History Main / TravelingAtTheSpeedOfPlot

-->'''The Doctor:''' You didn't always take me where I wanted to go!\\
'''The TARDIS:''' No, but I always took you where you needed to be.\\

* Invoked byJustForFun/TropeTan in ''Webcomic/TheWayOfTheMetagamer''. Apparently it's [[FasterThanLightTravel Faster Than Light]] but [[ArtMajorPhysics slower than sound.]]

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* {{Franchise/Superman}} can zip about at supersonic speeds, for example grabbing something out of someone's hand and returning to where he was standing before they notice. Of course, he can't do this in the case of hostages, or any other situation where the plot requires him to move at a certain speed.

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* Invoked by TropeTan (yes, ''that'' TropeTan) in TheWayOfTheMetagamer. Apparently it's [[FasterThanLightTravel Faster Than Light]] but [[ArtMajorPhysics slower than sound.]]

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* Used in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', as also noted on ItIsAlwaysSpring. The last season was particularly notable for this as in the first half, it took a while for them to travel to the rendezvous point, with Sokka constantly complaining about all the detours cutting into their travel time [[hottip:* :They get there 4 days early anyway]]. In the last 4 episodes though, they travel from the Fire Nation to the Earth Kingdom and back again in less than 3 days.

* In ''ComicBook/AllStarBatmanAndRobinTheBoyWonder,'' an ''incredible'' amount of other things happen in the time it takes "[[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Batman/Crazy Steve]]" to get [[MemeticMutation Dick Grayson, Age 12]] to the batcave, to the point that it apparently took ''days'' for the Batmobile to cross town. It doesn't help that FrankMiller is forever forgetting how long one event or another was supposed to take, so something said to have taken weeks will occur at same time as something said to have taken minutes - [[{{Superman}} Clark Kent]] even has a milk carton with Dick's picture during a flashback to "fifteen hours ago" during the same drive (in other words, ''before'' Dick was kidnapped by BINO.)

* {{Superman}} can zip about at supersonic speeds, for example grabbing something out of someone's hand and returning to where he was standing before they notice. Of course, he can't do this in the case of hostages, or any other situation where the plot requires him to move at a certain speed.

* In ''ComicBook/AllStarBatmanAndRobinTheBoyWonder,'' an ''incredible'' amount of other things happen in the time it takes [[strike: {{Batman}}]] [[strike: [[InNameOnly BINO]]]] ''[[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Crazy Steve]]'' to get [[MemeticMutation Dick Grayson, Age 12]] to the batcave, to the point that it apparently took ''days'' for the Batmobile to cross town. It doesn't help that FrankMiller is forever forgetting how long one event or another was supposed to take, so something said to have taken weeks will occur at same time as something said to have taken minutes - [[{{Superman}} Clark Kent]] even has a milk carton with Dick's picture during a flashback to "fifteen hours ago" during the same drive (in other words, ''before'' Dick was kidnapped by BINO.)

** It may not have been far, but more hard to find. Maurice simply has no sense of direction while Gaston is guided by the magic mirror. However, in this case the castle still literally can't be more than a few minutes walking away, since you can cut down a complete tree and still beat a horsebackrider to the castle on foot while carrying it with only a small lead at the start. The villagers and wolves must have very strict agreements about respecting eachothers territory.

* ''Film/PulpFiction'': "That's thirty minutes away. [[InvokedTrope I'll be there in ten]]."
** Though Mr. Wolf is noted for driving very fast - the thirty minute estimate probably reflects a normal, law-abiding driver's time.
* In ''{{Shrek}} 2'', it takes Shrek, Fiona, and Donkey several days to get to Far Far Away. Later in the movie, when the supporting cast finds out that the group is in trouble, they get there in just a few hours.

* ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl'': The Black Pearl is the fastest ship in the Caribbean, and the ghost pirates are suffering from a horrible curse. So after they abduct Elizabeth Swan, mistaking her for the one they need to break the curse, they would presumably head straight back to Isla de Muerta to do just that. Meanwhile, Will Turner wakes up the next day and, after an unsuccessful conversation with Norrington, breaks Jack Sparrow out of prison. The two steal a ship and sail for Tortuga where they recruit a crew. Then they proceed to Isla de Muerta. Will and Jacks' path is much longer than the ghost pirates, yet they arrive before the ceremony to lift the curse begins. Perhaps the ghost pirates aren't in quite the hurry we would expect.

* In ''TheEmpireStrikesBack'' Luke and the crew of the Millennium Falcon leave Hoth at about the same time. Luke does a hyperspace jump to Dagobah to go meet Yoda. The Falcon, whose hyperdrive malfunctions, tries to evade Imperial forces in a nearby asteroid field. By the time they leave the field (the hyperdrive's still not working), Luke has crashed on Dagobah, met Yoda, and even ''began training as a Jedi''. The crew of the Falcon then decide to go to Bespin. Bear in mind that they still have ''no'' hyperdrive or FTL and Bespin is in another solar system than Hoth. You'd expect the journey to take at the very least several days, even if SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale, yet they appear to make the trip is at most a few hours (they are wearing the same outfits when they land, no one looks particularly more scruffy or even remarks about the trip's length). Meanwhile, Luke leaves Dagobah, does a hyperspace trip to Bespin and arrives just after the empire's captured everyone. Either the Falcon's trip to Bespin took several weeks during which Luke trained on Dagobah, meaning the Falcon has facilities including a laundrymat, or they did the trip in a few hours and some how becoming a Jedi is something one needs only an afternoon to learn.

* Trains in ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' tend to work like this, arriving just in time for Ed and Al to solve some crisis (sometimes ''on the train itself''). To be fair, this isn't always the case; even quiet areas tend to get demolished when the Elrics arrive.

** To be fair, that includes lots of stops to fight TheAmazonBrigade (including injuries and recuperations), search for lost monkeys, chase fallen space pods, etc.

* ''Space: 1999'' was based on the idea that Earth's moon (which was occupied by the 300 occupants of Moonbase Alpha) was blasted out of orbit by a massive explosion and sent hurtling through space. There was never any suggestion that the moon was traveling faster than light but it passed through numerous star systems during the two years of the series. Even more magically; while the moon manages to travel between stars in little time between episodes, it also travels slow enough during episodes to allow Eagles to shuttle people between Moonbase and any nearby planets.

* ''Space: 1999'' was based on the idea that Earth's moon (which was occupied by the 300 occupants of Moonbase Alpha) was blasted out of orbit by a massive explosion and sent hurtling through space. There was never any suggestion that the moon was traveling faster than light but it passed through numerous star systems during the two years of the series.

[[quoteright:247:[[{{WebComic/Comedity}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/125.png]]]]

* Tragically averted in VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution. At the proper start of the game you might think you can explore the Sarif building without problem. Spend fifteen minutes doing that and every hostage will be dead. Fortunately this is the only time this will happen in the game.

* SaintSeiya: In the Hades Arc, some of the Bronze Saints need to reach Greece despite some of them being in Japan and Siberia.
* SaintSeiyaOmega: The Bronze Saints move from Greece to Mexico on foot. Unlike the original, they actually have a normal person traveling with them, making even less sense.

* Late in ''GundamWing'', Relena goes to try to talk down White Fang's leader [[spoiler:Milliardo]]. We get scenes with her ''en route'' for two episodes before she finally arrives on Libra in a third, making her trip last four days total (according to an official timeline). In a series where space flight has been around for over 200 years, that's pretty dang slow.

* ''GundamSEED'' has one notable example. When kira gets his shiny new Freedom Gundam, he flys off from a space colony all the way down to Alaska, just in time to save the Archangel.

** The Extended Universe explains that all ships have an "emergency backup" hyperdrive for when their main hyperdrive fails, which is never mentioned on film. This emergency hyperdrive allows for slow FTL travel, fast enough to limp to the nearest star system with a repair station, but not enough for the usual cross-the-galaxy-in-a-week hyperspace travel.
** The Extended Universe is really reaching there. There's no reason to handwave in things that would have reasonably been used at a much earlier point in the movie, like when they are being chased, perhaps? The simpler explanation is that, yes, the Falcon actually does have the facilities to support a crew on an extended voyage because that's exactly what it was built for. As for wearing the same clothing, Leia wasn't exactly planning to be aboard so didn't bring her luggage, Han always wears the same thing anyway, and Chewie and the droids don't wear clothes.
*** Actually Han probably has a closet containing several identical outfits. Which might explain why Lando Calrissian is wearing one of them when he's piloting the ''Falcon'' in the last film.
*** According to relativity, there's no real way to define simultaneity between locations many light-years apart. So perhaps time simply flows differently at Dagobah than it does at Hoth/Bespin?
*** No, if they can communicate between different star systems in different parts of the galaxy in real-time, then they can clearly establish simultaneity and show that time flows at the same rate everywhere.
*** If the Falcon was traveling just under the speed of light, it could have reach Bespin in only a few hours from the point of view of its occupants while several months could have elapsed on Dagobah. (Also explains why, in the prequels, Anakin seems to have aged faster than Padme).

* On ''Series/{{Glee}}'', not only do characters leisurely travel all over {{Ohio}} between towns that are hours apart in real life, but most of the [=McKinley=] graduates have gone on to college out of state, yet have no trouble making trips back home when the plot calls for it, regardless of travel time, cost, or school/work schedules. This is lampshaded by Sue:

* On ''Series/{{Glee}}'', not only do characters travel all over Ohio between towns that are hours apart in real life, but most of the [=McKinley=] graduates have gone on to college out of state, yet have no trouble making trips back home when the plot calls for it, regardless of travel time, cost, or school/work schedules.

The heroes need to get from point A to point B; occasionally, these things have a specific distance, and other times the distances involved are left fuzzy. Sometimes TravelingAtTheSpeedOfPlot is a function of intentionally vague traveling speeds, sometimes of distance.

In ScienceFiction, TravelingAtTheSpeedOfPlot ensures that the characters arrive JustInTime for a plot point, whether that's in the nick of time or as part of a DownerEnding where the only thing you can do is mop up. If distance and speed are too overused as factors, PhlebotinumBreakdown is a great way to make sure the characters don't arrive early, whether its due to transporter malfunction or a jump-drive misalignment.

In {{Horror}} or Action series set in the near modern age, TravelingAtTheSpeedOfPlot is often enforced by MyCarHatesMe.