History Main / FadeToBlack

* In the ''Series/{{Titans}}'' episode "[[Recap/TitansS1E5Together Together]]", Dick is coming out of the shower in a ModestyTowel to find Starfire in his room. They soon start making out, Dick's [[DressHitsFloor towel hits the floor]] and they fall onto the bed as the screen fades to black. The next shot, they're getting dressed and Kory asks Dick to [[ZipMeUp zip up her dress]].

* Similarly, in ''Videogame/Gamer2'', fading to black indicates normal level transitions while FadeToWhite indicates [[spoiler:Hailey waking up from the virtual reality machine she was trapped in.]]

* In ''Videogame/SpecOpsTheLine,'' fading to black indicate normal transitions while FadeToWhite indicates [[spoiler:that Walker, the player character, is hallucinating or in some way deceiving himself.]]

* A trademark of Creator/MichaelHaneke: In ''Film/TheSeventhContinent'' and ''Film/CodeUnknown'', all scenes cut black before new scenes start.
* ''Challenger'' is a 1990 Creator/{{ABC}} MadeForTVMovie about the lead-up to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-51-L STS-51-L]]. Since the viewer [[ForegoneConclusion already knows how the mission's going to end]], the film ends with a simple, silent fade to black as the shuttle lifts off.

* ''Film/WaynesWorld'' fades to black in the credits then fades back in so Wayne and Garth can talk some more. After a few of these fade back ins one of them comments that when they want them to stop talking they'll just fade out and it will stay that way. Then the credits fade to black again for a prolonged period and Garth declares, "I can't believe they did that!"
* ''Film/TheXFilesFightTheFuture'': At the end of the Antarctica sequence. The screen stays black for so long that some people seeing it for the first time thought this was [[NoEnding the end]] of the movie.

* ''Film/TheBurning'': Except when they decide to do red on scenes of bloody murder.

* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'': FOX has software that automatically runs commercials over any black screen to eliminate the FadeToBlack in favor of more advertising time. Joss Whedon felt that a moment of black at the end of one act of the pilot episode was important enough for the dramatic tension to salvage, so he had it fade to the darkest brown possible that wouldn't be picked up by FOX's computers.

* Similarly, in ''Videogame/Gamer2'', fading to black indicates normal level transitions while FadeToWhite indicates [[spoiler:Hailey waking up from the virtual reality machine she was trapped in.]]

[[folder: Video Games]]

* One of [[WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd James Rolfe's]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Klltwoa6glE top 10 movie cliches]].

* ''WesternAnimation/WileECoyoteAndTheRoadrunner'' sometimes treats the black screen as a stage curtain that can be lifted or peered around. An entire cartoon was made up of "blackout gags"; brief, self-sustained skits that fade out after the punchline and fade into the next. The term originated in {{Vaudeville}}, where the lights were turned off after each joke to punctuate the humor and give the audience a pause for laughing.

[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Sometimes used to mean]] declining to describe a sex scene in textual media; for that, see SexyDiscretionShot.

* ''VideoGame/TheGhostTrain'': Whenever [[PlayerCharacter Kensuke Tanaka]] interacts with something that he's supposed to, the screen fades to black, and then fades back in.

* ''VideoGame/TheGhostTrian'': Whenever [[PlayerCharacter Kensuke Tanaka]] interacts with something that he's supposed to, the screen fades to black, and then fades back in.