10 Movie Cliffhangers Nobody Cared About
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Apr 2, 2025
Nobody gave a damn about these "thrilling" cliffhanger endings.
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Cliffhanger endings are generally intended to leave the audience desperate for more
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to ensure they'll return for the next installment which continues the dangling narrative thread
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When it's done well, like in Avengers Infinity War for example, it can truly capture the general public's imagination and generate surging hype for the
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next movie. But for every genuinely thrilling and shocking cliffhanger, there are many that simply don't make much of a dent with audiences
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Sometimes a cliffhanger just doesn't hit how the filmmakers or studio intended
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and the reaction from general viewers is total apathy, a simple lack of interest in what it's setting up
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That's certainly true of these ten movies, which whether good or not
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all fail to deliver the satisfyingly tantalizing cliffhangers they thought they were
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So I am Gareth here from WhatCulture.com, and here are ten movie cliffhangers nobody cared about
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Number 10, Baby Godzilla Hatches. Godzilla 1998. Sony originally had very high hopes for Roman Emmerich's 1998 Godzilla film
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which they envisioned as the first entry into an epic blockbuster trilogy
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assuming it turned a hefty profit, of course. To that end, Godzilla 98 ended up with a rather
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lousy setup for a sequel, where following Godzilla's death, a single one of its eggs
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is revealed to have survived in the ruins of Madison Square Garden. In the final shot
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the egg hatches. What a shocker. As cliffhangers go, it's pretty damn lazy, basically suggesting
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that a sequel would restore the status quo with another Zilla running rampant. Perhaps have we
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seen a few surviving creatures hatch, hyping up a sequel with way more giant monsters, this might
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have better energised audiences. Instead, following Godzilla's underperformance at the box office
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Sony opted not to proceed with a sequel. Instead, the storyline was picked up in the Godzilla
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animated series, which, while better received by fans, struggled to find an audience due to
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competing with both Pokemon and Digimon. That is some fierce competition. 9. Stowaway Smith – The Matrix Reloaded
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If you're old enough to have seen The Matrix Reloaded in cinemas, you'll remember how feverish
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the excitement was, that the Wachowskis were back with a sequel to one of the greatest action films
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of all time. It ultimately fell short of most fans' expectations, yet even those who staunchly
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defend the movie won't have much positive to say about its absolute nothing burger of a cliffhanger
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sequel bait ending. At film's end, Neo unexpectedly manifests abilities in the real world, which he
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uses to destroy a fleet of incoming machines before falling into a coma. In the final scene
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it's revealed that the rescue ship has taken aboard another survivor from the machine's attack
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Bane, who earlier in the film became possessed by Agent Smith. And then, just before the end credits
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role a title card reads to be concluded even though everybody knew a third matrix film was
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mere months away from release when they went to watch reloaded they sure as hell didn't expect to
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be left with such a lackluster pair of reveals to tee up the trilogy concluding entry as such it perhaps little surprise that the matrix revolutions grossed barely half of what Reloaded did Ouch 8 Michael Gets Broken Out of Prison Halloween 5 The Revenge of Michael Myers
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Halloween 5 The Revenge of Michael Myers is a film that broke the audience's spirit early on
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and basically never recovered from it. After Halloween 4 ended with a genuinely tantalizing
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cliffhanger which suggested that Michael Myers' niece Jamie Lloyd had inherited his killer
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Instinct, the fifth film opened by basically negating it. The rest of the movie plays out
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rather dispiritingly, before Michael is captured by the police and set to be held in custody until
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his dying day. Except, of course, that doesn't happen. Instead, the movie ends when a mysterious
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man wearing all black breaks into the police station, murders all the cops, and sets Michael
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free. Even with the genuine mystery of the Man in Black's identity, it was tough to give much of a
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about this cliffhanger after the previous movie's considerably more compelling one was a massive
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cop-out. And as it turned out, the sixth film's explanation that a cult of druids were behind
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Michael's liberation didn't exactly impress many fans anyway. 7. Abraham Lincoln Planet of the Apes
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If you were unlucky enough to watch Tim Burton's ill-fated 2001 remake of Planet of the Apes in the
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cinema, you might recall how you could hear a pin drop when that hysterical head scratch of a final
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scene played out. After Captain Leo Davidson travels back through the electromagnetic storm
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in an attempt to get home, he crash lands in Washington DC and finds that the Lincoln Memorial
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has been replaced with a statue commemorating General Thade. Moreover, the cops, firefighters
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and news reporters who quickly arrive on the scene are all apes. What the hell
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While it's understandable that Burton and company didn't want to merely rehash the original 1968
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The Ape film's widely known twist that the ape planet was Earth all along
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Er, spoilers, I guess? This sequel-teasing cliffhanger proved so head-smackingly ridiculous that it killed most interest in another movie altogether
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Hilariously, Burton himself explained in the film's DVD commentary that the cliffhanger wasn't really supposed to make any sense
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but simply drop enough of a WTF bomb that it would leave audiences curious to know what the hell happened
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Evidently, the gambit didn't quite pay off, as despite turning a decent profit
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both Burton and Fox swore off a sequel, putting the franchise on ice until 2011's reboot Rise of
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the Planet of the Apes. Can you remember another ending that made you audibly ask WTF just happened
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Let us know down below in the comments section my friends. Number 6 Mr. Sinister is coming X-Men Apocalypse
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Despite being the penultimate mainline X-Men movie, X-Men Apocalypse was actually intended
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to set up a whole new era of X-Men films prior to Disney's acquisition of Fox
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The post-credits scene showed a fleet of men in black suits raiding William Stryker's Weapon X facility and retrieving samples
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before a closing shot of a briefcase reads Essex Corp. First and foremost, this meant absolutely nothing to non-comic book fans
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who wouldn in any way appreciate that this was teeing up Nathaniel Essex aka Mr Sinister to be the X series next big bad Secondly given that this movie had literally just spent 144 minutes ruining one of the most iconic comic villains of all time Apocalypse why the hell would anyone be excited that
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the same creatives were adapting Mr. Sinister next? The most damning proof that nobody cared though, X-Men Apocalypse underperformed at the box
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office, and follow-up Dark Phoenix, which ultimately didn't feature Mr. Sinister anyway
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was an outright flop, effectively sealing the franchise's fate. 5. Daisy's Sequel Bait – Super Mario Bros
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Super Mario Bros may not be a very good movie, and certainly not a good adaptation of its video game namesake
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but it gets points for its creative production design and generally bonkers throw everything at the wall filmmaking
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That doesn't mean that its hilariously optimistic cliffhanger ending in any way got audiences young or old hyped for a potential sequel though
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The final scene sees Princess Daisy rock up to Mario and Luigi's apartment
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totting a large gun and burned clothes, before insisting she needs their help
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and that they're not going to believe what she's been through. Mario and Luigi quickly grab their wares, but before Daisy can explain what's up, the movie abruptly ends
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Cliffhangers intended to set up sequels generally need to give audiences a little more than just this
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Show them how the stakes are going to be raised for a sequel, or give them a glimpse of a new world or even the next movie's antagonist
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Instead, Super Mario Bros. basically gave viewers close to nothing, and so it's little
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surprise that few were enthused to see what happened next. 4. Let the Games Begin – Dracula Untold
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Shortly before Dracula Untold's release, the film reportedly underwent reshoots to retroactively fashion it as the first entry into Universal's new dark universe, a cinematic
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universe set to feature the studio's most iconic monsters, like the Mummy, the Wolfman
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Frankenstein, and the Invisible Man. Despite this, Universal denied claims that Dracula Untold was the series' launching pad
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perhaps in part because said reshoots resulted in such a lackluster, unimpressive setup for future
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stories. The film's tacked-on present-day epilogue sees Vlad, aka Dracula, meet up with a woman
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Mina, who bears a strong resemblance to his dead wife, Marina. The master vampire, who first turned
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Vlad into a vampire, is then revealed to be watching them. And as they walk away, the master
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Vampire quips, let the games begin. Evidently, the ending placed Vlad in the present day in order
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to set up his future interactions with the other monsters in the Dark Universe, with the Master
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Vampire possibly acting as the Nick Fury-esque link between them all. Audiences were more confused
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than interested, though. And so Universal decided to relaunch the Dark Universe with Tom Cruise's
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The Mummy a few years later, which similarly failed to strike a chord with viewers. Well
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at least he tried. Twice. Number 3. Quintessa Lives, Transformers The Last Knight. Transformers
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The Last Knight may not have been a billion dollar mega hit like its predecessor, but it still grossed
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over 600 million dollars worldwide, meaning that a hell of a lot of people went to see it. And so
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why is it that not a single solitary soul can remember how it ended? Michael Bay's final
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Transformers film concluded with a few teases for the planned sixth entry, namely Decepticon leader
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Megatron still being at large and the Cybertronian sorceress Quintessa having taken the guise of a human woman to continue her quest to destroy Earth Audiences simply couldn be compelled
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to give a damn, and so following the film's fair box office underperformance, the decision was made
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to sack off the sixth film and rejig the series with Bumblebee, which operated as a prequel to
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the original 2007 Transformers. With the upcoming Transformers Rise of the Beast also taking place
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before the first Bayformers movie, it's safe to say that The Last Knight's Cliffhanger received a
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vocal vote of no confidence from just about everybody. Number 2, The End, Flash Gordon
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Though you've probably seen Flash Gordon, do you remember that it ends with a blatant setup for a
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sequel? Don't feel bad if you don't, because it's a completely forgettable non-entity of a sequel
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tease. After the evil Ming the Merciless is killed and the day is saved, we cut back to Ming's magic
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power ring, which is picked up by a hand wearing a black glove, all while Ming's signature laugh
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rings out and the end appears on screen. Again, it's perhaps the least interesting part of a
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thoroughly entertaining, unapologetically camped space opera, enough that many forget the cliffhanger
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even happens at all. More to the point, audiences of its era clearly weren't enamoured much
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given that Flash Gordon underperformed at the global box office, and only solidified itself as
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a cult classic in the years that followed. And given that any prospect of a sequel had dried up
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long before the movie became a home video hit, the sequel tease again fell upon deaf ears
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1. Dom and Little B's Ambiguous Fates – Fast X The generally middling reception to the most recent Fast and the Furious movie, Fast X or Fast
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10 or whatever it is, was topped off by the mesmerizingly cheeky manner in which it ended
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or rather didn't end. After Dom rescues his son Little B from villain Dante Reyes
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he's forced to drive off the edge of a dam in order to avoid two remote-controlled trucks from
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crashing into him at the top. Dom's car eventually hits the water at the bottom
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and both father and son manage to escape to the surface, mostly unscathed. But at that moment
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Dante then blows up the dam, leaving the fate of Dom and Little B apparently uncertain moments
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before the end credits roll. Needless to say, the series has such comically low stakes for its
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characters, who can be constantly resurrected without consequence or logic, that it's near
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impossible to be even remotely concerned for Dom or his son. We know they're fine, so what's the
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point. To hammer home the utter listlessness of this cliffhanger, the film's final scene
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immediately afterwards brings Giselle back from the dead. Again, compounding that death means
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absolutely nothing in these movies. Because the audience isn't worried for Dom or Little B
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and few will give much of a damn that Giselle is back either, the whole ending falls laughably
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flat. At least Hobbs is back though, right? Yeah, miss that goatee. And that's our list
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Know of any other movie cliffhangers nobody cared about? Well, let us know all about them in the
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comment section right down below and don't forget to like share and click on that subscribe button
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while you're down there also if you're a fan of this sort of cliffhanging stuff then please head
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on over to whatculture.com and find some more fantastic articles just like the one this video
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you're watching right now is based on i've been gareth from whatculture.com cheers for watching
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this particular video today hopefully i'll see your faces rather soon but in the meantime just
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be good to yourself bye
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