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"There's a couple of things they don't teach you at Harvard Business School. One is how to cope with defeat, the other's how to handle a shotgun. I'm going to do both right now."
Russ Cargill, The Simpsons Movie

As an audience, we expect a story to be played out within a certain order: exposition, Rising Action, climax, falling action, and Dénouement, and in many stories, the climax also serves as the Final Battle whereas the events that occur afterward are normally devoid of action, serving to tie up any loose ends and create a satisfying ending.

But sometimes, writers like to throw in one last confrontation. Perhaps The Dragon assaults the heroes in one last attempt to kill them, or the Big Bad has a final form that took a while to set up. Regardless of exactly how it occurs, though, our heroes will have to battle one more time before the day is saved.

A particularly extreme version of Your Princess Is in Another Castle! that occurs just when the plot seems ready to be over. In order for a particular plot point found within a story to be considered a proper example of a Post-Climax Confrontation, the event must initially follow these five distinct bits of criteria:

  • Firstly, the major threat of the day must be resolved. The Big Bad is defeated, or there is at least no sign that he survived just yet, there is no sign of The Man Behind the Man, no other hidden enemies waiting somewhere nearby to ambush the heroes. Examples of this trope are rarely the Big Bad.
  • Secondly, this conflict must be settled within the very same installment of the franchise that the work is a part of, and if the event simply leads into a new conflict that later instead gets settled within the very next installment, or if it just results in a Cliffhanger, it will not count.
  • Thirdly, which is the crucial bit: there must be closure since plot threads and character arcs are already being tied up, and in stories that feature traveling parties of characters, the parties have typically begun to split off, returning to their homelands, and as a result of such, the Post-Climax Confrontation found within those types of stories generally only happens to a select few of the given characters instead of the whole entire group all at once.
  • Fourthly, as this is a twist trope, the final confrontation must be both sudden and unexpected, and though the antagonist being confronted in question may or may not have had foreshadowing that he or she would be confronted, it is exactly when the conflict occurs that is oh so surprising since the plot and character threads are already being tied up.
  • And fifthly and finally, this is always the final confrontation, meaning that there are no more conflicts after this last surviving threat has been eliminated for good.

A subtrope is Dragon Their Feet, when The Dragon from earlier in the Sorting Algorithm of Evil returns unexpectedly for another go. Compare Post-Final Boss, for when video games throw in a Zero-Effort Boss right after the Final Boss battle.

Naturally, as with any and all other Ending Tropes out there, every single specific example of this trope found within each of the below folders can easily be considered a major spoiler in and of itself.


Examples:

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    Anime & Manga 
  • In Attack on Titan, Both Eren and the Source of All Life attempt to reunite to restart the Rumbling, with Eren taking on a Colossal Titan form and the Source titanizing nearly everyone, including Jean and Connie. Mikasa stops them both by entering Eren’s mouth and severing Eren’s human head from his spine, killing him.
  • Dragon Ball Z:
    • This is how the Cell Arc ends. Cell has been destroyed and the world has been saved; all that's left to do for Future Trunks is to return to his own time and dispose of Future Androids 17 and 18 and Future Imperfect Cell. Having spent a good year training with his father to the point where they could both dominate Semi-Perfect Cell, Trunks wipes the floor with them all.
    • It initially appears that this trope is in play after Vegeta sacrifices himself to kill Majin Buu. Piccolo observes the wasteland that remains from Vegeta's Heroic Sacrifice and finds Babidi, damaged and lying in the dirt following Piccolo's earlier attack on him. Piccolo belittles Babidi and prepares to finish him off, but it's subverted when Buu begins regenerating and a horrified Piccolo has to make an escape.
  • In Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai, the fight against the real Kill-Vearn takes place after the battle against Vearn has been properly concluded.
  • GaoGaiGar seemingly bends with the threat of Zonder Master Program. But then, cue two more episodes where it plays the first version of the opening. It turns out that Pasder had one last trick up his sleeve when he first crashed onto Earth: a parasite living within Mikoto that grew even before the whole conflict started, evolving into the final New Machine Species as a last ditch effort to destroy the GGG and Earth altogether.
  • An '80s (or before) anime version of Jack and the Beanstalk greatly expanded the story, having Jack rescue a princess and fight a Maleficent-like evil witch who had taken over the kingdom in the sky. The good guys prevail and the evil witch is vanquished. All seems well, until her giant son Tulip shows up and chases Jack. Jack is forced to climb down the beanstalk with Tulip in pursuit, and chop it down while Tulip's still climbing after him — thus cutting off access to the kingdom in the sky and the princess.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
    • Phantom Blood ends on this note, with Dio, reduced to a head after Jonathan beat him in their initial battle, coming after him to exact his revenge. Which he unfortunately succeeds in doing by killing Jonathan but not his wife. Even when Jonathan attempts a Taking You with Me, this only delays Dio's plans as he eventually takes Jonathan's body as his own and returns to menace the Joestars' descendants again in Stardust Crusaders.
    • Steel Ball Run, in the many parallels it shares with Part 1, has one of these as well. When the Big Bad is defeated, walking (weakly) regained, and best friend and mentor killed after imparting his final lesson onto him, Johnny still has one last leg of the eponymous race to finish, which he fails to, thanks to the final battle of the part being against Diego Brando from another universe, complete with THE WORLD, that Valentine summoned to complete his plans should he fail.
  • Kill la Kill: Ragyou and Nui are gone and the heroes get ready for a well-earned graduation... Then Ragyo's assistant, Rei, shows up, reveals some Life Fiber clones of the Elite Four and attacks the heroes with the school's defense system (which the heroes didn't get to use beforehand) in a last-ditch effort to avenge Ragyou. What's more, the heroes have to fight her without their Goku uniforms.
  • In the manhua adaptation of The King of Fighters XII, the climax is a fight between Magaki against literally everyone that is still capable of fighting, and Magaki manages to tank a lot of punishment and take out dozens of combatants before he's finally neutralized. After the dust settles and loose ends are tied up, one last small-scale battle to satisfy a personal vendetta between Kyo Kusanagi and Ash Crimson ensues, which ends with the latter quickly making his leave.
  • In both seasons of Marvel Future Avengers.
    • After the final battle with Kang the Conqueror, the Leader makes one last attempt to kill Makoto and Bruno, but he is subdued by the Winter Soldier.
    • In the second season, after the final battle with Maximus, Maximus, having survived the destruction of his fighter, later resurfaces at a party under the guise of a waiter and makes a last ditch effort to kill both the Avengers and Future Avengers, but he is promptly thwarted by Loki.
  • In the final episode of Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Season 1, Sestuna has just defeated the big bad, Alejendro Corner, and the GN-Xs have been defeated as well. It seems the story is coming to a close when Graham Aker suddenly arrives, and the two battle till both of their mobile suits explode, bringing the season to an end.
  • Naruto naturally has one between the eponymous hero and his longtime rival and best friend, Sasuke Uchiha. After all of the villains have been defeated, the only thing left is to free the remaining cast members from the Lotus-Eater Machine that was inflicted on them by said villains. Since Naruto and Sasuke have some issues they need to work out they decide to have one last fight in the very place where they had their first real fight, to settle things once and for all.
  • One Piece:
    • At the end of Thriller Bark arc, the heroes have won a Race Against the Clock, an Arc Villain's One-Winged Angel form has been defeated along with his henchmen, and it's time for quick Hollywood Healing and celebrating with Innocent Bystanders. A new island of adventure is already waiting for our heroes... Oh, wait a sec, there's still the Arc Villain's fellow Psycho for Hire who we forgot about because he has taken a stance of non-intervention. He is now about to attack right now, but this new confrontation is solved by Zoro.
    • This is kind of the case with Admiral Issho's assault on Luffy after Doflamingo is defeated in the Dressrosa Arc. All of the Doflamingo Family is taken care of, and the Dressrosa citizens' foremost grievances are resolved, yet another antagonist is provided within the arc at its last few chapters. Given that Issho is a Marine, soldiers who regularly capture pirates, it normally wouldn't be too surprising. However, Issho had plenty of moments prior to the confrontation where he places faith and even admiration in Luffy, as well as moments where he expressed disagreement with certain pirate-related principles that are core to the Marines at the current time of Fleet Admiral Sakazuki's leadership.
  • This has become somewhat common in later seasons of Pretty Cure where one final Monster of the Week shows up after the Big Bad is taken out and the Cures must defeat it. Usually, this also results in an Early-Bird Cameo from the next season's leading Cure.
  • In Rurouni Kenshin, Kenshin explains to Saito that, due to one thing and another, his body is rapidly deteriorating and soon he won't be able to fight anymore. Thus, he offers Saito a duel to settle things once and for all, to put to rest the ghost of their bitter past. Saito declines, stating that Kenshin is no longer the man he wanted to defeat. It's as much bittersweet as it's heartwarming.
  • In Sailor Moon S, after the defeat of the Death Busters and the destruction of Pharaoh 90, the day is seemingly saved. After a tearful farewell, Chibiusa departs to the future, leaving Usagi and co. Unbeknownst to them, one last Daimon pod survived in the burning remains of Mujin Academy, the villains' headquarters. It crawled into the Daimon oven and combined with it into Rangy. The Daimon immediately went into a pure heart collecting rampage. During the battle with the Sailor Guardians, it proved to be too powerful for them. It took the intervention of a returning Chibiusa and a distraction by Tuxedo Mask to tip the scales and allow Sailor Moon to destroy the Daimon for good.
  • Subverted at the end of Samurai Champloo. At the end, everything else has been wrapped up and the bad guys have been defeated, so Mugen and Jin decide to finally have their long-awaited fight to the death that's been promised since the first episode. But the two's weapons have both become worn and dulled and they're both exhausted from the events of the last several episodes, so when they attempt to fight their swords instantly shatter after colliding and the two both collapse from weariness seconds after. They decided they're fine settling things on a draw.
  • The last episode of s-CRY-ed takes place after the defeat of the Big Bad, as the heroes tie up some minor side conflicts, then they square off to determine once and for all which of them is the toughest fighter.
  • In the anime adaptation of Trigun, the very final battle with Greater-Scope Villain Knives is this. In contrast to Vash's immediately prior battle with Legato, which is extremely tense and deeply interrogates the series' Central Themes, Vash's fight with Knives takes on a more meditative tone, with little to no music and frequent interruptions by flashbacks to Vash and Knives' history together.
  • The Doma arc of Yu-Gi-Oh! ends this way: The serpent god of the Orichalcos has been defeated, everyone's had their souls restored, and the heroes are about to make their escape. Right before Yami Yugi can follow the others, the possessed spirit of Dartz shows up and there's one final episode where he has to finally cleanse Dartz's soul and put it to rest before everything's over.
  • Zatch Bell! was about a battle between a hundred demon children for the throne of their world. After rivals Zatch and Brago succeed in destroying the ultimate Big Bad who'd reduce their homeland to nothing had he won, they must face each other. It is the about the only battle both combatants actually enjoy and there's nothing at stake as both Zatch and Brago achieved the maturity to become benevolent rulers.

    Fan Works 
  • Better Bones AU: The story of the rewritten The New Prophecy apparently ends with Mothwing killing Hawkfrost, stopping his plans to reinstate Thistle Law and take over the Clans. But as a postscript, Mistyfoot realizes that Hawkfrost was just a symptom of the overall problem and, as long as Leopardstar is leader and enabling Thistle Law, it will continue to fester in RiverClan, leading to Mistyfoot fighting Leopardstar and killing her.
  • For the Glory of Irk: During the Mothra Festival depicted in the epilogue chapters, a remnant of the defeated Control Brain IX is reactivated by Irkens disgruntled by Zim's new regime and attempts to stage a comeback before being blown up by the Membranes at CB's instruction.

    Film — Animated 
  • In The Boxtrolls, Eggs and the boxtrolls have defeated Archibald Snatcher's Spider Tank and exposed his lies about the boxtrolls being baby-eating monsters... when Snatcher emerges from the remains of a giant cheese wheel, drunk on one of his "cheese fits", and holds Winnie hostage, blackmailing Lord Portley-Rind into handing over his hat and escorting Snatcher to his exclusive "tasting room". Fortunately, Snatcher's cheese obsession proves to be his own undoing.
  • In Dragon Ball Z: Cooler's Revenge, Cooler and his henchmen have been defeated, and the worn-out heroes relax and laugh — when Salza, The Dragon, re-emerges, Not Quite Dead. He tries to finish the weary heroes off but is defeated by Piccolo.
  • Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children: Just after the Big Bad is defeated, Yazoo and Loz show up to harass Cloud, trying to take him with them, either for revenge or because they want their "brother" to go with them (they're kind of childish). It doesn't end up being so much a fight as an explosion.
  • In Futurama: Bender's Big Score, after the climactic space battle against the scammer aliens (which ended with their ship being destroyed by a doomsday device), their leader Nudar comes back, having survived thanks to a doom-proof platinum vest to make a last attempt to gain the time code. Lars sacrifices himself to kill Nudar.
  • In Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, following the climatic battle with Rudy, during the very last scene before the end credits, Scrat finds his acorn again, only for him to end up fighting Scratte for it one final time. Said Final Battle results in Scrat and his acorn getting propelled back up into the above-ground Ice Age world by an airborne rock and Scratte getting permanently stranded in the subterranean dinosaur world upon falling off of said airborne rock, concluding their subplot for good.
  • In The Incredibles, the family stops Syndrome's rampaging robot and exposes his plot to the government (who freeze his assets). However, when they arrive home they find Syndrome abducting their youngest son Jack-Jack, so they must rescue him and stop Syndrome for good.
  • Near the end of the first Open Season film, just as Boog and the other forest creatures believe that their main tussle with the human hunters is all over, Shaw suddenly comes out of nowhere one final time in an attempt to take the aforementioned grizzly bear home with him as yet another hunting trophy of his, but the other forest creatures soon interfere with the attempt by completely coating Shaw in honey and leaves, embarrassing him to the point where he gets up and runs away as fast as possible without anything else ever being spoken of the recent incident afterwards.
  • In Patlabor: The Movie, the main characters succeed in dismantling the Ark (which they are in too) into the ocean before the typhoon hits it, and the crisis seems to be over. However, when they regain consciousness having survived the events, a virus-infected prototype mecha that one of the characters was controlling emerges from the rubble and tries to kill everyone.
  • In Sakura Wars: The Movie, the Imperial Combat Revue kills Brent Furlong to stop his evil plans and Ikki Yoneda knocks out and arrests Haruyoshi Tanuma. But Patrick Hamilton still remains and when Maria Tachibana encounters him on the rooftops, she runs out of bullets. Unfortunately for Patrick, Maria quickly uses a spirit bullet developed by Kohran Li and finally kills him.
  • In The Simpsons Movie, when Springfield has been saved and everything seems to be fine again, Russ Cargill comes out of nowhere with a shotgun and attempts to kill Homer and Bart. Maggie knocks out Russ with a large boulder, luckily.

    Film — Live-Action 
  • The baseball game in 3 Ninjas Kick Back, which is, of course, followed by a Post-Game Retaliation.
  • In Air Force One, after killing lead terrorist Ivan Korshunov, retaking the plane, and fending off MiGs on an intercept course towards them, The Mole attempts to kill President Marshall as he's about to evacuate the plane before it crashes.
  • Every single installment of the Alien quadrilogy features one of these for our heroes just as it seems that they have already managed to escape any and all further encounters with the franchise's titular Xenomorph species, and even the installments from outside of the original quadrilogy get in on the usage of this trope in one way or another as well:
    • In Alien, Ellen Ripley at first seemingly escapes from "Big Chap" aka "Kane's Son" the Xenomorph Drone aboard the Narcissus life-boat, only for him to eerily make his presence known one final time by unsuccessfully reaching out with one of his six-fingered hands and attempting to grab onto Ripley, also prompting her to throw him right out of the nearby airlock using a harpoon-gun.
    • In Aliens, a somewhat similar scenario occurs where in which Ripley seemingly escapes the Xenomorph menace again, only for the First Acheron Queen to stab her dangerously barbed tail right on through the Bishop Android's torso and also split him right in half, prompting Ripley to throw the First Acheron Queen right out of the USS Sulaco's main floor airlock using a P-5000-Powered-Work-Loader this time around.
    • In Alien³, Ripley successfully kills off the lone Xenomorph Runner specimen known as the "Dragon" in using a combination of molten lead and freezing sprinkler water, only for a man who resembles the Bishop Android along with a number of Weyland-Yutani soldiers to come and confront her regarding a Royal Chestburster currently incubating right inside of her, but rather than hand the new Xenomorph Queen embryo inside of her over to the Weyland-Yutani Coorporation, she instead chooses to throw herself right on down into the molten lead furnace below herself.
    • In Alien: Resurrection, the Newborn Xenomorph specimen sneaks aboard the Betty just as Ripley 8 and her surviving comrades each attempt to escape the already doomed USM Auriga, only for Ripley 8 to throw some of her acid-for-blood over onto a nearby glass window, causing the Newborn Xenomorph specimen to get sucked right out into outer space piece-meal and likewise finally end the Xenomorph menace once again immediately afterwards.
    • In Alien vs. Predator, it at first glance at the very least appears that this trope's gonna be played straight by having the Antarctic Queen breach the icy surface for one last battle round against both Scar the Yautja and Alexa Woods and also by having her eventually get stranded right down at the bottom of the ocean, but shortly thereafter, Scar's body then gets taken right on back aboard his original starship, allowing "Chet" the Predalien to be later born aboard it and likewise ultimately set up the whole entire plot of the immediately following film mentioned below, thusly making this example a subversion.
    • In Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, a rare outright aversion for the franchise as a whole occurs with the main human survivors being rescued by still surviving soldiers just following a tactical nuclear strike against Gunnison, Colorado that results in the deaths of both Wolf the Yautja and "Chet" the Predalien.
    • In Prometheus, this trope is finally played straight again much like with each of the original Quadrilogy examples mentioned above in that Doctor Elizabeth Shaw has one last encounter with a surviving Engineer within a downed escape pod, who she then locks up within a separate room with the Trilobite Facehugger, which then later results in the birthing of the Xenomorph Deacon who's then absolutely never shown or even mentioned at all afterwards for whatever reason.
    • In Alien: Covenant, after the successful disposal of the first Protomorph, a second one gets successfully birthed right aboard the Covenant, forcing Captain Daniels to have to throw him right on out of the starship's main airlock within the easily most common Xenomorph specimen disposal fashion found anywhere within the franchise as a whole so far.
  • The Amazing Spider-Man 2: The climactic battle against Electro is over, the villain is gone, the city is saved from certain doom, and it seems everything is just fine — then suddenly Green Goblin appears, as one final challenge before the day is done.
  • In Army of Darkness, after Ash Williams comes back from the medieval age, he must blow away a random deadite who attacks his workplace.
    Ash: Hail to the king, baby.
  • In Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, Austin and Vanessa are celebrating their honeymoon three months after stopping Dr. Evil's plan, when Random Task, the shoe-throwing assassin reappears to kill them. They stop him using the penis enlargement pump.
  • Avatar: After the humans' assault on the Home Tree fails, Colonel Quaritch suits up in an AMP mech to battle Jake Sully personally.
  • Die Hard: Karl manages to survive being strangled(!), and attempts to kill John McClane one last time after Hans Gruber is killed, but is quickly shot before he can do anything.
  • Sarris from Galaxy Quest pulls this off twice:
    • After the crew of the Protector succeed in destroying Sarris' ship, it turns out he had secretly teleported onto the Protector prior to his ship's destruction. Under the guise of Fred, he starts gunning down the crew until Jason activates the Omega 13 to subdue Sarris before he could attack the crew.
    • Then, after the Protector crashlands back on Earth, Sarris regains consciousness after having been knocked out by Jason and Mathesar, and as he emerges at the convention, Jason quickly shoots and destroys him for good.
  • Even the Godzilla franchise has officially gotten in on the usage of this trope a few times before:
    • In Godzilla Raids Again, after Godzilla officially eliminates Anguirus during their dual within Osaka, the former later suddenly appears again within the Artic, only for a squadron of fighter-jets to soon bury him underneath of a layer of thick ice.
    • In Destroy All Monsters, after Godzilla and his friends successfully defeat his arch-nemesis, King Ghidorah, the humans soon suddenly end up battling a "burning monster" that's really just another UFO, and then they soon successfully defeat their extraterrestrial enemies once they hit it with a freeze-ray of sorts.
    • In All Monsters Attack, after Minilla successfully drives off his personal bully, Gabara, within a young boy's dream about visiting Monster Island, said young boy subsequently awakens and battles his personal in-real-life bully one final time using a fire extinguisher.
    • In Godzilla vs. Biollante, just as it seems that Godzilla's about to come and attack the main human heroes one final time after having some frigid ocean water eliminate the negative effects of the scientists' "anti-nuclear bacteria" on his body following his most recent confrontation with none other than Biollante herself, he suddenly turns around and heads back deeper into the nearby ocean, making for an easy subversion of this trope.
    • In Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, this trope is soon played straight again in that following King Ghidorah's supposed death, he soon gets brought back as "Mecha-King Ghidorah" and subsequently drops both himself and Godzilla down into the ocean, resolving that particular installment's central conflict afterwards, even though the latter Kaiju soon eventually returns during the events of Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for Earth (1992).
    • In Godzilla (1998), after completely collapsing Madison Square Garden on some 200 baby Zillas, all seems fine for the humans right on up until Zilla Sr. reveals himself to actually still be alive after previously faking his death down within the Hudson River, leading the humans to lure him right on over towards and subsequently trap him atop the Brooklyn Bridge using a taxi where a squadron of fighter-jets then comes and actually kills him off this time around using a volley of twelve missiles to do so.
    • In Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack!, this trope actually gets subverted within the exact same manner as in the AVP: Alien vs. Predator example mentioned above in that Godzilla eventually comes and confronts the lead human protagonists one final time shortly following his devestating attack on Tokyo, only for his Atomic Breath to shoot out of his shoulder instead of his mouth, seemingly killing him off once that happens, but the subversion part of this example comes once his disembodied beating heart's shown during the film's very last shot before the end-credits, meaning that the central conflict surrounding him hasn't actually been resolved at all.
    • In Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), this trope gets the subversion treatment again in that just as it seems that the other Titans are getting ready to battle Godzilla one final time just following King Ghidorah's final death, all that actually happens then is that the other Titans in question simply bow down to Godzilla during the film's very last several shots before the end-credits with Godzilla also roaring in victory on top of that.
  • In Highway to Hell, Hellcop shows up one last time after Charlie and Rachel have escaped Hell.
  • In Hot Fuzz, after the final, massive shootout against the NWA and the defeat of Devil in Plain Sight Simon Skinner and the Big Bad Police Chief, everything seems like it's all wrapped up and the cops are all finishing up their paperwork, when suddenly the one NWA member they forgot about bursts into the police station and starts shooting.
  • Used regularly in James Bond movies:
  • In Jurassic Park III, after Alan and Paul successfully scare off the Spinosaurus for good by lighting their boat's fuel on fire, the very next day, just as the group is about to escape, several Velociraptors confront them regarding their stolen eggs until Alan confuses them using a fossilized Velociraptor resonating chamber and as Amanda also finally surrenders the stolen eggs in question back to them.
  • In the Kingdom of Heaven director's cut, Balian has a final confrontation with his rival after the siege has been resolved.
  • In an inverted example, in the first Mad Max, after Max successfully kills Toecutter and Bubba Zanetti, the movie ends with Max looking after and blowing up Johnny the Boy, the last remaining member of Toecutter's gang.
  • In O Brother, Where Art Thou? the main characters have already secured their fortune and Everett has defeated The Rival when his wife forces them to return to her old house to get a wedding ring, where they run afoul of the Sheriff (and possible Devil) who has been hunting them throughout the film.
  • In Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, after Will, Elizabeth, Jack, Norrington, and the Royal Navy defeat Barbossa and the cursed crew of the Black Pearl, the next scene is the Port Royal gallows, where Jack Sparrow is to be hanged for piracy (and a whole bunch of other crimes). Will shows up to interrupt the hanging, and he and Jack end up fighting the Royal Navy one last time.
  • In Red Dawn (2012), after the Wolverines defeat Captain Cho and the North Koreans as well as recover the suitcase, the North Koreans suddenly attack the Wolverines and kill Jed Eckert, but the remaining Wolverines manage to escape.
  • In Run All Night, after Jimmy Conlon invades the pub and kills Shawn Maguire and his men in a shootout, he returns to his son Mike and his family, only to be fatally wounded by Mr. Price, a professional assassin hired by Maguire earlier and whom Jimmy spared in a Battle Amongst the Flames. Jimmy eventually kills Mr. Price via Boom, Headshot! before succumbing to his wounds.
  • At the end of Rush Hour 2, Lee and Carter are catching their breath after defeating Ricky Tan, only for The Dragon Hu Li to come in with a bomb that's about to blow.
  • The penultimate scene in Serenity (2005) is a variation in which nothing actually comes of the confrontation. Having been spared by Mal in their earlier confrontation and subsequently ordered his men to provide medical attention for Mal and his crew, The Operative concedes defeat and walks away; he only kills for his cause, which is now lost. Mal tells him that if he ever sees him again, he might kill him. The Operative replies "you won't".
  • The last scene of The Three Musketeers (1993). After the heroes defeat Cardinal Richelieu and Rochefort and save the King and Queen, they're confronted by a group of thugs who started pursuing D'Artagnan at the beginning of the movie. It's been so long since the audience saw them that their appearance is a surprise.
  • In Venom (2018), an armed criminal attempts to rob Ms. Chen's convenience store one final time following the Riot Symbiote's death, only for the titular Venom Symbiote to eat him alive upon encountering him just before the film's end credits.

    Literature 
  • The first two Alex Rider books both have a final chapter where the Big Bad (or, in the case of the second book, the Big Bad's clone) makes a final attempt to kill Alex after their plan has been foiled.
  • A Certain Magical Index: The Final Boss of the New Testament series is Coronzon. However, the final volume instead focuses on an enemy created from the aftermath of the battle, an 'Emanation' of Touma created from his subconscious regrets who wants to steal the real Touma's identity.
  • Both the book and movie Coraline have a perfect example, after freeing her parents, the souls of the ghost children, and escaping from the Other Mother's monstrous form and custom dimension, Coraline is attacked by the Other Mother's hand and has a comparatively easy fight against it.
  • Several Discworld books end this way, in particular when the villain deserves to be dealt with specially after his scheme has been foiled, or who is fixated on getting revenge against the protagonist.
    • In Hogfather, Mr. Teatime survives the dissolution of his plan in the Tooth Fairy's realm and comes to the house where Susan is governess, implicitly threatening the children while aiming to take down Death.
    • In The Fifth Elephant Wolf survives a tumble over a waterfall and comes back to the embassy after Vimes. Vimes, being Genre Savvy, expects this and is extremely jumpy until it happens.
    • In Night Watch, after the battle of the Glorious Republic of Treacle Mine Road, Carcer brings his cronies along to confront Vimes one last time.
    • Defied in Snuff where the villain is taken out by a savvy Willikins before he can come back for Vimes' family.
  • In Dragon Flight, after the Big Bad is dead, the dragons are freed, the war is over, our heroes return home... only to learn that Dragons have been banished from the kingdom. this leads to quite a bit of shouting, and the interruption of a royal wedding. It happens again in Dragon Spear, after Darrym is defeated, Velika is rescued, and all seems well... until the baby dragon princess is snatched.
  • After the climactic battle in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Barty Crouch Junior, the Death Eater who organized the entire plot, reveals he's been impersonating Mad-Eye Moody and tries to kill Harry. This Death Eater's critical mistake is that he wastes time with a Just Between You and Me speech, giving Dumbledore and company a chance to come to the rescue.
  • James Bond:
    • Icebreaker has an inversion; Bond learns that the Big Bad is still alive, and goes after him before he leaves the country.
    • After defeating the Big Bad in Death Is Forever, Bond is forced into a Knife Fight with his lover Monika Haardt in London as he tries to spend time with his girlfriend.
    • In The Man with the Red Tattoo, the main villain and his right-hand-man attack Bond in his hotel room after he foils their Evil Plan.
    • The Young Bond novel Blood Fever has two instances of it: a masked rider attacks Bond and Amy when they are moving away from the ruins of Count Carnifex's palace, and when they arrive at their destination, they find the Count's sister waiting for them, with a gun in her hand.
  • In The Jennifer Morgue, the hero and his girlfriend get caught up in a magical geas that makes their life resemble a series of James Bond tropes. After defeating the Diabolical Mastermind, they go on a holiday to recover, and realize the geas isn't done with them yet when one of the mastermind's underlings shows up for a post-climax confrontation.
  • The Law of Innocence: The main plot is tied up when Mickey Haller proves himself innocent of first-degree murder charges, and walks out of court a free man, having established that the murder victim was actually killed by the mob. Then in the postcript final chapter, the Mafia hitman who did the murder pops up out of nowhere, and tries to kill Mickey too.
  • The Lord of the Rings may be the most well-known example. The One Ring has been cast into the fires of Mordor, our heroes have gone their separate ways, and the hobbits are ready to return to their peaceful Shire... only to find that it has been taken over by Saruman, and they must take back their home from the evil Men that have enslaved their people. It was omitted from the film trilogy, though the omission didn't stop many filmgoers from experiencing Ending Fatigue anyway.
  • The Mental State ends with Zachary State finally being released from prison and struggling to adapt to life in the real world. All his enemies have been thrashed, ass his friends have their futures assured and he no longer needs to cheat, scheme or lie. Then Rose gets attacked by another street thug (just her luck), this time with the intention of killing her. To save her, Zachary has to pull off one final feat of manipulation, using an Obfuscating Insanity tactic to convince the mugger that he is an insane criminal pimp and crime-lord and chase him away.
  • In the Modesty Blaise novel A Taste for Death, the climax is the duel to the death and then the break-out of the prisoners being held by Delicata's gang. There follows a quieter chapter of Modesty recuperating from the injury she got in the duel, which is suddenly interrupted by Delicata showing up again and forcing a final showdown.
  • The Outsiders has Dally's Suicide by Cop, which occurs after the big rumble between the Greasers and the Socs.
  • At the climax of The Three Hostages, the heroes rescue the hostages and the gang is rounded up, but their leader escapes justice. In the final chapter, he shows up while Hannay is on holiday and tries to get his revenge.
  • In The Witcher, Vilgefortz is killed in a fight with Geralt, Stefan Skellen's forces have been easily defeated by Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri, and Emperor Emhyr vas Emreis shows up to kill Geralt and Yen and abduct Ciri, only to let all of them go after rediscovering his humanity. Yet there's a hundred pages left and the final confrontation of the series takes place in Rivia, where Geralt ends up defending non-humans in a pogrom completely unrelated to anything that's happened in the series, and ends up mortally wounded by a random peasant with a pitchfork. Ciri seemingly saves him with her powers by taking his body to heal on an unknown island with Yennefer, and Ciri herself departs to travel The Multiverse.
  • The last chapter of Worm has Taylor escape the scene of the Big Bad's defeat, having made an enemy of the entire world and driven herself insane in the process. She's found by Contessa, The Dragon of Cauldron, and they have a short discussion about doing the wrong things for the right reasons before Contessa shoots Taylor in the head, depowering her and saving her life.

    Live-Action TV 
  • The Season 5 finale of Arrow features an epic showdown between Team Arrow and their allies and Prometheus' army of villains. It ends with Prometheus' defeat, but he manages to slip away to an escape boat, causing Oliver to chase him down for one last fight.
  • Doctor Who: In "The Angels Take Manhattan", Amy and Rory get sent back 50+ years in the past just as it seems that everything's fine.
  • Kamen Rider does this with the Neo-Heisei shows save for OOO and Fourze. Double has the Energy Dopant, Wizard has Amadum, and Gaim has Kougane.
  • In the season one finale of La Brea, just as it seems that Isaiah aka Young Gavin's about to be able to safely head right on over into a 1988 portal, his grandfather, Silas, all of a sudden comes out of absolutely nowhere in one final desperate attempt to not only stop him from entering the portal in question but also to kill off Josh for good, but Para, Ty, and Levi all also soon arrive on the scene together and likewise stop him from completing his personal mission instead as the Past Gavin successfully time travels to 1988 along with Josh.
  • After the Big Bad DaiMaOh Grenghost is defeated in Madan Senki Ryukendo, the next episode reveals that Noble Demon and rival Jackmoon is still alive. Since his master is destroyed, Jackmoon thinks his only purpose is to resolve his rivalry with The Hero.
  • One Piece (2023): After a climactic battle against Arc Villain Arlong and his henchmen in the final episode of Season 1, the Straw Hat Pirates' victory celebration is interrupted by the arrival of Vice Admiral Garp and his Marines, who have come to arrest them. Luffy proves hopelessly outmatched in a one-on-one duel against Garp, but his steadfast refusal to surrender even in the face of overwhelming odds impresses Garp so much that he decides to let him go.
  • Shaw has one with Blackwell in the Grand Finale of Person of Interest sometime after the Final Battle with Samaritan.
  • Power Rangers:
    • Happens twice in the two-part finale of Power Rangers: Dino Thunder. Big Bad Mesagog is apparently defeated and his base destroyed in the climax of the first episode, with most of the second episode being taken up with a battle with his one-time Dragon Zeltrax. Once he's defeated, Mesagog suddenly reappears, having survived his base's destruction and mutated into a more powerful form, for one last battle.
    • Used in the finale of Power Rangers S.P.D.: the villains' plans are in ruins, the damsel saved, the major threat is destroyed and The Dragon arrested... when Emperor Gruum (who had suffered a Disney Villain Death earlier) crawls out of the rubble to challenge Commander Cruger to one last fight.
    • The epilogue of Power Ranger Super Dino Charge takes place on Christmas and featured a winter/Christmas themed Bad Santa Monster of the Week called Heximas who was revealed to be the last survivor of Sledge's Outlaws. With his cursed gifts, Heximas plans to turn everyone into his evil elves slaves and it's up to the heroes to stop him.
  • Star Trek: Enterprise seems rather fond of this during the fourth season.
    • At the end of "The Augments", the augments are defeated and their ship self-destructs. As everyone is catching their breath, it turns out that augment leader Malik beamed over to Enterprise before the ship's destruction and attacks Archer.
    • Zig-zagged at the end of "Terra Prime", where Terra Prime have been defeated and their leaders arrested, but the Enterprise crew realise they have a mole on board and worry he will try and harm the Earth President, who is also on the ship. Instead, as soon as Archer locates the officer in question, he commits suicide out of guilt.
  • Super Sentai:
  • The Ultra Series sometimes does this.
    • Return of Ultraman:
      • After reducing Yametaranese to a harmless pint-sized creature and lifting the laziness diesease unintentionally caused by the kaiju, Jack has to contend with Alien Sasahiller, The Man Behind the Man of Yametaranese's invasion.
      • One episode has Ultraman Jack fighting, and eventually defeating the giant robot Builgamo. Cue Builgamo's controller, Alien Baltan II, coming out to confront Jack.
    • Ultraman Ace: In one episode, Ultraman Ace has to fight the Flaming Sword-wielding monster Firemons, and then Firemons' master, Alien Fire.

    Theatre 
  • In Matilda, after Miss Trunchbull has been driven from Crunchem Hall, Matilda is promoted to the upper classes although still stuck in an unhappy home and no longer able to use telekinesis, and Miss Honey has regained her father's estate and become the school's new headmistress, the Wormwoods attempt to flee to Spain with Matilda, but are stopped by Miss Honey and The Mafiya. When Matilda speaks to the mob boss Sergei in Russian, showing her extraordinary intelligence, he agrees to let the Wormwoods leave, and Matilda is Happily Adopted by Miss Honey.
  • A heroic version of this occurs in the ending of Wicked. After Elphaba has faked her death, Glinda, believing that her best friend really has been killed, returns to the Emerald City, kicks out the Wizard of Oz, and has Madam Morrible thrown in prison. Unfortunately, she promised Elphie she wouldn't clear her name afterwards, so Glinda has to take responsibility for Oz alone while Elphie goes into self-imposed exile with Fieyro.

    Video Games 
  • Much like within the main films mentioned above, the Alien franchise video games have also even gotten in on the usage of this trope a couple of different times before:
    • In Aliens: Colonial Marines, after Christopher Winter and his crew successfully reboard the USS Resolute for a return trip to Earth, the Second Acheron Queen suddenly sneaks aboard the starship much like her famous predecessor from Aliens boarding the USS Sulaco, only for Christopher Winter himself to expunge the stowaway Second Acheron Queen using a sling-shot platform of sorts to do so.
    • In Alien: Isolation, just after the Sevastopol Station self-destructs and also crashes itself right on down into a nearby gas giant, Amanda Ripley soon comes face-to-face with another stowaway Xenomorph Drone aboard the Torrens one final time, only for her to then throw both herself and the stowaway Xenomorph Drone in question right on out of another nearby airlock to officially close out the game's main campaign.
  • Played for Laughs in Banjo-Kazooie. Banjo and Kazooie rescue Tooty as Grunty escapes, and their friends throw a party to celebrate. The credits roll, and it seems like the game's finished... only for the gang to realize that Grunty still needs to be defeated. Banjo and Kazooie run right back to where they rescued Tooty for the final showdown against Grunty.
  • Baten Kaitos has perhaps the most bizarre example. Xelha and Kalas go off into the Moonguile Forest in order for Xelha to "release the ocean inside of her" when suddenly the head of Emperor Geldoblame (thought to have been killed way back at the beginning of the second disk) pops out of the earth in an attempt to kill them. He is quickly defeated, and nothing more is spoken of it.
  • BlazBlue has two, in the third and fourth games, respectively.
    • BlazBlue: Chronophantasma: After the Final Boss has been dealt with the giant superweapon, Takemikazuchi, Ragna still has to remove its core to shut it down completely, said core being Nu-13. But by this point, the plot has more or less been resolved and serves more as a denouement.
    • BlazBlue: Central Fiction: After defeating his Arch-Enemy Yuuki Terumi/Susanoo for good, Ragna has two final fights with Noel and Jin, respectively, because in order to restore the world back to normal, Ragna has to erase the memory of himself from everyone. This one is especially poignant since this serves as the Grand Finale for the series' current story arc.
  • Overlapping with Superboss, The Bouncer has Sion or Kou face a Duel Boss after resolving the plot, depending on how you used them throughout the game; if it's Sion, then you fight Wong Leung in a flashback, and if it's Kou, then he faces Leann Cadwell to prove to LUKIS that he can continue keeping tabs on Dominique. Rather annoyingly, you only have one shot at defeating them, so Try Not to Die if you want to unlock them.
  • Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening: After Arkham's plan to bring Hell to Earth is brought crashing down by Dante and Vergil, the final battle of the game is between the two sons of Sparda, with Sparda's sword Force Edge as the prize. Dante gets the sword, but Vergil retrieves his half of the Amulet belonging to their mother, which is required to transform the sword. These then set up the events of the first game.
  • The entire Dragon Age: Origins Expansion Pack Awakening: the Archdemon has been defeated, the Blight is quelled, the Darkspawn are slowly retreating back underground... well, the latter not quite. Turns out, there is one loose end to the Fifth Blight, which needs to be cleaned up before the Thaw and rebuilding can settle in. Namely, the sentient Darkspawn Architect, who awakened the Archdemon in the first place, as well as his insane creation, the Mother.
  • In Dragon Ball Z: Super Saiya Densetsu, if the player makes Goku go Super Saiyan during the final battle against Frieza and keeps him and Vegeta alive throughout the end of the game, then after the credits roll, Goku will encounter the superboss: Super Saiyan Vegeta.
  • In Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2, the game itself takes place on an island you crashed on trying to get to a tournament. Once you beat the boss of the island/final boss of the game, you leave and go to the tournament, which is so incredibly easy and postscript-ish that it's mostly done offscreen save for the (still easy) final battle of it.
  • Fallout:
    • In Fallout: New Vegas, after defeating Legate Lanius in the final battle in one way or another, the game is pretty much over. However, if the player takes the Mr. House or the Wild Card path they will then have to deal with General Oliver and the NCR, who will not accept Vegas as an independent city-state. You'll then have to convince them in some way, or just kill them all.
    • Even better, in Fallout 4, after you complete the game by siding with the Minutemen and destroying the Institute, you can work on an entirely optional mission where the Minutemen go to war with the Brotherhood of Steel and generally teach them a well-deserved lesson. Namely, by shelling their Cool Airship out of the sky and then holding the Castle against the remnants of the Brotherhood's army. And it is awesome.
  • Fate/Grand Order: Near the end of the Olympus lostbelt, after Zeus has been defeated, Musashi has sacrificed herself to repel Chaos, the Foreign God has landed, and Kirschtaria Wodime has died after being backstabbed by Beryl, the party is preparing to leave and return to the Wandering Sea, when Caenis appears on the deck of their ship to challenge them to one final battle, out of respect for Wodime and his conviction.
  • Final Fantasy XIV: The conflict of the Endwalker expansion and the Myth Arc involving the Ascians is effectively concluded after The Endsinger is defeated. Before the Warrior of Light returns home to their friends however, Zenos asks them to indulge in one last fight to the death, not as a hero but simply as someone who enjoys the thrill of combat. Even though he says he will not stop the Warrior if they choose to simply leave, he must be fought regardless of whether the Warrior agrees with his "Not So Different" Remark or just wants him dead.
  • Inscryption has the main threat of the third part of the game, P03, dealt with by his former colleagues after the player beats the last of his bosses. One of said colleagues then decides that deleting the game world is the best course of action after everything that's happened, and the player is challenged to no-stakes duels by each of them as their world ends. This is especially poignant with Leshy, who antagonized you throughout the entire first act; he will deliberately remove any stakes just so you can play a little longer before everything ends.
  • Depending on your interpretation of events, the last sequence of Killer7, after Garcian assumes his true identity of Emir Parkreiner, can easily fit this trope.
  • Kingdom Hearts:
    • At the end of Kingdom Hearts II, after Xemnas is apparently beaten he traps Sora and Riku into a final, 3-part fight with him before they can return home.
    • Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep: The True Final Boss battle, which takes place in the town square of a darkened Radiant Garden (where Aqua had previously fought Vanitas), and comes after the climax in The Keyblade Graveyard.
  • After the events of volume 1 of Legacy of Heroes, you have to fight a minor villain, Sunder, who gathers henchmen and storms the city while the most experienced heroes are still recovering from the fight with the Big Bad.
  • In The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak II, the main conflict of the story ends in Chapter 3 with defeat of Garden-Master, aka Auguste, and the retrieval of the 8th, and final, Genesis unit. The Final Chapter, meanwhile, spends most of its time showing the cast enjoying Aramis High School's festival, until Van suddenly decides to head to Trion Tower to settle things for good with Grendel-Zolga.
  • In Legend of Illusion, Mickey defeats the Big Bad, restores everything, plays a Bonus Stage, and returns to his home kingdom... but then King Pete (who wasn't heard from since the game's first level was completed) shows up and a boss battle commences.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword pulls this in epic fashion. Link claims the Triforce from The Very Definitely Final Dungeon and uses it to destroy Demise, then finally reunites with Zelda... only for Ghirahim to reappear after being MIA for the entire third act. Ghirahim promptly kidnaps Zelda and uses a portal Link previously opened to travel into the past and free Demise there instead. Link goes after him, naturally, and faces off with him one last time before going straight into the Final Boss battle against Demise himself.
  • Mega Man X: Command Mission pulls a rather sudden one. The Rebellion and its leader Epsilon have been defeated, X and the others are lauded as heroes, and X, Zero, & Axl are prepared to take an airlift back to their home. Story's over, right? Nope. When the airlift arrives, it fires at the Resistance base, killing R, as it turns out that the Maverick Hunter's own Commander Redips had been manipulating both the Rebellion and the Resistance in order to get his hands on the Supra-Force Metal.
  • Metal Gear:
    • In Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, the final battle against the Metal Gear D is followed by a fistfight against its pilot Gray Fox, then by a final final showdown against Big Boss himself, punctuated with an escape sequence.
    • In Metal Gear Solid it's much of the same, only this time it's a Metal Gear REX and you're only fighting the pilot — twice, the second time during the escape sequence.
    • In Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Snake completes his mission, and is now on his way back to America with EVA; suddenly, they are assaulted by Ocelot. Cue a one-on-one close-quarters fight aboard the WIG, and finally an old school pistol duel between Snake and Ocelot.
    • In Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, the final battle with Liquid Ocelot happens after Snake stops him from destroying JD and, in the process, ends up wiping out the entire Patriot Network instead, destroying the true Big Bads of the series. Of course, that was Ocelot's plan the entire time. What follows is a one-on-one three phase CQC fight between Snake and Liquid Ocelot that references each of the three prior Solid games; the first phase is against the "Liquid" persona, while the second is against the "Liquid Ocelot" fusion of Liquid Snake and Revolver Ocelot's personalities, with each of these phases using a song from the first and second games respectively ("Encounter" and "Tanker Incident") and the health bar UI changing to that of Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. The third phase, however, has Revolver Ocelot's personality surfacing to fully assume control, the UI changing to that of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, and the music now being the vocal "Snake Eater" theme, the instrumental version of which was previously used during the final boss fight of Snake Eater.
  • Sometimes employed in Metroid games. Specifically, in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, the "real" final boss is Emperor Ing. During the Escape Sequence, you get ambushed by Dark Samus one last time, whom you must quickly defeat within the time limit. In Metroid Fusion, you fight an Omega Metroid under nearly identical circumstances. Both fights are short and mainly just to avert What Happened to the Mouse? and showcase Samus regaining her normal power, respectively.
  • In Myth, you fight and defeat the Big Bad in the epic and bloody 24th level, which is titled "The Last Battle". Then the survivors are magically teleported for the 25th level into another place where you have to throw the Big Bad's severed head inside a bottomless hole to definitely remove his evil taint from the world. Except his lieutenant Soulblighter is there with a small army, waiting for what remains of the forces of light and seeking to retrieve his boss' head. He fails, only to flee and come back for the sequel as a Dragon Ascendant.
  • In No More Heroes, the "Real Ending" leads to the long-awaited confrontation between Travis and Henry, despite the original conflict of the assassin rankings having been resolved in the previous fight.
  • In Onimusha 3: Demon Siege, Ranmaru sneaks up on Leon and his family after everything seems to be resolved.
  • In Persona 4, the killer has been caught, the fog has been lifted from Inaba, and the protagonist is bids all his friends a fond farewell before leaving. However, if the player visits the Junes food court instead of returning home after saying his goodbyes, he'll meet up with the rest of the Investigation Team, who all realize that there are still loose plot threads left (such as how the Protagonist and the killer got their Personas) and that there might be someone else behind the entire incident. This sets the player on the path towards the True Final Boss and the Golden Ending.
  • Pokémon:
    • In Pokémon X and Y, after you beat the Elite Four and the Champion of the region, you receive a big parade for saving it from Lysandre and Team Flare. In the middle of it the former king AZ challenges you to a Pokémon fight.
    • This seems to have started somewhat of a tradition, as in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, after defeating Steven and becoming Champion of Hoenn, the player must fight either May or Brendan, who will Mega Evolve their now fully-evolved starter, and in Sun and Moon, after defeating the Elite Four and Kukui and becoming Alola's first Champion, during the festival to commemorate the event, the player character and Lillie sneak off to the Ruins of Conflict and the player finally engages Tapu Koko, who must be either defeated or caught.
  • Prayer of the Faithless: Gauron is the main source of the conflict in the endgame, since killing him will limit the Fog being produced and end the threat of him becoming a rampaging Hellspawn. However, there's still a lower-stake conflict to be settled with Vanessa, since she wants to die in the Tower of Sinners while the party wants her to live and/or atone for her crimes the hard way.
  • Resident Evil – Code: Veronica ends with a brief but no-holds-barred fight between Chris and Wesker as the base self-destructs after Alexia is dead.
  • Science Girls! pulls this one after our heroines have seemingly prevented the invasion, escaped the alien homeworld via wormhole and destroyed the transporter to Earth. Too bad the alien hivemind got through earlier in the game, had time to start setting up and showed up to kidnap one of your party members.
  • Spyro: Year of the Dragon: The area after the final boss has another boss in it; a rematch with The Sorceress.
  • In the PSP remake of Star Ocean, if Cyuss joined the party then after the final boss is defeated and right before he returns home to his timeline, he'll challenge Roddick to a private match so the two can personally see which one of them is stronger. It doesn't matter whether you win the fight or not, but it does affect the dialogue between the two of them at the end.
  • Suikoden IV has the final duel with Troy. Leads to an Alas, Poor Villain moment afterwards, as it's noted that they had no real reason to sacrifice their life.
  • Super Mario Bros.:
    • Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time ends with the Shroob leader and her older sister defeated, and their invasion thwarted for good. Not really. As the Toadsworths take the Mario brothers to see a KO'd Bowser, the remains of the Elder Princess Shroob (which had been taken from the final battle) are consumed by him. The result is Shrowser, who the brothers must defeat using only counter-attacks.
    • Wario Land II: By completing the entire map and completing every level in all the story branches, the game will continue on from the main ending to The Really Final Chapter, where Wario steals Syrup's treasure as payback, complete with a Post-Final Boss, the giant spear man.
  • Super Robot Wars Z: Having defeated the Antispiral and stopped the completion of the Time Prison, Jigoku-hen ends much like the other games in the series, with the heroes talking about what they plan to do after splitting up, and all seems right with the world, until the player realizes that they haven't fought an original final boss yet. Cue alarms as Shikuu (who'd showed up throughout the game but hadn't had a formal introduction yet) appears, challenging the heroes.
  • Hwoarang's story in Tekken 4 has him beat Heihachi and win the King of Iron Fist Tournament in the match before the last one, where he goes to the Parking Garage stage and fights Jin Kazama. However, this is only semi-canon (Hwoarang didn't win the tournament and he never fought Jin, but according to Tekken 5, he did go to the garage and get ambushed by the Korean military for his desertion that kicks off 4).
  • Terraria: In a sense, ridding the world of all the Corruption/Crimson and Hallow after defeating the Moon Lord, being the last practical goal of the entire playthrough now that it really has nothing left for you or the current world to benefit from, and with endgame armor, none of the enemies will pose much of a threat as you cleanse the world of them for good.
  • Subverted in Undertale. After the credits of the True Pacifist ending, the screen shows static and Asriel Dreemurr reappears in his God of Hyperdeath form, saying "Did you really think it was over?!"... only for him to revert back to his child self again and sheepishly state that they haven't done the Kickstarter credits yet. It is played straight soon afterwards, though, if the player loads up the game again after completing the True Pacifist route and watching the credits go by, as Flowey will appear and confront the player (not the player character but the actual player) over how they are about to restart the game and deprive everyone, including the player character, of their happily ever after. He then says that if he can't change your mind, you should at least wipe his memory of the events of the game as well as everyone else's.
  • At the end of Wild ARMs, Zeikfried and Motherfried have been defeated, the efforts to drain Filgaia's life have been thwarted, and there's a good chance that its decay will even be reversed. The party takes the teleporter back to the earth and Zeikfried suddenly attacks them on the way down, having separated himself from Mother and becoming Zeik Tuvai.
  • In the ending of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, after defeating Saesenthessis/Saskia and resolving the political conflicts of the game, Geralt gets a message from Letho to have a meeting. At this point, Letho explains his role in the story, after which Geralt has two choices: A duel to the death or just letting the man go on his way.
  • At the end of Yu-Gi-Oh! BAM's first series, Marik attacks you one last time as you're relaxing with Yugi.

    Visual Novels 
  • This happens in the final chapter of It Lives Beneath. After finally dealing with zombie animals, the Society, and the Lake Ghost, everything is peaceful and the Main Character can have their happily ever after, right? Wrong. One last remaining member, Richard Sutcliffe, kidnaps them and ferries them to the middle of the lake locked in a coffin as revenge, leaving the Main Character to die a watery grave. Depending on the choices made, your character will indeed die, or they will break through, swim back to surface and confront Richard once and for all.

    Western Animation 
  • At the end of the Adventure Time "Islands" mini-series, Finn and the gang still need to get past the Colossus, even though Minerva has long since abandoned their "villainous" plans.
  • In the Season 2 finale of Wakfu, Remington holds Eva at gunpoint after the climactic battle has ended, requiring intervention from her sister Cleo and Dally to settle.

    Real Life 
  • The assassination of President Lincoln and subsequent pursuit of John Wilkes Booth at the end of the American Civil War was an example of this.
  • For the Soviets, the battle against Japan in World War II in 1945 was somewhat this for them, as their main adversary had been the Nazis for the war. They only had a few border conflicts with Japan prior to 1939.
  • The Gulf War was this for the Americans in the Cold War and the Middle East regarding the Iran–Iraq War. Communism had basically collapsed, but their ally that was Baathist Iraq was still unaccounted for.
  • The Siege of Masada during the Jewish Revolts. The Romans had already conquered Jerusalem, and the remaining dissenters had camped themselves in the nearby fortress of Masada. The rest of the conflict amounted to the Roman army finding a means of surmounting the literal Stone Wall to reach these rebels.
  • The Battle of New Orleans was the Final Battle of the War of 1812. However, it actually occurred after the war was officially over — the peace treaty had been signed in Belgium, and word didn't reach American and British forces in Louisiana in time to prevent the battle from taking place.
  • On a dramatically smaller scale, though, all throughout the modern world, whenever police forces successfully capture one or more crime suspects, and if the crime suspect(s) in question has/have more allies of his/hers/theirs hanging out somewhere nearby, he/she/they might as well go on the attack as well before the case in question is ever truly solved to start with.

 
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The death of Snatcher

Archibald finally gets what he wants, a white hat and a seat at the Tasting Table, betraying his friends, becoming a monster and refusing his last chance of redemption. It directly causes his death, when he eats the cheese he's allergic too, blowing himself up.

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