10 Most Unexpectedly Tragic Endings To Otherwise Fun Movies

4. Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid (1969)

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid has always divided the critics due to its embracing of a certain jauntiness that many believe to undercut the seriousness of the plot - that's another way of saying that the famous Burt Bacharach soundtrack wasn't for everyone. The story itself chronicles the adventures of two incredibly charismatic outlaws, Butch and Sundance (played by Paul Newman and Robert Redford respectively), who find themselves having to come to terms with the end of their way of life, as the old west begins to vanish around them. And although that sounds relatively "serious" as far as western movie plots go, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a mostly fun movie. Despite its gun battles, chase sequences and love triangle storyline, the movie is played almost like a sort of cartoon. That is, until its final sequence, where our heroes - light-hearted and irresistibly smug for the sum of the flick - are cornered by the authorities in Bolivia. The tone changes here, as the pair realise they severity of the situation - they're a couple of relics. A strange sense of realism sets in, as Butch and Sundance draw their weapons and step out into what mean certain death. This moment is best remembered because of its iconic freeze frame - as they charge the Bolivian army, we stick on an image of the iconic gunfighters as the sounds of gunfire rain down upon them. After the frenzied fun and hi-jinks of George Roy Hill's flick, then, it's strange to culminate on such a oddly bleak note. What's great, however, is how much definition and meaning is packed into that last frame. Just like the movie itself, Butch and Cassidy treat things with a devil may care attitude - but, just as the ending tells us (without a word, mind), it can't stay that way forever.