cliffhanger
Sign in to saveAlso known as cliffhanger ending, to be continued
thumb|The 1914 film serial The Perils of Pauline (1914 serial)|Perils of Pauline was shown in bi-weekly installments and ended with a cliffhanger. A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious situation, facing a difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode of serialized fiction or before a commercial break in a television programme. A cliffhanger is intended to incentivize the audience to return to see how the characters resolve the dilemma, or to provide a mysterious or thought provoking
~15 min read
Encyclopedic overview
9 sectionsContents
- History
- Victorian serials
- Etymology
- Serial media
- Film
- Modern usage
- See also
- References
- Books
thumb|The 1914 film serial The Perils of Pauline (1914 serial)|Perils of Pauline was shown in bi-weekly installments and ended with a cliffhanger. A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious situation, facing a difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode of serialized fiction or before a commercial break in a television programme. A cliffhanger is intended to incentivize the audience to return to see how the characters resolve the dilemma, or to provide a mysterious or thought provoking ending.
Some serials end with the caveat, "To Be Continued" or "The End?" In serial films and television series, the following episode sometimes begins with a recap sequence.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “cliffhanger” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.