I didn't like the ending

Who said people don't like "sad endings"?
Speak for yourself. And that wasn't a "sad" ending....(SPOILERS)....it's more of a "holy sh-t, I didn't expect that" ending.
It was a mind-blower, and people like twists. In this case, many folks probably saw the twist coming. But either way, they change a movie from being ho-hum predictable, and cookie-cutter.....and it turns the movie into something you talk to people about days later. It makes it more impactful, more memorable.

Consider a movie like "The Sixth Sense". That ending (may) have been perceived as "sad" as well. But that "GOTCHA" twist was such a mindblower that people loved it. It turned the whole movie into an enormous hit.

And either way, even with a "twist"....not all movies, not all stories, end all happy-happy, with rainbows and unicorns. How did you do with "Platoon"? How about "Saving Private Ryan"? How about the Brad Pitt movie "Seven"? WHat about "Terms of Endearment"?

I could go on and on. Some movies make you laugh. Some make you cry. SOme take you on a rollercoaster ride. The good ones.....make you FEEL. And not all the feelings in the emotional spectrum are happy-happy.

It's unexpectedly shocking and sad, but brilliant ending. I'm glad they didn't make a happy ending.

I think the ending was fine. What didn't work well was the choice of Norman Greenbaum during the end credits. Probably one of the darkest endings as of 2017 I've seen in a while, and then Spirit in the Sky comes on in the end credits. Also, I think it would've worked better if was edited differently to impact the ending harder. In fact, the dark ending should have gone further.

Say the ending focused on Jake Gyllenhaal's pod as one scene, and then cut to Rebecca Ferguson's. Just have the movie's end focusing on her hurdling into deep space, no music in the background, just her screaming and the controls going awry, then cut to outside the pod where we can't hear her scream (because in space no one can hear you scream), and watch as the pod drifts further, and further until you can't see it anymore, and then...Directed by Daniel Espinosa. No Spirit in the Sky, no music. Just pure silence as the credits play over the shot in space, and maybe as the credits continue to roll, the camera pans over to earth, and we see lights from all around the world begin to go off. Maybe its like an accelerated montage were HUGE fires break out, maybe a several HUNDRED explosions, and it just ends with the total destruction of Earth.

almost every horror movie has a sad ending though. every single alien movie had an ending like that to set up for a sequel.

It seems like a sad/unexpected ending just for the sake of it.

I kind of liked it since it was definitely a twist. The rest of the movie was mediocre.

😎

Calvin surely enjoyed the ending.

lol

I liked the ending, conceptually, but I thought it was poorly executed.

The way it was shot, I just didn't believe the events. The actors didn't react the way they would if they were going the directions they were going. I didn't believe Calvin's pod could be corrected that quickly. It was like they shot it one way and then just switched it. A nice idea for a twist, but it didn't add up for me.