History Main / YouareTooLate

* Parodied in the ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' episode "Gaming the System", where Perry bursts into Dr. Doofensmirtz's lair, only to be told "Ah, Perry the Platypus! You are too late... wait, is it eleven o' clock yet? *glances at watch* Wait, wait... Now! ''Now'' you are too late!" Then Doofensmirtz zaps Perry with his latest invention, the Ballgown-inator, and Perry has to figure out how to defeat Doofensmirtz while wearing an oversized, restrictive dress. (This gag was originally written for the pilot, aka the "Rollercoaster" episode.)

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': When Diana desperately tries to save ComicBook/{{Artemis}} from the White Magician she gets there too late to rescue her. While it looks like Diana made it JustInTime, Artemis suffers a fatal wound and perishes in Diana's arms, however the power the villain aquired to be able to do so ends up killing him shortly after he kills his opponent so his larger goals are never reached.

* In Creator/RobertEHoward's Literature/ConanTheBarbarian story "Literature/ShadowsInTheMoonlight", [[DreamingOfTimesGoneBy in Olivia's dream]], when the [[HalfHumanHybrid son]] [[CallOnMe calls on his father]], his torturers cut his throat and kill him before his PhysicalGod father appears. Of course, it's ''not'' too late to invoke TakenForGranite.

* In ''Players of Literature/{{Gor}}'' (book 20) Cabot learns of a plot by Cos, Tyros, Brundisium and [[SixthRangerTraitor certain factions in Ar]] to attack Ar. He gets the evidence, then learns that it's actually happening right now. The evidence is now worthless so he burns it.

* In Creator/DanielPinkwater's ''The Literature/SnarkoutBoys and the Avocado of Death'', the DiabolicalMastermind villain succeeds at destroying a CosmicKeystone by having a backup orangutan eat it while the heroes were busy capturing him and the other orangutan. The consequence of this is that all the licensed realtors in the United States are possessed by extraterrestrials.
* In the novelization of the Terran Campaign of the game ''VideoGame/StarCraftI'', Danny Liberty talks with Arcturus Mengsk about sending Kerrigan to place the Psi Emitter, which the rebels on Antiga Prime need to lure more Zerg to break the Confederate blockade so they could escape:

* Parodied in the ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' episode "Gaming the System", where Perry bursts into Dr. Doofensmirtz's lair, only to be told "Ah, Perry the Platypus! You are too late... wait, is it eleven o' clock yet? *glances at watch* Wait, wait... Now! ''Now'' you are too late!" Then Doofensmirtz zaps Perry with his latest invention, the Ballgown-inator, and Perry has to figure out how to defeat Doofensmirtz while wearing an oversized, restrictive dress.

** Outside the raising of the army, it's more a matter of the characters failing on location rather than arriving too late.

* One particularly memorable episode of ''Series/BabylonFive'' has the doctor engaged in a RaceAgainstTheClock to stop ThePlague that is about to wipe out an entire species. He discovers a cure, and just when you expect a JustInTime ending, the doors to the quarantine zone are opened to reveal EverybodysDeadDave. It's not ''completely'' meaningless, since the disease had spread to other species by then, but the entire Markab civilization has been wiped out.
* A heroic example appears in ''Series/DoctorWho''. In the final moments of the Eleventh Doctor's life, he is out of Regenerations, and facing an army of Daleks. Suddenly, thanks to the Time Lords granting him a new set of Regenerations, he begins a whole new cycle. The Daleks begin to call for his Extermination in a panicked state, but as the Doctor says:
--> '''The Doctor''': ''You think you can stop me now?'' IF YOU WANT MY LIFE...'''[[PunctuatedForEmphasis COME. AND. GET. IT!]]'''

* A ''[[Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus Monty Python]]'' sketch features an ActionHero called [[BadassPreacher The Bishop]] who repeatedly tries to stop assassinations of clergymen but always arrives just too late.
* ''Series/OddSquad'': The Season 3 mid-season finale "End of the Road" has the Mobile Unit finally reaching The Shadow, Brutus, and the rest of the villains...just as said villains have all finished transferring their powers into the cube. Luckily they manage to reform The Shadow so the plan is never completed.
* One episode of the BBC ''Series/RobinHood'' -- Robin Hood and his men attempt a BigDamnHeroes moment to save Allan a Dale's brother and his band of thieves, who are about to be hanged. When they arrive and hide in the shadows, the Sheriff gloatingly reveals that he had hung the group hours ago, since he knew Robin would be here for a dramatic rescue at noon. Instead of saving the condemned men, Robin is staring at already-dead corpses dangling from ropes while the Sheriff laughs.
* ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'': In "My Princess", Dr. Cox tells about his day at the hospital to his son [[SerialNumbersFiledOff in the form of]] a bedtime story. In the story, a maiden is being terrorized by a monster and is saved in time, but in reality, it's a disease killing a patient, and it's implied that she was [[TearJerker diagnosed too late.]]
* In ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', "Veritas", [[spoiler:Brainiac tells Kal-El he is too late to save Lana. By possessing her catatonic body ForTheEvulz. Clark closes her eyes and starts to cry. Watching from a distance, so does Chloe. AlasPoorScrappy.]] While Clark would eventually deal with Brainiac, it is far enough to be counted as TheBadGuyWins...for now.
* An odd twist to this trope happens in the ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]'' episode "The Visitor", where an elderly Jake Sisko informs his stuck-in-time father that the only way to get him unstuck is for Jake to commit suicide at a certain time. We then realize what that "medicine" was that Jake took at the beginning of the episode.
** In the episode, "The Sound of Her Voice", the crew of the Defiant races against time to rescue the sole survivor of a crashed Starfleet vessel. She's on a planet with a toxic atmosphere and she has a limited supply of the medicine that can counteract it. And they find out later that a good chunk of her medicine has been compromised, meaning they may not get there in time to save her even at max warp. When they finally find her, they find remains that have been dead for years. The planet's [[NegativeSpaceWedgie odd atmosphere]] caused a time warp that sent the survivors communications into the future and their's back to her. She was already dead by the time they first got her signal.

* Very well done in season 8 of ''Series/TwentyFour'', [[spoiler:Jack Bauer and his team are storming the base where the terrorists are holding President Hassan, while President Taylor watches what she thinks is a live feed of his [[JokerJury "trial"]]. Except the feed is pre-recorded and Hassan was already dead before Jack entered the building. The BigBad and all his men are killed or captured, but they still succeeded in their ultimate goal.]]
** PlayedWith in the 4th episode of season 6: [[spoiler:the bad guys spend the entire episode preparing a bomb to lay waste to Washington D.C., and the good guys manage to burst in just as the villains are finished setting it up, leading to a HopeSpot that they'll be able to stop it (and, indeed, they do end up shooting a few mooks guarding it). Ultimately played straight, though, as the last remaining villain manages to set the nuke off before they can stop him, and the bomb ends up killing everyone in the area. All 12,000 of them]].

Galbraith slept through the day when doctor Baselard began that fateful operation, which is why the inspector did not have time to save Delia.