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''}}

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.

* ''[[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]]'': Light is often shown watching the clock or his watch as he waits for the Death Note to take effect- most obviously in the case of Naomi, who fails to die on time, due to giving him a false name.

* In an interesting variation, at one point during the torture of John Cusack's character by the "evil room" in ''[[Fourteen Oh Eight|1408]]'', the clock radio starts a 60 minute countdown. The movie ends precisely 60 minutes later, to the second.

* In [[Jules Verne]]'s ''[[Around the World In Eighty Days]]'', Fogg's bet specifies that his must complete his travels in precisely that amount of time, and that he will lose the bet if he gets back to the club to declare his success even one second later than 5:00 pm on the 80th day, no matter how much earlier than that he got back to London. Time zones come into play in the resolution.

* In ''[[Twelve Ounce Mouse (Animation)|Twelve Ounce Mouse]]'', the Clock is always frozen at 2:22. One [[Gainax Ending]] later, it ticks over to 2:23.

* "One Minute 'Till Three" from ''[[Tiny Toon Adventures (Animation)|Tiny Toon Adventures]]'' (specifically from the [[Three Shorts]] episode "Best O' Plucky Duck Day") has Plucky [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin|waiting for 3:00]] (the dismissal time for school) while Granny is giving the class essays. To make things [[The Chew Toy|even more agonizing for Plucky]], the clock has a tendency to run backwards.

** And in ''[[Tiny Toon Adventures How I Spent My Vacation (Animation)|Tiny Toon Adventures How I Spent My Vacation]]'' there's a song about waiting for the tick at the start of the movie.

* In ''[[Johnny Test (Animation)|Johnny Test]]'', the entire class is waiting for the bell to ring and is intently watching the clock's minute hand to reach twelve. When the bell rings, Johnny screams "IT'S SUMMER VACATION!" and the entire class runs out. [[Subverted Trope|The bell, however, was for first period.]]

* ''[[The Powerpuff Girls (Animation)|The Powerpuff Girls]]'' has two examples. "Speed Demon" has Buttercup impatiently eyeing the clock to hit the dismissal time. "Him Diddle Riddle" is unusual in that the entire episode elapses in real time, with the tower clock in downtown ticking off time as the girls race to solve Him's riddles.