12 Disturbing Sci-Fi Movie Endings That Haunt You

Directed by former Monty Python animator and troupe member Terry Gilliam, at first 1985’s Brazil is a darkly comic satire of bureaucracy set in the near future whose 1984-aping plot mocks the failings of an inefficient government and the hapless resistance attempting to overthrow it.

So it’s like Monty Python does THX 1138, as loveable sad sack and future High Sparrow Jonathan Pryce discovers his existence has been erased due to a clerical error and soon becomes the face of a revolution he never even wanted anything to do with. Like The Life of Brian!

Except, you know, this silly comedy ends with the protagonist’s best friend, firebrand Robert de Niro, dead, and the hero's mind destroyed by government-mandated torture as he imagines a happy ending, utterly shattered and left a shell of man.

Good one, Terry.