Shuvrajit Das Biswas
10. The Grey (2011)
This survival thriller stars Liam Neeson as a man with a very particular skill-set, he is a marksman who kills wolves that threaten oil drillers. The film sees most of the survivors of the plane crash get killed by wolves during the course of the movie. The film’s climactic scene sees Neeson’s character John Ottaway face off against the alpha wolf. This confrontation is never shown but the post-credit scene shows us the wolf and John both lying on the ground breathing heavily. The unexplained scene welcomes debates and philosophizing about which party survived and if anyone survived at all. The post-credit sequence lines up well with the philosophical tones of the movie and leaves the audience thinking.
9. Big Hero 6 (2014)
Well, to be honest, I hadn’t seen the film past the credit sequence because I was not expecting a post-credit scene (I didn’t know this film was based on Marvel property!). A kid told me recently that there was Stan Lee cameo at the end which made me go back to the film and lo and behold it is true. The movie pays a nod to Marvel by incorporating the mandatory Stan Lee cameo but making it refreshingly new. The great man, of course, appears in a computer-generated form as Fred’s absentee father, bringing the great movie to a perfect ending.
8. Justice League (2017)
DC was never big on post-credit scenes but they have taken a page out of MCU’s books here. The superhero film was okay, but not all that great although it saw the assimilation of one of the finest superhero teams on earth. However, the post credit scene was excellent as far as nuggets of information go. The scene revealed Deathstroke who is rumored to get his own movie soon and showed Lex Luthor out of prison and partying on a yacht. Together they seem to team up to form a league of their own. This league is ostensibly known to comic fans as they have often crossed paths with the Justice League. Furthermore, this gives us a scope to see Lex probably go up against Superman as they are usually at loggerheads in the comics. The scene was in all rather informative and laid out the course DC movies are expected to take in the future.
7. Young Sherlock Holmes (1985)
Way before Marvel wowed their audiences with post-credit twists, this film that explored Holmes’ adolescent days managed to pull it off. Holmes investigates a case in a boarding school where the students are given hallucinogenics. The villain is (SPOILERS!) his mentor Professor Rathe, a person he deeply trusted. However in the climactic scene, we see him die, but the post-credits belie our beliefs to show him having survived the fall into a frozen river. He emerges literally and metaphorically as Holmes’ greatest nemesis Moriarty. The tease for what could probably have been an interesting second film was never carried out to fruition but still remains one of the earliest examples of excellent post credit scene usage.
6. Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
One of the longest post-credit sequences in film history, this scene shows the titular character’s brother Kip getting married to LaFawnduh. Kip is nerdy and awkward while his wife is stylish and rather attractive. A classic case of opposites attracting, this post-credit sequence shows the comedy in the nuptial scene including a horse and some really bad serenading. The studio made a lot of money after word of the post credit scene spread like wildfire and drew crowds probably more than the movie itself, thus making it one of the quirkiest but most successful post-credit scenes in film history.
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