Credits Montage

aka: Series Ending Montage

The credits are rolling! Wasn't that a great show? Let's all reflect on the great moments we just watched... ah, here they come now, and they brought a stirring, victorious musical track, too!

In short; the credit sequences of TV shows, movies or video games include a montage of stills or clips from earlier in the show. In some works, this sequence is animated or drawn in a different style, making it an Animated Credits Opening at the end of the show. It's similar to a Title Montage, but the clips or stills tend to be longer and more representative of the complete plot, rather than (as in a Title Montage) brief clips showing off the characters and scenery.

May be related to the Photo Montage, which is frequently one of these. Shows that have gone into syndication have these added when the original broadcaster play the credits in a Credits Pushback.

Doesn't count if the events depicted happen after the ending — that is, as an epilogue. (For instance, the credits of WALL•E.)

Some shows have Hilarious Outtakes during their credits instead of a montage.

Compare the musical counterpart, the Credits Medley. Contrast Creative Closing Credits.

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As this trope concerns the endings of shows and movies, unmarked spoilers follow.

Examples:

Anime & Manga

• The shortened versions of the credits that are shown in the broadcast English dubs of Bleach and Naruto tend to be this, showing various screenshots from the current season. In Bleach's case, a shortened version of the ending theme plays.

• Fushigi Yuugi features this alongside a montage of promotional artworks or those taken from the manga. Even Nuriko's death episode has one for him.
• Some anime combine this with On the Next by having clips from the episode you just saw play, followed by clips from the next episode, in the Ending Theme.

• Gintama would often have this at the end of the action arcs and the last episodes of a season. The second movie has this at the end as well, showing scenes from the movie accompanied by the movie's theme. Then the first montage ends and the second begins, using the anime's first theme accompanied by scenes from the all six seasons in the foreground as scenes from the title sequences flash by in the background.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: The credits for the final episode of Stone Ocean consist of a montage with stylized silhouettes depicting moments from all previous parts, set to "Roundabout".
• The second ending sequence in Kirby: Right Back at Ya! uses previous clips from throughout the series.
• Episode 63 of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood has a special end credits sequence highlighting the life of Hohenheim (and doubling as a Really Dead Montage), using clips from throughout the show itself, including previous opening/ending sequences.
• Episode 14 of the Fate/stay night 2006 anime has one depicting various moments from through the show up until that point, all through Shirou's perspective, following Archer fighting (and losing to) Berserker. The Stinger towards the end of the credits then shows Archer's corpse disappearing, which leaves only a pendant, the one Rin gave to Shirou at the beginning of the war, behind. In fact, there's a reason why the montage focuses on Shirou. This is all foreshadowing to Archer's identity, which isn't revealed until Unlimited Blade Works (which the 2006 anime doesn't adapt).

Asian Animation

• BoBoiBoy: A variation occurs in the extended version of the first episode, made for the show's 10 year anniversary. The credits are an Art Shifted depiction of events that the audience have already seen but have yet to happen in the series, fitting for a journey lasting 10 years and beyond.
• Happy Heroes: The end credits sequences have a tendency to play multiple clips of episodes from whatever season the episodes are from.

Films — Animated

• The Ant Bully (in the form of cave paintings by the ants)
• Cars: After the epilogue vignettes there's a touching Credits Montage.
• One Stormy Night scrolls through scenes from the film.
• The Rugrats Movie uses stills from the movie being played under the credits.
• The Spongebob Squarepants Movie: The credits show pictures of SpongeBob in his new life as the manager of the Krusty Krab 2. The credits make it obvious that the job is horrible, but since SpongeBob loves to work, he's having the time of his life.
• In Turning Red, the credits include silhouettes of the characters performing actions from the film.

Films — Live-Action

• The opening credits of Watchmen detail the extensive Backstory, including explicitly showing The Comedian was on the grassy knoll.

• Kill Bill Volume 2, in the part of the credits that shows the entire cast of characters
• The Hangover featured still pictures from the guys' wild night when they were high on roofies.
• Sunshine had clips from the entire movie.
• Im Juli, the closing credits show stills of the actors alongside their names.
• Short Circuit recaps Number/Johnny Five's escapades, including some deleted scenes (an encounter with a toy robot, for instance).
• Little Shop of Horrors kicks off its end credits sequence with clips of the main players and some of the celebrities who made cameos.
• The end credits of The Bad and the Beautiful show short clips of all major characters along with the actors' names.
• Godzilla vs. Destoroyah utilizes a montage composed of clips from the 1954 original, plus all of the films in the Heisei series.
• Fright Night (2011): Each major credit of the film is accompanied by a brief clip from the film, which then freezes and acquires a stylized filter as the name appears.
• Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2 has one that acts as a credits montage for all five of the movies: basically, if an actor played a character that had a name in any film in the series, they're in the montage, regardless of whether they appeared in Breaking Dawn Part 2 itself - Anna Kendrick as Jessica Stanley, for instance, had at least a brief scene in every Twilight film except the one you just watched, but still gets her place in the ending montage.
• The credits sequence in But I'm a Cheerleader shows a few brief clips of each actor before showing their name. Amusingly, the actor playing Megan's boyfriend's segment begins with a Gross-Up Close-Up of him trying to kiss her.

Live-Action TV

• Many programs of T.A.T. Communications Co. (later Embassy Productions) — among them, but not limited to Diff'rent Strokes, The Facts of Life and One Day at a Time — used montages. Diff'rent Strokes froze its shots for most of its seasons, while The Facts of Life and One Day at a Time used clips that usually lasted 5-10 seconds each.
• Each episode of the Cirque du Soleil variety series Solstrom featured a montage covering most of the acts in the episode. Each act got text offering interesting details on the performer(s)/acts who weren't imported from Cirque's live shows, and the name of the specific show for those who were.

• Scrubs (At least up to season 7) had stills from the episode that just aired during the credits sequence. However, most of these stills were from events that that little to do with the episode's plot, such as JD's daydreams.
• The A-Team would show a funny or action-filled clip from the episode, and then freeze it at the most hilarious or climactic moment and a section of the credits would appear. Lather, rinse, repeat.
  • See also: most other series from Stephen J. Cannell Productions in the 1980s, e.g. The Greatest American Hero. (It was not uncommon for them to last over a minute, unusual for TV at the time... and even today.)
• The final episode of The Shield ends with a very moving nostalgic montage of both happy and sad events from earlier in the series.
• With Billy's departure in Power Rangers Zeo, we got a montage of Billy scenes going back to day one over the credits instead of the then-usual Hilarious Outtakes.
• Star Trek: The Original Series did this with a slight twist: Some of the stills shown during the closing credits were from entirely different episodes, usually ending with a particularly iconic image (the Green-Skinned Space Babe or the giant-headed alien puppet Balok).
• The final episode of Babylon 5 end credits featured the first and last images of the regular cast in order of internal chronology.
• The last episode of Choujuu Sentai Liveman had one of these take the place of the usual ending. Justified in that the montage is a projection from Gash's head.
• The last episode of Mimpi Metropolitan shows clips from past episodes instead of the usual Hilarious Outtakes.
• The credits to The Brittas Empire had stills from the episode that had just aired. The only exceptions to this was "High Noon", whose final still was a unique shot of Brittas receiving his George Medal with Helen in tow and the Christmas Specials.
• FC De Kampioenen: Every episode of the series ends with the credits rolling over (or, in later seasons, next to) clips of scenes shown earlier in the episode, accompanied by the theme music of the series.
• Every episode credits of Jejak Suara Adzan is accompanied by a montage of stills from the episode while the finale credits has a montage of stills from the whole series.
• Replacing the usual On the Next, the ending credits for the finale of Janda Kembang is shown with a montage of clips of Salmah's moments with Malik and Kemal throughout the series.
• Ultraman Tiga: Aside from episodes 48, 49 and 52, every episode's end credits consisted of footage from that episode or, in the case of episodes 50 and 51, footage from across the show's entire run thus far. However, there were a few episodes whose end credits included brief scenes of original footage.

Video Games

• Cave Story does it in reverse chronological order — and it's a bit longer if you beat the True Final Boss.

• EarthBound Series:
  • EarthBound actually justifies this trope as a Photo Montage.
  • Mother 3: The credits depicts several events that occurred throughout the story.
• Almost all Kirby games from Kirby Super Star Ultra onward have photos of the Story Mode or Extra Mode present during the end credits. Kirby's Adventure features Attract Mode-style battles with each of the non-final bosses within its credits.
• Octopath Traveler: The game keeps track of the final blow done to every boss, and once the player beats their chosen protagonist's fourth chapter, replays them all in the background while credits scroll.
• Ōkami has one with a moving scroll showing the moments of Amaterasu's journey.
• RPG Maker lets you make your own Credits Montage by putting a "snapshot" event in your game, which records the image and later shows it during the credits.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • The very first Sonic the Hedgehog game has small clips of Sonic running through the zones with the credits showing inbetween each zone.
  • Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 use still images of cutscenes and gameplay during the credits.
  • Sonic Heroes - After clearing a team's story mode, the FMVs from their story play silently during the credits.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) has clips from cutscenes.
  • Sonic Generations has gameplay clips from the original versions of the levels adapted for the game.
• Super Smash Bros. Brawl: The credits for Adventure Mode utilizes cinematics from the entire story.

• Super Mario Bros.:
  • Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door has screenshots of earlier moments in the game, along with a parade of character silhouettes walking by.
  • Super Paper Mario: The game's credits show shots from pivotal moments during the story.
  • Luigi's Mansion: The credits depicts Luigi's progress through the mansion as well capturing the various ghosts.
  • Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Galaxy. Sunshine is not quite this trope as it has holiday photos of the stages instead.
  • New Super Mario Bros. has this as well. It's an Evolving Credits Montage, as each time you beat more levels that you originally skipped and then go back to beat the game again, more levels get added to the ending with the word "NEW!" put on the picture.
  • Done in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, although the montage shows the events after the game and the gang's vacation through the same areas they explored.

• Persona:
  • Persona 3 used clips from the animated story events. Could very well be a case of My Life Flashed Before My Eyes.
  • The credits of Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth have a series of drawings depicting both previous story events and the characters having fun in the movie theater.

• The King of Dragons credits shows all the bosses the player fought in the game.
• Final Fantasy IX, although the last sequence widens to show parts not included in the original shot.
• Chrono Cross, in black and white, with extra clips at the end.

• Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned has one of these showing how Niko and Johnny's stories intersect. The Ballad Of Gay Tony follows suit, presenting scenes from the main missions and showing what a few characters are up to immediately following the end of the story.
• A recurring element in Quantic Dream games starting with Heavy Rain is a montage during the initial credits roll. The scenarios shown, however, are pre-determined and may not reflect what choices you made while playing.
• Both Ouendan games and Elite Beat Agents have stylized black-and-white versions of the good endings for some of the levels.

• Mad Father: All of the CG graphic cutscenes shown throughout the game appear over the credits, from Monika's portrait, straight through to the eponymous man himself gone mad. Also counts as a Photo Montage.
• Credits in the Polish adventure game Wacki: Kosmiczna Rozgrywka include a number of animated scenes from the game, squashed off to the side.
• Several games in the Pokémon series have one, such as Pokémon Platinum, Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl and Pokémon Legends: Arceus.

Western Animation

• Codename: Kids Next Door: At the very end of the episode "Operation I.N.T.E.R.V.I.E.W.S.", the credits shows still images of a scene from each episode in the series appropriately marking the end of the series period.
• The Owl House: The ending credits for "Thanks to Them" show a series of images showing some more of the Hexsquad’s adventures in the human realm, with the final image being a Team Shot of Luz and everyone as they prepare to return to the Demon Realm. The following episode, "For the Future", does the same thing, only with it showing what was happening back in the Demon Realm during the Hexsquad's time on Earth.
• The Simpsons:
  • "Homer at the Bat" had a montage with an 'old film' sepia effect.
  • "Homer Goes to College" starts out with screenshots of earlier moments within the episode, but after showing Homer chasing the squirrels and hitting the dean with his car, it veers off into brand new images.

• The Star Trek episode of Futurama had this as a spoof of the credits montage on Star Trek.
• The Venture Brothers has one in every episode, followed by The Stinger. In seasons one and two it's static images of scenes from the episode, but from season three on it's animated clips.
• The Raccoons: With the exception of The Christmas Raccoons pilot special, the credits consist of several stills taken from the episode in question. The final still in every episode (not including the specials) is always an Establishing Shot of the Evergreen Forest at night◊.

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