- 6 minutes ago
Nobody gave a damn about these "thrilling" cliffhanger endings.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00Cliffhanger endings are generally intended to leave the audience desperate for more,
00:05to ensure they'll return for the next installment which continues the dangling narrative thread.
00:10When it's done well, like in Avengers Infinity War for example,
00:14it can truly capture the general public's imagination and generate surging hype for
00:19the next movie. But for every genuinely thrilling and shocking cliffhanger,
00:24there are many that simply don't make much of a dent with audiences.
00:27Sometimes a cliffhanger just doesn't hit how the filmmakers or studio intended,
00:33and the reaction from general viewers is total apathy, a simple lack of interest in what it's
00:38setting up. That's certainly true of these 10 movies, which whether good or not,
00:43all fail to deliver the satisfyingly tantalizing cliffhangers they thought they were.
00:49So I am Gareth here from WhatCulture.com and here are 10 movie cliffhangers nobody cared about.
00:54Number 10, Baby Godzilla Hatches, Godzilla 1998
00:58Sony originally had very high hopes for Roland Emmerich's 1998 Godzilla film,
01:04which they envisioned as the first entry into an epic blockbuster trilogy,
01:08assuming it turned a hefty profit of course. To that end, Godzilla 98 ended up with a rather
01:14lousy setup for a sequel, where following Godzilla's death, a single one of its eggs is revealed to
01:19have survived in the ruins of Madison Square Garden. In the final shot, the egg hatches.
01:25What a shocker. As cliffhangers go, it's pretty damn lazy, basically suggesting that a sequel would
01:31restore the status quo with another Zilla running rampant. Perhaps had we seen a few surviving
01:36creatures hatch, hyping up a sequel with way more giant monsters, this might have better energised
01:42audiences. Instead, following Godzilla's underperformance at the box office, Sony opted not to
01:47proceed with a sequel. Instead, the storyline was picked up in the Godzilla animated series,
01:52which while better received by fans, struggled to find an audience due to competing with both
01:57Pokemon and Digimon. That is some fierce competition.
02:00Number 9, Stowaway Smith, The Matrix Reloaded
02:03If you're old enough to have seen The Matrix Reloaded in cinemas, you'll remember how feverish
02:08the excitement was. That the Wachowskis were backed with a sequel to one of the greatest action
02:13films of all time. It ultimately fell short of most fans' expectations, yet even those
02:18who staunchly defend the movie won't have much positive to say about its absolute nothing
02:23burger of a cliffhanger sequel bait ending. At film's end, Neo unexpectedly manifests abilities
02:29in the real world, which he uses to destroy a fleet of incoming machines before falling into
02:34a coma. In the final scene, it's revealed that the rescue ship has taken aboard another survivor
02:39from the machine's attack. Bane, who earlier in the film became possessed by Agent Smith.
02:45And then, just before the end credits roll, a title card reads, To Be Concluded.
02:50Even though everybody knew a third Matrix film was mere months away from release when they went to
02:55watch Reloaded, they sure as hell didn't expect to be left with such a lackluster pair of reveals to
03:00tee up the trilogy concluding entry. As such, it's perhaps little surprise that The Matrix
03:05Revolutions grossed barely half of what Reloaded did. Ouch.
03:09Number 8, Michael Gets Broken Out of Prison, Halloween 5, The Revenge of Michael Myers
03:14Halloween 5, The Revenge of Michael Myers is a film that broke the audience's spirit early on,
03:19and basically never recovered from it. After Halloween 4 ended with a genuinely tantalizing
03:24cliffhanger which suggested that Michael Myers' niece Jamie Lloyd had inherited his killer instinct,
03:29the fifth film opened by basically negating it. The rest of the movie plays out rather dispiritingly.
03:35Before Michael is captured by the police, and set to be held in custody until his dying day.
03:40Except of course, that doesn't happen. Instead, the movie ends when a mysterious man wearing all
03:46black breaks into the police station, murders all the cops, and sets Michael free. Even with the
03:51genuine mystery of the man in black's identity, it was tough to give much of a damn about this
03:56cliffhanger after the previous movie's considerably more compelling one was a massive cop-out.
04:01And as it turned out, the sixth film's explanation that a cult of druids were behind Michael's
04:06liberation didn't exactly impress many fans anyway.
04:09Number 7, Abraham Lincoln, Planet of the Apes, 2001
04:13If you were unlucky enough to watch Tim Burton's ill-fated 2001 remake of Planet of the Apes in
04:19the cinema, you might recall how you could hear a pin drop when that hysterical head scratch of a
04:24final scene played out. After Captain Leo Davidson travels back through the electromagnetic storm in an
04:30attempt to get home, he crash lands in Washington DC and finds that the Lincoln Memorial has been
04:35replaced with a statue commemorating General Fade. Moreover, the cops, firefighters, and news reporters
04:41who quickly arrive on the scene are all apes. What the hell?
04:45While it's understandable that Burton and company didn't want to merely rehash the original 1968
04:50film's widely known twist, that the ape planet was Earth all along. Er, spoilers, I guess?
04:55This sequel teasing cliffhanger proved so head-smackingly ridiculous that it killed most
05:00interest in another movie altogether. Hilariously, Burton himself explained in the film's DVD commentary
05:06that the cliffhanger wasn't really supposed to make any sense, but simply drop enough of a WTF
05:11bomb that it would leave audiences curious to know what the hell happened. Evidently, the gambit didn't
05:16quite pay off, as despite turning a decent profit, both Burton and Fox swore off a sequel, putting the
05:22franchise on ice until 2011's reboot Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Can you remember another ending
05:27that made you audibly ask WTF just happened? Let us know down below in the comments section, my friends.
05:33Number 6. Mr. Sinister is coming. X-Men Apocalypse
05:36Despite being the penultimate mainline X-Men movie, X-Men Apocalypse was actually intended to set up a whole
05:42new era of X-Men films prior to Disney's acquisition of Fox. The post-credits scene showed a fleet of
05:48men in
05:49black suits raiding William Stryker's Weapon X facility and retrieving samples, before a closing
05:54shot of a briefcase reads Essex Corp. First and foremost, this meant absolutely nothing to non-comic
06:00book fans who wouldn't in any way appreciate that this was teeing up Nathaniel Essex, aka Mr.
06:06Sinister, to be the X-Men series' next big bad. Secondly, given that this movie had literally just
06:11spent 144 minutes ruining one of the most iconic comic villains of all time, Apocalypse, why the hell would
06:18anyone be excited that the same creatives were adapting Mr. Sinister next? The most damning
06:23proof that nobody cared though, X-Men Apocalypse underperformed at the box office, and follow-up
06:28Dark Phoenix, which ultimately didn't feature Mr. Sinister anyway, was an outright flop, effectively
06:34sealing the franchise's fate. Number 5. Daisy's sequel bait, Super Mario Bros.
06:39Super Mario Bros. may not be a very good movie, and certainly not a good adaptation of its video game
06:45namesake, but it gets points for its creative production design, and generally bonkers throw
06:49everything at the wall filmmaking. That doesn't mean that its hilariously optimistic cliffhanger
06:54ending in any way got audiences young or old hyped for a potential sequel though. The final scene sees
07:00Princess Daisy rock up to Mario and Luigi's apartment, totting a large gun and burned clothes,
07:06before insisting she needs their help, and that they're not going to believe what she's been through.
07:10Mario and Luigi quickly grab their wares, but before Daisy can explain what's up, the movie abruptly
07:16ends. Cliffhangers intended to set up sequels generally need to give audiences a little more
07:21than just this. Show them how the stakes are going to be raised for a sequel, or give them a
07:25glimpse
07:25of a new world or even the next movie's antagonist. Instead, Super Mario Bros. basically gave viewers
07:31close to nothing, and so it's a little surprise that few were enthused to see what happened next.
07:364. Let the Games Begin Dracula Untold
07:39Shortly before Dracula Untold's release, the film reportedly underwent reshoots to retroactively
07:45fashion it as the first entry into Universal's new dark universe. A cinematic universe set to
07:50feature the studio's most iconic monsters, like the Mummy, the Wolfman, Frankenstein, and the
07:56Invisible Man. Despite this, Universal denied claims that Dracula Untold was the series' launching
08:01pad. Perhaps in part because said reshoots resulted in such a lackluster, unimpressive setup for future
08:07stories. The film's tacked-on present-day epilogue sees Vlad, aka Dracula, meet up with a woman,
08:12Mina, who bears a strong resemblance to his dead wife, Marina. The Master Vampire, who first turned
08:18Vlad into a vampire, is then revealed to be watching them. And as they walk away, the Master Vampire quips,
08:23let the games begin. Evidently, the ending placed Vlad in the present day in order to set up his
08:29future interactions with the other monsters in the dark universe, with the Master Vampire possibly
08:34acting as the Nick Fury-esque link between them all. Audiences were more confused than interested,
08:39though. And so, Universal decided to relaunch the dark universe with Tom Cruise's The Mummy a few years
08:45later, which similarly failed to strike a chord with viewers. Well, at least they tried. Twice.
08:50Number 3. Quintessa Lives. Transformers The Last Knight. Transformers The Last Knight may not have
08:55been a billion-dollar mega-hit like its predecessor, but it still grossed over $600 million worldwide,
09:01meaning that a hell of a lot of people went to see it. And so, why is it that not
09:05a single solitary
09:06soul can remember how it ended? Michael Bay's final Transformers film concluded with a few teases
09:11for the planned sixth entry, namely Decepticon leader Megatron still being at large, and the
09:16Cybertronian sorceress Quintessa having taken the guise of a human woman to continue her quest to
09:22destroy Earth. Audiences simply couldn't be compelled to give a damn. And so, following the
09:27film's fair box office underperformance, the decision was made to sack off the sixth film
09:31and rejig the series with Bumblebee, which operated as a prequel to the original 2007 Transformers.
09:38With the upcoming Transformers Rise of the Beast also taking place before the first Bayformers movie,
09:43it's safe to say that The Last Knight's cliffhanger received a vocal vote of no confidence from just
09:48about everybody. Number 2, The End, Flash Gordon
09:51Though you've probably seen Flash Gordon, do you remember that it ends with a blatant setup for a
09:56sequel? Don't feel bad if you don't, because it's a completely forgettable non-entity of a sequel tease.
10:02After the evil Ming the Merciless is killed and the day is saved, we cut back to Ming's magic power
10:07ring, which is picked up by a hand wearing a black glove. All while Ming's signature laugh rings out,
10:13and The End appears on screen. Again, it's perhaps the least interesting part of a thoroughly
10:18entertaining, unapologetically camped space opera, enough that many forget that cliffhanger even
10:23happens at all. More to the point, audiences of its era clearly weren't enamoured much,
10:27given that Flash Gordon underperformed at the global box office, and only solidified itself as
10:32a cult classic in the years that followed. And given that any prospect of a sequel had dried up
10:37long before the movie became a home video hit, the sequel tease again fell upon deaf ears.
10:41Number 1, Dom and Little B's Ambiguous Fates, Fast X
10:46The generally middling reception to the most recent Fast and the Furious movie, Fast X or Fast 10 or
10:52whatever it is, was topped off by the mesmerizingly cheeky manner in which it ended. Or rather,
10:57didn't end. After Dom rescues his son, Little B, from villain Dante Reyes, he's forced to drive off
11:02the edge of a dam in order to avoid two remote-controlled trucks from crashing into him at the top.
11:07Dom's car eventually hits the water at the bottom, and both father and son manage to escape to the
11:12surface, mostly unscathed. But at that moment, Dante then blows up the dam, leaving the fates of
11:18Dom and Little B apparently uncertain moments before the end credits roll. Needless to say,
11:23the series has such comically low stakes for its characters, who can be constantly resurrected
11:28without consequence or logic, that it's near impossible to be even remotely concerned for Dom or
11:33his son. We know they're fine, so what's the point? To hammer home the utter listlessness of this
11:38cliffhanger, the film's final scene immediately afterwards brings Giselle back from the dead.
11:42Again, compounding that death means absolutely nothing in these movies. Because the audience isn't
11:47worried for Dom or Little B, and few will give much of a damn that Giselle is back either,
11:52the whole ending falls laughably flat. At least Hobbs is back though, right? Yeah, miss that goatee.
11:58And that's our list. Know of any other movie cliffhangers nobody cared about? Well, let us
12:02know all about them in the comment section right down below, and don't forget to like, share,
12:06and click on that subscribe button while you're down there. Also, if you're a fan of this sort
12:09of cliffhanging stuff, then please head on over to whatculture.com and find some more fantastic
12:13articles just like the one this video you're watching right now is based on. I've been Gareth
12:18from whatculture.com, cheers for watching this particular video today. Hopefully I'll see your
12:22faces rather soon, but in the meantime, just be good to yourself. Bye-bye!
Comments