In film editing, a jump cut is a cut between two similar scenes, so that the objects in them appear to "jump" from one position to another.
Jump cuts are generally either a technical flaw, or done for an artistic special effect — most normal cuts in film editing occur between dissimilar scenes, or significantly different views of the same scene, to avoid the appearance of a jump.
Perhaps the most memorable jump cut in cinematic history occurs in Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey, in which a bone (having been hurled into the air by a Prehistoric human) "transforms" into a satellite orbiting Earth.
In fiction, a jump cut is when there is a deliberate and suspenseful narrative gap between the end of one chapter and the beginning of the next. Good examples of this technique are found in the Quiller novels of Elleston Trevor.
