And the Adventure Continues

aka: The Adventure Continues

Superman: A head start? You're getting soft in your old age...
Batman: Don't you have a tall building to go leap?
Wonder Woman: ...And the adventure continues...
[everyone starts running]

— Justice League Unlimited, cueing the Curtain Call

After a long fight, the Big Bad is finally defeated, his Evil Plan thwarted, his legions of robotic minions smashed to pieces, his living ones have been safely thrown in jail, The Dragon is dead, and the Quirky Miniboss Squad has decided to go straight and make a new life for themselves.

Congratulations are given, the dead are mourned, the Unresolved Sexual Tension is resolved (or is about to be)...

Uh-oh, there's another call for help! The Starscream (Or why not, a brand new Big Bad?) is causing trouble! No rest for the virtuous heroes, it's time to spring back into action!

THE END

Say what now?

Kind of a non-ending, we know. This kind of ending can come when a series is canceled before the author can plan out a full ending. Other times it's deliberate, included as a way for the writers to quickly create an ideal continuation point in the event that the opportunity for a sequel arrives. Some stories just end before they can reach the Happily Ever After point. Sometimes, there is no Happily Ever After. Or it may be meant to imply that the adventuring life is their Happily Ever After, especially if they have recently contemplated quitting and decided against it, or recently regained their ability to continue.

The mood can range anywhere from melancholy to "Oh boy, a chance for more fun!" Out-of-universe, of course, it serves as a more satisfying take on That's All, Folks!.

The purpose behind this idea is to explain that the world that these characters inhabit is much, much larger than the stories that have been written about them. These characters, and all of their friends and foes that were encountered as we watched, continue on living their lives even if we aren't watching the story unfold. We can relax, knowing that they're still out there somewhere, still fighting the good fight, since that's how we saw them last.

Sort of like Here We Go Again!, but the tone is usually more optimistic than the good-natured resignation of the former. The series acts as a window into the lives of the characters, and though it may be time for the audience (or the writer) to move on, their adventures or struggles will continue. In this case, there's the implication that the worst is over, and despite the danger, things will be all right for them from now on. (Of course, as the Expanded Universe reveals all too often, sometimes they're not.)

There have been several adventure stories that eliminate any sense of subtlety by featuring this phrase at the end but Tropes Are Tools.

In the case of video games this kind of "ending" can actually be quite literal, since there are quite a few games out there that have multiple paths the onscreen protagonists can take, and even after they've "won" on one path, they could still "lose" on any or all of the other paths.

Compare Cliffhanger, Sequel Hook, Bolivian Army Ending, End-of-Series Awareness, and So What Do We Do Now?. If a work ends with more finality, but an on-screen caption promotes the next installment, see "Will Return" Caption. This trope is the polar opposite of the Grand Finale. Can potentially serve as a Sequel Hook, should the creators ever decide to make more. Contrast Little Did I Know, when the adventure to come is "foreshadowed" by the narration.

To Fanfic or Expanded Universe writers, this can instead be like a blank check and a note saying "Go nuts!"

As this is an Ending Trope, unmarked spoilers abound. Beware.

noreallife

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Sub-pages

• Anime & Manga
• Live-Action Films
  • Star Trek
• Live-Action TV
• Video Games
• Western Animation

Examples:

Animation

• Miniforce ends with the team preparing to leave Bluebell Village after defeating Pascal but are told to stay in case a new threat comes around.

Anime & Manga

Comic Books

• Happens a lot in superhero comics, especially ones published by DC and Marvel. Since almost all their series are Long-Runners which go on indefinitely, many departing writers finish off their runs on a particular hero's title with this trope; thus putting a capstone on their own run on the character while assuring readers that the hero will be back with new adventures (written by someone else) next month.
• The final issue of The Bad Eggs ends with Ript and Claude in a new time era where humans are present. Neither of them are remotely upset, and they're ready to go on more adventures in their new jungle. Provided the humans don't kill them first...
• Batgirl (2009): The final line is Stephanie Brown's narration as she swings into the Gotham night for her next adventure.
  "Here we go."
• Batman: Batman (Grant Morrison) ends in an unusually somber example of this, with the implication being that Batman will never be able to escape the superhero lifestyle.
• The Distant Finale of Beast Wars: Uprising ends with a brief scene of two Cybertronian ships arriving in an unknown location and promptly crashing on a mysterious blue-green planet. The captain of the good ship, a mere exploration vessel, takes stock of just how out of his depths he is, but vows to do whatever it takes to get them all home. The last line is the narration stating thus: "Little did he know."
• This type of ending is mocked in The Boys. Jack From Jupiter says, of the winners of "Best New Team", "There's a 'Feels more like a beginning' waiting to happen if I ever saw one", going on to say that when the team inevitably breaks up and begins their long, painful slide into obscurity and worse, the comic book always ends with one of them "gazing off-panel" and saying that, for an end, it feels more like a beginning.
• Brute Force: The series ends with Frost and Heavy Metal defeated but Pierce tells Brute Force they still have a whole planet to clean up.
• At the end of the Camelot 3000 comic series, King Arthur is dead and the surviving knights set about rebuilding the civilization of Earth. Meanwhile, on some distant planet, a small alien creature stumbles across Arthur's sword Excalibur (which it then wields against a group of aliens who had been pursuing it) as we are told "The road goes ever on..."
• Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew! ends with Little Cheese being elected as the team's newest member.
• Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe: Again ends with Deadpool setting off to kill all of the remaining villains after possibly killing the Red Skull.
• Dial H, the New 52 version of Dial H for Hero, ended part way between this and Bittersweet Ending, with the team of characters having defeated their main enemies, but being left in a devastated universe which they could potentially escape, but with only a remote chance of getting back to their original homes.
• The Doctor Who Magazine Eighth Doctor comics ended like this. (They had been planning to have the Eighth Doctor die and turn into Christopher Eccleston, but then it was decided that the Ninth Doctor comics would be strictly tied into TV continuity.)
• Forgotten Realms: The final issue ends with the main characters, having just mourned the loss of their ship, vowing to get a new one and continue their adventures together.
• At the end of the SLG Gargoyles comic book sequel series, Goliath is almost giddy that his clan has just doubled in size in less than half an hour with the arrival of an older Brooklyn and his family from their timedancing adventures as well as Coldstone and Coldfire to stay. At that, the call that The Pack is on the loose again is not merely an emergency to attend to for Goliath, but also a moment of celebration as the whole clan takes off to kick bad guy butt together with relish.
• Invincible: Chapter 144 shows that while things got much better, Mark and his family still had plenty to do for hundreds of years into the future.
• Jurassic Strike Force 5 ends with the Strike Force foiling Zalex's plan to destroy Washington D.C. and they decide to stick around in case he and the Reptilians come back.
• Just Imagine... Stan Lee Creating the DC Universe ends with Crisis defeated, Atom joining the Justice League and the team ready to face whatever comes next.
• JLA (1997): Having just saved the entire universe from a rampaging cosmic war machine, the League are given a few precious minutes to relax before receiving word that another of their old enemies is up to no good. Batman sighs, but Superman gives him a grin and says "Come on, Bruce. You know you love it."
• King Thor: The miniseries ends with the present-day Lord Librarian showing his apprentice Shadrak some of Thor's future adventures leading up to him becoming All-Father Thor, as well as some of the future adventures of the Goddesses of Thunder.
• Klaus (Grant Morrison) ends with Klaus promising to come back every year to deliver presents to Grimsvig. When Jonas points out how much time Klaus has and how big the world is, Klaus implies he will extend his promise to the rest of the world. He eventually gave up this mission when the population got too big. Plus, parents were already buying gifts for their children anyways.
• The Mice Templar: Rather than bring Karic into the realms beyond life, Wotan brings him over the seemingly impassable mountains at the edge of the comic's lands, to a new land where the situation of the comic's plot is reversed: a cruel Mice Templar dictatorship (of mice, naitch) represses a realm of rats. Karic is healed/reborn to bring justice to the situation and to pull the Templar there back from the darkness that has consumed them, and it's hinted that Ankara learns of this through a dream and will cross the mountains to reunite with her love.
• Pathfinder: Worldscape ends quite literally this way, when the Pathfinders help save The Multiverse and when returned to their homeworld Golarion, they resume their quest that was interrupted when they were displaced to the Worldscape, the titular demiplane.
• Almost every arc of Red Sonja ends with Sonja riding off to find more battles to fight.
• By the end of Reyn Seph has Aurora wipe Reyn's memory and rebuild him to make him forget everything that occurred throughout the comic. When Reyn wakes back up, he and Seph head to another village to go rescue its residents from monsters, which was exactly what Reyn was doing when the comic began.
• Robin: The final issue of Robin: Son of Batman ended with a splash panel of Damian declaring "Adventure awaits! Let's go!" as he and his friends rode off on Goliath, and a caption reading "It's never over!"
• Rocket Raccoon (1985) ends with Rocket and company leaving Halfworld in search of other planets that need their help.
• Scare Tactics ends with Arnold, Fang and Scream Queen searching for new bandmates.
• Scott Pilgrim: What's next for Scott and Ramona? Where will they go and what will they do? What does "trying again" mean to them? Will they get married, like Wallace and Stacey hinted at? The ending is unconcerned with all these questions, and lets the couple drift off into Subspace, embracing.
• Spider-Man: Bloodline ends with Ben and a newly-resurrected MJ receiving their own spider-suits, courtesy of Nick Fury.
• Squadron Supreme: New World Order ends with the original Squadron Supreme reunited once more, and ready to fight against the dictatorship.
• From 2002 to 2004, Dark Horse Comics published a trio of limited series called Star Wars Infinities, a What If? take on all three movies in the original Star Wars trilogy ^note  "What if Luke had failed to destroy the Death Star?", "What if Luke had frozen to death on Hoth before Han had rescued him?", "What if Luke and his friends had destroyed Jabba's palace in an all-out battle?", etc.. The Infinities take on Return of the Jedi notably ends like this, in a stark contrast to the actual film. Emperor Palpatine manages to escape from the Death Star before the Rebels destroy it, but Luke and Leia successfully manage to save Darth Vader's life after convincing him to turn from the Dark Side. In the last pages, Vader does a Good Costume Switch and joins the heroes as they all vow to hunt down Palpatine together.
• The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye ends with the crew of the Lost Light, having stopped Functionist Universe's invasion, found the Knights of Cybertron, and bonded as True Companions (even Megatron), decide to try recreating the quantum accident from the beginning of the comic, only this time they send one version of themselves to another universe so that both versions can exist without disappearing. Unfortunately, the version of the ship that stayed in the original universe does end up returning home.
• Ultimate Marvel
  • Spider-Men II: At the end of the story we find out that the Ultimate universe is back, and that Ultimate Spider-Man is working as a superhero once again and joined The Ultimates. Last time we see them, Spider-Man and Spider-Woman swing to the distance, heading to new adventures.
  • The mini-series Ultimate Comics New Ultimates ends with a shot of the heroes about to start a fight against The Defenders.
  Nighthawk: We took on the Ultimates, stole Thor's hammer. Man, I wish we'd get another shot at taking them down. Everydody'd be talking about us—
  *One of Hawkeye's arrows comes out of the blue and hits one of the cards the Defenders are playing poker with*
  Son of Satan: What the Hell?!?
  Iron Man: You know the old expression, kids— Be careful what you wish for!
• Watchmen ends with Nite Owl and Silk Spectre coming out of retirement to fight crime together. Then there's The Stinger, implying that they may have to deal with the fallout from Rorschach exposing Ozymandias' crimes. The trope is darkly lampshaded in dialogue.
  Ozymandias: Jon, wait. Before you leave...I did the right thing, didn't I? It all worked out in the end.
  Dr. Manhattan: "In the end?" Nothing ends, Adrian. Nothing ever ends.
• The first 12-issue run of Young Avengers ends with this. Everyone on the team except new member Tommy are hanging around Avengers Mansion. Then they hear an explosion from across town, and Tommy zooms in, complete with his new costume and codename, explaining that supervillains are at the UN building. Which he just blew up fighting them, so Billy's got to magically put it back together ("You can do that, right?")
  Billy: This is not going to end well, is it?
  Teddy: No way. But I have to admit—(everyone starts running)—I can't wait to see what happens next!

Comic Strips

• The last strip of Calvin and Hobbes. "It's a magical world, Hobbes ol' buddy. Let's go exploring!"

Fan Works

• The last installment in The Beast Of Gusu series, “Going Up The Mountain” ends with Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji meeting with Baoshan Sanren, so Wei Wuxian can meet his grandmother and learn about being a wolf shifter.
• Becoming a True Invader ends with Zim back to trying to conquer Earth, and Dib trying to expose him, with the only difference being the addition of the new alien friends they made over the course of the story now living on Earth with them.
• Calvin & Hobbes: The Series ends with these very words, in place of where "THE END" would usually be.
• So far, each Communication Quest ends each Host going on to explore The Multiverse.
• Cross Cases ends with Sam, Dean, Charlie, Castiel, and Crowley making it back to their own reality. Once there, Lucifer takes Michael (Carpenter's) advice of making his own choices by removing the Mark of Cain from Dean... and then setting it free so it can wreak havoc. And the two brothers set out to save the world once again, this time with their friends right behind them.
• In Forewarned is Forearmed, the story ends with Yu's realization about the true culprit behind Adachi's murders and Marie's predicament. He and Akira then run off to confront Izanami to end the events of the fog and the Midnight Channel once and for all.
• A one-shot fic called The Green Glade turns the ending of The Black Cauldron into this. After their brief struggle with some of the deceased Horned King's men and Eilonwy's brief visit to a shared universe where she accepts the invitation of a mysterious voice to join the Disney Princesses, the heroes — now accompanied by Coll and Prince Gwydion, the last living member of Prydain's royal family that the Horned King usurped — continue returning to Caer Dallben. However, Dallben learns through Hen Wen that Arawn has somehow been freed from the Black Cauldron, and the voice warns Eilonwy that she and Taran will be at the forefront of the darker times that Arawn will threaten Prydain with.
• Lampshaded at the end of this Gunslinger Girl Jethro and Monty fancomic. And the story does continue, in a prose series called And the Adventure Continues (which of course also ends with this trope).
• Keep On Running ends midway through Jamie's first adventure with the real Clara, having just met her echoes prior. When it ends, the Twelfth and Second Doctors have just awoken a monster and yelled for them all to run.
• Among the other Sequel Hooks it has, Queen of All Oni ends with a wolf spirit of some kind escaping its imprisonment and possessing Uncle's new intern, and Jackie chasing it as it races off into the night.
• The Ruby and Nora story “Recovery” ends with the title characters leaving for Mistral to confront their enemies.
• The Sealed Kunai ends with Naruto squaring off against Kurama to determine who will be in control of Kurama's power and Naruto's body.
• The Secret Return of Alex Mack ends with a scene from many years later, showing Terawatt still going strong, having dropped her secret identity to be a full time superhero, off on another mission.
• Somnium ends with Mulan, Aurora, and Giselle leaving Agrabah to go on with their journey. Danger still follows them wherever they go, but they still feel the need to move on, even if they don't know where they'll end up.
• The Story to End All Stories implies that the heroes will continue to have adventures together.
• Surface Tension begins with Zelda and Ruto becoming a couple and then running off on another an adventure together.
• Tales of a Reset Mind ends like this, with the Emotions and Nico looking for the Core Memories after the Breach is contained.
• Vode An ends with Obi-Wan, Anakin, Ahsoka, and the 501st Legion and the 212th Attack Battalion disobeying the Jedi Council's orders and heading off to Mandalore to capture Darth Maul.
• The last chapter of What Tomorrow Brings shows that James and co are fighting the Yeerks in the Animorphs' stead.
• Zeppo In Mind ends with Xander finally being able to maintain a physical body 24/7 after months of existing only as an entity in Faith's mind. But the Mayor's Ascension is still coming up and life on the Hellmouth is always interesting.
• A Is A uses this for several universes as their entry into the multiverse. Particularly Roy Mustang and Alphonse Elric, who meet SG-1 during the Promised Day battle, and Korra, who meets them as Kuvira launches the invasion of Republic City.

Films — Animated

• The Adventures of Tintin (2011): Amid the treasure recovered by Sir Francis Haddock, Tintin discovered a scroll leading to the rest of the treasure of the Unicorn.
  Tintin: How's your thirst for adventure, Captain?
  Captain Haddock: Unquenchable, Tintin.
• All Dogs Go to Heaven: Carface arrives in heaven, having been eaten by King Gator at some point offscreen, and immediately causes trouble for himself by winding his life clock in order to get revenge. As he’s caught in the act and chased down by the whippet angel telling him that he can never come back, Charlie appears and assures the viewers that he will indeed return.
• Anastasia ends with Anastasia and Dmitri eloping. Sophie says it's a perfect ending but Marie tells her it's a perfect beginning.
• Arlo the Alligator Boy: In the end, Arlo and his gang of True Companions now reside in New York at his dad's old boardwalk which they restored and reopened, which segues into the series I ♡ Arlo, as lampshaded in the Credits Gag.
• Bands on the Run ends with the rubber bands accomplishing their goal of getting around some kids' wrists. Those kids then go on many (offscreen) trips, some of which are shown as photos.
• Barbie and the Three Musketeers: In the end, Corinne, Aramina, Renée and Viveca are called to help against a new threat against the now King.
• Big Hero 6 ends with Hiro building a new Baymax, and the team going off into the city to fight crime.
• Cars ends with Lightning McQueen moving to Radiator Springs and opening his Racing Headquarters there, restoring the town to its former beauty. Cars 3 ends with Lightning's job being saved from retirement and he becomes a teacher to Cruz Ramirez, his former trainer who's fulfilled her dream to become a racer just like him.
• Chickenhare and the Hamster of Darkness: Though Chickenhare earns the right to be accepted into the Royal Adventurer Society, he refuses, and goes along with his friends to become independent adventurers.
• Freddie as F.R.O.7 ends with Freddie and friends heading off for their next mission, which is to stop Messina from taking over Washington, D.C.
• Hoodwinked!:
  • The first film ends with Red Riding Hood, Grandma, and the Wolf being offered positions in Nicky Flippers' organization, the Happily Ever After Agency, so that their services can be used again.
  • The sequel ends with Red and the Wolf driving off to stop another catastrophe.
• The Incredibles ends with The Underminer emerging from below in a huge Drill Tank, and the titular heroes about to go after him. The immediate sequel Incredibles 2 follows up by showing what happened from that point. Also, this film ends with the Incredibles pursuing a speeding car in a brand-new Incredibile.
• The LEGO Movie: "We are fwom the pwanet Duplo, and we awe hewe to... destwoy you!" Cue Oh, Crap! and credits.
• The LEGO Batman Movie ends with Batman and friends giving the bad guys a head start before going off to catch them again.
• Millionaire Dogs ends with all kinds of animals coming to stay at the dogs' new sanctuary. JD says that they'll have a full house tonight but Bella tells him it won't be just tonight.
• The Mitchells vs. the Machines ends with the Mitchells having to receive a medal of honor from the US Congress for saving the world. As a result, they head to Washington D.C. via a new roadtrip.
• Monsters vs. Aliens ends with the monster heroes responding to an emergency in Paris. Seeing how the team has just triumphed in their first mission and Paris was where Susan wanted to go for her honeymoon before her jerk of a fiance talked her out of it for his career, going on this new mission is definitely a happy ending for them.
• The Painting: Lola's story ends on this note. Compared to everyone else in the titular painting who find contentment in being completed at last or repainting themselves, she meets the actual painter and converses with him about art. The film ends with her walking off to the great unknown, as she's decided to explore the world to further understand the nature of life.
• The Rescuers ends with the arrival of another call for help (possibly from Australia), and Bianca (again) volunteering herself and a reluctant Bernard. The sequel ends with Bernard and Bianca getting engaged and presumably going off to continue their rescue work.
• The Road to El Dorado: After sealing off the entrance to El Dorado so Cortez can't get to it, Miguel, Tulio and Chel ride off into the sunset in search of their next adventure.
• Stitch! The Movie: In Lilo & Stitch: The Series. The film ends with Lilo and Stitch taking Nani's buggy (which would become the "X-Buggy" in the show) to begin their experiment hunting.
• The Steam Engines of Oz ends with Victoria, Phadrig and Gromit setting sail in a Cool Airship to search for Phadrig's sons.
• Toy Story 3 ends with college age Andy giving his old toys to young Bonnie, with the implication that they'll have their own adventures.
• Turning Red: The movie ends with Mei, having fully embraced her panda form and repaired her relationship with Ming, going off to hang with Miriam, Priya, Abby, and Tyler again. This shows that while the movie may be over, Mei and her friends will continue to hang out and have more adventures together in the future.
• Wonder Woman (2009) ends with Diana changing into her costume to fight the Cheetah.
• Zootopia ends with Nick joining the ZPD and becoming Judy's police partner. A bit of a downplayed example in that their first assignment as partners (tracking down an illegal street racer) is not nearly as action-packed as what they'd done in the main plot, but it still implies that the two will continue to have exciting adventures together for the foreseeable future.

Literature

• The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi: The story reunites Amina with her pirate comrades after ten years apart for One Last Job on the high seas. At the end, they're preparing to set sail again, this time for the joy of exploration... and because Amina's bargain with the Peri will require her to hunt down four magical artifacts sometime soon.
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:
  But I reckon I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she's going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can't stand it. I been there before.
• The Animorphs series ends this way... so much so that the final book is titled The Beginning.
• The Black Tattoo: At the end of the book, Jack and friends return home. Jack is somehow once again able to eat human food, but after having nearly sacrificed himself in order to convince an almighty Physical God to not cause Armageddon, and inadvertently convincing said Physical God to spare him in the process, Jack finds himself exasperated by the monotony of being an Ordinary High-School Student again. Then his friends from the Brotherhood arrive to say that creatures from Hell are causing some problems, and that they think he'd be the best person to help out.
• The Charlie and the Chocolate Factory sequel Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator ends with Willy Wonka and the Bucket family getting an invitation to the White House for saving most of a space hotel's crew from carnivorous aliens, and Charlie acknowledging that even after all that's happened between the two books, their adventures aren't done yet. (Roald Dahl did make an abortive attempt at a third novel that would have picked up on this ending.) Perhaps as a tribute to both books' endings having this trope's feel, the Not His Sled ending of the 2013 stage musical adaptation of Chocolate Factory applies this trope to Willy Wonka, who hands ownership of the factory over to Charlie and his family immediately — and reveals to the audience that he's retiring from running it because there's still so much he wants to create.
• The Chronicles of Narnia ends with everyone living in Aslan's perfect kingdom and evil being gone forever. But now the real adventure begins, each chapter more exciting than the last, and never ending. The final instrumental track of the first Narnia film is titled "Only the Beginning of the Adventure".
• Codex Alera ends with Tavi being crowned the New First Lord and marrying his love interest Kitai. He is initially weary, since rebuilding Alera isn't going to be as exciting as the war against the Vord, but then Varg points out that the Vord are still strong in Canim lands across the sea, and he's going to have a lot of work to do to make sure Alera is prepared for a second invasion.
• Some books in the Discworld series end like this.
  • This often happens to Rincewind: while everyone else in the book gets an ending, Rincewind is flung towards a new adventure.
  • The Truth ends with a traffic accident that the Ankh-Morpork Times of course has to cover.
  • Monstrous Regiment ends with Polly Perks heading off to deal with the threat of a second war with Zlobenia, this time taking advantage of her connections with the Ankh-Morpork Times and Lieutenant (now Captain) Blouse, her status as a sergeant in the Borogravian army, and a list of higher-ranking officers who are secretly women in disguise provided by Sergeant Jackrum.
  • At the end of The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, while Keith and the rats have settled down in Bad Blintz, Maurice goes off to find another stupid-looking kid and help him earn his fortune.
• Doctor Who Expanded Universe: The final book in the Eighth Doctor Adventures novel series ends with both the Story Arc and the storyline of the book itself unresolved (but with a resolution in place, once they have the chance to use it), and the Doctor and his companions leaping into danger.
• Doctrine of Labyrinths: The end of Corambis. The author has said she wanted to make it clear that the story didn't end with the narrative, and she definitely did.
• Dragonvarld: The trilogy does not wrap up every plot thread, with it being implied that the characters will be engaged in dealing with them later. In Dragonkeep, the common people are rebelling, though the army is returning and likely could crush them without outside intervention. The dragon civil war is still ongoing. Ven and all his half-dragon siblings must find an accepting land to settle.
• Eaters of the Dead ends mid sentence, with "Now it happened that", as Ahmad ibn Fadlan is returning from his adventures in the north.
• The Girl from the Miracles District ends with Nikita setting off to investigate her family history, and Robin resolving to uncover his true identity.
• More than one book in the Hank the Cowdog series has ended with this tone, implying that the work as Head of Ranch Security never ends.
  Hank: Case closed, and back to work!
• The Harry Potter series ends this way as well. According to Word of God, Harry and Ron do become Aurors after the war (Harry rising to Head of the Auror Office at 27), which means they spend the rest of their lives doing the very same thing they've been doing for the last 7 years: stopping Dark wizards. Add the fact that Dark Lords seem to crop up quite frequently, the last two being active within 30 years of each other, and that wizards live long lives, and the adventure really has just started. And, the next generation being sent off to school. If they're anything like their parents, there will be plenty of hijinks going on at Hogwarts.
• The Heroes of Olympus: Leo, thought dead by all of his friends, retrieves Calypso from Ogygia, and together they fly off on Festus, neither knowing nor caring where they were headed.
• Hightown: The series ended without wrapping everything up. Ray's become completely corrupt, having gotten into bed with Osito and murdered Frankie. It's unclear whether many other dirty cops who Jackie learned about will be prosecuted too. At least she seems happy and content with her life, recovering from alcoholism once again.
• Sidney Sheldon's If Tomorrow Comes ends with Classy Cat-Burglar Tracy on a flight to Brazil to marry her partner-in-crime Jeff; having pulled off one last big score they intend to go straight. It turns out that her seat mate on the flight is the uber-rich, uber-juicy target Maximilian Pierpont, whom Jeff always wanted to go after, and the lecher wants to get acquainted with her...
• The Inheritance Cycle ends like this, with Eragon leaving Alagaesia for good to raise the dragons, leaving Nasuada and Arya the Queens of their respective people, Roran as the new ruler of Palancar Valley, and Murtagh as the The Drifter. It's implied that, because all the Dragon Riders are almost immortal, most of the magical cast will see each other again, leaving the story open for both C.P. and fanfiction writers to return to if they wish. Really, it just leaves open more questions then it actually answers.
• The Last Ship ends with the American and Russian sailors, having established a new home in Antarctica, preparing to make another voyage in hopes of finding more survivors of the nuclear war.
• Liaden Universe:
  • The five-book main series ends like this, with a new character running up to Our Heroes on the second-to-last page of the book to explain that she is in really bad trouble. The book ends on the line:
    She nodded. "It's kind of complicated," she started . . .
  • Several years later, two side-story novels were written to explain the nature of the "complicated" problem, followed by Ghost Ship which picked up where the last book left off.
• While most of the main plot threads in The Licanius Trilogy are neatly wrapped up, it deliberately hints that Davian, Wirr and Asha's stories are far from over. Davian will finally meet his mother, Wirr must reconstruct Andarra as its new king, and Asha must negotiate with the Lyth to prevent them from reclaiming their power from her.
• After the climactic showdown of Geoph Essex's Lovely Assistant, the adventure definitely continues, with the primary protagonist even riding away on her horse (though not into the sunset, since it's night time). Then the last chapter gives us a Distant Finale, which means no more adventures for Calvin (perhaps), but presumably still plenty left for Jenny.
• Implied at the very end of The Man Who Brought the Dodgers Back to Brooklyn. After losing the World Series, and after he and Bobby Hanes have married their respective love interests, "Squat" Malone notices an airplane flying around above the new Ebbets Field, skywriting the phrase "Wait Till Next Year!"
• Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn sets this trope up by having the Sitha woman Aditu recite a prophecy over The Wise Prince Josua's twin children. As the characters openly wonder what it means, they discuss the fact that history isn't going to end with their current woes, and there will be more great deeds and adventures to come once the Storm King is defeated.
• In Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, Jacob and Emma defeat the Wight and manage to save Miss Peregrine, but not Miss Avocet. They then discover that the home has been destroyed by a German bomb, disabling their Time Loop and forcing Miss Peregrine and the peculiar children to not live the same day over and over again. Concurrently, Horace discovers that Wights have taken Miss Avocet to an unknown location that could easily be in an alternate loop in any continent at any time. The book ends with everyone rowing out to sea.
• Agatha Christie's stories about The Mysterious Mr. Quin usually end with Mr. Quin quietly departing without saying goodbye, but "The Harlequin Tea Set", which she wrote knowing it would be the last of the series, deliberately ends with him making an effort to assure Sattherthwaite that they'll be meeting again.
• In Michael Ende's original novel The Neverending Story, many secondary plot threads are left hanging with the phrase "But that's another story, and will be told another time," thus implying that... uh... the adventure continues.
• The end of Neverwhere has the Marquis de Carabas answer Richard's call and lead him through a mysteriously-appearing door back into London Below, presumably for further adventures.
• The Orphan's Tales ends with Aerie, Lantern, Solace, Scald, and Sleeve showing up to embrace Sorrow as her family. The prince is sad, as he thinks his role in the story is over... until Sorrow reaches out to him, asking him to join her on her future adventures, and he follows her with great enthusiasm.
• The first series of Percy Jackson and the Olympians ends this way with not only another prophecy, but with Annabeth and Percy running down the camp hill and not looking back leaving a very ambiguous feel to what is yet to come.
• In The Rolling Stones (1952), after travelling to Mars, and eventually the Asteroid Belt, the Stone family shrug and keep on Rolling.
• In The Secrets of Drearcliff Grange School, a group of Boarding School students form a secret society to rescue one of their number after she's kidnapped. The novel ends with them discovering a new mystery to solve.
• Sam the Cat: Detective: The series ends with San receiving a job offer to find a stolen necklace.
• Each of The Ship Who... books is self-contained. The Ship Who Sang ends with Helva taking a new brawn who she's delighted with and looking forwards to their time together, [PartnerShip] has Nancia with her two spy brawns joyfully leaping into hyperspace on a new assignment, The Ship Who Searched has Tia and Alex assigned to help archaeologists discover a Precursor homeworld (and in the meantime exploring Tia's new Remote Body).
• Andre Norton's Star Gate ends with the heroes having built another Cool Gate to find yet another Alternate Universe, and the very last words are:
  Sometimes he thought that an endless quest had been set them for some purpose, and that the seeking, not the finding, was their full reward. And it was good.
• Solomon Kane: The last work in the series, Solomon Kane's Homecoming, ends with Solomon realizing that he is a Stranger in a Familiar Land, and leaving his hometown for another adventure. The result is an absolute Tear Jerker.
• Starship Troopers: The book ends with newly commissioned Lieutenant Johnny Rico in charge of the Roughnecks, still assigned to the Rodger Young, and reunited with his father, who ended up a sergeant in the unit with him.
• Star Wars Legends: The Wraith Squadron novel Mercy Kill — the first book published in the X-Wing Series in over a decade — concerned the Wraiths Putting the Band Back Together after being officially decommissioned due to office politics. After the crisis du jour is dealt with, the Wraiths get together and reminisce on events, coming to the conclusion that is was a good last hurrah for the Wraiths. Team Leader, and recently appointed Minister of Intelligence, Face Loran cuts in, saying that since they remain anonymous and not directly connected to the government, it doesn't have to be their last hurrah...
• Stray ambiguously ends on this type of ending. Pufftail tells his young grandson Kitcher that, now that he's seen his daughter Tabitha have kittens of her own and seen said kittens grow as well, he'll set off on the road again. However, Tabitha doesn't believe that her father will go away.
• Sundered Lands ends with Trundle and Esmeralda fixing the world and making it whole again, and Trundle eagerly declaring that he doesn't want to go back home and is ready for another adventure with his friend.
• The Sword of Truth grays the difference between this and a Sequel Hook. The main arc does wrap up, but there remains both some very specific things left to be done and some adventures to be had. Since each book is designed to be somewhat stand-alone, the entire series has this feel. In more than half of the books they end up cleaning up their mistakes from previous books, so it's somewhat justified, bizarrely.
• Tailchaser's Song ends with Fritti Tailchaser escaping the island where he had temporarily lived as a pet with Hushpad and happily running down the hills. It's mentioned that he wants to see Pouncequick and Roofshadow again, as well as go back to his clan and tell them about his adventure, but it's unknown what he'll do first.
• Talion: Revenant: At the end once he's defeated the villains and thrwarted the Hamisian plot, Nolan rides away with Morai to have another adventure.
• The Temeraire series ends with the war ending and Napoleon being banished. Dragon Captain Laurence assumes this is the end of his adventuring days and decides to quietly retire, but Temeraire realizes that with the new dragon seats in Parliament, he'll be needed to fight for equal rights. Laurence realizes that while his role in it all might be done, Temeraire's is not, and that Laurence's new duty is to continue on at Temeraire's side.
• Tunnel in the Sky ends with Rod leading settlers to a new colony world.
• Who P-P-P-Plugged Roger Rabbit ends with Roger bursting into Eddie's office with a new crime for him to solve, adding that he suspects Jessica of dating Cary Grant.
• The ending of Zahrah the Windseeker hints that Zahrah's adventuring days have only just begun since she will develop an overwhelming urge to go Walking the Earth.

Music

• Daniel Amos' album series The Alarma Chronicles included an ongoing story in the liner notes. In the final album, Fearful Symmetry, the narrator dies and goes to Heaven, which just means more opportunity for exploration: "The journey is over and only begun."

Podcasts

• Live From Mount Olympus ends with Perseus and Andromeda leaving for Argos, where new adventures await.

Sports

• It's kind of a downer ending when you hear the IOC President declare "I declare the [number] Olympic Winter/Summer Games closed!" and an Adventure Continues reaction when they say "And in accordance with tradition, I call upon the youth of the world to assemble four years from now, to celebrate the Games of the [next number] Olympic Winter/Summer Games!"

Tabletop Games

• Two out of the four Gehenna scenarios in Vampire: The Masquerade can end on this kind of note, each of them offering opportunities for the players to continue the chronicle: should the players side with Lilith in "Fair Is Foul," she rewards them for their part in killing Caine by feeding them some of her blood, transforming them into Lilin and allowing them entry into her garden; from there they can access every spirit world accessible, offering numerous opportunities to go adventuring. "The Crucible Of God," ends with the Curse of Caine being destroyed once and for all, allowing the player characters to rebuild the world as mortals—unless you picked the "Here We Go Again!" ending, in which case, the players become Second Generation vampires and get to restart Kindred society alongside humanity.

Theme Parks

• Just before exiting Universal's Islands of Adventure in Orlando, FL, guests pass under a rock work bridge that has the words "The Adventure Lives On◊" carved into it.

Visual Novels

• Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney has two of these moments, the first coming right before the (short-term) "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue credits and the second at the end of said credits:
  (Before credits) Apollo: ...And that's pretty much the end of my story. For now, anyway. I've still got a long way to go. And this power of mine... well, it needs some work. But... there's hope now. We'd lost it, but somehow, we found it again. That's why people are smiling again... Hope. Yeah, I think I'll keep at this lawyer thing for a while. Oops, training time. Gotta go. Chords of Steel... here comes Justice!
  (After credits) Vera: The door is open. The world is waiting. Thank you.
• Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc ends with Naegi and the other survivors leaving the school, ready to face whatever's out there.
• Highway Blossoms:
  • While they aren't in any hurry to go on another wacky treasure hunt, it's clear Amber and Marina have no intention of settling down and will keep travelling the country together.
  • The Stinger also indicates no signs of stopping for Mariah's posse, as they have stumbled upon news of a missing car carrying wads of cash. After the music festival ends, they go on another treasure hunt, so to speak.
• Marco & the Galaxy Dragon ends with Marco, having defeated Astaroth and reconnected with her long lost family, returning to the stars to look for new treasures. She also wants to find Arco, who took away Marco’s memories of their time together before disappearing into a black hole.
• Phantom Thief Silver Cat: In the Golden Ending, Ginka doesn't let being tortured for a week stop her from immediately preparing for the next heist after her rescue.
• WILL: A Wonderful World: Ultimately, most characters either have a goal or gain an ability that doesn't end when their story does (Chang's justice, Jimmy's shrinking, Wen Zhaoren's return to art in his ending]]), or they don't quite achieve their main goal but are still optimistic about what's to come ([[spoiler:Li Wen in her ending, Carlos and Hotaru's searches for Alicia).
• Zero Escape: All three games end with some sort of this.
  • Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors: All the reveals that matter for now have been done, you have accomplished the reason you came here, all the significant players have escaped the ship or should we say building and all the wrongdoers have been punished... except Zero, who flees from your speeding SUV full of characters who don't hate her but feel she should be brought to justice.
  • Virtue's Last Reward: The AB project is a sucess. So you go back from the future, and get ready to infiltrate a Mars mission simulation in hopes to avert the Bad Future you've just survived.
  • Zero Time Dilemma: You've just created a reality where nobody dies and you escape by dooming your alternate consciousnesses to blow up without them knowing what's going on, and Zero is no longer a threat. But the members of C-Team devote their lives to the tailing of an Omnicidal Maniac, and Sean, Eric and Mira are off to create a happy reality where Mira does not become a Serial Killer. Happy adventures, guys.

Webcomics

• 1/0 destroys the comic's universe, but sends the characters off to another one first.
• 8-Bit Theater ends with a "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue where everyone else has settled down, but Fighter and Black Mage are still adventuring around like at the beginning of the strip.
• Boy and Dog: Rowan and Murphy once get told a story that ends with the protagonist leaving for another adventure.
• Burning Stickman Presents...Something! ended like this, with the main characters, having beaten the villain and saved the world, being sent out to stop an armored car robbery, with Franco remarking, "It's gonna be a good day." The author was going to quote the Justice League Unlimited ending instead, but his brother, on whom Franco was based, objected and suggested the actual ending line.
• Dawn of Time went on hiatus at the end of one story arc but before the beginning of another, creating this effect.
• EATATAU!!! ends on Breaking the Fellowship, with the Tau protagonists earmarking a feral world for expansion, and the Renegade Space Marine and his adopted dark eldar daughter taking a relic of his Primarch back to the chapter.
• Done half way in Errant Story: Jon and Sarine get some closure with a Happily Ever After (and Babies Ever After, sort of) ending, but Meji and Sara are still out there, having things happen to them and vice versa.
• Girls with Slingshots ends with Hazel and Zach walking off into the distance on their way to the café to celebrate the birth of Maureen and Jameson's baby, with Hazel saying she finally has something to write about. In the final panel, McPedro is seen running in the opposite direction, headed to an unknown destination.
• Girly ends with the daughters of Winter and Otra, and Autumn and Chuy having an adventure as hero and sidekick.
  Never the end.
• Irregular Webcomic! ends this way for all of the themes.
• Odysseus The Rebel diverges from the original tale in this manner. After Odysseus reunites with his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus and destroys the rapacious suitors who would claim the throne of Ithaca, he realizes that he's become a much different person than the King of Ithaca was when he left decades ago to fight in the Trojan War. Odysseus concludes that his true purpose is as an explorer and nomad, urges his wife to remarry, and sets off alone to the lands beyond the sight of the Greek gods. The final illustration features Odysseus sailing away from his homeland once more, with this title text:
  Until the End of Time
• True Believers: The comic ends with Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson still Happily Married, and Joe Quesadilla eliminated... and then MJ gets kidnapped by the Green Goblin, prompting Spidey to swing to her rescue.
• BOO! It's Sex ends with the girls moving out of the house, though they agree to see each other next year. Then, a new crop of freshmen move in and find Tara's tequila bottle, promising a new year of ghostly sex education.

Web Original

• Cartoon Network's website features a Ben 10 game based on the episode where the Mayan Sword was the MacGuffin. In the end, a Mad Scientist abducts Ben, Foreshadowing the plot of another game.
• The final chapter of Help Not Wanted ends with the four goblin protagonists collecting their payment for completing their first major contract, and then taking a second one and deciding they're going to keep doing them from now on.
• In the last chapter of Pay Me, Bug!, Grif reveals to the crew that he paid for the damage caused by their last job from the advance on their next one.
• Red vs. Blue likes this. The original five seasons, or Blood Gulch Chronicles, ended with dialogue mirroring the very first episode. Revelation ends with the Reds and Blues returning to their bases in a box canyon to have more zany adventures. After all they went through—all the crazy things that happened, the people who died, everything—life was going to go on, the same way it had before.
• The last episode of Slowbeef's Let's Play of Metroid Prime concludes with him unwrapping his copy of Metroid Prime: Echoes.
• Worm's last chapter has the Undersiders, reinvigorated with new members, setting out to take down some bad guys (so that they can continue their own Neighbourhood-Friendly Gangsters policies) and, in Imp's words, "drop Teacher (the guy set up as the new Big Bad) down an elevator shaft".
• This beautiful amateur animation ends with the protagonists riding back into their hometown, dropping the map into the hands of a couple squabbling friends and riding off with a curvaceous person each. This is exactly the same as the beginning, except there is a couple of them. It is implied the circle will continue.

Web Videos

• In To The Death, a young janitor witnesses the duel that allows a student to graduate from a futuristic Laser Sword fighting school. After the bout ends the man who has been standing next to her talking about the fight reveals himself to be the master of the school, and having noticed her interest, asks her if she wants to become a student. She seems both nervous and intrigued by the proposal, and the implication is she will say yes and one day stand in that same room to fight a duel to graduate.

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This page may have reached its end at last, but the creativity of mankind lives on.
And as long as fiction exists... so will those who observe and analyze it.
This Troper will return.