The Gothic Staircase: From Piranesi to Harry Potter

Of the many influences upon the progenitors of Gothic fiction —the German and British Romantics of the eighteenth century — was the work of Giovanni Battista Piranesi, an artist known for etchings of Rome and labyrinthine “prisons” (Carceri d’Invenzione). With arches, vaults and staircases that lead nowhere, Piranesi’s prisons were visions of the impossible.  To the Romantics, he was a virtuoso of the imagination.

“I need to produce great ideas, and I believe that if I were commissioned to design a new universe, I would be mad enough to undertake it.” — Giovanni Battista Piranesi, as quoted by an early biographer

Plate 14 of Piranesi's Prisons
Plate 14 of Piranesi’s Prisons

The first edition of Carceri d’Invenzione was published in 1750; a decade later, Piranesi would return to his imaginary prisons, revising the existing and adding two more (click here to see all 14 of the original Carceri in order). By the late eighteenth century, his work was known throughout Europe.

Writing in his Italian Journey: 1786-1788, Goethe confesses that his visit to the ruins of Rome had failed to measure up to Piranesi’s images of them. Horace Walpole — author of the Castle of Otranto (1764), generally agreed upon by critics as one of the first Gothic novels —  urged his fellow artists to “study [Piranesi’s] sublime dreams.”

Coleridge was well aware of Piranesi; Thomas De Quincey in his Confessions of An Opium Eater (1821) reminisces

“Many years ago, when I was looking over Piranesi’s Antiquities of Rome, Mr. Coleridge, who was standing by, described to me a set of plates by that artist, called his Dreams, and which record the scenery of his own visions during the delirium of a fever. Some of them (I describe only from memory of Mr. Coleridge’s account) represented vast Gothic halls: on the floor of which stood all sorts of engines and machinery, wheels, cables, pulleys, levers, catapults, &c.&c. expressive of enormous power put forth and resistance overccome. Creeping his way upwards, was Piranesi himself: follow the stairs a little further, and you perceive it come to a sudden abrupt termination, without any balustrade, and allowing no step onwards to him who had reached the extremity, except into the depths below. Whatever is to become of poor Piranesi, you suppose, at least, that his labours must in some way terminate here. But raise your eyes, and behold a second flight of stairs still higher: on which again Piranesi is perceived, by this time standing on the very brink of the abyss. Again elevate your eye, and a still more aerial flight of stairs is beheld: and again is poor Piranesi busy on his aspiring labours: and so on, until the unfinished stairs and Piranesi both are lost in the upper gloom of the hall.” 

Again and again, De Quincey comes back to the image of the staircase to the point where Piranesi’s labors are likened to unfinished stairs.

It is as if in the staircase itself, De Quincey and by extension, Coleridge (if the recollection is accurate) find in Piranesi’s etchings a potent symbol for the imagination itself. And for the authors of the Gothic novel, that symbol, consciously or not, plays out again and again.

Emily St. Aubert, the heroine Ann Radcliffe’s Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) encounters many a supernatural terror on the staircase in a gloomy castle. In his Monk: A Romance (1796), Matthew Gregory “Monk” Lewis similarly situates his paranormal happenings on the stairs when in Voume II, Chapter I he writes “Occasional gleams of brightness darted from the Staircase
windows as the lovely Ghost past by them.” The aforementioned Castle of Otranto finds many a dastardly deed tied to the castle’s stairs. And as late into the nineteenth century in Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897), the titular Count leads an unsuspecting Jonathan Harker “up a great and winding stair.” So prevalent is the image from Dracula that it is repeated again and again in film adaptations of the novel, from Carl Laemmle’s 1931 version with Bela Lugosi to Francis Ford Coppola’s with Gary Oldman (in 1992).

The stairwell in Dracula (1931)
The stairwell in Dracula (1931)

“Winding” “dizzying” “narrow” and “great” are just a few of the adjectives tied to the Gothic staircase. More than a means of moving from point A to point B, they are a mystery within the mysterious. They are architectural ruminations of at once possibilities and simultaneously dead ends. To the writer, they are ready made for metaphor.

No surprise then, Freud states that “staircases, ladders, and flights of stairs, or climbing on these, either upwards or downwards, are symbolic representations of the sexual act.” (Dream Psychology: Psychoanalysis for Beginners.  1921. Chapter 5). But Freud stops short of fully exploring the nature of the staircase as metaphor in the same way that the Judeo-Christian tradition mistakes original sin as some type of sexual awakening — when it is indeed all knowledge that the forbidden fruit affords.

Knowledge then, as it emerges from the path of imagination, is at the end of the staircase. Something Jung might see as Hermetic knowledge and light from darkness.

Winchester House and the stairs to nowhere
Winchester House and the stairs to nowhere

Sometimes it is knowledge of a truth one does not want to confront as in the curious case of the Sarah Winchester’s “Mystery” House in San Jose, California. Plagued by thoughts of the horrors her husband’s rifle had wrought, the widow Winchester spent the years following her husband’s death building a mansion with doors, windows and stairs to nowhere as a means, or so she thought, to confuse potentially vengeful spirits or hold off death itself. Hundreds of rooms with no sense or reason. An attempt to ease a guilty conscience.

More often, the staircase can be seen as a retreat or escape. A Jacob’s Ladder of sorts. A movement toward reward. It is interesting, for example, that a radical form of psychotherapy called Emergence Therapy uses the staircase as a metaphor. The patient ascends from darkness to light. Even in popular music, we find stairways to heaven. Where a “piper will lead us to reason.”

Piranesi’s etchings were born out of an Age of Reason. Knowledge, the promise of the Enlightenment, was believed within reach by men of science in the mid seventeenth century — providing the man of reason stayed the course and used a scientific mind to stay on point. But as Piranesi’s mind-boggling prisons reveal,  the imagination — the creative yet too often cruel tool of the inquisitive mind that was championed as much as reason by poets and philosophers of the early nineteenth century — can obfuscate more than enlighten. Or perhaps better put: enlighten through the challenge of obfuscation.

Stripped of its many layers of metaphor, it becomes clear that the staircase is the mind. Up into the light. Down into the dark. Knowledge. Fear of the unknown.

Hogwart's Grand Staircase (courtesy of harrypotter.wikia.com)
Hogwart’s Grand Staircase (courtesy of harrypotter.wikia.com)

It has been reported that among the many influences for J.K. Rowling’s depiction of the Grand-Staircase at Hogwart’s was a bookshop in Portugal called Livraria Lello. In its beauty and grandeur, one can see a model for Hogwart’s in Livraria Lello, but it is not until one really considers the bewildering movement and plot points served by Piranesi-like staircase at Hogwart’s that the real foundation for Rowling lay somewhere in the Gothic.

Not only is there an impressive architectural style in Hogwart’s, but also, even more so, a movement of the mind therein — from darkness to light. It is this very movement that for Harry Potter and company literally reveals hidden [i.e., occult] knowledge again and again across the novels each time the Grand Staircase comes into play, placing Rowling’s work (and the eerily reminiscent prisons of Piranesi) firmly within the Gothic tradition.

Deadpool’s Head & End Credits

There used to be a time that when the credits rolled, the audience cleared the theater. But with the box office dominance of Marvel Comics’ movies over the past decade, there is now a curious expectation mid or post credits. It’s that a small scene — be it a teaser, joke, or nod to the die-hard fan — that appear on screen before the house lights come up  and the cleanup crew arrives to collect empty tubs of popcorn and discarded vats of soda.

The mid or post credits scene is now de rigueur and Marvel has made it an art form

While not confined or even invented by Marvel™ — the studio that brought us the third all-time biggest box office of all time with a gross of $1.519 billion for 2012’s Avengers — the mid or post-credits scene (sometimes called a “stinger scene” and grouped within a larger gift to fans called Easter Eggs) has been elevated to an art by the comics / entertainment company that now owes the majority of its profits to its films.

What follows is a list and description of not only the post-credit scenes in Marvel Studios films (10 in all at the time of this post), but other Marvel Comics offerings, including the Spider-Man and X-Men franchises from studios like Sony Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox.

SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!

Do not read further if you have not seen these films.

First up, the first ten movies of what is considered the core “Marvel Cinematic Universe” from Marvel Studios:

IRON MAN (2008)

Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) reveals himself to Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and introduces the “bigger universe” of the Avengers Initiative.

THE INCREDIBLE HULK (2008)

Tony Stark, visiting General “Thunderbolt” Ross (Sam Elliott) in a bar, gloats that “the super solider was put on ice for a reason” and tells him “what if I told you we were putting a team together?”

IRON MAN 2 (2010)

Nick Fury hands Tony Stark an envelope labeled Avengers Initiative, telling Stark that following an assessment by Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) “I’m not sure if [the Avengers Initiative] applies to you anymore.” That S.H.I.E.L.D. would consider using Stark as a consultant, but not in the Iron Man armor.

As an additional bonus, another post-credits scene introduces Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg). “Sir, we’ve found it,” says Coulson by phone to Fury as the audience is treated to a shot of Thor’s hammer, firmly planted like Excalibur in stone amidst the dust and sand of the New Mexico dessert.

THOR (2011)

Professor Solvig (seemingly possessed by Loki (Tom Hiddleston)) is shown the Tesseract (aka the Cosmic Cube) in a S.H.I.E.L.D. lockup by Nick Fury. Loki’s reflection is seen in a mirror.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER (2011)

Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) knocks a punching bag off of its chain while boxing. Nick Fury proposes a missions to him. A preview of the Avengers follows.

MARVEL’S THE AVENGERS (2012)

Having manipulated Loki all along, Thanos, the mad titan, is seen as the mastermind behind the Chitauri invasion force.

A second post-credits scene shows the Avengers enjoying schwarma, as foreshadowed by a hungry Tony Stark during the fight to save Manhattan.

IRON MAN 3 (2013)

Tony Stark talks to an ersatz psychiatrist in the form of a disinterested Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo). “I’m not that kind of doctor.”

THOR: THE DARK WORLD (2013)

The Collector (Benecio Del Toro) is given the captured Elf Aether (which is, in actuality, an infinity stone) by Lady Sif (Jamie Alexander) and Volstagg (Ray Stevenson).

As a bonus, the audience is treated to a kiss between Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Jane (Natalie Portman). And a Jotunheim Beast that was teleported to Earth during the Convergence is seen still running rampant through London.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER (2014)

Baron Zucker, another Hydra survivor of the Third Reich, is seen with a Chitauri scepter, pointing out that ours is “an age of miracles” as the audience is shown Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch in their respective cells.

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (2014)

Among the wreckage of the Collector’s collection is a cigar smoking Howard the Duck!

Next up, and often overlooked, are the two films in the rebooted Spider-Man franchise from Sony Pictures.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (2012)

A mystery man emerges from the shadows to ask the now imprisoned Dr. Curt Connors “did you tell the boy the truth about his father?”

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 (2014)

Oscorp’s special project bunker is revealed to have the makings for a future Sinister Six, complete with not only the rhino armor and goblin board, but a set of vulture wings.

Then there’s the superhero franchise that arguably started it all: the X-Men (which began in 2000). The only post-credits scene in any of the first three films occurs in the last of the trilogy… and it’s a doozy!

X-MEN: THE LAST STAND (2006)

Dr. Moira MacTaggart (Olivia Williams) hears the familiar voice of Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) coming from a comatose patient — this after Professor X is thought dead after being disintegrated by the Phoenix / Jean Grey (Famke Janssen).

X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE (2009)

While his bladed hand emerges from the debris, a decapitated (character-named-but-completely-unlike-the-comic-to-the-point-of-being-criminal) Deadpool opens his eyes and shushes the audience!

THE WOLVERINE (2013)

Two years after the events of the film, Logan (Hugh Jackman) is passing through airport security. As he sees a Trask Industries commercial on a television monitor, he is approached not only by Magneto (Ian McKellan) but an alive and well Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) rolling along. “As I told you, you’re not the only one with gifts.”

X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST (2014)

The next X-Men film, Age of Apocalypse (2016), is hinted at as an ancient, powerful mutant sometime in civilization’s distant past manipulates the pyramids of Egypt like a child’s playthings.

 Last, but not least, are the not forgotten by ultimately forgettable films of the short-lived Fantastic Four franchise along with the over-serious leather-ladden Daredevil. 

DAREDEVIL (2003)

A bedridden bullseye (Colin Farrell) in full body cast is tormented by a buzzing fly. Able only to twitch a finger, he reaches out for a toothpick on a nearby table. The buzzing stops as the camera cuts to reveal a very satisfied look on the villain’s face.

FANTASTIC FOUR 2: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER (2007)

Although the first film in the FF franchise had no post-credits scene, its sequel did. Seemingly dead in space following his death at the hands of his creator, Galactus, the floating body of the Silver Surfer opens his eyes.

NOTE: This list has been assembled for people like me, die-hard fans that would like all of the information in one place.  But there will undoubtedly be exclusions, oversights, or oversimplifications in this list.

Other Marvel films, including The Hulk (2003), Punisher (2004), and the sorely underrated Punisher War Zone (2008) have no mid or post credit scenes.

Except for a quick scene of Wesley Snipes’ titular character speeding away at the end of Blade: Trinity (2004), The Blade trilogy (arguably the film franchise that secured Marvel’s cinematic success) has no stingers.

Likewise, the two Ghost Rider movies also apparently have no mid or post credit sequences. If it is found, however, that these or other aforementioned films do indeed have mid or post credit scenes, this post will be amended.

Oh, and we won’t even begin to address the Easter Eggs in DC Comics movies, like BATMAN VS. SUPERMAN. But you can read about that movie, and comics that inspired it, here.

More detailed information is available all over the web; the Marvel Cinematic Universe wiki is a good place to start for those who wish to dig deeper into all aspects of the films. To see all of the mid and post-credit scenes in Marvel movies, visit the Marvel’s After Credit YouTube Channel

By Christopher Michael Davis