Science fiction is one of the best fictional tools for exploring the complicated themes of technological and psychological development. Often these are represented through visions of humanity's future, their first contact with aliens, or a long journey to the stars. Science fiction can be hopeful, it can be dark, but it almost always comes around to recognizing the uniquely human ability to persevere in the face of adversity.
Sometimes, though, things don't work out that way. Sci-fi typically adheres to hopeful conclusions so its viewers don't leave feeling depressed, but sometimes a bleak and devastating ending - like the ones listed here - can have a more powerful impact. The gut punch of a hopeless finale can resonate with audiences for years (and sometimes decades) after the movie ends. Obviously, spoilers are ahead for all the movies listed.
8 Planet Of The Apes (1968)
After awakening from deep hibernation and crash-landing on an alien planet, astronaut George Taylor (Charlton Heston) wants nothing more than to repair his ship and find his way back to Earth. However, Taylor and his crewmate Landon are soon captured by the local civilization; a theocracy of talking apes.
Taylor and Landon are separated, and Taylor works to convince the apes that he is intelligent, first by building a paper airplane, and then by revealing that he can talk. Eventually, Taylor is given the opportunity to prove he's from another planet by showing the apes his spaceship. His story proven true, Taylor is allowed to leave on horseback, only for him to discover the remnants of the Statue of Liberty on a nearby beach. Taylor can never return home because he already is home, but his species destroyed itself centuries ago.
7 Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1978)
When a race of alien blobs invades Earth and begins copying and replacing humans while they sleep, scientists Elizabeth Driscoll (Brook Adams) and Matthew Bennell (Donald Sutherland), and their friends Jack (Jeff Goldblum) and Nancy Bellicec (Veronica Cartwright) are the first to identify "The Pod People." They attempt to warn the authorities but discover that the Pod People have spread across the entire country, replacing most police and government agencies overnight.
Elizabeth learns they can hide among the Pod People by suppressing their emotions, but if discovered, the Pod People will emit a scream that identifies a living human. Elizabeth and Matthew attempt an escape, but Elizabeth is caught and eventually replicated. Matthew returns to a world now controlled by the aliens. Nancy runs into him while feigning emotionlessness, and calls Matthew's name, but Matthew points at her and emits the Pod People's scream. That makes Nancy the last living human seen in the film, and it ends with her getting caught.
6 The Thing (1982)
In what may be John Carpenter's masterpiece, American researchers in Antarctica come across an alien lifeform that takes the shape of anything it kills. The researchers, led by R.J. MacReady (Kurt Russell) quickly devolve into paranoia as they realize that any one of them could be the creature, and they have no way of knowing who.
Eventually, MacReady seemingly achieves victory by trapping the alien in the research base and blowing it up, but not before the creature has killed every other member of his crew. Except for Childs (Kieth David), who emerges from the wreckage to share a bottle of whiskey with MacReady while they await rescue. The thing is, Childs is wearing a different set of clothes from the last time anyone saw him. The implication that Childs is the alien not only means that MacReady was later killed, but that the alien was eventually rescued and unwittingly brought into contact with the rest of humanity.
5 Brazil (1985)
In Terry Gilliam's black comedy Brazil, Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) is a government employee who has recurring dreams of a beautiful woman. One day, Sam witnesses the same woman, Jill Layton (Kim Greist) through a window. Sam discovers that Jill is due to be arrested, so he tracks her down, confesses his love, and the two go on the run, spending a romantic night together before they are captured. Sam is told that Jill was killed during the arrest, and he is left strapped to a torture chair.
That is until rescue arrives in the form of a renegade resistance group. Sam goes on the run through a surrealist sequence until he finally arrives at Jill's truck. Jill is still alive, and the two drive off into the sunset together. Except, none of that really happens. It's all a dream, and Sam is still strapped to the torture chair. The agents torturing him decide that Sam has gone insane, declaring him a lost cause. Sam is left drearily humming "Aquarela do Brazil" to himself.
4 The Fly (1986)
Eccentric scientist Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum) and journalist Ronnie Quaife (Geena Davis) begin to form a relationship as Ronnie documents Seth's efforts to create a working teleporter. Believing he has succeeded, Seth tries teleporting himself, but unwittingly includes a housefly in the process and fusing their DNA. Shortly afterward, Seth begins physically and mentally transforming into an insectoid creature, while exhibiting fly-like behavior on a human scale.
When Seth discovers that Ronnie is pregnant, he tells her he wants to fuse her, their baby, and himself together to create the "ultimate family." Seth traps Ronnie in a teleportation pod, but she escapes, and in trying to chase after her Seth is trapped halfway outside his own pod when it activates, fusing him with a piece of metal. In his final act, Seth presses a shotgun barrel to his malformed head and begs Ronnie to kill him. She obliges, weeping as she pulls the trigger.
3 A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
A Stanley Kubrick film posthumously directed by Steven Spielberg, A.I. tells the story of David (Haley Joel Osment), a child android programmed to be capable of love. David imprints on Monica (Frances O'Connor), who brought him home to help grieve her terminally-ill son. When Monica's son miraculously recovers, he turns on David out of jealousy, and David is sent to be destroyed. Monica, having a change of heart, decides to let him go free instead.
Later, after discovering the factory where other "Davids" are made, David attempts suicide by jumping into the ocean. There he encounters a Blue Fairy (a sunken Coney Island attraction), and after becoming trapped underwater by a collapsing ferris wheel, David begs the fairy to make him a real boy. He continues to beg over and over... for two thousand years. He is finally discovered by an alien race, long after humanity is extinct. The aliens grant David's ultimate wish: to be Monica's real son, but only in a simulation that lasts 24 hours. Then David dies, after finally feeling loved for just one day.
2 The Mist (2007)
Adapted from a Stephen King novella, The Mist chronicles the events in a small town that is overtaken by a dense mist from which inter-dimensional monsters begin to emerge. David Drayton (Thomas Jane) and his son Billy (Nathan Gamble) take refuge in a supermarket along with a group of locals, but before long their fortifications break down. David, Billy, and a pair of local schoolteachers choose to make a run for it, hoping to drive through to the other side of the mist.
However, their car runs out of gas before they make it. Hearing the monsters approaching on all sides, David takes the revolver carried by one of the teachers and uses it to mercifully kill both of them, and then Billy, but has no bullets left to use on himself. David exits the vehicle into the mist, hoping the monsters will kill him. Instead, he comes face to face with the US Army, who are burning away the mist and killing all the creatures in the process. David's screams of hopelessness close out the film.
1 Never Let Me Go (2010)
In a future where humans have achieved cloning, Kathy (Carey Mulligan), Ruth (Keira Knightley), and Tommy (Andrew Garfield) are clones living on a farm, waiting for their organs to be harvested to prolong the lives of their human counterparts. After hearing rumors of a loophole called "deferral," where clones will be spared if they can prove they're in love, Tommy and Ruth begin a relationship. Jealous and resentful, Kathy departs the farm to be a carer, comforting clones as they are harvested.
Years later, Kathy encounters a frail Ruth and Tommy, both near death from giving up their organs. Ruth admits she never loved Tommy but was scared to be alone, and she dies shortly afterward. Tommy and Kathy begin a genuine relationship and try to seek more information to save themselves, but discover from two teachers that "deferral" isn't real. Tommy later dies on the operating table, leaving Kathy grieving alone and awaiting her own harvesting.