Cliffhanger

Many famous clichés of action-adventure movies had their origins in the serials. The popular term cliffhanger was developed as a plot device in film serials (though its origins have been traced by some historians to the Sherlock Holmes stories of Arthur Conan Doyle or the earlier A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy from 1873), and it comes from the many times that the hero or heroine would end up hanging over a cliff, usually as the villain gloated above and waited for them to plummet hundreds of metres to their deaths.

Other popular clichés included the heroine or hero trapped in a burning building, being trampled by horses, knocked unconscious in a car as it goes over a cliff, crashing in an airplane, and watching as the burning fuse of a nearby bundle of dynamite sparked and sputtered its way towards the deadly explosive (at the beginning of the next chapter the endangered character usually simply got up and walked away with only minor scrapes).

Besides the hero or heroine, some terms are used to define villains and supporting players:

The saddle pal or sidekick is the helper or assistant of the hero or heroine. That person is often a bumbling comic relief.

The brains heavy was the character who issues the orders to the henchmen. He often wears a suit, and pretends to be an upright, lawful member of the community.

The action heavy is the assistant or second-in-command to the brains heavy, who usually wears workmanlike duds, does the physical labor, and often has more brawn than brains. He tries to kill the hero with fists, knives, guns, bombs, or whatever else is handy at the time.

The oldtimer is (a) the man who owns the ranch, (b) the father of the hero or heroine, or (c) the wearer of a badge of a sheriff, marshall, or ranger.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_film#Terminology

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7gc7oHPfs0

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