Basic Trope: Right when all hope seems lost for the characters at the moment... Something happens that saves them all.
- Straight:
- Alice is moments away from being zapped by the Death Trap when Bob bursts into the room to stop the countdown.
- Bob is losing the fight against Emperor Evulz when Lance arrives to give him a hand.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice is moments away from being zapped by the Death Ray when Bob crashes through the skylight and deflects the laser in mid-air.
- Bob is losing the fight against Emperor Evulz, who is about to the deliver the final blow, when Lance arrives with a battalion of soldiers that pour in from every entrance and surround the duel.
- Downplayed:
- Bob rescues Alice from the Death Trap with fifteen minutes left on the clock.
- Lance arrives a few days before Bob begins his assault on Emperor Evulz' castle.
- Justified:
- Bob had to wait for the guards to leave before disarming the trap.
- Lance was busy fighting The Dragon.
- Inverted:
- The trap activates just in time for Bob to watch as he arrives.
- The Dragon arrives right as Bob is about to strike down the Emperor.
- Subverted:
- You Are Too Late
- Bob is losing ground against Emperor Evulz, and Lance arrives to join the battle... and stabs Bob in the back.
- Double Subverted:
- Bob arrives five seconds too late to disarm the trap, but it turns out it takes five minutes to actually start up after activation.
- Lance arrives just in time to pretend to kill Bob so the the Emperor doesn't do it for real.
- Parodied: The clock is ticking, sweat beads on Bob's brow as he mentally counts down the seconds, and he dashes into the kitchen just in time to take his pie out of the oven.
- Zig Zagged: Bob arrives with minutes to spare to rescue Alice... but it turns out the controls are in a completely different room. He gets to that room with moments to spare, but it turns out the key to the controls was left on the desk in Alice's room... and the whole trap turns out to be a dud, anyway.
- Averted:
- The Death Trap activates instantly, there's no timer in the first place.
- Lance never leaves Bob's side, and is there to help with the battle the entire time.
- Enforced: ???
- Lampshaded: "You couldn't have gotten here any sooner?"
- Invoked:
- Bob doesn't rush to the trap because he doesn't want to make his dramatic entrance early.
- Lance wants glory, so he waits until Bob loses to jump in and save the day at the last moment.
- Last-Second Showoff
- Exploited:
- Emperor Evulz knows Bob will disarm the trap at the last moment, so he rigs the timer display to be 10 seconds slow.
- Bob knows Lance will rush in at the last moment to save him, so he goes all out against Emperor Evulz in order to leave him weakened for Lance to finish off.
- Defied:
- Bob cuts Alice out of the trap rather than trying to disarm it at the last moment.
- Emperor Evulz locks down his throne room so that no one can interrupt the duel with Bob
- Discussed: "This isn't an action movie, Alice! Your friend Bob isn't heroically going to appear from nowhere to save you the instant before you're killed!"
- Conversed: "Thank goodness for Bob's Rangers. I wonder how they always manage to arrive right when there's going to be trouble, no matter where it is."
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