I got this idea from reading the King Kong thread. There's a scene in both the 1933 original and the 2005 remake where Peter Jackson reportedly said, "It's one of the most famous edits ever done on film."

So this got me to thinking, what other movies use this technique to forward the story along without any real exposition, since the "missing" scene would require an impossible feat that audiences would never accept?

I'll add my choice - the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where Indiana Jones is on top of a Nazi submarine preparing to dive. The scene cuts to a map showing the path of the vessel, with no explanation as to how Indy held his breath for so long!

I think that it goes without saying that the most famous edit ever done would have to be 2001: A Space Odyssey (the bone throw-space edit).

These are used with great effect in The Sixth Sense. For instance, we see a character try a door. It's locked. They reach into their pocket. Cut to the character, now inside the room. The audience fills in the blanks, and assumes the character pulled out some keys and unlocked the door...even though we never see it...to the point that some audience members swore after the film that they saw it happen.

I haven't seen it in a while, but how did they get the Trex on the boat in The Lost World? Did they lure it with it's young?

They did when it escaped into San Diego. And it was tranquilized for the trip to the city, but they never explained how it managed to bite that guy's arm off and then lock itself in the hold again.

Isn't that more of a transition though?

Interesting. So does Jackson's Kong do it as an homage to the original, or because it would be too tough to pull off? Seems like he's a creative guy--he could have probably done it had he wanted to.

The most famous and dumbest edit is Guido shooting first in Star Wars.

Aside from the incorrect name, that also doesn't do what the original post was looking for.

Verna Fields not showing the shark until an hour into the film.

I always wondered how the Pirate ship made it out of the cave in The Goonies. I'm assuming the falling rocks opened up a hole big enough but it seems like a collapsing cave would bury everything in it not make big enough for a giant ship to escape

To a lesser degree - The Ear getting cut off in Reservoir Dogs and the needle to the heart in Pulp Fiction.

Power of suggestion.

Though, there are few edits that cut around as much as the one Kong.

The 2001 example is what's called a 'jump cut'. It is perhaps the most famous one in cinema history.

Of course, you would know.

Thanks so much for all your guys help. Now I am going to go cry.

Guido?!?

OMG...I'm both dying and crying here!

In Kong, this "edit" wasn't a matter of trying to portray an impossible to believe or to accept scene, it simply wasn't necessary to the progression of the story in either the original or the remake. Same with the T-Rex in Lost World.

As for the Indy sub sequence, almost everyone thinks this is a faux pax, but the map with the moving line merely shows the sub's course. At no time is it ever indicated that the sub submerged. During WW2, German U-boats routinely ran at the surface unless engaged in action against the enemy.

As for the Goonies, the cave wasn't collapsing, it's just the sea entrance for the ship to get out that was being exposed. That's what One-Eyed Willie's treasure was all about..whoever made it past all his booby-traps would be rewarded with his ship and all the treasure. Which is why the movie should have ended with the kids on the ship. The Goonies ending still disappoints me.

If you're wondering about a timejump in Raiders of the Lost Ark, how about the details on how Indy got the Ark off the island and back to the US!

(Note: The original script called for Indy to take the Ark onto a mine cart chase to get it onto a submarine off the island. The script was too long, the sequence was scrapped, and used later for Temple of Doom.)

Lawrence of Arabia

Blowing out the match, then jump cut to the desert.

...Along the lines of what the original poster was discussing, my favorite edit would have to be from the X-files movie: they're stranded in Antartica with no food, minimal gear, no transportation, no way to contact anyone, and no one knows they're there. Cut to a scene in the hospital. They even acknowledged it in a late season episode.

that was the first one that came to my mind as well.

there was also a scene from 'The Day After Tomorrow' where there's a build up to dialogue scene between Dennis Quaid and Ian Holm's characters that feels blatantly 'missing'.

North by Northwest

Getting Kong back to New York is absolutely vital to the story. It's also pretty much physically impossible, so I'd say the edit was definitely meant to gloss over an impossible to believe scene.

It'd be like if there was a movie where the protagonists realized they had to get a glacier the size of New Hampshire to the moon in order to stop some disaster from happening and we see them discovering a glacier just the right size, followed by a cut to the glacier on the moon. Granted, the Kong example isn't quite that extreme, but it'd be the same principle.