{"id":17416,"date":"2011-11-14T11:00:14","date_gmt":"2011-11-14T16:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/?p=17416"},"modified":"2015-10-16T10:41:00","modified_gmt":"2015-10-16T14:41:00","slug":"the-five-most-important-button-scenes-in-cinema","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/2011\/11\/14\/the-five-most-important-button-scenes-in-cinema\/","title":{"rendered":"The Five Most Important Post-Credits Scenes In Cinema"},"content":{"rendered":"

The bumper or tag scene. It\u2019s that short scene that comes after the end credits have finished, a little extra for those in the audience who have sat through the scroll list of names of the films grips, sound crew, special effects technicians and caterers. It usually doesn\u2019t have much bearing on the preceding film, but is just a nice little Easter egg for those who stuck around.<\/p>\n

Although cinema is over a century old, the tag scene has only come about I the last couple of decades. Up until the late-1960s, most films had their credits in the beginning, just a quick on-screen card or two to note the main crew members behind the film. Sometimes, the main cast list was reprised at the end of a film, but that was all. But as film loaders, grips, focus pullers, stand by painters, transportation captains, boom mic operators and more were added, the credits were shifted to the end of films, where they could play out while the audience left. It wouldn\u2019t be long until someone decided that just because the credits were rolling it didn\u2019t mean that the film was over.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a look at the five most influential of these mid- and post-credit scenes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Airplane!<\/strong>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker released Airplane!<\/strong> in the summer of 1980, they wound up rewriting many of the rules for film comedy. And one of those rules was that the laughs didn\u2019t have to stop just because the films credits had started. Those Airplane!<\/strong> audience members who didn\u2019t jump up and head for the exists the moment when Otto and his inflatable stewardess flew the TransAmerican jetliner off into a hail of fireworks were treated to a couple of gags buried with the film\u2019s end credits crawl. (“Generally In Charge Of A Lot Of Things \u2013 Mike Finnell”, “Author of A Tale Of Two Cities<\/em> \u2013 Charles Dickens”)<\/p>\n

The topper came at the end of the credits, though with a quick little scene featuring the man in the cab who Ted Stryker (Robert Hayes) abandoned on the curbside of LAX at the beginning of the film. Although the film cuts back to him twice during its first 50 minutes, he isn\u2019t seen for the rest of the picture. But Zucker, Abrams and Zucker hadn\u2019t forgotten the poor soul and cut back to let us know that he was still waiting for Stryker to return to take him on his trip. But after waiting nearly the entire run-time of the film for his cabbie to come back, the now slightly frustrated man vows, \u201cI\u2019ll give him another twenty minutes! But that\u2019s it!\u201d A funny moment and one that is noteworthy as it appears to be the first time that a button scene appeared in a film.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen In Hollywood, Visit Universal Studios. Ask for Babs.\u201d<\/strong>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

While not technically a tag scene, there is a joke that comes at the end of National Lampoon\u2019s Animal House<\/strong>\u2019s credits that calls back to something from the main part of the film. Specifically, the film\u2019s closing moments revealing the futures facing members of the Delta and Omega fraternities. Martha Smith\u2019s character of Babs is revealed to have become a tour guide at Universal Studios. At the time it was standard for Universal Studios films to have an end title card promoting their studio tour in Hollywood and Landis decided to give a last wink to any of the audience still in the theater by changing the card to read \u201cWhen In Hollywood, Visit Universal Studios. Ask for Babs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The gag soon became one of Landis\u2019s many signature touches; perhaps only second to his use of the phrase \u201cSee you next Wednesday.\u201d He would use it for all of his subsequent movies made for Universal including The Blues Brothers<\/strong> (1980), An American Werewolf In London<\/strong> (1981), Coming Soon<\/strong> (1982), Into The Night<\/strong> (1985), Amazon Women On The Moon<\/strong> (1987) and Blues Brothers 2000<\/strong>. It also appears on the Animal House<\/strong> DVD supplement\/mockumentary Where Are They Now?: A Delta Alumni Update<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ferris Bueller\u2019s Day Off<\/strong>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the refreshing aspects of Ferris Bueller\u2019s Day Off<\/strong> was the amount of times that Matthew Broderick\u2019s titular character broke the fourth wall to speak directly to the audience. It was something that hadn\u2019t really been done in cinematic comedy since the days of the Marx Brothers, Bob Hope and Ollie and Johnson\u2019s Hellzapoppin\u2019<\/strong>. It is a conceit that carries right through to after the credits when Ferris pops back on screen and tells everyone to go home. Probably not a gag that really works in this day and age of home video, but it is still a nice last moment to end the film on.<\/p>\n

While I can find no documentation to back it up, I have to wonder if this button scene started as an improvised joke on the set. Hughes was open to improvisation and the moment where Ferris is singing \u201cDanke Shone\u201d in the shower grew out of Broderick practicing the song for the parade sequence while the crew was setting up the shower scene.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Wild Things<\/strong>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

While not technically button scenes, there are several short scenes in the 1998 thriller Wild Things<\/strong> that were embedded into the closing credits crawl that revealed that what audiences thought they saw in the bulk of the film might not have been what actually happened. Which is saying something as the movie has several twists and turns.<\/p>\n

By this time, it wasn\u2019t completely unusual for a film to have additional material in the credits. Through the late 70s and early 80s, Burt Reynolds would customarily put shooting outtakes into the credits of his films to show how much fun the cast and crew had while making the film. It was a practice that Jackie Chan copied for his Hong Kong action films after he appeared in The Cannonball Run<\/strong>, but he used it to show that how dangerous many of the stunts he and his team performed really were. But Wild Things<\/strong> was one of the first to include material which could legitimately be called vital narrative material. (Yes, I know Ferris Bueller<\/strong> has the credit sequence scene with Rooney\u2019s car getting towed and him having to hitch a ride on the bus, but it is a scene that isn\u2019t really necessary to the story.) And in just a couple of years, the idea of narrative material at the end of the credit roll would be placed into ply by the next film on our list.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Iron Man<\/strong>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On May 2, 2008, comic book movie fans were buzzing about how Marvel Studios\u2019 Iron Man<\/strong> may or may not end. Rumors had been circulating that Samuel L. Jackson had filmed a cameo for the film but early reviews didn\u2019t mention it. It wasn\u2019t until the first midnight screenings ended on the East Coast and folks took to the internet confirmed the existence of such a scene after the credits. Of course, the scene also opened up a flurry of new questions, most specifically, what did Jackson\u2019s character Nick Fury mean when he referred to \u201cThe Avengers Initiative\u201d?<\/p>\n

The following Monday, during a quarterly earnings conference call Marvel formerly announced their plans to build an interconnected series of superhero franchise films that would culminate in one giant crossover\/team-up film, The Avengers<\/strong>, confirming what fans were wildly speculating about over the previous 72 hours. And with only one scheduling change – Thor<\/strong> was originally marked to come out last summer and The Avengers<\/strong> was slotted for this summer – the studio has managed to keep on track for what could be considered the most ambitious bit of franchise management seen yet. And Marvel has continued to use button scenes at the end of all their films to help build that shared universe and tease the next film on their schedule. The result is the high-level of anticipation for next summer’s The Avengers<\/strong> even among non-comics fans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just because the credits roll it doesn’t mean that the movie is over.<\/div>\n

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