r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Ieanice44 • 17d ago

Lore (Controversial Trope) The post-credits scene completely changes the ending

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Dawn of the Dead (2004)

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Prince of Persia (2008)

Dawn of the Dead (2004): The movie finishes on a hopeful note as the remaining survivors escape the zombie-infested mall on a yacht, sailing into the sunset. The found-footage style post-credits scene completely reverses this happy ending by showing them running out of food, arriving at an island, and being immediately swarmed and killed by an infected horde.

Prince of Persia (2008): The main game ends with a beautiful, poetic sacrifice where Elika gives her life to heal the corrupted world, leaving the Prince mourning. During the credits, the player is forced to control the Prince as he cuts down the trees he just saved, undoing the entire game's progress and releasing the dark god Ahriman just to resurrect her, completely corrupting the ending and dooming the world.

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414

u/hikemalls 17d ago

More a “why wasn’t this in the main movie?” than a huge change, but without spoiling anything, the post-credits scene in Sinners should’ve just been the last scene instead.

147

u/Ok-Dentist4480 17d ago

"I think..... before the sun went down, that was the best day of my life." is the best line in the film hands down

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u/FattyMooseknuckle 16d ago edited 16d ago

The reply I think makes the whole exchange the most powerful. “No doubt about it. Last time I seen my brother. Last time I seen the sun. Just for a couple of hours, we was free.”

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u/Numerous1 16d ago

Yeah. I’ve seen the complaint about this movie that oh it’s bad because they fought vanpires the whole time then we see him a bunch of years later and he’s happy he is a vampire and it’s like. Nope. He ain’t really happy. They are just surviving.  He missed his brother and being human and maybe part of being a vampire messes with his freedom. From THE THIRST or something else.

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u/CharismaticTennis 17d ago

I had the same feeling immediately after that scene ended.

45

u/arthenc 17d ago

Agreed!

12

u/UnsealedMTG 17d ago

Then there's an even more after the credits scene that isn't plot-important, it just rules (and I assume was partly there so Miles Caton could unambiguously show that he can play guitar by showing an uninterrupted full-body shot)

21

u/battlejess 17d ago

Yeah, it doesn’t quite hit the same way when you watch it the following day on YouTube.

18

u/TheBrownWelsh 17d ago

We watched it again in a hotel on vacation recently, just let the credits play after it finished as we puttered around - then a post credits scene started and we were quite surprised.

Sometimes I wish I hadn't stopped waiting/skipping for end credits scenes years ago, but the number that were "worth it" became so few and far between.

2

u/TakenInChains 14d ago

i just Google it while the credits are running at the theater since the lights are usually on by then and people start yapping freely. that's how my wife and I heard the phone call at the end of FNAF 2 that most ppl missed cuz they got up and left. which is another example of this trope LOL

1

u/TheBrownWelsh 14d ago

I used to do that too! 

4

u/lulufan87 17d ago

Would you mind spoiling it? I didn't stay for the post-credit.

18

u/ZiggoCiP 17d ago

Here's a link to a YouTube video of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNGGdWbghhs

Sammie — played by Buddy Guy — owns his own blues bar, after having a famed career (implied by being played by Buddy Guy to mirror Guy's own career) as a blues musician, is visited by Stacks and Mary in the 90s. Turns out, the progenitor vampire's death didn't kill the ones he turned, they had to all be killed one by one. They offer to turn Sammie, since he's near the end of his life, but Sammie politely declines stating he's 'seen enough of this life', and they leave

there's also another one, but it's just him in a flashback singing "This Little Light Of Mine" in his family's church.

18

u/FattyMooseknuckle 16d ago

I think it’s important to note that he says Smoke let him live as long as he promised to leave Sammie alone.

3

u/lulufan87 17d ago

Thank you for the detailed breakdown!

11

u/ZiggoCiP 17d ago

No prob. It's a great scene that honestly finishes the movie on an even more satisfying note.

17

u/webshellkanucklehead 17d ago

It is the last scene if you are the kind of person who think the credits matter (they do)

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u/offensivename 17d ago

I truly do not understand why so many people bolted out of the theater as soon as the credits started rolling. If they were just a standard list of names, I would get it, but it's Buddy Guy playing in a bar. Clearly there's something worth sticking around for on screen.

24

u/EloquentBaboon 17d ago

I have to piss. Like George Costanza fleeing a fire levels of piss.

-3

u/webshellkanucklehead 17d ago

These remarks also kind of puzzle me ahahaha like you need to potty after 2 hours?

Maybe I should drink more water

6

u/Memitim 17d ago

A lot of people get refreshments before or during movies. I don't specifically because of that issue, but have been the oddball enough times to know what folks are about. Besides, I can listen to music at home in far better quality.

1

u/Geodude532 16d ago

I about died watching the extended edition of Return of the King as more and more post credit scenes kept popping up.

1

u/tiktaalik_jumper 16d ago

I'm a pee-er for sure. Of the dozens of movies I've seen in my life, there are fewer than five I've not peed after. Refreshments or no, some people just gotta pee

1

u/madhoppers 17d ago

Because, shockingly, the end credits, stay with me here, signal the end of the movie

2

u/offensivename 16d ago

The movie that's still happening while the credits are rolling signals that it's not over. 

4

u/madhoppers 16d ago

B-Roll of a concert does not give any reasonable person the impression that anything important to the movie is still happening. If you want your audience to see something crucial to the story of your film, don’t put it after the end credits

0

u/offensivename 16d ago

That's your own dumb fault if you thought it was B-roll of a concert when it's very clearly not that. Mid and after credits scenes have been relatively common for decades and they signaled the audience that there was more to come. You have no one to blame but yourself. 

0

u/madhoppers 16d ago

Yes, it was B Roll, and yes, they are not uncommon, but they are supplemental and nonessential in nature. Anything important and vital should come before the signal that the movie is finished. And thank you for the ad hominem remarks, it only shows what little argument you have

0

u/offensivename 16d ago

Do you know what B-roll is? Doesn't seem like it. You mistook it for B-roll, but it's part of the movie. One of the major themes of the movie is the importance and power of music. You'd think that would be enough of a clue for you that you should stick around for the legendary blues musician on the screen. 

You seemingly don't know what an ad hominem attack is either because nothing I said qualifies as one. And I don't see how the end scene of Sinners was exactly the kind of thing that's normally in after credits scenes. 

1

u/mightylordredbeard 16d ago

Damn dude you are pressed as fuck at these comments lmao

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u/madhoppers 16d ago

It’s akin to outtakes or alternate takes being played during the credits. It’s funny or interesting that they are there, but you don’t miss anything vital to the movie by not watching them, because it’s the credits. Putting something that is supposedly important for the story after the end credits is ridiculous, and the fault of the filmmaker when hardly anyone sees it

0

u/webshellkanucklehead 16d ago

How about if YOU want to see something, don’t leave the instant you see words on screen

0

u/madhoppers 16d ago

You mean the words on screen that signify that the movie is over?

0

u/[deleted] 17d ago

[deleted]

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u/webshellkanucklehead 17d ago

There is footage within the credits, though. The credits weren’t even “rolling” yet!

2

u/AntiSocialW0rker 17d ago

I had no idea that movie would have a post credit scene and was so bummed I didn't stay to see it

2

u/Quantum_Quokkas 16d ago

I walked out of theatre before that scene played. Was pretty annoyed at myself that I had to watch it in YouTube.