Please welcome today’s guest writer, Ben DeKryger. A 2021 graduate from Calvin University, Ben majored in writing and literature with a minor in film production. Beyond his affinity for writing, he enjoys watching movies, reading, and broadening his knowledge of history. He currently lives in Grand Rapids, MI, working to pay the bills as he looks for opportunities to dive into his career as an aspiring filmmaker.

The End.

A place to which every story arrives. The final sequence where we, the audience, depart from the characters and locations we have followed for hours in the pages of books or in the pixels of screens. If done right, the ending provides some sort of conclusion in new circumstances moving forward. And there is no shortage of satisfying endings for creators to choose from. The end can be finality, where the protagonists settle into a place of peace (The Hobbit, 1937). Or the ending can tease a further adventure, one that may never be officially drafted but will be dreamt up in the minds of the faithful audience (Mad Max: Fury Road, 2015). There also exists the ambiguous ending, where what conclusion actually occurs remains unrevealed, instead leaving the audience with more questions and perspectives than when they started (Total Recall, 1990).

But one ending that I have come across has been far rarer. This ending is what I shall call the reliving ending. As it happens, I can only think of two instances of this ending being used. The first would be the series finale of the animated sitcom, Futurama (1999-2013). The second being the ending of the video game Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (2016). The basic nature of this ending contributes to its rarity as it can only be pulled off satisfactorily at the conclusion of a running series. In the simplest terms, the reliving ending invites the faithful audience to go back and re-experience the story with the characters they love so much. Provided of course, the series has been dear enough to the viewer to make them want to go back in the first place.

Many times a series finale will reference what went on way back when or retread familiar locations (Logan, 2017, or Avatar: The Last Airbender, 2005–2008). However, the reliving ending actively sets up a retelling of the previous stories, rather than simply retreading familiar elements as nostalgic callbacks. A brief look at these two examples will better illustrate my point. 

In the finale of Futurama, “Meanwhile,” the characters Fry and Leela accidentally break a time machine that freezes time around them. In these new timeless circumstances, the two of them marry and live out their lives into old age. After many blissful years together, they return to the place where Fry asked Leela to marry him, only to be greeted by Professor Farnsworth, the inventor of the time machine they broke. He has been trapped outside of time, having just now figured out how to get back. The Professor fixes his time machine, which will allow him to reset the timeline. However, everything that happened after he invented it will be erased. Fry then asks Leela, “Wanna go around again?” To which she replies “I do.” They share one last kiss and embrace, and with a click of a button, Professor Farnsworth restores the proper flow of time. As the series fades to black, the viewer sits back and can’t help but desire to take Fry up on his offer to go back around.

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End goes back around in a different manner. At the start of the game, the lead character, Nathan Drake, has settled into a normal life with his wife, Elena. As part of the story’s early sections, Nate wistfully goes through keepsakes from his previous endeavors, clearly missing the action. While one might assume the purpose of these momentos ends within the first hour of gameplay—simply callbacks to the prior entries—they serve a greater purpose. In the game’s epilogue, Nate’s daughter stumbles on these very same keepsakes, unaware of where they come from or what they mean. The game ends with Nate telling his daughter the stories of what he has done, beginning with the very first Uncharted. Hearing Nate retell his adventures feels like an open invitation to the player to go back and relive the story for themselves.

Any series of quality should make the audience want to re-experience it; a good ending can provide that incentive. But so rarely do endings directly incite their beholders to go back and relive what they loved, not just remember that they did. The audience feels compelled to go back because the story itself is leading them there. All the audience has to do to oblige.

Well. 

Here we are.

The End.

So… 

Wanna go around again?

Ben DeKryger