History Main / TrippyFinaleSyndrome

*** The trippiness of Chrono Trigger's finale begins sooner than that; the Black Omen sequence is very bizarre by the standards of an otherwise pretty straightforward game, what with the dream/waking duality and the your-party-floating-in-jars and the Zeal's-a-mask-and-gloves-in-space.

* ''VideoGame/{{Wild ARMs 3}}'' has its final battles ''literally'' take place in a trippy dream sequence.

** The sequel, VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}, does this as well. You're in a cavern miles below the city, when... whoa! What's the deal with the dropoffs? And the animate crystals and balls of electricity flying around?

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* The last three or so episodes of ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' - whenever that [[SpaceIsAnOcean space ocean]] shows up.

* The finale of ''Anime/RahXephon'' had several characters running around inside Yolteotl (something approximately like Nirvana) with lots of trippy symbolism whilst [[spoiler: Quon and Ayato]] tried to figure out how they wanted to retune the world.

* Perhaps the archetypal example: the end of ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'', as astronaut David Bowman goes [[spoiler: to "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite".]] Do not pretend to understand it. Although Creator/ArthurCClarke's companion [[AllThereInTheManual novel]] offers ''an'' [[MindScrewdriver explanation]], if you really must have one.

* The otherwise conventional western ''Film/{{Blueberry}}'' (aka ''Renegade'') ends with the hero and villain taking peyote and entering the spirit realm to do battle. The hero then has an epiphany that is visualized with trippy abstract images and Native American chanting. It has to be seen to be believed.

** The novelization suggests that the heroes [[spoiler: AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence after passing through the black hole, V.I.N.C.E.N.T. included.]]
* The 1974 ant thriller ''Film/PhaseIV'' ends with [[spoiler:the surviving human characters - a man and a woman - apparently being captured by ants and forced to become the next stage of human evolution, or something along those lines.]]

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' sends the party into the innards of Sin for the final dungeon. The first section is basically a bunch of tubes filled with shallow water and floating magical symbols (which maybe [[FridgeBrilliance makes sense]] because Sin is a creature created by magic). The next section is the ruins of an ancient city that is inside Sin... for some reason. The city is probably some part of [[spoiler: the original Zanarkand.]] [[spoiler:Or it's part of dream Zanarkand, the construct of the Yu Yevon, who creates and possesses Sin and has been explained a few minutes before arriving]]
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'' has the ''Chains of Promathia'' expansion end in [[spoiler: the Celestial Capital of Al'Taieu, conveniently located in another freaking plane of existence.]]

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' Endwalker, the final expansion of the MythArc, ends in Ultima Thule, a realm located at the literal edges of the universe made up of concentrated Dynamis - a mix of Dark Matter and emotional energy. The realm is suitably trippy and cosmic, with a gigantic black sun looming above and a a bright star illuminating from below, and the entire landscape made up of floating 'islands' based on recreations of dead planets.

* In ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'', the Final boss is fought in The Darkness Beyond Time - the place where things go when they no longer exist. The finale also seems trippy just because all the dialogue on Disc 2 is dedicated to explaining the back story of the game... and even after reading it all, you still need a Master's Degree in Strange Back Story-ology to understand it. [[spoiler:If you don't use the eponymous item, Lavos just respawns from another timeline. If you do, cue GainaxEnding.]]

* They were already established outer planes in the Forgotten Realms setting, but ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights: Hordes of the Underdark'' has its final chapter in the [[spoiler: frozen hell of Cania]], and ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2: Mask of the Betrayer'' has its finale in [[spoiler: The City of Judgment on the Fugue Plane.]]

* In ''VideoGame/HotlineMiami2WrongNumber'' [[spoiler: The Son]] dies in such a fashion; After a drug-fueled rampage, [[spoiler: he enters a set of gates and walks into a rainbow of colors and brings forth the end of the game. ]] [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome In reality, he simply walked off a building]].

* Perhaps the archetypal example: the end of ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'', as astronaut David Bowman goes [[spoiler: to "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite".]] Do not pretend to understand it.
Although Creator/ArthurCClarke's companion [[AllThereInTheManual novel]] offers ''an'' [[MindScrewdriver explanation]], if you really must have one.

* Perhaps the archetypal example, as shown above: the end of ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'', as astronaut David Bowman goes [[spoiler: to "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite".]] Do not pretend to understand it.
** Although Creator/ArthurCClarke's companion [[AllThereInTheManual novel]] offers ''an'' [[MindScrewdriver explanation]], if you really must have one.
* ''Film/{{Interstellar}}'' is already the modern equivalent of 2001, so it wouldn't be complete without the trip [[spoiler:inside a black hole where aliens have set up infinite rooms showing Cooper's daughter's room throughout multiple time periods, and then the trip backwards and forwards through time and space as Cooper goes home.]]

** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'': After Bowser is defeated, his own galaxy implodes and turns into a black hole destroying the universe until every Lum uses their energy to make it destroy itself and restore whatever was destroyed by it.

* The ending to ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'', especially the "[[MemeticMutation space hugs]]" scene; while floating around in a freaky sparkly fog, [[spoiler:[[LesYay Madoka and Homura]] have a heartfelt [[OutOfClothesExperience clothing-free conversation]]]]. Then the fog divides into two giant membranes, Madoka DisappearsIntoLight, and Homura ends up back on Earth]]. Somewhat justified by the fact that [[spoiler:Madoka ''literally'' destroys and rebuilds the universe,]] so venturing into an "uncharted realm" in the meantime was inevitable.

* The ending of ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist'' could be called an inversion of the trope. The ending takes place [[spoiler:in what the characters see as a strange alternate realty, but it's ''our'' reality, the real world during World War I. It's the rest of the series that takes place in the world full of magic and monsters.]]

* ''Franchise/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' is very guilty of this, starting from as early as Part 3, where [[spoiler:Jotaro gains the same abilities as Dio, except not at first, when he only pretended to have them with magnets]], and [[SerialEscalation the endings just get weirder from there]]. These tend to involve NewPowersAsThePlotDemands, or at least new rules for how they interact with the world and each other.

* The GrandFinale of the first season of ''Anime/DarkerThanBlack'' was very clearly inspired by Evangelion. However, unlike Eva, they had the decency to give at least a little explanation. It's possible to piece together all the groups' motivations, even if the [[EldritchLocation Gate-induced]] MindScrew is totally incomprehensible.
** The second season, well... [[spoiler:Let's just say that a Contractor copying the entire ''planet'' is one of the easier things to understand.]] If you think you know what happened, you're wrong.
* Anime/SerialExperimentsLain's [[spoiler:EndOfTheWorldSpecial]] had shades of this.
* The ending to ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'', especially the [[MemeticMutation "space hugs"]] scene: while floating around in a freaky sparkly fog--probably [[spoiler:God!Madoka's mind or something--[[LesYay Madoka and Homura have a heartfelt clothing-free conversation]]. Then the fog divides into two giant membranes, Madoka DisappearsIntoLight, and Homura ends up back on Earth]]. Somewhat justified by the fact that [[spoiler:Madoka ''literally'' destroys and rebuilds the universe,]] so venturing into an "uncharted realm" in the meantime was inevitable.
* The Eclipse from the Golden Age arc of ''{{Manga/Berserk}}''. Many anime watchers know this as the finale of the 90s anime, and up until that point, the series was mostly grounded in reality with a few fantastical elements subtly implied. The last three episodes take place in a frightening hellscape ruled over by four archdemons who [[spoiler:want to make Griffith one of their own]] and in which most of the main cast is suddenly and brutally killed off by ravening monsters. Of course, this is the point where the manga takes off from, so this only applies to the anime.

* ''Breakdown:'' One's character is brainwashed by a computer and sees himself where he was trained. Everything is now filled with a green haze, the steam shoots from random places, and the television screen is filled with static. He has to shoot all of his partners, then is attacked by large, half naked men while a light flies around him.

* ''{{Film/Lucy}}'': as the protagonist (LUCY) transcends [[spoiler:her human existence by unlocking the full capacity of her brain and travelling backwards in time]] we see a reverse time-lapse of the creation of earth, the universe, and everything else from Lucy's point of view.

* The Final Fantasy series frequently uses this.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' sends the party into the innards of Sin for the final dungeon. The first section is basically a bunch of tubes filled with shallow water and floating magical symbols (which maybe [[FridgeBrilliance makes sense]] because Sin is a creature created by magic). The next section is the ruins of an ancient city that is inside Sin... for some reason.
*** The city is probably some part of [[spoiler: the original Zanarkand.]]
*** [[spoiler: Or it's part of dream Zanarkand, the construct of the Yu Yevon, who creates and possesses Sin and has been explained a few minutes before arriving]]

* ''{{VideoGame/Marathon}} Infinity''. The first two games were straightforward enough, albeit with a fair amount of ambiguity. ''Infinity'' goes balls-out, featuring multiple timelines, dream levels, some of the most surrealistic text terminals in the series, and an ending over which fans still speculate nearly 20 years later.

** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'' subverts this, getting all the requisite trippiness out of the way in The Final World but then following it up with a series of final boss battles in more grounded, established locations. Then loops back around to MindScrew with the DLC...

* The ''VideoGame/RType'' series' final stages got progressively trippier as the games went on. Most notable of all, a Bydo dimension filled with crystal-encased human fetuses, strands of [=DNA=], free-floating sperm the size of the ship, and fertilized ova... And that's not even mentioning the neutral ending of ''Final'', in which the screen-filling silhouettes of a man and a woman embrace and make love in the background.
** The first alternate ending of ''Final'' has you trapped in a really trippy dimension, fighting a space slug thing, and [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie mutated by the Bydo]], then forced to fight your allies. You can see the mutant ship from this ending fly past in the first stage.

* ''VideoGame/{{Earthbound}}'''s final area before the final boss battle looks like a giant bizarre vagina, leading into a maze of tentacle-like pathways over a void. If that's not bad enough, said final boss battle [[AmazingTechnicolorBattlefield sure]] is. The battle's inspired by an old-fashioned CSI-esque movie that starts (well, not immediately, but you get the point) with a close-up of the soon to be victim's face, which the creator walked saw as a child when he entered the wrong theater and mistook for a rape scene.

* The last race of every ''VideoGame/MarioKart'' game, Rainbow Road.
* Most ''VideoGame/{{Kirby}}'' games end this way, usually with EldritchAbomination {{Final Boss}}es.

* [[InvertedTrope Inverted]]; at the end of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''[='=]s Season 2 '''premiere''', [[spoiler:Ponyville is drowned in chaos by Discord.]]

* ''Film/AntMan1'' takes us on a trip through the Quantum realm. "...a reality where all concepts of time and space become irrelevant as you shrink for all eternity."

* If the trippiness of ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'' wasn't already high the last level [[UpToEleven presents the Meat Circus]].

* ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' and ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry3''.
** It's the same. Probably weirder than the original.
** The final battle in 3 takes place in a river. A river in ''[[BonusLevelOfHell Hell]]''. It doesn't ''appear'' to be Styx. This is after traversing a road that assembles itself before your very feet, a giant chessboard, a roomful of stairways that would make Creator/MCEscher's head hurt, a lake of blood, a broken time space warp connected via mirrors made of mercury, and a chamber made of purple flesh that is situated at the feet of a statue of a godlike figure so tall you can't even see its knees.
** And the final battle in 4 takes place in the normal-by-comparison, surprisingly-squishy innards of a giant demon made of animate marble.
** The final levels of Devil May Cry takes place in the Underworld, which looks like [[WombLevel the innards of a giant monster]], complete with a [[BeatStillMyHeart giant pulsating heart]], which you enter through a mirror and the broken window roof of an upside down cathedral.
* Stage 18 of ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry 4'' is an apocalyptic battle, held on floating platforms, against a mobile statue and a combination of animated suits of armor and superpowered [[KnightTemplar knight templars]] in the same armor.

** The final battle in 3 takes place in a river. A river in ''[[BonusLevelOfHell Hell]]''. It doesn't ''appear'' to be Styx...
*** This is after traversing a road that assembles itself before your very feet, a giant chessboard, a roomful of stairways that would make Creator/MCEscher's head hurt, a lake of blood, a broken time space warp connected via mirrors made of mercury, and a chamber made of purple flesh that is situated at the feet of a statue of a godlike figure so tall you can't even see its knees.

* The final area of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'' takes place inside the monstrous moon itself. Which, in fact, appears as a vast and beautiful green field with a single large tree in the center, surrounded by children at play.
** And then Link goes to fight the boss in a room painted like an acid trip... [[spoiler:and in its second stage, Majora's Mask ''runs around very fast making clucking noises''.]]
*** [[spoiler: WHILE [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLbQpePp-MQ THIS]] PLAYS.]]
** As the "Perfect Guide" writers put it: "Calling the next part of the game 'surreal' would barely be scratching the surface."

** And in Planescape, well... you skip around a bit, and end up in [[spoiler:the Fortress of Regrets on the Negative Energy Plane.]]

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'': The Colonel makes insane comments like "[[TalkativeLoon I hear it's amazing when the famous purple stuffed worm in flap-jaw space with the tuning fork does a raw blink on hara-kiri rock!]] [[MemeticMutation I need scissors, 61!]]" He then reveals that he is within the A.I. that is actually the collective consciousness of the spirit of American freedom that controls the White House. Raiden's girlfriend is also a part of the A.I. but she appears in reality. [[MindScrew Then things get weird.]]
** And in ''Substance'', one of Snake's missions is an outright parody of this aspect of the original game, as well as Raiden's status as a ReplacementScrappy.

* Pretty much ''every'' episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Superjail}}''.

** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII''[='s=] final world is called the World that Never Was (more accurately, it's a world that never should have been) and is on the edge of the realms of light and dark. It's a huge, completely empty city with an enormous castle and a heart-shaped moon hanging over it.

* ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}}'' ends with the party entering [[spoiler:"Space Memory", which is essentially outer space, except they can walk through it. Seeing how they entered it through Prison Island, which was located at the top of the Bionis, and were therefore entering the Bionis' (i.e. Zanza's) skull, they're essentially entering his own memories, which hints at his background involving space]]. The final battle itself takes place in an AmazingTechnicolorBattlefield, which occasionally changes to look like the party is in the sky.

* The finale of ''VideoGame/{{Ys}} V'', the Lost Sand City of Kefin is quite mind-screwing, especially if you don't know Japanese.

* In ''VideoGame/HotlineMiami2WrongNumber'' [[spoiler: The Son]] dies in such a fashion; After a drug-fueled rampage, [[spoiler: he enters a set of gates and walks into a rainbow of colors and brings forth the end of the game. ]] [[RealityEnsues In reality, he simply walked off a building]].

* {{Film/Lucy}}: as the protagonist (LUCY) transcends [[spoiler:her human existence by unlocking the full capacity of her brain and travelling backwards in time]] we see a reverse time-lapse of the creation of earth, the universe, and everything else from Lucy's point of view.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' has a relatively tame final dungeon constructed from the wreckage of [[TheEmpire an empire]], but the end boss is preceded by an enormous tower of vaguely Renaissance-esque statues(?) of nude men and women, usually in bizarre positions, which all want you dead. Fighting your way through them looks like you're ascending towards heaven to confront [[AGodAmI God]] above the [[FluffyCloudHeaven clouds]].

* ''100 Years of Solitude'', by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, ends with an almost metaphysical look at the small town setting, reminding us of the ten generations of Buendia family members we have met.

* ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' and ''Devil May Cry 3''.

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2001_stargate.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"My God, it's full of stars!"'']]

* ''Film/AntMan'' takes us on a trip through the Quantum realm. "...a reality where all concepts of time and space become irrelevant as you shrink for all eternity."

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

** [[VideoGame/KingdomHearts The first game's]] final world is the End of the World, a strange mishmash of various dead worlds surrounded by a violet ocean.