The news came down this week, straight from the mouths of Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige and director Joss Whedon: there will be no post-credits scenes at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron. Sure, there will still be a mid-credits teaser, but it just won’t be the same. Marvel Studios have been using post-credits scenes to tease future films and expand on the worlds of their movies since the very beginning, at the end of Iron Man in 2008.
While we still encourage audiences to watch all the credits anyway, if only as a gesture of respect to the hundreds if not thousands of artisans who help make every movie possible, the news is still probably going to disappoint many Marvel fans, some of whom will wait around for one reason only, and then leave the theater feeling pissed off. But they shouldn’t be. It’s not like Marvel Studios promised us post-credits scenes until the end of time. And besides there are plenty of great post-credits scenes from throughout movie history to keep us company until they make a rollicking return to the MCU.
Related: Comic-Con 2015: Could Marvel Studios Be a No-Show?
We’ve scoured our memories and our massive DVD collections to bring you The 13 Best Movie Post-Credits Scenes. Some of them are funny, some of them are game changers, but all of them rewarded audiences for sticking around for either all of the credits, or at least some of them.
Oh, and WARNING: Here there be spoilers.
The 13 Best Movie Post-Credits Scenes:
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and the host of The B-Movies Podcast and The Blue Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
The 13 Best Movie Post-Credits Scenes
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13. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
By the time Guardians of the Galaxy hit theaters, audiences knew to stay for the credits for a post-credits scene. But instead of a teaser for Avengers: Age of Ultron or even Guardians of the Galaxy 2, they got the introduction of Howard the Duck (voiced by Seth Green) to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Considering that Howard the Duck is still considered one of the worst comic book movies of all time, the cameo was a complete surprise, and got our hopes up for a new movie, or TV series, that will probably never ever happen.
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12. Evil Dead (2013)
The surprisingly good, and shockingly scary remake of Sam Raimi's 1981 horror classic The Evil Dead appeared to have nothing to do with the original series. Until the post-credits scene, in which Bruce Campbell emerges from the darkness to announce, "Groovy!" It was just a little joke, and had nothing to do with the story. Ash will return instead in the upcoming STARZ series Ash vs. Evil Dead.
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11. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)
Paul Reubens co-starred as a snippy vampire in the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie, and his ridiculously protracted death scene is probably the best thing about the film (which was quickly forgotten once the hit TV series began to air). But after the credits, he returns from the grave... only to die again. That's how a great death scene gets even greater.
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10. Crank (2006)
Neveldine/Taylor's outlandish action comedy starred Jason Statham as a criminal who must keep his adrenaline going all day in order to survive being poisoned, which leads to one unforgettably absurd scene after another. Crank plays a lot like a video game, so it was fitting that the post-credits scene is Crank: The Video Game, showing the events of the film in 16-bit form.
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9. Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
The classic John Hughes comedy about a precocious teenage slacker who has the best ditch day ever continues straight on through the credits, as the long-suffering Dean Rooney (Jeffrey Jones) endures his final humiliation. Then, just after the film has prepared you to stick around, Ferris pops his head out of his room and asks why the hell you're still here. "Go home," he insists, as he saunters back to his room. Yes sir, Mr. Bueller.
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8. Lethal Weapon 3 (1992)
Richard Donner's pretty damned good threequel to Lethal Weapon begins with Riggs and Murtaugh trying - and failing - to diffuse a bomb, resulting in a gigantic explosion and their subsequent demotion. It ends just about the same way, with our heroes driving up to another building rigged to blow, only to arrive minutes too late as it explodes right in front of their car. They drive away hoping nobody saw their epic fail, and audiences drove away from the theater amazed that any movie would reserve a giant special effect for a post-credits scene.
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7. Wild Things (1998)
The twisty-turny plot of John McNaughton's Wild Things - about a high school counselor accused of raping a student - made this sleazy film a critical darling. But it's so hard to keep track of exactly what happened that they have to explain every single detail after the credits start rolling. It's still a lot to process, but the information dump only helps solidify that Wild Things really was the smartest erotic thriller of its generation.
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6. Dawn of the Dead (2004)
After a crazed climactic chase to the safety of a boat, Zack Snyder's surprisingly scary Dawn of the Dead remake ends. Then, it keeps going, as the survivors discover that life at sea might be just as brutal as life surrounded by zombies. Then, salvation: they find an island that might, just might be free of infection. Then again...
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5. Monsters, Inc. (2001)
Pixar surprised audiences by including "bloopers" at the end of their first animated movies. It was a completely unnecessary but highly enjoyable addition that probably cost them millions to tack onto the films. But Monsters Inc. bucked that trend by also presenting the events of the film as a musical called Put That Thing Back Where It Came From Or So Help Me. The idea for the musical only seemed like a throwaway joke in the actual movie, but the surprisingly tender songs and adorably low-rent production values of the stage show made it into a classic.
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4. Airplane! (1980)
Just a joke, but a hilarious one. At the beginning of this spoof classic, our hero abandons his taxi cab with his fare inside. He says he'll be right back, but then he hops a lengthy flight and winds up in the cockpit, overcoming his fears to save many, many lives. After the credits, we cut back to his passenger, who's still waiting around, the meter now charging him an ungodly sum. He decides to give his driver just 20 more minutes. It's extra funny if you realize that the actor is Howard Jarvis, who campaigned to make the state of California more frugal but cutting property taxes.
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3. Iron Man (2008)
The post-credits scene that changed everything. Iron Man concludes with Tony Stark outing himself to the press and then, after the credits, coming home to find a heretofore unseen Nick Fury (played by Samuel L. Jackson, no less) offering him a place in the Avengers Initiative. It wasn't just a cool cameo, or an intriguing tease: it was a mission statement that changed the game for inter-film continuity, and announced the world that Marvel Studios had a plan.
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2. Young Sherlock Holmes (1985)
But to give credit where credit is due, The Avengers wasn't the first film to set up a sequel in an awesome fashion, right after the credits. Barry Levinson's underrated, and still impressive Sherlock Holmes prequel Young Sherlock Holmes did the post-credits scene the Marvel way, decades before Marvel Studios was even a concept. The villain of the film escapes, and arrives at an inn with a brand-new alias: Moriarty. A legend is born, but a sequel (sadly) never came together.
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1. The Avengers (2012)
The best, and possibly the silliest, post-credits scene ever. After an already killer mid-credits tease of upcoming Infinity War villain Thanos, the credits continue, only to conclude with our heroes enjoying a much needed break for shawarma. After an exhausting adventure (for the characters and the audience), watching The Avengers kick back and just hang out was a refreshing, endearing treat. And it will probably always be funny.
