8. The Thing (1982)
The "Sad" Ending...The Thing has one of the greatest endings in sci-fi/horror movie history, mainly because it's so ambiguous and relatively badass. I wouldn't say it's "sad" exactly, but it definitely ain't happy. After their base has been destroyed by a shapeshifting alien monster with the ability to replicate any person, R.J. MacReady and his co-worker Childs are forced out into the Arctic chill, where they both question whether or not the other person is "the thing." Since they have no way to know, MacReady suggests they wait and "see what happens." The End.
The Abandoned "Happy" Ending... The fact that this ending even exists is an insult to
The Thing and everything it stands for: the fact that it wasn't used is the best occurrence to have ever happened in the history of the world (or something). Anyway, the "happy" ending basically consisted of a helicopter landing by the base and rescuing MacReady. We have to presume that Childs is dead in this scenario, as he doesn't come out to meet his buddy or anything. MacReady is given the blood test (how would anybody know to even do that?) and is transported away. This was shot without much thought, though, and just as a precaution in case some wild executive decided they felt like going nuts over the classic, ambiguous ending. Rather interestingly, nobody has ever actually seen this ending. At all. It's never been screened. Not once. I made have even made it up right now, for all you know.