History Main / InstantMysteryJustDeleteScene

%%* ''ScoobyDoo''.

** ''Film/DeathProof'', which has a 'missing reel' that makes it ambiguous as to whether Butterfly gives Stuntman Mike a promised lap dance. This was inspired by an unintentional version of the trope that Creator/QuentinTarantino's encountered while viewing an Italian crime movie. A missing reel of the film made it ambiguous as to whether OliverReed had slept with the girl. In the scenes afterwards, Reed says he did, but the girl says he didn't.

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* ''Webcomic/{{Drowtales}}'' does it [[http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive.php?id=863 here]].

* ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'' does it [[http://egscomics.com/?date=2004-12-01 here]].

* Parodied in "Literature/MacbethMurderMystery" by Creator/JamesThurber. An experienced consumer of detective novels, on reading ''{{Theatre/Macbeth}}'' for the first time, notes that if a character is set up with a motive for murder and then shown going to commit the murder, but the action cuts away without actually showing the murder, it always turns out it was someone else who did it.

* ''{{Drowtales}}'' does it [[http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive.php?id=863 here]].

[[AC:Literature]]
* ''Literature/InColdBlood'' starts with the murderers arriving at the farmhouse, then jumps to the aftermath. The central mystery of the book isn't "Who killed the victims?" but "Why were they killed?"

* ''{{Fleep}}'' plays with the reader by cutting from the initial shot of the protagonist entering a phone booth and him waking up in ''another'' phone booth surrounded by concrete. As it turns out, that interval is a ''lot longer'' than you might expect...

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' does this when [[spoiler: the Kyoshi Warriors encounter Azula and her friends.]] We don't find out what happens to them until over halfway through the next season.

This has become almost a staple of murder mysteries, especially in LiveActionTV shows like ''Series/DiagnosisMurder'' and ''{{Monk}}''.

* ''Series/{{Leverage}}'' uses this trick to hide some of the crew's [[CrazyPrepared cleverer preparations]]: the audience usually isn't let in on the entire scheme until it actually goes down, when the missing steps are revealed in flashbacks.

* ''VideoGame/TheHouseOfTheDeadOverkill'', wearing its inspiration from ''Grindhouse'' on its sleeve, has a similar sequence near the end, where Isaac Washington and Agent G both solemnly prepare to do battle with the Final Boss... then one '''MISSING REEL''' later, the two of them are standing outside the burning laboratory, remarking how convenient it was they just happened to find those gatling guns. Then they fight the Final Boss for real. (The "Director's Cut" verion later adds the supposed missing sequence back in.)

* InColdBlood starts with the murderers arriving at the farmhouse, then jumps to the aftermath. The central mystery of the book isn't "Who killed the victims?" but "Why were they killed?"

* ''Anime/TheBigO''.

* The other half of the feature, ''Film/PlanetTerror'', played it gloriously straight with a reel that was never shot. The film cuts from El Wray and Cherry starting to have sex, says "MISSING REEL", and when it cuts back, '''everything is on fire''' and we'll never know why. We'll also never know just ''who'' El Wray really is and why the police chief suddenly has the utmost respect for him.

* ''Series/DiagnosisMurder''.
* ''Series/LawAndOrder''.
* ''Series/{{Monk}}''.
* ''Franchise/StarTrek''.

* ''Series/TheXFiles''.
* Averted notably in ''Series/{{Columbo}}''.
* Some episodes of ''Series/DoctorWho''.

* The short-lived game show ''SetForLife'' did this by way of editing out the qualifying rounds that determined how much money each contestant would be playing for. thus undermining half of the show's point. The result was an already tedious, slow, bare-bones game being rendered even more bare-bones by having little rhyme or reason to its cash values.
* In an episode of ''Series/EverybodyHatesChris'', Chris makes makes Rochelle angry and, to the sound of a heartbeat, it cuts to Rochelle's mad face, then to Chris' OhCrap face before cutting to Chris laying on a hospital bed bruised and beaten. The only thing that indicated that happened in between is an x-ray on the wall with Rochelle's shoe shoved up Chris' ass.

* The PC version of [[TabletopGame/{{Clue}} Clue: Master Detective]] started with a still cutscene of Mr. Boddy alive in his chair. There is a blackout signifying an unknown amount of time passing and then we see Mr. Boddy ''dead'' in his chair. Makes one wonder as to how the "where the murder occurred" part of the mystery fits in....

* ''ScoobyDoo''.

* In the pilot of ''WesternAnimation/SheepInTheBigCity'', we see General Specific getting angry at Private Public, then we cut to a card reading "SCENE MISSING" before cutting back to Public stuffed down into his helmet.

* A [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis meta-unintentional]] example of this inspired the ''Film/{{Grindhouse}}'' cut of Creator/QuentinTarantino's ''Film/DeathProof'', which has a 'missing reel' (restored on the complete cut, and showing nothing more than a dance scene). He had once seen an Italian crime movie with a missing reel which he felt made the film more interesting, because it obscured whether or not OliverReed had slept with the girl (he said he did, but the girl said he didn't).
** The other half of the feature, ''Film/PlanetTerror'', played it gloriously straight with a reel that was never shot. The film cuts from El Wray and Cherry starting to have sex, says "MISSING REEL", and when it cuts back, '''everything is on fire''' and we'll never know why. We'll also never know just ''who'' El Wray really is and why the police chief suddenly has the utmost respect for him.

* ''JamesBond''.

* ''HomeAndAway'' has used this, with the audience never being quite sure about certain things such as Hugo's role in the 2009 mystery, or what the hell actually happened at the Sands on the night Penn died (assuming British viewers have caught up, here's one for those just starting to watch the week of this writing: Will killed him in self-defence after he threatened Shandi/Daria). They usually accomplish this by showing another storyline that ties into the characters involved in the scene.
* ''ArrestedDevelopment'' likes to do this on occasion, especially in season 4. More often seen is a similar trick where a scene appears to be complete, only for a later episode to reveal that something significant happened right after the apparent end of the scene, or even reveal that the scene itself was [[ManipulativeEditing manipulatively edited]] to hide something in the middle of it.

* A few ''AceAttorney'' cases start this way, featuring stills of two characters talking and the insinuation that action occurs, but no identification of the speakers or display of the murder itself. Others involve a relatively coherent scene, but the criminal is shrouded in shadows and unidentifiable--and due to the text-based nature of the game, identification by voice is also impossible.

* A semi-unintentional example of this inspired the ''Film/{{Grindhouse}}'' cut of Creator/QuentinTarantino's ''Film/DeathProof'', which has a 'missing reel' (restored on the complete cut, and showing nothing more than a dance scene). He had once seen an Italian crime movie with a missing reel which he felt made the film more interesting, because it obscured whether or not OliverReed had slept with the girl (he said he did, but the girl said he didn't).

* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'': Who killed Kaji?

* A semi-unintentional example of this inspired the ''{{Grindhouse}}'' cut of QuentinTarantino's ''DeathProof'', which has a 'missing reel' (restored on the complete cut, and showing nothing more than a dance scene). He had once seen an Italian crime movie with a missing reel which he felt made the film more interesting, because it obscured whether or not OliverReed had slept with the girl (he said he did, but the girl said he didn't).
** The other half of the feature, ''PlanetTerror'', played it gloriously straight with a reel that was never shot. The film cuts from El Wray and Cherry starting to have sex, says "MISSING REEL", and when it cuts back, '''everything is on fire''' and we'll never know why. We'll also never know just ''who'' El Wray really is and why the police chief suddenly has the utmost respect for him.

* ''The XFiles''.

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* ''ScoobyDoo''.
* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' does this when [[spoiler: the Kyoshi Warriors encounter Azula and her friends.]] We don't find out what happens to them until over halfway through the next season.
* Lampshaded in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Wild Barts Can't Be Broken". Homer is asked about what he did the previous night. We see his memory of the event as a sepia-toned silent movie, with [[WhatDidIDoLastNight the parts he forgot due to being drunk]] replaced with a title card labeled "SCENE MISSING".

[[AC:{{Anime}}]]
* ''Anime/TheBigO''.
* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'': Who killed Kaji?

* ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'' has several instances where it jumps to the next day and only later flashes back to what happened in the previous day.

* ''LawAndOrder''.