# Movie Epilogues **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 8, 2013, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-epilogues/646447 "2013-01-08T04:28:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![alfonzos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4bbf92/32.png) [@alfonzos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alfonzos)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-epilogues/646447/1 "2013-01-08T04:28:04Z")
_National Lampoon’s Animal House_ is the first move I ever saw that had freeze frames of the characters with captions that explained the character’s eventual fates. Are there any older movies that did this? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-epilogues/646447/2 "2013-01-08T04:31:46Z")
American Graffiti. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-epilogues/646447/3 "2013-01-08T07:26:30Z")
“Front Page” starring W. Mathau, J. Lemon, S. Sarandon, 1974. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-epilogues/646447/4 "2013-01-08T07:39:42Z")
> [@alfonzos](#): > > _National Lampoon’s Animal House_ is the first move I ever saw that had freeze frames of the characters with captions that explained the character’s eventual fates. Are there any older movies that did this? I remember thinking at the time that it was an obvious parody of serious movies that did the same thing, so there must have been some. Damned if I can think of one, though. I do recall that “_A Man For All Seasons_” concluded with a narrator telling the fates of the main characters, although not with a freeze frame. That was 1966, and I’m sure there were much earlier examples. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-epilogues/646447/5 "2013-01-11T08:37:25Z")
I know of a _recent_ movie that did this: _Unstoppable._ I remember Ethan Suplee’s character got fired almost immediately. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-epilogues/646447/6 "2013-01-11T13:12:47Z")
The _Dragnet_ series on TV always had an epilogue where they told you the outcome of the triial (just before the commercial preceding this, the narrator would say “On (date) went to trial in the (court system). In a moment the results of that trial.” They even had an epilogue like that when there _wasn’t_ a trial, often becsause there wasn’t an actual crime. Jack Webb just liked closure, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-epilogues/646447/7 "2013-01-11T17:01:58Z")
[American Graffiti](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069704/trivia?tab=cz) is usually credited as the first film to show the fates of the characters as an epilog. On TV, any Quinn Martin production ( **The Fugitive, The Untouchables, Streets of San Francisco, The Invaders, The FBI** , etc.) had an epilogue, labeled as such. But the practice was common in TV shows of the 50s, where there’d be a short, one-minute-or-so scene just before the credits. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-epilogues/646447/8 "2013-01-11T17:14:40Z")
Is 9 to 5 before or after that? They did it too. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2013, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-epilogues/646447/9 "2013-01-11T23:42:11Z")
[A bunch of them from an expected source.](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue)