History SelfDemonstrating / InMediasRes

* Many an ep of ''KidsNextDoor''.

* The "death lead-in" version was done particularly badly in one episode of ''CSIMiami'', where it was patently obvious Calleigh hadn't actually been shot.

* Played straight in the second installment of ''{{Uncharted}}''. This trope is played straight, if not, with better precision than Homer's Odyssey.

* Roger A. Zelazny’s LordOfLight begins with Sam’s return from Nirvana (“recovering from the peace which passeth understanding takes time”, p. 15) to which he is exiled after the Battle of Keenset at the end of chapter six.

''"Into the middle of things"'' -- taken from the poet Horace, this refers to the poetic technique of beginning a narrative poem at a late point in the story, after much action has already taken place. Homer makes use of this in ''Literature/TheIliad'', making this trope OlderThanFeudalism -- and Creator/{{Aristotle}} diagnosed it in ''{{Poetics}}'', making it one of the first identified tropes.

* ''RadioFreeRoscoe'' doesn't explain just how exactly they got a radio station until the end of season 1.

* The ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode Recap/MagicalMysteryCure plays like this. The ponies all start with their cutie marks already switched and Twilight has to do some investigating before knowing how they got switched.

* ''{{Spider-Man the Animated Series}}'' started out just assuming that everyone knew who Spider-Man was and his backstory. Later we did get a couple things about his past fleshed out, but it wasn't until the third season that we actually saw the entire story of how he got his powers and decided to become a hero.

** ''{{Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends}}'' went a full season without origins for the titular trio, either individually or as a group; their personal origins were the focus of the three-episode second season, and "The Origin of the Spider-Friends" appeared midway through season three.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'' story, ''Fanfic/{{Legacy}}'', the opening chapter is set years later than most of the next two chapters.

* This is a very common trope for biographies--specifically the author will start with a taste of some part of the subject's life that everyone's familiar with, then jump back to the mundanities of his/her heritage and upbringing. For example, Michael Korda's [[DwightDEisenhower Eisenhower]] biography ''Ike: An American Hero'' starts out right before D-Day, chronicling the tension and uncertainty behind the scenes on the night before and quoting Ike as saying to a confidante (Kay Summersby), "I hope to God I know what I'm doing" before starting chapter two with a jump back to his childhood in Kansas.

* ''Don't Panic'', NeilGaiman's biography of DouglasAdams starts out with the inception of Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy, then jumps back to Adams' birth.

* ''Film/{{Gandhi}}'' begins with Mohandas Gandhi's assassination and his funeral, then cuts to him being thrown off a train in South Africa.

* Roger Zelazny’s LordOfLight begins with Sam’s return from Nirvana (“recovering from the peace which passeth understanding takes time”, p. 15) to which he is exiled after the Battle of Keenset at the end of chapter six.

''"Into the middle of things"'' -- taken from the poet Horace, this refers to the poetic technique of beginning a narrative poem at a late point in the story, after much action has already taken place. Homer makes use of this in ''Literature/TheIliad'', making this trope OlderThanFeudalism -- and {{Aristotle}} diagnosed it in ''{{Poetics}}'', making it one of the first identified tropes.

* ''TheSimpsons''

* ''TheReplacements''
* ''ThePowerpuffGirls'', although the short that creator Craig [=McCracken=] initially submitted to Creator/CartoonNetwork was an origin story that wasn't used due to an inappropriate title ("The Whoop-Ass Girls") and was pretty much the same as the opening. While the opening sequence does introduce the characters quickly, a real origin story doesn't occur until TheMovie.

* ''WesternAnimation/AvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'' begins by skipping over the origin stories of ComicBook/IronMan, [[Comicbook/IncredibleHulk The Incredible Hulk]], Comicbook/{{Ant-Man}}, and TheWasp, as well as the stories of how Comicbook/TheMightyThor and {{Hawkeye}} became crimefighters. WordOfGod says the writers assumed that viewers would already know Iron Man's and the Hulk's origins from their respective movies, that Thor's heroic training didn't seem as important to depict as his arrogance and leave from Asgard did, and that detailing how Ant-Man and Wasp got their powers so early on in the series would leave the two of them with less time to impress viewers who never read their comics.

** This trope is averted for ComicBook/BlackPanther and Comicbook/MsMarvel, whose origin stories occur during the first season instead of before it, and TheVision, whose birth occurs during season two.

* ''TheUsualSuspects'' opens with Keaton on the deck of the ship about to blow it up. He's stopped. Soon, the police drag in Verbal to tell them [[HowWeGotHere How They Got There]].

* ''{{Hoodwinked}}'' opens InMediasRes by first showing the confrontation between Red, Granny, the Wolf, and Kirk inside Granny's house. After the police arrive to start investigating, each character gives a RashomonStyle story told in flashback to explain HowWeGotHere.

* ''AngelsRevenge'': The film was recut with the first half of the raid on the processing plant as an ActionPrologue, then showing most of the first few acts as a flashback before returning to the rest of the raid. Naturally this was commented upon when the flm appeared on ''MST3K'':

* ''MysteryTeam'' begins with the eponymous trio in the middle of a seemingly important investigation.
* ''Just Married'' starring BrittanyMurphy and Ashton Kutcher starts with the two main characters getting back from their nightmare of a honeymoon, and pushing each other around and spitting gum in one another's hair.
* ''{{Gandhi}}'' begins with Mohandas Gandhi's assassination and his funeral, then cuts to him being thrown off a train in South Africa.
* ''TheButterflyEffect'' begins with the main character frantically scribbling a cryptic sentence in his journal whilst wearing clothing from a mental hospital. The rest of the movie is spent catching up.
* ''Reindeer Games'' kicks off with a montage of six dead Santa Clauses [[spoiler: except at the end it turns out one's still alive]] in various locations, before flashing back to "Six Days Before."

[[folder:Nonfiction]]
* This is a very common trope for biographies--specifically the author will start with a taste of some part of the subject's life that everyone's familiar with, then jump back to the mundanities of his/her heritage and upbringing. For example, Michael Korda's [[DwightDEisenhower Eisenhower]] biography ''Ike: An American Hero'' starts out right before D-Day, chronicling the tension and uncertainty behind the scenes on the night before and quoting Ike as saying to a confidante (Kay Summersby), "I hope to God I know what I'm doing" before starting chapter two with a jump back to his childhood in Kansas.
* ''Don't Panic'', NeilGaiman's biography of DouglasAdams starts out with the inception of Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy, then jumps back to Adams' birth.
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[-[[caption-width-right:320:An approximation. [[AnachronicOrder You should see the]] ''Film/PulpFiction'' [[http://dehahs.deviantart.com/art/Pulp-Fiction-Timeline-Enhanced-245666429 timeline]].]]-]

->''"That is the heart of it. Now begin in the middle, and later learn the beginning; the end will take care of itself."''
-->-- '''Creator/HarlanEllison''', ''"Repent, Harlequin!" said the Ticktockman''

''"Into the middle of things"'' -- taken from the poet Horace, this refers to the poetic technique of beginning a narrative poem at a late point in the story, after much action has already taken place. Homer makes use of this in ''Literature/TheIliad'', making this trope OlderThanFeudalism -- and {{Aristotle}} diagnosed it in ''{{Poetics}}'', making it one of the first identified tropes.

When used in TV it's generally a preamble to a FlashBack, which falls under HowWeGotHere -- where the action starts at the middle or end of the story and quickly flashes back to the ''real'' beginning.

''In medias res'' is a quick and easy way to have an action sequence at the beginning of an episode; for this and related tricks, see ActionPrologue. Both ''in medias res'' and ActionPrologue are also quite common in VideoGames for the same reason, and to allow the player to get into the actual gameplay fairly quickly without them having to sit through long expository cut-scenes.

Frequently, the first [[ActBreak act]] of an ''in medias res'' opening will end with a situation that looks like it will lead to the death of a major character. It usually doesn't.

See LostInMediasRes for what happens when this is done badly.

Often inspires someone later on to remark: "This is where we came in!"
----

* The American dub premiere of ''Manga/SailorMoon'' was another special preview episode, which was actually the first episode of the R series. It featured all five Senshi (unlike the real first episode) but could still serve as somewhat of an introduction.

* "Unrequited" of ''Series/{{The X-Files}}'' starts with a scene that is later shown again. The story goes back to 12 hours ago. It was speculated that InMediasRes was done just to prolong the footage which is evidenced by many shots of flying flags and marching bands. The second scene might have been written as a teaser originally.
** "Colony" starts in media res as well.
** And GroundhogDayLoop episode ''Monday'' - the pre-titles teaser shows Mulder dying of gunshot wounds before he and Scully get blown up in a bank heist.

* Some IanFleming's novels start with Literature/JamesBond already in action, then he comes back to the mission's briefing with M. ''Literature/OnHerMajestysSecretService'' also does this, but the "flashback" doesn't feature M.

* ''{{Spider-Man Web Of Shadows}}'' is like this, but rather than start in the middle, it starts minutes from the ending. This leads to a HowWeGotHere

* ChristopherNolan's films tend to use this a lot:

* QuentinTarantino likes playing with the chronology of his plots, though only occasionally does he use an outright in media res plotline to its conclusion:

* Some {{Ian Fleming}}'s novels start with JamesBond already in action, then he comes back to the mission's briefing with M. ''OnHerMajestysSecretService'' also does this, but the "flashback" doesn't feature M.

* ''{{Ratatouille}}'' begins looking at a house in the distance with the muffled sounds of what turn out to be shotgun blasts and then with Remy jumping through a plate glass window while carrying a book significantly larger than himself. It quickly jumps back to explain how the incident occurred.

* Discussed In Webisode 1 of ''VideoGame/BravoMan'': Alpha Man mentions this writing technique by name as a [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall fourth wall joke]] during a subversion of DeathByFlashback.

* The ''JohnnyBravo'' episode "The Day The Earth Didn't Move Around Very Much" has Johnny in court explaining in flashbacks why he behaved the way he did with everyone seemingly frozen in time but him.

* The ''RegularShow'' episode "Exit 9B" starts with the park already destroyed and everyone other than Mordecai and Rigby brainwashed.

* Creator/ChristopherPriestComics loves this technique, and once opened a BlackPanther comic this way, along with a caption that said, "in medias res: Latin for 'not boring'."

** This trope is averted for BlackPanther and Comicbook/MsMarvel, whose origin stories occur during the first season instead of before it, and TheVision, whose birth occurs during season two.

* TheDecemberists's album 'The Crane Wife' opens with 'Crane Wife 3', later on in the album comes 'Crane Wife 1 &2 ' which gives the listener the beginning of the story.

* ''BreakingBad'' for the first season and some of the second.

-->-- '''HarlanEllison''', ''"Repent, Harlequin!" said the Ticktockman''

* ''BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'' began with Batman having already been active for years, which makes sense since by now, you'd have to be living under a rock to not know his origin story. This was especially helpful in introducing the younger, more diverse crop of [[AffirmativeActionLegacy legacy heroes]], since this meant the writers could start with Jaime Reyes as the BlueBeetle and Ryan Choi as TheAtom without having to worry too much about their predecessors (though the prior Blue Beetle and Atom were eventually explained via [[{{Flashback}} Flashbacks]]).