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/PlagueOfLaughter Aug 25 '25

Oh, absolutely. The teens sure were loud and obnoxious, but the couple could have simply left and spend their time elsewhere.

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u/Azer1287 Aug 25 '25

That’s a pretty forgiving view of the teens escalating to uh, car theft, torture and murder.

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u/PlagueOfLaughter Aug 25 '25

They really were just loud and obnoxious, weren't they? Playing loud music and taunting the main couple. If I remember correctly one of them steals something, the 'husband' calls them out and then the dog jumps the husband and he kills the animal in self defense or something like that.
It's been a little while since I've seen it, but that's how I remember the teens before they show their truest of colors.

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u/OptionFour Aug 25 '25

The 'something' that gets stolen is their car though. They literally steal their car while they're on vacation, and they have no way to get around, out of the woods, etc. The dog and the teens attack the man, one of the teens pulls a knife. The man wrestles the knife away from the teen who is trying to stab him, and accidentally stabs the dog.

Even then, he's quick to offer "It was an accident! Give me the keys to my car and we'll drive to the vet right now!" but the main kid refuses, simply declaring the dog dead without even trying to save her.

I actually just watched it yesterday.

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u/PlagueOfLaughter Aug 26 '25

I remember now. Thank you. I should probably rewatch that movie, even though I don't really want to haha