Entertainment

‘Skyscraper’ Doesn’t Need a Post-Credits Scene or a Sequel

It's all about the ending.

Columbia Pictures

Refreshingly, when the credits roll on the new Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson action flick Skyscraper, the words on the screen aren’t just a set-up for clues and teases about a sequel. With this movie, the credits signal what movie credits used to mean: the movie is actually over. You don’t need to wait around for a post-credits scene in Skyscraper, which is not only great for time-management but also a nice change from so many other big movies of the moment.

In multiple interviews, both the Rock and director Rawson Marshall Thurber emphasized that the goal of Skyscraper was to make a movie, not a franchise. In other words, if you’re interested in a direct sequel to Skyscraper it’s very, very unlikely. Now, if the movie is super successful, then it totally stands to reason that Thurber and Dwayne Johnson could make another movie. It just won’t be about Will Sawyer saving his family from another troublesome building. This isn’t the start of another version of the Taken franchise, and the Rock is not the new Liam Neeson.

The lack of a teasing or cryptic post-credits scene in Skyscraper is just one way the movie succeeds at being not only more traditional but also demonstrates its confidence. Sure, at this point, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is nearly just as complicated as its comic books source material, so in Avengers or Ant-Man, it makes sense to gesture at what might happen in the “next exciting issue.” But, other movies don’t have to be like that, and can, in fact, just present a definitive ending where the audience can reflect on what they’ve actually seen as the credits are rolling.

Leave it to the Rock to not only star in a heartfelt and solid action movie but to do it with a little bit of class, too.

-Skyscraper is out in wide release now.-