- 04/07/2025
Nobody gave a damn about these "thrilling" cliffhanger endings.
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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.
00:11When 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-burger
02:23of a cliffhanger sequel bait ending. At film's end, Neo unexpectedly manifests abilities in
02:29the real world, which he uses to destroy a fleet of incoming machines before falling into a coma.
02:35In 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.
03:098. 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.
04:097. 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 the
04:19cinema, you might recall how you could hear a pin drop when that hysterical head-scratcher of a final
04:24scene played out. After Captain Leo Davidson travels back through the electromagnetic storm
04:29in an attempt to get home, he crash lands in Washington DC, and finds that the Lincoln Memorial
04:34has been replaced with a statue commemorating General Thayde. Moreover, the cops, firefighters,
04:40and news reporters who 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?
04:56This 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
05:05commentary that the cliffhanger wasn't really supposed to make any sense, but simply drop enough
05:10of a WTF bomb that it would leave audiences curious to know what the hell happened. Evidently,
05:15the gambit didn't quite pay off, as despite turning a decent profit, both Burton and
05:20Fox swore off a sequel, putting the franchise on ice until 2011's reboot Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
05:26Can you remember another ending that made you audibly ask WTF just happened?
05:30Let us know down below in the comments section, my friends!
05:33Number 6, Mr. Sinister is coming, X-Men Apocalypse
05:37Despite being the penultimate mainline X-Men movie, X-Men Apocalypse was actually intended to
05:42set up a whole new era of X-Men films prior to Disney's acquisition of Fox. The post-credits
05:47scene showed a fleet of men in black suits raiding William Stryker's Weapon X facility and retrieving
05:53samples, before a closing shot of a briefcase reads Essex Corp. First and foremost, this meant
05:59absolutely nothing to non-comic book fans who wouldn't in any way appreciate that this was
06:03teeing up Nathaniel Essex, aka Mr. Sinister, to be the X-Men series' next big bad. Secondly, given that
06:10this movie had literally just spent 144 minutes ruining one of the most iconic comic villains of
06:16all time, Apocalypse, why the hell would anyone be excited that the same creatives were adapting
06:21Mr. Sinister next? The most damning proof that nobody cared though, X-Men Apocalypse underperformed
06:26at the box office, and follow-up Dark Phoenix, which ultimately didn't feature Mr. Sinister anyway,
06:31was an outright flop, effectively sealing the franchise's fate.
06:355. 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
06:44game namesake, 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 ending
06:54in 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, tossing 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
07:10through. Mario and Luigi quickly grab their wares, but before Daisy can explain what's up,
07:15the movie abruptly ends. Cliffhangers intended to set up sequels generally need to give audiences a
07:20little more than just this. Show them how the stakes are going to be raised for a sequel,
07:24or give them a glimpse of a new world or even the next movie's antagonist. Instead,
07:29Super Mario Bros basically gave viewers close to nothing, and so it's little surprise that
07:34few were enthused to see what happened next. 4. 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 feature
07:51the studio's most iconic monsters, like the Mummy, the Wolfman, Frankenstein, and the Invisible Man.
07:57Despite this, Universal denied claims that Dracula Untold was the series' launching pad,
08:01perhaps in part because said reshoots resulted in such a lacklustre, unimpressive setup for future
08:07stories. The film's tacked-on present-day epilogue sees Vlad, aka Dracula, meet up with a
08:12woman, Mina, who bears a strong resemblance to his dead wife, Marina. The Master Vampire,
08:17who first turned Vlad into a vampire, is then revealed to be watching them. And as they walk away,
08:22the Master Vampire quips, let the games begin. Evidently, the ending placed Vlad in the present
08:27day in order to set up his future interactions with the other monsters in the Dark Universe,
08:32with the Master Vampire possibly acting as the Nick Fury-esque link between them all.
08:37Audiences were more confused than interested, though. And so, Universal decided to relaunch the
08:42Dark Universe with Tom Cruise's The Mummy a few years later, which similarly failed to strike a chord
08:47with viewers. Well, at least they tried. Twice. 3. The Last Knight
08:53Transformers The Last Knight may not have been a billion-dollar mega-hit like its predecessor,
08:58but it still grossed over $600 million worldwide, meaning that a hell of a lot of people went to
09:03see it. And so, why is it that not a single solitary soul can remember how it ended?
09:08Michael Bay's final Transformers film concluded with a few teases for the planned sixth entry,
09:13namely Decepticon leader Megatron still being at large, and the Cybertronian sorceress Quintessa
09:18having taken the guise of a human woman to continue her quest to destroy Earth. Audiences
09:24simply couldn't be compelled to give a damn. And so, following the film's fair box office
09:28underperformance, the decision was made to sack off the sixth film and rejig the series with Bumblebee,
09:33which operated as a prequel to the original 2007 Transformers. With the upcoming Transformers Rise of
09:39the Beast also taking place before the first Bayformers movie, it's safe to say that The
09:44Last Knight's cliffhanger received a vocal vote of no confidence from just about everybody.
09:492. The End
09:50Flash 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.
10:01After the evil Ming the Merciless is killed and the day is saved, we cut back to Ming's magic power ring,
10:07which is picked up by a hand wearing a black glove, all while Ming's signature laugh rings out and
10:13the end appears on screen. Again, it's perhaps the least interesting part of a thoroughly entertaining,
10:19unapologetically camped space opera, enough that many forget that cliffhanger even happens at all.
10:24More to the point, audiences of its era clearly weren't enamored much, given that Flash Gordon
10:28underperformed at the global box office, and only solidified itself as a cult classic in the years
10:33that followed. And given that any prospect of a sequel had dried up long before the movie became
10:38a home video hit, the sequel tease again fell upon deaf ears.
10:421. Dom and Little B's Ambiguous Fates
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, didn't end.
10:58After Dom rescues his son, Little B, from villain Dante Reyes, he's forced to drive off the edge of
11:03a dam in order to avoid two remote control trucks from crashing into him at the top. Dom's car
11:08eventually hits the water at the bottom and both father and son manage to escape to the surface,
11:13mostly unscathed. But at that moment, Dante then blows up the dam, leaving the fates of Dom and Little
11:18B apparently uncertain moments before the end credits roll. Needless to say, the series has such comically
11:24low stakes for its characters, who can be constantly resurrected without consequence or logic, that
11:29it's near impossible to be even remotely concerned for Dom or his son. We know they're fine, so what's
11:35the point? To hammer home the utter listlessness of this cliffhanger, the film's final scene
11:39immediately afterwards brings Giselle back from the dead. Again, compounding that death means absolutely
11:45nothing in these movies. Because the audience isn't worried for Dom or Little B, and few will give much
11:50of a dam that Giselle is back either. The whole ending falls laughably flat. At least Hobbes is
11:55back though, right? Yeah. Missed that goatee. And that's our list. Know of any other movie
12:00cliffhangers nobody cared about? Well, let us know all about them in the comments section right down
12:04below and don't forget to like, share and click on that subscribe button while you're down there.
12:08Also, if you're a fan of this sort of cliffhanging stuff, then please head on over to
12:11WhatCulture.com and find some more fantastic articles just like the one this video you're watching
12:16right now is based on. I've been Gareth from WhatCulture.com, cheers for watching this particular
12:20video today. Hopefully I'll see your faces rather soon, but in the meantime, just be good to yourself.
12:25Bye bye!
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