10 Most Shocking Jump Cuts In Film History

6. "Happy New Year!" - Citizen Kane

Citizen Kane
RKO

Some 20+ years before Breathless invented a new cinematic language, Orson Welles' Citizen Kane delivered one of the most brilliantly unexpected jump cuts in movie history, and one that remains highly celebrated almost 80 years later.

In an early scene, Charles Foster Kane's (Welles) guardian Mr. Thatcher (George Coulouris) wishes a six-year-old Kane a Merry Christmas, to which Kane begrudgingly replies with an elliptical "Merry Christmas..."

Immediately after this, we cut 15 years into the future, where in the very same room a now-old Thatcher concludes with "...and a Happy New Year," while reading aloud a stern letter he's written to a 21-year-old Kane.

While it's a simple cut by modern standards, to so smoothly demonstrate the passage of time with just one cut was a major achievement - and a major surprise - when Welles' masterful drama first hit screens.

And crucially, it's lost little of its precise excellence in the decades since.

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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.