Comedies are known for their upbeat, crowdpleasing endings, but this isn’t always the case. There are plenty of dark comedies out there which end with depressing scenes, even those in which all the main characters are killed off. This can be the funniest moment of the entire movie when it’s done right.
The ending of a movie is an important element of how audiences remember it, which is why so many comedies end with big punch lines. However, it can be just as powerful to wrap up the story with something unexpectedly bleak and depressing, even if it doesn’t seem to fit the tone.
10
Don’t Look Up (2021)
Adam McKay Predicts The End Of The World
Adam McKay’s climate change allegory in Don’t Look Up isn’t exactly subtle, but this is exactly the point. The director tries to beat his audience over the head with the looming catastrophe of climate change by likening it to a meteor impact, and the ending is just as disastrous as expected.
It’s the kind of comedy that wants to communicate a point just as much as it wants to make its audience laugh.
There are moments of levity throughout Don’t Look Up, but it never seems as though humanity will wake up to reality and organize an effective response in time. It’s the kind of comedy that wants to communicate a point just as much as it wants to make its audience laugh, and the message is crystal clear in the end.
9
Monty Python’s The Life Of Brian (1979)
Monty Python Make Fun Of Uplifting Hollywood Endings
Monty Python’s movies are categorized by the group’s irreverent atтιтude. Not only do they frequently deconstruct H๏τ topics like religion, national culture and the nuclear family, but they question the basics of what movies are, and the unwritten rules that govern their structure.
The ending of The Life of Brian is the perfect punch line to a farcical comedy. The upbeat song, “Always Look On the Bright Side of Life” is an intentionally hollow mockery of Hollywood endings, while the main character is crucified in the desert for no reason.
8
Burn After Reading (2008)
The Coen Brothers Are Fans Of Down Endings
Burn After Reading is often ranked one rung below the very best Coen brothers movies, like Fargo and The Big Lebowski, but the ending is a masterfully ᴅᴇᴀᴅpan joke. After a twisty crime caper, Burn After Reading comes crashing down to Earth, with a string of nonsensical deaths and a puzzled meeting at the CIA.
J.K. Simmons doesn’t need much time on-screen in Burn After Reading to leave a lasting impression, and his unbothered CIA agent steals the show right at the death. The Coen brothers end their bizarre spy romp with two characters wondering what the theme of the story is. It’s a meta twist, questioning the need for clear morals and tidy finales in movies.
7
Swiss Army Man (2016)
The Daniels’ Dark Fantasy Collides With Reality
Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert are most famous for Everything Everywhere All at Once, but their directorial debut Swiss Army Man is just as creative and unpredictable. It indulges in the darkest kind of surreal humor, so it’s appropriate the ending is just as bleak.
Swiss Army Man often toys with the idea of what’s real and what is merely imagined. The ending solves this problem in the most viscerally upsetting way possible. Although there are still some surreal mysteries left hanging, Hank’s depraved, fractured psyche is plain to see.
6
The Lobster (2015)
The Lobster’s Ambiguous Ending Is Dark Either Way
Yorgos Lanthimos’ movies are defined by their weird, unnatural atmospheres, and The Lobster uses this unique style to create a dark satire about modern romance. It always seems unlikely that David will get any sort of happy ending, but the finale is still shocking in the way that it plays out.
The Lobster ends on an ambiguous note, as it’s unclear whether or not David has blinded himself to engineer a superficial commonality with his new partner. Either way, it’s an unremittingly dark way to end things, since David is still controlled by the absurd rules that govern his society.
5
Four Lions (2010)
Chris Morris’ Taboo-Busting Comedy Ends With Multiple Deaths
Chris Morris has always been a satirist who’s unafraid to tackle some controversial themes, and Four Lions sees him attempting to make a comedy about zealous jihadi terrorists. The comedy is just as dark and uncomfortable as it sounds, particularly the ending.
For a while, the wannabe terrorists seem to be clueless dreamers, romanticizing the idea of dying for their cause without seriously understanding the ramifications of this act. Their London Marathon bombing is a reality check, as a comedy of errors leads to the death of each of the main characters, and each bombing is laced with cruel irony.
4
The Grand Budapest H๏τel (2014)
Wes Anderson’s Visually Stunning Comedy Is Deceptively Serious
The Grand Budapest H๏τel is arguably Wes Anderson’s best movie, and it’s a great example of the way that his style is often misinterpreted. Although it showcases his visually appealing approach, with bright colors and neat compositions, this picture-book facade conceals a dark story about the rise of fascism, criminal conspiracy and death.
The Grand Budapest H๏τel ends with Zero losing his mentor, his wife and his infant child. This adds a layer of tragedy to his mysterious presence in the beginning. He seems to be an eccentric H๏τel owner, but his isolation is much sadder than it first appears to be. All he has left are his stories, as the contentious painting hangs askew behind the H๏τel desk.
3
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2018)
Martin McDonagh Finds Some Hope In An Unsatisfying Finale
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a story about a mother’s grief, and her righteous anger that her daughter’s killer has so far managed to escape justice. It’s also a murder mystery of sorts, although there are no real suspects of which to speak. Three Billboards without any resolution to the case.
Mildred gets a brief moment of false hope that she may have found her daughter’s killer, but this is soon crushed. In the end, she and Dixon set out on their own vigilante quest to punish a man who they know isn’t the exact culprit they’re looking for. There’s some inkling of acceptance to this act, but Mildred is denied any real catharsis for her grief and guilt.
2
Shaun Of The ᴅᴇᴀᴅ (2004)
Edgar Wright’s Zom-Com Looks For A Silver Lining In The Apocalypse
The first movie in Edgar Wright’s Cornetto trilogy satirizes the zombie genre, and it doesn’t hold back on gore and violence just because it’s a comedy. In fact, like many other horror comedies, the deaths can often be just as funny as the jokes in Shaun of the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ.
Shaun of the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ constantly treads a fine line between dark horror and cheeky British romantic comedy. The ending offers the best of both worlds. It seems rather upbeat, but the image of Ed, zombified and chained up in the garden shed, is still remarkably bleak.
1
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
The Cold War Satire Ends With The Global Destruction Of Human Civilation
In terms of downbeat movie endings, it doesn’t get much darker than the total annihilation of all human civilization, with only a few hundred survivors retreating into a series of underground silos, doomed to repeat the same petty mistakes that brought about their destruction in the first place.
The ending ultimately feels inevitable.
Stanley Kubrick’s Cold War comedy Dr. Strangelove is a scathing indictment of humanity’s panicked impulses, with a particular eye on how politicians and military men can’t be trusted with the power of nuclear weapons. The ending ultimately feels inevitable, and Kubrick laughs at anyone who thought his cluster of ineffectual characters might avert the apocalypse.
