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Line 1: {{trope}} {{quote\|'''T-Rex:''' Whenever there's trouble, their computer is always all "15 seconds until fatal radiation exposure", as though if you get 14, you're fine, and if you get 16, you're dead for sure! Expiry dates, like those on ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation\|ST:TNG]]'', are false and needlessly strict.~~<br />~~ '''God:''' MAN T-REX YOU'RE ABOUT THREE SECONDS AWAY FROM FATAL RADIATION EXPOSURE YOURSELF~~<br />~~ '''T-Rex:''' It's different when YOU do it! Sheesh! Also what?~~\|''[[Dinosaur Comics]]'', [http://www.qwantz.com/archive/000554.html Episode 554]}}~~ \|''[[Dinosaur Comics]]'', [http://www.qwantz.com/archive/000554.html Episode 554]}} Whenever a technological device is about to fail, the [[Magical Computer]] knows [[Ludicrous Precision\|exactly how long]] [[If My Calculations Are Correct\|it will take to fail]] and displays a timer counting down (often with the use of a [[Viewer-Friendly Interface]]). Very useful to create a suspenseful situation, in a similar manner to a [[Time Bomb]]. Line 11 ⟶ 12: {{examples}} == Anime &and Manga ==▼ ▲== Anime & Manga == * ''[[Eureka Seven]]'': the antibody coralians can only remain alive for [[wikipedia:Eureka Seven\|1246 seconds (20 minutes 46 seconds)]]. * ''[[Last Exile]]'': When the Guild first attacks the Silvana, it's stated they can operate for 20 minutes at full power. After ''exactly'' twenty minutes, they all break off and leave (including Dio and Luciola, who entered the battle later on). [[Fridge Logic]] ensues because they were thrashing the Silvana—since they still had enough fuel to fly back home, they couldn't have stayed the few extra minutes to finish? Or refueled and headed back out? Line 26: ** The English version ("Star Blazers") theme song took it further, claiming that if they weren't back with the [[Applied Phlebotinum\|CosmoDNA]] in one year, "mother Earth will disappear." Not "life on Earth will disappear," which would have scanned just fine and would have been a little more plausible, but apparently the planet itself. Naturally they got back at the last moment and there was no mention of the slightest damage or harm beyond what we'd seen at the beginning of the series. * Planet Namek during the Frieza Saga of ''[[Dragonball Z]]''; the planet was about to be destroyed, with "five minutes" mentioned at least once, for ''ten episodes''. Indeed, one episode had "two minutes" mentioned at the beginning, and "one minute" mentioned at the end. * Subverted in ''[[~~Mai~~My-HiME]]'': the time until Artemis the [[Kill Sat]] is ready to fire is announced, then it gets prepared earlier than expected, catching the protagonists (and the viewers) off guard. It is explained that "just because it's a satellite doesn't mean it moves at a constant rate". * In later episodes of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]] StrikerS]]'', the exact time for the Cradle to orbit Mid-Childa is shown at the end of the episode. A bit of a plot point considering that the Dimensional Fleet will be six minutes ''too late'' unless the Cradle's ascension is somehow slowed... * In ''[[Saint Seiya]]'', some manner of contrived [[Heroic Sacrifice]] (or enemy deathtrap) will kill Saori Kido, reincarnation of the Goddess Athena, [[When the Clock Strikes Twelve]]. And it's always ''exactly'' twelve hours. To the ''second''. * In ''[[Naruto\|Naruto Shippuden]]'', in the battle between [[The Medic\|Sakura]] and [[Marionette Master\|Sasori]], Sakura takes an antidote that blocks Sasori's poison-based attacks for ''exactly'' three minutes, Sakura can tell exactly how much time has gone by, she even ''counts down the final seconds before the antidote wears off'' * In ''[[Sky Girls]]'', each pilot's nanoskin gel—which shields the girls' skin from extreme conditions—expires in exactly twenty-one minutes and thirty-two seconds. After the gel expires, operating the [[Mini-Mecha\|Sonic Diver]] is equivalent to suicide: nothing protects their bodies when flying at hundreds of kilometres per hour at high altitude. * Subverted in the ''[[Read or Die]]'' OVA, where, even though the ~~hero's~~heroes stop the launch countdown with one second to spare, the Ijun launch anyways. In fact, the countdown ending display even ticks from 0 to -1 just to illustrate the point. * In ''[[Summer Wars]]'', this is a double subversion with the counter stopping with 15 minutes left, only to continue again to stop at a dramatic three seconds. * In the last couple of episodes of ''[[Science Ninja Team Gatchaman]]'', Leader X attempts to destroy Earth by dropping nuclear bombs into the mantle. The result is supposed to be equivalent to a black hole. Suffice it to say that every bomb ~~EXCEPT~~''except ~~ONE~~one'' drops into the ~~mantle—and~~mantle... and because the last one doesn't drop, the reaction doesn't come off. * In the second ''[[Digimon Adventure]]'' movie, ''Our War Game'' (and the second part of ''Digimon The Movie''), Diablomon has launched a nuke at Japan from the United States and a five-minute countdown starts up, letting the Chosen Children know that they only have that long before they're wiped off the map. When Omegamon stabs Diablomon in the head, he stops the countdown with one second remaining and the nuke flops harmlessly into the water. * Played realistically in ''[[Planetes]]'': when a ship is going to crash into a lunar colony, the countdown isn't until the collision, it's to when it will be too late to stop it. By that point, the ship is still a very good distance away. == Comic Books == ~~== Comics ==~~ * In a biological variant, [[Aquaman]] (and all other Atlanteans in [[The DCU]]) originally could survive exactly one hour out of water; after that point they fell down dead. This has been quietly done away with in recent years. ** The ''belief'' still lasts, which allowed Aquaman, in one of his annuals, to put one over on the bad guys. Line 61 ⟶ 60: * Parodied in ''[[Men in Black (film)\|Men in Black]]''. {{quote\|'''Jay:''' A galactic standard week? How the hell long is that? '''Kay:''' [[Microts\|One hour.]]~~<br />~~ '''Jay:''' One hour? Then what?~~<br />~~ ''[Incoming message: Deliver the Galaxy or Earth will be destroyed. Sorry.]''~~<br />~~ '''Jay:''' Aw, that's ''bullshit''.~~<br />~~ ''(cue clock)'' }} ** Averted rather than parodied, it's another race threatening earth, rather than a machine about to blow up. Line 107 ⟶ 106: == [[Live Action TV]] == * ''[[Star Trek]]'' does this one all the time. Happens constantly with the Vulcans. Made more logical when they made an android a crewmember in ''[[Star Trek: The ~~Next Generation\|Star Trek the~~ Next Generation]]''. ''[[Star Trek: ~~Voyager\|Star Trek~~ Voyager]]'' played with this when Janeway decided to take a bunch of her worst crewmembers out on a mission to get them to shape up. One of them, a woman who can't do 24th century math to save her life, gets put in charge of the one thing you need math for: calculating time to impact. {{quote\|"Shockwave impact in three, two, one. pause More or less."}} The quote from [[Dinosaur Comics]] at the top of this page refers to an episode of ''[[Star Trek: The ~~Next Generation\|Star Trek the~~ Next Generation]]''. The ship is being subjected to severe radiation. The computer reports the exact time, down to the second, when the accumulated dosage will become lethal. The implication is that this time is meant to be uniform for all crew members. But even if it were, say, the time when radiation would be lethal to the lowest common denominator (the [[Littlest Cancer Patient]], for example), it's still a long stretch to believe that any time before that, the damage would be perfectly fine to recover from, but the instant you hit that deadline, it becomes lethal with no hope of recovery. And presumably any damage before that point could be cured with a complete recovery, otherwise Dr. Crusher ''et al'' would be working a lot faster before those radiation burns, mutations, and sterility become downright miserable. * The majority of the ship's crew appears to be human, and it's quite possible that most other species have near-human fatal exposure levels. There will also likely be an acute (short time/instantaneous) exposure level beyond which even 24th century medicine is unable to stave off imminent death. * The Cylon virus attack in the new ''[[Battlestar Galactica ~~Reimagined~~(2004 TV series)\|Battlestar Galactica]]''. A second-season episode involving the virus was partially subverted when Lt. Gaeta, in charge of watching to make sure the virus doesn't make it through the network firewalls he installed, ducks under the table to disconnect the network, and fails to notice that the VIRUS INFILTRATED THE SYSTEM. This one is particularly stupid because if your computer knows enough about the virus and its activities to know how far along it is in compromising the computer's systems, it should be able to <s>freaking</s> fraking ''stop the virus!'' Far more ridiculous is the fact that connecting some computers together in a closed, wired network immediately makes them vulnerable to attack by the Cylons. Line 182 ⟶ 181: ** Might it be possible that the margin of error shrinks as the time to collapse approaches? In other words, the margin of error itself is a percentage based on the estimate. * Averted in the opening of ''[[MadWorld]]''. The [[Big Bad]] unleashes a deadly virus across the city. He warns the citizens that everyone will be dead in 24 hours and that anyone can get an antidote as long as they kill someone. Seems like a pretty straight example of the trope so far, but then a member of the crowd collapses bleeding. The [[Big Bad]] then suggests they hurry up as the virus' incubation time varries from person to person. * ''[[~~Starcraft~~StarCraft]]'' has a few missions in the brood war campaign where a character manages to estimate the exact amount of time until an important event will happen. These estimates are used as setups for timed missions. * ''The Subspace Emissary'' story mode in ''[[Super Smash Brothers Brawl\|Brawl]]'' has a boss fight with [[Metroid\|Meta-Ridley]] while a bunch of characters are escaping a self-destructing ROB factory on [[F-Zero\|Captain Falcon's]] Blue Falcon. The fight itself gives you two minutes to defeat Ridley before the factory explodes while you're still inside (and subsequently lose the battle). * In ''[[Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors\|Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors]]'', the participants of the [[Arc Number\|Nonary]] Game have ''9 hours'' to escape. Line 199 ⟶ 198: == Web Comics == * [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0186.html This comic] from ''[[The Order of the Stick\|Order of the Stick]]'' has the magical version of this. [[Justified Trope\|Justified]] because Vaarsuvius is just ''that'' intelligent. It also should be pointed out that in ''[[~~Dungeons and Dragons\|~~Dungeons & Dragons]]'', [[RPG Mechanics Verse\|on which the comic is based]], one round is six seconds. This would simply mean that Vaarsuvius knows that the spell will end in two rounds. * ... and then spends one round explaining things, so verbosely that it's no longer [[Talking Is a Free Action\|a free action]]. The next two rounds are spent disintegrating the dragon (presumably s/he won initiative). **** The Wizard ALWAYS wins initiative. Line 218 ⟶ 217: * "You are moving 30 MB over a 100MB connection. Calculated time remaining 2,457,494 minutes." ** There's also torrent download timers, where, depending on the number of peers you have, which take time for the computer to locate, estimated download times for a 100 MB item can vary from 2 minutes, 36 seconds, to 4 days, to 5 weeks, to ∞. * Expiration dates on items such as food and medicine are estimates of how long they will remain consumable; actual results vary according to factors such as storage conditions. With the exception of infant formula, [https://web.archive.org/web/20130606180957/http://www.fsis.usda.gov/~~factsheets~~Factsheets/~~food_product_dating~~Food_Product_dating/index.asp said food estimates don't even have any regulations for what they're based on.] {{reflist}} [[Category:Applied Phlebotinum]] [[Category:Index Failure]] [[Category:~~Exact Time to Failure~~{{PAGENAME}}]] [[Category:Tropes on a Deadline]]