An experiment is reported that investigated the effects of an auditory startling stimulus on a compound movement task. Previous findings have shown that in a targeting task, a secondary movement can be initiated based on the proprioceptive information provided by a primary movement (Cordo 1990). Studies involving the presentation of a startling stimulus have shown that in reaction-time (RT)tasks, prepared ballistic movements could be released early when participants are startled (Valls-Sole et al. 1999). In the present study we sought to determine if the secondary component in an ongoing movement task, once prepared, could also be triggered by a startling stimulus. Participants performed a slow active elbow extension (22 deg/s), opening their hand when the arm passed 55 deg of extension from the starting point. An unexpected 124 dB startle stimulus was presented 5, 25, or 45 deg into the movement. Findings showed that when participants were startled, the secondary component was triggered despite incongruent kinesthetic information. However, this only occurred when the startle as presented late in the primary movement. This suggests that the secondary movement was not prepared prior to task initiation, but was "loaded" into lower brain structures at some point during the movement in preparation to be triggered by the central nervous system (CNS). This occurred late in the movement sequence, but at least 400 ms prior to reaching the target. These findings indicate that in addition to ballistic RT tasks, a startle can be used to probe response preparation in ongoing compound movement tasks.