6 Classic Movies With Utterly Devastating Endings

The secret in the film’s climax still packs one hell of a punch nearly fifty years later, not just because of the shocking revelation that Dunaway’s character’s daughter Katherine is both her sister AND her daughter as her father assaulted her when she was just 15 years old, but there’s more shock to come.

While the audience is still trying to process this disgusting information, Dunaway tries to shoot Huston to keep her daughter out of his evil clutches, only to be gunned down by the police. As Huston leads Katherine away, Nicholson’s associate says the now cinematically immortal line, “forget it Jake, it’s Chinatown.”