March 7, 2017 by Vinnie Leduc
One stinger stood way above the rest in 2016, and it should be no surprise that it came after the credits of 2016’s movie of the year, Deadpool. But before we get to everyone’s new favorite anti-hero, we’d like to pay our dues to nine other stingers we loved from the past year in cinema.
The Angry Birds Movie
Captain America: Civil War
Doctor Strange
Finding Dory
Ghostbusters
Suicide Squad
Sully
Warcraft
X-Men: Apocalypse
We’ve always had a soft spot for video games here at MediaStinger, so we’re thrilled that two major motion picture adaptations of global gaming phenomena included relevant mid-credits extra scenes that point to potential future sequels. The Angry Birds Movie revealed that some characters critical to its story actually made up the origin of some of the game’s trademark playable birds. Breaking the record for highest grossing video game adaptation in history, Warcraft provided its legions of worldwide followers one ultimate bit of fan service by setting into motion a pivotal precursor to possible tides of darkness.
In Sully, director Clint Eastwood showed that once again he knows how to seamlessly weave in meaningful and touching mid-credits stingers into his recent films, no matter how serious the subject matter is. His crash survivors reunion technically contained the most cameos in any stinger last year.
Finding Dory and the new Ghostbusters contained notable cameos, too. After niftily playing hide-and-seek with the audience during the credits, Finding Dory brought back some beloved characters from the memorable Finding Nemo post-credits stinger in its own after-credits special. The Ghostbusters remake squeezed in yet another cameo into its credits, turned a deleted dance sequence into a long mid-credits scene, and topped it off with a sequel-teasing bit after the credits.
And of course, we can’t have our annual discourse on stingers without Marvel movies. X-Men: Apocalypse ended with another cryptic Logan-centric extra scene, and both Captain America: Civil War and Doctor Strange kept the MCU Phase 3 ball rollin’ with typical mid-credits and post-credits stingers. Warner Bros., which obviously is trying to duplicate the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, finally got into the stinger conversation after its third DC Extended Universe flick, Suicide Squad, when it brought back Bat-fleck in an after-credits extra scene that acts as a bridge to either Wonder Woman, Justice League, or both.
However, 2016 was the year Marvel reclaimed its stinger crown with Deadpool. First of all, the Deadpool stinger’s user voter rating here at Mediastinger absolutely shattered the previous record-holder’s (The Avengers) to become the top-rated stinger of all time. During the credits, the extra animations and crude drawings perfectly fit Wade Wilson’s R-rated humor and meta commentary. And yet, these don’t hold a candle to what Ryan Reynolds does after the credits. Dressed and set as Ferris Bueller in an homage to one of the most classic and famous early stingers in movie history, Deadpool does everything we could’ve asked for in a stinger. He breaks the fourth wall, of course, and discusses sequel specifics, secrets, and theater etiquette. He even throws in a jab at stingers themselves, particularly Marvel ones, and comes back for an encore. Chicka chicka!
Honorable Mentions: Almost Christmas, Bad Moms, Bad Santa 2, Barbershop: The Next Cut, Boo! A Madea Halloween, The Boss, Bridget Jones’s Baby, The Brothers Grimsby, Central Intelligence, The Conjuring 2, Dirty Grandpa, Everybody Wants Some!!, The Finest Hours, Florence Foster Jenkins, Ice Age: Collision Course, The Jungle Book, Keanu, Kevin Hart: What Now?, Kubo and the Two Strings, Lion, Meet the Blacks, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, Moana, Office Christmas Party, Ouija: Origin of Evil, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, Ratchet & Clank, The Secret Life of Pets, Sing, Storks, Trolls, Why Him?
