The forces of good and the armies of darkness have gathered on opposite ends of the battlefield. Weapons have been drawn, Rousing Speeches have been given, and nerves have been steeled. The Final Battle is upon them, and there is nothing left to do but fight it. With a deafening roar, the enemies charge and... the audience howls in dismay as the story cuts away to something else.
The Charge-into-Combat Cut is a Camera Trick that is used when a fight is about to start, but the camera cuts away to another scene immediately beforehand or shortly after the fighting begins. This can be done to build suspense as the audience have to wait to see the outcome of the battle, or it may simply be used to pad time before the finale. While in many cases the narrative will return to the fight with the action already in progress, this can sometimes lead to a Fight Unscene if the audience only get to see the aftermath of the combat. If done poorly, this can end up being an Offscreen Moment of Awesome for some viewers.
Compare Commercial Break Cliffhanger, when a show cuts to a commercial just before a pivotal moment, and Anti-Climax Cut, when a scene turns out not nearly as dramatic as it was originally made out to be. Also compare Battle Discretion Shot, where instead of jumping to a different scene, the camera just focuses on something else so that the audience cannot see the gory details of the battle.
The Charge-into-Combat Cut may involve Two Lines, No Waiting. It can also overlap with the Bolivian Army Ending when the Charge-into-Combat Cut also heralds the end of the work in question, or be played for laughs when the impending battle scene cuts away to a nonsensical Gainax Ending.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Booty Royale: Never Go Down Without a Fight!: The last pages of chapter 104, the finale of the manga's original run, begin with Misora, Umezawa Mayu, and Dorakuryuu Burado about to charge into a three-way free-for-all to decide the winner of the second Tournament Arc—and then suddenly we cut to Misora attending Beruko's destination wedding to her longtime boyfriend Ernst Mahler in front of what appears to be Uluru (Ayers Rock) in central Australia, with no word on who won.
- Quite common in Claymore, which uses this to build drama and to avoid long fighting scenes. (Yes, you read that right: a Shōnen manga avoiding fighting scenes.)
- Present a few times in the anime series version of Fate/stay night, mostly to account for fights that weren't narrated within the visual novel. Most notably, it happens for Archer's last stand against Berserker.
- Neon Genesis Evangelion: This happens with the first Angel in Episode 1, because Shinji lost consciousness. We only find out how the first battle went through flashbacks in Episode 2.
- Princess Resurrection loves this trope, as most of the chapters involve trying to figure out what they're fighting. Once they do and overcome their tricks, we see Hime and her group prepare to fight...before it goes to the epilogue of the chapter with the heroes going about their usual lives.
- Trigun:
- In the opening scene, after an armed gang demolishes the bar that Vash was drinking in, he slowly stands up after finishing his drink, adjusts his glasses and points his gun at the gang... cue a cut to another town, in which the insurance adjusters on Vash's trail are introduced. Ultimately subverted, as it turned out that Vash was out of ammo. He ran.
- Done again after the Time Skip, when some local thugs kidnap a friend of Vash's who had antagonized before. Vash and Wolfwood head to their hideout, calmly walking toward it while the thugs open fire. It then cuts to Vash suddenly getting a haircut by said friend.
- Versus (2022): The Demon Mook Lieutenant Kiva goes out this way, hurling himself against the Madalans despite knowing he has no chance of winning in order to Face Death with Dignity. The outcome isn't in question; the next time he's seen, chapters later, he's just another corpse on the battlefield, rotting in the dirt with the rest of his army.
Fan Fiction
- A Flower's Touch: After Angeal's mother kills herself, he flies into a rage, punches Sephiroth through a wall then comes at him with sword drawn. The scene then cuts to the two of them arriving battered and bloody back at Shinra Tower.
Film
- The ending of 300 consists of the Spartans charging the Persian army, beginning the Battle of Plataea.
- Galaxy Quest cuts away just as Alexander starts his Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
- The ending of The Grey showcases Ottway squaring up to fight the black wolf, but smash cuts to black before the actual battle.
- This occurs in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, when Jack Sparrow charges the Kraken with sabre in hand.
- Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024): Shadow gets surrounded by a dozen G.U.N. vehicles and dozens more heavily armed soldiers trying to take him back into custody. He starts charging up his powers, only for the film to shift back to Sonic's perspective at home. By the time the film returns to Tokyo, the fight is over aside from one final explosion seen from a distance, and by the time Sonic gets down on the ground, G.U.N. is in disarray, frantically scraping together what's not crushed or on fire.
- During the climax of Thor: Ragnarok, the camera cuts away to Heimdall leading the people over the Bifrost when Thor and Hela charge at each other.
- Undead or Alive uses this as part of the finale, when Sue is about to square off against the zombie-fied pair of her former companions, Elmer and Luke. She charges at the pair with her sabre in hand before the camera cuts away, and only the aftermath is later shown.
- In The Wall, we see the charging soldiers at the Battle of Anzio, cutting back and forth between a young Pink years later, whose father died in the battle.
Literature
- Happens in The Hobbit, due to Bilbo being knocked out near the end of the Battle of Five Armies when The Cavalry shows up (the Eagles), and he only learns how it ends when he comes to hours after it has finished.
- The battle near the end of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is done this way, only showing the aftermath of the battle and a brief description of some of the highlights by one of the characters. They do it in the movie, too, but it's subverted in that they cut back to show the whole battle.
- A Song of Ice and Fire: In cases such as the Battle of Riverrun, the Battle of Craster's Keep, and the Red Wedding, George R. R. Martin builds up an epic battle, describes the preparations in detail, then cuts away to a different plotline, returning to the battle when it's long over and the characters remark on what an epic and exciting sequence it was.
- The Wheel of Time: Most notably, the decisive battle against the Shaido, during which Couladin dies, is entirely skipped over in favour of, um, something else.
Live-Action TV
- The Grand Finale of Angel, "Not Fade Away", ends with the main heroes (or what's left of them) about to face down an army of demons sent to kill them. The eponymous protagonist delivers the first blow, and... (However, a canon sixth season exists in the form of a comic book, picking up from where the show ended.)
- One of the most famous and poignant examples comes from the Blackadder Goes Forth finale "Goodbyeee", which cuts from Blackadder and company charging over the trench to a field full of poppies. Note that this show is a comedy, albeit occasionally a dark one, and this was a (somewhat inevitable) Sudden Downer Ending. What's more unusual than the darkness of the situation, though, is the tenderness and sincerity of the scene in an otherwise very cynical, silly and iconoclastic series.
- Game of Thrones does this for most of its battles, to save money and screen time. The main subversion, the Battle of the Blackwater, is the Moment of Awesome of the entire second season.
- Pennyworth does this with the Season 2 finale, with Colonel Alfred Pennyworth leading a group of English League soldiers (including Dave Boy, Bet Sykes, Katie Browning and a superpowered Gulliver Troy) in a charge against attacking Raven Union forces. Though it's downplayed as the latter has already demonstrated his superpowers, so the charge is just to finish everyone else off. The following season reveals that the English League won the war, thanks largely to Gully Troy.
- Rome does this for most of its battles, also to save money and screen time.
Radio
- The Goon Show: In the episode "Dishonoured" (remade as "Dishonoured Again"), Neddie Seagoon goes off to fight, and we only learn what happens next from Bloodnok's narration.
Bloodnok: How that battle raged — I watched it all on television, you know. Seagoon fought like a madman — how else? But alas... On that spot is now a little white stone. Once a year, Min lays flowers on it. The stone bears a simple inscription in Hindi — I haven't the heart to tell her that, roughly translated, it says "Bombay, 49 miles".
Webcomics
- This is fairly commonplace in Homestuck, although the author is always kind enough to cut back to the fight in time for it to begin... eventually.
Web Videos
- Dragon Ball Z Abridged: In "Cooler 2: The Return of Cooler's Revenge: The Reckoning", Goku and Vegeta think they've finally taken down Cooler only to find out there's an entire army of Coolers coming their way. Despite being battle worn and obviously low on power, the two power up and go for a last stand, claiming they can each take a side of 100 (or 101 in Vegeta's case). And... it then cuts to them beat up and strung up mid-air by wires.
Goku: I can't believe every single one of them kicked you in the dick.
[Vegeta groans weakly] - Naruto: The Abridged Series:
- In episode 9, Sasuke gets cut off in this manner twice before going into a fit of profanity and later refusing to do the scene.
- In episode 31, doubly subverted by Sakon and Kiba. Sakon starts saying that he wishes their fight won't be cut off, but stops at mid sentence. When Kiba asks him why he did that, Sakon starts answering that he was expecting the fight to be cut off... only for the fight to be cut off at that precise moment.
Western Animation
- In the finale of Avatar: The Last Airbender, this trick is used a few times to cut between Aang's battle with Ozai and Zuko's battle with Azula.
- The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy: The episode "Here Thar Be Dwarves" has a more comedic example when a large-scale war between dwarves and elves is about to be fought, but the narrator, claiming that it's going to be too intense, censors it by playing footage of a koala eating a eucalyptus leaf over the battle.
- In the Justice League Unlimited episode "Flash and Substance", this takes place when Batman Dual Wielding batarangs is about to face Captain Boomerang dual wielding boomerangs.
- The Simpsons: At the end of "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Guest Star", two factions of Bart followers wage holy war.
"Bart" Soldier: We believe that God's last prophet, Bart Simpson, preached a message of tolerance and love.
"Bartman" Soldier: We believe the holy Bartman preached a message of understanding and peace, before he was betrayed by his follower, Milhouse! And pulled apart by snow-mobiles, until he died.
"Bart" Soldiers: Eat my shorts!
"Bartman" Soldiers: Cowabunga!
[fade to black as they charge each other]
