10 Best Sci-Fi Movie Cliffhangers

Now, we reach, not just the best cliffhanger in sci-fi, but probably, the best cliffhanger in film history.

When the 1977’s Star Wars became the highest-grossing film of all time (at the time), a sequel became inevitable. And with this new instalment, the filmmakers decided to take some risks.

And, one of more riskier moments was its ending, in which our hero, Luke Skywalker discovers that the series’s main villain, Darth Vader is his father. It’s a moment that has been parodied and referenced to death, and even if you’ve never seen a Star Wars movie, you will know of this moment.

At the time, this was an incredibly ballsy move for a second movie in a franchise to end on. Everyone went into the film thinking that it would be a singular movie with a closed ending, like its predecessor, and like most movie sequels released in the 70s.

Empire was so confident that it would be a success (which of course, it very much was), that it actively encouraged future sequels in its own narrative. Sure, there had been sci-fi movies (and movies in general) that had cliffhanger endings, but this sort of technique had never really been seen before, and Empire popularised it. Without it, we would have had the long, continuing narratives of many franchises, like the MCU, for example.

And that’s why Empire Strikes Back is number one. Not just because it's a really effective ending, but also because it popularised and re-defined what a cliffhanger can do.