10 Most Unexpectedly Tragic Endings To Otherwise Fun Movies

9. Stand By Me (1986)

Rob Reiner's terrific coming of age flick, based on a novella by Stephen King, tells the story of four boys and their search for a missing kid in 50s America. Our main character and narrator is Gordie (Will Wheaton), who sets out on the trip with bad boy Chris (River Phoenix), eccentric Teddy DuChamp (Corey Feldman), and Vern Tessio (Jerry O'Connell), who's bullied for being overweight. Along the way they encounter all kinds of troubles (and a great pie-based story), the worst of which proves to be a knife-wielding maniac played by none other than Kiefer Sutherland. Ultimately, though, Stand By Me is a movie about friendship, learning to be an adult, and how we're influenced - or not influenced, as the case may be - by our parents before us. The movie has its fair share of solemn moments scattered throughout, of course - given the subject matter, that's expected. But ultimately Stand By Me is still thought of as a fun adventure movie. The ending, however, is notably bleak, and uncompromising in its intentions to explain what happens to the four main characters when they grow up: None but Gordie end up having particularly interesting lives, and Chris - worst of all - is revealed to have been murdered. Bleak as hell.