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{{short description|Short sequence that appears after all or part of the final credits}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{more citations needed|date=June 2019}}
{{Original research|date=January 2023}}
}}
A '''post-credits scene''' (also known as a '''stinger''', '''end tag''', or '''credit cookie''') (or '''mid-credits scene''') is a short clip that appears after all (or some) of the [[closing credits]] have rolled and sometimes after a [[production logo]] of a [[film]], [[TV series]], or [[video game]] has run. It is usually included to reward the audience for watching through the credits sequence; it may be a scene written for humour or to set up a [[sequel]].

==History==
Post-credits scenes may have their origins in [[Encore|encores]], an additional performance added to the end of staged shows in response to audience applause.<ref>{{Cite web |title='More!' The surprising history of the encore |url=https://www.gramophone.co.uk/features/article/more-the-surprising-history-of-the-encore |access-date=2022-05-20 |website=Gramophone |language=en |archive-date=2022-07-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220717092741/https://www.gramophone.co.uk/features/article/more-the-surprising-history-of-the-encore |url-status=live }}</ref> Opera encores were common practice in the 19th century, when the story was often interrupted so a singer could repeat an aria, but fell out of favor in the 1920s due to rising emphasis on dramatic storytelling rather than vocal performance.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Salazar |first=Francisco |date=April 29, 2014 |title=Encore! A History of the Encore At the Met After Javier Camarena's Repetition Last Friday |work=Latin Post |url=https://www.latinpost.com/articles/11370/20140429/encore-history-met-javier-camarenas-repetition-last-friday.htm |access-date=May 20, 2022 |archive-date=October 16, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016133844/http://www.latinpost.com/articles/11370/20140429/encore-history-met-javier-camarenas-repetition-last-friday.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

The first general release film to feature a post-credits scene is ''[[The Silencers (film)|The Silencers]]'', released in March 1966.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brayson |first=Johnny |date=November 15, 2017 |title=This '70s Movie Is To Blame For Having To Wait Until After The Credits For the Final Scene |url=https://www.bustle.com/p/when-did-post-credits-scenes-start-the-trends-history-is-filled-with-twists-turns-3235313 |url-status=live |website=[[Bustle (magazine)|Bustle]] |access-date=November 19, 2021 |archive-date=November 19, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211119065419/https://www.bustle.com/p/when-did-post-credits-scenes-start-the-trends-history-is-filled-with-twists-turns-3235313 }}</ref> The scene depicts lead character [[Matt Helm]] (played by [[Dean Martin]]) lying shirtless on what appears to be a rotating sofa along with 10 scantily-clad women.<ref name=":0">{{Citation |title=The Silencers (1966) |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8plu-ESBhs |language=en |access-date=2022-05-20 |archive-date=2022-05-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220520232617/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8plu-ESBhs&gl=US&hl=en |url-status=live }}</ref> He kisses two women before rubbing his face and muttering, "Oh my god."<ref name=":0" /> During the scene, text overlays reads "Coming Up Next" and "Matt Helm Meets Lovey Kravezit."<ref name=":0" />

In 1979, ''[[The Muppet Movie]]'' uses a [[framing device]] in which the characters themselves watch the movie unfold in a theater. During the credits, the Muppets get up from their seats, talk to each other and joke around (thus incentivizing the real audience to stick around and see what happens next). In the final moment after the credits, Animal yells at the audience to "GO HOME!" before sighing "buh-bye" and passing out from exhaustion.

The use of such scenes gained popularity throughout the 1980s at the end of comedy films. In 1980, ''[[Airplane!]]'' ended with a callback to an [[Howard Jarvis|abandoned taxicab passenger]] who was not a primary character. Enhanced application continued in 1985 with ''[[Young Sherlock Holmes]]'' (see below); in ''[[Masters of the Universe (film)|Masters of the Universe]]'' (1987), Skeletor's head emerges from the water at the bottom of the pit, saying "I'll be back!"<ref name="Rhodes">{{Cite web |last=Rhodes |first=Eric |date=November 25, 2019 |title=10 Movie Post Credits Scenes That Went Nowhere |url=https://screenrant.com/movie-post-credits-scenes-stingers-that-went-nowhere-pointless/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211119065934/https://screenrant.com/movie-post-credits-scenes-stingers-that-went-nowhere-pointless/ |archive-date=November 19, 2021 |website=[[Screen Rant]]}}</ref> ''The Muppet Movie'' also began a trend of using such scenes to break the [[fourth wall]], even when much of the rest of the film had kept it intact. The scenes were often used as a form of [[metafiction]], with characters showing an awareness that they were at the end of a film, and sometimes telling the audience directly to leave the theatre. Films using this technique include ''[[Ferris Bueller's Day Off]]'' (in which the title character frequently breaks the fourth wall during the film) and the musical remake of ''[[The Producers (2005 film)|The Producers]]''. The post-credits scene in the latter film also includes a cameo appearance by ''Producers'' screenwriter [[Mel Brooks]].

Post-credits scenes also appeared on the long-running television show ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'', introduced in the 1990 episode ''[[Rocket Attack U.S.A.]]'', continuing until the end of the series. With few exceptions, they highlighted moments from the films that were either particularly nonsensical or had simply caught the writers' attention.

==Contemporary film examples==
Stingers lacking the metafictional aspects also gained prominence in the 1980s, although they were still primarily used for comedy films. Post-credits scenes became useful places for humorous scenes that would not fit in the main body of the film. Most were short clips that served to tie together loose ends—minor characters whose fates were not elaborated on earlier in the film, or plot lines that were not fully wrapped up. For example, all five ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean films|Pirates of the Caribbean]]'' films include such scenes. ''[[Napoleon Dynamite]]'' features a stinger that reveals that Kip and LaFawnduh get married, a scene that was included in its [[wide release]]. In the film ''[[The Cannonball Run]]'', [[bloopers]] from the film are shown. One of the stars in that picture, [[Jackie Chan]], later featured [[outtakes]] during the credits of many of his films, often showing him getting injured doing his own stunts.

Even when post-credits scenes started to be used by films with little comedy development, the same format of giving closure to incomplete storylines or inconsequential characters remained in use. Using humor in such scenes is also still common for more serious films, as in the film ''[[Daredevil (film)|Daredevil]]'', in which [[Bullseye (comics)|Bullseye]] is shown after his defeat by Daredevil in a full body cast. Other films eschew the comedy in favor of a twist or revelation that would be out of place elsewhere in the film, as in ''[[X-Men: The Last Stand]]''{{'}}s post-credits scene in which [[Professor X]] is shown to be alive after his apparent death by the hands of the [[Phoenix Force (comics)|Phoenix]]. Another example is the stinger at the end of ''[[Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film)|Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets]]'' which features a post-memory loss [[Gilderoy Lockhart|Lockhart]]. A third example occurs in ''[[Young Sherlock Holmes]]'': during the entire credits, a [[Sled|sleigh]] is seen traveling in the [[Alps]] to a mountain inn; at the end of the credits, the passenger Professor Rathe (presumed to be dead), also known as "Eh-Tar", signs the register as "[[Professor Moriarty|Moriarty]]".

With the rise of pre-planned [[media franchise|film franchise]]s, post-credits scenes have been adopted in order to prepare the audience for upcoming sequels, sometimes going so far as to include a cliffhanger ending where the main film is largely stand-alone. The cinematic release of ''[[The Matrix Reloaded]]'' demonstrated the sequel set-up use of stingers by featuring the [[trailer (film)|trailer]] for ''[[The Matrix Revolutions]]''.

Another example would be the ending of the supernatural horror film ''[[Annabelle: Creation]]'' (2017), where we see a post-credits clip set in Romania, 1952 and see the character of [[Valak]], the demon nun from ''[[The Conjuring 2]]'' (2016) gliding towards the viewer before it darkens, teasing the spin-off prequel ''[[The Nun (2018 film)|The Nun]]'' (2018).

Some films, including [[Richard Linklater]]'s ''[[School of Rock]]'', take the idea of the post-credits scene to its limit by running the credits during the main action of the film. In this example, the characters perform a song in the last minutes of the film, and the credits run inconspicuously until one character sings the line "the movie is over/but we're still on screen".

The [[Marvel Cinematic Universe]] has made extensive use of mid- and post-credits scenes (often both) which typically serve as a teaser for a future [[Marvel Studios]] film. For example, the post-credits scene of ''[[Iron Man 2]]'' shows S.H.I.E.L.D. [[Agent Coulson]] locating [[Mjolnir (Marvel Cinematic Universe)|a large hammer]] at the bottom of a crater in a New Mexico desert, thus teasing the release of ''[[Thor (film)|Thor]]'' the following year. The post-credits sequence of ''[[Captain America: The Winter Soldier]]'' introduces the characters of [[Quicksilver (comics)|Pietro]] and [[Wanda Maximoff (Marvel Cinematic Universe)|Wanda Maximoff]], who join the franchise in ''[[Avengers: Age of Ultron]]''. Other times these mid- and post-credits scenes serve primarily as gags, such as the post-credits scene in ''[[The Avengers (2012 film)|The Avengers]]'', which has the team eating [[shawarma]] in a derelict restaurant in the aftermath of the film's climactic battle, or ''[[Spider-Man: Homecoming]]'', which features [[Steve Rogers (Marvel Cinematic Universe)|Captain America]] educating the audience on patience.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://collider.com/every-marvel-after-credits-scene-explained/|title=Every Marvel After-Credits Scene Explained|last=Chitwood|first=Adam|date=2019-04-02|website=Collider|language=en-US|access-date=2019-04-07|archive-date=2018-02-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180217171232/http://collider.com/every-marvel-after-credits-scene-explained/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-08-17 |url=https://www.gamesradar.com/every-marvel-end-credits-scene/ |title=Every Marvel post-credits scene and what they mean |last=O'Callaghan |first=Lauren |website=Gamesradar |access-date=2019-04-07 |archive-date=2019-04-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190407235719/https://www.gamesradar.com/every-marvel-end-credits-scene/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/every-marvel-cinematic-universe-end-credits-scene-explained.html/ |title=Every Marvel Cinematic Universe End Credits Scene Explained |last=Bleznak |first=Becca |date=2018-05-20 |website=The Cheat Sheet |access-date=2019-04-07 |archive-date=2019-04-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190407235722/https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/every-marvel-cinematic-universe-end-credits-scene-explained.html/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

The credits of many [[Pixar]] films, including ''[[A Bug's Life]]'' (1998), ''[[Finding Nemo]]'' (2003), ''[[The Good Dinosaur]]'' (2015) and ''[[Finding Dory]]'' (2016) have included humorous mid-credits scenes. ''A Bug's Life'' (1998), for example, parodied the trend of bloopers at the end of movies by including fake blooper scenes of the characters making mistakes or goofing around on the "set" of the movie. ''[[Toy Story 2]]'' (1999) and ''[[Monsters, Inc.]]'' (2001) followed suit. Other Pixar films, such as ''[[Cars (film)|Cars]]'' (2006), ''[[Toy Story 3]]'' (2010) and ''[[Inside Out (2015 film)|Inside Out]]'' (2015) have included an epilogue that plays during the credits.

An unusual use of the post-credits scene is to fulfill contractual obligations. In order to secure the [[personality rights]] to produce ''[[The Disaster Artist (film)|The Disaster Artist]]'', a [[biopic]] of [[Tommy Wiseau]], the filmmakers were obligated to include a cameo by Wiseau himself. This scene was filmed, but relegated to the post-credits sequence of the film.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.slashfilm.com/james-franco-the-disaster-artist/|title=James Franco Directed 'The Disaster Artist' in Character as Tommy Wiseau|date=27 October 2017|access-date=14 November 2017|website=Slashfilm|first=Ben|last=Peason|archive-date=13 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171113130229/http://www.slashfilm.com/james-franco-the-disaster-artist/|url-status=live}}</ref>

==In video games==

[[Video game]]s, particularly those with complex stories, sometimes also use post-credits scenes. An early example is ''[[EarthBound]]'', in which [[Ness (character)|Ness]] awakens to a knocking on the front door just like at the beginning of the game, and finds Pokey Minch's younger brother [[List of EarthBound characters|Picky]] with a message from his big brother Pokey, indicating that he escaped and warns Ness to come and get him.<ref>{{Cite AV media|url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZwMdIn4ZAI|title = EarthBound 44 : Post Credits Scene|website = [[YouTube]]|access-date = 2022-02-20|archive-date = 2022-02-20|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220220075725/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZwMdIn4ZAI|url-status = live}}</ref> A game may contain a scene or voiceover after the credits, of one or more characters speaking, revealing new information that gives a new perspective to the previous events as well as setting up part of the next game in the series.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/562673-earthbound-beginnings/51871018|title=So what's with the post-credits scene? (Spoilers) - EarthBound Beginnings|access-date=2021-12-03|archive-date=2021-12-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211203215250/https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/562673-earthbound-beginnings/51871018|url-status=live}}</ref> As the credits for modern games get longer, added cut scenes that maintain interest during the credits are becoming more common.

==See also==
* [[List of films with post-credits scenes]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.mediastinger.com/movies-with-stingers/ MediaStinger] – coverage of stingers in films, television and video games
* [http://aftercredits.com/stingers/ What's After the Credits?] – coverage of stingers in films, television and video games

[[Category:Film scenes]]
[[Category:Film and video terminology]]

Post-credits scene - Revision history

Vijaykumar96: updated page

Ajay Kumar: Created a new article