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Acliffhanger orcliffhanger ending is aplot device infiction which features a main character in a precarious situation, facing a difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode of serialized fiction or before acommercial break in a television programme. A cliffhanger is intended to incentivize the audience to return to see how the characters resolve the dilemma.
Some serials end with the caveat, "To Be Continued" or "The End?" Inserial films andtelevision series, the following episode sometimes begins with arecap sequence.
Cliffhangers were used as literary devices in several works of theMiddle Ages withOne Thousand and One Nights ending on a cliffhanger each night.[1] Cliffhangers appeared as an element of theVictorian eraserial novel that emerged in the 1840s, with many associating the form withCharles Dickens, a pioneer of the serial publication of narrative fiction.[2][3] Following the enormous success of Dickens, by the 1860s cliffhanger endings had become a staple part of the sensation serials.[4]
Cliffhangers were used as literary devices in several works of theMiddle Ages. TheArabic literary workOne Thousand and One Nights involvesScheherazade narrating aseries of stories to KingShahryār for 1,001 nights, with each night ending on a cliffhanger in order to save herself from execution.[1][5] Some medieval Chinese ballads like theLiu chih-yuan chu-kung-tiao ended each chapter on a cliffhanger to keep the audience in suspense.[6]
The Scottish comic magazineThe Glasgow Looking Glass, founded by English artistWilliam Heath, pioneered the use of the phrase 'To Be Continued' in its serials in 1825.[7]
Cliffhangers became prominent with the serial publication of narrative fiction, pioneered byCharles Dickens.[2][3][8] Printed episodically in magazines, Dickens's cliffhangers triggered desperation in his readers. Writing in theNew Yorker, Emily Nussbaum captured the anticipation of those waiting for the next installment of Dickens'The Old Curiosity Shop:
In 1841, Dickens fanboys rioted on the dock of New York Harbor, as they waited for a British ship carrying the next installment, screaming, "Is little Nell dead?"[2]
On Dickens' instalment format and cliffhangers—first seen withThe Pickwick Papers in 1836—Leslie Howsam inThe Cambridge Companion to the History of the Book (2015) writes, "It inspired a narrative that Dickens would explore and develop throughout his career. The instalments would typically culminate at a point in the plot that created reader anticipation and thus reader demand."[9]
With each new instalment widely anticipated with its cliffhanger ending, Dickens' audience was enormous; his instalment format was also much more affordable and accessible to the masses, with the audience more evenly distributed across income levels than previous.[9] The popularity of Dickens's serial publications saw the cliffhanger become a staple part of the sensation serials by the 1860s.[4] His influence is also seen in television soap operas and film series, withThe Guardian stating "the DNA of Dickens's busy, episodic storytelling, delivered in instalments and rife with cliffhangers and diversions, is traceable in everything."[10]
The term "cliffhanger" is considered to have originated with the serialised version ofThomas Hardy'sA Pair of Blue Eyes (which was published inTinsley's Magazine between September 1872 and July 1873) in which Henry Knight, one of the protagonists, is left hanging off acliff.[11][12] According to the Random HouseHistorical Dictionary of American Slang, the term's first use in print was in 1937.[13]
Cliffhangers were especially popular from the 1910s through to the mid-1950sserials whennickelodeons andmovie theaters filled the culturalniche later primarily occupied bytelevision. The first film serial designed around the cliffhanger device was 1913'sThe Adventures of Kathlyn fromSelig Polyscope.[14][15]
Film serials were normally shown in cinemas at weekly intervals, with the cliffhanger resolved in the next instalment by a "take-out', which extracted the protagonist(s) from the perilous situation in which they had been left. Hoping that audiences would forget some important details of what they had seen a week earlier, filmmakers sometimes resolved the peril by changing some of the events in therecap sequence. The cinema scholar Deborah Allison argues that cliffhanger take-outs can be grouped into three categories, which she calls 'sequential', 'augmented', and 'incompatible'.
Sequential take-outs continue the story either by revealing pertinent facts in subsequent shots or by skipping potentially tricky explanations entirely and moving on swiftly. [...] whereas sequential take-outs fill the gaps in our knowledge after we have been shown the moment of fatal peril for the second time, augmented take-outs insert supplementary shots or scenes before the point of crisis. [...] Incompatible take-outs present narrative information that directly conflicts with that provided by the original cliffhanger.[16]
During the 1910s, whenFort Lee, New Jersey was a center of film production, thecliffs facing New York and theHudson River were frequently used as film locations.[17] The most notable of these films wasThe Perils of Pauline, a serial which helped popularize the term "cliffhanger". In them, the serial would often end suddenly leaving actressPearl White's Pauline character hanging from a cliff.[18]
Cliffhangers are often used intelevision series, especiallysoap operas andgame shows.
Several Australiansoap operas, which went off air over summer, such asNumber 96,The Restless Years, andPrisoner, ended each year with a major and much publicized catastrophe, such as a character being shot in the final seconds of the year's closing episode.
Cliffhangers are commonly used in Japanesemanga andanime. In contrast to Americansuperhero comics, Japanese manga are much more frequently written with cliffhangers, often with each volume or issue. This is particularly the case withshōnen manga, especially those published byWeekly Shōnen Jump, such asDragon Ball,Shaman King,One Piece and the origin show of theTo be continuedInternet meme,JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.[19][20]
During its original run,Doctor Who was written in a serialised format that usually ended each episode within a serial on a cliffhanger. In the first few years of the show, the final episodes of each serial would have a cliffhanger that would lead into the next serial. The programme's cliffhangers sometimes caused controversy, most notably Part Three ofThe Deadly Assassin (1976), which was altered for future broadcasts following a complaint from campaignerMary Whitehouse.[21][22][23] Whitehouse objected to the violence of the scene (the Doctor's head is held underwater in an attempt to drown him). She often cited it in interviews as one of the most frightening scenes inDoctor Who, her reasoning being that children would not know if the Doctor survived until the following week and that they would "have this strong image in their minds" during all that time.[24] The producer ofDoctor Who at the time,Philip Hinchcliffe, cited the 1950s radio serialJourney into Space as an influence for its use of cliffhangers.[25] A later serial,Dragonfire (1987), is notable for having a cliffhanger that involved theSeventh Doctor literally hanging from a cliff, seemingly by choice, which has been described as "the most ludicrous ever presented inDoctor Who".[26]
From 1966 to 1968 and inbroadcast syndication, "Same bat-time, same bat-channel" encouraged viewers to tune in the next night for 120 episodes ofBatman.[citation needed][27] The next episode quickly resolved the heroes from each supervillain's trap. A few triple episodes had double cliffhangers.[28] The 1969 British caper filmThe Italian Job, starringMichael Caine andNoël Coward, ends literally in a cliffhanger, with the villains' coach hanging precariously over a cliff.[29][30]
Cliffhangers were rare on American primetime television before 1980, as television networks preferred the flexibility of airing episodes in any order. ThesitcomSoap was the first US primetime television programme to utilise the end-of-season cliffhanger, at the end of its first season in 1978. Cliffhangers then went on to become a staple of American primetime soap operas; the phenomenal success of the 1980 "Who shot J.R.?" third season-ending cliffhanger ofDallas, and the "Who Done It" fourth-season episode that finally solved the mystery, contributed to the cliffhanger becoming a common storytelling device on American television.[31] Another notable cliffhanger was the "Moldavian Massacre" onDynasty in 1985, which fueled speculation throughout the summer months regarding who lived or died when almost all the characters attended a wedding in the country of Moldavia, only to have revolutionaries topple the government and machine-gun the entire wedding party. Other primetime soap operas, such asFalcon Crest andKnots Landing, also employed dramatic end-of-season cliffhangers on an annual basis. Sitcoms also utilised the cliffhanger device. As well as the aforementionedSoap, the long-running sitcomCheers would often incorporate cliffhanger season endings, largely (in its earlier years) to increase interest in the on-and-off relationship between its two lead characters,Sam Malone and Diane Chambers. These cliffhangers did not place the characters in peril of any kind, but rather left their relationship (which was at the core of the show) hanging in the balance.
Cliffhanger endings in films date back to the early 20th century, and were prominently used in theserial films of the 1930s (such asFlash Gordon andBuck Rogers), though these tended to be resolved with the next installment the following week. A longer term cliffhanger was employed in theStar Wars film series, inThe Empire Strikes Back (1980) in whichDarth Vader makes a shock revelation toLuke Skywalker, andHan Solo's life is left in jeopardy after he is frozen and taken away by a bounty hunter.[32][33] These plotlines were left unresolved until the next film in the series, which was released three years later.[33] The first two films in theBack to the Future series end in cliffhangers, with the first displaying the "to be continued" title card.[34] Thefilm adaptation of the musicalWicked is split into two parts, with the first film ending on a cliffhanger with the first act closer "Defying Gravity", making the second filmWicked: For Good begin at the top of the musical's second act.[35]
The two main ways for cliffhangers to keep readers/viewers coming back is to either involve characters in a suspenseful, possibly life-threatening situation, or to feature a sudden shocking revelation. Cliffhangers are also used to leave open the possibility of a character being killed off due to the actor not continuing to play the role.[original research?]
Cliffhangers are also sometimes deliberately inserted by writers who are uncertain whether a new series or season will be commissioned, in the hope that viewers will demand to know how the situation is resolved. Such was the case with the second season ofTwin Peaks, which ended in a cliffhanger similar to the first season with a high degree of uncertainty about the fate of the protagonist, but the cliffhanger could not save the show from being canceled, resulting in theunresolved ending. The final episodes of soapsDallas andDynasty also ended in similar fashion, though all three shows would return years later in some form or other to resolve these storylines. The Australian soap operaReturn To Eden ended in 1986 with a dramatic cliffhanger in anticipation of a second season. However, the network chose not to renew the show and so a hastily filmed five-minute "conclusion" was filmed and added on to the end of existing final episode to provide closure. Some shows, however, became known for never being resolved. In addition to the aforementionedBlake's 7, the supernatural seriesAngel, the original 1984 seriesV and its2009 remake, all ended with unresolved cliffhangers. On occasion, TV series are given the opportunity to resolve their end-of-series cliffhangers at a later date; examples include the 1999–2003 series,Farscape, which was cancelled after a cliffhanger ending, but which was able to resolve it in a later follow-up miniseries,Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars; and the aforementionedTwin Peaks 1991 cliffhanger, which was resolved 26 years later when a sequel to the series (considered a third season) aired in 2017.
The cliffhanger has become a genre staple (especially in comics, due to the multi-part storylines becoming the norm instead of self-contained stories) to such a degree, in fact, that series writers no longer feel they have to be immediately resolved, or even referenced, when the next episode is shown,[36] variously because the writer did not feel it was "a strong enough opener",[37][verification needed] or simply "couldn't be bothered".[38] The heavily serialized television dramaTrue Blood has become notorious for cliffhangers. Not only do the seasons conclude with cliffhangers, but almost every episode finishes at a cliffhanger directly after or during a highly dramatic moment, much like the primetime soap operas of the 1980s and 90s.[39]
Commercial breaks can be a nuisance toscript writers because some sort of incompleteness or minor cliffhanger should be provided before each to stop the viewer from changing channels during the commercial break. Sometimes a series ends with an unintended cliffhanger caused by a very abrupt ending without a satisfactorydénouement, but merely assuming that the viewer will assume that everything sorted itself out.
Sometimes a film, book, or season of a television show will end with the defeat of the main villain before a second, evidently more powerful villain makes a brief appearance (becoming the villain of the next film). Occasionally an element other than a villain is also used to tease at a sequel.
Peter Høeg's novelSmilla's Sense of Snow ends with a deliberate cliffhanger, with the protagonist and main villain involved in a life-and-death chase on the arctic ice off Greenland – and in this case, the author has no intention of ever writing a sequel, the ambiguous ending being part and parcel of the basic ideas permeating the book's plot. Similarly,Michael Flynn's science fiction noveletteThe Forest of Time ends with a deliberate and permanent cliffhanger: readers are not to be ever told where the protagonist ended up in his wandering the "forest" ofalternate history timelines and whether he ever got back to his home and his beloved, nor whether the war which takes a large part of the plot ended in victory for the protagonists or the antagonists.
George Cukor, when adapting in 1972Graham Greene'sTravels with My Aunt, deliberately introduced a cliffhanger missing from the original. While Greene's book ended with the protagonists definitely choosing the adventurous and rather shady life of smugglers in Paraguay and closing off other options for their future, at the conclusion of the Cukor film a character is seen tossing a coin whose fall would determine their next move, and the film ends on afreeze frame shot as the characters await the fall of the coin.
William Heath's Glasgow Looking Glass was a pioneering publication which is said to have coined the phrase '... to be continued'.
This is the plot device known as the cliffhanger, a word whose putative origins lie not in pulp fiction but in a lesser-known Thomas Hardy novel, 'A Pair of Blue Eyes'. In the relevant scene, a man named Henry Knight is strolling with his love interest along the cliffs of Cornwall when his hat blows off. He chases after it, one thing leads to another, and soon he is dangling from a sheer wall of rock, nothing beneath him but six hundred feet of air terminating in the fanged and foaming surface of the ocean.