What Is a Jump Cut? 5 Ways to Use Jump Cuts in Film

Jump Cuts in Film Explained

Like match cuts, jump cuts are an effective film editing technique used to depict jumps in time. When used well, they can serve the narrative. We’ll start with a definition of the jump cut and then look at some creative ways filmmakers like Steven Spielberg and Guy Ritchie use them.

What Is a Jump Cut?

A jump cut is when a single shot is interrupted by a cut, making the subject appear to jump forward in time. While most editing techniques are designed to “hide” the cut, a jump cut is a stylistic choice that makes the cut completely visible.

Some filmmakers think jump cuts are inherently bad because they draw attention to the constructed, edited nature of a film. They’re considered a violation of typical continuity editing, which aims to give the story a seamless sense of time and space.

Jump cuts differ from match cuts in that the latter are meant to create a seamless transition between two separate scenes. The usual goal of a match cut is to form a metaphorical comparison between two different objects, subjects, or settings.

Ways to use jump cuts in film:

• In a montage
• To heighten tension
• When introducing characters
• To emphasize mental state
• In documentary interviews

Where Did Jump Cuts Come From?

Jump cuts have been around since the birth of cinema. No definition of a jump cut is complete without mentioning one filmmaker in particular: Georges Méliès, who used this technique to create magical illusions on screen. As a magician, Méliès took full advantage of it, creating striking and memorable “trick shots.”

Méliès experimented with editing techniques to such an extent that he is essentially the father of special effects in filmmaking. From a novelty perspective, Méliès’ jump cuts were perfect, but how could filmmakers incorporate this technique naturally into narrative cinema? In Russia, radical editing methods emerged under the banner of Soviet montage, while Hollywood took a very different path.

From the 1920s through the 1950s, with the rise of the Hollywood studio system, the mainstream approach to filmmaking valued “invisibility.” Also called classical Hollywood cinema, its goal was to “hide” the film’s construction. In theory, this would immerse the audience in the movie.

Breaking that illusion and reminding viewers that they’re watching a film was basically forbidden—at least until the French New Wave came along and threw the rulebook out the window. Any definition of the jump cut would be incomplete without crediting the French.

Jump Cuts and the French New Wave

The modern use of jump cuts begins with Jean-Luc Godard and his groundbreaking 1960 film Breathless, which is undoubtedly one of the best French New Wave films. On the surface, Breathless is a crime love story, but every expectation you might have about such a story is subverted.

In one sequence, the two leads are riding in a car. The camera stays fixed on Patricia (played by Jean Seberg), but we repeatedly jump cut forward to seemingly random, uncertain points in time.

Godard was deliberately breaking the “invisibility” so highly valued in Hollywood and mainstream French cinema. The editing here creates a sense of dissonance, and that’s clearly intentional. By today’s standards these examples of jump cuts don’t seem particularly radical, but in 1960 they made a huge impact.

How We Use Jump Cuts Today

While you still see jump cuts often in films, the technique seems to have exploded in popularity on the internet. It has become a staple among video bloggers. Jump cuts in vlogs are now so common you might not even notice them anymore.

You’ll see many vloggers record a continuous video of themselves talking to the camera. Then the shot cuts, signaling a new thought or a jump forward in the story, yet the vlogger’s position is roughly the same as before.

When it comes to editing shots, the ultimate goal should be to convey what’s most important. Knowing how to jump cut is therefore a vital skill that can help you make the best possible film.

Using Jump Cuts in a Montage

Schindler’s List (1993) is one of Steven Spielberg’s best films. It tells the story of businessman Oskar Schindler, who saves more than a thousand Polish Jewish refugees from the Holocaust by employing them in his factory.

There is a moment in the film that uses jump cuts in a way you might not expect from a film like this. It is essentially a playful, comedic montage sequence in an otherwise somber Holocaust drama.

There are two reasons jump cuts were chosen for this scene. First, they convey the passage of time. Schindler meets with many women in his office. As with any montage, we move quickly and efficiently through the entire process, but that’s only the practical consideration.

Second, the cuts are used for humor. These women clearly don’t know how to type, and by showing them in quick succession like this, the sequence offers a light moment in an otherwise dark film—a brief interlude that still moves the plot forward.

Let Jump Cuts Heighten Tension

In Run Lola Run (1998), we see a very different application of the jump cut. Lola’s boyfriend was supposed to deliver 100,000 marks to a crime boss, but he loses the money. Lola has just 20 minutes to find a way to get the cash and save his life.

In this scene, Lola panics and runs through all the possible ways she can get the money. We see jump cuts as Lola racks her brain.

As the premise suggests, Run Lola Run is a fast-paced film with no time to waste. These cuts underline that fact and drop us directly into Lola’s mindset. She has just received devastating news. She’s anxious and disoriented.

Humans aren’t meant to process information this way. The eye wants smooth, continuous motion, so jump cuts go against that aesthetic. While many films try to avoid this effect, here it works perfectly. The editing creates an emotional state in the audience, making it a better choice than standard shot–reverse-shot cutting.

Using Jump Cuts to Introduce Characters

Snatch is a 2000 crime thriller directed by Guy Ritchie about a group of criminals trying to track down a stolen diamond, and a boxing promoter who works for a sadistic boss.

The film uses many of the tricks that define Ritchie’s style, including a fondness for rapid cutting, best showcased in the opening sequence.

The intro contains numerous jump cuts and other flashy stylistic flourishes. The entire sequence is under 90 seconds, and in that time Ritchie has to convey a lot of information.

Introducing characters on the page takes work, but Ritchie finds an efficient way to do it in the edit. His task is to introduce 12 characters, each with a distinct personality and goal. To accelerate this, he uses jump cuts to fast-forward time and build real narrative momentum.

The clearest example of a jump cut in the sequence is the introduction of Mickey (played by Brad Pitt). He receives a wad of cash, and his companion tries to touch it. Mickey slaps his hand away several times, with a jump cut in between. In just a few seconds the audience gets everything it needs to know about this man. Incidentally, this is also one of Brad Pitt’s best performances.

The jump cut here serves a dual purpose. The rest of the film will be fast and energetic. Using jump cuts at the start tells the audience exactly what kind of movie they’re watching and that they should be ready to buckle up.

Using Jump Cuts to Emphasize Mental State

One of the most surprising and affecting moments in The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) is when Richie (Luke Wilson) attempts suicide. Up to this point he has only just begun to cut his hair and shave. In this bleak scene we see multiple jump cuts.

On the surface this might seem like a practical choice—to compress time and get through the process quickly. But consider the emotional impact as you watch it.

Jump cuts in films are often used to create excitement or energy, but here they become a poetic way to visualize sadness. Wes Anderson doesn’t need to show Richie cutting his hair. Sharing such an extremely intimate moment with a character at rock bottom is clearly a deliberate choice. The jump cuts visually express Richie’s unstable, fragmented emotional state.

Axial Jump Cuts

There is a subtype of jump cut that produces a similar effect but is executed slightly differently. A standard jump cut advances time within a shot, while an axial jump cut jumps the camera’s position along its axis without jumping time.

In other words, from the same camera angle, the cut instantly changes the focal length—either longer or shorter. Put plainly, with each cut the subject in the frame becomes larger or smaller. Axial jump cuts function much like a zoom lens, but without the gradual change—the shift is sudden and jarring.

For example, when Elliott and his friends are hiding from the authorities, E.T. begins to panic. In this sequence, axial jump cuts occur.

Alfred Hitchcock was also a fan of this technique, using harsh, disruptive jump cuts during moments of pure horror. If you’ve seen the famous shower scene in Psycho, when Marion turns to face her attacker, the cuts move closer and closer to her screaming mouth.

There’s another such moment in The Birds, when Lydia discovers her father’s corpse after a recent deadly attack:

Hitchcock was always searching for new ways to give audiences experiences that matched those of his characters (see also the shower scene mentioned above and the “Hitchcock zoom” in Vertigo). In this moment, by using axial jump cuts to bring us closer and closer to the dead man, the shock of Lydia’s discovery is transferred directly to us.