Best Movie Stingers of 2012

January 14, 2013 by Vinnie Leduc

The heart of MediaStinger, and what most likely led you to this site, is the movie stinger. It’s the extra goodie that rewards moviegoers who stick around long enough during and/or after the credits. Many stingers provide crucial details that complete the story, other stingers tease what may come in future sequels, and some are irrelevant gags that are simply thrown in for shits and giggles. We’ve listed the top 12 cinematic stingers of 2012 below (none of which comes close to our pick for this year’s Best Video Game Stinger though), and we ultimately honor one as the Best Movie Stinger of 2012. WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!

Honorable Mentions: 21 Jump Street, Argo, Brave, The Campaign, Chimpanzee, The Dictator, Django Unchained, For Greater Glory, Fun Size, Goon, Hit and Run, Hope Springs, Madea’s Witness Protection, Parental Guidance, The Pirates! Band of Misfits, Pitch Perfect, Premium Rush, Rise of the Guardians, Think Like A Man, This Is 40, Wreck-It Ralph

Cloud Atlas blew our minds during the credits by revealing the extraordinary makeup that transformed the cast into different races and sexes, Piranha 3DD topped off a bunch of extra scenes and outtakes with a behind-the-scenes look at how they filmed the finale with David Hasselhoff, and ParaNorman rewarded patient viewers with a neat sequence that showed how the creators brought the titular character to life.

American Reunion served audiences one last dirty joke in a scene during the credits that appropriately takes place in a movie theater, and Seven Psychopaths revisited a conversation regarding movie credits and started another one with the foreboding consequences. Both hilarious.

Casa de Mi Padre and Wanderlust doubled down, first with extras during the credits, followed by well-executed fake advertisements after the credits. The Amazing Spider-Man and Battleship classically employed mysterious post-credits scenes to set up potential sequels. Paranormal Activity 4 similarly used a creepy segment entirely in Spanish after the credits to tease a franchise spin-off.

But our favorite pair of movie stingers were those for The Avengers and The Grey, which weren’t just the top two user-rated stingers of the year, but of all time. Even though The Grey‘s stinger was only about five seconds, it sparked a fierce debate that philosophically resonated with viewers and remains the most discussed post-credits scene ever on MediaStinger. However, there’s no way we can ignore the one-two punch of The Avengers, which also stirred some lively discourse with its sequel set-up during the credits before adding on a peaceful and amusing post-credits scene that was exclusive to US theaters (“America… F@#$ Yeah!”) until video release. And suitably parallel to its status as the biggest box office blockbuster in history, the stinger’s current rating of +1036 is over seven times higher than that of the The Grey, the next top user-rated stinger. This all means that last year’s winner, Captain America, can share this year’s award with his new friends. Best Movie Stinger of 2012: The Avengers.

What do you think? What was your favorite movie stinger of the year? Let us know in the comments.

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