Types of fiction with multiple endings


A narrative typically ends in one set way, but certain kinds of narrative allow for multiple endings.

Comics

  • The Death-Ray by Daniel Clowes
  • Cliff Hanger by Jack Edward Oliver

    Literature

  • The Choose Your Own Adventure series
  • Fighting Fantasy
  • Life's Lottery
  • The French Lieutenant's Woman
  • ''Telephone''

    Theater

  • Ayn Rand's 1934 play Night of January 16th allowed the audience to affect the ending by acting as the "jury" and voting the defendant "innocent" or "guilty".
  • The 1985 musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood
  • Dario Fo's 1970 play, Accidental Death of an Anarchist
  • The long-running play Shear Madness has multiple, audience-selected endings.

    Films

DVDs and Blu-ray discs may include an alternate ending as a special feature. These are usually not considered canon.
Films which include multiple endings within the main cut of the film:
  • Clue
  • Wayne's World and its sequel, Wayne's World 2
  • Scarface
  • Sliding Doors
  • Run Lola Run
  • Harikrishnans
  • The Messiah, which includes one account of Jesus' crucifixion according to Christian teaching and one according to Muslim teaching.
  • 28 Days Later
  • Unfriended: Dark Web
  • Black Mirror: Bandersnatch
  • ''1408''

    Television

  • Crown Court
  • ''Do the Right Thing''

    Animation

  • Dragon's Lair and Space Ace
  • The fifth season finale of the Rooster Teeth web-series, ''Red vs. Blue''

    Video games

Video games, as an interactive medium, allow for a wide variety of outcomes. Especially nonlinear video games such as visual novels, role-playing games and interactive dramas often feature multiple endings. Multiple endings may increase a game's replay value, encourage customization or deviate from the story in the form of easter eggs. As such, these video games often, but not always, feature one or multiple "true" or "good endings" which are canonized either by the developer or player base as well as "false" or "bad endings".

Role-playing video games

Multiple endings can be an integral part of many visual novels and role-playing games as these genres often emphasize customization and individuality.
Examples of role-playing games that feature multiple endings:
  • Chrono Trigger, which was cited as revolutionary for including multiple endings when it released in 1995.
  • Baldur's Gate 3, which features four distinct major endings. Larian Studios announced that there were 17,000 possible endings ahead of the game's release.
  • Cyberpunk 2077, which features four canon endings with one additional one being introduced with the downloadable content Phantom Liberty. There is one more "false ending" in which the protagonist commits suicide ahead of the finale, and another secret ending which only becomes available after waiting five minutes before choosing a dialogue option.
  • Mass Effect 3's endings were cause for controversy. Players felt their character choices felt inconsequential and criticized the game's endings for its lack of closure and inconsistencies.
  • The Dragon Age series includes a variety of impactful choices the player can make throughout the games with typically one major one at the end. In Dragon Age II and Dragon Age: Inquisition, players are able to import their save files from previous games to alter the games' world building, flavor text for multiple characters and events, and appearances from recurring characters, allowing for a player-specific canon. For the fourth installment in the series, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, developer BioWare changed this system so that players could now reflect the previous games' different endings directly in the game's character creator.
  • Papers Please includes 20 endings in the game. The players choices throughout the game such as if he lets EZIC agents get through or if he accepts bribes influences which ending he will get, without giving the player too much of an idea about what decisions cause which endings which results in the players getting immersed in the game.

    Choice-driven video games

Multiple endings are a common feature in "choice-driven" games in which decisions made by the player serve as the main gameplay loop. These games are usually adventure or storytelling games whose ending or sometimes even entire story changes depending on the player's active, in the form of dialogue options, or passive choices, such as games with moral systems.
Examples of choice-driven games that feature multiple endings:
  • Life Is Strange, which includes two canon endings. Players can choose either to save the protagonist's home town from a tornado while sacrificing her implied love interest or vice versa.
  • Life Is Strange 2, which, unlike its predecessor, also takes previous choices the player has made into consideration in the form of a "moral system" for its seven endings.
  • Detroit: Become Human, Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls and many more games created by Quantic Dream feature multiple endings depending on the player's choices.
  • Until Dawn, The Quarry and The Casting of Frank Stone all feature multiple endings for each of their large cast of protagonists, a common trope in Supermassive Games.
  • Telltale Games are known for featuring a variety of different endings in their story-based games such as their The Walking Dead or Game of Thrones video game adaptations.

    Multiple endings as a gameplay mechanic

Some video games revolve their entire story around the concept of multiple endings and utilize them as a gameplay mechanic. This is done either chronologically, whereby the player experiences a game's ending multiple times but through different point-of-views, or through "knowledge-gating" in which all endings are achievable from the start but have to be deduced through trial and error or through experiencing the game's other endings.
Examples of video games that feature endings as a gameplay mechanic:
  • The Stanley Parable, which features eighteen different endings.
  • The Talos Principle and its sequel.
  • Nier and Nier Automata, which require the player to finish the game multiple times before reaching their "". Each subsequent playthrough unlocks new content in the form of cutscenes or playable characters.