"Pan Up to the Sky" Ending

"If you don't know what to do next, slowly pan the camera and shoot the sky..."

— Kyon, Haruhi Suzumiya, "The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina: Episode 00"

A camera trick used at the end of an episode or movie, wherein the view pans up to the sky upon conclusion of a story arc. The characters usually look up along with the viewer, too, or are implied to.

The sky is a powerful symbol in itself. Here are just a few uses:

• Clear blue sky (white clouds optional) promises happiness and freedom, just the things you expect from a Happy Ending.
• Stormy, ominous sky, on the other hand, indicates that trouble is brewing.
• A clearing storm signifies hope to come in the future, often bittersweetness.
• Sunrise sky stands for renovation and a new beginning.
• Sunset marks a conclusion and definite ending or death.
• Night sky with visible stars has a similar meaning to clear daytime sky with an additional touch of eternity and divinity.
• Shooting stars promise the fulfillment of wishes.
• Birds and airplanes stand for unreachable things but also, freedom.

Sub-Trope of Pan (horizontally rotating the camera to get a grasp of the panorama). Compare Grasp the Sun, Flyaway Shot and Fly-at-the-Camera Ending. Contrast Ending by Ascending, when a character does this instead of the camera, and "Pan from the Sky" Beginning.

Has nothing to do with holding a frying pan in the air.

As this is an Ending Trope, unmarked spoilers abound. Beware.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Stardust Crusaders: After the group defeats Arabia Fats, the camera pans up to the night sky as they make way to their next destination.
  • Golden Wind: In the epilogue before the final scene, a panning to the sky as the team heads to Rome's coliseum after Diavolo's defeat.
• This is one of many tropes mocked by Haruhi Suzumiya episode 00, with Kyon sarcastically commenting on the frequent panning up towards the sky.
• Cowboy Bebop does this for its finale, "The Real Folk Blues (Part 2)". Right before the pan up, protagonist Spike collapses from gunshot wounds. It's ambiguously either a Bittersweet Ending or a straight up Downer Ending.
• Both Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's and Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS use the clear blue sky version, with the added touch of the show's title appearing in the sky like it does in the intro.
  • Likewise, StrikerS Sound Stage X ends with Subaru looking up to the sky, reminiscing about Ixpellia. Particulary impressive, since this is a Drama CD.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann does this to cap off the Distant Finale, showing Gurren Lagann spiralling of into the night, piercing the heavens still.
• Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood ends this way while Ed speaks his final monologue. It's then followed by a "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue Photo Montage for ending credits.
• Invoked in Yu-Gi-Oh! right after the final duel concludes and the characters are left in the desert, with the camera rising to the sky. However, this isn't the actual final scene, but the 4Kids Entertainment dub pulls another whammy and cuts out the last moments of the last episode. Gee, thanks.
• Bleach uses the clear blue sky version at the end of the Arrancar arc.
• The anime of Death Note ends with panning up to a night sky and crescent moon.
• The Girl Who Leapt Through Time ends this way, though there is another quick scene on the baseball pitch after that.
• In the ending of Your Name, the scene pans up to a blue sky with bright clouds right after Taki and Mitsuha finally find each other again, break into Tears of Joy and asking each other's name 5 years (8 for Mitsuha) after the comet flew by and both of them forgot about each other.
• Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid does the blue sky version as Kobyashi takes Tohru and Kanna to meet her parents.
• The first opening for Saiyuki, For Real, ends with a pan up to the sky, with the lower half of the shot showing their destination, Gyumaou's castle in the West.
• Most Pokémon: The Series episodes end this way.

Film - Animation

• Coco: The very last shot of the movie pans up from Miguel to a shot of the banner from the beginning framed against fireworks lighting up the sky.
• Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch ends this way with a starry night sky, while a star twinkles to prove Lilo's mother would be proud of her.
• The Princess and the Frog, like Spirit, begins with an inversion, staring on a shot of the Evening Star, then panning down to the streets of New Orleans; the end plays it straight, panning up from Tiana and Naveen dancing to the Evening Star and Ray the firefly, now a star himself in the night sky.
• Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron begins by inverting this, showing a beautiful blue sky filled with horse-shaped clouds before panning down across the landscape and coming to Spirit's racing herd. At the end of the film, the trope is then played straight, as after Spirit returns home to lead the herd, the camera pans back up to the same sky.
• Toy Story 3 ends with a pan up to the blue sky, calling back to the first movie's opening with a shot of the sky, with clouds that look like those on the wallpaper in Andy's room.
• In Turning Red, when Mei and Ming close up the temple for the day there is a pan up from them to the sky.

Film - Live Action

• After everyone goes in for a group hug near the end of Bad Times at the Battle Royale, the camera pans up to the clouds before the credits roll.
• Ballad of a Soldier, which establishes in the opening scene that the young soldier protagonist will be killed in combat at some point after the movie's time frame, pans up to the sky at the end as the voiceover muses that he could have done many things with his life if he'd lived, but in the end will be remembered as a Russian soldier.
• The final scene of Battle of Britain shows the sky over England, which has a few clouds in it, but after months of struggle against the Luftwaffe, finally has no German planes.
• City of Ember ends with the sun rising into a bright blue sky, which is especially meaningful because the characters have spent their entire lives living in an underground city, never knowing there was anything different or that there was such a thing as the sun or sky.
• Easy A begins and ends this way, with the Screen Gems logo.
• Most of the Harry Potter films end this way.
• The Nativity Story ends with the sun and clouds on a bright day.
• The final shot of Ophelia pans up from Ophelia and her daughter walking across a hill to a flock of birds soaring across the sky, symbolizing that Ophelia has found freedom and happiness.
• At the end of The Professional the camera zooms up from Mathilda onto the skyline of New York.
• In Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, the camera pans up from the closed door to the sky, giving us a "Continue?" and countdown, evoking arcade games. At zero, the credits begin.
• You've Got Mail pans up to a bright, clear sky at the end.

Literature

• In the end of Arthur C. Clarke's The Nine Billion Names of God, the protagonists look up at the sky and see the stars going out one by one.
• Sergey Lukyanenko's Seekers of the Sky duology ends with the protagonist Ilmar looking up while atop Tel Megiddo, having just refused to follow Marcus as one of his apostles, claiming that Marcus is not second coming of The Messiah and believing that, as before, there must be one dissenter.
• Togetherly Long: In order to convey this effect in a written work, the story mentions various creatures at different elevations that might hear the lines of dialogue of two characters that are talking to each other as the scene ends, and it mentions how the conversation would sound fainter and fainter to successively higher creatures.

Live Action TV

• This shot was used at the end of every episode of The Twilight Zone (1959).
• This is used in the final episode of The Fades, which functions as a Sequel Hook by showing that the sky has turned blood-red.
• This was used going into a commercial in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The City On The Edge Of Forever." Inexplicably, the stars in the sky change to a different pattern 2 seconds before the commercial break.
• A starry night sky is used at end of the first season of True Detective to illustrate Rust's belief that although the dark may be greater, the light is winning.
• A lot of reality TV shows make use of this for at least some episodes. It works because the "universe" of reality television is not bound within a contained space like a studio set or a piece of paper.

Video Games

• ANNO: Mutationem: In the epilogue, Ann and Ayane head out to gaze at the ocean while discussing what adventures might come next, ending with a panned up view of the clear sky while Ayane is resting besides Ann.
• Several endings of Tsukihime contain this (Akiha True, Hisui True, and Hisui Good, possibly others), as well as the Epilogue.
• The nighttime and shooting star^*actually pieces of Ragnarok version of this is part of Mega Man Zero 4's ending.
• Wild ARMs ends in this manner, complete with all three protagonists looking up to the sky.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • The nighttime version of this is the final shot of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)'s ending.
  • The end of Sonic Generations has a blue sky panned to, because it's a Happy Ending.
• The Golden Ending of The Reconstruction ends with the camera panning up into the night sky.
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky: The ending scene of Second Chapter ends with Estelle and Joshua paying their respects to Hamel while venturing out their next journey with a up shot of the clear sky.
• The ending of Super Mario Galaxy 2 (first time only) ends with a shot of a blue comet streaking across the night sky. Further completions of the final Bowser level results in a green comet in the ending.
• A few of the endings of The Legend of Zelda end like this. Specifically, Link's Awakening (with the Wind Fish flying away), The Wind Waker, Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tracks, and Skyward Sword.
• Both Kirby Super Star and Kirby's Return to Dream Land end with a long pan across the blue sky (and eventually into space). Inverted in Kirby: Triple Deluxe, where it ends with a view of the top of the Dreamstalk as it descends down below from Floralia to Dream Land, where Kirby and King Dedede's homes are shown as the final scene.
• The Cut Scene animation created for the PS version of Chrono Trigger does this twice in the perfect ending—once after Chrono and Marle's wedding when she throws the bouquet, and again after Lucca finds baby Kid (Schala's clone from Chrono Cross).
  • Chrono Cross itself also has this in its perfect ending—after you free Schala from the Time Devourer and the two worlds are reunited and restored, but before the end credits roll, Serge ends up back on Opassa Beach with Leena right when he passed out at the start of the game, and as he's asking about things he wasn't supposed to remember from his adventures, you get the pan.
• Shantae: Risky's Revenge ends with a long pan up to the blue sky after the mayor reinstates her as the Guardian of Scuttle Town and her friends promise to help her get accustomed to her new life as a human.
• The Freedom ending of The Stanley Parable concludes this way.
• Tears to Tiara 2 ends with a sunrise to mark the return of the Golden Age
• Final Fantasy X-2's Normal ending involves Yuna crouching atop the airship Celsius, shouting to Brother to fly higher and faster, before panning out into the blue sky ahead of her (while her voiceover narration speaks of continuing to be a sphere hunter, living life to the fullest, and thanking Tidus for making it possible because "it all began when I saw this sphere of you").
• Dawn of War: Dark Crusade's Eldar stronghold ends with the Avatar dead and Taldeer telling her surviving troops to flee. Then, as it was her vision who led them to their deaths, she runs down the ramp into the player's army as the camera pans slowly upwards... Occasionally turns into Narm when a strong blow sends her cartwheeling back up the ramp when the camera hasn't gone all the way up yet.
• Eternal Sonata combines this with the Kissing Discretion Shot by panning up to the blue sky with puffy white clouds as Allegretto and Polka embrace and then share their first kiss.
• Medal of Honor: Vanguard combines this with Off-into-the-Distance Ending as the last shot has the camera pan up to the sky to reveal allied forces parachuting in as Garrett and Slauson running off into the distance.
• Shantae and the Seven Sirens: The final cutscene ends with Shantae waving goodbye to her new friends and then panning up to end the scene looking at the sun.
• Spirits of Anglerwood Forest: The game ends with Edgar entering his house again, then the camera pans past the trees to the horizon.
• Yakuza 3 ends with a quick pan to the sky after Kiryu is stabbed by Hamazaki and bleeds out in the streets of Kamurocho. Fortunately, The Stinger shows he survived.
• Freedom Planet 2 ends with a shot of a clear blue sky after Lilac sets off to find Merga or Carol, Milla and Neera Li looking up to the sky wondering on when she'll be back. In the latter case, it gets interrupted with Milla jokingly discussing her plan to conquer the world due to her being revealed as an alien.

Western Animation

• Avatar:
  • The final episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender did this after a shot of The Big Damn Kiss between Aang and Katara.
  • The final episode of the sequel series The Legend of Korra has a pan up to the sky directly over the new Spirit Portal after the final scene of Korra and Asami becoming a couple.
• G.I. Joe: The Movie ends with a pan up to the night sky as the last of Cobra-La's mutation spores burn up in the atmosphere.
• The Heathcliff & the Catillac Cats episode "Life Saver" ends this way.
• The 1972 CBS/DePatie-Freleng Enterprises adaptation of The Lorax ends with the camera panning up from the Once-ler's house to a clearing in the smoggy skies.
• Recess: School's Out ends this way with a clear blue sky.
• Steven Universe: In the Grand Finale of Future, the last shot as Steven leaves Beach City is a view of the night sky.
• King of the Hill's intended Grand Finale "To Sirloin With Love".
• She-Ra and the Princesses of Power ends this way as the Best Friends Squad decide to have one last adventure together to bring the magic back to the universe after Horde Prime's defeat.
• How "Suspended Animation, Part 1" from the 2020 reboot of Animaniacs ends after Yakko, Wakko, and Dot finish "Catch-Up" with a final shot of the Warner Bros. Studio as fireworks light up, welcoming home the Warners.
• VeggieTales does this at the end of the episode "The Toy That Saved Christmas", complete with Junior singing "Away in a Manger".
• Tamagotchi Video Adventures: Inverted at the beginning of the video, with the frame panning down to the surface of Tamagotchi Planet as the Bandai logo and opening titles appear on-screen. Played straight twice later on - the first time is at the end of the main cartoon segment with the frame panning up as Cosmotchi and the Tamagotchis ride a car proposed as a museum exhibit into space; the second time is at the end of the video after the credits, with the footage of the Tamagotchis riding the car being reused.

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