Clock Strikes Thirteen - TV Tropes

You never before heard of a clock which struck thirteen, did you?'
Well, the mouse's clock did, and that could mean only one thing: magic.

• A children's audiobook The Clock Which Struck Thirteen by Richard Blythe plays on the Nursery Rhyme Hickory Dickory Dock, in which a mouse runs up a clock when it strikes one. One day, the clock is fed up with the mouse doing this, and knowing that the mouse cannot tell the time, the clock strikes thirteen, and Father Time appears, to teach the mouse how to tell the time. At the end of the story, when the mouse has learned how to tell the time, the clock strikes not one, not two, not twelve, or even thirteen, but three hundred and sixty-four, to the sound of a cacophony of bells.

• Similar to the ride on which it is based, a clock striking 13 appears in the opening sequence of The Haunted Mansion (2003), showing the weirdness of the mansion. The clock itself also looks creepy, with its pendulum being a devilish tail.
• In Labyrinth, Jareth the Goblin King sets a strict 13-hour deadline for Sarah to solve the titular labyrinth or her baby brother Toby will be turned into a goblin. Throughout the film, Jareth summons up different clocks, with the number 13 included in them, to show Sarah how much time she has left to solve the maze and its challenges. Sarah finally solves the labyrinth by reaching Jareth's castle and declaring that he has no power over her in the few seconds just before the clock strikes thirteen.
• In the James Bond film Thunderball, SPECTRE steals a couple of nuclear warheads from NATO and sends a tape recording to several Western governments where they blackmail them into giving them a ton of gold or else they'll detonate them in a major city in the West. The message instructs the British government to signal their willingness to pay up by having Big Ben chime thirteen times at noon, whereupon SPECTRE will deliver additional instructions on how to pay the ransom. Since MI6 needs time to locate where the missing weapons are being stored and get them back, they decide to go along with the plan for now. Later on, a news radio report reveals that Big Ben chimed thirteen times and that the official line is that the thirteenth stroke was due to a mechanical error.
• Young Frankenstein: Used as a subtle gag during the first shot of Frankenstein's castle. The clock strikes thirteen times, foreshadowing that more oddness is to come.

• What time is it when a clock strikes thirteen? Time to get a new clock.

• Every Thing On It: In "Garlic Breath", Seth's breath is so awful that when he breathes on the clock, it strikes thirteen.
• Nineteen Eighty-Four: The first line of the novel is "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." This is to warn the reader that something is off; the narrative quickly establishes that Britain has become a terrifying totalitarian nightmare.
• Puddle Lane: In the book When the clock struck thirteen, the clock on the roof of the Magician's house has a bell, which is struck by an iron boy holding a silver hammer. One night, the boy strikes thirteen and suddenly finds that he can move his arms and legs. He climbs down into the Magician's room and asks to be turned into a real boy. In the TV adaptation, the magician tells Toby the dragon that he will play with him when the clock strikes thirteen. Knowing that this is impossible, Toby arranges for somebody to hit something metal after the twelfth stroke, to sound like the thirteenth stroke.
• Toms Midnight Garden: The house in which Tom is staying has no garden, and the grandfather clock frequently strikes the wrong hour. When it strikes thirteen at midnight, Tom is able to travel back in time to when the house had a magnificent garden.
• The "thirteenth stroke of the clock" phrase appears in Uncommon Law. In response to Mr Haddock's remark that Britain is a free country, the appeal judge emphatically disagrees, saying his remark "is like the thirteenth stroke of a crazy clock, which not only is itself discredited but casts a shade of doubt over all previous assertions."
• The Prefect: The book and its sequels take place almost exclusively around Yellowstone, an alien world colonised by humans. The planet has a 26 hour day and as such deadlines are often described in 13 or 26 hour blocks or multiples of either.

• Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons: In "Big Ben Strikes Again", the Mysterons hijack a truck carrying a nuclear device and hide it in an underground car park. When the truck's driver, Macey, wakes up and turns on his radio to hear the Big Ben strike midnight, he somehow hears 13 chimes instead of 12. Captain Blue eventually figures out that the Big Ben did not actually chime 13 times, but the effect was caused by Macey hearing two sets of chimes; one directly from the Big Ben, and one on the radio, but due to the distance between Macey and the Big Ben the chimes were not entirely in sync and the real 12th chime did not reach him until after it had already sounded on the radio, causing the supposed 13th chime. This information helps Blue pinpoint the truck's exact location so the heroes can stop the bomb.

• In The Haunted Mansion, riders pass by a grandfather clock with a 13 in place of a 12 on its face, adding to the supernatural atmosphere. The clock itself also looks creepy, with its pendulum shaped like a barbed tail.

• In Warhammer, the Skaven's creation myth involves a bell tolling thirteen times and a city's population of vermin rising up to consume the inhabitants.

• Castlevania: Symphony of the Night: When the secret passage in the room with the giant clock opens up, the clock strikes thirteen beforehand.
• Gears of War: Downplayed as a background detail. Apparently Sera has a 26-hour day cycle, as all clocks present throughout the games go to 13, although it doesn't figure much into the plot. Their clocks going to 13 is rather fitting with what a horrific hellhole Sera is, though.
• Gahan Wilson's The Ultimate Haunted House has the player stuck in the titular haunted mansion, and they have until 13 o' clock in-game before they are stuck there forever.
• Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass: The goal of the Black Prophet is to bring about the end of existence by getting his "Doomsday Clock" to strike thirteen. Allowing this to happen in the boss battle with him will cause the only true Game Over in the whole game.
• Skylanders: When the Skylander Déjà Vu made a machine to create the perfect three-minute egg in half the time, she did this on the machine's clock to protect it from a group of evil sea slugs; this is how she got her time powers in the first place.
• According to Sunken Scroll 20 in Splatoon 2, there's a TV show aired every Thursday night at "25:00". It is implied that centuries after humanity's fall, the day might have been extended by an hour. Despite the use of a 24-hour format, this is technically an instance of this trope.

  Don't miss Problem Solved: Studying with Marie! on SBS this Thursday night (and every week thereafter!) at 25:00 sharp! Tune in for a few study tips and a whole lot of procrastination!

• In the opening cutscene of Terranigma, a clock scrolls past still photographs of humanity before the clock falls apart before reforming with the number 13.

• Kids' Channel has this Halloween counting song about a clock with a scary face striking thirteen, the "13" suddenly appearing on the dial, and unusual things happening, such as raining frogs, while a terrified little girl looks on.

• Follow the Sun! ends with a clock striking thirteen, highlighting how the damage caused by the Bizarro Apocalypse cannot be undone.
• In the The Mask: Animated Series episode "Shadow of a Skillit" the titular demon can visit Earth to steal shadows to maintain his youth, but must return to his home realm before his watch strikes 13.