Astronaut who sacrifices himself for the sake of humanity

I realize identifying a movie by a single cliche is difficult, but let's give it a try.

In the last scene of a movie, amidst tension and epic music, an astronaut sacrifices himself for the sake of humanity. I don't remember how, maybe his ship explodes or something.

End of the movie.

Then a black screen shows a brief quote that reads something like: "The true hero is the one that pays the price knowing nobody will ever know of his sacrifice, Name-of-the-dude-who-wrote-the-aphorism-if-anybody-at-all", 'cause apparently nobody was aware he just saved the world.

Was is Armageddon (1998)? I don't remember any black text at the end, but I also haven't seen the movie in about 17 years. Video contains obvious spoilers.

No, obviously no. In Armageddon the sacrifice is not the last scene, is not a secret, and the cliche is actually pretty common. The thing I remember is precisely the aphorism at the end.

I forgot also to add the the movie is likely American, from 90s - 2000s.

Not really a movie, but the TVs series Outer Limits often had somber endings like that. Could be one of those.

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Did you know that in the 1980s movie PREDATOR the titular character was not originally portrayed by Kevin Peter Hall. It was in fact Jean-Claude Van Damme donning a much more insect inspired full body suit before he left the production which then led to the recasting and redesigning of the famous hunter.

It's not a space movie, quite the opposite in fact, but The Core (2003) has a similar premise of people sacrificing themselves and there being a conspiracy about the public not knowing about it.

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Marooned (?)

Don't remember the quote, but Sunshine and Silent Running are a couple more movies that use that trope.

I obviously didn't see all the Outer limits episodes, so if somebody did, please let me know.

On the other hand, is none of the movies mentioned. Silent running and Marooned were not even shot on the modern/epic/pulp/michael-bayish style of the this movie was.

If you remember the style of the movie, do you remember the genre? That might help narrow it down. Were there any horror elements, was it pure Sci Fi, or was it more of an action film? Do you remember anything about the astronaut other than his sacrifice? Are you sure he was saving the earth, or was he just saving his friends/shipmates? Was it just the people of Earth who didn't know about the sacrifice, or was is literally no one else at all?

The sacrifice in Space Cowboys (2000) did not take place at the very end of the film, as there were some scenes after that, but the last shot of the film was of said astronaut's body post-sacrifice. But again, I haven't seen this movie since it was new so I don't know if your quote was at the end, though I don't think it was.

Nope, I saw only the last scene. It was overplayed and dramatic, the modern way. It wasn't Space cowboys, and anyway, the written sentence on the last scene should rule out any movie that doesn't have it.

The Cold Equations - girl sacrifices herself, but the pilot lives and knows this

Quantum Leap - Sam is in a limbo

Gray Lady Down - Gates sacrifices himself to keep the sub from plunging into the abyss

It could be the movie "Sunshine" starring Cyllian Murphy....the premise is the sun is going out and spaceship is on the way to set a megton explosion to jumpstart it. Someone goes crazy and starts killing everyone and sabotaging the ship so in the end, he is the last one alive, can't get home and has to use the ship as the rocket and plummets it into the sun and explodes......or something to that effect.

Definitely not such quote at the end of Sunshine though, and other people know about the sacrifice.

That said, this sounds unusual enough that it's worth wondering if it's an amalgamation of memories. That happens a lot with these threads.

No amalgamation possible, simply because there's not much in the description I wrote. I remember the written quote, and it was at the end of the movie. It kinda makes sense if the dude saves the world and nobody knows.