History Main / FakeActionPrologue

** ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory3'', starts with a [[ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes Calvinesque]] FantasySequence that [[ContinuityNod calls back]] to the playtime scenario in the original ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory''.

* The murder mystery comic ''ComicBook/ModelsIncMarvelComics'' starts its first issue with the models confronted by a wolf in the woods, which is then revealed as a perfectly safe photoshoot. The same approach is used to open subsequent issues, with the cast seemingly finding a body or locked up in jail. [[spoiler:The last issue begins with them seemingly trapped in a burning building - which a BaitAndSwitch of sorts, as this time it ''is'' real]].

* The murder mystery ''ComicBook/ModelsIncMarvelComics'' starts the first issue with the models confronted by a hungry wolf in the woods. It's quickly revealed as a photoshoot, though. The same approach is used for subsequent issues, with the cast seemingly finding a body or locked up in jail. [[spoiler:The last issue opens with them seemingly trapped in a burning building - which a BaitAndSwitch of sorts, as for once it ''is'' real]].

** ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory2'' has a beginning sequence which turns out to be a video game.

* In ''Anime/DigimonXrosWars'' the first scene shows Taiki and along with his soon to be teammates with an army of shadowed digimons facing against the Bagura army, and when Shoutmon X4 dukes it out with Greymon... Taiki wakes up.

* ''Manga/MahouShoujoOre'' begins with a DreamSequence where Saki's idol persona becomes a magical girl and saves her adoring crush. Then the exact same thing happens in real life, though not in the way she expected. Or wanted, for that matter.

* The ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "The Way of the Warrior" starts with half the main cast and several {{RedShirt}}s hunting a changeling infiltrator--who turns out to be Odo acting as the infiltrator for a drill.

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': Issue 32 appears to open with Uvo bombing the Empire State building and leaving it a pile of burning rubble. The next page reveals that this was a slightly sized down model on the planet Uranus and that the bombing is just a test for the intended attack on Earth.

* ''VideoGame/SaGa3'' opens with the party fighting some big monsters before revealing that it was just a simulation where you can grind experience right from the beginning of the game.

[[folder:Anime]]
* In ''Anime/DigimonXrosWars'' the first scene shows Taiki and along with his soon to be teammates with an army of shadowed digimons facing against the Bagura army, and when Shoutmon X4 dukes it out with Greymon...Taiki wakes up.

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

* Frank Drebin's anxious dream at the beginning of ''[[Film/TheNakedGun Naked Gun 33 1/3]]'', where all sorts of bizarre catastrophes are about to happen and he can't stop them.

* Spoofed by [[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 MST3K]] in their [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nwtq0GPr-Jc "Previously, on the Satellite of Love..." skit]].
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Legion of Superheroes}}'' second season opens with an intense battle in which Brainiac 5 makes a near HeroicSacrifice to protect Superman. The two share a very intimate moment before the scene is revealed to be a simulation created by Brainiac 5, who has missed Superman greatly.

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[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/ToyStory3 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/buzz_can_definitely_do_that.PNG]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Remember when Buzz Lightyear could carry whole train sets in a DeusExMachina event? ...No? Well, that's probably because that only happened in the prologue of the third film.]]

* ''Film/{{Serenity}}'' opens with a triple fake, of which one is a FakeActionPrologue: The narrated history lesson ''turns into'' a lesson being viewed by young River ''turns into'' a hallucination by the grown River, who is rescued by Simon, ''and this then turns into'' a holographic [[MagicalSecurityCam security recording]], being watched by the Operative.

* Sort of half used in ''Disney/{{Bolt}}'', which starts out looking like a typical girl-meets-dog story that suddenly turns into a [[Creator/MichaelBay Michael Bay-esque]] action film about an AnimalSuperhero. It all turns out to be a ShowWithinAShow, which Bolt believes is real. His gradual realization that everything he knows is wrong, and his need to understand what reality actually is, drive the film's plot.
* Disney/{{Zootopia}} opens with a tense scene out in the wilderness where an innocent rabbit is about to be eaten by a jaguar... only to reveal that we are watching a pageant, where grade-school students are acting out what it was like ''before'' [[WorldOfFunnyAnimals animals evolved]].

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