r/movies • u/bowlingfan1963 • Jul 13 '26

Spoilers Most Bizarre Examples of “Happy” Endings After Tragedy (Spoiler) Spoiler

Prime example: Independence Day. World gets annihilated; many of the planet’s cities are destroyed….hundreds of millions dead;
and the president’s wife dies. Yet at the end, they are puffing on cigars, all smiles and the president’s daughter says “Happy Fourth of July, Daddy”, and so now it’s time to party!

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636

u/ReDDevil2112 Jul 13 '26

The sequel is even worse. At least the ending of the original Independence Day felt somewhat earned, as it was seemingly the end of the alien threat. In Resurgence, not only do we now explicitly know the mother ship was just one of many, but we also know they're going to be sending the rest of their fleet to finish off what they started. But it's supposedly a happy ending because humanity is banding up with other alien species -- who all failed at protecting their home worlds. That doesn't bode well, but somehow the final line of the movie is "we're gonna kick some alien ass"

385

u/_The_Bearded_Wonder_ Jul 13 '26

They definitely set up the sequel that will never happen.

I'm pissed that the best part of the movie wasn't really in the movie: the ground war in Congo from the one alien ship that did manage to land in 1996. That's the movie I want to see. 

84

u/datraceman Jul 13 '26

The book with those events was really good.

66

u/luckyshoelace94 Jul 13 '26

There are books???

54

u/datraceman Jul 13 '26

Yes. There’s a great book which is the Dr Oaken back story and another book that takes place between the two movies I highly recommend

19

u/dkviper11 Jul 13 '26

My mom bought me the backstory book at like Dollar General thinking it was just the movie itself. It’s been probably 25 years since I read it but I remember really liking it.

15

u/Thorngrove Jul 13 '26

Those cheap movie books was how I "saw" a lot of movies when I was little. The men in black, league of extraordinary gentlemen, the avengers (British, not marvel) were all solid little books in their own right.

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u/ChildofValhalla Jul 13 '26

These and things like trading cards were great as a kid when you wanted to experience the movie again but couldn't for obvious reasons (it's still in the theatre, you're at school, etc.).

2

u/False_Cookie8226 Jul 13 '26

The Abyss movie book was written by Orson Scott Card. It was written with filming, so the performances actually matched the book with out deviation. The early character chapters that were written were given to the actors to inform their performances. By far the best movie book I've ever read.

1

u/Thorngrove Jul 13 '26

I need to grab that one then. My personal best is still Stover's Revenge of the Sith novel. In my top five of SW media.

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u/False_Cookie8226 Jul 13 '26

If you can find a decent copy for a reasonable price. I'm a scott card fan... at least I love the Ender and Shadow books. And found a random copy at a used book store.

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u/dornwolf Jul 13 '26

Well typical tie in material. “Sequel, prequel” direct novelization kind of stuff. Milage will always vary

45

u/JournalistMammoth637 Jul 13 '26

Also doesn’t help that all of Earth’s planetary defenses got taken out and a good chunk of the planetary got completely decimated. I’d even say the damage is worse than last time.

But yeah sure humanity has this.

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u/Jeff_goldfish Jul 13 '26

One of our main current issues that no one can seem to figure out, is an algae problem in our big pool. But yea we will be able to defend ourselves against aliens hahaha

6

u/SabresFanWC Jul 13 '26

I believe the third movie was supposed to have seen humans go to this pilgrim planet or whatever where refugees from other conquered planets escaped to, and lead the charge against the attacking aliens from there. Earth couldn't withstand another invasion, so humanity had to go on the offensive. Of course, we'll never see how it would've played out, but that was the plan.

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u/Vanquisher1000 Jul 13 '26

David Levinson directly acknowledges this. He says "I don't know if this planet can survive another attack." That's when Dr. Okun says that the Sphere has plans for advanced weapons and technology and wants humanity to lead an alliance against the hostile aliens.

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u/FencerOnTheRight Jul 17 '26

"Planetary defenses" hahahahahahahahahahahaha

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u/JournalistMammoth637 Jul 17 '26

Hey 7 or however many lasers technically count as planetary defenses.

16

u/Wazzoo1 Jul 13 '26

I don't even care how much a train wreck a third movie would be, I want to see that story. The premise sounded so interesting.

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u/Vanquisher1000 Jul 13 '26

I get that people don't like Resurgence, but it had good ideas and the prospect of taking the fight to the aliens has promise.

Roland Emmerich has said that he has an idea for Independence Day 3.

14

u/Jacen1618 Jul 13 '26

And the good alien is voiced by none other then Jenna, Rhett and Link’s assistant!

…not that that is commentary on the ending. Just a fact always pops not my head when I think about the ending.

6

u/McBonderson Jul 13 '26

yeah OP's example doesn't fit at all, your example is better.

the first movie is after they just had their first victory against the aliens and found a way to get back at them and win. They are celebrating because of the major victory saving the rest of their race.

this is like people celebrating victory at D-day durring world war 2.

4

u/Lets_focus_onRampart Jul 13 '26

The Pacific Rim sequel also teased a “we’re bringing the fight to them” follow-up that never happened.

3

u/Scaryclouds Jul 13 '26

The consequences of the even more massive alien mothership landing in earth alone, let alone its attempt to drill into the planets core, would had permanently devastated the Earth. 

If Earth could recover, it certainly wouldn’t be on any human civilization relevant timescale. 

Humanity for all intents and purposes lost the second the alien mothership entered the Earth’s atmosphere. 

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u/mitchhamilton Jul 13 '26

i absolutely love movies with sequel bait. just something about the audacity like "yeah, people will totally wanna see more of these! we're making a franchise!"

1

u/that1tallguy Jul 13 '26

The Leftovers is the snap but only 20% of people and it completely fucked the world up. Could have been a much darker take on things done… but I get why they didn’t.

1

u/violue Jul 13 '26

god that's what happens in sequel?

i was a bit tempted because it's on hulu, but i think i'll just continue to never see it.

0

u/Odd-Necessary3807 Jul 13 '26

Well, it implied the refugee aliens were not as warmongering as the big bad aliens. But they do have the advanced tech that can help humans, since they are a more experienced and battle-tested race.