Top 10 Saddest Teen Movie Endings

Based on the beloved YA novel by Stephen Chbosky, who also wrote and directed this film adaptation, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” is a movie that deals with heavy topics like teenage depression and mental illness. In a twist near the end of the film, however, we find out that the main character, Charlie, was sexually abused by his aunt when he was a child and that he blames himself for her sudden death. This revelation causes him to have a mental breakdown, and while he does eventually return home, there is a bittersweet sadness to the conclusion of the story.

For the duration of the story told in “The Maze Runner,” the main character has no memory of his life before he arrived in the “Glade.” It’s only at the end of the movie that we find out what brought all of these young people together. It turns out that a solar flare occurred, causing widespread devastation on Earth, and killing many. Even worse, in the aftermath of the natural disaster, a pandemic that was dubbed “the Flare” killed many more. Thomas and the others learn they were part of an experiment - and that it’s not over yet.

This heartbreaking movie, based on the 2009 novel, tells the story of Mia, a young girl who gets into a disastrous car accident, which kills her family and leaves her with life-threatening injuries. We see much of the story take place in flashbacks, as Mia is forced to decide whether she’ll stay on Earth or join her family in the afterlife. It’s a bleak premise, and the ending is pretty soul-crushing until the very moment that she opens her eyes, letting the audience know that she has finally made the decision to stay.

“Call Me by Your Name” isn’t your typical teen romance movie, largely because only one of the members of the central couple is a teenager. This touching story follows young Elio who is spending the summer in Italy with his family when he meets the 24-year-old grad student, Oliver, and the two fall in love. This relationship had a lot working against it and the audience knew it was doomed to end in heartbreak, but the final scene after Oliver goes home where Elio just stares into the fire crying is nearly impossible to watch.

Sometimes, you know from the title of a movie that it isn’t going to have a happy ending, but that doesn’t make it any easier to deal with. “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” ends with Rachel dying, which shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, as we know that she has leukemia. But watching Greg show up at the hospital and give her a private screening of the film he made left us all choked up, and the following scenes at her funeral and hearing about the letter she wrote to his college is almost too much to handle.

The novel “Bridge to Terabithia” was published in the ‘70s, so many people already know about the heartbreaking event that takes place near the end of the story, but it’s still terrible to watch in the movie version, which stars a young Josh Hutcherson as Jess. Jess and his friend Leslie create an imaginary world together, but this is no simple fantasy story. Seemingly out of nowhere, Jess gets the news that Leslie has been killed in an accident when the rope swing that they used together broke and she drowned in the creek. Jess’ disbelief and grief force him to grow up fast, and it makes us wish the innocence of childhood could last forever.

In a movie about two teens living with cancer, you can probably guess that the ending won’t be a happy one. Hazel and Augustus meet at a cancer support group, and throughout their relationship, Gus seems relatively healthy whereas Hazel undergoes numerous health scares. The viewer is left assuming that she will die, leaving him behind, but in the end, the opposite takes place, with his health rapidly deteriorating. The final scene involves Hazel reading the eulogy that Gus wrote for her and trust us when we say that there’s no way you can finish this movie without tears in your eyes.

If you’re looking for the next “The Fault in Our Stars,” look no further than “Five Feet Apart,” released in 2019. Following the formula of “sick teens fall in love,” this story is about Stella and Will, two young people living with cystic fibrosis. The two can’t be physically close to each other because of the risk of cross-infection. Their relationship is one filled with risks, but in the end, Stella begins to get healthier while Will realizes that his days are numbered. In the final scene, he asks her not to look at him so that he can walk away and prevent her from mourning his eventual death.

For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo. One of the saddest teen movie endings is also one of the most tragic endings in the history of fiction. William Shakespeare’s beloved tragic play “Romeo and Juliet” is known for the heartbreaking ending in which the two young lovers both take their own lives, thinking that the other is dead. In Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 version, it’s made even more devastating by the fact that Juliet actually wakes up as Romeo is taking the poison and he sees her, realizing the mistake he has made.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

“Cruel Intentions” (1999)

“The Outsiders” (1983)

“Before I Fall” (2017)

“Midnight Sun” (2018)

“Now Is Good” (2012)

We didn’t realize just how many movies there are about teenagers with cancer! One of the original examples is 2002’s “A Walk to Remember,” starring Mandy Moore. Jamie and Landon seem to have nothing in common - he’s a bad boy and she’s the minister’s daughter. When they’re forced to work together, she hides the fact that she’s dying of leukemia from him. In the end, they get married before she succumbs to her illness, and while all of that makes us grab for our tissues, it’s Landon’s speech about Jamie that has us sobbing uncontrollably.