There are many ways to end a film. The heroes may leave behind a happy, joyful situation and ride off into the sunset. They may succeed against all odds, bearing the emotional scars of their victory. The villain can even win, leaving the remaining heroes to flee, regroup, or merely attempt to survive.
Rarer are movies that go that one step further. They have every character dead or facing certain death by the end of the film. This sort of ending carries a great many risks, as audiences may feel like their time has been wasted or that it is a cheap manipulation. However, in films that pull this off, it can make for an effective and poignant ending.
Updated 22nd of December by Isaac Williams: Happy endings are still the norm. However, more and more films are willing to change things up and end in tragedy. This list has been updated to include even more of the best movies that end with a near-total mortality rate.
20 The Thing Ends With The Survivor(s) Stranded
A major part of the tension in John Carpenter's The Thing comes from the group of scientists being hounded by an extraterrestrial monster that can impersonate any of them, and the setting itself. The crew is stranded in Antarctica, an inhospitable environment that they can't just leave.
The Thing's ending sees the scientists enact a daring plan. They blow up their research station to try to kill the Thing. The plan sees only crew members MacReady and Childs survive, and both are certain to freeze to death before rescue arrives. To add another twist, either of them could be the Thing. They cannot trust each other and cannot work together to survive. Their doom is almost certain.
19 Nobody Comes Out Of Hereditary In Good Shape
The horror film Hereditary begins with a seemingly-major character, the young girl Charlie, dying a horrific death. It doesn't let up from there. The main family spends the whole movie being manipulated by a nightmarish cult and the demon Paimon. They prove to be entirely out of their depth in handling the situation.
By the end of Hereditary, Charlie has been decapitated, Steve has burned to death, and Annie has removed her own head under demonic influence. The only possible survivor is Peter. However, as he threw himself from a window and was reanimated by Paimon, it seems probable that he is dead on some level as well.
18 Scarface Shows The Perils Of Crime
Scarface introduces plenty of complex, interesting, and likable criminals over its runtime. By the end of the film, almost every single one of them has died. Angel gets killed with a chainsaw and Omar gets hanged from a helicopter. The deaths of Frank Lopez and Bernstein are essential to Tony Montana's rise.
Scarface's third act is no less bloody. Tony kills Manny, his close friend since the beginning of the film. His sister Gina gets gunned down in the final battle. Finally, Tony dies after an epic last stand. The only important survivors are Tony's mother and the crime lord Alejandro Sosa.
17 Neither Butch Cassidy Nor The Sundance Kid Survive
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid follows its two titular outlaws as members of the Hole-In-The-Wall Gang. Much of the gang gets separated during their time fleeing from the law. By the end of Butch Cassidy, only the two title characters remain. This leads to the film's ending, which is one of the most famous of all time.
The climax sees Cassidy and the Kid pinned down by a huge number of Bolivian soldiers. They discuss their next plan, which is fleeing to Australia, before charging out to engage several companies of infantry. The film never shows their deaths, as it ends on a freeze-frame. Their demises are near-guaranteed, but the audience doesn't know for sure.
16 Pet Sematary Has Its Main Characters Killed And Revived
Pet Sematary deals with death and the importance of letting go. Its central plot device is a burial ground that brings people back to life. However, those who are revived aren't the same as they were before their deaths. The people resurrected by the Pet Sematary are hostile, irrational, and monstrously violent.
By Pet Sematary's ending, almost the entire family dies. Ellie gets hit by a truck, Rachel gets killed by a revived Ellie, and then Rachel kills Louis. All three of them menace the youngest son Gage in an ambiguous ending. Even their neighbor Jud dies. However, he isn't brought back like the rest of the cast.
15 The Grey Climaxes In A Likely-Fatal Duel
The Grey follows wilderness sharpshooter John Ottway as he attempts to protect a group of air crash survivors in the Alaskan wilderness. Throughout The Grey, an enormous and lethal wolf pack menaces the survivors until Ottway is the only one left alive. After spending the entire film attempting to escape the wolves, he accidentally walks right into their den.
The Grey doesn't show the duel between the poorly-equipped Ottway and the pack's alpha. Instead, it cuts away. The Grey's post-credits scene shows him and the alpha heavily wounded and laying on top of one another. Neither's ultimate fate is shown, but the situation looks bleak for Ottway's survival.
14 All Quiet On The Western Front Has A Bleak Outlook On War
All Quiet on the Western Front is an unflinching look at the First World War's brutality. The war movie follows a group of young German men who join the army after promises of glory and heroism. Once there, they find that war isn't glorious; it's brutal, soul-shattering, and lethal.
The main characters die one by one over a short period. Every named character dies to combat, but only after awful experiences that leave them broken. All Quiet on the Western Front's final scenes show protagonist Paul Bäumer dying to sniper fire. It's considered an uneventful day in the trench, and Bäumer's tragic death is considered inconsequential.
13 300 Sees Exactly 299 Spartans Die
300 is very loosely inspired by the real-life Battle of Thermopylae, which saw King Leonidas I of Sparta attempt to halt the numerically-overwhelming Persian army at Thermopylae. In an exaggeration of real-world history, the Greek army members stand at exactly 300.
As in history, 300 sees the Persians win the battle through betrayal. Leonidas and his men get cut down in the last stand. Of the significant characters in the film, only Leonidas' wife Gorgo, the wounded Spartan Dilios, and Persian King Xerxes I survive. Leonidas and every other character die. However, their deaths inspire the Greeks to fight back and ultimately win against the invaders.
12 Dawn Of The Dead Has A Cruel Twist
Dawn of the Dead's 2004 remake appears slightly more optimistic than many other zombie movies. Plenty of its principal characters die. Zombie bites, accidents, and mercy kills cause the cast to dwindle. However, four characters manage to reach a boat and evacuate from the city.
Dawn of the Dead then plays its cruel twist ending. It doesn't let the four sail away to safety, nor does it leave their fate ambiguous after they leave the city. Dawn of the Dead's final moments show them reaching an island, having run out of supplies, but the island is also overrun with zombies. Their deaths aren't shown but are very likely.
11 Dr. Strangelove Ends With Nuclear Annihilation
Some films up the ante by having everyone die. This is the case in the Cold War comedy film Dr. Strangelove, a satire of the fear of nuclear war. Dr. Strangelove follows the attempts to stop a nuclear war by halting a bombing order against Russia given by a renegade general. Ultimately, this doesn't succeed.
The exact consequences of the bombing are never outright shown. However, a major plot point in Dr. Strangelove is the Soviet automatic nuclear retaliation technology, which is said to make the world uninhabitable if activated. The film's ending suggests that all or most of the world's population die in a nuclear exchange.
10 Alien 3 Has Its Only Survivor In Great Peril
Alien 3 pits a single Xenomorph against the under-equipped inhabitants of a prison colony. Much as in the first Alien, the xenomorph picks off most of the cast one by one. Ripley is one of the last survivors when she learns that she is infected with a xenomorph embryo.
Ripley throws herself into molten metal to stop Weyland-Yutani from acquiring the xenomorph. This leaves inmate Morse as the only survivor of the cast. He's then taken into Weyland-Yutani's custody. Given his actions in aiding Ripley to spite the company, his fate looks bleak.
9 These Final Hours Has Extinction As Its Premise
Most apocalyptic movies have some hope for humanity, even if it's only a glimmer. Not so in These Final Hours, a film that takes place after an asteroid has struck the Earth. It follows the inhabitants of Perth as they wait for the impact to reach them.
At no point in These Final Hours is survival ever really considered. The only bunker ever shown gets laughed off as woefully insufficient. Ultimately, These Final Hours is about how people spend their final moments. It holds true to that premise through to its ending. In its final moments, James, Zoe, Rose, and every other person left on Earth dies.
8 Final Destination 5's Prequel Twist Kills Its Last Survivors
A major theme in the slasher movie franchise Final Destination is that death is inescapable. All the protagonists can ever do is buy themselves time. Even when characters survive one film, they often die in the next. Few movies demonstrate that theme with as much impact as Final Destination 5.
Sam, Molly, and Nathan manage to survive until the end. They seem to have beaten death, trading the lifespan of others for their own continued existence. Just as things appear to end on a happy note, it's revealed to be a prequel to the very first Final Destination. All three of them die in the plane explosion that kicks off the entire series.
7 Night Of The Living Dead Has Friendly Fire Kill Off Its Last Survivor
Night of the Living Dead is an iconic movie. It's noted as a watershed moment for the zombie genre and is famed for making George A. Romero a big name in filmmaking. Night of the Living Dead also proves itself darker and more cynical than many of the films that come after it. Its cruel twist ending cements the tone of an already-dark film.
Throughout Night of the Living Dead, the cast dwindles due to bad luck, incompetence, and human tension. The protagonist Ben appears to be the only survivor because he hides in the basement from the horde of ghouls. However, when a group of armed men guns down the ghouls, Ben attempts to reach them, only to be gunned down as well by mistake. Aside from these men, nobody survives.
6 The Blair Witch Project Begins By Discussing Its Protagonists' Likely Deaths
The 'found footage' genre is one founded on the death of its protagonists, given that the footage wouldn't need to be found if they had survived. The pinnacle of the genre, The Blair Witch Project, is no exception. It follows three young filmmakers, Heather, Mike, and Josh, as they set out to explore the urban legend of the Blair Witch.
Things quickly turn strange, and it's made clear that the protagonists are hopelessly out of their depth. The Blair Witch torments them for a time before Josh disappears, and Heather later finds his mutilated remains. Heather and Mike are never seen being killed, but the film ends with the Blair Witch attacking them. The opening moments note them all as missing.
5 The Cast Of The Others Are Never Alive In The Film
The Others follows the Stewart family as they attempt to recover from German occupation in the immediate aftermath of World War II. The family hires three servants to help them, but strange things begin to happen almost immediately. Before long, the family is thrown into a state of distrust and despair.
The Others is set up like a traditional haunted house film. However, it drops a major revelation in the third act. The Stewarts and the servants are the ghosts who are being 'haunted' by the house's current occupants. Before The Others, the entire family died in tragic circumstances. As such, it is a rare film where everyone is dead by the beginning.
4 Sunshine's Crew Complete Their Mission But Die In The Process
Sunshine deals with a group of astronauts and scientists who try to reignite the dying sun and save the world. From the start, the mission is said to be highly dangerous. The protagonists, however, insist that they'll return to Earth. Things swiftly go wrong as the protagonists deviate from their plan to increase their chances of success, and people begin to die.
Through accident, sacrifice, and the actions of the antagonist Pinbacker, the crew is slowly picked off. At the end of Sunshine, Cassie and Pinbacker die in the bomb's explosion, which succeeds in reigniting the sun. Capa almost certainly dies, as he's trapped in a space-time distortion near the sun.
3 Rogue One Ends With A Staggering Death Toll
Although it has its fair share of sad endings, Star Wars movies tend to have a pretty good survival rate for their main characters. The franchise tends to be optimistic. At the very worst, its protagonists usually fall back and live to fight another day. However, this isn't the case in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which ends with its six main characters dead.
Bodhi, Chirrut, and Baze all die while patching communications through to the Rebel fleet. K-2SO dies while buying Jyn and Cassian time. Those two are left stranded on Scarif as it's bombarded by the Death Star. Even villain Krennick dies, as he's hit directly by a blast from his own station. Andor makes this ending even sadder by giving viewers an even deeper look into Cassian's life and his sacrifices for the Rebellion. In his time in prison in Andor, Cassian helps build components for the very weapon that kills him.
2 Cloverfield's Protagonists Die Along With Manhattan
Cloverfield follows an unexplained and incredibly powerful monster that's on the loose in Manhattan. The movie follows a group of friends attempting to escape the monster and the military's response. The biggest threat isn't the creature, but the army's Hammer Down Protocol, which will level all of Manhattan.
The group appears to escape by riding in the last military helicopter. However, the creature just happens to knock them out of the air. The found footage movie ends with the two survivors realizing that they're too close to escape safely. They record their final words and die proclaiming their love.
1 The Cabin In The Woods Ends With More Than The Main Cast Facing Death
Slasher movies have a fairly fixed formula when it comes to survivors. The archetypal 'final girl' is the only cast member to survive and face the killer in a final confrontation. The Cabin in the Woods deconstructs this, as Marty survives alongside the final girl Dana.
Dana is given the option to kill Marty and save not just herself, but also the world. Ultimately, Dana refuses. She decides that humanity isn't worth the cost. Dana and Marty survive the immediate threats of The Cabin in the Woods, but they die along with the rest of the world shortly afterward when the Ancient Ones rise again.