When a visual work (movie, TV episode, video game, etc.) ends with a group picture of the main cast, especially if it's an ensemble. For the authors, it provides a perfect way to capture the entire ensemble dynamics in a single frame—one that is guaranteed to stick in the audience's memory.
If the actual picture taking is replaced with a simple freeze frame, it is Freeze-Frame Ending.
Also, hilarity will often ensue, as some of the cast can miss the mark and look the wrong way, say a Funny Photo Phrase, or even intentionally prank each other. May be followed up by Photo Montage or Photo Memento in the Closing Credits.
Compare Crowded-Cast Shot.
As this is an Ending Trope, unmarked spoilers abound. Beware.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Azumanga Daioh ends with a very plain picture of the girls walking happily together when they all graduate.
- The ending of Fullmetal Alchemist has this except it's a future photo of the characters years after the Final Battle. With added Babies Ever After!
- The final panel of Great Teacher Onizuka's last chapter is a group shot of Onizuka, his students, and Fuyutsuki.
- Lady Jewelpet ends with a picture of everyone who studied/taught at the Jewel Palace.
- Both the original last chapter of the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS manga and the bonus chapter released one and a half years later end with a group shot of the Riot Force 6 Forwards and their mentors. The movie adaptation of the first season also ended with a with a closeup of a photo on Nanoha's desk from right after she and Fate exchanged hair ribbons.
- One of the endings of One Piece ends this way, with the Straw Hats posing for a group picture, only for the camera to fall during the shooting, messing up the photo.
- Patlabor: The final episode of The Mobile Police/New Files continuity ends with a group shot of the members of SVU's 2nd division
, along with Shinobu Nagumo, the 1st division's captain.
- Pokémon: The Series:
- Pokémon: The Original Series:
- Subverted at the end of "The Battling Eevee Brothers". Psyduck sets up a camera for a group photo of all the episode's characters, then trips trying to get into place when the timer goes off. At least that's the way the episode ends for the heroes; the actual last scene is of Team Rocket lamenting the failure of their latest scheme.
- Played straight at the end of "Pokemon Paparazzi" where Ash, Misty and Brock pose for a photo with Todd to close the episode.
- Pokémon the Series: Black & White closes with a picture of Ash and all of the Pokémon he has under his care bunched together in one frame.
- Pokémon: The Original Series:
- Rave Master ends with a picture of Haru and Ellie's wedding.
- It's not part of the series proper, but the post-series Picture Drama of Code Geass ends with this image◊ of an expanded student council group, as if they could all be together.
- Inverted in Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, where the opening has Kobayashi, Tohru, and Kanna taking a selfie, only for the supporting cast to photobomb them.
- Chapter 101 (and -by extension- volume 10) of Kaguya-sama: Love Is War ends with the student council taking a group photo with Kaguya's new cell phone. This very same photo was also shown in the final shot of season 2 in the anime.
- Boarding School Juliet ends with a single page full of a collage of pictures celebrating its Official Couple's wedding. The central photo manages to squeeze in practically the entire named cast.
- The 4th OVA of GTO: The Early Years ends with the Oni-Baku having a party on the beach with all their friends. The 2020 Live-Action Adaptation also ends with this, and the characters take a group photo. The final chapter of the manga doesn't do this, but the final manga volume (the original, not the omnibus edition) has over 75 characters on the cover.
- Episode 125 of Tamagotchi ends with Lovepapatchi tripping at the moment the camera goes off for a group picture of him and his wife Lovemamatchi with Mametchi and his gang, intended for Lovepapatchi and Lovemamatchi's wedding anniversary.
Asian Animation
- Happy Heroes: Season 3 episode 29 ends with Doctor H. taking a group picture of Careful S.'s duplicates.
- The song at the end of Pleasant Goat Fun Class: The Earth Carnival episode 6 ends with Tibbie using her selfie stick to take a picture of her and everybody else.
Fan Works
- Turnabout Storm ends with the reveal of the memento picture of Phoenix, the mane 6, Spike, and Trixie striking the finger/hoof pointing Objection! pose.
- Once Upon a Studio: Version 2.0 is an extended cut of Disney's centenary short, which shows an even more epic rendition of When You Wish Upon a Star started up by Cinderella and Rapunzel, building to an even bigger climax than the existing short. This new group photo now features cameos from the ghost of Mufasa, along with Yo-Yo Flamingo and Spring Sprite from Fantasia 2000. And standing inbetween Cinderella and Moana is her father, Chief Tui (voiced once again by Temuera Morrison).
- This version also sees everyone singing the final verse in its entirety as a unified chorus, before Cinderella and the Prince gently sing the first line of their signature tune "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes" to the audience, with Rapunzel and Eugene singing the first line of the chorus to "I See The Light", and Aladdin and Jasmine doing the same for a "A Whole New World", before the camera zooms out to the familiar finale shot, as everyone sings the line "Your dreams come true!", and Tinkerbell finally creates the photo
- Protectors of the Plot Continuum: The two-part mission "Girls' Night Out", one of the rare few instances of a mission with illustrations, ends with one of these.
- The Perfect Cherry Blossom Project by Rainbowsandra ends with this trope as Reimu, Marisa, and Sakuya takes a photo to end the video with Youmu and Yuyuko, before the credits roll.
Film - Animated
- Cars 3 ends as Lightning and Cruz get their photo taken, which hangs on the wall of Doc's garage next to Lightning and Doc racing in the same exact poses (but with their positions switched so it's mentor on left, student on right), showing how the legacy has repeated.
- Encanto: The last scene of the movie is the Madrigals taking another family photo for their newly rebuilt Casita, this time including Mirabel and Bruno.
- The new magical image on the front door includes not only Mirabel this time, but also Felix and Augustin, who both deserve such an honor but neither expected it.
- This is the endgame of Disney's Once Upon a Studio, which shows all the characters singing the final line of When You Wish Upon a Star, as the photo in question is taken.
- Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: Dunk for Future ends with the Team Defenders members taking a picture with each other.
- The Tigger Movie ends this way, with the photo having been placed in a locket that then closes up.
- Turning Red ends on a picture of Meilin in her red panda form, surrounded by her family, friends and 4*TOWN.
Film - Live Action
- The final scene in About Alex begins with a group shot (including the dog) as all the friends separate after the life changing weekend, before flashing back to their first meeting with Alex in college.
- The final shot of 1990's Street Fighter ends with most of the characters taking a pose vaguely resembling the ones they take in Street Fighter II.
- Lethal Weapon 4 ends with the main cast getting a picture taken to celebrate the birth of Lorna's baby. The credits showcase a 'scrap book' of pictures with the whole cast and crew, either in groups or taken during production (to the tune of "Why Can't We Be Friends?").
- The prologue of Hellboy closes on a photo of Hellboy with Dr. Broom and the US Army platoon which found him, which then segues into the opening credits sequence.
- Animal House ends with a still of the Delta gang as the credits roll.
- Cold Enough For Snow ends in this way, with the two families side by side.
- Speed Racer shows a picture of the Racer family in the trophy ceremony after the Grand Prix, as well as pictures of Taejo and Royalton, as parts of newspaper and magazine headlines which describe the end of the story (the rejoice of the Racers, the testification of Taejo, which leads to Royalton being sent to jail).
- Lemonade Joe ends with the main characters posing for a wedding photo in front of a stagecoach. Then they are seen Riding into the Sunset.
- Cool Runnings ends with a team photo being taken and hung, finding a place of honor above a photo of the coach with the team captain/driver's father.
- Midnight: At the beginning of the film, Kyung-mi and her mother were talking about taking a trip to Jeju Island. At the end, following a very long evening being chased by a Serial Killer and presumably after everyone's recovered from their injuries, Kyung-mi, her mom, and their new friends Jong-tak and Seo-jung, are vacationing on Jeju Island together. The film ends with another tourist snapping a group photo of the four of them.
Live-Action TV
- The Brittas Empire episode "High Noon" ends with the staff getting a photo taken in front of the destroyed leisure centre.
- The last scene with dialog in Six Feet Under is of the cast getting a group photo. Then, however, there's a montage that flashes through decades, and the absolute last scene lingers on several other photos.
- The miniseries version of Jane Eyre (2006) ends up with her family sitting outside of their house, being painted for a family portrait.
- The final scene of Reba is a group picture of the family, followed by the wedding group photo from the very first episode being shown to show how much everyone has grown and developed since the beginning of the series.
- Tokyo Trial: The series ends with all the judges in the war crimes trial taking a group picture, which cuts to the Real Life group picture the judges took.
- Ultraman Tiga concludes the series with its final shot being a group photo of the GUTS crew, with the credits running over a still of the photo in some versions. Said photo shows up later in the movie, Ultraman Tiga and Ultraman Dyna: Warriors of the Star of Light, as a Call-Back.
- Walker, Texas Ranger ended with a photo of the main cast, along with the caption/narration "Until We Meet Again".
Video Games
- Call of Duty:
- The original Modern Warfare showed a group picture of Lt. Vasquez, Gaz, Capt. Price, and Sgt. Griggs after the Closing Credits, even though all four of them have never been in the same spot in the game and only Price survived it.
- Modern Warfare 2 shows a group photo of Task Force 141 and the U.S. Army Rangers after the credits.
- After the final battle in Dicey Dungeons, the Final Boss calls the dice over for a group picture together before releasing them from the dungeons.
- Subverted example: after the fourth game in the Five Nights at Freddy's series was released, Scott Cawthon posted an image of every animatronic in the seriesnote on his website with "Thank You!" printed on it. Then it eventually morphed into an advertisement for the spin-off Five Nights at Freddy's World, with Scott continuing to develop new installments before finally retiring in the middle of Security Breach's development.
- At the end of the fourth installment of Gardens Inc, the protagonists' family and closest friends gather in Jill's hospital room after she's given birth, and the game briefly illustrates the group standing together to welcome the new arrival.
- Ghost Trick ends with a portrait of a lone Sissel on top of a group picture of the other main characters. Sissel jumps down the portait into the picture, symbolizing him joining his new family.
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: The Champions' Ballad DLC ends with a memory of the Champions taking a group photo with the Sheikah Slate (complete with Daruk pulling everyone into a bear hug at the last second). Link receives a copy of the photo afterwards and can hang it up on the wall in his house at Hateno Village (provided he bought all the upgrades).
- Used in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team. Version 1 is seen after the ending montage and shows all friendly characters having their photo taken, Version 2 is seen after beating Hard Mode and has every character and boss in the game in a much bigger group photo.
- Mario Party Superstars: Once the final results of a board have been announced, the players are given a photograph of all the participating characters around the board. The character crowned Super Star will be front and center, celebrating their victory, while the other three will be doing different things in the background, with the character that came in last place typically getting humiliated in some fashion.
- The Mass Effect 3 DLC campaign "Citadel" ends with a group photo of Shepard and whatever former and current squadmates and notable Normandy crew are still alive. This photo then stays projected onto the wall of Shepard's new apartment. In a meta way, it also serves as the ending to the entire Shepard trilogy, as "Citadel" was the final piece of content produced for it (though chronologically, it comes before the game's ending).
- Mega Man (Classic) has had two so far.
- Mega Man 4 ends with Mega Man returning home by standing on top of a train. When he reaches home, he jumps off of the train as Roll and Rush run up to greet him as the screen freezes and turns sepia as though it was just photographed.
- Mega Man 7 ends with Mega Man returning to the Big Eddie. Once inside he poses along with all of his friends for a picture which is taken in sepia tones.
- The end credits for Miitopia end with the protagonist and their nine teammates getting their picture taken by the Roving Photographer. In the Nintendo Switch version, the team's horse also appears in the photo with the protagonist riding them if it was taken to the final battle.
- The Golden Ending of Need for Speed (2015) has the Player Character greeted with every one of their friends as well as the five Icons having a photo with the them (who wears a mask)
- In the Persona series:
- The Persona 3 characters did this after defeating the 12th Shadow. Subverted however, since they quickly found out that their task was not over.
- Played Straight in the ending of Persona 4, which has the Protagonist leaving Inaba sitting in a train, looking at the photo of the whole group.
- The Persona 4: Golden Vita Updated Re-release of the original game adds in a "Golden Ending" epilogue (if the player meets certain criteria) which ends with another photo being taken (which shows the cast a year after the original ending, with new appearances which reflect their Character Development as well as Marie getting added to the group).
- In Persona 5, the ending of Royal in which you submit to Maruki's reality features a group photo of the cast once Makoto and Haru graduate.
- The True Pacfist ending of Undertale is one if you chose to leave the underground. However, if you have completed Genocide Run before, the group photo would have everyone crossed out by you, implying Chara has taken over you and murdered everyone else, this cannot be undone.
Visual Novels
- Ace Attorney:
- Case 1-4 (originally the ending of the first game before the Updated Re-release) ends with the reveal of the picture taken by Lotta Hart of Phoenix and his friends celebrating their victory. Turns out the ghost of Mia Fey decided to celebrate with them.
- Trials and Tribulations has a variation in its final case, where, rather than a picture, a notebook with a drawing of the main cast is used to the same effect. In a bittersweet turn, the other page has another group picture of three main/important characters who lost their life.
- Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth ends with an unsanctioned group photo.
- Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney ends similarly to Trials and Tribulations with a drawing of Apollo, Trucy, and her puppet Mr. Hat done by Vera Misham, the defendant of the final case.
- Both games in The Great Ace Attorney Duology end with a "family photo." The first features Ryunosuke, Susato, Sholmes, and Iris and the second features the aforementioned characters along with Kazuma.
- C14 Dating: If Melissa becomes good enough friends with all five love interests, the class will end with her getting a photo consisting of herself, Deandre, Kyler, Hendrik, Shoji (the four advertized love interests), Joan (the semi-secret Gay Option), Chantal (Joan's Best Friend who also befriends Melissa) and Rosemarie (Hendrik's Like Brother and Sister who just liked the idea of doing the photo).
- At the end of their celebration in Daughter for Dessert, the protagonist and the girls take a group photo.
- Double Homework has one, not to the story, but to the summer in-universe. The summer school class, Tamara, Henry, and Ms. Walsh all take a group photo to remember each other by.
Webcomics
- The first story arc of The Order of the Stick ends with five of the six members striking a victory pose as though they're about to have their photo taken. Belkar enters the scene and asks them what they're doing, then joins the pose when Haley tells him.
Web Animation
- In Inanimate Insanity Season 3 Episode 3, Snapshot Showdown, The episode ends with Mephone taking a group photo with Nickel, Balloon, and Tea Kettle. This is a follow up to when Bot asks him to take a silly photo with them earlier in the episode.
Western Animation
- The Finale Credits for Amphibia ends with a group photo of Anne, Sasha, and Marcy which was taken ten years after their adventures in Amphibia.
- In Avatar: The Last Airbender, the villains' Beach Episode ends with a photo of Azula and friends smiling for the camera as the beach house goes down in flames.
- An episode of Goof Troop ends with a two-family picture at a barbecue. No one notices before the shot, but the kicked-aside grill has set the house on fire.
- The King of the Hill episode "Lucky See, Monkey Do" ends with a photo of the Hills celebrating the arrival of Lucky and Luanne's new baby.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
- "Twilight's Kingdom - Part 2" ends with the mane cast posing for a photo in the new Castle of Friendship, in honor of Twilight Sparkle's newly established role as the Princess of Friendship.
- "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" ends exactly the same way as the opening ends, with a crowded cast shot much like the one from the intro and Spike sending it off to Luna and Celestia. There's a good reason for it: the cutie marks the Cutie Mark Crusaders obtained in this episode.
- The Grand Finale has the Mane Six and Spike watching Twilight Sparkle's student join her new group of friends before transitioning to the book that opened in the very first episode now closing.
- The Patrick Star Show:
- "Just in Time for Christmas" ends with all the people Patrick's stolen from across time — including a space captain, a man covered in tattoos, and a pterodactyl — taking a Christmas photo together.
- "X Marks the Pot" ends on a shot of a group picture with the Star family, a displeased Man Ray, and Man Ray's dead sidekick.
- "Dad's Stache Stash" ends with Rube taking a picture of the family — but he gets hit by a train midway through, so it only shows their feet.
- "10 & 1 Toilets" ends with the Stars, their puppies, and the TV and its new puppies all taking a photo together.
- The Simpsons:
- "Homer at the Bat" ends with a picture of the winning Springfield Nuclear Power Plant softball team, including the members whose fates were unfortunate.
- "I Won't Be Home for Christmas" ends with a picture of the Simpsons and various Springfielders at a Christmas party, captioned "The Place to Get Drunk is At Home."
- Ready Jet Go!: The episode "Space Race" ends with Jet, Sean, Sydney, Celery, Zucchini, Sunspot, and Moonbeam taking a picture together.
- The last episode of X-Men: Evolution ends this way.
