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

[Acid_crash]

Having just watched it, I would add the Director's Cut ending of The Butterfly Effect to this list.

That ending really pissed me off. I felt like I wasted 3 bucks on the rental. I know I would have been really pissed if I had went to the theater and saw that ending instead of the original. That wasn't a good "bad" ending...just a horrible ending altogether.

 

[RichCsigs]

That ending really pissed me off. I felt like I wasted 3 bucks on the rental. I know I would have been really pissed if I had went to the theater and saw that ending instead of the original. That wasn't a good "bad" ending...just a horrible ending altogether.

Spoiler

I liked the fact that he was willing to sacrifice himself for the sake of everyone else. He realized that no matter what he changed he was always the cause of the pain in someone's life. That combined with what the palm reader said made him realize he wasn't suppose to be alive.
It also leads to the implication that his mothers other still births were also intentially done by her kids. That her other kids were actually born and had the same power and went through the same thing. I thought it was an excellent ending.

 

[Frostmarrow]

A few that haven't been mentioned:

For a book, Pet Sematery really got to me, as did the novella The Long Walk, both by Stephen King.

I never did quite figure out the ending of The Long Walk. One of my favorite books but I can't decide if the hero hallucinates, gets shot or whatever.

 

[Pielorinho]

From what i remember, Frostmarrow, the protagonist wins the race, but is driven insane, and, impossibly, just starts running.

It's kind of a Kafkaesque metaphor for life, to get all pretentious. Which reminds me: Metamorphosis has a pretty great bad ending, too.

Daniel

 

[Wolf72]

an oldie but goodie .... Hamlet by Billy Shakespeare!

I loved the ending ... it was like (for the main characters) "EVERYONE DIES" muwhahahahaha!

 

[Aesmael]

Berserk (manga/anime): The anime has one of the most brutal endings ever, but it's just the first part of the manga.

I want to second this, very much so. I have heard of people throwing it around the room from the emotions conjured up (disbelief? - how can it end like that? HOW THE [intensifier of your choice] CAN IT END LIKE THAT?)

For me, the sense of dread and... inevitability that looms over the entire series rises up to the point that watching it entails a certain... reluctance. I could weep.

For my sister, by the third last episode (this is before the 'bad' bit - or at its beginning, before it reaches climax) she declared that she would rather slit her own throat than continue in that situation.

The reaction seems to be either of devotion, or viewers' hatred is directed at the story itself rather than where it belongs.

 

[Frostmarrow]

From what i remember, Frostmarrow, the protagonist wins the race, but is driven insane, and, impossibly, just starts running.

It's kind of a Kafkaesque metaphor for life, to get all pretentious. Which reminds me: Metamorphosis has a pretty great bad ending, too.

Daniel

Yes, I remember it that way too. However, I think that there might be more to it than that. None of the previous winners were ever heard from again so maybe the fate of the protagonist is the same as for those who came before him. In any event it's not much of a happy ending...

 

[Shadeus]

Dean Koontz' The Servants of Twilight

The movie was fairly good; the book was better. For those interested....

Spoiler

A group of fanatics follow this family around telling them their son is the anti-christ. You find out at the end of the story that he IS the anti-christ.

 

[ssampier]

I'll second the Ring. I loved the movie until the end, which I felt was tacked on. The movie dropped from a B+ to C-, in my mind.

That ending really pissed me off. I felt like I wasted 3 bucks on the rental. I know I would have been really pissed if I had went to the theater and saw that ending instead of the original. That wasn't a good "bad" ending...just a horrible ending altogether.

I rented it. I saw the ending where Evan learns

Spoiler

his influence was purely negative. Kayleigh was better off not knowing him.

Is this the original or director's cut?

 

[Krieg]

I rented it. I saw the ending where Evan learns

Spoiler

his influence was purely negative. Kayleigh was better off not knowing him.

Is this the original or director's cut?

That is the original.

In the director's cut ending

Spoiler

He goes back to when his mother is still pregnant and commits suicide while in the womb!