Films where the baddies win

[Small Man Big Horse]

The Birth of a Nation.

[Kane Jones]

Pet Sematary

[Johnny Townmouse]

The Birth of a Nation.

Let's not be rash...

[Kane Jones]

Saw

John Carpenter's The Fog

[MojoJojo]

The Thing
Brazil
12 Angry Men
The Passion of the Christ
Downfall

[Johnny Townmouse]

12 Angry Men

Racist.

[shiftwork2]

The Shining

[Deanjam]

The Thing

That one depends on whether you think MacReady or Childs is a thing.

[Kane Jones]

That one depends on whether you think MacReady or Childs is a thing.

I nearly put The Thing, but didn't for this very reason. I think it has a pretty ambiguous ending, really.

[garbed_attic]

How much of the end of the Brazil do people reckon is Sam's delusion?

Spoiler alert

I sometimes think that the 'all in Sam's mind' stuff included the romantic tryst with Jill because the whole sequence so closely mirrors Sam's fantasies and involves such a complete 180 in Jill's personality and treatment of Sam.

[close]

[El Unicornio, mang]

Everything from after he gets put in the torture chair, I think.

[Noodle Lizard]

Don't you see him dead in the chair at the end?  Am I imagining that?  I thought it was pretty clear-cut.

[El Unicornio, mang]

No, he wakes up from his big fantasy at the end and his brain is all mush, and he's muttering to himself.

[Noodle Lizard]

No, he wakes up from his big fantasy at the end and his brain is all mush, and he's muttering to himself.

Right ... okay, but it's still clear that it's a fantasy up until that point, right?

(please don't do one again)

[El Unicornio, mang]

Right ... okay, but it's still clear that it's a fantasy up until that point, right?

(please don't do one again)

Yeah, they start torturing him, then it shifts to fantasy when De Niro and his guys swing in and blow Michael Palin away and all that other stuff and doesn't go back to normal until that last shot. That's how I saw it, anyway.

[Urinal Cake]

The Seventh Seal

[Noodle Lizard]

Yeah, they start torturing him, then it shifts to fantasy when De Niro and his guys swing in and blow Michael Palin away and all that other stuff and doesn't go back to normal until that last shot. That's how I saw it, anyway.

Yeah.  My point is that it doesn't seem like an ambiguous ending at all since we have that last scene of him still in the chair going ga-fooey.

[Sexton Brackets Drugbust]

Yeah.  My point is that it doesn't seem like an ambiguous ending at all since we have that last scene of him still in the chair going ga-fooey.

I believe gout pony was suggesting that the exact point Sam starts fantasising may be ambiguous, as Jill's sudden attraction to him for no good reason is probably the weakest part of the film otherwise.

[babyshambler]

Drag me to Hell.

[Blumf]

I believe gout pony was suggesting that the exact point Sam starts fantasising may be ambiguous, as Jill's sudden attraction to him for no good reason is probably the weakest part of the film otherwise.

So, would that fantasy start at the store bombing, or just after when Sam's knocked out by the police guard in the van?

[Serge]

[Hank Venture]

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

The Mist

[Catalogue Trousers]

I'd say that ...Cuckoo's Nest has at least a hopeful ending. McMurphy (and Billy) may be dead, but the Chief makes his escape and the rebellious spirit of McMurphy lives on.

Also, The Long Good Friday (while a fine film) can hardly be said to have the bad guys win, as just about every character in the film is a complete cunt of one stripe or another.

I'm going to nominate Colossus: The Forbin Project.

[Don_Preston]

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Not really. Big Chief escapes, Ratched is humiliated and The Acutes learn how to live.

[Thomas]

Crimes and Misdemeanors?

Not exactly a goodies vs. baddies affair, I know.

Spoiler alert

But Judah does get away with murder, essentially. And, despite the film's morally nihilistic stance, I think we can here, for the sake of argument, take murder to be a Bad Thing, or at least a criminal thing, making Judah the baddie.

[close]

[Hank Venture]

Billy kills himself, Mac is lobotomized and smothered... The Chief escaping is good, but it doesn't redeem the ending totally; Ratched still works there, and it won't take much for the patients to return to their old state. Ratched wins over everyone except the Chief.

[Hank Venture]

Not that old, I haven't watched many old movies, but Mystic River.

[Johnny Townmouse]

The Empire Strikes Back

Picnic at Hanging Rock

Thelma & Louise

[Noodle Lizard]

All this 'Skyfall' 'Skyfall' 'Skypalling' more like.

What about 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service'?

Kind of 'Cabin In The Woods' as well.  Sort of.  Up for debate, that one.  Who's up for it?

[Don_Preston]

Billy kills himself, Mac is lobotomized and smothered... The Chief escaping is good, but it doesn't redeem the ending totally; Ratched still works there, and it won't take much for the patients to return to their old state. Ratched wins over everyone except the Chief.

The patients move to different wards or discharge themselves. Ratched is exposed, literally, as but a mere woman rather than a genderless force of power. Her main weapon, her voice, has been robbed by McMurphy's attack. Mac's death once again shows that the patients have more control than Ratched.