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"Simmons, I give you a D in efficiency, but an A+ in dramatic timing!" — Sarge, Red Vs Blue
"Heroes always arrive late"
Mal: Well, look at this! Appears we got here just in the nick of time. What does that make us?
Mal: Ain't we just?
— Firefly, "Safe"
They're in deep trouble. The Dragon or perhaps the Big Bad himself have them cornered, their heaviest hitters worn out. Their enemy is just about to unleash an attack that will no doubt kill them. Cue The Hero deflecting the attack standing all cool-like and saying "Sorry I'm late" for effect.
Contrast You Are Too Late.
Some varieties:
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Examples
Anime & Manga
- The fight in Naruto against Kimimaro, which has three. To summarize: Naruto is fighting Kimimaro, and Kimimaro is about to kill him. At the last possible second, someone shows up and saves Naruto, though you at least saw him coming there. He ends up not doing so well, and Kimimaro is about to kill him, but then at the last possible second someone else shows up out of absolutely nowhere and saves him. That person manages to seemingly defeat Kimimaro, but Kimimaro survives and starts off one last attack to kill them, and then at the last possible second he dies from his illness.
- Let's not forget Kakashi's fight with Kakusu. First he got his ass saved by Shikamaru, then Naruto and Yamoto.
- There was also the time in the Land of Waves when Naruto showed up just in time to save the kid from the bandits, and he even lampshaded it by saying something along the lines of "A real hero always arrives right before it's too late!" He (probably) went on to say "BELIEVE IT!" several times.
- Again in the Sasuke Retrieval arc, when Shikamaru is saved in his fight with Tayuya by Temari, and Kiba and Akamaru are saved in their fight with Sakon and Ukon by Kankuro.
- This is lampshaded in the Black Cat manga, where Sven initially compliments Train for arriving at the perfect time to rescue Tearju, only to be told by a happy Train that he had actually arrived much earlier, but had waited until the critical moment to save her because it would be "cooler". Sven punches him.
Comics
- Subverted in Watchmen: Rorschach and Nite Owl II arrive "just in time" to challenge Ozymandias; but he knew they were coming and set his plans irreversibly in motion half an hour prior.
Films
- In the original Miracle on 34th Street, Kris Kringle's lawyer, Fred Gailey, interrupts the judge just as he is about to sign the commitment order for Kris. However, Fred immediately points out that even if he had been too late to stop the judge, he could have simply filed a habeus corpus motion and challenged the commitment anyway, meaning the nick of time entrance just meant that Mr. Gailey was spared some extra work for his client.
- Of course, it's pointed out in the movie Galaxy Quest: the main characters star in a Star Trek-like show that makes frequent use of this trope, and the aliens that catch the signal and then base their entire society on the show don't realize it's fake. So they design their bombs to stop at exactly 1 second to go, since they always do so on the show.
- Hell, Attack of the Clones. Having subdued Anakin (via force lightning) and Obi-Wan (via asskickery), Count Dooku is just about to deliver the fatal blow to Obi-Wan when... Anakin makes a miracle recovery and blocks Dooku's lightsaber just in time.
- Or look earlier in the film, when Yoda arrives on Geonosis with the clone army. Or when Anakin and Obi-Wan save Padmé from the poison millipede... things. Come to think of it, Star Wars is full of this trope.
Literature
- In the Discworld novel Moving Pictures, Victor ponders the idea that since the Theory Of Narrative Causality would ensure he arrives in the Nick of Time, he could stop to catch his breath but decides against it, because that would break the rules: he'll inevitably arrive in the nick of time, so long as he dramatically gives his all to get there.
- Around the World in Eighty Days ends the third to last chapter with Fogg concluding he has arrived too late and lost his bet, leaving him ruined. However, the penultimate chapter has him suddenly arriving just in time to win after all. As the surprised reader wonders how he pulled that off, the narrator explains that Fogg forgot to account for gaining a day after crossing the International Date Line, meaning he arrived early without knowing it and would never have realized his mistake in time if his love, Aouda, hadn't set off a chain of events that alerted Fogg he still had time to win the bet.
- Considered an actual duty by the Roving Reptilian Rescuers in Walter Moers' The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear. Unless it's absolutely vital, they refuse to show up at any point before the last moment. One of them is actually named Deus X. "Mac" Machina.
Live Action TV
Tabletop Games
- In Nobilis, players can take the Perfect Timing gift. In its lesser form, it ensures they arrive just in time whenever it's physically possible to do so. Its greater form does the same without any of that pesky causality getting in your way, so feel free to take a week to prepare for the evil cult's sacrifice tomorrow evening.
Video Games
- Due to the way that actions are triggered in videogames, players cannot help but arrive in the nick of time. This can result in the appearance of a world which is so dangerous that it begs the question of how anyone survives long enough for the hero to arrive on scene.
- Several cases in the Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney series have everything seem lost, only for a casebreaking piece of evidence to appear at just the last moment. A particularly extreme example occurs in the first game. The judge declares a Guilty verdict and even starts to go through the normal game over sequence before being interrupted at literally the last second.
- A chilling subversion comes in Rainbow Six: Vegas 2. Your squad of highly trained covert anti-terror badasses arrive in a Rec Center where hostages are being held... just in time for the terrorists to fill the area with poison gas, killing the civilians.
- At the very end of Super Smash Bros Brawl's Subspace Emissary story, all the heroes are gathered before Tabuu, who prepares to simply blow them all away with another helping of his One Hit Kill Off Waves... only for Sonic The Hedgehog to zoom in out of nowhere, smash the wings giving said attack power, and join in for the final battle. It just goes to show; "Heroes always arrive late."
Western Animation
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