# Silly "nick of time" scenes **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 30, 2013, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-nick-of-time-scenes/654327 "2013-03-30T04:32:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-nick-of-time-scenes/654327/21 "2013-04-02T01:35:19Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > Silly “nick of time” scenes Every single time Nova goes out into the field to build or find something, building or finding the macguffin is only accomplished as evening draws near on the last day they have scheduled to film. They’ve been doing it for decades and, too often, the accomplishment sorta fizzles. With just a bit of planning they’d do it first in the studio and, when all the kinks are out, they’d do it for the camera, but no, they prefer a crap ending with manufactured drama to doing it right. ---
**Author:** ![MacSpon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@MacSpon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacSpon)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-nick-of-time-scenes/654327/22 "2013-04-02T02:18:46Z")
> [@tanstaafl](#): > > In the British TV series _Primeval_ there is a scene where someone is under a car trying to defuse a bomb. Their boss yells for them to cut the red wire to which they respond with an “Uhh…” > > The boss looks under the car and _all_ of the wires are red. In the Japanese detective series _[Galileo](http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Galileo)_, there’s a scene where the detective is trying to disarm a bomb to which, naturally, the heroine has been attached. He comes down to the classic red-or-blue wire scenario. Running out of time, and unable to deduce which wire to cut, he desperately asks the heroine, “What’s your favorite color?” She screams out, “Pink!” He reaches in, cuts a wire…and the bomb doesn’t go off. Then, as he frees the heroine, he says, “I give in. Your intuition beats my deduction.” There was a third, pink wire hidden behind the blue and red ones… ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-nick-of-time-scenes/654327/23 "2013-04-02T16:46:30Z")
> [@Shawn1767](#): > > I don’t think they’re necessarily “silly.” First of all, in a lot of these movies, we are watching the story of the survivors. It’s like watching a special on the Super Bowl winner. They have to win the wildcard/divisional/conference championship/Super Bowl, but if they lost in any of the rounds, we’d be watching the story of another team. Sure, but if you go back and read my OP, my problem with the scene in The Matrix is not that the good guys got away, nor that the good guys got away and it was close, it’s that the good guys got away and it was BEYOND close… to a comical degree that actually made it less enjoyable for me because instead of thinking “oh, man, I hope they get away” I was thinking “oh, come ON that’s just ridiculous”. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-nick-of-time-scenes/654327/24 "2013-04-02T16:52:25Z")
How about those giant eagles in the LOTR movies? They sure do come in handy. Alot. Or the T-Rex in **Jurassic Park**? Or the fighter planes in **Saving Private Ryan**? And of course: “Yahoo! You’re all clear kid, so let’s blow this thing and go home!” ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-nick-of-time-scenes/654327/25 "2013-04-02T16:59:40Z")
Indiana Jones slithering under the the big stone wall and snatching his whip just as it is about to seal his fate. Best opening ‘nick of time’ scenes evah. ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-nick-of-time-scenes/654327/26 "2013-04-02T17:07:46Z")
They do this on Psych a lot. Lassiter and Juliet always seem to show up guns blazing just as Shawn and Gus are about to get killed. Then the cavalry arrives. No mention is made of how Lasssie and Jules even know what was going on most of the time. You can almost time your watch by it. ---
**Author:** ![Jman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jman/32/4416_2.png) [@Jman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jman)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-nick-of-time-scenes/654327/27 "2013-04-02T17:13:56Z")
> [@Shawn1767](#): > > I don’t think they’re necessarily “silly.” First of all, in a lot of these movies, we are watching the story of the survivors. It’s like watching a special on the Super Bowl winner. They have to win the wildcard/divisional/conference championship/Super Bowl, but if they lost in any of the rounds, we’d be watching the story of another team. > > So, when the plane takes off in “2012” we are not watching the story of the millions of people who fell into the chasm. That would be a short movie. > > And we’re not watching a movie about someone who successfully disarmed a bomb 9 hours before it was supposed to go off. You think disarming a bomb at the last second is silly? How silly would it be to watch a movie where the action hero disarms it the day before? Or watching “2012” and they have years to take off from the runway before the quake hits? Heck, you could go out to the airport today and watch tons of planes taking off right now in areas where a quake may hit eventually. But would you watch it if it were a movie? > > It would be like watching a movie where the action hero is always safe and never in any peril, like a normal everyday person. Or watching a movie about the guy who dies 5 minutes in. Imagine watching “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” but the story is about Satipo. > > The story is about those who make it to the end because of something interesting and compelling, even as unlikely as it may seem, not the ones who die along the way. > > Here’s a cracked article about quantum immortality that discusses how an infinite possibility of universes, there is bound to be the one where everything goes the way it needs to for the hero and that’s the story we are watching: > > [5 Mind-Blowing Academic Theories as Taught by Classic Movies | Cracked.com](http://www.cracked.com/article_20109_5-mind-blowing-academic-theories-as-taught-by-classic-movies_p2.html) That’s one of the clearest and best descriptions of this I’ve ever read (your post, that is). Thanks! I never have a problem with this stuff, because I go to the movies to suspend my disbelief for a few hours. It’s part of the escape. ---
**Author:** ![EMCEE\_98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b5ac83/32.png) [@EMCEE\_98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EMCEE_98)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-nick-of-time-scenes/654327/28 "2013-04-02T17:30:20Z")
> [@74westy](#): > > In the 1930s, movie theatres showed serials on Saturday afternoons. Those were episodes that ran for a half an hour or so, ended in a cliffhanger and continued next week. The cliffhangers were often ludicrous to the point of showing the burning building collapse on the hero, his girlfriend and his funny sidekick. > > Next week you’d see the burning building and see the hero, his girlfriend and the funny sidekick run out the side door just before it collapsed. He didn’t get out of the COCKADOODIE CAR! ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-nick-of-time-scenes/654327/29 "2013-04-02T17:48:59Z")
> [@zbuzz](#): > > Habeas Corpus, starring Bruce Willis and Julia Roberts. > > “What took you so long?” > “Traffic was a bitch.” Because that’s … life. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-nick-of-time-scenes/654327/30 "2013-04-02T21:41:00Z")
“Some days, you just **can’t** get rid of a bomb!” – and, of course – “M, as in Mancy!” ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-nick-of-time-scenes/654327/31 "2013-04-02T22:55:06Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > Sure, but if you go back and read my OP, my problem with the scene in The Matrix is not that the good guys got away, nor that the good guys got away and it was close, it’s that the good guys got away and it was BEYOND close… to a comical degree that actually made it less enjoyable for me because instead of thinking “oh, man, I hope they get away” I was thinking “oh, come ON that’s just ridiculous”. Yeah, I’m with the OP on this one. If it were **just** a matter of “nick of time” escapes being statistically unlikely, **Shawn1767** would have a good point. But it’s annoying when someone—either the good guys or the bad guys—does something more slowly or stupidly or ineptly than there’s any good in-story reason for them to, just to make the timing come out right: because if they were really giving it their best shot, the scene or situation or movie would be over sooner. Hence, instead of formidable, competent heroes or villains, we get what the OP appropriately describes as “silly non-threats.” The other reason it’s annoying is that it’s so cliched. Supposedly, if you’re writing a suspenseful story, the way to heighten the tension in the story is to set a time limit. But from the experienced viewer/reader’s point of view, if you’ve seen enough movies that you’re hip to the formula, you know that, when there’s a time limit, nothing decisive is going to happen until _right_ before the countdown reaches zero, but it will happen then. ---
**Author:** ![johnspartan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a183cd/32.png) [@johnspartan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnspartan)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2013, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-nick-of-time-scenes/654327/32 "2013-04-03T13:16:36Z")
I just figured it out! I know where our hero is, and the baddie is gonna get the drop on him. Let’s hurry (including leave here, get in our cars, drive across town, go into building, figure out what room person is in, enter without making a sound, etc.) Cut to scene of baddie has hero dead-to-rights, at gunpoint. Close up on baddie’s face… Oh no he’s about to shoot hero… but wait! he wordlessly looks quite surprised. He’s surprised because someone’s shot him dead (from behind, through the chest, once. Good guy last minute rescuers never shoot the person in the brain) Lately it seems like the secondary “to the rescuer” must be white and female and reasonably pretty. Also, even though the baddie has clearly collapsed to the floor dead, she must still be holding the gun up and aiming it with both hands (because she’s processing what she’s done, and certainly not so it’s obvious to viewer who the shooter was because they’re still holding the gun as if they’re firing) ---
**Author:** ![Gedd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gedd/32/4938_2.png) [@Gedd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gedd)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2013, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-nick-of-time-scenes/654327/33 "2013-04-03T16:56:17Z")
> [@johnspartan](#): > > I just figured it out! I know where our hero is, and the baddie is gonna get the drop on him. Let’s hurry (including leave here, get in our cars, drive across town, go into building, figure out what room person is in, enter without making a sound, etc.) > > Cut to scene of baddie has hero dead-to-rights, at gunpoint. > > Close up on baddie’s face… Oh no he’s about to shoot hero… but wait! he wordlessly looks quite surprised. He’s surprised because someone’s shot him dead (from behind, through the chest, once. Good guy last minute rescuers never shoot the person in the brain) > > Lately it seems like the secondary “to the rescuer” must be white and female and reasonably pretty. > > Also, even though the baddie has clearly collapsed to the floor dead, she must still be holding the gun up and aiming it with both hands (because she’s processing what she’s done, and certainly not so it’s obvious to viewer who the shooter was because they’re still holding the gun as if they’re firing) If they give us a reason for her being there that can work fine (maybe she’s his stalker). It makes as much sense as a 25 minute gun battle in a downtown office building where the police don’t show up until _just_ before the bad guy is about to shoot the good guy. He shouldn’t have monologued for so long . . . :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2013, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-nick-of-time-scenes/654327/34 "2013-04-03T19:27:33Z")
One variation on this which made us give up on a British police series. One character has unwittingly walked into the bad guy’s lair, as his partners just figure out who did it. They race across town to rescue him, getting there just in time. What they don’t do is pick up their damn radio and get some coppers a lot closer to do it. This plot device in general worked a lot better before cellphones. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2013, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-nick-of-time-scenes/654327/35 "2013-04-03T19:28:09Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > The ringing telephone in _Argo_. The whole last half-hour of _Argo_ was a nick-of-time montage. There was the ringing telephone, the hostages boarding the plane just before the doors closed, and the plane taking off with Iranians practically reaching out to grab the wheels. Very ridiculous in a serious movie. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2013, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-nick-of-time-scenes/654327/36 "2013-04-03T19:54:58Z")
Another The Matrix one, caused by the “stupid delay to make things more urgent” scriptwriting trick (Cracked reminded me of this one recently) - Neo and Trinity save Morpheus, the phone is ringing to let them “connect” back to the real world, escaping the Matrix-world where bad guys are rapidly closing on them with the intent to do Real Harm to their real bodies and minds. Trinity decides this would be an awfully swell time to bust out with the “I have to tell you something” trope, then fidgets a while, with the phone literally ringing several times and multiple lines of dialogue exchanged, then just answers the phone and doesn’t even finish telling him what she was going to say. :smack: Awesome. “Barely nick of time” move intentionally caused by a protagonist (because **fuck** , she was going to see him on the other side after answering the phone; they weren’t being separated), plus awkward “I have something to tell you/oh never mind.” ---
**Author:** ![johnspartan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a183cd/32.png) [@johnspartan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnspartan)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-nick-of-time-scenes/654327/37 "2013-04-04T16:02:26Z")
> [@Gedd](#): > > If they give us a reason for her being there that can work fine (maybe she’s his stalker). It makes as much sense as a 25 minute gun battle in a downtown office building where the police don’t show up until _just_ before the bad guy is about to shoot the good guy. > > He shouldn’t have monologued for so long . . . :smack: Right. She was knocked out on the floor but magically comes to in time to clock the baddie… _fine_. I mean, it’s still trite, but at least it’s a little less stupid b/c as you say there’s a reason why she’s already there. ---
**Author:** ![Gedd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gedd/32/4938_2.png) [@Gedd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gedd)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-nick-of-time-scenes/654327/38 "2013-04-04T17:15:30Z")
> [@johnspartan](#): > > Right. She was knocked out on the floor but magically comes to in time to clock the baddie… _fine_. I mean, it’s still trite, but at least it’s a little less stupid b/c as you say there’s a reason why she’s already there. No, I was thinking of some movie where the bad guy gets shot and when they do the “pan to the shooter” the audience gasps because it’s someone who (it ends up) had been stalking the good guy the whole movie, and which actually explained a lot of loose ends. Does that sound familiar to anyone? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-nick-of-time-scenes/654327/39 "2013-04-04T18:04:29Z")
Every televised poker game ends with somebody winning it all. How contrived! ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-nick-of-time-scenes/654327/40 "2013-04-04T19:03:20Z")
> [@zbuzz](#): > > Habeas Corpus, starring Bruce Willis and Julia Roberts. > > “What took you so long?” > “Traffic was a bitch.” I wonder who pitched that one. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-nick-of-time-scenes/654327.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silly-nick-of-time-scenes/654327.md?page=3)