Movies can affect us on a profound emotional level. Some romantic movies inspire that loving feeling and can warm even the most jaded heart. By the same token, some movie deaths can scar us for life. Famous movie deaths of characters like Dumbledore, Bambi’s mother, and, well, every Disney parent, actually, can leave a lasting emotional impact. Plus, there’s all the crying.
When you combine romance with gut-wrenching tragedy, you get an emotional rollercoaster that can leave you wanting to throw a wine bottle at your screen. Keep your tissues at the ready, because these are some of the saddest romantic movies that end in death.
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My Girl, on paper, may not seem like a romance, but when you think about it, it’s a first love story. A young girl named Vada Sultenfuss (Anna Chlumsky) with no mother and serious daddy issues falls for an unavailable man. Granted, it’s just a crush on her teacher, Mr. Bixler (Griffin Dunne). Meanwhile, she ignores her best friend Thomas J. Sennett (Macaulay Culkin), who is madly in love with her.
If everyone in this movie were older, this would sound like a romantic comedy. Yes, Vada is only 11, but this movie captures the pain of first love and first heartache - and a ton of loss.
Thomas J. gets an extremely sad death. The kid goes to get her mood ring and is swarmed by bees. Try to watch this scene and not cry. While it ends on a bit of a high note, with Vada learning to be happy, it’s not a movie that sells you on love. Here’s a girl who lives in a mortuary, has lost her mother, and now loses her best friend. Plus, the two barely get to learn about their feelings for each other. It's just a sad loss for love.
- Released: 1991
- Directed by: Howard Zieff
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Cherubic Mandy Moore plays Jamie Sullivan, the local preacher’s daughter, who falls for bad boy Landon Carter (Shane West). Various high school hijinks bring the two together, leading to friendship and a budding relationship. Landon is inspired to turn over a new leaf as Jamie gets the standard plain-turned-pretty makeover. But then Landon learns she has leukemia.
Jamie’s passing is so gut-wrenching because the movie makes us fall in love with this gentle, sweet outcast. She gives major Snow White energy, being sweet and kind and bullied for no reason. She finally gets the guy after he’s tried to keep her a secret and taken her for granted, but as he finally sees how amazing she is, the other shoe drops.
The couple even get married and have a sweet, albeit short, pre-death marriage. And, in the end, it's pretty clear that Landon will always love Jamie - even well into his adult life.
- Released: 2002
- Directed by: Adam Shankman
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Australian director Baz Luhrmann creates a sweeping love story that blends elements of La Boheme and modern pop music. Satine (Nicole Kidman) is a jaded courtesan and the object of many a Parisian man’s affection. Christian (Ewan McGregor) is an aspiring artist with big dreams and a heart full of love. The two begin an unlikely romance, but must keep it a secret to save the titular Moulin Rogue.
What makes this so sad is that the film really sells the love story between the two. Christian convinces Satine that love is real using some of the best riffs of love songs. “Come What May” is such a powerful love anthem. Sadly, after learning how to truly love, and a lifetime of being treated like a disposable object, Satine perishes of consumption.
It’s sad to think about how hard Satine’s life must have been. She finally gets a win and then loses her life. Also, why is it that men never die of consumption in these love stories?
- Released: 2001
- Directed by: Baz Luhrmann
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Sure, Ghost is great and full of memorable, funny moments, but it's kind of soul-crushing at the end for Molly. Sam Wheat (Patrick Swayze) is a banker who stumbles onto a laundering scheme. He’s slain in front of his girlfriend, but rejects the afterlife to stay and ensure that Molly is safe. His only help comes from grifter Oda Mae Brown (Whoopi Goldberg) who, it turns out, actually can see ghosts.
While a highly popular movie, this is not a winner for love. Not only does Molly watch the love of her life expire, she also finds out that their best friend took his life. The woman she thinks is an identity thief kisses her while possessed by her late boyfriend. Also, despite arguing for the undying power of love, the movie sets a trap for itself. Molly is only in her early 30s. How do you bounce back from a man who literally stayed on Earth to save your life?
The worst part is that Sam is only able to get over his intimacy issues and say "I love you" after he passes on. That’s one for the therapy books.
- Released: 1990
- Directed by: Jerry Zucker
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Rom-com darling Meg Ryan meets an angel, played by Nicolas Cage. You'd think this would be a lighthearted romp, or at least an inspirational tale of transcendent love.
In this version of Los Angeles, angels wear all black and watch human beings all day. While trying to save a patient, Maggie (Ryan) happens to make eye contact with angel Seth (Cage), and he falls in love. He reveals himself to her and they pursue a relationship. He gives up eternal life, all of his abilities, and God knows what else for her. Then she dies.
This one is a lot to process. This immortal being gave up his superior existence to be with the love of his life, then he loses her almost immediately after. He may have even given up his future only to be left alone. And though Ryan is no stranger to the rom-com game, watching her die will still wreck your soul.
This one feels like they built the story up only to knock it down, and that makes it more of a downer than a love story.
- Released: 1998
- Directed by: Brad Silberling
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Titanic is one of the biggest cinematic love stories, and features one of the saddest deaths in film history. Set against the backdrop of the most infamous shipwreck in history, two young people fall in love. Rose (Kate Winslet) is engaged but miserable. She considers taking her life but is saved by Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio), a scamp who conned his way onto the ship, and the two form an unlikely but passionate relationship.
What makes Jack's demise so sad is that it feels like it could have been avoided. Brad Pitt even took a second of his 2020 Golden Globe acceptance speech to say, “I would have shared the raft” with his Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood co-star. It seems unnecessary for Jack to perish, especially when Rose has the social clout to survive without him. It’s just one of those cruel moments of movie fate.
- Released: 1997
- Directed by: James Cameron
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Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort play lovable and surprisingly emotionally mature young people dealing with the ravages of cancer.
Hazel (Woodley) has terminal thyroid cancer. It’s spread to her lungs and she’s justifiably depressed about it. But at a support group, she meets Gus (Elgort), a charming, seemingly cancer-free boy whose disease has given him a lust for life.
This movie, based on the book by John Green, is such a bait-and-switch. You spend the whole movie emotionally preparing yourself for Hazel’s death. You desperately want her to enjoy her time with Gus. But then, it’s actually Gus who dies because his cancer comes back. This movie really brings the tears because it gives you hope and plucks it away. Their whole relationship is centered in his joie de vivre. This one can definitely hit home for anyone who has ever lost a family member to cancer.
- Released: 2014
- Directed by: Josh Boone
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Can't a talented woman have it all? In this third remake of A Star Is Born, Lady Gaga plays Ally, a young ingenue, who meets and falls for famous musician Jackson (Bradley Cooper). The alcoholic singer takes her from singing in a drag bar to national tours and super stardom. The two fall in love, but it seems doomed from the start. Her career is clearly on the rise, but she must also deal with Jackson’s drinking and temper. Despite all that she does for him, Jack chooses to end his life.
This one definitely makes you question love. It seems like Ally is the only one putting love into this relationship, and she even questions if he loved her at all.
Ally consistently chooses a man who is struggling with his own demons over herself and her career, making his end that much more of a punch to the gut. Her singing “I’ll Never Love Again,” the song he wrote about her but never sang to her, guarantees waterworks. It’s so unfair that she gets her dreams but also has to deal with the blow of losing a man she’s given so much to.
- Released: 2018
- Directed by: Bradley Cooper
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In this working-class love story, Marissa Tomei plays Caroline, a hardworking waitress. She's targeted by a fiend, but is saved by shy busboy Adam (Christian Slater). Over time, she gets him to open up and the two fall in love. Caroline learns that Adam is quiet and sheltered because he was an orphan raised by nuns, and also that he has a heart defect. However, Adam refuses to get a transplant, believing that if the surgeons take his heart, they’ll take his love for Caroline with it.
What makes this movie so sad is Adam’s innocence. He's an orphan without many friends, and whose only confidant is a nun who lies to him. When he finally finds the courage to embrace other people and experience true happiness with the love of his life, he dies. It happens right after he catches a puck at his first hockey game. That really lays it on thick.
- Released: 1993
- Directed by: Tony Bill
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Emila Clarke takes a sharp turn from her Game of Thrones run to play Lou, a painfully optimistic girl supporting her family. Will (Sam Claflin) is a former banker and athlete who is paralyzed after getting hit by a motorcycle. After losing her job, Lou takes a job being a caretaker for the angry and depressed Will. The two slowly become friends and even lovers. Until... Will reveals that he wants to be euthanized.
Even ignoring the political debate over euthanasia, it’s sad to think that their love is not worth Will sticking around. The relationship of opposites really grows on you, and seeing that it doesn’t encourage Will to stay is definitely a bummer.
- Released: 2016
- Directed by: Thea Sharrock
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James McAvoy and Keira Knightley play star-crossed lovers separated by a series of terrible misunderstandings. McAvoy's character, Robbie Turner, is in love with Cecilia (Knightley), who ardently reciprocates his feelings. Unfortunately, their dalliance is misinterpreted by Cecilia's little sister Briony (Saoirse Ronan), and leads to Robbie being accused of something he definitely didn't do. This ends with him being shipped off first to prison and then to World War II.
Robbie and Cecilia are reunited during the conflict and find out Briony’s mistake, only for it to be revealed that this is all a book written by an older Briony (Vanessa Redgrave). In fact, the reunion that offers the audience some solace is completely made up.
This one is a major bummer. Both characters perish during the war, arguably heartbroken, and are never reunited. The entire story is made up so Briony can sell a book. Sure, Briony is trying to make peace with what happened (it is, after all, called Atonement), but what a thing to do to an audience. How are they going to atone for that?
- Released: 2007
- Directed by: Joe Wright
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This film captures the complexity and nuance of love between two men in a homophobic world. But it is also an across-the-board downer. Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) find love during a job running cattle through Brokeback Mountain. They try to keep it going, but homophobia keeps them apart. Both men carry out sad marriages with women, and then Ennis is blindsided by the news that the love of his life is dead. The film alludes to Jack seeing someone else and being slain in a hate crime.
This one hits so hard because no one in the movie ever really ends up happy. Ennis had the chance to be with Jack, and spends the rest of his life regretting not saying yes. You also feel bad for the wives who have to endure arguably loveless marriages. Also, since it’s a drama, there are very few lighthearted moments of the men together.
- Released: 2005
- Directed by: Ang Lee
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Charlize Theron plays the lovably quirky Sara Deever. After happening upon workaholic Nelson Moss (Keanu Reeves), she makes the romance movie version of an indecent proposal. In short, if he lives with her for a month, she’ll change his perspective on life.
This movie came out during the heyday of the sitcom Dharma and Greg, and at first, it seems like the typical oddball girl/uptight guy love story. Then this irreverent romance gets really dark and sad.
Sara has non-Hodgkin lymphoma. To add insult to injury, Sara doesn’t even give Nelson the choice to be with her. He makes an grand gesture and covers her apartment with the November page from different calendars, but she decides his happy memories are enough and doesn't want him to watch her die. In the end, she leaves him in the most heartbreaking way possible: alone at the park where they had their first date.
- Released: 2001
- Directed by: Pat O'Connor
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Talk about the haunting power of love. In this Stephen Spielberg classic, Richard Dreyfuss plays an aerial firefighter. When he perishes saving his friend Al Yackey (John Goodman), his ghost stays on Earth to help his girlfriend Dorinda Durston (Holly Hunter) move on.
This is a tragic story because, despite doing the right thing, the protagonist doesn’t get a happy ending with his girlfriend. Worse, he has to suffer through the film watching her move on with someone new, Ted (Brad Johnson). Then, he inevitably has to let go of his love for her so she can move on.
While the movie does explore loss, it also seems to be saying that love is easily replaceable. If that's true, where does the "always" of the title come in?
- Released: 1989
- Directed by: Steven Spielberg
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Abbie (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and Sam (Michiel Huisman) have known each other since they were children. They are finally getting married when, boom, she finds out she has terminal cancer. She spends a lot of her time trying to find someone who can love and take care of Sam when she’s gone.
What makes this passing so sad is that the couple's relationship gets built up in such a beautiful way. You start to fall in love with Abbie, and watch her spend her remaining days on Earth in a Gift of the Magi-style sacrifice. It's sad to think they have this epic love story, only for her to spend her last few moments with a bunch of strangers instead of her partner. Plus, this is yet another case of a movie building up the romance and then using the wrecking ball of terminal illness to knock it all down.
- Released: 2018
- Directed by: Stephanie Laing
Is love a cruel joke?
