Searching is a cutting-edge movie that tells its story entirely from within a computer - is it forward-thinking enough to include an after-credits scene?
Directed by Aneesh Chaganty and produced using Timur Bekmambetov's groundbreaking Screenlife technology, Searching is a missing person drama told from the computer screen of increasingly-panicked father David Kim (John Cho). His daughter, Margot, disappears unexpectedly one night and through some very modern sleuthing (think a Facebook-Gmail-Hotmail password thread) begins to discover her darker-than-expected actions and create a personal list of subjects. The killer reveal is pretty twisted, something we'll explore properly in our comprehensive ending explainer. For now, we're interested in what comes after that end.
Related: Searching's Ending Explained
If you're waiting at the end of the movie and are unsure whether there'll be anything extra hidden, you needn't worry: Searching doesn't have an after-credits scene. As always, the credits do highlight all the work put into the obviously rather technical film so are worth sitting through, but there's no stinger scene to see.
It would have been rather easy for Searching to slip a final coda in given the medium of the film; a further text conversation or Skype chat would be easy enough, while an ambling Facebook search would certainly be a humorous way to present how computers are used most of the time. Of course, this isn't exactly a Marvel film, so a further sting isn't required, and it could break up the rather heartfelt note the film otherwise ends on.
Indeed, it's not like a post-credits scene would be setting up a Searching 2. While the film has received strong reviews since it debuted at Sundance 2018, the story doesn't really lend itself to more adventures - Margot's disappearance is resolved and David is able to move on. Any further conflict on this scale would inevitably feel contrived.
That doesn't mean this will be the last time you see a computer on screen. Unfriended: Dark Web is still in theaters, and Bekmambetov has made clear he intends Screenlife to be his future as a producer. Given the success of Searching, it wouldn't be out of the question to expect Chaganty or Cho to return for more.
