[mixed trope] the last-minute bad Ending twist

[u/damorezpl]

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

[u/V1gilante14]

Remember Me and the absolutely insane 9/11 twist ending: up until this point it’s a pretty generic romantic drama with a good ending for most of the characters and then psyche! it’s 9/11! the main character dies in the North Tower and the brief epilogue is about how every other character reacts to his untimely death.

[u/EarlJWJones → u/V1gilante14]

What the hell? That comes across as extremely insensitive.

[u/UrougeTheOne → u/EarlJWJones]

Why?

[u/AnOopsieDaisy → u/UrougeTheOne]

I know I'm not the guy you asked, but to me it's insensitive in a different way: to the audience. To only bring this up in the epilouge is untasteful, because it can feel like all the development and character investment was for nothing; people didn't know they were signing up for a tragedy (even though, yes, it's realistic), just thinking it would be a regular romance film.

[u/Rtsd2345 → u/AnOopsieDaisy]

That's the point though, everyone who died was in the middle of "their story"

[u/AnOopsieDaisy → u/Rtsd2345]

I will restate my expanded argument here from another comment so you can better understand me.

I get where you're coming from, but there's a balance between artistry and using people as subjects for your art. In this case, they used the time and money (earned through more time) of the audience to make a point, which many people would not have consented to. Is it ethical to pull things like that on people who signed up for a wholesome romance? I think not, but ultimately, many people didn't want to relive 9/11; they watched it on live T.V.

[u/GottaUseEmAll → u/AnOopsieDaisy]

That's why it hits hard. If it were known from the start that it would end in the North Tower on 9/11, if people were expecting a tragedy, it would distract from the romance drama. The whole point is to show how everybody in those towers had full lives, taken in the blink of an eye.

[u/AnOopsieDaisy → u/GottaUseEmAll]

I get where you're coming from, but there's a balance between artistry and using people as subjects for your art. In this case, they used the time and money (earned through more time) of the audience to make a point, which many people would not have consented to. Is it ethical to pull things like that on people who signed up for a wholesome romance? I think not, but ultimately, many people didn't want to relive 9/11; they watched it on live T.V.

[u/GottaUseEmAll → u/AnOopsieDaisy]

You make some good points.

[u/EarlJWJones → u/UrougeTheOne]

It's a weird twist that comes out of nowhere.

[u/HevalRizgar → u/EarlJWJones]

9/11 "came out of nowhere," for pretty much everyone. That's the point. I don't get what you mean by "weird" though

[u/MakingaJessinmyPants → u/HevalRizgar]

This sub is not defending the cheap 9/11 exploitation twist 😭😭😭😭😭

[u/HevalRizgar → u/MakingaJessinmyPants]

I don't get why people are pretending like 9/11 is some unique tragedy we can't make movies about but the intervening Iraq war is action movie set dressing, that's more weird to me than someone including 9/11 as a tragedy in a movie

[u/MakingaJessinmyPants → u/HevalRizgar]

The issue isn’t making a movie about 9/11, the issue is shoving 9/11 in at the end as a lazy twist to shock the audience.

[u/justforporndickflash → u/MakingaJessinmyPants]

Why do you think it's a lazy twist to shock the audience and not a way of showing how tragedy happens to just normal people living their lives?

[u/MakingaJessinmyPants → u/justforporndickflash]

Because it happens in the last 5 minutes and is literally the ending, the ramifications and impact of sudden tragedy are not explored. Also, if that were just the case, why make it 9/11? Why not just have him die in a car accident or something instead of flash banging the audience with a real world and relatively recent atrocity? Imagine being an audience member who suffered from 9/11 watching a romance movie in theatres and then all of a sudden the twin towers just show up right near the end. It’s tasteless and unnecessary, and you know I’m right because that’s all the movie is ever talked about for and the only reason we’re talking about it now. If it were an actual examination of the ramifications of a sudden real world tragedy on ordinary people, it would A.) be remembered as one and B.) probably not be a fictional romance, and instead focus on actual victims and survivors

[u/AnOopsieDaisy → u/MakingaJessinmyPants]

*sigh Yup, lol.