History Main / RaceAgainstTheClock

* Jules Verne's ''AroundTheWorldInEightyDays''. The original novel, the multiple film adaptations, the Creator/MichaelPalin travelogue in which Palin attempts to duplicate Phileas Fogg's trip.

* Get him to the Greek

* Used in numerous JamesBond films - the Connery films often had the counter finishing at 0-0-7; by the Moore era the producers pushed it to the limit by having Bond disable the weapon right on 0-0-0.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode ''[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesTheClockKing The Clock King]]'': the TimeBomb that will suck all the air from the vault Batman is trapped has a countdown of 15:00:00. Batman escapes with 00:03:00 left.

The video game equivalent is the TimedMission. The video game [[SubvertedTrope subversion]] is TakeYourTime, where they TELL you that it's a RaceAgainstTheClock, but you're not penalized for going at your own pace.

* ''Film/TheCrossing'': GeorgeWashington has until December 31 to win ''some'' kind of victory so that his troops will have any motivation to re-enlist and continue the AmericanRevolution.

* The premise of ''Film/FermatsRoom''. TheWallsAreClosingIn on the group of scientist. The only way to suspend the deadly trap is by solving mathematical riddles.

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]
* The whole SaintSeiya series is based on this for every single one of its arcs. In the first one the heroes have to reach the Pope after having to go through 12 temples protected by fierce warriors in less than 12 hours or else their Goddess would die. In the second arc of the anime, the heroes have to gather 7 saphirs to break the spell on the filler's baddy before dusk or else their Goddess would die. In the third arc, they need to break the pillars of the 7 seas before the world gets completely flooded and before their Goddess turned human pillar drowns or else their Goddess would die (and the world would drown). In the final arc, they need to defeat Hades and rescue their Goddess before the alignment of the planets or else their Goddess would die. Notice a regular pattern? Finally, in the new manga Next Dimension, they have 3 days to go to the past and break Hades' sword or else... the hero would die (but their Goddess too just for good measure).

* The second half of ''SteinsGate'' features Okabe trying to get enough clues as to how to undo the changes he previously did to the past before [[spoiler: Mayuri dies, always at 8 PM.]] Every time he succeeds, the deadline gets delayed for 24 more hours.
* There's two in ''OnePiece'' :

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

** ''BeatTheClock'' (duh!)

** ''ThePriceIsRight'' has several games with actual ticking clocks.

[[folder: Tabletop Games]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* ''TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'': You have three days to save the world! At least you have the ability to go back in time, but at expense of some of your achievements.

* ''DeadRising'' - Although it's self-imposed by the main character, who requests his pilot to come for him in 72 hours.
* In ''Portal'', when you go to defeat the BigBad, you have 5 minutes to do it before the BigBad releases deadly neurotoxin.
* ''{{Metroid}}'': Almost every game. [[MetroidPrime Prime]] starts out with a seven minute evacuation deadline after the first boss is killed (and falls into the power generator, which goes KABOOM!). Zero Mission has two, after killing Mother Brain and Mecha Ridley. Fusion has 3 (a lot for a game that can be completed in 4 hours or less), when the Core-X holding the Wide Beam appears (you only have to get there and kill it PLUS stop an overheat in the boiler room... in 6 minutes. Later, when you send a section of the station plummeting to the planet, you have a minute or so to escape... through a rather long path and finally, when you throw the station to the ground, you have approximately 3 minutes to get to the hangar, kill the final boss, wait for your ship, board it and fly away... which can easily take more time than given (killing the final boss can take a long time...)

[[folder: Western Animation ]]
* Identified explicitly in ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' as "the ticking clock" by the candy store owner, who notes that it "works great in the movies". Another Trey Parker / Matt Stone production, ''TeamAmericaWorldPolice'' uses and calls attention to it (by Kim Jong Il, the GenreSavvy BigBad of the film).

* Played with on ''TheSimpsons''. Fat Tony gives Marge twenty-four hours to get the money she owes him. To prove that he's serious, she only has 12 hours.

* In an unfinished episode of ''InvaderZim'', appropriately named "Ten Minutes 'Till Doom", Dib manages to knock Zim's PAK off of him. This triggers a ten minute coutndown which would have appeared in the top left corner of the screen for the rest of the episode. What's it for? Well, apparently [[Main/CyberneticsEatYourSoul Zim can't live for longer than ten minutes without his PAK.]]

* ''ThePowerpuffGirls'' had to solve a series of riddles set by [[HeWhoMustNotBeNamed "Him"]] within the time limit set for each riddle. They had to succeed or, otherwise, the Professor would have to pay... [[spoiler:[[ExactWords for the pancakes]] he ate at "Him"'s restaurant "Otto Time". It was all a bet between "Him" and the Professor]].

* ''PhineasAndFerb'' did this in "Mind Share"; after alien criminals swap minds with the kids in order to escape from jail, Phineas and friends have one hour to swap minds back before the device used to do so self-destructs.

* ''Literature/HeroesOfOlympus'':

* Happens a number of times in ''Fanfic/SeeingThePattern'' due to Pinkamina only receiving her final clue to the victim's identity on the day they are fated to die.

* A rare music example - Madonna's recent hit "4 Minutes", and [[http://youtube.com/watch?v=U9Ch5LTJhS0 its accompanying video]], both center around having "4 minutes to save the world"-- with the video even having a countdown clock as a backdrop. (Never mind, of course, that the song lasts four seconds too long...)

[[folder: Card Games ]]
* In the {{Yu-Gi-Oh Card Game}}, there is a card called Final Countdown that will end the game making the user the winner in 20 turns after being used, it can even be sped up by 1 turn by using the Pyro Clock of Destiny Trap Card. So it turns out to be a RaceAgainstTheClock to defeat the opponent before the 20th turn is reached.

* A recurring theme in the various mythological novels by RickRiordan. Often [[JustifiedTrope justified]], as various times (solstices, equinoxes, sunrise, sunset, birthdays) have supernatural power.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode ''[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesTheClockKing The Clock King]]'': the TimeBomb that will suck all the air from the vault Batman is trapped has a countdown of 15:00:00. [[RuleOfDrama Batman will destroy the device exactly at 00:03:00.]]

* ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness'':
** The ''Enterprise'' needs to track down Harrison before he starts a war!
** [[spoiler:Spock and Uhura need to catch Khan before Kirk goes from OnlyMostlyDead to KilledOffForReal]].

** ''{{Whew}}'' actually did have a Gauntlet of Villains for it's end game against the clock.

* ''BrewstersMillions'', a novel twice adapted into films, in which the protagonist will inherit a large sum of money, but only if he can completely waste a smaller amount of money in thirty days (spend thirty million to inherit three hundred million in the later RichardPryor film adaptation).

* At the ''BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode ''[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesTheClockKing The Clock King]]'': the TimeBomb that will suck all the air from the vault Batman is trapped has a countdown of 15:00:00. [[RuleOfDrama Batman will destroy the device exactly at 00:03:00.]]

* The RealTime episode of ''{{MASH}}'', "Life Time": the surgeons have to perform a critical operation in the time frame of the episode. This is further dramatized by a ticking clock counter superposed on the lower right corner of the screen.