50 Greatest End Credit Scenes
Stay in your seat for the stinger
The Simpsons Movie (2007)
Stick Around For: The Simpsons commenting on their own movie debut from their cinema sweets, followed by the usher sweeping up and moaning that "four years of film school was all for nothing."
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: It'd be more of a surprise if The Simpsons didn't include a stinger or two. Even so, fair play for the reversal of expectation in learning that Homer likes to watch the credits.
Hellboy (2004)
Stick Around For: Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defence boss Tom Manning (Jeffrey Tambor) still stuck in the catacombs and afraid of his own shadow.
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: A cheeky reminder that some characters are born to get forgotten about.
Transformers (2007)
Stick Around For: Sam Witwicky's parents being interviewed on TV and pouring scorn on the notion that alien robots are walking around America.
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: At this stage, the Witwickys weren't that annoying. In retrospect, maybe not.
30 Minutes Or Less (2011)
Stick Around For: The revelation that Dwayne (Danny McBride) and Travis (Nick Swarson) have survived and started their "tanning salon" (really a brothel) business.
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: It makes zero sense, but at least suits the film's madcap, cartoonish humour.
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)
Stick Around For: The Silver Surfer coming back to life in the wilderness of deep space and calling his board back to him.
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: A probable teaser for a sequel that's never happened.
Zack and Miri Make A Porno (2008)
Stick Around For: A promo for Zack and Miri's amateur-couple production house, Zack And Miri Make Your Porno.
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: It's Kevin Smith's dream (of 'sticking it to the man' with self-financed, independent cinema) fulfilled.
Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl (2003)
Stick Around For: The monkey letting greed get the better of him by nabbing a cursed medallion.
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: Every Pirates film has a secret scene; this is by far the funniest.
Bridesmaids (2011)
Stick Around For: Megan (Melissa McCarthy) getting frisky with the Air Marshall (Ben Falcone), by feeding her "hungry bear" a huge sub.
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: Too much information, especially as McCarthy and Falcone are married in real-life.
Harold And Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay (2008)
Stick Around For: The film's mentalist version of Neil Patrick Harris returning from the grave. "Motherfucker!"
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: This is what Neil Patrick Harris will be remembered for.
A Bug's Life (1998)
Stick Around For: The first of Pixar's now traditional fake blooper reels, as the insect actors are beset by boom mikes, clumsy falls and giggles.
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: Usurped by Pixar's own perfectionism in creating later, better versions of the gag, but don't forget what a blast this was the first time around.
Young Sherlock Holmes (1985)
Stick Around For: The film's big bad, Professor Rathe (Anthony Higgins), checking into a hotel and signing his name as Holmes' classic nemesis, "Moriarty."
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: An obvious, sequel-teasing revelation. Shame they never made that sequel.
The Muppets (2011)
Stick Around For: The explanation as to what actually happens to Tex Richman's plot to own (and then destroy) the Muppet Theater.
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: Without the extra scene, the singing and dancing of the finale is undercut by a surprisingly unhappy ending. With it, life really is a happy song.
Daredevil (2003)
Stick Around For: A heavily bandaged, hospital-ridden Bullseye (Colin Farrell) taking out his frustration on an irritating fly.
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: Farrell's the most entertaining person in the movie, so it's nice to see he survived.
Dodgeball (2004)
Stick Around For: A fat again White Goodman (Ben Stiller) jiggling his man-boobs to Kelis' Milkshake.
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: Minimal, unless that's your fetish.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
Stick Around For: An amnesiac Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) "drinking to remember" in a bar.
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: A smart linking-up between this film and the existing X-Men movies… although note that two secret scenes were alternated on different prints. So you might have seen a totally different scene.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
Stick Around For: The revelation that not even decapitation can kill Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds).
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: Here's the proof that Deadpool is getting his own spin-off.
Being There (1979)
Stick Around For: Peter Sellers repeatedly trying and failing to recite a speech as main character Chance.
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: A rare example of a single blooper filling the whole sequence… and doubly rare because not every print of the film includes it due to Seller's disapproval at being shown breaking character.
Iron Man 2 (2010)
Stick Around For: Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg), finding Thor's hammer in New Mexico.
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: The geekiest link in the Marvel Cinematic Universe end-of-credits chain.
Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy (2004)
Stick Around For: A sly in-joke in the blooper reel, as the film includes one outtake from Smokey And The Bandit 2 .
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: One for the hardcore film geek.
Blue Valentine (2010)
Stick Around For: A repeat of the scene where Dean (Ryan Gosling) plays ukulele to a delighted Cindy (Michelle Williams).
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: Cute the first time; now we've seen their relationship implode, it's heartbreaking.
Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004)
Stick Around For: An outtake of Uma Thurman ripping the eyeball from one of the Crazy 88.
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: Well, Uma's certainly having a ball. "Let's do it again!" she smiles, the sick puppy.
There's Something About Mary (1998)
Stick Around For: The cast and crew miming along to The Foundations' Build Me Up Buttercup .
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: For a film that pushes the boundaries of bad taste, this sends you away with a surprisingly happy glow.
Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets (2002)
Stick Around For: A bewildered Gilderoy Lockhart (Kenneth Branagh), revealed as the author of amnesiac anti-biography "Who Am I?"
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: A wonderfully subtle gag, since Lockhart is still trying to cash in on his celebrity despite not knowing why.
Crank (2006)
Stick Around For: A 8-bit video game parody of the film's plot, as a digitised Jason Statham goes on a guns 'n' drugs bender.
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: It's the most realistic scene in the movie.
The Cannonball Run (1981)
Stick Around For: The archetypal end-of-movie blooper reel, consisting of an all-star cast fluffing their lines.
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: It has to be noted that Dom DeLuise has a very infectious laugh.
The A-Team (2010)
Stick Around For: Face (Bradley Cooper) and Murdock (Sharlto Copley) meeting some familiar faces in prison.
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: Everybody loves Dirk Benedict and Dwight Schultz.
Monsters, Inc. (2011)
Stick Around For: A typically ace Pixar 'blooper reel' is followed by the play, Put That Thing Back Where It Came From Or So Help Me .
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: Monster-sized, as the characters retell the events of the film through song.
Fast Five (2011)
Stick Around For: Federal Agent Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) receiving a file which shows that the presumed-dead Leticia Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez) is still alive.
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: It was never 100% clear that Letty had been killed in Fast & Furious , so this achieves the dual function of clearing up a mystery and setting up the franchise's sixth instalment.
Marvel Avengers Assemble (2012)
Stick Around For: The Chitauri reporting back to the mastermind of the film's events… a certain Marvel icon you might recognise.
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: A proper geekgasm for those in the know.
Team America: World Police (2004)
Stick Around For: An extra song from Kim Jong-Il, "You Are Worthress, Arec Barwin."
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: Conjuring up a mind-boggling backstory where the Korean dictator is an alien waylaid by Alec Baldwin's incompetence, this is all the funnier for it not being clear whether it's a deleted scene or a deliberate end credit piss-take.
Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
Stick Around For: Kip's wedding to LeFawnduh, gatecrashed by Napoleon (Jon Heder) riding a "wild honeymoon stallion."
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: With a running time of five minutes, this leaves other secret scenes looking lazy and half-arsed.
Toy Story 3 (2010)
Stick Around For: Proof that the toys made the right choice going to Bonnie's house. Not least, cinema's most endearing version of Romeo and Juliet .
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: A vital pick-me-up after such a sad ending.
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
Stick Around For: A defeated Dean Rooney (Jeffrey Jones) facing the ignominy of a lift home on the school bus.
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: Satisfying schadenfreude, although if you stay right to the end of the credits you'll get told off by Ferris himself.
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)
Stick Around For: Scott Evil trying to resolve his father issues on The Jerry Springer Show .
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: At the time, this was topical stuff. Nowadays, "Jerry who?"
X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
Stick Around For: The revelation that Professor X has transferred his mind into another body.
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: A real "woah!" moment that would have made X-Men 4 interesting, to say the least.
Superbad (2007)
Stick Around For: Further examples from young Seth's dick-drawing portfolio.
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: Puerile? Sure. Hilarious? You betcha, especially the Jaws and Alien parodies.
Cars (2006)
Stick Around For: Vehicular versions of past Pixar hits - Toy Car Story , Monster Trucks , Inc and Volkswagen epic A Bug's Life .
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: Arguably the wittiest sequence in the entire film, especially as it's one long in-joke about John Ratzenberger always being in the cast.
Tropic Thunder (2008)
Stick Around For: Balding, overweight Len Grossman (Tom Cruise) dancing to Ludacris like a playa.
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: Cruise comes close to stealing the entire movie from Robert Downey, Jr. No mean feat.
Wild Things (1998)
Stick Around For: All-important flashbacks that explain just how those bonkers third act twists came about.
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: Usually, withholding key plot information would be a sign of poor screenwriting, but revealing them when many people will have left the cinema is really cheeky.
Super 8 (2011)
Stick Around For: The Case , the film-within-a-film that the kids have been shooting.
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: A warm hug of peak-period Spielbergian nostalgia…with zombies!
The Grey (2012)
Stick Around For: The resolution of John Ottway's (Liam Neeson) dust-up with the alpha wolf.
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: Low, since - SPOILER! - it turns wolf-punching triumphalism into a bleak end for everyone.
The Hangover (2009)
Stick Around For: Photographic evidence showing exactly what happened that night. Looks like one hell of a party.
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: A sequence so vivid in its detail that, despite being a bunch of still images, you feel you've watched a mini-movie.
Police Story (1985)
Stick Around For: The textbook example of the familiar montage of Jackie Chan being carried away, cleaned up and bandaged by concerned crew members after yet another stunt goes wrong.
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: Years before DVD extras, this is how we knew how much blood, sweat and tears went into stuntwork.
Thor (2011)
Stick Around For: Loki (Tom Hiddlestone), secretly influencing events on Earth en route to stealing the Tesseract.
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: A stinger with influence; this is the point where the plot of The Avengers , or whatever it's called over here, begins in earnest.
Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (2011)
Stick Around For: The killer twist, as James Franco's infected neighbour turns out to be a pilot en route to accidentally wiping out humanity.
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: Why wait until the sequel to get the story moving? An audacious use of the credits to speed things along.
Lethal Weapon 3 (1992)
Stick Around For: A jokey reprise of the film's opening scene, as Riggs and Murtaugh arrive at yet another bomb-threatened building but don't even get a chance to defuse it when it explodes immediately.
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: Totally superfluous destruction - the very definition of Golden Age action.
Dawn Of The Dead (2004)
Stick Around For: The survivors making it to the island... only to wish they hadn't bothered.
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: Enjoyable if you're a horror aficionado, as George Romero's "somebody always gets away" mantra gets turned on its head in chilling fashion.
Iron Man (2008)
Stick Around For: Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) showing up at Tony Stark's (Robert Downey Jr) crib to recruit him for his superhero tag-team.
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: Iron Man is largely a stand-alone film until this moment, which kick starts the long journey towards The Avengers and marks a real shift in popularity for hiding scenes after the credits.
Toy Story 2 (1999)
Stick Around For: The perfection of the Pixar's blooper reel - five minutes of pure comedy gold.
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: Huge. Where A Bug's Life relied on general 'outtake' tropes, the gags here are specific to their scenes, including glorious a glorious running gag involving the Potato Heads packing for the trip.
Airplane! (1980)
Stick Around For: Ted Striker's taxi passenger, still at the airport even through the driver's now in another city. "I'll give him another twenty minutes, but that's it!"
Enjoyment Enhancement Factor: How do you find a punchline to top 90 minutes of endless gags? Like this.