History Main / YouareTooLate

'''Natalie:''' Mmm... I don't think so. See, you're cute. You're clever. But your timing '''''sucks'''''. Your little trick ate up my whole day so instead of getting my hair done, I had to come straight to the buy. And guess what? My buyers are here. [She stops holding her hands up as 6 armed men enter the room]

!Examples:

[[folder: Anime]]
* ''Anime/DoraemonNobitaAndTheGreenGiantLegend'' ends with Doraemon and gang returning to earth from Planet Green, to stop Shirah's green nuke which [[spoiler:will turn earth into a [[ReclaimedByNature plant-covered wasteland]], with all living beings converted to non-sentient plants]], only to realize [[spoiler: they are way too late for that, with Tokyo - and the rest of the world - now covered in endless vegetation, trees and shrubs growing to the tip of the Tokyo Tower]]. But just then, [[spoiler: Gian sees an airplane frozen in mid-air thanks to the [[TimeStandsStill Stop Watch being prematurely activated]], and they still have a chance to undo the nuke's effects before deactivating the watch]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII'': Desmond and company unlock the Grand Temple, only to have Minerva show up and tell them that they screwed up her original plan, wasting centuries in the fight between the Assassins and Templars instead of developing the technology left behind by the First Civilization, and now it's too late to stop the impending solar flare. Juno manipulated Minerva's plans to cause this situation to happen, precisely so that she could offer an alternative: [[spoiler:sacrifice Desmond's life in exchange for salvation -- and release Juno to take her revenge on the Earth]].
* The Main Quest of ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'' revolves around recovering the Amulet of Kings so the last of the Septim line, Martin, can relight the Dragonfires to maintain the barrier keeping the daedra from invading Tamriel. Unfortunately, nearly every step in this involves you arriving too late.
* In the ''Lonesome Road'' {{DLC}} for ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', the [[PlayerCharacter Courier]] reaches Ulysses after he has already input the launch codes for the nuclear missiles and they are getting ready to fire at the NCR. At that point, all you can do is either redirect the missiles' destination, or allow your RobotBuddy, ED-E, to stop the launch via HeroicSacrifice.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' - Not only does [[IdiotHero Ramza]] never show up in time to make any difference (except [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu punch out some demons]]), he is played for a UnwittingPawn for most of the game. (Okay, so he's eventually VindicatedByHistory, but that's ''centuries'' down the road.)
** There is one exception: At Fort Besselat, he floods the battlefield, essentially [[spoiler:stopping the Lion War as it reached its peak]]. He also would have probably succeeded in rescuing Orlandeau even if Delita hadn't [[spoiler:staged that execution]]. Before that, he spirits both the Virgo Stone & the Germonic Scriptures away before the Knights Templar can get their hands on them. Granted, they eventually [[spoiler:get them anyway]], but he still shows up JUST in time to thwart the BigBad. Whether or not he managed to [[spoiler:save his sister]] is a matter of debate.
** While Ramza fails to stop the corrupt church or the machinations of his childhood friend turned evil Delita, he does arrive in time to deal with a much worse threat, in the form of the Fallen Angel Ultima.
* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'':
** In ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved'''s fifth level, Cortana sends the player to stop an [[ZombieApocalypse outbreak]] of [[NotUsingTheZWord the Flood]], "before it's too late!". Turns out it is, and the only way to stop them from spreading out into the galaxy is to destroy the titular fortress world along with any human survivors still on it.
** In the ''VideoGame/Halo3'' level "The Covenant", Johnson is captured to be used to activate the array. Master Chief is a bit too far away, so Miranda goes in after him. They almost sacrifice themselves, but Truth kills Keyes before she can carry it out, then activates the rings. MC and the Arbiter, with the EnemyMine help of the Flood, arrive JustInTime to deactivate them.
** In ''VideoGame/Halo4'', [[spoiler:Chief and Cortana have to drop several layers of shields surrounding the Didact and attack him with a nuke, before he turns the Composer on earth, converting its citizens into enslaved AI soldiers. You succeed in dropping the shields... but the Didact simply says "And yet, ''still'' you fail", before firing the device. The epilogue shows that an entire city was harvested.]]
* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' - Master Xehanort has manipulated the three protagonists to all arrive at the Keyblade Graveyard and get literally [[CurbstompBattle owned]] by him and Vanitas. [[spoiler:Terra]] suffers a GrandTheftMe, thereby explaining why Xehanort looks the way he does in the flashbacks of ''Kingdom Hearts II''; [[spoiler:Ventus's]] heart is split in twain after his BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind with Vanitas, leaving his body a comatose shell, and [[spoiler:Aqua]] is trapped in the Realm of Darkness for a decade after hiding her friend's comatose body in the Chamber of Repose at the heart of Castle Oblivion. All these high prices to pay for a mere decade's delay to Xehanort's plan to plunge the universe into darkness.
** In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'', [[spoiler:Aqua is struck by a darkness attack from Ansem, Seeker of Darkness. Combined with the effects of the Realm of Darkness in the Dark Margin, losing her Keyblade, and her despair at ever getting out, Aqua becomes vulnerable to TheCorruption and became a dark version of herself, her despair manifesting as anger, bitterness, hatred, and malice against Mickey and Riku for leaving her stranded in the Dark Margin for well over a decade]].
--->[[spoiler:'''Aqua:''' ''[uncloaking herself from shadow to reveal [[TheCorruption white hair and gold eyes]]]'' Mickey... you're too late.]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Lorelai}}:'' Lorelai manages to kill her evil stepfather and stop him from getting away with his crimes, but she arrives too late to save Bethany (her baby sister) and Zack (her possible love interest) from being murdered by him, who were basically the last two living people she cared about. She also dies by MutualKill in the process. [[spoiler: However, if the player has the made the right choices along the way and connects some dots in the afterlife, they'll actually find a way to resurrect Bethany and Zack, which leads to a surprise happy ending. Of course, it's also possible for the sad ending to stick, with only Lorelai reviving in the end and moving on alone.]]
* In ''VideoGame/MegaManZero4'', Zero arrives at the final boss barely in time (which is an improvement over his usual tardiness; see below) to stop the destruction of the last good land on Earth... [[spoiler:but must sacrifice any chance at escape for himself.]]
* The endgame of ''VideoGame/MirrorsEdgeCatalyst'': Faith’s friend is kidnapped by the main villain and in the process of rescuing him she discovers not only the secret underground lab where he’s held, but learns the true goal of Kruger’s schemes [[spoiler:(a mind-control/AssimilationPlot via nanites)]] and acquires the means to end them permanently (a former right-hand employee who’d been discarded and imprisoned there), neither of which she would’ve ever acquired if he hadn’t abducted her associate and forced her to go looking for him. But the mission she was actually there to achieve and the only thing she cared about, [[spoiler:saving Noah]], she was genuinely and irreparably too late for. [[spoiler:His captors give up on their attempts at [[ColdBloodedTorture breaking him]] not even a minute after she gets there and has him tortured to death right in front of her]], sending Faith head first into a near DespairEventHorizon.
* In ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare2'', you hear your commanding officer yell at you over the radio that General Shepherd has set you up and should not be trusted. You get the memo shortly '''after''' Shepherd shoots you and your team mate, Ghost, in the chest, and has his goons soak your bodies in kerosene and set you on fire. Thankfully, Soap and Price decide to take him out for good.
** Still, at the end of the game Soap and Price are wanted as traitors with no real way to clear their names, the Americans have repelled the Russian invasion but at the cost of many civilian deaths and the eastern seaboard heavily damaged by an EMP, Makarov escaped, and World War III is just getting underway.
* ''VideoGame/Persona3''. The party is the UnwittingPawn that, about halfway in, allows the BigBad to summon the EldritchAbomination, and find out three-thirds down the story that they've been too late to stop it ever since. They nonetheless manage to prevent the Abomination from destroying humanity, [[spoiler:though the main character dies in the process of doing it.]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Splatterhouse}}'': In the first game, Rick finds out that he didn't have enough time to [[spoiler:prevent Jennifer from becoming a TragicMonster... but he has more than enough for a RoaringRampageOfRevenge]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* In ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'', the heroes race to stop Othinus from completing her spear Gungnir which will allow her to master her powers, only to arrive just as she's completed it. Afterwards, Touma is put through a living hell where he's curb-stomped by her repeatedly, but he manages to stop her by convincing her to pull a HeelFaceTurn.
* The characters of ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'' responded to Chao's preperations by using the [[TimeMachine time-traveling watch]] she'd given them to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong despite the item being powered only within the few days of the SchoolFestival thanks to the WorldTree's [[PlaceOfPower magic]]. After that it was purely a matter of thinking on their feet and hoping for a good outcome.
** Bonus points for being too late ''because'' of said time machine, which was rigged to send them into [[BadFuture after she had won]].
* The Alabasta arc in ''Manga/OnePiece'' has the initial objective of the Straw Hats and Princess Vivi to stop Crocodile before he instigates the civil war between the royal army and the rebels which he manufactured to take over the kingdom. When that ends up failing, they revert to the goal of reaching the rebel leader (whom Vivi knows) to convince him to stop. However Crocodile was prepared for that too and prevents it with the war going on as planned. After which the two goals now are to stop Crocodile ''and'' find the rebel leader to stop the war from progressing further.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* In the chess game chapter of ''VideoGame/AmericanMcGeesAlice'', Alice has to go to Red territory to rescue the White Queen (like in an actual chess game, the Queen is the strongest piece, meaning that the benign White forces are doomed without her). But Alice arrives too late; the Queen is executed just as she arrives. Alice has to battle the Red army and defeat the Red King (the stage boss) at the Twelfth Square, and finally, set the Pawn she brought as her guide. As per the rules of chess, the Queen is restored via Twelfth Square Pawn Promotion, and the area is cleared.
* Happens in the final mission of ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty4ModernWarfare''. The SAS team plus Sgt. Griggs has met up with an American sniper team and is about to enter the nuclear launch facility to take down the BigBad, only to watch in surprise and horror as two [=ICBMs=] lift off right in front of them. The new mission objective is to find fire control and input abort codes that will disarm the missiles in mid-flight.
* In ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert 1'', Stalin has a nuclear facility, and it is unknown whether any atomic bomb has been armed yet. Naturally, some of them are, in time for them to be launched ''during'' the mission. Next mission: infiltrate the command centre, deactivate the bombs in flight.
* In ''VideoGame/DiabloII'', Mephisto taunts you by yelling "You're too late!" as he starts to attack you. He's correct; you're one step behind everything that happens involving the Prime Evils in the game and are basically cleaning up their messes.
* The final act of ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'' has [[spoiler:Diablo as the Prime Evil [[HellInvadesHeaven unleashed upon the High Heavens]], making his way toward the Silver Spire to corrupt the Crystal Arch to plunge both the Heavens and Sanctuary into darkness forever. Along the way, he [[IShallTauntYou taunts you]] with how "you are too late, just as you always have been!" And indeed, when you finally confront Diablo, he has already reached the Arch and begun corrupting it. But unlike some of the other Diablo examples below, you are able to stop him from doing any lasting harm to the Arch. Hopefully]].
* Just about all the endings of the original ''VideoGame/{{Drakengard}}''. The canonical one plays it straightest: You're too late to stop Furiae's death and the breaking of the last seal, and have to stop Manah's [[AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever final form]] single-handedly. The other endings are ''some'' variant of this as well (usually involving being too late to stop Furiae from kicking the bucket somehow), but with copious amounts of MindScrew thrown into the mix.
* The finale of the main campaign of ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion''. The original plan to relight the Dragonfires to keep the forces of Mehrunes Dagon at bay is rendered moot when Mehrunes Dagon and his army finally break through and appear in the capital. In the end, Martin Septim shatters the Amulet of Kings and sacrifices himself to become an avatar of the dragon god Akatosh and banishes Mehrunes Dagon back to Oblivion. Sadly, Martin does not survive the ordeal.
* In ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' games:
** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'', you are too late to save Zelda from being sent into the DarkWorld, forcing you to venture into it yourself to save both her and the other maidens.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'': "The truth of it is you were late. You were late, and you failed to protect Her Grace."
** ''VideoGame/HyruleWarriors'': The first time you start the Termina Map, there's only three hours remaining before the Moon crashes. You don't have nearly enough time to make any real progress, so the Moon will crash and reset the map. Fortunately, after this, you are given a 72-hour cycle to work with.
* The entire first half of ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam''. They go to get the Dream Stone to stop the villains getting it, but Bowser and Antasma get there first and take it anyway. They go to stop their plan on Mount Pajamaja, the villains succeed in putting the world to sleep, powering up the Stone and using it to conquer the island/world. They try and save Peach by hiding her in the Dream World... and they fail again, because Bowser was savvy enough to switch her out for a decoy while they were hiding from the Dream Beats. The rest of the story is the heroes coming up with a new plan to make up for the first half.
* In ''VideoGame/Onimusha2SamuraisDestiny'', when Jubei finally confronts DemonKingNobunaga, Nobunaga immediately tells Jubei that he is too late and that Nobunaga has completed the final step of his plan, animating a giant golden statue. (Considering that you could only learn of this plan through a couple of notes left laying around, players who either didn't find or pay attention to these notes could conceivably have no idea what Nobunaga is talking about). Fortunately Jubei gets an EleventhHourSuperpower from the {{MacGuffin}}s he has been collecting, enabling him to take Nobunaga down in a not terribly difficult boss fight.
* In ''VideoGame/Persona5'', midway through the Hierophant Confidant, Youji Isshiki will threaten to report the protagonist to the police for attacking him, despite the fact that Youji fell down while trying to hit Futaba. The protagonist and Futaba go to Mementos by themselves to [[HeelFaceBrainwashing change Youji's heart]], but on the next event, it turns out that Youji already filed his report, and two social workers show up to investigate the incident, and determine whether Sojiro is adequately taking care of Futaba. Luckily, they're reasonable enough to realize that Youji's report was a lie, and neither Sojiro nor the protagonist did anything wrong.
* In ''VideoGame/StarGagnant'', after [[BigBad VILLAN]] is defeated, he reveals with his dying words that it's too late and the Master Core will continue to evolve and destroy the Earth. The player then fights and destroys the actual FinalBoss: The Master Core itself.
* In ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'', the sixth chapter fits perfectly. Sammer's Kingdom is consumed by the Void before the party can reach the Pure Heart. Then the heroes venture into the white void that's all that's left of the Kingdom, and recover the Pure Heart... though it's been [[TakenForGranite turned to stone]] and isn't restored until some time later. And the Kingdom is restored at the end of the game.
* In an early quest for a Forsaken character in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', the player is told by Sylvanas to find and slay Lord Crowley in order to convert him, a task that, if successful, would assimilate all of Gilneas into the Forsaken and into the Horde, while disposing of competition to her lands. Unfortunately, Crowley and most of his subordinates have made a deal with the Worgen, joining them for mutual protection. (Worgen cannot become undead, and while this was a MortonsFork for Crowley, he saw it as a preferable one). The player arrives just as the ritual is finalized, and cannot do much except flee. (The player's goal is, of course, DoomedByCanon.) Sylvanas is forced to use an alternative strategy to oppose Crowley, eventually kidnapping his daughter and using extortion to get him to leave.
[[/folder]]

!!The villain's plan is his own undoing:

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Manga/{{Claymore}}'': Riful arrives to kill Easley after a battle against Luciella who left him on the verge of death. However Easley reveals [[spoiler: his partner and claims that "it's too late. Nobody can kill Priscilla now."]] The couple is finally defeated [[spoiler:no sooner than seven years later each on their own because Easley had sent Priscilla away.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* So far in ''VideoGame/AdventureQuestWorlds'', the hero always arrives too late to stop the Chaos Lords from summoning their respective [[SealedEvilInACan Chaos Beasts]] and breaking one of Drakath's seals (in one case, he/she actually gave the item sought by the first lord of chaos, Escherion, to him so he could use it to free the Lake Hydra, and in another, Discordia was actually a fake Chaos Lord so he didn't have his own Chaos Beast - the real Chaos Lord, Kimberly, on the other hand, used her power of rock to send him/her back in time where her Pony Gary Yellow was enlarged and brought to life). He/she defeats the Chaos Beasts anyway, though.
* ''VideoGame/DeadRising''. Carlito dies if you continue the main storyline, but he has already destroyed one American city and has planted walking [[ZombieInfectee children zombie bombs]] with host families all over the country.
* The third ending of ''VideoGame/{{Drakengard}}''. Manah gets the closest to succeeding in her plan -- only to get defeated by the dragons, who suddenly decide that enough is enough and that [[KillAllHumans humanity has to die]] before they end up dooming the world.
* Basically the plot of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV''. Exdeath continues his winning streak right up until he is [[HoistByHisOwnPetard consumed by the Void he was trying to control]]. ''Then'' the heroes beat him.
* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'', Link's first serious task is to free the [[WiseTree Great Deku Tree]] from a potentially fatal curse. While Link kills the boss that was the source of the curse, the Deku Tree was doomed before Link even started. The Deku Tree knew this all along, he just decided to make the best of a bad situation by getting Link started on his quest. It's later revealed that the Deku Tree reincarnated seven years later.
[[/folder]]

!!The villain's plan was out-gambitted by the heroes:

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* The rule of thumb when fighting [[AntiHero Lelouch]] [[MagnificentBastard Lamperouge]] from ''Franchise/CodeGeass'': when he contacts you first, you have probably already been screwed up three times over by him without noticing it. Depending on the circumstances or how you interpret his character, however, he may either belong here or in the fifth kind.
* The ending of ''Manga/DeathNote'', where it turns out that [[spoiler:Near had already replaced Mikami's Death Note with fake]] before the final confrontation happened.
* This was parodied on Website/FourChan when a certain [[Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar martial artist]] explained to [[spoiler:Veidt]] [[YouAreAlreadyDead "I killed you and your plans thirty five minutes ago."]]
%% Isn't this, like, every ''Manga/LiarGame'' major arc, ever?
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* In ''VideoGame/GodOfWarPS4'', after [[BigBad Baldur]] kidnaps Atreus and escapes to the Temple of Tyr, Kratos arrives a second too late to stop him from starting the opening sequence for the Bifrost Bridge, which has been locked to Asgard. Aware that he can't stop the Bridge from opening, [[IndyPloy Kratos takes his chances and opens the Bridge early]], which sends everyone present deep into Helheim and buys Kratos and Atreus enough time to get away from Baldur while they search for a way out.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* DoublySubverted during the eclipse in ''Manga/{{Berserk}}''. Skull Knight pops in and saves Guts and Casca right before Griffith can pull the CoupDeGrace on them. However, by this time, both had suffered a FateWorseThanDeath, and afterward the God Hand declared that they were going to bring forth an age of darkness.
* The death of L and Watari in ''Manga/DeathNote''. The evidence to prove that Light is Kira has finally been found and then Rem kills them. The good guys win in the end, anyway, though.
* In ''Manga/{{Devilman}}'', this has happened to Akira Fudo several times. The biggest downer is the [[spoiler:death of his LoveInterest Miki Makimura]] murdered by a lynch mob, to the point he killed all of those involved. The series ends with one of the biggest {{Downer Ending}}s in manga history.
* ''Manga/FairyTail'': [[spoiler:Despite Erza and [[HeelFaceTurn Minerva]] killing Kyouka, it wasn't in time to stop Face as she forcefully finished the countdown sequence. Fortunately Grandeeney and three fellow Dragons were able to destroy all but a few of Face's 3000 pillars, saving Fiore from becoming a magicless land.]]
* Dio in the first arc of ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure''. Although he seemingly [[TakingYouWithMe dies along with Jonathan]], he comes back for an epic sequel in Part 3. And he isn't just alive - he successfully replaced his destroyed body with Jonathan's, meaning that he accomplished exactly what he was trying to do.
* The heroes of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam0083StardustMemory'' are dogged by this trope, between being unable to [[NukeEm stop the nuke from being fired successfully]] to failing to prevent a ColonyDrop.
** Even worse, [[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam Jamitov Hymem and Bask Ohm use the entire incident as justification for the formation of the Titans]]. Everyone losses.
* In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeedDestiny'', the heroes uncover a plot to ColonyDrop the remains of Junius 7 onto Earth. Though they fight heroically to prevent it, they got there way too late, and it causes massive damage to a large portion of the world and reignites the war from the [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeed last series]].
* Played straight in ''[[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion End of Evangelion]]'', where Shinji arrives too late to save Asuka from being eaten alive, and as a result, gets to see the remains of her Evangelion Unit-02 being thrown on the ground. He is subsequently crucified by the MP [=EVAs=].
** Subverted in the Manga version, where Shinji ''does'' arrive in time to save Asuka from being eaten alive. He still gets crucified, though, and this time both Shinji and EVA-01 get giant holes in their hands.
*** And played with in ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion 2.22'', where Kaworu arrives too late to prevent Shinji from initiating Third Impact and thus the end of the world, but arrives just in time to stop Shinji from letting it progress too far. Apparently, though, an alien piloting a giant alien in robot armor is able to throw a spear from above planetary orbit...
* While pretty much all the protagonists and side characters in the entire ''Manga/{{Planetes}}'' series are trying to prevent the Space Defence Force's attempt to crash an experimental space ship into the largest city on the moon, all their efforts end up failing when the SDF averts the crash themselves when their demands are met. And since unlike their methods, their demands were fairly reasonable (dividing space's resources among countries based on their population instead of how much contribution they paid the NATO-{{Expy}}, the end result isn't all that bad.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* In ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'', Ezio arrives at [[spoiler:the Doge's palace too late to stop Carlo Grimaldi poisoning him, and though the Templar is killed, the Doge dies anyway and another Templar, Marco Barbarigo, is installed as the new Doge]]. For now, anyway.
* In ''VideoGame/BaldursGateIIThroneOfBhaal'', you are too late to prevent Yaga-Shura from burning down Saradush and slaughtering its inhabitants. At least you get to add him and his army to the tally of people killed during the siege shortly afterwards.
* Subverted in ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'', in that you arrive too late to prevent Marle from being deleted from the timeline, but you are JustInTime to prevent the event that deletes her. [[Series/DoctorWho I hate time travel.]]
** Played straight if you get killed by Lavos, who continues in his [[ApocalypseHow near-destruction of the planet]], and text displays on the screen reading "[[YouCantFightFate But the future refused to change]]."
* ''Diablo'':
** In [[VideoGame/{{Diablo}} the first game]], when you finally confront the Archbishop Lazarus, he informs you that you are too late to save the child -- perhaps redundantly, as the child in question is present and quite visibly dead, having been used as a HumanSacrifice. The realization that the child ''isn't'' the kidnapped Prince Albrecht you're looking for provides a HopeSpot [[spoiler:until eventually you defeat Diablo himself, revealing that he was possessing the Prince to take physical form. Due to a bit of MoreThanMindControl, your character then decides it would be a brilliant idea to contain Diablo's soul in their own body, and jams the [[SoulJar Soulstone]] into their head, eventually becoming the Dark Wanderer and Diablo's FinalBoss incarnation in the sequel]].
** [[VideoGame/DiabloII The second game]] features the player trying to chase down Baal and the Dark Wanderer, respectively, Acts II and III both end on this note. Duriel, the Act II boss, taunts you saying:
--->"Looking for Baal?"
** Mephisto points this out as well when you confront him at the end of Act III:
--->"You're too late! [[EvilLaugh Ahahahahaha!]]"
** It happens again -- twice -- in the Lord of Destruction expansion. You have to stop Baal from getting to the Worldstone or all is lost. First, you fail to stop [[TheQuisling Nihlathak]] from handing over the Relic of the Ancients to Baal so he can bypass the Ancients and get to the Worldstone Keep because he's already handed it over by the time you reach him. Then you battle and defeat Baal, only to learn after defeating him that he's already corrupted the Worldstone, forcing Tyrael to destroy it to keep humanity from being enslaved by Hell (although given the [[RestrainingBolt Worldstone's true purpose]], this inadvertently sets up the happiest ending in the series).
* In ''VideoGame/DivineDivinity'', the final quest is [[spoiler: stopping the Demon of Lies from releasing the Lord of Chaos in the world of Rivellon. No matter how fast you are, you can't stop the ritual and the Demon of Lies will taunt you with these exact words.]]
* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIX'' sets you on a quest to stop a magical contagion with the aid of Dr. Phlegming. Everyone afflicted by the contagion becomes perfectly healthy once the heroes seal the curse...save for Dr. Phlegming's wife, Catarrhina, who passes away while the heroes and her husband are off to stop the contagion.
* The third level of ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness''. Anthony is corrupted by the evil magical scroll intended for Charlemagne, and he [[BodyHorror slowly becomes more and more zombified]] as you progress through the level, desperately trying to find Charlemagne and warn him that conspirators want him dead. At the end of the level, Anthony staggers into a room to find two of the evil monks standing over the king's corpse, slumped in a chair. Really, ''Eternal Darkness'' features a few examples of this sort of thing, but Anthony's is probably the best one.
* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy''. Constantly.
** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'', you arrive too late to prevent [[spoiler:Anna's death]]. And [[spoiler:Golbez from collecting the crystals]]. And [[spoiler:the summoning of the Giant of Bab-il]]. [=FF4=] is quite full of fail on the part of the heroes.
** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'', you arrive too late to prevent [[spoiler:[[ApocalypseHow the end of the universe]] but the universe reboots.]]
** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'', you arrive too late to prevent the poisoning of Doma. And [[spoiler:TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.]]
** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', you arrive too late to give Yuffie what-for because she's already been kidnapped. Or to save [[spoiler:Aeris]], or to save Sector 7, or to save Cloud's hometown, or (possibly) to save humanity from Meteor and/or Holy, or...
** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'' you are too late to prevent [[spoiler:Brahne's attack on Lindblum]].
** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'', you arrive too late to prevent [[spoiler:St. Ajora's resurrection.]]
* In ''VideoGame/TheGodfather'' game, you arrive too late to prevent [[spoiler:Sonny's death]] and can only avenge him by fighting his killers and finding the man responsible.
** And earlier on, you also fail to prevent [[spoiler:your girlfriend's death]]. But like the previous example, you also have to find and kill the responsible.
* ''VideoGame/GuildWars2'' has Scarlet Briar invoke this trope with her dying breath. The players killed her, but she still succeeded in her goal of rupturing a leyline to wake the sixth Elder Dragon.
-->'''Scarlet''': You fools. You think my death... saves you? Too... late...
* ''VideoGame/JudgeDreddDreddVsDeath'': Judge Dredd attacks the Death Cult's hide-out at the docks to stop the resurrection of the Dark Judges, but their leader has already completed the ritual giving them physical bodies and taunts Dredd thus. The monsters escape, but the player can [[ShutUpHannibal still shoot Death's priest]].
* This can (and a lot of the time will) happen in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask''. Because every event in the game is on a timer very often Link will find himself unable to stop Sakon getting away, not being able to stop aliens stealing the ranch's cattle and in the worst case failing to stop the moon colliding into Termina and eradicating all life. It can be a severe PlayerPunch to rush to an event in progress only to be too late to intervene.
* ''VideoGame/MasterOfMagic'' intro [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMNk-YlpuBo movie]]. Non-villainous example, but still:
-->'''Tauron:''' Old man! You seek the spell of mastery!\\
'''Merlin:''' You have come too late... my work has already met with success.\\
'''Tauron:''' If that is the truth... then your work must stop.\\
([[HilarityEnsues large fireworks ensue]])
* In ''VideoGame/MegaManZero'' the title character is exceptionally bad at this. In ''Zero 2'' he chases Elpizo during the failed attack on Neo Arcadia to save him, only to find the Four Guardians standing over his body. Later in the same game he is again chasing Elpizo, [[spoiler:this time to stop him from killing X. He arrives just in time to watch Elpizo destroy his friend's body]]. In ''Zero 3'' he tries to stop a missile from destroying a human inhabited part of Neo Arcadia...doesn't quite make it in time. And in ''Zero 4'' he is standing at the boss door when Ragnarok fires, destroying Neo Arcadia.
** Of course, this does make the vengeance a bit sweeter when you beat the boss in question.
* The rule of thumb of ''anything'' concerning [[TheChessmaster Revolver]] [[MagnificentBastard Ocelot]] of the ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' series, the moment you're even minorly involved, you're helping his plans along and you won't know it even if you could read minds. Old Snake stopped Ocelot and prevented JD's nuking, but [[MindScrew since it is Ocelot]], it was either part of the plan or he had a contingency for such an occassion. In the end, your ultimate goal is achieved, which is to say you accomplished Ocelot's objective, which is to liberate the world from [[AIIsACrapshoot The Patriots']] control.
* In ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'', the climax of the U.S. assault on the unnamed Middle Eastern country occurs when the player's marine squad fail to find Al-Asad in the broadcast center, while a simultaneous attack by SEAL Team 6 has found a live nuclear bomb in his palace. An epic scene ensues when every unit still in the city scrambles to make it onto helicopters and out of the blast radius, but the SEAL team fails to defuse the bomb and the player's heli is knocked out of the air by the blast wave.
** Also, the next level has you crawling around in the aftermath of the nuke. [[TearJerker Then you die]].
* In one sidequest of ''VideoGame/OriAndTheWillOfTheWisps'', a Moki father who has just arrived in Wellspring Glades sends Ori to check on his family back in the Silent Woods. Unfortunately, by the time Ori arrives, TheCorruption has already [[TakenForGranite turned them to stone]], and upon hearing the news, [[DrivenToSuicide he returns home to be petrified]] [[TogetherInDeath alongside them]].
* Stocke of ''VideoGame/RadiantHistoria'' often finds himself in this situation, considering that the game is one long chain of SettingRightWhatOnceWentWrong across [[AlternateTimeline two different timelines]].
* In ''VideoGame/RainbowSixVegas2'''s Act 3-2, Bishop's squad arrives too late to prevent the detonation of the [[DeadlyGas gas]] [[TimeBomb bomb]] in the Arena, and all you can do is listen to the screams of the dying hostages behind the locked door.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Rift}}'', the Defiant player characters are too late to stop Regulos thanks to the Guardians smashing the Defiants' capital city to tiny bits. The player character is simply buying enough time to get themselves to a time machine that will give them a chance to make sure the BadFuture they're in never starts. They succeed but mere moments after stepping through all of Regulos' minions slaughter the remaining Defiant stronghold since they had to power down their defenses in order to give the time machine enough juice.
* [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] in ''VideoGame/ScrapMetalHeroes'' with Mobius' plan to overthrow humanity by controlling the world's robots with a computer virus. When you confront him in the final mission, he states that the process of uploading the virus has already started. While you do defeat him and stop him from overthrowing humanity, the computer virus launches anyway, halting most of the world's robots and throwing the world economy into chaos.
* Can be averted in ''VisualNovel/ShinraiBrokenBeyondDespair'', when the group rushes to the basement to [[spoiler:try to save Kotoba]]. If you make even one mistake, you will take too long and [[spoiler:Kotoba will die]]. If, however, you make all the right choices, [[spoiler:Kotoba will barely pull through]], and you'll earn an achievement.
* ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' has a nasty one on the Consular's arc. A senator is captured from your ship. Your MadScientist companion and his holographic assistant do an epic job of tracking the kidnapper's location. Crippling his ship, you and the Senator's daughter (and, at that point, unofficial Padawan) burst in as a pair of lightsaber-packing BigDamnHeroes. Not only are you too late to save your Padawan's daddy, but the kidnapper is a Sith so screwed up and broken he can't recall his own ''name,'' and the BigBad leaves him a broken and babbling wreck on the floor once he's [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness expended his use]]. So, the Senator's dead, you get no useful information from the kidnapper, and your pupil commits a Dark Side act by killing what's left of daddy's murderer before you can stop her.
* Can cause a NonStandardGameOver in ''VisualNovel/TheUncleWhoWorksForNintendo'' if the player waits too long to call for a ride home. [[spoiler: Their mother takes at least an hour to arrive, and the titular uncle arrives at midnight to devour the player, so if they haven't called their mother by 11:00 pm, they're in for a world of hurt.]]
* When the teens in ''VideoGame/UntilDawn'' realize the danger they're in, they call the forest rangers. Naturally, they can't arrive [[TitleDrop until dawn]], when the storm lets up. When they finally do, ''every'' threat has already been neutralized in some way or another. Depending on [[AnyoneCanDie how many of the kids survived]], the rangers might not have anything to do but put out a fire.
* The ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' VideoGame shows this quite often:
** [[spoiler:Rorschach and Night Owl come to stop a jail break, the guy escaped 5 minutes before they could get there. Also the power comes on and Dr. Manhattan arrives too late.]]
** [[spoiler:They arrive to late to save the FBI agent from revealing where he was to meet the reporters on the Watergate scandal.]]
** [[spoiler:They try to save Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein from being killed, they are already dead when they arrive.]]
** [[spoiler:They go to save Violet Greene from the sex trade, they already have her convinced to stay when they finally arrive]].
* ''VideoGame/{{Wizard 101}}'' has a few cases of this trope, for the Malistaire arc this is the case for three of the five worlds involved. But a truely shocking one happen for the chapter where the player explores [[spoiler:Azteca]] and completely fails to stop the villain. The villain succeeds in destroying [[spoiler:Azteca]] with a {{co|lonyDrop}}met resulting in the deaths most of its inhabitants.
[[/folder]]

* Comedic example: In an episode of ''WebVideo/HeyAshWhatchaPlayin'', Ashley declares that she's going to poop in Anthony's bed while he's playing ''VideoGame/GuitarHero''. Anthony tries to pause the game and stop her, but it turns out that she broke the pause button earlier. By the time he finishes playing... well, I'll let the dialogue speak for itself.
-->'''Ashley:''' You're too late! Enjoy the poop!\\
'''Anthony:''' [[spoiler:...this is your room.]]\\
'''Ashley:''' ...[[BigNo NOOOOOOO-]]\\
''(Cut to the credits screen))''

* 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 ''Literature/DebtOfHonor'', Clark and Chavez arrive too late to [[spoiler:extract Kimberly Norton, only managing to find her raped and murdered corpse]].
* In ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'', Van Helsing realizes it's too late to save Lucy from turning into a vampire when the bite wounds on her neck suddenly close up and heal on their own, her canines suddenly sprout fangs briefly followed by her uncharacteristically calling for Arthur to kiss her in a seductive tone.

* ''Literature/AlderaminOnTheSky'': Kanna Temari's unit occupies an abandoned Sinack fortress high in the mountains, only to then be cut off and surrounded. A runner manages to get out and request reinforcements, and Ikta Solork leads his company to the rescue... but is forced to stop his march halfway up the mountain to give his troops time to acclimate to the altitude, something no other Imperial unit in the theatre knew to do, Kanna's included. By the time Ikta reaches the fortress, the Sinack have broken back in and slaughtered the entire Imperial garrison to a man.

* 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.
* 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.
* 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]].
* An interesting example in ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': [[spoiler:Ruby succeeds in tricking Sam into releasing the Devil (at which point she is superfluous), and then Dean comes through the door.]]
-->'''Demon:''' You're too late!\\
'''Dean:''' I don't care. ''[stabs the demon]''

* 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.
* This is basically how ''Series/FlashForward2009'' ended; the protagonists were too late to prevent the second blackout and all the disastrous effects of the first one can be considered to have been repeated (although they ''were'' in time to broadcast a warning that probably saved millions of lives). Since [[CutShort the show was cancelled and the writers didn't have time to resolve the story]], this probably would ultimately have turned into an example of 2, 3, or 4, but as it stands we have no idea what was supposed to happen.
* ''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 the ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' campaign "Tyrant's Grasp"[[note]]the last published Adventure Path to use the 1st Edition ruleset[[/note]], the adventurers learn that the [[BigBad Whispering Tyrant]] has a magical superweapon called the [[FantasticNuke Radiant Fire]], and his most likely next target is the city of Vigil which houses the last remaining seal keeping him imprisoned. By the time the party gathers enough proof of the Radiant Fire's existence for the civic leaders to justify a full evacuation, the Tyrant unleashes it on Vigil and kills many thousands of people, setting himself free to wreak havoc on the world while turning the city into a blasted urban wasteland filled with undead.[[note]]It should still be noted that if the party is successful in convincing the leaders to at least consider the Radiant Fire a credible threat, then they manage to protect and evacuate most of the survivors.[[/note]]

* In ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'', the climax of the U.S. assault on the unnamed Middle Eastern country occurs when the player's marine squad fail to find Al-Asad in the broadcast center, while a simultaneous attack by SEAL Team 6 has found a live nuclear bomb in his palace. An epic scene ensues when every unit still in the city scrambles to make it onto helicopters and out of the blast radius, but the SEAL team fails to defuse the bomb and the player's heli is knocked out of the air by the blast wave.
** Also, the next level has you crawling around in the aftermath of the nuke. [[TearJerker Then you die]].

* ''VideoGame/MasterOfMagic'' intro [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMNk-YlpuBo movie]]. Non-villainous example, but still:
-->'''Tauron:''' Old man! You seek the spell of mastery!\\
'''Merlin:''' You have come too late... my work has already met with success.\\
'''Tauron:''' If that is the truth... then your work must stop.\\
([[HilarityEnsues large fireworks ensue]])
* In ''VideoGame/TheGodfather'' game, you arrive too late to prevent [[spoiler:Sonny's death]] and can only avenge him by fighting his killers and finding the man responsible.
** And earlier on, you also fail to prevent [[spoiler:your girlfriend's death]]. But like the previous example, you also have to find and kill the responsible.
* This can (and a lot of the time will) happen in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask''. Because every event in the game is on a timer very often Link will find himself unable to stop Sakon getting away, not being able to stop aliens stealing the ranch's cattle and in the worst case failing to stop the moon colliding into Termina and eradicating all life. It can be a severe PlayerPunch to rush to an event in progress only to be too late to intervene.

* Subverted in ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'', in that you arrive too late to prevent Marle from being deleted from the timeline, but you are JustInTime to prevent the event that deletes her. [[Series/DoctorWho I hate time travel.]]
** Played straight if you get killed by Lavos, who continues in his [[ApocalypseHow near-destruction of the planet]], and text displays on the screen reading "[[YouCantFightFate But the future refused to change]]."
* In ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'', Ezio arrives at [[spoiler:the Doge's palace too late to stop Carlo Grimaldi poisoning him, and though the Templar is killed, the Doge dies anyway and another Templar, Marco Barbarigo, is installed as the new Doge]]. For now anyway.
* The third level of ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness''. Anthony is corrupted by the evil magical scroll intended for Charlemagne, and he [[BodyHorror slowly becomes more and more zombified]] as you progress through the level, desperately trying to find Charlemagne and warn him that conspirators want him dead. At the end of the level, Anthony staggers into a room to find two of the evil monks standing over the king's corpse, slumped in a chair. Really, ''Eternal Darkness'' features a few examples of this sort of thing, but Anthony's is probably the best one.
* In ''VideoGame/BaldursGateIIThroneOfBhaal'', you are too late to prevent Yaga-Shura from burning down Saradush and slaughtering its inhabitants. At least you get to add him and his army to the tally of people killed during the siege shortly afterwards.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Rift}}'', the Defiant player characters are too late to stop Regulos thanks to the Guardians smashing the Defiants' capital city to tiny bits. The player character is simply buying enough time to get themselves to a time machine that will give them a chance to make sure the BadFuture they're in never starts. They succeed but mere moments after stepping through all of Regulos' minions slaughter the remaining Defiant stronghold since they had to power down their defenses in order to give the time machine enough juice.

* ''VideoGame/{{Wizard 101}}'' has a few cases of this trope, for the Malistaire arc this is the case for three of the five worlds involved. But a truely shocking one happen for the chapter where the player explores [[spoiler:Azteca]] and completely fails to stop the villain. The villain succeeds in destroying [[spoiler:Azteca]] with a {{co|lonyDrop}}met resulting in the deaths most of its inhabitants.
* ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' has a nasty one on the Consular's arc. A senator is captured from your ship. Your MadScientist companion and his holographic assistant do an epic job of tracking the kidnapper's location. Crippling his ship, you and the Senator's daughter (and, at that point, unofficial Padawan) burst in as a pair of lightsaber-packing BigDamnHeroes. Not only are you too late to save your Padawan's daddy, but the kidnapper is a Sith so screwed up and broken he can't recall his own ''name,'' and the BigBad leaves him a broken and babbling wreck on the floor once he's [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness expended his use]]. So, the Senator's dead, you get no useful information from the kidnapper, and your pupil commits a Dark Side act by killing what's left of daddy's murderer before you can stop her.
* The ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' VideoGame shows this quite often:
** [[spoiler:Rorschach and Night Owl come to stop a jail break, the guy escaped 5 minutes before they could get there. Also the power comes on and Dr. Manhattan arrives too late.]]
** [[spoiler:They arrive to late to save the FBI agent from revealing where he was to meet the reporters on the Watergate scandal.]]
** [[spoiler:They try to save Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein from being killed, they are already dead when they arrive.]]
** [[spoiler:They go to save Violet Greene from the sex trade, they already have her convinced to stay when they finally arrive]].
* Stocke of ''VideoGame/RadiantHistoria'' often finds himself in this situation, considering that the game is one long chain of SettingRightWhatOnceWentWrong across [[AlternateTimeline two different timelines]].

* ''VideoGame/GuildWars2'' has Scarlet Briar invoke this trope with her dying breath. The players killed her, but she still succeeded in her goal of rupturing a leyline to wake the sixth Elder Dragon.
-->'''Scarlet''': You fools. You think my death... saves you? Too... late...
* ''VideoGame/JudgeDreddDreddVsDeath'': Judge Dredd attacks the Death Cult's hide-out at the docks to stop the resurrection of the Dark Judges, but their leader has already completed the ritual giving them physical bodies and taunts Dredd thus. The monsters escape, but the player can [[ShutUpHannibal still shoot Death's priest]].
* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIX'' sets you on a quest to stop a magical contagion with the aid of Dr. Phlegming. Everyone afflicted by the contagion becomes perfectly healthy once the heroes seal the curse...save for Dr. Phlegming's wife, Catarrhina, who passes away while the heroes and her husband are off to stop the contagion.

* When the teens in ''VideoGame/UntilDawn'' realize the danger they're in, they call the forest rangers. Naturally, they can't arrive [[TitleDrop until dawn]], when the storm lets up. When they finally do, ''every'' threat has already been neutralized in some way or another. Depending on [[AnyoneCanDie how many of the kids survived]], the rangers might not have anything to do but put out a fire.

* In one sidequest of ''VideoGame/OriAndTheWillOfTheWisps'', a Moki father who has just arrived in Wellspring Glades sends Ori to check on his family back in the Silent Woods. Unfortunately, by the time Ori arrives, TheCorruption has already [[TakenForGranite turned them to stone]], and upon hearing the news, [[DrivenToSuicide he returns home to be petrified]] [[TogetherInDeath alongside them]].
* In ''VideoGame/DivineDivinity'', the final quest is [[spoiler: stopping the Demon of Lies from releasing the Lord of Chaos in the world of Rivellon. No matter how fast you are, you can't stop the ritual and the Demon of Lies will taunt you with these exact words.]]
* [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] in ''VideoGame/ScrapMetalHeroes'' with Mobius' plan to overthrow humanity by controlling the world's robots with a computer virus. When you confront him in the final mission, he states that the process of uploading the virus has already started. While you do defeat him and stop him from overthrowing humanity, the computer virus launches anyway, halting most of the world's robots and throwing the world economy into chaos.

* ''Webcomic/BobAndGeorge'' [[http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/040223c Only a few moments too late]]
* The end of Act 5 in {{Webcomic/Homestuck}}. The first person to realize [[BatmanGambit what has happened]] is Rose, [[spoiler:in [S] Cascade. They already know something is wrong because they haven't found the Green Sun, but it takes her about five minutes of staring at The Tumor before she realizes what it is, and just seconds before it explodes and kills her and Dave the reader is given a close-up of her eyes widening.]]
* ''Webcomic/{{Scurry}}'':
** Pict finds out that [[EvilChancellor Resher]] is conspiring with the cats to ambush Wix's scouting party. She manages to escape Resher's goons and runs to warn the party, only to arrive and find the cats have already struck, leaving only Wix and a badly-injured Kessel still alive.
** Pict (whom the author notes has the worst luck with this sort of thing) discovers that the ravens are A) Part of a death cult and B) sabotaging the beaver dam. Pict is captured by the crows, but word still manages to get to the beavers. Just in time for the dam to start to fail.
** Wix finds out that Resher has been secretly poisoning Master Orim, and stops Pict from giving him some more, but by then he has already taken a fatal dose and dies regardless.
* In ''Webcomic/DraculaRulerOfTheNight'', the hunters have tracked Dracula to Carfax Abby and search for him. To their surprise they come across Minerva Westenra, Lucy's mother, who was initially out of town but was set to come back home after receiving the telegram about Lucy failing health. They check her over and don't seem to find any bite marks, assuming they got to her in time. Eventually, however they're forced to retreat when Dracula and his brides (Lucy now among them) prove too powerful to fight at night. They make their way into a cellar of the building and have to push on the door leading outside as it's blocked by debris while barring the other door to keep the vampires from getting in, though know it won't take long for them to break through. Regardless, Harker assures Minerva that they'll protect her...only to catch glimpse off a reflective surface and find only her clothes are floating in the air. Exposed, Minerva sprouts fangs and pointy ears, informing him that Drac's brides had intercepted her carriage, brought her to Dracula and she was quickly bitten by Lucy. Becoming his most recent bride only hours before the hunters had raided the building.

* The WhamLine of [[Website/SCPFoundation SCP-]][[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2317 2317]] indicates [[spoiler:that there is no way to stop SCP-2317 when the last chain breaks, and it ''will'' break sometime in the next century. All the previous containment procedures listed are just false flags so people don't realize TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt is inevitable.]]
* In ''WebAnimation/DeathBattle'', this trope is used during the climax of [[Franchise/StarWars Darth Vader]] VS [[Manga/{{Naruto}} Obito Uchiha]]. Just when it looks like [[spoiler:Darth Vader has Obito on the ropes,]] the latter responds with a simple remark of "Too late.", [[spoiler:revealing that the Infinite Tsukuyomi was cast from the God Tree, trapping the Sith Lord in the dream world and leaving him wide open to a deathblow.]]

* [[WesternAnimation/DoraTheExplorer Swiper the Fox]]. He is the God of this trope. Course his schemes are more PokeThePoodle and Dora and Boots manage to retrieve what he's taken from them anyway.

* The second season finale of ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' ended with Megatron basically erasing the Maximals from existence. Season three had them fix it, [[NoExportForYou but not every region got that part.]]
* Happened in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Captain Planet|and the Planeteers}}'' episode "Whoo Gives a Hoot". The Planeteers attempt to stop Looten Plunder with a court injunction against clear-cutting an old-growth forest. Despite their success in finding what they need to stop the cutting, Looten's clumsy, stupid minions actually managed to succeed in stealing the evidence, leaving Plunder free to continue. The Planeteers and judge eventually discover Looten's deception, only to discover that Looten had already cut down all the trees. The episode ends on that note, with him laughing in their faces about it and daring them to try and stop him again.
* In the first red sky episode of ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987'', Shredder gives the turtles a 30-minute time limit to give him Krang, or the Channel 6 building will explode with April and friends inside. Arriving a minute late, seeing the building still there, they think Shredder was bluffing, only to witness the building explode a second later. Fortunately, Splinter snuck in and saved all of the employees before the explosion. But still...

* Season 2 of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' sees the Gaang rushing to prevent Iroh's warnings of [[MagnificentBitch Azula]] launching a coup from coming true, only to discover that the groundwork she had laid for the coup and Zuko's subversion of the HeelFaceTurn was so far along that they couldn't stop it, and when Aang tried to enter the Avatar State to enact the traditional CurbStompBattle, Azula realized that [[TransformationIsAFreeAction Transformation Is ''Not'' A Free Action]] and shot him in the back before he could power up. Consequently, the actual ending of the season was Azula taking over Ba Sing Sei (effectively realizing [[TheEmpire the Fire Nation]]'s goal of conquering the world), AntiVillain Zuko turning back to the dark side, and a comprehensively defeated Avatar Aang. If it hadn't been for Season 3 coming along, it would have been a truly Olympian DownerEnding.
* This happens in Seasons 2 ''and'' 3 of ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'' (and the end of Season 1 wasn't very happy either). The heroes have to spend each season undoing what XANA did in the previous season, and he becomes stronger each time.
* In the first episode of ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries,'' Jor-El tries to find proof that Brainiac has been deceiving the Council about the danger Krypton is in. Brainiac admits that he has, but it doesn't matter now, because the planet won't survive the night.

* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'':
** In ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved'''s fifth level, Cortana sends the player to stop an [[ZombieApocalypse outbreak]] of [[NotUsingTheZWord the Flood]], "before it's too late!". Turns out it is, and the only way to stop them from spreading out into the galaxy is to destroy the titular fortress world along with any human survivors still on it.
** In the ''VideoGame/Halo3'' level "The Covenant", Johnson is captured to be used to activate the array. Master Chief is a bit too far away, so Miranda goes in after him. They almost sacrifice themselves, but Truth kills Keyes before she can carry it out, then activates the rings. MC and the Arbiter, with the EnemyMine help of the Flood, arrive JustInTime to deactivate them.
** In ''VideoGame/Halo4'', [[spoiler:Chief and Cortana have to drop several layers of shields surrounding the Didact and attack him with a nuke, before he turns the Composer on earth, converting its citizens into enslaved AI soldiers. You succeed in dropping the shields... but the Didact simply says "And yet, ''still'' you fail", before firing the device. The epilogue shows that an entire city was harvested.]]

* In ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare2'', you hear your commanding officer yell at you over the radio that General Shepherd has set you up and should not be trusted. You get the memo shortly '''after''' Shepherd shoots you and your team mate, Ghost, in the chest, and has his goons soak your bodies in kerosene and set you on fire. Thankfully, Soap and Price decide to take him out for good.
** Still, at the end of the game Soap and Price are wanted as traitors with no real way to clear their names, the Americans have repelled the Russian invasion but at the cost of many civilian deaths and the eastern seaboard heavily damaged by an EMP, Makarov escaped, and World War III is just getting underway.
* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' - Master Xehanort has manipulated the three protagonists to all arrive at the Keyblade Graveyard and get literally [[CurbstompBattle owned]] by him and Vanitas. [[spoiler:Terra]] suffers a GrandTheftMe, thereby explaining why Xehanort looks the way he does in the flashbacks of ''Kingdom Hearts II''; [[spoiler:Ventus's]] heart is split in twain after his BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind with Vanitas, leaving his body a comatose shell, and [[spoiler:Aqua]] is trapped in the Realm of Darkness for a decade after hiding her friend's comatose body in the Chamber of Repose at the heart of Castle Oblivion. All these high prices to pay for a mere decade's delay to Xehanort's plan to plunge the universe into darkness.
** In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'', [[spoiler:Aqua is struck by a darkness attack from Ansem, Seeker of Darkness. Combined with the effects of the Realm of Darkness in the Dark Margin, losing her Keyblade, and her despair at ever getting out, Aqua becomes vulnerable to TheCorruption and became a dark version of herself, her despair manifesting as anger, bitterness, hatred, and malice against Mickey and Riku for leaving her stranded in the Dark Margin for well over a decade]].
--->[[spoiler:'''Aqua:''' ''[uncloaking herself from shadow to reveal [[TheCorruption white hair and gold eyes]]]'' Mickey... you're too late.]]

* ''VideoGame/Persona3''. The party is the UnwittingPawn that, about halfway in, allows the BigBad to summon the EldritchAbomination, and find out three-thirds down the story that they've been too late to stop it ever since. They nonetheless manage to prevent the Abomination from destroying humanity, [[spoiler:though the main character dies in the process of doing it.]]

* In ''VideoGame/MegaManZero4'', Zero arrives at the final boss barely in time (which is an improvement over his usual tardiness; see below) to stop the destruction of the last good land on Earth... [[spoiler:but must sacrifice any chance at escape for himself.]]

* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII'': Desmond and company unlock the Grand Temple, only to have Minerva show up and tell them that they screwed up her original plan, wasting centuries in the fight between the Assassins and Templars instead of developing the technology left behind by the First Civilization, and now it's too late to stop the impending solar flare. Juno manipulated Minerva's plans to cause this situation to happen, precisely so that she could offer an alternative: [[spoiler:sacrifice Desmond's life in exchange for salvation -- and release Juno to take her revenge on the Earth]].
* In the ''Lonesome Road'' {{DLC}} for ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', the [[PlayerCharacter Courier]] reaches Ulysses after he has already input the launch codes for the nuclear missiles and they are getting ready to fire at the NCR. At that point, all you can do is either redirect the missiles' destination, or allow your RobotBuddy, ED-E, to stop the launch via HeroicSacrifice.
* ''VideoGame/{{Lorelai}}:'' Lorelai manages to kill her evil stepfather and stop him from getting away with his crimes, but she arrives too late to save Bethany (her baby sister) and Zack (her possible love interest) from being murdered by him, who were basically the last two living people she cared about. She also dies by MutualKill in the process. [[spoiler: However, if the player has the made the right choices along the way and connects some dots in the afterlife, they'll actually find a way to resurrect Bethany and Zack, which leads to a surprise happy ending. Of course, it's also possible for the sad ending to stick, with only Lorelai reviving in the end and moving on alone.]]

* In ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'', the heroes race to stop Othinus from completing her spear Gungnir which will allow her to master her powers, only to arrive just as she's completed it. Afterwards, Touma is put through a living hell where he's curb-stomped by her repeatedly, but he manages to stop her by convincing her to pull a HeelFaceTurn.

* In ''Literature/DarkForceRising'', Luke and Mara rescue Karrde before he can be forced to reveal the location of the [[DerelictGraveyard Dark Force fleet]]. Han and Lando fight to keep Thrawn from capturing the other man who might know where it is and fail, but Karrde has been moved into a MistreatmentInducedBetrayal and shows them, which should mean Thrawn's forces and the little New Republic team sent out to see if Karrde is right get there more or less at the same time, right? Wrong. Thrawn's already been there, leaving only the fifteen malfunctioning Dreadnaughts out of the [[RagnarokProofing hundred and eighty five working ones]] as bait for a trap. ''Three'' BigDamnHeroes moments with ''three'' different groups let our heroes survive, but the Empire is much stronger now than it was.

* Not fully the case, but in ''Series/{{Firefly}}'', the crew are trying to steal the Lassiter from this major war criminal with the help of Saffron. He stumbles onto their plot to steal the Lassiter, but it turns out he seems like a nice, soft-spoken guy that loves Saffron, and that she just ''might'' have lied to them again. He goes out to get a reward for them, and after he leaves, Mal goes on to call out Saffron for her stories and games. However, the "War Criminal" comes back to find Mal and Saffron in the middle of this conversation, lectures her, and when she tells him how much of a fool he is, he informs them that he had alerted security the second he saw them and now armed Alliance guards are coming to take them in. Mal and Saffron escape, but this is much more difficult.
* Before the writers' strike, this was originally the plot of the second season of ''Series/{{Heroes}}''. Peter ''didn't'' manage to catch the vial containing the deadly plague virus before it hit the ground and shattered, leading to a desperate attempt to contain it before it ended up wiping out 99% of humanity.

* ''Subverted'' in ''Series/StargateSG1'': the good guys are racing to destroy Anubis' fleet with the Ancient outpost on Antarctica. As the good guys enter the outpost, they run into Anubis who gloats at them with this trope's name. The subversion occurs when O'Neill steps forward and sticks his hand into Anubis, revealing that it's only a hologram and the Goa'uld was bluffing to buy itself time. Anubis responds by ringing [[SuperSoldier Kull Warriors]] into the outpost in order to kill the good guys but O'Neill manages to activate the outpost's AttackDrone legions and blasts Anubis' fleet into smithereens while the rest of the team kept the Kull Warriors occupied. Afterwards, O'Neill [[HumanPopsicle entered a stasis chamber]] [[HeroicSacrifice because he knew the Ancient knowledge in his mind would kill him otherwise]].
* In ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'''s season six finale, Dean, Bobby, and Sam arrive just too late to prevent [[spoiler:Castiel from absorbing all the souls from Purgatory]] While [[spoiler:Castiel]]'s plan to gain enough power to prevent the Apocalypse from being reinitiated works, [[spoiler:[[AGodAmI the power]] [[DisproportionateRetribution goes to]] [[VigilanteMan his]] [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity head]] and]] a worse enemy comes out of it--which is why they were trying to stop him.

* The finale of the main campaign of ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion''. The original plan to relight the Dragonfires to keep the forces of Mehrunes Dagon at bay is rendered moot when Mehrunes Dagon and his army finally break through and appear in the capital. In the end, Martin Septim shatters the Amulet of Kings and sacrifices himself to become an avatar of the dragon god Akatosh and banishes Mehrunes Dagon back to Oblivion. Sadly, Martin does not survive the ordeal.
* In ''VideoGame/DiabloII'', Mephisto taunts you by yelling "You're too late!" as he starts to attack you. He's correct; you're one step behind everything that happens involving the Prime Evils in the game and are basically cleaning up their messes.
* The final act of ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'' has [[spoiler:Diablo as the Prime Evil [[HellInvadesHeaven unleashed upon the High Heavens]], making his way toward the Silver Spire to corrupt the Crystal Arch to plunge both the Heavens and Sanctuary into darkness forever. Along the way, he [[IShallTauntYou taunts you]] with how "you are too late, just as you always have been!" And indeed, when you finally confront Diablo, he has already reached the Arch and begun corrupting it. But unlike some of the other Diablo examples below, you are able to stop him from doing any lasting harm to the Arch. Hopefully]].
* The entire first half of ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam''. They go to get the Dream Stone to stop the villains getting it, but Bowser and Antasma get there first and take it anyway. They go to stop their plan on Mount Pajamaja, the villains succeed in putting the world to sleep, powering up the Stone and using it to conquer the island/world. They try and save Peach by hiding her in the Dream World... and they fail again, because Bowser was savvy enough to switch her out for a decoy while they were hiding from the Dream Beats. The rest of the story is the heroes coming up with a new plan to make up for the first half.

* In the chess game chapter of ''VideoGame/AmericanMcGeesAlice'', Alice has to go to Red territory to rescue the White Queen (like in an actual chess game, the Queen is the strongest piece, meaning that the benign White forces are doomed without her). But Alice arrives too late; the Queen is executed just as she arrives. Alice has to battle the Red army and defeat the Red King (the stage boss) at the Twelfth Square, and finally, set the Pawn she brought as her guide. As per the rules of chess, the Queen is restored via Twelfth Square Pawn Promotion, and the area is cleared.

* In ''VideoGame/Persona5'', midway through the Hierophant Confidant, Youji Isshiki will threaten to report the protagonist to the police for attacking him, despite the fact that Youji fell down while trying to hit Futaba. The protagonist and Futaba go to Mementos by themselves to [[HeelFaceBrainwashing change Youji's heart]], but on the next event, it turns out that Youji already filed his report, and two social workers show up to investigate the incident, and determine whether Sojiro is adequately taking care of Futaba. Luckily, they're reasonable enough to realize that Youji's report was a lie, and neither Sojiro nor the protagonist did anything wrong.
* In ''VideoGame/StarGagnant'', after [[BigBad VILLAN]] is defeated, he reveals with his dying words that it's too late and the Master Core will continue to evolve and destroy the Earth. The player then fights and destroys the actual FinalBoss: The Master Core itself.

* 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.

* Just before the climax of the first episode of ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'', Mac is too late to stop Bloo from falling into Terrence's hands, so Mac and the gang head to the junkyard for a rescue mission to save Bloo from Terrence, Duchess, and the Extremeasaurus.

* Played with in ''[[Literature/NightWatchSeries The Last Watch]]'' when the hero is coerced into helping by a nuclear bomb planted near his family. When he is unable to interfere, he is told not to bother thinking of a plan, because the bomb has already detonated anyway. [[spoiler:After he kicks the speaker in the balls, an ally of the speaker explains that she took measures to prevent the detonation, because nuclear weapons are a few steps too far. However, it isn't his undoing since she did it because she was smart enough to realise murdering his family would endanger the main plan.]]

* Basically the plot of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV''. Exdeath continues his winning streak right up until he is [[HoistByHisOwnPetard consumed by the Void he was trying to control]]. ''Then'' the heroes beat him.

* The rule of a thumb when fighting [[AntiHero Lelouch]] [[MagnificentBastard Lamperouge]] from ''Franchise/CodeGeass'': when he contacts you first, you have probably already been screwed up three times over by him without noticing it. Depending on the circumstances or how you interpret his character, however, he may either belong here or in the fifth kind.

%%''Manga/OnePiece'': there are quite a few examples but the most notable one is in the alabasta arc: where the crew arrives in Alabasta looking to stop [[TheChessmaster Crocodile]] from unleashing his evil master plan, which he has spent years manipulating everyone on the island for; they only manage to find him after said plan is in full motion, and [[LuredIntoATrap fall right in his trap]]. They turn it on its head though, so no problem.

* This is technically the case in ''Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague'' The Mother Boxes end up fully synchronizing and begin taking over the planet. But the Flash travels through time and gives Cyborg the charge he needed to to pull the mother boxes apart.

* In ''Literature/{{Mistborn}}'', heroine Vin releases the power of the Well of Ascension and rejects godhood in order to defeat the unknown power in the process of destroying the world. [[spoiler:Except that in so doing, she actually ''unleashed'' aforementioned power, the dark god Ruin, from his imprisonment, as per a plan that had been set in motion millennia ago]]. ''Then'' it turns out that [[spoiler:Ruin's opposite number, Preservation, had been manipulating ''him'' into rushing headlong to his own destruction so that a new god combining aspects of both could be elevated]].

* Common on ''Series/DoctorWho''. Many are the villains who thought they'd gained the upper hand on The Doctor, only to find out that he'd fiddled with or [[ReverseThePolarity Reversed the polarity]] of their doomsday weapon, and him giving them a final chance to surrender was his warning to them not to KickTheDog. Their failure to listen to him causes their downfall.

* The death of L and Watari in ''Manga/DeathNote''. The evidence to prove that Light is Kira has finally been found and then Rem kills them. The good guys win in the end, anyway, though.

* DoublySubverted during the eclipse in ''Manga/{{Berserk}}''. Skull Knight pops in and saves Guts and Casca right before Griffith can pull the CoupDeGrace on them. However, by this time, both had suffered a FateWorseThanDeath, and afterward the God Hand declared that they were going to bring forth an age of darkness.

* ''Manga/FairyTail'': [[spoiler:Despite Erza and Minerva killing Kyouka, it wasn't in time to stop Face as she forcefully finished the countdown sequence. Fortunately Gardeene and three fellow Dragons were able to destroy all but a few of Face's 3000 pillars, saving Fiore from becoming a magicless land.]]

* ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'': Thanos starts the film having already taken the Power Stone before any Avenger caught wind of it and quickly takes the Space Stone in the film’s opening scene. These two Infinity Stones alone, as Bruce Banner points out, already make him the strongest person in the universe thanks to their power and simple ability to teleport, respectively. Things only get worse as the film progresses as Thanos successfully retrieves the Reality and Soul Stones. By the time he arrives on Earth for the final Stone, it’s too late to stop him decisively, as he’s already taken the Time Stone. The only thing that could’ve been done to stop him was to destroy the Mind Stone before he could take it, and ultimately [[spoiler:Wanda is forced to do it, destroying her lover Vision in the process. Thanos has none of it and simply uses the Time Stone to undo Vision’s death, just so he can take the Mind Stone and kill him himself, completing the Infinity Gauntlet.]] It’s briefly subverted when Thor arrives and is able to successfully get the jump on him immediately afterwards, but makes a fatal mistake in trying to deal Thanos a slow death, giving Thanos enough time to [[spoiler:snap his fingers and complete his goal. Thanos even chides him, insisting he could have actually stopped him had he gone for his head.]]

* The end of the ''Film/CountYorga'' movies despite Yorga dying. In the first, he claims the protagonists' first female friend, Erica, and turns her into a vampire bride. Then hypnotizes Donna and lures her to his mansion. Micheal manages to reach her and kill Yorga. But Erica remains undead and in the end, Donna is revealed to have been turned too who instantly attack Micheal and kills him. The second movie, by the time the heroes have found out what going on, Yorga has killed most of their friends and amassed an army of female vampires (many of the girls whom he turns through the movie). In this case though, the last protagonist, Baldwin, manages to kill Yorga and prevent him from turning the damsel, Cythnia. But no sooner then Yorga is gone, that Baldwin is revealed to have turned and bites Cythnia shortly after.
* Creator/WernerHerzog's ''Film/NosferatuTheVampyre''. Lucy succeeds in killing Count Dracula via a HeroicSacrifice, but Jonathan Harker is already a vampire and escapes at film's end. Adding insult to injury, police arrest Van Helsing for Dracula's "murder" at the movie's end!

* In ''WesternAnimation/HeavyMetal'', Taarna is summoned to protect a city under attack, but by the time she arrives, everyone is dead and the bad guys are long gone.

* In ''Film/XMenApocalypse'', the X-Jet Blackbird's main turbine has just been hit by Havok's blast and it causes a huge explosion, but fortunately, Quicksilver has just arrived and gets everyone out of the blast radius, so they don't die. All except Havok, who was next to it and had already been caught by the explosion.

* ''Manga/HappySugarLife'': It didn't matter if Asahi had all the determination in the world to find his sister Shio when it took more than a while for him to really start acting. By the point where he gets to confront Satou and Shio one-on-one, they already had their happy sugar life together for so long that the poor kid was pretty much enamoured with what's essentially a mentally unstable groomer. Him being too late is why Asahi still loses his sister anyway even if her groomer already died.

* In ''WebAnimation/DeathBattle'', this trope is used during the climax of [[Franchise/StarWars Darth Vader]] VS [[Manga/{{Naruto}} Obito Uchiha]]. Just when it looks like [[spoiler:Darth Vader has Obito on the ropes,]] he responds with a simple remark of "Too late.", [[spoiler:revealing that the Infinite Tsukuyomi was cast from the God Tree, trapping the Sith Lord in the dream world and leaving him wide open to a deathblow.]]

* In ''WebAnimation/DeathBattle'', this trope is used during the climax of [[Franchise/StarWars Darth Vader]] VS [[Manga/{{Naruto}} Obito Uchiha]]. Just when it looks like [[spoiler:Darth Vader has Obito on the ropes,]] he responds with a simple remark of "Too late," [[spoiler:revealing that the Infinite Tsukuyomi was cast, trapping the Sith Lord in the dream world and leaving him wide open to a finishing blow from Obito.]]

* In ''WebAnimation/DeathBattle'', this trope is used during the climax of [[Film/StarWars Darth Vader]] VS [[Manga/{{Naruto}} Obito Uchiha]]. Just when it looks like [[spoiler:Darth Vader has Obito on the ropes,]] he responds with a simple remark of "Too late," [[spoiler:revealing that the Infinite Tsukuyomi was cast, trapping the Sith Lord in the dream world and leaving him wide open to a finishing blow from Obito.]]

* In ''VideoGame/StarGagnant'', after [[BigBad VILLAN]] is defeated, he reveals with his dying words that it's too late and the Master Core is set to destroy the Earth. The player then fights and destroys the actual FinalBoss: The Master Core itself.

** Pict finds out that [[EvilChancellor Resher]] is conspiring with the cats to ambush Wix's scouting party. She manages to escape Resher's goons and runs to warn the party. Only to arrive and find the cats have already struck, leaving only Wix and a badly-injured Kessel still alive.

-->'''Ashley:''' [[YouAreTooLate You're too late]]! Enjoy the poop!\\

* In ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'', the heroes race to stop Othinus from completing her spear Gungnir which will allow her to master her powers, only to arrive just as she's completed it. Afterwards, Touma is put through a living hell where he's curb-stomped by her repeatedly, but he manages to stop her by convincing her to pull a HeelFaceTurn.

* While pretty much all the protagonists and side characters in the entire ''Anime/{{Planetes}}'' series are trying to prevent the Space Defence Force's attempt to crash an experimental space ship into the largest city on the moon, all their efforts end up failing when the SDF averts the crash themselves when their demands are met. And since unlike their methods, their demands were fairly reasonable (dividing space's resources among countries based on their population instead of how much contribution they paid the NATO-{{Expy}}, the end result isn't all that bad.

* ''Anime/DoraemonNobitaAndTheGreenGiantLegend'' ends with Doraemon and gang returning to earth from Planet Green, to stop Shirah's green nuke which [[spoiler:will turn earth into a plant-covered wasteland, with all living beings converted to non-sentient plants]], only to realize [[spoiler: they are way too late for that, with Tokyo - and the rest of the world - now covered in endless vegetation, trees and shrubs growing to the tip of the Tokyo Tower]]. But just then, [[spoiler: Gian sees an airplane frozen in mid-air thanks to the [[TimeStandsStill Stop Watch being prematurely activated]], and they still have a chance to undo the nuke's effects before deactivating the watch]].

** ''ComicBook/{{Crucible}}'': As the heroes are destroying Korstus' clone facility, the BigBad shouts they're too late to stop him from creating his Kryptonian clone army as sending a squad of weapon-drones against them. However, the team is able to destroy the facility together with the clones.
--->'''Korstus:''' "Ha! It's too late. The clonelings' growth has already begun! If you try to stop it you will trigger a fail-safe self-destruct that will kill us all!"

* In ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'' story ''ComicBook/LetMyPeopleGrow'', ComicBook/{{Brainiac}} has reduced Superman to mouse-size and is about to shrink him to nothingness when ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} shows up. Brainiac declares she is too late to save her cousin and fires his ShrinkRay at her, but Kara deflects it back at Brainiac, who starts shrinking unstoppably.
-->'''Supergirl:''' ''"I wouldn't touch that button if I were you, Brainiac!"''\\
'''Brainiac:''' ''"What--?!? You're too late to stop me, Supergirl-- But you're just in time to share your cousin's fate!"''

* In ''Film/XMenApocalypse'', the X-Jet Blackbird's main turbine has just been hit by Havok's blast and it causes a huge explosion, but fortunately, Quicksilver has just arrived and got everyone out of the blast radius, so they don't die. All except Havok, who was next to it and had already been caught by the explosion when Quicksilver arrived.

* ''Manga/HappySugarLife'': It didn't matter if Asahi had all the determination in the world to find his sister Shio when it took more than a few months for him to. By the point where he gets to confront Satou and Shio one-on-one, they already had their happy sugar life together for so long that the poor kid was pretty much enamoured with what's essentially a mentally unstable groomer. Him being too late is why Asahi still loses his sister anyway even if her groomer already died.

%% Please see thread to discuss a new image.

** Made even worse by the ExactWords WhamLine said by Aqua at the end of the E3 ''Frozen'' trailer.
---> '''Aqua:''' ''[uncloaking herself from shadow to reveal [[TheCorruption white hair and gold eyes]]]'' Mickey... you're too late.
** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'' [[spoiler:reveals that Aqua's corruption was the result of being struck by a darkness attack from Ansem, Seeker of Darkness. Combined with the effects of the Realm of Darkness in the Dark Margin, losing her keyblade, and her despair at ever getting out, Aqua became vulnerable to TheCorruption and became a dark version of herself, her despair manifesting as anger, bitterness, hatred, and malice against Mickey and Riku for leaving her stranded in the Dark Margin for well over a decade]].

[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/{{Irredeemable}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/6f28169f_6343_4342_bd75_8168c9419ceb.jpeg]]]]

* The WhamLine of [[Wiki/SCPFoundation SCP-]][[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2317 2317]] indicates [[spoiler:that there is no way to stop SCP-2317 when the last chain breaks, and it ''will'' break sometime in the next century. All the previous containment procedures listed are just false flags so people don't realize TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt is inevitable.]]