The Last American Virgin (1982)…and it shocked me. Up until then, I grew up on happy, nice endings. Just basic drivel that was out. Whatever my dad took me to as a kid. They all ended on a happy note even if they were horror or action movies which he mostly took me to. Tied up in a bow to satisfy the viewer, obviously.

I don’t know when or on what I saw TLAV, but I just remembered being an unexpectedly sad ending. Because the main character always gets the girl.

It wasn’t until much later did I come to understand and love movies that don’t necessarily end on a high note.

I was too young to see those depressing 70s sci-fi movies when they first came out but my dad used to watch them when I was a kid. Planet of the Apes is probably the first one I can remember.

The ending of Kevin Costner's Revenge that was directed by Tony Scott. The ending when Costner's character rescued Stowe after she was tortured and drugged up and then she died in his arms after she said "I love you" Holy shit I was literally in tears I remember watching it on VHS in the early 90s and that scene killed me.

The Champ with Jon Voight and Ricky Schroder.

ooh that’s a good one. I vaguely remember but I think this was on tv and I saw when very little, so that could be mine as well, but the one I remember most was Virgin.

Old Yeller.

Probably Frankenstein on TV when I was 5.

Likely Silent Running on the TeeVee.

I'd like to also add Brian's Song, also on the TeeVee. Cried like a little baby during dinner. (I was not much older than a baby, FWIW.)

Annie Hall, The Way We Were and New York, New York were all movies that bummed me out because the leads don't end up together. The Way We Were came out a few years earlier, but I think I saw it on TV so as I remember it I kind of saw all three in rapid succession and was left with the disturbing realization that many great relationships do not end in Happily Ever After. It was a blow to a young romantic like me.

That was an early one for me, too, but I believe my first was SON OF KONG (1933).

I want to say either Fox and the Hound or Pinocchio (Pinocchio has a happy ending but what the hell happened to the donkey boys?)

Also, I think Disney Plus still doesn't have the original Brave Little Toaster and probably for good reason. :P

King Kong count?


Fox and the Hound actually has a somewhat optimistic ending all things considered.

The Birds

I was coming in here to mention The Last American Virgin and there it was, first on the list. Apropos, though. THAT BITCH

Butt now that I think of it, it was actually the 1981 adaptation of The Postman Always Rings Twice. I don't know why my parents dragged my 10 year old ass to the theater with them to see that flick, but that final scene featuring was particularly brutal to my sensitbilities.

Somewhere in Time

This makes me think of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, which I saw after both Silent Running and Brian's Song, but was certainly a profound experience.

I remember seeing "The Birds" for the first time when it was on NBC's "Saturday Night at the Movies" in the late '60s. I was a child at the time and we watched it with my family and we had a good time, as it was scary but not inappropriate (if you know what I mean). However, we were all taken aback by the ending, and what it meant, since it was so unusual at the time. We just hadn't seen a movie that left things like that.

That's when I saw it also. Think it was around 1966-68.

This is one of my all-time favorite movies. That ending breaks me all the time.... the fact that she held on to his dog tag throughout all that ordeal... OMFG! /cries lol

I think Charlotte's Web got me. I remember reading the book and then watching the cartoon movie and when Charlotte dies. I cried my ass off.

Old Yeller. Saw it once on TV as a kid in the early 60s and have never wanted to do a repeat viewing because of the ending (forget that "kid gets a new dog" bit - it's nothing but a lame attempt to lighten the ending a bit). It also caused me to never want a pet of any kind.

My Girl

I remember totally getting choked up at the line: "And where are his glasses? He can't see without his glasses! Put his glasses on! Put on his glasses!"