History OffscreenMomentOfAwesome / FIlm

* While this is more of a offscreen moment of hilarity, we have ''The Consultant'', a short film set in the MarvelCinematicUniverse. The World Security Council wants to put [[EvilCounterpart Emil]] [[VillainWithGoodPublicity Blonsky]] on Film/TheAvengers. Knowing that this is a recipe for disaster but unable to deal with it directly, SHIELD sends the most obnoxious person they know to handle negotiations with General Ross for Blonsky's release: [[IronMan Tony Stark.]] While we do get to see the first minute of Tony's meeting with Ross in a bar, the rest is left up to the viewer's imagination. The end result is that negotiations go up in flames (exactly what SHIELD wanted), Ross tried to get Tony thrown out of the bar, and [[EscalatingWar Tony responded by buying the bar and having it demolished.]]
* A key scene in ''CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'' where Steve has to make an impossible leap from one platform onto another as the HYDRA base explodes and crumbles in flames around him. While we do see him attempt to jump, the scene cuts away to the Allied camp, and the implication that Steve had perished in the base. [[spoiler: However, we then see Steve returning with all 400 [=POWs=], indicating that he did make the jump.]]

* While this is more of a offscreen moment of hilarity, we have ''The Consultant'', a short film set in the MarvelCinematicUniverse. The World Security Council wants to put [[EvilCounterpart Emil]] [[VillainWithGoodPublicity Blonsky]] on TheAvengers. Knowing that this is a recipe for disaster but unable to deal with it directly, SHIELD sends the most obnoxious person they know to handle negotiations with General Ross for Blonsky's release: [[IronMan Tony Stark.]] While we do get to see the first minute of Tony's meeting with Ross in a bar, the rest is left up to the viewer's imagination. The end result is that negotiations go up in flames (exactly what SHIELD wanted), Ross tried to get Tony thrown out of the bar, and [[EscalatingWar Tony responded by buying the bar and having it demolished.]]

* StevenSpielberg's adaptation of ''Film/TheWarOfTheWorlds'' had a scene where TomCruise's son climbs towards the crest of a hill, behind which is what is most likely the final stand of the armed forces in an all-out battle against the Martian Tripods. Just as he (and the audience, due to the camera angle) are just about to glimpse this spectacle... TomCruise tackles him. The majority of the rest of the film involves looking at the ankles of tripods from a dingy basement.

* RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/ThePuppetMasters'' -- [[http://www.wordplayer.com/columns/wp15.Building.the.Bomb.html See here for why.]]

* In ''StarTrekFirstContact'': Here, we finally have a big budget movie with proper big budget movie effects. We have the most awesome bad guys the series had come up with in years in a massive throwdown with the Federation fleet. . . and we get to listen to it over the radio while the Enterprise bridge crew stand around and look concerned? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?!?

* PeterJackson cited ''{{The Lord of the Rings}}''' Ent and Hobbit scenes as the most difficult to do well, simply because the premise sounds so objectively silly (talking trees), quaint, and nonthreatening at that point in the movie. Avoiding an OffscreenMomentOfAwesome there meant he knew the audience would accept anything else afterward.
** Often [[InvertedTrope inverted]], as the books tend to gloss over battles with very short, general descriptions. The departure of Boromir, for instance, was not particularly climactic in the book whereas the film version turns it into a CrowningMomentOfAwesome for both Aragorn and Boromir via some extremely well-considered fight scenes.
** Interestingly, the extended edition includes a bit of the otherwise only alluded-to fight between Gandalf and the Witch-king and storyboards of Sauron joining the fight at the Black Gate. Only the former got past storyboard, and even that was removed from the normal film run, possibly because of fans complaining Gandalf wouldn't have gotten such an early albeit interrupted beatdown. And in the case of the latter, it was removed when the crew realized how stupid it was...WHY would Sauron come to the fight himself? The whole point of destroying the Ring is so Sauron can't reclaim it and get his power back. Sauron doesn't have the Ring, therefore he doesn't have the power to fight! Not to mention the level of AdaptationDecay would be too much.

* The awesome kraken in ''{{Pirates of the Caribbean}}'' was killed off in the third installment. ''Offscreen''. All we get to see is its beached corpse. That such a mysterious and awe-inspiring creature could be killed so anticlimactically because of Cutler Beckett's desire for order and control represented the death of the fantasy and adventure of the age of the pirates.

* One of just two scenes still missing from the restored ''{{Metropolis}}'' is Joh Fredersen fighting Rotwang and kicking his butt.
* Tsukue Ryunosuke, the {{Villain Protagonist}} of Okamoto Kihachi's ''The Sword of Doom'', is forced to go on the run after killing another samurai in a fencing match. The samurai's younger brother, Hyoma, has spent years tracking down his brother's killer, only to find him by accident. He issues a challenge to Ryunosuke to face him in an duel, a challenge that Ryunosuke accepts...but then backs out on. Even after several scenes of Hyoma training to defeat his rival, even after tracking him down yet again--a year later, and by another lucky accident--the movie ends without the climactic face-off.

** Don't forget the entire [[spoiler:"Abraham Lincoln was kidnapped and placed on a Confederate treasure ship that is now in the middle of the Sahara"]] subplot, which made some of the duller parts of the book worth reading.

* The ''{{Predator}}'' franchise ended up doing this in the original and the first sequel. In the first one Billy Sole seems to pull a YouShallNotPass scene when he stops at a tree trunk and pulls out a machete, only for the battle to never be shown. In the sequel when the voodoo priest who controls the Jamaican gangs ends up alone in a dark alley he pulls out a SwordCane and challenges the Predator head on. All we see is his severed head.
** Subverted/Averted in Predators, where a similar fight is shown. [[spoiler: It's a 1:1 draw.]]

** YourMileageMayVary. It was awkward wording, but the implication was that Crash would have to wear a dress while serving as Acid Burn's slave.

*** Pretty justified, though, in that neither Palpatine nor Coruscant existed when Episode IV was made.
** ''Episode VI'': Emperor Palpatine orders the fully armed and operational Death Star to target the Forest Moon of Endor, hoping to obliterate Luke's friends and thus weaken his will, allowing him to be turned to the dark side. Lando and his fellow pilots, like Luke and the team who attacked the first Death Star, are racing against time. All cut from the film, of course.

* PeterJackson cited ''{{The Lord of the Rings}}''' Ent and Hobbit scenes as the most difficult to do well, simply because the premise sounds so objectively silly (talking trees), quaint, and nonthreatening at that point in the movie. Avoiding a an OffscreenMomentOfAwesome there meant he knew the audience would accept anything else afterward.

* A key scene in ''CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'' where Steve has to make an impossible leap from one platform onto another, as the HYDRA base explodes and crumbles in flames around him. While we do see him attempt to jump, the scene cuts away to the Allied camp, and the implication that Steve had perished in the base. [[spoiler: However, we then see Steve returning with all 400 POWs, indicating that he did make the jump.]]

* Kevin Smith uses this quite often in his films, one very classic moment is in Clerks 2 when the character's react to a "Donkey Show" bestiality scene, but (for obvious reasons) this occurs offscreen. This could also count as head-tiltingly kinky, but in this case, one character (drunk) is impressed, while the others are mostly disgusted.

** ''Episode IV'': Emperor Palpatine permanently disbands the Imperial Senate (formerly the Galactic Senate), a governing body that plays a large role in the saga up to this point...except we don't get to see it. Not in the original, not in the Special Edition, and not in the 2004 DVD. We don't even get to see Palapatine in the whole film. Or Coruscant.

* Who wasn't disappointed by how little Devastator ends up doing in ''Film/{{Transformers}}: Revenge of the Fallen''?
** The entire ending battle was a bit of a cocktease. An epic battle clearly took place, but we got to see very little of it.
*** At least they had the excuse of being physically ''unable'' to bring their vision to life. What little of Devastator we saw was enough to ''melt'' the computer rendering him.
** How about the fact that the entire Autobot force turns up in Egypt, along with every active Decepticon and what do we see? The humans constantly fighting the Decepticons, very occasionally seeing robot vs robot. And usually when we do its ''[[TheScrappy the Twins.]]''

** Eh, not so much with the Billy "fight." It's implied that it wasn't so much a fight as the Predator cutting Billy down summarily. In a movie full of massive gunfights and Carl Weathers [[spoiler:trying to fight with one arm]] it would have been pretty lame. Much more effective just to here the big man scream.

** Interestingly, the DirectorsCut includes a bit of the otherwise only alluded-to fight between Gandalf and the Witch-king and storyboards of Sauron joining the fight at the Black Gate. Only the former got past storyboard, and even that was removed from the normal film run, possibly because of fans complaining Gandalf wouldn't have gotten such an early albeit interrupted beatdown. And in the case of the latter, it was removed when the crew realized how stupid it was...WHY would Sauron come to the fight himself? The whole point of destroying the Ring is so Sauron can't reclaim it and get his power back. Sauron doesn't have the Ring, therefore he doesn't have the power to fight! Not to mention the level of AdaptationDecay would be too much.
*** It should be noted that Jackson has repeatedly insisted that the extended versions of the movies are not directors cuts or preferred versions, but alternates for people who appreciate the greater depth they provide and don't mind the added length. Some notable effects, like the trees at Helm's Deep, were created with the assumption they would not be in the theatrical cut.
** There is also a potentially awesome battle between Gandalf and the Nazgûl on Weathertop. It lasted an entire night; dawn weakened the nocturnal Nazgûl enough for Gandalf to fight his way out and escape. He retells it in one paragraph in the books; the movies don't mention it at all.
*** Maybe it's better that way, so you at least don't know what you're missing...
** The Battle of Minas Tirith is at its lowest ebb, the world is darkened by Sauron's black clouds and then up the river come the ships of the Corsiars - everyone thinks the city downstream must have fallen, and now Sauron has reinforcements coming. But then the clouds break, a beam of sunlight illuminates the front ship, and it unfurls the banner of the long-lost King of Gondor. It is the climactic moment of the entire 1000 page book, as cinematic as all hell, but it isn't in the movie.
*** To this, I would add the way that the book handled the breaking of the gates of Minas Tirith versus the film. In the book, the Witch King passes through the shattered gates of Minas Tirith, with only Gandalf standing in his way. There is a tense standoff, but Minas Tirith and its people appear doomed. Then a cock crows, and suddenly, the horns of Rohan can be heard in the distance. The Witch King flees, the armies of Gondor rally, and the great battle *really* gets underway. As written, it's a wonderfully cinematic moment, and I was most disappointed with how Jackson handled this in the film.
** Also: The Scouring Of The Shire. Angry, really determined hobbits against a bunch of mangy humans=incredibly cool moments for all 'round. In the books, it was several kinds of awesome. It didn't appear in the movie. Of course, this was to prevent even more EndingFatigue, but still.

** The showdown with Saruman and his hypnotic voice and Gandalf breaking his staff and...all that jazz. That was awesome. They didn't put it in.
*** It's in the Extended Edition (and combined with Saruman and Wormtongue's "Scouring of the Shire" deaths to boot.)
** Would it have been too much to ask, amid the twelve hours or so of extended film, to slip in a thirty second scene of Faramir surrendering the city of Minas Tirith to Aragorn -- the returned King of Gondor? He could've even done it in the coronation scene.

** ''But Ents weren't talking trees to begin with.'' Treebeard was supposed to have shiny brown skin like new bark, and you couldn't tell whether the rough-bark parts were clothing or hide, and he had fingers and a house and deep green eyes. And he was pretty smart, in his oblique way. At least the movie Ents weren't awful, just wrong.
*** But he was described looking like a withered tree when Merry and Pippin climbed to the cliff he was standing, in the book, and they didn't even notice that he was anything else until he started talking.