Cliff Hanger: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''To be resolved...in two weeks! ([[Lampshade Hanging|because I am]] [[Evil Gloating|an evil motherfucker]])''
|''[[Shortpacked]]''}}
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Named for the old Saturday matinée film serials which would frequently leave a character literally hanging from the side of a cliff, revealing how the character escaped in the next episode.
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[http://rover_wow.tripod.com/tvcliff.htm This site] contains a comprehensive list of unresolved cliffhangers.
Not to be confused with an area for aircraft set into a mountainside (a cliff hangar), the sort used to hang up clothing (a coat hanger), the laserdisc-based video game using footage from ''[[Lupin III]]'', the pricing game Cliff Hanger''s'' on ''[[The Price Is Right]]'' (AKA The Yodely Guy game), the movie [[
Beware of these being executed badly, too. [["What?" Cliffhanger]] is when a cliffhanger is so deliberately vague that it not even suspensful enough to hold a viewer's interest until the next chapter; a [[Cliffhanger Copout]] is when a creator deliberately tweaks with a story's continuity of events when resolving a cliffhanger or outright refuses to reveal a piece of information that is promised at the end of one chapter to the next. A lampshaded, immediate resolution would be [[To Be Continued Right Now]].
See also [[Literal Cliff Hanger]].
----▼
= Resolved Cliffhangers: =▼
{{endingtrope}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==▼
▲----
{{examples}}
▲=== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ===
* Even [[Anime]] has done season-ending 'hangers, with ''[[The Big O]]'' and ''Zoids Fuzors'', not to mention a cliffhanger of truly staggering size at the end of Season 1 of ''[[Code Geass]]'' (mentioned in detail below).
* The anime ''[[Code Geass]]'' ends its first season on a particularly high
** Let's be perfectly honest here. Code Geass has a very, very, VERY nasty habit of leaving cliffhangers at the end of every single episode, at least in the first season. The season is basically a 25-episode cliffhanger, ending with a scene that quite often leaves viewers screaming at the top of their lungs at their screens.
** They also had a bad habit of the next episode beginning after the cliffhanger is resolved, and then drawing it out until a flashback shows how it actually ended.
** And then comes the second season, where Every. Damn. Episode. Ends with a cliffhanger of cosmic proportions and every second one is a [[Wham! Episode]], to boot.
* Parodied in the first episode of ''[[Pretty Sammy|Magical Project S]]'', which ends with the then-faceless Pixy Misa saying "you'll have to wait until next week to see who I am".
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** After completing the aforementioned arc and even getting through another one, ''[[D.N.Angel]]'' is once again put on an at least six month hiatus with the completion of Part 1...with the ''massive'' cliffhanger of {{spoiler|Riku finally seeing Daisuke (and Satoshi) transform, and asking if he's Daisuke...or Dark.}} And that's not even covering the stuff that still needs to be answered after that [[Wham! Episode|single chapter]].
* In ''[[True Tears]]'', one of the driving factors for following the story asides the depth of the characters and the compelling love story are the constant cliff hangers on the end of each episode. Several of these tend to shake up things quite a bit.
* ''[[Naruto]]'' is pretty infamous for this. A recent chapter even ended ''mid-sentence'' during such.
* ''[[Bakuman。]]'' is pretty much a cliffhanger in every chapter. Especially [https://web.archive.org/web/20100403072631/http://www.onemanga.com/Bakuman/33/19/ when the characters are up for serialization].
* The ''[[Transformers Cybertron]]'' episode "Search" ended with Overhaul [[Literal Cliff Hanger|dangling from a cliff]] above a valley of lava.
* ''[[Bleach]]'' often ends with cliffhangers, especially when one character launches an attack against another. More often than not, the attack is non-fatal (and often, completely ineffective), and the next chapter shows why.
* Several episodes of [[Death Note]], particularly the second-to-last one {{spoiler|when Light has Mikami write all his enemies' names in the Death Note}}, end in cliffhangers.
* ''[[Hayate the Combat Butler]]'' manga started out the current arc with one, and still hasn't resolved it. Leaving the fans to try and figure out how the pieces are going to connect. Doesn't help that the last arc gave us the starting of it, but leaving things vague enough for us to not realize that it was going to be left as a cliffhanger.
* Zig-zagged in the anime adaptation of ''[[Berserk]]''. The very first scene of the anime takes place {{spoiler|[[Foregone Conclusion|a few weeks after the events of the Eclipse with Guts waiting for Godo to prepare the Dragonslayer]].}} After the opening credits, the scene flashes two years later when {{spoiler|Guts has a well-established reputation as the Black Swordsman.}} After defeating an apostle, the rest of the series reveals [[How We Got Here|how Guts became the way he is in the present]], starting with his first encounter with soon-to-be [[Big Bad]] Griffith. In the last episode, during the climax of the Eclipse, we see Guts screaming in rage and agony {{spoiler|at the sight of the demon lord Femto raping Casca}} just as the credits role in. Although the very last scene reverts back to the very first scene, it is still left unclear as to {{spoiler|how Guts managed to make it back from the hell dimension alive or whether Casca survived her ordeal}} and the viewers are still [[Left Hanging]] on this detail as Guts walks into the distance as the Black Swordsman, which is where the anime ends.
** The timeline and detail of events in the manga is much more straight forward {{spoiler|[[Adaptation-Induced Plothole|since the absence of the Skull Knight from the animation was partially responsible]] }} so we know what happens after the climax of the Eclipse and the story continues from there.
* Used very very frequently in ''[[Brigadoon Marin and Melan]]''. Especially in the second half of the series, more episodes end with cliffhangers than not.
* The [[Pokémon Special]] FireRed and LeafGreen chapter ends with one of these.
* Every chapter has a Cliff Hanger in ''[[Bitter Virgin]]''. The readers are even left hanging on the last chapter to how the relationship will end up.
* The ''[[Giant Robo]]'' OVA ended on a great, gaping "To Be Continued". While the main conflict is resolved, it's implied that Big Fire still had a few more tricks up their sleeves.
* Episodes 5 and 10 of ''[[Popotan]]'': the former ends with {{spoiler|Mai and Mea being left behind when their house jumps forward in time five years}}, the latter with {{spoiler|Keith incapacitating Mea and making the house travel to its final destination}}.
=== [[Comic Books]] ===
* Chapters 3, 4 and 5 of ''[[All Fall Down]]'' end this way.
** In Chapter 3, {{spoiler|Siphon}} is placed under arrest for the super-manslaughter of 642 people.
** In Chapter 4, the last thing we see is {{spoiler|Portia}} stepping off a high-rise roof, followed by a [[Black Screen of Death]].
** In Chapter 5, we see {{spoiler|Pronto}}, [[Brainwashed and Crazy]], about to be unleashed on his unsuspecting friends.
=== [[Film]] ===
* Film does this too, especially when doing the "[[Two-Part Trilogy|two films at once]]" thing. ''[[Star Wars]]'' seems to have started the trend with the ending of ''[[The Empire Strikes Back]]'', with Han Solo being captured, frozen in carbonite and being taken to Jabba the Hutt so he could be rescued at the beginning of ''[[Return of the Jedi]]''.
* The endings of the first two ''[[Back to The Future]]'' movies (each ending with a "To Be Continued..." at the end.) Note that the original theatrical run of ''[[Back to The Future]]'' did not have "To Be Continued..." at the end; it was only added later for VHS and TV prints when the first film became so popular, that they decided to do the sequels.
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=== [[Literature]] ===
* [[Older Than Print]] meta-example: The cliffhanger was part of Scheherazade's desperate gambit to keep herself from being executed in ''[[Arabian Nights]]'', as she told the evil king a series of stories for one thousand and one nights, ending each night on a cliffhanger so very enticing that he could not execute her, because then he would not get to hear the ending.
* One must really feel sorry for those who read the ''[[Alex Rider]]'' novel ''Scorpia'' before ''Ark Angel'' came out. The novel ends with {{spoiler|Alex}} being shot in the chest and him {{spoiler|seeing his dead parents}} which gives the assumption that the bullet killed him. Even though he was proved to have survived with the release of ''Ark Angel'', some fans still think that he was killed in ''Scorpia'' and have varying theories about the later books.
* [[Hex Hall|Demonglass]] ends with Abby Thorne being burnt to the ground while under attack from the Eye with {{spoiler|Archer and Sophie's Dad}} still trapped inside {{spoiler|Cal}} running in to try and find them, Sophie's powers blocked, Jenna missing, possibly dead and Sophie being told that she could find her mother with supposed evil prodigium hunter Aislinn Brannick. Also Demonfied Nick is loose and killed nearly 20 people in one night, Demonfied Daisy was also released, we still do not know what happened to Chaston, Anna, or the other missng students, half the Council was killed and the good guys were actually the bad guys, so the bad guys might be the good guys, but were not sure yet.
* [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]]'s ''[[John Carter of Mars|The Gods of Mars]]'' ended with Dejah Thoris, Thuvia, and Phaidor all trapped in the Temple of the Sun for a
* [[Lloyd Alexander]]'s ''The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen'' ends every chapter except the side stories and the finale with one of these, along with an italicized paragraph directly addressing the reader and asking questions in the vein of "What will happen next?"
* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in [[The Pendragon Adventure]] by the titular character. Since most of the series takes place as a series of his journals, which he frequently writes before falling asleep, he has once written about an impending catastrophe... only to apologize in the next journal, saying he couldn't stay awake to continue.
* [[Bruce Coville]]'s ''[[The Unicorn Chronicles|Song of the Wanderer]]'' ends with the big bad getting the key that will allow her to destroy Luster, cue huge build up and a to be continued. The sequel about the epic war is then put on hiatus and not published until nearly 10 years later.
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* The ending to the second [[The Hunger Games|Hunger Games]] book (''Catching Fire'') caused ''major'' [[Ship-to-Ship Combat|fan freak-outs.]]
* [[Sammy Keyes|Wendelin Van Draanen]] ''loves'' ending every single one of her chapters with a cliffhanger. (Thankfully, they're always resolved with a turn of the page. Face it, as annoying as this can get, you can't say as much for the cliffhangers of [[The Devouring|other]] [[Artemis Fowl|authors.]])
* ''[[Harry Potter and
** ''Order of the Phoenix'', ''
** Also, in ''[[
** {{spoiler|Severus Snape: friend or foe?}}
* ''[[Six Sacred Stones]]'' takes the concept of a cliff hanger one epic step further. The novel ends with Jack West ''falling'' into an abyss, without his maghook.
* Every chapter of every ''[[Goosebumps]]'' book ends in this manner, which leads the reader to wonder what happens next,
* ''[[The Princess Bride (novel)|The Princess Bride]]'' (novel) ends with a [[Bolivian Army Ending]], with everyone separated, stuck, and surrounded by enemies. We get [[Cliffhanger Copout|Cop Out]] in the preview for the sequel, where somehow the crew of Dread Pirate Robert's ship comes in at the last moment and saves them. Also, Goldman writes about how [[Literary Agent Hypothesis|Morgenstern (the "original" author)]] had a monetary stake in trees at the time, so to get people to care more about trees, he decided to spend 95% of the chapter talking about how great trees are, with details of their rescue sparsely peppered in, so you'd need to read about the trees just to read the cop out.
* ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'': at the end of every book and most of the chapters.
* ''[[The Dresden Files]]'':
* ''[[A Certain Magical Index]]'': Any volume that's part of a multi-volume arc and isn't the finale. The biggest example is undoubtedly New Testament Volume 8, where {{spoiler|Othinus gains her full power as a Magic God and destroys the entire universe. The next volume revolves around Touma (the sole survivor, due to being immune to magic) having to fight her singlehandedly.}}
=== [[Live
* ''[[Doctor Who]]'' for most of its history consisted entirely of multi-episode serials, so obviously it's had a lot of cliffhangers. There have even been a couple of [[Literal Cliff Hanger
** The modern series, which has multi-parters as a more occasional thing, makes it slightly easier to list.
*** "Bad Wolf" ends with the revelation that for the past century Earth has been controlled by the Daleks, and the Doctor promising he'll come rescue Rose from their clutches.
*** "Army of Ghosts" ends five million Cybermen arriving on Earth and seizing control, and the Void Sphere opening to reveal {{spoiler|four Daleks}}.
*** "Utopia" finishes with the reveal that {{spoiler|Professor Yana is actually the Master,}} as he steals the TARDIS, leaving the Doctor, Martha and Captain Jack about to be killed by zombie-esque hoards. The episode right after that, "The Sound of Drums" finishes with {{spoiler|The Master}} aging and capturing the Doctor, imprisoning Jack, and Martha just escaping to witness the death of 10% of the Earth.
*** "Silence in the Library" ends with Donna disappearing mid-teleport with a scream, as the Doctor and River are cornered.
*** "Turn Left" finishes with Donna saving the day, and destroying an alternate universe where the Doctor died prematurely....but then tells him about {{spoiler|the strange blond woman who said the words "Bad Wolf"}}. At that moment, the old [[Arc Words]] from season one appear everywhere, and the [[Oh Crap|cloister bell]] starts ringing.
**** The episode right after that ends with Daleks raging across the Earth, Sarah Jane being cornered by Daleks in her car, the members of [[Torchwood]] under attack, and {{spoiler|the Doctor mid-regeneration}}.
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*** Say the people who invented ''[[Doctor Who]]''
* ''[[The Adventures of Brisco County Jr]]'' made regular use of cliffhangers. The early episodes had two cliffhangers (one for each act break). Later episodes had one.
* ''[[Mission: Impossible]]'' used this ''constantly'' in [[Act Break
* The first season of ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' ended with the city of Atlantis on the verge of another wraith attack, Ford captured by the wraith, Colonel Everett surrounded by them, and Major Sheppard flying a booby-trapped puddle jumper on a suicide mission towards a Wraith Hive-ship.
** The second season ended with several Wraith hive ships headed towards Earth.
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** Season four ended with the slightly less impressive cliffhanger of an building collapsing on the team.
* Likewise, parent show ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' ended almost all of its seasons with cliffhangers of varying magnitude, all with the ominous "[[To Be Continued]]..." caption.
* ''[[Dallas]]'' relied on a season ending
* ''[[Star Trek]]'' has had a
** This one is particularly interesting in that it cleared the way for cliffhangers, previously a staple for soap operas, to be used in more "serious" TV shows.
** At the time, this cliffhanger had particular punch because it was unknown whether Patrick Stewart would return for future seasons; the writers left the second half open for this reason.
** ''The Next Generation'', ''Voyager'' and ''Enterprise'' always achieved their cliffhangers by splitting a two-part episode over the end of one season and the start of the next. ''Deep Space Nine'' had a rather more interesting approach however, in which the final episode of the season would have its own storyline wrapped up within the episode itself, but the next stage of the show's story arc was set up in the process.
* ''[[24]]'' typically uses a cliffhanger at the end of each ''episode''. The show also featured a season-ending cliffhanger in the final seconds of season 2, which, irritatingly enough, was subverted when the third season picked up three years later and the cliffhanger had already been resolved. This was later revisited in The Game, but it's annoying how the Season 2 and 7 plot arcs aren't fully explored at the end.
* The beginning of the new ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode "The Impossible Planet" has a [[Shout-Out]] to the Cliff Hangers of the old series. In [[The Teaser]], the Ood, who look like Lovecraftian horrors, walk toward the Doctor and Rose chanting "We must feed", and the close-ups and spinning camera angles match the old Who's Cliff Hangers perfectly. Naturally, after the titles, the Ood are shown to be perfectly nice and friendly, with their apparent viciousness being a [[Phlebotinum Breakdown]]: "We must feed..."
** Actually, the first episode of every season finale ends on a cliffhanger that is resolved by the following one. Usually in an [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|awesome]] way.
* ''[[ER]]'' does this pretty much every season.
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** An intentional (I think) cliffhanger, or at least the show wasn't unexpectedly cancelled.
* The third season of ''[[Desperate Housewives]]'' concluded with Edie Britt's apparent suicide after Carlos dumped her. The fourth season premiere revealed that she had actually faked her suicide in order to win Carlos back.
* ''[[JAG]]'' had several cliffhangers. The first season ended {{spoiler|with Harm being arrested for murder}}, though same episode was a [[Missing Episode]] and later adapted, thus bordering on [[Canon Discontinuity]]. The third season ended {{spoiler|with Harm and Mac about to be shot down in a Russian jet while looking for Harm's father}}. The sixth ended with {{spoiler|Harm lost at sea, having ejected from his F-14 trying to get back in time to catch Mac's wedding}}. The seventh ends with {{spoiler|Bud stepping on a landmine while trying to prevent an Afghan boy from doing likewise}}. The eighth ended with {{spoiler|Harm leaving JAG to save Mac and Webb against orders}}. The ninth ends with {{spoiler|Webb apparently killed and the Admiral's retirement}}. The series itself ends with something like a cliffhanger, {{spoiler|leaving the audience wondering if either Harm or Mac will retire after they decide to marry and whether they'll end up in London or San Diego afterwards}}.
* [[Grey's Anatomy]]'s fifth season ended with a cliffhanger. {{spoiler|Either Izzie or George}} might be headed for the big OR in the sky. {{spoiler|Or both.}}
* An early British example was the TV spy series ''Callan'', whose second season ended with an episode where Callan was kidnapped and brainwashed into believing that Hunter, the head of his section, was an enemy agent. Callan kills Hunter and is himself shot; the episode and season ended with him mortally wounded and gasping to Meres, a fellow agent, "Toby, old man... I've been had!" The next season dealt with Callan's recovery and return to operations while being treated with ''extreme'' caution by his superiors.
* ''[[Friends]]'' ended almost all of it seasons with a cliffhanger, the most famous one being the season 4 finale, where Ross says the wrong name at his wedding.
* Season 2 of the new ''[[Battlestar Galactica
** The first season ends {{spoiler|only moments after Commander Adama has been shot twice is the chest, right after initiating a military coup and arresting the President.}}
* A short lived '70s series called ''Cliffhangers'' was a homage to the old movie cliffhanger serials. The show had 3 different segments each hour, with each ending on a
* Used constantly on [[The X-Files]]. Three really annoying words: "To Be Continued..."
* Already taunting fans with severe [[British Brevity]] (i.e. the prospect of waiting a whole year for another six episodes), ''[[Misfits]]'' ended its first season on a ''horrible'' cliff-hanger: {{spoiler|the main character was left buried alive, with no obvious means of escape.}}
* [[Vintergatan]] had a cliffhanger [[Once an Episode]], with no sign of stopping. Fortunately, the cliffhangers don't bother people that much. Why? Because it's always been presented that way, and there's danger around every corner in-canon, so it doesn't seem forced (and even when it does, it rarely becomes [[Narm]]
* [[Power Rangers Turbo]] ended with the mentors all captured or MIA, all powers and ranger tech broken or destroyed, and four of the remaining five rangers taking a space shuttle out to try and do ''something'', lack of superpowers, FTL drive, and location of enemies be damned. The series actually ended on a "to be continued" just as the shuttle took off.
* ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' got in a really good one at the end of "Green With Evil Part 2". The episode ended with ''Goldar's sword apparently about to impale Jason's head.''
** Let's not forget Season 3's infamous cliffhanger with the villains' blowing up the Command Center, and leaving the Rangers pretty much screwed.<ref>Until [[Power Rangers Zeo|next season]], that is...</ref>
* A few season finales of [[7th Heaven]] have ended on cliffhangers, with the 7th season being the worst offender. {{spoiler|Is Lucy pregnant? What happened that brought head of the church and the police force to the Camdens' front door to talk to Eric immediately? Who did Mary elope with? Did Roxanne and Chandler get married?}} Of course, it was all resolved next season. {{spoiler|Lucy wasn't pregnant, Simon got into a car accident that resulted in a young boy's death, Mary eloped with Carlos, and Roxanne and Chandler break up. Although we never did find out what happened to [[Hooker with a Heart of Gold|Christine]] or why [[Brother Chuck|Cecilia]] disappeared in early season 9…}}
* ''[[NCIS]]'' has six season cliffhangers:
** Season 2 {{spoiler|Kate shot and killed.}}
** Season 4 {{spoiler|Tony meeting his girlfriend's father, La Grenouille.}}
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** Season 6 {{spoiler|Ziva held captive by terrorists}}
** Season 7 {{spoiler|Paloma Alejandro and her gang walking into Jackson's office.}}
** Season 9 {{spoiler|1=Harper Dearing planting a bomb on the Navy Yard, which goes off with Gibbs, Abby, Ziva, Tony AND McGee all still inside. Ducky gets the news at Palmer's beachside wedding and promptly has a massive heart attack.<ref>Not resolved yet, but the show is renewed, so it will be</ref>
* Happens at the end of the first half of every two part episode in the 1960's ''[[Batman (TV series)|Batman]]'' series.
* The [[Season Finale|Season 2 finale]] (and [[Series Finale]]) of ''The Colbys'' had several cliffhangers, most of which were later resolved on parent show ''[[Dynasty]]'', the most fantastic being Fallon's {{spoiler|abduction by aliens in the California desert}}. Even for an over-the-top show like ''The Colbys'', this was a [[Jumping the Shark]] moment.
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** Series Nine: {{spoiler|Lucas' exact fate isn't specified despite the car alarms and Harry looking down from the rooftop. Harry is told by the Home Secretary "to prepare for life after MI-5"...}}
* The first season of ''[[Person of Interest]]'' ends with {{spoiler|[[Mission Control|Finch]] being kidnapped by [[The Cracker|Root]]. To track him down, [[Badass in a Nice Suit|Reese]] asks [[Magical Computer|the Machine]] for help ''[[Instant AI, Just Add Water|and the Machine answers]]'', but the episode ends before we find out what it said.}}
* ''[[The 100]]'' tends to end with one each season, setting up the main conflict of the next season.
** Season 1 {{spoiler|ends with many of the main characters knocked out with gas grenades by what look like special ops troops. When Clarke wakes up, she’s in an all white quarantine room inside Mount Weather, revealing that they’re the Mountain Men the Grounders have been afraid of.}}
** Season 2 {{spoiler|ends with Jaha and Murphy having made their way to an oddly intact mansion on an island. Murphy sees a video telling how an AI got nuclear launch codes nearly a century ago, while Jaha meets the AI itself.}}
** Season 3 {{spoiler|has the revelation that ALIE was uploading human minds to the City of Light in order to make sure they would survive Praimfaya, a wave of fire and radiation that would likely kill everyone within six months.}}
** Season 4 {{spoiler|ends with a time jump. Even though Earth was supposed to be survivable again after 5 years, it's been a bit more than 6 years later and no one has come down from space or out of the bunker. What Clarke thinks is her friends coming down from space turns out to be a prisoner transport ship coming back to Earth.}}
** Season 5 {{spoiler|ends with the destruction of Earth, for good this time. Rather than waking up from cryosleep after ten years, it's been 125 years, Monty and Harper died but left a son, and he shows Clarke and Bellamy the new planet that Monty found, which might be somewhere they can survive and do better.}}
** Season 6 ends with two:
*** {{spoiler|Sheidheda has been removed from the flame, saving Madi, but escapes, presumably to take over the Eligius IV ship.}}
*** {{spoiler|Diyoza's previously unborn daughter, Hope, comes out of the anomaly as an adult. She talks to Octavia, who recognizes her even though she remembered nothing from her time in the anomaly just minutes before. Hope stabs Octavia in the stomach then passes out. Bellamy tries to hold Octavia up as she's bleeding out, until the anomaly comes in to the room and she disappears in a flash of green.}}
=== Other ===▼
* Greg Farshtey's method of writing when sitting down for the latest ''[[Bionicle]]'' story chapter is to think of a cliffhanger, and hope to find a way to resolve it in the next. Not just individual chapters, the stories tend to end in cliffhangers too. On some occasions, this proved to be a reckless idea, since he couldn't resolve them thanks to his busy schedule. In these cases he [[Shrug of God|assumed]] the villains simply turned back or just didn't find time to carry out any evil plans. In other cases the constant reliance on more and more extreme and forced cliffhangers lead to the serial inching close to [[Jumping the Shark]].▼
▲== Other ==
▲* Greg Farshtey's method of writing when sitting down for the latest [[Bionicle]] story chapter is to think of a cliffhanger, and hope to find a way to resolve it in the next. Not just individual chapters, the stories tend to end in cliffhangers too. On some occasions, this proved to be a reckless idea, since he couldn't resolve them thanks to his busy schedule. In these cases he [[Shrug of God|assumed]] the villains simply turned back or just didn't find time to carry out any evil plans. In other cases the constant reliance on more and more extreme and forced cliffhangers lead to the serial inching close to [[Jumping the Shark]].
=== [[Video Games]] ===▼
* In ''[[Golden Sun]]'', you have only managed to climb up one of the four [[Cosmic Keystone|Elemental Lighthouses]] when you reach the final Dungeon, Venus Lighthouse. If you haven't been reading a guide (or spoiled by this example) you'd assume you were halfway through the game. To be fair, the game does provide some hints, the [[Infinity+1 Sword]] is contained inside, and the music does lend the tower a tone of [[The Very Definitely Final Dungeon]]. But once you reach the top, the game throws both the main antagonists of the story at you, you beat them, then they combine and throw the [[Final Boss]] at you. Once you beat that, the game just ends. The missing friends are still missing, the party travels off to parts unknown, and the credits roll. Quite an impressive feat, making a very big cliffhanger that wasn't resolved for a few years when the second game came out.▼
▲== [[Video Games]] ==
▲* In [[Golden Sun]], you have only managed to climb up one of the four [[Cosmic Keystone|Elemental Lighthouses]] when you reach the final Dungeon, Venus Lighthouse. If you haven't been reading a guide (or spoiled by this example) you'd assume you were halfway through the game. To be fair, the game does provide some hints, the [[Infinity+1 Sword]] is contained inside, and the music does lend the tower a tone of [[The Very Definitely Final Dungeon]]. But once you reach the top, the game throws both the main antagonists of the story at you, you beat them, then they combine and throw the [[Final Boss]] at you. Once you beat that, the game just ends. The missing friends are still missing, the party travels off to parts unknown, and the credits roll. Quite an impressive feat, making a very big cliffhanger that wasn't resolved for a few years when the second game came out.
** To be fair, this cliffhanger is the result of Camelot splitting what was supposed to be one game into two games, Golden Sun 1 and The Lost Age.
** Another one is at the end of The Lost Age. {{spoiler|Alex has just been granted demi-god powers, but is then pinned to a mountaintop, and sent crashing down to the Earth, however, The Wise One implies they will meet again, and the last shot of the game, is Mt. Aleph still standing...}}
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* Cliffhangers are standard for [[Telltale Games]], as their games come in monthly installments.
* Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 ends on a rather big one. The Invasion of the US is stopped and presumably the US counterstrike is about to begin. Soap and Price are wanted Fugitives, {{spoiler|Shepherd}} is dead but his plan is in motion and you still have no idea where {{spoiler|Makarov}} is.
** The Sequel shows that the war becomes over near the end of the game, and also {{spoiler|Soap dies from a later injury from a mission, and Price gets a BSOD}}, and in the final mission, Price {{spoiler|kills Makarov with Punches and with the finish of Makarov being hanged.}}
* [[
** The original Arcade game always ends with the characters getting sent back in the past due to being in a time loop. Most worse is Ragna's, where he gets to fuse into a monster, sent back as a destructive monster in the past that gets killed.
** The console version had the crew getting out of the time loop... just in time for the supposed [[Big Bad]], [[Troll|Terumi]], showing himself off and got away scots free for his next plan... giving Tsubaki the order to assassinate Noel and Jin (still a psycho).
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=== [[Web Comics]] ===
* Parody: ''[[Terror Island]]'' [http://terrorisland.net/strips/099.html theorem 099] ends with a caption saying "Cliffhanger!" but it was resolved in two days, which is the usual time between strips.
* Whether on purpose or not, [[Misfile]]'s weekend breaks usually fall just as it seems some new tidbit of plot information will be revealed or that something exiting will happen. Fans of the comic have taken to calling them "Chrishangers," after the artist.
* The author of the webcomic ''Sequential Art'' recently managed to pick the most irritating part to his break with the comic.
* Lampshaded [http://wayofthemetagamer.thecomicseries.com/comics/pl/30544 here] in [[The Way of the Metagamer]].
* MS Paint Adventures' ''[[Homestuck]]''. Pretty much almost every page ends with a cliffhanger on purpose, although these are generally resolved quickly. A more common way of setting up a
* ''[[The Dreamer]]'' uses these a lot.
* ''[[Bob and George]]'': [http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/041025c An Unnecessary Cliffhanger]
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* In ''[[Wake the Sleepers]]'', [http://wakethesleepers.com/comics/91 the second chapter ends with Locke's rescuer declaring him a deceiver -- and the promise that chapter 3 will start a month later.]
* Each major [[Story Arc]] of ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'' ends with one:
** ''Dungeon Crawlin' Fools'': The Order defeat [[Big Bad|Xykon]] and destroys the dungeon they'd spent the entire story up to that point in and assume their quest is
** ''No Cure For The Paladin Blues'': The Order now know the importance of the Gates and are preparing to track down and protect the others; meanwhile, Xykon (who the heroes have only just learned is still alive) has assembled an army of hobgoblins and is preparing to march on Azure City (where the Order currently is) and take their Gate by force, while Nale and the Guild plot their revenge against the Order.
** ''War and XPs'': In what may be the largest cliffhanger yet, the hobgoblins have overrun Azure City, {{spoiler|Roy is dead}}, and the Order has been scattered. And on top of that, we see [[Aristocrats Are Evil|Kubota]] plotting against [[Supporting Leader|Hinjo]] with the aid of a mysterious figure standing off panel; this new antagonist's identity {{spoiler|Qarr the imp}} isn't revealed until well into the next arc.
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=== [[Web Original]] ===
* Spoofed on ''[[Homestar Runner]]'' in the Strong Bad Email "cliffhangers", where Strong Bad is asked by a fan to "Resolve all the cliffhangers, please". After showing three mock cliffhangers, the email ends on an actual cliffhanger when Strong Bad's Lappy 486 computer gets stolen.
* The online novel ''[[The Saga of Tuck]]'' has (for now) 142 chapters, each almost always ending on a cliff hanger.
=== [[Western Animation]] ===
* Subverted in the ''[[South Park]]'' episode "Professor Chaos", which appears to end on a cliffhanger: "Will Professor Chaos' latest plot succeed and be the final undoing of Earth? And which boy has been chosen as the replacement for Kenny? And which of these South Park residents was killed and will never be seen again?" (The first two were already the focuses of the plot, but the last ones comes out of nowhere). "These questions will be answered... right now: No, Tweek, and Ms. Choksondik."
** ''[[South Park]]'' also squeezed the concept for all the humor and frustration they could in the "Who is Eric Cartman's Father" two-parter, "Cartman's Mom Is a Dirty Slut" and "Cartman's Mom is Still a Dirty Slut". They teased the fans mercilessly by splitting the two episodes up with an unrelated full-length [[April Fools' Day]] ''Terrance and Phillip'' episode.
* ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' (2003) its fond of the season-ending cliffhanger: three of its seven (As of 2008) seasons (1,2,4) end this way. Season 4's cliffhanger is notable for being in danger of never being properly resolved, since for never-quite-adequately-explained reasons, the people behind the show decided to skip season 5 and go from season 4 to season 6 without explanation, ignoring the cliffhanger. After several delays, the "Lost Season", as it came to be called, began airing on February
* Happens in ''[[The Simpsons]]'': Who shot Mr. Burns? Obvious homage/parody of ''[[Dallas]]''.
** Also spoofed by the show on a number of occasions. At the end of one Holloween episode, the last few seconds reveal a surprise ending where Mr. Burns' head has been grafted unto Homer's body. The episode ends with a (fake) cliffhanger and a teaser for next week's episode, where Homer is denied a free spaghetti dinner because Mr. Burns has plans to meet with the queen of Holland that night. Of course, it's all a spoof and the next ''real'' episode has everything back to normal.
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== Unresolved Cliffhangers
=== [[Anime]] ===▼
▲== [[Anime]] ==
* ''[[X 1999]]'': Is Kamui [[Our Hero Is Dead|really dead?]] No one but [[CLAMP]] knows, since the series has been [[Schedule Slip|on hiatus since 2003.]]
* The end of ''[[The Tower of Druaga (anime)|The Tower of Druaga]]: The Aegis of Uruk'' has {{spoiler|Neeba and Kaaya}} abandoning their parties to {{spoiler|climb up the heretofore unknown upper half of the tower}}. Even after the second season has started, no one knows what's going on with them and some of those left behind.
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=== [[Film]] ===
* And let's not forget the movie ''[[The Italian Job]]'' (the original version) which ends with a literal cliffhanger that will never be resolved.
=== [[Literature]] ===
* Anthony Horowitz must have really wanted to piss his readers off when he was planning out the fourth book of ''[[The Power of Five]]'' series, where in the end {{spoiler|Scarlett gets shot and it is revealed to the reader that all five gatekeepers, who need to stay together in order to defeat the Old Ones, are going to be separated by even greater distances than before.}}
* ''[[Don Quixote]]'' uses a deliberately unresolved
* 1920s movie director Frank Capra, in his autobiography "The Name Above the Title" (which is now discredited for its many self-serving lies and distortions), describes in detail a scene from his film "Tramp Tramp Tramp" in which actor Harry Langdon is stuck on a fence above a sheer cliff as the fence begins to collapse. Capra's description builds to the climax of this scene but then refuses to tell us how Langdon escapes, with Capra justifying the omission by reminding us that this scene is "a cliffhanger". But it's only a true cliffhanger if Capra was planning to tell us the answer in his next book. (He wasn't.) This evasion is doubly dishonest because it covers a dishonesty in the original movie: when the fence collapses over the cliff, the cliff magically changes into a steep hill, and Langdon rides the fence's planks downhill to the bottom.
* Which was it? ''[[Riddle for the Ages|The lady or the tiger?!]]''
=== [[Live Action TV]] ===
* ''[[Soap]]'''s final ep ended on ''four'' cliffhangers. It is yet unknown whether the South American guerilla militia firing squad Jessica ended the episode in front of were [[Bolivian Army Ending|Bolivian]].
** Later, in an episode of the spin-off ''[[Benson]]'' Benson was visited by Jessica's ghost, leading many fans to believe that, yes, they were [[Bolivian Army Ending|Bolivian]].
** The final episode of ''[[Benson]]'' also ended on an unresolved cliffhanger. Benson is running for Governor, while incumbant Governor Gatling is running for re-election as an Independant making for a three-way gubatorial race. In the final scene, Benson and the Governor resolve their personal differences, then sit together watching the TV as a newscaster says, "And the Governor for the next four years is-"
* ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]] '' de-facto series finale ended with Claire Bennett revealing her power to the world by jumping off the top of a ferris wheel and healing via news cameras; this was the beginning of the series' 6th Volume, Brave New World, which never came to fruition due to the show's cancellation by NBC in May 2010.
* Usually, fans become quite irate when cancellation leads to a series ending on a
** Plenty of warning? They'd already ''filmed'' the finale, and were working on pickups for other episodes when they found out. So much for a two-season pickup?
* The series finale of [[
* The series finale for ''[[Stroker and Hoop]]'' ended with the titular duo (Plus their friend "Double Wide") being dropped from a magnetic crane and over a giant cliff. Guess we're supposed to assume that they died.
** A source states that Stroker and Hoop {{spoiler|are killed in the fall and go to Hell. Coroner Rick and Double Wide have to die and get them out of hell. Supposedly, they do}}
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* The first [[Cut Short|and only]] season of ''[[Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future]]'' ended with the death of a major character, the destruction of the good guys' home, and the remaining heroes stranded in the wilderness with a damaged ship.
* The 2002 sci-fi series ''Odyssey 5'' ends with astronaut Angela Perry abducted by the AI's and scientist Kurt Mendel being arrested on suspicion of killing her. Plus the mysterious Cabal, which the team assume have something to do with the AI's and the impending destruction of the Earth, turn out to be a government force trying to ''stop'' the AI's and who believe that the Odyssey 5 team are the traitors.
* ''[[
* ''[[Dark Angel]]'' ended with a huge
** May be considered an unplanned [[Bolivian Army Ending]].
* The third series of ''[[Primeval]]'' ended with {{spoiler|Danny trapped in the Pliocene, Connor and Abby trapped in the Cretaceous, and Sarah coming up with an unknown idea to sort things out.}} And then ITV announced there wouldn't be a fourth series. There is talk of a movie, however.
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* ''[[Hotel Babylon]]'' got [[Cut Short]] after four seasons due to low ratings but ended on a huge cliffhanger (unusual for the show that previously had few story arcs) {{spoiler|after Sam finds out Juliet, his ex-wife whom he had been dating again, had aborted his baby years ago he struggles to decide if he wants to continue their relationship and work past it or begin a relationship with Emily who he had been getting close to}}. No ending was ever written.
* The final episode of the fifth season of ''[[Las Vegas]]'' ended with Cooper's plane having crashed with him onboard, and Danny & Delinda changing their wedding to a memorial service for him. After the musician plays a sad song, Cooper suddenly appears at the back, clapping, and Delinda goes into labor. The End.
* In the last episode of the first season of ''[[
** A bit of a subversion, really, as the series was not expected to be renewed for a second season - which is precisely ''why'' creator Alan Spencer had the bomb go off in the first place!
* ''[[Power Rangers RPM]]'' ends with a {{spoiler|glowing red light coming from one of the morphers - the trademark of Venjix, the Big Bad. Looks like he survived by downloading himself into it...}} but there's no next season, as ''RPM'' was the final
* The last episode of the fourth season of ''[[iCarly]]'' ended with Sam kissing Freddie, whilst Carly watched in the window.
* V 2009 ends with {{spoiler|Diane murdering her mother, and her adopted child being able to give Humans Bliss.}}
* ''[[Fastlane]]'''s season and, as it turned out, [[Series Finale]] had two major characters being taken over by Jay Mohr, and another jabbed with a potentially-fatal overdose of drugs.
* The last episode of ''[[Sherlock]]'' season 2 ends with {{spoiler|Sherlock stepping off a roof, appearing to have died, and then appearing in the last couple seconds as he watches John visiting his grave.}} Talk about evil.
* {{spoiler|"Santabarbaratown", the season six finale}} of ''[[Psych]]'' did this with an excellent [[Bait and Switch]]: ''Psych's'' season finales are always [[Drama Bomb Finale
=== [[Video Games]] ===
* In the [[PlayStation 2]] Game "Haven: Call of the King," the endgame is as follows: {{spoiler|The eponymous protagonist is chained to a wall with no way out and left to die of starvation/thirst. The "Great King" who Haven spent most of the game trying to signal so he would return and save his people is dead, poisoned by the evil alien overlord Vetch--who has escaped after the final battle, presumably to go wreak further havoc on Haven's people.}} Even getting [[
* ''[[Wing Commander (video game)|Wing Commander]] II'' ended with [[The Dragon|Prince Thrakhath]] bragging to the [[Mega Neko|Kilrathi]] Emperor about the utter destruction of the Confederation's 6th fleet in Deneb Sector, with the last words on the screen being "To be continued in [[Wing Commander (video game)|Wing Commander]] III".
* ''[[Dino Crisis]] 2'' ended with a cliffhanger, then the third game took off on a totally different tangent, [[Recycled in Space]], and flopped hard, [[Franchise Killer|putting the nail in the coffin]].
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=== Web Comics ===
* ''[[Fabuland Housewives]]'' second season opens up with a slew of new mysteries and a sudden murder of one of the main characters. It then ceased updating after the first episode.
=== [[Web Original]] ===
* ''[[My Immortal]]'' ended just after Ebony had cast Avadra Keduvra (sic) at Voldemort, and we still don't know what happened after that since the author, Tara Gilesbie, was locked out by a Hacker, talk about [[Laser-Guided Karma]]...
* ''[[Space Boyfriend]]'' ends in quite the famous one. {{spoiler|Ben finally confesses his love to Veronica,}} and the series was canceled before she could respond.
*
=== [[Western Animation]] ===
=* ''[[Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!]]'' ended on a huge cliffhanger at the beginning of what would have been the main climax of the series. One more season of the show was intended, but Disney decided not to go for it, so everybody was left at the beginning of the final battle. As you might imagine, the fans were not amused.
* ''[[Duckman]]'' ended with three
* ''[[Get Ed]]'' ends with {{spoiler|[[Cool Old Guy|Ol' Skool]] trapped in The Machine with [[Big Bad|Bedlam]], and "sent away" by Ed.}} The series was not picked up for a second season.
* The second season of ''[[Sonic Sat AM|Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' (the Saturday morning version) ended with Snively emerging from the elevator he hid in, proclaiming that, now with [[Big Bad|Robotnik]] seemingly out of the picture, ''he'' would soon wreak havoc on the Freedom Fighters, accompanied by his new partner who we only see here as a pair of glowing red eyes ([[Word of God]] later stated those eyes to belong to {{spoiler|Ixis Naugus}}). Next September, though, the third season did not show up.
* ''[[
** An official online comic is currently{{when}} showing some of the story, while a film is planned for either 2009 or 2010.
* The very last shot of another Mainframe production, ''War Planets: [[Shadow Raiders]]'', had the [[Planet Eater|Beast]] looming over the helpless Planet Reptizar as it began to devour it.
* The first episode of ''[[Pepper Ann]]'' ended with "To be continued...". Strangely, there was no second part to that episode.
* The children's show ''[[Between the Lions]]'' has a segment called Cliff Hanger, which stars the cartoon protagonist of that name. At the beginning of each segment, the announcer always says "We find Cliff Hanger where we found him last... hanging from a cliff!" And of course, by the end of each segment he's always right back where he started.
** Cant...hold...on...much...LONGER!!! (And that's why he's called Cliff Hanger.)
*** Subverted in one episode
* In ''[[Danny Phantom]]'''s season 3, Valerie found out that {{spoiler|her employer is half-ghost and that Dani is half-human}}, but after that episode, nothing was ever heard of this ever again. In fact, Valerie practically fell off the face of the earth for the much of that season.
** Long story short: [[Executive Meddling]].
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[[Category:Ending Tropes]]
[[Category:Cliff Hanger]]
[[Category:Keeping This Index in Suspense]]
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