History Main / LastMinuteHookup

** In the ''final'' Final Episode, there's an almost literal Last Minute Hookup: Fry decides to ask Leela to marry him, and an accident involving a "time-looping device" results in the entire world ... except for the two of them ... being frozen in time. They spend the rest of their lives growing old together in this frozen moment, until [[spoiler:Professor Farnsworth, who was apparently killed in the accident but was actually "rotated into an orthogonal time dimension", shows up and rebuilds the looping device to loop the world back to before he got the idea to invent the device]].

* ''Manga/{{ARIA}}'': A variety of this trope occurs at the end of the series, when super-undine Alicia declares that she will retire and get married. Before that there was no indication whatsoever that she was even ''seeing'' someone, let alone that she was getting engaged. Throughout the series [[RomanticTwoGirlFriendship she appears to be mostly focused on Akari]], so her announcement does come totally out of the blue. Worse, her fiancé doesn't even get the slightest bit of screen time, so it all feels like quite a cop-out.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyDadTheRockStar'': In the final episode, Willy, the male lead, and his female friend Alyssa start dating. Furthermore, it's only the last few minutes that they officially become a couple, with Willy spending most of the episode uncertain if they were on a real date or just hanging out as friends.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyDadTheRockStar'': In the final episode, Willy, the male lead, and his female friend Alyssa start dating.

* The GrandFinale of ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'' has [[ExtravertedNerd Upchuck]] [[ShipsThatPassInTheNight randomly hitting on]] [[{{Goth}} Andrea]] during a party. She agrees to leave the party to go on a date with him, to his complete and utter amazement.

Often times the audience will only follow a series just to see if a specific couple will hook up. Actually hooking up the couple in the middle of the series runs the risk of TrueLoveIsBoring and ShippingBedDeath. In many series, resolving the romantic situations of the main characters is a SeriesGoal, hence any attempt to break through and resolve the relationships before the GrandFinale results in FailureIsTheOnlyOption. StatusQuoIsGod results in the characters being placed under a RelationshipCeiling for the duration of the series.

* Most of the couples in ''Fanfic/SonOfTheSannin'' avert this, getting together during over course of the story (either shown on page like Naruto and Hinata, or implicitly like Shikamaru and Temari). The only ones who play it straight are Kiba and Tamaki, who get a BigDamnKiss in the second-to-last chapter (and a few chapters earlier even had a IfWeGetThroughThis moment).

[[folder:{{Film}} -- Animated]]

* ''Series/ICarly'': After ''5 years'' of shipping wars, pandering for the Sam/Freddie side and the Carly/Freddie side ''and'' both relationships having canon relationships that are broken up, Carly and Freddie have a last minute kiss in the final episode before Carly leaves the country.

* ''{{Series/Hannibal}}'' hinges its entire plot on the [[FoeYay antagonistic]] yet [[LoveMakesYouEvil magnetic ]] back and forth between [[TheEmpath Will]] [[TheProfiler Graham]] and [[IAmAHumanitarian Hannibal]] [[SerialKiller Lecter]]. Though the first two seasons are laden with HomoeroticSubtext to the point of it having a very long HoYay [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/HoYay/Hannibal page]], it remains subtext until season three, where Bedelia helps Will finally understand that [[spoiler: yes, Hannibal has indeed been in love with him for years, likely smitten even as far back as their first interaction.]] The series ends with the two [[spoiler: pack killing together, tenderly embracing and escaping the clutches of the FBI via cliff dive. [[MurderTheHypotenuse They even make a meal of Hannibal's former love interest Bedelia]].]]

* This happens in so many books of Creator/AgathaChristie such as ''The Murder on the Links'', ''Towards Zero'' or ''Why Didn't They Ask Evans?'' In fact, it might be shorter to name the Christie books that ''don't'' have a last-minute hookup. Sometimes the 'last-minute' part may even be as late as the final page, and occasionally overlaps with FourthDateMarriage.

* ''Film/EpicMovie'': Near the end of the end of the film, Mystique ends up revealing she now finds Peter extremely attractive and drags him into his tent to have sex with him. Peter had a crush on Mystique near the beggining of the film, but her only scenes up to this point involved her mocking and rejecting him, and the other simply had Magneto and her now wanting to stand beside Peter. Her finding him attractive enough to have sex with him, [[FanDisservice as a fat, unibrowed grandma]] [[ChubbyChaser per his requests]], might I add, all night long near the end of the film comes almost completely out of nowhere.

* Downplayed in ''Literature/{{East}}'': while not exactly in the "last minute", Harald and Sara announce their engagement out of the blue rather late in the second half of the novel. Justified, as since neither is a POV character and their relationship has little impact on the plot, we don't get to see their interactions with each other.

* ''{{Series/Hannibal}}'' hinges its entire plot on the [[FoeYay antagonistic]] yet [[LoveMakesYouEvil]] magnetic back and forth between [[TheEmpath Will]] [[TheProfiler Graham]] and [[IAmAHumanitarian Hannibal]] [[SerialKiller Lecter]]. Though the first two seasons are laden with HomoeroticSubtext to the point of it having a very long HoYay [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/HoYay/Hannibal page]], it remains subtext until season three, where Bedelia helps Will finally understand that [[spoiler: yes, Hannibal has indeed been in love with him for years, likely smitten even as far back as their first interaction.]] The series ends with the two [[spoiler: pack killing together, tenderly embracing and escaping the clutches of the FBI via cliff dive. [[MurderTheHypotenuse They even make a meal of Hannibal's former love interest Bedelia]].]]

* ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'' ended with the titular hero and his romantic interest marrying and sailing off on a magic carpet together---but the sequel movies and TV series which follow press the ResetButton a little bit, making them only ''engaged'' (with Aladdin living in the palace to learn the ropes about being a Prince before the marriage takes place). While this may seem practical, it also allows the show to avoid the squicky-to-ten-year-olds portrayal of physical intimacy between the two romantically linked characters. (It also conveniently gives the hero a chance to demonstrate his manliness by becoming a [[MagneticGirlfriend desire magnet]] for every [[TheVamp hot villainess]] and DamselInDistress who comes to town.)

** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': The [[StrangledByTheRedString out-of-nowhere]] CrackPairing of Seven of Nine and Chakotay in the final season. This was largely a way to appease Robert Beltran, who had been complaining about the uselessness of his character, so they shut his mouth by slipping Jeri Ryan's tongue into it. It got one episode more than halfway through the final season suddenly establishing that Seven had a one-sided interest in Chakotay, despite a complete lack of chemistry or buildup prior to this (and both having far more ShipTease with ''other'' characters). Then, in the very last episode, with no further explanation, they suddenly get together. Fans generally went [[FlatWhat "what"]]. (The ExpandedUniverse novels, faced with actually having to deal with this relationship, ended it immediately.)

* Spoofed at the end of Series 2 of ''Series/ATouchOfCloth'' when Jack Cloth suddenly and inexplicably hooks up with the only available main character - his nemesis, who killed his wife and who he was inches away from killing for most of the series, and who is also another man, with no indication given to Jack's (or his) orientation prior.

* ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'': The pairing of Faramir and Éowyn at the end of the third film comes [[StrangledByTheRedString basically out of nowhere]] (though [[AdaptationExplanationExtrication it's given much more attention in the books]]) after Éowyn has spent most of her time pining after Aragorn. Though you might argue realizing the crush is hopeless shows CharacterDevelopment.

* ''Series/MissFishersMurderMysteries'' Phryne and Jack, after three seasons of solid [[WillTheyOrWontThey Will They Or Won't They]], not to mention plenty of [[BelligerentSexualTension Belligerent Sexual Tension]] along the way.

* ''Film/TheMartian'': Beck and Johanssen's relationship is reduced to a literal Last Minute Kiss when she gives him a quick smooch before he goes EVA to help retrieve Mark, instead of (apparently) hooking up beforehand and moving into the same bunk as happened in the book. Given that said romance didn't really add much to the story in the first place and barely ever comes up after it's mentioned, [[TropesAreNotBad this doesn't really hurt much.]]

* This happens in so many books of Creator/AgathaChristie such as ''The Murder on the Links'', ''Towards Zero'' or ''Why Didn't They Ask Evans?''
** It might be shorter to name the Christie books that ''don't'' have a last-minute hookup.

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'': Hermione and Ron, anyone? After seven books of WillTheyOrWontThey, they make out in the hall while Voldemort and the Death Eaters are attacking the school and people are dying. The movies try to avert this by building them up as a couple earlier by giving more ShipTease. Just look at the film version of ''[[Film/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban Prisoner of Azkaban]]''.
** ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince Half-Blood Prince]]'': A book specific example would be Harry and Ginny. They probably deserve to be the [[TropeCodifier king and queen of this trope]]. Not only do they become a couple close to the end after Harry spends a good portion of the book crushing on her, but they ''still manage to break up before the end of the book!'' To make matters worse, they spend [[UpToEleven even less screen time together]] in the last book. [[spoiler: By the epilogue, they're HappilyMarried]], leaving even those who took no sides in the shipping scratching their heads. Again, the film tries to avert this. Not only does Ginny get a fair more screen time and more scenes with Harry in the ''Half Blood Prince'' adaptation, but they don't break up at the end, either. Plus their interactions in ''Deathly Hallows, Part 1'' count too. (Thank you Creator/SteveKloves!) However, like Hermione and Ron, it still suffers on account of [[CompressedAdaptation how much is left out]].

* ''Franchise/MassEffect'': In the first game, just before heading through the Mu Mass Relay in pursuit of [[spoiler:Saren]]. In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', during the hours leading up to the suicide mission through the Omega-4 Mass Relay. In both games, this trope applies only if you sufficiently nurtured a relationship with a romanceable character throughout the course of the game. Something about uncharted Mass Relays seems to heighten hormone levels in organic species...

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': A little unclear, but appears to happen when Leela may have fallen for Fry after the big Faustian showdown at the opera in the last episode, but if so, this was unintentional as it wasn't meant to be the last episode, but rather the series got ScrewedByTheNetwork and cancelled. Complicated by the later [[UnCanceled revival of the series]], which hit the ResetButton, and any such relationship no longer survives.

* The GrandFinale of ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'' has [[ExtravertedNerd Upchuck]] [[ShipsThatPassInTheNight randomly hitting on]] [[{{Goth}} Andrea]] during a party. She agrees to leave the party to go on a date with him, [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments to his complete and utter amazement]].

* Done surprisingly well in Creator/GuyGavrielKay's ''Literature/TheLastLightOfTheSun''. At the start of the story, Bern Thorkellson is saved by witch-in-training Anrid. He then goes off to have numerous adventures, while she stays behind and eventually becomes the head witch on her island. Neither of them ever forgets the other though, and when Bern returns home at the end of the novel, Anrid is waiting for him. She explains that he has been pardoned and is allowed to come home to the family farm, while dropping some not-so-subtle hints that she would like to go with him. Bern--who at this point has watched his father die and is more or less disillusioned with life in general--decides that having some genuine warmth in his life would be a good thing, and they decide to get married and give it a shot.
* In ''Literature/MemorySorrowAndThorn'', although the relationship between [[TheHero Simon]] and [[RebelliousPrincess Miriamele]] had been shaping up over the course of all three books, it's not until the denouement that they finally upgrade it thanks to a bit of GladToBeAliveSex coupled with StandardHeroReward.
* It's not until the last page of ''[[Literature/TheHungerGames Mockingjay]]'' that Katniss ends up with [[spoiler:Peeta]].
* ''Changes'' in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' actually manages to subvert this: Harry and Karrin finally almost-acknowledge their feelings for each other and manage to set up a date, but Harry [[spoiler:gets shot and dies]] just before the date can happen. Of course, this being Harry, [[PlotArmour the hero of the series]], [[spoiler:he goes on to solve a case ''while being a ghost'', then comes back alive]].
* In ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'', Jacob Black with [[spoiler:Renesmee. It takes them ''less than a minute'' to be paired up, especially after Bella delivered her and recently passed away. Way to mourn the girl you thought you were in love with, Jake]].
* Creator/VernorVinge's ''[[Literature/ZonesOfThought A Deepness in the Sky]]'' has two mild examples. There is ''some'' foreshadowing of the relationships involved, but it's still pretty sudden.
** [[spoiler:Pham and Anne spend most of the book trying to outmaneuver and ultimately murder each other, but when Anne is deFocused, she and Pham become an item in less than a page.]]
** [[spoiler:Pham ships Ezr off with Qiwi within twenty pages of the end of the book, and Ezr apparently has no problem with this. In his case, it's especially jarring because Ezr has spent literally the ''entire book up to this point'' faithfully waiting on the Focused Trixia, only to be flat-out rejected by her once she is partially defocused, because she no longer feels like a human. Flip a page or two, and suddenly Ezr and Qiwi are a thing.]]
* It is very common for ''{{Literature/Redwall}}'' novels to reveal in the epilogue that characters got married after their adventure. Rather infamously, it never happened for Mariel and Dandin.
* ''Literature/LoyalEnemies'': After a lot of WillTheyOrWontThey-tension, several [[LoveEpiphany Love Epiphanies]] and lots of EveryoneCanSeeIt, werewolf Shelena and her so-called enemy Veres eventually just disappear into the bushes and have sex in the epilogue. PlayedForLaughs because Veres' apprentice Rest assumes they're going to try and kill each other. Though Shelena leaves immediately after, it is heavily implied they will see each other again regularly as she is confident that [[LawOfInverseFertility she's pregnant]] and Veres would want to see his child. The follow-up novella shows them still madly in love, living together and raising their son.
* In ''Literature/LuckyJim'': [[spoiler: Jim and Christine]] breaking it off with their romantic rivals, after a whole book of romantic setup, and getting together is the last thing to happen in the book.