History OffscreenMomentOfAwesome / FIlm

* The ''Franchise/{{Predator}}'' franchise ended up doing this in [[Film/{{Predator}} the original]] and [[Film/{{Predator 2}} 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.

* ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'': Happens twice with Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli immediately prior to the Battle of the Pellenor Fields.

* In ''Film/GoodFellas'', the execution of the Air France and Lufthansa [[TheCaper huge heists]] is not explicitly shown. There's some planning and location shots, but most of the information is given via {{exposition}}.

* While this is more of a offscreen moment of hilarity, we have ''Film/TheConsultant'', a short film set in the Franchise/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.]]

* Invoked for the climax of ''Film/{{Serenity}}'' despite the viewpoint characters being right in the middle of it; the camera is focusing mainly on the eponymous ship as they attempt to dodge through and around the massive Alliance Navy vs Reavers throwdown engineered by Mal. We only see the occasional explosion or chunk of debris hurtling across the screen, and [[TropesAreNotBad it actually works really well.]]

** ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'': 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 [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome 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.

* In ''Film/{{Mirage 1965}}'', Crator/GregoryPeck's character is held hostage in his own apartment by a hired killer, who makes himself at home by watching ProfessionalWrestling. When the two men fight, the camera shows the TV screen—then turns to Peck (who presumably took tips from the wrestlers) standing over the defeated assassin.

** ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'': 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.

* In ''Film/KingsmanTheSecretService'', Roxy's almost entire career pretty much, despite being the most capable candidate. Her only moments in the limelight were stressing about her fear of heights and being consoled by Eggsy... Until she gets over it and then some by [[spoiler:[[MomentOfAwesome shooting off a satellite while floating in the stratosphere]]]]. Taken literally when [[spoiler:we're informed that she just passed the speeding train test before Eggsy even had his. And again when she passes the ShootTheDog test offscreen, but you hear her pull the trigger in the next room]].

** ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'': 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.
** ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'': 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 ''The Phantom Menace'', 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.

* In early film ''Film/JoanOfArc'' (1900), we don't see Joan's great victory at Orleans, but rather the triumphal parade that follows. Creator/GeorgeMelies, working on one small soundstage, had neither the room nor the budget to recreate a great battle.

* While this is more of a offscreen moment of hilarity, we have ''[[Film/MarvelOneShots The Consultant]]'', a short film set in the Franchise/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.]]

* In ''CrankHighVoltage'', we see Chelios enter a run-down building occupied by prostitutes and criminals. Immediately after he enters, hookers start running out screaming, and thugs go flying out the windows, doors, and walls. Presumably Chelios is kicking ass like it's nobody's business inside, but we don't get to see the actual fighting.

* ''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.\\\
That was apparently too much of a challenge, the situation is only mentioned later in the movie during an argument.

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

* Creator/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.

* ''OceansEleven'' does this with the theft of the "pinch", for comedic purposes.

* In ''Film/KingsmanTheSecretService'', Roxy's almost entire career pretty much, despite being the most capable candidate. Her only moments in the limelight were stressing about her fear of heights and being consoled by Eggsy... Until she gets over it and then some by [[MomentOfAwesome shooting off a satellite while floating in the stratosphere]]. Taken literally when [[spoiler:we're informed that she just passed the speeding train test before Eggsy even had his. And again when she passes the ShootTheDog test offscreen, but you hear her pull the trigger in the next room]].

* In ''Film/KingsmanTheSecretService'', Roxy's entire career pretty much, despite being the most capable candidate. Her only moments in the limelight were stressing about her fear of heights and being consoled by Eggsy. In the end she doesn't even have a Kingsmen suit yet. Taken literally when [[spoiler:we're informed that she just passed the speeding train test before Eggsy even had his. And again when she passes the ShootTheDog test offscreen, but you hear her pull the trigger in the next room]].

* Alyson Reed, who plays Ms. Darbus in ''HighSchoolMusical'', was a former Broadway actress, even playing Cassie in ''A Chorus Line''. She didn't sing a note. Apparently, a song that featured duet between Ms. Darbus and Coach Bolton fighting was written for the first movie, but it was cut before it was even recorded and didn't even make it on the soundtrack as a bonus track.

* At one point in ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad'', the War Rig is being randomly threatened by a group led by a madman firing blind in the dark. Max walks off into the darkness. There's an explosion. He walks back up to the War Rig covered in blood.

*** Also, the OpeningNarration says 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 Star Destroyer with the plans. The story will finally be told in the upcoming ''Film/RogueOne''.

* The awesome kraken in ''Franchise/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.