The Greatest Cliffhangers

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You Know I was thinking the other day about LOST and how every show had a cliffhanger or almost every show. Now I know everyshow has cliff hangers but not on nearly every show like LOST(I can't think of any). Anyway I was thinking about how great LOST was about cliffhangers. That was a HUGE reason why I would watch the show for hours. I started watching a show and by the end of the cliffhanger always made me go to the next show and watch it immediately. I just couldn't wait til the next day to watch the next episode. I was always drawn to watch the next show. So with that being said I decided to make this thread.

LOST gave us some pretty classic cliffhangers while on air. I want to know:

What are your favorite cliffhangers in any show? Provide examples.
Don't just say a particular show. Tell us what show and a cliffhanger or multiple cliffhangers from that show.

What show do you think provided us with the best cliffhangers?

If you can think of it; what is THE GREATEST cliffhanger EVER?


I'll start us off.

My favorite cliffhangers are from Scrubs. Scrubs is one of my favorite shows ever. They gave us one of the greatest cliffhangers ever IMO. I remember at the end of Season 1 during the finale J.D., Dr. Cox, Elliot, Turk, Dr. Kelso, and Carla were eating lunch together. Jordan shows up and spills all this personal information and secrets she knows about everybody during their lunch. She tells Dr. Cox that she slept with J.D., that Dr. Cox is still in love with Carla and that Turk knew for a while and kept it a secret from Carla, Elliot's still in love or has feelings with/for J.D. even though they broke up, and Dr. Kelso has been making Dr. Cox jump through loops for a job opening that closed months before. Of course once she spills everybody's dirty little secrets the show ends there and you have to wait til next season to find out what happens.

I think the greatest cliffhangers came from LOST as I mentioned already. As I mentioned they had cliffhangers on almost every show that kept you wanting to watch. A great example is from season 1 at the end of the season. Sawyer, Michael, Walt and Jin were off sailing on their self made craft. Then they spot a sailboat. The guys on the sailboat asked for the boy and when Michael, Sawyer, and Jin didn't had Walt over they kidnapped the him. And the season ends their. I know their were plenty of cliff hangers but that one was the biggest.

Now for what I think was the greatest cliffhanger EVER. It comes from Friends. It was at the end of season 7 or 8 when Rachel was having her baby. Ross bought an engagement ring and was going to propose to Rachel because it was their baby. However when Ross was out of Rachel's hospital room Joey was left with Rachel. He bent over to pick something up by Ross's coat and the engagement ring fell out of his coat. Joey was surprised by the ring why on one knee turned to Rachel with the engagement ring in his hand. Of course Rachel thought Joey was proposing. But the show ends right there and you have to wait.

Now yours.

Note:I chose mine at the end of the season's. They don't have to be at the end of the season's. They can be throughout anytime during your respective shows that you choose.
 
If I was going to go with a Friends season finale as being the best cliffhanger, instead of picking the proposal, I would go with an actual wedding. the infamous "I Ross, take thee Rachel" ending, when he was marrying Emily.

But, if we can count movie cliffhangers too, the Empire Strikes Back has the single greatest WTF no way! cliffhanger of all time. Nothing can compete with "No. I am your father." Not only did we have to wait two years to find out if Darth Vader was lying to Luke or not, but that scene is one of the all time most iconic film moments.
 
1. The Sopranos Series Finale- Nothing has ever pissed me off more than the ending to The Sopranos. Tony had just survived the hit that was put out by rival mob boss Phil Leotardo. He was having dinner with his family, and it seemed like Tony's life might still be in danger. The door to the diner opens, Tony looks up, and.....THE FUCKING SCREEN FADES TO BLACK!!!!!! They spent soooo much time showing Meadow, as she struggled to parallel park, and it just seemed like something was going to happen. The anticipation was being built so well, and the Don't Stop Believin' song by Journey was like icing on the cake.

I think The Sopranos is the greatest show of all time. So many people we're expecting something BIG, and the ending was a huge let down if you ask me. I think the writers took the easy way out. Maybe they didn't want to piss off too many people by doing something extreme(whacking Tony, Carmela, Anthony, or Meadow) but I do think they should've took a real chance. This was a great show, but the ending was so lackluster.

2. The Mist (2007)- I really enjoyed this film. The acting was superb, and this film was a really great horror/science fiction film. There were tons of spooky moments, plenty of gore, and this film keeps you guessing until the very end. And speaking of the ending, this film has to have one of the best endings EVER.

Five survivors escape from the supermarket, but the vehicle in which they hoped to escape in runs out of gas. The survivors would rather die quickly, so the main character takes a gun, and he shots the other four survivors dead. Oh, and one of the survivors was HIS VERY YOUNG SON. He tries to shot himself, but there are no more bullets left. Moments later, he steps out of the car, and he dares the monsters/aliens to kill him. But as he does, the military arrives to save the day! Ugh, if he just waited a little bit longer everybody would've been safe.

This ending was great, and It makes me give this film a 9/10.

3. Jeepers Creepers (2001)- I absolutely love this movie. The Creeper was a unique horror villain, and he did have a nice little back story. There was so much tension throughout this film, and there are plenty of spook moments in this one. The ending isn't as jaw dropping as The Mist, but it does pack a nice punch.....

The Creeper finally managed to trap his two victims, Trish and Darry(brother and sister) in a police station. He wants to kill one of them, but it's unclear who he will go for, but after his selection process(he chooses his victims by smelling them) he picks the brother. Trish is distraught, and she even offers herself up to the monster. She would rather die than lose her brother. The Creeper flies away with Darry, and yes, the creature eventually kills him. It was such a gut wrenching ending.
 
The Italian Job (Original) A literal cliffhanger

After robbing the Mafia of their gold the gang are driving to Switzerland in a coach with the gold when the driver loses control and they end up hanging of a cliff. The gold is near the end of the coach hanging off the cliff, so Charlie Croker (Michael Caine) tries to get it to stop them from falling, however the gold slides nearer toward the edge. Charlie then tells the others 'Hang on a minute lads I've on lads I've got a great idea, uh' and then it ends

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It was before our time, but I think "The Fugitive" TV series that ran from 1963-67 had the greatest cliffhanger. I saw some of the episodes on A&E a few years ago; including the last two that finished Dr. Richard Kimble's mission.

By the time the last two shows aired, everyone knew that the One-Armed Man was the murderer of Kimble's wife, but the show finally had Kimble, the One-Armed Man, and Lieutenant Gerard in the same place.

The stage was set; Would Kimble get the guy to confess before Lt. Gerard could get Kimble? And if the confession took place, could Kimble keep the One-Armed Man from escaping and bring him to justice......or would he kill Kimble first? One way or the other, Kimble's odyssey was going to end; but would he live to see it? Or would Lt. Gerard capture him and send him back to the death house?

It was amazing stuff and I can only imagine how exciting it must have been for the viewers back then who had followed every episode. At the time, the last episode was the most watched TV program ever in the U.S.
 
I'm a fan of Lost also and it ha d alot of cliffhangers I enjoyed but as an early teenager one cliffhanger that comes to mind is "Who Shot Mr. Burns"
 
I was a big fan of Alias. The scene where they are on their way to Santa Barbara and then they get hit by a truck was fantastic and unexpected.
 
I love the cliffhanger at the end of Kill Bill Vol 1. when Bill says that the Bride's baby is still alive... that was pretty cool...
 
Prison Break was always great for cliffhangers on every episode like Lost. Unlike most shows, just when you thought you figured out what's going to happen & how something happened, it's always an unexpected outcome. Season 1 of Prison Break was best for the cliffhangers.
 
I think the greatest movie cliffhanger is Empire strikes back as it is the most iconic moment in the star wars trilogy. Friday 13th and the Halloween movies always end in a cliffhanger after every movie and they always seem to send a chill up the spine

Tv show wise i would go with the end of heroes season 3 (volume 4) due to the fact it involved most of my favourite characters
 

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