Bittersweet Ending/Film

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Examples of Bittersweet Endings in Film include:

  • Korean gangster movie A Bittersweet Life. Protagonist Kim Sun-Woo manages to kill the people threatening his secret love and exact revenge, only to succumb to the wounds he gained in the shoot-out before he can tell her how he really felt. Lampshaded in his ending monologue:

"One late autumn night, the disciple awoke crying. So the master asked the disciple, "Did you have a nightmare?" "No." "Did you have a sad dream?" "No," said the disciple. "I had a sweet dream." "Then why are you crying so sadly?" The disciple wiped his tears away and quietly answered, "Because the dream I had can't come true."

  • Akira Kurosawa's Ikiru ends on a bittersweet note, which is a relief, considering how insanely, relentlessly downbeat and depressing the rest of the film was. Watanabe, before dying of cancer as he was doomed to do, has managed to redeem himself from his meaningless life by making a dump into a children's park, but his coworkers go back to the routine, and his adult children are left sobbing for having misunderstood him.
  • John Carpenter's The Thing. The title thing (a space alien) is probably dead, and any threat it posed to the human race with it. The downside? All but two of the men in the base have died, and it's probable that MacReady and Childs, the last two survivors, are going to die as well out in the Antarctic.
    • Probable? Their base has been destroyed and they have no possible way of leaving, so unless there are other people in the immediate area to find them they will soon freeze to death. Plus, it's implied that one of them just may be The Thing after all, which would just go dormant due to the cold temperature once again... at least until someone stumbles upon the wreckage of the base. It's much more of a Downer Ending than anything, because all they've likely accomplished is preventing The Thing from leaving for a little while longer.
  • Gladiator Commodus is slain in battle, but Maximus dies as well, but it's shown that in his death he is finally being reunited with his beloved family.
    • Also, Marcus Aurelius's dream of making Rome a republic again fails miserably.
  • Glory ends with the death of Col. Shaw and his brave regiment. But a title card at the end tells us what the movie pretty much has always been saying; the sacrifice and bravery of the Union Army's first Black soldiers has inspired the whole country. Furthermore, the tens of thousands of new Black recruits inspired by the 54th's efforts helped ensure Union victory and the final destruction of slavery in America. In a larger sense, the regiment help spur America to take huge strides in Blacks reaching equality in the military and beyond.
  • All versions of King Kong. The city is saved from the rampaging monster, but we weep for the monster anyway.
  • Transformers (2007 movie). Sure, Earth is safe, but Cybertron is doomed.
    • In a It Got Worse moment in Dark of The Moon, while the Autobots have defeated the Decepticons once and for all, Chicago AND Cybertron are either heavily demolished or completely erased from existence, Optimus has lost one of his arms and the fact that Sentinal Prime betrayed them still linger.
  • Adam. The titular character gets a job as a tour guide at a space center, allowing him to put all his knowledge of Astronomy to work. On the other hand, he ends up alone while she becomes famous because of a book based on him.
  • The 2007 remake of 3:10 to Yuma ends with Dan Evans dead and Ben Wade voluntarily boarding the prison train. But, because Dan got Ben to the train, the head of the company Ben's gang was robbing has agreed to lavish Dan's family with a small fortune, perpetual deed to their land, and pretty much anything else they might need. And, of course, Ben killed his own gang for their murder of Dan, of whom he'd become quite fond , and is quite likely to escape from the train.
  • By the end of The Proposition, Charlie is forced to shoot his own brother, and -- although there is no denying Arthur deserved worse -- it's still kind of sad. Also, Mikey dies painfully, the Stanleys' Christmas has been ruined, and Fletcher pulled a Karma Houdini.
  • The Wind That Shakes the Barley. Okay, Ireland is free now, but it's more than dogs that have been shot.
  • Somewhere in Time. Richard won the heart of the beautiful Elise. As they cuddle up in bed, making future plans, he looks at a present day coin, which immediately drags him back to the present. He is unable to get back to her, and, deeply depressed stops eating and eventually dies. The sweet part is they meet in the afterlife.
  • Star Trek II the Wrath of Khan ends with Spock making a Heroic Sacrifice that costs him his life (although he returns in the following film).
    • In the following movie, Spock does come back. All it took was the death of Kirk's only son and the destruction of the beloved Enterprise. Oh, yeah, and when the heroes head home, it is virtually guaranteed that at worst, they'll do time in prison, at best, they'll simply be dishonorably kicked out of Starfleet, which they've served all their lives. Come to think of it, Wrath of Khan was downright cheery compared to this.
    • Repeated with Data, in Star Trek: Nemesis.
    • Star Trek: the threat of Nero is banned, but Vulcan, Spock's mom, Kirk's father, and the crew of several starships are still dead, along with most of the Vulcan race.
      • Word of God is that many more Vulcans than the stated 10,000 have survived. Spock likely didn't mention the colonies in his log. After all, Vulcans have been in space for centuries.
  • Cruel Intentions: Redemption Equals Death for the Villain Protagonist; Cry for the Devil for his stepsister antagonist, and all other characters are corrupted for life.
  • The Film of the Book Prince Caspian manages to make the ending -- in which Caspian claims his throne and Narnia is liberated, but the Pevensies must return home, and Peter and Susan learn they can't come back to Narnia again -- rather more bittersweet than that of the book.
    • But this might also be because they added in the Susan/Caspian kiss. This adds a whole other note to the movie, and ultimately the end of the series as well, since Susan's never coming back period.
  • Edward Scissorhands: Retreating to the mansion on the hill, Edward kills Jim to save himself and Kim -- and all he can say to her after this is "Goodbye," knowing he has sealed his fate in the neighborhood below. Her response is a kiss and "I love you" before she leaves. Kim convinces the others Edward was also killed. She moves on with her life, eventually becoming a grandmother, while he peacefully, agelessly lives in the castle once more. The sweet part here is that he somehow still manages to create ice sculptures, and as a result brings snow to the neighborhood (the little flakes of ice that fly about as he carves). Only she knows the significance of this -- it was when he carved the ice angel that she realized she loved him, in a sequence forever referred to as the "ice dance" -- and she always cherishes it.
  • Donnie Darko. The success of Donnie's mission comes at a great cost.
    • To elaborate, Donnie fails to realize he has to stop the stable time loop until his girlfriend dies and he kills Frank and after going back to the past where the movie begins he decides to not get out of bed that morning and in a fit of laughter gets crushed by the plane engine from the future and effectively stopping the time loop but forcing his family to go through his death, inspiring his little sister to run away and go through similar events in S. Darko which has its own bittersweet ending, his girlfriend who was probably the only person to understand him never knowing him, and the guy with the child porn will get away with it and no one even realizes he saved the world. On a brighter note his English teacher doesn't get fired.
  • Seven Samurai. Sure the movie ends with a celebration, but from the view of the surviving members of the original seven it's rather melancholy, considering four of their companions have died their efforts have gone largely unappreciated, and the main romantic storyline ends as quickly as it started with almost no resolution.

Kambei: Again we are defeated. The winners are the villagers, not us.

  • The remake, The Magnificent Seven, also ends with the villagers rejoicing while the warriors mourn their dead, although the romantic storyline ends much more happily than the original.

Chris: Only the farmers won. We lost. We always lose.

  • In the Chinese film Wait 'til You're Older, the protagonist Kwong is able to finally accept his stepmother and mend the rifts in his family. However, because of the aging potion he takes early in the film, he only does all of this on his last day of life after he realizes he has no time left. Also, his romantic storyline ends on a similar note. An elderly Kwong checks on his girlfriend who is waiting for him for a date. She doesn't recognize him and he asks if she will be mad if her boyfriend never shows up. She happily states that she won't, and even if he never shows up, she still has plenty of time in her life to move on.
  • Deep Impact: Despite the fact that the human race is ultimately saved from mass extinction, it comes at the cost of the crew of the ship sent to blow it up, having to sacrifice themselves to destroy it. In addition, tens of millions of people, including several major characters, do die because a large fragment of the comet does still hit the Earth.
  • The Dark Knight: While Joker and Two-Face may have been defeated, Harvey Dent is killed after becoming a raging lunatic, and Batman decides to take the fall for the people he killed as Two-Face in order to prevent the criminals he put away from being released, meaning he's now wanted by the police. Oh, and the love of his life is dead, too, without him knowing that she was planning on marrying another man because she couldn't deal with his double life.
  • Batman Returns: Lampshaded:

Catwoman: Bruce... I would love to live with you in your castle... forever just like in a fairy tale... (scratches Batman's face) But I just couldn't live with myself, so don't pretend this is a happy ending!

  • Schindler's List. Oskar Schindler and the Schindlerjuden make it through the war, but...he could have saved more.
  • Cast Away: Chuck Noland returned to society, but he lost his beloved woman. He is now standing in the middle of crossing (metaphorically and literally), wondering what to do with his "recovered" life.
  • Braveheart ends with the Scottish eventually gaining their freedom from England, as well as Wallace's unborn son set to eventually become the King of England. However, this comes at the cost of Wallace being captured and executed by the English. Of course, this is hardly historical.
  • Serenity ends on a bittersweet note. The Operative has been defeated, the secret of Miranda has been broadcast to the verse, Simon and Kaylee have gotten together, Simon and River may have been taken off the Alliance's wanted list, and River may be showing signs of recovering from her madness. On the other hand, all of the crew's allies are dead, Wash and Book are dead, pregnant Zoe is now a single mother, the Parliament is in uproar, the question of how the verse is going to take the Miranda broadwave is up in the air,
  • Dragonheart ends with victory over the evil man and the knight reclaiming his honor and virtue, but the Draco has to be killed by the main character in order to kill the villain, in a massive Tear Jerker.
    • Plus, since the knight was, prior to meeting the dragon protagonist, a dragon-slayer -- hoping to run into and kill the dragon who gave half its heart to the villain, which he blames for the villain being a Jerkass (when in fact, the guy would've been a Jerkass anyways) -- killing this dragon means that he's killed the last of them. The dragon even explicitly states that he's the very last dragon still alive, due to the knight's efforts.
      • Although the direct to video sequel reveals that Draco being the last dragon is not entirely true.
      • As far as Draco knew, he was the last. Griffin came from China.
  • The Orphanage has much the same sort of ending: when the protagonist finds her son, he is dead; however she wishes to be with him again, and is shown very contentedly reading stories to him and the rest of the ghost children, but only because she became a ghost herself. Her leaving her husband alone is the bitter to this (somewhat macabre but still) sweet.
    • And even he smiles (sadly) when he sort of realizes what happened.
  • Star Wars has several:
    • A somewhat meta-example with Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The bulk of the Jedi Order is wiped out, and the Republic has been replaced by the Empire. Seems like a Downer Ending -- but Revenge of the Sith was purposely filled with more visual shout outs to the Old Trilogy than either of the previous two, and as Binary Sunset plays in the last sequence of the movie, the audience is reminded that the Jedi's new hope with Luke and Leia will be fulfilled and the Skywalker children would put the galaxy right.
    • Meta-example indeed. A downer subverted by finishing I-III and moving to IV-VI. It doesn't hurt that III is probably the best episode of the prequel trilogy in terms of story development, pacing, and the Star Wars feel.
    • Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back: Han's been kidnapped, Luke's hand has been cut off, and the bad guy is the hero's dad.
      • Though seeing as that was a massive Sequel Hook, it doesn't really count.
    • Episode II. Anakin and Padme got together, but he's lost an arm, his mother's dead (prompting the beginning of his fall to the Dark Side), Dooku got away, they don't even know who the Big Bad is yet, and the Clone Wars have begun. Not to mention that he isn't allowed attatchments or marriage in the first place.
    • Episode VII: The Last Jedi: The remains of the rebellion had managed to escape, but Luke Skywalker sacrificed himself for that.
  • The US ending to The Descent has the main character make it out of the cave, but only after going insane, and murdering one of her best friends in a crazy-fueled vengence killing. Everyone else died.
  • The vast majority of horror movies featuring a Final Girl are either this or a Downer Ending automatically. Basically, if it's a bittersweet ending, then only most of the characters die, and the Final Girl lives.
  • The Third Man has the hero shooting his best friend and losing the girl in the process. Of course, it helps that his best friend was a complete sociopath who ran an underground penicillin racket that poisoned countless men, women and children. Suffice it to say the good guy won, but probably wished he'd never wandered into Vienna in the first place.
    • Initially the films screenwriter; the author Graham Greene wanted the hero to get the girl.
      • Which, if you've ever so much as read the blurb for a Graham Greene book seems out of character.
  • The Wrestler seemingly ends on a positive note with Randy finally being able to wrestle again, but thinking it through it becomes increasingly depressing once you realise that Pam has probably given up on him, his own daughter has finally decided to sever all ties with him, and it is heavily implied that he suffers another heart attack after the match.
  • Mirrors has Ben's family saved and the demon tormenting them apparently dead, judging by how its final attempt on their lives was foiled, but Ben himself is trapped in the mirror world, unable to go back to his family.
  • The hero of Gone Baby Gone saves the girl, exposes Morgan Freeman's crimes, and even gets a little public notoreity for it. But he loses his own girlfriend (who wanted him to leave the girl with Morgan Freeman), and ends the movie babysitting the girl while her sucktastic mother goes out on another date without caring for her.
    • Honestly way more of a downer ending because of the realistic implications...so many times I have seen this, so many...bad mom cries wolf, people follow, neglects children once again.
    • Considering that little Amanda was probably better off with Morgan Freeman and that the hero based his decision to return the girl on Helene's promise to change her ways, that she promptly went back on, this is more of a downer ending.
      • The final scene of the movie confirms this when Patrick realizes that Helene didn't even know the name of her daughter's favorite doll.
      • But she still has Patrick there to look out for her.
  • Candyman has Helen managing to save the black baby from the fire and defeat Candyman only to die from the burns.
  • Life Is Beautiful ends with the liberation of the concentration camp by the U.S. Army. Guido's wife and child are saved, but he wasn't so lucky. When the Nazis decided to abandon the camp, they made a final effort to kill all the Jews they could find before they were forced to retreat -- and Guido was one of them, shot offscreen by a nameless guard while leading them away from his family.
  • Streets of Fire: Tom Cody saves his ex, Ellen Aim, from the Bombers, they admit their feelings after Cody admits that a reward was involved for the rescue and get back together, The Bombers' leader Raven challenges Cody to a fight, and Cody wins, but for some reason, Cody lets Ellen go as she performs "Tonight is What It Means to be Young". To be fair, Cody admits at one point that he sucks at romance.
  • Dawn of the Dead. Only two of the four main characters make it out of the mall alive, and as they fly off in their helicopter, they notice that they're pretty low on fuel. Nonetheless, there is hope, one of them is pregnant, and holing up in the mall turns out to have been, ultimately, a good idea.
  • Moulin Rouge!: Yes, Christian finally gets the girl, but then she dies of tuberculosis in his arms onstage during their triumphal performance.
  • John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness. The Sealed Evil in a Can has been driven back and the world has been saved, but in order to do so, the protagonist's love interest had to sacrifice herself and ends up trapped in a parallel universe. In addition, nearly everyone the protagonist knew is dead by the end of the movie.
    • And depending on your interpretation of the ending, the love interest becomes the new Satan or Anti-God, and the protagonist is going to accidentally release her from the other side of the mirror.
  • Sukiyaki Western Django. The two rival clans are defeated, but nearly every single one of the hero's allies (including his potential love interest) is killed by the end.
  • The Terminator. Sarah Connor has survived, and the terminator robot has been destroyed. This means that her messiah-son John Connor will be born, and (as this appears to be a deterministic time loop) the eventual victory of humanity over the machines is guaranteed. But Kyle Reese, whom Sarah had loved (albeit briefly) is dead, and both Sarah and John will still have to face the ordeal of living through the coming nuclear holocaust and fighting a bitter war against the machines. Sarah has victory, but she will likely have no peace in her lifetime.
  • The movie Lorenzo's Oil ends with the title character's parents' efforts directly leading to a successful treatment for their son's terminal disease. However, while the movie ends with a montage of all the little boys who now can have full lives (instead of being trapped in their bodies and dead by age 8), Lorenzo himself, and many of the other boys in the movies, are too far gone for the treatment to fix the damage.
  • Wilde ends with Oscar and Bosie finally reuniting after Oscar's stint in prison, during which he "knew" that they could never see each other again. Still, his wife is dead, he is quite convinced that no one will ever again read or perform his work because of his disgrace, and he can never see his sons again. If you add the note before the credits that tells us what happened to them next, saying that Oscar and Bosie parted ways again just four months later, you could call it a Downer Ending. But then you consider the fact that we do still read and perform Oscar Wilde's work to this day...
  • The original ending (preserved in the director's cut) of The Butterfly Effect ended with Evan successfully using his mom's home movies to jump back to when he was born, and strangling himself as a fetus. It then shows the results of his actions -- Kaylee doesn't fall in love with Evan; thus, she and Tommy go to their mom's house after the divorce, so Kaylee is never abused and Tommy never becomes psychopathic; the blockbuster event never happens, so Lenny grows up normal and marries Kaylee, and everyone lives happily ever after. And all the side effects of previous meddling, like Kaylee's prostitution, Evan's mother's lung cancer, and Tommy's death never happen. It's implied that this may be the reason the prior babies were stillbirths.
    • Was this ending bittersweet or just silly?
    • Still the ending that was used in the film not much better. Evan manages to allow everyone to have a normal life and live. But at the cost of breaking ties with Kaylee before they even become friends due to his last time jump.
  • Dirty Harry. Theoretically we should be feeling triumphant that Callahan has finally blown away Scorpio. Instead we get a muted, melancholic soundtrack and Callahan disgustedly tossing his badge into the river.
    • Although given that he remains a cop in all four sequels, there may be something to Clint Eastwood's theory that there was a long rubber band attached to the badge.
  • Summer of '42 has Hermie going back to Dorothy's house the day after they spent the night together, only to find a note informing him that she's left for good. In voiceover narration, the adult Hermie mentions that he never saw her again or learned what became of her, and notes that his experiences of that summer basically spelled the end of his childhood innocence. Still, he did get laid.
  • The Others: On the one hand, everyone's a ghost because Grace killed her children & then herself in a fit of madness. On the other hand, at least the kids can walk in the sun now and there's no more reason for fear.
  • District 9. Wikus, it's implied, is completely transformed into a Prawn, and is stuck in the filthy, crime-ridden slums with the other aliens, unable to communicate with the outside world beyond leaving little hand-crafted tokens for his wife. However, Christopher and his son escaped to the mothership and are going back to their home planet, where they will return in three years time to transform Wikus back and free their people...
  • Dead Poets Society: Todd and the other boys supported Keating and all that, but Neil is still dead, Charlie/Nuwanda is still expelled, and Keating still has to leave. It makes it seem kind of pointless, if touching. Was a Tear Jerker as well.
  • In the first Spider-Man film, Peter manages to save MJ and all the children, but Norman Osborn is dead, Harry blames Spider-Man for it, and Peter realizes that he cannot be with MJ because of the risk his lifestyle poses to her. In the third film, Peter reconciles with MJ and puts his vengeance to rest, but Harry dies, albeit while the two acknowledge their friendship. The second film has a happier ending, although Doctor Octopus got Redemption Equals Death.
  • At the end of The Matrix trilogy, the human race is saved to continue their (albeit bleak) existence, at the cost of Neo and Trinity's lives.
    • Bleak is right, considering that the entire human race was awoken from a fantasy world in order to rebuild society (if it is even possible). And with all those metal things on their backs, too.
      • Not the entire human race, not by a long shot. The final dialogue establishes that those willing to be freed will no longer be haunted by Agents and Sentinels, but that's about it. And the Architect scene in Reloaded showed that only about 1% of Humans will accept the truth, meaning that the rest will remain within The Matrix.
        • However, the Matrix will need to be slowly dismantled if the humans shut down the "fields" and the blue-pills remaining start to die off.
  • Pirates of the Caribbean. At the end of the third film the battle is won and the lovers are finally wed, but at what cost? Lives are lost, the Golden Age of Piracy is over, Elizabeth is basically widowed and, depending on whether or not you take into account the after-the-credits clip, doomed to single motherhood and Jack loses his ship to Barbossa and may now be permanently off his rocker. Again. Verbinski really did do his best to kill the franchise...
    • According to Word of God, Elizabeth was faithful to Will all these years, and Will did the job he was supposed to. This means that, after 10 years, they can be together. Yes, she was a single mother for 10 years, but they will have the rest of their lives together.
    • The fourth film ends with Jack and Gibbs finding the Pearl trapped in a bottle by a voodoo spell and knows how to "extract" it. On the other hand, Barbossa is now in command of a voodoo-powered ship, and Angelica finds the voodoo doll of Jack (whom she blames for her father's death).
  • The ending of Sunshine shows that the Icarus II succeeded in its mission. Unfortuately, the whole crew died in the process.
  • The Chocolate War: The key reason why fans of the book tend to dislike the film adaptation. The film differs from the book by finally giving Archie his comeuppance (Archie having to participate in the boxing match instead of Janza). While Jerry wins, he learns shortly afterwards that his actions were not of his own free will, but he ultimately gave into the school's expectations.
  • The Blues Brothers complete their Mission from God and save the St Helen of the Blessed Shroud orphanage, seconds before being arrested and sent to prison for trashing half of Illinois. The worst part is that the band gets incarcerated too, despite having almost nothing to do with the property destruction. It's all Played for Laughs, but still.
  • Inglourious Basterds. Hitler and the rest of the Nazi high command are dead, the war is likely over, and Brad Pitt gets a true Crowning Moment of Awesome preventing a Karma Houdini. However that's with almost all the Basterds dead, and perhaps worst of all, not only is the true heroine Shoshanna and her lover dead, but they will never be remembered in history as the ones who gave their lives to bring down the Third Reich.
  • Deepa Mehta's Water. Kalyani drowns herself in the Ganges and who knows if Chuyia's going to be okay... but at least the little girl has the possibility of a life outside the ashram, and India is on its way to independence.
  • Stand by Me. Gordie manages to escape his father's toxic influence and become a writer, but drifts away from his childhood friends Teddy and Verne. Chris works hard and gets through the advanced classes at school with Gordie, but is stabbed to death trying to stop a fight.
    • That's literally a third of the Bittersweet Ending in the novella "The Body", on which the movie's based. Not only does Chris get stabbed in the throat as an adult, Vern dies in a house fire six years after the events of the novella, and Teddy is the drunk driver who gets himself and a few others killed in an accident. Granted, Chris's death is the most tragic given his family background and the struggle he gave to overcome his seemingly set-in-stone fate.
  • The Silence of the Lambs. The Complete Monster is slain and his victim saved, but in the process an arguably bigger monster has been unleashed and now bides his time in the darkness, stalking the heroine he has developed an unhealthy fixation for.
  • Milk ends with the senseless assassination of Harvey Milk, which would make for a Downer Ending if not for the candlelight vigil and his voiceover of his inspiring words. Realizing how many people he touched and inspired and changed things for keeps it from being totally depressing.
  • In Finding Neverland, Sylvia dies from her illness, but Peter Pan is a success, Peter starts writing again, and Emma finally accepts James' presence in the lives of her grandchildren.
  • In Von Ryan's Express, where the escapees successfully escape to Switzerland after a big gun fight, although at the cost of the main character's life.
  • Léon: The Professional. Stansfield is dead and Mathilda finally avenges her family after going through hell to do it, but Leon is also dead.
  • The ending of the 1998 film Merlin fulfills every single one of the above criteria, except for the villain escaping bit, with such highlights as Merlin losing everyone he loved, passing into obscurity and eventually becoming a beggar who tells stories for money, the true king and wielder of Excalibur dead, and his love interest being trapped forever. Even the destruction of Mab and the Old Ways isn't much of a victory, given that it results in the death of Magic and all the magical peoples that Mab was trying to save with the exception of Frik and the Rock of Ages. However, the time of darkness comes to an end at last in the epilogue. It is made somewhat less bittersweet in the last few scenes, where it is revealed that Nimue is still alive and was released from Mab's spells, and Merlin uses the last of his magic to restore their youth so that they can finally live out their lives together.
    • The direct-to-video sequel brings back Merlin... only to kill him.
  • Monty Python's Life of Brian has a very different one, which could be considered an inversion. Going by what actually happens, there's no question that it's a Downer Ending--but it really doesn't feel like one.
  • Richard Lester's Robin and Marian ends by a Romeo-and-Juliet-like death: Marian drinks poison and gives some to Robin, who had been just badly injured by the Sherif he killed.
  • The Wild Geese: The villainous Matheson is killed, but Limabni and most of the mercenaries who fought alongside Faulkner are dead, including his friends.
  • "My name is Clément Mathieu, failed musician, unemployed supervisor." The only thing stopping this from being a complete downer is the audience's knowledge of Morhange's glittering future career and the final scene, in which Pépinot meets Mathieu where the bus stops, and leaves the orphanage with him.
  • The Graduate ends with such a subtle one of these that it was actually misinterpreted as being too idyllic abroad. With two characters silently adopting So What Do We Do Now? expressions as they presumably ride off into the sunset, it's easy to miss the fact they're both coming to the realization they have no means of supporting themselves, no plan, no future, and will inevitably have to go back in shame.
  • Close Encounters of the Third Kind: The abductees are freed, including little Barry, who is reunited safely with his mother Jillian, and the government officials accept the aliens as peaceful visitors. On the other hand, Roy leaves his wife and kids behind to join the aliens on their travels, and a good number of the abductees will soon come to the realization that everyone they ever knew or loved are dead.
  • I Am Legend The main character sacrifices his life by taking a grenade to take down the creatures to save the two other survivors of the plague, who venture out and find a safe sancturary of survivors.
    • Only in the theatrical cut. In the original DVD cut of the film, It Gets Worse: The protagonist realises that the creatures are sentient, and that in his goal to find a cure, he's become their boogeyman, a figure who creeps into their lairs while they sleep, abducts people, performs experiments on them and kills them. He and the kids leave Manhattan to the creatures and the audience feels a bit icky about having liked this guy for two hours. This is based on the book, and so considered the "real" ending by those who know. It's what the title means, that the hero is definitely a legend - a legendary murderous monster from the past world who commits horrifying atrocities while you sleep. Humans Are Cthulhu at its best.
  • Blade Runner: It's too bad she won't live! But then again, who does? Sweet if only for the themes of acceptance it implies, and ultimately better than the original cut.
  • The Social Network. Facebook is ultimately a wildly successful company. Mark settles his lawsuits and is still the world's youngest billionaire. But he ends up alone, having driven away one friend and been duped by another. He faces the realization that his problems are largely his fault.
  • Philadelphia. Andrew Beckett wins his case against his former employers. Unfortunately, his illness intensifies and he collapses towards the end of the trial-meaning he is unable to be present when the jury rules in his favor-and he dies shortly after its conclusion.
  • In Love Actually, Karen and her husband Harry decide to continue on with their marriage, even after she discovered he was emotionally cheating on her and she may not fully trust him again. Despite harbouring feelings for Juliet (and making them known to her), Mark pulls a I Want My Beloved to Be Happy and may never be truly over her. Sarah and Karl realize that their relationship can't work with Sarah's mentally ill brother always taking priority. But the rest of the couples and families fought for their happiness and got it.
  • Red Dawn: At the end, we find that the war came to an end, but almost all the Wolverines are dead, and almost nobody remembers their sacrifices.
  • The Fugitive: Richard Kimble has cleared his name and caught those responsible for his wife's murder, but when all is said and done, he can never bring her back. And can ever really rebuild his life and career after everything he's been through?
  • Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind provides an excellent example of this, as Joel and Clementine break up but then have their memories of each other erased, only to meet again, discover that they'd already been in a relationship and then choose to begin the relationship again even though it's implied that they're doomed to eventually break up a second time. The ending also serves as a perfect example of So What Do We Do Now?.
  • 50 First Dates. Henry does get the girl, and the two sail off to Alaska, married and soon to be parents, but Lucy never does regain her short-term memory, and has to make do with receiving a video recap of everything that has happened since the accident when she wakes up each morning. Very much an Esoteric Happy Ending.
  • True Grit (2010): Mattie ultimately gets her revenge on Chaney, and Rooster and LaBoeuf manages to kill the elusive Ned Pepper and his posse, but Mattie loses her arm to a rattlesnake bite. Fast foward 25 years, and Mattie has turned into a caustic old woman, Rooster died before they could meet again, and she hasn't heard from LaBeuf since the shootout with Pepper's gang. Can be seen as a Downer Ending depending on how content you think Mattie is, or how badly thinks ultimately turned out.
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Ring is destroyed, the Hobbits are honoured, and return to the Shire. But Frodo is changed forever for his burden of the ring. Bilbo never realizes what the ring was, it was just his old ring, lost. So many lives were lost, cities destroyed and emotions scarred. The music as the ships leave, the song for the ending credits, all contributes to a powerful bittersweet ending to the trilogy.
  • Winter's Bone: Ree saves the family home and gets a fat chunk of cash in the process. However, her father is dead, she's left to raise her siblings alone, and her uncle will probably get himself killed while taking revenge.
  • Arguably, Dagon has one of these as everyone Paul loves is dead, but at last Paul knows his true heritage and can go live in beauty under the sea as a Deep One forever.
    • Though as always with works inspired by the Cthulhu Mythos, it's safe to say that the rest of the planet is screwed.
  • Tron: Legacy has Kevin making a Heroic Sacrifice, but Clu has been defeated and Quorra got to see a sunset and is able to bring what Flynn originally wanted into the real world, as well as Sam making peace with his father.
  • The Shawshank Redemption, anyone? Brooks and Tommy are dead. Andy wasn't exonerated, and Blatch still got away with his crimes. Red is violating his parole by going to Mexico to meet Andy outside of jail, and they are probably both on the run from the law and in no position to turn to it should anything happen. However, Norton did get exposed as a crook, and ended up shooting himself; Hadley got arrested for his role in the murder of Tommy; and at the very end of the movie, Andy and Red finally get to enjoy their friendship outside of jail, which surely must be refreshing for them. It is for the audience.
  • Thor ends with Thor putting a stop to Loki's plans, making amends with his father and regaining his powers. However the Bifrost Bridge was destroyed and Thor is now separated from Jane and Earth indefinitely until she manages to open a bridge to Asgard. Also, Loki is alive and well on Earth and making a grab for the Cosmic Cube. But the ending credits tells the audience that Thor will be joining the Avengers.
  • Godzilla vs. Destoroyah. On the one hand, Destoroyah has been killed by the JSDF and Junior has mutated into a full-grown Godzilla. On the other, Godzilla's dead and there's a good chance the radiation he emitted from his meltdown has wiped out a good percentage of Japan's population.
  • In Bodyguards and Assassins, the Bodyguards succeed in drawing attention from Sun Yat-sen long enough for him to detail the coming revolution against the Qing Dynasty, but at the cost of almost everyone's lives. At least most of them get to go down fighting.
  • Mystery Team. Yes, they'll always be together... but at the expense of a man's testicles.
  • The Children's Hour has a very Bittersweet Ending, which can easily come off as a Downer Ending to a lot of people. The lie has been exposed and Mary is punished. However Martha's and Karen's lives are forever ruined, they can probably never be teachers again, their reputations are tarnished, Karen's fiancée dumped her, Martha has a case of Incompatible Orientation towards Karen, and to top it all off Martha commits suicide.
  • Stahlnetz, a German series of Made for TV crime films, consists entirely of those. Here some:
    • The Witness: the innocent man is proven innocent, but his marriage is still ruined. The murder is solved: the culprit is a 12-years-old girl, who will now go to psychiatric ward for years and then "return to the life she hated so much she became a murderer". Not really enlighting.
    • The Peeper: The rapist is caught and receives BIG prison time, but his victim is likely broken forever, and the detective's family is in shambles.
    • Glas Paradise: most criminals are caught and two boys are rescued, but the third one is killed, and the Big Bad escaped (though he is out of business and lost most of his fortune)
    • even the most happy episode, PSI, is not completely happy. Sure: the girl is rescued, her kidnappers are captured, and she seems to be not THAT traumatised by what happened. However, the latter is partially because she is an outcast in her family (so that she bonds with the second kidnapper much more than with her family, and the police was seriously asking whether she actually ran away), and this is unlikely to change in the long run. And the aforementioned second kidnapper (who is actually a caring father, and was only doing this on behest of his brother) got an (almost literal) Deadly Change-of-Heart, and will now go to jail. Still, this is the most happy film of all.
  • In The Warriors, most of the gang, along with Mercy, manage to make it back to Coney Island, bruised and injured but alive, and their names cleared as the Riffs learn the truth and exact their revenge on the Rogues. However, Swan is shown to be disillusioned as he gazes at their neighborhood when they manage to return, Ajax has been arrested, and Cleon and Fox are dead.
  • In Real Life and the movie, the Apollo 13 mission was called a "successful failure" by NASA, in that astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert returned to Earth safely, but did not land on the moon as originally intended.
  • Mad Max 2: The people from the refinery escape from the marauders, and make it to the coast where they live in peace. However, Max finds out that he was just a decoy - the tanker that he thought was full of fuel, and that he risked his life to drive, was full of sand. The fuel was stored in the refinery peoples' vehicles. When we last see Max, he is alone in the desert.
  • Airheads: Chazz and his band serve 3 months in prison, but they get a record contract.
  • Ghost: With a little help from Oda Mae, Sam saves his girlfriend Molly from his colleague Carl, also bringing an end to the money laundering he was behind, and he finally gets to tell Molly he loves her. But after all is said and done, he's dead and can never come back.
  • In Alien Cargo, Chris and Theta manage to safe most of their crewmates by transporting them over to the Dolphin, but they can’t be rescued themselves due to the severity of the contamination threat. They mark the ship as a biohazard threat, and drift off to die.
  • In Captain America: The First Avenger, the world is saved from Red Skull and World War 2 was won by the Allies but Steve Rogers wakes up seventy years into the future with the people and the life that he knew gone. "I... had a date..."
  • Armageddon stands as one of the more popular "hero dies to save the world" examples in recent years (if you consider 1998 recent, anyway). Of course, one could consider the real "bitter" part of the ending to be Bruce Willis being the one who gets killed off instead of Ben Affleck.
  • Planet Terror. The zombie plague destroys most of the world but Cherry leads the few survivors to the Mexican coast which is humanity's last stronghold.
  • Rory O'Shea Was Here has one of the main characters gain his independence and open his eyes to a new empowered life. The other one, however, dies of Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
  • The Soviet war film Only Old Men Are Going To Battle focuses on the lives of Soviet fighter pilots during World War Two and ends with many key characters killed during one dogfight or another. The protagonist, the base commander (played by the director), actually survives. Also, the film ends on a hopeful note, as the Germans have been nearly pushed out of Soviet territory. The protagonist's best friend (who has been melancholic for a long time) regains his youthful vigor... only to get shot down during the next battle. The film ends with a character nicknamed Romeo (for his relationship with a female bomber navigator named Masha), who was a rookie at the start of the film but is now one of the "Old Men" (i.e. veterans), landing his damaged fighter but dying from injuries. As the protagonist is preparing to deliver the news to his Love Interest, he receives news that Masha's bomber was shot down as well.
  • Fitzcarraldo's business plan failed. However, he made it out with his life and (while needing repair) the boat he got a loan for. He also proved that his crazy idea could have worked, and was able in some capacity to stage an opera at Iquitos. Generally, the feeling is that a dreamer is never distracted from the next dream for long (for better or worse).
  • The ending of Pom Poko. Their attempts at driving off the housing development unsucessful, the surviving Tanuki who can transform do so and join the human world, leaving those who can't to a short life of scavenging. However, the public televised appeal some of Tanuki made to humanity at least kept the situation from becoming much worse. The final scene sees a small group of them singing and dancing joyfully on an empty golf-course, all that remains of their forest home. Even the song that plays over the credits is bittersweet.
  • Princess Mononoke: Ashitaka (permanently healed of The Corruption) and San fall in love, but they do not get together because San is unable to forgive other humans. Ashitaka promises to stay close enough to see San on a regular basis. Oh, and Irontown and the forest are both destroyed (though the forest is getting better...).
    • Despite Irontown being destroyed. The inhabitants decide to start anew, this time being closer to nature rather then opposing it.
  • Cars: McQueen is beaten by Chick Hicks and fails to win the final race, the Radiator Springs residents redeem themselves, and Strip Weathers is off the track. McQueen, the now-repaired Strip, and his wife move into Radiator Springs for the rest of their lives.
  • Spirited Away: It's implied that Chihiro won't remember her adventures in the Spirit world, just like she didn't really remember Kohaku, or already thinks it was All Just a Dream. The English dub either leaves that part out or implies that she has kept the strength she gained over the course of her adventure. (There is a limit to how much bittersweetness Disney will tolerate.)
    • Even in the Japanese version, there's a possibility that her memories could be unlocked given the right stimulus, just as Haku's were when she told him his real name. This looks especially likely when you remember that Haku promised her that he'd look for her, and that the family appear to have lost several days if not weeks by the time they return to the car.
  • Sky Blue. Sure, Ecoban falls, but Jay will almost certainly die, and Woody isn't in great shape either. Oh, and they were wrong about Gibraltar.
  • Once Upon a Forest: The Furlings manage to make it back in time to save Michelle, some humans clean away the remaining poison, the inhabitants of Dapplewood come back and the Furlings are reunited with their families. However, the plantlife of Dapplewood is still damaged , and some of the animals had been killed by the poisonous gas (including Michelle's parents).
  • Genesis of Aquarion: Apollo and Silvia finally resolve their series-long bout of Will They or Won't They?... only for Apollo to then go and sacrifice himself to save the world. At least the promise of Reincarnation Romance gives it a more hopeful spin than other such endings...though it will take around 12000 years for that to happen, apparently.
  • Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within ends with the world saved, and the Phantoms at peace, but the entire cast save for two characters dead.
    • Also consider the Epileptic Trees regarding the fate of Aki's child, whose life may or may not have been forfeit in order to create the Eighth Spirit.
  • Disney:
    • Pinocchio: Pinocchio becomes a real boy, but how about all the kids that became donkeys? They're still donkeys.
    • Make Mine Music: In the final segment Willie the Whale is harpooned, but now he's in heaven, FREE to sing to his heart's content.
    • In The Jungle Book, Mowgli leaves for the man-village, and is now with his people. Baloo is absolutely heartbroken, with Bagheera reassuring him that Mowgli is safer now. In the end, Baloo and Bagheera stroll away into the sunset, singing a reprise of "The Bare Necessities".
    • In The Fox and the Hound, Todd and Copper manage to resolve a grievance fierce enough for the hound and his hunter guardian to trespass into a nature preserve to kill Todd. However, the two childhood friends will never be able to see each other again, but at least Todd has Vixey to console him. And to make the ending sadder, they play audio clips of young Tod and Copper over the scene.
      • This is softened a bit by the sequel 'cause, well, he does see them again.
    • Pocahontas: The conflict between the Powhatan tribe and British settlers has died down. Chief Powhatan has accepted his daughter's love for an outsider. The British settlers come to see that Governor Ratcliffe was the only one really in the wrong. But also, John Smith was shot trying to protect Chief Powhatan from Ratcliffe, forcing him to return to England and leave Pocahontas behind. The lovers wave goodbye to each other with the strong possibility they may never see each other again.
      • They eventually do see each other again in the direct-to-video sequel. John Smith is well. But by that point, Pocahontas has fallen IN LOVE with someone else.
    • The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Quasimodo didn't win Esmeralda's heart, but Esmeralda survived and is happy with Phoebus. And, of course, the people of Paris finally accept Quasimodo as one of their own.
    • The Princess and the Frog: Ray is Killed Off for Real, but he is Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence, as he's seen appearing as a new star next to his star lover Evangeline. And at least Tiana and Naveen get together.
  • 9 ends with The Fabrication Machine finally being destroyed, and 1, 2, 5, 6, and 8's souls being released from the Talisman, so they're finally at peace. But the world is still badly messed up, and the remaining Stitchpunks aren't sure what's left. And the microbe-like creatures in the rain imply that they might've somehow restored life. Probably.
  • Toy Story 3: The toys now have a new owner, but they have lost many of their friends to yard sales, donations, and breaking, and will probably never see Andy again
    • Toy Story 4 ends with Woody deciding to stay with Bo Peep...because Bonnie had outgrown him by that point. Everyone else gets to stay with Bonnie though, however.
  • The old Rankin Bass christmas special |Jack Frost. It's about the titular magic spirit trying to become human because he fell in love with a girl. But to be human he needs a horse, a home, gold, and a wife. He manages to find all of those in the process of freeing the town from the evil tyrant, but couldn't get the girl to fall in love with him, and she ends up marrying someone else. It ends with him simply returning to the heavens and abandoning becoming a human.
  • In The Secret of Kells, the wall did not manage to keep the Vikings out, and there were numerous casualties. Brendan, Pangur, and Brother Aidan managed to escape the carnage and the Book of Kells was finished years later, but during this time Brother Aidan died of old age, and the Abbot believed Brendan was dead for several years. He and Brendan are finally reunited in the last scene of the movie, however, but despite the fact that Aisling may or may not be able to return to her human form, it's quite likely she and Brendan will never see each other again.
    • ...Except that she did turn into her human form when Brenden returned.
  • In The Last Unicorn, the last unicorn (Amalthea) finds and frees her fellows, but at a price. As a human, the Lady Amalthea falls in love with Prince Lír. Returned to her immortal form, she can no longer stay with him (or even feel love anymore), so she leaves both her love and her two human friends behind to return to her home in the lilac wood. Even sadder, however, because she has experienced love, aging, and regret—experiences foreign to "pure" unicorns—she is no longer as innocent and aloof as others of her kind, separating her even from her own species. And yet, as sad as these things may be, she thanks Schmendrick for them. It is a good thing to have known love.
  • A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon: Lu-La the alien puppy is successfully returned to her parents...but going back with them means saying goodbye to Shaun the Sheep and his friends who helped her get back home in the first place. Of course, considering how easily her parents were able to return the farmer back home after he made the mistake of entering their ship to use the restroom, it wouldn't exactly be hard for Lu-La to see her friends again...but it's still bittersweet.
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