Right on the Tick: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"[[Trope Namer|Right on the tick!]] Amazing! Absolutely amazing!"''|'''Doc Brown''', ''[[Back to the Future (film)|Back to The Future]] Part II''}}

This trope is all about the association of important plot events with a specific time. This includes times which are linked to folklore, urban legend, or history, but this trope also applies to in-universe examples, ''if'' the time in question is given significance in-universe. Extraordinary events--bothevents—both good and bad--maybad—may happen at a specific time, or that time may serve to remind characters (and the audience) of a significant event which has already happened.

Not all examples of attention paid to the time of day belong here. It's only [['''Right on the Tick]]''' if a) it has already been established in a work that this time is significant; and b) special attention is paid to the passage of time or the proximity of Time X. Such attention can include shots of or descriptions of watches or clock faces, but the significant time can also be indicated by tolling church bells or the chiming of a distant clock. For example, if you're watching a movie in which aliens attack only at 7:07 A.M., and the characters in the film keep watching the clock to see when the aliens will attack, that's an example of [['''Right on the Tick]]'''. If, on the other hand, the aliens' kill happens at a randomly chosen time, and the camera just happens to pan out and show us that Bob became breakfast at precisely 7:07 A.M., that may have dramatic significance, but it's not an example of this trope.

Compare [[Race Against the Clock]]. See also [[When the Clock Strikes Twelve]], a trope specifically about midnight. All examples related to midnight should be listed there rather than here. See also [[Exact Time to Failure]], which is about relative time rather than absolute. For other references to clocks or time, see [[Stopped Clock]] or [[24-Hour Trope Clock]]. For a character who's determined to keep everyone on time, see [[Clock King]]. Has nothing at all to do with [[The Tick]].

* Subverted in ''[[A Christmas Carol]]'': Jacob Marley's ghost tells Scrooge that the Three Spirits will arrive at specific times on three consecutive nights. The spirits do show up right on time, except that due to some supernatural time-twisting, all of their visits occur on the SAME nightnight—Christmas --Christmas Eve-- meaningEve—meaning that Scrooge wakes up in time to celebrate Christmas.

* ''[[MASHM*A*S*H (television)|M*A*S*H]]'': 5 O'Clock Charlie is the camp's nickname for a North Korean pilot who comes by every day at exactly 5 PM to strafe the camp - or at least he would if he wasn't such a bad shot.

* During the initial retreat in the ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined(2004 TV series)|Battlestar Galactica]]'' reboot, the Cylons caught up with the Colonial fleet every 33 minutes on the nose. By 200+ repeats of this, the crew had set up a timer on the command deck to eye nervously.