10 Most Unexpectedly Tragic Endings To Otherwise Fun Movies

5. Von Ryan's Express (1965)

This underappreciated World War II flick gave Frank Sinatra one of his best dramatic roles. When airforce pilot Colonel Joseph L. Ryan is shot down over Italy, he's put into a prison camp with mostly British POWs, who dub him "Von Ryan" when he clashes with their in-house policies. This all culminates in a frenzied adventure movie, with Ryan going up against the Nazis in some thrilling set-pieces. And for almost every minute of its runtime, Express is a straight-forward, action-packed yarn, filled with all the bravado typical of such 60s war flicks. But that all changes when the ending swings around: after hijacking a Nazi train and escaping into Switzerland, the crew of Von Ryan's Express are cut off in a mountain pass. An intense and awesome battle emerges, and just when everybody seems to get away, Ryan finds himself dragging behind. In the last moments, as he attempts to get on board the train with his fellow troops, he's machine gunned down. He falls onto the track, as his saddened allies disappear into a tunnel, their only choice but to look on. For a relatively light, ass-kicking WW2 flick, it's a surprisingly sad and unexpectedly heavy ending, made poignant via Ryan's sacrifice.