History Main / UnfoldingPlanMontage

* In the ''Series/{{Castle}}'' episode "Last Action Hero", this is used, when Castle and the cast of in-universe motion picture "The Indestructibles" execute a plan to obtain a piece of evidence.

* A voice-over variant in ''Series/MoneyHeist''. In Episode 11 of Season 1, while going to a bathroom break under Oslo's watch, Jacinto finds the tools Pablo gathered as part of Arturo's first plan to escape the Mint attached under the lid of the toilet he went to, alongside a note with instructions for the plan. As Jacinto opts to spend the time Oslo gave him to pick up the tools instead, as part of the instructions' first step, what the entire note reads is spoken in voice-over with Arturo's voice.

* A voice-over variant in ''Series/MoneyHeist''. In Episode 11 of Season 1, while going to a bathroom break under Oslo's watch, Jacinto finds the tools Pablo found as part of Arturo's first plan to escape the Mint attached under the lid of the toilet he went to, alongside a note with instructions for the plan. As Jacinto opts to spend the time Oslo gave him to pick up the tools instead, as part of the instructions' first step, what the entire note reads is spoken in voice-over with Arturo's voice.

!!Examples

* ''Series/SquidGame'': At the end of Episode 4, when Oh Il-nam explains [[spoiler: Tug-of-War]], we see all the players preparing in the way he describes.

* Used twice in ''Film/TheATeam'': First in the raid to capture the plates convoy at the beginning, then the "misdirection" assault on Los Angeles Harbor at the end. Both also include [[ATeam Montage A-Team montages]] of the team gathering equipment.

* Used twice in ''Film/TheATeam'': First in the raid to capture the plates convoy at the beginning, then the "misdirection" assault on Los Angeles Harbor at the end. Both also include {{ATeam Montage}}s of the team gathering equipment.

* Used twice in ''Film/TheATeam'': First in the raid to capture the plates convoy at the beginning, then the "misdirection" assault on Los Angeles Harbor at the end. Both also include {{A-Team Montage}}s of the team gathering equipment.

* The ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' mission Quark's Lucky 7 plays out this way with cutscenes where a character has their role in the plan to steal the Sword of Kahless from T'Ket[[note]] the Iconian who took it after she killed Kahless in the mission House Pegh, [[/note]]followed by a section of gameplay where the player takes control of the character for their part.

* ''Series/MsMarvel'' has in the opening episode Kamala explaining to Bruno the plan to attend [=AvengerCon=], showing off both how Kamala imagines things going and her schematics. It doesn't work as planned, as the tree branch she grabs after jumping out her bedroom window goes down with her weight, and having to recover from the fall causes a delay that makes them miss the bus (which Kamala wanted to ''jump on its roof to make it stop'', mind you).

* Used twice in ''Film/TheATeam'': First in the raid to capture the plates convoy at the beginning, then the "misdirection" assault on Los Angeles Harbor at the end. Both also include [[ATeamMontage A-Team Montages]] of the team gathering equipment.

* Downplayed in ''The Heavy Water War''. The commandoes change their plan when they realise the original plan would be suicide. They transmit their new plan to London and the people there are shown pouring over maps to see how this new plan will unfold, which is cut between the team simultaneously carrying it out.

* ''Series/{{Arrow}}''. In "Betrayal", a crime boss is bragging to his hostage about all the men he has waiting for the Hood when he turns up to rescue her, which is intercut with the Hood taking them down. As he anticipates, the Hood runs out of arrows before [[WeHaveReserves he runs out of mooks]], but the SpannerInTheWorks is that the Hood has brought backup.

* Parodied in episode one of ''VideoGame/TalesFromTheBorderlands''. When our heroes have to sneak into a bandit base in order to steal back a BriefcaseFullOfMoney, a quick-time event takes the form of Rhys forming one of these. Even if you successfully complete it, it turns out [[DaydreamSurprise Rhys was just imagining his plan]], and everyone else chose to sneak in while some of the bandits were distracted.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLEGOMovie'': Seen when the master builders break into Lord Business's tower.
* ''WesternAnimation/OKKOLetsBeHeroes'': "One Last Score" features one as Ginger and KO plot a heist to steal a rare candy that has temporary FountainOfYouth effects.

One way to circumvent this is to show the plan both in its forming and execution: Rather than have two separate scenes (one to lay out ThePlan and one to enact it), the scenes are instead edited together as a montage.

* ''Thick as Thieves'': Seen when Ripley and Gabriel set up their plan to break into the vault of some Russian jewelers.

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[[folder:LiveActionTV]]

* Pretty much OnceAnEpisode of Series/{{Leverage}}, the denouement of a plan will feature a series of Flashbacks showcasing some detail of the execution that the audience wasn't aware of until then.
* ''Series/StarTrekPicard'' features one of these when Picard and his crew prepare to enter the night club on Freecloud.

[[folder:VideoGames]]

[[folder:WebVideo]]

[[folder:WesternAnimation]]

* ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead'': Shaun and Ed devise plan to collect Shaun's friends, mom, and stepdad, and find safety "until this whole thing blows over." [[ZigZaggingTrope Then the plan changes and a revised montage plays accordingly.]]

* ''Film/OceansEleven'': Seen when Rusty explains to Benedict how the money will be transferred.
* ''Film/KingArthurLegendOfTheSword'' leans on this trope for practically half its runtime.

* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'': In "Ariel", Simon proposes a plan to infiltrate a hospital on one of the central worlds, in order to access special diagnostic equipment and loot the profitable pharmaceuticals. The scheme goes as planned until the feds are called.
* In the ''Series/{{Castle}}'' episode "Last Action Hero", this is used, when Castle and the cast of in-universe motion picture "The Indestructibles" execute a plan to obtain a piece of evidence.

* A ubiquitous occurrence in ''Series/BurnNotice'' due to the series continuous voice-over narration. It's also notable that the montage contains the plan going off the rails as often as not.

* The ''VideoGame/DMCDevilMayCry'' level where you break into Mundus' skyscraper and work your way up to the top features this, with [[spoiler: the recently saved Kat]] narrating and providing chalk drawings.

* In one ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' short, Dipper explains his (ridiculous) plan to sneak into the movies while the rest of the family enacts it in a montage. Overlaps with UnreliableNarrator when he describes things like "Grunkle Stan will use his lockpicking skills to sneak in" while we see Stan smashing the lock with a rock.
* ''WesternAnimation/OKKOLetsBeHeroes'': "One Last Score" features one as Ginger and KO plot a heist to steal a rare candy that has temporary FountainOfYouth effects.