Toonami's Countdown is the sixth Toonami Immersion Event for Toonami that began airing on November 4, 2017 at 11pm.
The story begins with TOM and Sara milling around and testing out some systems. But in the midst of the conversation, however, an odd light flashes around the ship. When it subsides, Sara finds herself in front of a rusted and beaten looking TOM who start the titular countdown much to her confusion before she's frozen in place. Meanwhile TOM finds himself on the future version of his ship but now by himself and a strange energy surronding it. Now TOM must find out what's going on and why all of this is happening... before it's too late.
Countdown has the following tropes
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Surprisingly enough it's Sara who's the main threat this time around a lighting strike from a Nebula storm has made her go haywire, take over the Vindication, and go on a homicidal crusade against all organics.
- Bittersweet Ending: Future SARA is stopped but the Vindication of that timeline is destroyed and Future TOM is sent back to his timeline but stuck drifting through space. On the upside, thanks to Future TOM's safeguards and warnings, the present Sara won't befall her future self's fate and Present TOM is back in his proper time with things are back on track.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: It's surmised that Future SARA's more malicious attitude is due to whatever was in the nebula storm the Vindication drifted through being sentient and having taken over her systems. The fact that she managed to regain control of herself for a few brief moments at the end leads credence to this.
- Earth-Shattering Kaboom: In episode 3, Present TOM sees Future Sara blow up a planet.
- Foreshadowing: Surprisingly enough to a later TIE event, The Forge. In the future, the corrupted Sara had went on the warpath against organics and showcased this by blowing up an uninhabited planet. In "The Forge", it was stated that the ship was originally a warship that an alien race lost. So the firepower makes much more sense.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Future SARA manages to briefly regain control of the Vindication but to prevent harming anyone else, she throws Present TOM out a window before blowing up the Future Vindication.
- Interface Screw: Whatever is shown in the Total Immersion Event is transitioned over to the bumpers for that week.
- Episode 1 has normal bumpers, but with a new look at the Vindication base.
- Episode 2 starts to have corrupted bumpers.
- In Episode 3, the bumpers go haywire. We see a glitched screen and it looks like the bumpers from Intruder II, Episode 3 bumpers. The Dragon Ball Z Kai Thanksgiving Marathon promo was like that.
- The bumps return to normal in Episode 4. TOM is sent back to his timeline, the countdown is stopped, and Toonami is back on track.
- Genius Loci: Episode four sees future Sara causing the ship to come to life and attack Present TOM.
- Godzilla Threshold: Something bad has happened to the ship that Future TOM has set up a timer to prevent..something from happening. To the point he even tells Sara he's sorry before activating it. Turns out it is how much time he has before he has to initiate his last resort to blow up the core since the Sara from his timeline has damaged him too much to continue and the only thing he can think of is to get his past self to try to fix his corrupted Sara and prevent her from destroying all organics.
- Oh, Crap!: Present TOM goes to fiddle with his console only for the bridge door to open and a bunch of Clydes to appear...with laser sights aimed straight at him.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Kinda. Future TOM trading places with himself in the present is the best solution he can come up with and it's his hope that his present self can stop Future Sara. Future TOM's plan is to unload the present Vindication's core and blow up the ship as a last resort if present TOM fails.
- Sound Effects Bleep: Future TOM in the future, when he realizes he's destined to drift through space.Well, Sh-(Beacon ping)
- This Is Gonna Suck: Considering what TOM has been through before, he's pretty much gotten used to being in strange situations by now.TOM: (After being warped to the future) Okay... either I'm having a really vivid daydream or something really bad just happened. (Face palms) What are the odds it's not the second option?
