The credits are rolling! Wasn't that a great show? Let's all reflect on the great moments we just watched. ...Ah, here they come now! And they brought a stirring, victorious musical track, too!
In short: The credit sequences of TV shows, movies or video games include a
montage of stills or clips from earlier in the show. In some works, this sequence is animated or drawn in a different style, making it an
Animated Credits Opening at the end of the show. It's similar to a
Title Montage, but the clips or stills tend to be longer and more representative of the complete plot, rather than (as in a Title Montage) brief clips showing off the characters and scenery.
May be related to the
Photo Montage, which is frequently one of these. Shows that have gone into syndication have these added when the original broadcaster play the credits in a
Credits Pushback.
Doesn't count if the events depicted happen after the ending — that is, as an epilogue. (For instance, the credits of
WALL-E.)
Some shows have
Hilarious Outtakes during their credits instead of a montage.
Compare the musical counterpart, the
Credits Medley. Contrast
Creative Closing Credits.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- The shortened versions of the credits that are shown in the broadcast English dubs of Bleach and Naruto tend to be this, showing various screenshots from the current season. In Bleach's case, a shortened version of the ending theme plays.
- Fruits Basket
- Fushigi Yuugi features this alongside a montage of promotional artworks or those taken from the manga. Even Nuriko's death episode has one for him.
- Some anime combine this with On The Next by having clips from the episode you just saw play, followed by clips from the next episode, in the Ending Theme:
- The second ending sequence in Kirby of the Stars uses previous clips from throughout the series.
- Episode 63 of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood has a special end credits sequence highlighting the life of Hohenheim, using clips from throughout the show itself, including previous opening/ending sequences.
- Arashino Yoru Ni
- Kazemakase Tsukikage Ran
- Persona 4: The Animation has this at the end of episode 1.
Film
Live Action TV
- Many programs of T.A.T. Communications Co. (later Embassy Productions) — among them, but not limited to Diff'rent Strokes, The Facts of Life and One Day At A Time — used montages. Diff'rent Strokes froze its shots for most of its seasons, while The Facts of Life and One Day at a Time used clips that usually lasted 5-10 seconds each.
- Each episode of the Cirque Du Soleil variety series Solstrom featured a montage covering most of the acts in the episode. Each act got text offering interesting details on the performer(s)/acts who weren't imported from Cirque's live shows, and the name of the specific show for those who were.
- All That
- Ship To Shore
- The compilation episodes of Whose Line Is It Anyway? UK.
- Scrubs (At least up to season 7) had stills from the episode that just aired during the credits sequence. However, most of these stills were from events that that little to do with the episode's plot, such as JD's daydreams.
- The A-Team would show a funny or action-filled clip from the episode, and then freeze it at the most hilarious or climactic moment and a section of the credits would appear. Lather, rinse, repeat.
- See also: most other series from Stephen J Cannell Productions in the 1980s. (It was not uncommon for them to last over a minute, unusual for TV at the time... and even today.)
- The final episode of The Shield ends with a very moving nostalgic montage of both happy and sad events from earlier in the series.
- With Billy's departure in Power Rangers Zeo, we got a montage of Billy scenes going back to day one over the credits instead of the then-usual Hilarious Outtakes.
- Star Trek: The Original Series did this with a slight twist: Some of the stills shown during the closing credits were from entirely different episodes, usually ending with a particularly iconic image (the Green-Skinned Space Babe or the giant-headed alien puppet Balok).
- The final episode of Babylon 5 end credits featured the first and last images of the regular cast in order of internal chronology.
Video Games
- Cave Story does it in reverse chronological order — and it's a bit longer if you beat the Bonus Boss.
- Drill Dozer
- EarthBound actually justifies this trope as a Photo Montage.
- Kirby's Adventure features Attract Mode-style battles with each of the non-final bosses within its credits.
- Kirby Super Star Ultra (that is, the DS port of the SNES game.)
- MOTHER 3
- Okami had one, but it was sadly cut out of the Wii version.
- RPG Maker lets you make your own Credits Montage by putting a "snapshot" event in your game, which records the image and later shows it during the credits.
- Sonic Heroes - After clearing a team's story mode, the FMVs from their story play silently during the credits.
- Super Smash Bros. Brawl
- The Legend Of Zelda The Minish Cap
- Wario Land 4, when you get all of the treasures.
- You Have To Burn The Rope
- Super Paper Mario
- Luigis Mansion
- Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Galaxy. Sunshine is not quite this trope as it has holiday photos of the stages instead.
- New Super Mario Bros has this as well. It's an Evolving Credits Montage, as each time you beat more levels that you originally skipped and then go back to beat the game again, more levels get added to the ending with the word "NEW!" put on the picture.
- Persona 3 used clips from the animated story events. Could very well be a case of My Life Flashed Before My Eyes.
- Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box had one.
- Mario & Luigi: Partners In Time.
- Every game in the Kingdom Hearts series has one of these.
- ''The King of Dragons' credits shows all the bosses the player fought in the game.
- Final Fantasy IX, although the last sequence widens to show parts not included in the original shot.
- Chrono Cross, in black and white, with extra clips at the end.
- Wild ARMs 3.
- Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost And The Damned has one of these showing how Niko and Johnny's stories intersect.
- Heavy Rain
- Both Ouendan games and Elite Beat Agents have stylized black-and-white versions of the good endings for some of the levels.
- Dubloon
- Pickory
- Super Mario Bros 3.
- Mad Father: All of the CG graphic cutscenes shown throughout the game appear over the credits, from Monika's portrait, straight through to the eponymous man himself gone mad. Also counts as a Photo Montage.
Western Animation
