History Main / WhenTheClockStrikesTwelve

* Creator/TexAvery's MGM short "Who Killed Who?" places the inhabitant of a mansion who receives a note on a dagger reading "You will die at 11:00." The guy says "Heavens...I can't die at 11:00!" followed by a second note on a dagger that reads "Okay--make it 11:30."

* Creator/TexAvery's MGM short "Who Killed Who?" places the inhabitant if a mansion who receives a note on a dagger reading "You will die at 11:00." The guy says "Heavens...I can't die at 11:00!" followed by a second note on a dagger that reads "Okay--make it 11:30."

* The Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger movie ''Film/EndOfDays'' has the Antichrist arriving at midnight on a certain date. Arnie's response is: "Eastern Standard Time?" (The character telling him this goes on to state that monks worked this out in the 1600s, also coming up with the Gregorian calendar in the process... a conceit Roger Ebert ''royally'' [[https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/end-of-days-1999 tore apart]].)

** In ''Film/BatmanAndRobin'' the entire city was frozen solid. Coincidentally the time between the freezing and midnight is ''exactly'' the (extremely arbitrary) interval earlier established as the amount of time an ice-covered person can stay alive. This example also crosses over with ArtisticLicenseBiology.

* Used verbatim in ''[[VideoGame/MysteryCaseFiles Mystery Case Files: Madame Fate]]'', where the titular fortune teller foresees her impending death, which is set to occur exactly at the stroke of midnight.
* The central plot of ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'': When The Clock Strikes Twelve (literally), a DarkWorld appears and spews monstrosity. One can only wonder the implications this has to the [[WakeUpGoToSchoolSaveTheWorld main characters' life]].
* In ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'', rumour has it that, if you stare into a TV screen on a rainy night at midnight, you will see your soul mate. It turns out that this is all too true, though it's not exactly your soul mate who's displayed, but instead the next target of a serial murderer. [[spoiler: Then this turns out to ''also'' be untrue; it just shows who people are currently thinking the most about subconsciously. Or even what during a certain moment...]]

* In ''VideoGame/QuestForGlory1'', the mandrake root must be plucked from the ground at precisely midnight, otherwise it vanishes in your hands.

* ''The Ghost and Mr. Chicken''. According to local legend, Mr. Simmons murdered his wife and then played on an organ around midnight before committing suicide. Ever since that night, people have heard organ music coming from the Simmons house at midnight. When Luther Heggs spends a night in the "haunted house", the organ does indeed start playing at midnight.

* ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'': Used often to symbolize the DoomsdayClock, claiming the world is getting closer to a total nuclear war.
** It serves more of a red herring in Watchmen [[spoiler: with the clock shown ticking to midnight as Rorschach and Niteowl race to stop Adrian from destroying NYC until Adrian reveals that he "did it thirty-five minutes ago."]]

** In Creator/JosephJacobs's "Literature/{{Tattercoats}}", the heroine arrives at the [[DancesAndBalls ball]] ''at'' midnight, "just as the clock struck twelve".

* The classic slapstick British comedy ''Series/{{Bottom}}'' gets a few laughs out of this trope during the Halloween episode, "Terror". When the protagonists attempt to summon TheDevil Richy claims that he'll probably appear at midnight. Spud Gun wonders why he would only appear at midnight, to which Eddie replies that it's because that's when [[MyLocal the pub closes]].
** Later when the clock does strike midnight, it only delivers an anti-climactic *clank* noise rather than an ominous chime. [[OhCrap Then there's a knock at the door...]]

* ''Film/BackToTheFuture1'': The first film has a variation where the time isn't midnight. When Marty accidentally winds up traveling 30 years into the past, the only power source capable of charging the [=DeLorean=] to send him [[TitleDrop back to the future]] is a lightning bolt, which is normally impossible to predict. Luckily for him, [[ChekhovsGun he still had a flyer]] about a StoppedClock in the present that was struck by lightning at exactly 10:04pm thirty years ago...or, in other words, a week after Marty arrived.

* ''Film/MenInBlackII''. If the Light of Zartha is not removed from the Earth by midnight, it will self destruct and destroy the planet.

** The [[spoiler:entropy]] curse in ''[[spoiler:Literature/BloodRites]]'' needs to be done at a very specific time to work--{{thirteen|IsUnlucky}} minutes before midnight or noon.

* A ''[[Literature/TheHungerGames Hunger Games]]'' arena follows the hours like a clock. Lightning strikes at twelve. And that [[spoiler: becomes important.]]

** Walt Disney World's Pleasure does this [[FridgeBrilliance every night]] with party to boot.

* Ever taken an online class, or had to submit an assignment through online means? You will know what it's like to be working right up until 11:59 PM and have to shoot off an e-mail or upload the word file like you're trying to OutrunTheFireball. This is also a favorite of researchers and [=PhD=] students worldwide when it comes to registrations for a conference, abstract submissions, filing of reimbursement applications and so on - most of these, regardless of institution or even country, usually have similar online registration procedures and similar deadlines.

* This figured into the death of King George V of the United Kingdom. To give him a more dignified death, his doctor lethally injected him with a mix of cocaine and morphine (though George V didn't agree and cursed out the doctor for his trouble). This death would be the one which appeared in the ''Times'', which had a midnight deadline. Unfortunately, the doctor nearly screwed up here--George V was killed in Sandringham at 11:20, where the clocks were set back half an hour, meaning he actually died at 11:50--ten minutes before the ''Times'' deadline. George's successor, Edward VIII, was ''furious'' when he found out and promptly switched all the clocks in Sandringham back to regular time.

* ''Website/SCPFoundation''

let the * ''[=TimeLords=]'' adventure ''Supertanker of Death''. The SLA terrorists will attack the Omni Corporation's Sinaloa factory at midnight.

** In "Shadowplay", Adam Grant is a convicted murderer sentenced to be executed at midnight, who claims that the whole situation is a dream he's having. Prosecutor Henry Ritchie talks with newspaper editor Paul Carson about it:
-->'''Carson:''' That's another thing. Why does this always happen around midnight?\\

'''Carson:''' According to Grant, he doesn't know anything about these matters except what he sees in the movies. In the movies it always happens at midnight.\\

'''Carson:''' Yeah, that's strange too when you come to think of it.
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S1E2OneForTheAngels One for the Angels]]", a sidewalk pitchman is scheduled to die at midnight. When he tricks Death into not taking him, a young girl is scheduled to die in his place at that time. He must make his best pitch ever to distract Death from taking her.
** "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E65TheObsoleteMan The Obsolete Man]]". When the prosecutor asks Mr. Wordsworth when he wants to be executed, Wordsworth picks the traditional time: midnight.
** "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E145TheMasks The Masks]]". The dying Jason Foster forces his evil relatives to wear their masks until midnight, on pain of losing their inheritance. Foster dies at the stroke of midnight, but when the relatives remove their masks they discover that something unusual has occurred.
** "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E152MrGarrityAndTheGraves Mr. Garrity and the Graves]]". Mr. Garrity tells the people of Happiness, Arizona that he will resurrect the people buried in Boot Hill at midnight.
** "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E72TheGrave The Grave]]". Johnny Rob makes a bet with Conny Miller that he won't go to Pinto Sykes's grave at midnight.
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS4E109JessBelle Jess-Belle]]", the title character turns into a leopard every night at twelve o'clock.

** Subverted in "Monsters!", in which the titular creatures transform promptly at the ''literal'' midpoint of the night ... which happens to be ''after'' midnight on the clock. Lampshaded and a bit of a plot point.
** In "Crazy as a Soup Sandwich", the demon Volkerps arrives in Nino Lancaster's office at midnight to claim his first refusal option on 51% of Arky Lochner's soul.