10 Tragic Movie Endings That Probably Had Awesome Silver Linings

8. Chinatown

The Tragic Ending: Roman Polanski€™s revisionist noir Chinatown is a hell of a knotty film, plot-wise, so it€™s best just to describe the story as simply as possible for those unlucky enough to have never seen it: private detective Jakes Gittes (Jack Nicholson) investigates corruption in the city of LA, involving the deceased head of the water department, his wife, Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway), and her corrupt millionaire father, Noah Cross (John Huston). Obviously, this being Jack Nicholson, Evelyn becomes Jake€™s lover, in one of the film€™s more touching subplots. Then it turns out Evelyn gave birth to her father€™s child when she was a teenager, and Jake trying to see mother and daughter away from the city to safety only ends up with Evelyn killed, and her daughter in the clutches of Cross, who gets away with everything. Damn. The Silver Lining: You€™ve seen Jake about town, catching everybody€™s eye with his flashy suits and improbably pearly grin - he loves to be noticed, and more importantly, he loves publicity. Those suits are about to get even snappier, because Jake€™s going to get a hell of a lot of business after people see those headlines.