Do Happy Endings in Movies Change Our Expectations for Life?

All over the world billions of people spend their time watching movies and reading stories as a form of entertainment. In a lot of books and most movies there is a common theme of a happy ending, an ending that satisfies the watcher. The movie culture, mostly in the United States, deals out many movies that almost always contain a happy ending, but these happy endings lead to a change in expectations in our own lives.

What is a happy ending?

There are happy endings seen in so many different ways. It depends on the genre and type of work that the story or more specifically, a movie, is. “A happy ending is seen as an ending in the plot of a fictional story that constitutes everything turning out right for the protagonist, while the antagonist is defeated” ( McDermott, Anne Wikipedia).

Not every movie has an antagonist, but the main point is that in the end everything turns out in favor of the protagonist. We see this in many different forms, in superhero movies the superhero beats the villain and saves the world, in romance movies the guy gets the girl of his dreams and they live happily ever after, and in many circumstances there is just a conflict that the protagonist needs to overcome and they overcome it in the end. Another common theme is the fact that the main protagonist survives. This is not always true in superhero movies when there is a happy ending, but there are always a few of the protagonists in those movies who are still alive in the end. The big takeaway from the common theme in these movies is that both the protagonist and the viewer are satisfied and happy with the ending of the movie.

Why are we so obsessed with happy endings?

One thing that sticks out about happy endings is that they make the viewer feel happy, and enjoy the ending of the movie. This sticks out as most people are satisfied with the ending as it was most likely what they were hoping would happen for the protagonist. But why are we so attracted to these endings?

When we are registering the value of an experience, the overall value is encoded in the Amygdala. The Amygdala activation also mediates emotional responses that can lead to irrational behavior. The Anterior Insula is another part of the brain activated when processing experiences that are negative. These negative experiences are turned into disgust and you may become actively repulsed by an unhappy ending. The Amygdala has a bigger effect on worse decision makers who struggle to get past the unhappy ending they experience. Our brain ends up valuing the final moments of an event more highly than the rest of it. This means that if we had an okay time at an amusement park, but the last ride we went on was amazing, our brain will value the experience at the amusement park more highly than it really was because the ending of the event was good. This is known as the happy ending effect (Vestergaard, Martin The Conversation).

Relating this activity in the brain to movie watching and happy endings, if the entire movie is meh but the ending is good we value this movie more highly than a movie with an unhappy ending or a movie that we didn’t enjoy the ending to. People will continually watch movies that they believe will have a good and satisfying ending like other movies that they enjoyed. In another sense the brain will value the past experience of a happy ending movie higher than a movie that it did not enjoy the ending to. Because the demand and liking of movies with a happy ending goes up Hollywood will continually make more and more movies with happy endings.

Are there real world examples of the Happy Ending Effect?

When thinking about how this effect is shown in the real world the first thing that came to mind were the last two Avengers movies; Avengers Infinity War and Avengers Endgame. The first movie mentioned contained an amazing storyline connecting all of the previous Marvel Cinematic Universe movies together into an over two hour long masterpiece of a movie. Fans absolutely loved the movie, but were left with an unhappy ending where the Avengers fail to defeat Thanos, the antagonist, and half of the universe dies along with some beloved heroes. This unhappy ending left many people wondering what was going to happen next, and hoping for answers in the sequel. When Avengers Endgame was released a year later, there was a flock of fans coming to see the new movie and hope for a happier ending to the Infinity Saga in Marvel. This outpour led to the film breaking tons of box office records including becoming the highest grossing movie in box office history (KHAL, Complex). Even though some beloved heroes did indeed die the Avengers won in the end leading to a happy ending for the viewers and fans of the movie. When looking at Rotten Tomatoes to look at the ratings of the two movies the critic score for Infinity War was 85% compared to an audience score of 91%. On the other hand, Avengers Endgame held a critic score of 94% and an audience score of 90%. This is quite interesting as the critics and audience disagreed with the overall score they would give each movie, but what stood out to me is the big gap between the critic score of each movie. The critics seemed more swayed by the happy ending effect and probably the great way that Endgame wrapped up the Infinity War saga. The audience did not have much difference in the two films but barely enjoyed Avengers Infinity War better than Avengers Endgame, and seemingly not being affected as much by the happy ending effect. This is false. The record amount of people coming flocking to the movie theaters to see Avengers Endgame proves that the audience was being impacted by the happy ending effect. Everyone needed to see the happy ending of this story, the dissatisfaction that the world felt when the Avengers seemingly lost in Infinity War proves why so many people went to see Endgame. The audience was hoping for the happy ending that we have all grown to crave and enjoy. We just cannot comprehend the idea of the good guys losing and the bad guys winning.

The second example I found was through two Romantic movies. I looked up the best movies with an unhappy ending and found Seeking a Friend for the End of the World as a romantic drama, and searched for the best romantic movies with a happy ending finding Definitely, Maybe.

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World is a beautiful movie that finds two people falling in love and telling each other that they love the other moments before the world ends. An asteroid kills the entire population including our protagonist. This movie leaves a sadness as we know these two characters had spent their whole lives looking for the right person and right as they die they find the one for them. I sat here after this movie wanting to rewatch endlessly hoping for a different ending each and every time. Definitely, Maybe is a movie that follows a love story of a man where many years pass before he finds and reconnects with the girl he had truly been in love with his entire life. It is a beautiful ending that left me happy for the protagonist as he has all that he wants in life with a beautiful daughter and the girl of his dreams.

Personally I absolutely loved both of these movies, but I came out of watching Seeking a Friend for the End of the World recognizing that even with the sad ending, this movie happened to be probably a top 10 favorite movie of all time for myself. I expected to notice that many people felt the same, but again found an example of the happy ending effect. Seeking a Friend for the End of the World held a critic score of 55% and an audience score of 53% per RottenTomatoes. On the other hand, Definitely, Maybe held a critic score of 70% and an audience score of 72% per RottenTomatoes. This completely shocked me as the movie with the happy ending, even though I believe it is a worse movie, had almost 20% better scores by both the critics and the audience. With both movies being pretty good, I assumed that they would be at least pretty close to each other in terms of ratings, but that was not true at all.

This again shows just how much the happy ending and the satisfaction the viewers felt while seeing the end of the movie where the protagonist gets the girl he has loved forever impacts the total value of the movie. The ending of both movies truly impacted the scores they received, as the disappointing ending of Seeking a Friend for the End of the World lowered the total value of the movie in our brains as the upsetting ending turned to disgust in our minds. Many viewers seemed truly impacted by this ending and it showed more in the audience score than the critic score even.

Even if these movies truly are that far apart in true quality, it is important to notice that a movie with a critic score of 55% made a list of the best movies with an unhappy ending. The other movies on that list included some very notable movies such as Green Mile, which has great reviews and is pretty highly acclaimed. If this movie with a 55% critic score is able to make this list, it shows the fact that the movie industry does not often make movies with an unhappy ending, especially a quality romance movie that ends with both of the characters dying. The movie industry is afraid to make movies that have unhappy endings, as they want to try and reach a broader audience who more often than not enjoy a movie with a happier ending.

Are happy endings bad for us?

Unsurprisingly to many when researching about the negative effects of an unhappy ending, a lot of things come up having to do with children. These movies can have a bigger impact on children as their brains are still developing, and more importantly they are still learning about the world and what to expect in their futures. This can be detrimental to children as, especially in the United States, all that they see and learn is that no matter what happens, the good thing always comes in the end. It becomes difficult to induce conversations about their feelings and sad events that can happen in the real world (Alexander, Jessica Joelle). When children only receive happy endings, this can lead to them not experiencing all the emotions and they can end up having less empathy as they grow older.

Teenagers at some point can also begin to notice the positive and negative effects of happy endings in movies especially in Disney movies. One middle schooler explained that she felt like Disney movies made it seem that women needed to have a man in their life and that people could not be independent and strong (Duron, Nati).

On the other hand, one girl said that Disney movies and happy endings made her feel like she could be herself and make friends without having to change who she was (Duron, Nati).

Overall, it does seem that these movies can have positive and negative effects on us, and especially children. It is important to look at the negative aspects of these movies as it seems that it doesn’t happen very often, and definitely not enough. These effects seem important to note. Families should be having conversations about the real world and making sure to share their feelings as well as question other’s feelings.

How do these movies affect our expectations in life?

The thing that sticks out the most is how envious we become of fictional characters. We dress up as them, spend hours and hours watching them, going to conventions that have these characters, attending amusement parks, and much more. It is important to note that these characters become our role models, we strive to be like them and end up mimicking their actions and decisions. I know I wanted to be Spiderman growing up, I would have done anything to be a superhero going to save people. Role models in general end up having their actions mimicked by younger people who look up to them.

When being a role model, you have to set a good example in many different ways so that whoever is looking up to you can make good choices and improve their life because of you. Children and teenagers are those most likely to have role models, and they can be anyone. After reading parenting websites it is noted that whatever bad thing the parent says not to do, they shouldn’t do it too. The whole do as I say and not as I do mentality is not a real thing (Krisbergh, Audrey). If a child sees you smoking a cigarette, even if you say it’s bad, they will think that it is okay because you do it. The child wants to be just like you.

When these role models are fictional characters in happy ending movies, all we see throughout the movies or stories is that they come out on top in the end and usually get all of what they wanted. Aspiring to be like this can be great, but when we only see the good things that happen to them, it can impact us negatively. Believing that the decisions we make will help us turn out like these characters is just not rational whether these ideas are in children or adults. We can believe that if we act just how they do, we can be like them too. The truth is, no matter how hard we try, we will never be this fictional character. We can learn many good things from them, and mimic some of their great characteristics, but we will not become them. Just because we act like someone else does not mean that we will become them.

Conclusion:

I absolutely love happy ending movies. I watch a lot of Disney, Marvel and Rom/Com movies and have seen an abundant amount of them. Movies and stories have a great place in society and can be used as an important way to resolve stress and get away from the real world for a little while. I see nothing bad with this at all. Through my research though, it appears that these movies could impact our lives in negative ways as well as the positives as well as changing our life expectations. It might change depending on who the person is, but these expectations could be in our brains when making decisions. As long as we learn and are conscious about the negative effects of these movies I think everyone will be okay. On the other hand it is definitely important to watch more movies that have unhappy endings especially with children to make society good. Instead of going all away from happy endings, it seems as though it would be best to drift towards more unhappy endings as well and have a good balance. We all need happy endings in our lives, but we all need unhappy endings as well.

Works Cited

Alexander Jessica Joelle Alexander is a bestselling American author, Jessica Joelle. “The Gift of an Unhappy Ending.” The Danish Way of Parenting, 6 Sept. 2019, http://thedanishway.com/the-gift-of-an-unhappy-ending/. Accessed 5. Nov. 2022.

“Definitely, Maybe.” Rotten Tomatoes, https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1174278-definitely_maybe. Accessed 3. Nov. 2022.

Duron, Nati. “Magic Mirror on the Wall, Does Disney Influence Us All?” The Chant, 10 Dec. 2018, https://nchschant.com/14625/investigative/magic-mirror-on-the-wall-does-disney-influence-us-all/. Accessed 4. Nov. 2022.

“Happy Ending.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Aug. 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_ending#:~:text=A%20happy%20ending%20is%20an,main%20villains%2Fantagonists%20are%20defeated. Accessed 3. Nov. 2022.

Hunt, Katie. “Why Happy Endings Can Lead to Bad Decisions, Even When Voting.” CNN, Cable News Network, 19 Oct. 2020, https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/19/health/brain-decision-making-happy-ending-bias-wellness-scn. Accessed 3. Nov. 2022.

Khal. “Every Record ‘Avengers: Endgame’ Has Broken (so Far).” Complex, Complex, 22 July 2019, https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2019/07/avengers-endgame-every-record-broken/. Accessed 4. Nov. 2022.

Krisbergh, Audrey. “Being a Role Model — the Promise and the Peril.” The Center for Parenting Education, https://centerforparentingeducation.org/library-of-articles/focus-parents/role-model-promise-peril/. Accessed 6. Nov. 2022.

Na. “Seeking a Friend for the End of the World.” Rotten Tomatoes, https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/seeking_a_friend_for_the_end_of_the_world. Accessed 3. Nov. 2022.

Vestergaard , Martin D. “Why Our Obsession with Happy Endings Can Lead to Bad Decisions.” The Conversation, 13 Sept. 2022, https://theconversation.com/why-our-obsession-with-happy-endings-can-lead-to-bad-decisions-148393. Accessed 3. Nov. 2022.