21 Hollywood Happy Endings (That Were Not Happy At All)

The goal of a film's conclusion is to bring everything together into a tidy little bundle that leaves us feeling warm, cozy and satisfied. However, when you examine the "life-affirming" as well as "happy" endings among most major movies, you'll see that there are many sad ends to pleasant films. Many misinterpreted films are childhood classics about a young person that goes through a difficult experience and emerges transformed for the better.

It's unfortunate because the main characters in your favorite movies have awful trauma swarming about in the back of their minds. When you see a movie in that light, the endings can actually be quite dismal.

A "Hollywood ending" is that ridiculous moment in a novel when everything comes together perfectly, the protagonists all live happily ever after, and the villain settles into his new life as a strange stain on the sidewalk. In reality, things rarely go as planned. When you think about it, they don't go well in movies either.