Definition:
One image is replaced by another as a visible boundary moves across the screen. That is a wipe: a transition in which the incoming shot literally pushes or slides the outgoing one out of the frame in a defined pattern or direction. It is visible, graphic, and unapologetically present as a transition.
What It Means in Movies:
Unlike a cut, which is instantaneous, or a dissolve, which blends two images, a wipe announces itself. George Lucas used horizontal wipes extensively throughout the Star Wars franchise as a deliberate reference to the serialised adventure cinema of the 1930s. In that context, the wipe was not merely a transition. It was a signal about the kind of story being told.
Why It Matters:
The wipe is rarely used in contemporary mainstream cinema precisely because it draws attention to the act of transitioning. When it appears, it reads immediately as either deliberate retro stylisation or a production that does not know what it is doing.
Example:
In Star Wars, horizontal wipes moving left or right shift between locations, time periods, and storylines throughout every film in the franchise. The wipes gave the series the feeling of serialised adventure cinema from an earlier era. That feeling was intentional.