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Apost-credits scene (also known as astinger,end tag, orcredit cookie) is a shortteaser clip that appears after theclosing credits have rolled and sometimes after aproduction logo of afilm,TV show, orvideo game has run. It is usually either written for humor or to set up asequel.
Sometimes, one or moremid-credits scenes are also inserted partly through the closing credits, typically for the purpose of maintaining the audience's attention so they do not need to wait for the entire credits roll to finish for a teaser.
Post-credits scenes may have their origins inencores, an additional performance added to the end of staged shows in response to audience applause.[1] Opera encores were common practice in the 19th century, when the story was often interrupted so a singer could repeat an aria, but fell out of favor in the 1920s due to rising emphasis on dramatic storytelling rather than vocal performance.[2]
The first general release film to feature a post-credits scene isThe Silencers, released in March 1966.[3] The scene depicts lead characterMatt Helm (played byDean Martin) lying shirtless on what appears to be a rotating sofa along with 10 scantily-clad women.[4] He kisses two women before rubbing his face and muttering, "Oh my god."[4] During the scene, text overlays reads "Coming Up Next" and "Matt Helm Meets Lovey Kravezit."[4]
In 1979,The Muppet Movie uses aframing device in which the characters themselves watch the movie unfold in a theater. During the credits, the Muppets get up from their seats, talk to each other and joke around (thus incentivizing the real audience to stick around and see what happens next). In the final moment after the credits, Animal yells at the audience to "GO HOME!" before sighing "buh-bye" and passing out from exhaustion.
The use of such scenes gained popularity throughout the 1980s at the end of comedy films. In 1980,Airplane! ended with a callback to anabandoned taxicab passenger who was not a primary character. Enhanced application continued in 1985 withYoung Sherlock Holmes (see below); inMasters of the Universe (1987), Skeletor's head emerges from the water at the bottom of the pit, saying "I'll be back!"[5]The Muppet Movie also began a trend of using such scenes to break thefourth wall, even when much of the rest of the film had kept it intact. The scenes were often used as a form ofmetafiction, with characters showing an awareness that they were at the end of a film, and sometimes telling the audience directly to leave the theatre. Films using this technique includeFerris Bueller's Day Off (in which the title character frequently breaks the fourth wall during the film) and the musical remake ofThe Producers. The post-credits scene in the latter film also includes a cameo appearance byProducers screenwriterMel Brooks.
Post-credits scenes also appeared on the long-running television showMystery Science Theater 3000, introduced in the 1990 episodeRocket Attack U.S.A., continuing until the end of the series. With few exceptions, they highlighted moments from the films that were either particularly nonsensical or had simply caught the writers' attention.
Stingers lacking the metafictional aspects also gained prominence in the 1980s, although they were still primarily used for comedy films. Post-credits scenes became useful places for humorous scenes that would not fit in the main body of the film. Most were short clips that served to tie together loose ends—minor characters whose fates were not elaborated on earlier in the film, or plot lines that were not fully wrapped up. For example, all fivePirates of the Caribbean films include such scenes.Napoleon Dynamite features a stinger that reveals that Kip and LaFawnduh get married, a scene that was included in itswide release. In the filmThe Cannonball Run,bloopers from the film are shown. One of the stars in that picture,Jackie Chan, later featuredouttakes during the credits of many of his films, often showing him getting injured doing his own stunts.
Even when post-credits scenes started to be used by films with little comedy development, the same format of giving closure to incomplete storylines or inconsequential characters remained in use. Using humor in such scenes is also still common for more serious films, as in the filmDaredevil, in whichBullseye is shown after his defeat by Daredevil in a full body cast. Other films eschew the comedy in favor of a twist or revelation that would be out of place elsewhere in the film, as inX-Men: The Last Stand's post-credits scene in whichProfessor X is shown to be alive after his apparent death by the hands of thePhoenix. Another example is the stinger at the end ofHarry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets which features a post-memory lossLockhart. A third example occurs inYoung Sherlock Holmes: during the entire credits, asleigh is seen traveling in theAlps to a mountain inn; at the end of the credits, the passenger Professor Rathe (presumed to be dead), also known as "Eh-Tar", signs the register as "Moriarty".
With the rise of pre-plannedfilm franchises, post-credits scenes have been adopted in order to prepare the audience for upcoming sequels, sometimes going so far as to include a cliffhanger ending where the main film is largely stand-alone. The cinematic release ofThe Matrix Reloaded demonstrated the sequel set-up use of stingers by featuring thetrailer forThe Matrix Revolutions.
Another example is the ending of the supernatural horror filmAnnabelle: Creation (2017), set in Romania, 1952 and see the character ofValak, the demon nun fromThe Conjuring 2 (2016) gliding towards the viewer before it darkens, teasing the spin-off prequelThe Nun (2018).
Some films, includingRichard Linklater'sSchool of Rock, take the idea of the post-credits scene to its limit by running the credits during the main action of the film. In this example, the characters perform a song in the last minutes of the film, and the credits run inconspicuously until one character sings the line "the movie is over/but we're still on screen".
TheMarvel Cinematic Universe has made extensive use ofmid- and post-credits scenes which typically serve as a teaser for a futureMarvel Studios film. For example, the post-credits scene ofIron Man 2 showsPhil Coulson locatinga large hammer at the bottom of a crater in a New Mexico desert, thus teasing the release ofThor the following year. The post-credits sequence ofCaptain America: The Winter Soldier introduces the characters ofPietro andWanda Maximoff, who join the franchise inAvengers: Age of Ultron. Other times these mid- and post-credits scenes serve primarily as gags, such as the post-credits scene inThe Avengers, which has theAvengers eatingshawarma in a derelict restaurant in the aftermath of the film's climactic battle, orSpider-Man: Homecoming, which featuresCaptain America educating the audience on patience.[6][7][8]
The credits of manyPixar films, includingA Bug's Life (1998),Finding Nemo (2003),The Good Dinosaur (2015) andFinding Dory (2016) have included humorous mid-credits scenes.A Bug's Life (1998), for example, parodied the trend of bloopers at the end of movies by including fake blooper scenes of the characters making mistakes or goofing around on the "set" of the movie.Toy Story 2 (1999) andMonsters, Inc. (2001) followed suit. Other Pixar films, such asCars (2006),Toy Story 3 (2010) andInside Out (2015) have included an epilogue that plays during the credits.
An unusual use of the post-credits scene is to fulfill contractual obligations. In order to secure thepersonality rights to produceThe Disaster Artist, abiopic ofTommy Wiseau, the filmmakers were obligated to include a cameo by Wiseau himself. This scene was filmed, but relegated to the post-credits sequence of the film.[9]
Video games, particularly those with complex stories, sometimes also use post-credits scenes. An early example isEarthBound, in which the main character receives a message that a main villain has escaped.[10] A game may contain a scene or voiceover after the credits, of one or more characters speaking, revealing new information that gives a new perspective to the previous events as well as setting up part of the next game in the series. As the credits for modern games get longer, added cut scenes that maintain interest during the credits are becoming more common.[citation needed]
