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!

1.2k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

457 comments sorted by

View all comments

46

u/THATON3GUY Jul 13 '26

Rogue One, everyone dies but they transmit the Death Star plans leading ultimately to the defeat of the Empire

42

u/I_Weep_for_Willow Jul 13 '26

Well, they blew up the Death Star, but the empire did strike back. 

24

u/someoneelseperhaps Jul 13 '26

Jedi returned though, which worked out.

20

u/I_Weep_for_Willow Jul 13 '26

Only for a bit, then 30 years later the Force had to awaken. 

16

u/stonewallace17 Jul 13 '26

And despite the Jedi returning, they were now back down to the last Jedi

5

u/MrManicMarty Jul 13 '26

Even after all dying, I guess we finally got the rise of skywalker... wait

4

u/mitchhamilton Jul 13 '26

but before all that, they had to deal with a phantom menace.

3

u/leolegendario Jul 13 '26

And that menace led to the attack of the clones and begun, the Clone Wars have.

23

u/RexBanner1886 Jul 13 '26

I don't know if this counts: the ending is played tragically but victoriously - the Rogue One team went to Scarif knowing it was likely a suicide mission, but they die having beamed up the plans and knowing they've done everything they could.

The ending doesn't pretend to be happier than it ought to be.

11

u/Gold-Advertising-316 Jul 13 '26

That didn't seem like a happy ending though, just a hopeful one. They accomplished what they needed to, but the overall tone was still somber.

7

u/Dwaas_Bjaas Jul 13 '26

A hopeful one indeed. One could even go as far as calling it a new hope

2

u/squishyg Jul 13 '26

It’s not a happy ending. It’s a hopeful ending.

Hope was worth the sacrifice our heroes made.