History SelfDemonstrating / InMediasRes

* ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' begins with a Sith attack on the Endor Spire, the ship you're serving aboard. You'll only get a reasonable grasp of what's going on after you escape the ship and talk with the other survivor, Carth. Almost certainly a homage to the original StarWars.

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' showed a "special preview episode" in the very first American run of the series; however, the series itself has a standard WelcomeEpisode. This would not be the only time [[Creator/FourKidsEntertainment 4Kids]] would air a mid-story episode as a preview: ''Magical [=DoReMi=]'' was previewed with the 4th episode (where Doremi [Dorie], Hazuki [Reanne] and Aiko [Mirabelle] become witch apprentices [witchlings]), and ''Winx Club'' was previewed with a episode from late in the first season, before then airing the proper premiere at the start of the regular run.

* ''Film/{{Underworld}}'' begins with a bunch of seemingly random people shooting each other up on the subway. A well-known movie critic actually criticized the use of this trope in his review of the film, remarking that since we don't know who these people are or what their motives are, the action is disconnected and meaningless. [[ComicallyMissingThePoint Critics suffer from this issue so often it should be its own trope]].

* ''Film/{{Underworld}}'' begins with a bunch of seemingly random people shooting each other up on the subway. A well-known movie critic actually criticized the use of this trope in his review of the film, remarking that since we don't know who these people are or what their motives are, the action is disconnected and meaningless. [[CompletelyMissingThePoint Critics suffer from this issue so often it should be its own trope]].

* ''Manga/SangatsuNoLion'' begins when Rei is already living on his own and has already met the Kawamoto family. Every few chapters, the story alternates between the present and several flashbacks showing how he met the Kawamotos and how he got to where he is today.

** ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' itself also qualifies. Aside from Superman, who had an origin story built into ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'', and the ComicBook/MartianManhunter, whose origin is worked into the plot of the first episode, the cast is introduced without backstory and they already know each other (except WonderWoman).

* ''[[WesternAnimation/SonicSatAM Sonic the Hedgehog]]''

* ''WesternAnimation/WorldOfWinx'', [[Creator/{{Netflix}} Netflix's]] spinoff of ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'' begins with the Winx in [[SpyCatsuit spy catsuits]] pursuing a mysterious figure who's been abducting talented young people. They've been on Earth for a few months.

* KnightsOfTheOldRepublic begins with a Sith attack on the Endor Spire, the ship you're serving aboard. You'll only get a reasonable grasp of what's going on after you escape the ship and talk with the other survivor, Carth. Almost certainly a homage to the original StarWars.

* ''[[WesternAnimation/HulkVs Hulk vs. Wolverine]]'' begins with {{Wolverine}} waking up after getting punched by the Hulk. The short then shows a lengthy flashback of Wolverine getting sent on a mission by Department H to hunt the Hulk, encountering Bruce Banner while searching, and causing Banner to HulkOut.

* The first ''VideoGame/GodOfWar'' begins with Kratos standing on a cliff, stating "The Gods of Olympus have abandoned me... now, there is no hope..." before he simply falls off. Athena spouts some babble while the camera shows him falling down the mountain, and when he finally hits the ocean... the screen blacks out and the game flashes back a couple weeks to when Kratos was sailing the Aegean Sea. Cue an utterly epic adventure.

* ''Series/{{Charmed}}'' does this once, where it starts with the sisters running away from the Cleaners, get their memories of yesterday erased and Wyatt wiped from existence, [[spoiler: but they cast a spell tuning back the day]] and find out why the Cleaners are after Wyatt: [[spoiler: he conjures a DRAGON out of a TV show, after magically switching channels to the dragon movie]].

* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' likes this trope, but a notable example is in the Season 2 episode "Scar." It starts off with a dogfight involving Starbuck, Kat, and the titular Cylon Raider. The episode then details the [[HowWeGotHere days leading up to this dogfight]], highlighting [[spoiler:the deaths of several Nuggets]], Starbuck's downward spiral and Kat's rapidly rising badass quotient, and the growing conflict between them. This is intercut with further scenes of the dogfight, building the tension each time as we go back to the main story, with the battle finally resolved in the end. [[spoiler:Kat kills Scar, leading to Starbuck acknowledging her rival and delivering a [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming moving tribute]] to the fallen pilots.]]

** Richard Armour in his ''The Classics Reclassified'' describes "medias res" as "-- beginning in the middle of things thus leaving the reader confused to the very end."
** ''Literature/TheOdyssey'' begins in the same way after roughly a ten year TimeSkip with Athena urging Telemachus to go search for his missing father Odysseus.
** The Homeric use of this made it into a standard convention of epic poetry, and the much later (and Roman) ''Literature/{{Aeneid}}'' begins in much the same way, with Aeneas' fleet threatened by a divine storm while en route to Italy. Aeneas fills in the beginning of the story later on using a FramingDevice.
* Creator/KurtVonnegut was very fond of beginning in medias res. Starting with ''Literature/SlaughterhouseFive'', which ''literally'' jumps around in time, his preferred method of storytelling involved telling a bit from here, a bit from there, until the picture is complete. Hocus Pocus is particularly notable for beginning ''a million years'' after the main action.

* ''Literature/ToKillAMockingbird'' starts with the sentence: "When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow." That happens at the end of the book. The idea seems to be that it comes up in a conversation the adult Scout is having, and the book is her explaining the events that lead up to it.
* ''Literature/StarshipTroopers'' The book, not the movie. Whole first chapter is an action movie sequence. Then it goes back to how we got here.
** ''Halo: The Fall of Reach'' (the first ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' novel) does the same thing.

* [[Literature/TheDresdenFiles "The building was on fire]] [[RunningGag and it wasn't my fault...]]

* The ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "Human Nature", first by opening the episode in the middle of an alien attack, then cutting into the middle of the Doctor's life as a human before revealing [[HowWeGotHere how he got there]], by way of explaining the alien attack.

* The individual segments of ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' begin with a black and white freeze-frame, and then go through the segment as usual, leading up to the events that culminate in the same image, which then switches to black and white again.
** There was also a very effective "death lead-in" version of this done in season 5, opening with Tony performing CPR on Gibbs and a young woman.

* The narration of ''Film/UpstreamColor'' starts in the middle and jumps back and forth.

* ''TransformersGeneration1'' opens with Wheeljack and Bumblebee collecting the last few energy sources on their planet, fighting Starscream, and then the Autobots' and Decepticons' voyage to Earth. It took many episodes until some of the backstory was explained.

* ''FarCry Instincts: Evolution'' opens with a rail gun sequence atop a fleeing Humvee. As the Humvee is surrounded, main character Jack muses "...how the hell did I get here?" The game then cuts to Jack at a tropical bar, where the storyline kicks off.

* ''GearsOfWar'' opens with Marcus Fenix busting out of prison, with no explanation given as to what's happening or who or what the strange Orc people shooting at you are. The game actually does have an intro movie that briefly explains the whole COG vs Locust war, but it oddly DOESN'T play when you start a new game, only if you idle on the main menu for a couple minutes.

* The first three parts of the {{Rush}} saga "Fear", which was split across four albums, were released in reverse order (i.e. Part 3 first).

** ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty: VideoGame/ModernWarfare'' begins with a team of [[BritsWithBattleships SAS]] operatives discussing an ongoing civil war in Russia and the [[CrapsackWorld badly destabilizing effects]] it is having on the rest of the world. As of yet, the causes of the civil war have never been revealed in-game, with the war being used as a springboard for the [[FromBadToWorse primary plot of the series]].

** ''Storm Over Warlock'' begins with the Throg attack, with backfill to explain why Shann is out of the camp at the time, how he came to work there, the whole Throg/human conflict, and the earlier surveys of Warlock
** ''Ordeal In Otherwhere'' opens with Charis fleeing the fanatics on Demeter, and remembering the plague that had so selectively wiped out the non-fanatics.
** ''Forerunner Foray'' opens with Ziantha in the middle of a burglary.

* [[http://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/07/09/scarab-25-4/ Chapter 25.4]] of ''Literature/{{Worm}}'' opens with Taylor (the [[TookALevelInBadass at-this-point]] [[NotSoStoic normally-unflappable]] protagonist) desperately dialing [[spoiler:Glenn]]; the reason only being revealed after she gets off the phone and [[spoiler:joins the rest of her superhero team -- the Chicago Wards -- walking onto the set of a morning chat show]].

* The first episode of the {{Gungrave}} anime starts off almost at the exact middle of the series chronologically, with Brandon/Beyond the Grave protecting Mika from a few zombie hoards. After that, it suddenly goes back to the beginning and [[GenreShift turns from a sci-fi action series to a mafia drama]] as it goes into Brandon and Harry's backstories and how they became a superpowered revenant and the BigBad, respectively.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'' starts with the titular GenreSavvy villain falling from a fatal height, then flashes back. ''Way'' back.

* "What Kind Of Day Has It Been?", the season one finale of ''TheWestWing'', did this very well.

* The US dub of the ''ViewtifulJoe'' anime began airing with episode 5, which introduced Junior. The actual first episodes were aired as a special later on.

*** Also, the series is technically spun off the Tracey Ullman Show where it was an animated skit anyway, though I think that still had this trope in effect.

* ''RubyGloom''
** Especially noteworthy: Most of the story is told in flashback, and it involves three characters thinking that Ruby is moving out of the house and two others thinking that she's ''dying''. One heck of a first episode for any show!

* ''RecordOfLodossWar'' does this with the first episode, and introduces the characters and plot in the second episode. With the exception of the narrated opening sequence on the War of the Gods, the plot of the episode takes place between episodes 5 and 6.

* ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}'', although it starts father towards the end of the story than most. We open the day after [[TheWizardOfOz Dorothy Gale]] has just melted the Wicked Witch of the West, with the all of Oz celebrating her downfall. Glinda The Good Witch of the North appears to tell them how ''horrible'' and ''evil'' she was- and then someone "didn't you know her once?" Thus begins the story of how the Wicked Witch- Elphaba- was born green, abused and neglected throughout her childhood, and eventually befriended G(a)linda. Turns out [[spoiler: that Glinda was only pretending to hate her to secure good PR, so she could dispose of Oz's corrupt government as the (supposedly) dead Elphaba wanted.]]

* ZenoClash begins with [[PlayerCharacter Ghat]] running from his hometown after killing Father-Mother. As he flees his angered brothers and sisters, he explains to [[TheWatson Deadra]] the first half of the plot through flashbacks.