Depressing Endings

[000Ronald]

Does anyone else here remember Zone of the Enders? 'cause I do. It was actually an awesome game. And the ending was just a punch to the gut.

Spoiler: If you're interested...

Jehuty, the mech (and AI) that you've spent the majority of the game with, is designed as a weapon of mass destruction, and is meant to go on a suicide mission, killing itself and destroying some enemy that isn't elaborated on. Also? Despite your best efforts, the Jupiter colony is still mostly destroyed.

Also? Not so much sad as bittersweet, but Legacy Of Kain: Defiance had a pretty heart-wrenching ending, too.

Spoiler: For the interested

Raziel Fucking Dies! Not only does he die, but he essentially commits suicide! I kid you not, I cried the first time I had to play through it. Yes, I know it was so that Kane could actually physically fight The Wheel Of Fate (which he does, and he beats the ugly off of it) and tell Friedrich Nietzsche to go fuck himself, the cretin, but...I mean...I really liked Raziel.

Damn. Now I want to go play Defiance again. That was a good game. Well, not the gameplay so much. I mean, it was OK, it was better than Soul Reaver 2, but if you're playing Legacy of Kane, you aren't playing for graphics. Maybe I'll go play Zone of the Enders again, too.

 

[Groxnax]

I must also say that the end of the Jurassic Bark episode of Futurama has hit me hard and now I just remembered the end of the Game of Tones episode, so sweet yet so very sad.

Damn, how did they do that?

 

[Fractral]

Iain banks use of weapons.
My most 'favouritest' book I have ever read. It's one of those books where I (can't speak for other readers) became quite invested in the main character to have X
Sorry for being vague but it's a huge spoiler!!

I didn't like Use of Weapons because it was confusing as hell due to being entirely out of order, but damn the ending was good. It being referenced again in Surface Detail just made it better.

 

[Tiger King]

Iain banks use of weapons.
My most 'favouritest' book I have ever read. It's one of those books where I (can't speak for other readers) became quite invested in the main character to have X
Sorry for being vague but it's a huge spoiler!!

I didn't like Use of Weapons because it was confusing as hell due to being entirely out of order, but damn the ending was good. It being referenced again in Surface Detail just made it better.

yeah I was kinda thinking that the first time I read it. Towards the end things were falling into place but I was still thinking 'how does it all fit?' and then like you said BAM! and everything made sense.
The author said it was just two stories, one going backwards in time the other forwards.
I dunno, I really loved it. I wish I could erase parts of my memory so I could re-read good books!!

 

[balladbird]

Arlington Road. Being set up is the worst

Wow, I'm legitimately surprised someone else picked my choice. XD It's not a super-obscure movie, by any means, but not very far up on the internet's collective consciousness.

Seriously, though, that bloody movie! You could literally post a picture of that movie's poster in response to the question "what does TV tropes mean by "shaggy dog story?"

 

[klaynexas3]

The ending to Persona 3 made me wake up in the middle of the night and cry that night I finished it. It doesn't affect me now, but it hit hard.

Also, when Frodo leaves Middle Earth, and that chick starts singing into the west. God that breaks me. It doesn't help that we sing it at the last concert each year for my school's choral group.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

The Banner Saga.

Because no matter how hard you try, there is no good ending,

Spoiler

In the end, either Rook or Alette will die, and it will leave the other by themselves, either a father who has lost his wife and his daughter, or a girl without her father or her mother, wrapped up in a futile end-of-the-world scenario where the only reason you have lived slightly longer is because you convinced an immortal monster that it is dead.

The feels, not to mention the path to that ending is bloody difficult(had some of the hardest boss-fights I ever faced in like, 5 years).

Also:

Breaking Bad: it legit made me sad for an entire day and basically brought me to tears(you know why, if you don't, go see it).

Assassin's Creed Embers(the animated movie to wrap up Ezio's story): also made me pretty sad, I loved Ezio to bits.

Half Life 2 Episode 2: it was so incredibly brutal and quick...and Valve are cliff-hanging a bit too long(generic comment about HL3 not being announced yet).

Spec Ops The Line: not so much depressing as it was harrowing, especially because of the ending I had chosen.

Cowboy Bebop: I only have this:

 

[blackrave]

I think ending of Dreamfall left me most depressed
In The Longest Journey, at least something is achieved, but in Dreamfall...
Lets just say that it left me with sense of injustice.

No mention of "Spec Ops: the line"? There are 4 endings that run the gamit from "somewhat depressing" to "incredibly depressing".

Live and let live, buddy, live and let live :'(

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Really, no mention of Red Dead Redemption? Usually that ending is on the first page of threads like this. Ye gods that was a depressing ending. Great ending but depressing as hell...

 

[Kanova]

You want to talk depressing shit? Let's talk about some depressing shit.

We need to stop spending millions upon millions of dollars in the anti-drug campaign and just show people this movie instead.

I don't know what movie that is. Do you think some random picture will make everyone know what movie it is? How about a title or something?

Anyway, Inglorious Basterds and Django Unchained both mad me sad at the end. I kind of loved all the Inglorious characters, but then they started to die. And I really liked Christoph Waltz in Unchained, but then he had to go die instead of walking out alive.

 

[Aptspire]

I won't spoil the details, but Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Spoiler

And by that, I of course mean the ending to 'The Rebellion Story'

 

[unLucky500]

Tv shows generally get to me the most. I think it's the long term commitment to characters, only to see their dreams shattered.

Case in point, I just got around to watching and finishing Chuck. Man, that got me.

Also, Angel...

 

[Bug MuIdoon]

I don't know what movie that is. Do you think some random picture will make everyone know what movie it is? How about a title or something?

It's Requiem for a Dream. The image url even says so.

OT: I've always been a fan of the 'depressing ending'. Ever since I saw Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo when I was a kid and realised "Holy shit! Movies don't have to be 'happy ever after' and predictable". There's a lot of others that I love, Arlington Road (as someone else has said) being one of them, but I'll always remember Vertigo as the one that awoke my love of Film.

 

[COMaestro]

Does anyone else here remember Zone of the Enders? 'cause I do. It was actually an awesome game. And the ending was just a punch to the gut.

Spoiler: If you're interested...

Jehuty, the mech (and AI) that you've spent the majority of the game with, is designed as a weapon of mass destruction, and is meant to go on a suicide mission, killing itself and destroying some enemy that isn't elaborated on. Also? Despite your best efforts, the Jupiter colony is still mostly destroyed.

Also? Not so much sad as bittersweet, but Legacy Of Kain: Defiance had a pretty heart-wrenching ending, too.

Spoiler: For the interested

Raziel Fucking Dies! Not only does he die, but he essentially commits suicide! I kid you not, I cried the first time I had to play through it. Yes, I know it was so that Kane could actually physically fight The Wheel Of Fate (which he does, and he beats the ugly off of it) and tell Friedrich Nietzsche to go fuck himself, the cretin, but...I mean...I really liked Raziel.

Damn. Now I want to go play Defiance again. That was a good game. Well, not the gameplay so much. I mean, it was OK, it was better than Soul Reaver 2, but if you're playing Legacy of Kane, you aren't playing for graphics. Maybe I'll go play Zone of the Enders again, too.

Curse you for making me think of both of these! Though I just picked up the HD rerelease of ZoE, so I would have gotten there on my own eventually.

I would add Metal Gear Solid 4, not necessarily the ending but a bunch of stuff leading up to it.

Spoiler

I was literally wincing the whole time you move Snake through the microwave corridor, and not just because my fingers got tired of hitting triangle. Watching as he gets cooked, and his suit starts popping off him as it overheats, and as he goes from walking to staggering to crawling to dragging himself through the corridor. It's just painful to watch. Meanwhile above you got video of what's happening to other characters and they aren't doing a whole lot better. Lastly you have him at the graveyard where he's about to shoot himself in the head rather than let the accelerated aging do him in. It's just really sad stuff.

Agree with Red Dead Redemption, Assassin's Creed: Embers, and Cowboy Bebop as well.

 

[William Dickbringer]

Most definitely, 'Buried' starring Ryan Reynolds.

The plot of the movie is pretty interesting: Reynolds is a contract worker in Iraq who gets captured and buried underground in a coffin with nothing but a cellphone, and the bad guys who captured him won't dig him up unless he can get them a bunch of money. The whole interesting movie-making twist is that Reynolds is literally the only actor in the entire movie (except for the people he talks to on the phone).

So why is it so horrendously depressing?:

Spoiler

So by the end of this movie, Reynolds has cut off his own finger for what amounts to no reason whatsoever, been lied to by the one person who might actually save him, has discovered that his family will be screwed out of his life insurance (and thus be left destitute when he dies), oh, and he dies as well. It's seriously the most insanely depressing ending I've ever seen because literally NOTHING good happens to the main character at the end of it.

This
and also the grey I went to see thinking "alright liam neeson fighting wolves this should be awesome"

Spoiler

what I got was a movie about a bunch of guys either trying not to get killed by wolves or just giving up and accepting death so was not taken with wolves

 

[Ti0k0]

You want to talk depressing shit? Let's talk about some depressing shit.

We need to stop spending millions upon millions of dollars in the anti-drug campaign and just show people this movie instead.

Yes it's Requiem for a dream, the void is starting to expand again, damn you
Still one of the best stringpulling movies IMO.
I actually didn't like Buried that much; I just had the feeling of: OR he's surviving this situation, OR he's not, so I wasn't really waiting for a plottwist, cause there could only be two. And I am aware that this is not a legit reason to dislike a movie, but in this case it kinda was. Nothing bad said about Reynolds acting, he did great
American Beauty always leaves a hole in my heart though...

 

[MiracleOfSound]

The Descent.

For a similar reason to 'Brazil'.

 

[x EvilErmine x]

The end of the His Dark Materials books by Philip Pullman

Spoiler

The whole of the last two books spent subtly setting up the relationship between Lyra and Will, then after it all ends. After going through hell and back literally, after Lyra finding out who her parents are, and then seeing them get killed she and Will get told 'sorry guys, I know like you've now only really got each other left now, but you can't be together ever again or you will die oh and you can't even talk coz you will be in different universes, sucks to be you'

 

[pedobearlongcatlazor]

Stephen King's The Mist (2007 movie). That ending didn't just leave me feeling depressed but just shocked and empty inside. Apparently the director, Frank Darabont, put that ending in the movie even though it weren't in the book. I know it's still a Stephen King story but seriously that's dark. I won't spoil it but those who know what I am talking about will understand or watch it now on Netflix.

I was going to mention The Mist, the ending is the complete opposite of the book though. Stephen King himself was blown away by that ending.
Also watch The Divide. Everything about that film is depressing.

 

[somethingorother003]

It may not quite count because of how it continues after the credits, but I have to put up Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness here simply because of how it thoroughly blindsighted me and left me a broken sobbing mess of confusion because dear lord I did not expect PMD to go down that route:

Spoiler

It ends with your partner/best friend screaming your name and sobbing on the beach where they found you, after you have been dead for a year, while one of your guildmate friends fruitlessly tries to comfort them over what is obviously still a deeply painful loss. ROLL CREDITS.

After playing Red Rescue Team a while ago I figured they couldn't possibly top it in terms of depressing. I at least figured it wouldn't get to me again.

At the end I felt so many different emotions, don't know if I should be sad about it or happy that it happened. Or in awe at how great the game was.

Shame about the new one though.