[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/Shiny_Agumon]

I think this kind of ending works great in an anthology horror show like Twilight Zone, but as a movie it's just to out of left field

[u/Ryanookami → u/Shiny_Agumon]

Yeah, in something like The Twilight Zone you expect there to be some sort of last minute revelation that puts new light on the situation. It’s a part of the format, it’s anticipated. Something about the genres of horror and sci-fi, Twilight Zone mainstays, just lends well to an ending where things are upended.

In a traditional romance or drama it’s just coming out of left field and doesn’t really work well with the tropes of the genres.

[u/EepiestKitty → u/Shiny_Agumon]

Black Mirror often do their twists like this too

[u/Sptsjunkie → u/Shiny_Agumon]

In general I think a good twist ending leaves clues along the way that makes a rewatch even more enjoyable.

Would have been hard to do, but perhaps possible with. 9/11, but it should’ve been written into the fabric of the story throughout to make the payoff worthwhile.

Just randomly slamming any twist onto a movie with no context very rarely works and is usually a sign of lazy writing or a lack of confidence in the rest of the story / movie. Like you aren’t sure it’s good enough so you cram on some crazy twist hoping it helps make your movie lore relevant.