->''Is this the tragic end of me?\\
Or will the sequel set me free?''
->--The Aquabats, "Stuck In A Movie!"

->''The situation's turned critical, and things can't get any worse. And this is how they're ending the episode? Oh, for crying out loud! I hate it when they pull this.''\\
--Lina Inverse (narrating), ''[[{{Slayers}} Slayers TRY]]'', episode 9

A CliffHanger ends an ActBreak, episode, or even a whole season (or a film or novel in a series) with some or all of the main characters in peril of some kind and the audience is made to wait for the outcome. The ToBeContinued caption is often used here. Typically the longer the viewer is made to wait, the larger the seeming peril. Indeed, this can be a DownerEnding to the part just finished -- although many apparent perils and catastrophes are not as serious as they appear.

A CliffHanger can also be centered around surprising revelations; either one just made, or one being saved for the 'hanger's resolution.

Named for the old Saturday matinée film serials which would frequently leave a character literally hanging from the side of a cliff, revealing how the character escaped in the next episode.

The season type of 'hanger has a flaw: if the show gets canceled, the 'hanger stays unresolved. A few such 'hangers are listed below. This is not to be confused with a BolivianArmyEnding, which is an ''intentionally'' unresolved cliffhanger as an ending. If this happens, the cliffhanger may be resolved in a movie or miniseries later on. Or, it may not... and that's why we have FanFiction.

Stories need not end with just one cliffhanger; there can be one for every independent plot thread if the writers think the audience will stand for it.

MythArc, MindScrew, and JigsawPuzzlePlot series all use cliffhangers as often as possible, some of them with every episode.

[[http://rover_wow.tripod.com/tvcliff.htm This site]] contains a comprehensive list of unresolved cliffhangers.

Not to be confused with an area for aircraft set into a mountainside (a cliff hangar), the sort used to hang up clothing (a coat hanger), the laserdisc-based video game using footage from ''{{Lupin III}}'', or the movie [[{{Pun}} of the same name]]; you might be able to find that [[Film/{{Cliffhanger}} here]] (or [[SoBadItsGood here]])
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!!Resolved Cliffhangers:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* Even {{anime}} has done season-ending 'hangers, with ''TheBigO'' and ''Zoids Fuzors'', not to mention a cliffhanger of truly staggering size at the end of Season 1 of ''CodeGeass'' (mentioned in detail below).
* The anime ''CodeGeass'' ends its first season on a particularly high CliffHanger: [[spoiler:the rebellion is collapsing, the entire school is being held hostage by a student with a bomb, the AntiHero's identity is revealed to his now bloodthirsty former best friend, and the situation devolves into a rage-filled MexicanStandoff]]... just to fade to black in time for a single gunshot.
** Let's be perfectly honest here. Code Geass has a very, very, VERY nasty habit of leaving cliffhangers at the end of every single episode, at least in the first season. The season is basically a 25-episode cliffhanger, ending with a scene that quite often leaves viewers screaming at the top of their lungs at their screens. This troper can only wait to see how the Adult Swim boards react when that one gets thrown out...
*** It's not nearly a big a deal in the AdultSwim broadcast, as there was only an extra week between the first season finale and the second season premiere (not to mention the second season premiere came with a slightly less [[ScrewedByTheNetwork impossible]] airslot and was viewable on Adult Swim's website before that).
** And then comes the second season, where every. kitten. Episode. Ends with a cliffhanger of cosmic proportions and every second one is a WhamEpisode, to boot.
* Parodied in the first episode of ''[[PrettySammy Magical Project S]]'', which ends with the then-faceless Pixy Misa saying "you'll have to wait until next week to see who I am".
* When ''DNAngel'' was put on a hiatus by its writer, fans were left hanging for two years in which [[RedHeadedHero Daisuke]] was setting off to find his kidnapped love interest, and gets offered by his morally questionable rival for help. Fans were left waiting for ''two years'' until the manga was started up again and the arc was resolved.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Film ]]

* Film does this too, especially when doing the "two films at once" thing. StarWars seems to have started the trend with the ending of "Empire", with Han Solo being captured and the Empire getting back the Death Star plans. Other examples include the endings of the first two BackToTheFuture movies (each ending with a "To Be Continued..." at the end) and the second PiratesOfTheCaribbean film (Jack gets captured/killed and everyone gets ready to go rescue him).
* ''DoctorWho'' was famous for this and did once have a companion (Romana in this case) hanging off a cliff (Episode 1 of "The Stones of Blood" to be exact). In Episode 1 of "Dragonfire", the Doctor himself climbed over a railing for no apparent reason and then dangled from an umbrella making stupid faces.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* Meta-example: The cliffhanger was part of Scherezade's desperate gambit to keep herself from being executed in ''ArabianNights'', as she told the evil king a series of stories for one thousand and one nights, ending each night on a cliffhanger so very enticing that he could not execute her, because then he would not get to hear the ending. Thus, the cliffhanger is OlderThanPrint.
* EdgarRiceBurroughs's ''[[JohnCarterOfMars The Gods of Mars]]'' ended with Dejah Thoris, Thuvia, and Phaidor all trapped in the Temple of the Sun for a year -- and with Phaidor trying to stab Dejah Thoris. John Carter has to live out that year in ignorance.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* ''{{Lost}}'' regularly milks cliffhangers of both types for all they're worth, and ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' is jumping in with both feet too.
* Also a staple of J.J. Abrams' other serial {{Alias}}, as as acknowledged nod to ''The Perils of Pauline''. Almost to the point of annoyance.
* Peril 'hanger: At the end of ''{{Angel}}'' Season Three, Angel is put in box and sunk to the bottom of the ocean and Cordelia [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence becomes a higher being and disappears]]. Huge cliffhanger.
* Every single ''{{Farscape}}'' season ending.
* Revelation 'hanger: When Clark asks Lois to marry him on ''LoisAndClark'' and she says, "Who's asking? Clark or Superman?" This cliffhanger lasted for four months.
**Four months? It was a year in the UK. Frustration ensued, especially as UK viewers are less habituated to cliffhangers...
***Say the people who invented ''{{Doctor Who}}''
* ''TheAdventuresOfBriscoCountyJr'' made regular use of cliffhangers. The early episodes had two cliffhangers (one for each act break). Later episodes had one.
* ''{{Fastlane}}'' has two major characters being taken over by Jay Mohr, and another jabbed with a potentially-fatal overdose of drugs.
* The first season of ''StargateAtlantis'' ended with the city of Atlantis on the verge of another wraith attack, Ford captured by the wraith, Colonel Everett surrounded by them, and Major Sheppard flying a booby-trapped puddle jumper on a suicide mission towards a Wraith Hive-ship.
** The second season ended with several Wraith hive ships headed towards Earth.
** The third season ended with the city stuck in the middle of empty space with limited air and a failed hyperdrive. Even if Jewel Staite was entering the show as Kaylee rather than Doctor Keller, it's a bit tricky to imagine them fixing it.
** Season four ended with the slightly less impressive cliffhanger of an building collapsing on the team.
* Likewise, parent show ''{{Stargate SG-1}}'' ended almost all of its seasons with cliffhangers of varying magnitude, all with the ominous "ToBeContinued..." caption.
* ''{{Dallas}}'' relied on a season ending CliffHanger every year. The most famous was "Who Shot JR?" in 1980, which lasted from March 21st to November 7th.
* ''StarTrek'' has had a CliffHanger in nearly every non-final season since ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'''s Season Three. It's no coincidence that that cliffhanger, "The Best of Both Worlds", is considered to be the best episode of the entire series (and good arguments are made that it's the best episode of the entire ''franchise''. Edith Keeler might disagree, though...)
** This one is particularly interesting in that it cleared the way for cliffhangers, previously a staple for soap operas, to be used in more "serious" TV shows.
** At the time, this cliffhanger had particular punch because it was unknown whether Patrick Stewart would return for future seasons; the writers left the second half open for this reason.
* ''[[TwentyFour 24]]'' typically uses a cliffhanger at the end of each ''episode''. The show also featured a season-ending cliffhanger in the final seconds of season 2, which, irritatingly enough, was subverted when the third season picked up three years later and the cliffhanger had already been resolved.
* The beginning of the new ''DoctorWho'' episode "The Impossible Planet" has a ShoutOut to the Cliff Hangers of the old series. In TheTeaser, the Ood, who look like Lovecraftian horrors, walk toward the Doctor and Rose chanting "We must feed", and the close-ups and spinning camera angles match the old Who's Cliff Hangers perfectly. Naturally, after the titles, the Ood are shown to be perfectly nice and friendly, with their apparent viciousness being a PhlebotinumBreakdown: "We must feed..." -- whacks the translation orb -- "...you, if you are hungry. Do you want refreshments?"
* ''{{ER}}'' does this pretty much every season.
* ''{{CSI}}'' ended its seventh season with Sara Sidle stuck in the middle of the desert (during a rainstorm) and trapped under a car. This was because the SerialKiller had put her there.
** Its eighth ended with Warrick Brown apparently shot dead by the Undersheriff.
* Season 3 of ''{{Babylon 5}}'' ends not only on a cliffhanger, but a cliffjumper as the main character flings himself into a bottomless chasm.
* Season 3 of ''TheSentinel'' ended with one of the main characters having been drowned in a fountain by an evil female Sentinel and a ToBeContinued...at which point the show was cancelled. Fan outrage helped get it {{uncancelled}} for a half-season, long enough to resolve the storyline and come up with a less depressing finale.
* Season One of {{Supernatural}} had demonic possession of John and Dean being tortured and Sam is trying to get them both to the hospital, saying that everything will be fine... and then *WHAM!* a giant truck totals the Impala, leaving all three men bloody and unconscious.
**This was nothing compared to season 3. [[spoiler:Where Dean dies and the last shot is of him in Hell]].
* EVERY season finale of {{One Tree Hill}}.
* ''ThirdWatch'' had Cliff Hangers after its third, fourth and fifth seasons - the latter two both involving Bosco, Faith, Cruz, and a shooting.
* Even sitcoms aren't immune - most of ''{{Frasier}}'''s season finales ended on a cliffhanger - the biggest one being the end of Season 7, where Niles and Daphne finally got together.
**Even the GrandFinale ended on a minor cliffhanger. The only seasons not to end with one were 1, 2, 3 and 6.
* ''{{Smallville}}''. Every single season of Smallville.
* The first and fourth seasons of ''TheWestWing'' end on extremely tense cliffhangers.
** The second season ''doesn't'', if you've been paying any sort of attention, but many viewers apparently missed the cues.
* [[EastEnders "You aint my muvva!" "Yes I am!!" Dun Dun dundundundun...]]
* In an unusual move, the second season of the light-hearted ''BigWolfOnCampus'' ended with one of the main characters [[TakenForGranite a stone statue]] after making a HeroicSacrifice for his best friend. All the more dramatic because the show nearly didn't come back for a third season, but fortunately it was renewed and he was saved.
* An intentional (I think) cliffhanger, or at least the show wasn't unexpectedly cancelled;
*''{{Green Wing}}'' - both series end with a number of major characters in an ambulance, literally teetering half-on and half-off the edge of a cliff. The first one is resolved in the second series, the second is (sort-of) dealt with in a one-off special episode.
* The third season of ''DesperateHousewives'' concluded with Edie Britt's apparent suicide after Carlos dumped her. The fourth season premiere revealed that she had actually faked her suicide in order to win Carlos back.
* ''{{JAG}}'' had several cliffhangers. The first season ended [[spoiler: with Harm being arrested for murder]], though same episode was a MissingEpisode and later adapted, thus bordering on CanonDiscontinuity. The third season ended [[spoiler: with Harm and Mac about to be shot down in a Russian jet while looking for Harm's father]]. The sixth ended with [[spoiler: Harm lost at sea, having ejected from his F-14 trying to get back in time to catch Mac's wedding]]. The seventh ends with [[spoiler: Bud stepping on a landmine while trying to prevent an Afghan boy from doing likewise]]. The eighth ended with [[spoiler: Harm leaving JAG to save Mac and Webb against orders]]. The ninth ends with [[spoiler: Webb apparently killed and the Admiral's retirement]]. The series itself ends with something like a cliffhanger, [[spoiler: leaving the audience wondering if either Harm or Mac will retire after they decide to marry and whether they'll end up in London or San Diego afterwards]].
* GreysAnatomy's fifth season ended with a cliffhanger. [[spoiler:Either Izzie or George]] might be headed for the big OR in the sky. [[spoiler:Or both.]]
* An early British example was the TV spy series ''Callan'', whose second season ended with an episode where Callan was kidnapped and brainwashed into believing that Hunter, the head of his section, was an enemy agent. Callan kills Hunter and is himself shot; the episode and season ended with him mortally wounded and gasping to Meres, a fellow agent, "Toby, old man... I've been had!" The next season dealt with Callan's recovery and return to operations while being treated with ''extreme'' caution by his superiors.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* In GoldenSun, you have only managed to climb up one of the four [[CosmicKeystone Elemental Lighthouses]] when you reach the final Dungeon, Venus Lighthouse. If you haven't been reading a guide (or spoiled by this example) you'd assume you were halfway through the game. To be fair, the game does provide some hints, the InfinityPlusOneSword is contained inside, and the music does lend the tower a tone of TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon. But once you reach the top, the game throws both the main antagonists of the story at you, you beat them, then they combine and throw the FinalBoss at you. Once you beat that, the game just ends. The missing friends are still missing, the party travels off to parts unknown, and the credits roll. Quite an impressive feat, making a very big cliffhanger that wasn't resolved for a few years when the second game came out.
* A (particularly frustrating) example with {{Halo}} 2: Cortana in the clutches of the Gravemind. Miranda, Arbiter and Johnson stuck on Delta Halo. Master Chief emerging from slipspace, stowed away on an enemy ship, to find Earth's defenses about to be overwhelmed by the Covenant fleet. Roll credits with nothing more than a heroic one-liner. Only partially resolved with Halo 3 - We see Master Chief ariving on earth, but we don't see how Arbiter and co get back. How MC actually got off the enemy ship is explored in a spin-off comic series, and Cortans's fate is a plot-point for the rest of the game.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

* Parody: ''TerrorIsland'' [[http://terrorisland.net/strips/099.html theorem 099]] ends with a caption saying "Cliffhanger!" but it was resolved in two days, which is the usual time between strips.
* Whether on purpose or not, {{Misfile}}'s weekend breaks usualy fall just as it seems some new tidbit of plot information will be revealed or that something exiting will happen. Fans of the comic have taken to calling them "Chrishangers," after the artist.
* The author of the webcomic ''Sequential Art'' recently managed to pick the most irritating part to his break with the comic.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Original ]]

* Spoofed on ''HomestarRunner'' in the Strong Bad Email "cliffhangers", where Strong Bad is asked by a fan to "Resolve all the cliffhangers, please". After showing three mock cliffhangers, the email ends on an actual cliffhanger when Strong Bad's Lappy 486 computer gets stolen.
* The online novel ''TheSagaOfTuck'' has (for now) 142 chapters, each almost always ending on a cliff hanger.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* Subverted in the ''SouthPark'' episode "Professor Chaos", which appears to end on a cliffhanger: "Will Professor Chaos' latest plot succeed and be the final undoing of Earth? And which boy has been chosen as the replacement for Kenny? And which of these South Park residents was killed and will never be seen again?" Right before the episode ends, all these questions are answered (with "No", "Tweek", and "Ms. Choksondik").
** ''SouthPark'' also squeezed the concept for all the humor and frustration they could in the "Who is Eric Cartman's Father" two-parter, "Cartman's Mom Is a Dirty Slut" and "Cartman's Mom is Still a Dirty Slut". They teased the fans mercilessly by splitting the two episodes up with an unrelated full-length ''Terrance and Phillip'' story.
*''[[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' (2003) its fond of the season-ending cliffhanger: three of its seven (As of 2008) seasons (1,2,4) end this way. Season 4's cliffhanger is notable for being in danger of never being properly resolved, since for never-quite-adequately-explained reasons, the people behind the show decided to skip season 5 and go from season 4 to season 6 without explanation, ignoring the cliffhanger. After several delays, the "Lost Season", as it came to be called, began airing on February 2008--a year and a half later than it would have, had it aired normally.
* Happens in ''TheSimpsons'': Who shot Mr. Burns? Obvious homage/parody of Dallas.
** Also spoofed by the show on a number of occasions. At the end of one Holloween episode, the last few seconds reveal a surprise ending where Mr. Burns' head has been grafted unto Homer's body. The episode ends with a (fake) cliffhanger and a teaser for next week's episode, where Homer is denied a free spaghetti dinner because Mr. Burns has plans to meet with the queen of Holland that night. Of course, it's all a spoof and the next ''real'' episode has everything back to normal.
* ''BeastWars'' tended to pull out the stops at the end of a season. According to the writers, they were never sure if there was going to be another season, so they wanted each cliffhanger to possibly be the end of ''everything''.
* ''[[SonicTheHedgehog Sonic Chronicles]]'' ends with a major cliffhanger. After getting brutally smacked down by Super Sonic, Imperator Ix commands the wormhole connecting Sonic's world with the Twilight Cage to close before he disappears. The whole team rushes right on out to the Cyclone to jet and get the hell out of dodge before they find themselves trapped for all eternity. And lest you not forget how the flow of time differs in the Twilight Cage with how Ix could still be alive after four thousand years, take a moment to remember [[MadScientist who stayed behind before you crossed dimensions]] [[BigBad and what he could possibly do with all that time...]]
** How's [[spoiler: ''Sonic Chronicles: Eggman's Revenge'']] for a sequel title?
*** I perfer [[spoiler: ''Sonic Chronicles: The Eggman Empire'']].

!!Unresolved Cliffhangers:

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Anime ]]

* [[{{X1999}} Is Kamui]] [[OurHeroIsDead really dead?]] No one but {{CLAMP}} knows, since the series has been [[TooSoon on hiatus since 2003.]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Film ]]

* And let's not forget the movie ''TheItalianJob'' (the original version) which ends with a literal cliffhanger that will never be resolved.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* Anthony Horowitz must have really wanted to piss his readers off when he was planning out the fourth book of ''ThePowerOfFive'' series, where in the end [[spoiler: Scarlett gets shot and it is revealed to the reader that all five gatekeepers, who need to stay together in order to defeat the Old Ones, are going to be separated by even greater distances than before.]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* ''{{Soap}}'''s final ep ended on ''four'' cliffhangers. It is yet unknown whether the South American guerilla militia firing squad Jessica ended the episode in front of were [[BolivianArmyEnding Bolivian]].
* {{Red Dwarf}} ends with the titular ship being devoured by a genetically enhanced virus while most of the crew evacuates, and the main characters escape to a mirror universe. Except for Rimmer, who finds himself facing the Grim Reaper in the rapidly disintegrating ship. He knees Death in the groin, announces that "Only the good die young" and runs of. The series ends with the screen saying "The End? The smeg it is!". A movie has been in development hell for nine years now, and fans have been waiting that long to find out what will happen next.
** We just (sort of) found out. It wasn't worth the wait. Be careful what you wish for ...
* Usually, fans become quite irate when cancellation leads to a series ending on a CliffHanger, but for some reason, when ''{{Farscape}}'' ended this way, the fans took this as a bold statement by the makers, refusing to give in to the SciFi Channel's decision to cancel the show. Only a few people were annoyed that, given plenty of warning and knowing how unsatisfying such an ending would be, they didn't opt for a more graceful ending. On the up side, that season's main storylines were already resolved, with the last few minutes used to set up a ''new'' bit of drama for the cliffhanger. And we ''were'' eventually rewarded with a GrandFinale miniseries.
** Plenty of warning? They'd already ''filmed'' the finale, and were working on pickups for other episodes when they found out. So much for a two-season pickup…
* The series finale for ''{{Stroker and Hoop}}'' ended with the titular duo (Plus their friend "Double Wide") being dropped from a magnetic crane and over a giant cliff. Guess we're supposed to assume that they died.
** A source states that Stroker and Hoop [[spoiler: are killed in the fall and go to Hell. Coroner Rick and Double Wide have to die and get them out of hell. Supposedly, they do]]
* The final episode of ''Alf'' ended with the title character preparing to return to his home planet, only to have him and his host family surrounded by government agents. This cliffhanger would be resolved in TheMovie, ''Project ALF''.
* ''{{Invasion}}'' partially avoided this by wrapping up most of the series's plots in the last couple of episode, but still managed to end on a minor cliffhanger.
* ''{{Surface}}'' ended with the sea levels rising and the world now apparently dominated by monsters, with most of the issues raised in the series (such as who created the monsters and why) still unresolved.
* ''Cleopatra 2525'' ended with three interconnected cliffhangers and two [[TheReveal Reveals]].
* ''JoanOfArcadia'' was canceled in the episode where the series' {{Satan}} equivalent was introduced, gaining control of everything and everyone in Joan's life and poised to ruin it all.
* Another revelation 'hanger: What turned out to be ''JohnDoe'''s final episode revealed William Forsythe's character to be one of the bad guys.
* [[TwinPeaks "How's Annie? How's Annie? How's Annie?"]]
* {{Popular}}: We don't find out who Harrison chose, but more importantly the episode ends with Nicole gunning her car at Brooke, Brooke screaming as the headlights bear down on her, a fade to black, and the sound of sirens. Then the series wasn't renewed for the third season like TPTB said it would.
* The first [[CutShort and only]] season of ''CaptainPowerAndTheSoldiersOfTheFuture'' ended with the death of a major character, the destruction of the good guys' home, and the remaining heroes stranded in the wilderness with a damaged ship.
* The 2002 sci-fi series ''Odyssey 5'' ends with astronaut Angela Perry abducted by the [=AI's=] and scientist Kurt Mendel being arrested on suspicion of killing her. Plus the mysterious Cabal, which the team assume have something to do with the [=AI's=] and the impending destruction of the Earth, turn out to be a government force trying to ''stop'' the [=AI's=] and who believe that the Odyssey 5 team are the traitors.
*DarkAngel ended with a huge CliffHanger. The world just got aware of the Transgenics, who were claimng their own part of the town and got under siege by the police.
* ''MissionImpossible'' used this ''constantly'' in {{Act Break}}s.
* The third series of ''{{Primeval}}'' ended with [[spoiler: Danny trapped in the Pliocene, Connor and Abby trapped in the Cretaceous, and Sarah coming up with an unknown idea to sort things out.]] And then ITV announced there wouldn't be a fourth series. There is talk of a movie, however.
** It's been renewed for a fourth and fifth season, so looks like Connor and Abby will finally get out of that tree.
* The final episode of the fifth season of ''LasVegas'' ended with Cooper's plane having crashed with him onboard, and Danny & Delinda changing their wedding to a memorial service for him. After the musician plays a sad song, Cooper suddenly appears at the back, clapping, and Delinda goes into labor. The End.
* In the last episode of the first season of ''Sledge Hammer!'', the title character accidentally triggers a nuclear explosion in the middle of the city. DaChief can be heard screaming "Hammer!" as "To Be Continued Next Season?" appears on screen. The second season begins with a HandWave explanation that the following episode(s) occurs five years before the explosion (regardless of the fact that Sledge met his partner for the first time at the beginning of the series).

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* The end of TheTowerOfDruaga: The Aegis of Uruk has [[spoiler:Neeba and Kaaya]] abandoning their parties to [[spoiler:climb up the heretofore unknown upper half of the tower]]. Even after the second season has started, no one knows what's going on with them and some of those left behind.
* In the PS2 Game "Haven: Call of the King," the endgame is as follows:[[spoiler: The eponymous protagonist is chained to a wall with no way out and left to die of starvation/thirst. The "Great King" who Haven spent most of the game trying to signal so he would return and save his people is dead, poisoned by the evil alien overlord Vetch--who has escaped after the final battle, presumably to go wreak further havoc on Haven's people.]] Even getting {{Hundred Percent Completion}} doesn't help: the game adds a teaser screen for the sequel, suggesting things would carry on from there without actually giving any idea of how other than saying that [[spoiler: the king was definitely, finally, totally dead]]. Then the sequel was never made due to poor sales.
* ''WingCommander II'' ended with [[TheDragon Prince Thrakhath]] bragging to the [[MegaNeko Kilrathi]] Emperor about the utter destruction of the Confederation's 6th fleet in Deneb Sector, with the last words on the screen being "To be continued in Wing Commander III". While there ''was'' a [=WC3=], not only did it have nothing to say about the fate of the Deneb Sector, but it seemed to be going out of its way to pretend the previous games didn't exist save for the main character.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Original ]]

* SpaceBoyfriend ends in quite the famous one. [[spoiler:Ben finally confesses his love to Veronica,]] and the series was canceled before she could respond.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

*''SuperRobotMonkeyTeamHyperforceGo'' ended on a huge cliffhanger at the beginning of what would have been the main climax of the series. One more season of the show was intended, but Disney decided not to go for it, so everybody was left at the beginning of the final battle. As you might imagine, the fans were not amused.
* ''{{Duckman}}'' ended with three characters -- Duckman included -- getting hitched, and [[spoiler:his late wife Beatrice suddenly appearing alive and well at the end]]. Writer Michael Markowitz seems unwilling to divulge the ending, leaving it up to the fans to guess what may have happened.
* ''GetEd'' ends with [[spoiler: [[CoolOldGuy Ol' Skool]] trapped in The Machine with [[BigBad Bedlam]], and "sent away" by Ed.]] The series was not picked up for a second season.
* The second season of ''Series/SonicTheHedgehog'' (the Saturday morning version) ended with Snively emerging from the elevator he hid in, proclaiming that, now with [[BigBad Robotnik]] seemingly out of the picture, ''he'' would soon wreak havoc on the Freedom Fighters, accompanied by his new partner who we only see here as a pair of glowing red eyes (WordOfGod later stated those eyes to belong to [[spoiler:Ixis Naugus]]). Next September, though, the third season did not show up.
* ''ReBoot'' season 4 ended with the main characters trapped in the Principal Office, which had been taken over by the returned, upgraded Megabyte, who infected Phong and Welman and captured Enzo. It does not appear that there will ever be a resolution, not helped by the death of Tony Jay, the voice of Megabyte.
** An official online comic is currently showing some of the story, while a film is planned for eith 2009/2010.
* The very last shot of another Mainframe production, ''War Planets: ShadowRaiders'', had the [[PlanetEater Beast]] looming over the helpless Planet Reptizar as it began to devour it.
* The children's show ''{{Between the Lions}}'' has a segment called Cliff Hanger, which stars the cartoon protagonist of that name. At the beginning of each segment, the announcer always says "We find Cliff Hanger where we found him last... hanging from a cliff!" And of course, by the end of each segment he's always right back where he started.
** Cant...hold...on...much...LONGER!!! (And that's why he's called Cliff Hanger.)
*In ''DannyPhantom'''s season 3, Valerie found out that [[spoiler:her employer is half-ghost and that Dani is half-human]], but after that episode, nothing was ever heard of this ever again. In fact, Valerie practically fell off the face of the earth for the much of that season.
**Long story short: ExecutiveMeddling.
**Though this subplot didn't get resolved, the show itself did have a proper finale (which is more than most Nickelodeon shows get) so this is more a case of {{what happened to the mouse}}.
* We never do learn where Zuko's mother Ursa is at the end of ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'' despite Zuko confronting his father Ozai about it .
** {{Word of God}} preferred it.
* ''{{Undergrads}}'' ends with the love triangle between the main character and his two closest female friends ''still'' unresolved.

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