Sequel Hooks in live-action movies. Beware of unmarked spoilers!
- An intertitle at the end of The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension announces that its sequel would be called Buckaroo Banzai vs. the World Crime League. It was never produced.
- Alien vs. Predator:
- AVP: Alien vs. Predator: The PredAlien chestburster at the end prompted an immediate reaction of "Well, they've set up the sequel nicely then..." and sure enough, said sequel opens on the same scene, even. Reshot, admittedly, but recognisably meant to be identical.
- The sequel ends with a Sequel Hook of its own. At the very end, Colonel Stevens puts the predator's gun in a box saying that "This isn't for our world, is it Ms. Yutani?" and it ends just like that. Unfortunately, due to the poor success of the first two, they probably won't make a third one.
- Alita: Battle Angel sets one up by introducing Nova, the leader of Zalem and the actual source of every problem Alita faced throughout the movie, as well as showing Alita's descent into Zalem.
- All Cheerleaders Die ends with Alexis rising from her grave.
- The Live-Action Adaptation for Alvin and the Chipmunks ended with the movie's Big Bad, Corrupt Corporate Executive Ian Hawke, trying to get squirrels to sing. Like the Back to the Future example below, this is a Sequel Hook only in retrospect.
- The Artemis Fowl film ends with Holly Short receiving from Artemis Fowl Sr. a list of Opal Koboi's accomplices and Artemis Fowl Jr. calling Opal to tell her that she's failed and they're coming for her. The film then ends with Mulch Diggums being broken out of interrogation and Holly flying alongside the group as Artemis Fowl Jr. says that they have unfinished business.
- Assassin's Creed (2016). Aside from the fact that the Assassins have been strengthened with Callum and the Apple now among them, in Callum's vision, one of the ancestral Assassins surrounding him looks like Sophia.
- Astro (2018) ends with Laura Lee, lamenting the disappearance of her father who was frozen and taken into space against his will. Vivian then appears in her room and offers her a stone that she says can change destiny. The final scene is Laura reaching forward to grab it.
- Every installment of the Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! series does this.
- The first movie ends with carrots rising from the ground and deciding it is safe to attack after the tomatoes are defeated.
- Return of the Killer Tomatoes, the first sequel, straight up says in the opening song that another sequel is in the cards if the film is successful enough, but it also states in the credits to keep a lookout for Killer Tomatoes Eat France, even though the third film is called Killer Tomatoes Strike Back with Killer Tomatoes Eat France ending up the fourth and final film in the series.
- After supposedly getting killed by his own tomatoes in Killer Tomatoes Strike Back, Professor Gangreen appears alive and well during the end credits and promises to return.
- Killer Tomatoes Eat France ends with Professor Gangreen escaping in a hot air balloon and again vowing to return.
- Austin Powers in Goldmember hints that Scott Evil will become the villain of the next film.
- At the end of the John Hughes movie Baby's Day Out, baby Bink picks out a book entitled Baby's Trip to China, but due to the movie's poor financial performance, as well as Hughes' untimely death, the sequel never came.
- Back to the Future
- Doc Brown whisks Marty and girlfriend Jennifer away at the end of the first film. The writers merely intended it as a closing gag, and later had to work out why he whisked him (and her) away. Word of God states that they would have not put Jennifer in the car if it was planned as a sequel hook, note that she never does little but pass out. That repeat of the end scene of part 1 at the beginning of part 2, while looking like a continuation picking right up at the Sequel Hook, was actually a re-filming of it with a minor Retcon, so that the new actors could match up with the footage to follow, and so that they could subtly insert a moment in which Doc has a new reaction to Marty asking whether he'll become an asshole in the future that is more appropriate to what Part 2 portrays. (In the original version of the first film's end scene—the one from the first film—he immediately brushes off the question with a sincere-sounding reassurance that "both you and Jennifer turn out just fine". In the re-filmed version of the scene at the beginning of part 2, he says the same line, but this time hesitates first with some hems and haws and an "oh shit, I wish he hadn't asked me that" look in his eyes.) A rare case of a Sequel Hook actually going against itself.
- Back to the Future Part II uses the 1955 'end' of the first as a hook into Back to the Future Part III; as soon as Marty's gone back to the future and 1955 Doc Brown's celebrated his good work, the Marty from slightly later in the future appears and tells Doc that he's "back from the future".
- Big Ass Spider! includes a mid-credits scene revealing a giant cockroach is attacking the Statue of Liberty.
- Biggles: Adventures in Time finished with our American time-traveller getting zapped in to help Biggles escape from a cannibal cooking pot. It may even have finished "To Be Continued..." The film bombed and no sequel was made.
- Blade: Trinity: The audience is led to believe that Blade died fighting Drake/Dracula, but just before the credits roll, Drake is still alive, and the audience sees Blade riding away on his motorcycle, set to fight again another day. This actually depends on which cut you're watching.
- The Bridge Curse: The second Stinger shows a pair of feet walking up to the reporter, who's on the ground with tape over her mouth. The feet stop by her head, and the man to whom they belong tell her that they need her help in breaking the cycle, implying he wants to put an end to the hauntings and the deaths.
- Mr. Brooks was originally conceived as the first of a trilogy, so there are many plot points that are left unresolved. The most evident one is the main protagonist's daughter planning to kill him.
- The Cannonball Run:
- The first film ends with the racers having a party to celebrate completing the race. Just before the credits roll, Seymour says "Maybe next year, we'll do this again." The second film does take place the following year. Ironically, Seymour doesn't appear.
- The second film ends with the reveal that The Sheik has lost the race again and has commissioned another one to start the following day. The semi-sequel Speed Zone takes place at least a year later and The Sheik is identified as a member of the previous year's winning team.
- The Car: Road to Revenge ends with Daria pushing the burnt-out remains of the car off the edge of the cliff and into the lake. The final shot of the movie shows the car sitting on the bottom of the lake. And then its headlights turn on...
- At the end of John Carpenter's Christine, Dennis, Leigh and Junkins survey the block of metal which used to be the titular vengeful automobile. A close-up reveals a piece of her grille bending ever so slightly, hinting that she is Not Quite Dead. There's a similar hook in the novel, but neither the book nor the film got a sequel (A car which might have been Christine does show up briefly as a Mythology Gag in Cat's Eye, and she shows up with an undead Belch behind the wheel to give the grown-up Henry Bowers a ride to the Losers' motel in the novel It, all of which implies that she might still be out there, plotting her revenge).
- City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold ended with Duke handing Mitch a piece of gold from the Washburn treasure.
- Conan the Barbarian (1982) ended with a shot of Conan as the king. This was eventually followed up in Age of Conan's intro, which shows King Conan sparring with one of his spies and planning for war.
- This was done twice in the Critters film series. The first film ended with a shot of some Crite eggs that would inevitably hatch into more Crites, while the third film ended with Charlie being instructed to relinquish the two Crite eggs he found and a space pod arriving to pick up the eggs as the screen said "To be continued", setting up the events for the fourth and final film.
- The Dark Knight Trilogy:
- Batman Begins: "Take this guy: Armed robbery, double homicide. Has a taste for the theatrical, like you. Leaves a calling card." This is a Shout-Out to Batman: Year One, which ends exactly the same way.
- The Dark Knight itself has a huge sequel hook, edging into cliffhanger territory: The series can't very well end on Batman being demonized and hunted, so how will he atone for Two-Face's crimes and regain Gotham's trust? Yet that ending is so organic and un-gimmicky it takes a minute to recognize it as a hook.
- DC Extended Universe:
- Man of Steel has Clark considering what he will do and how he will help people now that the world knows he exists. The last scene is him talking about what the best job would be to keep aware of world situations, and he dons the famous glasses and joins the staff of the Daily Planet. In more of a tidbit, logos are seen around the movie for both Lex Corp and Wayne Enterprises, with Lex Luthor and Bruce Wayne showing up in the sequel Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
- Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice:
- The metahuman footage scene, which serves to set up the upcoming movies for Aquaman, Cyborg and the Flash (and Justice League).
- A photograph of Wonder Woman posing with a group of soldiers during World War I is shown, setting up her solo film.
- Lex Luthor is defeated, but claims that something far worse is on the horizon now that Superman is dead, setting up Justice League.
- The very last scene features the dirt on Superman's coffin beginning to levitate.
- Wonder Woman (2017) has a separate stinger showing Etta Candy, Sameer, Chief and Charlie gathering after the events of the film in order to find a Mother Box.
- Suicide Squad 2016: Bruce Wayne meets Amanda Waller, who hands him over files about Aquaman, and Bruce warns her that if she causes a mess again with her Task Force X project, his "friends" (the Justice League) will respond.
- Zack Snyder's Justice League:
- Ryan Choi (The Atom III) getting higher clearance and a reference to his specialty in nanotechnology at S.T.A.R. Labs. Zack Snyder confirmed this was part of him campaigning for Warner Bros. to make a movie with the character.
- Following Steppenwolf's death and his head rolling back to Apokolips, Darkseid readies his armada to invade the Earth.
- Lois is preparing for her pregnancy while Bruce congratulates Clark on both the proposal and their child.
- Lex Luthor hires Deathstroke to target Batman, telling him that he is Bruce Wayne with the original plan for The Batman (2022) to revolve around the aftermath of this.
- A new Knightmare sequence where Batman has a new Justice League made up of Cyborg, Flash, Mera, Deathstroke and even Joker. Then the Anti-Life-controlled Superman finds out where they are. Slightly earlier in the movie provided some more context to this by indicating that a possible cause for this future is Darkseid and the forces of Apokolips killing Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Lois Lane, with the last causing Superman to fall to the Anti-Life Equation — leading to a continuation of the Knightmare seen in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice in which the aforementioned characters, Batman, and Kilowog are all dead.
- Bruce Wayne waking up from the aforementioned nightmare, only to be visited by Martian Manhunter — previously revealed to be General Calvin Swanwick — proposing a partnership with the Justice League going forward, effectively becoming the team's seventh member.
- Aquaman (2018): Black Manta teams up with Dr. Shin and intends to kill Aquaman.
- SHAZAM! (2019) features a scene during the credits where Dr. Sivana ends up in jail after being defeated by the Shazam Family. It is there where he meets Maxivermis Mind, in a sequence clearly setting up an adaptation of the Shazam and the Seven Magic Lands story arc going on in the comic book at the time.
- Birds of Prey (2020): the Birds of Prey (Black Canary, Huntress and Renee Montoya) are formed at the end of the film.
- Dead in Tombstone: Of sorts. Guerrero kills his old gang, but the Devil sabotages him so he doesn't succeed until past midnight (therefore breaking the deal). Satan changes the deal so Guerrero is forced to act as his bounty hunter for the rest of eternity. The movie ends with Guerrero riding to the sunset to his next target.
- At the end of Death Factory, Rachel is finally able to overpower Alexa by knocking her down and stabbing her with her own scalpel-accented hands. Rachel faints, later waking up in a hospital where the doctor informs her that she is the sole survivor of the massacre in the factory. Unbeknownst to Rachel, Alexa has also survived, and is still loose in the factory, waiting for more victims.
- Descendants ends with Mal doing an Aside Glance with a mischievous smile while asking if the audience really thinks that's the end of the story. Uma says the same line word-per-word in Descendants 2.
- District 9: Christopher promises that he'll be back in three years — with reinforcements. We have it coming.
- Doctor Detroit ends with a promise of Doctor Detroit II: The Wrath of Mom. Sadly, it remains unproduced to this day.
- The end of Dracula Untold, jumps to the present day - Vlad's still alive, and so is the Elder Vampire, now in a more human form. As well, Mina Harker is alive in the present day, or a reincarnation of her.
- Dylan Dog: Dead of Night has a sequel hook where it is implied that Dylan and Marcus will have more adventures and fight new monsters (with a new monster appearing in the last shot). It is also revealed that Gabriel survived the vampires' attack. However, the film's poor reviews and box office will most likely prevent a sequel.
- Encino Man ends with Pauly Shore's character Stanley "Stoney" Brown imitating Arnold Schwarzenegger's "I'll be back" from The Terminator/Terminator 2. Encino Man 2 was never made, and none of the characters appear in the 1996 made for TV movie Encino Woman.
- Eragon ends with Eragon and his dragon defeating the forces of evil. Then shortly before the credits roll, the film's Big Bad slices open a large tapestry to reveal his own Dragon, which would presumably do battle with Eragon in the sequel. However, Eldest (the next book in the series) was never filmed.
- Fantastic Beasts:
- The first movie contains several.
- Newt comes to New York and comes up with several, obviously BS reasons as to why he's actually there that no one buys. He eventually settles on the truth that a friend tipped him off about an abused animal that should be set free in its home in Arizona but who exactly is that friend?
- Grindelwald is imprisoned but given that it's canonically 19 years before he's defeated he will obviously get out.
- Newt and his eventual wife Tina part ways but promise to keep in touch and she names his book. Setting their relationship on its path to is inevitable conclusion.
- Credence survives being blown apart by the American Aurors and gets on the boat to go to Europe.
- The second ends on a couple of doozies:
- Grindelwald tells Credence his supposed birth name, Aurelius Dumbledore, and says his "brother" is trying to kill him. There's a couple of ways this can be taken. First of all, him being Dumbledore's brother just does not add up. Second of all, Grindelwald has been lying to and manipulating Credence since the moment they met. These two things imply that it's manipulation while also kicking the can down the road about who Credence really is.
- The niffler steals the pendant that stops Dumbledore from fighting Grindelwald, setting the stage for a full on war between the magical and Muggle worlds.
- Queenie and Credence both join Grindelwald, setting them up against their friends and/or families.
- Since Nagini is a good guy at this point and tries to stop Credence from joining Grindelwald, how and why does she eventually meet up with Voldemort?
- The Fast and the Furious franchise:
- Flash Gordon (1980) has someone picking up Ming's ring after the story ends; since the movie was a bomb, nothing came of it. Possibly in homage, the third series of the revived Doctor Who ends with someone picking up the Master's ring and laughing evilly.
- Freddy vs. Jason ended with Freddy's disembodied head winking at the audience. While no more movies with both of them were ever made, the story was directly continued in Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash.
- Earlier installments of both Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street also ended on obvious Sequel Hooks:
- Examples in the former series include the first film showing a zombified Jason attacking Alice Hardy in the lake, with her later remarking that he must still be there (establishing the premise of future films focusing on him rather than his mother as the primary villain); the fourth film zooming in on a traumatized Tommy's facial expression to imply he will become the next killer after Jason's death; the fifth film finally showing a mentally-disturbed Tommy donning a Jason-inspired hockey mask and being poised to stab Pam from behind, setting up his role as the new villain; and the ninth film showing Freddy Krueger's gloved hand popping out of the ground and dragging the previously resurrected Jason's abandoned mask down to Hell, paving the way for Freddy vs. Jason. What is most funny is that two of the mentioned films featuring Sequel Hooks were marketed as series finales, not to mention that the extraordinary financial success of the original film was unanticipated before its release (making it initially unclear whether it would be worthwhile to make any sequels, especially since Slasher Film franchises with multiple entries were largely unprecedented before the release of the first Friday the 13th movie - after which several earlier films generated franchises with multiple sequels as well, e.g., Halloween, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, even Psycho, etc.).
- Examples in the latter series include the first film showing Freddy influencing Nancy's dreams at the end by taking control of the car occupied by herself and her friends, and then yanking her mother through the front door's window, despite supposedly being defeated; the second film featuring him performing the same trick from the first film on Jesse, Lisa, and their friends, this time aboard a schoolbus; the third film showing the model Elm Street's lights turning on unbeknownst to Neil; the fourth film showing Alice Johnson seeing Freddy's reflection in the water of a fountain; and the fifth film showing a group of children humming Freddy's rhyme while jumping rope.
- Fright Night (1985) ends with the revelation that Evil Ed is still alive (or rather undead), but while a sequel was made, it went in an entirely different direction.
- Fu Manchu Hammer horror movies always end with him saying "The World shall hear from me again."
- The Garbage Pail Kids Movie, of all things, had one with the titular kids escaping and hitting the road. A sequel never came because of the film's failure.
- Every single one of the Ghoulies movies ends with hinting towards a sequel in spite of every film in the series having little to do with one another.
- The original film ends with the Ghoulies showing up in the backseat of the car John, Rebecca, and Mike are riding in immediately after Mike questions whether it's truly over.
- Ghoulies II ends with the camera focusing on the restroom where the Fish Ghoulie killed P. Hardin in while the Fish Ghoulie is heard laughing maniacally.
- Ghoulies III: Ghoulies Go to College! ends with an evil laugh being heard as the Fish Ghoulie's hand reaches out from the enchanted commode the Ghoulies were summoned from and crushes a beer can.
- The end of Ghoulies IV has Ghoulie Lite and Ghoulie Dark grab the jewel that was supposed to finish the ritual intended to summon Faust and tell the audience to look out for Ghoulies IV: Part 2, which was never made.
- G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra: Cobra Commander (actually using that moniker, to be exact) and the masked Destro appear only almost at the end, the US President whistling a certain tune (hinting that he's actually Zartan impersonating the President) and the Joes going off on another mission.
- G.I. Joe: Retaliation: Cobra Commander is still at large and there's a possibility that Destro, who was left in the prison by Cobra Commander, may return as a threat in a possible sequel.
- The Stinger of Girl vs. Monster shows Deimata cracking her containment unit just a little, hinting that she may escape.
- The Godzilla (1998) ends with a shot of a single left-over Godzilla egg preparing to hatch. The film was intended as the first chapter of a trilogy; as it bombed, however, no sequels were made (at least, not in America). The hook did figure into the premise of the Animated Adaptation Godzilla: The Series.
- Deliberately averted in Godzilla (2014) by Edwards. He says that he typically rolls his eyes at films that go out of their way to introduce plot points near the end for the express purpose of having them resolved in future installments. He prefers to have a film that can stand perfectly well on its own. That said, the film's ending leaves itself open for a sequel, as Godzilla returns to the ocean, with the expectation that he'll return when humanity next needs him.
Edwards: "I want a story that begins and ends, and you leave on a high. That’s all we cared about when we were making this; just this film. If this film is good, the others can come, but let’s just pay attention to this and not get side-tracked by other things."
- Green Lantern (2011) has Sinestro convince the Guardians to forge a yellow ring to combat Parallax, only to be dissuaded by Hal as being a bad idea, which he ends up agreeing and later commends Hal for succeeding in defeating him without it. In The Stinger the yellow ring is later shown sealed away in a hidden chamber, with Sinestro taking the ring for himself, initiating an Evil Costume Switch. The film did poorly at the box office, so we'll probably never see a sequel.
- The Gumball Rally ends with Michael and Smith deciding to run another race the next day despite most of the racers having their cars impounded. If there's any doubt, Michael dispels it by whispering "Gumball" to Sam.
- Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers ends with Jamie wearing a clown mask, standing on top of the stairs, holding a pair of scissors she used to stab her foster mother while Loomis screams, letting us know she will become the series' next antagonist for any future films as she begins her quest to hunt down and kill the remaining cast members.
- Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers ends with a mysterious man in black, possibly Michael's father, wearing a black glove, letting us know another film will address the dangling subplot of the Cult of Thorn and Michael's mysterious connection to it; his holding cell is found empty.
- Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle ends with the title characters planning a trip to Amsterdam.
- A Haunting At Silver Creek: The second film ends with Jack coming back as a ghost to continue murdering people.
- Hawk the Slayer features a hint towards a sequel. Hawk's evil brother, Voltan, appears to Hawk and Co. to be acting alone, but the audience can see that he is just a subservient Dragon to the shadowy, hidden Big Bad. He gets killed, but the final scene sees his corpse being borne away from its burial chamber by said Big Bad for resurrection.
- Hellboy (2019):
- Six months after the story wraps up, Hellboy, Alice, and Daimio discover a chamber containing Abe Sapien.
- The Stinger teases the involvement of Koschei the deathless.
- Parodied in History of the World Part I, which contains sequel hook material promoting History of the World Part II, which was never intended to be produced. Viewers were given previews of concepts such as 'Hitler on Ice' and 'Jews in Space', simply as an excuse to shoehorn such silly material into the film.
- At the very end of The Host (2006)'s ending credits, the monster's roar can be heard again. Since at the time it was the highest-grossing South Korean film ever, both a sequel and an American remake were set to happen. However neither of them could escape Development Hell.
- The Hunger Games: Even if you didn't know the book had sequels, the end of the film makes it perfectly clear that there's more to come.
- Played with in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: the last scene has Mutt about to pick up Indy's fedora (which a gust of wind blew off its rack and towards him) only for Indy to grab it right before he has a chance to put it on.
- At the end of Ip Man 2, we are introduced to young Bruce Lee, who Ip tells to come back when he's older.
- Jack the Giant Slayer: Near the end of the film, set in modern day London, a boy named Rodey grins evilly at the royal crown (actually the crown of King Erik) and carries with him a backpack similar to Roderick's. This heavily implies that he is a descendant of Roderick (or at least a descendant of any siblings or cousins Roderick may have had, as he never had any children himself) and plans to do what his ancestor did centuries ago.
- James Bond: "James Bond will return..."
- At the end of Spectre, Blofeld is defeated and captured, paving the way for his return. And as always, the credits say "James Bond will return" to reassure the audience that the franchise has no intention of ending.
- Jason X: On Earth Two, two teens watch something land in the lake, as Jason's mask sinks to the bottom. The follow-up is found in comics and novels.
- Jem and the Holograms (2015) has a mid-credits scene with Erica Raymond, who's trying to bring Jem down, having finally found a match for her: cue the Misfits, her rivals from the animated show. The film was a box office bomb though, so the chances of it getting a sequel are basically none.
- Journey 2 The Mysterious Island ends with Anderson presenting Sean with Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon as a birthday present, saying it's an adventure he wants the whole family to take. The camera then pulls upwards, above the house, into the sky, into orbit and to just behind the moon.
- Kaamelott: Premier Volet: At the end, Horsa discusses the quest to find the Holy Grail with King Arthur, Lancelot faces the gigantic Nazgûl-like ghost of his father by the tower in which he locked Guenièvre, and Méléagant returns.
- In Killer Crocodile, the main characters find the nest of the title creature and destroy its eggs. After the climax, the film ends with a scene that shows that one of the eggs survived, and a little croc hatches out of it. Since the film was shot back-to-back with its sequel, continuation to this set-up was delivered.
- Kim Possible ends on a stinger where Drakken, having been aged down into a child during the film's climax, goes undercover at Kim's school. His alibi is that he skipped several grades and that Shego is his mother.
- Spoofed in Kung Pow! Enter the Fist (as most things were in that movie), both when Wo claims to meet the Chosen One again... "many times... in the sequel". There is also a clip of a "sequel" at the end of the movie, but this is comprised almost entirely of scenes that got left on the cutting room floor.
- The Last Airbender: As with the show it's based on, it ends with a shot of Ozai assigning Azula the task of capturing the Avatar. But of course thanks to the dismal box-office returns and overwhelmingly negative reception, the planned sequels that cover the rest of the series were quickly scrapped.
- Particularly blatant (and incontinent) one in The Last Starfighter. The Dragon, having been deposed and arrested on orders from his Man Behind the Man overlord, kills his two guards with his flicknife sceptre (which he has already shown off to everybody) and escapes.
- They weren't quite as stupid as that makes it sound. They took it away from him, but he took advantage of his guards being (literally) off-balance due to Alex firing on the command ship and got it back.
- The Last Witch Hunter leaves itself several, depending on what they'd like to do next.
- For a Here We Go Again! plot, they have the Witch Queen's heart hidden "safely" in Kaulder's armoury.
- For Going Cosmic, Chloe mentions "worse, deeper things" waiting to emerge until Kaulder's out of the equation.
- For exploring the verse, there's Rich Bitch Danique's grudge with Kaulder and (especially) Chloe.
- The 1998 film version of Lost in Space does this as well: all is well and the villain has been spared and is still aboard, but suddenly a Negative Space Wedgie threatens the ship. The only option is to hit the button that randomly zaps the ship to another point in the galaxy (why do they even have that button?) to who-knows-what adventures. We don't know what adventures: the film bombed and - you guessed it...
- M3GAN: While Gemma and her niece Cady are able to put down killer robot M3GAN, the last shot of the film is Gemma’s home assistant turning on and looking at the camera, implying that M3GAN was able to upload her mind to it.
- The old trope image was from Mac and Me, which ended with the eponymous alien and his family becoming U.S. citizens and driving off in a car with a sign on the back with a big pink bubble showing up at the end saying "We'll be back". A sequel was never made because, you guessed it, the film bombed.
- "Machete... Will Return in... Machete Kills! And... Machete Kills Again!"!
- Manos: The Hands of Fate not only ends with "The End?", but also conspicuously allows Torgo to escape.
- From the Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- In general, most films end with a "Will Return" Caption at the end of the credits.
- Iron Man has James Rhodes looking at the older Mark II silver-and-grey armor and says "Next time, baby", an obvious foreshadowing of his becoming War Machine (ironically this is not to be, at least for Rhodes' actor). The brief after-credits scene has Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury declaring the existence of other superheroes and the "Avenger Initiative" is about as blatant as a Sequel Hook can get without being a Cliffhanger.
- Overlooked because of how awesome it was, but Tony telling a press conference outright that he was Iron Man not only subverts the Secret Identity thing but makes you wonder where they are going to take that.
- The Incredible Hulk (2008) has Samuel Sterns head mutating, hinting at him turning into Leader. Tony "Iron Man" Stark makes a cameo announcing that they're putting a "team" together. In the end Bruce attempts a controlled transformation with an ambiguous smile on his face. According to the DVD commentary, whether the smile indicates that he'd actually gained control or not would depend on which came first: another Hulk movie (where Banner wouldn't be in control) or The Avengers (2012) (where he would).
- After Agent Coulson got called away in the middle of Iron Man 2, The Stinger shows that he was sent to a strange alien hammer that landed in the middle of the New Mexico desert (a scene that was later incorporated into Thor itself). The talk with Nick Fury and the map in the background was meant to foreshadow other Marvel characters who were being primed for future film appearances. The most notable might be the indicator in Africa, meant as a nod to the Black Panther.
- Thor contains a post-credits sequence revealing that Nick Fury is in possession of the Tesseract, and that Loki is still alive and controlling Doctor Selvig. This directly leads into The Avengers (2012) and foreshadows the events of Captain America: The First Avenger.
- Captain America: The First Avenger has Steve waking up in the present day after being frozen for 70+ years. A post credits scene hints to The Avengers (2012) by having Nick Fury give Cap a mission, in fact being a scene taken directly from that movie. It then shifts into a straight-up trailer for the film. The Red Skull's spectacular "death" also works as a sequel hook for future Cap movies, though it wound up only being a bit part in Avengers: Infinity War.
- The Avengers (2012) itself ends with the Other lamenting the Chitauri invasion has failed as humans are "too unruly", and claims trying to take them on again would be "courting Death". Cue The Reveal of Thanos, smiling at the thought.
- Thor: The Dark World ended with Loki sitting on the throne of Asgard and impersonating the Allfather after faking his own death. The Stinger shows the first appearance of the Collector, from Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), being given the Aether to look after by Sif and Volstagg. It also announces that the Aether and Tesseract are Infinity Gems and the Collector wants to get them all. "One down, five to go."
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier ends with Nick Fury faking his death to go after HYDRA and Cap and the Falcon heading off to find the Winter Soldier, who in The Stinger is shown learning about his past life. There's also a second hook, with Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver being shown as HYDRA captives.
- Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) has The Reveal that Star-Lord is only half-human and that his father sent Yondu to abduct him for unknown reasons, Drax shifts his vendetta from Ronan to Thanos, and Nebula is still alive.
- Avengers: Age of Ultron ends with most of the team on hiatus, leaving Captain America and Black Widow to form a new line-up for the Avengers. The Stinger also shows Thanos taking the Infinity Gauntlet and declaring that he'll find the Infinity Gems himself.
- Ant-Man ends with two different instances: In the first stinger, Hank Pym shows Hope a prototype Wasp suit that was made for her. The second is a scene from Captain America: Civil War, where Captain America and Falcon have managed to find Winter Soldier, and Falcon (who had been a Hero Antagonist earlier in the film) knows a guy who he could contact. Cue "Ant-Man Will Return."
- In Captain America: Civil War, the film itself ends with Captain America breaking his allies out of jail and going on the run, with Black Widow implied to be a fugitive as well. In The Stingers, Black Panther gives asylum to Bucky until his brainwashing is undone, with the warning that doing so could bring war on Wakanda, and Spider-Man recuperates from the fight back at home and discovers the Spider-Signal built into the upgraded web-shooters that Stark made for him, with the promise that "Spider-Man will return." This also retroactively set-up the Black Widow (2021) Interquel.
- Doctor Strange (2016): In the film itself, the day is saved but the Ancient One is dead, meaning evil forces will want to take advantage of there being no Sorcerer Supreme to oppose them. As for the stingers, one is a scene lifted from Thor: Ragnarok, as Thor comes to Strange for help with what's been going on in Asgard. The other shows that Mordo has made a Face–Heel Turn.
- There are five end credit scenes for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and some of them open real possibilities for future Marvel movies.
- Stakar has reassembled his former team which comic book fans may recognize as the original Guardians of the Galaxy.
- Ayesha will present to the rest of the Sovereign her latest creation which she dubs "Adam".
- Before the credits, Nebula leaves to go kill Thanos, hinting at a reappearance in Infinity War.
- The first stinger for Spider-Man: Homecoming shows Mac Gargan saying he's got some buddies that want to go after Spider-Man, foreshadowing the Scorpion and maybe the Sinister Six. The second stinger parodies sequel hooks at the expense of people hoping to see one, with Captain America presenting a PSA like the ones seen in the film about patience and how waiting for something isn't always worth it.
- In Thor: Ragnarok, Thor and his allies are heading safely to Earth when they're intercepted by a giant, ominous spaceship; with the implication (confirmed in Infinity War) that it's Thanos'.
- Black Panther (2018) doesn't really have a hook as much as it gives an update on an existing one: following from Civil War, Bucky is continuing his physical and mental rehabilitation in Wakanda.
- Avengers: Infinity War ends with The Bad Guy Wins, giving the Avengers a huge problem to fix in Avengers: Endgame. In the Stinger, Nick Fury sends a signal to someone and receives a star symbol in acknowledgement — the Chest Insignia of Captain Marvel, setting up her own movie and her presence in Endgame.
- Ant-Man and the Wasp: The Pym family disappears thanks to Thanos' actions in Infinity War, and Scott is stranded in the Quantum Realm.
- Captain Marvel (2019): Subverted with the main one in the film, Ronan promises to come back to Earth for Carol — but this film is a prequel, and we know that he'll die before he can make good on his threat. Carol does make a similar promise to stop the Kree's warmongering, though, which would work equally well for a sequel. The Stinger once again just updates an existing hook, with Carol arriving on Earth in response to Fury's signal in Infinity War.
- Avengers: Endgame: While mostly serving as a conclusion to the Infinity Saga of the series, it does set up a few new plot threads for the series going forth. In the middle of the film, (the past version of) Loki escapes with the Tesseract, and remains at large in his timeline even as Thanos is dealt with, setting up the events of Loki (2021). Then at the end, Thor joins up with the Guardians of the Galaxy to help track down the time-displaced Gamora of 2014; leaving Valkyrie in charge of the Asgardian refugees now living in New Asgard, setting up Thor: Love and Thunder and presumably the third Guardians of the Galaxy film. Meanwhile, Steve, now elderly after choosing to remain in the past and live a full life with Peggy, passes his shield and the mantle of Captain America over to Sam, setting up The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
- Spider-Man: Far From Home has two hooks, one for Spider-Man personally and one for the franchise at large: for Spider-Man, J.J. Jameson appears for the first time with doctored footage of the fight with Mysterio, which exposes Spidey's Secret Identity and frames him for murder. The franchise hook is that the "Nick Fury" that appeared in the movie is a body double and the real one is working on a project in outer space.
- Black Widow (2021): Although it's an Interquel set between the events of Civil War and Infinity War, the last scene shows Yelena Belova visiting Natasha Romanoff's grave to pay her respects. Afterward, she is approached by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, who offers her the chance to kill the man responsible for Natasha's death: Clint Barton, which sets up the Hawkeye series.
- Spider-Man: No Way Home ends with the entire world forgetting about Peter Parker, leaving him alone with no friends, family, or allies. Additionally, Eddie Brock and Venom are sent back home following their arrival in the MCU after Venom: Let There Be Carnage, but unwittingly leave behind a piece of the symbiote, setting up a potential Black Suit/Venom story arc for the MCU's Spider-Man.
- At the end of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, HMS Surprise finally catches up to the French ship Acheron after chasing it for 138 minutes. In the ensuing battle, the British win and capture their quarry. A prize crew is put on board to take it and the imprisoned French crew to a friendly port. As the captain of the Surprise relaxes afterward, his friend says something to make him think the French might attempt to recapture their ship, so the captain begins chasing it. Just as the audience thinks that the film might never end, it does, leaving the resolution of the chase for a sequel that, thus, far, has not yet been made...
- The Matrix franchise:
- The original The Matrix ends with Neo making a call to the machines and telling he's going to show the people within the Matrix the truth of the world, followed by a shot of him flying into the sky.
- With The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions being filmed at the same time, like Back to the Future, Reloaded contains one in the last shot: an unconscious Neo in the Hammer infirmary...and an unconscious Bane-slash-Smith on another bed.
- Maverick. When Maverick only hides half of his winnings in his boot, allowing Annabelle to steal the other half, he admits that he did it intentionally because it will be fun to get it back.
- Parodied in Men in Black II. After the big finale J notes that there's no way anyone didn't notice everything that just went down and no real way for the government to Hand Wave it away. The dialogue heavily implies that the events of the movie will cause the Men in Black to become public knowledge. Cue K using a large scale neutraliser hidden in the Statue of Liberty to erase the memories of the night of every single person in New York who isn't an MIB operative.
- Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legends: The final scene shows Belial's body lying lifeless on the ground of the Monster Graveyard after Belyudra's defeat, only for his eyes to glow showing that he isn't down for the count and setting up his role as the sequel's main antagonist as the screen fades to black around his eyes.
- Merlin And The War Of The Dragons ends with Merlin killing the evil wizard, Uther is proclaimed King of the Britons, general rejoicing and then Nimue resurrects the evil Wizard. The movie was made in 2008, with no sign of a sequel since.
- Mission: Impossible (1996) ends with Ethan flying back home and a flight attendant offering him his next assignment in the same manner as Jim.
- In contrast to the other installments (which usually cut off after the "Your mission, should you choose to accept it..." bookend scene), Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol ends with Ethan walking in San Francisco and listening to the first part of his mission briefing, which mentions an emerging terrorist group named The Syndicate, based (in name at least) on the recurring organized crime gangs from the television series.
- Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation ends with Lane being captured, not killed, thus paving the way for his return in future sequels.
- Mission: Impossible – Fallout: Even though John Lark is dead and Solomon Lane is back in custody, the Apostles are still loose by the end of the movie. It's also very likely that Lane will escape custody a second time especially with the Apostles still being active.
- Mortal Kombat: The Movie concluded with victory and ended on a cliffhanger, as Shao Kahn, The Man Behind the Man to Shan Tsung, shows up and announces he's come to take their souls. Raiden's response: "I don't think so".
- The Musketeer ends with D'Artagnan whispering the Hook into the ear of Cardinal Richelieu: "Bless me Father, for I will sin. One night, I will come for you."
- My Pet Monster: The film ends with the Big Bad implied to gain monster powers of his own. Though, with how the statue looks, it's also implied that he will become Beastur.
- Mystery Team ends with the trio meeting a nameless man holding a photo of him having sex with a panda in a secret lab, and finally realizing that he had been castrated.
- This may have been more of a Here We Go Again! moment than anything, since just prior to that, the members of the Mystery Team were all preparing to go their separate ways and off to college.
- National Treasure: The original ending of the first film was thought to be a Sequel Hook by test audiences, so the filmmakers shot a new ending and put that one in the movie. (You can see the original ending on the DVD.) Ironically, the film made so much money that it got a sequel anyway.
- National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets: Ironically, played straight in the sequel. At the end of the film, the President asks Gates to look into the mysterious Page 47 of the titular book. Though the contents of the page are never mentioned, Gates describes the information contained within as "life altering".
- Shortly before his death, Troy from The Neighbor tells John that he was just one member of a much bigger organization that will be coming after John now that he's disrupted one of their operations.
- The Neverending Story:
Narrator: Bastian made many other wishes and had many other amazing adventures before he finally returned to the ordinary world. But that's another story.
- Of course, since the movie only used part of the book for its story, it was probably originally meant as a reference to that.
- Nightbooks: Natacha is revealed to have survived her encounter with the original witch, and one of her formerly-a-child figurines has started to move on its own.
- The Other Guys ends with the Big Bad still at large and rather ominously telling us that "soon, Lendl will be everywhere!" (Lendl is the corporation she runs). It's difficult to say if this was an intentional sequel hook, but it certainly makes for a good jumping-off point for a sequel.
- Pacific Rim: Uprising ends with a pre-credits scene where a Newt being possessed by the Precursors says that the battle isn't over, and Stacker Pentecost's son answering that humanity is going to bring war to their homeworld. However, with the film being a Box Office Bomb, an actual sequel is unlikely.
- Painkiller Jane ends with the reveal that Erfan is alive, selling his substance to East Asian men, and it's implied that he's enhanced himself, with a clear indication for future storylines. This never happened, however, as the series was completely different.
- The Phantom (1996) has a voiceover stating that the love interest plans to return soon.
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest: "So tell me.... what's become of my ship?"
- Then there's another example from Dead Man's Chest: the former Commodore entering Lord Beckett's office with the heart.
- Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End has Jack stealing the map from Barbarossa that mentions the Fountain of Youth.
- Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides ends with Angelica finding the voodoo doll of Jack that was thrown off the cliff earlier in the film. Later it became a case of Aborted Arc.
- Plus Barbossa gaining Blackbeard's ship and magic sword and Jack regaining The Black Pearl, albeit stuck in a bottle, and heading off with Gibbs to find a way to restore it.
- While Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales ends pretty much with all the loose ends wrapped up, Captain Jack Sparrow is still heading to "rendez-vous with his beloved horizon" and the post-credit scene gets even further with the implication that Davy Jones may still be alive.
- Planet of the Apes (2001) ends with Leo crash-landing on a present-day Earth ruled by apes.
- After Tangina appeared to successfully assist Reverend Kane into crossing over in Poltergeist III, the film ends with lightning flashing while Kane's evil laughter is heard.
- Power Rangers (2017): Rita claims that other villains will come to Earth to look for the Zeo Crystal. Also Tommy Oliver’s name is called during detention during the stinger, and an empty desk with his belongings, including a green hooded sweatshirt on the chair. However, when Power Rangers was purchased by Hasbro, they decided to reboot the live-action films series.
- Predators has the survivors watching a new bunch of people being brought into the deathworld to be hunted.
- Prom Wars: The film ends with Percy and Diana awkwardly and tenuously reconciling, some of the students trying to figure out what to make of the Prom War's outcome, and the narrators debating about whether the story is over or not.
- A very similar "single left-over egg hatching" sequel hook is the final shot of 1982's Q: The Winged Serpent. The film didn't do well enough to merit a sequel.
- A Recipe for Seduction ends with Billy approaching Bunny, who is now in some sort of rehab, to proudly announced he's "found" Harland and Jessica, implying more to come.
- The end of Red Dragon (movie only) could count as a prequel hook: A young, female FBI agent wants to talk to Dr. Lecter.
- Resident Evil Film Series.
- The Rocketeer ends with Jenny Blake giving Peevey back his reverse-engineered blueprints for a new and improved version of the rocketpack, which were stolen by Lothar earlier in the film.
- In Running Scared (1986), two cop partners plan to retire from the force and open a bar in Key West after their current case. They crack the case, then decide not to retire. A sequel titled "Still Running" was planned and different scripts were written, but Crystal and Hines rejected them all as too weak.
- The School for Good and Evil (2022): Sophie and Agatha have completed their fairy tale, a new era of unity is established, and Sophie and Agatha return to Gavaldon. But at the very last minute, a new portal opens up and Tedros' voice is heard calling for Agatha, and the Storian hints that there's another story to tell.
- The Shamers Daughter (2015): At the end of the film, the rightful heir has been rescued, but not restored. He tells title character Dina that the if he sees the usurper again, he will kill him. She replies "When." A sequel came out in 2018.
- Sherlock Holmes (2009) with all of its nods to Moriarty.
- The premise for the sequel is essentially set up in the last few minutes, because it's revealed that Moriarty stole the radio transmitter device and is willing to use his massive wealth to wreak havoc. Holmes agrees to go after Moriarty at the very end of the film.
- Slither ends with a post-credits scene of the alien Not Quite Dead and infecting a cat.
- Two of them in Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), both once the movie is over. Coincidentally, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022) was announced not long after.
- Just before the credits roll, Robotnik has gone even more insane while living on the Mushroom Planet and shaved himself bald but still has one of Sonic's energized quills, which he vows to use in order to get back to Earth.
- In The Stinger, Tails has used a portal ring of his own to cross over into Earth, and he starts looking for Sonic.
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022) also has one: the military is attempting to delete all records of Robotnik, now presumed dead. But they happened to stumble upon the co-ordinates for a black site lost for over 50 years... and none other than Shadow has just woken up from stasis.
- Sony's Spider-Man Universe:
- Venom (2018) has Eddie regain his job as a journalist, and in The Stinger he meets Cletus Kasady in prison, who tells him that when he gets out, there'll be carnage.
- Venom: Let There Be Carnage: While Detective Mulligan appears to die at the hands of Carnage, he's shown to survive with hints that he's begun his transformation into Toxin. And then there's the mid-credits scene, in which Eddie and Venom find themselves inexplicably transported into the Marvel Cinematic Universe and learn about that world's Peter Parker, which is followed up on in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
- Spaceballs has Yogurt stating "God willing, we'll all meet again in Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money" during the middle of the film. A true sequel has been stuck in Development Hell. An animated series was later made, but it was cheaply made and generally considered horrible.
- Another Mystery Science Theater 3000 subject, Space Mutiny, ends with the main bad guy proving to be Not Quite Dead. Naturally, Mike and the Bots are Genre Savvy enough to see this one coming:
"Aaaand his
Eyes Open."
"His eyes open!"
"Hurry up and show it!"
- Species ends with a rat eating the corpse of one of the aliens, and getting possessed from doing so. This was completely ignored for the actual sequel.
- Splice: At the end of the film, Elsa is pregnant with Dren's baby, and the boss thanks Elsa for her readiness to carry on with "phase two" of the project.
- Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was not expected to have a sequel, but Spock's "Remember..." mind-meld with McCoy was added just in case.
- Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home also has a sequel hook near the beginning of the film, with the Klingon ambassador proclaiming "Remember this well — there shall be no peace as long as Kirk lives!" Oddly enough, this hook was completely ignored by the next film and wasn't utilised until Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
- Star Wars:
- A New Hope had Darth Vader's ship fleeing after the destruction of the Death Star. The Empire Strikes Back blurs the line between Sequel Hook and a Cliffhanger, as the primary goal of escaping the Empire was concluded, but Vader's revelation and Han Solo being taken to Jabba the Hutt meant there was plenty of story for the sequel.
- Each film of the prequel trilogy had a Sequel Hook as well: The other Sith still hidden from the Jedi at the end of The Phantom Menace, the start of the Clone Wars at the end of Attack of the Clones, and Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Bail Organa making their plans for the future at the end of Revenge of the Sith (the last one, of course, leading up to the original trilogy).
- Superman
- Superman: The Movie is a rare case of a film having a sequel hook at the beginning; General Zod, Ursa, and Non are banished to the Phantom Zone in the film's opening scenes, and are not seen again until they return as the Big Bad and Dragons in Superman II. That's because Superman 1 and 2 were originally filmed together. After the entire project fell behind schedule and over-budget, the studio called Richard Donner up and told him to finish up the first film and leave the sequel for later.
- Superman Returns' credits hint at the destroyed planet Krypton reforming itself, a hook for a planned 2009 sequel.
- Super Mario Bros. (1993) ends as Princess Daisy bursts into Mario and Luigi's apartment armed with a BFG, proclaiming "Guys... you're not going to believe this". Then everyone follows her out the door and the movie ends. There was no filmed sequel. Webcomics were touted as the sequel to the film, but those stopped updating and became an Orphaned Series.
- A title at the end of The Sword and the Sorcerer announces that its sequel would be called Tales of an Ancient Empire. It was never produced.
- Until 2010, that is. Not that the sequel has much to do with the original...
- In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014), the Shredder falls nearly sixty floors to street level and is captured by the police, but he's seen taking a bit of mutagen on a fingertip and hiding it in his fist.
- Nearly averted with Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The original ending showed an aged Sarah watching John, by then a U.S. Senator, pushing his young daughter around on a swing at the park while her voiceover mused on how what they did that you just saw opened up a brighter future for humanity. But the studio didn't think the franchise was exhausted by any means.
- Theresa & Allison: A mid credits scene shows Miranda with Lorena, who's wooing her onto her side against Sakkara, with an ambiguous mention of Theresa which teases a possible sequel. So far none has appeared however.
- The Three Musketeers (2011); Buckingham manages to rescue Milady de Winter from falling to her death, and announces that he's going back to France. Cut away to a shot of a fleet of British warships, with a fleet of air-ships overhead.
- Troma's The Toxic Avenger film series has used this in three of the films.
- In The Toxic Avenger: Part II, Toxie states that if Tromaville is destroyed, there won't be a Toxic Avenger: Part III.
- In The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie, Toxie states that he has to clean up Tromaville in time for Toxic Avenger: Part IV after realizing that Apocalypse, Inc. is evil.
- After falling into toxic waste, the evil Melvin that emerges from the remains of Toxie's evil incarnation the Noxious Offender in Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV runs away while shouting "I'll be back, motherfucker, if there's a sequel!"
- Transformers Film Series
- The mysterious gas station attendant who wanders off at the end of Vampires vs. Zombies is simply known as Zombie Slayer. Potentially leading to a spin off solo movie as shown in the credits with him walking off with full gear into the unknown.
- Upside-Down Magic ends with the shadow magic book in the library falling off the shelf and opening to a picture of the Sage Academy logo which glows, implying its power could return.
- Vice (2015): After everything looks like it has been settled and the artificials will be able to live in peace, the seemingly dead Julian's eyes snap open in the last scene.
- The View Askewniverse: Jay and Silent Bob will return in "Dogma" (Clerks), Jay and Silent Bob will return in "Chasing Amy" (Mallrats), Jay and Silent Bob will return in "Dogma" ... (promise). (Chasing Amy), Jay and Silent Bob will return in "Clerks 2: Hardly Clerkin'" (Dogma).
- The Stinger of Vigilante Diaries reveals that Andreas has survived the explosion and is looking for revenge.
- In Warcraft (2016), it's a combo of the Alliance forming and Go'el (later known as Thrall) being found by humans.
- Waxwork ends with the wax museum of the title burning down and Mark and Sarah escaping, but the still animate hand of a wax zombie also escapes. Although it's not really the main conflict of the story, Waxwork II: Lost in Time picks up immediately after that sequel hook, with the main characters trying to stop the hand from wreaking havoc.
- Without Remorse has John Clark talking with Ritter a year after the events of the film where he proposes to create a counter-terrorist unit named "Rainbow", setting up a future Rainbow Six film.
- In The Wolfman (2010), Lawrence Talbot bites Inspector Aberline.
- Wolves: As Cayden and Angel prepare to leave, John hands them a scroll detailing the genealogy of the "old lines", saying it will help them in their travels.
- X-Men Film Series
- The first film had the team watching a press conference near the end and noticing that Senator Kelly was being impersonated by Mystique. Logan is also riding off to track down hints given about his past.
- The Phoenix underneath Alkali Lake in X2: X-Men United.
- X-Men: The Last Stand, despite being the final chapter in a trilogy, has a potential sequel hook in its final seconds; the de-powered Magneto, homeless and alone, sits at a (steel) chessboard in Central Park vainly trying to make the pieces move; one pawn wobbles, almost imperceptibly, in the instant before the shot cuts to Brett Ratner's director credit. There is even a second hook after the credits, showing that Xavier survived in the Chekhov's Gun.
- The Stinger at the end of X-Men Origins: Wolverine shows Logan drinking away his sorrows in a Japanese pub. Logan's next solo film, The Wolverine feature Wolverine's adventures in Japan. However, due to the poor reception of Origins, The Wolverine actually ignores the events of Origins, and instead takes place years after the events of The Last Stand.
- X-Men: First Class ends with Erik becoming Magneto for the first time and busting Emma Frost out of prison.
- The Wolverine ends with Wolverine and Yukio heading out to have new adventures across the globe, with Logan finally having accepted his role as a warrior and hero. The Stinger sets up a sequel hook for X-Men: First Class's sequel X-Men: Days of Future Past by showing Logan being confronted by a repowered Magneto and a Back From The Dead Xavier, wanting him to aid them in stopping the upcoming Sentinel threat.
- Two of them in X-Men: Days of Future Past. First, Mystique rescues Wolverine from the river Magneto threw him in, though we know that turns out alright. The Stinger gives us a glimpse of Apocalypse and his Four Horsemen.
- The Stinger for Deadpool (2016) features Deadpool parodying the stinger for Ferris Bueller's Day Off ("You're still here? It's over! Go home.") before adding that the next Deadpool movie will feature Cable.
- xXx: State of the Union ends with Gibbs entering an elevator while discussing with his anxious attendants who he has in mind for the next candidate for the xXx position.
- Young Sherlock Holmes features a post-credit reveal that one of the characters in the film would eventually become Holmes' nemesis, Professor Moriarty. Shame that there was no sequel (beyond the books, of course), because the flick wasn't that bad.
- At the end of Young Tom Edison, right after the end title, there is a plug for its follow-up Edison, the Man featuring Spencer Tracy studying a portrait of Edison in preparation for his role in the film.
- Zapped (2014) ends with a stinger showing some detention students finding Zoey's cracked phone in the trash. Turns out it still works fine, and it shows the "Listen and Obey" app upon startup.
- Z-O-M-B-I-E-S 2 ends with Addison witnessing a blue meteor falling to earth late at night, shorting out her radio signal, and her hair briefly glows the same color as the meteor.
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