History Main / DontLookBack

* The Izanagi and Izanami myth from Japanese lore. They created Japan and lots of stuff happened, but then Izanami died, she went to [[{{Hell}} Yomi-tsu Kuni]]. Izanagi decided to [[ToHellAndBack go there and bring his beloved back from the land of darkness and death.]] Izanami greeted Izanagi from the shadows as he approached the entrance to Yomi. She warned him not to look at her and said that she would try to arrange for her release from the gods of Yomi. [[FreudWasRight Full of desire for his wife]], Izanagi lit a torch and looked into Yomi. Horrified to see that Izanami was a rotting corpse, Izanagi fled. Angry that Izanagi had not respected her wishes, Izanami sent [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill hideous female spirits, eight thunder gods, and an army of fierce warriors]] to chase him. Izanagi managed to escape and blocked the pass between Yomi and the land of the living with a huge boulder. Izanami met him there, and they broke off their marriage.
* Orpheus of GreekMythology wanted his dead wife back, so he visited Hades (after moving Charon and making Cerberus fall asleep with his incredible music playing). Hades agreed on the condition that Orpheus does not look back until the couple are back in the living world. Sadly, Orpheus turned to look JUST as they were almost out of the Underworld, because he wanted to be sure that his wife was really behind him.

* Invoked (as the main back-cover slogan) in White Wolf's ''{{Orpheus}}''.%% [Note: anyone know if the concept was also used in the actual game? I haven't played it, only read the cover and skimmed a bit in the books.]

* In ''JojosBizarreAdventure'', Rohan and Koichi are trapped in a looping neighborhood until they can learn the story of Reimi Sugimoto so that they can solve her murder (itself inspired by [[http://www.snopes.com/horrors/madmen/lighton.asp similar stories to this trope]]). Once she has explained all this, she guides them to the exit, but gives them the warning that if they look back in escaping this haunted alley, the resident ghosts will drag them to their death. She walks behind them to be sure of when they are out of the alley, and instructs them to close their eyes, as the dimension can play tricks on them. Using her guidance, they make it farther out than anyone ever has before. However, the dimension also takes advantage of her guidance, and [[spoiler: simulates a rush of feeling suggesting they have passed the entrance, then fakes her voice instructing them that it's okay to open their eyes. They do, and Koichi looks back. Fortunately, before he can get dragged to his death, Rohan quickly activates his Stand ability, Heaven's Door, to edit Koichi's memory and vision to make it incapable for him to look, thus saving him until they can actually emerge.]]

* The game ''Don't Look Back'' (Let's Played by Deceased Crab [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOxzZ8Iln8s here]]) is a retelling of the Orpheus myth and, in the return trip, has that as a gameplay mechanic: facing the wrong way will cause Eurydice to dissolve and necessitate the player to replay that screen from the beginning.

* At the end of ''SpiritedAway'' by HayaoMiyazaki, Chihiro is forbidden to look back as she is journeying out of the spirit world. She nearly does, but conquers that temptation.

* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist:'' Ed and Al burn down their house as a reminder to never turn back until they can get back to normal. Ed even keeps the date etched into his pocket watch. [[spoiler:Honenheim later challenges Ed on the symbolism, making him feel like a child. Generally not something you wanna do.]]

* In ''DoodleJump'', the platforms stop existing as soon as they fall out of view. Thus, if you try to jump down to get a power-up you missed then there is nothing to land on - you will fall to your death.

* FullMetalAlchemist: Ed and Al burn down their house as a reminder to never turn back until they can get back to normal. Ed even keeps the date etched into his pocket watch. [[spoiler: Honenheim later challenges Ed on the symbolism, making him feel like a child. Generally not something you wanna do]]

* One of the endings of the Literature/ChooseYourOwnAdventure book ''The Mystery of Chimney Rock'' has you leaving the haunted house after being told by a ghostly creature never to look back at the house. Of course if you don't like that ending, you can choose to look back one last time anyway, the resulting page of which simply has a bloodcurdling scream followed by the word THUNK.

* ''{{Bleach}}'' anime episode 168. While Division 3 is fleeing a Restrictive Current in the Precipice World, Lieutenant Izuru Kira tells his men "Don't look back". He doesn't want them to be distracted by the pursuing threat.

* The Izanagi and Izanami myth from Japanese lore. They created japan and lots of stuff happened, but then Izanami died, she went to [[{{Hell}} Yomi-tsu Kuni]]. Izanagi decided to [[ToHellAndBack go there and bring his beloved back from the land of darkness and death.]] Izanami greeted Izanagi from the shadows as he approached the entrance to Yomi. She warned him not to look at her and said that she would try to arrange for her release from the gods of Yomi. [[FreudWasRight Full of desire for his wife]], Izanagi lit a torch and looked into Yomi. Horrified to see that Izanami was a rotting corpse, Izanagi fled. Angry that Izanagi had not respected her wishes, Izanami sent [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill hideous female spirits, eight thunder gods, and an army of fierce warriors]] to chase him. Izanagi managed to escape and blocked the pass between Yomi and the land of the living with a huge boulder. Izanami met him there, and they broke off their marriage.

Can lead to CuriosityKilledTheCast. Has nothing to do with [=~Don't Look Down~=]: "Back" is where you are coming from, not merely a direction opposite to where your head is facing. Also unrelated to UnflinchingWalk, where you Don't Look Back at the ''explosion'' happening behind you simply because [[RuleOfCool it looks cooler]]. Contrast with LookBehindYou.

* Played for laughs in ''TheGumballRally''. ”First rule of Italian driving: whats-a behind me [Franco breaks off rear-view mirror and throws it away] is not important.”

* ''TheGumballRally''. ”First rule of Italian driving: whats-a behind me [Franco breaks off rear-view mirror and throws it away] is not important.”

-->''It's a bright horizon and I'm awaken\\
I see myself in a brand new way''
-->-- Boston, ''Don't Look Back''

* In TheBible story of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot and his family live in a city full of sinners. God allows them to escape while He destroys the city. However, they are told not to turn back. Lot's wife, however, does it anyway, and she is then turned into salt.

* Orpheus of GreekMythology wanted his wife back, so he visits Hades (after moving Charon enough and making Cerberus fall asleep from his incredible music playing). Hades agrees on the condition that Orpheus does not look back until the couple are back in the living world. Sadly, Orpheus turns to look JUST as they're almost out of the Underworld, just because he wanted to be sure that his wife was really behind him.
** Worse than that, some versions say he looks back AFTER he's out of Hades, but before she is (she is behind him after all).

* TheLastUnicorn: When running from a freed harpy in Mommy Fortuna's Midnight Carnival, the Unicorn instructs Schmendrick not to run (you should never run from anything immortal, as it attracts their attention) and not to look back as it tears Mommy's thug to shreds.

[[redirect:{{ptitlepyg7h974}}]]

To sometimes turn around and see what's behind us is one of the most natural instincts in the world. And it goes for what you literally have behind you as well as what you have behind you in a more metaphorical sense. But sometimes, you just mustn't.

For this trope to come into effect, turning back must be forbidden and/or have very bad consequences.

In drama, this is primarily a symbolic metaphor involving issues of trust and angst. However, it can also be a matter of YouDoNOTWantToKnow.

To avoid the whole WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic debate, purely practical examples (such as being chased my a {{Medusa}}) is not excluded from this trope. This extends to video games that use it as a particularly brutal way of enforcing RatchetScrolling: Turning back kills you instantly.

Can lead to CuriosityKilledTheCast. Has nothing to do with DontLookDown: "Back" is where you are coming from, not merely a direction opposite to where your head is facing.

----
Examples:

[[AC:AnimeAndManga]]
* ''{{Bleach}}'' anime episode 168. While Division 3 is fleeing a Restrictive Current in the Precipice World, Lieutenant Izuru Kira tells his men "Don't look back". He doesn't want them to be distracted by the pursuing threat.
* At the end of SpiritedAway by Hayao Miyazaki, Chihiro is forbidden to look back as she is journeying out of the spirit world.

[[AC:ComicBooks]]
* Invoked in ''JudgeDredd'', during the "Apocalypse War" StoryArc, Mega-City One is ravaged by the [[GloriousMotherRussia Soviet]] city-state East-Meg One to the point where a massive throng of civilians (in the comic, said to be "an estimated 27 million people") are at one point seen making an exodus. One child being carried by his father looks back and says, "Bye-bye city," while his father responds, "DontLookBack, boy! You might catch something!" Later, the freak weather conditions caused by the destruction of [[WeatherControlMachine Weather Control]] creates hurricane conditions, which sweeps up the escaping refugees and "unceremoniously deposits them back in the city from which they fled."
* In ''I Can't Believe it's not the Justice League'', the Superbuddies are in Hell and meet their long-deceased friend and teammate Ice. Eventually it comes to pass that the group is simply allowed to leave, and they can even take Ice with them - as long as none of them look back to make sure she's still there. Ice was Fire's best friend and the only person Guy Gardner ever truly loved - it was torture to not look. Ice says something just as they reach the end of the tunnel, and the two instinctively look back, causing her to disappear.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* In the ancient Greek tragedy Orpheus and Euredike, Orpheus gets to ressurect his wife from the dead. But only if he lead her all the way back from the underworld without even once turning around to verify that the undead thing walking behind him is really her. He fails due to various reasons depending on the version[[hottip:*:A particularly cruel one has him look back immediately after getting out, but before ''she'' does]], and lose her forever. Some [[AdaptationDecay modern versions]] squeezes in a happy ending afterwards, CompletelyMissingThePoint.
* In TheBible story of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot and his family live in a city full of sinners. God allows them to escape while He destroys the city. However, they are told not to turn back. Lot's wife, however, does it anyway, and she is then turned into salt.

[[AC:{{Music}}]]
* {{Music/Boston}} also has a song called "Don't Look Back". It's decidedly ''far'' more upbeat than most of these examples, and uses the phrase to emphasize the message of optimism and living without regrets.
* Don Henly, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqYBGcv41M8 "Boys of Summer"]]
->a voice inside my head said don't look back
->you can never look back
->I thought I knew what love was
->what did I know
->those days are gone for ever
->I should just let them go and...
* The song at the end of ShadowTheHedgehog.

[[AC:{{Mythology}}]]
* The Izanagi and Izanami myth from japanese lore. They created japan and lots of stuff happened, but then Izanami died, she went to [[{{Hell}} Yomi-tsu Kuni]]. Izanagi decided to [[ToHellAndBack go there and bring his beloved back from the land of darkness and death.]] Izanami greeted Izanagi from the shadows as he approached the entrance to Yomi. She warned him not to look at her and said that she would try to arrange for her release from the gods of Yomi. [[FreudWasRight Full of desire for his wife]], Izanagi lit a torch and looked into Yomi. Horrified to see that Izanami was a rotting corpse, Izanagi fled. Angry that Izanagi had not respected her wishes, Izanami sent [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill hideous female spirits, eight thunder gods, and an army of fierce warriors]] to chase him. Izanagi managed to escape and blocked the pass between Yomi and the land of the living with a huge boulder. Izanami met him there, and they broke off their marriage.

[[AC:RealLife]]
* "Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you."
-->[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satchel_Paige Leroy "Satchel" Paige]]

[[AC:TabletopGames]]
* Invoked (as the main back-cover slogan) in White Wolf's Orpheus, a game published between the first and second WorldOfDarkness. [Note: anyone know if the concept was also used in the actual game? I haven't played it, only read the cover and skimmed a bit in the books.]

[[AC:UrbanLegend]]
* ''[[http://www.snopes.com/horrors/madmen/boyfriend.asp The Boyfriend's Death]]''. When the girl is told to get out of the car by the police they tell her to not look back. She does, and sees either (a) the body of her boyfriend hanging down from a tree limb and scraping the roof with its fingers or (b) the madman who killed her boyfriend sitting on top of the roof and tapping it with her boyfriend's head.

[[AC:VideoGames]]
* In DoodleJump, the platforms stop existing as soon as they fall out of view. Thus, if you try to jump down to get a power-up you missed then there is nothing to land on - you will fall to your death.
* The game ''Don't Look Back'' (Let's Played by Deceased Crab [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOxzZ8Iln8s here]]) is a retelling of the Orpheus myth and, in the return trip, has that as a gameplay mechanic: facing the wrong way will cause Eurydice to dissolve and necessitate the player to replay that screen from the beginning.

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* ''TheSimpsons'': when Homer became head of Sanitation and ruined the environment, after the town packs up an moves away we see a CryingIndian. Another Native American then comes up to the one who cried at the single piece of litter and says "Do yourself a favor. Don't turn around." The camera pans out over the landfill where Springfield used to be, to the sound of screaming, followed by "I told you not to turn around."

* In the ancient Greek tragedy Orpheus and Euredike, Orpheus gets to ressurect his wife from the dead. But only if he lead her all the way back from the underworld without even once turning around to verify that the undead thing walking behind him is really her. He fails, and lose her forever. Some [[AdaptationDecay modern versions]] squeezes in a happy ending afterwards, CompletelyMissingThePoint.
* In TheBible story of Sodom and Gommorrah, Lot and his family live in a city full of siner. God allows them to escape while He destroys the city. However, they are told not to turn back. Lot's wife, however, does it anyway, and she is then turned into salt.

Click the edit button to start this new page.