Been sifting through the clips again more thoroughly and, WOAH. There's this one clip that starts with an explosion in a black void with the gatekeeper (presumably) gloating through voice-over, AND THEN:
The countdown timer fast-forwards from 8:30 to 4:00.
This looks to me like a punishment from one of the bonus random luck mini-games; make the wrong choice and you'll have time taken away from you, giving everyone EVEN LESS of a chance to win!