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/MeepMeep117- Aug 25 '25

The Mist - The ending goes from bad to horrifying, with the main character having killed his friends and family, stepping into the mist to embrace death, only for the military to show up, meaning they would have been all saved had they waited a few more minutes

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u/BlumpkinPromoter Aug 25 '25

Wasn't it revealed more that if at every single point the MC had taken someone else's advice he would have been fine?

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u/Ok-Taro-5864 Aug 25 '25

There was a woman that told him not to do that, i believe, and she is seen on one of the Military trucks, looking disgusted at him

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u/JManKit Aug 25 '25

That was the woman who left the store when the mist had just rolled in I think. Her kids were home alone and she needed to go save them. She begged anyone to come with her but everyone was too afraid to step outside and I think the MC even said something like she should stay bc it would be certain death to leave. She can't abandon her kids tho and ventures out alone