This article contains post-credits scene spoilers for the movies included.Did you know that the firstpost-credits scenewas shown way back in 1966? After the credits rolled in the spy comedy filmThe Silencers, Dean Martin’s secret agent character Matt Helm is shown surrounded by women along with the caption “Matt Helm Will Return,” setting up a sequel. Since that moment, the post-credits scene has become a tried-and-true cinematic staple, particularly in the past 20 years with the rise of franchises.
The post-credits scene serves a variety of purposes, whether it’s preparing audiences for a sequel, likeThe Silencers, providingadditional context for a character or cliffhanger, or simply serving up one final joke for the viewer. Whatever its purpose, the best type of post-credits scene is one that surprises audience members in some way, and there have been a number of films that have utilized these scenes effectively over the years. Here are 12 m.ovies where the post-credits scene was the biggest surprise.
12Young Sherlock Holmes (1985)
Written by Chris Columbus and directed by Barry Levinson,Young Sherlock Holmesfollows Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s titular character as a student at a London boarding school, where he befriends his future sidekick, John Watson. While the duo investigates a series of murders in the city, they stumble upon a cult that worships the Egyptian god Osiris; a cult which they later discover is led by their fencing instructor, the murderous Professor Rathe. In a climactic confrontation, Rathe is presumed dead when he falls into the River Thames. The movie’s post-credits scene reveals that not only is Rathe still alive, but that he is actually a crucial part of the Sherlock Holmes canon.
Set Up a Sequel That Never Happened
Young Sherlock Holmesis most notable for being the first full-length film to include a completelycomputer-generated character, a feat that earned it an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects. The film’s biggest surprise from a narrative perspective, however, is the post-credits scene revealing that Rathe is actually Professor James Moriarty, the criminal mastermind and Holmes’s sworn nemesis throughout the Doyle novels.
The big reveal was clearly intended to set up a sequel, and while that never came to fruition, it still makes for a compelling surprise during a time when post-credits scenes weren’t the cinematic norm.
Stream on Prime Video
11Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, the John Hughes coming-of-age comedy that stars Matthew Broderick as the titular teen slacker who skips school with his best friend Cameron (Alan Ruck) and girlfriend Sloane (Mia Sara), is still culturally relevant to this day. Ferris constantly breaking the fourth wall is one of the film’s most iconic tropes, but even diehard fans may forget that Ferris returns after the credits roll to address the audience one more time in a hilarious send-off.
Shaming the Audience
In the post-credits scene, Ferris comes out of the bathroom, looks right into the camera, and says, “You’re still here? It’s over. Go home. Go.” The moment may not contain a shocking revelation or a sequel set-up like most post-credits scenes, but it adds to the movie’s charmingly comedic tone and provides viewers with one final gag that they probably weren’t expecting.
Stream on Paramount+
Related:Matthew Broderick Believes His Career Will Be Remembered For One Thing: Ferris Bueller
10A Bug’s Life (1998)
A Bug’s Life
Three years following the success of its debut film Toy Story, Pixar struck gold again withA Bug’s Life. The hilarious jokes, Academy Award-nominated score, and all-star voice-acting cast that includes Dave Foley, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Kevin Spacey made the movie an instant classic. Even as the credits roll, viewers are treated to even more animated, bug-based comedy, furthering the film’s immense rewatchability factor.
A Hilarious Blooper Reel
With the inclusion of fake bloopers and outtakes, the credits forABug’s Lifeshowed that Pixar films could appeal to adults as well as kids, while the appearance of Woody fromToy Storywas an early indicator of the animation studio’s self-awareness and meta appeal that is still apparent to this day. On top of that, it shows just how fun it must be to work on a Pixar film, as both the voice actors and animators clearly had a good time messing around on set.
Stream on Disney+
Dawn of the Dead
Before he was a famous director known for his stylistic action films and superhero adaptations, Zack Snyder made his directorial debut with the ultraviolent zombie flickDawn of the Dead. A remake of George Romero’s 1978 movie,Snyder’s rebootwas a commercial and critical success. Featuring an ensemble cast that includes Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, and Ty Burrell,Dawn of the Deadwas credited with breathing fresh life into the zombie genre and is often regarded as one of Snyder’s best productions. The movie is bookended by two iconic moments: a kinetic and terrifying 10-minute opening sequence and a post-credits scene that adds a seriously harrowing twist to the proceedings.
A Brutal Ending
Before the credits roll, the audience is led to believe that the group of zombie apocalypse survivors have escaped via boat and are making their way to an island that has yet to be populated by the undead. But, the post-credits scene reveals, in found footage style, that the island where the last remaining characters have escaped is overrun by zombies, and the camera cuts to black as the flesh eaters swarm.
This final scene is a departure from Romero’s more hopeful ending, and showed Snyder’s and screenwriter James Gunn’s commitment to taking things in a darker direction.
Stream on Netflix
8Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2007)
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, the third installment in the epic swashbuckler series, follows Will Turner (Orlando Bloom), Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley), Hector Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), and the rest of the Black Pearl crew as they attempt to rescue Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and defeat Lord Cutler Beckett (Tommy Hollander) and Davy Jones (Bill Nighy). Nominated at the 80th Academy Awards for Best Makeup and Best Visual Effects, the film ends with a pregnant Elizabeth and Will forced to separate, as Will has now assumed Davy Jones’s duty of guiding souls to the next world as captain of the Flying Dutchman. But, all is not lost, as the post-credits scene sets up a surprising reunion.
Henry Meets His Father
Set 10 years after the events ofAt World’s End, the post-credits scene shows Will returning to shore to visit Elizabeth and their son, Henry. On top of serving as a poignant restoration of hope for the two beloved characters, the scene also sets up Henry as one of the main characters in the 2017 sequelPirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.
7Iron Man (2008)
Earning two Academy Award nominations (Best Sound Editing and Best Visual Effects) and over a half-billion dollars at the box office,Iron Manlaunched an entertainment behemoth as the first big-screen installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Introducing Marvel fans to Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark, the billionaire industrialist who becomes the superhero Iron Man, Jon Favreau’s film also featured a pivotal post-credits scene, launching a time-honored trend and setting up not just a single sequel, but dozens of films.
Avengers, Assemble!
Nowadays, Marvel movies are expected to have a post-credits scene, butIron Manwas the MCU film that started it all. The scene introduced Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), the director of the intelligence agency S.H.I.E.L.D., who pitches Stark on the Avengers Initiative. This not only established Iron Man as the eventual leader of The Avengers, but also set the stage forThe Incredible Hulk,Thor,Captain America: The First Avenger, and the other Avengers-based films that were to come.
6The Hangover (2009)
The Hangover
Largely responsible for the wave of raunchy R-rated comedies in the mid-2000s,The Hangoverwas a critical and commercial success that effectively launched the careers of its stars, Zach Galifianakis, Bradley Cooper, and Ed Helms. From Mike Tyson and his tiger to the flamboyant Chinese gangster Leslie Chow (hilariously played by Ken Jeong), the movie is jam-packed with visual gags and iconic lines, but the most surprising moment of the film happens when the credits roll, as we finally figure out what happened during Doug’s debaucherous bachelor party in Las Vegas.
Detailing the Night
While at Doug’s wedding, the four friends discover a digital camera containing pictures they took during the blackout-causing bachelor party in Sin City. Stu (Helms), Phil (Cooper), Alan (Galifianakis), and Doug (Justin Bartha) vow to look through the camera one time before deleting the evidence, and as the end credits roll, a number of photos flash by depicting gambling, strip club shenanigans, and even a fistfight.
But, the biggest shock of all comes when we see several pictures of Alan on the receiving end of a very realistic-looking simulated sex act by a middle-aged woman. If you know, you know.
Rent on Apple TV
5Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
Captain America
As the fifth film in the MCU,Captain America: The First Avengerserves as another character-introducing movie, showcasing the transformation of Chris Evans' Steve Rogers from frail U.S. Army reject to patriotic super soldier Captain America. The film also included a number of other important MCU debuts, including the idea of Infinity Stones, with the major conflict being Hydra commander Red Skull’s mission to obtain the Space Stone-containing Tesseract. The most surprising moment inCaptain America, however, occurred after the credits rolled, as the viewer was treated to a much-anticipated teaser.
A Mind-Blowing Sneak Peek
Like withIron Man, the post-credits scene forCaptain Americashows Nick Fury attempting to recruit Rogers to The Avengers. But, the big reveal comes later, as audiences who stuck around until the end got the first official sneak peek at a trailer forThe Avengers, the first crossover event in the MCU that servedas the ending of Phase One.
Evil Deadre-launched Sam Raimi’s supernatural horror franchise of the same name, as the fourth film in the series also spawned a television series (Ash vs Evil Dead) and a fifth film (Evil Dead Rise). Co-written and directed by Uruguayan filmmaker Fede Álvarez,Evil Deadfeatured an all-new cast that included Jane Levy in the heroine role, as well as Shiloh Fernandez, Lou Taylor Pucci, and Jessica Lucas. Thanks to a brief post-credits scene, though, fans of Raimi’s trilogy were treated to an epic cameo appearance from a beloved character.
InThe Evil Dead(1981),Evil Dead II(1987), andArmy of Darkness(1992), Bruce Campbell played the demon-and-zombie-killing protagonist, Ash Williams, known for his comedic antics and his iconic catchphrase “Groovy.” The post-credits scene inEvil Dead, which featured a silhouetted Ash uttering his notable one-liner, was an important re-introduction of Campbell in theEvil Deaduniverse, as it set up his eventual appearance inAsh vs Evil Dead, which ran from 2015-2018.
Related:Evil Dead Rise Ending, Explained
3Split (2016)
M. Night Shyamalan’sSplitis a psychological horror film starring James McAvoy, a man with dissociative identity disorder who later develops superhuman capabilities as a cannibalistic sadist known as The Beast, and Anya Taylor-Joy as a teenage girl named Casey who survives The Beast’s clutches. At first,Splitappears to be a standalone film, but a post-credits scene confirms that it is actually a sequel to an iconic Shyamalan film from over 15 years earlier.
An Unexpected Appearance
WhileSplitwas not marketed as a sequel, the appearance of Bruce Willis' David Dunn, the superhero protagonist from Shyamalan’s 2000 filmUnbreakable, makes it clear that the movie is actually a sequel. In the post-credits scene, Dunn references Mr. Glass, the villainous mass murderer played by Samuel L. Jackson in the first film, which in turns sets up the 2019 filmGlass.The Shyamalan twistinSplit’s post-credits scene was notable for elevating the movie as the first-ever “stealth sequel” as well as the first solo supervillain origin film.
