List of Cliffhanger Endings

List Of Cliffhanger Endings

A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma, or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode of serialized fiction. A cliffhanger is hoped to ensure the audience will return to see how the characters resolve the dilemma.

The phrase is believed to come from the end-of-episode situation in adventure silent films of the early 1900s, with the protagonist literally left hanging from the edge of a cliff, although the oldest usage the Oxford English Dictionary has is from 1937. Some serials end with the caveat "To Be Continued..." or "The End?" In movie serials and television series, and in the Star Wars films (imitating movie serials) the following episode sometimes begins with a recap sequence, e.g. "Previously on L. A. Law".

Read more about List Of Cliffhanger Endings:  History, Serial Media

Famous quotes containing the words list of, list and/or endings:

    Thirty—the promise of a decade of loneliness, a thinning list of single men to know, a thinning brief-case of enthusiasm, thinning hair.
    F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)

    The advice of their elders to young men is very apt to be as unreal as a list of the hundred best books.
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    Logic and hope fade somewhat by thirty-six, when endings seem more like clear warnings than useful experience.
    Jane O’Reilly, U.S. feminist and humorist. The Girl I Left Behind, ch. 2 (1980)