Message Cut By Departure

''Guy, your true father is-- ACH! (dies)''

Do you want to piss your audience off in less than five seconds? Then don't settle for something that's Cornier Than Corn Itself; go for having someone, most preferably the Mentor, about to deliver an extremely crucial piece of information to the Hero... only to have them killed right before they say it. That'll do the trick in an instant. Oh, and another bit of advice. Have this followed by the Hero yelling "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!".

Used as a means to extend The Hero's Journey, Message Cut By Departure is unfortunately a common UnTrash found in our favorite media. This happens when the next step in Hero's Journey is about to be revealed so then they'd be forced to look around for what to do next, Hero's Parents are about to be revealed to them, or someone's (true) identity is going to be given. But No. That needs to be hidden for later so then we'll turn to the sequel for more details on what we need to know.

This UnTrash is called "Message Cut By Departure" because the person giving information might not always die. They could be simply kidnapped or silenced by someone else.

Message Cut By Departure Plays
Basic: An important message is about to be delivered, but it's cut off by death or some other form of departure.

Reinforced: The dying person is just about to say it, but they're stalling the hell out of their line like by repeating the word "is" until they die or some other time-wasting nonsense that only Annoys The Audience.

Downplayed: --

Negated: The person dying does eventually die, but then somehow springs back to live to give their message. Then they die again..

Inverted: --

Justified: We as the audience already know what the information is but its recipient does not.

Gleeful: --

Dismal: --

Zip: --