12 Movies That Tricked You Into Thinking They Had Happy Endings
4. Star Wars Episode IV: Return Of The Jedi - The Empire Isnt Defeated
The Allegedly Happy Ending: As the end of Anakin Skywalker's journey, Return Of The Jedi is the culmination of the whole Star Wars saga (good luck dealing with that Episode VII). There's a sense of finality to proceedings; after two films of lurking in the shadows both Jabba the Hutt and the Emperor rear their wrinkly heads, ripe for defeat, while Vader begins to regain his humanity.
Say what you want about the Ewoks, it's a high tension final chapter of a story. Nowhere is this more evident than in the final scenes. The second Death Star destroyed and the Emperor with it, all the Rebels gather for the Endor stage of a galaxy wide celebration of the Empires fall. Yub nub indeed.
The Depressing Truth: It's all nice that Anakin's gone a lovely shade of blue, but the war is far from over. Put simply, the Empire won't have been destroyed with the Emperor. The first two films had sufficient threat without the presence Palpatine, so he's clearly not the sole force behind the machine; there's a galaxy worth of fleets to defeat. And thats ignoring that in the Expanded Universe the Imperial Remnant still exists over forty years after the end of Jedi.
But what about the celebrations across the galaxy, you ask? Well look where the celebrations are. Coruscant aside (included just for greater links to the prequels), they're fringe places where the Empire likely had little of a foothold.