7 True Story Movies That Left Out The Real Horrific Ending

Being a family movie and all, Big Miracle was never going to have a dark ending, but all the same, its uplifting finale completely glosses over the grim reality of the situation.

This melodramatic 2012 drama tells the true story of Operation Breakthrough, a combined US/Soviet effort to free three gray whales who had got themselves trapped beneath the ice in Alaska. Although one of the whales died along the way, the operation was ultimately declared a success when the ice was broken, granting the two remaining whales their freedom, and allowing them to swim away.

This is where the movie ends, with the two surviving whales heading off into the ocean. Then, at the very end of the credits, we hear a whale song, implying that they both lived long (for a gray whale, at least), safe, and happy lives.

But in reality, Operation Breakthrough didn't have a Hollywood-style "everything is perfect!" ending.

While it's true that two whales did swim away, nobody knows what happened to them afterwards, and no sign of them was ever discovered. Not good. Furthermore, the whales would've had to swim through even more ice to reach their destination, and this - combined with the fact that Operation Breakthrough was a stressful and painful ordeal for them - has led to the theory that they soon died from exhaustion.

Either that, or they got themselves trapped in some ice all over again. Poor whales.