Cliff Hanger: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

A [[Cliff Hanger]] ends an [[Act Break]], episode, or even a whole season (or a film or novel in a series) with some or all of the main characters in peril of some kind and the audience is made to wait for the outcome. The [[To Be Continued]] caption is often used here. Typically the longer the viewer is made to wait, the larger the seeming peril. Indeed, this can be a [[Downer Ending]] to the part just finished -- although many apparent perils and catastrophes are not as serious as they appear. It is a rare [[Cliff Hanger]] that will cut back simply to watch 'em fall.

Named for the old Saturday matinée film serials which would frequently leave a character literally hanging from the side of a cliff, revealing how the character escaped in the next episode.

 

 

Stories need not end with just one cliffhanger; there can be one for every independent plot thread if the writers think the audience will stand for it.

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

 

 

 

See also [[Literal Cliff Hanger]].

 

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* The anime ''[[Code Geass]]'' ends its first season on a particularly high [[Cliff Hanger]]: {{spoiler|the rebellion is collapsing, the entire school is being held hostage by a student with a bomb, the [[Anti-Hero]]'s identity is revealed to his now bloodthirsty former best friend, and the situation devolves into a rage-filled [[Mexican Standoff]]}}... just to fade to black in time for a single gunshot.

** Let's be perfectly honest here. Code Geass has a very, very, VERY nasty habit of leaving cliffhangers at the end of every single episode, at least in the first season. The season is basically a 25-episode cliffhanger, ending with a scene that quite often leaves viewers screaming at the top of their lungs at their screens.

* In ''[[True Tears]]'', one of the driving factors for following the story asides the depth of the characters and the compelling love story are the constant cliff hangers on the end of each episode. Several of these tend to shake up things quite a bit.

* [[Naruto]] is pretty infamous for this. A recent chapter even ended ''mid-sentence'' during such.

* The ''[[Transformers Cybertron]]'' episode "Search" ended with Overhaul [[Literal Cliff Hanger|dangling from a cliff]] above a valley of lava.

* Zig-zagged in the anime adaptation of ''[[Berserk]]''. The very first scene of the anime takes place {{spoiler|[[Foregone Conclusion|a few weeks after the events of the Eclipse with Guts waiting for Godo to prepare the Dragonslayer]].}} After the opening credits, the scene flashes two years later when {{spoiler|Guts has a well-established reputation as the Black Swordsman.}} After defeating an apostle, the rest of the series reveals [[How We Got Here|how Guts became the way he is in the present]], starting with his first encounter with soon-to-be [[Big Bad]] Griffith. In the last episode, during the climax of the Eclipse, we see Guts screaming in rage and agony {{spoiler|at the sight of the demon lord Femto raping Casca}} just as the credits role in. Although the very last scene reverts back to the very first scene, it is still left unclear as to {{spoiler|how Guts managed to make it back from the hell dimension alive or whether Casca survived her ordeal}} and the viewers are still [[Left Hanging]] on this detail as Guts walks into the distance as the Black Swordsman, which is where the anime ends.

** The timeline and detail of events in the manga is much more straight forward {{spoiler|[[Adaptation-Induced Plothole|since the absence of the Skull Knight from the animation was partially responsible]] }} so we know what happens after the climax of the Eclipse and the story continues from there.

* Every chapter has a Cliff Hanger in ''[[Bitter Virgin]]''. The readers are even left hanging on the last chapter to how the relationship will end up.

* The [[Giant Robo]] OVA ended on a great, gaping "To Be Continued". While the main conflict is resolved, it's implied that Big Fire still had a few more tricks up their sleeves.

 

== [[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]].

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* One must really feel sorry for those who read the ''[[Alex Rider]]'' novel ''Scorpia'' before ''Ark Angel'' came out. The novel ends with {{spoiler|Alex}} being shot in the chest and him {{spoiler|seeing his dead parents}} which gives the assumption that the bullet killed him. Even though he was proved to have survived with the release of ''Ark Angel'', some fans still think that he was killed in ''Scorpia'' and have varying theories about the later books.

* [[Hex Hall|Demonglass]] ends with Abby Thorne being burnt to the ground while under attack from the Eye with {{spoiler|Archer and Sophie's Dad}} still trapped inside {{spoiler|Cal}} running in to try and find them, Sophie's powers blocked, Jenna missing, possibly dead and Sophie being told that she could find her mother with supposed evil prodigium hunter Aislinn Brannick. Also Demonfied Nick is loose and killed nearly 20 people in one night, Demonfied Daisy was also released, we still do not know what happened to Chaston, Anna, or the other missng students, half the Council was killed and the good guys were actually the bad guys, so the bad guys might be the good guys, but were not sure yet.

* [[Lloyd Alexander]]'s ''The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen'' ends every chapter except the side stories and the finale with one of these, along with an italicized paragraph directly addressing the reader and asking questions in the vein of "What will happen next?"

* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in [[The Pendragon Adventure]] by the titular character. Since most of the series takes place as a series of his journals, which he frequently writes before falling asleep, he has once written about an impending catastrophe... only to apologize in the next journal, saying he couldn't stay awake to continue.

* The ''Tennis Shoe Adventure'' books start being cliffhangers after book 2, and they haven't stopped. Last time we checked, the fate of every. Single. Character. Was hanging in the hands of a cocky 19-year-old and time was running out. And this was in...what, 2006?

* The ending to the second [[The Hunger Games|Hunger Games]] book (''Catching Fire'') caused ''major'' [[Ship-to-Ship Combat|fan freak-outs.]]

* ''[[Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire]]'' ended with Harry finishing his fourth year at Hogwarts. Oh, and the little incidental fact that {{spoiler|Voldemort had returned}}, meaning that everything was about to change for the heroes and the world in which they lived. Naturally, the fandom exploded with theories, [[Wild Mass Guessing]], and more [[Fanfic]] than anyone could reasonably hope to read. The next book, ''[[Order of the Phoenix]]'', wasn't published until three years later, prompting many fans to dub the interval "the three-year summer."

** ''Order of the Phoenix'', ''[[Half Blood Prince]]'', and, to a lesser extent, ''[[Prisoner of Azkaban]]'' end on cliffhangers as well. The first book also has a minor [[Sequel Hook]] with Dumbledore's mention that there are still other ways Voldemort could return, although that thread doesn't pay off until the fourth book. ''Goblet Of Fire'', however, goes so far as to title its final chapter "The Beginning".

* ''[[Six Sacred Stones]]'' takes the concept of a cliff hanger one epic step further. The novel ends with Jack West ''falling'' into an abyss, without his maghook.

* Every chapter of every [[Goosebumps]] book ends in this manner, which leads the reader to wonder what happens next, ESPECIALLY at the end of the book.

* ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'': at the end of every book and most of the chapters.

* [[The Dresden Files]]: {{spoiler|Changes ends with Harry shot dead, yet the series is obviously not concluded}}.

*** "Silence in the Library" ends with Donna disappearing mid-teleport with a scream, as the Doctor and River are cornered.

*** "Turn Left" finishes with Donna saving the day, and destroying an alternate universe where the Doctor died prematurely....but then tells him about {{spoiler|the strange blond woman who said the words "Bad Wolf"}}. At that moment, the old [[Arc Words]] from season one appear everywhere, and the [[Oh Crap|cloister bell]] starts ringing.

*** "Flesh and Stone" ends with the Doctor ''about'' to execute a plan to escape the Weeping Angels.

*** "The Pandorica Opens" finishes with {{spoiler|Rory being mind-controlled and shooting Amy, the Doctor being locked inside an inescapable prison by ''all'' of his enemies, and the TARDIS blowing up with River inside it, destroying the entire universe.}}

*** The end of "The Impossible Astronaut" is {{spoiler|Amy shooting the astronaut which killed the Doctor, only to reveal it to actually be a little girl.}} The next episode also has a cliffhanger, but one that isn't concluded for several more episodes, as it shows {{spoiler|the same little girl ''regenerating'' in a back-alley.}}

* Season two of ''[[Lois and Clark]]'' ended with Clark having just proposed to Lois. This cliffhanger lasted for four months, eventually to be resolved with the [[Wham! Line]], "Who's asking? Clark or Superman?"

** Four months? It was a year in the UK. Frustration ensued, especially as UK viewers are less habituated to cliffhangers...

* Likewise, parent show ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' ended almost all of its seasons with cliffhangers of varying magnitude, all with the ominous "[[To Be Continued]]..." caption.

* ''[[Dallas]]'' relied on a season ending [[Cliff Hanger]] every year. The most famous was "Who Shot JR?" in 1980, which lasted from March 21st to November 7th.

** This one is particularly interesting in that it cleared the way for cliffhangers, previously a staple for soap operas, to be used in more "serious" TV shows.

** At the time, this cliffhanger had particular punch because it was unknown whether Patrick Stewart would return for future seasons; the writers left the second half open for this reason.

** ''The Next Generation'', ''Voyager'' and ''Enterprise'' always achieved their cliffhangers by splitting a two-part episode over the end of one season and the start of the next. ''Deep Space Nine'' had a rather more interesting approach however, in which the final episode of the season would have its own storyline wrapped up within the episode itself, but the next stage of the show's story arc was set up in the process.

* The beginning of the new ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode "The Impossible Planet" has a [[Shout-Out]] to the Cliff Hangers of the old series. In [[The Teaser]], the Ood, who look like Lovecraftian horrors, walk toward the Doctor and Rose chanting "We must feed", and the close-ups and spinning camera angles match the old Who's Cliff Hangers perfectly. Naturally, after the titles, the Ood are shown to be perfectly nice and friendly, with their apparent viciousness being a [[Phlebotinum Breakdown]]: "We must feed..." -- whacks the translation orb -- "...you, if you are hungry. Do you want refreshments?"

** Actually, the first episode of every season finale ends on a cliffhanger that is resolved by the following one. Usually in an [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|awesome]] way.

** Its eighth ended with Warrick Brown apparently shot dead by the Undersheriff. {{spoiler|He was actually shot dead}}

* Season 3 of ''[[Babylon 5]]'' ends not only on a cliffhanger, but a cliffjumper as the main character flings himself into a bottomless chasm.

** This was nothing compared to season three, {{spoiler|where Dean dies and the last shot is of him in Hell}}.

** And then the last episode of season four, which had {{spoiler|Sam killing Lilith, and learning too late that she was the final seal that was keeping Lucifer from entering the mortal realm}}.

*** The funny thing about the second season finale is that it ''does'' have a cliffhanger, for the more minor plot of the coup in Haiti. The President's reelection, however, is a much larger arc and takes up much of the focus, so the [[Subversion]] there is unexpected.

* [[Eastenders|"You aint my muvva!" "Yes I am!!" Dun Dun dundundundun...]]

** An intentional (I think) cliffhanger, or at least the show wasn't unexpectedly cancelled.

* The third season of ''[[Desperate Housewives]]'' concluded with Edie Britt's apparent suicide after Carlos dumped her. The fourth season premiere revealed that she had actually faked her suicide in order to win Carlos back.

* ''[[JAG]]'' had several cliffhangers. The first season ended {{spoiler|with Harm being arrested for murder}}, though same episode was a [[Missing Episode]] and later adapted, thus bordering on [[Canon Dis Continuity]]. The third season ended {{spoiler|with Harm and Mac about to be shot down in a Russian jet while looking for Harm's father}}. The sixth ended with {{spoiler|Harm lost at sea, having ejected from his F-14 trying to get back in time to catch Mac's wedding}}. The seventh ends with {{spoiler|Bud stepping on a landmine while trying to prevent an Afghan boy from doing likewise}}. The eighth ended with {{spoiler|Harm leaving JAG to save Mac and Webb against orders}}. The ninth ends with {{spoiler|Webb apparently killed and the Admiral's retirement}}. The series itself ends with something like a cliffhanger, {{spoiler|leaving the audience wondering if either Harm or Mac will retire after they decide to marry and whether they'll end up in London or San Diego afterwards}}.

* 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.

* 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!)

* Used constantly on [[The X-Files]]. Three really annoying words: "To Be Continued..."

* [[Vintergatan]] had a cliffhanger [[Once an Episode]], with no sign of stopping. Fortunately, the cliffhangers don't bother people that much. Why? Because it's always been presented that way, and there's danger around every corner in-canon, so it doesn't seem forced (and even when it does, it rarely becomes [[Narm]] -- usually it's [[Narm Charm]], and at worst, it's [[So Bad It's Good]]) -- and second, because that meant we got to hear [[Crowning Music of Awesome|the cliffhanger jingle.]] ''DAH, DADAH-DAH DAAAAAAH!''

* [[Power Rangers Turbo]] ended with the mentors all captured or MIA, all powers and ranger tech broken or destroyed, and four of the remaining five rangers taking a space shuttle out to try and do ''something'', lack of superpowers, FTL drive, and location of enemies be damned. The series actually ended on a "to be continued" just as the shuttle took off.

* ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' got in a really good one at the end of "Green With Evil Part 2". The episode ended with ''Goldar's sword apparently about to impale Jason's head.''

** Season 2 {{spoiler|Kate shot and killed.}}

** Season 4 {{spoiler|Tony meeting his girlfriend's father, La Grenouille.}}

** Season 7 {{spoiler|Paloma Alejandro and her gang walking into Jackson's office.}}

** Season 9 {{spoiler|1=Harper Dearing planting a bomb on the Navy Yard, which goes off with Gibbs, Abby, Ziva, Tony AND McGee all still inside. Ducky gets the news at Palmer's beachside wedding and promptly has a massive heart attack<ref>Not resolved yet, but the show is renewed, so it will be</ref>.}}

* The [[Season Finale|Season 2 finale]] (and [[Series Finale]]) of ''The Colbys'' had several cliffhangers, most of which were later resolved on parent show ''[[Dynasty]]'', the most fantastic being Fallon's {{spoiler|abduction by aliens in the California desert}}. Even for an over-the-top show like ''The Colbys'', this was a [[Jumping the Shark]] moment.

* ''[[Veronica Mars]]'' ends Season One on several cliff hangers. {{spoiler|Aaron Echolls has been arrested, but it's unclear how Veronica's relationship will be affected. The audience knows that Logan had an incident on the bridge where he contemplated suicide, although the characters don't.}}

* ''[[Boy Meets World]]'' ends season 5 with one: Topanga proposes to Cory during their high school graduation ceremony.

** Season 6 ended with the lead characters apparently murdered by their [[Future Me Scares Me|evil future selves]]; the audience had to wait three years to find out how they got out of it.

** Season 8 ended with the titular ship being devoured by a genetically enhanced virus while most of the crew evacuates, and the main characters escape to a mirror universe. Except for Rimmer, apparently trapped on the disintegrating ship. The series ends with the screen saying "The End? The smeg it is!". This time the audience had to wait a full decade. {{spoiler|And strictly speaking we still don't know what happened next, because the makers invoked an [[Un Installment]] and skipped forward to where everything was back to normal.}}

* The season 3 finale of ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'' ended with Ted proposing to Stella (mind you, this was while Stella was hinted to be the titular Mother) and Barney realizing that he was in love with Robin. Stella said yes in the teaser of the fourth season premiere, and the rest of the episode took place several months after the teaser, partly because the season 3 finale had also featured Barney getting run over by a bus, which took him an entire summer's worth of physical therapy to heal from.

* [[Spooks]] ended most of its series on these. Exceptions are series three, five and ten (which was the last).

** Series Eight: {{spoiler|Ros and the Home Secretary get caught in a hotel explosion engineered by Nightingale, with Lucas also getting blown back by the explosion while trying to get back to them.}}

** 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"...}}

 

 

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

** To be fair, this cliffhanger is the result of Camelot splitting what was supposed to be one game into two games, Golden Sun 1 and The Lost Age.

** Another one is at the end of The Lost Age. {{spoiler|Alex has just been granted demi-god powers, but is then pinned to a mountaintop, and sent crashing down to the Earth, however, The Wise One implies they will meet again, and the last shot of the game, is Mt. Aleph still standing...}}

* The author of the webcomic ''Sequential Art'' recently managed to pick the most irritating part to his break with the comic.

* Lampshaded [http://wayofthemetagamer.thecomicseries.com/comics/pl/30544 here] in [[The Way of the Metagamer]].

* ''[[The Dreamer]]'' uses these a lot.

** ''Dungeon Crawlin' Fools'': The Order defeat [[Big Bad|Xykon]] and destroys the dungeon they'd spent the entire story up to that point in and assume their quest is finished -- completely unaware that Xykon's [[Soul Jar]] survived and escaped the dungeon with his chief minions, the [[The Psycho Rangers|Linear Guild]] also escaped from prison, and that a mysterious figure (later revealed to be the Paladin [[Knight Templar|Miko Miyazaki]]) has been sent to confront them over the [[Cosmic Keystone|Gate]] they destroyed with the dungeon.

** ''No Cure For The Paladin Blues'': The Order now know the importance of the Gates and are preparing to track down and protect the others; meanwhile, Xykon (who the heroes have only just learned is still alive) has assembled an army of hobgoblins and is preparing to march on Azure City (where the Order currently is) and take their Gate by force, while Nale and the Guild plot their revenge against the Order.

** ''War and XPs'': In what may be the largest cliffhanger yet, the hobgoblins have overrun Azure City, {{spoiler|Roy is dead}}, and the Order has been scattered. And on top of that, we see [[Aristocrats Are Evil|Kubota]] plotting against [[Supporting Leader|Hinjo]] with the aid of a mysterious figure standing off panel; this new antagonist's identity {{spoiler|Qarr the imp}} isn't revealed until well into the next arc.

 

 

* Subverted in the ''[[South Park]]'' episode "Professor Chaos", which appears to end on a cliffhanger: "Will Professor Chaos' latest plot succeed and be the final undoing of Earth? And which boy has been chosen as the replacement for Kenny? And which of these South Park residents was killed and will never be seen again?" (The first two were already the focuses of the plot, but the last ones comes out of nowhere). "These questions will be answered... right now: No, Tweek, and Ms. Choksondik."

** ''[[South Park]]'' also squeezed the concept for all the humor and frustration they could in the "Who is Eric Cartman's Father" two-parter, "Cartman's Mom Is a Dirty Slut" and "Cartman's Mom is Still a Dirty Slut". They teased the fans mercilessly by splitting the two episodes up with an unrelated full-length [[April Fools' Day]] ''Terrance and Phillip'' episode.

* Happens in ''[[The Simpsons]]'': Who shot Mr. Burns? Obvious homage/parody of ''[[Dallas]]''.

** Also spoofed by the show on a number of occasions. At the end of one Holloween episode, the last few seconds reveal a surprise ending where Mr. Burns' head has been grafted unto Homer's body. The episode ends with a (fake) cliffhanger and a teaser for next week's episode, where Homer is denied a free spaghetti dinner because Mr. Burns has plans to meet with the queen of Holland that night. Of course, it's all a spoof and the next ''real'' episode has everything back to normal.

* Subverted beautifully in [[Frisky Dingo]]. An episode ends with an almost literal cliffhanger as a woman is hanging from a ledge of a tall structure. Then, in the [["On the Next..."]] sequence, Killface says "Oh my God, she fell."

** Season 1's first episode ends with the return of [[Mad God|Nightmare Moon]]. The only forces capable of putting a stop to [[The Night That Never Ends|her plan]] are either inactive or nowhere to be seen. Resolved in part 2 when the Elements of Harmony are reactivated and used to [[Stealth Pun|save the day]].

** Season 2's first episode ends with [[Reality Warper|Discord]] successfully mind breaking the mane cast (who cannot activate their trump card in this state) and establishing a reign of chaos upon Equestria. Resolved in part 2 when Twilight gets the gang back together, allowing them to [[Taken for Granite|put Discord back where he belongs]].

 

== [[Anime]] ==

* At the end of the first season of [[Sekirei]], Minato manages to help Haruka and Kuno escape, which was the focus of the last portion of the season, but the Sekirei plan/battle has just begun, and the ending shows a bunch of loose ends which have yet to be resolved. The main [[Big Bad]] and game master even [[Large Ham|mentions the game is far from over.]] Fortunately Season 2 has arrived, and covers the next portion of the series.

** So it is now a ''resolved'' cliffhanger?

== [[Literature]] ==

* Anthony Horowitz must have really wanted to piss his readers off when he was planning out the fourth book of ''[[The Power of Five]]'' series, where in the end {{spoiler|Scarlett gets shot and it is revealed to the reader that all five gatekeepers, who need to stay together in order to defeat the Old Ones, are going to be separated by even greater distances than before.}}

* 1920s movie director Frank Capra, in his autobiography "The Name Above the Title" (which is now discredited for its many self-serving lies and distortions), describes in detail a scene from his film "Tramp Tramp Tramp" in which actor Harry Langdon is stuck on a fence above a sheer cliff as the fence begins to collapse. Capra's description builds to the climax of this scene but then refuses to tell us how Langdon escapes, with Capra justifying the omission by reminding us that this scene is "a cliffhanger". But it's only a true cliffhanger if Capra was planning to tell us the answer in his next book. (He wasn't.) This evasion is doubly dishonest because it covers a dishonesty in the original movie: when the fence collapses over the cliff, the cliff magically changes into a steep hill, and Langdon rides the fence's planks downhill to the bottom.

 

 

** Later, in an episode of the spin-off ''[[Benson]]'' Benson was visited by Jessica's ghost, leading many fans to believe that, yes, they were [[Bolivian Army Ending|Bolivian]].

** The final episode of ''[[Benson]]'' also ended on an unresolved cliffhanger. Benson is running for Governor, while incumbant Governor Gatling is running for re-election as an Independant making for a three-way gubatorial race. In the final scene, Benson and the Governor resolve their personal differences, then sit together watching the TV as a newscaster says, "And the Governor for the next four years is-"

** Plenty of warning? They'd already ''filmed'' the finale, and were working on pickups for other episodes when they found out. So much for a two-season pickup?

* The series finale of [[Flash Forward 2009|Flash Forward]], instigated after the show was canceled, ended with {{spoiler|the second blackout happening 14 minutes after the future caught up, Bryce finally finding Keiko, Simon and Demetri stuck inside the NLAP mainframe, Olivia and Lloyd kinda/maybe/sorta/probably ending up together, Aaron managing to reunite with his daughter and revive her, Janis being wheeled unconsciously from the hospital by one of the Big Bad's henchmen and the almost certain death of Mark as the FBI building explodes. Adding to this a series of disjointed flashforwards from unknown characters, excluding Charlie's one of her in the future, gives us next to nothing solid to finish up the story properly.}}

** Considering [[David Lynch|who made it]], [[The Walrus Was Paul|that was probably completely intentional]].

* ''[[Popular]]'': We don't find out who Harrison chose, but more importantly the episode ends with Nicole gunning her car at Brooke, Brooke screaming as the headlights bear down on her, a fade to black, and the sound of sirens. Then the series wasn't renewed for the third season like TPTB said it would.

* The 2002 sci-fi series ''Odyssey 5'' ends with astronaut Angela Perry abducted by the AI's and scientist Kurt Mendel being arrested on suspicion of killing her. Plus the mysterious Cabal, which the team assume have something to do with the AI's and the impending destruction of the Earth, turn out to be a government force trying to ''stop'' the AI's and who believe that the Odyssey 5 team are the traitors.

* ''[[Ten Things I Hate About You]]'' had a pretty decent cliff hanger for the season one finale. [[Overprotective Dad|Walter]] walked in on Kat and Patrick right after they finished having sex. Bianca and Dawn quit the cheerleading squad in protest over their friend Chastity being unfairly kicked off, only to find out that Chastity is transferring schools and they didn't have to quit. Bianca's boyfriend Joey had become a contestant on a reality show and she tunes in just in time to see him kissing another one of the contestants. Then the network decided not to renew the show and the season finale became an unresolved series finale. Though the [[Word of God|series creator]] was nice enough to tell fans [http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/06/07/10-things-i-hate-about-you-season-two/ how things would have developed if the series had continued]. Basically, {{spoiler|Kat and Patrick's relationship would grow closer, though they'd eventually clash about college.(Kat wants to go and wants Patrick to go, Patrick doesn't think college is his thing.) We'd meet Patrick's mom and stepdad, and Walter would become a sort of father figure to Patrick. Kat's other possible love interest, Blank, would be around, but it wasn't quite going to turn into a full-fledged love triangle. Joey would get kicked off the reality show, causing him to lose a bit of his spark. His and Bianca's problems(from his cheating and bit of a personality change) would lead to Bianca confiding in Cameron, which would lead to a Bianca/Joey/Cameron love triangle. Chastity was going to be gone for good, since the actress quit the show, and Dawn would be given a bigger role to compensate}}.

** A bit of a subversion, really, as the series was not expected to be renewed for a second season - which is precisely ''why'' creator Alan Spencer had the bomb go off in the first place!

* ''[[Power Rangers RPM]]'' ends with a {{spoiler|glowing red light coming from one of the morphers - the trademark of Venjix, the Big Bad. Looks like he survived by downloading himself into it...}} but there's no next season, as ''RPM'' was the final season -- until Saban bought back the franchise and restarted it with ''[[Power Rangers Samurai]]'', which has yet to acknowledge or follow up on ''RPM'' in any way. If there had been a direct sequel season, this would instead be a [[Sequel Hook]].

* V 2009 ends with {{spoiler|Diane murdering her mother, and her adopted child being able to give Humans Bliss.}}

* ''[[Fastlane]]'''s season and, as it turned out, [[Series Finale]] had two major characters being taken over by Jay Mohr, and another jabbed with a potentially-fatal overdose of drugs.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* ''[[Dino Crisis]] 2'' ended with a cliffhanger, then the third game took off on a totally different tangent, [[Recycled in Space]], and flopped hard, [[Franchise Killer|putting the nail in the coffin]].

* At the end of ''[[Driver]] 3'', Jericho shoots Tanner with a [[Last Breath Bullet]], then he is shown flatlining and the doctors try to defibrilate him. The next game will start with him in a coma.

* Because of its episodic structure, each level of ''[[Alan Wake]]'' ends with a cliffhanger. {{spoiler|Yes, this includes the [[Sequel Hook|last level]].}}

* ''[[Soldier of Fortune]]: Payback''. Since the game was a critical and commercial flop, it will probably be left unresolved.

* ''[[Dirge of Cerberus]]'', the canonical ending to the ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' series ends with Genesis saving the [[Big Bad]] Weiss, then saying "there is still much to do". Nobody knows what they had to do because SE seems to have no plans to continue making FFVII games.

* The online game ''Wasted Youth Part 1'' ends with a cliffhanger with the answer to one of the disappearances. The end of Part 1 also serves as a [[Downer Ending]] due to your character getting framed for {{spoiler|being forced to take pictures of girls sleeping without getting to explain what really happened}}. Currently, the sequel seems be in [[Development Hell]].

 

 

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* ''[[Duckman]]'' ended with three characters -- Duckman included -- getting hitched, and {{spoiler|his late wife Beatrice suddenly appearing alive and well at the end}}. Writer Michael Markowitz seems unwilling to divulge the ending, leaving it up to the fans to guess what may have happened.

* ''[[Get Ed]]'' ends with {{spoiler|[[Cool Old Guy|Ol' Skool]] trapped in The Machine with [[Big Bad|Bedlam]], and "sent away" by Ed.}} The series was not picked up for a second season.

* ''[[Re Boot]]'' season 4 ended with the main characters trapped in the Principal Office, which had been taken over by the returned, upgraded Megabyte, who infected Phong and Welman and captured Enzo. It does not appear that there will ever be a resolution, not helped by the death of [[Tony Jay]], the voice of Megabyte.

** An official online comic is currently showing some of the story, while a film is planned for either 2009 or 2010.

* The very last shot of another Mainframe production, ''War Planets: [[Shadow Raiders]]'', had the [[Planet Eater|Beast]] looming over the helpless Planet Reptizar as it began to devour it.

* The first episode of ''[[Pepper Ann]]'' ended with "To be continued...". Strangely, there was no second part to that episode.

** Cant...hold...on...much...LONGER!!! (And that's why he's called Cliff Hanger.)

*** Subverted in one episode whent he author decided to finally get him off the cliff because he's tried of writing the books. This angers Lionel, and he asks that the author get him back on the cliff. Which he does.

** Long story short: [[Executive Meddling]].

** [[Word of God]] preferred it.

* ''[[Undergrads]]'' ends with the love triangle between the main character and his two closest female friends ''still'' unresolved.

** From [[That Other Wiki]] "[producer/story editor] John Semper mentioned in an interview if he had continued on with the show, Spider Man would have gone through past time periods and found Mary Jane in Victorian England. Spider-Man would battle with the real Carnage portrayed as Jack the Ripper."

* Zig-zagged: a handful of [[Mighty Mouse]] cartoons from the late 40s and early 50s with Pearl Pureheart and Oil Can Harry open with the resumption of a cliffhanger, when a previous episode never did exist.

* Fairly Odd Parents' Season 1 episode "Spaced Out!" ends with {{spoiler|Cosmo losing his nickel. This ends with the screen zooming out with a narrator onscreen saying what happens next. Cue Yugopotamian aliens watching.}}