What is the best "bad" ending you've seen/read? [Spoilers abound]

[Klaus]

Blair Witch Project

The Others

The Empire Strikes Back

I'll probably think of more later...

 

[Captain Tagon]

Now, the sequel, the DragonCrown War series... good, up until near the end of the second book, where the main hero sacrifices himself to stop something bad from happening. I was... pretty shocked, but it was in character for him, and I could even see a way he could be brought back. So I eagerly start the third book... and it looks like that ain't happening. Not good, since I don't really like any of the other characters, period. I even did something I never do, and skimmed ahead at some points to see mention of his name. Nope, nothing. The book languishs on my shelf until I can get up the floon to start in on it again, and the series so far goes unrecommended to friends because of that. So, there are bad-bad parts to this idea as well.

I actually enjoyed the third book, and the whole series quite a bit. Try to get the third one finished if possible, it wraps things up nicely.

As far as bad endings...American History X. Any film that you walk away from not wanting to talk to people any more is a sad thing.

 

[Thanee]

Army of Darkness.

Bye
Thanee

 

[mojo1701]

Also, The Usual Suspects.

How could I forget? I'm even thinking of using the line-up scene in a photoshop! The greatest trick is that, I guess.

 

[Aesmael]

Hmm, top of the head, no particular order and with minimal spoilers (except that the names will be spoilers themselves, to a point):
Hobb's Farseer Trilogy
The Lord of the Rings
Redemption Ark. Not the end of the whole story but once I was done I spent the next year wondering if that was humanity's last hurrah before the curtain comes down. It just did not seem possible to win. Actually, come to think of it, the ending of Absolution Gap (sequel) is even more downbeat, and bitterly ironic to boot. And Diamond Dogs felt like getting kicked in the gut... (I would love to base a D&D campaign around that concept though [Well, at least to have it as an option in a campaign for players to punish themselves like that].)

 

[Pants]

Seven
Empire Strikes Back
Hobb's Farseer Trilogy of books
Stephen King's Salem's Lot (the book)
Chinatown

 

[Cthulhudrew]

Army of Darkness.

Which ending? (There are two...)

 

[Villano]

To add some that I haven't seen mentioned:

Carnival Of Souls - The 1962 original.

Friday The 13th - The boat on the lake...

Terminator 3 - The ending is perfectly logical, but still surprising.

Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark - One of the scariest movies of all time.

Tourist Trap - Killer mannequins. I don't think I have to go much farther than that.

Psycho 2.

The Omen.

From TV, I'll add Mortal Kombat: Konquest. Evil wins, completely and utterly. I'm not sure how they would have handled this if it got picked up for another season.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

I'd agree with Empire Strikes Back, but it doesn't really count as much as an 'end' as many others. With more coming after, it just wasn't an end as much as a middle part with a ending to set up part three.

Of course, the whole 'Is Darth Vader Luke's Dad? Luke's lost his hand. Han's gone. Boba Fett got away. Rebels lost at Hoth' really is the best in sequels hands down.

 

[Dakkareth]

I just watched The Boondock Saints and damn, is it scary. Well, technically the protagonists win, but that's a bad thing, because *they* are the mass-murdering fundamentalistic-twisted-religious nutcases . (As a side-note, I now understand, why it's illegal to sell where I live )

And I second Terminator 3 - I was starting to become annoyed, when everything pointed to a typical blow-up-the-bad-thing-at-the-last-possible-second ending and was *very* pleasantly surprised, when the twist came.