Most movies have a story, and most stories have an ending. But that’s more like a guideline than a rule. With the proliferation of sequels, more and more motion pictures are ending with a big ol’ tease for a follow-up instead of a proper conclusion that wraps all the storylines and character development up in a tidy bow. The storytelling device was originally popularized with the old serialized motion pictures that encouraged audiences to come back to the theater every single week, but TV more or less killed that. But hey, most of the blockbuster movies coming out nowadays are just big budget versions of the kind of adolescent fantasies that serials like Commando Cody or, well, Captain America capitalized on in the first place.
But what counts as a “movie cliffhanger” anyhow? It’s important to note that there’s a big difference between an ambiguous ending and an open-ended finale that clearly implies that there’s even more story to come. The conclusions of The Wrestler and Inception may leave audiences guessing, but the finale of Captain America: The Winter Soldier – like the finale of most Marvel movies – tells us that the answers are definitely coming soon. In fact, ending on a cliffhanger is actually a pretty bold statement. It tells the audience that this movie thinks it warrants a sequel before they have even watched it and decided if it’s good or not.
Sometimes that bravado backfires. Sometimes a movie tells you flat out there’s going to be another follow-up but then doesn’t make enough money to actually warrant a sequel. If you’ve ever wondered what Princess Daisy meant when she told The Super Mario Bros., “You guys gotta come with me! I need your help! You’re not gonna believe this!” then you know exactly what I’m talking about. And also you took the Super Mario Bros. movie way too seriously, but of course I digress.
We here at CraveOnline wanted to look back at our favorite movie cliffhangers, whether or not they actually paid off in the end. Some of them led to awesome sequels, some of them led to crappy ones, and some will forever be question marks. (For the sake of variety we’re limiting our picks to only one film per franchise.) So here they are, the Top 12 Movie Cliffhangers, as chosen by CraveOnline.
(SPOILER ALERT, obviously.)
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
The Top 12 Movie Cliffhangers
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SPOILER ALERT
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12. Mortal Kombat (1995)
Shang Tsung has been defeated, all the protagonists survived, a bum rush of children arrives to congratulate them. Flawless victory? Not quite. Outworld emperor Shao Kahn shows up, blows up the temple and lays claim to the heroes' souls.
The Pay-Off: Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997), one of the worst god damn sequels ever made.
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11. Skyline (2010)
Here's a novelty: a terrible movie with a cliffhanger so badass we wanted a sequel in spite of ourselves. After holing up in a hotel to escape a planetwide alien invasion, our heroine (Scottie Thompson) gets pulled up into a UFO, with only her dead boyfriend's brain in badass alien armor to protect her.
The Pay-Off: Skyline made money (despite terrible reviews) but a sequel has yet to surface. The Brothers Strause, who directed Skyline, have said they would finance the follow-up independently.
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10. The Lawnmower Man (1992)
One of the loosest Stephen King adaptations (and that's saying something) found a simpleminded Jeff Fahey achieving godhood after a brush with virtual reality. Seemingly trapped in cyberspace, he finds a backdoor into the ether and makes every phone on the planet ring simultaneously to announce his presence.
The Pay-Off: The less said about 1996's Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace, the better.
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9. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
The Bride (Uma Thurman) goes on a roaring rampage of revenge because her ex-lover killed her fiance and unborn child, and put our heroine in a coma. Right after she lays waste to countless Japanese gangsters, the audience learns from the eponymous Bill that her daughter has been alive the whole time.
The Pay-Off: Kill Bill, Vol. 2 (2004) was darker and less action-packed than the original, but it's still a fantastic conclusion to the saga.
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8. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
After uniting a motley crew of humans, dwarves, elves and hobbits to take the ring of power to Mount Doom and destroy it, the fellowship disbands after a dramatic betrayal. Two of the hobbits run off undefended, two more are kidnapped, and the rest of the party is left to hunt some orc.
The Pay-Off: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) was a grand adventure with a less-exciting cliffhanger of its own, but the whole trilogy is still remarkable.
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7. Iron Man (2008)
The first proper Marvel Studios movie told a witty, adventurous origin story for Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), but when the dust settled, and the credits ended, the crowd really cheered when Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) enlisted him in The Avengers.
The Pay-Off: Eight impressive franchise entries and counting, with The Avengers becoming one of the most successful movies of all time. (Iron Man 2 was kinda disappointing though.)
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6. The Dark Knight (2008)
Batman may have defeated The Joker, but he was blind to the plight of Two-Face (Aaron Eckhart), who went half-mad, killed several police officers and crime lords, and whose crimes The Dark Knight takes the blame, turning him into public enemy number one.
The Pay-Off: Batman retired between The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises (2012), but the GCPD held a grudge that made his life dramatically more difficult when he finally put the cape back on.
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5. Before Sunset (2004)
A rare non-genre cliffhanger, the long-anticipated reunion between Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) from 1995's Before Sunrise ended with a "will they or won't they" moment, with Jesse's relationship with his wife and child on the line.
The Pay-Off: They did, but it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. 2013's Before Midnight caught up with Jesse and Celine, and they have plenty of dramatically satisfying regrets.
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4. The Italian Job (1969)
A literal cliffhanger: after pulling off one of the craziest heists in history, the cast of one of the greatest movie capers find themselves teetering on the edge of a cliff, unable to escape without losing their hard-earned gold.
The Pay-Off: A sequel was considered but never produced, although in 2008 The Royal Society of Chemistry hosted a competition to see if anyone could solve the cast's dilemma. Someone did. It was really, really complicated.
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3. Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993)
The ninth Friday the 13th movie, and not the first inaccurately declare itself the final chapter, spent most of its time pulling Jason Voorhee's supernatural origins out of its butt. But the final shot, of Freddy Krueger's glove grabbing Jason's mask from the depths of Hell, was fanboy bait for the ages.
The Pay-Off: It took ten years, but 2003's Freddy vs. Jason was actually a geeky thrill, combining the two horror franchises more satisfactorily than we ever thought possible.
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2. Back to the Future (1985)
Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) went back in time to save his parents' marriage, but when he got back, time machine inventor Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) suddenly comes back from the actual future, toting miraculous gadgets and a flying Delorean, screaming that something has to be done about Marty's kids.
The Pay-Off: Back to the Future Part II (1989) was yet another clever sci-fi comedy, but it had to work pretty hard to undo some of the poorly conceived ideas from the cliffhanger. It ended on a pretty good cliffhanger too, leading to 1990's more focused (but somewhat sillier) Back to the Future Part III.
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1. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
The middle chapter of George Lucas's original Star Wars trilogy ended on a nearly unthinkable downer: Luke gets his hand chopped off and finds out Darth Vader is his father, and Han Solo gets frozen in carbonite and kidnapped by Jabba the Hutt's mercenery, Boba Fett. The heroes are at an all time low, and we had to wait three whole years to see how what they were going to do about it.
The Pay-Off: 1983's Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi was an enormously satisfying conclusion to the trilogy, if you ignore the whole Ewok thing.
