History Main / TheCavalryArrivesLate

* Subverted in the third ''LethalWeapon''; upon arriving a building with a carbomb in the garage, Riggs insists that he and Murtaugh have a look under the justification that "[[LampshadeHanging the bomb squad never gets here on time]]!" They go to the bomb, Riggs messes around with it, screws up the timer and it goes off -- and seconds after it does, the bomb squad shows up, having arrived in plenty of time to deal with the bomb had Riggs and Murtaugh not interfered.

** Only Fortinbras never wanted to come to the aid of Hamlet or Claudius, he always wanted the Danish for himself and to avenge the death of his father, who had been killed in battle against Hamlet's father. So his army is not the cavalry arriving late, but an invading force able to pick up the pieces after the prospective opponents have conveniently slaughtered each other.

Sometimes this is played for humor, or to play up their uselessness compared to TheHero. Often, though, it serves the same purpose as NoOntologicalInertia -- while the hero has to defeat the BigBad alone for the purposes of the story, TheCavalry is necessary to sweep up loose ends and ensure a happy ending, especially in real-world settings where the hero is on the side of law and order. Thus, they'll arrive just too late to interfere in the big fight, but just in time to handcuff the crooks... and to ensure that the hero isn't anticlimactically killed by a stray remaining mook or some other logical but narratively unimportant danger that wouldn't necessarily have gone away with the Big Bad's death.

* In the ''[[{{Anime/Pokemon}} Pokemon]]'' anime, if Officer Jenny shows up it's always after TeamRocket has been defeated.

* In the ''[[{{Anime/Pokemon Pokemon]]'' anime, if Officer Jenny shows up it's always after TeamRocket has been defeated.

* In AngelBeats, [[spoiler:Otonashi died ''seconds'' before he and the rest of the survivors are rescued.]]

* TheMist! Oh God, TheMist!

* ''JonnyQuest'' episode "The Quetong Missile Mystery". After the Quests have destroyed the missile and escaped from General Fong's forces, Commissioner Wa and a boatload of Quetong police show up (and presumably take the remaining {{mooks}} into custody).

* ''WhoFramedRogerRabbit'': The police arrive right after Judge Doom is liquidated.

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* In RobertEHoward's "The Phoenix on the Sword", {{Conan The Barbarian}} deals with both assasins and EldritchAbomination, and ''then'', his courtiers show up. One is, however, able to show it was not AllJustADream.

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* MultiArmedAndDangerous Gromozeka at the end of ''TheMysteryOfTheThirdPlanet''.

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* {{Invoked}} by the squad leader in a HoldTheLine mission in the new ''MedalOfHonor'' game, when he realizes that the reinforcements he has requested won't arrive in time to save TheSquad, and orders them called off to keep them from meeting a similar fate. [[spoiler: Then TheCavalry [[AvertedTrope arrives just in time]] in the form of a pair of Army Air Cavalry AH-64 Apache gunships liberally laying down [[MoreDakka 30mm cannon fire]] and [[MacrossMissleMassacre hydra rockets]].]]

** Only Fortinbras never wanted to come to the aid of Hamlet or Claudius, since he always wanted the Danish for himself and to avenge the death of his father, who had been killed in battle against Hamlet's father.

* In ''I'm Gonna Git You Sucka'', the police arrive after our {{Heroes}} have killed Mr. Big (and most of his {{Mook}}s).

Usually signified by the growing sound of sirens in the background.

* MultiArmedAndDangerous Gromozeka at the end of TheMysteryOfTheThirdPlanet.

* At the end of ''Eight Legged Freaks'', the state police arrive, expecting to find aliens, rather than giant spiders.