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

5. Gone Girl

Gone Girl
20th Century Fox

Despite it being claimed that 2014's Gone Girl adaptation would have a different ending from the novel, it does in fact end in the same way: the psychopathic Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike) gets away with all her crimes and her husband Nick (Ben Affleck) decides to stay with her after she impregnates herself with his child. 

At the time this was widely viewed as a massive downer ending - but was it really? 

Amy is an awful person but let's not forget, Nick wasn't exactly a good guy either. He's a charmless A-hole who neglects his wife and cheats on her with one of his students, who was decades his junior. During the course of her faked disappearance, Amy does kill an ex-boyfriend named Desi (Neil Patrick Harris), but he seemed like an awful creep - the kind-of person who could've easily gone on to hurt someone one day. 

Earlier in the film Nick does meet a man whose life Amy ruined by lying about him, so this isn't to say that Amy escaping arrest wasn't a huge injustice - it absolutely was. Rather, there's an argument to be made that the ending for Nick and Amy was quite fitting: they're two terrible people who deserve each other. 

 
Posted On: 
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.