I always stay for the credits, partly to see the credits, but also to see if there are any Easter Eggs at the end. I know we’ve discussed this here before, like here:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=208037
I got in the habit from James Bond movies, which used to always end with “James Bond will return in…” and reveal the name of the next movie.
Neither Hooper nor The Muppet Movie have post-credit scenes; they both have intra-credit scenes only; however, the Wikipedia entry aldiboronti linked to defines post-credit scene in a way that included intra-credit scenes. Intra-credit scenes don’t have the problem that the OP is mentioning, as you don’t have to wait until after the credits to see if there will be anything else.
I wonder what the first modern mainstream film is to have a true post-credit scene?
I like them. It’s a nice way to give a little reward those who stay while (almost?) never containing anything extremely important that those who don’t will miss. For example, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has made post-credit scenes a major big deal, but (I might be missing one or two):
If you missed the post-credits scene of Iron Man I, you missed a little mention of the Avengers Initiative by Nick Fury, but nothing that you won’t know about from watching the Avengers alone.
If you missed the post-credits scene of Incredible Hulk, you missed a little meeting between General Ross and Tony Stark, but nothing of importance ever came of it yet.
If you missed the post-credits scene of Thor I, all you missed was some Asgardian monster wandering over rooftops
If you missed the post-credits scene of Captain America I, the exact same scene was shown in Avengers.
If you missed the post-credits scene in Avengers, all you missed was them eating shawarma together…and the mid-credits scene teased Thanos’s eventual introduction, but told you nothing about him you wouldn’t eventually see in Guardians of the Galaxy.
etc, etc. I’m not really interested in making this a longer post. You get the idea. If there’s one I failed to mention that disproves what I said above, feel free to post it.
If it’s not one of those two, it may be Airplane! (1980).
Airplane! has a true post-credits scene. I believe that’s the earliest mentioned so far.
I grew up on made-for teens sci-fi-horror films, and they often had post-credits scenes, usually to show us that the monster wasn’t actually completely dead. That goes back to the fifties and sixties.
The first film I ever saw outtakes in, was Being There, with Peter Sellers. I was actually a bit taken aback by it, because showing Sellers break character to giggle wasn’t conducive to my usual ponderings of what the ideas in the film meant to me. But I eventually came to enjoy such things, most of the time.
I think that Ferris Beuller’s use of them was unique and brilliant, because they fit right in to the entire format of the film, and built on, rather than distracted from what it was about.
I’ve seen some that were disappointing and obviously perfunctory, too. When they do a lousy job on the outtakes, it’s a similar annoyance to directors making bad choices in the film itself.
All in all, though, I like getting my full money’s worth. So in the cases where the reason for the extra stuff after the credits was to get me to stay through them, I’m okay.
Oh. Special mention for Monty Python’s use of credits to keep their brand of humor going past the end, too.
I’m waiting for someone to start hiding clues to win a prize in the credits.
Some anime episodes have them, and they can be a bit annoying. I tend to skip the beginning and ending credits, especially when I’m bingeing a series, which puts me at risk of missing a stinger. I understand why they’re done, typically. If the scene in the stinger doesn’t fit with the rest of episode due to tonal differences or whatever, separating it from the rest of the episode by placing it after the credits can eliminate mood whiplash.
However, there was at least one instance for me where a stinger hurt my enjoyment of a series. In that anime, a very light-and-fluffy episode was followed by the next episode beginning in media res, with the protagonists suddenly preparing for a battle. The battle wasn’t entirely unexpected – the protagonists knew to expect an invasion, just not when – but it felt jarring to me to have the episode start right on the battlefield out of no where. What happened was that I’d missed a stinger from the previous episode that showed the invasion starting and the protagonists being called into battle. To add insult to injury, the stinger also introduced a Chekov’s Gun connected to the plot of the fluffy episode. When the Chekov’s Gun fired several episode later I was blindsided.
In Thailand, if it’s a popular movie like the Harry Potter series, then a notice will be flashed on the screen telling the audience that something is coming, or sometimes a cinema staff member will actually stand down in front to tell people as they’re leaving. But mostly the wife and I are alone at the end.
I stay to the end anyway, so view them as a nice treat.
I watched FOTR for the third time because they added a Two Towers trailer (though I did use the restroom during the credits and came back for the trailer)
Brian
[Moderating]
mikecurtis, if you want to say that people should stay to the end, that’s fine. But saying that other posters’ self-worth is fragile is a personal insult, and thus is not fine. If you can’t play nice, take it to the Pit.
I like them, but I actually prefer when they run bloopers from the making of the movie.
I love them. I’ve always stayed to the end anyway, and stingers are a nice little added bonus.
Speaking of, Kong: Skull Island has a short but fantastic (IMHO) post-credits scene. I’ve seen the movie twice now and it was just as good seeing the stinger (and the movie itself) the 2nd time.
Logan does not have anything at the end.
The early ones have mostly been mentioned.
Joe Dante used to throw little things in at the end of his films – he did it independently of anyone else. For instance, at the end of The Howling (1981) he stuck in a snippet from The Wolf Man (1941) with Lon Chaney Jr. and Maria Ouspenskaya.
He stuck in the sound of gremlins laughing at the end of Gremlins (1984)
I used to love the UK programme Shameless (which was later adapted for the US market by Showtime) and the UK episodes would have a very brief post-credits scene. Usually this would be humorous and related to events earlier in the episode.
I’m not a fan of bloopers shown over the credits, though.
Iron Man 2 - someone (Agent Coulson?) reports that an object has landed; it’s the Hammer of Thor.
IMDB has a list of pretty much all of them (for all movies and TV shows), if you know where to look. I think the only way to get all of the “crazy credits” is by downloading the plaintext file from here. Otherwise, I think they’re only readable on a movie-by-movie basis.
i will admit that my post was a little harsh, but i dont think i was making a direct insult. it was in response to this:
[QUOTE=aldiboronti]
. . .for fear of missing something that everybody else will be discussing… . .
[/QUOTE]
but apparently you and aldi were insulted, so i withdraw my statement, sorry
mc
[Quote=Bryan Ekers]
Who cares about the scenes - I’ve always stayed through the credits for research as I am writing a book about Jewish Key Grips.
[/quote]
It’s called “Hello, Dolly !”.
The book was a bit light but the film version was boffo.
Anyway, they’re gonna sue you.
Why not call it “The Fischer King” or “Movieola Rock 'N Rolla” ?
Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk
I sent them packing when they came after me for my first book, Best Boychik, and I’ll be damned if anybody’s going to give me grief when I hit the bookstores with “Lights!” My Father Told Me.
As I understand it, the current buzzword for a post-credit scene is “stinger.”
I got in the habit of watching movies through the end of the credits back when I was a teenager, probably when we got our first VCR and started recording movies from HBO. It was my opinion that cutting the credits short meant having an incomplete copy of the film. My refusal to let him change the channel before the credits finished really got on my little brother’s nerves. Being the impatient type, he was in the habit of fast forwarding through a movie’s opening credits.
And for the record, I like having stingers at the end of the credits. I find it a small reward for my patience.
If I was a mod, I’d give you a warning for never capitalizing. Despite this being brought to your attention before. But I am not a mod, so keep on being the unique writer you are.