Silent Credits

"Sometimes you have to show some depth."
"Do you think we should do that? Kill off Adric, roll the credits over silence?"
"It would certainly stop that bastard saying what the next programme is."
"No, it wouldn't. Nothing would stop that bastard. And even if it stopped the bastard on BBC Two, it'd never stop the bastard on Dave. He doesn't give a shit. As soon as he gets to the poppy bit of Blackadder Goes Forth, he's already split the screen and he's showing highlights of Frankie Boyle's nan-pussy set. In Memory of the Fallen(!)"

— That Mitchell and Webb Look

Sometimes, if an episode ends on a sad note^note especially if it's a Very Special Episode dealing with an issue that has no easy resolution to it, like racial prejudice, gun violence, police brutality, gang violence, mental health issues, dealing with abuse [mostly physical child abuse, but domestic abuse and any episode centered on rape, sexual assault, or child molestation also apply], or coping with death. Usually when that happens, there's also a black screen with the name, number, and website of a crisis center dealing with those issues or a major character is killed off (especially if the actor also died), the credits will roll without any music. In most cases, this means complete and utter silence, but this trope can extend to credits that use ambient noise as well. Silent credits can also be applied when it ends in a bittersweet note.

This is ruined whenever a Credits Pushback happens, so as a result tends to be more effective on DVD releases.

Compare to Sudden Soundtrack Stop.

As this can be the sign of an Ending Trope, unmarked spoilers abound. Beware.

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Examples

Anime and Manga

• The last episode of Angel Links, with the silence beginning just beforehand when the feather lands on Meifon. The ending theme, which usually begins playing right before the credits, starts but cuts out completely to indicate Meifon's death.
• The next episode preview of the eighteenth episode of Code Geass season two, at the end of which the entire Tokyo settlement and presumably Nunnally was nuked by Suzaku, contains no voiceover, which is even further offset by the title of the next episode being "Betrayal."
• Fullmetal Alchemist:
  • Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) has an episode in which a character dies, and the closing animation is replaced by credits on cards, with a military funeral march. There is also a silent next episode preview for the final episode following Ed's death, up until the very end, when Al yells out "BROTHER!".
  • An Eye Catch version of this was done with Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood: usually a man's voice will say "Fullmetal Alchemist!" in various tones over it. However, when Envy is killed off for good in episode 54, the Eye Catch has no voice over. This happens several other times with the Eye Catch as well late in the series; Fuu and Buccaneer are two other examples.
• The first episode of Ga-Rei -Zero- ended with the entire cast for that episode dying. The credits roll with only the crackling of a fire.
• GUN×SWORD has one of these right after Ray's death, with only the sound of wind chimes playing in the background.
• An Eyecatch variant for JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind. After Narancia's death, the typical Golden Wind theme cannot be heard when Silver Chariot's Stand stats are shown. Instead, the slow sounds of dripping water are heard.
• A variant appears in Naruto, after The Third Hokage's death; the end theme plays just the same as normal, but the preview for the next episode is utterly silent, except for Itachi's narration.
• A variant appears in episode 24 of Neon Genesis Evangelion: after Kaworu is killed by Shinji, the credits roll with music alright... but this time, the vocals are missing. And this is the only credits sequence in the entire series without vocals.
  • One version of The End of Evangelion had the credits song removed from the end of the English voicetrack, resulting in the final credits after Asuka's "how disgusting" line rolling in complete silence. Creepy as hell.
• Variation with the Grand Finale of Soul Eater, in which the title sequence is omitted entirely, with the opening credits silently playing over the opening moments of the Final Battle. The end credits are retained however, with a touching Last Episode Theme Reprise added in.
• Trigun had the episode where Vash is forced to kill Legato and the next episode preview omits the usual music, featuring only a voiceover of Vash begging Rem to forgive him for what happened.

Films — Animated

• While Fantasia usually has no opening or closing credits, in the 1990 re-release, end credits were added showing footage of the intermission with altered sound (this was used to make it look like the show was over). After the curtains close (also have no sound effect), the credits continue rolling with no music or sound effects and eventually leads to a black screen (though some versions show the Walt Disney Pictures logo before blacking out).
• The credits of the short film Le Mans 1955 are completely silent, not even having the sound of the cars rushing past anymore. This makes sense, as it's a short film dramatizing the 1955 Le Mans disaster, where driver Pierre Levegh and 83 spectators were killed in a crash.
• The end credits of the 1977 Space Battleship Yamato film begin with a card stating that Yamato returned to Earth in 2199 and Earth was restored to its original Beauty. It also states the number of crewmembers who died in action. The only background heard during the credits is Yamato's signature engine sound. This is repeated for Yamato: The New Voyage, although despite the loss of Starsha and Mamoru, it isn't a total downer ending either, as they gain baby Sasha, their daughter. However, the spoken narration prior to the end credits states that the Dark Nebula Empire may have been beaten this time, but the rest of them are still out there and planning their next move, though our heroes don't quite know it yet (they will find out in Be Forever Yamato). Final Yamato also has silent end credits, but if one listens carefully, early into the credits, the Yamato theme song can be heard — however, the majority of the credits are silent except for the sounds of waves.
• A variant of this trope: one of Lionsgate Home Entertainment's predecessors, International Video Entertainment, ended their tapes with this logo, featuring a catchy Synth-Pop ditty. There is a silent variant of the logo, which very fittingly capped off the company's release of When the Wind Blows.

Films — Live-Action

• All the Troubles of the World: During most of the closing credits Montage, Multivac is saying "I want to die" while electronic background music creates a creepy sound. When the tapedrives stop, all sound stops with it, implying Mutivac's death as the last credit appears and the screen fades to black. Like most examples of this trope, none of the actors are given nominal credit for their role.
• American Sniper: The first half of the credits consists of an epilogue followed by footage of the actual Chris Kyle's 2013 funeral service set to a "Taps"-like trumpet piece by Ennio Morricone. After this, the main portion of the credits play in complete silence.
• Annie Hall is probably one of the earliest (and best known) films to have silent credits.
• Originally, the second half of the ending credits of La Bamba were shown in silence. later editions added a cover of "Come on, Let's Go".
• Beau Is Afraid ends with the sounds of the ocean and people leaving the outdoor arena after Beau's trial ends with him drowning.
• Black Christmas (1974) ends like this, with no music at all playing over the credits rolling through the screen, save for the sound of wind and the phone still ringing inside the house, making the credits effectively eerie.
• Bright Star ends with Ben Whishaw reciting Keats' "Ode to a Nightingale" over the end credits, with no music minus the chirping of the birds, the choir and some few notes from a violin.
• The credits to the film adaptation of Cabaret feature no music.
• The China Syndrome actually had an original score composed for it by Michael Small, but in post-production director James Bridges dropped more and more of it until he finally decided the movie played better with no music at all. Hence no music over the credits.
• This would have been the case if the original ending of Clerks had been kept. In that ending, which can be seen on the 10th anniversary DVD, Dante is shot and presumably killed by a holdup man just as he is finishing up the day's paperwork. The credits then roll silently with the exception of the beeping sounds of a cash register ... which, with the added context, become surprisingly chilling.
• Partially done in Cloverfield. The credits roll silently for 30 seconds in, which then gives way to stomping sounds that gradually grow into the beginning of a large orchestrated piece title "Roar (Cloverfield Overture)".
• This happens in the second half of the end credits of Doctor Sleep, a sequel to The Shining, where after the song "Midnight, the Stars and You", there remains only silence except a howling wind.
• Evita had no music over the end credits. However, later releases have added music.
• The 1964 nuclear thriller Fail Safe featured no music. Credits rolled to the blended sounds of the engines of the Vindicator bombers and the crowd at the bullfight in Gen. Black's dream. These are gradually replaced with the sound of Ambassador Lentov's phone melting as New York City is destroyed.
• Get Carter: This 1970s gangster flick ends with Jack Carter himself getting shot on a remote beach by an assassin after Jack got his revenge on his brother's killer, followed by ending credits with the only sounds being the waves crashing on the shoreline.
• La Haine has a Downer Ending and the subsequent credits rolling in silence.
• Michael Haneke likes this trope:
  • Caché (AKA Hidden) has no musical score at all. The opening credits are a big block of text over a still scene (it's not until several minutes after they've ended that we get our first clue that this isn't a freeze-frame), and the end credits roll over a silent shot of Pierrot meeting Majid's son.
  • The opening and closing credits of Code Unknown run in complete silence. In fact, there is no score in the entire film apart from drumming and flute play in-universe.
  • The White Ribbon has no music or other sounds during the closing credits.
• Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) ends with Matthew revealed to have been converted into a pod and pointing out the still-unconverted Nancy with the shrill pod scream. The camera then zooms into the darkness of Matthew's mouth, and silence plays over the credits.
• The film adaptation of Jesus Christ Superstar, like fellow Andrew Lloyd Webber creation Evita above, features no music in the credits.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Avengers: Infinity War has a more somber and quiet credits sequence compared to the rest of the MCU. No flashy effects. Just white-on-black credits as a mournful song plays. When the Title Drop is seen, it's faded into a somber piano rendition of the Avengers theme... as the title crumbles away into dust.
  • Black Panther: Wakanda Forever features an opening logo variant: released two years after the first film's star Chadwick Boseman passed away and starting with a Downer Beginning where his character T'Challa also dies, the Marvel Studios logo displays only footage and images of him while the usual fanfare is replaced with complete silence.
• The credits for No Country for Old Men initially appear to be silent with only ambient noise, but said noise gradually evolves into a superbly chilling piece by Carter Burwell.
• Noise has this. It's really a jarring silence as the whole film's always has noise, even the "quiet" bits of the film aren't quiet, yet the credits are cut to black and complete silence.
• Path to 9/11 had no music to its credits on either night of its original TV airing.
• Planet of the Apes:
  • Planet of the Apes (1968) has one of the most famous silent end credits (except for the sound of waves crashing on the shore) as Taylor realizes he's been on Earth all along.
  • Beneath the Planet of the Apes — after Taylor detonates the nuke, Paul Frees narrates as the screen goes white: "In one of the countless billions of galaxies in the universe, lies a medium-sized star, and one of its satellites, a green and insignificant planet, is now dead." The screen then fades to black, and the credits roll in silence.
  • Conquest of the Planet of the Apes — The credits roll in silence, except for the apes screeching fading.
• After the track "Lux Aeterna", which started near the end of the movie, finishes, the credits of Requiem for a Dream have no background music for the rest of their duration. Instead, there is a two-minute track of seaside sound effects. Interestingly enough, said "music" is also on the soundtrack.
• The infamous 1963 Coleman Francis film The Skydivers, right after the Downer Ending has a rather grim end credits sequence with film footage of the various cast members set to complete silence. Is lampshaded by Crow ("Silently, dismally, the credits roll on.") in the show's MST3K episode.
• Targets has no musical score at all, and so the credits are an example of this, running over a shot of the murderer Thompson's car sitting abandoned in the otherwise empty drive-in theater parking lot.
• These Final Hours ends with the end of the world. There is no music playing over the entire length of the end credits.

Live-Action TV

• Adam-12: The 1970 episode "Elegy for a Pig," which recounted the life of a police officer killed in action, ended with silent credits in lieu of the usual booming theme song. (The sound effects associated with the "Mark VII Limited" and Universal Studios vanity plates were kept intact.)
• Adric's death in the Doctor Who serial "Earthshock" - the traditional starfield sequence of that time was replaced with a picture of his broken Mathematics badge (which was used to kill a Cyberman), with the credits scrolling in silence. One reviewer said that he never noticed the credits were silent - he was too busy laughing at the death of his most hated character. However, many others have commented that it made the episode more moving, and in recent years the closing of the episode has taken on "Rains of Castamere" significance among Whovians.
• Grange Hill:
  • The death of Anthony Karamanopolis.
  • And that of Judi Jeffreys (well, not quite silent but with the fading sound of the fire alarm instead of the theme music).
• The UK children's magazine programme Blue Peter did this whenever the studio pet cat or dog died, as well as when someone associated with the programme died, such as Percy Thrower in 1988.
• The Downer Ending of Blake's 7's final episode "Blake" initially concludes this way, although the music fades up halfway through.
• 24 emphasizes its Real Time "Race Against the Clock" Thriller nature by starting and ending every act with a digital clock, complete with beeping sound effects and a Heartbeat Soundtrack. However, when an especially tragic moment occurs or an especially important character meets their Character Deaths, the show will mute the beeping, instead running a "silent clock" with muted sound effects or music in the background. Only 14 silent clocks occurred ever occurred across 192 episodes (and ten uses of said clock per episode).
• Farscape, after the apparent deaths of the two lead characters in the Season 4 finale (and, it was believed at the time, the end of the entire series).
• For a non death-related example, one season finale of House had the music cut off just as House downed another pill. Cut to credits.
• Also unrelated to character death, credits roll free of music (with ambient sound effects) in season 2, episode 7 of Queer as Folk (US) after Michael realizes he can't handle Ben's HIV-positive status.
  • And again in season 5, episode 10 after Babylon is blown up.
• The final episode of Blackadder Goes Forth concluded with the deaths of the entire main cast, followed by no credits at all, just the series' logo, The BBC logo and year (dated in Roman numerals) on the bottom of the screen, after the agreement of everyone involved to forgo credit in order to preserve the effect of the ending.
• The Sopranos did this for Adrianna's death and again in the finale, which ended with a cut to black and silence in the middle of a scene.
• Six Feet Under, when David survives the carjacking and after Nate's death.
• Although nobody died, silent credits were used to great effect in the Roundhouse episode dealing with gang violence. Billy Anykid, trying to avoid a confrontation, calls out "Reprise the theme song and roll the credits" only to have everybody walk away from him in disgust, and the credits roll silently as Billy looks around the now empty set. Rather than a happy, dancing and singing finish, probably due to the seriousness of the subject matter, there was only a silent text crawl:

  There were over 3,000 gang-related fatalities in the U.S. in 1992 alone. After auto accidents, guns are the 2nd leading cause of death among teenagers.
  In the U.S. today, there are approximately 5,000 gangs, with over 500,000 members.
  Gang violence is no joke.

• Every episode of Lost ends with the show's title accompanied by a percussive sound. However, for some sad endings, such as Sun crying at Jin's grave in "Ji Yeon", the sound is omitted.
  • The Grand Finale omitted the usual percussive sound and ominous end credits music. The network was even smart enough to not play ads or run a voiceover, instead showing images of the plane wreckage and playing the sound of waves lapping at the shore. Which some people interpreted to mean that everyone was dead the whole time, despite repeated Jossings to the contrary.
• Mike Baldwin's death in Coronation Street was meant to be this, except the continuity announcer talked over it. Until a few years ago, any episode of Corrie which ended with a death would have silent credits. This is no longer possible now that the broadcasters insist on shrinking the credit sequence into a corner of the screen and having the continuity announcer prattle on about what's coming next (sometimes averted on CBC broadcasts).
• EastEnders did this after the fittingly tragic deaths of Ronnie and Roxy Mitchell on New Years' Day 2017.
• Star Trek:
  • The Star Trek: Voyager episode "The Thaw" has one of the most artfully produced Silent Credits sequences you'll ever see: the surviving members of a civilization are hooked to an adaptive computer life-support system, which manifests their fears in the form of a sadistic and violent Clown. When Janeway finds a way to access the system without actually entering the simulation, the Clown's reality (and the background audio) starts to fade as the hostages are disconnected one by one. The final exchange of words is beautiful in its simplicity, with the Clown uttering two memorable words: 'I'm afraid'. Janeway's sole response is a haunting, softly-whispered 'I know'. And then the Clown mutters "Drat." as it fades to black.
  • Star Trek: Discovery has this at the end of the episode "Project Daedalus" after the corrupted cyborg Airiam was sacrificed in an attempt to stop the evil AI Control. The credits do not feature music, but instead have the sound of crashing waves, in reference to Airiam's memory of being on a beach with her husband, back when she was fully human. In the episode, Ensign Tilly sends this memory to Airiam in order to break through her corruption by Control.
• On the final episode of the original version of Family Feud, after host Richard Dawson gave a famously touching farewell address, the closing credits, had no music, just the sound of the audience applauding, and announcer Gene Wood ending the show with "Thank you Richard, and Thank you America!"
• A rare documentary example occurs in Jacob Bronowski's series The Ascent of Man. In episode 11, with some visual assistance from a fellow Pole, Bronowski contrasts the scientific assertion that knowledge can never be certain with the chilling certainities of political and religious dogma. At the end he gives a moving piece to camera while standing in the preserved Auschwitz concentration camp. The picture then dissolves to the Polish man, then to an earlier photo of the same man - his Auschwitz ID photo. The credits roll in silence.
• Canada's Worst Driver had Silent Credits when Tom Stagno, brother-in-law to contestant Crystal, was killed in a car crash. Crystal was sent home out of sympathy.
• The All in the Family episode "Archie Is Branded", where a man from the Hebrew Defense League is blown up in his car ends this way.
• The final episode of the second revival of Crossroads was intended to have Silent Credits, and like the Coronation Street example above, would have had it not been for the continuity announcer.
• Game of Thrones has these in the episode "The Rains of Castamere," after the deaths of Robb, Talisa and Cat Stark at the Red Wedding. Other episodes occasionally have silence for the first several seconds of the credits, in order to emphasize the ending, most notably following the White Walker attack in "Hardhome".
• The Newsroom did this in the second season episode "News Night with Will McAvoy", after Will tells Mac that his father has died before airing the Trayvon Martin correction.
• Like the 1964 film version, the 2000 Made-for-TV Movie of Fail Safe has no music at all from beginning to end.
• The BBC docudrama Threads, which ends with nearly all the main characters dead from the immediate or long-term effects of nuclear war. More than this, the show features teletype-style captions, accompanied by a characteristic sound. After the bombs fall, knocking out virtually all electronics, the teletype captions are silent.
• Although the Made-for-TV Movie The UFO Incident does have music, it doesn't play over the end credits.
• Some episodes of The Walking Dead use either silent credits, or a slower and more emotional piece of music instead of the usual theme, for episodes that feature major deaths and/or emotional developments. Examples include season 2, episode 11 "Judge, Jury, Executioner", following Dale's death; season 3, episode 4 "Killer Within", after the death of Lori, and to an extent, T-Dog; season 4, episode 8 "Too Far Gone", after the deaths of Hershel, The Governor, and seemingly baby Judith, and the fall of the prison; season 5, episode 9 "What Happened And What's Going On" after Tyrese's death, with the sound of him being buried playing over the credits; and season 6, episode 16 "Last Day on Earth", where Negan bludgeons one of Rick's group members to death, whose identity is left ambiguous for a Cliffhanger.
• Glee's "Shooting Star," in which William McKinley High is disrupted by a gun going off, features silent end credits (following a montage of cellphone recordings of the tearful and scared students) rather than the usual perky glee singing. However, no one gets killed in the episode.
  • "The Quarterback" does this as well, since Cory Monteith's death had an overbearing on the plot and his character was formally retired in the episode.
• Since it has no credits per se, an episode of Entertainment Tonight that aired on May 16, 1990 had the Paramount Vanity Plate at the end run without its music out of respect for Sammy Davis Jr. and Jim Henson, who both died that day.
• Top Gear's final episode featuring Clarkson, Hammond and May ended with the credits lacking any music at all.
  • This specific example was then parodied in Mock the Week, with Dara Ó Briain remarking that if he'd known this trope existed, he would have insisted on it being used when he was fired from Celebrity Apprentice. Dara then invoked the trope at the end of the episode, solemnly declaring that "we won't be back until next week". The credits weren't entirely silent: there was a few seconds of laughter at the start, when the audience realized what was happening.
• Several Access Hollywood episodes end with a silent version of the credits and NBC Universal logo, usually when they announce the death of a celebrity. The episode concerning Billy Bush's retirement from the show also ended with silence. On certain other death announcements, such as those of Rene Angelil (Céline Dion's husband) and later Muhammad Ali, the episode will end on a Lonely Piano Piece.
• The Leftovers's "The Garveys At Their Best," which relates the events leading up to the Departure, ends with Laurie staring at the sonogram machine which was showing her unborn child... until the child vanished in front of her eyes. Not only do the credits run in complete silence, but so does the Warner Bros. Television logo, with sound only returning for the "screen switching off" version of the HBO Entertainment logo.
• The November 14, 1965 episode of What's My Line? was the first one following long-time panelist Dorothy Kilgallen's death. After John Daly's sign-off, the usual credits roll was skipped in favor of just showing a title card in silence, followed by the network's "the preceding program was pre-recorded" disclaimer (intended for CBS affiliates that broadcast delayed the program).
• Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, the least likely scripted TV series not called Glee to ever have Silent Credits, has these at the end of "I Never Want To See Josh Again," when Rebecca is flying to Los Angeles after visiting her mother - and overdoses. But she manages to alert a flight attendant while slipping in and out of consciousness... cut to the credits, minus the instrumental reprise of the Season 3 opening theme. It is even followed by a message for suicidal prevention lines.
• Used in the series finale of The Man in the High Castle where it also acts as a Finale Credits.
• For All Mankind always has a contemporary song playing during the credits, except in "Rupture" when astronaut Ed Baldwin is told his son has been rendered brain-dead in a road accident while he is on the Moon.
• The Expanse. A variation in "Remember the Cant" after Havelock is attacked and left for dead (though he survives). There's just the murmur of the crowd and a voice announcing over and over: "This is a Star Helix security directive. Curfew is now in effect on Medina Level. Unauthorised personnel be detained or arrested on sight."
• The Mentalist - not the ending credits, but the opening teaser of "Brown Eyed Girls" has Patrick Jane and Teresa Lisbon discover a badly injured woman. Patrick Jane tells her to stay with him, but she passes away just before the brief opening logo sequence that displays that the show was "created by Bruno Heller."
  Lisbon: Jane, she's gone.
  Jane: Yeah, I know, I know. (intro, sans the normal jazzy music)
• Mr. Robot did this after Elliot was forced to find out that his dad raped him.
• Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: The June 7, 2020 episode dedicates the entire episode to a single topic^note rare for the series, as it usually opens with a brief segment discussing headlines before transitioning to the main topic - systemic racism in American police forces. Due to the subject matter, the episode ends with a somber "That's our show. Thanks for watching. Goodnight" from John, followed by silent white-text-on-black-background credits, as opposed to the usual black-text-on-white-background credits set to the show's Instrumental Theme Tune.
• An example with a series that has no ending credits - episodes of Kamen Rider Drive (and most other Kamen Rider series in the Heisei and Reiwa eras) typically close on an ending screen displaying a number of Transformation Trinkets before proceeding to the On the Next preview. Episode 32, in which The Hero Dies, ends on a screen displaying nothing but the series' "R" logo in shades of gray and no trinkets. Conversely, episode 33, in which he Came Back Strong, foregoes the ending screen and skips straight from the final scene to the next episode preview.

Video Games

• In Drakengard's final ending, after defeating the Cosmic Horror, the camera shows a shot of Caim and Red, when a missile suddenly appears from the left side of the screen and obliterates them both. Cue Silent Credits on grey sky.
• Halflight ends with the player character and his brother, having escaped from the underworld (or not, it could be a vision but the game isn't clear about it) walking down the streets of downtown Taiwan while credits rolls past. It's completely silent and devoid of sound, not even footsteps.
• Minecraft's ending, known as the End Poem (which only plays after defeating the Ender Dragon), didn't play any ending music at all, especially in the game's 1.0 release. The poem was composed by Julian Gough, and all that is shown in the ending was a philosophical text-based dialogue scrolling in a dirt background at a very slow speed, illustrating all the accomplishments of the player while it mirrors real life. The player can then see the silent credits roll after reading the End Poem before going back to their normal world. However, in the 1.12.2 update, music finally plays during the credits.
• NieR: Partially done at the end of Ending D, with the ending song replaced with a Music Box cover, before fading away to the very feint, ambient sounds of wind through trees and singing birds.
• Persona 4 pulls a different version. During the bad ending, instead of the full credits set to Never More, with a showcase of various game cutscenes, the game shows a sparse white-on-black partial credits roll, set to Corridor, a far quieter, more somber tune.
• Done in BIT.TRIP FLUX, the final game of the series.
• Conker's Bad Fur Day ends on a really bad note, after Conker comes to terms that he's now king of a country he doesn't want, surrounded by people he despises, and his girlfriend Berri is dead. The credits are silent save for a few melodramatic keys.
• Partially done at the end of Red Dead Redemption: after Jack fulfilled his pointless vengeance, the credits roll normally with a melancholic song. After the song ends, they just go on, completely silently.
• Doom Game Mod Project Kate by Jimmy has a silent title screen and intermission, the mapset was a tribute to a fallen member of the Doom modding community who was a personal friend of the author.
• Done in the SNES version of Toy Story. Averted in the Genesis version, however.
• Done in Undertale after completing a Neutral route (of the other two routes, one does play music over the credits and the other has no credits at all), with only the noise being the sound that plays when the game's title appears. Although the Neutral endings aren't necessarily sad as is common for this trope, they are bittersweet at best.
• The credits to Gamer 2 play while Hailey is released from the virtual reality machine she was trapped in. The soft ambiance noise of the real world laboratory provides stark contrast to the music-filled game world she escaped.
• Devil May Cry 5 has a variation of this at the end of Mission 19, before the final mission. After Nero finally gets his Devil Trigger, a silent (excluding the bonus Style Points and Bonus Red Orbs cards appearing with a click) mission summary screen with statistics on the bottom right corner replaces the traditional variant (with a "cinematic" showing flying shattered glass).
• The Neutral endings of OMORI, in which Basil is Driven to Suicide, play nothing but the sound of either police sirens (if Sunny pulled a Screw This, I'm Outta Here) or a ringing telephone (if Sunny killed himself as well) over the credits. Both the Bad and Good endings avert this by having proper music: "My Time" and "Good Morning", respectively.

Web Animation

• Usually after a massive Cliffhanger following a dark lore moment, SMG4 ends up causing the credits to become silent, or in some cases, receive ambient noises instead (the noise of typing in “Mario Delves Into Anti-Piracy Screens...” and “MAR10 Day”, TV static in “Ready To Ride?...”). This is also usually accompanied with the outro itself to become desaturated (or in the case of “Mario And The Waluigi Apocalypse”, purple with Waluigi’s signature upside-down L constantly repeating in the background).
• The first season finale of Wacky Game Jokez, 4 Kidz! ends with this.
• The entire ending credits of Studio Moonchalk's RPG Maker machinima, Distortion.

Web Original

• Classic Alice Well trained Classic Alice fans know that when the credits go quiet, bad things are happening. When the end cards have no characteristically peppy music, it's because there is trouble afoot.
• In Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, the credits start with utter silence, which is followed by a quiet rendition of Penny's theme... which is then drowned out under a rising Dr. Horrible's theme.
• Marble Hornets did have a credits sequence after the first season had ended. And fittingly for such series, it's safe to assume that the series doesn't have a proper ending theme.
• Molotov Mitchel's "For The Record" did this on the August 3 episode.
• The Nostalgia Critic tribute video to Roger Ebert, which was uploaded on the day of his passing, has silent credits for the first time in any NC video. This was also done in the tribute to former TGWTG contributor Justin Carmical. Considering the more somber tone, this is very much justified.
• Used in Episode 87 of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, because the usual upbeat theme music would have seemed utterly inappropriate coming right on the heels of an extremely emotional moment.
• Red Panda Adventures:
  • The season six finale, "There Will Be Rain Tonight", is a Wham Episode which features the Red Panda's plane being shot down en route to Europe and all but two members of the Home Team of superheroes working on the Canadian home front being assassinated. The normally bombastic "This concludes another adventure of the Red Panda" ending monologue by Steven Burley is delivered in a much more serious and somber tone.
  • The season nine finale, "The Gadget", ends on the Red Ensign taking recurring foe Friedrich von Schlitz to his final doom at the A-Bomb testing site in Trinity, New Mexico. In this case, the "this concludes" monologue is omitted entirely, going straight to the reading of the cast list while an explosion is heard in the background.
  • "The Final Problem" is the Red Panda Adventures chronological Grand Finale. It trades the "This concludes" monologue in favor of an announcement by series creator and voice of the Red Panda Gregg Taylor announcing that, while this is the final episode chronologically, they will still be releasing new episodes that simply take place at varying points in the Red Panda's and Flying Squirrel's careers.
• Musical Hell: On the "Know the Score" episode for Cabaret, Diva closes out on the Wham Shot of the Emcee bowing to the Nazis from the film and transitions to Silent Credits which slowly fades into and closes out on a drum roll from the musical's finale.
• The credits for the series finale of Star Trek Continues features no music, using the classic ambient bridge noises of the Enterprise instead.
• Due to the suicide of the game's namesake, Caddicarus ended his review of Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX without his usual subscribe jingle, and with no music playing over the Patreon shout-outs, only his narration giving plugs to suicide hotlines, and his thanks to the top-tier supporters.
• The Cry of Mann: There's usually at least some noise being made during the credits, often a scene that runs straight to the end, often where viewers can still call and talk until the last second. At the end of episode 4, however, the scene is notably silent, just featuring Ghost Lady silently eating popcorn, emphasizing the drama that was Jack's disastrous art show. PH
• Phelous's review of Jacob's Ladder has a silent credits roll following the revelation that his whole review series after the first episode was a Dying Dream.
• Sword Art Online Abridged: Episode 17 ends on this note, where instead of the usual ending theme sequence, we are left with Kazuto standing outside Suguha's bedroom door, despondent after his sister angrily and tearfully explained exactly what he did to ruin their sibling bond, before slamming the door in his face when he admits just how blind to her pain he's been.
• TheRealJims's review of The Simpsons episode "Bart The Lover", which also served as a tribute to Marcia Wallace, who played Mrs. Krabappel, ends with silent credits instead of "Coconut Milk" playing over the end credits as usual.

Western Animation

• Amphibia:
  • The standard end credits sequence for Season 3 consists of a quirky, fast-paced song and visuals. As this would be far too jarring with the latter episode's Downer Ending of Marcy getting forcibly possessed by the Core, "Spider-Sprig/Olivia & Yunan" instead plays its credits over a solid black background soundtracked by very quiet and otherworldly wailing.
  • Similarly, as an another episode where the second of the Two Shorts is a Wham Episode, "The Root of Evil/The Core & the King" plays no music over its credits. The background here is a static shot of the slashed portrait of young King Andrias with former friends Leif and Barrel after Andrias left it to burn in his fireplace, the only sounds being the crackling of the fire and a brief creaking from the portrait slightly shifting position.
• As Told by Ginger has silent credits on "No Hope for Courtney" in honor of Kathleen Freeman, the late voice of Mrs. Gordon (this was Freeman's final episode before her death from cancer, and her character was killed off).
• The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes had the episode "Michael Korvac", which is dedicated to writer/director Boyd Kirkland who died of a lung infection.
• Bluey: "Ghostbasket" ends with a Wham Shot of a "For Sale" sign put up in front of the Heelers' house, as the credits begin to roll with no music.
• The Family Guy episode "Brian and Stewie" is a two-hander episode with no music at all. This extended to the credits, though it was cut out when originally aired on FOX. When it re-aired on [adult swim] a week later, it was left intact.
• Played with on Gravity Falls—most episodes play with a short scene containing a gag, but two Wham Episodes are decidedly more sedate:
  • "Not What He Seems" ends with The Reveal of the Author, and simply shows two young boys who resemble Stan and Ford Pines on a swing-set, staring off over the ocean, with the only sounds being the swings and the tide. The Whole Episode Flashback in the next episode confirms them to be actually be Stan and his twin brother, Ford.
  • "Dipper and Mabel vs. the Future" just shows the twins' birthday flyer lying on the ground, ruffled by the wind. However, the lighting and background noises make it clear that something unsettling is happening off-screen.
• Because Hilda got grounded in "The Beast of Cauldron Island", they replaced the catchy mystery/adventure theme with silence over the credits to mark the fact that Hilda isn't allowed to go on adventures with David and Frida or go exploring around Trolberg.
• Kid Cosmic: "Kid Cosmic and The Epic Fail" still has the vinyl record playing in the end credits, but instead of a rock tune, it's only playing the static at the end of the song, due to Kid's actions causing the Rings of Power to fall into the hands of the US Government after a Near-Villain Victory.
• This happened in the Grand Finale of OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes, which is also the Finale Credits showing an exit door in an empty animation department room, likely where the show is made, except that the only noise you can hear is some faint sounds of an air conditioner with people speaking and laughing, probably from a wrap party (or aural memories of the animation crew laughing and having fun while working).
• The Owl House:
  • The first season normally has an ending sequence of Luz walking around. The episode "Agony of a Witch" ends on a massive cliffhanger, so the credits are rolled over a slow-panning shot of Emperor Belos' castle with the only sound being the flames surrounding it, and a heartbeat.
  • The end credits sequence for most of the second season is a series of paintings depicting important characters. Two-part season finale episodes "Clouds on the Horizon" and "King's Tide" diverge from this — "Clouds" by lingering on the very last shot of Luz being sent back to the Emperor's castle as the ending theme is replaced by very quiet sounds of wind howling, and "Tide" by focusing on another static shot of the Earth-based half of the Portal Door during a rainstorm. The only sounds are those of rainfall, thunder, dripping, and the door closing.
• The PJs lacked an ending theme, meaning this happened at the end of every episode (you wouldn't know it from the original network airings). This also carried over the logos, even that of Touchstone Television's (which has music on other shows). Some syndicated airings seemed to notice the eeriness of this and pasted the opening theme onto the credits (it ironically fits the usual credits timeframe perfectly).
• Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: This happens with the season 1 finale, which involves the Foot Clan finally reviving The Shredder, leaving no music on the credits except a sound of wind.
• South Park:
  • The episode "Free Willzyx" ended with the credits rolling over a shot of the eponymous dead orca whale on the moon and no music at all.
  • The episode "201" also features credits with no music at all. The scene is the same as above, except a dead Tom Cruise can also be seen lying next to the same orca whale.
    • The DVD release oddly adds the regular credits music and cuts back to the regular black background after a while.
  • In the episode "You're Getting Old", the credits are played briefly with silence.
  • In the episode "'The Hobbit", after Wendy tearfully photoshops a photo of her and sends it in a mass e-mail, the credits roll in the empty computer lab without any music.
• The Space Ghost Coast to Coast episode "Sharrock", created to honor the deceased musician Sonny Sharrock, is an interesting case. While the credits play to music - the "Ghost Planet National Anthem", to be specific - with the occasional cut to the cast dancing over them, the "Contact Ghost Planet" message and Cartoon Network & Ghost Planet Industries vanity plates play in silence.
• Star vs. the Forces of Evil's second season finale "Starcrushed" replaces the regular closing credits song/sequence with ambient noise over a scene of the Diaz house at night because Star has returned to Mewni in the wake of Toffee's return.
• Star Wars Rebels - "Jedi Night" has this to mark Kanan Jarrus's Heroic Sacrifice.

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