10 Utterly Devastating Film Endings That Totally Came Out Of Nowhere

Well, that was depressing.

The Descent
Lionsgate

Creativity tends to be a pretty big part of being a scriptwriter. Yet being creative has definitely gotten harder as the years have gone on €“- granted, the human imagination is limitless, but when over a century of movie-making has established tropes that work and those that don'€™t, it can be very easy to go into autopilot and ride the rails of these already-established plotlines.

Case in point, the suddenly negative ending. You can see why scriptwriters choose to go with it €- it€™'s probably cathartic to escape the formula of happily-ever-after, and if executed well you can knock an audience silly with the unexpected. And to be fair, they often do €“ there€™s plenty of endings you didn€™t see coming that knock the wind out of you.

Yet occasionally, these endings can be added just to create artificial shock, disappointing the audience by pretty much invalidating everything that€™s come before. These movies can anger audiences and live in infamy among critic circles, because there's nothing like the gut-punch that comes out of nowhere.

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Durham University graduate and qualified sports journalist. Very good at sitting down and watching things. Can multi-task this with playing computer games. Football Manager addict who has taken Shrewsbury Town to the summit of the Premier League. You can follow me at @Ed_OwenUK, if you like ramblings about Newcastle United and A Place in the Sun. If you don't, I don't know what I can do for you.