History Main / UnPaused

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/alastorunpaused.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[WebAnimation/HazbinHotel Alastor]] picks up right where he left off.]]

* Used in the short term in ''Anime/KillLaKill'', where Aikuro briefly paralyzes Mako in the middle of one of her rambles with an acupuncture needle to give Ryuko some advice. She continues to ramble after he removes the needle and re-dons his disguise.

* In an issue of ''ComicBook/{{Excalibur}}'', the team is fighting a team of interstellar mercenaries when two other characters show up and temporally freeze the mercenaries so they can conduct some unrelated business with Excalibur. The freeze wears off about five minutes later... by which point Excalibur has moved them around such that their unpaused attacks are aimed at each ''other''.

* In ''[[ComicBook/SecretWars1984 Secret Wars]]'', Doom has Ultron disintegrate Kang as punishment for betrayal. Kang says, "You'll need me later, you fool! Don't -- arrrgh!" After obtaining the Beyonder's powers, Doom restores Kang, who says, "-- you realize that Kang is essential to... your... plans... Where am I?"

* Happens to George in ''Fanfic/TheKeysStandAlone: The Soft World'' when he's paralyzed in the library basement, having been mistaken for the aggressor. He was trying to explain that he was actually the one who saved the day, when suddenly he finds himself lying on a table upstairs. His explanation shifts into an expression of angry surprise.

* ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack''. C-3PO is damaged by Imperial stormtrooper fire. When he's repaired and reactivated, he replays what he was saying and thinking when he was attacked.
-->'''C-3PO:''' I'm terribly sorry. I didn't mean to intrude. No, please don't get up. Stormtroopers? Here? We're in danger. I must tell the others. Oh, no! I've been shot!
* In the film ''Film/SupportYourLocalSheriff'', James Garner escapes a brawl at a restaurant by yelling "Hold it!" and quietly stepping to one side, taking his food with him. Once he's out of harm's way, he says "Okay, go ahead on!" and the brawl resumes exactly where it stopped.

* In ''Film/{{Click}}'', Creator/AdamSandler's character can pause reality and things will continue as if nothing happened when he hits play... but if something ''does'' happen -- if he interacts with the world while it's paused -- it will take effect as soon as he unpauses it. Example: pause, kick ex-wife's boyfriend [[GroinAttack in the crotch]], unpause, watch poor bastard hit the ground with no idea why he's in so much pain.
* In ''Film/TheGamersDorknessRising'', [[{{GMPC}} Sir Osric]] is about to kill the Sorceress for slaying yet another hapless peasant when the monk paralyzes him. [[TheyKilledKenny Flynn]] happens to walk in front of him just as he unfreezes and completes his swing.
* Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse:
** ''Film/AntManAndTheWasp'': After [[spoiler:Janet has taken over Scott's mind from the Quantum Realm]], Scott has no recollection of it. At first he reacts as if no time went by, and then he gets confused about how they left the control room and why Hank Pym is holding his hand.
** ''Film/AvengersEndgame'': Per Peter's description after [[spoiler:being undusted, the passage of time was nonexistent for all victims of the snap. He just felt dusty and then found himself after being brought back, presuming he must have passed out. All the dusted and un-snapped return at the same age and same state they were at that moment while the surviving half of the universe have aged five years ahead of them (with Doctor Strange the only one immediately aware of how much time has passed). This at least is useful for distinguishing who were "snapped" and who weren't. Since Spider-Man and his supporting cast at the end are the same age, they were among the dusted while Cassie Lang has gone from pre-teen to teenager.]]
** From ''Endgame'', it is further explored as a gag in ''Film/SpiderManFarFromHome'', where [[spoiler:the school's marching band got dusted while playing in the basketball court, only to be brought back 5 years later exactly in the same court during the middle of a match.]]
* In ''Film/The6thDay'', Talia is accidentally and suddenly killed by fellow henchman Wiley. Her last words ''would'' have been "GODDAMMIT SONOFABITCH!", something that her clone says as soon as it receives the previous iteration's full memories.

* Near the end of ''Literature/TheColourOfMagic'', Rincewind and Twoflower's current captor uses a spell to freeze in midair a bottle hurled towards him, arresting its momentum. Eight hours later, when the spell wears off, he happens to be standing in the same spot... (Note that in ''TCOM'' this is ''intentional''; the deity that the protagonists are speaking with specifically manipulates the laws of chance so that the bottle just happens to be in the exact place and time to hit the guard and allow them to escape.)

* Happens to the narrator in Creator/HPLovecraft's ''Literature/TheShadowOutOfTime'', in a way. After suffering an odd "attack" during an economics lecture he was giving followed by over five years of strange behavior, he eventually appears to return to his senses (though with no memory at all of that time)... and the first words he utters are clearly a reflexive ''continuation'' of that very interrupted lecture.

* In the first episode of ''Series/PushingDaisies'', the first thing Chuck does after Ned brings her back to life is grab his tie and bang him on the lid of her coffin in self-defense against her killer.

* The episode of ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' entitled "A Kind of a Stopwatch" has this in it, until [[spoiler:[[KarmicTwistEnding the stopwatch breaks]]]].
* In the ''Series/TheManFromUNCLE'' episode "The Brain Killer Affair", Illya is zapped with some kind of hypnosis device just as he's about to make a call on his [[ShoePhone cigarette-case radio]]. When Napoleon snaps him out of the resulting catatonic state hours later, he immediately starts talking into the radio.
* There's a scene in ''Series/{{Eureka}}'' where Beverly is hypnotizing Fargo. She gives the standard end-of-hypnosis "when I snap my fingers, you will return to normal and forget all about this" speech and snaps her fingers, causing him to finish explaining to her exactly why hypnosis is impossible.

* The [[ProjectedMan holographic Doctor]] in ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' always gives his CatchPhrase "Please state the nature of the medical emergency" whenever he's activated. In "Imperfection" however someone activates the Doctor only for him to appear shouting, "--I'll have to sedate you!" It turns out that Seven of Nine had switched him off in the middle of a sentence.
* There is an early (season 1 or 2) episode of ''Series/{{House}}'' where a patient is having seizures. He will stop in the middle of a sentence for a few moments before going right back to what he was saying, unaware that he lost any time.

** There is also the running gag of someone (usually O'Neill) being teleported mid-sentence by the Asgard. Upon arriving on the alien ship or back on Earth, they usually conclude whatever they were saying before looking around in annoyance.
* In ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'', this is Piper's primary witch power, to Freeze and Un-Freeze things and people. While useful for combating demons and warlocks, she uses it mostly to get a handle on various arguments between people or just to get a breather.
* ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' does a variant. Coulson and Ward are tossed off a train, and the bad guys throw a grenade after them, then the train disappears in front of their eyes. It's only in a flashback from another character's perspective that we discover the grenade actually paralyzed them for about an hour; the train rolled away at normal speed.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** In "The Ark in Space", the Fourth Doctor attempts to talk Noah into shutting down the stack before the creature feeding off its energy is strong enough to break out, causing Noah to blast him unconscious with a stun pistol ("If you'd been down there with me, Noah, y--"). After several minutes of plot has elapsed, Sarah wakes him and he announces, "--ou wouldn't find it so amusing". He then complains he was "cut off mid-sentence! I could have been saying something important.... I ''was'' saying something important."
** Played for laughs when the Doctor has to leave Rory to take TheSlowPath guarding the Pandorica. The Doctor warns Rory about various perils, concluding with "and however bored you get, stay out of--" before he's abruptly transported away. Rory must have spent almost 2000 years wondering what the Doctor was warning him about. However the last word was only "trouble", which the audience hears when the Doctor arrives at his destination in the present day.
* Spike dies in the final episode of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', then is brought back to life on ''Series/{{Angel}}'', screaming in agony as if he's still being burnt up in the sunlight.
* One Season 6 episode of ''Series/{{Castle}}'' has the titular character called to hostage situation because the hostage-taker refuses to negotiate with anyone but him. Before he goes in, Castle dons his "Writer" BulletproofVest and is told to work the word "cheeseburger" into any of his phone calls in case he wants SWAT to storm the place. The whole things ends with the hostage-taker (accidentally) shooting Castle in the chest, knocking him unconscious for a minute or so. When he comes to, the first thing he does before he even opens his eyes is to scream "[[JumpScare Cheeseburger!]]" at the top of his lungs, which he was probably about to do right before he was hit. As with most things in this series, it's completely PlayedForLaughs.
* ''Series/TheGoodies''. Graham Garden is working on an antidote to his New Improved Snooze, a sleeping draught that's so effective it's put most of Britain to sleep. Deciding to test the antidote himself, he takes a swig of New Improved Snooze, then goes to drink the antidote only to fall asleep. HilarityEnsues as he then goes sleepwalking across the country, but Tim revives him and pours the antidote down his throat. Graham wakes up and immediately goes to take a swig of New Improved Snooze as part of his experiment, [[WeAreNotGoingThroughThatAgain only to be stopped by an alarmed Tim.]]

* ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'' supplement ''Acute Paranoia'', adventure "Me and My Shadow Mark IV". Markie (the Mark IV warbot) is talking to the [[PlayerCharacter PC's]] when a piece falls off of him, sending him into a catatonic state. [[spoiler:(It's a barometer. It just messed with his superiority complex.)]] When the piece is re-attached, Markie continues talking right where he left off. If they call him on it, he makes up a story about cosmic rays or something. [[TooDumbToLive If they keep pushing the issue]], [[BerserkButton he blows them away]] [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill with a tacnuke]].

** The "Time Stop" spell stops time within a limited area. When it ends the creatures inside have no idea any time has passed and continue acting as they were before.

* In ''VideoGame/Borderlands1'''s fourth DLC, the claptrapped version of [[spoiler:Commandant Steele]], who died at the end of the main game, finishes [[spoiler: the speech she was giving before being impaled by the GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere FinalBoss.]]

* [[spoiler:Babs]] gets turned to stone while dancing in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestBuilders2'', and they continue to do so for several seconds after being unfrozen before they notice the sudden change in scenery.

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* In ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'', when [[spoiler:Andronicus Valois, the first Storm King]] is freed from the TimeStandsStill effect of Prende's Chronometric Lantern, he doesn't realize that two hundred years have gone by. For him, it was mere seconds ago that [[spoiler:Van Rijn betrayed him]].

* During an episode of ''WesternAnimation/VoltronForce'', [[BigBad King Lotor]], hopped up on haggarium, declares that "This is the day that I--" and gets blasted by Voltron's new guns. When he is later revived back at his castle, the first thing he says is "--destroy Voltron!" ... and smacks face first into a wall.
* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/HarveyBirdmanAttorneyAtLaw''. In a spoof of the old Birdman cartoon, Phil is frozen mid-sentence: "A madman is freez--". When Birdman unfreezes him: "Ha ha ha, --ing!"

* In an episode of the eighties ''WesternAnimation/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|1987}}'' cartoon, Donatello has invented a device that will freeze a person mid-action. Michaelangelo, skeptical, offers to test it out. He takes a leap into the air, and Donatello freezes him in mid jump. Donatello then tells the others that when Michaelangelo is unfrozen, he'll have no idea that any time has passed, and will probably say something like "See? I told you it wouldn't work!" Which is exactly what happens when he's unfrozen.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheGarfieldShow'': In "Jon's Night Out", Jon is hypnotized to fall asleep and wake up whenever Odie barks, and he complains that he can't be hypnotized [[MoreHypnotizableThanHeThinks before going to sleep mid-sentence]]. Later, when he Jon is {{sleepwalking}} [[ConstructionZoneCalamity through a construction site]], Odie barks again and he wakes up, continuing his earlier rant until he realizes where he is.

[[caption-width-right:350:Alastor picks up right where he left off.]]

* In ''WebAnimation/HazbinHotel'', Alastor the Radio Demon shows up at the titular hotel because he wants to help Charlie run it. Since Alastor is TheDreaded, Charlie makes an OhCrap [[WideEyesAndShrunkenIrises expression]] when shes sees it's him. Alastor then says "Hel-" before Charlie slams the door in his face. After a moment, Charlie opens the door back up and he says "-lo!" before she slams the door in his face again. After deciding to let him in, Charlie opens the door for a third time, prompting Alastor to say "[[LampshadeHanging May I speak now?]]"

* In ''WebAnimation/HazbinHotel'', Alastor, a notoriously powerful and dangerous demon, unexpectedly visits the titular hotel. The Radio Demon's first line in the series gets a bit [[JustForPun broken up]] courtesy of a door slam by Charlie.
-->'''Alastor''': Hel- \\
'''Charlie''': (''Slams the door in his face and does a DoubleTake before opening it again'') \\
'''Alastor''': -lo!

* In ''WebAnimation/HazbinHotel'', Alastor the Radio Demon shows up at the titular hotel because he wants to help Charlie run it. Since Alastor is TheDreaded, Charlie makes an OhCrap [[WideEyesAndShrunkenIrises expression]] when shes sees it's him. Alastor then says "Hel-" before Charlie slams the door in his face. After a moment, Charlie opens the door back up and he says "-lo!" before she slams the door in his face again. After deciding to let him in, Charlie opens the door for a third time, prompting Alastor to say "[[LampshadeHanging May I speak now?]]"

* It is said (but not true) that when the BBC started broadcasting again after World War II, it picked up from the same place in a cartoon where it had stopped... The TV transmitter was shut down in the middle of a Mickey Mouse cartoon. After the war the television service ''did'' apparently resume with the same cartoon, but from the start.
* Creator/JackPaar left ''Series/TheTonightShow'' on-air to protest the censoring of a joke. He said,

* The most mundane version is the children's game of "Red Light, Green Light", where participants have to freeze in place for "Red Light" and move freely during "Green Light".

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': In "Catch and Release", Peridot is [[KilledMidSentence Poofed Mid-Sentence]] and taken back to the Crystal Gems' temple. When Steven frees her to find out why she's suddenly so desperate to escape back to Homeworld, she finishes her exclamation before realizing the change of locale.

* Near the end of ''Discworld/TheColourOfMagic'', Rincewind and Twoflower's current captor uses a spell to freeze in midair a bottle hurled towards him, arresting its momentum. Eight hours later, when the spell wears off, he happens to be standing in the same spot... (Note that in ''TCOM'' this is ''intentional''; the deity that the protagonists are speaking with specifically manipulates the laws of chance so that the bottle just happens to be in the exact place and time to hit the guard and allow them to escape.)

* In ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}''' fourth DLC, the claptrapped version of [[spoiler:Commandant Steele]], who died at the end of the main game finshes [[spoiler: the speech she was giving before being impaled by the GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere FinalBoss.]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In the clip for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68ugkg9RePc "Blue (Da Ba Dee)"]] by Eiffel 65, the singer is abducted by aliens in a stasis sphere during a concert. When he's released on their planet, he immediately resumes singing, although his audience is now entirely composed of blue aliens. Lampshaded in the LiteralMusicVideo [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcGtNItxT7g remix]].

* Happens to the [[ProjectedMan holographic Doctor]] in ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' when Seven switches him off in the middle of a sentence.

* ''Series/TheGoodies''. Graham Garden is working on an antidote to his New Improved Snooze, a sleeping draught that's so effective it's put most of Britain to sleep. Deciding to test the antidote himself, he takes a swig of New Improved Snooze, walks over to the lab bench with the antidote only to fall asleep. HilarityEnsues as he then goes sleepwalking across the country, but Tim revives him and pours the antidote down his throat. Graham immediately goes to take a swig of New Improved Snooze as part of his experiment, [[WeAreNotGoingThroughThatAgain only to be stopped by an alarmed Tim.]]

* ''Film/AntManAndTheWasp'': After [[spoiler:Janet has taken over Scott's mind from the Quantum Realm]], Scott has no recollection of it. At first he reacts as if no time went by, and then he gets confused about how they left the control room and why Hank Pym is holding his hand.

* In ''Series/{{Charmed}}'', this is Piper's primary witch power, to Freeze and Un-Freeze things and people. While useful for combating demons and warlocks, she uses it mostly to get a handle on various arguments between people or just to get a breather.

* This was the entire schtick of the paralyzing horn in ''Series/ElChapulinColorado''.

* One Season 6 episode of ''Series/{{Castle}}'' has the titular character called to hostage situation because the hostage-taker refuses to negotiate with anyone but him. Before he goes in, Castle dons his "Writer" BulletproofVest and is told to work the word "cheeseburger" into any of his phone calls in case he wants SWAT to storm the place. The whole things ends with the hostage-taker (accidentally) shooting Castle in the chest, knocking him unconscious for a minute or so. When he comes to, the first thing he does before he even opens his eyes is to scream "[[JumpScare Cheeseburger!]]" at the top of his lungs, which he was probably about to do right before he was hit.

** He was caught this way in ''Fanfic/WithStringsAttached'' as well, but he was just standing around when it happened, so this trope doesn't apply in that case.

* In ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', Haley is petrified in [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0789.html mid-sentence]], then [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0815.html finishes the sentence]] when she's restored 30 strips later.
* In ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'', when [[spoiler:Andronicus Valois, the first Storm King]] is freed from the TimeStandStill effect of Prende's Chronometric Lantern, he doesn't realize that two hundred years have gone by. For him, it was mere seconds ago that [[spoiler:Van Rijn betrayed him]].

* DoubleSubverted in ''WebVideo/DoctorHorriblesSingAlongBlog''. The title doctor freezes Captain Hammer right before his song's big finish. [[spoiler:When he's unfrozen, he punches the doctor in the face, and ''then'' finishes his line.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': In the "Bartificial Intelligence" segment from "Treehouse of Horror XVI", Bart jumps out of a window yelling "COWA-", then hits the ground and goes into a coma. When he later wakes up, he jerks upright yelling "-BUNGA!"

* In a Halloween episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', Bart jumps out of a window yelling "COWA-", then hits the ground and goes into a coma. When he later wakes up, he jerks upright yelling "-BUNGA!"