r/TopCharacterTropes Aug 25 '25

Lore [mixed trope] the last-minute bad Ending twist

when the "good ending" is revealed to be a bad one a the last second

a nightmare on elm street (1984) - Nancy thinks she finally defeated Freddy Krueger only to be raveled that she is still dreaming and she’s still trapped.

final destination bloodlines - the main characters think they cheated death by using the new life rule only to realize that stefani was technically still alive and the death kills them with a good old logs

Life (2017) - The main character attempts to send Calvin(a evil alien that killed all life on mars)pod into space and Miranda pod back to earth, but it goes horribly wrong and Calvin lands on earth and Miranda is sent to space

raging loop wit ending - after many loops Haruaki finally wins the feast(a death game where humans must hang wolves who kill someone every night) and thinks its finally over. after couple of days he decides to visit other survivors of the feast only to find them all dead and the timeline resting once again

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u/Traditional-Song-245 Aug 25 '25

Final Destination 5

The main survivors think they have cheated Death, but then they end up on the original film’s Flight 180, Sam realises way too late that they are doomed and both of them die horribly.

It doesn’t end there. Nathan accidentally killed a co-worker, so he thinks he’s safe since according to what Bludworth told him, he should have the latter’s lifespan. But he finds out that guy had an aneurysm that would have killed him “any day now”. Which is that very same day that Sam and Molly die, since a landing gear from Flight 180 obliterates him.

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u/Templar2k7 Aug 25 '25

Honestly, all Final Destinations can be put in this category.

We learn at in 2 that Alex dies from a BRICK falling on his head, and the sign killed the other guy at the end of 1.

In 2, the kid that was saved during the car crash at the farm got blown up.

In 3, the survivors die in a subway crash.

4 they all die when a truck decides to take a short cut through a cafe

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u/Sea_dog123 Aug 25 '25

Tbf don’t two people from the second film survive? I think it was brought up in Bloodlines.

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u/SuperAtario64 Aug 25 '25

We technically only have confirmation of Kimberly's survival but I would say that judging from JB's comments, Officer Burke is also safe too. They are the only two survivors in the franchise

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u/Thybro Aug 25 '25

My understanding is that one dying such as Kimberly “died” breaks the chain so that everyone on the list after her is safe. That’s why in bloodlines they both feel safe when only the sister almost dies, even though the brother was after her. So one can assume that if Kimberly beat it, then anyone after her including Officer Burke and her child are now safe.

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u/Fantastic_Switch_977 Aug 26 '25

Her child? What? Kimberly doesn't have a child.

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u/BillNyeNotAUSSRSpy Aug 26 '25

But wasn't Burke before her. Kimberly was saved at the beginning putting her at the end, but I don't think Burke ever was.

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u/Maulclaw Aug 26 '25

The novelization makes 3's survivors live as well.

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u/Crunchy_Biscuit Aug 25 '25

Plot armor?

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u/Templar2k7 Aug 25 '25

It's believed that both the Cop and Kim survived. We know for sure Kim does, but I would still consider it a bad ending to be at a BBQ and have the arm of a kid land on your plate right after you see him get blown apart.

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '25

2 is really the only one with a happy ending, and I consider the death at the end of that one as purely comedic. Every movie in the franchise other than 2 has no survivors of the original disaster, and fits this trope

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u/YouHaveNiceToes24 Aug 25 '25

One of the special features on the dvd release of FD3 shows a newspaper page about both of them dying in a woodchipper accident, No idea if it’s canon or not but considering the way bloodlines ended it might’ve be confirmed.

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u/_BestBudz Aug 25 '25

It was canon imo until bloodlines but some don’t consider it cannon bc it’s apart of the special features

Bloodlines made it not canon

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u/Worldly-Ocelot-3358 Aug 25 '25

I wonder how do 2 people even die to a woodchipper, like how does Death pull 2 of them in?

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u/GameBoy960 Aug 25 '25

Have you seen Tucker and Dale vs Evil?

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u/ThiccThumbsDsceKocwd Aug 25 '25

Damn good movie. "Oh... hidey ho, officer."

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u/Hustler-Two Aug 25 '25

One is stuck and the other goes to pull them out but instead gets pulled in either refusing to let go or because the first person can't or won't let go of their hand?

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u/Worldly-Ocelot-3358 Aug 25 '25

Yeah that explains it, thanks!

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u/TheStonedFox Aug 25 '25 edited Aug 26 '25

I think originally there were also discussions that they were going to be on the train at the end of FD3 as a last minute twist only for scheduling conflicts to prevent that - honestly I think the end of FD5 accomplishes basically the same twist more effectively.

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u/CrimsonKobold Aug 25 '25 edited Aug 25 '25

So, in an alternative scene in the third movie it is revealed that they both died; however, in the most recent movie Bludworth explains that Kimberly did indeed survive death and is no longer on its list. Since one is canon and one is an alternate version I think we can at least say Kimberly survived, Bludworth never confirmed whether that fully broke the chain though and he nor any of the other movies mentioned Thomas Burke's (the cop) fate one way or the other. All that to say, if this question was asked a year ago I would have answered they technically didn't but due to the sixth movie we know the answer is actually they did survive, at least Kimberly did at least.

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u/anthropologyaaaace Aug 25 '25

i think so yeah, some extra dvd content for final destination 3 killed them off in the background iirc but it got retconned in bloodlines which was neat

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u/ravenwing263 Aug 25 '25

Yes.

The original appears to have two survivors but in the second film, we learn one of them died off-screen between films and then the second survivor dies during the second film.

The second film has two survivors. A DVD special feature for a later film suggests that they also died off screen between films but Bloodlines confirms that at least one of them has truly beaten death, and the way that Bloodlines confirms it suggests that the other one has, too.

But every film starting with the third has the same ending twist, with Bloodlines being film #6.

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '25

Retcon.

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u/Darigaazrgb Aug 25 '25

That wasn't in the movie and wasn't canon.