History Main / RaceAgainstTheClock

'''[[HandsomeLech The Todd]]:''' ''One day.'' ''(off JD's and Turk's looks)'' What? [[AnythingThatMoves The Todd appreciates hot, regardless of gender.]]

* ''Film/EveOfDestruction'': After getting into a car crash, EVE's internal nuclear device is activated and set to go off within 24 hours. Col. Jim [=McQuade=] is pissed that his superiors didn't inform him of this before sending him out to catch her. The race to disarm her gets even more dire when EVE's rogue moves take her into New York City in the climax, endangering millions of people.

** ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' has Doc Brown and Marty racing in spite of setbacks to implement their plan to cross a certain point at the right speed at the very moment a lightning bolt hits.

* When a dying Khan activates the Genesis device in ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'', it begins a four-minute countdown before it detonates. This is the amount of time Spock has to get down to ''Enterprise'''s engine room and repair the warp drive [[spoiler:(which would subject him to [[HeroicSacrifice a lethal dose of radiation)]]]] so that the ship can escape the blast radius.

* When a dying Khan activates the Genesis device in ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'', it begins a four-minute countdown before it detonates. This is the amount of time Spock has to get down to ''Enterprise'''s engine room and repair the warp drive [[spoiler:[[HeroicSacrifice (which would subject him to a lethal dose of radiation)]]]] so that the ship can escape the blast radius.
* During the final battle in ''Franchise/StarWars: Film/ANewHope'', the Rebel pilots have 15 minutes to destroy the Death Star before it opens fire on their base.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Parodied on ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', in "Roswell That Ends Well":

* The ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' episode "Wild Cards" takes place in RealTime as the League attempts to defuse several bombs that the Joker has placed throughout Las Vegas. The whole thing is [[DoNotAdjustYourSet being televised by the Joker]], and there is even a countdown clock in the corner of the screen, set to [[NonNaturalNumberGag 22 minutes, fifty-one seconds]].
-->'''Joker:''' And since every good suspense show needs a ticking clock, here's mine! ''(Timer appears on screen)'' Oh what where you expecting from me? A round number?
* In ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' [[WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfZelda1989 animated series]] episode "[[Recap/TheLegendOfZelda1989E5SingForTheUnicorn Sing for the Unicorn]]", King Harkinian is kidnapped by Ganon and put into a room with a [[BottomlessPits bottomless pit]]. The pit gradually opens within one hour and unless Link and Zelda either find him and/or hand over the Triforce of Wisdom to Ganon within that timespan, he will be falling in the pit forever until the day he dies. Luckily, he is saved in time by Sing and her unicorn.

* The time limit of [[spoiler:the Emergency Escape Program]] in ''The Disappearance of LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'' was two days. Complicated by the fact that the message didn't state whether the 48 hour count started from when the note was first written, or from the time when Kyon later discovered it. And that was probably the least of the [[TimeyWimeyBall temporal complications]] involved, too.

** [[spoiler: The finale of Season Four revolves around the heroes attempting to stop [[Characters/SupermanGeneralZod General Zod]], his wife Ursa, their son from the future Lor-Zod, and Ma'alefa'ak from freeing the other Kryptonian criminals from the PhantomZone. Making things difficult is that they need to stop the Zods before they gain [[FlyingBrick full Kryptonian powers]]. Their only salvation is the fact that it's nighttime, so the Zods are gaining powers at a slow rate, but in a few hours the sun will rise, which will greatly expedite the process and make it that much more difficult if not impossible to defeat them, especially the more Kryptonians they manage to bring out of the zone. The heroes successfully send the criminals back into the zone with the exception of Ursa who escapes via the Eye of Ekron, and Lor who manages to escape in a [[TimeMachine Time Sphere]]. Although it turns out the Time Sphere was pre-programmed by the [[ComicBook/NewGods New God Metron]] to travel back in time to the Kryptonite bomb that Lor used to try and kill [[Characters/SupermanConnerKent Superboy]] several months ago on Mars. Lor ends up being killed by his own bomb while Superboy survives by being accidentally transported into the phantom zone by Phantom Girl.]]

** [[spoiler: The final two episodes of Season Four revolve around the heroes attempting to stop [[Characters/SupermanGeneralZod General Zod]], his wife Ursa, their son from the future Lor-Zod, and Ma'alefa'ak from freeing the other Kryptonian criminals from the PhantomZone. Making things difficult is that they need to stop the Zods before they gain [[FlyingBrick full Kryptonian powers]]. Their only salvation is the fact that it's nighttime, so the Zods are gaining powers at a slow rate, but in a few hours the sun will rise which will greatly expedite the process and make it that much more difficult if not impossible to defeat them, especially the more Kryptonians they manage to bring out of the zone. The heroes successfully send the criminals back into the zone with the exception of Ursa who escapes via the Eye of Ekron, and Lor who manages to escape in a Time Sphere. Although Lor ends up being killed when it turns out the time sphere was pre-programmed by the [[ComicBook/NewGods New God Metron]] to send him in time to the Kryptonite bomb that he used to try and kill [[ComicBook/{{Superboy}} Superboy]] several months ago on Mars, which ends up killing him instead.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'': In the Season One episode [[Recap/YoungJusticeS1E20Coldhearted "Coldhearted"]], the young Queen Perdita of [[{{Ruritania}} Vlatava]] desperately needed a [[BillyNeedsAnOrgan heart transplant]]. The problem is that the only viable donator heart is in Boston while she is on the other side of the country in Seattle. To make matters worse, her evil uncle Count Vertigo, with the help of the Light, attempts to indirectly kill her by unleashing four flying ice fortresses that cover the entire North American Continent in a huge blizzard, thus preventing the hospitals from being able to transport the donator heart by air. Kid Flash has to use his SuperSpeed to transport the heart 3000 miles (4800km) across the country before the heart is no longer viable in four hours. He manages to successfully transport the heart and save Perdita's life while also exposing Count Vertigo's attempted murder scheme, allowing Perdita to revoke his [[DiplomaticImpunity Diplomatic Immunity]] and place him under arrest.

* In ''Oto x Maho'', Kanata imposes a race against the clock on HIMSELF, transforming to start fighting, then telling the student council president on the other side of the door to the roof to count to 10, then open the door. If he does not kill the enemy in 10 seconds, then transform back to his normal form, his job as a [[MagicalGirl Magical]] [[GenderBender Girl]] will be exposed.

* ''WesternAnimation/SofiaTheFirst'': In "The Floating Palace", Queen Emmaline only gives Sofia until sundown to rescue Oona before the queen creates a storm with her trident to sink the floating palace and get Oona back, believing that that's where she's being held captive.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Bookhunter}}'', the Oakland Library Police are investigating the theft of an irreplaceable book which was on loan from the Library of Congress. The book was scheduled to be returned in three days, so our protagonists have that long to solve the case before the feds learn of the theft and take over the investigation.

* ''ComicBook/WhiteSand'': Kenton is given two weeks to convince all members of the Taishin (Kezare parliament of sorts) that Sand Mastery should be preserved rather than abolished. So far, they're all for abolishment.

* In ''Literature/{{Worm}}'', [[spoiler:Coil]] gives Skitter a time limit to [[spoiler:defeat Dragon's suits]], agreeing to [[spoiler: release Dinah]] if she can accomplish it.

* ''Film/TheCell'': a serial killer has locked his latest victim in a timed death trap, so our heroes have a limited amount of time to find her before she drowns. The film occasionally cuts to her in the death trap, with the water level always rising.

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* ''Film/{{Commando}}'': John Matrix has 11 hours to figure out where the bad guy's base is and get to it to rescue his daughter before the plane he was ''supposed'' to be on arrives in Val Verde to perform his assassination mission on the president and they realize he's not on it (and learn the dead henchman he disguised as sleeping through the flight before jumping off the plane during its takeoff). He "technically" fails, in that [[BigBad Arius]] learns he wasn't on the plane before he can get to his daughter...but also while Matrix is inflitrating the island base and about to start blowing buildings up and shooting {{mooks}} left and right (and Jenny manages to escape her cell before her execution and avoid recapture until her father catches up), so it works out.
* David from ''Film/ABoyCalledPo'' is an engineer working on a game-changing airplane. The board points out that he's been working on the plane for two years with no concrete results, and gives him thirty days to finish the design. [[spoiler:He fails to finish the plane on time and is fired, although he does eventually finish it much later]].
* ''Film/ANewYorkChristmasWedding'': Jennifer has until the end of Christmas to experience what could have been and see her real life differently.
* ''Film/CutToTheChase'': Travis, the Man's enforcer, gives Max 24 hours to come up with the money he owes... or else (this was after having threatened that he'd [[{{Fingore}} cut off his finger]]).
* In ''Film/AgainstACrookedSky'', Sam is told that there's only one way he can prevent [[spoiler:Charlotte's execution]]: by running across a plain and climbing a giant mesa during the short period of time that the shadow of a statue falls across a vein of gold that runs under it, at which point [[spoiler:he will be executed in her place. He's just a second too late, but she ends up suffering a DisneyDeath anyway]].
* ''Film/LesVisiteurs: Bastille Day'': 12th century knight Godefroy and his squire Jacquouille, who are stuck at the time of UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution due to a TimeTravel mishap in the previous film, must travel back to their century as fast as possible, otherwise they will [[RapidAging die from the tumors that grow on them and old age]].
* ''Film/JohnnyMnemonic'': Although this trope is intended to be a central part of the film's plot, it is never properly utilized to escalate tension or generate any increasing sense of urgency as the story approaches its climax. Johnny is supposed to be facing a 24-hour deadline to remove all the computer data from his head, or else it will kill him. However, nothing is ever done to inform the viewer of how much time is remaining for Johnny to complete his task as the story plays out. Whenever anybody (or anything) refers to a specific deadline, the full 24 hours is always restated no matter how much time may have (or ''should'' have) actually passed, and after the Street Preacher is introduced roughly halfway through the movie, a given timeframe is never brought up again.

** In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', Voldemort [[spoiler: gives Harry an hour to turn himself in so as to stop the fighting, during the Final Battle at Hogwarts.]]

* In the Dramatic Audio version of the Literature/LeftBehind book ''Glorious Appearing'', a Global Community agent threatens the network broadcast crew to cut the signal of Chaim Rosenzweig's message by giving each member, starting from the top brass down, sixty seconds to get the signal cut before they are murdered.

* The central gimmick of the old novel series ''Race Against Time'', although the actual reason for the title is a bit lame: a kid and his retired super spy-ish uncle are [[OneLastJob called to help some old friend of the uncle's]] who's gotten in trouble, and they have to solve the mystery/defeat the villain and then get home again before the kid's parents get home from a business trip and find out what they've been up to.
* ''Literature/SevenDaysInMay''. The US President believes the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is plotting a military coup under cover of a mobilisation exercise to be held in seven days. Because the general is highly popular, the President can't dismiss him without proof, so his staff have that long to find evidence of the conspiracy.
* In ''Literature/{{Shatterbelt}}'', by the time Tracy figures out what her premonitions have been warning her about, she has just half an hour to act. She manages to save the visitors to Mr. Bailey's mine and the people in St. Bernard's Park before the earthquake hits.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In the Literature/PastDoctorAdventures novel ''City at World’s End'', when the TARDIS arrives on Sarath, the Doctor soon establishes that he has just over a month to replace the TARDIS key and help the natives get their escape ship in working order before the decaying moon crashes into Sarath; [[spoiler:the situation escalates when the moon fractures in advance of the predicted schedule, leaving them with eight hours to get everything together and off the planet]].

* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': During ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear: The Doomsday Ship'' the computer announces that the engines will overload in fifteen minutes. While our heroes reach an EscapePod, they leave it to help a KidAmidTheChaos, and then a {{Jerkass}} locks them in a closet for [[DisproportionateRetribution trying to get in front of him]] - when they get out there are seconds left and the escape pods have all left. [[spoiler: Fortunately, the ship's engines don't overload.]]
* ''Literature/LesVoyageursSansSouci'': Played light-heartedly. Sébastien and Agathe's schoolmate Rosalie has been kidnapped by the queen of all birds, who will only release Rosalie if her old friend Golden Eagle -who has gone missing- returns home. Sébastien and Agathe receive a message from Rosalie stating that they have one week to find Golden Eagle or else...she will be unable to celebrate her birthday at home, which would be terrible. Both kids are not amused at Rosalie's self-centeredness, but they carry their quest out anyway.

* ''Literature/WonderWomanWarbringer'': To prevent the war she's foretold to cause Alia has to go to the tomb of Helen of Troy and bathe in the waters of the spring before the sun sets on the first day of the Hekatombaion, leaving the group with very little time.

** ''Series/{{Whew}}'' actually did have a Gauntlet of Villains for its end game against the clock.

** ''Series/TheCrystalMaze'': If you solve the puzzle in the allotted time, you get a crystal. If you don't, you won't. If you're still in the cell when time expires, you will be locked in it.
** ''Series/{{Countdown}}'', as the name suggests, revolves around a time limit for the contestants to find their words or work out their sums.
** ''Series/{{Interceptor}}'' gives its contestants 40 minutes to find each others' keys and meet up with each other while avoiding [[ImplacableMan the Interceptor]].

* ''Series/TheCollector'' has standardized [[DealWithTheDevil deals with the Devil]]: For a period of ten years the client gets what he asked for. In the last 48 hours, the benefits of the deal (and sometimes other effects) will gradually disappear, and at their end his soul would be taken. Typically that's when the local debt collector would find him and give him a chance to go early. Almost every episode, the protagonist Morgan is allowed to help a client in his last 48 hours find redemption and be freed of his deal; once he makes contact with him, the countdown starts in his [[PostModernMagik collector's cellphone]], which zeroes on success. In "The Yogi," the title character {{lampshades}} how artificial the round numbers seem.

* In the pilot of ''Series/{{Justified}}'', Raylan has given a Miami gangster 24 hours to leave town or be killed; in the teaser, we find the gangster has not taken him seriously, which proves a big mistake.
* ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'': Whether it's [[FrameUp an innocent man]] about to be executed [[ClearTheirName until the real murderer]] [[GuiltyUntilSomeoneElseIsGuilty is caught]] (Season 2's "An Innocent Man"), a state senator's daughter kidnapped by bank robbers or [[WouldHurtAChild children]] aboard a school bus following a field trip[[spoiler:, along with driver CD and chaperone Alex,]] being [[BuriedAlive buried alive]] (Season 4's "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS4E22Deadline Deadline]]" and Season 5's "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS5E010Cyclone Cyclone]]", respectively), Alex and Trivette being locked in a tank [[DrowningPit slowly filling up with cold water until they drown]] (Season 7's "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS7E18NoWayOut No Way Out]]"), a madman threatening to release anthrax on the City of Dallas within 48 hours (Season 8's "Countdown"), or a billionaire's college-bound daughter kidnapped and about to be murdered by her [[BodyguardBetrayal traitorous bodyguard]] within [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin six hours]] [[MurderDotCom on a live feed over the internet]] (Season 9's "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS9E16SixHours 6 Hours]]"), this happens from time to time for the titular Ranger in his many assignments.

* ''Theatre/DisneyDreamsAnEnchantedClassic'' gives Anne-Marie until the clock strikes 6 to find her own magic to believe in.

* ''VideoGame/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. It also has a race against the clock ''beginning'', where you have to get to the [[MagicMusic Ocarina of Time]] (atop a clock tower no less) in order to [[ResetButton reset time]] before the moon falls. Afterwards you can reset time as much as you want. Each in-game hour is 45 seconds, though with the Ocarina you can also slow down time to 1/3 of its speed in the N64 version, and [[{{Nerf}} 1/2 in the 3DS version]].

* In ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'', when you go to defeat the BigBad, you have 5 minutes to do it before the BigBad releases deadly neurotoxin.
* The final part of ''VideoGame/Portal2'' plays it for laughs: turns out that not only the whole Aperture Science complex is about to collapse in five minutes, but once the countdown clock malfunctions, it turns out that in case the ExactTimeToFailure was impossible to determine, a back-up self destruction system would blow everything up in 60 seconds.

* In ''VideoGame/TouhouEiyashouImperishableNight'', the heroines all, by some unique means, stop the sun from rising, and race to find the cause of the corrupted moon before 5:00 AM.
* In the ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' DLC mission "The Arrival", you have only 2 days, and later 2 hours, to destroy a gateway that will let the EldritchAbomination / StarfishAliens known as the Reapers reach the galaxy. Unlike a lot of time sensitive video game plots, you have a live timer for this, and you get a special game over if it reaches zero. Given how it should only take the player roughly 20 minutes to complete the whole section meaning there'll be over an hour left, the only real way to let this happen is if they're specifically trying to let the timer run out, so it's also an example of EarnYourBadEnding.
* A lot of video games from the golden and silver ages in general had a countdown timer. It was seen as strange in 1995 when ''VideoGame/YoshisIsland'' came out that there was no timer counting down from 400 or 300, which gamers were used to by this point. This was likely due to their historical origins in the arcades, where Race Against the Clock and TimedMission was employed as an anti-hogging measure. The later games (made for home audiences) wanted to encourage exploration so did away with the timer except in specific circumstances.
* [[Creator/{{Epyx}} Automated Simulations']] ''Rescue at Rigel''. "Sudden" Smith has 60 minutes to rescue 10 captives from an asteroid. The current time (counting up from 1) is always on the screen. Then, after it became Epyx, it released the hit ''VideoGame/ImpossibleMission'', which was both this and TimedMission.
* You carry a watch throughout ''VideoGame/AssaultOnVampireIsland'' and aim to finish the game before the night finishes.
* ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersia1'' was one of the first games to use this trope: Prince has only 60 minutes to save the princess. There is no count of lives, but every death results in respawning on the start of the level without restarting the timer.

* In ''VideoGame/{{XCOM2}}'', if the alien complete the Avatar Project, it's GameOver for humanity. LaResistance is trying to prevent that. The alien make slow but steady progress on the Avatar Project... But they can be delayed by blowing up their facilities or accomplishing objectives.
* ''VideoGame/GhostTrick'' has the time limit imposed on Sissel by Ray to find his killer by sunrise the following day (about twelve hours after he was shot) before his soul disappears. Subverted by the fact that [[spoiler:the time limit was a trick to drive Sissel's actions forward before a certain event in the endgame occured that would permanently screw up the timeline.]]
* A relatively obscure FMV murder mystery game gave you ''six'' hours to examine the crime scene, analyze the evidence and interview suspects. This was actually more like ''five'' hours, as the last hour was split between a press conference and confronting a suspect. The justification is that after six hours, either the trail will go cold, or the murderer will get away.
* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'':

** In ''VideoGame/SonicHeroes'', Dr. Eggman threatens to unleash his new weapon in 3 days unless Sonic and friends can stop him. [[spoiler: It's really Metal Sonic, who sent Team Sonic on a wild goose chase to buy the time for the Egg Fleet to launch as well as get into the position to [[PowerCopying copy their data]], forcing them to scramble in order to reach the fleet. Indeed, the countdown ends at the ''mid-point'' of the story. The other teams are technically a SpannerInTheWorks, but Metal takes the time to copy their data too (particularly [[UltimateLifeForm Shadow's]]).]]

* In ''VideoGame/ProfessorLaytonAndTheLastSpecter'', [[spoiler:Police Chief Jakes]] gives Layton 24 hours to leave Misthallery when he starts getting close to uncovering the truth. [[spoiler:He doesn't wait that long before sending goons after Layton and later, framing him for the specter attack]].
* The Infocom game ''Deadline'' uses the tagline: "A locked door. A dead man. And 12 hours to solve the mystery"
* ''I Have 1 Day'', where you have 24 hours to regain your body.
* The protagonists of ''VideoGame/ElementalGearbolt'' have 48 hours of functionality. The time limit is due to the fact that they are corpses animated by {{Magitek}}.
* ''VideoGame/LightningReturnsFinalFantasyXIII'': The end of the known universe is coming in six days when Lightning begins her adventure, [[spoiler: although Lightning can extend that deadline via gathering souls and feeding them to the WorldTree, up to as much as letting the world run for an extra seven days after the world would have ordinarily ended.]]
* ''VideoGame/BillNyeTheScienceGuyStopTheRock'' gives you 5 days to stop the rock -- that is, solve seven science riddles to convince a [[AIIsACrapshoot rogue AI]] that humanity is worth saving from an [[ColonyDrop oncoming asteroid]].
* ''VideoGame/TheFairlyOddparentsBreakinDaRules'' gets a little more specific with this; Timmy, Cosmo, and Wanda have 49 and a half hours to get all the pages of Da Rules back together.
* In ''VideoGame/LostDimension'', the main antagonist gives the world thirteen days before he plans to blow up the world's major cities with nuclear warheads.
* ''VideoGame/LifeIsStrange'': Max has a vision of a giant storm destroying Arcadia Bay at the start of Episode 1. Episode 1 ends with her having the same vision- but this time finding a newspaper that dates the storm as only 4 days away.
* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX'': [[spoiler:The big number at the top of BLADE Tower isn't arbitrary: it's a countdown indicating how much energy the Lifehold Core has. If the heroes don't reach the Core and activate its secondary energy generator before it reaches zero, the mimeosomes (Robotic bodies housing the humans' souls) will shut down, and bye-bye humanity. While the residents of New LA do know they have a time limit, only a select few know the meaning behind the number, to prevent widespread panic.]]
* Happens in the final chapter of ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2''. [[spoiler:The party finally meets the Architect, who explains that he is one half of a man named Klaus who was split in two by a science experiment gone wrong and that his power is holding up the giant space station floating above the game's setting Alrest. This is a major problem because the other half of Klaus is due for an express ticket to hell courtesy of [[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1 Shulk and his companions]], the Architect's life force is tied to his other half, and once he goes down the space station goes with him and wipes out all life on Alrest for good measure. Therefore, you have to rush to knock Malos out of [[FinalBoss Artifice Aion]] so you can take it for yourself and use it to destroy the space station.]]
* The plot of ''VideoGame/NancyDrew'' game ''The Final Scene'' focuses on Nancy Drew having to find and save her missing friend, Maya, before the theatre is demolished in three days. You're forced to stay in the theatre until you've found all of the clues for the day.
* The plot of ''VideoGame/TheThreeStooges'' is the Stooges must earn at least $5,000 to save the orphanage in 30 days, or it will be foreclosed on by the nasty banker: I. Fleecum.
* In ''Cadenza 4: Fame, Theft and Murder'' Michael, as the victim of GrandTheftMe, has 24 hours to get his body back before the switch becomes permanent.
* In ''Hidden Expedition 15: The Curse of Mithridates'' you have six days before fast-acting poison enters the local water supply.
* In "Episode 1: Threading" of ''VideoGame/Code7'', the Code 7 antivirus has to be deployed before contamination to be successful. Delivering the software to Earth is the most efficient solution, with a success rate of 87 %, if done before arrival of [[ComputerVirus Code 7]]. However, that arrival is in only 4 hours. Can you make it in time?
* In ''VideoGame/KeepTalkingAndNobodyExplodes'', you are locked in a room with a bomb. You have to communicate with your friend verbally to defuse the bomb within a time limit. Failure to defuse the bomb within the time limit will make the bomb explode, taking you out with it.
* A staple of {{Racing Game}}s is an event where you need to take a specific vehicle and complete a circuit under a certain amount of time. Examples include ''VideoGame/{{Burnout}}''[='s=] "Burning Laps" or ''[[VideoGame/SplitSecond2010 Split/Second]]''[='s=] "Detonator" events (where not only are you against the clock but the course's [[StuffBlowingUp Power Plays]] trigger ahead of you automatically).
* In ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'', nine abducted people (including the PlayerCharacter) have 9 hours to escape a ship that looks a lot like the Titanic before it sinks. [[spoiler:Ultimately subverted: the place you all were in wasn't even a ship and there was no life-endangering situation to begin with. It was just a lie made up by the kidnapper, Zero, so you would end up in the right place at the right time to save her life in the past (it's confusing even in context).]]
* In ''Franchise/AceAttorney'', the initial trial system calls for a verdict to be handed down within three days of deliberations. These days need not be consecutive (e.g. the two trial days in case 4 of ''[[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies Dual Destinies]]'' happen on December 16th and 20th), but the verdict must be decided on or before the third day. While this rule is still in place in-universe, [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness only the first game]] has cases which use all three days; later games limit it to one or two days for better pacing.

* In ''Manga/GlassMask'', Tsukikage gives her pupil Maya Kitajima two years to win an award as prestigious as one that her rival Ayumi Himekawa has just won, or else Ayumi gets the ''Crimson Goddess role without further contest.

* In Oto x Maho, Kanata imposes a race against the clock on HIMSELF, transforming to start fighting, then telling the student council president on the other side of the door to the roof to count to 10, then open the door. If he does not kill the enemy in 10 seconds, then transform back to his normal form, his job as a [[MagicalGirl Magical]] [[GenderBender Girl]] will be exposed.
* Yugi, Judai and Yusei in ''Anime/YuGiOhBondsBeyondTime'' need to defeat Paradox before Pegasus arrives at Domino City for his event after [[spoiler: the Crimson Dragon gave them another chance to stop Paradox from destroying Domino City and killing Pegasus and everyone else in the city. Not to mention stopping Paradox from destroying reality as they know it.]]
* The second half of ''Anime/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 a few in ''Manga/OnePiece'':
** In the Alabasta Arc, Crocodile hid a huge TimeBomb somewhere in Alabasta, prompting the Straw Hats and Vivi to search for it. The Marines even [[EnemyMine helped them out]] because the situation was that bad. To make things worse, they didn't know that the bomb was a TimeBomb at all. All they knew was that the bomb was supposed to be fired as a cannonball in a specific time. While Vivi managed to stop the cannon, she could not defuse the bomb itself as there was only less than a minute left. [[spoiler:Pell is prompted to pull a HeroicSacrifice to have it explode high enough that no one else will die.]]
** In the Thriller Bark Arc, some of the Straw Hats' shadows, as well as their allies', were stolen by Gekko Moriah, and as a result will die should they get hit by direct sunlight. This means they have to kick Moriah and Oars' asses before the sun rises.
** In the final act of the Punk Hazard arc, the Straw Hats (and Law) have to team up with [[EnemyMine the Marines once again]] to defeat Caesar Clown, round up the children he kidnapped, and get the hell out of the laboratory before the DeadlyGas Shinokuni floods the whole place.
** In the final act of the Dressrosa arc, [[spoiler:Doflamingo causes the Birdcage he has set over the country to shrink, leaving Luffy only one hour to kick his ass, or else the entire country will be slaughtered.]]
* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'':
** ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Stardust Crusaders]]'': When DIO obtained his Stand, [[TimeStandsStill The World]], the same power awakened to the entire Joestar family, since he [[spoiler:[[GrandTheftMe has the body of their deceased ancestor, Jonathan, from the neck down]]]]. While both Jotaro and his grandpa Joseph got unique Stands out of that, his mother Holly [[PowerIncontinence doesn't have enough willpower to control or deactivate her Stand]]. Because of that, her newfound power [[BlessedWithSuck slowly starts killing her]], and the only way to save her is to kill DIO before she dies (around fifty days to be precise). Thus, the entirety of the third part is a race against time. The race becomes even more hurried once [[spoiler:they learn how strong The World is, leaving them no choice but to stop DIO from mastering his Stand's temporal powers before he becomes completely unstoppable.]]
** ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStoneOcean Stone Ocean]]'': The heroes have to defeat Pucci at Cape Canaveral before the next New Moon. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, Pucci figures out he doesn't actually need the New Moon; he only needs to recreate the gravitational conditions that the New Moon brings, allowing him to get Made In Heaven two days earlier]].

* ''Manga/FairyTail'': In the Tartaros Arc, the Fairies have to stop Face, a magic pulse bomb from erasing all magic from the continent, which will render them powerless, but will let the dark guild Tartaros, comprised of demons, to use their curses. [[spoiler: An attempt from Wendy didn't work, as it was 1 down...''2,999 more to go'']], leaving the guild an hour for them to stop Face before the magic gets erased. [[spoiler:They actually fail despite defeating Tartaros as the countdown finishes and Face activates, but TheDragonsComeBack to destroy them before things can reach the point of no return.]]

* ''Manga/SaintSeiya'': The Saints of Athena have 12 hours to save [[{{Reincarnation}} Saori]]/[[PhysicalGod Athena]] from...
** ...the Golden Arrow making her way to her heart (Sanctuary Saga.) They need to reach the top of Sanctuary, retrieve the Shield of Athena, and shine its holy light upon her. The Clock of Flames on a hill of Sanctuary keeps precise track of this schedule.
** ...[[ExactTimeToFailure dying of exhaustion and exposure]] at the North Pole, due to her keeping the eternal ice from melting and flooding the Earth (Asgard Saga, anime-only.) The Saints need to de-[[BrainwashedAndCrazy brainwash]] Queen Hilda, the true caretaker, and release her from Poseidon's thrall so Saori passes the task back to her.
** ...[[DrowningPit drowning within the Main Breadwinner]] (a gigantic pillar that holds up the ocean above Poseidon's temple) before it floods completely (Poseidon Saga.) They need [[LoadBearingBoss to defeat the Seven Marine Shoguns and destroy their pillars]] before getting to the Main, which is guarded by [[PhysicalGod Poseidon]] himself.
** ...[[YouShallNotPass getting killed by Hades' Specters invading Sanctuary]] (Hades Saga, Sanctuary Chapter.) In an inversion, the Specters themselves only have 12 hours to accomplish their task, because that's all the time they have allowed back on the world of the living before their bodies disintegrate. So, the Saints only need to hold them back for so long.
** ...having all her blood drained out by Hades' jar deep in the Underworld, in the heavenly land of Elysium (Hades Saga, Underworld Chapter.) The Saints need to remove her from the jar and give her the Divine Cloth of Athena so she can defeat Hades and end the war.
* ''Manga/SummerTimeRendering'': At 9:00 pm on July 24th, the shadows will invoke a mass murder ritual that will consume every single human on the island. Shinpei only has three days and a limited number of retries to figure out who or what is behind this scheme and how to prevent this future from taking place.
* In one episode of ''Anime/CodeGeass'', Lelouch is given five hours to find his [[spoiler:sister Nunnally]] who has been kidnapped by a [[spoiler:Geass-using]] psychopath, [[spoiler:who may or may not have stuck to the assigned limit.]]

* In ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'', Hitomi gives Sayaka 24 hours to confess her love to Kyosuke before she confesses her own instead. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, because Sayaka's just learned she's essentially [[SoulJar no]] [[EmptyShell longer]] [[OurLichesAreDifferent human]], she doesn't think she can ever confess, and knowing that Hitomi has already won leads her to cross the DespairEventHorizon.]]
** In the ''[[VideoGame/PuellaMagiMadokaMagicaPortable PSP game]]'', there's an option for Sayaka to [[JustEatGilligan outright confess to Kyosuke]] that she's a MagicalGirl, [[spoiler: and he'd actually believe her and return her feeling. This shows that Sayaka comes very close to winning Kyosuke in the canonical story if not for she GaveUpTooSoon.]]
* In ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', following his defeat of Frieza, Goku is put into one of these situations where he has to get off Planet Namek before it [[EarthShatteringKaboom explodes]]. At first it looks like he didn't make it due to Frieza's ship falling into molten lava, but it's eventually revealed that he spotted one of the Ginyu Force's pods and used it to get off the planet in time.

* In ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'', the human ComicBook/{{Green Lantern}}s are given 24 hours ''to save the universe''.
* In ''ComicBook/{{Bookhunter}}'', the Oakland Library Police are investigating the theft of an irreplaceable book which was on loan from the Library of Congress. The book was scheduled to be returned in three days, so our protagonists have that long to solve the case before the feds learn of the theft and take over the investigation.
* ''ComicBook/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast1992'': In Chapter 5, Link decides to lie down and rest for a bit, only to be woken up by Zelda, who reminds him that he only has until sundown before Agahnim casts his final incantation on her.

** A more serious example would be much later, in "Our Solemn Hour"; [[BigBad Holographic Retro]] sets up an extremely hazardous maze that Calvin and Hobbes must escape from within an hour, or else they'll be crushed by the ceiling. [[spoiler: They just barely make it, and then Calvin and Retro have their showdown...]]
* ''Fanfic/ThePowersOfHarmony'': Right from the beginning of the story, it's made clear that the Guards only have three months to guide the Mane Six in coming into their new powers and recharging the Elements of Harmony before ''something'' happens. We gets hints and bits of information about this, until we find out that it's referring to [[spoiler: how long until the barrier spell over the Gates of Tartarus collapses, unleashing the [[SealedEvilInACan armies of Nightmare Moon]].]]

* 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.

* Sort of inverted in ''Fanfic/TheKeysStandAlone: The Soft World''. When the four finally find out why they've been returned to C'hou, they're told that the world will effectively end in a year unless the Black Tower falls. Everyone estimates that it will take six months to that full year to accomplish the task. This doesn't sit well with the four, as they were hoping to take no more than a month to do whatever it was they were supposed to do (because the timeflow of C'hou is 30 times faster than that of Earth, so they would only be gone a day if they took a month).
* ''Fanfic/HalloweenUnspectacular'': The story "The Eve of Battle", chapter 27 of the eighth collection, sets the stage for the FinalBattle with [[ThoseWackyNazis PURITY]]. Simultaneously to this, it's established that Galactus is on his way to destroy Earth, because he views a PURITY-controlled Earth as a threat to the rest of the universe. Upon informing the assembled heroes of this, the Silver Surfer states that they only have eight hours until his arrival, in which time they need to beat PURITY in order to change his mind and leave Earth alone.
* ''Fanfic/ArielAndBelle'': Ariel has a year to either find true love or return to the sea, and the animals decide that getting Belle and Ariel to fall in love is easier than trying to ask Belle to make arrangements to get Ariel back to the sea.
* Never an explicit issue, but in the ''Series/DoctorWho''/''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' crossover ''Fanfic/DangerousTenant'', the Doctor acknowledges that he has a time limit even before Wesker sets up his plans, as he has to get the TARDIS back to his universe before the recharging ship overloads and explodes.
* In [[http://www.quantumleap-alsplace.com/virtualseasons/season13/1315.html one installment]] of the [[{{Continuation}} fan series]] ''Series/QuantumLeap[[http://www.quantumleap-alsplace.com/virtualseasons/main/main.html : The Virtual Seasons]]'' (appropriately called "... tick... tick... tick..."), Sam leaps into a hostage negotiator on the day of an infamous hostage situation which resulted in nine deaths via a bomb. The catch? Sam leapt in [[OhCrap roughly half an hour before the explosion]].
* ''Webcomic/PMDAnotherPerspective'': The Rocket grunt has to finish her mission within five months, otherwise she won't be able to return to her original world.

* ''Fanfic/KazuichiStrangelove'' follows the protagonist in a GroundhogDayLoop where the Killing School Trip is rerun in the Neo World Program and he's the only one that remembers. While initially it seems that he has many chances, he soon learns that his classmate Nekomaru has a life-threatening heart disease. This sets up a timelimit for Kazuichi to end the loop before Nekomaru's body dies in the real world.

* ''Film/AMostViolentYear'': Abel has 30 days to secure $1.5 million to purchase the shipping terminal. He very nearly fails, due to Julian's breakdown and the charges levelled against his company.

* Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse:

* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in ''Film/GalaxyQuest'' when Tim Allen and Sigourney Weaver fight their way through numerous obstacles to the "Big Red Button" which stops the explosion and press it with 17 seconds left ... only to see it continue to count down, eventually to stop with one second left ... because that was a requirement of this trope.

* In the climax of ''Film/TheFly1986'', a two-minute countdown is set to culminate in [[spoiler: Seth/Brundlefly's fusion program merging him, Veronica, and their unborn child into one entity via the telepods]]. In a twist on this trope, with thirty seconds to go [[spoiler: Stathis manages to shoot out the cords connecting Veronica's pod to the others, saving her. Enraged, Brundlefly smashes the window of his pod open, but the clock reaches zero before he's completely out of it. Not only is he teleported, but the computer merges him with broken pieces of his pod]].

* ''Film/{{Outland}}''. In the space-mining colony on Io, a large digital clock is in the bar showing the exact time-till-arrival of the weekly supply shuttle. When word gets out that two hitmen are arriving on the [[WhenTheClockStrikesTwelve 12:00 shuttle]] to kill the protagonist, the clock takes on the role of the Ticking Countdown of Doom. The protagonist has actually completed his preparations hours before; the deadline only serves to rack up his (and the audience's) tension.
* ''Film/FantasticVoyage'': A defecting scientist develops a blood clot in his brain after almost being assassinated and a submarine crew consisting of surgeons, a CIA Agent and a navy officer has 60 minutes to [[FantasticVoyagePlot travel into his body]] and remove the clot before the shrink effect wears off.
* ''Film/{{Moon}}'' has the imminent arrival of a maintenance crew that our hero knows is just a couple of hitmen.
* "You have [[ThirteenIsUnlucky thirteen]] hours in which to solve the ''Film/{{Labyrinth}}'' before your baby brother...becomes one of us forever. Such a pity..."
* A variation is used in the film ''Film/GodzillaVsDestoroyah''. In the film, Godzilla himself becomes something of a ticking '''nuclear''' time bomb as he's quickly going to explode/meltdown as soon as his heart reaches critical mass. The human characters even measure how high his body temperature is before he goes critical.
* ''Film/RunLolaRun''. Lola's boyfriend Manny has a meeting with some mobsters, and he just lost the money he was supposed to hand off to them. The meeting's in twenty minutes, so Lola and Manny have that long to get the money back.

* ''Film/BillAndTedsExcellentAdventure'': Rufus explains that the clock in San Dimas is always running, so Bill and Ted have only one day of their subjective time to travel back in time to get various historical figures for their history report, or Ted will be shipped off to military school in Alaska.
* In ''Film/MidnightRun'', bounty hunter Creator/RobertDeNiro has to get fugitive CharlesGrodin back to Los Angeles by midnight on Friday or bondsman Creator/JoePantoliano loses the bond.

* ''Film/TheXFilesFightTheFuture'': Agent Mulder has 96 hours to reach specific coordinates in Antarctica, find Agent Scully in a giant spacecraft and administer her with a weak vaccine against the virus she's been infected with.
* ''Film/{{Flash Gordon|1980}}''. Flash only has a limited amount to time to stop Emperor Ming before the Moon crashes into the Earth. This is mentioned periodically throughout the movie and has a timed countdown at the end.
--> '''Dale Arden:''' "Flash! Flash I love you but we only have 14 hours to save the Earth!"
* ''Film/TheCrossing'': UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington has until December 31 to win ''some'' kind of victory so that his troops will have any motivation to re-enlist and continue UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution.
* The premise of ''Film/FermatsRoom''. TheWallsAreClosingIn on the group of scientists. The only way to suspend the deadly trap is by solving mathematical riddles.
* Something similar happens in ''Film/TheKillingRoom'' (2009). The protagonists are locked in a room and told that only one of them will get out alive. They're given a test question that requires a numerical answer, and the person whose answer is furthest from the correct one will be killed. A digital clock counts down the time until they have to give the answer. There's actually plenty of time to think up the answer (several hours), as the point is to put as much psychological pressure on the occupants as possible and seeing the clock adds to this.
* In the 1948 film adaptation of ''Theatre/OnTheTown'', the three protagonists have 24 hours of liberty (6 AM to 6 AM) to see all of UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity. Occasionally, the time scrolls across the bottom of the screen in the manner of the original 1928 news "zipper" mounted on One Times Square.
* Happens literally in the climax of ''Film/SherlockHolmes2009''. Lord Blackwood announces that when Big Ben chimes twelve, everyone in Parliament who's not part of his cult will die. In the sewers below, Holmes and Watson are struggling with a GiantMook [[spoiler:while Irene Adler tries to defuse a SteamPunk DeadlyGas device.]]
* The climax of ''Film/DarkStar'' revolves around three astronauts trying to stop the detonation sequence of a bomb after it wouldn't drop out of the space ship's bomb bay. They succeed to stop the timer at 00:00:00, but later it goes off anyway.
* ''Film/EveOfDestruction'': After getting into a car crash, EVE's internal nuclear device is activated and set to go off within 24 hours. Col. Jim [=McQuade=] is pissed that his superiors didn't inform him of this before sending him out to catch her. The race to disarm her gets even more dire when EVE's rogue moves take her into New York City in the climax, endangering millions of people.
* In ''Film/TheShallows'', Nancy gets stranded on a rock far from shore with a ThreateningShark circling her. To make matters worse, the rock is low enough in the water that it's submerged during high tide. If she can't get off before then, she'll be fair game for the shark.
* Similar to [[VideoGame/DeadRising the games the films are based on]], ''Film/DeadRisingWatchtower'' and ''Film/DeadRisingEndgame'' places its protagonists under a time crunch. In the first film, it's a race against time to reveal the truth of the East Mission outbreak before the city is firebombed; while in the sequel, it's a race against time to stop a GovernmentConspiracy from killing over a million citizens.

* ''Film/TheCell'': a serial killer has locked his latest victim in a timed death trap, so our heroes have a limited amount of time to find her before she drowns. The film occasionally cuts to her in the death trap, with the water level always rising.
%%* ''Film/FortyEightHrs'' and ''Film/Another48Hrs''. Obviously.

* In ''Film/TomorrowNeverDies'', James Bond has 48 hours to stop a global war from starting.
* In ''Film/TheFifthElement'', they had 48 hours before the BigBad could attack. Zorg also gives such an ultimatum to one of his underlings, and the President is even stricter, often stating a firm "You have ''twenty seconds'' to" explain/complete/whatever it is he's telling you to do.
-->'''Cornelius:''' You have 48 hours. That's the length of time it needs to adapt itself to our living conditions.\\
'''President:''' And then?\\
'''Cornelius:''' And then [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt it will be too late]].
* In ''Film/MrAndMrsSmith2005'', Mr. and Mrs. Smith had orders from their respective assassin contracting firms to kill the other Smith in forty-eight hours before said companies kill them both.
* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] thoroughly in the 1978 science film ''Film/CapricornOne''. Elliot Gould's heroic journalist is on the verge of being pulled away from the scoop of the century by his editor. Bargaining for time, he argues that "''the assignment editor is supposed to say "you've got 48 hours, kids, and you'd better come up with something good or it's going to be your neck!" That's what he's supposed to say, I saw it in a movie.''" The editor then gives him 24 hours, "Not forty eight. I saw the movie too; it was twenty four."

* ''[[Film/EightyEightMinutes 88 Minutes]]'' takes this a few steps further.
* Snake in ''Film/EscapeFromNewYork'' had 24 hours to save the President, or the tiny explosives they injected him with would detonate, open up his jugular veins, and kill him.
* In ''Film/{{Stardust}}'', Tristan has a week to travel into a neighboring magical universe and bring back a fallen star to Victoria before her birthday, or she'll marry Humphrey instead of him. Ironically, he eventually [[NotStayingForBreakfast leaves the heroine, his actual true love, after making love to her]] so he can let Victoria down within that time frame—leading to the heroine's instant near-suicidal depression, as [[PoorCommunicationKills she doesn't realize]] he's going to (literally) dump his former crush and come back to her the same day.
* Sheriff Will Kane has roughly one hour to raise a {{posse}} to confront [[BigBad notorious villain Frank Miller]] before Miller's train arrives at ''Film/HighNoon''. [[spoiler: [[OhCrap He doesn't.]]]]
* ''Film/ManOfSteel'': General Zod delivers an ominous message when his spaceship arrives in Earth's orbit. Then he addresses the lone Kryptonian on the planet.
-->'''Zod:''' To Kal-El I say this: Surrender within 24 hours, or watch this world suffer the consequences.
* Subverted in ''Film/DonnieDarko'' when the titular protagonist learns of the countdown very early in the movie, but does very little to stop it, only morosely goes through life waiting for it to happen.
-->'''Frank''': 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, 12 seconds. That is when the world will end.
* In ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'', Ross gives Tony 36 hours to bring in Cap.

* Among the many moments in ''Film/SpaceMutiny'', the mutineers give TheCaptain 12 hours to surrender after seizing his daughter as a hostage. One would think 12 minutes would be enough -- how long does it take to surrender? The extra time only encourages our hero to launch a rescue mission.
* In ''Film/TinyChristmas'', Emma and Barkley have to find Elfhonzo's goggles to return to normal size before Christmas Morning, or they'll remain shrunken forever.
* Downplayed in ''Film/BattleOfTheBulge''. Hessler is told that because of shortages of fuel he has 50 hours to reach the River Meuse, and the German command bunker has a special 50 hour clock. When the attack starts we see the clock start ticking, but after that we hear very little about the deadline and [[AbortedArc never see the clock again]]. Instead the dramatic tension is over the German efforts to capture fuel supplies from their American opponents.
* ''Film/FlyAwayHome'': As Amy and her father prepare to lead their rescued geese south for the winter, her uncle finds a bird sanctuary that's a prime location. However, the sanctuary has been abandoned by wild birds, and an agreement is made to turn the land over to a developer, with the caveat that he can only take possession if no birds arrive by sundown on November 1st. The rest of the movie is spent trying to get the geese from Ontario to the sanctuary in North Carolina before the deadline expires.
* ''Film/QuantumApocalypse'' is a DisasterMovie about a strangelet moving towards Earth. Scientists only have a few days to figure out how to stop it before it destroys the planet.