The entertainment industry has one constant theme it’s been fixated on, era after era — cheating. Affairs, as portrayed in films, serve a lot like cautionary tales that somehow tragically reflect real-life scenarios. From little white lies to full-on adultery, cheating comes in many different forms in movies. Other times, it’s not even blatantly revealed, which makes viewers question the line between a harmless friendship and a torrid love affair. However, not all cheating movies are created equal.

While a lot of these movies provide touching or soul-wrenching conclusions, some just end horribly for at least one person in the equation. Some affairs in movies just take incredibly mind-blowing twists and turns that leave their audiences horrified, stunned, or even traumatized. Whether it’s to serve as a lesson or for shock value, we compiled 15 movies where cheating led to horrible outcomes. Spoiler alert as we break down how even the smallest lies can end so tragically.

Updated on September 14th, 2023 by Danilo Raúl: This article has been updated with additional content to keep the discussion fresh and relevant with even more information and new entries.

15 Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman dancing
Warner Bros.

Stanley Kubrick's final film has a twisted take on extramarital affairs, as it's not the act but the implication of cheating that kicks starts the plot of Eyes Wide Shut. Starring Nicole Kidman, Tom Cruise, and Sidney Pollack, the story centers around a successful lawyer and her wife as they prepare for a social evening. While getting dressed, Alice admits openly to his husband there's a man in her job she would cheat on him with if given the chance.

Bill doesn't take this information well and seeks to retaliate by cheating on his wife. He suddenly finds himself drawn to a costumed party he manages to infiltrate for the ultra-rich and wealthy. His infiltration is quickly detected by a woman who states he shouldn't be there, which is dismissed until the host of the festivities calls him out, and the unknown woman offers to save him. Although the film never confirms it, it's stated this little escape cost the life of the woman who saved him.

14 Little Children (2006)

todd-field-little-children
New Line Cinema

Although Little Children has a genuinely creepy title, the film is about adults' lives around children. Written and directed by Todd Field, the film stars Kate Winslet, Jennifer Connelly, Patrick Wilson, and Jackie Earle Haley. In the story, a woman named Sarah feels her marriage crumbling after finding out his husband has a crippling addiction to pornography. Soon enough, she meets Brad, a man-child who takes his kid to the same park Sarah goes. Brad loves an easy life and strays away from responsibilities, but he still gets Sarah's attention despite being married.

On the side, we have a man named Ronnie, a convicted sex offender, trying to insert himself into society again but having a hard time doing so. The film profoundly explores the relationship between Sarah and Brad, who go beyond a single fling and engage in wild sex while their kids nap at home. The illusion is broken after Brad gets in an accident while skateboarding and calls on his wife, and Sarah thinks her daughter is endangered after Brad is seen in the same park they get together. While Sarah's kid proves to be okay, Brad is unable to overcome the pedophile stigma and castrates himself to bleed out to death.

13 Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Brokeback Mountain by Ang Lee
Focus Features

Ang Lee challenged every societal norm of 2005 with an LGBTQ+ movie that brought him critical praise and many awards. Brokeback Mountain depicts an affair where two gay cowboys work together as sheepherders at a ranch during summertime. They develop feelings for each other and get into a romantic relationship over 20 years, being free to be who they are only when they meet each other.

Based on the short story of the same name by Annie Proulx, we get cowboys Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist, played by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal. Ennis has a family, a wife and daughter named Alma, and while his love for Jack is real, he can't deny his responsibility to his family. Jack pushes the issue by visiting him and reminding him how willing he is to live his life together with him. Alma eventually finds out and leaves him, while Jack tries to have an everyday life, unable to negate his natural urges. The two never get to be together, and Jack eventually dies in an accident, leaving Ennis devastated.

12 Cape Fear (1991)

MOV_CapeFear
Universal Pictures

Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear is a remake of a film that grounds the plot to reality to make it more unsettling than the original. Starring Nick Nolte, Robert De Niro, and Juliette Lewis, the film pits Max Cady against his former defense lawyer, Sam Bowden, who mismanaged his case and sent him to prison. Cady has been busy for the past 18 years learning everything he needs about the rule of law and researching his former lawyer to make his life a living hell.

Sam has a happy family at home, but like many successful men, he has a fling on the side with Lori Davis, a County Courthouse clerk. Cady tracks down Lori, seduces her in a bar, and later takes her home. When she invites him over for a drink, he brutally beats and rapes her. Cady would later infiltrate Sam's daughter's high school, passing himself as a new drama teacher just to hit on and seduce Danny Bowden, much to the dismay of the disgruntled lawyer, who makes arrangements to have Cady beaten by tugs.

11 In The Mood for Love (2000)

Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung in In the Mood For Love
Block 2 Pictures

Chinese cinema offers a ton of alluring offerings when it comes to romances and dramas. In the Mood for Love, directed by Wong Kar-Wai, is an incredible subversion of expectations. The plot has a few twists and turns that paint extramarital affairs as something bound to personal worldviews. Featuring the acting talents of Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung, this a love story, unlike anything you've ever seen. The story is set in 1962 British Hong Kong as Shanghai expatriates Chow Mo-wan and Su Li-zhen rent rooms in adjacent apartments.

Mo-wan is a journalist, while Li-zhen is a secretary at a shipping company. Both married, they find themselves in each other company more than usual as their respective spouses are always away working their day jobs. They eventually discover in separate ways that their partners are cheating on them. While they sincerely care and love each other, they choose not to engage in a relationship to avoid lowering themselves to the same levels as their partners. That's a lose-lose situation if we ever seen one.

Related: 7 Classic Thrillers That Are Heavy on the Romance

10 Unfaithful (2002)

Unfaithful (2002)
20th Century Studios

Released in 2002, this erotic thriller stars Richard Gere, Diane Lane, and Olivier Martinez. Unfaithful tells the story of a married couple, Edward (Gere) and Connie (Lane), whose lives turn upside down after Connie engages in an extramarital affair with a stranger. A small chance encounter brings this couple down to a fatal conclusion. The movie’s heartbreaking take on affairs will make you root for the married couple as usual. However, as passion takes over, so do dark intentions. At its climax, Edward confronts Paul (Martinez) about his wife, ultimately resulting in him ending the life of his wife’s paramour.

A police investigation ensues, but the couple remains in the clear. Time passes, and it seems like life is beginning to turn back to normal for the couple, but guilt continues to eat up on Edward. As his wife suggests starting a new life somewhere else, Edward ultimately makes the decision for both of them as it’s implied that he surrenders himself to the police. It’s a heartbreaking tale of how your darkest thoughts and impulsive decisions can lead to a lifetime of guilt and regret.

9 Chloe (2009)

Chloe 2009
Sony Pictures Classics

How much do you trust your partner? Chloe is a cautionary tale about trusting and doubting. Starring Julianne Moore, Liam Neeson, Max Thieriot, and Amanda Seyfried, Chloe is a remake of the French film Nathalie. When Catherine (Moore) suspects her husband of being unfaithful, she hires the titular character Chloe (Seyfried) to test her husband’s loyalty. As this conspiracy grows, the knots that tie Catherine, Chloe, and David (Neeson) become increasingly complicated. While Chloe returns to Catherine with brutal details of her affair with David, the two women also engage in an illicit relationship of their own.

The story becomes more convoluted when Chloe involves Catherine and David’s son Michael (Thieriot) in the equation. All the lies and deceit result in an edge-of-your-seat climax, resulting in Chloe’s death. While the film would make you want to believe that the family returns to normal after Chloe’s passing, a subtle detail will tell you otherwise.

8 The Great Gatsby (2013)

Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan in The Great Gatsby
Warner Bros.

The Great Gatsby is, perhaps, one of the greatest novels ever written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This 2013 film adaptation shows the most beautiful and darkest places where love and hate can take us. As with the novel, Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) tells the story of Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio), a mysterious millionaire who throws lavish parties every weekend. Gatsby’s parties are meant for the love of his life Daisy (Carey Mulligan) who is already married to Tom (Joel Edgerton). As the story entices you in the beautifully tragic love story between Jay and Daisy, it also pulls you into the social adversaries during the Roaring Twenties on Long Island, New York.

If you’ve read the book or seen the movie, you would know that somehow, the love affair between Daisy and Gatsby gets tangled with that of a struggling couple, Myrtle (Isla Fisher) and George (Jason Clarke). This results in the demise not only of both Myrtle and George but also of the great Gatsby himself. This movie will pull you in with its charm but leave you with the consequences of a destructive affair.

7 The Voyeurs (2021)

sydney-sweeney-the-voyeurs
Amazon Studios

Twist after twist, The Voyeurs will make you think the movie is about one thing and then turns out to be about another. The film stars Sydney Sweeney and Justice Smith, playing a young couple who spy on their neighbors across the street, played by Ben Hardy and Natasha Liu Bordizzo. Pippa (Sweeney) ultimately becomes obsessed with Seb (Hardy) and Julia (Bordizzo). Pippa’s spying turns into her getting involved with the couple’s affairs, where she exposes Seb as a serial cheater. This results in Julia taking her own life and Seb becoming depressed. As Pippa and Thomas’ (Smith) relationship hits rock bottom, the former is pulled in Seb’s charm.

Witnessing the love of his life cheat on the neighbor, Thomas takes the same path as Julia. Pippa — empty from Thomas’ death and unable to find closure regarding her affair with Seb — decides she needs one good conclusion to close a chapter in her book. However, she’s only met with the twist that she and Thomas were in fact the subject of a sick art project by Seb and Julia (who is apparently alive and well). Not only does the cheating result in Thomas’ passing, but it also throws Pippa into a revenge plot, leaving Seb and Julia to suffer the consequences of their actions.

6 Decision to Leave (2022)

Decision-To-Leave-2022
CJ Entertainment

Park Chan Wook’s works are always masterfully crafted in that they turn out to be metaphoric rather than narrative. Decision to Leave is nothing different from the Korean director’s previous works (The Handmaiden, The Vengeance Trilogy, and Snowpiercer). A complicated affair comes to play in the story of a detective (Park Hae-il) who gets roped into a woman’s (Tang Wei) complicated view of love. The woman, Seo-Rae, is the prime suspect in the death of her husband, who falls from a mountain. The two later form an intricate love affair and later part ways. When the two meet again by chance, they’re already both happily married.

Song-Rae then gets caught in her new husband’s death, and the detective continues to pine for the woman with murky intentions. So-called love wins over both, engaging them in an affair. The movie concludes with a metaphor where Seo-Rae buries herself on the beach and lets the shore wash over her, leaving behind shreds of evidence of her crime and affairs to the detective. As beautifully crafted as this steamy and enigmatic thriller is, it remains a grim reminder of how love can make you act against your principles.

Related: Most Intense Survival Techniques Used By Characters in Movies, Ranked

5 The Girl on the Train (2016)

the-girl-on-the-train-2016
Universal Pictures

The Girl on the Train is a murder mystery based on the best-selling novel by Paula Hawkins. It will take you down the dark path of abuse, alcoholism, and cheating. The movie’s compelling story is told by an unreliable narrator — alcoholic divorcee Rachel (Emily Blunt) who takes the train every day to New York. From her seat on the train, she observes the life of her ex-husband Tom (Justin Theroux) and his new wife Anna (Rebecca Ferguson) as well as the family’s nanny Megan (Haley Bennet) and her husband Luke (Scott Hipwell).

When Megan goes missing, it’s up to Rachel to unfold the events that transpired. A cheating husband and wife, a murderous rage, and years of abuse come to light. As much as it’s a tale that brings to light abusive patterns in relationships, the film is also a story about survival and self-discovery.

4 Fatal Attraction (1987)

Fatal-Attraction-1987
Paramount Pictures

If you’re a fan of movies with this theme, you probably already know about this one. Fatal Attraction consists of a riveting plot and a shocking ending that will definitely keep you hooked from the first minute to the very last. It's no mystery why this is still one of the best thrillers in cinema history. Michael Douglas plays Dan, a man who engages in a short but steamy extramarital affair with Glenn Close’s Alex.

Unbeknownst to Dan, Alex won’t let him go just like that. The movie will take you through Dan’s journey as he attempts to conceal his affair, uprooting his whole life and starting anew, only to find that Alex is always at his tail. Close’s portrayal of Alex brings a whole new meaning to the word “unhinged” as she does everything in her power to keep Dan by her side. While the movie tragically ends for Alex, there is no easy way out of the trauma this affair left Dan, his wife, and their child.

3 What Lies Beneath (2000)

Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford in What Lies Beneath
DreamWorks Pictures

Is it a horror movie? Is it a psychological thriller? It doesn’t matter how you view What Lies Beneath, one thing is for sure — it remains a cautionary tale about cheating. In the movie, we see a seemingly perfect couple, which is how most of these movies begin anyway. The couple moves to a home haunted by an unknown ghost. While Harrison Ford plays the hardworking husband, Michelle Pfeiffer is the tortured wife who seeks to uncover the truth behind the haunting.

Unfortunately for her, it takes her husband’s attempt to murder her before the truth unveils itself. The ghost? The husband’s former student and mistress, whom he murdered when she threatened to expose their relationship. Sure, the film develops to be a supernatural horror flick, but it definitely puts the cheater right where he belongs — at the bottom of a lake.

2 Gone Girl (2014)

Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike in Gone Girl (2014)
20th Century Fox

Modern classic Gone Girl became one of the most popular cheating movies in cinema history, and for good reason. Written by Gillian Flynn and based on her 2012 novel of the same name, the movie explores what a woman will be willing to do to avenge herself in a broken marriage. A missing person’s case turns into a twisted runaway story where Rosamund Pike’s Amy ultimately gets the upper hand. At the risk of someone’s life,

Amy makes sure that her marriage with a cheating Nick (Ben Affleck) is saved. As Nick learns that his wife holds a lot more sinister thoughts than he ever thought, once this is for sure, he’s now stuck with the aftermath when Cool Girl crawls back from what everyone thought was her grave.

1 Fall (2022)

Fall Movie (2)
Tea Shop Productions

Nobody knew that Fall was a cheating movie, until the exposition halfway through the movie. That twist will definitely send you into a spiral, tracing every interaction and motivation between the characters. The survival thriller tells the story of friends, Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) and Hunter (Virginia Gardner) who climb a 2,000-foot broadcasting tower. Hunter encourages Becky to do the climb in order to cope with the death of her husband, Dan’s death, who falls to his death during one of their recreational climbs.

As any of these movies go, the two get stuck atop the tower, where Hunter reveals that she had an affair with Dan before the two got married. While Becky survives the climb, Hunter isn't so lucky. Now imagine if Hunter and Dan hadn’t cheated on Becky like that. Will they ever find themselves being fed on by vultures? Perhaps, we'll all find out about the movie's upcoming sequel.