Post-credit “bumper” scenes aren’t a new phenomenon. One of the first major films to feature a bit at the end of the movie was the 1966 Dean Martin spy comedy The Silencers, the first film in which he played agent Matt Helm. (Other early adopters include Night of the Living Dead, The Muppet Movie, and Airplane!) But they didn’t become a staple of movies until Marvel started using them, usually to tease future installments with post- or mid-credit scenes, sometimes featuring characters only die-hards would recognize.
Nowadays post-credit scenes so prevalent that even non-comic book movies feature them. According to Wikipedia users, there have been 16 films with them in 2023 so far, from blockbusters like John Wick 4 and Ant-Man 3 to comedies like House Party, Cocaine Bear, even Champions. So it’s a fair question to ask if Air — the new Ben Affleck-directed docudrama about the making of the Air Jordan — has one. So does it?
The answer: Sorry, but nope. It certainly could have had one. For instance, the movie never even shows a clear image of Michael Jordan, whose superstardom led to the shoe that helped save Nike in the ‘80s. A post-credit scene could have featured him, in either archival footage or in a newly filmed segment, where he spouts off about something he didn’t discuss in the doc series The Last Dance. Alas, Air ends like most movies used to: right before the end credits begin, allowing moviegoers to chance to exit knowing they won’t miss anything about hundreds, maybe thousands of cast and crew names.
Air is now playing in theaters nationwide.
