Tropescilloscope: Downer Ending

Ending a story on a sad or depressing note. (read more at tvtropes.org)

More Tropes Henpecked Husband Lock and Load Montage Mercy Kill Australian Movies Slasher Movie Guile Hero Names to Run Away from Really Fast The Stoner Brainless Beauty Pragmatic Villainy Credits Gag Vampire Fiction Determinator And the Adventure Continues Artistic License – History Death Seeker Badass Grandpa Butt-Monkey Cowboy Cop Eureka Moment Visual Pun Our Zombies Are Different Bland-Name Product The Mafia Ship Tease Corpsing Anachronic Order Token Minority Police Brutality Mythology Gag Chuck Cunningham Syndrome Silence Is Golden Never Trust a Trailer The Cavalry Broken Bird Precision F-Strike Real Life Writes the Plot Decoy Protagonist Bloody Hilarious Knife Nut Bottomless Magazines Abhorrent Admirer Fatal Flaw Offscreen Teleportation Drill Sergeant Nasty Smug Snake Dirty Cop Psycho for Hire Really Gets Around Hair-Trigger Temper Spiteful Spit Brother–Sister Incest Only One Name The Musical Informed Ability For the Evulz Action Genre Face–Heel Turn Arc Words No Ending Mexican Standoff Bavarian Fire Drill Air-Vent Passageway Meaningful Background Event Manly Tears Scare Chord I Just Shot Marvin in the Face Dual Wielding Casting Gag Ghost Fiction Fate Worse than Death Destination Defenestration Adaptational Heroism The Lancer Gratuitous English Evil Laugh O.O.C. Is Serious Business Knight Templar Fanservice Extra Naked People Are Funny The Dragon Heroic BSoD Lampshade Hanging The Atoner Time Skip Tagline Motor Mouth The X of Y Failed a Spot Check The Remake Not So Different Cool Old Guy Big Brother Instinct The Sociopath Boom, Headshot! Setting Update Adaptation Distillation Hero Antagonist Curb-Stomp Battle Bunny-Ears Lawyer Would Hit a Girl Pretty Little Headshots Ungrateful Bastard Woman in White Victoria's Secret Compartment Unusually Uninteresting Sight Badass in a Nice Suit The Smurfette Principle Ambiguous Disorder Everyone Has Standards Artistic License – Physics He Knows Too Much Nothing Is Scarier Mr. Exposition Children Are Innocent Gilligan Cut Took a Level in Jerkass The Stinger Apocalypse How No Antagonist Chewing the Scenery Artistic License – Geography Extreme Doormat Public Domain Feature Films Almost Kiss Cool Old Lady Faux Affably Evil Horror Comedy Stuff Blowing Up Killed Mid-Sentence Sacrificial Lion Getting Crap Past the Radar Captain Ersatz Dramedy Once More, with Clarity! Fainting Oh, Crap! Disappeared Dad She's Got Legs Adaptation Expansion Mr. Fanservice Action Survivor Jump Scare Adaptation Name Change Kids Are Cruel Hypocritical Humor Red Eyes, Take Warning Ragtag Bunch of Misfits Hidden Depths Together in Death Action Prologue Contrived Coincidence Unspoken Plan Guarantee Deadpan Snarker Last-Name Basis Bowdlerise Toilet Humour aka: Toilet Humor Evil Is Hammy Paper-Thin Disguise Adults Are Useless Market-Based Title Mundane Made Awesome Dirty Coward Ironic Echo Soft Glass Fake Shemp Ax-Crazy No OSHA Compliance Russian Films Evil Cannot Comprehend Good Room Full of Crazy Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday Adapted Out Enemy Mine Police are Useless Reality Ensues Karma Houdini Re-Cut An Axe to Grind Cain and Abel Heroes Want Redheads Creative Closing Credits Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy Improvised Weapon Award-Bait Song The Place An Arm and a Leg Disguised in Drag Fanservice Alliterative Name Would Hurt a Child A Father to His Men Damsel in Distress Trailers Always Spoil Wham Line I'm a Humanitarian Spiritual Successor Love at First Sight Reality Has No Subtitles Recap / RiffTrax aka: Riff Trax Movies The Big Guy All Just a Dream Easily Forgiven Eyepatch of Power Punny Name Throwing Your Sword Always Works Didn't Think This Through The Un-Favourite aka: The Un Favorite Those Two Bad Guys Action Girl Irony Cold-Blooded Torture Match Cut The Faceless Double Entendre War Is Hell Protagonist Title Word of God Artistic License – Military Covers Always Lie Dull Surprise Bitch in Sheep's Clothing Big-Bad Ensemble Redemption Equals Death Not Even Bothering with the Accent It's All About Me Skewed Priorities 20 Minutes into the Future Black and Gray Morality The Casanova Those Two Guys Rape as Drama Disney Villain Death Manic Pixie Dream Girl Deconstruction What You Are in the Dark He Who Fights Monsters Video Credits Taking the Bullet Beta Couple Heroic Sacrifice Fatal Family Photo Adorkable Spanner in the Works Armor-Piercing Question The Mole Broken Aesop Scenery Porn B-Movie Dumb Blonde Too Dumb to Live Left the Background Music On Dogged Nice Guy Girl-on-Girl Is Hot Bloodless Carnage Shower Scene Bond One-Liner The Un-Reveal Does Not Like Shoes Soundtrack Dissonance Scary Black Man Heel Realization Ripped from the Headlines The Ace Kill 'em All Despair Event Horizon Disney Death Pay Evil unto Evil Amoral Attorney The End... Or Is It? Novelization Truth in Television Martial Arts Movie Deliberately Monochrome The Alcoholic Half the Man He Used to Be Meaningful Name Drives Like Crazy Storming the Castle Film Noir Rated M for Manly Dropped a Bridge on Him Ugly Guy, Hot Wife Abusive Parents Affectionate Parody World of Ham Auto Erotica Reckless Gun Usage Drowning My Sorrows Back from the Dead The Brute Men Are the Expendable Gender Driven to Suicide Death of a Child Canon Foreigner Sequel Hook A Minor Kidroduction Costume Porn Eiffel Tower Effect French Films Your Cheating Heart Character Development Male Frontal Nudity Cluster F-Bomb Body Horror Fire-Forged Friends Overly Long Gag Early Installment Weirdness Spared by the Adaptation Badass Longcoat Unwitting Instigator of Doom Bolivian Army Ending The Load Colour-Coded for Your Convenience aka: Color Coded For Your Convenience Large Ham Crazy Jealous Guy Japanese Films Death Glare Hate Sink Bullying a Dragon Wrong Genre Savvy Those Wacky Nazis Roger Ebert: Great Movies List Be Careful What You Wish For Loads and Loads of Characters Villain Protagonist Parental Incest Offscreen Moment of Awesome Danny Peary Cult Movies List Made of Iron Jerk with a Heart of Gold Genre Throwback Psychological Thriller Agony of the Feet Posthumous Character The '90s Based on a True Story Missing Mom Bi the Way Anyone Can Die Totally Radical Pragmatic Adaptation Evil Brit Babies Ever After Epic Movie Unreliable Narrator Riddle for the Ages Crapsack World Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! You Have Got to Be Kidding Me! Dying Moment of Awesome Faking the Dead Even Evil Has Standards Lighter and Softer Affably Evil Take a Third Option Cassandra Truth Four-Temperament Ensemble Humans Are Bastards Rule of Symbolism Say My Name Jerkass Has a Point Idiot Ball Every Car Is a Pinto Tranquil Fury Extremely Short Timespan Arch-Enemy Rasputinian Death Call-Forward Product Placement The Hero Dies All Girls Want Bad Boys Ambiguously Gay MacGuffin Unresolved Sexual Tension Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking Neck Lift Historical-Domain Character You Have Outlived Your Usefulness My Greatest Failure Naïve Newcomer All There in the Manual Anguished Declaration of Love Insult Backfire Mystery and Detective Films Villain Ball Beard of Evil Only in It for the Money Demonic Possession Whole Plot Reference Bare Your Midriff Freudian Excuse "Well Done, Son!" Guy Catch-Phrase Early-Bird Cameo Man on Fire Nice Guy An Aesop Loophole Abuse All Men Are Perverts Demoted to Extra Gory Discretion Shot Big Eater Same Language Dub Sanity Slippage Fiery Redhead Mugging the Monster Depraved Bisexual Meet Cute German Films Domestic Abuse The Dreaded Final Girl Funny Foreigner Never My Fault Evil Plan Dutch Angle The Bad Guy Wins Punch-Clock Villain Attempted Rape Up to Eleven She Cleans Up Nicely Superhero Face Death with Dignity Instant Death Bullet Famous Last Words Epic Fail Distracted by the Sexy Corrupt Corporate Executive Rule of Three The Stoic Adult Fear Sexy Discretion Shot My God, What Have I Done? Villain with Good Publicity Cool Guns No-Sell Accidental Misnaming Disproportionate Retribution Dark and Troubled Past Bond Villain Stupidity Zombie Stories Off-into-the-Distance Ending Tempting Fate Rich Bitch Hong Kong Films Roaring Rampage of Revenge Vomit Indiscretion Shot Interrupted Suicide Canadian Movies Freeze-Frame Bonus Shirtless Scene Revenge Honor Before Reason Flipping the Bird Cruel and Unusual Death Never Found the Body Well-Intentioned Extremist Manchild Stalker with a Crush Broken Pedestal Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer Animated Credits Opening Amusing Injuries Gold Digger Race Lift Evil Sounds Deep The Chick Cat Scare Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass The Smart Guy Bait-and-Switch Book-Ends Fish out of Water Brutal Honesty Expy Undying Loyalty Antagonist Title Cloudcuckoolander Leaning on the Fourth Wall Friend to All Children I Want My Beloved to Be Happy Hypocrite Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane Sinister Minister The Starscream Humiliation Conga Black Dude Dies First Non-Indicative Name Chekhov's Gun Fun with Acronyms folderlabel Facial Horror Put on a Bus Captain Obvious The Hero Parental Neglect Plot Hole Big Bad Break the Haughty Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold Index of Film Westerns Leitmotif Bad Boss Off with His Head! Belligerent Sexual Tension Central Theme Title Drop Sassy Black Woman Bloodier and Gorier Sports Stories "Shaggy Dog" Story Red Shirt Arranged Marriage Small Name, Big Ego Mood Whiplash Aside Glance Male Gaze Malevolent Masked Men Italian Films Sadistic Choice Dark Is Not Evil Celebrity Paradox Wretched Hive Alas, Poor Villain Eldritch Abomination Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? Country Matters Scenery Gorn Chase Scene Unusual Euphemism Guns Akimbo Rule of Funny Sealed Evil in a Can Love Triangle Pun aka: Incredibly Lame Pun Black Best Friend Overprotective Dad The Reveal Bittersweet Ending Blood Knight Animal Motifs Gainax Ending Worthy Opponent Refuge in Audacity Hollywood Darkness Cat Fight Fourth Date Marriage Breaking the Fourth Wall Anti-Hero Developing Doomed Characters Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping Exact Words Deliberate Values Dissonance Straight Gay Taking You with Me Diabolus ex Machina timeperiod Have a Gay Old Time Music Stories Historical In-Joke Science Fiction Films For Want of a Nail Psychopathic Manchild Closed Circle Reasonable Authority Figure Stylistic Suck Big Damn Heroes Historical Villain Upgrade Vitriolic Best Buds Conspicuous CG A God Am I Only a Flesh Wound Author Appeal Double-Meaning Title Due to the Dead Shut Up, Hannibal! The '50s Karmic Death There Is No Kill Like Overkill After the End Ms. Fanservice Vacation Films Not So Above It All Race Against the Clock The Voiceless Very Loosely Based on a True Story Establishing Character Moment Imagine Spot Obviously Evil Real Life Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil Grievous Bottley Harm Continuity Nod Important Haircut Logo Joke Adaptational Badass Does This Remind You of Anything? Chiaroscuro Bury Your Gays Genre Savvy Light Is Not Good Five-Man Band Adaptational Villainy Jerkass Laser-Guided Karma You Have Failed Me Badass Bookworm What the Hell, Hero? Pet the Dog Villainous Breakdown It Will Never Catch On Downer Ending Rule of Cool The Film of the Book Darker and Edgier Obfuscating Stupidity Aluminum Christmas Trees Older Than They Look Line-of-Sight Name A.I. Is a Crapshoot Chekhov's Gunman "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue Shell-Shocked Veteran Creepy Child Intrepid Reporter Car Fu As Long as It Sounds Foreign Get Out! Properly Paranoid Retired Badass Berserk Button Slasher Smile Documentary Hooker with a Heart of Gold Frame-Up Historical Hero Upgrade Gorn Adaptational Attractiveness Outrun the Fireball Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep" From Nobody to Nightmare Ambiguous Ending No-Holds-Barred Beatdown Death by Adaptation The Dog Bites Back Works Set in World War II Determinator aka: The Determinator Not Quite Dead Parental Abandonment Film Noir Index Comically Missing the Point Jitter Cam Brick Joke I Need a Freaking Drink As Himself Made of Explodium Smoking Is Cool Pre-Mortem One-Liner Poor Communication Kills Ass Shove Drugs Are Bad Immune to Bullets Chekhov's Skill Stepford Smiler Translation Convention Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas Retcon Big "NO!" Bar Brawl Politically Incorrect Villain Kill It with Fire La Résistance As the Good Book Says... Aww, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other True Companions Pre-Asskicking One-Liner Meaningful Echo Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds Biopic Cool Shades Screw the Money, I Have Rules! Composite Character The Oner Foreshadowing Pyrrhic Victory From Bad to Worse Vomit Discretion Shot Screw the Rules, I Have Money! Spell My Name with an "S" Take That! It's Personal Recycled IN SPACE! As You Know Grey and Gray Morality Reality Is Unrealistic Not Using the "Z" Word Make It Look Like an Accident In Name Only Dark Reprise Dwindling Party All There in the Script Show Within a Show Bad "Bad Acting" Green-Eyed Monster Black Comedy Silent Movie Defrosting Ice Queen Gender Flip Neck Snap Romantic False Lead The '70s Foregone Conclusion Tap on the Head Daddy's Girl Fat Bastard No Name Given Retirony Not What It Looks Like Combat Pragmatist Screw This, I'm Outta Here! Kubrick Stare Framing Device Red Herring Slap-Slap-Kiss Woman Scorned Pimped-Out Dress May–December Romance Coming-of-Age Story The Alleged Car The Lost Lenore Big Applesauce Needs Wiki Magic Love Took a Level in Badass Impaled with Extreme Prejudice Kick the Son of a Bitch Dirty Old Man In the Back Blonde, Brunette, Redhead Major Injury Underreaction Sci-Fi Horror Awesome, but Impractical Mistaken for Gay Big Fancy House This Is Gonna Suck Suspiciously Similar Substitute Obstructive Bureaucrat Narrator One Steve Limit BFG "Awesome McCool" Name Department of Redundancy Department The Quiet One Heterosexual Life-Partners Blood from the Mouth Random Events Plot Your Head A-Splode Film Series Dark Action Girl Bald of Evil Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism Evil Is Petty Hell Is That Noise The Ditz Gone Horribly Right Evil-Detecting Dog Beauty Is Never Tarnished Improbable Weapon User Improbable Infant Survival aka: Infant Immortality Twist Ending Training Montage Big Bad Duumvirate Dressing as the Enemy Authority Equals Asskicking Badass Normal Serial Killer Christmas Movies Index Super Strength Batman Gambit Implacable Man Earn Your Happy Ending Improbable Aiming Skills Bilingual Bonus I Have Your Wife All for Nothing Fantastic Racism A Date with Rosie Palms Here We Go Again! Black Comedy Rape Fan Disservice The '60s Card-Carrying Villain Expository Hairstyle Change My Beloved Smother Artistic License – Law Military and Warfare Films Star-Crossed Lovers Homage Horror Films N-Word Privileges Exactly What It Says on the Tin Accidental Murder Toplessness from the Back Not So Stoic Darkest Hour The Bully Rousing Speech Mama Bear Only Sane Man Monumental Damage More Dakka Flashback Femme Fatale Moment Killer Morality Pet Peek-a-Boo Corpse No Celebrities Were Harmed Age Lift Self-Deprecation Parental Substitute Good Is Not Nice Intergenerational Friendship Suspiciously Specific Denial The Power of Love Stock Footage Death by Irony Dramatic Gun Cock Animal Title Index The Great Depression British Films Sole Survivor It Can Think Groin Attack Insane Troll Logic Wicked Cultured Leave the Camera Running Mighty Whitey One-Man Army Empathic Environment Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome Deus ex Machina Never Trust a Trailer aka: Trailers Always Lie Shoot the Shaggy Dog Asshole Victim Fantasy Films Annoying Younger Sibling Yandere Eagleland Married to the Job Manipulative Bastard Bound and Gagged Catapult Nightmare Blackmail Red Right Hand Shipper on Deck Nice Hat Plucky Comic Relief Punctuated! For! Emphasis! Wham Shot In Medias Res Call-Back Madness Mantra Eye Scream Badass Boast Hoist by His Own Petard Nice Job Fixing It, Villain! Our Vampires Are Different Camera Abuse Heel–Face Turn Actually Pretty Funny Papa Wolf Break the Cutie The Chessmaster Laughing Mad Let's Get Dangerous! Defiant to the End Thriller Calling the Old Man Out Creator Cameo And Starring Adaptation Dye-Job Playing Gertrude Nice Job Breaking It, Hero! Blatant Lies Artistic License – Biology Crazy-Prepared Redshirt Army Daylight Horror The Vamp Running Gag Hollywood Law Did Not Get the Girl Insistent Terminology Betty and Veronica Hero of Another Story Evil vs. Evil Sequel Escalation How We Got Here Romantic Comedy Wounded Gazelle Gambit Curse Cut Short Happily Married Fingore You Killed My Father Artistic License – Gun Safety Hope Spot Death by Sex Cool Car The '80s Bring My Brown Pants Better to Die than Be Killed Handicapped Badass Dramatic Irony Advertised Extra Anachronism Stew Even Evil Has Loved Ones Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique Suddenly SHOUTING! Deal with the Devil Foil "The Reason You Suck" Speech Kick the Dog Red Oni, Blue Oni Camp Gay And I Must Scream Villain Song Dies Wide Open Crucified Hero Shot Slashed Throat Mind Screw Beware the Nice Ones I Did What I Had to Do Noodle Incident '80s Hair Becoming the Mask Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene Evil Counterpart Greater-Scope Villain One-Word Title Only Known by Their Nickname Genre Shift Funny Background Event Shown Their Work Stealth Hi/Bye NO INDOOR VOICE The Ghost Sir Swears-a-Lot Mad Scientist The Cameo Jerk Jock Dissonant Serenity Villain Opening Scene Stealth Pun Rewatch Bonus Mooks Maybe Ever After Serious Business Anti-Villain Author Avatar Television Movie Index Ominous Latin Chanting No Good Deed Goes Unpunished Ascended Extra Alpha Bitch Actor Allusion Why Don't You Just Shoot Him? Shout-Out What Happened to the Mouse? Pretty in Mink