History Main / Futureshadowing

* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}''. Each of the four main characters is introduced at around the beginning of the day, even as time passes for the other kids, so we hear about certain events before we see them. For example, when [[spoiler:Dave gets buried under puppets]], we first see [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=002422 the chatlog of him pestering Rose about it]], and only later do we see [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=002511 the event itself]].

* In a mid-Chapter 2 mission in ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2'', Arthur takes little Jack Marston fishing on the river near camp. While they're out the two PinkertonDetective agents pay Arthur a visit telling him that they'll cut him a deal if he gives them Dutch van der Linde. What's interesting is that one of the detectives is the BigBad of the [[VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption first game]], Edgar Ross. When Arthur leaves with Jack, Ross tells him, "Enjoy your fishing, kid. While you still can." Fifteen years later in the epilogue of ''I'', [[spoiler: Jack kills Ross]] while '''he's''' fishing on a river.

A specific variant on {{Foreshadowing}} where the viewer sees the consequences of actions before seeing the actions themselves, via TimeTravel or via future sight, or just via [[AnachronicOrder seeing the scenes]] [[BackToFront out of chronological order]].

* The third season of ''VideoGame/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice'' seems to like this trope so far, in particular ''The Tomb of Sammun-Mak'', which centered around a film in four reels that had to be watched out of order in order to solve some of the puzzles. Most relevant to this trope are the moles in the third reel; the daughter is still sore at Sameth and Maximus for [[spoiler:stealing a ventriloquist's dummy from her]], and when they tell her father that [[spoiler:she has a crush on them]], he responds, "Still?!" Both of these refer to events in the second reel. And yes, both of them [[ItMakesSenseInContext Make Sense In Context]][[note]](or at least as much so as anything in the Sam and Max games does)[[/note]].
** The previous episode, ''The Penal Zone'', plays with this as well; the first sequence of the game is a vision of the future which does an excellent job of setting the scene for the events that will come to pass ([[TimeTravelTenseTrouble came to pass? Oh, never mind]]). The fact that [[spoiler:Skun'kape takes steps to avert this version of the future when the time actually comes]] doesn't dull the shadowing much.
** That's not to say other seasons don't touch the trope. In particular, one part of Episode 201 has Sam and Max rescue their future selves from a pit of lava. We don't find out how they got into that mess until Episode 205.

* In ''Film/{{Deadpool 2016}}'', Ajax mentions a breakdown in his chain of monthly supply to one of his clients and tells him that he will provide in two months. It's later shown that he is creating superpowered slaves and selling them to the highest bidder, but one of his subjects (Wade) destroyed his facility and has been hunting down people in his organization, leading to the breakdown.

* ''Series/Daredevil2015'': In season 1, Ben Urich repeatedly alludes to Karen having a sketchy past. While before she shoots James Wesley, Karen mentions that she's shot someone before. In season 2 episode 9, when Ellison hires Karen at the ''Bulletin'', Karen tears up upon seeing a newspaper clipping about her brother Kevin, killed in a single-car accident. The full story is revealed in season 3 episode 10 "Karen", where the first half hour is an extended flashback of Karen's life in Fagan Corners, Vermont: Karen's family were running a failing diner and Karen was spending her nights sleeping with and abetting a drug dealer, whom she shot when he got into a fight with Kevin (who tried to burn down the boyfriend's trailer), and then Kevin died when Karen (high on drugs) crashed their car on the way home.

** Season 5 premiere [[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS5E1Revival "Revival"]], the last anachronic episode of the series, has Hondo Ohnaka's base on Florrum in ruins. Not until episode 9, [[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS5E9ANecessaryBond "A Necessary Bond"]], do we see the attack that caused this.

Can overlap with OnceMoreWithClarity. Compare DreamingOfThingsToCome and FlashForward. This is ''very'' easy to confuse with, but is ''not the same as'', CallForward, which is simply a nod in a {{prequel}} to something that happens in the work it's a prequel ''to''.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'': In season 1 finale [[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS1E22HostageCrisis "Hostage Crisis"]], BountyHunter Cad Bane recognizes Anakin Skywalker when he sees him. Thanks to the series' AnachronicOrder, this episode takes place much later than the rest of the first season, and their first encounter wouldn't be shown until the second episode of season 2, [[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS2E2CargoOfDoom "Cargo of Doom"]].

Can overlap with OnceMoreWithClarity. Compare DreamingOfThingsToCome and FlashForward.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
** Given that the first trilogy made came chronologically ''after'' the second trilogy made, the prequel trilogy as a whole is full of this, from explicit statements like Obi-Wan's "Why do I get the feeling you're going to be [[MentorOccupationalHazard the death of me]]" to [[TheDragon Ana]][[TheParagonAlwaysRebels kin]] to subtler ones, like how General Grievous, a melodramatic cyborg with breathing problems, foreshadows Darth Vader, the original melodramatic cyborg with breathing problems.
** In ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', Palpatine tells Anakin the tragic story of the [[PredecessorVillain Sith Lord, Darth Plagueis the Wise]]. What he tells him is actually a ''very'' abbreviated story of his own mentor, which is later told in the ''[[Franchise/StarWarsLegends Legends]]'' novel ''Literature/DarthPlagueis''.
** In the same film when Palpatine pleads with Anakin to leave Obi-Wan behind to save themselves, Anakin chastises Palpatine saying that without Obi-Wan "His fate will be the same as ours". All three men would die on a Death Star nearly 20 years after the events of Revenge of the Sith

* The second part of ''Literature/HalfOfAYellowSun'', which takes place after a TimeSkip, constantly references some kind of dramatic conflict that occurred between most of the main characters years ago that have made their relationships with each other very tense. We don't actually see what it was until the third part, which skips back in time again.

* ''Series/{{Fargo}}'' season 1 sees characters repeatedly reference a vague incident that happened at Sioux Falls in 1979 that involved a lot of bodies. Season 2 establishes this to be the Sioux Falls Massacre.
* ''Series/Daredevil2015'': In season 1, Ben Urich repeatedly alludes to Karen having a sketchy past. While before she shoots James Wesley, Karen mentions that she's shot someone before. In season 2 episode 9, when Ellison hires Karen at the ''Bulletin'', Karen tears up upon seeing a newspaper clipping about her brother Kevin, killed in a single-car accident. The full story is revealed in season 3 episode 10 "Karen", where the first half hour is an extended flashback of Karen's life in Fagan Corners, Vermont: Karen's family were running a failing diner and Karen was spending her nights sleeping with and abetting a drug dealer, whom she shot when he got into a fight with Kevin (who tried to burn down the boyfriend's trailer), and then Kevin died when Karen (high on drugs) crashed their car on the way home.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' revival season, Ahsoka's outfits resemble her ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'' outfit in color scheme (grey and dull colors) and design (more angular).

** In the first two seasons of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'', Hawkgirl and [[GreenLantern John Stewart]] developed a romantic relationship--one which was broken when she was revealed as [[TheMole a mole]] (and an engaged mole, at that). Though she eventually does a HeelFaceTurn and sides with the League against her own people, she still leaves the team before they decide on whether or not to forgive her, going off to serve a self-imposed penance. Come ''Justice League Unlimited'', she returns to an awkward situation with Stewart--who, in addition to having to decide if he can trust her as a teammate again, has the additional complication of having started a relationship with another woman in her absence. To make things even ''more'' awkward, Stewart then ends up making an unexpected visit to the future, in which he finds out that ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond's'' JLU member, Warhawk, is his and Hawkgirl's son. Now he faces the philosophical conundrum: if he does get back together with her, is it because YouCantFightFate? But is it fair to reject her simply to ScrewDestiny? Then there's [[LoveTriangle Vixen...]]

* [[http://www.brawlinthefamily.com/?p=1118 The April Fools 2010 issue]] of ''Webcomic/BrawlInTheFamily'' consisted of an "official letter" from Nintendo demanding that the comic be shut down. It provided a list of "offensive" comics and the reasons they were so offensive ... and the worst offender listed, #249, hadn't even been made at the time. Did it live up to its charges? [[http://www.brawlinthefamily.com/?p=1224 Sort of.]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' revival, Ahsoka's outfits resemble her ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'' outfit in color scheme (grey and dull colors) and design (more angular).

** In ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]'''s "Visionary", Chief O'Brien keeps getting previews of the future, each more disastrous than the last -- up to and including the station blowing up. Fortunately, he manages to make use of the visions to avoid the incidents when he goes back to his own timeline.

** In ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]'''s "Visionary", Chief O'Brien keeps getting previews of the future, each more disastrous than the last -- up to and including the station blowing up. Fortunately, he manages to avert the really bad ones when he notices them starting.

* ''Manga/GetterRobo'':
** Shin Getter Robo is a prequel to Getter Robo Go, and its events are the cause for the end of Getter Robo Go.
** Ryoma's meeting with Getter Saint Dragon is a futureshadowing to the events of both Shin Getter Robo and Getter Robo Arc. Additionally, the Dragon says: "It shall be in the far future when you and I meet!", which possibly foreshadows that they will meet at an even further point in the future.
** Ryoma's visions of Getter Emperor. Getter Robo Arc strongly implies that Getter Emperor was created by the events that take place at the end of Getter Robo Go, in which Ryoma was yet to partake.

* The ''Fanfic/CalvinAndHobbesTheSeries'' MadeForTVMovie "Time Terror" shows [[spoiler:statues of the protagonists labeled "Our World's Heroes".]] Subverted slightly in that the big event described hasn't happened yet (we think).

* ''Series/TheFortyFourHundred'': In "Wake-Up Call", Diana reads Maia's diary in which she writes down her premonitions. One of them catches her attention: "Mommy's bosses will be punished for betraying us." It is later revealed in the two-part story "The Fifth Page" and "Mommy's Bosses" that Dennis Ryland and other senior NTAC officials conspired to inject every member of the 4400 with a promicin inhibitor which eventually began to kill them.

* In the fourth season of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'', we're treated to several visions of the [[SceneryGorn aftermath]] of [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Trigon's arrival on Earth]] episodes before it even happens.
* In the episode of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' "The Call", the future Bruce Wayne tells Terry that he "never trusted" the boom tubes used by the New Gods. Come an episode of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'', where the young Batman is seen using a boom tube for the first time with Wonder Woman, he seems to get motion sickness from doing so.
* In the first two seasons of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'', Hawkgirl and [[GreenLantern John Stewart]] developed a romantic relationship--one which was broken when she was revealed as [[TheMole a mole]] (and an engaged mole, at that). Though she eventually does a HeelFaceTurn and sides with the League against her own people, she still leaves the team before they decide on whether or not to forgive her, going off to serve a self-imposed penance. Come ''Justice League Unlimited'', she returns to an awkward situation with Stewart--who, in addition to having to decide if he can trust her as a teammate again, has the additional complication of having started a relationship with another woman in her absence. To make things even ''more'' awkward, Stewart then ends up making an unexpected visit to the future, in which he finds out that ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond's'' JLU member, Warhawk, is his and Hawkgirl's son. Now he faces the philosophical conundrum: if he does get back together with her, is it because YouCantFightFate? But is it fair to reject her simply to ScrewDestiny? Then there's [[LoveTriangle Vixen...]]
* In the ''WesternAnimation/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' cartoon, a teenage Clark Kent is brought to the future and operates as Superman at a time - from where he sits - not long before his Metropolis super-debut. There's an episode where Brainiac 5 is ill, and ranting and rambling. One thing he says, that sounds like a NonSequitur to everyone but the viewer, is "GreenRocks [[KryptoniteFactor kill]] [[LastOfHisKind the last son]]!"

* In the episode of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' "The Call", the future Bruce Wayne tells Terry that he "never trusted" the boom tubes used by natives of Apokalypse. Come an episode of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' where the young Batman is seen using a boom tube for the first time with Wonder Woman, he seems to get motion sick from doing so.

[[folder:Anime]]

[[folder:ComicBooks]]
* The TimeTravel issue of ''ComicBook/PS238'' involved Zodon bouncing through time, at one point arriving in the middle of an alien invasion. Several issues later, said invasion occurs.

** Issue 7 has O'Brien complaining about Governor UsefulNotes/CalvinCoolidge, predicting he'll use the RedScare and militia suppression of the riots and parlay that into a political career where he'll ruin things even more. Coolidge who once proclaimed "the only business in America is business" is regarded as a President whose policies paved the way for TheGreatDepression, scheduled for arrival 9 years later.

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]

[[folder:Film]]

* Given that the first trilogy made came chronologically ''after'' the second trilogy made, ''Franchise/StarWars'' as a whole is full of this, from explicit statements like Obi-Wan's "Why do I get the feeling you're going to be [[MentorOccupationalHazard the death of me]]" to [[TheDragon Ana]][[TheParagonAlwaysRebels kin]] to subtler ones, like how General Grievous, a melodramatic cyborg with breathing problems, foreshadows Darth Vader, the original melodramatic cyborg with breathing problems.
** In ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', Palpatine tells Anakin the tragic story of the [[PredecessorVillain Sith Lord, Darth Plagueis the Wise]]. What he tells him is actually a ''very'' abbreviated story of his own mentor, which is later told in the ExpandedUniverse novel ''Literature/DarthPlagueis''.

* Happens a lot in ''Film/{{Memento}}'', due to the AnachronicOrder in which we see events.
* The penultimate scene of the film adaptation of ''Literature/TheUnbearableLightnessOfBeing'' has Sabina on a beach in California reading a letter that tells her of Tomas and Tereza's death in a traffic accident. The final scene has the two driving off back in Czechoslovakia, where [[{{Irony}} in the last line he tells her he's thinking about how happy he is]].
* ''Film/TheWolfOfWallStreet'' is set in the 1990s, but has many echoes of the post-recession climate. Jordan Belfort practically Lampshades is when he offers to tell FBI Agent Denham that he can give information on the greater fraud happening in Wall Street at Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers.
* In ''Film/XMenFirstClass'', Charles Xavier is hilariously fond of the hair he [[BaldOfAwesome loses by the time of the other films]].

* In ''Film/{{Deadpool 2016}}'', Ajax mentions a breakdown in his chain of monthly supply to one of his clients and tells him that he will provide in two months. It's later shown that he is creating superpowered slaves and selling them to the highest bidder, but one of his subjects (Wade) destroyed his facility and has been hunting down people in his organization, leading to the breakdown.
* In ''Film/TwelveMonkeys'' we see a man being shot in an airport, long before we find out who the man is, what he's doing in the airport, and why he got shot.

* In ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'' it is made clear pretty early that Princess Odelia is looking for a husband, as she and [[ExoticExtendedMarriage her sisters]] aren't married. We also learn that Princess Ren has some sexual experience. (Something unusual for an unmarried woman ''or'' man in that world) The fact that they were married, and their husband was a jerk whose death was a relief, is only revaled, and shown in a nightmare-scene later. Likewise, it is known pretty early that he did something horrible to Princess Trini, and she's shy and misanthropic as a result. However, the reader (and the younger princesses) are only told later [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil what]], [[ColdBloodedTorture exactly]]
* The gamebook ''Sail with Pirates'', from the ''[[Literature/TimeMachineSeries Time Machine]]'' series, opens with the protagonist meeting a man who [[HaveWeMetYet mentions meeting him before]], and is talking about things the player will do much later (from his perspective), while time-travelling into the past. [[TemporalParadox Strangely, it's possible to finish the adventure without ever actually doing the things the man mentions you doing...]]
* In the YA novel ''LocksmithsCloset'', Lock (in the future) finds a photo of an adult Brandon Rossa with a scar on his chin. Five chapters later (in the present), during a relay race, Brandon takes a nasty fall and gets a chunk of broken glass stuck in his chin.
* In ''Literature/UseOfWeapons'', by AnachronicOrder. There are frequent references to someone known as The Chairmaker, who had committed atrocities, but it is a long time before we find out what they did, and why they are called The Chairmaker.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': Not surprisingly, the Doctor indulges on this on occasion, especially where River Song is concerned.
** In another case, we [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E2TheShakespeareCode saw]] Queen Elizabeth I utterly furious at the Doctor nearly three years before he or the viewers [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime found out why]]. Turns out that in her past/his future, he marries her, robs her of her title of the Virgin Queen, then abandons her.
*** Nearly [[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor four years later]] the full story is revealed. 10 married Elizabeth I, after proposing to her, thinking she was a [[ItMakesSenseInContext shapeshifting alien]]. After marrying her he left quickly, but due to the presence of his future self he forgets exactly what happened.

* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' had Crichton experience several of these in "Back and Back and Back to the Future".

* The Series/StargateAtlantis episode "Tabula Rasa" shows scenes out of order so the audience sees the characters behaving in very out of character ways for a while before it is revealed what actually happened.