10 Most Devastating War Movie Endings, Ranked

Content Warning: The following article contains spoilers for the movies mentioned.Generally, war movies are supposed to be emotional, because war itself is one of the most horrible things humans are capable of, and is a deeply traumatic thing to experience. For the most part, war films are intentionally downbeat or depressing, with the goal of reminding the audience of the horrors of war and the futility of conflict, and the movies’ endings tend to reflect that tone. Sometimes, these endings actually provide some sense of hope for the future, showing that there are better days ahead, or displaying that the mission was at least accomplished, despite the sacrifices made to do so.

Other films, however, go completely in the opposite direction and deliver swift gut punches of endings that are hard to see coming. When this is done, it’s usually to incite some sort of emotional reaction in the audience, which further helps drive the point home. These endings in war movies aren’t just bleak, they’re downright tear-inducing, destroying any bonds with the characters that the viewer may have developed over the course of the movie.

10

‘The Imitation Game’ (2014)

Directed by Morten Tyldum

The Imitation Game is a biopic set during World War II about Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch), who is often cited as the grandfather of modern computing. Turing was a British scientist assigned by the Crown to build a machine capable of intercepting and decoding Nazi transmissions, which wound up being the first computer. This effort was instrumental to the Allied victory, allowing them to discreetly spy on the Nazis without their knowledge.

Turing should have been hailed as a national hero, except for one thing: he was gay, and lived during a time period where existing as a gay person was illegal. Once he was discovered as being gay, he was criminally sentenced and forced to undergo hormonal therapy and chemical castration to “cure” his “condition.” Unfortunately, hormonal therapy used in this manner is a nightmare, as it has side effects that cause mental illness and debilitating physical symptoms. The film then reveals that Turing was later found dead in his home, apparently having taken his own life due to the distressing effects of the medication. Someone who should have been seen as a hero was instead seen as a criminal and wound up dead because of his identity, which he could not control. It’s not the most tragic ending ever, but it is one that cuts deep, with Turing’s untimely death feeling underwhelming and undeserved considering what he accomplished.

9

‘Das Boot’ (1981)

Directed by Wolfgang Petersen

Das Boot is a naval warfare movie set during World War II, following the lives of a German submarine crew. Life on a submarine is no piece of cake, and the crew is subject to immense challenges and trials just to see their mission through. They lose their friends, become afflicted with trauma, and even grow disillusioned with their cause, but through it all, are determined to see their mission through and return home. Sadly, they will never get that chance.

When they finally reach the port from which they embarked, the dead and wounded are taken ashore, and the remaining crew is able to stretch their legs and feel gratified that they will soon go home. That is, until a bombing raid occurs, either killing or seriously maiming the survivors, and sinking their submarine. In short, everything that the crew faced together, everything they suffered through, was for nothing at all, and they will likely never see their families again.

8

‘Anthropoid’ (2016)

Directed by Sean Ellis

Anthropoid is a movie set during World War II, centering on the heroism of the Czechoslovak resistance against the invading Third Reich. It’s a fine movie, but nothing remarkable or groundbreaking, yet it earns points for telling a story that isn’t often told in other pieces of World War II media. The Czechoslovak resistance put up a fierce fight in the name of freedom, even if they were sadly defeated. Towards the end, the characters of the film hole up in a cathedral, using it as their last line of defense where they make their final stand.

The defense initially appears successful, but the German numbers are too great. Despite heavy losses, they eventually break through and kill many of the characters. Those who aren’t killed by the Germans take it upon themselves to end their lives, because they know what awaits them in the German labor camps is a fate far worse than death. All the while, the women and the children of the town are sent to the camps, whilst the men are murdered. This is a film where the good guys lose, and while their blaze of glory might be visually stunning and inspiring, their sacrifice was mostly meaningless, because it didn’t help anyone escape, nor did it help achieve any particular goal.

7

‘The Grey Zone’ (2001)

Directed by Tim Blake Nelson

The Grey Zone is set in the infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, a name synonymous with death, as over 1.1 million people were murdered by the Nazis within its walls. So right off the bat, viewers will likely know that this movie is going to be no walk in the park. Much of the movie follows the real-life doctor Miklós Nyiszli (Allan Corduner), who was incarcerated at the camp in the latter days of the war.

Since Auschwitz was a place of little other than death, the prisoners decided to make one desperate attempt to take their lives and their freedom back and cause an uprising in the facility, killing the German guards, and, hopefully, escaping. Unfortunately, the uprising is squashed under the heel of the Third Reich, and the participants are all summarily executed, meaning all the planning and camaraderie experienced throughout the movie ultimately leads to nothing. Though there is a little bit of hope in the fact that Nyiszli survived the war, the film reveals that trauma overrode his passion for his craft and that he was never able to practice medicine again. In this tragic ending, pretty much everybody dies, and those who don’t are reduced to shadows of their former selves, never to be the same again.

6

‘Son of Saul’ (2015)

Directed by László Nemes

Son of Saul actually occurs at around the same time as The Grey Zone, featuring the same uprising in Auschwitz, and some of the same historical figures. The protagonist, Saul (Géza Röhrig), is fictional and serves as a Sonderkommando, a Jewish inmate who is given a longer life by participating in the executions of his people. He has become largely numb to the things he experiences until he sees a small boy murdered by a Nazi officer, after which he becomes convinced that the boy is his illegitimate child.

Saul spends much of the story carrying the boy’s body around in a sack, hoping to give him a proper Jewish burial after the uprising, as the Nazis planned to incinerate the body. During the failed rebellion, Saul escapes with the body, but loses it in a river, much to his despair. However, at the very last second, he sees another small boy nearby, one that gives him hope, and causes him to smile for the first time in the movie. Just as he finds this hope, the boy is also killed by a Nazi officer. Son of Saul’s ending is relentlessly cruel, not just to Saul, but to the audience, as it squashes any semblance of hope or happiness that the movie offers.

5

‘Come and See’ (1985)

Directed by Elem Klimov

Come and See is a Belarusian film set during the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. It follows a young boy, Flyora (Yuri Kravchenko), who enlists with the Belarusian partisans. Many tragic events happen to him over the course of the film, including the murder of his family and the destruction of his village. But by far the biggest tragedy is what awaits him at the end of the film. Shockingly, Flyora does survive the movie, but he witnesses unimaginable horror at the hands of the Nazis.

Flyora arrives at the village of Khatyn, the site of a horrific massacre. Nazis lock the villagers in the church, setting fire to it with everyone still inside. The ones who survive are subject to crimes too unspeakable to put into words, to the point where death honestly would have been a mercy. As Flyora reunites with the partisans and heads off to the front, the movie reveals that hundreds, if not thousands of Belarusian villages were burned to the ground by the Nazis, sometimes multiple times, and that millions of people there died. Come and See is one of the most haunting depictions of war ever committed to film, and its ending only draws attention to the brutality of the Third Reich.

4

‘The Boy in the Striped Pajamas’ (2008)

Directed by Mark Herman

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas stars a young Asa Butterfield as Bruno, a young German boy who is the son of a Nazi officer. Bruno’s family moves to a countryside estate, and while exploring, Bruno discovers a nearby concentration camp, where he befriends a Jewish boy named Shmuel (Jack Scanlon). The two often play together and talk through the fence without Bruno’s family knowing of their friendship. One day, Shmuel reveals to Bruno that his father has gone missing. Though in reality, it’s virtually certain that his father was killed by the Nazis.

Bruno digs under the fence and dons the striped uniform of the inmates, resolving to help Shmuel find his father. However, Bruno is mistaken for an inmate and, along with Shmuel, is corralled into a building along with dozens of other prisoners. Around this time, his family realizes that he is missing, and leads a search party for him, inevitably leading them to the camp. But they are too late, as the Nazis have executed Bruno and Shmuel by gassing them to death. Once his mother realizes what has happened, she falls to her knees and screams in despair. This is one of the most tragically ironic endings in cinema, but further emphasizes the cruelty committed by the Nazis.

3

‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ (2022)

Directed by Edward Berger

Netflix’s All Quiet on the Western Front is based on a novel of the same name by Erich Maria Remarque and is the third adaptation of the work thus far. The story follows Paul Bäumer (Felix Kammerer), a young German man who falls victim to propaganda and enlists in the First World War with his friends from school, with none of them really understanding what they’re getting into. In the novel and other versions of the movie, Paul is killed at the end by a French sniper, so those familiar with the story would likely already be prepared for Paul’s untimely death at the end. However, this newer version of the movie decided to ramp things up a bit.

In this adaptation, Paul survives the war until its final day, November 11, 1918. All of his friends have been killed and he is all alone on the front. Though an armistice has been reached, it is not set to take effect until 11:00 am. Paul’s commander, inexplicably, decides to lead one last charge toward the enemy trench just minutes before the eleventh hour. It’s not like Paul could have just walked away, either, because another soldier tries that and is instantly executed for cowardice. Here, Paul saves a new recruit from death and grapples with a French soldier. Just as the two take a step back and show a moment of mercy, Paul is stabbed from behind by another soldier’s bayonet. Seconds later, the trumpets sound—it is 11:00 am, and the war is over. Later, he is found by the German recruit that he saved, who accidentally forgets to grab Paul’s dog tag, which means his name will never be recorded and his family will probably never know that he’s dead. That is, quite literally, the final nail in the coffin, emphasizing the futility of Paul’s journey.

2

‘Grave of the Fireflies’ (1988)

Directed by Isao Takahata

Grave of the Fireflies is a Japanese animated war film about two children who are left struggling to survive following an American bombing raid on their hometown during World War II. The two have lost their mother, and their father is busy at war, so they are completely on their own. Unfortunately, food is scarce, and they begin to suffer the effects of malnutrition and starvation, with very little help coming their way. The movie opens with the death of Seita, the older child, in a train station due to the effects of starvation, so his death at the end is certainly no surprise.

However, before his untimely death, his younger sister, Setsuko also succumbs to starvation, leaving Seita all alone in the world. He heads off to a village to find out what to do with Setsuko’s body, only to discover that the entirety of the Japanese fleet has been sunk, and that his father has likely perished along with the ships. Seita buries Setsuko, and never returns to their improvised shelter, instead becoming a vagrant and dying in the train station 19 days later, lying amongst other victims of starvation, where a custodian casually removes him like he’s just a piece of garbage. The ending of Grave of the Fireflies is a biting reminder that the innocent, especially children, are always the ones who suffer the most in wartime, and of how war can rob the young of their innocence and of happy childhoods.

1

‘Taegukgi: The Brotherhood of War’ (2004)

Directed by Kang Je-gyu

Taegukgi: The Brotherhood of War is a criminally underrated South Korean movie set during the Korean War. The film stars two South Korean brothers: Lee Jin-tae (Jang Dong-gun), who is older, and Lee Jin-seok (Won Bin). The two enlist in the war effort, fighting against the North, but become separated due to the circumstances and the chaos of the war. With Jin-seok believing his brother to be dead, he later finds out that Jin-tae has actually defected to the North, and is leading an elite military unit. The two brothers, whose bond seemed inseparable, now find themselves on opposite sides of the battlefield, staring at each other down the barrels of their guns.

In a heart-wrenching moment, the two actually attempt to kill each other before coming to their senses. Both have heavily wounded each other, and the Southern forces are retreating. Jin-tae orders Jin-seok to run as he covers their escape with a machine gun, but is tragically killed. His bones are excavated in the year 2003, when an older Jin-seok breaks down at the sight of them. Worse still, when Jin-seok returns home, he is not seen as a hero, but as a Northern sympathizer, and is largely shunned by society. Taegukgi is a harrowing reminder that war can tear families apart and that not everyone returns home a hero. It would be infinitely less tragic if Jin-seok was welcomed home with open arms, but it is clear that he will carry the trauma of his ruined family with him wherever he goes, which is what arguably makes this one the most devastating war movie ending.

NEXT: The Bleakest Movie Endings, Ranked