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 properly, they can serve the narrative. We’ll start with a jump cut definition, then look at some of the creative ways filmmakers like Steven Spielberg and Guy Ritchie use them.

What Is a Jump Cut?

A jump cut is when an editor interrupts a single shot in a way that makes 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 fully visible.

Some filmmakers consider jump cuts inherently bad because they call attention to the constructed and edited nature of a film. They’re seen as a violation of typical continuity editing — which is designed to provide the story with a seamless sense of time and space.

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

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

Méliès’s experiments with editing techniques basically made him the father of special effects in filmmaking. From a novelty perspective, Méliès’s jump cuts were perfect, but how could filmmakers integrate this technique organically into narrative cinema? In Russia, radical editing techniques emerged under the umbrella of Soviet montage, whereas Hollywood took a very different path.

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

Breaking that illusion and reminding viewers they were watching a movie was basically forbidden. That is, 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 the jump cut begins with Jean-Luc Godard and his groundbreaking 1960 film Breathless, undoubtedly one of the best French New Wave films. On the surface, Breathless is a crime love story, but all the expectations attached to such a story are systematically subverted.

At one point, the two leads are in a car together. The camera stays locked on Patricia (played by Jean Seberg), but we repeatedly jump cut to what seem like random and indeterminate points in the future.

Godard deliberately undermines the “invisibility” so highly prized in Hollywood and mainstream French cinema. The editing here creates a jarring effect, and that is clearly intentional. By today’s standards, these jump cuts don’t seem as radical, but in 1960 they had a huge impact.

How We Use Jump Cuts Today

You still see jump cuts frequently in films, but the technique seems to have exploded in popularity on the internet. It’s especially favored by vloggers. Jump cuts in vlogs have become so common you might not even notice them anymore.

You’ll find many vloggers recording long takes of themselves talking directly to camera. The shot cuts, indicating a new line of thought or a leap forward in the story, but the vlogger’s position in frame is the same as before.

When it comes to cutting a shot, the ultimate goal should be to communicate what matters most. So understanding how to use jump cuts is a vital skill that can help you make the best possible film.

Using Jump Cuts in a Montage

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

There’s a moment in the movie that uses jump cuts in a way you might not expect from a film like this. It’s essentially a playful comedic montage in an otherwise grim 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 can move through the entire process quickly and efficiently — but that’s only the practical consideration.

Second, the cuts are used here for humor. These women clearly don’t know how to type, and by showing them in this successive way, the film provides a lighthearted moment in an otherwise dark story — an interlude that still pushes the plot forward.

Using Jump Cuts to 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’s lost the money. Lola has 20 minutes to come up with the cash and save his life.

In this scene, Lola panics and runs through all the possible ways she could get the money. We see jump cut after jump cut of her racking her brain.

As the synopsis suggests, Run Lola Run is a fast-paced film with no time to waste. These cuts emphasize that fact; they throw us directly into Lola’s state of mind. She’s just received devastating news. She’s anxious and disoriented.

Human beings aren’t meant to process information this way. Our eyes want 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 this a more desirable technique than standard shots and cuts.

Using Jump Cuts to Introduce Characters

Snatch is a 2000 crime thriller directed by Guy Ritchie about a group of criminals searching for a stolen diamond, and a boxing promoter working for a sadistic boss.

The film features many of the techniques Ritchie uses throughout his work, including a preference for rapid cutting that’s showcased best in the opening sequence.

The opener contains a large number of jump cuts as well as various other stylish flourishes. The entire sequence lasts under 90 seconds, and in that time Ritchie has to convey a lot of information.

Introducing characters in a screenplay is hard work, but Ritchie found an efficient way to do it through editing. His task is to introduce us to 12 characters, each with a distinct personality and agenda. To speed things up, Ritchie uses these cuts to fast-forward time and build real narrative momentum.

The clearest example of jump cuts in the sequence is the introduction of Mickey (played by Brad Pitt). He receives a wad of cash, and his companions try to touch it. Mickey swats their hands away multiple times, with a jump cut in between, and the audience gets all the essential information about this person in a matter of seconds. Coincidentally, it’s also one of Brad Pitt’s best performances.

This jump cut moment serves a dual purpose. The rest of the film will be fast and high-energy. Using jump cuts in the opening lets the audience know 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 moving moments in The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) is Richie (played by Luke Wilson) attempting suicide. Just before that, he starts cutting his hair and shaving his beard. In this somber scene, we see multiple jump cuts.

On the surface, this might seem like a purely practical choice — compress time and get through the process quickly. But consider the emotional impact when you watch the scene.

Jump cuts in movies are often used to create excitement or energy, but in this case they become a poetic way of visualizing sorrow. Wes Anderson doesn’t need to show Richie cutting his hair. Choosing to share such an extremely intimate moment with a character at his lowest is clearly deliberate. The jump cuts are a visual expression of Richie’s unstable, fragmented emotional state.

Axial Jump Cuts

One subtype of jump cut has a similar effect but is executed a bit differently. A jump cut leaps forward in time within a shot, while an axial jump cut only jumps the camera’s viewpoint along the same axis, without jumping time.

In other words, from the same camera angle, the cut instantly changes the focal length — longer or shorter. Put simply, with each cut, the subject in the frame suddenly becomes larger or smaller. Axial jump cuts function very much like zooms, but without a gradual change — here the change is abrupt and dissonant.

For example, when Elliott and his friends are hiding from the authorities, E.T. panics. In that sequence, axial jump cuts occur.

Alfred Hitchcock was also a fan of this technique, using harsh, disruptive jump-ins during moments of pure terror. If you’ve seen the famous shower scene in Psycho, when Marion turns to face the killer, the camera cuts progressively closer to her screaming mouth.

There’s another such moment in The Birds when Lydia discovers her father’s body after the latest deadly attack:

Hitchcock was always looking for new ways to give the audience an experience that matched the characters’ (see also: the shower scene above and the “Hitchcock zoom” in Vertigo). In this moment, using axial jump cuts to bring us closer and closer to the dead body makes the shock of the discovery just as shocking for us.