One-Scene Wonder: Difference between revisions

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* Abel Nightroad is the ''main character'' of ''[[Trinity Blood]]'', but his superpowered form, the Crusnik, has so few appearances that it counts.

* Inuyama, the "cowardly" samurai/firefly enthusiast/ {{spoiler|assassin}} from ''[[Samurai Champloo]]'' only gets one episode and he {{spoiler|nearly beats Jin, stopping only when he discovers his employer's death and decides to walk away.}} And what's worse, {{spoiler|he promises that they'll meet again.}}

* ''[[Code Geass]]'' has Mao. He was only in a few episodes in a row towards the middle of the first season, but is remembered for being [[Crazy Awesome]], and at the very least foreshadowed {{spoiler|Lelouch's [[Power Incontinence]]}}.

 

== Comic Books ==

* John Houseman started acting in movies (rather than producing them) when he was over sixty years old, and so, his example of this trope in ''[[Seven Days in May]]'' as one of the military coup-plotters was in fact his first appearance on screen. And then twenty years later, he did the same with his last role, as the hilariously unflappable driving instructor in ''[[The Naked Gun]]''.

* Crispin Glover again in David Lynch's ''[[Wild at Heart]]''. His role as Christmas-obsessed, sandwich-making cousin Dell, who enjoys putting cockroaches in his underpants and has a terrible fear of black gloves - it lasts for about three minutes and is probably the weirdest damn thing he's ever done, which is saying a ''lot''.

** Jeff Rawle's tragic scene as Amos Diggory crying over Cedric's body.

** Julie Christie as Madame Rosmerta in ''[[Harry Potter]] and the Prisoner of Azkaban''.

** Emma Thompson, as Sybil Trelawny in ''Prisoner of Azkaban'' and ''Order of the Phoenix''.

** John Hurt as Ollivander in the first movie. If you'll pardon the pun, [[Incredibly Lame Pun|spellbinding]].

** Also in ''Hallows'', Bill Nighy ''is'' Rufus Scrimgeour, inexplicably Welsh Minister for Magic, symbol of strength, beacon of hope to the Wizarding World! Gets maybe two minutes.

* In ''[[Network]]'', [[Ned Beatty]] as ominous CEO Arthur Jensen. The guy's onscreen probably five minutes, but [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BVqIjKyJh0 his speech] is utterly fantastic. "You have ''meddled with the primal forces of nature'', Mr. Beale, and ''I WON'T HAVE IT! IS THAT CLEAR??''" And then there's Beatrice Straight in the same film, who won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for what was, at the time, the shortest amount of time an Oscar-winning role had been onscreen. Beatty was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor.

* Pyramid Head in the ''[[Silent Hill (film)|Silent Hill]]'' movie. Two scenes, each lasting approximately thirty seconds, not a single line, and he's still one of the best parts.

* [[James Bond (film)|James Bond]] examples:

** ''[[You Only Live Twice]]'' features [[Donald Pleasence]] as Ernst Stavro Blofeld. He's got a white cat, a bald head, and a scar. He's also one of the most memorable villains in the franchise, parodied and referenced ad nauseum. Total screen time: Approximately ten minutes.

** [[Madonna]] as a fencing instructor in ''[[Die Another Day]]''. She also sang the theme to the movie.

* The nameless cigar-smoking mobster from ''[[Ninja Assassin]]''. When your response to getting stabbed in the neck is to hold it with one and do a ''spinning close-fisted backhand'' to your would-be killer with the other, well, you will be memorable. The rest is just icing on the cake.

* [[Christopher Eccleston]] as a truth-spouting tramp in ''[[24 Hour Party People]]''.

* By all accounts, Emily Hampshire's role as the chatty, eccentric Vivienne at the beginning of ''[[Snow Cake]]'' is one of these moments.

* [[Eminem]] and [[Ray Romano]] (how about that for unlikely team-ups) completely steal the one scene of ''[[Funny People]]'' that they're in together.

* Carla Perez's thirty-second cameo as Rita Repulsa in ''[[Power Rangers Turbo|Turbo]]: A [[Power Rangers]] [[The Movie|Movie]]'', with all the [[Large Ham|ham]] her presence implies, may be the best thing about it.

* Mathieu Amalric appears in the first and last scenes of ''Les Aventures Extraordinaires D'Adèle Blanc-Sec'' as the titular heroine's revolting arch-nemesis Dieuleveult, dressed entirely in a black trenchcoat, hat and sunglasses like a Gestapo officer, completely unrecognizable under a thick layer of makeup with rotten-looking false teeth and speaking with a wheezy voice, all in all resembling Toht from ''[[Raiders of the Lost Ark]]''. After stealing the scene with a wonderfully [[Large Ham|over-the-top]] creepy performance, his character is mummified alive and only seen at the end of the movie, observing Adèle embarking on the {{spoiler|Titanic}} and ominously wishing her "bon voyage". This is made even more infuriating due to the fact that Dieuleveult is, as previously indicated, her arch-nemesis in the comics and yet has no other role in the plot other than failing to prevent her from stealing a mummy she hopes will bring her sister back to life. Needless to stay, the fans of the original comic were not pleased.

* [[Jackie Earle Haley]] in ''[[Shutter Island]]''. His one scene lasts maybe five minutes and he owns every second of it.

* [[Jackie Earle Haley]] as the "particularly dirty hippie" Dukes in ''Semi-Pro''.

* Most of the monsters in ''[[The Cabin in the Woods]]'' get less than a minute of screen time apiece, but ''damn'' they make good use of every second.

* [[Robert Duvall]]'s first role ever was Boo Radley in the film adaptation of ''[[To Kill a Mockingbird]]''. Less than a minute of screen time and no spoken lines, he didn't need more than that for the movie's iconic finale.

 

== Literature ==

* Steven Erikson's ''[[Malazan Book of the Fallen]]'' has several underused-and-awesome characters. One of the more notable examples is Hood, the god of death.

* There is usually at least one scene in every ''[[Discworld]]'' book featuring [[The Grim Reaper|Death]] (''The Wee Free Men'' is one of the few books where he doesn't appear). Except in the book where he stars, these definitely count.

** Also Aunt Marge at the beginning of the third book.

* ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]''

** In ''Changes'' there's Donnar Vadderung, otherwise known as ''Odin''. he gets a single chapter with dialogue {{spoiler|and briefly appears at the end}} but he effectively comes off as [[Gargoyles|a divine David Xanatos]].

** [[Our Dragons Are Different|Ferrovax]], thus far.

 

== Live-Action TV ==

*** [[Stephen Fry]] too, in ''Blackadder the Third'' as Wellington.

{{quote|"The men had a whip-round and got you this... well, what I mean is that I had the men roundly whipped until they got you this. It's a cigarillo case engraved with the regimental crest of two crossed dead Frenchmen, emblazoned on a mound-of-dead-Frenchmen motif."}}

* When ''[[The Colbert Report]]'' had [[The Power of Rock|a guitar solo challenge]] between [[Stephen Colbert]] and Chris Funk of [[The Decemberists]], there were guest stars galore. However none of them could compare to the brief appearance via satellite by none other than Dr. Henry Kissinger.

{{quote|'''Stephen Colbert''': Dr. Kissinger, what time is it?

'''Henry Kissinger''': Stephen, [[Rock Me, Asmodeus|it is time to rock]]. }}

* In [[Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)|the new ''Battlestar Galactica'' series]], none of the [[Mauve Shirt]] Viper/Raptor pilots are more memorable then the "Tattooed Pilot" whose actually more of an extra since he plays no vital role and has only one speaking line in the entire series.

** Racetrack has a bit of a following too, despite never having actually had her own storyline, she's probably survived more raptor mishaps than Athena and Boomer put together, especially in later seasons.

* {{spoiler|[[David Hasselhoff]]}} as the American Vice President in ''[[Command & Conquer: Red Alert|Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3]]''

* Poseidon in ''[[God of War]] 3''. All of the other gods have at least one other appearance in the game, but Poseidon only shows up during Kratos and the Titans' siege of Mount Olympus {{spoiler|due to being killed during it}}. But boy, is his role in that part [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|memorable]].

* ''[[Golden Sun]]'' fandom is largely convinced that Rief's sister Nowell from ''[[Golden Sun: Dark Dawn|Dark Dawn]]'' will return as a player character in the next game. All we know about her presently is that she doesn't like her little brother getting into danger, and that she ''does'' like Captain Piers enough to [[Put on a Bus|go for an unplanned joyride with him]].

** An even better example from the same game would be [[Shrine Maiden|Himi]], who is ''barely'' a player character—she [[Eleventh-Hour Ranger|joins the party at the last possible second]] and as a result has ''[[Flat Character|literally NO character development whatsoever]]'' (even by Golden Sun's notoriously low standards), but easily rivals [[Estrogen Brigade Bait|Amiti]] and [[Badass Adorable|Sveta]] in sheer popularity with the fandom.

* Inverted in ''[[No More Heroes]] 2: Desperate Struggle''. The game's [[Big Bad]], Jasper Batt Jr. doesn't appear until the very end of the game, but despite that has become a Scrappy character infamous even amongst people that haven't played the game due many planners finding him annoying, pretending to kill most of the cast, and the boss fight with him not being especially cool or fun, and for being [[That One Boss]].

* [[Big Bad|Father Balder]] in ''Bayonetta'' is heard in voice, but doesn't appear on screen till the end of the game, but easily steals the show when he does due to his Badassery and crossing the [[Moral Event Horizon]].

** A relationship example: Kid Flash and Jinx appeared in two and five episodes, respectively. Their relationship had an episode mostly devoted to it, and then a couple of lines a few episodes later. It's the fourth most written for ''Teen Titans'' couple on fanfiction.net.

** Let's not forget Red X who has become on of the most popular characters in the show despite only appearing twice.

* ''[[The Modifyers]]'' has Baron Vain, whose psychopathy and ridiculousness won the hearts of those who actually saw it.

* Hondo from ''[[The Clone Wars]]''. Why? Because he single-handedly outwitted Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Count Dooku... 3 times! All in the course of one two-parter episode. Also, he was charming and friendly during the whole thing.

* On ''[[The Flintstones]]'', Fred and Wilma have a pet cat (well, a sabre-tooth tiger) who is notable for one scene, during the end credits where it throws Fred out of the house. It rarely appears in the show itself, being little more than a [[Living Prop]] when it does.

* Similar to the one with Elisa as a Gargoyle was April O'Neil as a [[Cat Girl]]. This wasn't the only time she was a victim of [[Baleful Polymorph]] in that version of ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987 series)|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'', but it is the one most fans remember, even though she was only the Cat Girl in one episode ("The Cat Woman of Channel 6"). [https://turtlepedia.fandom.com/wiki/Mutatin%27_April_(1993_action_figure) They even made an action figure!]

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Characters and Casting]]

[[Category:One-Shot Character]]