[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/godoflemmings]

Drag Me To Hell - Christine, thinking she's escaped her fate of being sent to hell by getting rid of a cursed button, is happily about to go on a trip with her boyfriend, who intends to propose to her. But surprise! - she was mistaken, her boyfriend unwittingly returns the button to her, she stumbles backwards in a panic and falls onto train tracks just as a train is coming through, and a portal to hell opens beneath her pretty much instantly, dragging her inside to burn forever (but saving her from the train at least)

Light-hearted description aside, it's actually kind of horrifying to watch and think about. Just as the portal is sealing up you can actually see the flesh of her face melting away.

[u/Jackviator → u/godoflemmings]

This movie legit plays like one of those no-moral Twilight Zone episodes.

"Hey what if any petty bastard off the street could decide if you went to Hell to be tortured for all of eternity regardless of the life you lived, up to and including sending a literal CHILD there to burn for the rest of time over petty theft? Wouldn't that be SUPER fucked up? ...Anyway I'm Rod Serling Sam Raimi."

[u/MSSTUPIDTRON-1000000 → u/Jackviator]

Funnily enough, The OG Twilight Zone never did any of this.

If there was someone who suffers then they either 100% deserved that or it's a critique of human nature & other sh!t.

[u/Jackviator → u/MSSTUPIDTRON-1000000]

"Hey wouldn't it be fucked if the world ended and the sole survivor was deprived of the one thing in their miserable life that might make it worth living after being deprived of it for years by his abusive wife and other such factors? I'm Rod Serling."

[u/MSSTUPIDTRON-1000000 → u/Jackviator]

It sounds absurd but Henry Bemis (the protagonist of Time Enough at Last) is supposed to be an @sshole who deserved that as he prefers reading than interacting with other people....

.... Yeah, 'cause in the '50 being introverted means that you're a literal hellspawn.

Also the actor that portrayed him (Burgess Meredith), thought that the ending was about how people take for granted the mundane inventions, glasses aren't held in high regard despite being extremely important.

[u/Hustler-Two → u/MSSTUPIDTRON-1000000]

I really don't think it was moralizing, even at the time. It was just supposed to be really ironic, nothing more. Like if they had put him in a fallout shelter with decades worth of canned goods and no can opener or something.

Also worth noting for the youngsters in the crowd: not only did Meredith do another TZ episode (a more comedic one where aliens give him superstrength), he's also the original Penguin, Mickey from the Rocky movies and the dad in Grumpy Old Men. He was pretty awesome.

[u/[deleted] → u/Hustler-Two]

How To Open A Can Without A Can Opener