Violent Night ending explained – Does David Harbour’s new Christmas movie have a post-credit scene?

Violent Night is a new festive flick that combines elements of Die Hard, Bad Santa, and Home Alone, and ends with some Christmas shockers.

Violent Night stars David Harbour as a Santa unlike any you’ve seen before, his Claus killing bad guys for much of the movie.

He’s protecting a little girl called Trudy, whose family is being robbed by murderous burglars; thieves whose luck runs out when they break in the same night that this Santa is delivering presents.

You can read our review of Violent Night here, and just a heads up, we’re going to write about how the movie ends, and what happens during the credits, so BEWARE OF SPOILERS AHEAD…

What happens at the end of Violent Night?

At the end of Violent Night, David Harbour’s Santa uses a hammer to battle John Leguizamo’s “Scrooge,” who in turn is brandishing a pick-axe. At the end of their fight, Santa gets shot, and it looks like he might die.

But Trudy’s family rally round him, and start burning their ill-gotten $300 million fortune to warm Claus up and keep him alive.

Then – in an ending reminiscent of Elf’s climax – cynical members of the Lightstone family admit that he’s the real Santa, their belief making Christmas magic, which brings Claus back from the dead. Even though Santa himself admits that he doesn’t exactly know how that magic works.

Then the reindeer reappear – having been absent for most of the movie – carrying with them a fresh sack for Santa, as well as a note and gift from Mrs. Claus. Everyone hugs it out, and Santa flies away as Slade’s ‘Merry Xmas Everyone’ fires up over the film’s credits.

Is there a post-credit scene at the end of the movie?

No, there isn’t a post-credit scene at the end of Violent Night. But these is a brief gag that plays out mid-way through the credits. Bert Lightstone – a teenage influencer – survives the night, and pulls out his camera to film the dead thieves while standing over their corpses.

He then performs a Christmas-themed rap about the villains being dead as hell, Santa being real, and suggesting his followers don’t end up on his naughty list. Violent Night then truly ends there.

Director Tommy Wirkola explains Violent Night’s mid-credit scene

We spoke to director Tommy Wirkola about how this mid-credit scene came to be.

Wirkola explains: “I have to give credit to our producer Guy Danella who was on set that day and the sun was coming up – we were actually done shooting, and it might have been something in the script, and we really didn’t have time to shoot it but he was like ‘Camera, you come here, Bert come here, let’s just do one take and get it.’

“The camera crew had left, it was the DP and cameraman holding the camera together, and him getting in there and doing one take. Luckily he nailed it. But it was like we wanted to keep the social influencing alive.”

Violent Night is in cinemas now and you can read our review here.