History OffscreenMomentOfAwesome / FIlm

* In the ''Franchise/{{Bionicle}}'' movie ''The Legend Reborn'', a gigantic army comprised of fighters, villagers and battle chariots appears to challenge the combined army of the Skrall and Bone Hunters. We never see any of them fight, only the five main characters. After the battle's done, Vastus and Tarix, both legendary fighters, arrive to the scene, claiming that it's a miracle they survived the fight which viewers didn't get to see. The DVD revealed that a lot of the battle got cut, although even the planned scenes wouldn't have shown much more.

* ''Film/TheTimeTravelersWife'' starts with the protagonist as a young boy being involved in a car accident which kills his mother and causes him to time travel (basically just to teleport out off the car) for the first time in his life. This is filmed beautifully, and this troper fully expected to see what he had regarded as the most cinematic moment of the book: how the scenery is full of dozens of later-day Henrys who couldn't help but travel back to this pivotal point in their life (time travel is not under the character's control). Unable to prevent the tragedy, only able to assist their younger self.

* While this is more of a offscreen moment of hilarity, we have ''[[Film/MarvelOneShots The Consultant]]'', a short film set in the MarvelCinematicUniverse. The World Security Council wants to put [[EvilCounterpart Emil]] [[VillainWithGoodPublicity Blonsky]] on ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}''. 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: [[Film/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.]]

* The awesome kraken in ''PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' 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.

* While this is more of a offscreen moment of hilarity, we have ''[[Film/MarvelOneShots 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: [[Film/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.]]

* ''StarWars''
** ''Episode I'': Most of the podrace was left on the cutting room floor. In the film, we only get to see the edited highlights. The 2006 DVD reinstates some of the lost footage, but the introduction is still edited down, leaving several of the contestants unnamed.
** ''Episode II'': In the rough cut, a group of Jedi evade the Trade Federation's starfighters and board the mothership, then proceed to work their way to the control center and destroy it. The battle droids all shut down, as at the end of ''Episode I'', only to reactivate soon after when a countermeasure kicks in. This would have been really cool to see, although the movie is really long already and everything that was left in is pretty crucial.
** ''Episode III'': For a good two decades, Star Wars fans had been waiting to see two events: Darth Vader's fall to the dark side and his consequent slaughter of his Jedi brethren. How could that not be one of the [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Crowning Moments of Awesome]] of the entire series? By only showing a couple seconds of Anakin's raid on the temple, relegating the bulk of the Jedi-slaying to the clone troopers.
** ''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 Palpatine in the whole film. Or Coruscant.
** Also, the scroll at the beginning said that the Rebel Alliance won its first battle against the Imperials and swiped the plans for the Death Star. What we get to see is a lone ship trying to outrun a Super Star Destroyer with the plans.
*** After Disney took control of the franchise, they announced that several spin-off films would be produced, and not just Episodes 7, 8, and 9. Rumor has it that the actual heist of Death Star 1's plans is to be among the first spin-offs produced.

* ''Film/TheTimeTraveler'sWife'' starts with the protagonist as a young boy being involved in a car accident which kills his mother and causes him to time travel (basically just to teleport out off the car) for the first time in his life. This is filmed beautifully, and this troper fully expected to see what he had regarded as the most cinematic moment of the book: how the scenery is full of dozens of later-day Henrys who couldn't help but travel back to this pivotal point in their life (time travel is not under the character's control). Unable to prevent the tragedy, only able to assist their younger self.

* ''Film/The Time Traveler's Wife'' starts with the protagonist as a young boy being involved in a car accident which kills his mother and causes him to time travel (basically just to teleport out off the car) for the first time in his life. This is filmed beautifully, and this troper fully expected to see what he had regarded as the most cinematic moment of the book: how the scenery is full of dozens of later-day Henrys who couldn't help but travel back to this pivotal point in their life (time travel is not under the character's control). Unable to prevent the tragedy, only able to assist their younger self.

** Also, the scroll at the beginning said that the Rebel Alliance won it's first battle against the Imperials and swiped the plans for the Death Star. What we get to see is a lone ship trying to outrun a Super Star Destroyer with the plans.

* ''Film/TremorsIIAftershocks'' has Burt Gummer recounting his encounter with a mass of Shriekers who ambushed him, describing how he "dropped the first wave with semi-auto fire" then crushed the majority underneath the wheels of his giant truck, and finished off the survivors "with a combination of small arms fire and hand-to-hand techniques" before finishing up by saying "I am completely out of ammo. That's never happened to me before!" Arguably, his recounting is almost as good thanks to his actor's brilliant delivery of the entire spiel, leaving the whole thing to our imagination. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xeHPdm7e-Y Watch it here.]]

* In the 2000 film ''{{Supernova}}'', a starship captain is sealed in an abandoned mine on a rogue moon. Abandoned by all but the robots, which come in all shapes and sizes. They suddenly spring to life, showing off what look like expensive animatronics. The villain comes on the PA system and informs our hero that the robots are all under his control. Then the point of view changes to the ship, and the next time we see the hero is after he's gotten past all the robots, broken out to the moon's surface, and returned to his ship via some shuttle.

* ''{{Tremors}} II'' has Burt Gummer recounting his encounter with a mass of Shriekers who ambushed him, describing how he "dropped the first wave with semi-auto fire" then crushed the majority underneath the wheels of his giant truck, and finished off the survivors "with a combination of small arms fire and hand-to-hand techniques" before finishing up by saying "I am completely out of ammo. That's never happened to me before!" Arguably, his recounting is almost as good thanks to his actor's brilliant delivery of the entire spiel, leaving the whole thing to our imagination. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xeHPdm7e-Y Watch it here.]]

* In ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'', Steve and Natasha are told that the last remaining Falcon suit is in a heavily guarded vault in Fort Meade. In the next scene, Falcon is wearing said suit while he helps them interrogate an enemy agent. The details of how they stole the suit are never mentioned.

* KevinSmith uses this quite often in his films. One In ''Film/ClerksII'', the characters [[ReactionShot react]] to a "Donkey Show" bestiality scene, but (for obvious reasons) [[DiscretionShot this occurs offscreen]]. This could also count as HeadTiltinglyKinky, but in this case, one character (drunk) is impressed, while the others are mostly disgusted.

* In ''Film/TheMatrix Reloaded'' we are told that a large number of hovercraft are assembling to fight a pitched battle against a large number of Sentinels. The battle itself gets two lines of dialogue in the last two minutes of the film.

* Intentionally done in ''Wet, Hot American Summer'', where one of the camp counselors goes to rescue the rafting campers, the camera cuts to a reaction shot of the other counselor exclaiming "Wow! You're doing it! You're really doing it! This is incredible!"

* Tsukue Ryunosuke, the VillainProtagonist 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.

* In ''TitanAE'', there's a scene with resident WrenchWench Akima waking up in a Drej escape pod, in the middle of a cell full of soon-to-be-auctioned slaves - most of whom are much larger than her and ''all'' of whom are looking down at her with obviously predatory intent. One short scene later, the rest of the crew arrives to rescue her, and finds her sitting on top of a pile of unconscious prisoners, grinning and greeting them with "What took you?"

* In ''Film/ResidentEvilAfterlife'', when the group escapes the prison through the sewers, Luther West is grabbed by the zombies and dragged into the darkness. Everybody sadly concludes that he's dead and moves on. Near the end of the movie, Luther emerges from the sewers, alive and well.

* In ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'', Steve and Natasha are told that the last remaining Falcon suit is in a heavily guarded vault in Fort Meade. In the next scene, Falcon is wearing said suit while he helps them interrogate an enemy agent.