Line #126 Main/RealTime


1	!!!'''For the video game genre, see RealTimeStrategy.'''
2	->''"The following takes place between Midnight and 1 AM on the day of the California Presidential Primary. Events occur in real time."''
3	-->-- '''Jack Bauer''', introducing the ''Series/TwentyFour'' pilot
4
5	There are no artificial attempts to show time compression; everything is occurring as it is happening. One minute onscreen equals one minute in show time.
6
7	The SuperTrope to this is ExtremelyShortTimespan. Compare BackToFront, AnachronicOrder, MagicCountdown and ComicBookTime. All examples of TheOner not involving [[{{Overcrank}} over-]] or {{undercrank}}ing are in real time by nature.
8
9	Sometimes, TV series will do a low-key BottleEpisode entirely or mostly in real-time.
10	----
11	!!Examples:
12
13	[[foldercontrol]]
14
15	[[folder:Advertising]]
16	* Honda once broadcast a live ''TV advert'' in the UK, taking an entire ad break to broadcast a parachute display team form the letters to spell out HONDA in mid-air. They succeeded.
17	[[/folder]]
18
19	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
20	* Variation: The ''Manga/MermaidMelodyPichiPichiPitch'' manga was released in Real Time, except in chapters that were tied too closely together to be a month apart.
21	* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' has many scenes that are drawn-out pauses, with no attempt to "speed up" the action: sometimes this is actually realistic. In one episode, Rei and Asuka are in an elevator and both are completely still for about 30 seconds, the length of a long elevator ride. Presumably this is to make the awkwardness of their interactions more prominent; it is also [[FilmingForEasyDub very cheap to film]]. ''NGE'' also shot the final battle of the ninth episode in real time (and synced it to music).
22	* The ''Manga/MaisonIkkoku'' manga also ran in real time, as the series, which was published from 1980 to 1987, spanned seven years in the characters' lives.
23	* The ''Music/{{Tsukipro}}'' franchise takes place in real time overall. The characters have conversations on Twitter every day, about what they did that day, and when it's their birthdays, they talk about the age they actually are. Some of the younger ones have also gotten taller over the years - Koi and Iku, who started out small and childlike, have gotten to be some of the tallest members. The first two groups, Gravi and Procella, were all 15-17 when it started, but now, they're all adults (the youngest, Koi, turned 20 in 2018). The second anime series, ''Tsukipro the Animation'' [[note]] the first is ''Tsukiuta the Animation'', which aired in 2016 but took place in 2014[[/note]] does contain flashbacks, but the main part of each episode takes place the week it aired (including Eichi's birthday).
24	* ''Manga/WhatDidYouEatYesterday'' progresses in real time. It began in 2007 and is on-going as of 2018. Shiro and Kenji were respectively 43 and 41 years old when the series began, but are 52 and 50 years old as of chapter 101.
25	[[/folder]]
26
27	[[folder:Audio Plays]]
28	* [[AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho Big Finish ''Doctor Who'']] story [[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWhoSpecialsRealTime "Real Time"]] runs at 65 minutes [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin in real time]]. To heighten awareness of this, at several points the characters are given a countdown or deadline of X minutes until something happens.
29	[[/folder]]
30
31	[[folder:Comic Books]]
32	* Jeff Smith's third ''ComicBook/{{Bone}}'' graphic novel, ''Eyes of the Storm'', has a chapter which was designed to get readers to read it at a rate similar to the time in-universe.
33	* The Creator/DCComics series ''ComicBook/FiftyTwo'' is a year-long weekly series where each issue covers a week of story time; the name refers to ([[JustifiedTitle among other things]]) the number of weeks in a year, and is a ShoutOut to ''Series/TwentyFour''.
34	* In the famous ''ComicBook/TheSpirit'' story "Ten Minutes", about the last ten minutes of a man's life, Creator/WillEisner times the comic to take approximately ten minutes of the reader's time. This was in 1949.
35	* Creator/MarvelComics' ''ComicBook/TheNewUniverse'' was supposed to run in real time, but due to the whole line being canceled after only three years, the intended effects could hardly be noticed.
36	* ''ComicBook/YTheLastMan'' generally kept time passing at the same rate as it did for the reader. It generally had a few issues covering a set few days, and then a time skip filling the difference.
37	* ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd''. Dredd canonically ages in line with the strip itself (one year's worth of published stories equals one year passed within the comics).
38	%% * ''ComicBook/TheSavageDragon'' Administrivia/ZeroContextExample
39	* ''ComicBook/ThePunisherMax'' explicitly runs on real time since it exists outside of the mainstream Marvel Universe.
40	* Marvel Comics' ''ComicBook/TheNam'' was billed as "an 8 year limited series", for how long the Vietnam War took after the US got involved. Each story takes place one month after the previous one did.
41	[[/folder]]
42
43	[[folder:Comic Strips]]
44	* The three comics by Creator/BillHolbrook — ''ComicStrip/OnTheFastrack'', ''Webcomic/KevinAndKell'' and ''ComicStrip/SafeHavens'' — all run in approximately real time. Single storylines may use up several days to portray the events of a few minutes, but then there are periods of inactivity again, so that we get regular scheduled real life events spilling over into their world, such as Valentine's, summer camp or Christmas. Safe Havens followed school kids through their school years, Safe Havens and On the Fastrack have a common 'Mars Mission' plotline that evolves in real time, too.
45	* Each comic strip of ''ComicStrip/GasolineAlley'' is a small slice of the events of that day, and characters go through their lives and age accordingly. As of TheNewTwenties, the youngest characters are the great-great-grandchildren of the original characters.
46	[[/folder]]
47
48	[[folder:Film -- Animation]]
49	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Coco}}'': Backstage at the Sunrise Spectacular, the stagehand tells Ernesto he's on in 30 seconds. Exactly 30 seconds later, the announcer is announcing Ernesto's entrance while Imelda is rising to the stage.
50	[[/folder]]
51
52	[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]
53	* ''Film/NineteenSeventeen'' takes place in real time, following British soldiers sent across No-Man's Land to deliver a message. The film does cheat towards the end [[spoiler: by having a character get knocked out]] to allow the film to jump ahead in time.
54	* ''Film/TwelveAngryMen'' takes it even further, with not only almost all of the movie taking place in real time, but almost all of ''that'' period is set in ''one room''. Even more remarkably, it had to be shot four times, each from a different angle with one of the walls removed to accommodate the camera, with the jurors getting progressively more sweaty and dishevelled. When all four angles were cut together it worked perfectly in continuity.
55	* In the climax of ''Film/{{The Avengers\|2012}}'', two minutes and thirty seconds of screen time actually pass between the [[spoiler:deployment and explosion of the nuke intended for Manhattan.]]
56	* The climax of Creator/TimBurton's ''Film/Batman1989''. The Joker tells his crew to meet him with their helicopter on the top of the cathedral in ten minutes. They arrive during the fight in the belltower, which is almost exactly ten minutes later.
57	* Similarly, the observatory climax of ''Film/BatmanAndRobin'' unfolds in 11 real-time minutes starting when Mr. Freeze engulfs the city with his ice cannon [[spoiler: to when the Batheroes successfully thaw the city]], with 11 minutes having been established as how long it takes for his freezing process to become fatal.
58	* ''Film/BeforeSunset'' takes place in the hour-and-a-half following Jesse's appearance at the bookstore. ''Film/BeforeMidnight'' [[spoiler:is basically four, five long scenes of conversation in Real Time, with some time passing between those scenes.]]
59	* ''Film/BoilingPoint2021'' is shot to look like a continuous shot. As a result, there are no obvious time jumps, meaning that the movie takes place roughly over a stressful hour and a half in a busy restaurant.
60	%%* ''Film/{{Carnage\|2011}}''
61	* ''Film/CashOnDemand'' unfolds in real time: covering the approximately 90 minutes following the opening on the bank on Dec. 23.
62	* ''Film/CleoFrom5To7'' follows a young singer over the course of about 100 minutes as she stresses over a cancer test. Stretches the bounds of Real Time sometimes, like when Cleo changes from a white nightie to a black dress in about five seconds.
63	* ''Film/Conspiracy2001''. Like the German original, the events within the conference room strictly follow the minutes of the meeting that took place, which was over in less than 90 minutes.
64	* ''Film/CrimsonTide''. The second half of the film takes place in real time, beginning when the USS ''Alabama'', an American nuclear missile submarine, receives orders to fire their nukes on a hostile target within the next sixty minutes. The following hour includes ''two'' [[HotSubOnSubAction submarine combat sequences]], three [[TheMutiny mutinies]], philosophical discussions about the nature of warfare in the nuclear age, [[OverlyNervousFlopSweat excessive amounts of sweating]], and a ''lot'' of clock-watching.
65	* ''Film/FreeFire2017'' takes place entirely in real-time (barring a SlowMotion sequence). Characters [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall lean on the fourth wall]] when they note that it takes 90 minutes to bleed out from a gunshot wound, and the film is almost exactly 90 minutes long.
66	* ''Film/TheGuilty'' takes place during the last hour and a half of Asger's shift at the dispatch center.
67	* ''Film/HighNoon'' is arguably the most famous cinematic use of this trope. The film takes place between 10:35 a.m. and 12:15 p.m., as Marshal Will Kane finds out right after he gets married, on the day he's [[{{Retirony}} retiring]] and leaving town, that gunfighter Frank Miller is coming to town on the noon train to kill him.
68	* ''Film/IAnActress'' (1977) is a ten-minute improvised short film that was done in one take.
69	* ''Film/ItsAMadMadMadMadWorld'' manages to juggle this, all while following multiple groups of people and several different sub-plots all at once. Though the film is infamous for having several different cuts, the most recent [[Creator/TheCriterionCollection Criterion]] release clocks in at just over 3 hours and 17 minutes, a realistic length of time it would take to travel the 125 miles from Palm Springs to the Portuguese Bend (especially considering all the constant delays each character ends up having to deal with).
70	* ''Film/TheManFromEarth'' takes place in real time, except for the final shots. And almost completely in one room.
71	* ''Film/MiracleMile'': After the inciting incident, in which the main character answers a phone call telling him that nuclear missiles will land in his location in one hour, the film takes place in real time.
72	* ''Film/MyDinnerWithAndre'' takes place mostly in real time, what with most of the film being ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.
73	* The film ''Film/NickOfTime'' (starring Creator/JohnnyDepp) plays out a thriller in real time and frequently references the passing time.
74	* ''Film/PhoneBooth'' takes place in real time. Interestingly, the antagonist was played by Kiefer Sutherland, the star of ''24''.
75	* The entire film ''Real Time'' takes place in, well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin real time]].
76	* ''Film/ReservoirDogs'' is an hour of real-time in one location with 30 minutes of flashbacks.
77	* Creator/AlfredHitchcock's ''Theatre/{{Rope}}'' not only unfolds in real time but was actually filmed in single continuous takes, each the length of a reel of film, with reel changes disguised by having the camera pass behind an obscuring object for a second as one reel ends, and emerging again as the next reel begins.
78	* ''Film/RunLolaRun'' has three 20-minute sequences that each play out in real-time, with short sequences between them.
79	* ''Running Time'' is another one that not only takes place in real time, but looks like it is done in one continuous take.
80	* ''Film/RussianArk'' is a single take. All 93 minutes of it. Since it was shot digitally, there was no need to stop and change reels.
81	* The events of the boxing film ''The Set-Up'' correspond almost exactly to its 73-minute runtime, which is emphasized by shots of a clock at the beginning and end.
82	* ''Film/SilverLode'' plays out in near-enough real time. The entire eighty-minute movie plays out during a single day, with no appreciable change in the time of day evident from the lighting or other factors.
83	* ''Film/SorryWrongNumber'' unfolds in real time, as can be seen by the clock on Leona's bedside table.
84	* The film ''Film/{{Timecode}}'' combined it with ''cinema verité''; its action was shot in a single take, by four {{steadicam}} operators. The film was a four-frame SplitScreen, like a security monitor, and sometimes action took place on more than one camera at a time.
85	* ''[[Film/Titanic1997 Titanic]]'' switches to a more-or-less real-time narrative from the moment the ''Titanic'' hits the iceberg to the ship's sinking.
86	* ''Film/{{Unfriended}}'' and its sequel, ''Film/UnfriendedDarkWeb'', take place in the same length of time as their runtimes. Each is presented as one continuous web session, most of which is spent on a Skype call. There are no time skips, not even minor ones.
87	* In ''Film/{{United 93}}'', the entire film plays out in this way for the most part, albeit the plane spends a slightly ''longer'' amount of time in the air during the film than it did in real life. The actual plane was in the air for approximately one hour and 21 minutes.
88	* ''Film/Utoya22Juli'' depicts the 72-minute-long massacre in real time and [[TheOner no cuts]] with some character introduction beforehand.
89	* ''Film/Victoria2015'' plays out in real time due to the fact that it's been shot in a [[TheOner single take]].
90	* The entirety of ''Film/TheWhiteBalloon'' takes place in real time.
91	* The sequel of the German screwball crimedy ''Film/DerWixxer'' is "[[SubvertedTrope set in real time. Only much faster]]".
92	[[/folder]]
93
94	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
95	* Numerous Reality Shows have dabbled with 'Real Time' episodes, ranging from live tasks (say, for shopping budgets or other prizes) all the way up to 24-hour streaming.
96	* Creator/RachaelRay's "Thirty Minute Meals", this is the whole point of the concept.
97	* ''Series/TwentyFour'' is the most notable example of "real-time", with the script writers conveniently forgetting that if the show were really happening in Los Angeles, Jack Bauer would be spending the majority of each show stuck in traffic. The very first episodes of the program features Kiefer stating at the beginning "Events occur in real time." The show was not very rigorous about this, ignoring the limitations of the Real Time format constantly and generally using it simply to build suspense. The final episodes of ''24: Live Another Day'' and ''24: Legacy'' have a 12-hour TimeSkip after the last commercial break.
98	* There was an episode of the 1970s British kid's drama ''Ace of Wands'' where a character had been poisoned and had 23 minutes (the length of the episode minus titles) to find the antidote.
99	* Played with in the ''[[UsefulNotes/GermanTVStations KiKa]]'' teen drama ''Series/AlleinGegenDieZeit'' (''Alone Against The Clock''), which has thirteen episodes per season, each covering one hour in thirty minutes (thus, [[ExtremelyShortTimeSpan each season lasts little more than half a day]]). Despite making two hours one, there is a frequent clock focus, the essence of urgency and (reasonable) passing of time is always present, and the plot is furthered greatly by various timespans and deadlines.
100	* The ''Series/AllInTheFamily'' episode "Mike the Pacifist", which takes place on a subway car.
101	* The ''Series/{{American Gothic\|1995}}'' episode "The Beast Within" takes place in real time, although with a bit of cheating at the climax.
102	* The ''Series/BabylonFive'' episode "[[Recap/BabylonFiveS04E18IntersectionsInRealTime Intersections in Real Time]]" plays out in real-time, but only between commercials. During commercial breaks (the "intersections"), it is assumed that much time passes.
103	* An episode of ''Series/TheBill'' consisted entirely of a squad of Sun Hill police waiting in a van as backup during a demonstration. In a subversion the exciting things are happening off-screen, as relayed over the radio.
104	* The ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'' episode "[[Recap/BrooklynNineNineS6E14TickingClocks Ticking Clocks]]". It's lampshaded in the very beginning, as Hitchcock and Scully put a lasagna in the microwave and set it to bake for exactly 21 minutes and 30 seconds. The episode finds the 99 trying to catch a hacker who's in the building and attempting to hack into their servers.
105	* The ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS7E7ConversationsWithDeadPeople Conversations with Dead People]]" begins with an accurate to the ''minute'' (at the time of airing) title and time card, intended to imply that all the titular conversations are real time.
106	* ''Series/{{Cheers}}'' tenth-season finale "[[Recap/CheersS10E25 An Old-Fashioned Wedding]]". It was an [[ExtraLongEpisode hour-long episode]] where the Cheers gang is running the bar for Woody and Kelly's wedding. Roughly 2/3 of the episode, namely everything after the gang gets to the Gaines kitchen, is in real time, as they engage in a chaotic scramble to avert several disasters before the wedding starts.
107	%%* ''Series/TheDeadZone'''s episode "Cabin Pressure".
108	* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
109	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E742 "42"]] supposedly takes place in Real Time, however, there are a few conspicuous breaks from the gimmick. Here, the title refers to the number of minutes the protagonists have in their RaceAgainstTheClock, and is a ShoutOut to both ''24'' and ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy''.
110	** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E8MummyOnTheOrientExpress "Mummy on the Orient Express"]], all scenes in which the Foretold attacks are timed to take exactly 66 seconds, as per the legend. There's even an on-screen countdown shown.
111	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E10FaceTheRaven "Face the Raven"]] is built around a countdown. The final 15 minutes or so of the episode take place in real time. Although this is not explicit, one can work this out by comparing dialogue with the episode timing, though this only works when watching the DVD or the non-commercial BBC broadcast. This is a good example of how much can be accomplished, dialogue-wise, within just a few minutes.
112	%%* ''Series/{{ER}}'', "Time of Death"
113	%%* ''Series/FawltyTowers'', "The Anniversary".
114	* ''Series/FirstWave'': season 1 episode ''The Box'' begins with Cade being (wrongfully) arrested for his wife's murder when he comes to visit her grave on their anniversary. After the title card, one of the cops mentions that someone is coming to take him away soon, so they have forty minutes to get him to confess to some other, similar murders. The rest of the episode, up to [[StatusQuoIsGod Cade's escape]], take place in real time.
115	* ''Series/TheFlash1990'' used this in the episode "Beat the Clock", where Flash had an hour to save an innocent man from death row.
116	* ''Series/{{Frasier}}'' did two real time episodes, Season 1's "[[Recap/FrasierS01E24MyCoffeeWithNiles My Coffee with Niles]]" and Season 6's "[[Recap/FrasierS06E17DinnerParty Dinner Party]]". In each, the real time even continues during the commercial break, as Frasier goes to the bathroom just before the break and returns straight afterward. In the latter, he's on hold for the first intermission, giving Roz the opportunity to go down, get her dry-cleaning, and come back up. However it does not hold true for the second intermission.
117	* ''Series/{{Friends}}'' episode "The One Where No One's Ready" where Ross keeps track of the time left before the gang have to leave for a dinner event. The end credits scene breaks the formula as it's set several hours later at the dinner.
118	* Season seven of ''Series/GreysAnatomy'' uses this in "Golden Hour", which takes place between 6 and 7pm.
119	* Most episodes of ''Series/InTreatment'' take place in real time, as they are half-hour therapy sessions. A handful break the format, but not many. It was taken a step further in its original broadcasts, as each patient came on a specific day of the week, which was the day the episode came out.
120	* The first season finale "Johnny B Gone" of ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'' takes place in real time, it is basically one long scene. This concept was reused ten years later for the penultimate episode "The Desperate Half-Hour".
121	* The ''Series/{{MASH}}'' episode "[[Recap/MashS8E11LifeTime Life Time]]", which has the 4077 racing against the clock to save a couple of severely wounded soldiers. There's even a clock at the bottom of the screen that tells the time as the episode progresses.
122	* ''Series/MisterRogersNeighborhood'' eschewed quick cuts and jarring transitions. As described in ''Mister Rogers' Neighborhood: A Visual History'', "Each television visit was designed to resemble the flow of real life, with time to think or complete simple tasks." In Episode 1697, after Mister Rogers asked viewers to take a long, careful look at an African violet, the camera stayed fixed on the flower for 25 seconds.
123	* A first-season ''Series/MyThreeSons'' episode has Steve and the boys racing to get out of the house and off to work and school after Bub mistakenly sets the clocks ahead an hour instead of turning them back at the end of Daylight Savings Time. The action unfolds against the background of a televised NASA satellite launch.
124	* In the ''Series/{{Numb3rs}}'' episode "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin One Hour]]", the cast have one hour to resolve a kidnapping--minus Don, who's spending the hour in a therapy session and has turned off his phone at the insistence of the therapist.
125	* ''Series/RealTimeWithBillMaher'': The central gimmick of the show is that it's a live broadcast of a one-hour show without commercial breaks. The show's theme music begins with someone announcing "Start the clock," and the set features digital displays of the current time, with the seconds ticking up. Maher talks about how challenging this is in ''WebVideo/ComediansInCarsGettingCoffee'', causing an apathetic Creator/JerrySeinfeld to ask why he bothers.
126	* ''Series/RogerAndValHaveJustGotIn'' is a bittersweet [=SitCom=] featuring two characters in a house, and every episode not only takes place in real time, but (as the title suggests) at the ''same'' time of day, as the two each get home from work.
127	* Most episodes of ''Series/TheRoyleFamily'' before "The Queen of Sheba" appear to take place in real time, and entirely within the Royles' house. Since then they've used a more conventional format.
128	* ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'''s famous "The Chinese Restaurant" episode was in real time. The commercial break is spanned by a LongList that Jerry rattles off.
129	* The aptly-named ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' episode "[[Recap/StargateAtlantisS01E04ThirtyEightMinutes Thirty-Eight Minutes]]" is the only Real Time episode (except for the last scene) in the ''Franchise/{{Stargate Verse}}''. The title refers to the maximum length of time a Stargate can be open after a puddle jumper (a ship capable of travelling through the gates) becomes stuck in an active Stargate with its control room in the wormhole, giving all parties thirty-eight minutes to figure out a means of getting the ship unstuck and moving through the gate before it's basically cut in half and exposed to space once the Stargate shuts down.
130	* Most of ''Series/StarskyAndHutch'''s "The Shootout", in which the restaurant our heroes happen to be at is taken over by two Mafia hitmen; Starsky is seriously injured and Hutch has to keep him and everyone else alive while the clock ticks away.
131	* ''Series/{{Titus}}'' was designed to imitate a play. Thus, most episodes take place on a single set in Real Time. It was even filmed in order, for the benefit of the studio audience.
132	* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S1E36AWorldOfHisOwn A World of His Own]]" takes place in real time as there are no discernible time skips in the narrative.
133	* The [=SitCom=] ''Series/WatchingEllie'' was initially shot entirely in Real Time. This format was ditched after the first season.
134	* Each episode of ''Series/WhereInTimeIsCarmenSandiego'' began with a 2-minute introduction sequence, followed by the Chief telling the contestants "you've got 28 minutes to get it back, or history will change forever." They always succeeded, since it happened at the end of Round 2, and catching Carmen was just the icing on the cake.
135	* The "Triangle" episode of ''Series/TheXFiles'' is set in real time or close to it. It switches between 1939 and 1998 and covers roughly the same amount of time in each period. The episode is comprised of four 11 minute shots.
136	[[/folder]]
137
138	[[folder:Music]]
139	* Music/RogerWaters' ''The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking''. The first song is titled "4:30 AM (Apparently They Were Traveling Abroad)" and the last song is "5:11 AM (The Moment of Clarity)." While the ''events'' don't unfold this way, the album runs 42:07 and the time when each dream starts is in the title of each song.
140	[[/folder]]
141
142	[[folder:Radio]]
143	* One iconic episode of radio drama ''Radio/{{Dragnet}}'', "City Hall Bombing" (July 21, 1949), gave Sergeant Joe Friday and his partner Ben Romero less than thirty minutes to stop [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a bombing at city hall]].
144	* In the 1990s [[Creator/TheBBC BBC]] {{Radio}} produced an adaptation of Creator/LenDeighton's ''Bomber'' that not only took place in real time, but over the course of an ''entire day''. In other words, it comprised several acts which were broadcast at various times during the entire day's schedule, with the events of each act taking place at the time of day they were actually broadcast.
145	* Creator/OrsonWelles' broadcast of ''Radio/TheWarOfTheWorlds'' was initially presented as a live news program, with real-time breaking reports streaming in. Notably, however, while the broadcast was skillfully produced to encourage suspension of disbelief, it would be wholly impossible for the events portrayed to all occur (including, e.g., the mobilization of large numbers of troops, government cabinet meetings, and several major battles) within its mere one hour running time. Basically, only the first third of the program, up to the death of radio reporter Carl Phillips at the scene of a Martian spacecraft landing, is actually real time.
146	* The ''Radio/CabinPressure'' BottleEpisode "Limerick" is all done as one scene in real time. Unlike most other examples, though, virtually nothing actually happens in the episode - they fly over a really boring bit of Russia, have SeinfeldianConversation and play word games, and cook a pie.
147	[[/folder]]
148
149	[[folder:Theatre]]
150	* Like many of David Williamson's plays, the events of ''Theatre/TheClub'' unfold in real time: covering approximately two very eventful hours in the club meeting rooms.
151	* ''Theatre/ClybournePark'': The two acts of this play are separated by a 50-year time skip, as two sets of characters argue about the purchase of a house and changing the racial dynamics of the neighborhood. But each act plays out in real time as a single, increasingly hostile conversation.
152	* The stage directions to play ''Theatre/NightMother'', a single conversation between two people, specifically say that there should be clocks visible to the audience, that the clocks will run throughout, and there's no intermission.
153	* ''Theatre/TalleysFolly'': In the MediumAwareness introduction Matt tells the audience that the play will run for 97 minutes without a break, and it does, a 97-minute conversation between Matt and Sally, the woman he wants to marry.
154	[[/folder]]
155
156	[[folder:Video Games]]
157	* Among single-player video games that have an InUniverseGameClock, a few also utilize Real Time and simulate what happened while the game was off. ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing'' is one of the most well-known examples.
158	* Some ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games do real-time progression in this manner (''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'' was one of the first to do this), which is especially unique because [=RPGs=] in general rarely use this trope at all. Then there's ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' and [[VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2 its sequel]], which {{zigzag\|ged Trope}} this trope. While the clock advances in real time, the seasons pass ''faster'' than real time, so a year's worth of seasons take place in four months.
159	* Jordan Mechner's ''VideoGame/TheLastExpress'' is set in real time, albeit sped up by a factor of six, and the ending changes based on where you are at certain times, meaning that the player must very carefully manage where they are to get certain endings. The only time this is broken away from is when the player character is knocked out or goes to sleep.
160	* Thanks to some coding, ''VideoGame/OracleOfTao'' has both real time, and an in-game clock. ThisIsReality sets in, when the party insists that the clock that shows the ''real time'' is off, and has no problems accepting the game time.
161	* In ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersia'' (the 1989 original), the protagonist of the game has one hour to rescue the DamselInDistress, and you have one real-life hour to beat the game. The 1992 sequel does the same, but gives you slightly more time.
162	* The SNES game ''VideoGame/{{SOS}}'' follows this concept. In the middle of a fierce storm, a luxury liner capsizes. In one real time hour, the ship will sink. The player character must reach the exit before then (and preferably bring a few other survivors with him). "Dying" advances the clock five minutes.
163	* ''VideoGame/ImpossibleMission''. You get infinite lives, but the clock keeps on ticking.
164	* While not entirely in real time, ''Fable II'' has the player receiving rent from owned properties in real time, even when the Xbox isn't on. Which of course means it's laughably easy to become a gazillionaire by simply setting the clock on your Xbox forward a few hundred years. Not that there's anything to buy with the real estate money anyway except... more real estate.
165	* ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' has the player in control continuously, from start to finish barring some long elevators. ''VideoGame/Portal2'' has some timeskips and periods of unconsciousness in both the single player and co-op, so they don't pass.
166	* ''VideoGame/TheLonging'' takes this to perhaps its most logical extreme - the events of the game take place in real time over 400 24-hour days, during which the player is free to do whatever they want (including not even playing the game at all) with no actual end goal other than successfully passing this time.
167	* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' has only a single time skip while Snake is knocked out and taken to be interrogated. The second game plays in two chapters that are set several months apart, but also are continous without any breaks, except for a similar knocking-out-and-torture situation.
168	* It's pretty easy to forget that ''VideoGame/KingsQuestIVThePerilsOfRosella'' is a TimedMission because of this.
169	* ''VideoGame/NightTrap'', ''VideoGame/GroundZeroTexas'' and ''VideoGame/DoubleSwitch'' are all played in real time, and as such, you'll be forced to ignore the story and check other areas to take care of the roaming enemies if you want a perfect score. Tellingly, in ''Night Trap'', you miss trapping ''several'' augers if you actually sit and listen to Lt. Simms' entire introductory spiel (the 2017 edition averts this by removing the time limit and instead allows you to take your time in the new intro before the game begins).
170	* Famously, ''[[VideoGame/PennAndTellersSmokeAndMirrors Desert Bus]]'' plays out in real time, simulating the 360 mile drive from Tucson to Las Vegas with the bus travelling 45 miles an hour, necessitating eight real-world hours to complete the journey. And your reward for doing so? Driving all the way back. Also in real time. Back and forth, [[EndlessGame endlessly]].
171	* ''VideoGame/XPerts'' tasks you with guiding your three operatives through a base, swapping between them to complete timed objectives and take care of enemies. A computerized voice constantly informs you when characters get into and out of combat outside your control.
172	* ''VideoGame/UruAgesBeyondMyst'', or to be more specific its To D'ni expansion pack, makes partial use of this. An office belonging to a character named Douglas Sharper gains a second journal, which refers in an in-character way to [[RealLifeWritesThePlot Ubisoft pulling the plug on the multiplayer servers in 2004]]. Later, the player would check back and find that there are more entries in the journal - showing that Sharper is [[ParanoiaFuel right there in the cavern with you]]. However, this falls a little flat in recent years, as the entries correspond to the system date of the computer playing the game, so Sharper's entries jump from the beginning of 2004 to several years later.
173	* ''VideoGame/{{Pathologic}}'' is relentless in its story progression being tied to the InUniverseGameClock: the entire plot is timed to occur over 12 in-game days, so you actually have to be in the right place at the right time to witness and to potentially influence its key events.
174	* ''VideoGame/BritannicPatronessOfTheMediterranean'' features a sinking experience starting at about 8:10 AM, five minutes before she strikes the mine, and ends 55 minutes later at 9:10 AM, when she slipped beneath the waves. And there are no cuts in-between.
175	[[/folder]]
176
177	[[folder:Web Comics]]
178	* Oddly enough, the {{Webcomic}} ''Webcomic/{{Narbonic}}'' used this, as opposed to WebcomicTime - while certain storylines actually did take weeks to play out for the viewers, there was considered enough 'fluff' between events that Christmas, Valentine's Day, and particularly New Years' Eve wound up being bracketed by storylines around those time frames. Most notably, it ''was'' actually 6 years between Davenport moving into Narbonic Labs and [[spoiler:breaking up with Helen]], both IRL and in the comic.
179	* ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' had a parody of ''Series/TwentyFour'' that took place over 24 hours. Of course, since the comic updates once every 24 hours, the parody started with the strip for January 17th... and ended exactly one strip later on January 18th, with the characters [[TakeOurWordForIt talking about how exciting it was]].
180	* The [[LongRunners long-running]] ''Webcomic/RoguesOfClwydRhan'' was supposed to be set exactly 1,000 years in the past, but that notion was eventually dropped due to ScheduleSlip, so that by 2011 the characters were living about 1005.
181	* ''Webcomic/KarinDou4koma'': Outside of a few story arcs, most of the strips' events happens roughly when the strips are released. The series started in 2008, so this is reflected with Tamaryu slowly growing from a 8 year old girl to a 13 year old middle schooler.
182	[[/folder]]
183
184	[[folder:Web Video]]
185	* The [=BBCi=] and Creator/BigFinish jointly produced illustrated ''Series/DoctorWho'' AudioPlay "Real Time".
186	* In ''RolePlay/WeAreAllPokemonTrainers'' for the most part, a day IRL equals a day IRP, which means that characters age as the RP goes on. For example, Tagg aging in real time from 19 to 22 over the course of the RP.
187	* ''WebVideo/TheGreatWar'' follows World War One week by week, exactly one hundred years after the events depicted, as an ambitious four year project.
188	* ''WebVideo/WorldWarTwo'': as pseudo-sequel to ''The Great War'', covers the events of The UsefulNotes/SecondWorldWar week by week, seventy-nine years after they occurred.
189	* ''Creator/JamesRolfe'' has done this a couple times in his videos, albeit very subtly. In his ''WebVideo/BoardJames'' review of ''Dream Phone'', the scene when he's talking to the killer over the phone with ''Film/{{Night of the Living Dead\|1968}}'' playing on his tv in the background is done in real time and exactly a minute and thirty seconds of the movie go by in that minute and a half scene. He also, as a shout-out to the popular theory that ''/Music/TheDarkSideOfTheMoon'' was deliberately made to sync up with ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'', actually went so far as to ''sync his review of VideoGame/TheWizardOfOz to the album''.
190	[[/folder]]
191
192	[[folder:Western Animation]]
193	* ''WesternAnimation/TheAngryBeavers'' is unique in that ''all the clocks update in real time''. That is, if 5 minutes pass between one scene and the next, the clocks will have advanced by exactly 5 minutes.
194	* Similarly, the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "Appointment in Crime Alley" took place in real time, with frequent shots of clocks counting down to a dramatic explosion. The episode came to be because the network wanted to see an episode showing a day in the life of Batman, hence the numerous events that pile up in the fifteen minutes of the countdown.
195	* ''WesternAnimation/BluesClues'' gave every appearance of taking place in real time. Viewers follow host Steve or Joe (or Kevin in the U.K.) through events in the ''Blue's Clues'' house and backyard, or into skidoo, without cutting away or any indication of additional time passing. In one installment, viewers even sat with Steve for one minute as a clock appeared on-screen counting down one minute as an exercise in patience. Another installment with Joe, "Patience," was all about finding ways to be patient to pass the time until an egg hatched at the end of the episode. There was even a song to go with it-- "''Wait. Wait. Wait.'' What can we do while we wait?"
196	* In ''WesternAnimation/DanielTigersNeighborhood'', events are generally presented without any time skips or sudden scene changes. The creators (who also worked on ''WesternAnimation/BluesClues'') have indicated that the show is made this way because they feel that doing that sort of thing is confusing to the young audience, who might not easily understand that the time-frame being presented has changed.
197	* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'', in which ComicStrip/{{Garfield}} has to not eat anything for five minutes. (Complete with a clock counting down in the corner of the screen.)
198	* Used in an interesting way in ''WesternAnimation/TheHollow''. [[spoiler: The first season takes place over ten half-hour episodes, and despite night and day passing multiple times it's revealed during the season finale that the whole adventure from episode one to episode ten took place in only five hours in-universe, the same amount of time it takes to view the whole season.]]
199	* The unfinished episode "Ten Minutes to Doom" of ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' invokes this when Zim gets his PAK taken and has 10 minutes to get it back, or else he dies.
200	* The ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' episode "[[Recap/JusticeLeagueS2E21And22WildCards Wild Cards]]" takes place in real time, with the Joker's timer in the corner of the screen keeping track for most of the events. In between part 1 and part 2, there's a minor "rewind". {{Lampshade\|Hanging}}d by Joker when the clock ''starts'' at 22:51. "Oh what were you expecting from me? A ''round'' number?" The creators obviously designed the number to be the exact time between the timer's appearance and the Flash dealing with the final bomb, rather than trying to forcibly edit the length of that time to an exact number.
201	* In the pilot episode of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', the speedy pegasus Rainbow Dash claims she can clear the sky of clouds in "10 seconds flat". She lives up to her word; in exactly 10 seconds real time the sky has been cleared.
202	** Also, in a later episode, Rainbow ends up in hospital, and there is a one minute-long montage of her trying kill time. Then she looks back at the clock, only to notice that the whole montage took place in Real Time.
203	* In one episode of WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb Doofenshmirtz claims in the OnceAnEpisode song that he'll probably pass out in 17 seconds. Sure enough, 17 real seconds later, he passes out without getting to finish the song.
204	* The "24 Minutes" episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', with a crossover appearance of some of ''24'''s cast no less.
205	* The ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' parody of ''Series/TwentyFour'''s format.
206	** Also the episode "The New Terrance and Philip Movie Trailer" from the sixth season.
207	* ''WesternAnimation/StanleyAndStellaInBreakingTheIce'' is one scene and three minutes long. ExtremelyShortTimespan, indeed.
208	* In the ''WesternAnimation/WanderOverYonder'' episode "The Fugitives", Sylvia points out a garbage barge will be leaving the planet she and Wander are on in "precisely three minutes." Exactly three minutes after she says that, she and Wander are tossed onto the barge as it is leaving.
209	[[/folder]]

Context Main / RealTime