Gainax Ending: Difference between revisions

Subtrope of [[Mind Screw]]. Contrast the [[Sister Trope]] of the Gainax Ending, [[Fandom Gank]], in which the creators thought the weird ending was something that the audience would "get" and appreciate -- but were ''wrong''. Compare [[No Ending]], which shares the lack of resolution, and [[Trippy Finale Syndrome]], which has similar imagery but actually makes sense (it's explicitly a [[Dream Sequence]], a [[Battle in Thethe Center of Thethe Mind]], takes place in [[Another Dimension]], etc). For when the ending ''does'' make sense and ends up changing the entire scenario, see [[The Ending Changes Everything]]. Not to be confused with [[Gainaxing]].

{{examples|Examples:}}

=== Anime & Manga -Studio Gainax Studios ===

* As mentioned above, ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion (Anime)|Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'', to the point where this trope could be named Evangelion Ending (if there wasn't a movie titled ''[[End of Evangelion]]''). Due to the budget effectively being shot, the final two episodes consisted heavily of stock footage, musings on human nature, discussion of the characters' psychological problems, some mention of the [[Assimilation Plot|Human Instrumentality Project]], and a [[High School AU]] with a [[This Is Your Premise Onon Drugs|Rei Ayanami on]] [[Genki Girl|Genki]].

*** [[Word of God]] says that the movie was the original planned ending and that the entirety of the TV ending takes place within the [[Journey to Thethe Center of Thethe Mind|instrumentality]] sequences. Seeing as the episode previews made before they ran out of money are incredibly similar to moments in the first half of the film, there can be no doubt they added complexity due simply to the lack of budget.

** It should be noted as well that that the countdown is never finished, as Mahoro's ultimate attack drains the same energy that keeps her alive; she is forced to use it in the second season, leading to the [[TimeshiftTimeShift]] enigmatic ending.

* ''[[Gun BusterGunbuster]]'''s final episode was animated in black and white, with gray tones, alongside intense still shots during the final battle. And then, after the black hole bomb goes off, it takes them 12,000 years to make it back to Earth. (Due to the relativistic affects of near-light-speed travel, probably only a day had passed from their POV) And ''then'' "WELCOME HOME!" (with one of the kana backwards, even), which was admittedly [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|kind of cool]], even if it left a billion unanswered questions. While it all does work to increase the dramatic tension, given who produced the show, there have been a lot of suspicions over the years that it was done more for budgetary reasons than for any reasons of high art.

* ''[[Abenobashi Mahou Shoutengai (Anime)|Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi]]'', made by Gainax, has an ending that may make no sense whatsoever to you if you didn't follow the shows' philosophy and possibly solve the [[Moon Logic Puzzle]].

* Creative differences caused a [[Gainax Ending]] in ''[[Kare Kano]]'', abruptly ending the story just as a new arc was starting up.

* Gainax has truly outdone themselves with ''[[Panty and& Stocking With Garterbelt (Anime)|Panty and Stocking Withwith Garterbelt]]''. Long story short, {{spoiler|[[Big Bad]] dies, but then isn't dead, ''Stocking is actually a demon WHO KILLS PANTY'', and now Brief must retrieve Panty's 666 pieces and bring her back to life}}. [[Flat What|Wat]].

** In fact, it's so big of a [[Gainax Ending]] that the characters who didn't see it coming react to it in much the same way the viewers do.

** And due to (un?)fortunate airing dates combined with said [[Gainax Ending]], December 24th24, 2010 will forever go down as [[Memetic Mutation|The Day Gainax Ruined Christmas.]]

* ''[[Gurren Lagann]]'' actually manages to ''invert'' this. The opening scene makes absolutely no sense compared to the rest of the series ([[BigNon LippedSequitur Alligator MomentScene|as well as contributing nothing and is never mentioned again]]), and [[Word of God]] is that they "[[Writing Byby the Seat of Your Pants|lost that plot thread somewhere]]." Fans came up with the idea that it was some alternate timeline, and the creators said [[Ascended Fanon|Sure]], [[Shrug of God|why not]].

** You think the ''series'' ending was Gainax? Try the movie, ''Revolutionary Girl Utena Adolescence Apocalypse''. They ride off into the sunset after ''one of them turns into a car.''

* ''[[Dragon Ball GT (Anime)|Dragon Ball GT]]''. While GT has many things to scratch your head about, the ending is so sudden and bizarre it's nothing short of a [[Mind Screw]]. What happened to Goku in the last 2 episodes? He's clearly dead from that huge energy ball, then suddenly he's alive again somehow able to talk to everybody on earth, then when he's charging the spirit he cannot be killed by Omega at all, despite direct hits. We're not even sure if he's dead or [[Back Fromfrom the Dead]] because there's not even a halo to give us any idea (How that is even possible under the circumstances is itself a mystery). Then after the bomb's thrown, he's dead again, apparently brought back to life, then suddenly he just leaves without even saying goodbye. Vegeta knows something's up, then suddenly we see his clothes left on the ground. But in DBZ when [[No Body Left Behind|they die]], they die with their clothes (In fact, that shot is ''out of sequence'' and is shown after the end of the next couple of events). But then he's off to visit Roshi and Piccolo, who both also know something's changed about him, but a mere "Are you...?" [[Shrug of God|is not very helpful]]. When they take their eyes off him for a second, there's suddenly no one there. Then the Dragonballs merge into Goku, then he disappears. Where does he go? What happened to him?

* The makers of the ''[[AIR (Visual Novel)|AIR]]'' anime were likely shooting for a [[Bittersweet Ending]], but the ambiguity of what happens after Misuzu's death leaves many viewers in the dark.

** Same for ''[[Clannad (Visualvisual Novelnovel)|Clannad]]'': To understand the [[Gainax Ending]] requires a lot of analysis of the dialogue between Ushio and the Garbage Doll before the Illusionary World collapses. Also, one has to wonder why Nagisa has knowledge of Tomoya wishing that he'd never met her, as well as if the reality where Nagisa, Tomoya, and Ushio died really happened. It really did.

* The bizarre way they treated Tetsuo's fate in the ending of the ''[[Akira (Manga)|Akira]]'' anime counts, I figure.

* ''[[The Big O (Anime)|The Big O]]'', partly because of the head writer's love of [[Mind Screw]] and partly because it was only intended to be a season finale. To summarize: The former [[La Résistance|Union]] agent Angel discovers that her memories of her childhood are [[Fake Memories|false]], and the enigmatic Gordon tells her that she's [[Tomato in Thethe Mirror|not a human being. He then leads her to an elevator going deep underground. She reappears either turned into or controlling a negative-colored mecha that erases everything it touches, finally leaving behind only a StarTrek-style holodeck grid, until ]] [[The Hero|Roger]] calls out to her to stop, giving an impassioned speech ending with "You must stop denying your own existence as a human being!". She seems to ignore him, but after both her mecha and Roger's erase each other, there's a flash of light, and the entire world reappears as it was before [[The Tokyo Fireball|episode 25]] [[Reset Button Ending|at the very beginning of the first episode]], with exactly one thing changed. Full synopsis [http://www.paradigm-city.com/scripts/article.php?a=ep26 here]. Message boards were flooded with "they pulled an Evangelion on us!".

* ''[[Blame!]]'' has an [[Mind Screw|incredibly confusing ending]] that had many readers scratching their heads, but the truth is that it was a good ending. Killy found (by pure chance, [[Hard Head|and after losing half his head]]) an uncontaminated place in which Cibo's "egg" could "hatch" and give birth to a [[The Messiah|child with Net Terminal Genes]]. So, Mission - [[Sequel Hook|more or less]] - Accomplished.

* ''[[XamdXam'd: Lost Memories (Anime)|Xamd Lost Memories]]''. An [[Ancient Conspiracy]] of soul-eating albino children. A stillborn [[Death Seeker]] [[Kaiju]]. Only a mass-sacrifice [[Combined Energy Attack]] can stop the [[Big Bad]], except not. The main character goes to a [[Journey to Thethe Center of Thethe Mind]] and defeats the [[Big Bad]] by giving him his name... Or was it the laser? [[Instrumentality]]! The main character dies, and gets better nine years later for no reason! ...Oh, and he has inexplicably aged in the meantime.

* ''[[Bagi, the Monster of Mighty Nature]]'' does this. At the end, Bagi is left prowling the jungle with her human intelligence destroyed, and Ryo just decides it would be better to stop trying to catch her.

* While the ending of the manga version of ''[[Chrono Crusade]]'' is better explained than some of the other examples here, due in part to some poor planning from Daisuke Moriyama and a rush to get everything explained in the end, the last volume or two of the manga feels like there's a sudden [[Genre Shift]] mixed with several open-ended questions, unless you were clever enough to pick up on subtle foreshadowing throughout the series. Some of the weirder points of the ending include the revelation that [[Our Demons Are Different|the demons]] are really [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens]], Rosette's soul leaving her body, causing her "death" and a trippy afterlife scene that ends with her and Mary Magdalene entering her body together to revive her, Chrono finding out that the demon [[Hive Queen]] was a human woman that was kidnapped by the demons and transformed into Pandaemonium--whoPandaemonium—who was pregnant with human twins that would grow up to be Chrono and Aion, Chrono and Aion charging at each other for their final battle, only for the manga to cut away and change focus, deliberately hiding the outcome of the battle and Satella freezing herself and Florette/Fiore into crystal, and the two of them found and revived in the year 1999 and forced to start over their lives after (almost) all of their old friends have passed on. While the [[Gecko Ending]] of the anime is [[Downer Ending|depressing enough]] that many fans prefer the manga ending, it's still known for being quite weird.

* Following the pattern of its own insanity, ''[[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]]'' has one of these, in which Fei Wong has somehow been defeated (or has he?), Watanuki and Syaoran did... something... which somehow resulted in bringing Syaoran back to Sakura from weird black void-thingy, the clones went * poof* , and Syaoran and Sakura appear to have gotten their memories back. I think. At this point, all anyone can hope for is that ''[[Xxx HO Li C (Anime)|Xxx HO Li C×××HOLiC]]'' explains ''what the hell just happened.''

** To elaborate a little further The two Sakuras gather their magic, i.e. [[Divide Byby Zero]] twice over and grant their own wish of coexisting even at the cost of the foundations of the universe. This distracts Fei Wong to allow everyone else to give the finishing blow to Fei Wong. Then the 3 Syaoran: The Clone Syaoran, the original Syaoran, and Watanuki get trapped in a void outside of time from the dimensional aftershock and/or Fei Wong's last wish. Clone Syaoran in a desperate attempt makes a wish by using his very existence to get the other two out, which the other two accept on the grounds that they understand the repercussions of making an un-[[Equivalent Exchange]].

* ''[[Bobobo-Bo BoboboboBo-bobo]]'' ends with the entire cast saying "This is how our show ends?!" although it was really more a subversion of the [[Cut Short|unresolved cliffhanger]] imposed by the show's cancellation.

* In ''[[Lucu Lucu]]'', you expect the main character, Rokumon, to end up in a [[Shipping]] with Lucu (at least in the first 30 chapters, and you keep hoping)... but, [[Mind Screw|that's not quite what happens...]] You see Rokumon was used essentially as a sim game by Lucu to learn humility, and his whole entire life has been a ''lie'' throughout the '''entire manga''. His dead-father-turned-living-talking-cat is also ''not'' his real father and his whole entire memory comes back in the last 5five pages of the manga.

* ''[[Darker Thanthan Black]]'', both seasons. Both finales actually contain scenes apparently inspired by the TV ending of ''Evangelion'', although the scene in the first season is actually in the middle of the episode and the parts following it make it a bit less mindscrewy. The second season, on the other hand, is a perfect example of a mindscrew ending.

* The ''[[Berserk (Manga)|Berserk]]'' anime's ending could be considered a Gainax Ending. If you watch it without ever reading a bit of the manga, you'll have a lot of trouble understanding the fact that towards the end, monsters unknown to each and every character start showing up and eating them, which is hard to understand because the anime doesn't even mention the existence of other behelits apart from Griffith's. Oh, also the anime ends abruptly, with Caska being raped by Griffith (now as Femto), while Guts is forced to watch, being subdued by a group of demons and losing an eye after carving his own arm off to escape some other demon's grip, with no sign of closure whatsoever. No epilogue, not even different credits, it just ends. It didn't get cancelled or discontinued either, its supposed to end there. Talk about ''downer ending''.

** Another explanation is much more complicated: It would say that Lain was never a real person, but was only {{spoiler|an AI created by Masami Eri--who was in turn created by Lain's father in the real world as an "acting God" until his usefulness was outlived--after his own death, but after the Knights are all murdered, only Lain is left to believe in his existence as a God, and his existence is dependent on being considered a God, which he explicitly states to Lain as a necessary trait of being a God. When Lain pulls a rather brave [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] in his monstrous face and renounces him, he completely disappears, and Lain maintains her capacity to "reset" the Universe as she pleases without Masami's control over her. The "Human Lain" we see most often is and always has been an AI programmed to interact with the real world convincingly, and was the only form of Lain given an ego by Eri, but becomes attached to it as a result of Eri's programming that made her *too* connected to the world and the people in it, while the others spend most of their time in the Wired, but still have the capacity to interact with the real world, such as Wired Lain's appearances at the Cyberia club. After Lain "resets" the entire Universe for Alice's sake and effectively becomes the daughter of God instead of just the creation of Eri who has been used the whole time for God's purposes (her father acting as a God-figure even after the Universe reset, as evidenced by their odd interaction in the clouds in which her father is literally watching over her from above), she completely deletes her "Wired" self, leaving only the "human AI" Lain left. Lain then chooses to recreate the entire Universe as she wants a second time, in which she still has a God's powers and is omnipotent and omniscient, but mostly just wants a normal life and to be as human as possible while protecting Alice forever, even in death, just so she can watch Alice marry and have a normal life herself, before Lain unwittingly destroyed her original life before the first reset.}} What the human form of Lain is, exactly, remains ambiguous, because Eri could have been wrong or even lying the whole time, along with the whole [[Secret Identity]], [[In Mysterious Ways]] and [[God Was My Co -Pilot]] things all going on at once.

* The climax and after credits bit of the ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (Anime)|Gundam 00]]'' movie. I'm still not sure what the hell happened, but apparently {{spoiler|the ELS were just a race who had lost their home and misunderstood humanity and Setsuna merged with the ELS becoming almost godlike. And his Gundam could grow flowers.}}

* The ending of that one episode of ''[[Kirby: ofRight theBack Starsat Ya!]]'' with the Dedede dolls in it. Seriously, King Dedede actually ends up flying into space and past a planet shaped like him as a result of [[Kirby]] swallowing one of said Dedede dolls.

* Episode 12 of ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica (Anime)|Madoka]]''. Although once you get past {{spoiler|Madoka becoming a god}}, it's not THAT''that'' hard to decipher.

** {{spoiler|The fact that the [[Grand Finale]] ends here isn't due to Madoka becoming a god, it has more to do with the fact that the show takes great pains to make this series a [[Darker and Edgier]] [[Genre Deconstruction]] for [[Magical Girl|Magical Girls]]s. The ending, however, does a '''''complete''''' 180 in tone and direction, while pulling a [[Decon Recon Switch]] along the way. That and the rather suspect/curious [[Faux Symbolism|symbolism]] and timing of the [[Grand Finale]], you have quite a few people still scratching their heads over the whole thing.}}

** This is what happens in the end: [[Darkseid]] had become a black hole that was sucking [[The Multiverse]] down. [[Superman (Comic Book)|Superman]] and the rest of the surviving superheroes shrunk and froze the remaining population to save them in the JLA Satellite while they constructed the [[Deus Ex Machina|Miracle Machine]] from Superman's memories in the [[Legion of Super-Heroes (Comic Bookcomics)|30th century]]. Once the Miracle Machine was constructed, Superman killed Darkseid's soul with a note of music vibrating at the exact opposite frequency. Then Mandrakk the Dark Monitor appeared and Superman powered the Miracle Machine with the solar energy in his cells and Nix Uoton, who had become the Judge of All Evil when a Rubik's cube transformed into a [[New Gods|Motherbox]], brought forth [[Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew (Comic Book)|Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew]], the Angels of the Pax Dei, the Forever People of Earth-51, and the entire friggin' [[The Chosen Many|Green Lantern Corps]] who stake Mandrakk and then help pull Earth out of the black hole, while the Miracle Machine restores the rest of the Multiverse (since Superman had asked for a "happy ending"). Then Nix Uuton declares that the Monitors should interfere no more and the Overvoid swallows them all up (they presumably turn into normal humans like Nix did). And [[Batman]] is stuck in the Stone Age due to Darkseid's Omega Sanction, where he carefully lays to rest Anthro. See? Simple.

* Speaking of [[Grant Morrison]], the ending of ''[[The Filth]]'' made no sense ''at all''. [[That Other Wiki]] [[httpwikipedia://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Filth_<!--The Filth 28comics29(comics)#Synopsis |has an explanation of how it works]], but that seems to be an interpretation rather than a definitive answer. -->

* The ending to ''[[Whatever Happened to Thethe Caped Crusader?]].'' Granted, the series was intended to close the character of [[Batman]] with a metaphysical look at the character, but the ending grabs metaphysics and goes straight into the surreal, passing by Elseworlds, multiple universes, and the Golden, Silver, and Dark Ages of comics along the way.

* The last chapter of ''[[Watchmen (Comic Bookcomics)|Watchmen]]'' is intended to [[Faux Symbolism|come across as]] a Gainax Ending, until you [[All There in the Manual|re-read the comic and associated documents]] to pick up all the foreshadowing.

* ''[[Ronin (Comic Bookcomics)|Ronin]]'' seems like a fairly straight-forward comic until the end where you find out that everything you knew was a lie. It all ends with most of the story wrapped up with a couple mild questions still lingering... and then the very last page throws everything out the window and raises several more.

== [[Film]] ==

* ''[[Monty Python and Thethe Holy Grail]]''. However, this might have been too simple an ending for this to count. {{spoiler|Everyone gets arrested.}} Interesting note: The original scripted ending was to have a large battle that the English begin to lose, but they are saved by swallows dropping coconuts. Considering [[Troubled Production|how much of a horrible time everyone had working on the movie]], it's not surprising they wanted to finish it quickly.

** A book written by the Pythons explains the reason for the changed ending -- allending—all the actors were being used as the English side of the fight, so there was [[No Budget]] and no cast to be the French. One of the Pythons suggested, "Oh, let's just have everybody get arrested."

* [[The Wachowski BrothersWachowskis]] refuse to explain exactly what's going on with Neo and Smith, the Source, flaming truth vision, etc. etc. in the sequels to ''[[The Matrix]]''. The fan theories [[Epileptic Trees|are a bit odd]], but that's inescapable given what they've got to work with.

** It probably makes more sense if you read [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Water_Nixie:The Water Nixie|a lot of fairy tales]] as a kid. That sort of thing comes up [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Nix_Nought_Nothing:Nix Nought Nothing|over and over again]].

* The ending of the [[The Movie|movie adaptation]] of ''[[Silent Hill (Filmfilm)|Silent Hill]]'' was quite opaque. One possible interpretation of the ending is that, once you stumble into Silent Hill, [[Failure Is the Only Option|you can't escape]].

* The film of ''[[Being There]]'' ends when the [[Seemingly -Profound Fool|main character]] {{spoiler|is taking a stroll by himself after losing interest in Ben's funeral, and winds up walking onto the surface of a lake. And, just so there's no confusion, when he realizes where he is, he fully submerges his umbrella before accepting the situation and continuing his stroll}}. This ending was not the scripted one, but one the director conceived because he figured the movie was so believably acted - given its plot - that audiences would not find it unbelievable that the protagonist could do this. Note that there is a phrase uttered right before the credits; if you listen to it and compare it with the final shot, you will see it is a clear statement on the film's [[Aesop]]. {{spoiler|"Life is a state of mind."}}

* The ending to the remake of ''[[Planet of the Apes]]''. Marky Mark hops in his spacepod, [[Now Do It Again Backwards|flies back through the timewarp]], and... suddenly he's on Earth (or what we assume is Earth), and apes have replaced humans. Did he just bump his head getting into the pod, and is [[All Just a Dream|hallucinating]]? Yeah, that's gotta be it. According to [[Mis BlamedMisblamed|Tim Burton]], that was supposed to be a cliffhanger if a sequel was made. It wasn't, now it's just weird.

* ''[[Friday the 13 th13th (Filmfilm)|Friday the 13 th]] Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan'' ends with Jason being caught in a flood of toxic waste in the New York sewers (happens every night apparently) causing him to, for some reason, become a completely normal looking little boy in swimming trunks. The sequels never address this, probably because the sequels after that was produced by a new studio after Paramount dropped the series.

* ''[[Titanic (Film)|Titanic]]'': [[All Just a Dream|Is Rose dreaming at the end]]? [[Bittersweet Ending|Did she die peacefully in her sleep]] [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|and rejoin Jack and the crew]]? [[Shrug of God|Apparently, we're supposed to decide for ourselves]]...

** For anyone familiar with [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/:Spiritism |Spiritism]], believer or not, the ending makes sense.

* ''[[The Element of Crime]]'' is entirely a [[Whole -Episode Flashback|hypnosis induced flashback]], with voice-over dialogue between the protagonist and his therapist. The story is sometimes confusing but overall makes sense. But then it ends with {{spoiler|a black screen, and the protagonist's voice repeating "doctor? I want to wake up now", and the voice of the therapist laughing slowly in the distance}}.

* ''[[The Great Yokai War]]'' has a very bizarre one that combines this trope with [[Deus Ex Machina]] and [[Chekhov's Gun]]. Kato jumps into a glowing pit to go [[One -Winged Angel]], when the guy from the movie's subplot falls onto a seesaw that throws the bean-counting yokai into the air. This causes him to drop his basket of beans, one of which falls into the pit. Then a song about beans being good for you plays for a few seconds, and after that, ''[[The Tokyo Fireball|THE ENTIRE CITY EXPLODES.]]'' But that's okay, because none of the Yokai were hurt. The yokai then say some cryptic stuff, conclude that festivals make them hungry (don't ask) and go wander off. Yeah.

* ''[[Horton Hears a Who!]]'' is one of the few movie adaptations of a children's storybook that doesn't involve love and romance. So why in the hell did they play [[REO Speedwagon (Music)|REO Speedwagon]]'s "Can't Fight This Feeling"?

* The original ''[[A Nightmare On Elm Street (Film)|A Nightmare Onon Elm Street]]''. Was the whole movie a dream? Did Nancy ever escape into the real world? Was that part a dream? Is her mother dreaming?

* A [[Sci Fi ChannelSyfy]] (before it was renamed to [[Xtreme Kool Letterz|SyFy]]) movie about a mission to Mars is notable for being shown mostly from camera angles. The crew has to undergo several hardships, including sabotage efforts by a [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] but manage to successfully land on [[The Red Planet]]. Since the captain is suffering from a nanite infection (that's killing his nerve cells), his [[Number One]] makes the historic first step on another planet. All the world is watching as the camera she set up is zoomed on her face. She starts giving a speech, only to suddenly look somewhere off to the side and say "oh my God" with an astonished face, before the feed suddenly cuts out. The news anchors reporting on the mission say that a satellite in orbit is being repositioned to take a look at the landing site. The movie ends with a fly-by of the Martian landscape and a [[Cliff Hanger]].

* [[Played for Laughs]] in ''[[Murder By Death]]''. The ending has {{spoiler|the party of detectives escape various death traps and confront the butler, who they assumed was killed earlier in the movie. After presenting theory after theory, the butler pulls off a mask to reveal himself to be Lionel Twain, the guy who invited them over in the first place, and proceeds to mock the various [[Deus Ex Machina|Deus Ex Machinas]]s in the story. After the puzzled detectives leave, Twain pulls off ''another'' mask to reveal himself to be the cook.}}

* Takashi Miike's [[Dead or Alive]] ends this way. With Jojima pulling out an RPG from absolutely nowhere and Ryuuichi pulling out some sort of energy ball-thingy and them shooting at the same time, rocket and ball hitting eachother and blowing up Japan. Up until that point it had been a pretty realistic yakuza movie.

* ''[[Big Man Japan (Film)|Big Man Japan]]'' is a [[Mockumentary]] about a guy who has a crappy personal life who happens to be able to grow giant from electricity and fight [[Kaiju]]. At the end the title character is getting the crap beat out of him by a monster, then it suddenly switches to a [[Stylistic Suck]] [[Toku]] style, some [[Ultraman]]-esque [[Eagle Land|American]] characters show up and brutally kill the monster without much effort. Roll credits over the main character having dinner with the American [[Ultraman]] family. It's supposed to symbolize the decline of Japan's place in the world or something but...[[Flat What|What]].

* An early example can be seen in the '50's era movie ''[[The Incredible Shrinking Man (Film)|The Incredible Shrinking Man]].'' Did the titular man become so small that he died? Did he become one with the cosmos? And just who is he narrating his story to?

* ''[[Lifeforce (Film)|Lifeforce]]'' makes it patently unclear just what happens to Space Girl and Carlson after he stabs her at the end.

* ''[[Monster a Go -Go!]]'': at the end, the monster suddenly never existed, and the astronaut who everyone thought had turned into said monster turns up alive in the North Atlantic. It leaves a number of questions unanswered, starting with "then why did you have footage of the monster wandering around killing people?", moving through "why did we get to see, in graphic detail, every preparation the military made to hunt this monster that doesn't exist?", and finish up somewhere around "what the flying rat heck?!?"

* The film adaptation of ''[[Casshern]]'' is... confusing to say the least, but the ending is entirely made of pure whatthefuck. The rundown: {{spoiler|Casshern/Tetsuya's father kills Casshern's fiance to show him the pain of losing the one you love. Casshern murders his father in vengeance. Fiancee comes back to life because her blood came into contact with that of the film's dead antagonist ([[It Makes Sense in Context]], sort of) Fiancee says to leave her because the villain's blood has infected her with his hatred. Casshern says they'll be together always as souls rise up from the corpses littering the battlefield below them and join together in the sky. Then Casshern and fiancee FUCKING EXPLODE, sending a beam of light into the sky. Then we see them riding a bike in a field.Said beam travels through space as grainy flashbacks are interspersed, until it reaches a green planet, touching down in a bolt of metal lightning like the ones from earlier in the film. We then see Tetsuya's mother's greenhouse, and the movie ends on a shot of a boy and a girl as the film degrades.}} Ya got all that?

== [[Literature]] ==

* [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[From a Buick 8]]'' and especially 'The Colorado Kid' are based on this theme: the mysterious death of the titular character from 'Kid' is no closer to resolution at the end than the beginning.

* In ''Nuklear Age'' by [[Brian Clevinger]] (who made ''[[Eight 8-Bit Theater (Webcomic)|Eight Bit Theater]]''), most of the book is a comedic parody of the superhero genre, somewhat akin to [[The Tick (animation)]]. The last section of the book {{spoiler|turns quite rapidly to dark as nearly everyone dies in a villain-caused apocalypse that killed off half the planet's population and destroyed every major city but three, and injects a bunch of philosophy based somewhat off of [[Norse Mythology]] into the mix.}} It was quite the elaborate joke, at least according to The Apology.

* ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]]''. Basically every single plot point in the series was left unresolved at the end. The last book can best be summarized as "Ha, ha! In life, there are lots of mysteries you'll never know the answer to. So long and [[Money, Dear Boy|thanks for all the book sales]]."

* Science-fiction author [[Philip K. Dick]] pretty much made a career out of this and [[Mind Screw]]. ''Ubik'' is the mother of all Gainax Endings.

** "Faith Of Our Fathers" might be Philip K. Dick's most confounding story. Is it a satire of Communist society? An exploration of the true meaning of religon? Or a role reversal on LSD culture? Who can tell? {{spoiler|The great communist leader is actually god in human form, and you can only see his true form(s) (a series of [[Cosmic Horror|grotesque monstrosities]] ) when you take thorizen, the "antidote" to LSD. }}

** [[The Man in Thethe High Castle]] ends a book about an [[Alternate History]] America after the Axis won WWII with... {{spoiler|the characters discovering they're fictional. Maybe.}} Yeah.

* ''[[The HitchhikersHitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy]]'' books all seem to end up here, apart from the eponymous first book which ended on an intentional [[Sequel Hook]].

** That is, most of Heinlein's ''later'' works taper off like that - the ones, say, post-''[[Time Enough for Love]]''. Before then, his books tend to conclude rather neatly, with endings ranging from [[Distant Finale|Distant Finales]]s (''[[Double Star]]'') to [[And the Adventure Continues...]] (''[[Tunnel Inin Thethe Sky]]''). The turning point might arguably be [[The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress]], but even there, the only major uncertainty is whether or not one character wakes back up or not.

* British children's/teens' author Alan Garner has an affinity for the [[Gainax Ending]] unusual in non-adult fiction. ''The Owl Service'' ends with a young girl who had been possessed by an incredible supernatural force converting that force from anger - "owls" to peace - "flowers". However, everything else about the characters' relationships (which have been totally wrecked) is left unresolved.

** There is an official extension to it, ''The Discourager of Hesitancy''. [http://www.imaginaryplanet.net/weblogs/idiotprogrammer/?p=83398933 Found here] at the moment.

* [[Older Than Feudalism]]: ''[[The Aeneid (Literature)|The Aeneid]]'' is an ancient example of this: the story literally ends with Aeneas killing [[Big Bad|Turnus]] and Turnus going to hell. (That's assuming that his [[Author Existence Failure]] wasn't at fault, and that the relevant pages aren't just missing, as happens with much ancient literature.)

* ''[[Discworld (Literature)/The Science of Discworld|The Science of Discworld]]'' volume 1 ends this way. Long story short, the wizards have accidentally created a pocket universe where magic does not exist, where worlds are round balls rather than discs on the back of turtles and elephants. At the end, the computer Hex mentions "Recursion Is Occurring" and then, after the wizards have abandoned the "Roundworld Project", we see a discworld atop elephants and a turtle condensing out of gas and dust in the far reaches of its universe...

* In ''[[Fame (Literaturenovel)|Fame]]'', Elisabeth finds herself in one of Leo's stories together with him, talking to his characters. When she asks him why, he simply vanishes from the story and leaves her in a world where no one knows who he hisis, and where as the author, he has full power over what she says and does. The straightforward explanation would be that she left him and he just included her in a later story out of spite, but more surrealistic interpretations are also possible.

* David Foster Wallace's ''[[Infinite Jest]]'' provides a bunch of hints near the end that come close to explaining the strangeness of the first chapter, and sets up a dramatic climax, then ends very deliberately before that climax, in the middle of a secondary character's flashback.

* The Croatian novel ''The Devil's eye'' is a pretty standard teen-horror story; a teen-age hero must stop an evil demon that's killing his classmates... and the whole thing ends with a [[Gender Bender]], with ''abso-friggin'-lutely nothing'' resolved. And the author's response? [[Shrug of God|"The ending is whatever you think it might be."]] Yeah, thanks.

* The Sweet Valley Twins "Frightening Four" miniseries. It's also a blatant ripoff of ''[[Nightmare On Elm Street]]'' (see the Film folder, above).

* Depending on who you ask, ''[[Lost (TV)|Lost]]''.

* Most ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' sketches and episodes end in bizarre fashion. When the troupe felt that a sketch had run its course, they'd drop a 16-ton weight; have the "Stop, this is silly!" officer enter; or segue into an animated sequence, news broadcast or documentary. This was a reaction against conventional sketch comedy where every sketch had to have a [[Punch Line]]. The Pythons thought it would be funnier to deliberately subvert convention, and were dismayed to find that their comic mentor [[Spike Milligan]] had done it first with his show ''Q5'' (Many of Milligan's sketches ended with everyone stopping what they were doing and shuffling offstage chanting "What are we going to do now?" ''shuffle, shuffle, shuffle'' "What are we going to do now?").

*** Actually, the second or third officer gets what looks like a moldy Wookie "arresting" him, IIRC.{{verify}}

* In the American remake of ''[[Life On Mars (TV)|Life On Mars]]'', Sam Tyler is a New York detective from 2008 who somehow found himself in 1973. Was he mad? Lying in a coma in a 2006 hospital bed, dreaming of 1973? Back in time? None of the above. Sam and his fellow officers from 1973 were really all from 2035. They were astronauts on the first manned Mars mission, and were kept sedated, with artificially-induced dreams, for the voyage.

* The series finale of ''[[Farscape (TV)|Farscape]]'' ends with John and Aeryn getting engaged on a boat in some random body of water somewhere, having tied up virtually all the major loose ends, and providing a fairly solid conclusion to the show with just the right balance of closure, and riding into the sunset style implications of continuing adventures. Then a freaky looking alien whose species we have never seen before, flying a ship we've never seen before, talks to someone over his radio, zooms in, and blasts them with a beam that causes John and Aeryn to shatter into a million little pebbles. [[Cliff Hanger|To be continued]]... They knew this was going to be the series finale, and not only do they end it with that random [[Mind Screw|Mind Frell]], but they have the balls to top it off with a [[Sequel Hook|to be continued]]. The mini-series actually fixes this, and manages to make this relevant and even answer significant questions the show never dealt with. But before that, seriously, what the hell?

** According to the makers of ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'', the [[Sci Fi ChannelSyfy]] never lets them know if they're renewed or canceled until it's too late to base the final episode around it. That's the reason every season finale of SG-1 blows the remaining special effects budget and generally wraps up the current plot - they don't know if it's the series finale or not.

* The end of ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined (2004 TV series)|the reimagined ''Battlestar Galactica Reimagined]]'']]... The angels seen by Baltar and Six reveal that human/Cylon hybrid child Hera is Mitochondrial Eve and speculate on whether it's all going to happen again. After Head Baltar reminds Head Six that God doesn't like the name "God", she looks at him sternly and he cryptically says, "Silly me". They walk away unseen through the streets of modern New York while "All Along the Watchtower" plays over a montage of robot advances on television.

* Brazilian sitcom ''Toma Lá Dá Cá'' last episode: the cast was about to be killed by an invasion. And since one of the main actors is the main writer of the show, [[Post Modernism|they hand him a laptop and order him to write an ending that saves them]]... involving the arrival of an alien ship, which had previously "rescued" a character [[Put Onon a Bus]].

* Joss Whedon's ''[[Dollhouse]]'' kindly gave us the [[Lost Episode]] first season finale "Epitaph One", which is ''really'' different from all the episodes that preceded it. The series finale "Epitaph Two" is a little bit less of a [[Mind Screw]] ending only in that it's setting was somewhat foreshadowed in the latter half of the second season and it is a direct sequel to "Epitaph One". It still counts as an extreme case of this trope though. Think of all those viewers who watched it without having even ''heard of'' "Epitaph One"...

** They both made perfect sense in the context of each other (the one small problem is that there was a series in between). However, they both seemed like [[Gainax Ending|Gainax Endings]] for the seasons they served as finales to.

* ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]'' parodies the above ''[[Being There]]'' ending.

* ''[[The Hills]]''. Yes, a [[Reality Show]] managed to have a [[Gainax Ending]]. The finale ends with Brody saying his goodbyes to Kristin, who gets in the limo and heads off, with a [[Softer and Slower Cover]] version of [[Real Song Theme Tune|"Unwritten"]] playing in the background... and then the camera pulls back to reveal that the entire scene was shot on a soundstage. Kristin's limo is sitting right nearby, and had not driven off like we had been led to believe. The question as to how much of the show was just as fake goes unanswered.

* ''[[V (TV series)|V]]''. The heretofore serious [[Black and Grey Morality]] [[Alien Invasion]] vs. [[La Résistance]] science fiction series Gainax Ends big time in the last five minutes of the second miniseries, V: The Final Battle. The alien/human hybrid child Elizabeth develops ''sparkly'' magical powers just in time to save the world by disabling the [[Self -Destruct Mechanism]]. Never mind the fact that magical or psychic powers have never even been mentioned on the entire show before, and that the heroes already had a perfectly good plan to save the world. Sparkly magical baby! Fandom wtfed.

* ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'' threw one in the third season finale, the Xindi plot was resolved in a totally sane ([[Crowning Moment of Awesome|and awesome]]) way, and the Enterprise goes back to Earth, without their Captain, who they believe is dead. They try to call Starfleet and no one responds, so figuring some sort of communications difficulties they send a shuttlepod down to San Francisco. They meet a flight of American P-51D Mustangs. Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, Captain Archer has been discovered unconscious by Nazi soldiers. One of them asks the others in the group if they recognize his uniform. The camera pans over each of the officers until finally one steps out of the shadows and reveals himself as an unknown alien wearing a Nazi uniform. Roll credits.

** There is widespread fan speculation that this was thrown in by Berman &and Braga as a [[Take That]] against Manny Coto, who was being promoted to showrunner by Paramount in an attempt to rescue the show once it became clear that Berman &and Braga were simply running out of creative ideas and not really delivering on the kind of prequel stories the fans wanted. Presumably, they were annoyed about being kicked upstairs, and hoped that Coto wouldn't be able to write his way out of the Evil Alien Nazi hook. (Coto promptly used it as an excuse to abort the entire "temporal cold war" plot arc, which the fans had never really warmed up to and which was already showing signs of [[The Chris Carter Effect|decaying into a tangled mess which would never actually be resolved.]])

* The final episode of ''[[Are You Afraid of the Dark?]]'' ends with the leader of The Midnight Society {{spoiler|of the previous generation finishing his story, which happened to be about the ''real'' supernatural events occurring to the members of the ''current'' generation of the Midnight Society}}.

{{quote| ''Happy ever after in the market place,<br />

''Molly lets the children lend a hand.<br />

''Desmond stays at home and does his pretty face,<br />

''And in the evening he's a singer with the band! }}

== Musicals[[Theatre]] ==

{{quote| Einstein goes down to Hades to bring back his cousin Sophie, avenge the murder of his brother at the hands of Tsar Ivan the Inside Trader, slays the dragon guarding the entrance to the Golden Cave, seduces the Count's daughter on the eve of her wedding, and unites Italy.}}

== [[Video Games]] ==

* The ''[[Marathon (Video Game)Trilogy|Marathon]]'' series is probably the best example of this. Although the second game is pretty straightforward, the first one still has people arguing about it on forums. Also, not a single damned person has a bit of an idea about what the ending of the third game means at all.

* ''[[Super Mario Galaxy (Video Game)|Super Mario Galaxy]]'', surprising for a series that's usually known for shallow plots, and a game that seems to follow that pattern throughout. It usually takes at least two viewings of the ending for players to figure out just what happened, which is convenient because {{spoiler|you need to see the ending four times for [[Hundred Percent100% Completion]]}}. It involves {{spoiler|the complete destruction of the everything, a [[Fade to White]] moment between Mario and an enormous Rosaline, the rebirth of the universe which apparently Mario and co. pass through unaffected, and Mario yelling "WELCOME NEW GALAXY!!"}}

** ''[[Super Mario Bros the Lost Levels (Video Game)|Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels]]'' ended with a cutscene involving random Toads circling Mario/Luigi and Peach, both on the ground and ''in the air'', constantly disappearing and reappearing as if either Mario/Luigi was actually making something up.

* ''[[Chrono Cross (Video Game)|Chrono Cross]]'': {{spoiler|The main character is supposed to be dead. A computer that controls destiny. The computer kept humanity safe from a race of dragon people, [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]. Everybody from the last game is inexplicably dead and your actions may or may not have actually done anything about it. Schala Lives! Then finally, a credits sequence of a girl running around in Tokyo with a necklace that has nothing to do with anything.}} And good luck figuring out if you actually accomplished anything from playing the game.

** This is actually a case of [[All There in the Manual]]. There's a lot of supplementary material, including [[Chrono Trigger (Video Game)|Chrono Trigger]] and [[Radical Dreamers (Visual Novel)|Radical Dreamers]], that you need to understand to put it together. {{spoiler|The main character erased his own time line from existence. There's a... lot of reasons he did it, but that's he chose to do. The time line that happened instead is (Similar to) our time line. And that necklace that 'has nothing to do with anything' is actually referenced repeatedly throughout the game, especially on the key item list.}}

* The first two ''[[Earthworm Jim (Videovideo Gamegame)|Earthworm Jim]]'' games were near-legendary for their bizarre endings: In the first one, {{spoiler|the [[Distressed Damsel in Distress]], a mere five feet away from the protagonist's rescue, is crushed by [[Drop the Cow|a falling cow]] [[Brick Joke|launched by the player way back in the very first level]].}} The second game's ending is even more insane: {{spoiler|Turns out the [[Distressed Damsel in Distress]] was a cow in disguise. As was the [[Big Bad]]. [[Tomato in Thethe Mirror|And the player]]. Wait, WHAT?!}}

* ''[[Beyond Good and& Evil (Videovideo Gamegame)|Beyond Good and Evil]]'' springs a last-minute surprise on the player that's set up in such a way that it's incredibly easy to miss - {{spoiler|1=the DomZ are feeding on the citizens of Hillys because their own weird alien lifeforce, which they call "shauni", was stolen from them -- by Jade's parents. Jade's somehow the DomZ's shauni, and they would very much like her back.}} In hindsight, it's a decent explanation for a lot of odd behaviour that the player's already put down to "it's a game". It's not terribly well set up even if you notice the extremely incidental evidence the game presents in the final level, specifically {{spoiler|1=a conversation the player overhears that's optional, and how the sacred chant the DomZ keep repeating has the same lyrics as the battle music -- including the word "shauni"}}.

* ''[[Star Wars]]: [[Knights of the Old Republic (Videovideo Gamegame)|Knights of the Old Republic]] II'' had this for Light Side. {{spoiler|You beat Kreia, she talks to you for a bit, explaining why she liked you, and explaining the fates of some of your comrades. Then, she dies, your ship picks you up, falls into a chasm to its apparent destruction, then flies away from the exploding planet unscathed. AND NOTHING ELSE HAPPENS. No denouement, no "what's next?", just hop on the ship GOOD NIGHT, EVERYBODY, leaving everyone wondering "Okay, is there ANY backstory for Sion or Nihilus? How did the remote beat G0-T0? And why was HK apparently completely extraneous?"}}

*** You can thank [[Lucas ArtsLucasArts]] for the [[Christmas Rushed|rushed ending]]. [[Executive Meddling]], indeed.

*** The planned ending involved a variety of things, such as {{spoiler|your friends actually trying to help (rather than mostly just disappearing once you hit Malachor), possible tragic deaths, and even maybe facing Atris instead of Kreia.}} Which would have been much better. But no. Thanks a lot, [[Lucas ArtsLucasArts]].

** Also, the entire story of Revan and the Exile has been Gainax'd by the coming [[Star WarstheWars: The Old Republic|MMO]]....

* ''[[The World Ends With You (Video Game)|The World Ends With You]]'' is almost a [[Double Subversion]]: the plot is a [[Gambit Pileup]] we don't get too many details about, and the ending is just utterly confusing. However, you're then given the ability to unlock reports explaining what happened. But ''then'' you eventually get all of them, and unlock a final scene that makes even less sense.

* The Good ending for ''[[Star Soldier]]: Vanishing Earth'' consist of a nonsensical poem that doesn't have anything to do with the plot. The Bad ending, while making more sense, is still very strange.

* The "comedy ending" of ''[[The Whitewhite Chamberchamber]]'' seems to be this intentionally. {{spoiler|The crew that Sarah had murdered turn up alive, and reveal that everything was just as planned for a ''surprise birthday party''. It's rather entertaining, as the other crew members in this ending are a rather odd lot... Oh, and the meteor coming out of nowhere along with the karaoke bunny-ears guy riding it.}} "You were confused by the 'comedy' ending" indeed.

* ''[[Braid (Video Game)|Braid]]'' has one. {{spoiler|We're not even sure how much of the entire game previous was metaphorical. Somewhere between 50 and a 100% probably.}}

* ''[[First Encounter Assault Recon|F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin]]'s'' final battle is a figurative [[Mind Screw]] and a literal [[Mind Rape]]. {{spoiler|And [[Rape Asas Drama|physical rape]], too, while we're at it.}}

* [[Flower, Sun, and Rain|Practically]] [[Contact (Videovideo Gamegame)|anything]] [[Killer 7Killer7|and]] [[No More Heroes|everything]] created by [[Suda 51]].

** ''[[Killer 7Killer7]]''. Oh boy ''[[Killer 7Killer7]]''. While the individual stages have thier own moments, like First Life {{spoiler|being a front for [[Dark Messiah|Ulmeyda's]] thrill seeking cult}}, [[Sentai|The Handsome Men]] {{spoiler|being erased from existance by Trevor's sister killing them in a video game}}, and whatever the hell was the purpose of the room you fight {{spoiler|Curtis}} in, the ending blows them all away. {{spoiler|[[Alpha Bitch Samantha]] dies somehow, Christopher gets killed, Garcian [[More Dakka|interrupts Kun and Harman's chess game]], Garcian is actually insane, there is another Harman Smith and he's in his 30's and works for the government, [[Government Conspiracy|all of Garcian/Emir's actions were controlled by the United States government]], the memos were sent years ago and are adressed to Garcian/Emir and the guy writing them was killed by [[Meido|Samantha]] on the orders of old Harman, Emir/Garcian killed the entire Smith Syndicate at the age of 13, Iwazaru is Kun is the last Hevean Smile, Garcian/Emir's eyes turn green and he gets a nice suit, and Japan either gets bombed by the USA or leads the UN in a full scale attack on America.}} Also, {{spoiler|Kun and old Harman are alive 100 years later in Shanghai to do it all again.}}

{{quote| {{spoiler|Sylvia: You like this painting, don't you? Let's go, Jeane. I know, too bad there won't be a sequel.}}}}

** Even [[L PsLPs]] of [[Suda 51]]'s games aren't safe. Most notable in [[Chip Cheezum|Chip and Ironicus']] [[L PsLPs]] of Killer7 and [[No More Heroes]], where the former ends in the revelation that {{spoiler|The LP was all in Chip's head}} and the latter ends with {{spoiler|Chip and Ironicus suddenly proclaiming "It's coming." repeatedly in monotone during the final video of the LP, until semi-trucks start to rain from the sky.}}

* ''[[World of Goo (Video Game)|World of Goo]]'' - Every ''chapter'' has its own [[Gainax Ending]]. {{spoiler|The Ivy Goos float away with balloons! The world is powered by the beauty of a giant ugly woman! The World of Goo corporation's new product is the ''third dimension!'' MOM is a '''spam bot!''' The fish have wings and levitate the telescope! The title refers to ''the moon!''}} Made even better by the insanely epic ''music'' that plays during each scene, despite the game's premise being, essentially, poking goo until it goes somewhere.

* ''[[Mondo Medicals]]'', ''[[Mondo Agency]]'', and ''[[Psychosomnium]]''. [[Cactus (Creator)|Cactus]] loves this kind of thing.

* Who would end their game ''{{spoiler|with a French music video?!}}'' The same guys who brought us ''[[Earthworm Jim (Videovideo Gamegame)|Earthworm Jim]]'' apparently did this with their ''MDK''.

** ''[[Plants vs. Zombies (Video Game)|Plants vs. Zombies]]'' does this as well, bonus that it also doubled as the game's ''advertisement''.

* ''[[Michigan: Report From Hell]]'' ends with {{spoiler|the player character finally being revealed and being shot in the head before he can reveal who unleashed the monsters.}}

* ''[[Cryostasis]]'' arguably has one of these. The Crew being Ice Monsters aside, most of the storyline was fairly realistic, until you reach the end where ''{{spoiler|Heat Cracks start appearing all over the ship and the Nuclear Reactor goes Chernobyl, whereupon Chronos, the God of Time, pops out and you have to defeat him using magical energy balls from your hands. Oh, and you go to some kind of ruins out in space where you get to go back in time to one of three different places and change history to prevent the tragedy from occurring in the first place.}}'' Presumably, it explains all the weird bits of the game, but I've yet to see how.

** This is definitely not the [[Gainax Ending]], just read the first sentence in the trope description. It is simply [[Bittersweet Ending|dark twist]] on typical fight with [[Final Boss]] in [[The Very Definitely Final Dungeon]]. King of Shadows is a [[Load -Bearing Boss]] and when he dies, {{spoiler|he takes all characters with him}}. So, this time it is {{spoiler|[[Noble Sacrifice]]}} for the whole party. Although some get better in sequel.

* ''[[Little KingsKing's Story]]'' has you {{spoiler|find out that your entire world is a cardboard stage in the bedroom of a kid that looks like the king. The final boss battle is with some ordinary rats who are eating the stage, while a news reel keeps you apprised of what parts of your world ''are being destroyed by the fight''. Then the real boy who looks like the king throws the rat out the window after the fight, and he and the tiny king see each other with gratuitous zoomshots of them being reflected in the other's eyes. Roll credits}}

* At the end of the ''[[I Wanna Be the Guy]]'' fangame ''[[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|I Wanna Be The Fangame]]'', {{spoiler|the final boss's father comes by in a cutscene in full [[Papa Wolf]] mode. Sic transit The Kid.}}

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9my8sMlw-Q The ending] of ''[[Metal Black]]''.

* Though the original ending to space shooter ''[[Tyrian (Video Game)|Tyrian]]'' is somewhat Gainax-y, involving {{spoiler|the main character finally having enough of single-handedly saving the galaxy from the evil Microsol corporation over and over, and fleeing the galaxy}}, the re-release, ''Tyrian 2000'', offers a final episode that's even ''more'' Gainax-y. {{spoiler|Your ship is intercepted and you're forced to fight the Zinglon cult mentioned numerous times throughout the game, who turn out to be behind all of Microsol's evildoings and plan to deprive the universe of it's food supplies and construct a fleet of warships made entirely out of fruit.}} Though the game's lore shows that the game designers weren't taking the story too seriously, the final episode is when the game stops any pretense of seriousness entirely.

* ''[[Divinity II2]]: Ego Draconis.'' What could have been a semi-decent game was rendered null by the way it ended. Basically, {{spoiler|you spent all that time running around listening to a dead lady's voice in your head only to find out she's been tricking you. She sends you on a wild goose chase to resurrect the Big Bad's dead wife, Ygerna, saying it'll help defeat him. Turns out that she ''is'' Ygerna and resurrecting her actually makes Damian invincible. But you don't find that out until after an [[Stupidity Is the Only Option|unavoidable]] and tedious boss fight. There are no [[Multiple Endings]]. So the story ends with your hero being stuck in limbo and Lucien, the guy who you killed in the aforementioned boss fight, is happy to inform you just [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|the entirety of Rivellon is down the crapper because of you,]] and the game ends with a cutscene of Damian and Ygerna raging across the land.}} It also reeks of gimmickry. Want to bet the sequel/expansion pack [[Sequel Hook|(and there will be one)]] ends the exact same way?

* ''[[IndigoFahrenheit Prophecy(2005 video game)]]'' has a legendary one. The game plays out like a cool murder mystery with supernatural twists. {{spoiler|Then Lucas dies and a physical manifestation of the Internet brings him [[Back Fromfrom the Dead]] as [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|Zombie Jesus Neo]]. He knocks up Carla somehow [[Squick|despite being dead]], fights the Internet and an ancient Mayan oracle with magical [[Ki Attacks]], then learns the meaning of life.}} No, really.

* ''[[Ray Crisis]]'''s finale, especially the [[True Final Boss]], may fit this.

* The original ''[[.hack]]'' games ended this way. After 4 games, forced grinds, and the damn virus cores that slowed the last two (Still an excellent series, DGMW) {{spoiler|You fight through the last parts of the last game after learning that the [[Big Bad]] is the game itself. Then you fight through a [[One -Winged Angel|Multi-tiered boss fight]] against a [[Unfortunate Implications|monster with a crack at the top that splurts out explosive white drops]] before turning into a plant and then an eye.}} Then you'd fight Morganna? Wrong. {{spoiler|That's when you find out the psychedelic eye was the [[True Final Boss]]. After you beat it, The World goes crazy, your party get's "Drain Heart"ed with no explanation as to what that is before Kite has his [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] running up to the eye that refuses to die. Then Aura, the girl you've been journeying to restore this entire series gets in the way as you're about to stab it and takes the hit, dying. Then there's some crazy lights, the eye get's destroyed, and everyone shows up in the Net Slums where they mention something about Aura having to die to be born again}} Bullcrap. Then the game ends with Kite looking at the sunset and everyone who'd just been {{spoiler|owned is back with no explanation.}}

* ''[[Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors (Visual Novel)|Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors]]''. It's a visual novel with [[Multiple Endings]], and each story path puts Junpei in different groups, giving him the opportunity to find out more about their backstories, and some paths unlock the opportunity to find new paths, ultimately culminating in the True Ending. {{spoiler|It's actually a subversion, as each of the different paths are actually being observed by the protagonist from outside normal time, and the True Ending explains ''all the weird inexplicable stuff'' that has been going on since the start of the game... except for one particular character who is referenced repeatedly; the cast finds the place where she's supposed to be hidden and finds nothing, and conclude that it's all just a myth... ''and then she's hitchhiking on the side of the road in the True Ending, and the game ends on that image.''}}

*** [[Final Fantasy X -2|The Sequel]] shows that he is alive... again... if you fulfilled the [[Multiple Endings|necessary completion percentage]].

* At first, it looks like the ending of ''[[Portal 2 (Video Game)|Portal 2]]'' will be a [[Bolivian Army Ending]] when the lift you're on suddenly stops at a group of four turrets... but then the lasers shut off and the turrets start ''singing''. A few floors later and you're at an entire ''choir'' of turrets singing a farewell opera. Then you get to the top, go out into a field of wheat, hear a loud noise behind you... and out comes the original [[Companion Cube]], charred and beat up. Roll credits.

** In fact, the entire ending sequence, starting from {{spoiler|shooting a portal onto the moon}} feels like it comes out of nowhere, even though it was foreshadowed throughout the game. The achievement for it even has the description "[["Not Making This Up" Disclaimer|That just happened]]".

* The endings to ''[[Street Fighter EX (Video Game)|Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha]]''. The game has next to no plot, so a lot of the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU1qvUO8x_w&feature=related endings are just the character posing or doing something badass.] Though some, like Dhalsim, Zangief, Skullomania, and Allen's ending, still manage to make no sense whatsoever.

* ''[[Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates (Video Game)|Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Ring of Fates]]'' manages to subvert this, the ending makes very little sense with the protagonist twins {{spoiler|remaking the world to one where Galdes is stuck repeating himself for all eternity and then Chelinka dies and then little Chelinka uses two of the same crystal to make herself and Yuri kids again and their parents alive.}} However, once you replay the game you see how the ending twist was somewhat foreshadowed, so early you wouldn't remember it. And after playing through the epilogue in Multiplay, you get some more closure and get a clearer picture of what the outcome of the ending actually was.

* Usually, the ''[[Streets of Rage]]'' series had pretty straightforward endings: Mr. X is defeated, the town is safe, everyone's happy; but the last official installment in the series, ''3'', introduced [[Easy Mode Mockery]] to the already ending trilogy. The ending you get on the lowest difficulty does reveal that Mr. X on the 5th stage is actually a robot. If you try a harder difficulty, but fail to save General Petrov/chief of the police, you will fight Shiva as the final boss. Right after both of these, the [[Blatant Lies|true]] Mr. X shows up, watching what happens in his hideout (like a movie in the theatre) and breaking a glass of wine... which makes perfect sense at first, {{spoiler|but that's until you get to his '''real''' hideout which reveals that Mr. X is in fact a [[BraininaBrain In a Jar]]}}. Now that makes absolutely no sense, especially when you realize he couldn't turn into that in just a couple of hours of the storyline time!

** It makes sense when you consider the boss of Stage 5 is a robotic body Mr. X controlled via {{spoiler|his [[BraininaBrain In a Jar]]. If he was able to get his brain into a jar then there's no reason he couldn't have multiple bodies to control, or backups, seeing as how he's supposed to be dead, if not critically injured by the end of the second game.}}

* In ''[[Hellsinker]]'' the final boss can be seen as a playable ending and then simply ending with "[[The End]]".

* In ''[[Limbo of the Lost]]'', Briggs is captured and his earthly guide (also known as you, the player) must save him by completing some in and of themselves confusing tasks. After you finish, Briggs is freed and proceeds to the game's ending... {{spoiler|where he is greeted by almost the entire supporting cast of the game who decide to crown him The King of Limbo ''while singing a song about him''. No explanation is given as to how the denizens of Limbo know eachother, how they reached this location, or why Limbo has a king - or why no one seems to care about the player's contributions to any of this. To say that [[They Just Didn't Care]] is an understatement.}}

* ''[[Oracle of Tao (Video Game)|Oracle of Tao]]''.

** {{spoiler|The [[Playable Epilogue]] has three endings, based on a choice made after the game's final boss. One involves healing the final boss, which makes the hero God again, and her family thinks it's cool, while she plans a date for tomorrow. The second has her kill the final boss, and then [[Moral Event Horizon|snap]], and start deciding to destroy everyone, eventually forgetting the party and killing them too. The final ending just has her walk off, and has some [[Grow Old Withwith Me]] style ending, combined with [[Babies Ever After]], combined with the female and male lead's death, and [[Mundane Afterlife|afterlife]]. All in fairly rapid succession.}}

* ''8:Capsule''. Do not pass 8. You did? Now solve some weird puzzles! And eat that pill to screw up the scenery. Then solve more puzzles! [[Goddamned Boss]] time! And once you beat it... '''BEAUTIFUL''' [[Hell Is That Noise|WHOA]] [[Mind Screw|WAHHHH]] [[No Ending|WAT]]

* At the end of ''[[Mother 3 (Video Game)|Mother 3]]'', Lucas {{spoiler|pulls the final Needle and awakens the Dragon, which destroys the world. A giant THE END screen pops up... but if you use the D-Pad, you can walk around and talk to the various characters. Whether Lucas created a new world for his friends and family, or destroyed the world and put everyone in the afterlife}} is up to you to interpret.

* ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'': {{spoiler|There are three endings: You control the Reapers, possibly by uploading yourself into the Citadel. You destroy the Reapers and all other synthetic life, and all organic life if you did particularly poorly. Or, you make all organic and synthetic life a techno-organic synthesis. The entire Mass Relay network is then destroyed spreading your control / destruction / synthesis energy wave across the galaxy, and in most endings the Citadel is destroyed and/or Shepard is killed in the process. The Normandy, which was last seen taking part of the battle above Earth, is then seen travelling faster than light through space<ref>apparently from picking up your party members from the final mission, but it is '''extremely''' unclear.</ref> and, after being caught in the wave, ends up crashing on an unknown planet. An after-credit epilogue then shows an old man telling the legend of "The Shepard" to a child and then being asked by the child for another tale of Shepard's exploits, implying Shepard may have actually survived. Finally, in the "best" destruction ending a scene will play showing an N7 soldier who appears to be Shepard waking up in a pile of rubble, though how or even where the scene takes place is left unclear.}}

* After killing the Enderdragon in ''[[Minecraft]]'', you're treated to {{spoiler|a wall of scrolling text depicting a discussion between two [[Sentient Cosmic Force|Sentient Cosmic Forces]]s discussing '''[[Breaking the Fourth Wall|you]]''', the player of the game. [http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/End_Poem The discussion in question] implies that the entire game was [[All Just a Dream]], life as we know it is merely an even bigger dream, the many mobs we fought in the game were the darkness in our hearts, and humanity's entire existence is a quest to understand itself.}}

* ''[[Twelve12 Ounceoz. Mouse (Animation)|Twelve Ounce Mouse]]'': The army of robots destroy the city, Fitz plays pinball, then he wakes up in a mind control center inside a mushroom.

* The "Tree Trunks" episode of ''[[Adventure Time (Animation)|Adventure Time]]'' ends with the titular guest character taking a bite from the fruit they've been pursuing all episode. She explodes. [[Esoteric Happy Ending|Then we see her running, laughing, through crystal.]]

* "The Boy Who Cried Comet" episode of ''[[Arthur (Animationanimation)|Arthur]]'' certainly qualifies. The episode suddenly ends with the revelations that Arthur and Co. are actually aliens wearing [[Rubber Forehead Aliens|rubber masks]] acting out the show on a distant planet. Had most of the audiences throwing their hands up in the air and declaring that they can ''never'' look at the show the same way ever again. [

* ''[[Total Drama World Tour (Animation)Island|Total Drama World Tour]]'''s finale may also be considered. The challenge involves the final two racing to throw driftwood-and-pineapple sculptures of each other into a volcano in Hawaii. Okay. But once Heather does so, Ezekiel suddenly shows up, steals the money and falls into the volcano, completing his nonsensical [[The Lord of the Rings|Gollum subplot]]. Then we suddenly find out that [[Ass Pull|pineapples make]] [[Chekhov's Volcano|volcanoes erupt]]. Everybody races down the mountain and into the water, Alejandro gets horrifically burned, Ezekiel flies out of the volcano and sinks Chris' ship, and the show cuts off just as everyone's swimming for their lives and Heather looks like she's about to be crushed by a rock. Given that the new season will have all-new characters, [[Fridge Horror|this implies things]] [[Inferred Holocaust|didn't end well]].

** {{spoiler|[[Everybody Lives]]. Except for (possibly) Blaineley. Even Ezekiel, who goes on to survive other severely life-threatening incidents.}}

* The finale of ''[[AeonÆon Flux]]''. The show was already ''extremely'' strange, so when [[Time Travel]] gets involved, [[Deranged Animation|the results are inevitable]].

** "Aloha Hoek" has Ren and Stimpy getting stranded on an island. Long story short, it ends with them taking off their disguises, revealing they're really human [[Not Even Bothering Withwith the Accent|"Russian"]] spies (who talk like [[The Flintstones|Fred and Barney]] for some reason) and riding off in a submarine.

** "Ren Needs Help!" is even stranger. Ren has a [[Freak -Out]] at the end, and is restrained by the mental hospital doctors. He's apparently given electroshock, and in the next scene, he's fitted with a suit and tie, placed at a desk on the moon, and addresses the nation as the president of the United States (a nod to a fellow patient's paranoid ramblings), where he launches into a parody of [[Ronald Reagan]]'s infamous "We begin bombing in five minutes" speech.

* The ending of Disney's ''[[The Three Caballeros (Disney)|The Three Caballeros]]''.

* The ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants (Animation)|SpongeBob SquarePants]]'' episode "Safety Freak" ends with SpongebobSpongeBob, Patrick, and Sandy being attacked by a gorilla (played by [[Roger Rabbit Effect|a live-action human in a cheap costume]]). When SpongebobSpongeBob wonders out loud "[[Misplaced Wildlife|What's a gorilla doing underwater]]?", the gorilla stops his rampage, tries to explain himself, then shouts "George, they're onto us!" and rides off into the sunset on a pantomime zebra, to the bafflement of [[No Fourth Wall|a live-action family watching the episode]], and probably that of the real-life audience as well. The family then proceeds to silently turn the TV AND the screen off with the remote, which ends the episode.

** A lot of SpongebobSpongeBob episodes are like this. "Graveyard Shift" ended with all the strange occurrences being explained by the actions of a nervous new potential employee of the Krusty Krab... except for the flickering lights. It turned out that it was the live action version of [[Nosferatu (Film)|Nosferatu]] turning the light switch on and off all along, and nobody seems to be bothered by this. And let's not forget the ending of "Bubble Buddy".

* ''[[The Grim Adventures of Billy and& Mandy]]'' had the ending of "My Fair Mandy". Up until the last two minutes, the episode plays like a straight [[Very Special Episode]] where Mandy tries her very best to finally outdo longtime rival Mindy in a pageant (something just about unthinkable due to Mindy's popularity and Mandy's surly attitude). All throughout, Grim, Billy, and Irwin tell Mandy that she can't win unless she can smile (a ''very'' rare occurrence for her). At first it looks like Mindy will run away with it, but eventually the judges, which include Mindy's mother, start to turn on her. Mandy closes the gap and is neck-and-neck with her rival going into the very last routine. Her helpers remind her one last time via cards that YOU-HAVE-TO-SMILE(-YO). She strains, she struggles, she summons every ounce of will in her small frame...and...AND... ...creates a catastrophic maelstrom which rips apart the fabric of reality, and everything goes white. When Grim, Billy, and Mandy come to, they find that they've turned into [[The Powerpuff Girls]]. The episode concludes with the familiar flashing-hearts screen and a jaunty "So once again, the day is saved, thanks to...The Powerpuff Girls!"

* The non-canonical ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' short [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuSshdGE1Lo "School Time Shipping"] ends with Katara dating the Blue Spirit. No, NOT Zuko. Zuko stands right there, watching.

** One could also call parts of the series ending, a Gainax Ending. Especially the part where Zuko visits his dad in jail and demands he tell him where his mother is. We never get the answer to that question.

*** Chances are that the Zuko's mom [[Plot Point]] will be brought up in ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Promise]]''.

** Same thing with "The Curse of Candace". Starts out normal, with Candace thinking she's a vampire, thanks to a [[Twilight (Literaturenovel)|teen vampire movie]], among other things. She confronts her brothers about this at the end, and they explain the reason behind some of her vampire powers. So thus, they take off the cloak she was wearing, exposing the sun to her and... {{spoiler|she turns to dust}}. A bemused remark from Phineas, and then? Roll credits. Of course, since he said {{spoiler|"Ferb, I think we're gonna need a dustpan and some glue,"}} it could be that {{spoiler|they actually managed to put her back together. Given that it's Phineas and Ferb, it's not impossible.}} But it's still really weird.

* ''[[My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic]]'' has an in-universe example with [[Cloudcuckoolander|Pinkie]] [[Genki Girl|Pie]] and the story of how she got her cutie mark, which caps off with an apparent non sequitur remark:

{{quote| '''Pinkie Pie:''' And that's how Equestria was made!! }}

* ''[[South Park (Animation)|South Park]]'' has the episode "Royal Pudding". The Royal Canadian Wedding is interrupted when the princess gets kidnapped and Kyle's little brother Ike (who is Canadian) has to rescue her. At the end, Ike rescues the princess they have the royal wedding, but after the "I do's", the prince tears off the princess' arm and shoves it up his ass.<ref>As is tradition</ref> It [[Makes Just Asas Much Sense in Context]].

* In the ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' cartoon "Riff Raffy Daffy", Daffy ends up tricking Porky into letting him sleep in the department store by taking out a couple of wind-up ducks and presenting them as his "[[I Have a Family|children]]". In the end, as Porky walks away, it's revealed that he understands what Daffy's going through because ''his kids are also wind-up toys''.

== [[Real Life]] ==

{{quote| :''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v{{=}}oyFQVZ2h0V8 Congratulations!!]''}}