WARNING: graphic descriptions of illness and injuries
Doctors and caregivers perform miracles and, when things work in favor of patients, are praised for performing miracles.
Sometimes, however, those miracles have nothing to do with the medical professionals tending to a patient who narrowly escaped death.
Curious to hear from those in the medical field who were absolutely gobsmacked, Redditor Jonah_Boy_03 asked:
"Doctors/Nurses, what was the most 'how the f*ck are you not dead' patient you dealt with?"
These patients suffered horrific accidents but survived long enough to stump the doctors taking care of them.
The Fall
"We were the closest hospital so they brought a civilian in (former AF medic). His safety gear failed and this guy fell 128' from a communications tower. It had rained the night before and he fell into a marshy puddle of high grass, flat on his back; concussion and whiplash. No broken bones but the bruises that covered his body from head to heel were something to behold. He spent a week in the hospital before he could move comfortably."
– prpslydistracted
Skewered
"We had a guy who'd lovingly crafted his own gladius sword and thrown himself on it, piercing the sternum and his heart, but he was alive and conscious and every time his heartbeat the handle of the sword vibrated."
– ComprehensiveBox4297
How He Started Working At The Hospital
"We once received a patient that was bitten by a rattle snake TWICE. He only managed to get to the emergency ward 3 hours after being bitten. Then to make things worst, we only managed to get the correct antivenom flown in 1hr after his arrival. He now works at our hospital as an admin clerk and is healthy as ever."
– TBC-XTC
Road Accident Victim
"During my EM rotation,"
"Guy had a road accident, flesh wounds as deep as his intestines were out, around 40% of his face was scraped off, one eye was out of the socket, the right forearm had ripped off muscles and you could see the bone."
"Now the miracle is that the bleeding somehow had stopped and when I came in, I saw his chest moving and him holding his intestines, I was like, yeah wow this guy is alive."
"We helped him, stitched everything back, the face was reconstructed and now he is alive and well."
– Noligeko
Hitting The Slopes
"My ex boyfriend is a ski instructor. He told me that one day, all the slopes were extremely icy and many people were coming in with injuries. He had fallen badly and returned to the ski lodge. He was checked out and said he felt fine. Fortunately, a paramedic happened to be looking at him when his helmet swung open on the side because it was very badly cracked. They took a nine year old girl with a broken femur off a stretcher and put him on it and took him to the hospital immediately, where they found he had broken his neck and needed immediate surgery. Amazingly, he is mostly fine, except for now having acid reflux for some reason."
– Suspicious_Plantain4
His Smashed Pelvis
"While a student did a clinical placement at a major trauma hospital where they kept a collection of X-rays you never usually see because the injury would typically kill the patient instantly. Most interesting one was a smashed pelvis from a jockey in a horse racing accident. That kind of injury would usually also result in rupture of femoral arteries which means you bleed to death very quickly, but somehow this guy survived and made it to hospital and lived long enough to get xrayed. Don’t know if he recovered though."
– cfniva
There doesn't seem to be shortage of any medical mysteries in this day and age.
The "Everything Guy"
"As a lab tech, I had one I dubbed 'Everything Guy.'"
"He was complaining of a sore stomach after coming home from overseas, so got the usual 'what were you doing?' questions."
"He was in West Africa."
"Didn't bother to get anti-malarials."
"No vaccines."
"Admitted to eating bushmeat."
"Also said he thought it was undercooked."
"Drank water from a 'local source.'"
"Turns out this was directly from a river."
"Without filtering it."
"River was apparently badly polluted."
"He basically saw everything you shouldn't do on holiday and used it as a checklist."
– Nemisis_the_2nd
The Diabetic
"I had a patient that was already blind from diabetes, lost some toes, part of a foot. I check the blood sugar and it's 45 (this is canada so your normal range is 4 to 7), check it again, 45. This patient had no symptoms of hyperglycemia. He just took his insulin pen, cranked it, and self injected (home care). Had to wait around a bit to see what would happen but eventually we left, he ended up being totally fine. Most home glucometers don't go past 30. I was with my trainer nurse who was dumbfounded."
– mattttherman
Getting The Last Words Out
"My mom was a critical care nurse and said the freakiest thing she ever went through was having a fifteen minute conversation with a little old lady who had no pulse. As I recall said little old lady passed mid-sentence. Just stopped."
– dscottj
Grown Beyond Expectation
"I was born extremely premature. Parents got told i was going to have major health complications, f'ked up lungs and stunted growth and such. 26 now, 6'1" and extremely fit, basically never been sick . Mum always jokes that if i had of gone full term i wouldve been an Olympian"
– slightlyburntsnags
These patients had no idea of the chaos taking inside their bodies. Fortunately, they sought help at the right time.
The Reason For The Back-Up
"I'm not a doctor or nurse, but the doctor who saw my mom said he had no idea how she was alive."
"Years ago, my mom was having gastrointestinal problems. She had incessant stomach aches and was bound up something awful. After 3 days of not being able to poop, she went to the doctor to get checked out. After a thorough examination, the doctor determined that her gall bladder needed to be removed immediately."
"The next day, after the surgery, my mom comes to and sees the doctor standing over... and he wasn't happy."
"'Your gall bladder was dead,' he said. 'Like, dead dead. In fact, it was completely gangrenous. Had you waited another day to see me, you would've died. Had it ruptured during surgery, you would've died. That was the worst, most stress-inducing surgery I ever had to perform in my 20-year career. No offense, but I hope I never see you again.' And he walked out of the room.
– Boon3hams
OMG
"A friend of mine was feeling crappy for days. He'd go to work, feel exhausted, come home, sleep 13 hours, repeat. Finally he got to feeling so bad he decided to go to the ER. He drove himself, around 3 AM."
"He got out of the car and the security guard said 'OH MY GOD' and ran to get him a wheelchair. ER admissions said 'OH MY GOD' and got the ER doc. ER doc noted my friend was quite yellow. They ordered blood work, when it came back the ER doc didn't believe it and had it done again."
"When the second round came back the doc asked my friend for next of kin information. My friend said 'you can't call my mom, it's 4 AM' and the doc said 'Your kidneys have completely failed. We are going to send you upstairs and give you a pint of blood and an hour of dialysis and we need to know who to call if you still don't make it. You should have been dead a month ago.'"
"He got a kidney from his sister and is still doing well today. Apparently the kidney was as close a match as one can get and he should live an essentially normal lifespan."
– NovaRunner
Temperature Of A Corpse
"Had a patient with an internal temp of 75 f. He was drowsy, but fully alert and oriented. He was found in a river embankment in the middle of winter. He had been lying there overnight before he was found by a dog walker. We didn’t believe the equipment when it told us 75 degrees, so we repeated with a rectal thermometer, then a different rectal thermometer, and then a rectal probe attached to the bedside and medi-therm system. They were all consistent and after several hours of heating measures we got their internal temp up to 90 degrees before they went to ICU."
"The second 'how the f*ck are you not dead' patient was a person who had a blood sugar of 1,800. They weren’t in a coma. Just a woman who walked in to complain about abdominal pain."
– jujapee
The Discovery In The Spine
"18 years ago I went into the ER to get a cyst lanced open. 3 weeks later I felt pain in my back. I went back to the er and they found nothing. Only did xrays. I felt weak leaving so went home and crashed on my couch. I woke hours later and tried to get up and fell. I went down fast. I called an ambulance and went to the hospital. I sat for 6 hours until finally someone came to check me out. I had a 105.0 fever! They immediately rushed me into a MRI and lo and behold I have MRSA inside my spine. I was rushed into surgery and now live from a wheelchair. T5 to T11 im fused. The doctors said if I waited one more day I wouldn't be here. I did 16 weeks of Vancomycin thru IV. 3 hours twice a day! Im truly lucky to be alive today."
– Particular_Clue_4074
Buried Nail
"We had a patient come in after mowing the lawn. Patient said something was kicked up by the lawn mower and hit him in the head. Didn't think much of it, finished cutting the grass. Still had a headache a few hours later so came to the ER. We CAT scanned his head and there is an entire nail embedded in his brain. He had the tiniest abrasion to his forehead and no neuro deficits. He had no idea. Everyone was absolutely dumbfounded."
– luv_pup88
That "Funny Feeling"
"NAD but my potassium dropped to 1.2 which is very critically low. I was 19 and drove myself to the ER and my complaint was that my chest felt 'funny.' Doctor called for a psych consult for my “anxiety” but ran blood work in the meantime. I knew the second the bloodwork came back and was read because my room was swarmed. Spend the next 8 days in the ICU."
– emani_with_a_plan
Even doctors can't come up with an explanation for everything.
This just goes to show you how complex the human body is and how stubborn it can be if it knows it's not your time to leave this crazy world.
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Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.
Every decade we learn and grow.
Well, we hope we do.
Everything changes with the passing of time.
Sex is especially fluid.
They say the older you get the better it gets.
I'm not sure for myself, but it sounds like it's working out for a lot of other people.
20s are full of verve and energy.
30s are full of bitterness and regret from the sex in the 20s.
Though that can be hot too.
Redditor Infinite_Werewolf395 wanted to hear about how things can change over the course of a decade when it comes to sexy time, so they asked:
"What is the biggest difference between sex in your 20s and sex in your 30s?"
I guess I was maybe little more confident in my 30s.
That was a plus.
Never Settle
"I gained the confidence to ask for what I actually want and say what feels good to me and what doesn't. Too many people just go with what they usually do in the sack, instead of talking about what each individual actually enjoys."
"Basically, I no longer settle for bad sex."
mynamecouldbesam
Continue
"20s: It didn't really take a lot to get me going, just 1. being in my bed, and 2. being mostly nude was enough."
"30s: I really need them to be into it, too. Like... if they act like they're only doing this to make me happy, I pick up on it and I just can't continue. I also need them to like, show some interest in me too, or it takes some monumental effort to be in the mood. I'm more particular, and more aware of what the other party is doing and how they're reacting, etc."
We1tfunk
Real Struggle
"The amount of time you have available."
frenix5
"Not necessarily. In general, life just gets busy. My husband and I are in our 30s with no kids and still find this a struggle. Life just gets busier the older you get. We have to work hard on prioritizing our relationship."
TheSilentBaker
"There’s a hell of a lot more planning involved. Gotta schedule that crap out in advance."
KosstAmojan
Learning
"I'm 35 dating a 27 yr old. I tried the pills and all kinds of different things. Eventually, we had this one time where I was really Into it (never happens anymore really. Can't keep it up so it's hard to comply when it's initiated cause I know it'll just end in disappointment for both of us) and It was the best sex we'd had in years."
"I'm still not sure what factors were different that day but I honestly think it was probably mostly emotional reinforcement. Usually, she just starts grabbing at me and there's no romance so it's hard to get... hard. I think that day we actually did some foreplay. Anyways this has really helped me a lot reading all the responses. I figured I was just freakin' cursed. Never got much action in my prime."
"It just seemed appropriate that when I was finally getting some my sh*t would stop working lol. Good to know that I'm not the only man who puts importance on the emotional component of sex. Thought that was my problem for a while too. Guess I just have emotional needs that aren't being met and it's bleeding into other facets of my life."
MurphNastyFlex
Still Hot
So Excited Reaction GIF by OriginalsGiphy"Sex in the 30s are about a million times better. Still very very horny but also experienced, skills, more willing to try things."
probablyurprofessor
I didn't find this to be true.
That's me though.
The Process
Bored Season 5 GIF by The OfficeGiphy"Sex got better. I finally figured out what my wife likes. Though a long tedious trial and error process."
SaiyanGodKing
Ruts
"Exploration is difficult once you’ve fallen into a rut. Routines become commonplace. I’m such a sub these days that I don’t mind bad sex for me as long as I can make my partner climax. It’s easy to tell with men, but with women partners I'm always afraid they’re faking or acting, so there definitely needs to be established trust first."
pissoff1818
Decades of Learning
"Teens: did it like a nympho, but sex was mediocre. 20's: did it like a nympho, sex was a little better. 30's: started figuring out what I wanted. Did it a little less, but better quality. 40's: best and most frequent sex yet. Hornier and more experimental now than ever before."
"(Edited to add: had kids in late 20's, early 30's. Kids consume so much time and energy. Kids are getting older now, so more time and energy for sex again. Honestly sex in 40's has been the freakiest, wildest, most fulfilling yet)."
ChristyCurious
Let's Sleep
"20s: sex?? Yeah!! I’ll have sex!"
"30s: sex? Hmmm okay but it’s already 8:30pm and so if we start now and stop by 9:30 we should still get a full nights sleep but also we could wait until Friday or Saturday night that might be better because if we are up too late it won’t really matter much the next day but sure yeah let’s do it! F**k it who cares wait what was that oh one of the kids is at the door."
Hopeful_Jello_7894
Perfection
"Oh man, it's so much better in my 30s than it's ever been. Multiple reasons but primarily finding a partner (my perfect wife) who has helped break down my walls through conversation and experimenting together. I feel so much less guilt about sex now and I can actually enjoy it. Not sure if it was being raised with Catholic guilt or my first gf being just the wrong partner but wow did I ever feel awful about anything sexual before."
Leebollomew
Learning and Growth
Think Winnie The Pooh GIFGiphy"I’ve got something I haven’t seen yet..."
"20s: As a dude, I’d sleep with almost any woman even if they were a horrible person or I hated their guts."
30: Anything considered a red flag or something I don’t want to deal with causes me to go limp and I lose all interest."
Slappyhandz
A decade can really change everything.
Farewell youth.
CW: Suicide.
When it comes to our family histories, it seems like there are two kinds of people: those who have very little access to family documents and history, and those who know practically everything there is to know about what each of their family members has done since the dawn of time.
But even for those who seem to know everything, all families have their share of secrets.
And those secrets or more over-the-top stories can really enrich our understanding and appreciation of our families.
Redditor Careless_Put_4770 asked:
"What is the most interesting story you have of an ancestor (past your parent's generation)?"
A Dark Past
"The Uncle of my grandfather was part of Hitler's personal SS Corps."
- Eichelhaeher-Hermann
"I have a friend whose uncle of a grandfather was a bodyguard of Hermann Göring."
"He lost both his legs after he messed up and was sent to the Russian front as punishment, but still praised Hitler and the Nazis until he died."
"I also have an SS grandfather who dug up human remains at the Swiss border in 1941."
"Some general advice here: Don't ask your German friends about their family history. You're gonna have a bad time."
- Monarch-Of-Jack
Ranch Hand for Theodore Roosevelt
"I don’t know the date’s exactly off the top of my head but they’re written down at home."
"My Great Grandfather (Grandma's dad) was born in the Black Hills Germany. He allegedly killed a German officer and went on the lam to the United States."
"He worked as a ranch hand for Theodore Roosevelt for some years before he married my Great Grandma. He was gifted a buffalo rifle from Roosevelt which was taken by one of grandmas brothers after their dad died."
- Anonymous_Whale1
For the Woman He Loves
"My great grandfather killed my great grandmother's suitor and kidnapped her a night before her wedding."
"Apparently in the region of South India I'm from, women used to pick their future husband off a lineup of men wishing to marry her."
"My great grandfather was rejected by my great grandmother, and so he went about executing the dude chosen by her and kidnapping her, which apparently was seen as an extremely macho move."
"My Grandfather was born in 1896 so the time period would've been around 1860-1880."
- Glock_and_Dagger
An Impressive Gift
"My great-grandfather lost one of his arms during WW1, and right after the war, he decided to ask my great-grandmother to marry him."
"To show her how much he loved her, he decided to give her a really nice pair of shoes from a good shoemaker who lived in the countryside, and cars were not that common at the time."
"He took his bike and rode 70 kilometers (43 miles) to the closest big city to get her a really nice pair of shoes and rode 70 kilometers back with the box on his lap to give it to her. WITH ONLY ONE ARM."
"Pretty romantic, but that's not the end of the story."
"The shoemaker f**ked up big time and gave him two left shoes by accident, so my great-grandpa took his bike the next day, and did the 70 kilometers back and forth to exchange one of the shoes."
"And they lived happily married ever after."
"Every time I tell the story to someone married, they look at their husband with disdain, which I find pretty funny (I never told the story to any of my girlfriends, though)."
- Albescents
Family Lineage
"If you trace my family line back far enough you get to Norwegian royalty. It's a second son of a third son, kind of thing."
- LoveDistinct
A Supportive Family
"I come from a VERY conservative family, and when I realized I was gay, it terrified me to come out. I came out to my mom and she didn’t have an easy time handling it, but within 48 hours, she was my best friend and a strong advocate."
"The turnaround was very strange. She also told me to never be scared to tell anyone in the family, which again seemed like being set up for failure. But it really wasn’t. Everyone was super supportive and kind and very defensive of me."
"For years I wondered why and then one day I was at a family do with my grandmother and her four sisters, the Matriarchs of each branch of the family and the five most terrifying but loving women you ever met."
"They pulled me aside and we’re VERY interested in how I was doing if anyone in the family had been mean to me, and if anyone had given me a hard time about being 'special' as they called it."
"I said no, surprisingly everyone in the family had been lovely. They didn’t ask any more questions but told me to come to them if anyone was being mean."
"This was so overwhelming to see these elderly, super-conservative women being so supportive, so I cornered my mom and demanded to know why they were so nice."
"Then my mom told me about Ravi. Ravi was a beautiful, charismatic, loving, kind, sweet teenager who was my grandmother and her sisters' best friend in the 1940s. He was allowed to hang out with the women because he was 'not a threat' (he was super gay but you didn’t talk about it)."
"My gran and her sisters absolutely adored Ravi, until one day his personality changed. He became dark and withdrawn. Eventually, he killed himself."
"My gran and her sisters were devastated and didn’t know why, until they found out that Ravi had fallen in love with a boy and his parents had figured out. Ravi’s parents destroyed him psychologically through isolation, berating and eventually questionable medical interventions. Ravi’s soul was broken so he took his life."
"My grand and her sisters never ever forgave their community or Ravi’s parents for what they did to him, so when my mother called my grandmother weeping and screaming that I was gay, my grandmother came down on her like a ton of bricks with all the power and might that she could muster. She told my mother that if I was ever treated differently, If I was ever isolated or bullied by a member of the family, they would have to face the consequences of dealing with grandmother and her sisters."
"Her sisters also told all their children to treat me with respect and love, all without me knowing, because they never wanted anyone to go through what their best most loved male friend had all those years ago."
"I owe my happiness to that man, fly free my brother, wherever you are."
- Astro493
Such a Punch Line
"My Great-Grandmother had two suitors: a man in America and a man in Manchester, UK."
"The guy in America bought her a ticket to cross the Atlantic and be with him, and she was set to go, but at the last minute, the guy in England proclaimed his love and won her over."
"And that’s how my great-grandparents got together, as opposed to my great-grandmother dying on The Titanic."
- BigRagu79
A Pirate's Life for Me
"My great great great great grandfather was abducted by pirates as a boy and raised as one… in Canada. They were river brigands. My mom has a book on him."
"Her parents were from Czechoslovakian and Germany though, so I’m not sure how that happened. I always told people I was part pirate, though."
- iluvgrannysmith
A Wild Story
"Great-great-great-great-great-great grandpa Andrew threw rocks through his landlord's windows in Cork, jumped onto the next ship to Canada, started a farm on the Ottawa River, changed his surname to MacDonald so people would think he was Scottish, and imprisoned the tax collector in his cellar when they came to demand land taxes from him."
- ImperialistDog
Aerial Escape
"My grandad was an engineer for the British army in Egypt during World War Two."
"He and a buddy got drunk one time and slept in this small town, when they awoke they discovered the Germans had taken over the town. So they evaded capture and discovered an old plane that required maintenance, and the two ended up repairing the plane and flew it over German lines and into Allied territory."
- DeviousMelons
Wild, Wild West
"One of my ancestors was Curly Bill Brocious, the leader of the infamous Cowboys gang which fought against the Earps in and around Tombstone Arizona in the 1870s/80s."
"He was killed by Wyatt Earp himself by a shotgun blast that reportedly tore him in two."
- EppurSiMuove00
Family Trees
"My grandma (mother's side) was abandoned in an orphanage by my great-grandmother because she wanted to run off and marry another man, and he would not take her children. So my great grandfather, who was in the army during WW1, came to see them and promised to come back after the next battle. It was the somme, he died."
"The same grandmother did not know how old she was, by the time she obtained a copy of her birth certificate later in life, she found out she was a year older than she thought she was."
"My Dad's Grandfather was an advertising artist, semi-famous at the time, there is an original of his passed down in our family, it is with my dad's oldest brother now. It is of a boy running down a famous road in my northern city past a famous theatre still being used to this day."
- dracolibris
The Consequences of Love
"One of my great-grandmother’s grandma was an aristocrat. She fell in love with a peasant boy working on their lands. Her father told her he would disown her if she wanted to be with that boy. So one dark night the boy got my grandma escaped from their home and they ran away. Needless to say, she was disowned."
"And that’s the story of why I have to work now, instead of just seeing my monthly allowance show up on my bank account."
"Omnia vincit amor."
- Healthy_Chipmunk_990
Connections, Connections Everywhere
"My mom and my stepdad share an ancestor about four generations back."
"Also somewhere in this range, my great-[ex?]-grandma received a letter from her brother that had left Austria."
"He said, 'Come to America. If not for your sake, then for your children's sake.'"
" She talked her husband into it, they moved to the Midwest, and several generations later I was born."
- CrumblingInInverse
Anything's Possible
"I'm 34 but my paternal grandfather was born in 1895. He got shot through both knees sideways in Belgium during World War I then had to limp miles to safety... Sounds impossible but I have a newspaper article about it!"
"His brother also survived WWI, only to die in the Spanish flu pandemic. Sadly my grandfather died quite a while before I was born."
- Fit_Peanut_8801
It's amazing how far back some of our families go and how far back some families are able to trace their family's history. Knowing a little more about what our family has done can really tell us where we have been, so we can decide where we will go next.
If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988.
To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/
At least when it comes to entertainment, we're all taught to believe that being kind will take you far and that the good guy always wins over the villain.
But even in movies and TV shows, sometimes that isn't true anymore, and that can make a far more compelling story.
Note: there are massive spoilers below. You have been warned.
Redditor careater asked:
"What is a good 'the bad guy wins' movie?"
Man on Fire
"Man on Fire."
- Sapphic_Butterfly
Nightcrawler
"'Nightcrawler,' definitely. Only a few people mentioned it in this thread, which I find surprising. It fits the definition of the 'bad guy winning' perfectly and it is also a really good movie."
- belshezzar
Valkyrie
"'Valkyrie.' Crazy to think that Hollywood didn’t have to embellish much because those events actually happened in real life."
- lawontheside
Unforgiven
"'Unforgiven.'"
"Eastwood's character is the bad guy. He killed women and children and everything that walked or crawled. He was a hired vigilante."
"Little Bill was the law. But he was also a belligerent a-hole who beat a man to death and let another get away with cutting up a woman’s face because she was a w**re. He got what was coming whether he deserved it or not."
- PoorPauly
Starship Troopers
"'Starship Troopers.'"
- B3taWats0n
"It still baffles me that some people don't get that the humans are the bad guys. Neil Patrick Harris becomes more and more Nazified over the course of the movie until he's just wearing an SS uniform in the last scene."
- SergeantChic
"Consider:"
"At no point is there any evidence to the audience (unless presented by a newscast of a fascist regime) that the bugs are the aggressors."
"No fighting takes place on human territory."
"There is no clear cause for the bugs to throw a rock at the earth."
"The bugs did nothing wrong."
- couchsurfingpotato
Infinity War
"'Infinity War.'"
- O5CR
"Serious question for anyone who's seen that movie more recently: did Thanos have a 50% chance of wiping himself out of existence when he did the snap?"
- Discuffalo
"Yes, and this was confirmed by the Russo Brothers in a Q&A as well. That's why he seems surprised and gives a little smirk before teleporting away after the snap; he sees himself being exempted as proof that he was doing the right thing."
- fredagsfisk
"Titan Roulette."
- WayneAndWax
Halloween
"Basically ALL the 'Halloween' movies. Michael wins every single time except for 'Halloween Ends,' which is a real absolute first, to be honest."
"First runner-up: 'The Collector.'"
"Second runner-up: every single 'Saw' movie."
- whitehack
Midsommar
"'Midsommar' if you treat the cult as the bad guy."
- tkdyo
"The cult is definitely the villain of the story."
- A**_a**_in99
X-Men: First Class
"X-men: First Class (2011)."
"'I prefer... Magneto" what follows is the most bada** villain theme since imperial march."
- TeamAlphaSquad
"'I've been at the mercy of men just following orders. NEVER AGAIN.'"
- killingjoke96
"Magneto is the deuteragonist of the film."
"Shaw is the Bad Guy. And he gets a penny for his thoughts (a coin through his head)."
- streakermaximus
Lad Abiding Citizen
"Depending on your perspective, 'Law Abiding Citizen.'"
- lyzaros
"I can’t stand watching that movie. Every time I hope Gerard Butler will win, and Jamie Foxx catches him every d**n time…"
- KidAndrogynous
"Such a bulls**t ending. It's like they passed out of having Gerard Butler's character win, like they couldn't show a man with 10 years of planning pull off his vengeance plan against the justice system in case the audience got ideas."
"It seemed like a case of Jamie Foxx wouldn't allow them to make his character 'lose', but this is a myth apparently. It's still s**t, though."
- vaguebiscuits
"Yeah, it p**ses me off that Butler's character loses."
"The 'good guys' only won because they broke the law. The cop and the lawyer didn't get a warrant, and it was literally shrugged away as they broke into and entered the garage. If they were actually sticking to the rules they espoused, as they should have, Butler's character would have gotten away with it."
"I know, I know... The good guys have to win, Butler's character was a murderous psychopath, ends justify the means, etc. But I think the ending was a copout."
- cstretten
Gone Girl
"'Gone Girl.'"
- solitamaxx
"Well done movie, absolutely hated it and will never watch it again. Made me so d**n mad, but I understand it did exactly what it was meant to."
- Raccoonanity
Skeleton Key
"'Skeleton Key.'"
- nursesarahrn78
"A very interesting movie. The ending... whew!"
- Forsaken_Button_9387
"The scream I scrumpt when she said, 'Baby, you just trapped yourself!'"
- soljjr
Fallen
"'Fallen.' That movie was f**king awesome, great ending."
- TheRealOcsiban
"Did I ever tell you about the time I almost died?"
- crazym108
"Now remember, I told you I was going to tell you the story of the time I ALMOST died."
- whyisreplicainmyname
"Tiii-i-i-ime... is on my side. Yes, it is..."
- AKeeneyedguy
Cabin in the Woods
"'Cabin in the Woods.'"
"Well, the bad guys actually lose, but the world ends as a result."
- Jonny-Max
"It's one of my favorite twists on a horror movie ever."
- careater
"Are they really the bad guys though? Sure, they act like a**holes about killing people, but it’s kind of important that they do it."
- Freedom_7
"The gods they are trying to appease, it’s movie audiences like you and me. We are the actual bad guys."
"If what we expect to see doesn’t happen, like a virgin sacrificial ritual, we will destroy the movie at the box office. That’s the big hand you see at the end."
- Initial_E
"So ... our nostalgia and need for cliches is the bad guy? We're the reason Hollywood only does remakes now?"
"F**k... that's darker than I realized."
- konsf_ksd
Arlington Road
"'Arlington Road.'"
- Dapper_Interest_8914
"This should be top."
"'Infinity War' and 'Empire Strikes Back' are not the ending of the story, and as we know, the bad guy eventually loses."
"This is one of the only movies where the bad guy wins, and that's it, the end. He doesn't die and win like in 'Se7en.' There's no sequel to make right the wrong. The baddies just f**king trick the protagonist big time and win."
"Leaves you feeling almost angry, stunned even."
- 8blackJack8black
Everyone can appreciate a happy ending, but these movies go to show that a movie can still be great without the good guy coming out on top.
In fact, it might even make these movies all the move impactful and memorable.
When people feel as if they've been wronged, their initial instinct is to retaliate.
Getting revenge is a negative impulse in which the victim feels they can only move on from the situation only after inflicting a similar level of emotional or physical pain or embarassment.
That's not everyone's style, however, and it's not up to us to stoop to the lowest common denominator and give in to our darkest urges to seek justice.
But if you take a moment and consider other alternatives, certain forms of revenge can be sweet.
These were explored when Redditor Fronzie7 quoted a famous music icon to ask:
"Frank Sinatra said, 'The best revenge is massive success' What's a real-life example of this?"
Everyone loves a good Hollywood ending.
You Know You've Made It When You're On A Lunchbox
"Michael J.Fox has a great story about when he started out. Some big wheel at the network didn't like him for the role of Alex P. Keaton on Family Ties. He was too short, not cute, not heart throb enough, you're never going to see his face on a lunch box. But the producer cast him anyway and the show shot to number one and stayed there."
"Fox sent him a Family Ties lunch box with his face on it and then Back to the Future 1,2,3 lunch boxes."
– Hazelsmom64
A Rocky Start To An Amazing Career
"Sylvester Stallone as well. Casting agents told him he was too stupid looking and he'd only get small roles as the thug who got beaten up. He said he literally went to every casting agent in NYC and got rejected by all of them."
"Even after he wrote Rocky and found producers, they didn't want him to star in it."
– YounomsayinMawfk
The Dreamgirl Who Never Stopped Dreaming
"Jennifer Hudson lost American Idol and became more successful than the winner."
– Stashdragon
"She is a recent EGOT winner and the youngest woman to do it. 7th Place looks fantastic on her."
– jdmccoy
Against all odds, the end result was a victory for these accomplished individuals.
Home Surveillance Home Run
"The guy who invented Ring cameras went on Shark Tank and was rejected by everyone. They all thought it would fail….we’ll you know the rest."
– Ruzzthabus
"He went back on Shark Tank after that, but this time as one of the sharks."
– 1Land_1Keep
The Skies The Limit
"Ron McNair had the police called on him when he was little because he was black and reading in a library. He grew up to be an astronaut and the library he was kicked out of was later named after him."
– sperdush
"For those who may not be familiar with his name; he was one of the Challenger crew members on January 28, 1986."
– This-Marsupial-6187
Emerged From The Shallow
"When Lady GaGa was in college, some of her classmates had a Facebook group called 'Stefani Germanotta, you'll never be famous.'"
"Pretty sure she proved them wrong."
– NotHisRealName
Now these are smart business moves.
Recipe For Success
"Erin French, chef-owner of restaurant The Lost Kitchen in rural Maine."
"Co-owned a restaurant in the town of Belfast with her husband; a very tumultuous relationship ended with him changing the locks on the building with all of her equipment inside."
"She licked her wounds, leased space in an old mill building in her tiny hometown of Freedom, and built from the ground one of the best restaurants in the country, with a coveted reservation that is fabled for its difficulty to get a table. Has her own multi-season documentary on TV and is absolutely killing it in the culinary world now."
– Girhinomofe
A Toy Story
"George Lucas got the ownership of the toy rights to star wars because they don’t think it would be successful. He made an absolute killing on those."
– Birds-aint-real-
"Not just the toy rights, he got the entire IP in exchange for waiving is salary."
– xdert
Lamborghini Origin Story
"Italian industrialist, builder of tractors, made a mint out of it and rewarded himself with a new Ferrari."
"Ferrari broke down. Needed a new clutch. Wealthy industrialist waited patiently for his new clutch to arrive, and after many weeks it finally showed up - same clutch he was putting in his tractors, more than twice the price."
"A little bit annoyed at this, he rang Ferrari to complain. They told him 'go back to building tractors, leave supercars to us.'"
"And Lamborghini was born..."
– RaffiaWorkBase
Gaming Victory
"Sony and Nintendo were working on a console together before the N64 came out, intending to utilize Nintendo's gaming hardware combined with Sony's sound tech to create games with more immersive sound capabilities than have been seen before. Partway through development and immediately following Sony's announcement of their partnership, Nintendo backed out of the deal, which if you're not aware of Japanese business etiquette, is kind of a d*ck move."
"Nintendo backed out to work with Philips to put Nintendo games on the CDi, which resulted in the worst-received Nintendo games of all time."
"Sony, out of spite, went on to make the PlayStation, one of the best-selling consoles in gaming history, and cement themselves as a massive player in the console wars to this day."
– Critical-String8774
Be Kind And Rewind
"Blockbuster laughed baby Netflix out of the room with their idea. Then later, grown-up Netflix killed blockbuster."
– ChurroForSure-o
"Best thing for Netflix, really. Blockbuster would have driven themselves and the Netflix rent model out of business through mismanagement."
"I don't know about you, but I can't live in a world without Voltron: Legendary Defender."
– Tobias_Atwood
So what's the moral of the story?
Basically, always be kind and never make anyone feel less than they deserve. You never know what the future brings, and you putting down someone for your own fleeting gain will come back to haunt you.
Also, remember that karma works in mysterious ways.