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Bolivian Army Cliffhanger: Difference between revisions
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{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* ''[[Veritas]]'', scheduled to have a second part to the story, ends with the lead ''starting'' a fight with Vera, the closest thing the series has to a [[Big Bad]], having just awoken Yuri, the closest thing the series has to a [[Sealed Evil in a Can]] in order to get the [[Eleventh-Hour Superpower]] he needs to fight the first one. The last time he fought anyone he was not yet ready to fight Vera.
* ''[[Code Geass]]'' the first season ends with two characters in a tense showdown and two gunshots, but doesn't show us who gets shot. And there's a massive battle to end all battles going on elsewhere. We only find out what happens in the next season, and even then, only halfway through the second season premiere.
== [[
* The [[Trope Namer]] is ''[[Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid]]'', at the end of which the titular pair of outlaws are cornered on a cliff in South America by the Bolivian Army; the film concludes with them throwing themselves off the cliff -- and not letting the audience know if they survived or not.
* ''[[Thelma & Louise]]'' ends with ''its'' titular pair driving off the edge of <s>the Grand Canyon</s> an unidentified but familiar-looking and very very large canyon to escape the forces of the law. It's generally assumed they didn't survive, but it's not explicitly ''shown'' in the film.
* Played with in ''[[Toy Story 2]]''. Woody learns that there was once a TV show starring his character. After one of the episodes ended with a cliffhanger: right in the middle of a jump across a canyon, the show was cancelled abruptly, leaving the story unfinished.▼
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
* ''[[Robin Hood (TV series)|Robin Hood]]'' Series 3 ends with Nottingham Castle being blown up and Gisbourne, Isabella and Sheriff Vaisey all apparently dead too. (It's somewhat invalid considering the show was cancelled).
* ''[[CSI: NY]]'' Season 5 ends with a machine gun opening fire on the entire regular cast, who were gathered in a bar to remember a colleague who'd been killed. {{spoiler|The next season reveals that Danny has lost the use of his legs and the shooters attacked the bar at random}}.
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* ''[[Lost]]'' season 5 ended with a hydrogen bomb potentially detonating in proximity to at least eight of the main characters.
** Of course, they have a ''better'' chance of surviving if it did detonate than the alternative. Really.
* Both ''[[Homicide: Life
* The final episode of ''[[Blake's 7|Blakes Seven]]'' ended with all the heroes (and we mean ALL the heroes, even ones that had been [[Put on a Bus]] in previous seasons) in assorted, apparently inescapable imminent death situations. The intention was that anyone who wanted in on the next season would be revealed to have survived, but at that point the show got cancelled.
** The second season ended with the crew launching a seemingly suicidal [[Delaying Action]] against an alien fleet. Two characters were written out: Blake and Jenna. The former returned for the next two finales, dying in the last episode. The latter was killed off-screen.
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* ''[[Stargate Universe]]'' Also season 1 ending.
* ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' episode "Best of Both Worlds Part 1" ended this way, with the Enterprise's [[Wave Motion Gun]] aimed at Picard and the cube that assimilated him. This coincided nicely with rumours that Patrick Stewart might be quitting, making for a very tense summer.
* ''[[Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda]]'' had a season end with two characters captured by Magog, the android impaled, the captain and first officer knocked out, and the ship having taken a miniature black hole through it. Season 4's finale was even nastier, leaving everyone but Dylan dead or about to die. (They didn't.)
* The ending of ''[[Charmed]]'' season 3 could have killed off Prue and Piper, and actually was used to kill off Prue.
* The finale for Season 1 of CBS's ''[[Jericho (2006 TV series)|Jericho]]'' ended with a cut to black as a firefight began involving most of the major characters. This may have contributed to the uproar in response to the cancellation of the series at the end of season 1, as many of the devoted fans did not know the fate of their favorite characters.
* ''[[Criminal Minds]]'' did this in its third season finale, showing several identical black SUVs, each a destination for a pair of major characters. The episode ends with one of the SUVs, not specifically identified, exploding. Season 4's opener, however, reveals that the only casualty was the single minor character among the possible victims. Although the producers at least tried to keep the mystery alive by doing nothing to debunk (and possibly even starting) rumours that Shemar Moore or Paget Brewster was leaving the show.
** Don't forget the ending of Season Four, which has Hotch at gunpoint from the Boston Reaper (George Foyet). Foyet says "You should have made a deal" then a gunshot is heard and fades to black. At the start of Season Five, it is revealed the Reaper shoots past Hotch's head to intimidate or scare him. It doesn't work. Then they struggle and Hotch gets non-fatally stabbed multiple times by Foyet, who mirrors his own wounds he self-inflicted to draw attention away from himself in the original case.
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* The finale to the first series of ''[[Psychoville]]'' had the majority of the main cast gathered in an abandoned mental hospital by the villain, who too was there, and strapped with explosives. Cue massive explosion... which the viewers see occur from outside. We are left to theorize who, if anyone, survived.
* The first series of BBC's ''[[Sherlock]]'' ends with {{spoiler|Sherlock pointing a gun at a bomb, threatening to explode himself, John Watson, and Moriarty.}} Luckily for us, it's been renewed for a second series.
* Season one of ''[[Jericho (2006 TV series)|Jericho]]'' ended with the main characters about to sacrifice themselves in a firefight - the screen faded out to black and gunfire is heard... Then the show got cancelled.
** Luckily though, fan backlash to the cancellation was enough to make the network commission a second season to tie up some of the loose ends/expand the story.
* ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' is fond of these:
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* Happened quite often in ''[[Babylon 5]]'', often as part of JMS's preplanned "hooks" to remove a character from the plot if the actor decided to quit. Perhaps the most impressive was Captain Sheridan, who ended the third season finale {{spoiler|at ground zero of two 500-megaton nuclear explosions}}. He came back (eventually), but a number of characters, including {{spoiler|Talia Winters (season two finale)}} and {{spoiler|Marcus Cole (season four finale)}} stayed gone.
** Seemed to be Michael Garibaldi's main thing.
* ''[[Chicago Fire]]'' has done this trope several times.
** The second season finale had the entire regular cast (after attending Chief Boden's wedding reception) head to the scene of a possible fire. When they reach the building, there is report of fire on the upper levels, and injuries from people who fell down the stairs on the lower levels, requiring just about the entire Rescue Squad, both paramedics, and most of Truck 81 to enter the building. Suddenly, there's an explosion in the building blowing out all the windows, leaving Chief Boden to shout into the radio "Anyone from House 51! Report!" as the season ends. At the start of Season 3, Shay dies from injuries sustained in the catastrophe, though all the other regulars characters survive.
** The fifth season finale ("My Miracle") ended with most of the crew from Firehouse 51 responding to a factory fire. In the ensuing rescue, several are still inside the burning building as the episode ends, some in especially dangerous situations. Mouch appears to be suffering a heart attack as Herrman desperately tries to revive him, and Matt Casey, trapped by the fire, removes his mask and speaks with his wife Gabriela Dawson on the radio, tell her that "you were my miracle". The episode ends abruptly, leaving it until Season 6 until we find out whether or not these imperiled characters lived or died. It turned out all of them made it out alive.
** The seventh season finale of Chicago Fire ("I'm Not Leaving You") similarly ended with most of the main characters responding to a fire at the Arnow Mattress Factory. Most of the main cast ended up inside the building, desperately trying to help those trapped inside. Herrman discovered a boiler about to explode, and shouted at fellow firefighter Ritter to leave before it exploded, while Chief Boden radioed at everyone to evacuate. Season 8's premiere ("Sacred Ground") picked up immediately where the cliffhanger left off, as an explosion caused a number of injuries. Brian “Otis” Zvonecek was the most severely injured, and died at the hospital saying some final words in Russian to his close friend Joe Cruz.
** Please note that this death was not done because the actor didn't renew his contract, but because [[Word of God|the show's creator and showrunner]] wanted to bring back a sense of danger to the series that had been missing since the resolution of the aforementioned fifth season cliffhanger.
** Season 9's cliffhanger (the ominously named "No Survivors") doesn't endanger as many main characters as the above mentioned cliffhangers, but is no less scary. Firehouse 51's Squad 3 (Severide, Cruz, Capp, and Tony) are in the midst of a water rescue on Lake Michigan in the wreckage of a boat (they originally find no survivors, hence the title of the episode, but find one living person). The boat flips over, and the exit is blocked by debris, leaving all four of them trapped underneath the wreckage of a sinking boat, with their air tanks exhausted and very little room to move. Season 10's opening resolves this with the rest of Firehouse 51 coming to the rescue and explosives being used to blow a hole through the boat to allow them to escape. It's a close call, but Squad 3 survives (though not without trauma that haunts them for a few more episodes).
== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''[[Phantasy Star]] II'' ended like this, with Lutz transporting the other members of your party to the your location to aid you in fighting a HORDE of {{spoiler|[[Humans Are
** That's just a [[Bolivian Army Ending]], although [[Word of God]] says that your party actually WINS.
* The mission "Of Their Own Accord" in ''[[Modern Warfare]] 2'' ends with the US Army Rangers boarding a Blackhawk to cover the evacuation of civilians from a warzone. After gunning down multiple Russian gunners, the helicopter is shot down, and your character, Pvt. Ramirez, wakes up inside the wreckage as {{spoiler|Russian troops are closing in, you run out of ammo, and Cpl. Dunn gets shot}}. The next few mission takes place on the other side of the world, with an entirely different protagonist. {{spoiler|Then we are sent back to Ramirez, Foley, and Dunn, who thanks to the timely actions of the other protagonist and his squad, survives.}}
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** ...Except that it apparently will be in Driver: San Fransciso.
== [[Web Original]] ==▼
* Both the Season 1 and Season 2 finales of ''[[
▲== Web Original ==
▲* Both the Season 1 and Season 2 finales of [[Were Alive|We're Alive]]. "The War" ended with the Tower besieged by the Mallers and Zombies. "The Harder They Fall" ended with the Tower crew fleeing the wreckage of the Tower on a helicopter headed for the unknown and leaving behind several of their comrade who they believed to be dead.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
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* A particularly frustrating example in the finale of ''[[Total Drama World Tour]]'': {{spoiler|After Chris' final challenge results in the volcano erupting, the contestants are seen swimming away from Hawaii as giant flaming boulders rain down upon them, Alejandro is seen alive in [[The Stinger]], but it is left unknown whether or not the other twenty-four contestants managed to survive.}}
** {{spoiler|They all survived, even Ezekiel.}}
▲* Played with in ''[[Toy Story 2]]''. Woody learns that there was once a TV show starring his character. After one of the episodes ended with a cliffhanger: right in the middle of a jump across a canyon, the show was cancelled abruptly, leaving the story unfinished.
* The first season of the 2002 ''[[He-Man and the Masters of the Universe]]'' reboot ends with all the heroic Masters captured and imprisoned, leaving only Prince Adam (without his Sword of Power) to defend Castle Grayskull against {{spoiler|Skeletor, all his henchmen, and nearly every single villain from the entire season.}}
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Ending Tropes]]
[[Category:Twist Ending]]
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