History Main / MagicCountdown

* In the ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' OVA ''Battle at Hidden Falls. I Am the Hero!'', Shibuki is told he has 10 seconds to reveal his location before Suien kills a villager. Naruto's short speech about bravery takes considerably longer. During her fight with Sasori in ''Manga/{{Naruto}} Shippuden'', Sakura counts down the time left before her antidote wears off. Apparently one entire episode is just under two minutes.

[[folder:Films — Animation]]
* The clock in WesternAnimation/{{Cinderella}} takes a very long time to strike midnight, giving Cinderella plenty of time to get well clear of the castle. Obviously, no clock would take that long striking midnight.

[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]
* The inverse variety occurs in ''Film/{{Apollo 13}}''. The loss of communications during re-entry is said to last 4-1/2 minutes, but actually takes about 3 minutes of movie. Given how tense that scene is watching the movie, [[ForegoneConclusion knowing how it comes out]], one can imagine how tense it was in real life, taking half again as long. But the 14 second manual course correction burn of the LM engine was changed to 39 seconds, which still took 63 seconds of screen time in the movie.

* ''Film/{{Flash Gordon|1980}}'' (1980). The countdown timer to the destruction of the Earth that Flash sets in War Rocket Ajax. Flash originally set the clock for 3 minutes 20 seconds. It finally counts down to zero more than 7 minutes of screen time later. It's blatantly clear at the very end. Just before Flash jumps out of the ship it shows 19 seconds left. After Ming is destroyed (?) it shows 2 seconds left, but it took 52 seconds of screen time for Flash to kill Ming.

* ''Film/{{Godzilla 2014}}'': A soldier sets a nuke's timer to about an hour and a half in what appears to be midday. The active bomb gets stolen and has to be taken out of the city before it detonates. The soldiers assigned to retrieve it enter the city at sunset and find the nuke with 30 minutes left on the clock. By the time it reads five minutes (and it's nighttime), the nuke manages to be put on a boat and driven out of range from the city. The nuke was earlier stated to have made the 15-ton Castle Bravo, which produced a 7.2 kilometer fireball within one second, look like "a firecracker". Assuming a one-second fireball size of about 10 kilometers for the ''Godzilla'' nuke, and an end fireball size of, perhaps, twice that, the boat would have had to be moving at '''240 kilometers per hour''' (almost 150 miles per hour) to reach minimum safe distance in time - and that's not even accounting for the ''shockwave''! Talk about [[OutrunTheFireball Outrunning the Fireball]].

--> ''(Nick activates the Time Transport countdown)''
--> '''Servo:''' "Ten... Nine... Eight... Seven..."
--> ''(Cut away to Nick and J.K. fighting over a gun)''
--> '''Servo:''' "S-''Seven''... Six... Five... Four..."
--> ''(Computer warns of low altitude)''
--> '''Servo:''' "Three... Two... One... ''Zero... F-Four...'' Three... Two... One... Th-''Three...'' Two... One... ''Two...''"
--> ''(Plane crashes)''
--> '''Servo:''' "''One.''"

--> '''Mike''': "Stop showing the clock! You spent that nickel!"

* The 30 seconds that Grandpa Seth freezes time for in ''Film/{{Troll 2}}'' must be some of the slowest seconds in the history of the world.
* Happens in ''Film/VanHelsing'': it sure takes that clock a long time to strike twelve (specifically it takes at least three minutes).

* ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'': In "Maveth", Simmons states the portal to the alien world will only stay open for 61 seconds. This is long enough for [[spoiler:Coulson and Ward to have an extensive fight sequence while Fitz is simultaneously trying to stop "It" from reaching the portal, Coulson to stop and waste precious time executing Ward after he's been neutralized, Coulson and Fitz to run to the portal, "It" to crawl out of Will's body, cross a considerable distance to Ward's, possess him, and go through the portal itself]]. In real time, it's roughly 5 minutes, and we didn't even see the entire escape onscreen. However, it's possible that Daisy was using her powers to extend that time artificially, which she had been shown to be capable of doing earlier in the season.
* ''Series/{{Batman|1966}}'' episode "While Gotham City Burns". Batman and Chief O'Hara have only a minute to drive to a church and save Robin from being killed in the Bookworm's DeathTrap. The minute is shown on a clock dial on the screen, with a series of scenes showing their progress. There's no way that they could have done it within a minute. Batman even takes time out to explain something unimportant to Chief O'Hara.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': in "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E13TheZeppo The Zeppo]]", Xander is having a CirclingMonologue with the bad guy as a nearby bomb timer is counting down. It switches between them and the bomb, and the timer seems to jump around at random, gaining and losing time, until it is of course stopped at 1 second left.

** In ''Series/PowerRangersNinjaStorm,'' the Rangers have a more agile alternate mode for their HumongousMecha which can only be maintained for sixty seconds. The first time it's used, it stays transformed for precisely sixty seconds in the end, though Cam's countdown is often wildly off. Almost every use ''after'' that, though, had battles carry on for much longer than one minute.
** In ''Series/PowerRangersRPM,'' one MonsterOfTheWeek throws bombs as his whole schtick. The bombs have no visible timer but beep faster and faster leading up to kaboom. At one point, when the monster throws a bomb, the beeping accelerates... and then ''stops'' when a Ranger catches the bomb. It ''starts over'' when the Ranger [[HoistByHisOwnPetard throws it back]].
* ''Series/TheProfessionals''. A lunatic holds a nurse hostage via a grenade with the pin removed shoved down her blouse, and Bodie says it has a ten second fuse. It takes the grenade ''25'' seconds to explode. You ''could'' {{handwave}} this as the grenade's safety lever being caught inside her blouse and not springing free until Bodie cut it loose.

[[folder:Films — Animation]]
* Near the middle of ''{{WesternAnimation/Frozen|2013}}'', Anna asks Kristoff and Olaf to give her "a minute" alone to talk to Elsa. When Anna enters the ice palace, Kristoff and Olaf count the seconds, and then they go in after Anna [[ExactWords exactly one minute of screen-time later.]]

[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]

* In the ''Series/BabylonFive'' 1st season episode "Survivors", the climactic 30 second countdown lasts 29 seconds, ending with 1 second to spare.
* Averted in the ''Series/{{Chuck}}'' episode "Chuck vs the Third Dimension", which kept a digital timer in the corner of the screen throughout the (hilarious) disposal sequence.

** Played with in an episode of ''Series/StargateSG1'', where the bomb does this, but it's because of a time dilation field.
*** Also mentioned in the 200th episode ("200") in which a movie writer proposes a scene in which SG-1 has to escape a situation in ten seconds and debates on how long the time should be.
-->'''Daniel:''' What difference does it make, I mean it's not like you have an actual ticking clock on the screen.\\

** Also averted in the ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' episode "Thirty-Eight Minutes". It really is 38 minutes from the Gate opening to it closing, and the countdown towards the resolution is accurate.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Played with heavily in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'': In "Wild Cards" the Joker has 25 bombs hidden throughout Las Vegas and he's televising the Justice League's attempts to stop it. He even has the timer in the lower right corner that stays consistent throughout the episode. Subverted when Batman disables the first bomb. The timer stops, then drops to 3 seconds and starts again (it was a fake bomb).

[[folder:Films — Animation]]

[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]
* ''Film/AustinPowersTheSpyWhoShaggedMe'': Dr. Evil stops Frau from the usual ten second countdown to his rocket blasting off, as he won't be able to get inside in time. He has her start over at thirty, but this leaves quite some time to go after everything's ready. Finally he tells her to just say "Go" when the doors close.
* In ''Film/CitizenToxieTheToxicAvengerIV'', a bomb is set off with only four seconds on it. Those four seconds are just long enough for Toxie to go home and impregnate his wife, have a heart to heart with young drug addict, and then get the survivors out before his sidekick [[HeroicSacrifice eats the bomb]].

* ''Film/{{Godzilla 2014}}'': A soldier sets a nuke's timer to about an hour and a half in what appears to be midday. The active bomb gets stolen and has to be taken out of the city before it detonates. The soldiers assigned to retrieve it enter the city at sunset and find the nuke with 30 minutes left on the clock. By the time it reads five minutes (and it's nighttime), the nuke manages to be put on a boat and driven out of range from the city. The nuke was earlier stated to have made the 15-ton Castle Bravo, which produced a 7.2 kilometer fireball within one second, look like "a firecracker". Assuming a one-second fireball size of about 10 kilometers for the ''Godzilla'' nuke, and an end fireball size of, perhaps, twice that, the boat would have had to be moving at '''240 kilometers per hour''' (almost 150 miles per hour) to reach minimum safe distance in time - and that's not even accounting for the ''shockwave''!

* ''Film/{{Godzilla 2014}}'': A soldier sets a nuke's timer to about an hour and a half in what appears to be midday. The active bomb gets stolen and has to be taken out of the city before it detonates. The soldiers assigned to retrieve it enter the city at sunset and find the nuke with 30 minutes left on the clock. By the time it reads five minutes (and it's nighttime), the nuke manages to be put on a boat and driven out of range from the city. A one megaton bomb is capable of a blast 7 miles wide. Meaning that boat must have been traveling '''140 miles per hour''' ''at least''.

When applied to a TimedMission in VideoGames, it becomes AlwaysClose (and when applied to non-timed missions in video games, TakeYourTime). See also ExactTimeToFailure, which may give us the countdown in the first place, and InstantCooldown or MagicAntidote for the miraculous events that occur when it is stopped. May be also applied to a DescendingCeiling or when TheWallsAreClosingIn - the crusher keeps conveniently moving back between shots. Compare ClockDiscrepancy.

->''"If I ever MUST put a digital timer on my doomsday device, I will buy one free from quantum mechanical anomalies. So many brands on the market keep perfectly good time while you're looking at them, but whenever you turn away for a couple minutes then turn back, you find that the countdown has progressed by only a few seconds.''

>'''Leela:''' Just fire the damn thing.

** Also averted, since the actual three-minute self-destruct countdown only runs ten seconds too long, even with the argument over "seven".

** Averted in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E8MummyOnTheOrientExpress Mummy on the Orient Express]]". In all cases, the Foretold kills its victim in exactly 66 seconds, complete with the on-screen countdown.

* Played with in ''VideoGame/SpyParty'', where the spy has a limited amount of time to complete their objectives, and both the spy and the sniper have a timer on top of the screen - however, the spy can check their watch to add time. This will always add time, but both a normal success and a failure have the clock graphically change its time (a failure adds a loud noise as well) causing the sniper to zero in on whoever is checking their watch. A critical success will add time by having the clock seemingly remain unchanged, but ''tick down more slowly''.

* Justified in ''Film/EaglesGathered'', since time (like everything else) seems to be nonlinear in the underworld. (The count even moves ''up'' a couple of times.)

* The clock in WesternAnimation/Cinderella takes a very long time to strike midnight, giving Cinderella plenty of time to get well clear of the castle. Obviously, no clock would take that long striking midnight.

** In ''Film/SawI'', the timer in the Bathroom drops by significantly more than a half-hour throughout the sequence where Lawrence and Adam focus on the mirror, which only lasts a few minutes.

* ''Film/Saw3D'': The 36 seconds that Bobby has to save Suzanne take about a minute and a half.

* Averted in one ''[[Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar Hokuto no Ken]]'' episode, in which Kenshiro used the Hokuto Zankai Ken on Spade, the KingMook [[MonsterOfTheWeek of the Week]]. After explaining to Spade that he would die seven seconds after being released (3 in the manga), he removes his thumbs from Spade's temples. A counter appears on the bottom on the screen, and Spade suffers a painful and gruesome death at the near-exact moment the counter reaches zero. Badass indeed.

** It was also a Zigzag in that the Joker introduces the Clock, it's either been counting down for some or was set to a really arbitray number, but Joker is aware of the time and lampshades it by pointing out that people really shouldn't have expected a round number from him. The actual start time is the run time of a typical episode... halfway through the current episode. Given that almost all stories were {{Cliffhangers}}, it was hardly a spoiler that the episode was going to be a cliffhanger at this point. Turns out that the final bomb was disabled before the final second... but it didn't matter as Joker only wanted the clock to keep the audience hooked on watching the TV... his real plan was to use a metahuman's powers to make the viewing public hallucinate. [[XanatosGambit If the Justice League failed to stop the bombs, he destroys a large part of Vegas and induced mass hysteria... if the Justice League did stop them, he's still got the mass hysteria.]]

* ''Film/Saw3D'': The 30 seconds that Bobby has to save Suzanne take about a minute and a half.

* ''Film/Saw3D'': The 36 seconds that Bobby has to save Rachel take about a minute and a half.

** During the final fight between Goku and Freeza during the Namek saga, the planet Namek was minutes away from collapse for ''[[InactionSequence 10 episodes]]''. Ridiculously, one episode actually says "two minutes" at the beginning and "one minute" at the end. Lampshaded later by the fact that Freiza flat-out admits he screwed up the whole "destroying Namek" thing, and it was supposed to explode '''instantly'''... [[IMeantToDoThat he just made up the "five minutes left" thing to not look like an idiot]].
** A lot of this sort of thing on the show is implicitly explained as the fight being slowed down so that the audience can actually follow it. The implication is that every major fight beyond a certain point would be [[SuperSpeed too fast for the human eye.]] Some fans have taken this explanation and ran with it, creating [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dpq4WYv240 videos]] which show how the SSJ-Goku vs Freeza fight might look like in "real time." In truth, it largely has to do with all of the posing, grunting, powering up, and voice over that is added to pad about 10 pages of comic into a 30 minute episode, since the show was decided to have one episode per chapter of manga made, even when there isn't enough content to fill up the time.
** In ''[[ReCut Kai]]'', Frieza was stated to have messed up because he held back too much for fear of killing himself in the blast right after he did it, and the "five minutes" clearly is just him making up a number. This also nicely explains why the flashback showing his destruction of planet Vegeta has it instantly exploding despite being a planet of similar size and density to Namek: Freeza normally destroys planets from the safety of orbit, not when he's standing on the surface.
** There's even a few people who argue that he might have been referring to five ''Namekian'' minutes (or even possibly five minutes on Frieza's home planet), not five ''Earth'' minutes. Since they were on another planet, time simply could have been measured differently.
** In a later episode, they even comment on this when Goku needs time to regather his energy and asks Vegeta to stall Kid-Buu for one minute. Vegeta comments that this is a really long time for a fight against Buu and the minute does last at least an episode.