Good-Times Montage

"I don't care if you're young or old - Get together, let the good times roll!"

"Come on sugar, let the good times roll."

— Earl King (later quoted by Jimi Hendrix), "Come On (Let the Good Times Roll)"

A sequence in which it is shown that, while time is passing, our characters are enjoying themselves and having fun with each other. Opposite of the Sad-Times Montage.

This is sometimes used as the very last scene of a Clip Show series finale. Can be combined with a Drunken Montage in humorous works.

This is fairly likely to play out before a Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure or a Second-Act Breakup.

Compare Fond Memories That Could Have Been, which is the hypothetical, more tear-jerking version of one of these.

Not to be confused with a montage in or including clips taken from the seventies sitcom Good Times.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Monster contains a montage of Nina, Dieter, and Lipsky "making some good memories."
• Black★Rock Shooter has a montage of Mato and Yumi's burgeoning friendship about half-way through.
• Destiny of the Shrine Maiden has Himeko reliving good memories with Chikane after Himeko stabs Chikane through the chest in the Final Battle. Heartbreaking.
• Kaguya-sama: Love Is War has a brief scene of Kaguya and Shirogane enjoying the culture festival together while Kaguya marvels at her good luck over the fact that all the people who would normally get in the way being distracted by a series of Contrived Coincidences. And then Shirogane drops the bomb that he's going to be graduating a year early.
• In Samurai Pizza Cats, Bad Bird goes to work at the Pizzeria where the titular heroes work and proves to be far better at the job then they are. When he's summoned back to work for The Big Cheese, he meets Speedy on his way and reminisces about the good times they had, even though Speedy remarks that he doesn't remember any of that.

Asian Animation

• One appears in the Tooba Tooba Noonbory episode "Who is the Carrot Thief?", when Totobory is playing with his new mole friend.

Comic Strips

• Done in one Sunday Calvin and Hobbes strip, which consisted of a montage of the titular duo engaging in various summer fun activities.

Fan Works

• In TheNamelessDoll's Olet Puolisoni Nyt / You Are My Spouse Now, Dimitri reminisces on his life with Eric; flashback montages show the good times they had together and with their family.
• Star Wars Uncut: In this Fan Film remake of Star Wars: A New Hope Luke's line "That droid and I have been through a lot together" cues a montage of Luke and R2 together partying, shitting, and making love in the same room with a woman and an iPhone respectively.

Films — Animation

• Two of them occur in Arlo the Alligator Boy:
  • One occurs just after Arlo and his gang first arrive in New York City and explore their new surroundings.
  • The second happens at the end of the movie as Arlo and the gang restore Seaside by the Seashore throughout the day, officially calling it their new home.
• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs has one after the FLDSMDFR gets going, with the town being renovated and people requesting (and receiving) various foods. It is played with, though, as one shot shows Brent watching worriedly as the old Baby Brent Sardines billboard is covered with a new ad for Flint Lockwood Napkins.
• Coco: One occurs with Miguel as he is hanging out with Ernesto at the party.
• A Goofy Movie: Goofy and Max share one after the former eases up and latter lightens up.
• In Hercules, "Zero to Hero" shows that after slaying the Hydra, Hercules would become Thebes' beloved hero and #1 celebrity, slaying monsters and becoming the face of a merchandising empire in the process.
• How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World: the end credits feature clips of significant or heartwarming moments from the three movies.
• In The Incredibles, after Bob Parr defeats the first Omnidroid and finds himself with a lot of money and no need to work a job, a montage shows him spending quality time with his family and living the good life, interspersed with scenes of him exercising to get back in shape. It's set to a rousing swing tune, named "Life's Incredible Again" on the soundtrack album.
• Leo: As Leo establishes friendships with all the students in the fifth grade class, there's a sequence showing all the various students he's helped going through self-improvement and building their confidence, while Leo gets to reap the benefits of helping others, although Squirtle is repeatedly shown being grouchy by the students liking Leo over him.
• My Little Pony: Equestria Girls:
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Legend of Everfree: The song "Legend You Were Meant to Be" (which also provides the main page image), includes snapshots showing the girls having fun at Camp Everfree (presumably in the following days), including mugging the camera, fishing on the lake, eating s'mores by the campfire, having a pillow fight, or just hanging out between friends.
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Forgotten Friendship: The special opens straight up with Sunset Shimmer singing about friendship and taking photos of her friends having fun together at school, resulting again in such a montage.
  • My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rollercoaster of Friendship: As with the two previous examples, the final song in this special is once again pretext to show the girls having fun, this time at the amusement park, in a series of still photographs.
• In The Prince of Egypt when Moses is welcomed into the Midian tribe and becomes a member of their community, even marrying Tzipporah.
• Shrek 2: The song "Accidentally in love" plays with Shrek and Fiona's honeymoon, showing them as two people who never intended to fall in love but we still so happy together.
• Treasure Planet: Jim's time aboard the RLS Legacy where he slowly begins to mature from a sullen youth into a responsible adult and develops a father-son relationship with John Silver.
• In Turning Red, Mei and her friends raising funds for concert tickets is presented this way.
• Up has one of these showing the course of Carl and Ellie's marriage. It gradually transforms into a Sad-Times Montage, as we see Ellie's miscarriage and her eventual illness and death.

Films — Live-Action

• Disaster Squad 2 Dawn Of Armageddon: Slash chases Dan and Paul while “Walk like an Egyptian” plays.
• The Royal Tenenbaums: Royal takes Chas's kids around town set to "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard" by Paul Simon.
• The remake of Dawn of the Dead (2004), in which the survivors start enjoying themselves at long last, while Richard Cheese's remake of Down with the Sickness plays in the background.
• The Quiet Earth: Crossed with Shopping Montage as Zac enjoys everything that the abandoned world has to offer: for example, playing "trains" with real trains while dressed in the most expensive suit he could steal and saluting mannequin passengers with a Cuban cigar.
• Trainspotting:
  • It features a montage in which Renton, Spud and Sickboy start using heroin again, set to the fantastically sleazy Nightclubbing by Iggy Pop. Also during this montage, Tommy becomes an addict, Sickboy rambles on about Bond Girls, Renton gives a long list of all the drugs they took, and all of them commit various crimes to fund their habit — including strolling nonchalantly into a nursing home and stealing a TV. The "Good Times" end when Allison's baby daughter dies of neglect.
  • There's another montage when Renton moves to London and gets a job as a property letting agent, in which he enjoys the trickery of real estate, earning money and actually saving it, and remaining in contact with his girlfriend.
• Ghostbusters presents one of these when the ghostbusting business is doing well.
• Chasing Amy has a scene like this, showing the growing friendship between Holden and Alyssa. It even has cake!
• The midpoint of Scarface has one of these set to the tune of "Push it to the Limit" after Tony has taken over the Miami drug trade.
• In Plunkett & Macleane the film shows a string of successful heists and robberies being pulled off by the titular pair in an awesome montage. All while their notoriety rises.
• In Scotland, PA, interspersed with the scenes of business booming at McBeth's restaurant, there are scenes of the McBeths enjoying the wealth from the business.
• Brilliantly parodied in Wet Hot American Summer when the counselors go into town and within about an hour progress from innocent teen fun to living in a crack house and shooting themselves up with heroin.
• Valley Girl shows Randy and Julie in one of these set to the song most associated with the film, namely Modern English's "I Melt With You." The montage even includes a segment in which a disbelieving Tommy spies Julie sharing a piece of pie with Randy at the mall food court.
• Used in Ferris Bueller's Day Off to show Ferris, Cameron, and Sloane having fun in various Chicago institutions.
• The Naked Gun contains a montage of Frank and Jane frolicking happily through various settings (including a showing of Platoon!). She promptly hangs a lampshade, saying "I can't believe we managed all this in one afternoon!"
• Half way through The Karate Kid, a montage shows Daniel and his love interest having a good time at the arcade.
• The Beach after the main characters are accepted into the secret utopian beach community, before everything starts to turn sour.
• Rush: Wine, women, quiz shows, making cheesy adverts, all the glitz and glamour after James Hunt wins the 1976 F1 race car championship.
• In Pain & Gain The trio goes on one as they spend the money they stole.
• Summer Lovers has one, set to the Pointer Sisters' "I'm So Excited," after Michael, Cathy (Daryl Hannah) and Lina become a trio, showing Skinny Dipping, cartwheels and other enjoyable activities.
• In Barefoot, while Jay and Daisy are traveling cross country in an RV^note and avoiding the cops because Jay stole the RV from his father and Daisy is an escaped mental patient, they stop to have fun at a rural county fair. In the film's last scene, after Jay and Daisy have earned their happy ending, they're riding a merry-go-round just as they did at the fair as a Meaningful Echo.
• Bruce Almighty has two:
  • The first comes right after Bruce learns he really does have his powers, where he frolics through Buffalo, bursting fire hydrants and lifting girls' dresses.
  • The second comes after Bruce gets his job back, and he uses his powers to create lots of amazing news stories.
• Done in Running Scared (1986) to show Danny and Ray enjoying themselves while on vacation in Florida.
• The Sound of Music shows Maria and the children excitedly exploring Salzburg and the hills, to the accompaniment of an instrumental of "My Favorite Things".
• Done in Sneakers, crossed with the use of Jump Cut, to show Liz dancing with various members of the team after they successfully pulled off the robbery.
• In The Cobbler, the dinner date of Max (pretending to be his father) and his mum is depicted in a series of happy moments.
• 10 Cloverfield Lane has an upbeat montage of the characters settling into their routine in the bunker, playing games and doing chores together. It is the only scene in the movie which is truly lighthearted, and the mood rapidly darkens afterward.
• A montage of drinking, dining and partying is used show Vincent romancing the bank secretary Eileen as he pumps her for information about the armored car schedule in The Hoodlum.
• In Coneheads, a montage set to the Paul Simon song "Kodachrome" plays after the Conehead family buys a new house in the suburbs (before then, they had been living in a basement apartment). The montage shows Beldar getting a set of golf clubs for Christmas, the family at the beach, Connie taking ballet lessons, and so on.
• Dick Tracy: The Villain Song "Back in Business" is a good times montage showing the villains enjoying themselves on a crime spree.
• Exit 0: When Billy and Lisa spend time in town, it's shown as a montage of them enjoying themselves and having loving moments.
• Thor: Love and Thunder has Korg telling the audience about Thor and Jane’s relationship over a montage set to Abba’s “Our Last Summer.” While it starts out lovely and optimistic, showing things like Jane and Thor rollerblading and going to a Halloween party in goofy costumes, it does portray the deterioration and eventual end of the relationship.
• Mako (2021): On the day before the crew starts filming, they decide to throw a party, which lasts into the night, as shown by the montage.
• The Wasteland (2021): Near the start of the movie, we're shown a montage of Diego, Salvador, and Lucia enjoying some quality time together.

Live-Action TV

• The Torchwood episode "Ghost Machine" has a alien device that recreates Rhys and Gwen's past happy moments.
• Supernatural's fifth season finale used one composed of various clips from the series, as Sam remembered all the time he and Dean spent together. This is ultimately what enables him to overpower Lucifer and seal him back in the pit.
• Eastbound & Down has one of these whenever Kenny does coke with Clegg.
• Misfits:
  • Misfits brings out one of these when the team are given the job of sorting donated clothes. Naturally, they use this opportunity to bugger around as much as possible, either flinging themselves into the pile of clothing, pushing each other into it, exchanging jokes, or just trying on the clothes.
  • The Christmas special also features this when the Misfits decide to sell their mainly Useless Superpowers, and enjoy much happier lives because of it: Alisha, no longer hampered by her lust-inducing touch, enjoys genuinely intimate sex with Simon; Nathan cosies up with Marnie; Kelly joyfully tosses her council-worker's uniform in the bin; Curtis and Nikki gloat over the tickets they've bought with the money. However, the montage takes a very dark turn when the False Jesus is seen in the Power Dealer's office, grinning as he hands over a huge stack of his followers' money in exchange for Alisha's power... which is immediately put to the worst possible use.
• The series finale of ReGenesis ends on one of these, possibly combined with Really Dead Montage. Guess we'll never know for sure, since it was the end of the series.
• The very last thing viewers see in the series finale of the 2017 version of The Worst Witch is a heartwarming behind the scenes montage of the cast and crew during the production of series 4.
• Odd Squad:
  • An example of a montage being both this and a Sad-Times Montage occurs in the Season 1 finale "O is Not For Over". After failing to get the attention of both Oprah and Olive to inform them about Odd Todd's return, Otto, struggling with his partner being promoted and having to move away from Precinct 13579 into the precinct located in the next town over, reminisces about all of the cases he and Olive have been on together, shown in snapshots from previous episodes. The montage then shifts to being diegetic as it's revealed that the snapshots are part of a slideshow playing on Olive's old computer, which Ohlm is attempting to throw out.
  • A played-straight example occurs in "Villains in Need Are Villains Indeed", where Jamie Jam remembers the fun times she, the Noisemaker, and Mr. Lightning have had inside their destructive (and invincible) robot Benny, and a montage plays of them doing things like building the robot itself and celebrating Christmas.
• In the Donkey Hodie episode "Super Duper Sleepover", there's a montage of this kind involving Donkey Hodie and Purple Panda, where they do activities ranging from eating noodles to dressing up in silly costumes, all set to a song which is just the lyrics "Oh, sleepover!" repeated over and over.
• In the Tales from the Crypt episode "The Third Pig", Dudley Pig takes in his brothers Drinky and Smokey after the Big Bad Wolf blows down their houses. The brothers absolutely leech of their smart brother, making messes, bringing home hookers, and refusing to look for jobs. Dudley decides to think back on all the good times he's had with his brothers, the screen even going into the standard flashback ripples... and then it doesn't happen.
  The Crypt Keeper (aka the narrator): But for the life of him, he couldn't remember any good times!

Video Games

• Cyberpunk 2077 has one that plays after completing your lifepath introduction sequence, showing V and Jackie having fun as Edgerunners: having dinner with Mama Welles, meeting Misty, getting V's car and apartment, and generally raising Caine.
• Scarface: The World Is Yours has a scene over the opening credits of Tony driving through Miami set to peppy music that comes across as an "It's Great To Be Alive" montage.
• Tropico 3 has El Presidente partying with the people of his/her country, if you complete a mission successfully. Definitely shows off the glamour of the Caribbean.
• Mafia II has a few. The first is in Chapter 9, showing Vito and Joe making the most of being in The Mafia, while the second, in Chapter 12, shows Vito, Joe, and Henry making a lot of money from the drugs they're selling.
• Heartwarmingly used in the good ending of OMORI as Sunny finally conquers his suicidal depression and guilt.

Visual Novels

• Fate/stay night: Subverted oh-so-very-much in a climactic moment near the end of the Heaven's Feel route of the visual novel. Music plays and we get a montage of happy moments between Saber and Shirou just after he's killed her to free her from the corruption of being Saber Alter on the way to stopping Angra Mainyu. Goddamn it, Nasu.

Web Animation

• Jeff and Donkey Kong have one during episode 6 of Bowser's Kingdom, but Donkey Kong keeps asking Jeff to eat bananas, annoying Jeff greatly.

Webcomics

• In Weak Hero, when Alex starts to drift apart from Ben in middle school, Ben flashes back to sweet memories of them growing up together as best friends, and wonders what's going on with Alex that's pulling them apart.

Web Original

• Protectors of the Plot Continuum: An illustrated version of this trope is used to cap off the two-part mission, "Girls' Night Out", with all of the agents participating having fun at Beach City^note specifically, the girls are shown at a hair salon, the nightclub from "Alone Together", the Funland roller coaster, a bowling alley, the shirt store from "So Many Birthdays", and the eponymous beach, capped off with a Group Picture Ending. Notable in that the mission itself focused on agents Lapis Lazuli and Aiko Kimura struggling to cooperate, and the photographs show that not only have they come to terms with each other, but also that Lapis is on track to becoming a nicer person overall, and has learned to appreciate herself and her friends as well.
• Seinfeld The Twin Towers: A montage (set to "Where Were You" by Alan Jackson) shows George being lauded by the public after he's mistaken for a life-saving hero.

Western Animation

• The Amazing World of Gumball:
  • "The Burden" has a montage of Gumball and Darwin having fun with "Chris Morris".
  • "The Father" has Richard and Frankie share a not-so-Good-Times Montage with Frankie's old criminal habits integrated into their activities. This includes playing catch with a stolen football to fishing for handbags on a freeway, which only frustrates Richard to the point where he was about to give up on Frankie.
  • Parodied in "The Heart", when Mr. Robinson reminisces about all the good times he's had with Gumball and Darwin - all of which involve playing mean pranks on them.
• In Arthur, when D.W. and Binky think they're dying, they do things together like rake leaves, carve pumpkins, and get in a Snowball Fight. When it ends, D.W. say "Boy, it's amazing what you can do in one day if you try real hard!"
• Used in Big City Greens frequently:
  • One occurs in "Uncaged" as Cricket and Tilly spend a day out with their mother Nancy after she is let out of jail.
  • In "Bear Trapped", one occurs showing Cricket doing favors for Daisy the bear which causes him to reconsider his hatred of bears and become attached to her.
  • Another in "Cheap Snake" as Cricket spends a day out with the snake he impulsively got from a pet shop.
  • Done again in "Friend Con" as Bill spends time bonding with Chip Whistler at Farm Con. It turns out to be one-sided however, as Chip is only using the friendship to ruin Bill's big speech and destroy the family's reputation.
• Bluey: In the episode "The Pool", to drive home how much more fun the Heelers have with the "boring" supplies than without, the audience is treated to the family having a greater range of activities they can do now that they're properly equipped. The Heelers have lunch, the sun screen allows the girls to swim in the sun, Bingo's floaties enables her to swim away from the "scary" pool cleaner, and the sisters get to play in the pool to its fullest.
• Subverted in The Emperor's New School when Malina tries to have a Good Times Montage (she even lampshades it) with Doyle the Manatee; he just cannot be bothered to partake in most of the activities she tries.
• The Fairly OddParents!: In "Love Struck" after Timmy wishes for a world without girls, thus causing Earth to be separated by gender, the "Himsdale" side of the world gets a montage of all the men and boys enjoying themselves and engaging in various manly activities, all set to the song, "Great to Be a Guy".
• Molly of Denali: In the episode "The Story of the Story Knife," there's a montage of Molly, Willow, and the others doing fun things together such as birdwatching.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: At the end of "The Cutie Re-Mark – Part 2", we see short clips of Starlight Glimmer's new status as a supporting character, having fun and bonding with each of the Mane Six. Starlight is enjoying a dress made by Rarity, petting animals with Fluttershy (as well as receiving an affectionate Bear Hug from Harry), apple bucking with Applejack, flying (or rather levitating) with Rainbow Dash, baking cupcakes with Pinkie Pie, and finally, reading and studying magic with her new teacher, Princess Twilight.
• The Patrick Star Show: "Chum Bucket List" opens with a Friendship Song with SpongeBob and Patrick, which briefly contains a montage of them hanging out together (going jellyfishing, watching a movie, getting ice cream).
• Rick and Morty: At the end of "Rixty Minutes", Rick takes the family to Hamster-In-Butt-World to make them stop bothering him with questions about it. A series of photos show them all having fun; while Rick is still in a bad mood at first, he eventually lightens up.
• Sonic Boom:
  • Parodied in the episode "Buster". At one point, Sticks implores her titular robo-pet to remember all the good times they had together, flashing back to scenes the viewers didn't see in the episode. When Buster remains unconvinced, Sticks admits they didn't really do any of that.
  • A similar scene occurs in "Eggman's Tomato Sauce" when Tails implores his plane, which had been reprogrammed by one of Eggman's tomato sauce cans, to remember the good times.
• SpongeBob SquarePants:
  "F is for frolicking through all the flowers, U is for ukulele... N is for nose picking, sharing gum, and sand licking here with my best buddy!"
  "F is for fire that burns down the whole town, U is for uranium... bombs, N is for no survivors..."
  • In "All That Glitters", when SpongeBob first visits Spat in the hospital, he says, "We've been through so much together." Cue montage of SpongeBob doing various things with Spat.
• Tuca & Bertie has one in the episode "The Sugar Bowl" that shows Tuca and Bertie's "good times" in their apartment before the former moves out. Among the moments pictured are a couch infested with spiders, both of them making out with the same boyfriend, Tuca bringing over a drum kit and motorcycle, and both of them flooding the apartment and then swimming in it.

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