But whoever he chose, he would be disappointed. Joker suspected he'd choose Rachel, he's already jumped off of a skyscraper to save her. Joker was counting on Batman being just fast enough, and the police not being fast enough. The trope is invoked a second time when Gotham's citizens refuse to participate in the Joker's plan, but the Joker points out Batman still cannot redeem the corrupted Harvey Dent.which was part of the plan, really. The Dark Knight: Batman arrives in time to rescue Harvey Dent, but the Gotham Police are too late to save Rachel Dawes.Spoiler Warning: Due to the nature of this trope, all examples are a spoiler risk. Contrast The Cavalry Arrives Late when the cavalry arrives after the Big Bad has been defeated by the hero, and You Can't Thwart Stage One where the hero will fail to stop the villain's plan up until the final confrontation. This is not to be confused with Unrequited Love Switcheroo.Ĭompare Remembered Too Late. If the heroes defuse the bomb or divert the missiles mid-flight, then they're Just in Time.

If the final stage of the plan involves a Time Bomb, then it is an example of this trope only if the heroes arrive too late to prevent it from going off. (A downplayed 'Shaggy Dog' Story where the heroes may or may not die.) There is literally nothing the heroes can do to stop the villain's plan, there is no way to subvert or sabotage its actual execution, and it all goes according to plan.

And sometimes, the heroes are just genuinely too late.

The viewers often don't find this out until afterwards.

The villain's plan was sabotaged by the heroes (or sometimes by a third party) so that his success becomes a failure.

This twist tends to be used exclusively for the Anti-Hero or Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds class villain. A variant of Seppuku named kagebara, this plot twist is extremely popular in Japanese animation, manga and theater performances.

Realising that he is near defeat, a sympathetic villain secretly delivers himself a killing blow, and dies shortly after the heroes arrive.

The villain's plan is his own undoing he succeeds thoroughly but loses anyway.The hero discovers he may undo the villain's victory retroactively using Time Travel that would allow him to Set Right What Once Went Wrong.The hero has to come up with a new plan to beat their now strengthened antagonist often the additional strength arrives and is defeated in the final act, but this can also be a Your Princess Is in Another Castle!.Often results in a Bittersweet Ending or Downer Ending. The hero is still in time to stymie the overall plan, but only at the cost of a Heroic Sacrifice, or the death of the Love Interest, close friend(s), or (rarely) an innocent bystander.In a dramatic moment, some Big Damn Heroes burst into someone's hideout to foil his plan but find that they're too late.

Ozymandias i did it