Since Nick Fury introduced Tony Stark to a larger universe after the credits of 2008’s Iron Man, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been renowned for its post-credits scenes. Some of the MCU’s movies have a mid-credits scene and a post-credits scene; others have even more. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 has a grand total of five credits scenes.
But Marvel movies aren’t the only ones with scenes after the credits. From Airplane! to Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, plenty of movies had post-credits scenes before Kevin Feige brought the Avengers to the big screen.
Fast Five (2011)
When the rise of the MCU had solidified post-credits teases as the norm in blockbuster cinema, the Fast & Furious producers used the credits of Fast Five to resurrect a key character.
As Dwayne Johnson’s Hobbs gets back to his day-to-day activities as a globetrotting lawman, he’s given a file containing a recent photograph of Letty, Dom Toretto’s girlfriend who was presumed dead after the previous movie. This tantalizing scene set up Michelle Rodriguez’s return to the series.
Dawn Of The Dead (2004)
Zack Snyder’s remake of George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead succeeds because, instead of trying to replicate the terror of Romero’s masterpiece, Snyder approached it as an action movie, so it has a tone and rhythm of its own. The movie ends on an upbeat note with the heroes making it to the safety of a sailboat.
However, the post-credits scene reveals it’s not such a happy ending after all. Camcorder footage shows the survivors on the boat running out of supplies, stopping at an island, and being attacked by zombies.
The Great Muppet Caper (1981)
Back when post-credits scenes were still a novelty, audiences were delighted to see the Muppets singing through the end credits of The Great Muppet Caper.
They all sing over the credits while floating past the screen in parachutes. The sequence has a hilarious payoff when Gonzo takes a photo of the audience in the theater and promises to send everybody a copy.
Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back (2001)
Long before Marvel had its own shared cinematic universe, Kevin Smith had one called the View Askewniverse. Set in and around New Jersey, the View Askewniverse chronicles the adventures of the pop culture-savvy slackers that circle around the recurring stoner duo Jay and Silent Bob.
When Smith gave Jay and Bob their own glorious spin-off in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, he ended the credits with his universe’s depiction of God – played by Alanis Morissette from Smith’s religious satire Dogma – closing a book labeled “Askewniverse.” This signified the end of the View Askewniverse, but Smith has since returned to the Askewniverse in Clerks II, Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, and the upcoming Clerks III.
Crank (2006)
Neveldine/Taylor’s Crank is a wild movie. Jason Statham stars as an assassin who’s injected with a serum that requires him to keep his adrenaline levels high to stay alive. It’s similar to the premise of Speed if the engine of the bus was in Keanu Reeves’ chest.
Appropriately for a movie that pushes the envelope as far as Crank does, the credits end with a delightfully quirky postscript: the entire plot of the movie is re-enacted as a 2D action video game.
Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
Not a lot of fans realize there’s a post-credits scene in Napoleon Dynamite, but it’s so large-scale that it’s practically an entire short-form sequel to the movie.
The gag that Napoleon assumes Kip’s online girlfriend isn’t real is hilariously paid off when LaFawnduh comes to visit from Detroit. This bit is further paid off after the credits when Kip marries LaFawnduh in a lavish outdoor ceremony. Napoleon arrives on a horse – a “wild honeymoon stallion” – that he claims to have trained.
Airplane! (1980)
The Zucker brothers, the legendary spoofers behind Airplane!, Top Secret!, and The Naked Gun, are masters of paying off a joke. The post-credits scene in Airplane! – the movie that put them on the map – is a perfect example.
At the beginning of the movie, Ted abandons his cab with a passenger waiting in the back. Then, the plot gets moving and he ends up on a doomed flight. The post-credits scene reveals that, after all the events of the movie, the passenger is still waiting in Ted’s taxi. He says he’ll only give him 20 more minutes to come back.
School Of Rock (2003)
Richard Linklater’s musical comedy gem School of Rock ends on a high note with the titular band’s encore performance at the Battle of the Bands. But the end credits provide more closure on the narrative, revealing that Dewey and Ned started an after-school music program to keep “The School of Rock” going.
Over the end credits, Dewey and the kids perform a rendition of AC/DC’s “It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll)” with half the lyrics replaced by impromptu references to the credits themselves: “The movie’s almost over / But we’re still on-screen.”
22 Jump Street (2014)
The sequel to 21 Jump Street is called 22 Jump Street and makes a bunch of self-aware references to this forced titling formula and the artifice of sequels in general. This gag is hysterically paid off in the end credits when the filmmakers pitch sequels all the way up to 43 Jump Street. There’s a montage of posters and trailers for a litany of potential sequels in which Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum would endlessly infiltrate schools.
After the first movie took place in a high school and the second one took place in a college, these sequel pitches change the setting to increasingly obscure educational institutions, from medical school to flight school to culinary school to mariachi school.
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
The most memorable post-credits scene – arguably more memorable than any of Marvel’s post-credits scenes – is in John Hughes’ classic teen comedy Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Throughout the movie, Ferris talks directly to the audience, offering nuggets of wisdom like, “Life moves pretty fast.”
After the end credits, Ferris comes out in a bathrobe and tells whoever is still watching the movie, “You’re still here? It’s over. Go home.” It’s a wonderfully meta jab at the pointlessness of post-credits scenes.