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Magic Countdown: Difference between revisions
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A variation is the fuse or a trail of gasoline which burns slower or faster when the camera's not on it. Another common visual equivalent is the falling object or descending gate which is accelerating down at something. The the shot cuts just before it hits to people trying to stop it or get out the way. When the camera goes back, the thing will mysteriously have farther to fall than it did before the cut, just enough to allow the characters to make a narrow escape.
This can be [[Hand Wave|handwaved]] by arguing that part of the fight scene (since rarely are there splitscreens showing the fight ''and'' the timer) started when or before the last shot of the timer was shown, thus, the fight and the countdown are happening at the same time chronologically but are shown separately to build tension and suspense (an editing technique known as [
When applied to a [[Timed Mission]] in [[Video Games]], it becomes [[Always Close]] (and when applied to non-timed missions in video games, [[Take Your Time]]). See also [[Exact Time to Failure]], which may give us the countdown in the first place, and [[Instant Cooldown]] or [[Magic Antidote]] for the miraculous events that occur when it is stopped. May be also applied to a [[Descending Ceiling]] or when [[The Walls Are Closing In]] - the crusher keeps conveniently moving back between shots.
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== Live Action TV ==
* Funnily enough, ''[[Twenty Four|24]]'' has some examples of this: sometimes an episode ends with something important (like an explosion) and the next episode begins with the timer exactly following, but the events ahead -- the emergency units have already arrived, etc.
** The title screen, [["Previously On..."]] segments, and "The following takes place..." take about 2 minutes. Only once in Season 1 (1:00am-2:00am aka episode 2) does it show the clock immediately after "The following takes place...".
** Also don't forget the credits for the previous episode as well, which take about 30 seconds
* In the first episode of ''[[Power Rangers in Space]]'', Dark Specter has captured Zordon in a jar, which gradually fills up with a lava-like substance. When it is full, Dark Specter will have drained all of Zordon's power. At the rate that jar is filling up, Zordon ought to be history before that episode was up, yet somehow he held out until the end of the season.
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* The Makai Knights in ''[[Garo]]'' can only remain in armour for 99.9 seconds. This is enforced in most episodes, but once in a while it is blatantly broken with no explanation.
* In the ''[[Lost]]'' episode "The Other Woman", Daniel is attempting to neutralize poison gas. "Forty seconds to contamination," the computer says. Forty seconds later, it says, "Twenty seconds to contamination."
* ''[[
** Also, in "The Daleks", a Dalek suddenly stops counting down when it became clear to the director that the action sequence would take much longer than the countdown.
** Despite being averted in ''42'' (see below), this was played straight in ''Last of the Time Lords'', which is ironic, as the countdown was critical to {{spoiler|the Doctor}}'s plan.
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* [[Sci Fi]] once ran a marathon of the ''[[Robo Cop]]'' television series with humorous running commentary. One episode had a bomb set for five minutes. The running commentary points out that it takes 7:04 for the bomb to eventually be shut off.
* Occurs during the autodestruct sequence in the ''[[Star Trek the Next Generation]]'' episode "11001001".
* An odd inversion: The Japanese [[Game Show]] ''[[Dasshutsu Game DERO (TV)|Dasshutsu Game DERO]]'' and its [[Spiritual Successor]] ''TORE!'' both have rounds where a team of contestants are given a series of puzzles to solve via [[Linked
* ''[[Batman (TV)|Batman]]'' episode "While Gotham City Burns". Batman and Chief O'Hara have only a minute to drive to a church and save Robin from being killed in the Bookworm's [[Death Trap]]. The minute is shown on a clock dial on the screen, with a series of scenes showing their progress. There's no way that they could have done it within a minute. Batman even takes time out to explain something unimportant to Chief O'Hara.
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== Live Action TV ==
* Averted in the ''[[
** Mostly averted in the episode "42" of the new series. After the initial setup scenes, the counter and the depicted events happen in real time, as much as possible.
* Played with in an episode of ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'', where the bomb does this, but it's because of a time dilation field.
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== Western Animation ==
* Spoofed in the ''[[Futurama]]'' episode "A Tale of Two Santas", in which Bender, arrested death for being Robot Santa Claus, is sentenced to death by being torn apart by electromagnets when a random number generator reaches zero. Added fun for negative numbers popping up. It also repeats numbers, leading to the possibility that they would be waiting forever.
** [[Truth in Television]]. The [
** Also spoofed in the episode "A Big Piece of Garbage": The crew is sent to destroy a giant ball of garbage heading directly towards the Earth along with an explosive set to detonate after 25 minutes. Once they activate it, the digital timer counts down "25:00...15:00...05:00...6h:00" to the crew's surprise. The reason? The timer was ''upside down'' and thus set to ''52 seconds''. Way to go, Farnsworth.
*** The same episode featured a count down for a rocket launch:
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[[Category:Bomb Disposal]]
[[Category:Magic Countdown]]
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