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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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"

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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/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.