Cliff Hanger: Difference between revisions

[http://rover_wow.tripod.com/tvcliff.htm This site] contains a comprehensive list of unresolved cliffhangers.

 

 

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]].

** 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.

* 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.

* 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.

* 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]] ===

** 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]].

* 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.]])

** {{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.

* ''[[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.

 

 

* ''[[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]]s.

** The modern series, which has multi-parters as a more occasional thing, makes it slightly easier to list.

* 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.

** 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 Cliff Hanger each week! (And just to rub it in, only one segment reached a proper conclusion before the series was cancelled!)

** 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.}}

 

=== Other ===