Many files have endings that may result in marriage, life-saving moments, or the main character’s success. These finales make our favorite films unforgettable, but what if the film went the other way and didn’t end with the sweet conclusion we all love? These are 12 films that may have been better with a bittersweet ending. Be warned, there are spoilers!
1. RAMBO (1982)
Fans worldwide love the Rambo series, but the storyline was a little different the first time around. In the first release of the movie, Rambo ends up taking his own life at the end of the film from PTSD and being unable to readjust to society. Fans worldwide enjoyed the movie so much that the directors decided to keep Rambo alive and make multiple movies.
2. HANCOCK (2008)
In a movie where Will Smith plays a scruffy superhero who looks over the city of Los Angeles, he leaves lots of collateral damage in return. After he saves the life of a PR executive, he notices his beautiful wife, and then a soft spot is discovered for Hancock. Movie watchers around the globe did not like this getting thrown into the plot and instead would have rather had no love story at all.
3. THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW (1999)
A scary movie that involves a young police constable, played by Johnny Depp, who is sent from New York City to investigate three murders in the Sleepy Hollow village. Fans of this movie believe that the last twenty or so minutes tie up all the loose ends in the wrong places and that it needs more character development. Many believe the movie would have been better if the film had not ended “happily ever after” for Ichibod and Katrina.
4. TOP GUN, TOP GUN: MAVERICK (1986, 2022)
This action-packed film series stars Tom Cruise as a fighter jet pilot who is one of the best ever to fly. After losing his best friend to an accident, he eventually returns to the pilot seat to teach younger students to fly. However, he is very reckless and flies risky maneuvers. Many believe Maverick’s life should have been worse due to his carelessness for the people and other pilots around him.
5. KARATE KID (1984)
Karate Kid is a classic film where a boy, Daniel, gets bullied by students of a local karate school. To defend himself, Daniel befriends a fantastic instructor to help him learn karate. During his training, Daniel is paired against one of the bullies at a tournament. He beats the bully, but some fans wish he hadn’t won the fight.
6. MRS. DOUBTFIRE (1993)
A divorced man, played by Robin Williams, has very little access to see his children, so he dresses as an old lady and convinces his ex-wife to hire him as a nanny. While movie watchers love this movie as it is, the original script called for the parents to get back together at the film’s end. They do not get back together to show that the world does not end just because Mom and Dad got a divorce.
7. PRETTY WOMAN (1990)
In Pretty Woman, an escort (Julia Roberts) and a wealthy businessman (Richard Gere) fall for each other, forming an extraordinary couple. In the original ending, Gere dumps Roberts back onto the street; fans did not like this, so the directors decided to tweak it so they stayed together, and the movie became a love story. Some fans wish they had kept the original ending, as it would have been more realistic.
8. BACK TO FUTURE III (1990)
When a small-town California boy and his friend experiment with time travel, Marty McFly gets sent back to the 50’s. The last of the Back to the Future films should have ended with Doc leaving a message in the past for Marty, thanking him for his friendship and saying that he is content with how his life turned out.
9. MY SISTER’S KEEPER (2009)
My Sister’s Keeper is a drama about a girl named Kate who is diagnosed with leukemia and has to undergo numerous medical procedures. The child’s parents decide to have another child so that Kate can have a donor match for stem cells and organs. At the movie’s end, the younger sister, Anna, sues the parents for how they used her body. Many fans think this film should have ended more like the book, where Anna is involved in a severe car accident that leaves her brain dead.
10. DODGEBALL (2004)
This movie focuses on the underdog in a dodgeball tournament that rises from the top. The “Average Joes” were just a group from a small gym that started winning dodgeball games and beat out the top team in the tournament to win it all. Many viewers think the ending would have been better if the Average Joes hadn’t won, showing that life is not always fair and the underdog does not always win.
11. INTERSTELLAR (2014)
An amazingly directed Christopher Nolan film, Interstellar stars Matthew McConaughey as an astronaut who needs to travel across the galaxy to find a habitual planet. Fans think the ending would have been better if McConaughey’s character never made it out of the tesseract and to the colony around Saturn to see his daughter again. Instead, it should have ended with the idea that he was the ghost on the bookshelf that provided quantum data to his daughter.
12. EDGE OF TOMORROW (2014)
In perfect Tom Cruise form, Edge of Tomorrow is a film where he is in a perpetual combat loop, trying to break the pattern and save the day. Fans were upset that everything that could go wrong does, but everything is magically solved in the end, and everything is okay. Viewers claim that this forced a happy ending to the film when it should have ended tragically.
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