Quite often, a series manages to wrap up the story in an epic fashion by the last episode. However, there are some productions that don't feel content with just concluding the series with a normal episode, so they decide the show should reach its conclusion in a feature-length film.
Contrast Pilot Movie, which is when a feature-length film is intended to serve as the beginning of a television show. Compare Big Damn Movie, Conclusion in Another Medium, Sequel in Another Medium.
Not to be confused with the last movie in a series of movies.
Examples:
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Anime
- The story of Blood-C was concluded with the film Blood-C: The Last Dark, which had Saya finally mete out justice against the villain after they had gotten away with their actions.
- Free! ended its eight year run with the two-part movie Free! the Final Stroke, showing Haru and friends as they approach swimming on the world's stage. Free! did have movies before, but most of them were either recaps of previous seasons or one adaptation of the franchise's predecessor novel.
- Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) had all of its lingering plot threads resolved in Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa.
- Gundam 00: A Wakening of the Trailblazer serves as the Grand Finale of Mobile Suit Gundam 00, which tells the story of a united humanity's struggle to overcome a new extraterrestrial threat as Aeolia Schenburg's plan moves into its final stage.
- The The iDOLM@STER 2011 anime closes the book on the 765 cast with THE iDOLM@STER: To the Other Side of the Light!, a film that wraps up their character development and and sees them cemented as popular, successful female idols. All appearances they make in the iM@S A-1 Pictures continuity after this movie are just cameos, although they do have supporting roles in the anime adaptation of THE iDOLM@STER: Million Live!.
- The Last: Naruto the Movie is supposed to be the final film Studio Pierrot made for Naruto, which follows him learning about Hinata's feelings for him and he himself realizing that he loves her back. While he does appear later on in spinoffs and especially in Boruto, this movie remains the last one focusing on young Naruto as a central protagonist rather than a side character.
- Kiniro Mosaic ended with 2021's Kiniro Mosaic: Thank You!! which not only acts as the conclusion to the anime adaptation but the franchise as a whole, as the original manga ended a year before its release.
- Love Live!:
- Love Live! The School Idol Movie chronicles the final journey of μ's as they travel to New York and decide if they want to continue being a group with the 3rd years graduating.
- Love Live! The School Idol Movie: Over the Rainbow follows Aqours as they travel to Italy to search for the 3rd years and decide if continuing the group without the 3rd years.
- The conclusion of Neon Genesis Evangelion came in the form of the theatrical movie, The End of Evangelion.
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie: Rebellion acts as the epilogue to Puella Magi Madoka Magica, though the ending is left open-ended in case the creators want to continue. They later would with a direct sequel.
- The Quintessential Quintuplets movie continues off the second season of the anime, going all the way to the finale.
- Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight has its second movie act as the curtains for the main cast. It gives the girls who were sidelined in the television series extra time to shine, resolves each pair's conflicts and characters, and concludes Karen's development after she breaks upon reaching her series-long goal. The movie is also set on the backdrop of the girls graduating from school and is loaded with meta commentary on what the "audience" and their peers expect of each other.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions wraps up the story of the original Yu-Gi-Oh! manga while celebrating the franchise's 20th anniversary.
Live-Action TV
- ALF: The show itself ended on a cliffhanger in 1990, so in 1996 Project: ALF was made to finally wrap things up.
- The 2000s version of Battlestar Galactica had two. The Grand Finale, Daybreak, ran between 140 to 200 minutes depending on the cut. Although it was divided into three episodes, it is essentially one big movie that wraps the story up. The feature-length interquel, the Plan, chronologically took place in Seasons 1 and 2 but it was the last production of the show to air and served as a thematic finale, wrapping up certain elements that were not addressed in Daybreak.
- CSI ended with a movie-length finale called "Immortality".
- Deadwood was concluded by a film ten years after the final episode.
- Although the classic incarnation of Doctor Who aired its last television episode in 1989, a movie was made in 1996 in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to revive the series. After the show began airing new episodes in 2005, the BBC and Big Finish (among others) have since viewed the movie as this for the classic era. This is probably because; 1) the movie picked up from where the series left off (something which the revival didn't do), and 2) there was much less time between it and the last classic TV episode than the first episode of the revival.
- El Camino effectively serves as the first part of the epilogue following the Grand Finale to Breaking Bad by wrapping up Jesse Pinkman's story (with the second part being the final episodes of the Spin-Off/pseudo-Prequel series Better Call Saul).
- Firefly received a deserved ending after being cancelled with the movie Serenity, which serves as the finale for the series.
- The Made-for-TV Movie Homicide: The Movie served as this for Homicide: Life on the Street.
- The finale of House of Anubis came in the form of a Made-for-TV Movie titled The Touchstone of Ra.
- Kamen Rider:
- Kamen Rider Decade was the subject of controversy for indulging in this trope to the point where the show itself had No Ending and instead concluded with a teaser for the upcoming Movie Wars 2010, which resolves all of the show's major plot points while none are resolved in the show itself. Said trailer was full of lies, at that.
- Kamen Rider Ex-Aid, being video-game based, uses this trope to have Multiple Endings despite the TV show itself having a proper end. One of these movies even employs a Kaizo Trap of a post-credits scene to set up for the next film, although without controversy this time, as by this time the existence of cinematic universes had become much more commonplace.
- Many shows after Decade have a winter movie which serves as a crossover between the newly-airing Rider show and their recently-completed predecessor. The movie thus serves as a sendoff to the past Rider and their supporting cast as well as a baton pass to the next generation, although the conflict of the movie is usually unrelated to the events of the show.
- Perhaps the Trope Codifier is the final episode of M*A*S*H, "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen", during which the Korean War finally comes to an end and the 4077 disbands. It runs an astonishing two-and-a-half hours, with sad and endearing moments abound. To this day, it holds the record for second most-watched non-Super Bowl broadcast television program in history, only behind the TV broadcast of Apollo 11, and is still the most watched episode of a television series of all time.
- Stargate SG-1 had its remaining major plots concluded with Stargate: The Ark of Truth and Stargate: Continuum.
- Thunderbolt Fantasy was planned to run for five seasons, but circumstances dictated that they would not get to finish up the series that way despite already having produced 4 seasons and two movies. The third and final movie condenses the content of the planned fifth season and wraps up the leads' character arcs.
- Transparent was wrapped up with a movie titled Transparent: Musicale Finale, which had the titular trans parent Maura Pfefferman killed off and focused on her family reacting to her death, a decision that was necessitated by Jeffrey Tambor (Maura's actor) being dropped from the show after facing sexual harassment allegations.
- Ultra Series:
- Ultraman Tiga: The theatrical film, Ultraman Tiga: The Final Odyssey serves as the epilogue and true Grand Finale of the series, depicting Tiga's last adventure in the Neo Frontier Universe and him subtly passing the torch to his successor: Ultraman Dyna.
- Ultraman Cosmos: The third movie Ultraman Cosmos vs. Ultraman Justice: The Final Battle serves as an epilogue to the rest of the series and the true Grand Finale of Cosmos as a whole.
- Ultraman X: Ultraman X The Movie: Here Comes! Our Ultraman! serves as the epilogue and true Grand Finale of the series, but also crosses over with the aforementioned Ultraman Tiga and the original Ultraman as well.
- The PBS series Wishbone concluded with the TV movie Wishbone's Dog Days of the West. This came with a Channel Hop, as the movie aired on Showtime instead of PBS.
- Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist was cancelled by NBC after its second season, after which a movie called Zoey's Extraordinary Christmas was created to tie up loose ends, airing on the Roku Channel.
Web Animation
- The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act is a finale movie that combines the episodes "hjsakldfhl" and "Remember", resulting in a 1-hour and 33-minute epic that could be viewed in theaters for two weeks before "Remember"'s web premiere
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- SMG4's THE END serves as this, following a series of final sendoff videos for the series' Main Cast. The movie focuses on Mario (doubling as an Audience Surrogate for the fans) trying to stop SMG4 from retiring, only to be sent to a world where he never existed, resulting in him changing his mind, with the final movie ending in a similar way to the Super Mario 64 credits, finishing off with a giant cake of most SMG4 characters in an echo to the first episode.
Western Animation
- Aladdin and the King of Thieves serves as the conclusion of Disney's version of Aladdin (consisting of a movie, the first sequel Aladdin: The Return of Jafar and the animated series Aladdin: The Series), in which Aladdin meets his father and finally marries Jasmine.
- Dinosaur Train: Adventure Island serves as the series finale to Dinosaur Train given how it deals with the conflict of Buddy wanting to grow up as well as Thurston learning that his actions have consequences.
- The Disney era of Doug (and the franchise as a whole) concluded with Doug's 1st Movie, where it revolves around the mystery of the Lucky Duck Lake monster, a narrative thread that had been woven into the show for some time, as well as further exploring the relationship between Doug and Patti.
- Drawn Together received a direct-to-DVD movie titled The Drawn Together Movie: The Movie! after its cancellation. The film had the show's cast attempt to revive their series after hearing of its cancellation.
- Ed, Edd n Eddy concluded with Ed, Edd n Eddy's Big Picture Show, where the Eds finally earned acceptance from the Cul-de-Sac Kids after they ended up getting their long overdue karma at the hands of the Kanker Sisters and Eddy's Big Brother Bully received long overdue karma for abusing his little brother.
- Zig-zagged with Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. As while the final produced episode of the show is Destination Imagination, the final aired episode is "Goodbye to Bloo", which Word of God confirmed was the final episode. However most fans tend to look at the former as the true finale due to it ending with Frankie finally earning her respect after years of cooking, cleaning, taking care of numerous imaginary friends, and pretty much running the house single-handedly without a bit of gratitude from anyone or an ounce of respect from her slave driving anal stuck-up bunny boss.
- Zig-zagged with G.I. Joe: The Movie, which was originally intended to bridge the gap between season two of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero and an unproduced third season. With the series continuing production via DiC Entertainment rather than Sunbow, the movie at least serves as a proper finale to the original Sunbow run of the cartoon.
- Hey Arnold! received a proper conclusion years after the original show's cancellation in a Made-for-TV Movie called Hey Arnold! The Jungle Movie, in which Arnold finally reunites with his parents who have been missing since he was a baby.
- Kim Possible was originally intended to end with the movie Kim Possible Movie: So the Drama, which had Dr. Drakken finally pull off a competent scheme that nearly successfully takes over the world and had Kim and Ron's relationship taken to the next level. The movie instead became a Series Fauxnale because Disney was successfully petitioned to renew the series for more episodes.
- Leroy & Stitch serves as the conclusion to Lilo & Stitch: The Series, though the franchise would continue without Lilo thanks to two spinoffs consisting of the anime Stitch! and the Chinese animated series Stitch & Ai.
- Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar serves as the finale to Metalocalypse, years after its cancellation. The film also coincided with the release of the long awaited fifth Dethklok album Dethalbum IV.
- Nature Cat ends with two:
- The first is a Made-for-TV Movie entitled "Nature Cat's Nature Movie Special Extraordinaire!", which had the titular character and his pals finding that they have come to the end of their Nature Curiosity List while Sir Galahad (who appeared in the show's very first episode) becomes a king and plans to take all of nature for his castle, and it's up to Nature Cat and the others to work together to bring nature back. This also has an End-of-Series Awareness, as well as ending on And the Adventure Continues.
- The second is a Made-for-TV Movie entitled "The Nature-Tastic Four Movie!" in which Nature Cat doubts himself of not having powers as his friends (who have the powers of water, plants, and rocks) while they all feel ready for a well-earned afternoon of fun and relaxation after defeating the Soil, Water and Plant Stealers, and Nature Cat has to get over his confused and self-doubting issues to prove himself what it takes to be the nature hero he is today after Squeeks (Water Mouse), Daisy (Plant Bunny), and Hal (Rock Dog) get their powers lost and stolen by an outer space creature named Sandos and nature needs defending.
- The original The Proud Family series ended with the Made-for-TV Movie The Proud Family Movie, which had the family dealing with a mad scientist named Dr. Carver planning to use peanut clones to take over the world. However, a new show titled The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder was later released on Disney+, which is a Continuity Reboot that seems to only maintain continuity with events of the TV series proper and eventually retconned the movie's events as only being a dream that Penny had.
- Ready Jet Go! ends with Ready Jet Go! Space Camp , which takes Jet and his friends and family on their biggest adventure yet.
- Recess was supposed to end with the theatrical movie Recess: School's Out, however a few episodes aired after it (though chronologically taking place before the movie). The entire series ended with the direct-to-video movie Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade, pieced together from three episodes of a scrapped Sequel Series or seventh season.
- Sofia the First has Forever Royal, a Made-for-TV Movie, to end the series.
- The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie was intended to be the finale of the SpongeBob SquarePants franchise when it first came out. But Nickelodeon wanted to continue the series away, whether the creator wanted to or not, so its a Series Fauxnale instead. However, it's a persistent fandom belief that this is chronologically the final SpongeBob adventure, even though the show tends to run on negative continuity.
- Steven Universe: The Movie combined this with Pilot Movie, signifying the transition from Steven Universe to the Sequel Series Steven Universe: Future.
- Tales of the Wizard of Oz came to a decisive end in Return to Oz (not to be confused with the 1985 live-action film), an hour-length TV special taking place after the events of the original book where the Wicked Witch re-solidifies after she was melted and tries to get her revenge against Dorothy, Socrates Strawman, Rusty Tinman and Dandy Lion. In the end, the Wicked Witch is killed for good when the magic slippers turn her to stone and she crumbles apart, afterwards Dorothy says goodbye to her friends and goes home after Socrates, Rusty and Dandy found that they still possessed a brain, a heart and courage after the Wicked Witch caused them to lose Socrates' diploma, Rusty's candy heart and Dandy's medal.
- Tangled: The Series has Plus Est Vous, a Made-for-TV Movie three-part long series finale.
- Teacher's Pet (2000) had its story wrapped up in a theatrical movie where Spot turned to a Mad Scientist named Dr. Ivan Krank to fulfill his dream of becoming a boy.
- Teen Titans Go! & DC Super Hero Girls: Mayhem in the Multiverse serves as the series finale of DC Super Hero Girls (2019), having the Super Hero Girls and their universe's Justice League try to thwart the schemes of Lex Luthor and Cythonna. The film notably has Supergirl reconcile with her cousin Superman as they concede that they are both great heroes in their own right, with Wonder Woman emphasizing that even as a reserve member of the Justice League, she'll always put her friends on the Super Hero Girls first.
- Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo serves as a conclusion series to Teen Titans, with all the five heroes heading to Japan, as well as Robin and Starfire admitting their feelings before their true love's kiss.
- Transformers:
- Transformers: Prime concluded with Predacons Rising, which had the Autobots take down Unicron for good in a final battle and Decepticon leader Megatron reforming.
- Transformers: Cyberverse had two movies made after the run of the original series, with the second movie The Perfect Decepticon wrapping up the series' story by having the Autobots and Decepticons' peace treaty threatened by Tarn, who plots to take over Cybertron by using the Cortex Helm to take control of the other Perfect Decepticons and make them attack the other Cybertronians.
- Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans is the Grand Finale of the Tales of Arcadia franchise, bringing the heroes of all three series together for a Final Battle.
- Turtles Forever serves as a conclusion to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003) and has the Turtles team up with their counterparts from the 1987 cartoon and the original Mirage comic book to thwart the Utrom Shredder's scheme to destroy the entire Ninja Turtles multiverse.
- The Venture Bros: Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart brings a conclusion to The Venture Bros. after the show's cancellation.
- We Bare Bears: The Movie was confirmed as the finale to We Bare Bears, as We Baby Bears has Loose Canon to the original series.