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'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' (1975) -

Randle Patrick McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) is unresponsive and physically limp, the victim of a lobotomy. "Chief" Bromden (Will Sampson) hugs him and then smothers McMurphy to death with a pillow.

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'Arlington Road' (1999) -

Believing he's averting a terrorist plot to blow up the FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., Michael Faraday (Jeff Bridges) drives his vehicle into the building's underground car park, which unbeknownst to him contains a bomb planted by his neighbor, Oliver Lang (Tim Robbins). The bomb goes off, leaving Faraday and hundreds more dead. Furthermore, Faraday is the only suspect.

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'Million Dollar Baby' (2004) -

Gym owner Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood) decides to end the life of Maggie (Hilary Swank), whom he trained as a boxer, after she breaks her neck during a fight and ends up a ventilator-dependent quadriplegic. He disconnects her ventilator, shuts off the machine's warning alarm, and injects her with the drug. She dies moments later.

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'The Omen' (1976) -

Having dispatched mom, dad, and other hapless bystanders, young Damien Thorn (Harvey Spencer Stephens) attends his parents' funerals. Rather than shedding tears, Damien smiles... as the Antichrist!

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'The Wrestler' (2008) -

The leap ill wrestler Randy "The Ram" Robinson (Mickey Rourke) makes off the top rope will mostly kill him. But with tears in his eyes, "The Ram" makes his final move.

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'Rosemary's Baby' (1968) -

Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow) gives birth to a baby. However, she's told by "doctors" that the infant is stillborn. But she then hears a newborn crying. Investigating, she discovers her "baby" in a cradle, and is told that it's the son of Satan. She's then urged to mother her child, and gently rocks the cradle.

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'Ex Machina' (2014) -

Ava (Alicia Vikander) is a female humanoid with artificial intelligence who cleverly tricks computer programmer Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson) into helping her flee an isolated facility. She leaves a screaming and desperate Smith in a securely locked room and, taking on the appearance of a human woman, escapes outside.

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'Thunderbolt and Lightfoot' (1974) -

As a result of a beating inflicted by a gang member, Lightfoot (Jeff Bridges) slumps over dead in the passenger seat of a brand new Cadillac convertible being driven by Thunderbolt (Clint Eastwood). The outlaw pair had fled a failed robbery attempt but later managed to retrieve stolen cash hidden away after a earlier heist. The car was their gift to each other.

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'Alien 3' (1992) -

In order to destroy the alien gestating inside her, Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) drops backward into a furnace, killing herself and the creature.

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'We Need to Talk About Kevin' (2011) -

Languishing in prison, Kevin Khatchadourian (Ezra Miller) is asked by his mom (Tilda Swinton) during a visit why he murdered his father, little sister, and dozens of his classmates. Kevin responds that he used to think he knew but is no longer sure. Eva hugs Kevin and walks away sadly.

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'The Boy in the Striped Pajamas' (2008) -

After befriending young concentration camp inmate Shmuel (Jack Scanlon), Bruno (Asa Butterfield), the son of a Nazi official, decides to join him on the other side of the fence. He shaves his head, dons a striped prisoner's uniform, and sneaks under the wire. Mistaken for a real prisoner, Bruno, together with Shmuel and dozens of others, is led towards the gas chambers.

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'Brazil' (1985) -

Audiences think they are witnessing a happy ending at the close of 'Brazil.' In fact, Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) has been lobotomized and is seen strapped to a chair, smiling and humming the song 'Aquarela do Brasil' to himself.

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'Dancer in the Dark' (2000) -

Labeled as a communist sympathizer and standing on the gallows about to hang after being convicted of murder, Czech immigrant Selma Ježková (Björk) begins to sing before her song is cut short by the rope breaking her neck.

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'Donnie Darko' (2001) -

Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal) shoots the driver of a car that has knocked down and killed his girlfriend, Gretchen (Jena Malone). He then discovers that the driver is the same man who's been pursuing him dressed in a rabbit suit and telling him the world will end in 28 days. Donnie decides to reverse fate and travels back in time so everyone else can live. But by doing so, he hands himself a death sentence.

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'Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines' (2003) -

John Connor (Nick Stahl) and his girlfriend, Kate Brewster (Claire Danes), fail to stop Judgment Day, which begins as Skynet fires nuclear missiles across the world, starting a nuclear holocaust that kills billions. The pair reluctantly accept their fate.

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'Oldboy' (2003) -

Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik) seeks revenge on Lee Woo-jin (Yoo Ji-tae) after being held captive for 15 years by the latter. Towards the end of this South Korean thriller, Oh Dae-su learns that his love interest, Mi-do (Kang Hye-jung), is actually his daughter. To spare Mi-do ever learning the truth, Oh Dae-su cuts out his own tongue in atonement. Meanwhile his antagonist, Lee Woo-jin, commits suicide.

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'Atonement' (2007) -

This romantic war drama ends with Briony Tallis (Vanessa Redgrave) revealing that a lie she apparently spread that caused a rift between her sister, Cecilia (Keira Knightley), and Cecilia's lover, Robbie Turner (James McAvoy), was, in fact, fiction.

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'Shutter Island' (2010) -

US Marshall Edward "Teddy" Daniels realizes that he is really Andrew Laeddis, a patient at a mental hospital committed after murdering his wife, whose disappearance from the same hospital Daniels was "investigating" in a bizarre role play.

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'Melancholia' (2011) -

The planet Melancholia is about to collide with Earth. Justine (Kirsten Dunst), sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg), and Claire's son Leo (Cameron Spurr), sit together in meditative pose as Melancholia hits and the Earth burns.

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'Boys Don't Cry' (1999) -

Young trans man Brandon Teena (Hilary Swank) is murdered by so-called friends after finding out that he was born biologically female.

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'Harold and Maude' (1971) -

Maude (Ruth Gordon) is a Nazi concentration camp survivor who teaches Harold (Bud Cort) about living life to its fullest and that life is the most precious gift of all. After Maude's death, Harold, heartbroken, drives his car off a cliff. But all is not what it appears.

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'Soylent Green' (1973) -

Set in the year 2022, the cumulative effects of overpopulation, pollution, and some apparent climate catastrophe have caused severe worldwide shortages of food, water, and housing. Detective Frank Thorn (Charlton Heston) is investigating the murder of an influential company CEO and uncovers a very unpalatable truth. A new wonder food called Soylent Green is made from human corpses, a fact Thorn makes known to a surrounding crowd in the final few minutes of this worrying and prescient movie.

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'Seven' (1995) -

Detective David Mills (Brad Pitt) learns that John Doe (Kevin Spacey) has murdered his pregnant wife and placed her severed head in a box. Despite being warned not to do so by Detective Lieutenant William Somerset (Morgan Freeman), Mills fatally shoots Doe, representing wrath, thus completing Doe's plans.

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'Easy Rider' (1969) -

The end of the '60s dream of peace and love is perfectly personified by the violent deaths of Billy (Dennis Hopper) and Wyatt (Peter Fonda) after both are shot by a passenger in a passing truck. Roger Ebert, writing in 1969, described the central characters as "outlaws from conventional society."

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'Midnight Cowboy' (1969) -

A feverish "Ratso" (Dustin Hoffman) dies sitting next to Joe Buck (Jon Voight) as the pair make their way on a bus to Florida. Buck puts his arm around his dear friend and cries.

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'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' (1969) -

James Bond (George Lazenby) marries Countess Tracy di Vicenzo. While driving away, Bond's Aston Martin is attacked. A stray bullet kills 007's new bride. Bond cries while cradling her lifeless body.

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'The Elephant Man' (1980) -

John Merrick, the "Elephant Man" (John Hurt), has overcome severe disability and prejudice to become a figure of respect in Victorian society. Happy and content, he deliberately lies down on his bed in such a way that his breathing will become obstructed to the point where he will suffocate. A BBC investigation concluded that Merrick's deformities were probably a result of him suffering from Proteus Syndrome, an overgrowth of the bones, skin, and other tissues.

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'Memento' (2000) -

Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce), who has no short-term memory, kills Jimmy (Larry Holden), the man be believes murdered his wife. However, he later learns that he killed the actual attacker a year before. Furthermore, Leonard's wife survived the attack and in fact died from an insulin overdose.

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'The Mist' (2007) -

Trapped in a mist-shrouded supermarket besieged by alien creatures, a group of people decide to end their own lives rather than fall prey to the terrible beasts. David Drayton (Thomas Jayne) shoots his son and his friends but as the mist dissipates, he sees help arriving and realizes he's killed them for nothing. He screams in anguish.

Sources: (Roger Ebert) (BBC)

See also: Movies that will make you cry every time. 

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