Poll: Can a movie be good if the ending has the bad guy win?

[Amax29]

Do you think a movie could be successful if the bad guy wins at the end?
I dont mean if it looks like the bad guy has won but then loses in the sequel, I mean full on earth conquering, planet destroying, species extincting, mass slave enducing evil victory.

Edit: I personally would love to see a movie were the good guy makes it the end and fails to deactivate the 5 min timer to the 10 megaton nuke, or fail to escape from the over elaborate slow moving death trap.

 

[barryween]

If you haven't seen Watchmen don't click I guess...

Spoiler

Look at Watchmen and you'll know the answer is:

yes.

 

[Arkhangelsk]

Yes. In some movies I actually root for the bad guy. They have some charisma at least and don't make cheesy endings.

 

[xavierxenon]

Yes, and it would be great if more films done it.

 

[AboveUp]

Yes, quite easily. In fact, it's often quite refreshing to see the bad guy get away with it.
Good endings are often too predictable. Whereas a bad ending stays with you and has you think about it.

Sure, a lot of people will dislike bad endings, simply because they expect a good one. Which is why going against most people's expectations leaves a much bigger impression behind than giving them what every other story out there gives.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

Well, I don't think Aladin needs spoilers.

 

[Arkhangelsk]

Yes, quite easily. In fact, it's often quite refreshing to see the bad guy get away with it.
Good endings are often too predictable. Whereas a bad ending stays with you and has you think about it.

Sure, a lot of people will dislike bad endings, simply because they expect a good one. Which is why going against most people's expectations leaves a much bigger impression behind than giving them what every other story out there gives.

It's the same thing as people hating sad endings, but there are those who still like it cause it was fitting, even if it didn't end as they really wanted it to. It goes hand in hand with tragedy.

 

[RemoteControlRox]

Yep

Spoiler

Look at Watchmen and you'll know the answer is:

yes.

And

Spoiler

Lord of War

Spoiler

Swordfish

In the above movie, the topic of the bad guy winning is the main storyline.

All of these.
Just because a story doesn't have a happy ending doesn't mean it's a bad story.

 

[BaronAsh]

See "Silence of the Lambs" half the people in that movie are the "bad guy".

 

[CoverYourHead]

Yes, in fact, I think it needs to happen more often; that would prevent Villain Decay across multiple media.

 

[TheAmazingTGIF]

I have always wanted a Bond film to end with the guy shooting Bond in the head and then going to make his demands to the UN and have the credits roll as the janitor mops up the blood.

 

[Chunko]

Spoiler

Look at Watchmen and you'll know the answer is:

yes.

going forward you might want to put more context around the spoiler so that people who haven't seen that movie know not to click on it

 

[oliveira8]

Yes. Just look at

Spoiler

Snatch.

The bad guys didn't win...cause the story doesn't have good guys to begin with. Just criminals worse than the other criminals.

 

[barryween]

Spoiler

Look at Watchmen and you'll know the answer is:

yes.

I really don't think that's a good example. In Watchmen there are no real bad guys only those with different viewpoints.. For example Vedit truly meant no wrong through his actions and it can easily be argued as a justified morally right response to the situation at hand.

I just meant that, usually the "bad guy" is the character that the story is NOT told from their perspective. So since HE "wins" I would consider him a bad guy winning.

 

[AkJay]

Spoiler

Look at Watchmen and you'll know the answer is:

yes.

Well, we kind of all won in that scenario. . . although i did flip shit when

Spoiler

Dr. Manhattan blew Rorschach up

 

[Nigh Invulnerable]

Blade Runner ends with Roy dying, but didn't he accomplish his goal? To be remembered, even if only by a few people. Arguably, there's not a real villain or hero necessarily in that movie. Darth Vader basically wins in Empire, and that's generally considered the best of the series. Joker technically wins in Dark Knight, though Batman and Gordon do their best to cover that fact up.