Whatever happened to happy endings?

[Vrex360]

Once, long ago all movies and games of every genre had a clear, defined and usually uplifting ending. In a horror movie the killer/monster was defeated and they all go on with their lives. In an action movie the baddies were beaten and all was well and in a romance the two fated lovers embrace each other in the sunset.
Now I'm not one hundred percent obsessed by happy endings but I kind of like the idea of a clear defined happy ending to give you some closure. These days in horror films there is this pointless epilouge that have the protagonists get killed anyway and in action movies most of the cast dies. I kind of understand that this is a cynical time but I still see no reason why nearly every game, movie and book has to end with a depressing ending... or even worse a pointless cliff hanger.

What's your opinion on this matter, why do you think happy endings are in a decline?

 

[APPCRASH]

If you want to get those academy awards you gotta kill your lead character.

 

[DavisJ3608]

Oh, that kind of happy ending...
Not the kind that follows a particularly enjoyable massage...
Never mind...

On a serious note, though, I know where you're coming from. It seems like a majority of media lately has had an obsession with either not answering any of your questions or giving you a really depressing ending.

 

[Captain Blackout]

Compared to reality those are happy endings you listed. That's what we want from entertainment, an escape from reality. Reality is so horribly brutal and we're so jaded that what you listed is what it takes to get us off anymore.

Then again, I'm probably just being an "all people suck" kinda dick again....

 

[APPCRASH]

Warhammer 40k has the best thing going. THERE IS NO ENDING! Good guys may win a battle at some point, but there will always be another bad guy just around the corner. For in the future there is only war.

 

[Stikibunn]

I think there should be a rule.
One goodie character death per film.

The best kinda death of a charavter is the heroic sacrifice or the "I'll hold them off" sacrifice in a shooting film. For the most spectacular character deaths watch Doctor Who. Everyone dies in Doctor Who so when everyone lives the Doctor gets super happy

 

[WinterSoldier]

I don't like the closure that comes with happy endings. With closure there's nothing to for me to pointlessly speculate and have it toy with my brain.

 

[Veylon]

Well, it's a cynical time. In the eighties (and early nineties) the Powers That Be decreed that children were far to delicate and stupid to handle dark and complex concepts like bittersweet endings, meaningful self-sacrifice, the deaths of loved ones, or any other kind of moral ambiguity. So we were spoon fed bright, happy cartoons that inevitably had a message: Heroes are Good, Villains always Lose, and Drugs will turn you into a monster.

Now it seems that we've gone the complete opposite. Games have become more mature (in multiple senses of the word), and even gotten to not just reject the earlier system, but to actively become it's opposite. So drugs give you superpowers, Heroes are Bad (again, in multiple senses), and Evil is never defeated. Not terribly uplifting, but maybe the current video game industry will collapse and we'll get a different one.

 

[twistedshadows]

People got bored with happy endings. They rarely happen in real life, so why get our hopes up? If we go into life with low expectations, maybe everything will turn out better than expected, instead of having everyone running around looking for their perfect life and wondering what's wrong with them if they can't find it.

That sounds awfully pessimistic, sorry.

 

[supermaster1337]

people think that when you cry its a good movie.

 

[YuheJi]

Warhammer 40k has the best thing going. THERE IS NO ENDING! Good guys may win a battle at some point, but there will always be another bad guy just around the corner. For in the future there is only war.

Or better, there is no clear good guy! Except the tyranids and maybe necrons are obviously bad.

 

[Lemanruss]

I think it's really because form quite some time there were almost no sad endings then one of the bigger directors, designers, writers read some obscure book, movie, game that had a sad ending and though "why don't we switch it up a bit have a sad ending like that" because there weren't many sad ending the movie was thought of as being really interesting and different so then every one saw how well that movie, game, book, whatever did and they jumped on the bandwagon

 

[ix_tab]

I don't need a happy ending, but I hate hate hate any ending that shamelessy fishes for a sequel.

I JUST WANT CLOSURE YOU BASTARDS.

 

[ix_tab]

Well, it's a cynical time. In the eighties (and early nineties) the Powers That Be decreed that children were far to delicate and stupid to handle dark and complex concepts like bittersweet endings, meaningful self-sacrifice, the deaths of loved ones, or any other kind of moral ambiguity. So we were spoon fed bright, happy cartoons that inevitably had a message: Heroes are Good, Villains always Lose, and Drugs will turn you into a monster.

Now it seems that we've gone the complete opposite. Games have become more mature (in multiple senses of the word), and even gotten to not just reject the earlier system, but to actively become it's opposite. So drugs give you superpowers, Heroes are Bad (again, in multiple senses), and Evil is never defeated. Not terribly uplifting, but maybe the current video game industry will collapse and we'll get a different one.

I blame the grimdark movement of comics, I really do, even though that's kind of irrational.

I'm bored to tears of the Newer Grimmer More Shocking versions of everything we seem to be getting. It was awesome the first time someone did it. Now it's overdone to the point of unwitting self parody.

 

[Kpt._Rob]

Happy endings are too reminiscent of the fifties, and we are all too cynical to accept the fifties anymore. We don't want Leave it to Beaver, because life isn't like Leave it to Beaver. We want the complexities that a film like Apocalypse Now, The Last House on the Left, or, more recently, Saw present us with. They are ambiguous, we don't know who to side with, and that a reflection of life. Particularly for Americans, and if you consider that Hollywood is in America then it is natural for film to reflect the American attitude. Many of us (myself included) don't trust the government after the Bush administration left us jaded, and some of us (many of my neighbors since I life in Oklahoma) have begun to distrust the government now that the Dems are in power (although personally speaking, I trust Obama a hell of a lot more than the Bushies). The reason we don't have happy endings, and unambiguously good or evil characters, is because we don't live in Leave it to Beaver, and we're not young and naive enough to think that we do.