Cliffhanger Copout: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

[[Cliff Hanger|Cliffhangers]] tend to be a vital part of any serial story. They stop the action or drama right when tension is at its highest, leaving an audience on the edge of their seats in anticipation of a conflict resolution and wanting to stick around to see what happens next.

Unfortunately, sometimes writers may discover that they've written themselves into a corner with no way to resolve a cliffhanger based on how the prior episode, chapter, film, or story ended. When this problem arises, the writer may make a [[Author's Saving Throw|saving throw]] to cheat his way out of the problem in one of a few ways:

 

* What is seemingly promised to happen at the conclusion of one installment turns out to be something else entirely or an [[The Un-Reveal|Unreveal]] at the beginning of the next chapter.

 

If handled well enough, most viewers may not notice it, or even care all that much if they take the [[MST3K Mantra]] to heart. If not, a lot of people are going to feel duped and not very pleased with what they were rewarded with for their dedicated viewership.

 

 

See Also: [["What?" Cliffhanger]] when circumstances surrounding the cliffhanger are deliberately vague and without any sense of drama or suspense to motivate viewers to stick around for more.

Has nothing to do with the movies ''[[Cliffhanger]]'' or ''[[Cop Out]]''.

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* ''[[Macross Zero]]'': At the end of episode 4 the island where the protagonists are is getting fuel air bombed (or something). By the start of episode 5 the heroes have already been rescued except the native girl who has been captured. Also, flying submarine aircraft carriers.

* ''[[Naruto]]'' gives us the Great Snake Escape. Deidara decides to [[Taking You with Me|self destruct and take Sasuke with him]], setting off an absolutely enormous explosion, and Sasuke is out of chakra. The next chapter reveals that Sasuke somehow summoned a giant snake, mind controlled it, jumped in its mouth, and teleported it away, all things that take large amounts of chakra, ''which Sasuke had just been shown to be out of in the previous chapter'', and he did all this in the time it took the explosion to reach him when it had already gone off right next to him. [[Ass Pull|Yeah.]]

 

 

* ''[[Misery]]'' actually has two [[In-Universe]] examples of this. Annie was telling the story about her favorite cliffhanger serial from when she was a kid, quoted above, to Paul Sheldon after he did a similar thing while writing the manuscript for Annie's personal ''Misery'' novel. Paul had ended the last novel with Misery's burial, so Annie insisted that the new novel would start with a way of getting the heroine out of her grave, fair and square.

 

* The ''[[Batman]]'' [[Film Serial|cliffhanger serials]] of the 1940s were very much guilty of this time and time again. For instance, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7SyRZlsbP8 Chapter 13, "Eight Steps Down,"] ends with Batman stuck in a [[Death Trap]] where [[The Walls Are Closing In|spiked walls are closing in]] on him which is cut away from just before the walls are about to crush our hero with no hope in sight for rescue. Then, the beginning of [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muRg_TGzCqs Chapter 14, "The Executioner Strikes,"] shows Robin appearing ''much earlier'' during the same scene with more than enough time to slip Batman a crowbar to brace the walls moving in. In turn, the conclusion of [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tld8Tm9mt8 Chapter 14] shows Batman locked in a box and dropped in an alligator pit only for [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbCRVZCCC_g the next chapter] to show that Robin managed to break Batman free in secret much earlier and replace him with a hapless [[Mooks|mook]].

** The conclusion of Chapter 10 and beginning of Chapter 11 show something very similar to what's described in the page quote, with Batman miraculously jumping out from a car before it careens off a bridge and [[Every Car Is a Pinto|bursts into a fireball]].

** Another particularly bad one: Batman falling several stories and visibly slamming into the ground is resolved by it not being Bruce in the suit, but a minor villain who decided to put it on for no apparent reason.

** It's been mentioned in that serial a particularly bad cliffhanger resolution: Batman is in a plane that crashes in a fiery explosion. The next episode shows him just staggering out of the wreckage a little dazed while the mooks who were also on the plane both died from the crash.

* This was so common in the ''[[Undersea Kingdom]]'' serial that [[The Other Wiki]] [[wikipedia:Undersea Kingdom#Cliffhangers|keeps a list of these.]] When [[Mystery Science Theater 3000|Joel and the Bots]] watched the first two chapters in the serial where the cliffhanger saw Crash and Billy trapped on top of a cliff while it collapses underneath them from missile fire, the resolution in the following installment shows Crash and Billy climbing back down from the cliff before the collapse, prompting Tom Servo to [[Shout-Out|reference]] the line from ''[[Misery]]'', "How did they get off the cock-a-doodie cliff? This is ''wrong!''"

* ''[[The Purple Monster Strikes]]'' (Republic, 1945) has quite a few of these, but the most insulting is the cliffhanger to Chapter 7, "The Evil Eye": A bomb is wired to an electric eye in a doorway, with the [[Love Interest]] tied and gagged inside. [[The Hero]] arrives, and we ''clearly see him'' step into the electric eye, which triggers the 5-second timer and the building blows up. In the next episode, we're shown that the [[Damsel in Distress]] manages to ''de-gag herself'' and alert the Hero ''just before'' he steps into the electric eye, and he then ''jumps over it''. A moment later, once safely out of the building, he turns and shoots a [[Mook]] back in the building, and ''he'' falls into the electric eye and sets off the bomb. Cop out, indeed.

** Close second would be the end of Chapter 9, "The Living Dead", which featured the Hero in a closing spiked cage similar to the Batman example above. The cliffhanger showed the spikes closing in nearly to the point of puncturing the hero's body... the next episode backed the walls up considerably so the hero could use his gun as a stopper, holding the spiked wall at bay until the pressure ''broke the cage''.

{{quote|'''Joel:''' That scene wasn't in last time...

'''Crow:''' That's cuz they didn't get the film back from the drugstore yet.

'''Servo:''' (announcer voice) Upon further review the refs find that Cody is ''dead''. The play stands: Cody is ''dead''. }}

 

* Happens repeatedly between the chapters on R.L. Stine's ''[[Goosebumps]]'' books.

* Garth Nix's ''[[Seventh Tower]]'' series is also guilty of this. A particularly annoying one in the first book involves the main character falling over backwards at the end of one chapter and being caught immediately at the beginning of the next, which also means mining [["What?" Cliffhanger|an utter non-event for drama in the first place]] ''just'' for the sake of not having it come to anything.

* A meta-example occurs in the [[Harlan Ellison]] short story "How's the Night Life on Cissalda?"; the protagonist, locked in an inescapable interrogation cell, recalls a magazine serial he'd read as a kid in which the hero has escaped between installments via the use of this trope, and how disappointed he'd been. And then, this:

{{quote|"Later, comma, after he had escaped from the interrogation cell, Enoch Mirren was to remember that moment, thinking again as he had when but a child: what a rotten lousy cheat that writer had been."}}

* Parodied in ''[[Bored of the Rings]]'' when Goodgulf reappears and begins his explanation of his escape with "Well, once out of the pit..."

 

* The "Homefront/Paradise Lost" 2 parter of ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]''. The first episode makes us think that Earth is being seized by the Dominion, whereas in the second episode, it is revealed to be a conspiracy of a Starfleet admiral who wants to boost his authority. This may have been intentional, since the writers wanted to show how dangerous it is to allow a military to take control of a government when a dangerous situation is under way.

* A number of cliffhangers on ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' would pique viewers' interest that one thing would happen and then would give them something entirely different. The episode "Truth & Consequences" from Volume 2, for example, ends with Hiro charging at Peter, who refuses to believe Hiro's claims that Adam Monroe is dangerous and is even willing to protect him, suggesting that the two characters were going to fight each other. The beginning of the following episode, "Powerless," shows Hiro, after his charge, deciding to just teleport around Peter and try and talk to him some more to convince him that Adam is evil.

* The original ''[[Doctor Who]]'' did this many times. The most (in)famous, not to mention literal, example is probably from ''[[Doctor Who/Recap/S24/E04 Dragonfire|Dragonfire]]''; in which the Doctor ''dangles himself over a precipice'' for no obvious reason other than because the episode was coming to an end, and [[Pseudo Crisis|just... climbs out of it next episode]].

** Also, famously, in ''The Caves of Androzani'', when you actually see The Doctor and Peri get shot, execution style, and [["What?" Cliffhanger|fall down dead]]. The following episode resolves the conflict [[Pseudo Crisis|ten seconds]] in, when it is revealed that {{spoiler|the executed parties were actually, [[Deus Ex Machina|inexplicably]], [[Actually a Doombot|robot look-a-likes]]}}.

* ''[[The Time Tunnel]]'' sometimes changed the context in which a cliffhanger took place at the beginning of the next episode. For example, you find that the heroes weren't in as much danger as you thought they were, or, at least, that it was a different kind of danger than you thought.

** Made even worse that Chris Carter lied to Gillian Anderson when instructing her how to play that final scene, telling her that Mulder was alive, but Scully genuinely thought he was dead. Since Anderson is a great actress but Scully isn't, her tearful and quite moving statement about Mulder's death feels very cheap in retrospect.

* The first season of ''[[Prison Break]]'' ended with the main characters running through a field after their getaway plane left without them, while cops close in from almost every direction. In the beginning of the second season, it's revealed that they got away by...running through a forest and maneuvering around a moving train, which stops the cops from chasing them. It's made worse by the fact that the first season ends at night, but the second season begins during the day, raising the question of what, exactly, happened in what must have been several hours between the episodes.

* Episode Two in the first season of ''[[Twin Peaks]]'' ends with Agent Cooper having a dream from which he learns the identity of [[Mystery Arc|who killed Laura Palmer]]. Cooper immediately wakes up from the dream to call up Sheriff Truman that he knows who the murderer is but teases that the answer could "wait 'till morning." Come the next episode, taking place that following morning, Cooper recaps all the events from the dream that ended with Laura Palmer whispering the name of her killer in his ear. Then, once he's asked who the killer is, Cooper nonchalantly responds "I don't remember."

** Season 1 finale: Jones [[Faking the Dead]] causes all the deputies to kill each other in surprise.

*** Season 2 premiere: It was [[All Just a Dream]] [[Dream Within a Dream|Within A Dream]].

*** The writers did intend to spend the Series III premiere resolving that cliffhanger, but found that they couldn't make it funny enough and decided to just skip ahead. They also took the opportunity to explain away Kryten joining the cast and Holly [[The Other Darrin|changing appearance]].

** Series VI ended with the entire crew aboard Starbug as it was destroyed by their future selves. A quick gag at the beginning of Series VII reveals that this caused a paradox which hit the [[Reset Button]].

* A season finale of ''[[3rd Rock from the Sun]]'' involved Harry being kidnapped by a deranged man played by Phil Hartman. By the time the next season started, [[Real Life Writes the Plot|Phil wasn't with us anymore.]] The show had no choice but to gloss over the circumstances of Harry's kidnapping with no real resolution.

* ''[[Martial Law]]'' had a [[Retool]]-induced copout (see details at [[Retool]]).

** One season one episode ended with Jamie killing herself {{spoiler|(though we later find out Nina actually did it)}}, after being discovered as [[The Mole]], right before the [[Big Bad]] at the time calls her for an update, followed by the show going on hiatus for a couple weeks. The following episode didn't address this at all. Yeah, you can easily assume they just didn't answer the phone and he hung up, but it still feels cheap to get no acknowledgement that there even was a cliffhanger.

* In the series finale of the original ''[[Dallas]]'', JR Ewing takes out a gun after being convinced by a reflection of the Devil in his mirror that his life is meaningless now that he lost Ewing Oil. JR holds the gun in his hand, and his brother Bobby hears a gunshot from downstairs. Bobby runs up, opens the door to JR's room...and as the TV movie "JR Returns" would later explain, JR shot the mirror and climbed out the window, then fled to Paris to hide out for six months. ''What???''

'''Captain Trunk:''' Hammer, you can't defuse that bomb!

'''Narrator:''' Tonight's episode takes place five years before that fateful explosion. }}

* Season 3 of ''[[Charmed]]'' ends with Piper and Prue seriously wounded and Phoebe, Leo, and Cole trapped in the underworld with Phoebe having given her oath to stay there forever. Season 4 opens with Piper and Phoebe in the attic discussing Prue's death. How did the three trapped in the underworld escape? How did Leo get home in time to save Piper? Were there any consequences for Phoebe breaking her oath? The latter two questions get some explanation at the beginning of Season 4, but the exact details of the characters' escape from the underworld itself are never made clear.

''Cut to the team safe and sound in the gate room...''

'''Mitchell:''' Whoo! Can't believe we got out of that. }}

* ''[[Smallville]]'': Season 3 ends with Chloe's house exploding the instant she closes the door upon entering it, but a flashback in the first or second episode of Season 4 shows her escaping. Never mind that there wasn't time, or that she was being aided, if memory serves, by ''Lex,'' who, in the season 3 finale, had been rather busy being ''poisoned'' at the time of the explosion.

{{quote|'''Kim:''' We didn't burst into flame in the last chapter! Why are these recaps so inaccurate?

'''Paris:''' Well they brought people back to the theaters.

'''Paris:''' The lost art of Hyperbole... }}

* The first season of ''[[100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd]]'' ended with a cliffhanger wherein Eddie was faced with a choice between saving Justin or himself. The season season opened with absolutely no acknowledgement or resolution to that cliffhanger.

 

== [[Toys]] ==

** The Shadowed One came into possession of a cache of viruses that he could use to take over the Matoran Universe. When the story picked up, the universe had been destroyed already, so his whole arc got wasted, as well as Ancient's entire character (not to mention his reveal as a double agent), whom the Shadowed One had to kill in order to keep the viruses a secret.

 

* The cliffhanger of the fourth ''[[Futurama]]'' movie, in which the ship dives into a wormhole, with potential for [[Nothing Is the Same Anymore]], was completely ruined by the [[Uncancelled]] season premiere revealing that the wormhole led directly back to Earth. [[Lampshade Hanging]] and [[Rule of Funny]] mostly make up for it.

** It wasn't just any wormhole, it was Earth's central channel for shipping. [[Stealth Pun|Comedic, isn't it?]]

[[Category:Writer Cop Out]]

[[Category:Older Than Television]]

[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]