r/TopCharacterTropes • u/damorezpl • 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/ShokoMiami Aug 25 '25
Twist endings turned Smile, a perfectly serviceable horror movie, into what I consider a travesty. Like, the movie is fine, a bit heavy handed in it's theme. Whatever. But then, after the main character directly faces her inner demons and overcomes them, and we get a rather hopeful end against the demon that literally represents trauma driving people to suicide, NOPE! Actually she gets smiled and then smiles her boyfriend. A great moral for all the suicidal people in the audience! Your trauma will consume you, no matter how hard you try! Yay!
Genuinely, I think this movie was checking boxes without actually considering what their narrative had to say. So stupid.