Movies like Nicholas Sparks’ adaptations take his style of telling a romantic story, but always add in a tragic moment to ensure that viewers are crying by the end. Sparks is an author who has written 23 New York Times bestselling novels, and many have become movies.

The Notebook, A Walk to Remember, and Message in a Bottle show exactly what viewers can expect from a Nicholas Sparks movie. They have deeply personal romantic stories, but all include a tragedy, usually with the death of a leading character. This has become a Hollywood trend in recent years.

The new Prime Video movie, The Map That Leads You, is a perfect example. KJ Apa and Madelyn Cline star as Jack and Heather, two young adults who meet on a European trip. However, Jack leaves Heather to protect her from the fact that he has cancer and is likely going to die. It feels just like a Nicholas Sparks release.

My Girl (1991)

Five years before Nicholas Sparks released his breakout novel The Notebook, the 1991 movie My Girl delivered a similar theme of delivering tragedy in what looked like a romantic setting. This, however, was a difficult movie to watch, as the main characters are both pre-teens.

Macaulay Culkin stars as Thomas, an unpopular boy who is allergic to everything. He becomes best friends with a young girl named Vada (Anna Chlumsky), and the two become inseparable. The two kids share a “first kiss,” but that was the last time they saw each other before tragedy befell them.

Seeing a child die in a movie is tough, but seeing Vada’s pain and the fact that her father is unable to help her through it because of his own trauma is almost unbearable. My Girl received mixed reviews, but it still holds a spot in the hearts of fans who were of the right age when it was released, and it is a heartbreaking film.

City Of Angels (1998)

First, it is important to know that City of Angels is based on a fantastic Wim Wenders film called Wings of Desire. The original is worth watching, as it is the superior film between the two. However, when looking at movies like Nicholas Sparks’ releases, it is City of Angels that best fits that description.

In a rare serious role, Nicolas Cage plays an angel named Seth, who has looked over humans, protecting them for an eternity. However, he longs to know what it is like to be human and finally achieve that dream. Once turned into a human, he meets a woman named Maggie (Meg Ryan), a doctor, whom he falls in love with.

As with movies of this type, Seth will not get a happily-ever-after ending, and tragedy befalls him by the end of the film. As with most Sparks’ movies, this is a story that shows that tragedy can befall people in love, but it is essential to understand the tragedy and its meaning in the grand scheme of their lives.

P.S. I Love You (2007)

P.S. I Love You is a perfect example of a movie that plays in the same sandbox as the Nicholas Sparks adaptations. In this movie, the tragedy happens early, with Hilary Swank playing Holly, a woman whose husband Gerry (Gerard Butler) dies of a brain tumor after 10 years of marriage.

This movie, though, follows the aftermath of the death, as Holly withdraws from her friends, family, and the world, and it takes a letter her husband sent that she received on her 30th birthday to force her out into the world again. It is his letters that finally help Holly start to live life again.

P.S. I Love You doesn’t offer much new in the genre of the romantic drama with a tragedy, but Swank does a good job in her role as the grieving widow, and the supporting cast, including Kathy Bates as her mother and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as her ᴅᴇᴀᴅ husband’s old friend, help make this an emotionally satisfying film.

Remember Me (2010)

When it was released, Remember Me received terrible reviews because it used a real-life tragic event to deliver a shocking twist in a romantic framework. However, as time pᴀsses, it is easier to watch the movie as a tragic romance without the events of 9/11 weighing too heavily on the entire storyline.

However, it is also important to remember that the film uses 9/11 as a plot device. While this movie delivers a surprise death similar to the Nicholas Sparks masterpiece Message in a Bottle, the fact that Remember Me used the 9/11 attacks to deliver the death is still something that some viewers might not want to see.

With that said, Robert Pattinson delivers a solid performance alongside Emilie de Ravin as the star-crossed lovers who will never get to see their love blossom further thanks to the tragedy, and it shares a huge bond with Sparks’ movies thanks to this tragic ending.

The Fault In Our Stars (2014)

The Fault in Our Stars seems like a carbon copy of a Nicholas Sparks movie, and this should come as no surprise. The film is based on the novel by John Green, who has become the literary world’s equivalent of Nicholas Sparks in the realm of young adult romance dramas.

Shailene Woodley stars as Hazel Grace, a teenager living with thyroid cancer that has spread to her lungs. She begins attending a support group and meets a young man there named Gus (Ansel Elgort), a young man who lost his leg to bone cancer but has gone into remission.

As with all movies of this type, the two fall in love only for tragedy to strike again, and the youngsters have to figure out how to deal with it. Seeing young adults in these situations is challenging, but as with the best Nicholas Sparks stories, John Green also has a lesson to deliver: death is not always the end.

Me Before You (2016)

Me Before You is a movie that was highly controversial when released, as was the book it was based on. Emilia Clarke stars as Lou, a carer for a young man named Will (Sam Claflin), a one-time sportsman who is now tetraplegic after he was hit by a motorcycle. By the end, it delivers a similar tragedy to any Nicholas Sparks movie.

However, there were protests and angry reactions to the story since the tragedy involved the young man choosing ᴀssisted suicide, and this was not something that went over well with many fans. That said, author Jojo Moyes stated that she based it on a real-life story and noted that this is a choice some people make.

Seeing the two grow together, and watching as Lou learns more about her own life and what it means to be alive, is where the growth in the story lies. Lou and Will’s story is tragic and sad, but it ends in a way that feels right for both of them.

Irreplaceable You (2018)

Released in 2018, Irreplaceable You is a movie about a couple who have been best friends since childhood. Abbie and Sam are planning to get married, but then they learn that Abbie has terminal cancer, and they realize that they don’t have much more time together.

However, instead of just settling down and waiting to die, Abbie sets out to find someone who can take care of Sam, trying to find a new love for his life before she dies. At the same time, Abbie meets other cancer patients who are trying to live the best lives they can before they die, casting a light on her final days as well.

This is a Netflix original movie and mainly received negative reviews from critics. However, the audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is a positive 60%, with fans of films like Nicholas Sparks’ adaptations getting what they wanted in this tragic romance.

Love Story (1970)

Love Story is a classic romantic tragedy, released when Nicholas Sparks was only five. The film stars Ryan O’Neal as Oliver, a wealthy young man who meets a smart, working-class student named Jenny, played by Ali MacGraw. When they get married, Oliver’s father cuts off support, and they make things work without his help.

However, things don’t last as the two learn that Jenny learns she is terminally ill. The film then shows the two of them coming to terms with her impending death, and what their relationship meant to each other in the small time they had together.

This movie is also where the famous line, “love means never having to say you’re sorry” came from, and it is one of the most emotional moments of the film, which remains one of the best ever in the genre of tragic romances.

Five Feet Apart (2019)

Five Feet Apart takes the ideas from Nicholas Sparks’ movie adaptations and delivers a great film that explores these themes. Cole Sprouse and Haley Lu Richardson star as teenagers with cystic fibrosis. This makes them vulnerable to infections, and patients with this have to remain six feet apart from each other.

As expected, this movie was going to end in tragedy, as films with diseases of this type often do. However, unlike many of these movies, it doesn’t end in death for the two main characters, but it does involve one of them realizing they can’t continue to spend time with each other, but he does what he can first to make her happy.

The film was great thanks to the performances of the two young actors, and it shows how these diseases could affect young adults, and how they can still find happiness, even if the darkest moments of their lives.

All The Bright Places (2020)

All the Bright Places is a teen romance drama released as a Netflix original movie in 2020. All the Bright Places stars Elle Fanning and Justice Smith as two teenagers in a small Indiana town. Violet is living with survivor’s guilt after her sister’s death. Finch is a young man who talks Violet down from a suicide attempt.

The two become friends, but their relationship is threatened when Finch’s own idiosynchronicities come to the surface. He explains that his father has physically abused him and has considered suicide more than once. This is a story about two broken young adults trying to help each other, until it is too late for one of them.

Nicholas Sparks’ movies are almost always about two people falling in love, and then one of them dying. The important part is to show that the deaths are not the end for the survivors. Both Fanning and Smith deliver masterful performances in All the Bright Places, a film that stands among the best in the genre.