Many times it ends with a happy ending. But it also happens that films end badly. Some directors want to end their films on a sad and pessimistic note. Here are a few examples, but many more films can be added to the list.
Seven
This very dark thriller is one of the first big successes of Brad Pitt who co-stars with Morgan Freeman.
In this film, young Inspector Mills (Pitt) works with his colleague Somerset (Freeman), a disillusioned old cop. They investigate a series of particularly atrocious murders inspired by the 7 deadly sins.
And although the killer surrendered to the two police officers, he still wins the game. Before surrendering, he murdered Mills’ pregnant wife, before sending them her head, because he envied the latter’s ordinary and orderly life. He then himself embodies the 6th sin (envy).
Mad with rage and grief, Mills unleashes his anger by shooting the killer several times. In doing so, he embodies the 7th sin (anger), thus completing the work of the serial killer. Mills is then immediately arrested.
Troy
We find Brad Pitt who plays Achilles, the Greek warrior, who seeks to capture the city of Troy with Agamemnon and Ulysses.
At the end of the film, thanks to the horse’s trickery, the Greek army succeeds in entering the city. The soldiers massacre, rape, pillage and burn everything they find. The good king Priam is himself (cowardly) killed by Agamemnon.
The latter is then himself killed by Briseis, a Trojan princess with whom Achille has fallen in love. And it is just after saving her from the other Greek soldiers that Achille is in turn killed by Paris to avenge the death of his brother Hector.
So almost all the main characters die, and an entire town is wiped off the map…for nothing. Beautiful illustration of the madness of men.
The Dark Knight
In this film, Batman fights crime in Gotham with the help of Commissioner Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent. They notably deal with the Joker, played superbly by actor Heath Ledger (RIP), who sows chaos in the city.
And again, the bad guy wins, even if he is arrested at the end. During the film, the Joker managed to change the personality of Prosecutor Dent, making him a frenzied assassin.
Upset by the murder of his fiancée by the Joker, Dent allows himself to be manipulated by the latter who tells him that the real people responsible for his misfortune are the corrupt police and the underworld. He therefore assassinates the crooked cops and gangsters one by one and even attempts to murder Gordon’s son.
Knowing that when the truth about Dent comes to light, the population of the city will lose hope and sink into anarchy and chaos, as the Joker wanted, who therefore wins the game.
To prevent this, Batman and Gordon decide to lie by hiding the deceased Dent’s crimes from everyone. And so, it is Batman who accuses himself of the murders.
the Revenant
In this western, Leonardo DiCaprio plays a trapper, Hugh Glass, who struggles with his group pursued by Indians.
During the film, Glass’s son is killed by one of his companions, Fitzgerald, played by Tom Hardy. Abandoned by his family, Glass fights against the wilderness to find the man who killed his son.
At the end of the film, he finds him again. After a bloody fight, Glass had the upper hand but ultimately chose not to kill Fitzgerald, letting the Indians do it.
Glass now realizes that nothing connects him to life since he has lost everything (his son, his wife). The only thing that gave him the strength to continue living was his thirst for revenge. But now that it is accomplished, he has nothing left and he collapses.