History Main / ProsceniumReveal

* ''Film/JamesBond''
** At the start of ''Film/TheLivingDaylights'', M is apparently in an office briefing the Double-0 section for a training exercise. We then see the agents are dressed in HALO gear and they're standing in the cargo area of an RAF transport aircraft. The loading ramp lowers so the agents can parachute out and M has to rush to stop the papers on his desk from blowing away.
* In ''Film/DieAnotherDay'', [=MI6=] headquarters appear to be under attack until it is revealed that Bond is in a virtual reality training simulation. Toward the end of the film, Bond appears to be getting intimate with Moneypenny until R interrupts, revealing that Moneypenny is using the device to simulate the scenario.

The moment when a scene that we're watching--thinking it's an event that's really happening within the world of the story--is revealed to be a part of a [[ShowWithinAShow show within the show]], or some kind of simulation that the characters are involved in. Examples could be a director calling "Cut!"; a line flub or dialogue prompt; the disappearance of the scenery to reveal an otherwise empty room; the sudden appearance of a camera or sound crew, or a pan, zoom or cut that reveals that the action is occurring in a theatre, on a soundstage, in a classroom or on location.

* In ''Film/DieAnotherDay'', [=MI6=] headquarters appear to be under attack until it is revealed that James Bond is in a virtual reality training simulation. Toward the end of the film, Bond appears to be getting intimate with Moneypenny until R interrupts, revealing that Moneypenny is using the device to simulate the scenario.

* The ''Series/{{Castle}}'' episode "One Life to Lose" opens with a couple having an affair when the women's husband returns. The man goes to hide in the closet and a dead body falls out prompting a camera pan to show the shocked cast and crew of the soap opera that is being filmed.

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* Subverted in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQqCzJjev_8 this campaign clip]] with Creator/KeiraKnightley. Though she asks for a retake and then we zoom out to see the sound stage, the actor doesn't stop acting out his abuser role.
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* ''Anime/PokemonTheOriginalSeries'': The first episode, "[[Recap/PokemonS1E1PokemonIChooseYou Pokemon, I Choose You!]]" open with a Pokémon battle as a Gameboy cutscene, which suddenly transitions into a real Pokémon battle in an stadium arena before it's revealed to be a match Ash Ketchum is watching at home.

* Directly invoked in the adaptation of ''Film/BatmanAndRobin'', where [[OurLawyersAdvisedThisTrope a director with a gray ponytail]] shouts "And...Action!" to actors playing Batman and Robin on a soundstage as it segues into the first action scene. This conceit is never brought up again.
* The first time we see ComicBook/WonderMan in ''ComicBook/WestCoastAvengers'', he is chasing a thief, and his car is blown to pieces by a grenade. He was actually working as a stunt double for a film. But the grenade and the explosion were real, he can simply take the damage with no problem.
* ''ComicBook/UltimateXMen'': Wolverine, who has been hired to kill Xavier, is suddenly killing all the X-Men in the garden, and left Xavier for the end. But, as it turns out, he was just taking the new Danger Room too far.

* One ''Comicbook/{{Radioactive Man}}'' story opens with a splash panel of Radioactive Man fighting a giant mutated president. Turning the page shows [[{{Secret Identity}} Claude Kane]] reading that very thing in a comic and wondering where comic writers come up with their ideas -- after all, the president didn't grow nearly that big in reality.
* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: Issue 32 opens with Commander Uvo bombing the Empire State building and laughing maniacally as he flies over New York City, then on the next page the view of his ship zooms out to show that the burning New York city blocks are a scale model rather than the whole city with a chunk of model Paris and London visible while Uvo's second in command talks about what a smart way this is for practicing their attack on the real cities.

* Serves as the premise of ''Fanfic/HopeOnADistantMountain'': the events of ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'' all played out within a UnwinnableTrainingSimulation, with the Prologue consisting of the researchers' commentary on various events throughout the game. Just as Makoto and the other survivors are leaving, we get "All right, cut it," and he's plunged back into reality.
* Used in the ''Fanfic/EmpathTheLuckiestSmurf'' story "Grouchy And The Love Doll". At the beginning of the story, Grouchy is seen waking up with a female Smurf beside him in bed, implying that they had sex together. Then after Grouchy gets up, he reveals that the whole thing was an [[{{Hologram}} Imaginarium fantasy setting]].

* The reveal teaser for the ''[[WesternAnimation/RatchetAndClank2016 Ratchet & Clank]]'' movie does this, revealing that Qwark's speech in front of a starscape is part of an in-universe teaser for the film. It's further revealed a few seconds later that the starscape itself is fake. It then gets a third reveal showing that it's within a program making the film, and the animators are none too happy that Qwark called them lazy for not putting more effort into the teaser.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'', this is done with the score that accompanies Jin's cooking. It is revealed that the score is actually playing InUniverse on the Lee family's TV and is part of the [[ShowWithinAShow show within the film]] called ''Jade Palace Diaries'' that Mei and Ming watch.

* ''Film/FuneralParadeOfRoses'': Eddie goes home with Tony the GI, and they make love. There are shots of the two of them intertwined in bed, we hear Eddie moaning, there are shots of his face contorted in ecstasy. Then a voice from offscreen yells "Cut!" The shots pull back and we see the film crew, filming the actors playing Eddie and Tony in a scene. The rest of the film has MediumAwareness sprinkled throughout.
* The dismantling of Creator/BusterKeaton's "bedroom" in "Film/ThePlayhouse".

* [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-zagged]] in the climax of ''Film/BlazingSaddles'', where the action is somehow "real" even though it's shown to be happening on a Hollywood soundstage — and eventually most of the backlot — during the climactic FinalBattle.
* ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'' begins with a Maroon Cartoon called "Something's Cookin'," starring Roger Rabbit and Baby Herman. Just after a refrigerator is dropped on Roger's head, the door opens and Roger is shown with [[CirclingBirdies birds circling his head]], prompting a human director to shout "Cut!" and chew out Roger because he's supposed to see stars, not birds. This establishes that Roger and Baby Herman are AnimatedActors and are working on a live-action soundstage, thus setting up the concept of humans and {{toon}}s living in the same world.
* The entrance of Admiral Kirk in ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'' ends the [[UnwinnableTrainingSimulation Kobayashi Maru]].
* Creator/MerylStreep flubbing a line during TheOner that opens ''Film/PostcardsFromTheEdge''.
* The cry of "That's a wrap!" and the applause after [[spoiler: Creator/LauraDern's "death scene"]] in the Creator/DavidLynch film ''Film/InlandEmpire''.
* ''Film/AlexandersRagtimeBand'': What appears to be Davey waking up at reveille at boot camp, is revealed to be the "Oh, How I Hate to Wake up in the Morning" number that Alec's army unit is staging, when the camera pulls back and shows that Davey is on a stage.
* ''Film/XMenTheLastStand'' opens with an action-packed scene in burning city ruins, but it is revealed to be just a Danger Room simulation after the FastballSpecial.
* ''Film/SpeedForThespians'': The entire first scene is played out with Elena and Luka, a noblewoman and her servant, sitting on a wooden bench. The camera is tight on the two of them as Elena, dressed in WidowsWeeds, insists that she will wear black and remain in mourning forever, while Luka urges her to stop mourning and go out and live life again. Then there's the "ding" of a requested bus stop, and the camera moves back to show that "Elena" and "Luka" are actors, {{Street Performer}}s sitting on the back seat of a public transit bus, performing a play. (Specifically, ''The Bear'' by Creator/AntonChekhov).
* ''Film/{{Ararat}}'' does this fairly often. It lets the audience watch the movie-within-a-movie just long enough to momentarily forget that's what they're watching, until the camera {{pan}}s to show the director in his chair, or someone walks on the set to correct one of the actors.
* ''Film/PainAndGlory'' is about Salvador, a film director. Scattered throughout the movie are flashbacks to when he was a little boy living in poverty with his mom, and when he saw a naked man and had his LGBTAwakening. The very last shot of the film reveals that the flashbacks are not flashbacks, but are actually scenes from a film Salvador is making about his own childhood called "The First Desire".
* ''Film/SuckerPunch'' opens in a theater that becomes the movie (only it never returns). And also has a weird example: Baby Doll getting lobotomized... followed by a play in which Sweet Pea in a blonde wig [[WhoWritesThisCrap complains about it]] [[PostModernism ending with the heroine ending that way]]. [[spoiler: And Baby Doll is still lobotomized later on the picture.]]
* At the beginning of ''Film/TeamAmericaWorldPolice'', a [[StylisticSuck very crude puppet]] is jerked around in front of a laughably-bad background. This was done by the creators to troll their investors, as the film is itself done with puppets; after a few seconds (long enough that, the story goes, one of the investors yelled, "My God, they fucked us!"), the camera pulls back to reveal that the crude puppet is part of a puppet show on the streets of Paris, being worked by a much better puppet.
* ''Film/{{Scream 4}}'' begins with a typical SlasherMovie opening, with two teenage girls called by a mysterious and threatening stranger... until we see the ''[[ShowWithinAShow Stab]]'' title screen and realize that it was actually just an opening to the [[ShowWithinAShow movie within a movie.]] Then we see two more teenage girls watching ''that'' movie, and it turns out that ''this'' is actually the opening to the sequel to ''that'' movie... yeah. [[CrossesTheLineTwice It's that kind of movie.]]
* Creator/AlejandroJodorowsky does this in ''Film/TheHolyMountain''. After BreakingTheFourthWall at the end, he instructs the camera to pull back, which reveals the set and machinery around the last scene.
* ''Film/AustinPowersInGoldmember'' begins with the opening credits of a film being made about Austin Powers, but in-universe.
* ''Film/{{Persona 1966}}'' does this a couple of times, most notably at the very end when the camera pans away from the actors to show the crew who have been there all along, filming what's supposed to be two women isolated on an island.

* At the end of ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'' the attack of King Arthur's army on Castle Aaargh is interrupted [[spoiler: by the police arresting everyone for the murder of the history professor from earlier in the movie.]] Also counts as GainaxEnding

* ''Film/SesionContinua'': The opening shot is Federico addressing some offscreen person in an extremely emotional manner ("My love...I love you...and I need you.") Then when the camera reveals that he is addressing a second balding, late middle-aged man, the scene seems to become something different. Finally, Jose says "No one talks like that, fuck!". It's soon revealed that they're actually screenwriters running through dialogue.
* ''Film/CharliesAngels2000'' does this twice with Alex's boyfriend -- once when he is rehearsing a scene from his latest movie with her, and once when he is actually filming it.

* The opening scene of ''Film/DayForNight'' is revealed to be a scene being shot for the [[FilmWithinAFilm in-universe movie]], when the director shouts "Cut!".
* In ''Film/DieAnotherDay'', [=MI6=] headquarters appear to be under attack until it is revealed that James Bond is in a virtual reality training simulation. Toward the end of the film, Bond appears to be getting intimate with Moneypenny until R interrupts, revealing that Moneypenny is using the device to simulate the scenario.
* Used as BookEnds in Creator/GeneWilder's ''Film/HauntedHoneymoon'': once to reveal that its BatmanColdOpen is actually a radio mystery-theater show which the film's main characters are performing live, and again to reveal that the ''entire movie'' was one.
* ''Film/BlowOut'' begins with a first-person view of a SerialKiller prowling a co-ed dorm filled with all sorts of sleaze worthy of an ExploitationFilm. Then he pulls the curtain on a victim in the shower who lets out a completely unconvincing scream. Cut to the BMovie sound technician protagonist and his producer in their recording studio laughing at, and then arguing over the scream in the SlasherFilm whose rough cut they have just been watching.
* When Johnny Cage is introduced in ''Film/MortalKombatTheMovie'', he's seen entering a warehouse, is approached by several sinister looking men, and they engage in a fight. He downs all of them and while fighting the last one, punches him several times. After being hit, the other man reacts as though nothing has happened. An irritated Cage looks at him and says "This is where you fall down." The man then falls back very unconvincingly. Cage turns around and yells "Where do you get these guys?" It's then revealed that he's on a movie set, and the fight was a scene being filmed.
* ''Film/FrightNight1985'': As the camera floats toward a house, we hear the conversation of a vampire putting the moves on a woman. When we fly through the window, we see that the conversation is actually a movie on a television set.
* A scene in ''Film/AprilShowers'' where Sean says "I love you" to April is interrupted by him yelling "Cut!", revealing it to be a part of their stageplay.
* The opening scene of ''Film/GalaxyQuest'', with the NSEA ''Protector'' under attack and Commander Taggart ordering the use of the Omega-13, is revealed to be the final episode of a cancelled TV show being watched by fans at a convention.
* ''Film/AManCalledNereus'' opens with a woman being attacked by zombies. Then the director stops the scene and tells Keith, one of the shambling extras, that he just doesn't have the presence to play a zombie.

* ''Film/LooneyTunesBackInAction'' concludes in the Acme chairman's penthouse office, with Daffy Duck insisting to Bugs Bunny that he's adamant about not returning to the Warner Studio. That moment, a bell rings, and the set is struck, revealing the two had been on a soundstage the whole time.
* The opening scene of ''Film/DemonKnight'' ends with the Cryptkeeper shouting "Cut!" and calling the actor playing Jack a hack. Then the Cryptkeeper introduces the actual movie.
* ''Film/MrsDoubtfire'' opens with an animated sequence of a ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes''-esque bird character singing a song from ''Theatre/TheBarberOfSeville''. Then we pull back and we see Creator/RobinWilliams' character in a sound booth, providing the bird's voice.
* ''Film/TheClassic'': Right after Ji-hye returns Sang-min's umbrella to him upon realizing he left it at the store so he could join her in the rain, leading to them confessing their feelings to each other in the theater, the next scene is of [[spoiler:So-kyeung in a hospital bed and claiming to Sang-min she cut her wrists because she saw him confessing to someone else. It then pans out to show the audience watching them in the theater, revealing it's all part of Sang-min's play.]]

[[folder:Interactive Fiction]]
* Used in the short tongue-in-cheek IF game ''Conan Kill Everything''. If Conan dies -- or for that matter when the player eventually completes the game -- the action will be revealed to all have happened on a small movie set and the director will either complain about or compliment 'Conan's' performance.
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* ''War Game'' by Creator/AnthonyPrice opens with a battle in the English Civil War, which goes on for a couple of pages before one of the dead bodies leans over to make a snarky comment to his neighbour, and it turns out to be a modern-day re-enactment.

* {{Inverted|Trope}} in ''Literature/EndersGame'', where both the characters and the audience (or at least, those who hadn't yet [[IKnewIt figured it out]]), are led to believe that [[spoiler: the climax is a battle simulation serving as the young students' final exam. Once they "pass"]], dialog from other characters makes it clear that [[spoiler: it wasn't a simulation at all, they in fact just won the very real war]].
* ''Literature/TheCulture'' novel ''Literature/SurfaceDetail'' opens with three scenes ending in someone's death. One is immediately revealed to be an UnwinnableTrainingSimulation, one is eventually revealed to be a simulation, but one with real consequences (part of a war being fought in VR), and one is genuine (but, the Culture being what it is, [[BrainUploading not permanent]]).
* ''Literature/TheCatWhoSeries'': The opening pages of book #15 (''The Cat Who Went Into the Closet'') start with a radio announcer at his newsdesk, reporting on a major forest fire destroying towns in the area, and finally that the town of Pickax itself, where he is, is in flames, just before getting to his feet and rushing out of the room... and then everything goes dark, just before we hear the audience talking about it -- the "radio announcer" was Qwill, doing a one-man stage show based on a massive forest fire that destroyed much of Moose County over a hundred years before.

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'':
** "Hollywood Babylon" opens with two terrified 20-somethings, Wendy and Brody, in the woods. Brody runs away; Wendy calls for her friends, hears a noise, turns toward the camera and screams — unconvincingly, at a tennis ball stuck on top of a movie camera. "Cut!" calls the director. "Wendy" is actually Tara Benchley, the lead actress of ''Hell Hazers 2''.
** Another ''Supernatural'' example is the episode "The French Mistake". [[spoiler: This is less a reveal than a transition though, as Sam and Dean themselves have been pulled into 'our' world by Balthazar's power, to [[strike: escape Virgil]] lead Virgil on a merry wild goose chase after a key that supposedly opens the door to a room containing all the weapons Balthazar stole]]. The episode's title is a ShoutOut to ''Film/BlazingSaddles'' (mentioned above), "The French Mistake" being the musical number that gets interrupted by the climactic fight scene.
** In "Changing Channels" a scene taking place in a hospital turns out to be a medical soap opera Dean is watching on TV. He later becomes [[TrappedInTVLand trapped in the same soap opera himself]].
** "Goodbye Stranger" has a nasty one where a {{brainwashed}} Castiel is shown apparently killing Dean Winchester, which doesn't get any less shocking after the Proscenium Reveal when we see he's in a warehouse [[ExpendableClone full of murdered Dean simulations]].
* On more than one occasion in ''Series/QuantumLeap'', Sam leaps into a strange situation, only to discover that he's an actor in a play or on a soundstage.

** In "Caution: Murder Can Be Hazardous To Your Health", the scene opens in a rundown apartment, where two lovers, Barbara and Duke, are plotting to kill the former's husband, who is waiting outside for Barbara to give him a signal to come in. When the husband comes in, Duke chokes him into unconsciousness and injects him with a vial of poison. As the two exchange a look, the image turns grainy and is revealed to be playing on a monitor in the studio where Wade Anders (GeorgeHamilton) is taping his weekly Dateline-type show ''[=CrimeAlert=]''.
* This happens OnceAnEpisode in ''Series/FXTheSeries'', usually in the cold opening.
* Nikki's first flashback on ''Series/{{Lost}}'' features a proscenium reveal. Nikki is shown pole dancing in a club, then having a confrontation with her boss. The boss shoots her, and the director yells, "Cut!", revealing that Nikki an actress working on a show about strippers who fight crime. The original plan was to have the entire ''episode'' revolve around this ShowWithinAShow, with the proscenium reveal coming at the end. This plan was scrapped when Nikki and Paulo proved wildly unpopular.
* ''Series/UltramanMax'': The 32nd episode "Elly Destruction Directive" begins with Kaito Touma in a dark room, and suddenly ambushed by GasMaskMooks which he engages in a shootout (with GunsAkimbo!) that feels absolutely unlike anything from Ultraman. Then he gets shot, before it's revealed he's in a simulated exercise. Cue opening credits and the rest of the show.
* ''Series/WithoutATrace'': A security guard sees a suspicious car. He looks inside and sees a bomb, which explodes, setting him on fire. Turns out this security guard is actually a stuntman, participating in the shooting of a B-Movie. Then he walks away from the set and never comes back.
* The ''Series/SixFeetUnder'' episode "In the Game" opens with a young girl home alone when a slasher-killer breaks into her house. The girl screams...then cut to inside a movie theater where we realize it's only from a horror movie that is playing.
* The ''Series/{{Castle}}'' episode "One Life to Lose" opens with this. A couple is having an affair when the women's husband returns. The man goes to hide in the closet and a dead body falls out prompting a camera pan to show the shocked cast and crew of the soap opera that is being filmed.
* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'':
** "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S1E4TheSixteenMillimeterShrine The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine]]" opens with Barbara Jean Trenton bidding farewell to her man, a soldier who is going off to war. It is soon revealed to be a scene from ''Farewell Without Tears'', one of Barbara's old films.
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E23AWorldOfDifference A World of Difference]]", the Proscenium Reveal came as a surprise to the ''protagonist'' Arthur Curtis -- he'd been going about his life, then suddenly found himself on a set as an actor named Gerald Raigan 'playing' himself. The episode dealt with his attempts to first understand what had happened to him, then to get back to a life he found preferable to the one he'd been thrust into.
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', usually revealed with the words, [[{{Hologram}} "Computer, end program."]]. e.g. Reg Barclay at the end of "Hollow Pursuits".
* Done in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'''s fourth season opener, "The Way of the Warrior". The previous season had ended with an episode in which the crew chase a Changeling saboteur across the ''Defiant'' and ends with the dying Changeling revealing that his kind 'are everywhere'. This episode opens with Sisko and Kira chasing a Changeling across the station, only for it to be revealed that it's actually Odo and is just a security training exercise.
* ''Series/{{Justice}}'': One episode started with what seemed someone murdering somebody else but then it's revealed it was the prosecution recording a dramatization of what they claim to have happened to a VictimOfTheWeek.
* "The Window", an experimental episode of the 1950s anthology show ''Tales of Tomorrow'', started out identically to the same show's episode "The Lost Planet". Then the program is [[DoNotAdjustYourSet interrupted by a rogue broadcast]], after which the camera pans from the dumbfounded "Lost Planet" actors to the actual ''Tales of Tomorrow'' production crew, who spend the rest of the story trying to deal with the mysterious signal and its content.
* Done with SuperDickery on ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''.
** In "Meld", while suffering the results of a MindMeld with a murderer, Tuvok is being hassled by [[TheScrappy Neelix]] in the messhall. He becomes so annoying that Tuvok throttles him to death. AndThereWasMuchRejoicing amongst fans until Tuvok says says, "Computer, end program." Either way, it's a clear sign Tuvok is NotHimself.
** In "Worse Case Scenario", B'Elanna Torres is recruited by Chakotay to take part in a mutiny. Things get more and more strange with dead crewmembers from the first couple of seasons appearing, until Tom Paris freezes the program, revealing that it's a holodeck simulation.
** In the pre-title sequence of "Living Witness" Voyager's crew have turned evil, wearing black gloves and raining down destruction on helpless planets, before everything freezes and it's revealed that we're 700 years in the future watching a propagandist historical 'reconstruction' of events. This is {{Book End}}ed with another Proscenium Reveal showing that the events of the entire episode were being simulated by another group of historians even further in the future.
** In the episode "Imperfection", The Doctor and Tom Paris are seen working together on replacing Seven of Nine's malfunctioning cortical node with the one that the ''Voyager'' crew had salvaged from a dead Borg. Unfortunately, the operation fails, as Seven's mechanical systems refuse to accept the replacement node, and with The Doctor saying "End program," the whole operation was revealed to be a virtual training simulation.
* In the ''Series/IZombie'' episode "Method Head", Blaine comments that they'll "hear soon if all zombie hell breaks loose," and we cut to a scene of zombie hell breaking loose in a high school. It turns out to be the set of ShowWithinAShow ''Zombie High''.

** [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] by Foggy Nelson in "Regrets Only", when he, Matt and Karen are on the elevator while heading to Frank Castle's room at the hospital.

** A variant in "Penny and Dime" without the stage: we see Father Lantom on the pulpit at his church, delivering a eulogy for Grotto. The camera then cuts to him from behind, and he steps off his pulpit...[[LonelyFuneral revealing the church to be empty aside from Matt, Karen, and Foggy sitting in a pew near the front]].
* In ''Series/TheOrville'' episode "[[Recap/TheOrvilleS1E10Firestorm Firestorm]]", weird things are happening aboard the ship, and Alara finds herself all alone, racing through the ship's hallways. The view then pulls back to reveal that she's in the [[HardLight simulator]], with Ed, Kelly, Claire, and Isaac watching over from the control room. They try to end the simulation, but Alara has invoked a security override that even TheCaptain can't countermand, meaning she has to play out the simulation to the end... except she doesn't know it's a simulation, as she asked Claire to wipe her short-term memory of setting up the whole thing. She even gets real injuries from fighting [[spoiler:evil Isaac in the simulation]].
* ''Series/{{Westworld}}''. Teddy saves Dolores from the Man in Black, but she's been stabbed fatally. He carries her to a moonlit beach where she dies in his arms, only for floodlights to come on and the hosts to freeze in position, [[UnwittingPawn showing they've just played out the final scene in Ford's new narrative]].
* A ''Series/BlueBloods'' episode opens with two cops in the middle of a robbery/hostage situation. To his horror, one of the cops shoots an innocent civilian in the course of trying to shot the robber. At this point, a bell rings, revealing that the whole thing is a training exercise.

* An episode of ''Series/{{ER}}'' began with medical student Abby in the midst of a trauma being screamed at by senior physicians and told that she's doing everything wrong and that the patient is dying. The patient eventually does die, and we see that she was actually working on a dummy and that this was a simulated medical emergency.
* An episode of ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' has Matt Parkman raid an apartment in an apparent hostage situation. He manages to stop the hostage takers. It's immediately revealed to be a staged training exercise and a part of his detective exam, and he has passed with flying colors. He's even praised on figuring out that a woman was one of the hostage takers, although he has to fake an explanation on how he did it, since he can't very well tell them that he can read minds.
* ''Series/FlowerOfEvil'': In this thriller series, Do Hae-soo is introduced in episode 4 bending over a bloody corpse lying at the bottom of a drained swimming pool. She says "It doesn't hurt anymore, does it?" Then the corpse opens its eyes and says "It smells weird." The "corpse" is an actor and Hae-soo is a makeup artist on a movie set.
* One episode of ''Series/FoylesWar'' ends with a couple of Nazi officers repeatedly shoving a prisoner's head into a bathtub to get information out of him. After returning him to his cell, they head upstairs for a smoke and begin speaking perfect RP English, revealing that they're British officers training undercover agents to endure torture.

* Music/ShiinaRingo's video for Honnō In the end it is revealed that in-universe it is not a hospital but a set and Shiina is just playing a nurse.

* Stabbing Westward's "Shame" initially seems like a ConceptVideo about a woman being menaced by her [[PsychoExGirlfriend psycho ex-boyfriend]], fitting the [[ObsessionSong obsessive tone of the lyrics]]. The scenes that feature the band miming the song seem to be set in a rehearsal space, and there's an odd RunningGag where members keep sneaking out of the room together, eventually leaving frontman Christopher Hall on his own - the ending reveals that the entire stalker plot was just a movie-within-a-music-video, which the band decided to blow off rehearsal to go watch in the theater.

[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
* An episode of ''Series/{{Thunderbirds}}'' entitled "Martian Invasion", begins with a scene in which two police officers stumble upon a spaceship in the desert only to be attacked by Martians who blow up their car and corner them in a cave. The episode then fades into a scene in a movie producer's office revealing that the preceding sequence was actually from a movie script that a director is summarising to a pair of producers
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* ''Theatre/CityOfAngels'' opens in the ShowWithinAShow, and gets most of the way through the expository scene before revealing Stine at his typewriter pressing the backspace key, causing the action to rewind.

* ''The Cripple of Inishmaan'' by Creator/MartinMcDonagh has the terminally ill title character deliver a [[{{Final Speech}} dying monologue]] in a boarding house far from home. [[spoiler:Partway through the next scene he reappears, alive and well; the death scene was a Hollywood screen test, and the illness a ruse to escape to America]]
* The second act of ''Theatre/LegallyBlonde'' begins with the fitness queen Brooke Wyndham leading the number "Whipped Into Shape." In the middle of the song, the action freezes and we see that the number is actually a video that the other characters are watching.

** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'': The BookEnds of the game, which depict the events of the game as taking place on a stage with a curtain. In the original NES version, it's also subtly shown throughout the game by things like the floating platforms being suspended in the air by screws and strings as if they were stage props. It was later confirmed by series creator Creator/ShigeruMiyamoto that the game's events are part of a stage play.

* ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga'': The story is shown in-game as a movie everyone was watching.
* ''VideoGame/SaintsRowTheThird'': The final mission of the "Save Shaundi" ending has this happen, with the Boss and his homies going to Mars to take out Killbane turning out to be them filming a ''Gangstas in Space!'' movie. Given the utter insanity of the series on top of its existing precedent for [[MythologyGag referencing]] the devs' earlier ''VideoGame/RedFaction'', the fact the last mission takes place on Mars seems like it would have been completely possible, if everyone's BadBadActing didn't give it away.
* {{Creator/Sierra}} went through a phase in the late '80s where they did this several times.
** At the end of ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry3PassionatePattiInPursuitOfThePulsatingPectorals'', Larry and Patti [[spoiler: fall out of the game world and into the Sierra studios, where other Sierra games are literally being filmed like movies. They meet Roberta Williams, the wife of Sierra’s president, Ken Williams, who gives Larry a job writing adventure games about his life.]]
** At the end of ''VideoGame/SpaceQuestIIIThePiratesOfPestulon'', Roger Wilco [[spoiler: rescues two video game programmers from an evil intergalactic game company, then drops them off at Sierra headquarters so they can write adventure games about their lives.]]
** The opening sequence of ''VideoGame/SpaceQuestVTheNextMutation'' has the hero engaged in a space battle, until his supervisor appears on screen and we realize it was all an UnwinnableTrainingSimulation.
* ''VideoGame/Prey2017'' does this ''twice'': once at the start of the game, where the tutorial ends with Morgan Yu breaking out and into a testing lab, and once at the very end, when TheStinger reveals [[spoiler: the whole game was actually a Typhon agent playing as Morgan Yu.]]

* ''Film/{{Ararat}}'' does this fairly often. It lets the audience watch the movie-within-a-movie just long enough to momentarily forget that's what they're watching, until the camera pans to show the director in his chair, or someone walks on the set to correct one of the actors.

** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'': The BookEnds of the game, which depict the events of the game as taking place on a stage with a curtain. In the original NES version, it's also subtly shown throughout the game by things like the floating platforms being suspended in the air by screws and strings as if they were stage props.

* The ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' pilot episode "Pokemon, I Choose You!" open with a Pokemon battle in an arena before it's revealed to be a match Ash Ketchum is watching at home.

** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'': The BookEnds of the game, which depict the events of the game as taking place on a stage with a curtain. It's also subtly shown throughout the game by things like the floating platforms being suspended in the air by screws and strings as if they were stage props.

* ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'' starts with a monster walking into a child's bedroom. He is freaked out when the child starts screaming and starts knocking things over-- and then suddenly the lights turn on, the pre-recorded message "Simulation Terminated" is heard, and one wall of the room goes up, revealing that the child is actually a robot, and the monster is actually in Monsters, Incorporated's state-of-the-art children's room simulator, being observed by a supervisor, who starts asking him about his mistakes. [[spoiler:This is later used to set up the BigBad for an EngineeredPublicConfession.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory2'' starts with an elaborate Buzz Lightyear adventure which culminates in Buzz confronting Zurg, only for Zurg to suddenly disintegrate his entire upper torso with a single shot. The scene changes to show that it's actually Rex playing one of Andy's video games.

* At the end of ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'' the attack of King Arthur's army on the castle Aaargh is interrupted [[spoiler: by the police arresting everyone for the murder of the history professor from earlier in the movie.]] Also counts as GainaxEnding

'''Morpheus:''' Look again. ''[Neo does. The woman has instantly turned into Agent Smith, who draws his gun on Neo]'' Freeze it. ''[Immediately, everything on the screen except for Neo and Morpheus freezes in time]''\\

** In the pre-title sequence of "Living Witness" Voyager's crew have turned evil, wearing black gloves and raining down destruction on helpless planets, before everything freezes and it's revealed we're watching a historical 'reconstruction' of events from 700 years in the future. This is {{Book End}}ed with another Proscenium Reveal showing that the events of the entire episode were being simulated by another group of historians even further in the future.

* ''Anime/Gundam00AWakeningOfTheTrailblazer'' starts off with a ShowWithinAShow retelling of [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam00 the TV series]]' events; however, anyone at least passingly familiar with the show should instantly know something is up. [[spoiler:Seeing as Lockon isn't a pink-haired loli, Tieria isn't a ScaryBlackMan, and the Season 1 BigBad certainly didn't look like a rejected ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' design...]]
* The reveal teaser for the ''[[WesternAnimation/RatchetAndClank2016 Ratchet & Clank]]'' movie does this, revealing that Qwark's speech in front of a starscape is part of an in-universe teaser for the film. It's further revealed a few seconds later that the starscape itself is fake. It then gets a third reveal showing that it's within a program making the film, and the animators are none too happy that Qwark called them lazy for not putting more effort into the teaser.
* ''WesternAnimation/SharkTale'': Oscar introduces himself to the viewer in what appears to be a penthouse apartment, until the camera zooms out to reveal it's a billboard ad.

Compare with NestedStoryReveal. Not to be confused with BreakingTheFourthWall, in which the characters acknowledge their fictional status and/or the existence of the audience (i.e., ''you'').

* The BookEnds of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'', which depict the events of the game as taking place on a stage with a curtain. It's also subtly shown throughout the game by things like the floating platforms being suspended in the air by screws and strings as if they were stage props.
* And ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga'', shown in-game as a movie everyone was watching.