

Of course it isn't. They kidnapped and tortured an innocent man and murdered two innocent people - the gang got exactly what they deserved and a better film would've emphasised this more.

One of the very worst things about Pain & Gain is that it fails so completely as a satire. Instead of laughing at these characters and their greed the movie seems to glamorise them and their wealthy lifestyles once they attain them. By making them semi-likeable, Pain & Gain aligns audiences with the criminals instead of against them; it should've done the opposite.

Pain & Gain is based on a true story and it offensively reworks the entire thing, with the victims being unlikable rich A-holes and the criminals being a bunch of funny goofballs. In reality, they were a gang of violent sadists, and nothing like what you see in the film. Whether you look at the real case or this problematic fictionalisation, justice was done. That's a happy ending right there.