History Main / TimeStandsStill

* ''KamenRiderKabuto'' has the speed-up version in the form of the Clock-Up ability, which anyone of any importance in the series has access to in one fashion or another: . Later on, he gains access to a even faster version called Hyper Clock Up, which also enables him to [[TimeTravel travel back through time]] when the [[HoldingBackThePhlebotinum plot needs him to]]. The Freeze ability of Cassisworm Dimidius, one of the more powerful monsters in the series, is even ''more'' powerful to the point where time seems to stop entirely.
** The earlier ''KamenRiderFaiz'' came close to the same effect with the eponymous Rider's Axel Form. When [[KamenRiderDecade Decade]] uses Faiz Accel Form, however, it's portrayed as a match for Clock-Up, despite the former canonically being described as the speed of sound and the latter as the speed of light.

* In ''Series/{{Charmed}},'' Piper could freeze opponents (or {{Muggles}} that the {{Masquerade}} needed to be kept around) temporarily.
** Although this wasn't time-based but instead molecular freezing.
*** Shouldn't birds fall out of the sky with that stuff? And if you say the air suspends them than how do the sisters move around during the time stop?
**** [[AWizardDidIt A witch did it?]]
**** The Cleaners also had the power to stop time, and it was a much more grand effect then Piper's; also angels of fate could do it, the demon of time can do it for a quick burst, in the [[SpinOff comic book]] Wyatt can perform a version of slow-time which only makes things appear to stop at first.
* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' [[spoiler: Season 4 finale, Gwen and Ianto are saved from a Dalek invading the Torchwood Hub by a "time lock", freezing everything outside the door.]]
** There's also a moment in the second episode of Season 1 when the Doctor appears to slow down time to solve a pendulum-of-death puzzle. However, this is probably a Flash-type scenario where he's actually speeding up his mental perceptions so that time seems to slow around him.
** And then there's the Key to Time from the classic series, which briefly stopped time for the ''entire rest of the universe''.

** Season 3 revealed that he doesn't actually stop time, he just slows it down. Daphne, a speedster, is able to notice when using her powers and can speed herself up to compensate. It's also revealed that Hiro doesn't know if his ability is localized, or not. However, since he later carries a frozen Ando a considerable distance in a wheelbarrow with time staying frozen all around him, it seems likely that he's actually speeding himself up relative to the universe as a whole rather than freezing time in a localized area around him.
*** Actually, Hiro does stop time. The above examples happened at various points in the series that Hiro's powers were malfunctioning. There was also a point when they are in a museum, and when he isn't able to stop time, [[Awesome/{{Heroes}} he slows it to half-speed]].
*** The best example is when he proves his ability to Charlie by blinking and then showing her hundreds of origami cranes that suddenly appear around her. This scene is shown from Charlie's point of view, as showing Hiro make these would take awhile.

** Experiments with millisecond-tracking digital stopwatches suggest that the brain's perception shifts into an actual approximation of "bullet time" when its levels of adrenaline are highest. This happens because neurons' activity is devoted so tightly to whatever danger or challenge a subject is confronted by, the person actually picks up enough details so that time ''seems'' slower.
*** Another experiment claims that details are not perceived quicker in high-adrenaline mode. Although they used details not too related to the perceived danger source.

** Although it's never really explained why it is that you have to quickly leave the area a Time Gear is taken from or be paralyzed, but [[spoiler:in the future, when time is completely stopped everywhere, everyone can move around just fine.]]

** There's also Bright Man and his weapon (Flash Stopper) in ''4'', Centaur Man (but not his weapon) in ''6''. Also Dark Hold in ''VideoGame/MegaManX 5''.
*** Chronoforce from ''VideoGame/MegaManZX Advent'', who ''freezes the very fabric of time itself''. Also makes the game... [[GameBreaker easier]].
**** Well, not exactly. He just slows everything around him down. It explains why your character is able to move after he uses the technique instead of stopping completely, like with other time manipulation powers in the series. A better description for this ability would be BulletTime. From the user's perspective, everything is moving much slower than normal. From anyone else's perspective, the user of his ability is moving much faster. Fortunately, one person's Time Bomb can countered with another's Time Bomb. In which case, time would be doubly slowed for anyone who isn't one of the two who used Time Bomb before... Despite not completely stopping time, this ability can be used on all bosses, unlike previous time altering powers (which only worked on specific bosses), though two of the bosses can can counter it: One being the boss the power originated from (though he won't use it to specifically counter you), obviously, and the final boss, who only ever uses the ability to counter you when you use it.

* In one of the worlds in ''VideoGame/{{Braid}}'', the movement of time is linked to Tim's movement. When Tim walks forward, time flows forward; when Tim walks back, time flows backwards. Time stops when Tim stands still.
** You can stop time at any moment if you start rewinding it and slow down the speed of rewinding to zero.

* [[spoiler:[[TrueFinalBoss Chakratarvin the Creator]] from ''AsurasWrath'' has this as an attack, used to start up QTE's, to throw throw massive swords and other attacks. It's a ColorCodedTimeStop.]]

* This is the effect of using the Gold and Miracle Badges together in VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam. All enemies are frozen in time, attacks don't actually kill them until time starts again (it stacks, with the full force of the blast hitting its target when they get to move again) and Mario and Luigi can move and attack in the meantime. It's more than a tad [[GameBreaker overpowered]], since it can be used multiple times in a row before the enemies can even move, and can do things like stop the final boss protecting its weakpoint.

* Prock from ''WesternAnimation/TheAwesomes'' can stop time by saying "Stop" and restart it by saying "Start."

* Dio Brando's Stand, The World, from ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' can do this. An interesting example, in that this is played up as every bit as devastating a power as it seems. Most of the cast is terrified of him, good ''and'' bad. Only Jotaro comes out of the fight with him still able to stand on his own, and that's only because [[spoiler:his Stand, Star Platinum, is the same type as Dio's.]] And the only reason ''anyone'' survived ''at all'', as Joseph realized, is because he hasn't yet properly synchronized with The World to be able to keep time continuously stopped (he can only keep time stopped for a few seconds from his perspective before he has to let it flow again for a while).

* ''Cashback'' plays around with this trope a lot, although it may just represent a daydream of the lead character. Or an excuse to [[RuleOfSexy show a lot]] [[FanService of boobs]].

Can be a source of FridgeLogic for those who have a mild grasp of physics. If the formula for power is work divided by time, what happens if [[DivideByZero the value for time is zero]]?

* Various [[Videogame/PrinceOfPersiaSandsOfTime Sands]] [[Videogame/PrinceOfPersiaWarriorWithin of]] [[Videogame/PrinceOfPersiaTheTwoThrones]] artifacts, like dagger or medallion of time, give this ability to their bearer in two flavours: there's standart {{TimeStandsStill}}, which freezes enemies and gives the Prince {{SuperSpeed}} at the same time (it also changes light color to red) and mild version, that slows down both enemies AND Prince, but leaving unchanged Prince's perception of time and reaction, which gives him slight advantage.

** To be precise: a woman finds a stopwatch in her garden that can stop time. When she presses it, she'll still be free to move around, but everything else is frozen in spot and cannot move until she presses the stopwatch again. A henpecked housewife who is constantly tormented by her demanding husband and bratty children, she's happy to use it at her discretion to get some "me-time," to do her shopping, and other [[MundaneUtility mundane chores]]. Those situations frame the subplot, told through a series of TV and radio news reports, regarding the increasingly desperate political crisis between the United States and the Soviet Union. One night, the woman is taking a relaxing bath and doesn't have a care in the world ... until[[spoiler: air raid sirens begin sounding, and she and her husband listening to a panicked news reporter revealing "this is the end," as the Soviet Union has just declared nuclear war on the United States and has fired medium- and long-range missles at the mainland. Though never explicitly stated, she perhaps realizes too late the true purpose of the amulet: to get the U.S. and USSR leaders to "shut up" about flexing their muscles, and forcing them to get together to "start talking" about disarment. She manages to freeze time one last time, a split second before an ICBM hovering right over her home town explodes, engulfing everything in flames. The final shot shows the frozen town, people fleeing and frantically seeking shelter, several looking up at the sky in frozen terror as they are about to be incinerated.]]
*** She decides to go spend her final moments with her family, before unfreezing time to die with them. If she'd had any sense, she would've instead kept time frozen, packed a bunch of clothes and ''her family'' into the car, and driven through the time-frozen streets, all the way out of the United States to the safety of another country, ''before'' restarting time....

* The movie ''{{Suspension}}'' (2008), illustrates how the power to stop time can appeal to our darker side.

Note: the TropeNamer is not an example - it comes from a LewisBlack stand-up quip about finding a [[MindScrew Starbucks across the street from a Starbucks]] in UsefulNotes/{{Houston}}.

* The ''Manga/DragonBall Z'' villain, Guldo, could do this, but only while holding his breath.

* ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'''s [[spoiler:Homura]] tries this on ''Series/DoctorWho'''s Dalek Sec in the crossover story ''Fanfic/AHero''. Because he's linked up to her temporal abilities, it doesn't work.

* The trope could also be called "Trapped In The Muellex," if ''StationeryVoyagers'' has anything to say about it. (Similarity in sound to "[[LotusEaterMachine Trapped in the Matrix]]" is partially intentional.)