10 Best Sci-Fi Movie Cliffhangers

The 80s movie, Flash Gordon was a campy callback to the classic movie serials of the 1930s, and similar, it adapted the serials’ love for cliffhangers.

The film centres on a football player, Flash, who along with his friends, are caught up in the evil Emperor Ming the Merciless’ plan to destroy the Earth. By the end of the film, our reluctant hero defeats Ming, and he is vapourized and killed. However, the final frame shows someone picking up Ming’s ring, while his evil laugh is heard.

The ending is very much in keeping with the film’s overall sense of campiness and silliness - so much so, that the film ends with the message, “The End”, which then adds a question mark on the end of it.

The film never got a sequel, and therefore, the cliffhanger was never resolved. However, it doesn’t really need to be, and possibly, it was never supposed to be. The ending is mainly done as a tribute to the movie serial template, and this works really well.