History Main / RightOnTheTick

This trope can be pulled with the help of a CuckooClockGag. Compare RaceAgainstTheClock. Contrast ClockDiscrepancy. See also WhenTheClockStrikesTwelve, a trope specifically about midnight. All examples related to midnight should be listed there rather than here. See also ExactTimeToFailure, which is about relative time rather than absolute. For other references to clocks or time, see StoppedClock or TwentyFourHourTropeClock. For a character who's determined to keep everyone on time, see ClockKing. See also ClockworkPrediction and ThreeTwoOne Despite the name, has nothing to do with ''WesternAnimation/TheTick''.

!!Examples

[[folder:Anime]]

* And in ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventuresHowISpentMyVacation'' there's a song about waiting for the tick at the start of the movie.

* ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'': TropeNamer. The original has the Hill Valley clock tower struck by lightning at precisely 10:04 P.M. on November 12, 1955. Doc then comments how the post office should be as efficient as the weather service in the future. This foreshadows the ending, when right after [[spoiler: the [=DeLorean=] is struck by lightning, a man from 1955 Western Union delivers a letter from 1885 to Marty,]] which was instructed to be delivered not only at an exact time, but at an exact location.

* In ''Film/DuckSoup,'' President Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho) is supposed to turn up when the clock strikes ten. Subverted for laughs as he sneaks in from the back using a fireman's pole.

** Deconstructed in ''Literature/MenAtArms'': Vimes has the culprit in his gonnesight and very much wants to shoot him, but knows he's still a Watch officer - duty-bound to bring the killer in alive - until the clock chimes the hour and his retirement becomes official. Clocks all over the city start chiming, apparently freeing him to do as he wishes, but ''none of them are correct''; clockwork technology in Ankh-Morpork isn't advanced enough to be relied upon, and some Guilds even set their clocks wrong on purpose. It's not until ''after'' Carrot has talked Vimes down that the watch he'd received as a retirement gift - a much more accurate timepiece - actually does chime the hour.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' has two examples. "Speed Demon" has Buttercup impatiently eyeing the clock to hit the dismissal time. "Him Diddle Riddle" is unusual in that the entire episode elapses in real time, with the tower clock in downtown ticking off time as the girls race to solve Him's riddles.
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'':
** In episode [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE25TheClockKing "The Clock King"]] this trope is justified. A ScheduleFanatic has been ruined by (in his eyes) Mayor Hill's suggestion to take his coffee break at 3:15 instead of 3:00. Exactly 7 years later, the villain prepares a [[ComplexityAddiction complicated]] DeathTrap for Hill and a diversion for the local hero Batman who surely will try to stop him. [[WhyDontYaJustShootHim Why doesnt he just shoot Mayor Hill?]] Because his whole motivation is to be ''on time.'' He ties Hill to the hands of a ClockTower that will crush him at 3:15. ''Hill's death is not enough, it has to be Right On The Tick.''
-->'''The Clock King:''' ...you have an appointment to keep at 3:15 precisely with the grim reaper! (''{{evil laugh}}'')
** [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE26AppointmentInCrimeAlley "Appointment in Crime Alley"]] has Batman trying to find and defuse explosives that have been set by Roland Dagget to level the old neighborhood at exactly 9:00 while he's speaking at a business meeting.
* In the [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Bugs Bunny]] cartoon "Hare Trimmed," Bugs and Yosemite Sam are involved in a duel. Bugs manages to count off the paces and have Sam in the middle of the street so he gets run over by a bus. Bugs checks his watch: "Yep...right on time!"

* ''Series/{{Chernobyl}}'': Legasov kills himself at the exact time, 1:23:45, that the Chernobyl accident. happened, exactly two years later. This is accompanied by several shots of a clock. Episode 5's HowWeGotHere calls attention to the exact time of events happening that led to the explosion, culminating once again at that particular second.

* The TropeNamer is ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII''. The original has the Hill Valley clock tower struck by lightning at precisely 10:04 P.M. on November 12, 1955. Doc then comments how the post office should be as efficient as the weather service in the future. This foreshadows the ending, when right after [[spoiler: the [=DeLorean=] is struck by lightning, a man from 1955 Western Union delivers a letter from 1885 to Marty,]] which was instructed to be delivered not only at an exact time, but at an exact location.
* The first half of ''Film/IndependenceDay'' has Goldblum's character David intercepts a signal that the alien cruisers are preparing to attack all major cities at once at a specific time, identified by a countdown timer. And exactly that happens.

* In an interesting variation, at one point during the torture of John Cusack's character by the "evil room" in ''Film/FourteenOhEight'', the clock radio starts a 60 minute countdown. The movie ends precisely 60 minutes later, to the second.

* And then there's [[http://www.snopes.com/language/stories/420.asp 420]], as explained by ''{{WebSite/Snopes}}''.

* Subverted in ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'': Jacob Marley's ghost tells Scrooge that the Three Spirits will arrive at specific times on three consecutive nights. The spirits do show up right on time, except that due to some supernatural time-twisting, all of their visits occur on the SAME night--Christmas Eve--meaning that Scrooge wakes up in time to celebrate Christmas.

* Played with in ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''.

* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'', the world ends at exactly 6:00 A.M. on the fourth day unless Link does something about it.

%%Please see thread to discuss a replacement.

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/HighNoon https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/highnoon_clocks.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[AskAStupidQuestion Do you think something is going to happen at noon?]]]]

Compare RaceAgainstTheClock. Contrast ClockDiscrepancy. See also WhenTheClockStrikesTwelve, a trope specifically about midnight. All examples related to midnight should be listed there rather than here. See also ExactTimeToFailure, which is about relative time rather than absolute. For other references to clocks or time, see StoppedClock or TwentyFourHourTropeClock. For a character who's determined to keep everyone on time, see ClockKing. See also ClockworkPrediction and ThreeTwoOne Despite the name, has nothing to do with ''WesternAnimation/TheTick''.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

** In ''Discworld/WitchesAbroad'', the villain is trying to make a Cinderella-type story happen and the witches have to stop it, so one thing Nanny Ogg does is mess with the clock so it strikes midnight at only half past nine.
** In ''Discworld/ReaperMan'', Death knows his replacement the New Death will only attack at midnight - there's no ''reason'' why he couldn't do it earlier, but he's the type to use [[AC:Drama]] like that.
** Deconstructed in ''Discworld/MenAtArms'': Vimes has the culprit in his gonnesight and very much wants to shoot him, but knows he's still a Watch officer - duty-bound to bring the killer in alive - until the clock chimes the hour and his retirement becomes official. Clocks all over the city start chiming, apparently freeing him to do as he wishes, but ''none of them are correct''; clockwork technology in Ankh-Morpork isn't advanced enough to be relied upon, and some Guilds even set their clocks wrong on purpose. It's not until ''after'' Carrot has talked Vimes down that the watch he'd received as a retirement gift - a much more accurate timepiece - actually does chime the hour.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/highnoon_clocks.jpg]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[[AskAStupidQuesion Do you think something is going to happen at noon?]]]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[[AskAStupidQuesion Do you think something is going to happen at noon?]]

Not all examples of attention paid to the time of day belong here. It's only RightOnTheTick if a) it has already been established in a work that this time is significant; and b) special attention is paid to the passage of time or the proximity of Time X. Such attention can include shots of or descriptions of watches or clock faces, but the significant time can also be indicated by tolling church bells or the chiming of a distant clock. For example, if you're watching a movie in which aliens attack only at 7:07 A.M., and the characters in the film keep watching the clock to see when the aliens will attack, that's an example of RightOnTheTick. If, on the other hand, the aliens' kill happens at a randomly chosen time, and the camera just happens to pan out and show us that Bob became breakfast at precisely 7:07 A.M., that may have dramatic significance, but it's not an example of this trope.

Compare RaceAgainstTheClock. Contrast ClockDiscrepancy. See also WhenTheClockStrikesTwelve, a trope specifically about midnight. All examples related to midnight should be listed there rather than here. See also ExactTimeToFailure, which is about relative time rather than absolute. For other references to clocks or time, see StoppedClock or TwentyFourHourTropeClock. For a character who's determined to keep everyone on time, see ClockKing. Despite the name, has nothing to do with ''WesternAnimation/TheTick''.

** In episode [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE25TheClockKing "The Clock King"]] this trope is justified. A ScheduleFanatic has been ruined by Mayor Hill for and advice to take his coffee break at 3:15. Exactly 7 years later, the villain prepares a [[ComplexityAddiction complicated]] DeathTrap for Hill and a diversion for the local hero Batman who surely will try to stop him. [[WhyDontYaJustShootHim Why doesnt he just shoot Mayor Hill?]] Because his whole motivation is to be ''on time.'' He ties Hill to the hands of a ClockTower that will crush him at 3:15. ''Hill's death is not enough, it has to be Right On The Tick.''

* Creator/DorothySayers' ''Busman's Honeymoon'' also references the 8:00 A.M. execution time; at the end of the book, Literature/LordPeterWimsey [[spoiler: falls apart at 8 A.M., because he knows that the criminal he helped catch and convict is being executed]].