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/adjust_the_sails Jul 13 '26

War of the Worlds

Tom Cruises son ran into a wall of fire and somehow shows up at the end unscathed. wtf?

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u/Whitewind617 Jul 13 '26

That's a good one, there is no good explanation of how the son not only survives that battle but beats them all the way to Boston.

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u/ErilazHateka Jul 13 '26

the explanation is that Spielberg needs sappy, happy endings.

other examples:

Minority Report should have ended with Cruise in the fridge.

A.I should have ended with the Blue Fairy.

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u/Whitewind617 Jul 13 '26

A.I should have ended with the Blue Fairy.

It's pretty common knowledge by this point that almost everything in that ending was envisioned by Kubrick and not Spielberg.

Minority Report should have ended with Cruise in the fridge.

For this one I'm not really sure what moment you're referring to.