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This page needs some cleaning up to be presentable. The article implies that "The Stinger" is not a real-world name for this trope. |
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"Some movies have an extra scene after the credits." —This Basic Instructions strip.
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The Stinger scene that happens after the credits. It is also known as a "tag" or "credit cookie," while Roger Ebert's Little Movie Glossary calls it the "monk's reward" since it can take extreme devotion to sit through the credits and find out if anything happens. Generally, they're used as a Sequel Hook, but may also be there to show that the guy who made a Heroic Sacrifice is Not Quite Dead. Alternately, in a comedy, it may just be one last joke to punctuate the show. There may even be a selection of Hilarious Outtakes, or a special ending screen. The lesson to be learned from this? Always watch the credits. (Of course, more often than not you'll get nothing, but it's better to be safe than sorry.)
Also a term used to describe the five-second joke [in a comedy], extra dramatic moment [in a drama/thriller], or whispered phrase without a face [epics or horror films] used in trailers, the "Two bits!" to the trailer's "Shave and a hair-cut..." Speaking of which, that's where the term is originally derived from: A term for a final, short note at the very end of a piece.
Often done as a form of That's All Folks. If the credits look awesome from the get-go, they're Creative Closing Credits. When the scene runs before the credits instead of during or after them, that's The Tag.
Note: For filmmakers, the word "stinger" has an entirely different meaning altogether than the sense used here. Also called a Sting, it refers to that loud noise they make on the soundtrack when they're trying to startle you with something popping onscreen. Like a Scare Chord, but not necessarily a chord. It is also what people might actually be thinking of when they say "Rimshot". Even more important for filmmakers, a "stinger" is also nickname for an extension cord.
As an Ending Trope, Spoilers ahead may be unmarked. Beware.
Anime[]
- In Kannazuki no Miko, watching through the credits reveals that Chikane, who sacrificed her life for Himeko's in the Grand Finale, is indeed reborn and meets Himeko at an unspecified time later.
- In the Disappearance movie, Yuki is shown reading by herself in the library. She then sees a boy helping a girl make a library card. Yuki then looks toward the camera and does that adorable move where she holds her book in front of her face with only her eyes peeking out over it. As if the rest of the movie isn't enough proof that Yuki doesn't need emotions to be Moe...
- It's speculated that she was hiding a smile.
- In Shattered Angels (aka Kyoshiro to Towa no Sora), the Spiritual Successor to Kannamiko of sorts, a similar scene reveals that Kyoshiro and Setsuna found the reborn Kuu many years after the events of the series.
- After the credits of the fourth Naruto movie, there's a scene where Shion decides to continue her line of Miko, and Naruto unwittingly agrees to sire her children.
- Also, in the credits of the first Naruto movie, there is a scene involving new Daimyo of the Land of Snow Yukie Fujikaze revealing to Naruto and the gang the script for her next movie... which happens to be the film adaptation of Jiraiya's Icha Icha Paradise, which Kakashi orders tickets for in Episode 101.
- Except the first movie, every single episode, movie, and OVA of Detective Conan has one of these. Either played for laugh or to tell what happens afterward.
- All four Inuyasha movies have these as well, the third movie's Stinger also resolving how Inu-Yasha still has his kotodama rosary in subsequent episodes of the anime despite it breaking into pieces and flying off earlier in the movie.
- The Cowboy Bebop episode "Jupiter Jazz, part II" replaced the normal credits music "The Real Folk Blues" with different music ("Space Lion" by The Seatbelts), and the usual "See you space cowboy" with "Do you have comrade?"
- Another episode ends with Andy deciding not to be a storybook cowboy (since Spike was a better one). The final scene shows Andy as rides by the Teddy Bomber's prison wagon in full samurai regalia. The final line this time is "See you... space samurai".
- The final episode ends with the tag "You're gonna carry that weight."
- The credits of the last episode of Solty Rei show scenes from the series in "old film" sepia tone, and are followed by the true ending: Roy and Yuto go into space and find Solty, who has preserved herself for several years with her energy shield.
- The Spring and Summer OVAs of Mahou Sensei Negima throw in one last joke regarding a seemingly dropped side plot after the credits. The former has the Chupacabra some of the cast were hunting watching their plane fly away while the latter shows Asuna's last attempt to fend off Hakase's out-of-control bathing robot.
- In Real Drive, you see Minamo rushing off to meet a rejuvenated Haru stepping out of the sea.
- After the "Preview of the next episode" of every Steam Detectives, a still frame of a completely random scene from the episode (totally regardless of its importance in the plot) appears for a few second, with some cheesy music.
- The same thing happens in Ouran High School Host Club.
- Rurouni Kenshin: Seisōhen ends with Kenji (dressed like Kenshin) walking with a young girl beneath the cherry blossoms, saying that they will live happily together.
- In Samurai Champloo Episode 22, the end theme plays through most of the way normally, then begins to slow down and replaced by some rather spooky music (which is rather jarring over the sweet and sunny slideshow of Fuu's childhood) ending with the credits interrupted by Shige leaping out of his grave.
- The ending credits to the anime L/R: Licensed By Royalty shows Jack and Rowe driving off on another assignment after Rowe was supposedly killed by the revenge-seeking son of the Big Bad.
- .hack//G.U. Trilogy ends with a stinger conversation between Pi and Yata. It seems to be connected to the upcoming .hack//Link PSP game.
- The new Darker than Black season (Gemini of the Meteor) does this at the end of every episode, right before the preview of the next episode. They're nearly all contributions to the Myth Arc or cliffhangers.
- The Sky Crawlers initially appears to end with various characters walking away from the base runway after Kannami is killed by The Teacher, but a post-credits scene shows his replacement landing at the base and meeting Kusanagi. It's a far more satisfying ending.
- The second Rebuild of Evangelion movie, Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance, appears to end with Shinji triggering the Third Impact just to save Rei from an Angel, but the post-credits scene has Kaworu fly in from the Moon in the Mark-VI Eva and stop the Third Impact by impaling Unit-01 on a spear that is, oddly enough, not the Lance of Longinus.
- The Harukanaru Toki no Naka de - Maihitoyo movie ends with Akane purifying Suefumi to allow him to leave the world for the afterlife. After the credits,[1] there's one more scene where Akane takes her team of pretty guys along with the token girls to the place Yorihisa showed her earlier in the movie to adore the beautiful view of Kyou; Suefumi is added to the list of people who are important to her, meaning he isn't going to be forgotten.
- After the credits of episode 13 of Slayers Revolution, there is a stinger shot of assassin Zuuma.
- Some of the Kara no Kyoukai movies had them:
- Episode 1 had a minor conversation between Azaka and Touko concerning Kirie Fujyou.
- Episode 2 had a foreshadowing of Asagami Fujino and Shirazumi Lio's appearances.
- Episode 4 showed how Asagami Fujino and Fujyou Kirie got their abilities.
- Episode 5 had a minor conversation between Shiki and Mikiya discussing the aftermath of the events.
- Episode 6 had Araya Souren awakening Shirazumi Lio's origin.
- Episode 7 had an epilogue showing Shiki and Mikiya walking together after Shiki got out of the hospital.
- Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt had one, which was so obviously and shamelessly tacked on, and comes so completely out of nowhere that it seems like an intentional parody of stingers. After returning from the battle with the Big Bad, Stocking slices Panty into 666 pieces and declares that she's actually a demon. Then Corset reappears and tells Brief that he'll have to follow the pieces to the next city over and unlock another hellgate to save Panty. Also, Garter spontaneously dies for no reason, then comes back to life for no reason. Yes, this is a Gainax anime, why do you ask?
- Gundam 00's second season had one after every episode, often with crucial plot developments, much to the chagrin of fans when the dub got aired on Sci Fi, as they got cut out.
- Angel Beats!: After the credits, there is a brief scene where Yuzuru passes Kanade in a busy street, they both apparently having been reborn, and recognizes her by the song she is humming (My Song). He then turns around and runs after her, reaching out to try and touch her as the screen fades to white. Much rage among fans occurred due to this totally ruining the actual ending before the credits.
- The closing credits for all of the Pokémon movies are set in front of what Ash Ketchum, Pikachu, and the gang were doing following the film's events. For example, the last thing we see at the end of Mewtwo Strikes Back is a shot of Mew flying away into a mountainous background.
- Oh God Blue Submarine No. 6... there are actually friggin' parts of plot that aren't repeated in the next episode. If you skip over them, you'll miss something potentially important or interesting.
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica has one in the final episode. It's a little weird, though it's easy enough to understand - the big questions are "Where does it take place?", "When does it take place?" and "What is with those wings?". Then there's the part after it which displays the five main characters from the back, followed by them becoming the center of a row of silhouettes. This all might be part of a Sequel Hook.
- Word of God has stated that it was a homage to Blade, of all things.
- Blue Exorcist has one after the credits in most episodes so far. Some are comedic, but the one in the end of the second episode actually sets up where the plot is going to take place.
- Tiger & Bunny has several plot-significant ones, such as showing more of Lunatic and how much he knows about the heroes (establishing why he doubts Kotetsu's guilt in later episodes), and a Sequel Hook (removed from the DVDs??) in the final episode.
- Omake skits in Daily Lives of High School Boys, like the High School Girls are Funky series and Episode 2's Daily Life of a Lady, were made into stingers.
- After the "Book Ends" finale of Episode 12, there is a preview for a High School Girls Are Funky movie that takes a leaf out of the K-On! movie, complete with a trip to London, which suddenly Genre Shifts into a Kaiju-movie styled showdown between Habara (relapsing into the "Archdemon") and her rival, the "Silver Devil". Of course, Habara is not pleased.
Comic Books[]
- Betcha nobody ever expected to see this one in a comic book (Unless you grew up during the Bronze Age), but there it is: Green Lantern crossover event Sinestro Corps War ended with one of the main villains, nearly dead and utterly defeated, thrown into space. Then, with credits appearing between the panels, we see where he lands... and things have suddenly gotten much, much worse for our unknowing heroes. The final page of the book is a teaser for the sequel event, Blackest Night.
- Don Rosa supplied one extra page as an epilogue for the hardcover versions of The Quest For Sampo, his Finnish-themed story. In it, the Grim Reaper returns Scrooge McDuck's top hat and offers to allow him to take his fortune to the afterlife in exchange for a hundred dollars. Scrooge kicks him out without even considering it.
- The Reaper actually came to give Scrooge something, but Scrooge spoiled his chances by asking the wrong question. Then Scrooge himself tried to ask how he could take something with him to the afterlife, but considered £62 ($100) too steep a price for such information.
- It wasn't Scrooge who kicked him out, it was Donald Duck. Probably a sort of Brick Joke, since Donald literally laughed in the face of Death (The Reaper himself) during the middle of the story. When The Reaper appeared in Scrooge's office, Miss Quackfaster and Scrooge are terrified, but Donald is only annoyed by it's presence and when Scrooge asks him to get rid of The Reaper, Donald kicks it out without giving a care.
- The final page in an issue of Rising Stars is a clairvoyant sitting by himself. When you flip the page, there's a bunch of people drawn very lightly, speaking backwards. If you go back to the previous page and hold it up to the light, you see that the figures on the back page are actually GHOSTS talking to the character in the chair.
- Final Crisis: Bruce Wayne is alive.
- At the end of the latest Punisher Max story arc, Wilson Fisk has become the Kingpin (at the cost of his son's life and his wife's sanity) and orders everyone away so he can enjoy it. But one person won't leave.
Receptionist: You still have one appointment. |
Fan Works[]
- The scene at the end of the credits of the Star Trek: Phase II episode "To Serve All My Days", which reveals that most of the entire episode was All Just a Dream.
- Every issue of Ultimate Sleepwalker: The New Dreams ends with a preview of what's coming up in the next issue. The second Halloween Special is different. After next issue's preview, the Special has a brief monologue from the issue's villain, a murderous scarecrow demon who plans to escape his supernatural prison and pay a very "special" visit in the near future to the youths he very nearly murdered...
- The last scene after the Author's Notes at the end of the Sailor Moon fic, I'm Here To Help, that shows Rei/Sailor Mars meeting up with Emerald's past self several years later.
Film - Animated[]
- The Simpsons Movie had one in the middle of the credits that was a Sequel Hook, with Maggie's second word: "Sequel?"
- Also a bit of Lampshade Hanging.
Bart: "C'mon dad, let's go! I've been holding it since they put the dome over the town!" |
- And a more traditional one happens near the end of the credits, where we see the Squeaky Voice Teen cleaning up the theater. He then gives the following exchange:
Squeaky Voice Teen: Assistant manager isn't all that's cracked up to be. Four years of film school for this? |
- At the end of the credits of The Triplets of Belleville, the guy from whom the protagonist rented a boat is seen, still waiting for it to be returned.
- Similarly, there's a clip at the very end of Airplane! showing the guy who got into Ted Striker's abandoned taxi at the start of the movie, saying, "I'll give him another twenty minutes!"
- And in the Sequel!, the hijacker asks for his bomb back.
- Airplane 2: The Sequel also features an end-of-credits gag with William Shatner. The end of the credits proclaims "Coming next summer: Airplane 3!" ... and we cut to Shatner echoing Robert Stack's line from the first movie: "That's exactly what they're expecting us to do!"
- Similarly, there's a clip at the very end of Airplane! showing the guy who got into Ted Striker's abandoned taxi at the start of the movie, saying, "I'll give him another twenty minutes!"
- After the credits roll in the second Shrek film, Shrek 2, we see that Dragon and Donkey had half-dragon, half-donkey hybrid babies
- James and the Giant Peach has a rather bizarre sequence in which some kid plays a mechanical carnival game wherein he controls a rhino which attempts to butt spinning copies of the titular hero's horrific aunts; a successful hit causes the target's head to pop off.
- At the end of Finding Nemo we see all the fish from the dentist office after their successful escape still stuck in their plastic bags since their plan never got that far. This one lies just before the credits, though.
- But during the ending credits, we see the fish free from their plastic bags.
- Also, in the dying moments of the credits, we see the angler fish again.... it's simply too awesome to spoil.
- Chicken Run ends with the rats Nick and Fletcher getting into a chicken/egg debate. Toward the end of the credits, they are heard still debating, until Rocky tells them to knock it off, causing them to grouse about him and how they did all the work as the credits end.
- At the end of Coraline, we actually get to see one more footage of stop-motion animation before the film finally ends.
- About halfway through the credits of Monsters vs. Aliens, the Stephen Colbert-esque President can be seen determining which one of the two big red buttons dispenses the coffee. He accidentally presses the wrong one instead.
- At the end of Cars, we actually get to see the minivan couple that's lost in the desert get lost in said desert even further.
- At the end of Brother Bear, there is a brief video of Koda telling the viewers that absolutely no fish were harmed in the movie. Cue random fish swimming away screaming while being chased by a bear.
IT'S GONNA EAT ME!!! |
- At the end of Ratatouille, we see a cartoon rat sitting on top of the final credit listing. When it disappears, the rat falls to the ground and limps away.
- At the end of Bolt, the closing credits are actually revealed to be pulled by a cartoon hamster in an exercise wheel. The hamster then gets tired and walks away, and as a result, another hamster had to finish the job for him, and starts pulling the credits again to end the movie.
- At the end of Chicken Little, we actually get to see Chicken Little and his father Buck Cluck in the movie theater one last time. Unfortunately, this was removed from the DVD version of the film (it is a theater-exclusive bonus scene).
- The last part of the closing credits for Monsters, Inc. are played over an extra scene where Sulley and Mike are shown presenting a musical based on the film's plot (written by themselves) to the public.
- Kung Fu Panda ends with the seed Shifu planted earlier in the film finally growing out of the ground.
- WALL-E follows the ending credits with the title character replacing the burnt out bulb of the lamp taking the place of the I in the Pixar logo, and then he replaces the R after knocking it down. Uniquely, this was only added on the DVD release and also recycled from a trailer.
- Also, he replaces the bulb with a Compact Fluorescent. More eco-friendly, see?
- An additional one occurs immediately afterwards. The "BnL" logo appears complete with the "BnL" jingle.
- Disney Animated Canon's |Hercules ends with Hades (who was left trapped in the river Styx at the end of the story) complaining that everybody got a happy ending but him... and then lampshaded the fact that the audience is probably gone by now by wondering out loud if anybody's listening.
- As the credits roll in the second Bionicle movie, Legends of Metru Nui, the masks of the main characters slowly appear and fade to black. The final mask belongs to the Big Bad Makuta Teridax. After the text has passed, the mask stays there for a moment, a pair of red eyes light up inside the eye sockets, and only then does the mask fade, leaving us with an image of two sinister eyes glowing in the darkness, accompanied by chilly musical tunes. This doesn't count as a spoiler, though, since everyone knew Makuta would return (the movie's a prequel, duh).
- As for the third movie, there is a quick shot of an attacking Visorak spider that breaks the silence with a sudden buzzsaw-y screech.
- In Aladdin direct-to-video sequel The Return of Jafar, Harmless Villain Abis Mal made two wishes before agreeing to help Genie Jafar get revenge on Aladdin and his friends. But, before the climax of the final battle, Abis found himself hung up on a tree, and seemed to be forgotten by the story. After the credits, Genie Jafar has been defeated and destroyed, but poor, pitiful Abis Mal is shown still dangling helplessly from that tree...
Abis Mal: Does this mean I don't get my third wish? |
- After the credits of The King of Thieves, the Genie appears on the black screen and says "Game over, man! Game over!"
- The Rescuers Down Under - Wilbur's fate.
- The 2011 Winnie the Pooh movie ends with... well, remember all that stuff Winnie and the gang laid out in an attempt to attract the Backson? Well, they succeeded... in confusing him. Luckily, he seems pretty obliging about falling down the hole they dug for him.
Film - Live-Action[]
- Stingers are used to build up continuity in every film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- In the 2008 Iron Man movie, Nick Fury (played by Samuel L. Jackson) talks with Tony Stark about the "Avenger Initiative".
- In the 2008 Hulk movie, Tony Stark shows up to discuss with General Ross about a certain team that's getting together. Although it's not After the Credits—just the final scene of the movie. It was originally supposed to be a stinger, but Executive Meddling pushed it forward.
- A short scene on the Thor DVD shows that this was set up specifically to block what they were talking about from happening.
- Iron Man 2 ends with Agent Coulson of SHIELD arriving at a massive crater in New Mexico. He calls Nick Fury and says that "We've found it." - "it" being Thor's Hammer.
- Thor has Nick Fury showing Dr. Selvig the Cosmic Cube in his possession. Unbeknownst to him is that Selvig is possessed by Loki...
- Captain America: The First Avenger dispensed with the subtlety and showed a trailer for The Avengers, showing all the characters and revealing Loki as one of the main villains.
- The Avengers has a mid-credits scene revealing the Man Behind the Man who gave Loki his sceptre and the Chitauri army to command is Thanos.
- And after the full credits, The Avengers has a scene showing the team tiredly and quietly eating lunch at a shawarma place Tony suggested.
- In Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, the Silver Surfer is seen floating in space after the destruction of Galactus, and suddenly he opens his eyes.
- Pirates of the Caribbean. Yes, all of them. The first is a sequel hook involving the monkey re-cursing itself, thus allowing the plot of the following movies, the second is really just a gag, but the third technically resolves a plot point by showing us a "ten years later" with what happens with Elizabeth and Will, and their now ten year-old son, after he's freed from captaining the Flying Dutchman.
- Only that, because of Executive Meddling cutting out a crucial scene, most of the audience didn't know that Will was released from the curse. The scene in question told the audience that if the captain of The Flying Dutchman did his duty and his beloved stayed faithful, he would be released. It was somewhere in the discussion between Davy Jones and Tia Dalma. It also explained why Davey Jones was so angry at Calypso. A pretty stupid thing, cutting that scene.
- The fourth film, On Stranger Tides, has a stinger which shows Angelica after Jack deserted her on a island, finding the Jack voodoo doll after it washes up on shore.
- The third X-Men film has one of those Not Quite Dead examples.
- X-Men Origins: Wolverine had, depending on your screening, either a now-amnesiac Logan in a bar, "drinking to remember" or the living disembodied head of Deadpool, having gained his mouth back and his Medium Awareness as well. There was also General Stryker getting arrested, but everyone got that one.
- The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: after the credits, the wardrobe opens, light shines through it, and a lion's roar can be heard.
- There are two stingers in that movie. The first one happens in the middle of the credits (right after the principal cast and before the rest of the crew). It was a novel thing at the time, and resulted in many patrons who were in the midst of leaving the theater standing frozen while the extra scene played. The scene was of Lucy attempting to re-enter Narnia through the wardrobe, only to meet the Professor, who says he didn't think it would work because he's "already tried."
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer features one of the vampires (who'd taken a long time to die) continuing to die at a break in the credits. It also features news interviews with the cast while the credits are running.
- The Matrix Reloaded showed a trailer for The Matrix Revolutions.
- Scary Movie features a gag after the credits. It involves a vacuum cleaner.
- After the credits in Ferris Buellers Day Off, Ferris tells the audience to go home because the movie is over.
- Same in The Sweetest Thing.
- During the credits themselves, we see a scene involving Principal Rooney getting a lift on a school bus.
- The same Ferris Bueller footage was re-used at the end of She's Having A Baby, also by John Hughes.
- The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie also had a similar stinger.
- According to That Other Wiki, one of the earliest movies to have a post-credits scene was The Muppet Movie. During the credits, we see various shots of the Muppets, discussing the movie (starring themselves) that they just watched. The Stinger comes afterward, when Animal looks into the camera and shouts "GO HOME!! GO HOME!! Bye bye."
- Subverted by—what else — Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which features no ending credits whatsoever; it cuts abruptly to a black screen and plays repetitive organ music for two minutes and forty seconds. It's an Ingmar Bergman pastiche. What did you expect to happen after they sacked the people responsible for writing the subtitles, those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked, and the directors of the firm hired to continue the credits after the other people had been sacked?
- Idiocracy: Rita's pimp emerges from a suspended animation capsule to find her.
- After the credits for Constantine end, there's a scene with Constantine visiting Chas Kramer's grave. Chas appears in "halfbreed" form (half-angel with wings), then rockets up into the sky.
- Cloverfield has a mildly disappointing example: after sitting through the credits, the audience is treated to a two-second, crackling, indecipherable audio clip that, when played backwards, apparently says "It's still alive!" And it was apparently nothing but Flame Bait, since the Word of God later stated that yes, the monster is dead.
- Forwards, it says "Help us!" However, there is another message, by combining both the original and backwards message: "I don't want to live, help u-
- After the end of the story version of Cirque du Soleil's Alegria, it shows the director standing on a street corner, and he says, in a perfect quote from The Princess Bride: "He said to wait right here; he said he would be back; I'm not leaving."
- At the end of the credits to the film Aliens, a facehugger can be heard scuttling around.
- In the 2004 Dawn of the Dead remake, a last segment is interspersed with the credits, showing (through video camera footage) the surviving main characters traveling on the boat they escaped to at the end of the film. They find a zombified head gnashing away in a rowboat, struggle with the lack of food, potable water and gas, before finally reaching their island destination. Unfortunately, they take one step onto the shore and are promptly chased back towards their boat by a rampaging horde of the undead.
- This entire segment was belatedly filmed and added to the final print after preview audiences complained about the film's original abrupt ending.
- Inception has 'Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien' playing towards the end of the credits, telling viewers to 'wake up' from the movie.
- The Austin Powers trilogy of films have all done this, to an extreme in "The Spy Who Shagged Me". Post-credit scenes show Scott Evil on the Jerry Springer Show learning who his real mother is, Austin catching another time-displaced version of himself sleeping with Felicity Shagwell, and Wafa Mustafa (played by Will Ferrell) still yelling for help at the bottom of a cliff.
- In Lethal Weapon 3, a post-credit sequence shows Riggs and Murtaugh rushing out to answer another bomb threat, getting there seconds before the bomb goes off, and driving off thinking that they'll be blamed.
- The Producers (the 2005 musical version) has a short musical number after the credits, thanking the audience for coming and telling them to get lost. The same song appeared in the stage version during the curtain call.
- The 2007 Transformers movie has three of these, all during the end credits rather than after; two involve a television interview with the Witwicky family, and one shows Starscream escaping into space.
- In the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe live-action movie Masters of the Universe, Skeletor's head is shown popping out of some strange pool of pink liquid and shouting "I'll be back!". Given that there was no sequel and Word of God says that Skeletor fell to his death, it's not quite clear why they put that in.
- There was originally going to be a sequel, but the script somehow ended up turning into the script of the film Cyborg in the writing process.
- There are even people who refer to The Stinger as "The Skeletor" because of this.
- Zack and Miri Make a Porno has an extra scene that interrupts the ending credits.
- The Sword and the Sorcerer promised Talon would be back in Tales Of The Ancient Empire. Amazingly enough, 26 years later, apparently he will be!
- The 2007 Alvinandthe Chipmunks ended with the Big Bad Ian Hawke jobless and penniless, trying to recapture the success he had with the Chipmunks by trying to get other animals such as squirrels to sing. The Squeakquel saw this search pay off with the Chipmunks' Distaff Counterpart group, the Chipettes.
- Delightfully subverted in the Sci Fi Original Kaw, where the reveal that the killer birds aren't dead comes immediately before the credits (they attack the hero as he walks into his bedroom).
- There's a tiny one a few seconds into the ending credits of The Red Shoes, an Asian Horror film about the horrible things ordinary women would do for a fabulous pair of shoes.
- In the Matthew Broderick version of Godzilla, one egg was not destroyed. But it's the final scene, not after the credits. This provided the setup for Godzilla: The Series, which was generally thought of much more highly than the film.
- Batman Returns, Catwoman is alive somehow. Again, final scene.
- In Street Fighter, M. Bison is alive (too bad Raul Julia isn't).
- The end credits of Jerry Maguire gets interrupted by Rod Tidwell's first Reebok's commercial.
- There's still someone trying to kill Jennifer Love Hewitt after I Still Know What You Did Last Summer.
- Repo! The Genetic Opera has an extra scene right after the initial end credits. The script writer is kind enough to include himself as a character and point out the impending epilogue in song.
- Team America: World Police had a stinger as part of a musical Credits Montage: a song not heard in the movie, revealing the interplanetary aspect of Kim Jong-Il's plot.
- Daredevil has a scene with Bullseye after the credits.
- The credits of The Phantom Menace involve Anakin's theme, which occasionally hints at the Imperial March, and end with a bit of Vader Breath.
- There was supposed to be a similar ending to the credits of Attack of the Clones, with the Imperial March playing simultaneously with Anakin and Padme's love theme, but it was cut. It still appears on the soundtrack.
- Half Past Dead shows one of the inmates talking to his girlfriend.
- Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins has him interviewing his family.
- Adventures in Babysitting has a scene with one of the villains still trapped on the top of a building where the heroes left him.
- Con Air showed Garland Greene having a drink at the Craps tables.
Dealer: "New shooter coming out, new shooter. Does the new shooter feel lucky? Well, does he?" |
- Disturbing Behavior. One of the "Blue Ribbons" is now a student-teacher in an inner city high school.
- In Stealth, the AI that went haywire, killed people, and blew stuff up performs a Heroic Sacrifice in the end to save the hero and redeems itself. After the credits, the AI lights up again amongst the rubble. It's not dead after all, and it may be back for more malice!
- The end credits of Wild Things feature a series of scenes that show the story behind the story of the film, explaining how the entire plot really worked. Some of them are hilarious (intentionally).
- After the credit for Ernest Saves Christmas, the two delivery warehouse workers are shown arguing about whether one of the letters on a label for a giant box is an E or an F. As one of them insists it reads "E. Bunny", two huge pink rabbit ears smash through the top of the box...
- At the end of the 1980 Flash Gordon movie, Ming the Merciless has died, the day has been saved, and all is well. The words 'The End' appear, but a sinister laugh is heard as a familiar hand picks up the ring, and a question mark appears after the words...
- Just before the ending credits for |Dungeons and Dragons, it is implied that our heroes are going to go off to another dimension to bring back Snails. One presumes it was going to be a Sequel Hook.
- The Running Man. At the end of the credits, the title game show's announcer does a voiceover like those of Real Life game shows.
The Running Man has been brought to you by; Break-away para-military uniforms, Orgofura procreation pills, and Cadre Cola - it hits the spot! Promotional consideration paid for by; Kiltem flame-throwers, Dwainsright electrical launchers, and Hammer and Gauge chainsaws. Damon Killian's wardrobe by Shea Zantwan - nineteenth century craftsmanship for the twenty-first century man. Cadre trooper and studio guard side arms provided by Goldchester - the pistol of patriots. Remember, tickets for ISC studio tours are always available for class A citizens in good standing. If you'd like to be a contestant on The Running Man, send a self addressed, stamped envelope to ISC Talent Hunt care of your local affiliate, and then go out and do something really despicable. I'm Phil Hilton. Good night and take care. |
- If you watch a little ways into the credits for Adventureland, you'll get to see a TV commercial for the titular park.
- The end credits for Young Sherlock Holmes are played over a sleigh going through a snow-covered forest. As the credits end, someone gets out of the sleigh and checks into the hotel. We see him signing in under the name Moriarty. As the camera pans up, Moriarty is revealed to be Ehtar, the Big Bad.
- At the end of the credits for the action-movie spoof Troma's War, the countless bodies scattered around the terrorist camp suddenly lift their arms and wave to the camera.
- Secret Window features Johnny Depp singing in a quite disturbing little voice "mama's little baby loves shortbread, shortbread..."
- Kill Bill Vol. 1 plays a two second clip of The Bride plucking out an eye. The director yells "cut" and Uma looks at the camera, grinning and asks if they can do it again.
- The post-credits wedding scene in Napoleon Dynamite.
- D.C. Cab: "I am the angel of death. Take me to Hell." "Got any luggage?"
- The Lost Boys: The Tribe has one part way into the credits. The viewer is shown Edgar Frog, standing in a misty playground at night. Suddenly, out walks Sam Emerson from the first film, once again played by Corey Haim... And he's a fricking vampire. After a brief conversation, the two lunge at each other and the credits resume, with the viewer left to wonder who survives.
- Additionally, two other scenes were filmed to go in this spot. The first had Edgar Frog back home, cleaning off his weapons only to get a knock at the door - It's Sam Emerson. Sam tells Edgar that he's heard a rumour that a certain vampire is heading to this town for Edgar, and proceeds to tell him that if it's true, then Edgar needs his help. Why? The vampire is Alan, Edgar's brother. The second unused scene was pretty much the same, but Sam's delivery of the message is much more matter of fact, as Alan's bitten him.
- At the end of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, we see a poster outside of the Flourish and Blotts' bookstore, advertising a new book by Gilderoy Lockhart (who had his memory accidentally erased earlier when his own spell backfired), "Who Am I?"
- There is a Brick Joke in the stinger for The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Earlier in the film, the characters experiment with turning a blow-up doll into a kite, only to have its line snap and the doll fly away. After the closing credits, we then see a peaceful-looking Zen monastery, with a Buddhist monk sitting in meditation on his patio—until the blow-up doll flies down and lands on his head.
- The a Team has a stinger featuring cameos from the original Face and Murdock. With their new counterparts, no less.
- The Recut Blu-ray/DVD version inserted those scenes in the movie proper.
- Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay has a stinger in which Patrick Harris LIVES!
- The third Harold and Kumar reveals he was resurrected from death after making Jesus angry
- At the end of Shallow Hal, after the credits, we see Walt putting ski boots onto his hands in preparation for skiing on all fours. He says to a kid next to him, "Hey, kid, how bout these Rossi boots? They fit like a glove, or what!"
- Kung Pow! Enter the Fist has Master Tang, still in the same area as he was where he "died", being eaten by a hawk, getting laughed at by the crew, and telling the viewers to save the whales.
- At the end of Inspector Gadget, they have a couple scenes, one of a tv show called Robo Brenda Aerobics, the headless body of RoboGadget run around for a while before slamming into the camera, one showing Sykes going to a Henchman's Anonymous meeting, with many other minions, such as Jaws, Oddjob, Nick Nack, and Tonto, a scene with Penny using her famous watch to try and communicate with Brain, resulting in us hearing Don Adams talking as Brain, and finally the Gadget Mobile attempting to convince us that this was actually HIS movie.
- But I'm a Cheerleader has a Pet the Dog moment where the main character's father is shown speaking at a PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) meeting. Her mother is in the audience wearing sunglasses, a scarf and a hat.
- Mighty Morphin Power Rangers has one during the credits—in which Goldar is shocked to see Lord Zedd and Rita out of their snowglobe Ivan Ooze placed them in.
- Roman Polanski's adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth has Donalbain seeking out the witches, implying that the events that just transpired, for all their bloodshed and destruction, were ultimately meaningless and the same thing will just happen again.
- Dracula: Dead and Loving It ends with Dracula's voice being heard after the end credits, revealing that he is still alive AND has now won the little "who gets the last word" game over Van Helsing.
- 30 Minutes or Less ends with Dwayne, Travis and The Major surviving their near-death experiences and going into business together running a tanning salon that's a front for a prostitution ring. Dwayne also get the girl as Travis killed her boyfriend with a flamethrower.
- Hocus Pocus ends with the adults leaving the Town Hall Halloween party, Jay and Ernie still trapped in their cages, and the spell book opening its eye and looking around.
- "Breaking Dawn Part 1" of the Twilight Saga has one, with the volturi secretary being dragged away, supposedly to be killed for spelling Carlisle's name wrong on a letter. Informing of Edward's and Bella's marriage.
- The two movies of the Godzilla series' Kiryu Saga both feature them: Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla has a small scene of robot pilot Akane agreeing to go out to dinner with roboticist Tokumitsu in light of a bet they made earlier in the film, while Godzilla Tokyo SOS features a more chilling scene of a DNA lab where a sample of the original Godzilla's DNA zooms out to reveal samples from every single monster that's attacked before in that timeline.
Literature[]
- Many mass-market paperback versions of novels put a teaser for the sequel (usually its prologue or first chapter) or a separate book by the same author and/or in the same setting in a separate section after the end of the book.
- Several novels in The Culture end with an epilogue which is generally humorous/uplifting even if the end of the novel proper was Bittersweet Ending and/or followed Banks' "trademark".
- Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon novels tend to have epilogue's in which Mossad tracks down and assassinates any villain who escaped by the end of the novel proper (e.g. in one case, a character who had planned explosions is himself mailed a bomb which kills him.
- Early in the book Remote Man, a rare python disappears from its habitat in the Northern Territory, and an American tourist who is later exposed as a wildlife smuggler is suspected by the teenage heroes of stealing it. On the last page, the python is back on the rock, calling into question whether it was stolen in the first place.
- Rogues to Riches has the main characters convince an orc prison guard that they are all characters in a book partway through. They promise him that they will get him a bigger part if he lets them escape. The last page of the book includes a picture of him still sitting at his post and a paragraph stating that he is patiently waiting for them to fulfill the promise.
Live-Action TV[]
- Mystery Science Theater 3000 (the Trope Namer) had a clip from that episode's featured movie, usually the silliest bit of acting or dialogue from the film. Ridiculous laughter was a common feature.
- This started during the second Comedy Central season, the third of the show's production counting KTMA.
- It was always preceded by a blaring guitar chord (the end of the closing theme), leading some to call the entire sequence the "Blang".
- An "advertisement" for Icelandic Ultra Blue that appeared on [[[Adult Swim]]] ends with Dr. Samuelson telling you to buy the stuff. He then talks into the back of his wristwatch saying that "Phase One is complete" and all the scientists smile at the viewer as creepy music plays.
- The new Battlestar Galactica often featured bonus scenes in this manner, often after the official airing slot was over therefore thwarting many efforts to record it for later viewing.
- Blackadder does this with the season finale of each series. It also tends to end with him (and the rest of the main cast) dead, leading to a bit of Fridge Logic.
- Home Improvement generally featured bloopers.
- After the Credits for The Muppet Show, Statler and Waldorf, two crotchety old muppets in the balcony seats, would make insulting jokes about the show for a few seconds.
- And the series of YouTube videos all ended showing that they were also watching and doing their thing.
- Cirque's television series Solstrom had stingers after each episode's credits. They generally served as one last joke involving a character or two, but the Grand Finale also revealed that the matronly woman who turned up in each of the previous 12 shows is the observer/narrator's mom.
- Scrubs is doing blooper/comedy type Stingers as of its current (possibly final) season.
- The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy did this for episode three of the TV series, explaining which character bruised their arm in the attack. (This was the same stinger as in episode three of the radio series, from which it was adapted.)
- Done at the end of the chapter in the book, as well. In fact, it's a Brick Joke; the beginning of the missile attack sequence is interrupted by the narrator, and in order to alleviate any undue stress, reveals several plot-relevant points, adding that someone on board the Heart of Gold bruises their arm. The identity of the person who is bruised, however, is withheld at this point, since it was not particularly plot-relevant, and considered a safe level of suspense. As a result, the reveal is tacked on, seemingly as an afterthought.
- Defunct British Soap Opera Crossroads used these (in its original incarnation), with a very brief coda (usually just a line or two) inbetween the end credits and the Vanity Plate. This type of stinger was later resurrected by the unrelated teen-aimed soap Hollyoaks.
- Frasier had a dialogue-less stinger at the end of each episode, under the metaphorical closing theme.
- The "Moment of Zen" at the end of The Daily Show, usually a slightly longer clip from one of the day's stories but sometimes just a random funny video.
- Monty Python's Flying Circus subverted this trope every way possible. Some earlier episodes ended with an additional stinger pertaining to a previous sketch (such as Karl Marx and Che Guevara enjoying the afterglow), or a non-sequitur(an explosion followed by Michael Palin saying, "And then...") or an entirely different sketch("The Argument Clinic"). One show displayed the closing credits immediately after the opening credits and then did the show, making the entire show the stinger. Even the first few episodes of Season One, which adhered more closely to the norm, featured narrative stingers that dealt with the show("And the final score for 'The Epilogue'; God exists by two falls to a submission.")
- Power Rangers went with the bloopers-during-the-credits version from Zeo to Space (the fourth-to-sixth seasons)
- RPM ends with the Rangers retiring from duty, the world returning to life, and Venjix alive and hiding within Scott's morpher.
- The "bald Newman" bit in Seinfeld.
- Israeli teen vampire drama Split’s first season’s last episode ends with Dima and his clones dancing around, with Dima saying, ‘The blood age is over... Now it’s our turn! OUR TURN!’ and finally roars ominously at the camera.
- You Can't Do That on Television had "This has been a [blank] production", where the blank is a pun referencing the subject of the episode, followed immediately by a Self-Deprecation gag also relating to the episode's theme.
- The stingers from Community are some of its most memorable moments, including the Spanish class rap.
- Hollyoaks has both dramatic and comedy stingers. They range from scorned lovers looking longingly at a photo of their lost love to relatively young women having random dreams about seducing the middle-aged pub landlord.
Machinima[]
- Red vs. Blue, Season 3 — at the end of the credits on the DVD Vic appears, saying, "I understand you're enjoying the sweet music and all, but the DVD's over. Go home, dude, live your life."
- Worst... corpse run... ever.
Music Videos[]
- In the music video to Disturbed's "Asylum", after the song ends we're treated to a shot of the charred corpse of the protagonist sitting in a morgue who'd just tossed himself into a furnace to escape his pursuers[2] (thinking his was just having a delusion and that he would end up back in his padded cell). The corpse opens its eyes, implying that even this was somehow just a delusion.
Radio[]
- The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy had one for almost all of the radio episodes.
Video Games[]
- House of Rules: You will only get this if you achieve "Ending No.20: Eternal Silence." Alexis wakes up at the entrance to the eternal abyss and meets Lady Jane there. Alexis prepares to say goodbye, but then Lady Jane surprises her by saying that they promised to be together forever and that she will go with her to the eternal abyss. So Lady Jane takes her hand, Alexis turns into her younger self and they walk into the eternal abyss together.
- In The Curse of Monkey Island, there's a short dialogue between a child and his father about the Carnival of the Damned while visting.
- Also, in Tales of Monkey Island, Morgan Le Flay walks to the Voodoo Lady and brings her Le Chuck's essence, creating a Sequel Hook for a new game in the series.
- The Happyhills Homicide: After the credits, The Pale Grin is shown hiding and then disappearing into the shadows.
- Waiting for the credits to finish in Advent Rising resulted in an awesome final boss battle that may have been the coolest thing in the game, followed by a cliffhanger ending cinema.
- After one passed through the three different scenarios of Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, one was treated to the whole truth about the ultimate fate of the three Big Bads of the game, which just happened to be Eldritch Abominations named Xel'lotath, Ulyaoth, and Chattur'gha. As it turns out, each had imprisoned and killed the oldest and most powerful of the four, Mantorok, who in revenge had set in motion three different timelines, in which one of the three got killed and another got locked forever. The kicker? Just to screw with them, he bound the three timelines together, so the three of them remained dead. That didn't help him any out of being impaled in huge pillars under his temple in Cambodia, anyway...
- In the original Sonic the Hedgehog game (1991), Robotnik would be shown juggling the Chaos Emeralds if you didn't collect them all. If you had collected them all, he'd be shown foiled, jumping up and down in a fit of rage. This style of stinger has appeared several times in the series since.
- In Sonic Colors, after the 15 minute credit sequence, you get a scene of Eggman, Cubot, and Orbot licking their wounds until the next battle...
- And following that in Sonic Generations, we're treated to a scene with Eggman and Robotnik trapped in the same white void Sonic and his friends were flung in from the very start, only with no way out so it would seem.
- Wonder Boy in Monster World (1991) showed the not-dead final boss flying through space.
- Okay, you just rocked out the Devil, your band gets motorbikes with bat wings to ride out of hell, and you expect the credits to roll. Which they do. Don't put that guitar away just yet, for you have the opportunity to play "Through The Fireand Flames" to prove you are a rock legend.
- Aerosmith ("Kings and Queens"), World Tour ("Pull Me Under"), 5 ("21st Century Schizoid Man"), and most recently Band Hero ("American Pie") have this as well.
- Monster World 4 did this at the very end of the game.
- All of the Halo games:
- Halo: Combat Evolved's credits cut to a view of the floating wreckage of the Halo, with a bright blue light in the distance, which quickly grows to become 343 Guilty Spark, the Big Bad for the second half of the game, flying into the distance.
- Halo 2 cut to a view of the Space-Zombie-infested space station where you had to leave your AI sidekick Cortana behind as you flew away to save Earth, and shows the space-zombie hive mind begin interrogating her.
- Halo 3's campaign ended with a memorial service in honour of the main character, who is believed to be dead after the intergalactic portal he was passing through closed and cut his ship in half. If you stayed for the credits, though, you would find out that he is not actually dead. He's just stranded in half a ship in the middle of nowhere. He climbs into a cryo-pod and goes to sleep to await rescue. The game added a further stinger if completed on Legendary, in which the main character's half-a-ship is seen drifting towards an alien planet, which a bright blue sun reveals is covered by a huge city.
- Halo Wars keeps the tradition going. If you beat the game on the hardest difficulty, after the credits, a brief audio clip shows up where Serina wakes the captain up and tells him "something has happened."
- Halo: Reach has a PLAYABLE stinger. You play through Noble Six's last stand on a burning Reach, fighting endless hordes of Covenant troops, your visor breaking as you gain more damage. When your health runs out a cutscene plays of several Elites ganging up on you and killing you, before a Time Skip occurs showing a rebuilt Reach in 2586, the shot lingering on your abandoned helmet as Dr. Halsey provides a eulogy offscreen.
- The two Kingdom Hearts games for PlayStation 2 had teasers for sequels that could be watched if you achieved 100% Completion, or simply beat the game on Proud Mode. Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories had a variation on New Game+, in the form of an extra story that could be played once the main quest was completed. Completing that story mode got you a cameo of Roxas, who would star in the next game.
- The Metroid Prime games had stingers that could be viewed if you got all the items.
- Metroid Prime: A dark hand jutting out of a phazon pool, Samus's phazon suit forming into Dark Samus.
- Metroid Prime 2: Dark Samus reforming in space from particles.
- Metroid Prime 3: Samus leaving in her spaceship, before the camera pans out and shows another unidentified ship following her.
- Almost every Metal Gear Solid ends with a phone call after the credits, on a black screen, hinting at whatever big conspiracy was really going on. The Metal Gear games had actual scenes—one involving Big Boss revealing he was really alive, and the other showing the supporting characters confirming the MacGuffin was real while the main character leaves without warning.
- In the original Metal Gear Solid, Revolver Ocelot is revealed to have been working for the President of the US and manipulating the villains for their cause. The stinger then gets its own stinger when the final line of dialogue reveals that the President is a third clone from the experiment that produced Snake and Liquid.
- In Sons of Liberty, Snake and Otacon discover that the members of a shadowy conspiracy (or at least the people with those names) had been dead for over 100 years.
- In Snake Eater, it is revealed that GRU Major Ocelot is a triple agent (working for the KGB and the CIA), the US government obtained the MacGuffin (which happened to be a very large amount of money), and the microfilm Naked Snake (later Big Boss) apparently lost to an enemy agent was fake.
- In Portable Ops, after assassinating his former employer, the DCI, Ocelot retrieves the remainder of the Philisopher's Legacy and reports back to his new employer, the founder of the Patriots, whom we find out in the next game is none other than Zero, Big Boss's former CO.
- And Guns of the Patriots takes the cake, with a full scene that interrupts the end credits and effectively turns the credit that just came up as it happens into a Boss Subtitles. In it, Big Boss turns out to still be alive, and explains the last hanging threads of the series. It makes the Bittersweet Ending\Downer Ending a bit happier, but not really.
- Guns of the Patriots even has a second Stinger. It's the first in the MGS series to not reveal some sort of conspiracy. Instead features Solid Snake explaining to Otacon that he's finally going to retire from the battlefield and live out the remaining years he has to live peacefully. He also quits smoking.
- Same as the second stinger ending in Guns of the Patriots, Peace Walker's second (yes, second, there are two endings) stinger ending doesn't reveal any sort of conspiracy. You hear Big Boss as he gives a speech to his troops in Outer Heaven.
- The closest to a Stinger of the nature of the previous games is the secret phone call made by Kazuhira Miller that is unlocked after completing all missions (meaning Extra Ops [as in both the regular Extra Ops missions as well as the Monster Hunter missions], and possibly even Outer Ops], which even that was implied to take place before the ZEKE battle (there was no mention of ZEKE outside of a mention of the AI being validated, and there certainly was no reference to its destruction, which would have made a mention had it been after the ZEKE battle) and was already hinted at in the second ending with Miller's apology to Big Boss.
- Even the original MSX 2 games were of no exception (well, the first one, at least). The Stinger for the first one reveals that Big Boss survived his battle with Snake. The second ending mentioned the location of where the OILIX formula was in the cartridge, as well as Snake disappearing.
- Revengeance as an inverted variation: There is a conversation mirroring the post-credit conversations of the previous Metal Gear games involving U.S. Senator Steven Armstrong where he apparently conned the populace with one of his speeches, and implies that he intends to reawaken the American Dream by restarting the American Revolutionary War. How is it inverted? It was revealed before the game was even released!
- The Syphon Filter series.
- Part 1: Aramov was working for the Agency as well, and she ain't blonde!
- Part 2: Aramov and Secretary of State Vince Hadden have been watching Gabe & friends.
- Part 3: Aramov (see a pattern here?) has acquired a batch of Syphon Filter.
- RuneScape features one in the quest Nomad's Requiem. After killing the hardest solo boss in the game, your character walks away. Then the boss stands up and teleports away. We'll be seeing him again.
- Dragon Age: Origins has a Stinger in its DLC pack Golems of Amgarrak. After killing 'The' Harvester, the Bonus Boss of the setting (meaning Origins and all the DLC packs) - it's unbeatable by certain builds, player skill notwithstanding, on the higher difficulty levels - there's the standard victory cutscene. Then hundreds more Harvesters storm out of the dungeon, unbeknownst to everyone. For now.
- Portal has a Stinger as the music played during the credits.
- One minute after the end of the credits of Mega Man X, Sigma's face appears on the screen and he swears revenge. Which we all know by now, though.
- Mega Man Zero 2's post-credits scene has someone ordering Omega to act; the speaker was the Big Bad of Mega Man Zero 3 onwards, Dr. Weil.
- Then there's the secret teaser at the end of Mega Man ZX Advent when completing its unlockable hard mode, showing that Thomas of the Sage Trinity is a traitor as well. Whether this will be worked upon in a future game is anyone's guess.
- Taking the "Easy Path" to Venom in Star Fox 64, and beating it as such, would result in Andross's face fading in after the credits, complete with his ominous laugh... confirming the player's suspicion that the robot he just fought was not the real Andross after all.
- Alternately, taking the "Hard Path" to Venom, finding the path to the "Real Andross" and defeating Andross's true Giant Space Brain form, you are joined by Fox's presumed-to-be-dead father during the final escape from the base.
- Lunar: Eternal Blue has a bit of a Downer Ending because the hero Did Not Get the Girl, much to the annoyance of the player. However, beating the game and watching the long ending cutscene and credits unlocks the Epilogue mode, which continues the story and fixes everything.
- System Shock 2—Directly after smacking down the Big Bad, we cut to an escape pod from the Von Braun. Someone is recording a log, and now that the ship's safe, they're going to turn back. He mentions that his girlfriend has been acting strangely ever since they left. Said girlfriend starts speaking, stepping into shot with her hair waving like SHODAN's leads and her voice becoming more and more distorted and computer-like... fade to a flash of SHODAN's face as she laughs.
- Call of Duty 4 has a bonus level after the credits.
- Call of Duty 2 features a joint American-British mission to rescue the captured Captain Price going on behind the credits.
- Call of Duty: Black Ops features a movie reel of the day of the assassination of President Kennedy who Mason, the player character, having hallucinated pointing a gun at earlier in the game, is shown standing among the crowd. Being a Manchurian Agent and Hudson mentioning some time he went missing unaccounted for, the implication is clear.
- Dreamfall features a cryptic flashback scene after the credits, where Mannie Chavez (who is actually Cortez, the Mentors from the original The Longest Journey and a dragon in human form) helps Brian Westhouse (who easily qualifies as the most ambiguous character of the game) reach a Tibetan monastery though a heavy blizzard. The situation is worsened by the fact that it was Westhouse's stay in the monastery that allowed him to travel to the parallel world, which kicked off the Start of Darkness described in the game.
- Wing Commander III uses an outtake of Tom Wilson lampshading Mark Hamill's role in a science fiction film, asking one of his fellow pilots if he is the guy from Star Wars, much to her amusement.
- Killer7 has two. First, after the credits roll, an epilogue chapter called "Lion" is shown. After completing that, a scene plays that completes the Book Ends and shows that Harmon and Kun Lan's personal war will never end.
- Suda 51 is fond of this trope, using it again in No More Heroes. Subverted in that he uses it to taunt the player about the game's cliffhanger ending instead of setting up for the next game.
- Wait even longer than that and a "To Be Continued" screen pops up in the middle of the opening credits.
- After the credits in the game Predator: Concrete Jungle, executives from the newly-formed Weyland-Yutani Corporation discuss the fate of Big Bad Lucretia Borgia, who had stalked the title character for most of the game... and who has now been turned into a half-organic computer named MOTHER.
- After collecting all of the secret reports in The World Ends With You, beating the final boss again will give you a very short scene after the credits: Joshua and Hanekoma watching Neku and company's heartwarming reunion in the Realground. Hanekoma tells Joshua something to the effect of "it's their own lives — they can live as they want." Josh is so pissed off by this point that he simply flies off. Cue Hanekoma spreading his Angel wings, saying "Some people just can't take 'no' for an answer," and flying after Josh.
- After the epilogue text finally scrolls off the screen in Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (it's pretty slow-scrolling), you see Dracula's hand clawing up out of his grave.
- Interestingly, this only happens in the Good Ending.
- In Castlevania: The Adventure, after the end credits roll, we see Dracula bust out of the ruins of his castle in bat form.
- Hitman: Blood Money has the credits roll during 47's funeral, at which point you can twiddle the analog sticks and wake up to kill everyone and see a cutscene where 47 leaves the country.
- Almost every Nippon Ichi game (Disgaea, Makai Kingdom, Phantom Brave, Soul Nomad and The World Eaters) ending will have one following the credits sequence, often showing what the events prior to the credits led to. A few noticeable examples is the good ending of Makai Kingdom (As suspected, the Corn was a fake — The One is actually revealed to be... Ophelia. Mickey and Dryzen are unaware of this, which is completely ludicrous seeing how they're fused together) and the reveal following the end of Soul Nomad and The World Eaters (Gig turns out to be fine — being The Grim Reaper, he simply had himself reborn following his Heroic Sacrifice).
- Zoids Legacy has a very cliched Stinger where the main character and his Mysterious Waif fulfill their promise to meet each other even though the memories of their adventures were erased. The poor translation makes it quite cute and the scene is actually remarkably powerful for a standard Stinger.
- Half-Life 2 has Lamarr, Dr. Kleiner's pet headcrab, drop out of a ventilation shaft after the credit roll and leap at the camera in typical headcrab fashion, along with the sound of Dr. Kleiner searching for the animal from somewhere off-screen.
- Episode 1 had a trailer for Episode 2.
- The post-credits stinger of Ico returns control to the player for a very short Playable Epilogue, which turns the Bittersweet Ending into a happy one.
- The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening on the original Game Boy, if you managed to complete the game without dying once, after the end credits you see Marin incarnated as a seagull. Looks like she got her wish, after all.
- And don't forget, in The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, when Link is back on the pirate ship with the crew, he finds the Phantom Hourglass in his pocket, and Linebeck's ship on the horizon, proving that the adventure was more than All Just a Dream.
- Super Mario RPG had a music-box version of the World 1-1 theme from the original Super Mario Bros.
- In Donkey Kong Country, in the final battle against K. Rool. At some point, he will lie defeated on the ground, while faux credits roll listing K. Rool and his minions as the game developers, each with a "K" title, followed by "The End?" appearing on screen. The camera then pans back to K. Rool, who grunts, jumps up, and resumes the battle by suddenly jumping on top of you. This ended up being played for laughs in later games, with K. Rool feigning defeat or being knocked out and waking back up a moment later to keep fighting, often multiple times in the same battle.
- One sentence from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth chooses death. Granted, this comes as part of an epilogue for every character that appears at the end of every PW game, but still...
- Gears of War 2 finishes the end credits with a title card while a scratchy radio messages plays out. "This is Adam Fenix. IS anyone out there? What have you done?!?
- MOTHER and its sequel EarthBound have a scene after the credits setting up the sequel. Mother sees someone at a phone mentioning that "something new has come up", while EarthBound has The Dragon's little brother show up and deliver a message to the protagonist.
- In Mother 3, sticking around for a while after the credits shows the game's characters coming on-screen and revealing that they're all right.
- In the original Doom (1993), after finally battling your way through three episodes of hell-spawn, you're returned to Earth. Nice, home Earth, complete with a pastoral graphic and peaceful music. Then the music turns into a Last-Note Nightmare, while the camera pans to show a city on fire and a rabbit's head impaled on a stick.
- In the best ending of Aquaria, after the ending credits, Naija winds up swimming through a cavern devoid of enemies, eventually finding herself kidnapped by her mother, Mia. The ending then moves on to a possibility for a sequel.
- The first Digital Devil Saga has a montage of stingers after its credits, starting with a shot of the EGG and an unconscious, naked Sera hooked up to lots of wires and drenched in fluid. Then it fades to Serph in a cloak, clenching his fist as he remembers Sera reaching out to him; before he walks in a deserted, sandstorm battered city with human-looking stone statues under a black sun. Finally, it ends with a screen asking "Are you ready for the real world?" All of this is hinting at an obvious Sequel Hook.
- Mega Man Battle Network 3 has a stinger after the ending credits, revealing that Megaman was still alive after his supposed self-sacrifice to save Lan, and Dr. Hikari found him in the remains of Alpha and reunites him with Lan.
- It's also done immediately after the credits in Mega Man Battle Network 2, when the real Bass appears and hunts down a clone of himself, then mentions something about Dr. Wily secretly manipulating the game's villains and producing clones of him behind his back. In a massive subversion, this not only helps set up the next game, but the area in which the cutscene takes place is actually the game's Bonus Dungeon, with Bonus Bosses that will indirectly answer some of your questions. You can unravel part of the mystery yourself while waiting for 3!
- In Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, earning the best ending will show the stinger after the credits, where Emil and Marta are reunited, and Emil and Marta both earn a title for use in a New Game+.
- Naturally, like everything else in the game, I Wanna Be the Guy's stinger can kill you.
- Contact has a stinger that, for some reason, only appears some of the time.
- Final Fantasy VII Had this in the form of a 500-years-later epilogue: Red XIII is seen running alongside two cubs of his own race to look upon an abandoned and ruined Midgar, followed by the laughter of children. This same scene is used as the opening of Advent Children, sans the giggles.
- In Final Fantasy VIII, after the end FMV descends into the surreal, comes back out again, and remains coy thereafter as to whether or not Squall survived being lost in time, a final FMV sequence shows him on Garden's balcony with Rinoa.
- Final Fantasy X features pyreflies floating around, cutting to Tidus awakening and floating somewhere, and then swimming to the surface. This clip was later integrated into one of Final Fantasy X-2's Multiple Endings.
- Tenchu 2, after "winning" the Tatsumaru missions. SUZAKU IS ONIKAGE!
- Utawarerumono has a lengthy Where Are They Now Stinger split over multiple scenes after the credits.
- The Bionic Commando sequel which came out in 2009 features this in the end credits which is a morse code. The first line of the morse code gets translated mentioning that the plan of the bad guys had been disabled, awaiting for further instructions. The second code however gets interrupted by the screen glitching up and returning you to the title screen.
- It's been translated by fans, and is a German-language message discussing beginning "Phase 2" of Project Albatross.
- WWE SmackDown: Here Comes the Pain had one of these after sitting through the end credits, where you got a short, live-action video with John Cena rapping about the game.
- Assassin's Creed averts this, by placing an unexpected interactive bit after the last mission. When the player finishes the last mission, there's a cutscene, you get a nice big fat game-complete Achievement (in Xbox 360 at least), and... no credits. Using Eagle Vision, you discover weird markings with hints to come all over the Animus laboratory, then you find a really big one... and then the credits roll. And you get another Achievement for just watching the credits.
- The sequel plays it straight, though: Lucy throws Desmond an Assassin's wrist-blade and they confront the Abstergo assault team led by Warren Vidic, the Templar scientist from the first game. You get to play as Desmond fighting the Templars while the credits roll, then in a final cutscene, Vidic escapes and Desmond and the other Assassins run to a new safehouse to analyze what they've learned from the Animus.
- Dragon Quest VIII had an option to save after the credits were done rolling, followed by a shot of a dais on top of a mountain, where an image would appear. Players could load the save, which would bring them to just before the final battle. Finding and examining the aforementioned dais would transport the party to a new dungeon, and a new sidequest at the end of it. Completing the sidequest, then beating the final boss again would change the ending very slightly (namely, the hero gets to marry Princess Medea rather than simply running off with her).
- Valkyrie Profile has voiced soliloquies by Lezard and Brahms - but you have to wait several minutes after the credits to hear them.
- Notably, the creepy, vague messages following the B ending are the only indication to the player that what you thought was the Golden Ending wasn't it at all, and that you're going to have to work harder next time. "Nothing is over yet," indeed.
- In Final Fantasy IX, entering a code while "The End" shows on screen allows you to play a game of blackjack.
- The Family Computer version of Contra has a secret epilogue where the aliens swear vengeance on the heroes. It was removed in the NES version.
- In Secret of Evermore, after defeating the robotic butler Big Bad, a scene at the end of the credits shows that he's been repaired by his creator. He appears to be simply robotic until the scientist leaves the room, and then he smirks and laughs evilly during the closing fade.
- If you're truly hardcore in dealing with this trope, another 29 minutes with "The End?" on screen will net you an extra "cryptic" credit and a blank screen.
- Another 5 minutes after that will give the final message, "It's Bill's fault," before resetting back to the title screen.
- The credits in Grandia II are actually playable! You control each character one at a time and can talk to people. This credits sequence serves as the game's denouement.
- Tales of the Abyss ends with Luke turning bright and disappearing during an act that is supposed to kill him. After you go through the credits, a rather heartwarming anime cutscene plays, revealing that no, Luke didn't die- he simply merged with Asch, thus, apparently, no longer being a replica, but the original himself.
- The Legend of Kyrandia: Hand of Fate: Oh, hey, it's the petrified Malcom from the first game. Oh, hey, lightning storm.
- In Black and White 2, both the core game and the expansion pack have these. After the credits in the core game, it directly answers the Elephant in the Living Room of "Where Are The Other Gods" - by having your victory over your enemy be so drastic that its few survivors were able to make a pure-enough prayer to create another god.
- In the expansion pack, just after defeating the God of The Undead, the camera pans over to a bare spot of ground, and you see a skeleton rise up and chuckle. Cut to credits. Wait until after the credits, however, and you see that either your divine hand (or someone with a flaming arrow) had noticed the skeleton and blew it up.
- In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team and Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky, it's only after the credits roll that you see your hero return and reunite with their partner. While you'll probably already be expecting something like this, given the games' ample post-game content, they still milk it for all it's worth.
- In Pokémon Black and White, the credits end with N flying away on Reshiram/Zekrom (depending on the version).
- Towards the end of the credits of Mirrors Edge, the song playing ("Still Alive"... no, not that one) temporarily fades out to a news cast reporting Faith and her sister as criminals whose whereabouts are unknown.
- The end of New Super Mario Bros. Wii has a scene showing a beat-up Larry Koopa managing to limp his way back home, with Bowser Jr. pointing him towards their siblings helping their father up from his shell. As they cheer on with their little victory, their castle tips forward and crushes them, with the screen fading to black and Bowser groaning in pain.
- What, no mention of the original? After the credits, Bowser Jr. is seen dragging Bowser, turns his head towards the player and says something, before continuing and fading out to black.
- If you beat Bowser at the end of Super Mario Galaxy with all 120 stars, then after the credits are over, we get to see Rosalina fly away to a different part of the galaxy, followed by a baby Luma climbing out of a damaged flying saucer.
- Similarly, if you beat Bowser at the end of Super Mario Galaxy 2 with all 120 stars, then after the credits, it's revealed that the events of the entire game were actually part of a storybook Rosalina was telling to the Lumas. Once she is finished reading, she decides to tell said Lumas another story, which segues into the second phase of the game involving collecting the "Green Stars" (composing of the remaining 120 stars), which are required to access the game's true final level, Grandmaster Galaxy.
- The original Silent Hill features different stingers for each of its Multiple Endings. In some of them, the hero's seen escaping the town with the reborn Alessa/Cheryl, and with or without Cybil. In others, he's seen lying dead in the jeep he wrecked at the beginning of the game.
- Waiting for 10 minutes on the credits screen of Shining Force II takes you to a bonus battle where you fight all the boss characters.
- Beyond Good and Evil. So, you get to the Big Bad, give him a good kicking, and save the day. Credits roll, and when they're done? Turns out dear Uncle Pey'j has developed the DomZ disease in his hand.
- Ratchet and Clank Up Your Arsenal has Dr. Nefarious and Lawrence, having escaped their Humongous Mecha exploding through an undirected teleport, sitting on an asteroid griping.
- Ratchet: Deadlocked has Dr. Nefarious and Lawrence, still on the same asteroid. Still griping.
- A Crack In Time ends in a similar way, but now it's Captain Quark stranded on an asteroid, floating through the galaxy on the wreckage of Nefarious's space station. He's not quite alone, though. He does have a War Grok for company, an ill-tempered beast the size of a small house. Who hasn't been fed. Good luck there, Captain.
- Primal has Jen reading next to Lewis's hospital bed, waiting/hoping for him to regain consciousness.
- God of War III: After stabbing himself with the Blade of Olympus and releasing Hope to the people of Earth, Kratos collapses and dies. After the credits, though, Kratos's body is gone and a trail of blood leads over the side of the mountain.
- Super Smash Bros.. Brawl, in its very first trailer from E3 2006; once the trailer ends, it's blank for a moment, then the INCOMING CALL sound from Metal Gear Solid plays, revealing the last Newcomer character to the series, Solid Snake. Here
- Wild ARMs Alter Code F - after the animated sequences in the credits, the game picks up approximately a year after the final battle where all of the teammates from the game have gathered around the broken body of Asgard the Earth Golem.
- The Bit.Trip series has one for each game:
- BEAT: CommanderVideo comes into corporeal existence and declares, "I am only a man."
- CORE: CommanderVideo dances around until someone runs into him, bringing the existence of other people to his attention, declaring "I am not alone."
- VOID: CommanderVideo runs in increasing speeds, eventually reaching Super Speed. "I am ready!"
- RUNNER: The Recurring Boss comes back one last time to declare revenge against CommanderVideo, who lifts off with his newly-formed Five-Man Band. "You are not a man!"
- FATE: CommanderVideo, in death, ascends, turning into a white, alien figure.
- FLUX: A brief image of the Commander, vibrating to a beat, as everything fades to white.
- Final Fantasy Tactics has one of the most analyzed and debated stingers. Delita and Ovelia are in a courtyard. Ovelia attacks Delita and Delita responds by killing her.
- The original Master of Orion uses this uncommonly well. In both endings, the final scene is your emperor's New Era Speech upon assuming the throne of the Galactic Imperium, followed by a comment from the newscaster who's been giving you status reports all game. In the good ending, the newscaster's stinger is fairly unremarkable, leaving the speech as the last significant bit of the story. In the tyrant ending, however, the stinger is a bit of snark that subverts the victory gained on the back of, potentially, a quintuple genocide.
- Undertow has a short scene after the credits where Captain Nemo, the boss of the 2nd chapter, comes back to life and shouts "These are MY waters!"
- Super Paper Mario ends with a scene where Count Bleck/Blumiere and Tippi/Timpani are shown to be alive and well standing in a meadow, finally allowed to be together.
- Subverted in StarCraft, where if you wait long enough after the end of the first Terran mission briefing, it will say "END OF BRIEFING" ... "END OF BRIEFING (No really)" ... "CHINESE LEMON CHICKEN [with recipe]".
- Depending on which ending you get, Nanashi no Game ends its credits roll with either your hero being thanked by Asahi or the cursed RPG being transferred from your hero's TS to yours.
- The ending of Lufia: Rise of the Sinistrals shows a little dialogue after the end that links to the beginning of the prequel-sequel Lufia and the Fotress of Doom
- Lufia 3: The Legend Returns ends with the heroine dying, but promising to come back. After the other characters' epilogues (which are long), she really does reunite with her love alive, thanks to her ability to make everything she has foreseen become true.
- After the credits for First Encounter Assault Recon, the player can listen to a conversation between Genevieve Aristide, the Corrupt Corporate Executive whose meddling caused the events of the entire game, and an unnamed US Senator who was connected to Projects Origin and Perseus, where she mentions that the "First Prototype" the Point Man, or in other words, you, was a "complete success." In F.E.A.R. 3 after the credits is a video of Paxton Fettel's time as a child, when the first "Synchronicity Event" happened that caused Project Origin to be shut down. He kills about a dozen guards with his psychic powers before they manage to subdue him with tranquilizers.
- After the credits roll at the end of Deus Ex Human Revolution, an audio conversation plays between Bob Page and Morgan Everett, who are discussing the "Morpheus Initiative", and then an actual conversation between Page and Megan Reed, who's come to work for him, and is hinted to have engineered the "Gray Death" virus encountered in the original game. After this, however, the player receives another achievement, "The D Project" (which comes complete with a picture of Deus Ex's protagonist JC Denton) and the whole theme from the original game plays.
- In Dead Space 2, after Isaac wins the battle against Nicole, he snaps back to reality and looks around in shock before sitting down, exhausted and defeated, as the computer system announces that a facility-wide failure is imminent. The credits start playing as Isaac sits on the ground, listing all the main cast members. Then his videoscreen activates:
Ellie: You complete bastard! Was this your great plan? Dump me off and die? |
- Then there's the com message after the real credit where someone named The Overseer is commenting with a lackey about the destruction of The Spiral. As well as revealing that there's more then one marker all over the universe.
- If one stays on the The End screen at the end of Kid Icarus: Uprising's credits, Hades will address the player.
- In Devil May Cry 3, if you kill 100 demons during the credits, we are treated to a scene in which Virgil is in the demon world and ready to challenge the three red eyes of Mundus. "It will be fun to fight with the prince of darkness. If my father did it, I should be able to do it too!"
- Wardwell House: After the credits roll and the four newspaper clippings filling in parts of the backstory are shown, the player gets to play as the Son, who comes to the island 20 years later and begins to explore one of the houses in search of his father.
Web Comics[]
- Gunnerkrigg Court — Chapter 3 ends with a really good one. The last panel wonderfully complements the page and whole chapter, in different ways.
- Conversed in this Basic Instructions strip.
- El Goonish Shive has one at the end of "New And Old Flames" arc and a more smooth but deep one at the end of "One Way Road" arc.
Web Original[]
- Professor Otaku has ended every review of his since Street Fighter II with one of these, of varying hilarity levels.
- Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series includes a joke at the end of every episode. One version was a clip from something, paired with that internet meme about Lex Luthor telling Lois Lane to "say the line"... that little exchange that ends in "WRONG!"
- To clarify—the video is taken from the series, while the audio is a random sound bite from somewhere else—examples are Gorillaz's 'Feel Good Inc.', Dan Green's "I'm going to do my laundry!" comment, the above Lex/Lois exchange, and a self Take That on Little Kuriboh's marriage proposal over YouTube. Sometimes the video isn't from the series—one episode involved the Drama Hog, which was played again at the end with the caption "Rejected Cloverfield Monster".
- These eyecatchers have actually become a staple of many Abridged Series as a result, though Little Kuriboh is so far the only Abridger to regularly use two instead of one.
- To clarify—the video is taken from the series, while the audio is a random sound bite from somewhere else—examples are Gorillaz's 'Feel Good Inc.', Dan Green's "I'm going to do my laundry!" comment, the above Lex/Lois exchange, and a self Take That on Little Kuriboh's marriage proposal over YouTube. Sometimes the video isn't from the series—one episode involved the Drama Hog, which was played again at the end with the caption "Rejected Cloverfield Monster".
- Although many abridged series have an after episode stinger, in a rare case in Tenchi Muyo Abridged in the season 1 finale, after the credits roll that credit every single person involved in the series to that point, a shot of space is shown as Kagato's dismembered hand is seen floating seemingly lifelessly through space until it suddenly bursts open and teleports away as Kagato is faintly heard to say "bitch".
- The plot threads left hanging by the Lonelygirl15 were arguably a sequel hook to begin with. But then, just when you think it's over, one more video is uploaded. We see the now-penultimate video being taped from a different angle, then at literally the last second, reveal the blogger to be none other than The Dragon...
- A few YouTube Poop videos show things at the end, such as subliminal messages/images or a "CUT-OFF PREVENTION" blurb (Youtube is known for frequently cutting off half a second of video, maybe more depending on the length). Steg often shows a clip at the end of his videos showing Big Bird saying, "Coming soon on Sesame Street!" and then cutting to something completely unrelated, while Big Bird finishes off with "Toodle-oo!"
- A few of the FailBlog videos did this by playing audio from part of the featured video over the credit screen.
- AYDS Commercial Fail (3-13-09): "Use only as directed."
- Audition Fail (3-17-09): The audio from the "Interpretive Dance Win" continues into the "Today's Fail Powered By..." and the credit page.
- 911 Operator Fail (3-19-09): Narcoleptic operator snoring and caller asking, "Are you there?"
- Sluggy Freelance 'Displacement' story arc ended on an tidy Epilogue...Or So It Seemed. The next strip showed two castaway villains resigning themselves to an island Paradise, and relaxed in poses matching Torg and Sasha's at the beginning of the story.
- The popular web animation Draw With Me has a particularly infamous one.
- Most of Ashens' review videos have one.
- Gamescrap.com's Action 52 marathon review had these at the end of a few of their videos:
- Starevil: The phrase "everything else you could care to know" in the ending card is replaced with "more pink than you can handle".
- Illuminator: The phrase "everything else you could care to know" in the ending card is replaced with "the eternal struggle of illuminator vs goth".
- Operation Moon: The frozen music continues over the ending card.
- Hambo's Adventures: The ending card appears as normal, but Hambo's sprite suddenly replaces it and a loud sound clip of someone saying "Hambo!" plays.
- Cheetahmen: The ending card appears as normal, then a gameplay clip plays of Apollo stuck in Level 10 and losing his last two lives.
- Wheezy Waiter usually has info about other videos he's been in, tours, or just bloopers.
- Loading Ready Run Videos often feature this, and EVERY video they've posted since moving to the Escapist has had a stinger.
- Before the video ends, Harley Morenstein of EPICMEALTIME says, "Next time, we eat x".
- Botchamania ends most of his videos with a video clip (not always wrestling related but almost always incorporating one of the series many Running Gags), and usually incorporates the audio/video clip of The Iron Sheik shouting "FUCK!"
- Every episode of Echo Chamber so far has had a stinger. Usually they are outtakes, but Episode 5 has one with actual plot relevance.
- Played with at the end of the more recent Bad Lip Reading videos. A shot already in the video proper is shown but with different lyrics, presumably from an earlier draft.
- The season 2 finale of Were Alive features a post credits piece that the reveals the Mallers found someone in the rubble of Tower.
- Not in every episode, but Atop the Fourth Wall will sometimes have one after the credits roll, usually related to the current storyline. The ones during the storyline with The Entity tended to be Nightmare Fuel
- The vidya gaems awards webpage showed among its categories "fattest developer". At the gala, this award seemed to have been skipped. Except it didn't.
- "Ayla and the Networks" in the Whateley Universe: Chaka's last joke at the end of the story, and its aftermath.
- Mr. Brilliant's Reviews
- When Mr. Brilliant is about to reveal what the N in K-On! stands for in the first episode, he gets interrupted, and music from The Neverhood series play.
- In the third episode, Mr. Brilliant asks Miles if he did good and breaks Kayfabe. Mr. Brilliant says that he hates talking like this and a sound clip of someone saying "Fucking dick" plays.
- In the fifth episode, a sound of someone yelling "It's a Boulder Mash" plays and a clip of BLM protestors plays with the avatar of Plague of Gripes superimposed onto a scene. t's a jab at the time when Plague of Gripes made an aside to rant about current politics during one of his videos.
Western Animation[]
- Veggie Tales always had an "A pop" after the credits where the 'A' in Big Idea would sort of bounce with a sound effect taken from the episode.
- Cartoon Network originals are known for these (normally during the credits):
- Chowder's stinger (which occurs during the credits) manages to also incorporate a "puppet mode" Art Shift while it's at it. Of course, there's the Credits Pushback problem...
- The second season finale of Transformers Animated had a stinger featuring Megatron and Starscream, stranded in space, bickering with each other, which was apparently entirely improvised. To the annoyance of the show's fans, the Canadian "host" of the network started talking over them as soon as the show's credits rolled and everyone had to wait until the American version aired to find out what exactly they were saying.
- The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy started doing these during the credits in later seasons.
- At the very end of the end credits is a garbled, demonic-sounding sound clip. Playing it backwards reveals it to be creator Maxwell Atoms saying, "No, no, no! These are the end credits! You're playing it backwards!"
- Billy & Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure had one after the credits where Fred Fredburger is revealed to have taken over the world in two weeks' time.
- Megas XLR throws in jokes or resolves minor plot issues during the credits of each episode.
- Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy's Big Picture Show had one after the credits, where Jonny and Plank were plotting their revenge, only to realize that the series was now over. This was squashed to the side and voiced-over to make room for ads overseas, so fans had to wait until the American airing to figure out what was going on.
- Every episode of The Venture Brothers TV show has a quick joke after the credits, except the first half of the Season 3 finale, presumably for Spoiler reasons.
- Kim Possible had the episodes of Season 4 end with humorous stingers.
- King of the Hill usually ends by recycling a quote from earlier in the episode; generally one that benefits from a lack of context to make it funny. One or two episodes even had an additional line of dialogue relating to what was going on before the credits.
- "Gooooooooooooo bye-bye!" (a few episodes even Lampshade Hanging this.)
- The last episode of The Trap Door had one after the credits rolled. After finding that Rog is not actually dead after he fights with the big red monster, Berk idly wonders where the red monster went. The monster then jumps into shot, and its echoing roar plays over the final credits.
- Animaniacs would roll the credits while the closing theme played, ending with a close-up shot of the water tower. The WB logo would swing open, showing a random main character, who would deliver either his/her/their Catch Phrase or one last joke.
Dot: I can't think of the ending of this show. |
- Once such episode ended with the Warner sibling conversing with each other thinking the camera's off and making fun of the show's staff and crew (including their own voice actors) before realizing they're still being watched.
- Tiny Toon Adventures had a similar end-of-credits gag. (The funniest was Elmyra leaning out and proclaiming "Let the show begin!")
- Unfortunately British viewers had to put up with ITV's insistence on showing episodes with the end credits from "Her Wacky Highness" edited on ("The Moral Of The Story: Elmer Fudd Is A Dolt").
- Every episode of The Critic would end with Jay in a theater, having just watched that episode, being told by an usher that "Excuse me sir, the show's over". His response would vary. There was also a special case where he decides to stay with Alice and they kiss over the show's credits. When the usher tries to get them to leave, Alice promptly tells him to buzz off.
- A number of episodes of The Simpsons end with the characters interacting with the shushing woman in the Gracie Films logo after the end-credits (often in reference to something which has occurred in the episode itself). In some instances, the characters respond directly to the woman (eg: "Bart Star", which has Homer yelling, "You're cut too, shushy!"), while in others the "shhh!" itself is substituted with dialogue from the episode (eg: "Homer the Great", where Carl's "Shut up!" is heard in its place).
Repeatedly Used On This Very Wiki[]
- This article
- 2000 AD
- The 7th Guest
- Alberto Del Rio
- Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering??
- Asian Store Owner
- The Avengers
- Ax Crazy
- Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are
- Department of Redundancy Department
- Department of Redundancy Department
- Deus Ex Human Revolution
- Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?
- Dirty Potter
- Ear Worm
- The Eponymous Show
- Everything's Better with Chickens
- Excuse Question
- Forklift Fu
- Groundhog Day Loop
- Infant Immortality
- Jane's Addiction
- Kickassia
- Kira Is Justice
- Lie Back and Think of England
- Memetic Number
- The Muppet Show
- Mystery Science Index 3000: Most of the pages for MSTed movies quote the original episode's stinger.
- Persona
- Mark danced crazy!
- Pinky and The Brain
- Resident Evil 4
- Stock Ness Monster
- That Guy With The Glasses
- The Three Certainties in Life
- Mathematics/Trivia
- Troper Tales pages, when they still existed.
- Tropedia Drinking Game
- Vanity Plate
- Wesley Willis
- You Will Be Beethoven
- Yandere
- ↑ which consist of random pretty pictures accompanied by a somewhat sad yet catchy song
- ↑ The doctors trying to help him