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In Hollywood, the good guy usually wins. But some of the most memorable and impactful movie endings are the ones where our hero fails. From classic Westerns to rock and roll comedies, join us as we count down 10 movies where the main character's loss didn't matter in the grand scheme of things.
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00:00In the space of no more than a couple of hours, a good movie can not only present you with
00:05a strong character, but almost force you to make a connection with them.
00:09To genuinely care about the people on the screen is part of the magic of cinema.
00:14These protagonists will face adversity and challenges throughout the story, and the majority
00:19of the time will ultimately win the day.
00:22But that isn't always the case, and sometimes it doesn't even matter.
00:26I'm Ewan, this is War Culture, and here are 10 movies where it didn't matter that the
00:31hero lost.
00:3310.
00:34A Great Old Joke – The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
00:38Saying goes that when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.
00:41Essentially, you take the bad that is thrown at you in life, and you do your best to turn
00:45it into something positive.
00:47Sometimes a situation is only as good or as bad as you make it.
00:52The ending to the 1948 John Huston classic The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a perfect
01:00example of the aforementioned.
01:02For those who haven't watched it, and please do go watch it if you haven't already because
01:06it is just amazing stuff.
01:08The story follows three men during the Roaring Twenties who come together to go gold prospecting
01:14in Mexico, but the whole thing becomes a bit of an ordeal to put it lightly.
01:20The pull of the potential riches is too much for Fred Dobbs, played by Humphrey Bogart in
01:25his greatest ever performance, as he tries to kill Bob Curtin, Tim Holt, and steal everything.
01:31Ultimately, it's Dobbs who is killed, and the gold dust that Curtin and fellow prospector
01:37Howard, played by Walter Houston in one of the greatest performances ever put to screen,
01:43had found ends up blowing away in the wind.
01:45They went through everything, they literally sold their souls, as the tagline goes, just
01:50to be no better off than when they started their journey in the first place.
01:55The other way to look at their situation though, as Curtin does, was instead that they were
02:01no worse off.
02:02When he considered that Dobbs ended up losing his life, the fact that he was down only about
02:06a hundred dollars wasn't really too bad in the grand scheme of things.
02:11It didn't matter to Curtin and Howard that they lost all the gold simply because they
02:15didn't let it matter to them.
02:17Instead, they took it as a great joke played by God, and to do something different with their
02:22lives instead.
02:23I could listen to that Walter Houston laugh on repeat.
02:26What a joyful performance.
02:289.
02:29Dewey Finn
02:30School of Rock
02:31Just how likeable is Jack Black?
02:33Well, as Dewey Finn in School of Rock, he was able to pose as a school teacher and essentially
02:39hijack an entire semester's worth of work to dedicate towards playing a rock show with
02:44the children.
02:45And the audience still rooted for him despite all that bad deception.
02:49The band Dewey created at school, School of Rock, ultimately made it to the Battle of
02:53the Band's competition, and everyone wanted them to win.
02:57The audience watching the movie, the audience watching the show in the movie, everyone except
03:03the judging panel.
03:05God damn the bunch of just stupid idiots.
03:08Dewey's old band, No Vacancy, took the title, and though Black's character was down about
03:14it at first, his students reminded him that it didn't matter.
03:17Rock music isn't about getting an A, and even just before they went on stage, Dewey
03:22himself said they were there to put on a great rock show.
03:25Not to win.
03:26Based on the reaction of the audience, and the fact that it was they who got the encore
03:30rather than the winners, they did what they went to do.
03:33This great show didn't necessarily change the world, but did change the lives of everyone
03:38involved in the band.
03:408.
03:41Tenacious D
03:42Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny
03:44School of Rock isn't the only band JB led to ultimate defeat at the end of a movie.
03:50Three years after playing Dewey Finn, the actor played himself in the spoof biopic based around
03:55his and Kyle Gass' band, Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny.
04:00The MacGuffin of the story is the titular pick of Destiny, the guitar pick made from one
04:05of the devil's teeth that held some of the greats throughout rock history.
04:08Tenacious D managed to get their hands on it, but ended up breaking it.
04:13This led to a confrontation with the devil himself, played by the inimitably talented Dave
04:18Grohl, and the challenge of a rock off.
04:20If Tenacious D won, the devil went back to hell, and would have to pay the band's rent,
04:25but if the devil won, he would take KG back with him.
04:29To be his little… well you know the rest of the lyrics.
04:33The song Beelzeboss tells of the epic battle that would come, but in the end, it was the
04:37devil that was victorious.
04:39Before he could strike KG with lightning however, Black dove in front of the blast, sending a
04:45ricochet back to sever one of the beast's horns.
04:48Thus, he was made incomplete, and was sent back to hell alone.
04:51So even though the band lost the rock off, the devil returned from whence he came, and
04:56the band turned his horn into the bong of destiny.
05:00How gloriously mid-2000s.
05:037.
05:05Gandalf the Grey The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring
05:09With global domination on his mind, Sauron would never have been able to achieve his
05:13goals in the Lord of the Rings without help, and so he managed to persuade Saruman the White,
05:18played by Christopher Lee, the greatest wizard of them all, onto his side.
05:22Ian McKellen's Gandalf merely went to Saruman for advice on what to do about the ring turning
05:27up in the Shire, but instead found himself in a full-on fight with the leader of his order.
05:32Despite how powerful Gandalf was, he was no match of Saruman, and he quickly lost.
05:37With the Grey Wizard defeated and imprisoned atop Saruman's Tower in Isengard, it must
05:42have seemed to the villains as though the battle was already won.
05:46Imagine how easily they would have overthrown Middle-earth without Gandalf there to forge
05:50the fellowship, help unite the men of Rohan and Gondor, and play pivotal roles in both
05:55the battle of Helm's Deep and the siege of Minas Tirith.
05:59However, Gandalf's defeat at the hands of his master made no matter in the grand scheme
06:04of things, as he was able to summon help from the Eagles.
06:07They rescued him from his prison on Orthanc and brought him back right into the war that
06:12likely would have been lost without his assistance.
06:156.
06:16Oakland Athletics Moneyball
06:19Moneyball painted the 2002 Oakland Athletics as a classic underdog.
06:24After a strong season, the team had three of their best players poached from them by bigger
06:29baseball teams, and had very little money to try and replace them.
06:33This led to the team's general manager, Billy Bean, played by Brad Pitt, to try something
06:38drastic.
06:39Namely, the Moneyball theory, in which they looked at nothing but statistics to play the
06:44game of baseball.
06:45The season started pretty terribly, and there was no one but Bean and his assistant, Peter
06:50Brand, played by Jonah Hill, that gave the experiment a chance.
06:53But still, they persisted.
06:55Eventually, things began to turn around, and the Athletics set a new record for most Major
07:00League Baseball wins in a row.
07:02However, this wasn't enough for Billy.
07:04He wouldn't be happy until they won the World Series.
07:07Only then would he have considered them a success.
07:10Despite their strong season and the Pudets coming their way, the A's lost before they
07:14could even get to the World Series in the first place.
07:17However, Peter Brand sat his boss down and explained that, even in spite of the loss,
07:21they were successful, and they had changed the game of baseball forever.
07:25Even if they didn't have a trophy to show for it yet, they were on the right path.
07:29So much so that the Boston Red Sox tried to hire Bean himself.
07:33After he rejected them, the biggest team in baseball still followed his and Brand's
07:37model, and the rest was history.
07:395.
07:40The Richmond Oilers – Coach Carter
07:43Though the entirety of every high school teacher's favorite movie, it seems, Coach
07:48Carter was based around Samuel Jackson's eponymous coach taking a bad basketball team
07:53and making them good.
07:55The point was never to win games.
07:57It was a nice benefit, sure, but the titular coach saw past a sports trophy and looked at
08:02the future of the boys on the team.
08:05An astonishing amount of young men in the area were getting locked up, and he was determined
08:09to avoid that fate for them.
08:11Instead, he wanted to give them a chance to go to college.
08:13This was more important than what happened on the court, and is why he had no problem
08:18shutting the team down when all their grades improved as they had promised.
08:22Yes, they were a very good basketball team, and ultimately were invited to the state championship
08:27tournament where they met St. Francis, the highest ranked school in the state.
08:31It was a close game, but Richmond lost.
08:34However, this was never the point.
08:36The point was that in knuckling down and working hard in school, again, you can see why this
08:41is every high school teacher's favorite movie, to earn the privilege to be able to play basketball
08:46in the first place, they gave themselves a chance of a better future.
08:50Between them, five players earned scholarships, and six went on to college, utterly eclipsing
08:56the expectations that was set for the school.
08:584.
09:00Kong
09:00Godzilla vs Kong
09:02Whenever there is a clash between two cinematic titans, whether that be the Aliens vs.
09:08the Predators, or Daffy Duck vs. Donald Duck in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, potential audiences
09:13usually only care about one thing.
09:16Who will win?
09:17It happened when Freddy fought Jason, with Team Cat vs. Team Iron Man, and most recently
09:24with Godzilla and Kong.
09:26When the latter two reignited an ancient war in the aptly titled Godzilla vs Kong, there
09:32was one clear winner.
09:34Though both were at the top of their respective food chains, Kong was absolutely no match for
09:39Godzilla, and only survived their clash because the King of the Monsters allowed him to.
09:44Big old flex right there Kong, sorry boy, it happens to the best of us.
09:48However, in spite of suffering such a heavy and comprehensive defeat, it ultimately didn't
09:54matter.
09:55Flying in the face of the movie's title, it wasn't about Godzilla and Kong fighting each
09:59other at all, but rather the beginning of a mutual respect between them.
10:03For the big finale of the piece, the two titular beasts were forced to team up to take
10:08on Mechagodzilla.
10:09Working together, they defeated the mechanical monster, and earned each other's respect before
10:13heading back to their own domains.
10:15Godzilla went back under the sea, Kong to Hollow Earth, living in harmony as though they'd
10:22never fought in the first place.
10:243.
10:25It Was All Just Fiction
10:27In the Mouth of Madness
10:29Though not enjoying the same popularity levels as the likes of The Thing or Halloween, In the
10:35Mouth of Madness may be one of John Carpenter's most underrated efforts.
10:39Starring Sam Neill in the lead, the movie tackles heavy and intense themes of religion and reality,
10:46and has a devastatingly good Lovecraftian ending that will stay in the audience's head for
10:51a long while later.
10:52While looking into the disappearance of horror author Sutter Cain, played by Jurgen Prochnow,
10:58insurance investigator John Trent, Neill himself, discovered that what Cain wrote became reality.
11:04It was said that the author's writing could have an effect on certain people, but the
11:09initially skeptical Trent found himself at the center of Cain's next piece.
11:14Knowing what was to come, Sam Neill's character did everything he could to try and prevent the
11:19new book, In the Mouth of Madness, from being published, but he couldn't.
11:23Simply put, that's not how the book was written. Cain was essentially an eldritch god, and everything
11:30he put on that page happened in reality, including both the book and a movie adaptation being
11:37released, leading to mass hysteria, a genocidal epidemic, and basically the end of the world.
11:43The final scene is a brilliantly cathartic and haunting image of Trent wandering into a cinema to watch the film
11:50adaptation, only to find himself as the main character, following his journey investigating Cain's writing.
12:09He lost, and the world fell apart, but there was nothing he ever could have done.
12:15Upon the realization that he was merely a fictional character, all he could do was embrace his defeat, sit back
12:21and laugh.
12:23The ultimate capper to Carpenter's Apocalypse Trilogy.
12:262. James Bond On Her Majesty's Secret Service
12:31Okay, so obviously in the context of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, it very much does matter that Bond loses
12:38at the end.
12:39It's one of the series' most heartbreaking moments. Bond loses his one true love Tracy and doesn't get a chance
12:46at revenge, at least not until the next movie.
12:49Well, that's how it should have been, but of course, anyone who has watched the follow-up to On Her
12:56Majesty's Secret Service, Diamonds Are Forever, will know that the death of Bond's wife Tracy is never addressed.
13:03George Lazenby was thrown out as 007, Sean Connery came back, and they were left with one of the weakest
13:10entries in the franchise, with Bond gallivanting around the USA to stop an evil Diamond-related conspiracy masterminded by Blofeld.
13:18The only real connection between the two is that Diamond starts off with Bond killing a Blofeld look-alike, but
13:26for all intents and purposes, you'd never know that he was mourning the loss of his wife.
13:30All of this is very deliberate, of course. Diamonds was a response to the mixed reaction to On Her Majesty's
13:36Secret Service, which while today is revealed as one of the great Bond films, suffered criticism back then for Lazenby's
13:43casting.
13:44The initial plan, had Lazenby stayed on, would have been for a more direct continuation where the emotional baggage of
13:50Tracy's death was placed front and center, but when Lazenby quit the role, director Peter R. Hunt followed,
13:57eventually leading to the attempted crowd-pleaser that was the released version of Diamonds Are Forever.
14:03Bond movies never really used to follow a strict continuity, so in the grand scheme of things, the death of
14:08Bond's wife didn't really matter in the slightest, even if, in retrospect, it's a huge disappointment that it was never
14:15given further exploration.
14:161. Rocky Balboa
14:19Rocky. It's possible that Sly Stallone's Rocky Balboa is the ultimate movie underdog, and that he was only given his
14:27fight against Apollo Creed, Carl Weathers, rest in peace, you absolute legend, specifically because Rocky was a nobody.
14:34When Creed's original challenger got injured and couldn't face him, the champ himself suggested a nobody to turn his fight
14:40into something of a feel-good story.
14:42This was to be the fight of Rocky's life, and he trained like never before. However, in studying the film
14:49and analyzing his opponent, he accepted long before ever entering the ring that he couldn't win. Instead, all he wanted
14:56to do was last all 15 rounds against the champ, like no one had ever done before.
15:01To start the fight, Creed toyed with Balboa until the Italian Stallion caught him with a haymaker, knocking him down
15:07for the first time ever in one of the greatest fist-pumping moments in movie history.
15:12Even if Rocky would have lost immediately after this, he'd have proved that he wasn't a nobody like he wanted
15:18to, and could have walked out with his head held high. Instead, for 15 long rounds, he gave as good
15:24as he got, and if he got knocked down, he got straight back up, even when his own coach told
15:30him not to.
15:31Whether Rocky won or lost against Apollo was so insignificant that the announcement of his defeat by split decision was
15:38only vague background noise behind Rock and Adrian, Talia Shire, coming together and embracing after the fight. It just didn't
15:46matter. Until the sequels.
15:48The sequels.
15:48The sequels.
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