History Main / MillionToOneChance

In layman's terms: ''if there's a million to one chance against something of vital importance happening, then it's that one time rather than the other nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine-thousand-nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine times''. This is TruthInTelevision in a sense, that if an extremely improbable event occurs to someone, chances are that it's [[AnthropicPrinciple his story that's told]]. What the trope hinges on is the reality that each audience member is an individual, and, thus, their own "number one": undeniably, each audience member is one in an increasing number from six billion, so, that single chance offers each of them the avenue to imbue it with themselves -- "you are the single chance"; if the chance is missed, it can break catharsis for the viewer, as they may feel, in a sense, that they are being left behind.

* Invoked in ''Series/{{Castle}}'' when Beckett was trapped on a pressure-sensitive bomb;

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'': In "The Light Cloud", Minerva tells Finn, [[spoiler:her son]], that he and Jake have a 0.00001% of making it past the gargantuan mechanic automaton that guards Founders' Island, so he should just stay with her, ''forever''. At the end of the episode, they do make it past the guardian, although they have Susan, Frieda, and Minerva's help to distract and deactivate the robot before it can kill them.

* Subverted in ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica''; Kyubey implies to Kyouko that [[spoiler:it's theoretically possible to make witch!Sayaka human again, but extremely unlikely that it would work. Kyouko tries it anyway...and fails, because there's no indication that it is possible either. Kyubey was just using ExactWords to avoid saying that it's outright impossible.]] And then Double-Subverted in ''Manga/PuellaMagiKazumiMagica'', where the backstory shows [[spoiler:it was technically possible insofar as making a witch human again, but not through any method Kyoko could hope to implement on her own, [[CameBackWrong had a very high failure rate]], and even the "successful" result [[CloningBlues wouldn't have been truly "Sayaka"]]]].

* Kyosuke Nanbu from ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' ''loves'' this trope. After all, his CatchPhrase is ''"I don't mind betting on the tough odds!"''

* In the ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse, Gladstone Gander's luck usually beats all odds. Huey, Dewey and Louie even tried to use it against him in the Creator/DonRosa story "Oolated Luck". Donald and Gladstone entered a raffle and Donald's nephews had one entry ticket with Donald's name and the others for Gladstone. Donald won the first prize (a trip in a cruise ship) and Gladstone won the second prize (a lifetime supply of oolated squigs). It turned out Gladstone was lucky for not winning the trip since the ship got stuck in an iceberg. The lucky bastard didn't seem to be concerned for his cousin) And one of the squigs had swallowed a diamond.

* In ''Series/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1981'', Arthur and Ford are rescued by the Heart of Gold seconds before they would have died after being ejected from a Vogon ship. Arthur states that the chances against it were astronomical after Ford tries to act as if he was counting on it as a certainty. Because Arthur had lived his entire life on Earth and Ford had been stuck there for over a decade, the ensuing weirdness such as an infinite number of penguins with a revised script for ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' didn't tip them off to the fact that they had an advantage in the form of the Infinite Improbability Drive.

** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E1TheMagiciansApprentice The Magician's Apprentice]]" the Doctor finds a child trapped in a minefield on Skaro and says, "Your chances of survival are about one-in-a-thousand. So here's what you do--you forget the thousand and [[ItsTheOnlyWay you concentrate on the one.]]" Given that the child grows up to be a DarkLordOnLifeSupport after being crippled by an atomic explosion and determined to survive at all cost, it's a case of giving the right advice to the wrong person.

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' story "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E3TheCreatureFromThePit The Creature from the Pit]]", the Doctor's companion Romana tells him that the odds are 74,384,338 to 1 against his CrazyEnoughToWork plan actually working. He tells her that 74,384,338 is his lucky number. (The plan works, of course.)
* In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E1TheMagiciansApprentice The Magician's Apprentice]]" the Doctor finds a child trapped in a minefield on Skaro and says, "Your chances of survival are about one-in-a-thousand. So here's what you do--you forget the thousand and [[ItsTheOnlyWay you concentrate on the one.]]" Given that the child grows up to be a DarkLordOnLifeSupport after being crippled by an atomic explosion and determined to survive at all cost, it's a case of giving the right advice to the wrong person.

* Subverted in ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica''; Kyubey implies to Kyouko that [[spoiler:it's theoretically possible to make witch!Sayaka human again, but extremely unlikely that it would work. Kyouko tries it anyway...and fails, because there's no indication that it is possible either. Kyubey was just using ExactWords to avoid saying that it's outright impossible.]]