History Main / JustinTime

* ''Film/ThreeDaysToKill'': Ethan finds Zooey right before right as several men are set on [[AttemptedRape gang-raping her]], stopping them.

* ''Webcomic/ImpureBlood'': [[http://www.impurebloodwebcomic.com/Pages/Chapter002/ib012.html Roan has to escape by sunrise. Naturally it's dawn by the time they get him to the gates]]

** ''Film/AttackOfTheClones''. Having subdued Anakin (via force lightning) and Obi-Wan (via asskickery), Count Dooku is just about to deliver the fatal blow to Obi-Wan when... Anakin makes a miracle recovery and blocks Dooku's lightsaber just in time. Or look earlier in the film, when Yoda arrives on Geonosis with the clone army. Or when Anakin and Obi-Wan save Padmé from the poison millipede... things.
** ''Film/ANewHope''. Vader is just beginning to fire his lasers at Luke when Han Solo comes back at the nick of time and blasts one of Vader's wingmen, causing a much needed distraction.

* ''Series/WildCards2024'': Max is saved from imminent murder "Strangers on a Wave" when the police arrive.

* Subverted in ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'': In one scene, a Russian rifle squad is about to execute a "spy" when a messenger runs in at the last second and stops them. The message? "Carry on with the execution."

* In ''Film/JurassicPark'', the Tyrannosaurs Rex appears and kills the velicoraptors before they can kill the humans.

* ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'': Regularly used, to varyingly degrees. A frequent use will be a split second before the villain is about to leave town, kill someone or carry out a particularly evil act (e.g., committ a huge bank robbery and kill hundreds of people inside), only for Walker and Trivette to arrive at the last second – with an army of police officers – and, after interrupting the vile act, beat up the bad guys.

** The Death Star was destroyed right as it was about to fire at Yavin 4 (the exact same thing appear to have also happened in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' — there was a green flash right before the Death Star II exploded over Endor).

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'': Several instances, but one perfect illustration is the 1984 episode "The Kaplowey Scroll." The scroll allows its bearer to shout out the word "Kaplowey," destroying whatever the word was aimed at, be it a boulder, a pesky fly ... fellow Smurfs and their exploding boxes ... the list went on. The Smurfs abandon the scroll when they see it as nothing but trouble, before Papa Smurf realizes that Gargamel also is after the scroll. Gargamel indeed finds the scroll and learns about its powers. Just as he learns what it is and tells Azrael the cat, "K-A-P-L-O-W-E-Y. Do you know what this means, Azrael?" – the cat nods his head in wicked approval -- the Smurfs arrive just in time and ultimately destroy the scroll. Had they been just a few seconds later, Gargamel and Azrael could have easily kaploweyed the entire Smurf population out of existence.

* In ''Series/BetweenTheLions'', this is the source of a PunnyName for the protagonist of a book series that one of Lionel's friends likes ''instead'' of ''Cliff Hanger''. The apparent structure is that Justin Time is relaxing in a hammock when some random oblivious threat comes along. He gets out of the way ''just in time'', and goes back to relaxing.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE25TheClockKing "The Clock King"]], this trope is zigzagged: The title villain wants revenge against Gotham's Mayor, but he knows that Batman always appears just in time to stop the villains. So he starts his plan [[LudicrousPrecision 6 hours (and 20 minutes)]] earlier, so he can get Batman LuredIntoATrap and get revenge on Hill. Unfortunately, Clock King's own BondVillainStupidity ruins his plan, and Batman saves mayor Hill in a BigDamnHeroes moment... just in time. It's even lampshaded:
-->'''Temple Fugate:''' The Batman. It's about time you showed up.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E8RarityTakesManehattan Rarity Takes Manehattan]]", Rarity makes it to a fashion competition with her wares at the very last second, but is criticized by the organizer about how that is unprofessional.
* ''WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM'': In the end of ''Sonic and Sally'', Sally attempts to FaceDeathWithDignity, as she's mere moments from being [[UnwillingRoboticization roboticized]]: she becomes [[StiffUpperLip completely silent and stoic]], in sharp contrast to her usual [[DefiantCaptive defiant snark]]. [[BigDamnHeroes Sonic shows up to save her, just in time]].
* ''WesternAnimation/DangerMouse'':
** Parodied in the new series. Racing to stop a SelfDestructMechanism, DM triumphantly declares "Just in the nick of time!"... and realises there's still five seconds on the clock. So he waits four seconds, triumphantly declares "Just in the nick of time!", and hits the button with a second left on the clock.
** DM stops the out-of-control Orient Express just before it reaches the Paris terminus in a calm, devil-may-care style while Penfold is going postal.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'', Mei and her mother just finish having their heart to heart conversation seconds before the lunar eclipse ends sending her mother back to the physical world.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "[[MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E8RarityTakesManehattan Rarity Takes Manehattan]]", Rarity makes it to a fashion competition with her wares at the very last second, but is criticized by the organizer about how that is unprofessional.