What would be a realistic happy ending?

[Joe Washington]

I've grown a dislike for chessy happy endings that seem too wrapped up in a nice little bow. I prefer my happy endings to have some does of realism to anchor them. Can you think of an example of a realistic happy ending? It can be for a movie, TV show, or a book.

 

[sojourner]

Strangely enough, Highplains Drifter.

 

[scotpens]

This.

 

[Goliath]

I can't think of a single one, actually. I seriously need to lighten up, watch fewer films noirs, and more comedies.

But part of the problem here is that the question is rather vague. What do you mean by a "happy ending," and what do you mean by "realistic"?

All comedies end happily, by their nature. As the old saying goes: comedies end with weddings, and tragedies end with funerals. In both cases, the social order that was disrupted by the story's events has been restored. Either the protagonist's legitimate ambitions have been satisfied, or their illegitimate ambitions have doomed them.

Shaun of the Dead is a good example. In the end, the hero not only survives the zombie apocalypse, he grows as a person, gets the girl, and still gets to hang out and play video games with his friend (though not as much as before)(and his friend is now a zombie).

Viewed from one angle, this is actually a "realistic" happy ending. Not everyone survives: a number of people die horribly, and Shaun's friend, as mentioned above, is zombified. Shaun's character growth and his reconciliation with Liz are believable.

But on the other hand--this a is a romantic comedy, with zombies. Is it even appropriate to talk about "realism" in relation to movies like this? Or moves like Star Wars--surely one of the happiest endings in SF&F?

Furthermore: how happy does an ending have to be before it qualifies as a "happy ending"? Take, for example, the ending to High Plains Drifter, mentioned above. This is certainly a satisfying ending--justice has been done. But is it "happy"?

Take another Clint Eastwood movie--Dirty Harry. In the end, Harry saves the busload of kids, and blows away Scorpio with the last round in his revolver. Why, then, does this victory feel bittersweet? Why does he take out his Inspector's star and throw it away? Is this a happy ending, or not?

 

[barnaclelapse]

I like unrealistic happy endings if the story has been in that kind of vein to begin with.

My life is depressing enough as it is.

 

[Kirkman1987]

I'm not sure what you would consider in this catagory, but I'm taking it as happy endings that don't seem false and tacked on for the sake of having a hollywood ending. For example, The Theatrical cut of Blade Runner has an infamously false ending.

Here's some excellent endings, happy ones, in dramas that I think are earned and don't ring false.


One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - This is a good example of a happy ending earned through the balance of some really bad stuff happening as well.

The Shawshank Redemption - Yeah, It's the most feel good ending in history, but It has never ringed false to me given the clever escape and the build up of friendship throughout the film.

There are tons more, most well crafted movies don't have a problem with this.

A notable exception I can think of is The Searchers. Does anyone else find it utterly impossible to believe that John Wayne would spare his daughter's life, given his outright bigotry throughout the film. I don't think there's a single scene that would suggest otherwise prior to the end.

Blue Velvet is funny because the ending is so happy and over the top that many feel Lynch was taking the piss out of happy endings, or at least suggesting that the character's returned to their state of suburban blissful ignorance.

 

[J.T.B.]

A notable exception I can think of is The Searchers. Does anyone else find it utterly impossible to believe that John Wayne would spare his daughter's life, given his outright bigotry throughout the film. I don't think there's a single scene that would suggest otherwise prior to the end.

Sure, I buy it. It wasn't his daughter, it was his niece, and he had been in love with her mother when they were young. When he finally saw the grown Debbie, a real person rather than the motive for his violent obsession, he remembers her mother and can't kill her.

--Justin

 

[Small White Car]

Men in Black.

We're both happy that Jay has a cool new life and happy that Kay is back with his girlfriend.

We're sad that Jay lost his partner and sad that Kay lost his old life.

It's positive and negative for both of the main characters. A nice, even mix.

(Then part II goes and F's it all up which is why we ignore that.)

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Does anyone else find it utterly impossible to believe that John Wayne would spare his daughter's life, given his outright bigotry throughout the film.

I bought that ending, dunno why. Maybe it was that somehow Wayne managed to convey a sense of humanity underneath this nasty person he was playing, so that it doesn't come as a total surprise that the minute he is confronted with the actual girl he plans to kill, he can just do a total 180 and his "real self" emerges. I find that ending, when he picks up Natalie Wood with a flourish of triumph, realizing that he's her savior, not her killer, to be one of the oddest but most affecting in movie history.

And she wasn't his daughter - she was the daughter of a woman he once loved but lost. But he definitely took a paternal role, in that he assumed he had power of life and death over her - just a reflection of the white male attitude of the 19th C over white females, I guess.

One of my favorite earned happy endings is Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. The out-of-the-blue ass-save courtesy of Leia makes more sense in retrospect if you know she's a Force user and Luke's twin (nobody else would have "gotten the message," which makes it less of a suspiciously convenient lucky break). The final scene of Luke and Leia contemplating the Rebel Fleet, the cosmos and their destiny still gives me shivers. It's a very tentative happy ending, but still convincing. Whatever they face, they're in it together, and they'll get through it. Yow.

 

[Kirkman1987]

A notable exception I can think of is The Searchers. Does anyone else find it utterly impossible to believe that John Wayne would spare his daughter's life, given his outright bigotry throughout the film. I don't think there's a single scene that would suggest otherwise prior to the end.

Sure, I buy it. It wasn't his daughter, it was his niece, and he had been in love with her mother when they were young. When he finally saw the grown Debbie, a real person rather than the motive for his violent obsession, he remembers her mother and can't kill her.

--Justin

I suppose, but I still have trouble buying it. I don't think it hurts the movie, which is a masterpiece ( Although I prefer Man Who Shot Liberty Valance) but it rings false with me.

The end shot of Ethan framed by the door is one of the best closing shots ever.

 

[barnaclelapse]

A notable exception I can think of is The Searchers. Does anyone else find it utterly impossible to believe that John Wayne would spare his daughter's life, given his outright bigotry throughout the film. I don't think there's a single scene that would suggest otherwise prior to the end.

Sure, I buy it. It wasn't his daughter, it was his niece, and he had been in love with her mother when they were young. When he finally saw the grown Debbie, a real person rather than the motive for his violent obsession, he remembers her mother and can't kill her.

--Justin

I actually found that ending to be quite depressing. Even though he spares her we see that there's really no redemption for his character. He has no one and nothing to show.

 

[Kirkman1987]

A notable exception I can think of is The Searchers. Does anyone else find it utterly impossible to believe that John Wayne would spare his daughter's life, given his outright bigotry throughout the film. I don't think there's a single scene that would suggest otherwise prior to the end.

Sure, I buy it. It wasn't his daughter, it was his niece, and he had been in love with her mother when they were young. When he finally saw the grown Debbie, a real person rather than the motive for his violent obsession, he remembers her mother and can't kill her.

--Justin

I actually found that ending to be quite depressing. Even though he spares her we see that there's really no redemption for his character. He has no one and nothing to show.

You are not alone, and Ford clearly understood that aspect, it's hinted at by the ending shot of Ethan framed in the door after delivering Debbie and walking off into the wilderness. He can never really be part of the family, or of civilization. It's a classic western motif, the man of the wilderness.

John Ford is a master filmaker. For all the heroics and the slapstick comedic relief and sterotypes, he puts some real depth in his films.

 

[J.T.B.]

I actually found that ending to be quite depressing. Even though he spares her we see that there's really no redemption for his character. He has no one and nothing to show.

Well, yes, as Kirkman1987 pointed out, the door shutting on Ethan at the end shows pretty clearly that he has no place in normal civil life. Redemption doesn't work for everything. Even if he pulled back right at the end, Ethan was on the edge of the abyss for most of the movie, and that leaves its mark. Ethan was such a damaged person to begin with: He lost the only woman he loved to his dull brother, and then lost at the only thing he could do well, the war. Then with nowhere else to go he returned to his brother and saw his happy family, something Ethan can never have. And even if he could have made some kind of new life, that is all ended with the massacre of the family. Perhaps the small victory of seeing Debbie as a person and coming to terms with her, Indian wife and all, is the best we can hope for for Ethan, and be glad that Martin escaped a similar fate.

Of course, if Ethan is a surrogate for Americans up to the mid-20th century, the message is a little more positive: The destructiveness of racism and bigotry is in opposition to the foundations of family and civil society, but even the most virulent can be overcome by humanity and compassion.

John Ford is a master filmaker. For all the heroics and the slapstick comedic relief and sterotypes, he puts some real depth in his films.

I quite agree. I have been going back and forth on this with a friend who is a film buff and loves Leone but doesn't care for Ford. I try to tell him that Ford's movies are every bit as sophisticated thematically as Leone's, but a lot of the serious points are made very subtly and without visual flash. But there's heavy stuff there. Wayne telling Dobe Carey about what the Indians will do with Debbie, for instance. "What do you want me to do, draw you a picture!?" That scene could not be more effective if they had used the word "rape" or something more graphic.

Stuff like the comic pieces can seem out of place to a modern viewer, but one has to keep in mind that Ford came up in a time before TV, when the movies had to carry a lot more entertainment weight for the audience than they do now.

--Justin

 

[RoJoHen]

I think "My Finale" from Scrubs was a realistic happy ending, even though the show unfortunately got picked up for an extra season after that (which I have absolutely no interest in watching). JD and Elliott grew up and figured out how to have an adult relationship. JD left Sacred Heart to be closer to his son. It was sad to see him leave, but it was also very hopeful and wrapped things up as much as you can expect from real life. We all knew he would still see all his friends when he could, but he was starting a new chapter in his life that was full of possibilities.

 

[barnaclelapse]

I actually found that ending to be quite depressing. Even though he spares her we see that there's really no redemption for his character. He has no one and nothing to show.

Well, yes, as Kirkman1987 pointed out, the door shutting on Ethan at the end shows pretty clearly that he has no place in normal civil life. Redemption doesn't work for everything. Even if he pulled back right at the end, Ethan was on the edge of the abyss for most of the movie, and that leaves its mark. Ethan was such a damaged person to begin with: He lost the only woman he loved to his dull brother, and then lost at the only thing he could do well, the war. Then with nowhere else to go he returned to his brother and saw his happy family, something Ethan can never have. And even if he could have made some kind of new life, that is all ended with the massacre of the family. Perhaps the small victory of seeing Debbie as a person and coming to terms with her, Indian wife and all, is the best we can hope for for Ethan, and be glad that Martin escaped a similar fate.

Of course, if Ethan is a surrogate for Americans up to the mid-20th century, the message is a little more positive: The destructiveness of racism and bigotry is in opposition to the foundations of family and civil society, but even the most virulent can be overcome by humanity and compassion.

John Ford is a master filmaker. For all the heroics and the slapstick comedic relief and sterotypes, he puts some real depth in his films.

I quite agree. I have been going back and forth on this with a friend who is a film buff and loves Leone but doesn't care for Ford. I try to tell him that Ford's movies are every bit as sophisticated thematically as Leone's, but a lot of the serious points are made very subtly and without visual flash. But there's heavy stuff there. Wayne telling Dobe Carey about what the Indians will do with Debbie, for instance. "What do you want me to do, draw you a picture!?" That scene could not be more effective if they had used the word "rape" or something more graphic.

Stuff like the comic pieces can seem out of place to a modern viewer, but one has to keep in mind that Ford came up in a time before TV, when the movies had to carry a lot more entertainment weight for the audience than they do now.

--Justin

That's kind of my opinion, too. I've liked most of the Ford movies I've seen (which have only been a handful), but I definitely tend to prefer Leone.

I'm also not a big John Wayne fan. That's probably part of it, although I finally saw "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" and loved it.

 

[Jax]

I think "My Finale" from Scrubs was a realistic happy ending, even though the show unfortunately got picked up for an extra season after that (which I have absolutely no interest in watching). JD and Elliott grew up and figured out how to have an adult relationship. JD left Sacred Heart to be closer to his son. It was sad to see him leave, but it was also very hopeful and wrapped things up as much as you can expect from real life. We all knew he would still see all his friends when he could, but he was starting a new chapter in his life that was full of possibilities.

This.