I recently saw the film Black Panther. I am not a fan of action films in general and superhero films in particular because the long fight and chase scenes bore me and I wait impatiently for them to end so that the story can move along. In my experience, nothing is lost by fast-forwarding to the end of these scenes. The resulting films would be at least a half-hour shorter and immeasurably better. But I know that I am not the target audience for these films.
Anyway, the point of this post is not to review the film, which was fine for its genre, but about its end. I am one of those people who sit through to the end of the credits, sometimes being the last person leaving the theater, while the people who came with me wait patiently. I do this even when watching at home, mainly because I like to know the names of the cast members and I like looking at the list of music used in the soundtrack.
But after the credits of this film ended, there was an additional scene that took me by surprise. Such after-credits scenes are not unprecedented, as this article discusses.
The most important early post-credits scene arguably came in 1979 with “The Muppet Movie.” The credits roll over footage of the Muppets hanging out and happily partying. When they finish, Animal, left in center frame, opens his eyes and yells: “Go home! Go home!”
A trend was born.
Post-credits scenes became particularly popular in comedies during the 1980s. The one in “Airplane!” finds a man who was left sitting in a cab at the beginning of the film still waiting for his driver to return. “I will give him another 20 minutes, but that’s it!” he exclaims, as the meter shows he owes more than $100.
In the films where I had seen these scenes, they usually involved some throwaway lines or gag that did not really matter. But in Black Panther it was kind of an important scene that added to the story and I felt should have been part of the main film so that everyone saw it. The article says that post-credit scenes are now commonplace especially in superhero films that are really franchises and where they point to the inevitable sequels, so maybe people who watch these films know to wait until the end, while I had not really noticed them until the Black Panther film.
Why do filmmakers have such scenes? Does it serve any purpose other than as a way to make people watch the credits in the hope of seeing an after-credit scene?
I think they were invented by 9 and 11 year olds so they can stay up a few minutes longer after watching a film with mum and dad in the evening, because who can deny them funny after credit scenes.
Any resemblance to the age and habits of the Giliell offspring is a complete coincidence.
Well, if it was my name or that of a family member scrolling by during those endless minutes of credits, I’d certainly be in favor of anything that increased the chances that people might see it.
Regarding Black Panther in particular — I very much enjoyed the mid-credit scene where he said “In times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers.” Very subtle/not subtle. I can’t imagine whom he might have been referring to!
All the Marvel movies have a couple of scenes, one mid-credits, one post-credits. Usually they’re there to set up future films in the Marvel Comics Universe (it was where Nick Fury started recruiting the Avengers), though occasionally it might be a throwaway gag (the mid-credits scene of Ant-Man & The Wasp had the effects of Avengers: Infinity War but the end credits scene was just a giant ant playing drums). It’s to the point now where some movies have to let people know beforehand that there are no post-credit scenes because otherwise people who wouldn’t normally sit through the credits will so they don’t miss anything.
The post-credit scene in Airplane! was nice, but the movie was one that people should pay attention to the actual credits because those had jokes too.
The most famous older movie for me was Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, but that, as with The Muppet Movie above, cheated a little in that the movie continued with something to watch as the credits rolled until it was time for Ferris or Animal to break the fourth wall and shoo the audience away.
I wait impatiently for them to end so that the story can move along
Wait… it had a story?!
The one in The Twilight Zone movie, with Dan Ackroyd -- that was pretty good.
Jackie Chan movies always ran out-takes and bloopers during the end credits.
Including at least one where the ambulance was hauling Jackie off to the hospital.
And the music credits are almost always the last thing except the logos.
They encourage audiences to sit through the credits which some people think is good in itself (sometimes for silly reasons -- highlighting people who were employed making the film does not reduce piracy by people attending a theatre).
In the case of Marvel films you have to think of the films differently to understand them -- they are NOT isolated artistic efforts, they are episodes in a series much like a monthly comic book, which are chained together and the post credit scenes are part of the linking.
Depends how one looks at it. There’s no rule that credits need go after all the scenes.
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Huh. I zot past all the boring talky, angsty bits and only watch the action. Essentially, the opposite.
Netflix’s Marvel series are perfect for zotting; about 90% of them is just people talking and angsting. I get it; it’s cheap filler, because it’s the action set-pieces that really cost money to choreograph and produce. But it’s so bloody pointless and boring; once one has established that so-and-so is angsting about this-or-that, or that X and Y are all lovey-dovey, belabouring it for 5 minutes at a stretch multiple times is a waste of screen time. I get it already, sheesh!
Welcome to the 21st century, old man…..
That was not just “a man sitting in a cab” in “Airplane!”. That was Howard Jarvis, the guy who kicked of Prop 13, which screwed up the tax structure of California for, well, forever.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Jarvis
For me going to the movies is a complete experience to be enjoyed from before the first frame of film starts till after the last note of music has played. So yeah, I like the Howard (Proposition 13) Jarvis post-credit appearance in ‘Airplane’ and appreciate, in general, the occasional tip of the hat to those of us gluttons of punishment who sit through the entire feature. Maybe, that’s why I presently watch films totally alone, or on my own. 😉
The Marvel post-credits scenes specifically are very much “a thing”. A LOT of people at first missed the first and arguably most important one, at the end of “Iron Man”. Nick Fury, the character, had existed for decades, but for just a few years Marvel had been presenting the character as looking like Samuel L. Jackson (with Jackson’s enthusiastic permission (not the only time this sort of thing has happened -- there’s a character in “The Boys” whose appearance is modelled on Simon Pegg)). When, after the credits had finished, Samuel L. Jackson turned up AS Nick Fury, and told Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark that he had “become part of a larger universe”, this was a BIG DEAL for comic fans on several levels, and the effect is hard to overstate. Again -- try to remember 2008, when Robert Downey Jr’s career was in the doldrums, and Marvel, having sold rights to all their most lucrative properties (X Men, Spiderman) to other studios appeared to be trying to scrape some cash together by knocking out a film with what was very much as second-string character. Ten years on and it’s just the first step in what has been a world-dominating steamroller franchise, but at the time it was a risk.
The next really important one was the one that introduced Thanos, and again this was a BIG DEAL for comic fans, even if the majority of people who saw it thought “who’s that purple dude?”.
As you might expect, if you’re curious, it’s possible to go to Youtube and watch all of the post-credits scenes together. They make about as much sense in that context as you’d expect.
A specific recommendation Mano -- watch “Spiderman: Homecoming”. It’s among the very best of the Marvel franchise -- it’s sweet, funny, it has an excellent villain played by Michael Keaton (excellent mainly that he’s not just a generic bad guy or a moustache-twirling megalomaniac -- he’s a regular guy who actually has a point, even if he goes about it reprehensibly). It’s not too full of the sort of fight scenes that turn you off, and the end credits scene is absolutely wonderful. The one bit of context you need before seeing it is that “Captain America: Civil War” happened, and Cap was on the anti-government side against Iron Man and Spiderman -- hence a brief reference to him as a “war criminal”.
In addition to sonofrojblake’s suggestions, I’d also add two that are Marvel characters but are outside the Marvel Cinematic Universe -- Spiderman 2, still one of the best superhero movies ever, and Logan which is just a great dramatic film about a heroes near the end of their lives.
sonofrojblake @#13 and Tabby @#14,
Thanks for the recommendations! I’ll try to overcome my aversions to action/superhero films and watch them.
Logan is a superb piece of work. Beware, though -- it’s not the action/superhero movie you’re used to. It DOES contain the kind of fight scene that turns you off, turned up to 11 and thanks to its R-rating, showing the full consequences of taking on in hand to hand combat a man who can grow three foot-long razor sharp claws from each fist… and that’s just in the first two minutes. Do try to stick with it, though, it’s worth it.
It also has terrific performances from Hugh Jackman (in I think his seventeenth and definitively last appearance as the character) and an absolutely heartbreaking turn by Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier, the leader and mentor figure of the X Men franchise, here shown to be slowly succumbing to dementia. Don’t be put off by the first scene, is what I’m saying.
sonofrojblake, let me guess. Logan and Charlie X angst a whole lot, and there are a few action scenes to keep guys like me happy.
That’s precisely what I expect, if and when I get to see it for free.
So the first scene is OK, and then it does character stuff. Got it.