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alt title(s): Foreshadowed; Foreshadow
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A clue or allusion embedded in the narrative that predicts some later event or revelation. It could be something a character says or does, an event that doesn't make sense until much later, a Meaningful Name, or really anything at all.
Good foreshadowing doesn't spoil the surprise, yet seems an obvious clue in retrospect. Bad foreshadowing either deflates the suspense or is too obfuscated (such as an Ice Cream Koan) to predict anything.
Dreaming Of Things To Come often foreshadows. If it makes no sense, it may be Strange Minds Think Alike. If this is done with a work released after the work containing that which it foreshadows (such as the page image), it's a Call Forward.
A specific variant is Futureshadowing, where the shadowing comes after the actual event chronologically but is still seen before it.
Compare AND contrast Funny Aneurysm Moment, Reverse Funny Aneurysm. Contrast Fauxshadow. Production Foreshadowing is this trope's meta version.
Not to be confused with The Shadow Knows, which the picture to the right uses to do this trope.
Naturally, the examples are full of spoilers. Consider yourself warned.
Examples:
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Comic Books
- Elf Quest comics have a lot of foreshadowing. One of the best examples is in the original series. In ElfQuest #2
 the Wolfriders are resting up during a gruelling desert journey, having managed to find a little water. Cutter, however, wants to do some more exploring, and his friend Skywise reluctantly agrees, complaining that "you won't sit still 'til you've found us a blasted waterfall". Several years later (in both real and comic time), in ElfQuest #9, Cutter and Skywise are involved in a literal Cliff Hanger beside - you guessed it - a giant waterfall.
- The retelling of Sleeping Beauty in Castle Waiting features this. The evil witch proclaims to the Opinicus — a griffin-like creature that she was riding — that after today, she'll ride the Devil himself as her steed and he'll thank her for the privilege. It turns out to be exactly correct, but not in the way she meant — her wickedness was worse than the standards the Devil considers acceptable and he disguised himself as the Opinicus on her return trip to personally carry her off to Hell.
Fanfiction
Film
- In the Back To The Future trilogy, there are many examples, including:
- George McFly flexes his hand defensively during a confrontation in the unaltered 1985 in Part I, foreshadowing his final fight with Biff in 1955, the opening montage of the film (in Doc Brown's garage) foreshadows later parts of the film, including Doc's hang off the clocktower.
- Part II is filled to brim with foreshadowing for Part III, such as Biff watching A Fistful Of Dollars in Part II foreshadows Marty's boiler plate armor trick, a documentary mentioning "Mad Dog" Tannen being Biff's great-grandfather, and a lot more.
- A bit of unintentional and subtle foreshadowing: In Part I, the Starliters play a song called "Night Train", which wasn't named in the movie, yet whose title foreshadows the use of trains in Part III. (When that Starliters scene was filmed, the sequels weren't even a glimmer in Robert Zemeckis' eye yet.)
- The Final Destination movies revolve on those to warn the characters of how Death plans on dealing with them. Unfortunately (for them), it serves more to the viewers as foreshadowing on what's going to happen soon enough.
- Pirates Of The Caribbean: All throughout the films, Will Turner ends up the sole survivor of shipwrecks. The first wreck foreshadows the second, and it's retconned in the sequels into forshadowing Will's destiny as captain of the Flying Dutchman in the third film, which doesn't pan-out until the bottom of the last act. The second film has several, including Jack arriving in a coffin and later falling into an open grave, forshadowing his death in the last act. It also had a few for the third, such as Gibbs explaining the natives of Pelegosto thought Jack was a god in human form and intended to release him, just as Barbossa intended to do for Calypso.
- Reservoir Dogs: the very first scene foreshadows Mr Blonde's sociopathic tendencies, as well as the identity of the rat. A later scene drops a clue unintentionally as well, when an orange balloon is shown flying around.
- The initial dialogue also shows Mr. White as the "protective" guy (defending the waitresses), as well as foreshadowing his clash of authority with Joe, Mr. Blonde's loyalty to Joe ("Shoot this piece of shit for me, will ya?") and Mr. Pink's individualist attitude.
- The friendship between Orange and White is foreshadowed without either saying a word to each other - most of White's shots (especially when he's expounding an opinion) include Orange looking at him and reacting to him.
- There's a conversation in the beginning of LA Confidential where a police captain asks a younger officer intending to join the detective bureau if he's willing to do certain unethical things to bring a criminal to justice: plant evidence, beat a confession out of a suspect, and shoot a criminal in the back lest he be acquitted. The younger officer claims he won't... but by the end of the film, he's been complicit in all three.
- The Haunting: Nell asks to borrow her sister's car, to which her sister replies: "How do I know you'll bring back my car in good condition?" Nell is killed when she crashes the car into a tree.
- Edgar Wright's Shaun Of The Dead and Hot Fuzz are both FULL of foreshadowing (too many examples to fit this wiki). Almost every word and many images appearing in the first 30 minutes are full of foreshadowing and references to the whole plot. The Hot Fuzz DVD even has a function called Fuzz Facts which points out such bits of foreshadowing.
- The Shaun Of The Dead DVD, or at least the special edition, has something similar— the Zomb-O-Meter.
- The quote at the top comes from the Rifftrax commentary on the movie Daredevil were we see a young Matt Murdock standing behind his father, who is wearing a red hood with devil's horns on it, that casts a shadow onto Matt.
- The Andromeda Strain (1971)
- When Dr. Leavitt first enters Wildfire, she avoids looking at a flashing red light. Later on she looks at a flashing red alarm light and goes into a grand mal seizure, whereupon another character realizes she's epileptic.
- Several in Mulholland Drive.
- "... and now I'm in this... dreamplace!"
- "It's strange, calling yourself."
- "Come on, it'll be just like in the movies...we'll pretend to be someone else."
- "This is the girl" (albeit this is more of an Ironic Echo)
- "We don't stop here"
- In "The Brothers Lionheart", during the song at the inn, the paintings on the wall depict things that will happen later in the story.
- River's comment about the Reaver that managed to get aboard Serenity after their narrow escape ("He didn't lie down. They never lie down.") mirrors Inara's later comment about the victims of Miranda who didn't become Reavers and how they just laid down and died as an unexpected result of the Pax.
- The original King Kong begins with a (made-up) proverb about a beast being placated by a beauty, and how "from that day forward, it was as one dead" (said proverb is also quoted in the 2005 film). Later on, Carl Denham tells Jack Driscoll the story of the movie he's making: "The Beast was a tough guy... He could lick the world. But when he saw Beauty, she got him. He went soft, he forgot his wisdom, and the little fellers licked him." Guess how the movie ends.
- Midway through Jaws, Hooper warns Brody about fiddling with his scuba tanks, explaining how they could blow up if not handled properly. Quint remarks on this.
Quint: Yeah, that's real fine expensive gear you brought out here, Mr. Hooper. 'Course I don't know what that bastard shark's gonna do with it, might eat it I suppose.
- In Dead Poets Society, the ghost story Neil tells at the first meeting can be interpreted as a cryptic bit of foreshadowing of his own death.
- For that matter his surname, Perry, could be symbolic for "Perish".
- One scene halfway through the fully-CGI Monster House has three kids stuck inside the titular Monster House's mouth, and the Smart Girl points out all the similarities to human anatomy, including an uvula. The token fat kid somehow misunderstands and goes "oh, so it's a girl house". Turns out he was right - the house was possessed by a giantess who fell to her death in its foundations..
- Used twice to great effect in The Incredibles. Dash comments that saying "everyone is special" is just another way to say that no-one is, which ends up echoed in Syndrome's Motive Rant. A bit later, Edna, while discussing why she doesn't work with capes, mentions a superheroine whose cape was sucked into a jet engine. This ends up being exactly how villain Syndrome dies.
- In Coraline, the Other Father's song when he sang to Coraline.
She's a peach, she's a doll, she's a pal of mine/ She's as cute as a button in the eyes of everyone who's ever laid their eyes on Coraline/ When she comes around exploring/ Mom and I will never ever make it boring/ Our eyes will be on Coraline!
- Also, the Other Mother referring to the Other Father as "Pumpkin". Guess what he really is.
- In The Stepford Wives, a robotic wife starts malfunctioning, and is clearly at a party, where she keeps repeating 'I'll just die if I don't get that recipe!', which is both a hint at what is going to be Joanna's fate and at the horrifying reality of The Stepford Wives system, which has women literally die - and be replaced by placid robot clones for their husbands' desire of a prim and proper hausfrau, who cleans and cooks.
- In X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Stryker says to Wade Wilson that he'd be the perfect soldier if he didn't have such a mouth. Stryker later turns Wade into a mutated super-soldier who literally has no mouth.
- In ""Gran Torino", Walt reading the paper on his birthday about a sudden life change that will occur that will come to a dramatic, yet seemingly anti-climatic ending. Guess what happens next? Immediately the Hmong girl walks over and invites him to their dinner were he makes new friends and works with a young boy that he comes to mentor. Oh, and the movie ends with him getting anti-climatically shot when everyone was expecting a major shootout.
- In Alienģ, there's a "blink and you might miss it" moment during the scene just after the xenomorph has attacked, some inflammable liquid caught alight and a large fire has been set off through the passage shaft. They activate the sprinklers to put the fire out, there's a view of the carnage and there's one brief shot of a bucket that was holding the inflammable liquid and was dropped and as the water hits it, the metal expands and snaps. This is how the xenomorph is actually killed at the end, they hit it with molten lead, it survives, they hit it with cold water and the rapid contraction causes it to implode.
- I'm surprised The Wizard Of OZ hasn't been mentioned. Bear in mind that this only happens in the movie:
"Hugg" (The Scarecrow): Now you ain't usin' your head about Miss Gulch. Didn't think you had any brains at all!
"Zeke" (The Cowardly Lion): You lettin' that old Gulch heffer try and buffalo you? She ain't nothin' to be afraid of. Have a little courage, that's all!
"Hickory" (The Tin Man): Someday they're gonna erect a statue of me in this town!
Dorothy to "Miss Gulch" when the former is forced to put Toto in the basket: No, no, I won't let you take him! You go away, or I'll bite you myself!! (Aunt Em: Dorothy!) You wicked old witch!
- Of course, we can't forget "Over The Rainbow". She even makes a reference to the song when she lands in Oz ("We must be over the rainbow!").
- This all feeds into the All Just A Dream ending the movie has, since all of this would have been stuck in Dorothy's subconscious. In the books however, Oz is not a dream.
Literature
- Genesis 3:15 'he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.' If you're Christian, you probably think this is foreshadowing to Jesus punishing Satan (the snake) ... a few thousand years before he was born.
- As well as Isaiah, Jeremiah, and every other prophetic book. Prophesies, in general, are this in real life.
- Harry Potter has foreshadowing all the way through the seven book series, but there's also a lovely piece of cinematic foreshadowing in the Chamber of Secrets film: after the scene in which McGonagall describes the Chamber of Secrets, which has been hidden for centuries, it fades to a shot showing exactly what the characters are searching for: the secret entrance to the chamber. It's not until the end of the film that they learn that's what it is.
- Many of Professor Trelawny's predictions, while mostly inaccurate, sometimes end up echoing events later in the book. The most obvious example is in Half Blood Prince, in which Trelawny goes over Tarot readings. The Tower comes up, and Trelawny uses it to predict Harry's death... again. It's not till later in the book, in a chapter titled The Lighting Struck Tower when Snape kills Dumbledore on top of the astronomy tower.
- And of course, you have to consider also the fact that Harry did die in Deathly Hallows.
- Ron is king of this. He says about Tom Riddle "maybe he killed Myrtle, that'd have done everyone a favour.". Riddle did kill her! In Deathly Hallows, Ron almost predicts the taboo on saying "Voldemort." The exact words were "It feels like a jinx or something."!
- A bunch of the Horcruxes are even shown in the book, such as Slytherin's locket and Ravenclaw's tiara, although this overlaps with Chekhovs Gun.
- Harry forshadows the events of the Tri-Wizard Tournament fairly early in Goblet of Fire.
- Early in Wyrd Sisters, Granny Weatherwax says "You'd have to be a born fool to be a king." By the end of the book, the court Fool has become the king. And not only that, he is a 'born fool' - his father and grandfather were Fools before him.
- A similar example crops up in Assassin's Quest by Robin Hobb. The character Kettle is part of a group who's looking for the White Prophet, and says with respect to their search "Perhaps it is a fool's errand that I go on." Again, the White Prophet turns out to be the Fool.
- Another Discworld example: characters in previous City Watch books remark that there's no reason why the older but perfectly healthy Lady Sybil shouldn't be able to have children. It still takes her husband the whole length of The Fifth Elephant to get the happy hint.
- And another: in Thief of Time there's a weird little section where Lu-Tze cuts off a Yeti's head in order to show Lobsang their ability to manipulate time and avoid death. It seems sort of out of place, especially considering they're supposed to be in a bit of a hurry to get to the city, until Lu-Tze says "I hope I'm never that desperate," at which point you are absolutely, without-a-doubt certain that by the end of the book he will be. Of course, this may also just be an example of The Law of Conservation of Detail and readers being Genre Savvy.
- More cryptically, Death in the same novel is unable to see Lobsang Ludd. This appears to be hinting that Lobsang is immortal, until Fridge Logic reminds the reader that Death has seen plenty of other immortals before. The real reason turns out to be far stranger than that: Lobsang's life as an individual isn't destined to end with his death at all; instead, he ceases to exist as Lobsang when he merges with his other self, Jeremy Clockson.
- Two notable examples occur in John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men. In the very first scene, George complains about how Gentle Giant Lennie always accidentally kills his pet mice. About halfway through the book, Carlson shoots Candy's dog. Both of these nicely build up the drama of the last chapter.
- An excellent example of foreshadowing is the Wheel Of Time in The Great Hunt Turak mentions that the Emperess of the Seanchan Empire rules from the Court of the Nine Moons, and her favorite daughter is named Tuon. In The Shadow Rising Mat Cauthon is told he will marry the Daughter of the Nine Moons. Guess who the Daughter of the Nine Moons is? To put this in perspective The Great Hunt is the second book in the series, The Shadow Rising is book 4, and The Winter's Heart where Tuon actually enters the story is book 9.
- This is in fact pretty much the entire principle behind the Wheel Of Time books. That and clothes.
- About halfway through Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice, Elizabeth says to Darcy, "I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry." He is.
- Long before that, when Jane is ill, Darcy and Elizabeth discuss the eventuality of Mr. Bingley suddenly leaving Netherfield at a friend's request. Darcy thinks it would be a lack of character to yield so easily to a friend, and Elizabeth thinks it's perfectly natural to be influenced by those who are dear to you. Guess who changed their opinion when Bingley does leave Netherfield in a hurry at his friend's request?
- In the first Redwall book, Cluny had a nightmare where he was being chased by Martin the Warrior, and as the sword "struck" him, he was woken up by a giant bell. His final battle is in the bell-tower, where Matthias uses Martin's sword to chop the rope keeping the bell up, and it lands on Cluny's head.
- A Song Of Ice And Fire is so full of this.
- One example, right from the start: Lord Eddard Stark, on his way back from an execution, finds a direwolf (the symbol of his house) killed after being run through with the horn of a great stag (the symbol of House Baratheon). Sure enough, the coming of his old friend Robert Baratheon leads to the crippling of his son, the outbreak of civil war in Westeros, and his execution. It's also an example of in character foreshadowing: everyone else gets really uncomfortable when they see it, and his wife Catelyn wishes he would put more stock in its meaning.
- Animorphs is full of this, usually in the form of remarks the characters make. Read the series. Then read it again. You will be amazed.
Here are only a select few examples from only the first book:
- Marco: "We'd be totally famous. We'd get to be on Letterman for sure."
At the end of the series, they're practically the most famous people on Earth. Marco not only gets on Letterman, he even gets his own show.
- Visser Three: "[...] And then I'll be Visser One."
He does get promoted to Visser One near the end of the series.
- Jake (as narrator): "I think maybe the Andalite meant even more to Tobias than to the rest of us."
Elfangor, the Andalite in question, is later revealed to be Tobias' father.
- Marco: "Maybe it's your own brother you'll end up destroying."
Jake: "Yes, maybe that's what will happen."
Jake ends up ordering his cousin to kill his brother.
- Jake: "Tobias! Get a grip. Don't start eating mice just because you're in a hawk's body. What's next? Roadkill?"
Tobias ends up eating mice exactly because he gets stuck in a hawk body. He also resorts to roadkill when he has bad hunting luck.
- Cassie: "What are we going to do with dolphin morphs?"
They acquire dolphin morphs shortly after, and use them on quite a number of underwater missions.
- Jake (at Tobias): "Too late for you to morph back now."
Uttered in reference to the strategic situation, right before Tobias passes the time limit and gets stuck in his hawk body.
- Done rather badly in Twilight: Bella says something like "nobody's gonna bite me" in the first chapter. If you already know that the books about vampires, which the back cover explicitly mentions, then this is pretty blatantly obvious.
- The Horus Heresy books, particularly early on, seem to be a contest between the authors as to who can foreshadow the Foregone Conclusion best. There are a lot of comments about how space marines fighting other space marines would be unthinkable, gods and religions, particularly malignant ones, are a silly idea, etc etc.
- In Z For Zachariah, a character who later turns out to be a Complete Monster tells the protagonist "Ann Burden, you're going to wish I'd never come here." At the time he doesn't seem serious, but turns out to be very right.
- Matthew Reilly's Hover Car Racer has several bits of forshadowing for important races. In professional races, the steering wheel is the only part of the car required to cross the line to finish the race if the car crashes close to the line (except for a particular race, and this becomes important too). Jason has dreams about blacking out on Liberty's Elbow (a tight hairpin turn around the Statue of Liberty). The Bradbury Principle is mentioned a couple of times before it happens.
- In Dale Brown's Fatal Terrain, Brad Elliott says that he "always thought I'd buy the farm in the cockpit of a B-52 after just saving the world from thermonuclear meltdown". Guess what...
- The lovely thing about the Suzumiya Haruhi novels is the anachronistic order which it's presented. There are foreshadows almost everywhere. For example, in Snow Mountain Syndrome, Kyon casually mentions a crazy ex-classmate who wanted to confess to Nagato. In the next novel, there's a story about it. The best foreshadow was from the first book, Melancholy, where Kunikuda mentioned that Kyon liked strange girls, and Kyon protests, claiming that she was just a good friend, and nothing more. In the ninth novel, Sasaki is introduced, and she IS strange enough to have her own anti-SOS Brigade.
- In the Attack of the Clones novel after Zam, the assassin who tried to kill Padme, fails to shake Anakin clinging to her flyer off, she thinks desperation that "Whoever rids the galaxy of these meddling stubborn creatures indeed deserves the mantle of an Imperor". Well, what'd you know!
- Bokonon tells the protagonist of Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle what he would do if he were "a younger man"...such as the protagonist. It is heavily implied that John does exactly what Bokonon says. We know for a fact that he does part of it by the end of the book.
- Percy Jackson And The Olympians: In The Last Olympian, when Percy is trying to determine the most strategic location for his one mortal point, he chooses the small of his back in favor of an armpit, being more dignified. Anyone want to guess where
Luke's Kronos's Luke's body's Achilles spot is?
Live Action TV
- Lost has many examples, but the most prominent is in the pilot: Locke and Walt play backgammon and Locke mentions that it's the oldest game in the world and there's two players: one light, one dark. The final season reveals that the series' events revolved around two people, one "light" and one "dark", each having a goal that's part of what's essentially a game they invented in their childhood, and they've been at it for two thousand years.
- The first time we see Juliet's face, it's her reflection in a mirror. In season 5 she sacrifices herself to create a Mirror Universe.
- The Wizard Of Waverly Place's episode "Future Harper" is a festival of foreshadowing.
- Buffy The Vampire Slayer is laced with foreshadowing, because of Joss Whedon's long-term planning:
- Friends: Some may be a bit far-fetched in retrospect but:
- Chandler and Monica's relationship (which began on the 4th season finale): Several previous episodes hint at the possibility, and often near the end of a season (i.e. when Ben's born, when Mon laughs at the hypothetical scenario).
- Ross and Rachel: From the very first episode, although that's pretty obvious as the show (especially during its beginning) is basically about them.
- In a 2nd season episode, Ross mentions he likes that name. Two years later, he meets an English girl called Emily, who then becomes his second wife.
- Rachel's baby's father: It's a bit suspicious that there's no major interaction between Ross and Rachel during the 7th season's last episodes (i.e. after they slept together and when she realizes she's pregnant) and the 8th season's premiere. Then, on the 8th season's second episode, she mentions the best sex she ever had with him. Guess what's revealed at the end of that same episode?
- Dawsons Creek, especially in the third season and regarding the Pacey/Joey/Dawson love triangle. It's mainly foreshadowed in dialogue between Pacey and Jen, with lines such as "the sidekick never gets the girl" or "what does (Joey) have that all men seek her?" (or something to that effect).
- Beverly Hills 902010, third season as well: Dylan seems oddly concerned about Kelly dating a guy he thinks is not good enough for her. Then, when Brenda leaves to Paris, Dylan is seen walking with Kelly. Then guess what happens...
- Extensively used in Babylon 5, noted for having a pre-planned five-year arc. For example, characters often say "Watch your back" to security chief Michael Garibaldi during the first season (said character is then shot in the back in the first season finale). Almost every company mentioned in the series becomes somehow important in the storyline, even if they are used in throwaway lines in the beginning (Interplanetary Expeditions, ISN, Edgars Industries, etc.)
- Virtually all of Arrested Development's major plot twists are repeatedly hinted at long before they take place.
- Rewatch all the Tony elements of NCIS's fourth season in light of the context of the season five premiere. Then kick yourself for not spotting the gradual setup for The Reveal that his relationship with Jeanne Benoit is actually an undercover operation to get at her father, La Grenouille. In particular, the scene early in the season when Tony asks Director Shepard for relationship advice takes on an entirely different and kind of creepy subtext that is not evident the first time around.
- Also, Gibbs' furious reaction at the end of the second season premiere takes on a whole new meaning given the third season finale.
- Blake's 7, right at the start, involved a couple of villainous minor characters named Tarrant and Dayna. Later, the crew picked up a completely different Tarrant and Dayna.
- Does that really count as foreshadowing, or just a case of accidental recycling?
- Probably the latter since Terry Nation really liked the name Tarrant. (The character of Bev Tarrant in the Big Finish Doctor Who-related audios started out as a gag about this.)
- The Wire has many cases of foreshadowing, but the two best examples are:
- A conversation between three drug dealers in the first season about chess, and how the pawns get "capped quick", while the queen is the best because it's stable and "makes all the moves". By the end of the fourth season, all three of the participants in that conversation had died, because they were, like many of the low-level drug traffickers, simply pawns themselves.
- In the third season, detective Bunk Moreland witnesses a group of children pretending to be stick-up artist Omar Little and his group of robbers, with one small boy constantly asking to play as Omar. Two seasons later, that same child, Kenard, would be the one to shoot Omar dead in a convenience store, the result of a surprise attack that was the calling card of the victim.
- A questionable one occurs in Law And Order. Just before the season finale where Serena Southerlyn is fired and outs herself as a lesbian, there was an episode where McCoy successfully argues to have gay marriages in the state ruled invalid to remove a claim of spousal privilege. Southerlyn's disgusted reaction to homophobic comments in the episode and refusal to even consider helping McCoy could be seen in a new light.
- Supernatural often has episodes which help set up future events in the series. For example, Dean's almost suicidal guilt over not dying in "Faith" happens on a much bigger scale over Season Two where his father dies for him. "Crossroad Blues" also sets up his actions in "All Hell Breaks Loose" where he's so guilty over Sam's death that he sells his soul for him.
- Also, "Nightmare" sets up the end of "No Rest for the Wicked". At the end of "Nightmare", Sam's powers are triggered by seeing Dean die in a vision (he telekinetically moves a dresser out of his way). At the end of No Rest For The Wicked, he watches Dean actually die, and then his power apparently reawakens (Lilith can't kill him).
- The supposed heartwarming moment (which now comes off as half-arsed) in "Nightmare" where Sam says that, all things considered, their Dad wasn't that bad (i.e incredibly abusive like Max's Dad) and Dean repeats the line in a strange tone sets up/is paid off by "Something Wicked"/"Dead Man's Blood" where we find out exactly how crappy John can be.
- Not to mention Dean's seemingly out-of-character behaviour of hating the food and chucking the wrapper in the backseat in "Simon Said" and the love of the Hollywood/Prison food in "Hollywood Babylon" and "Folsom Prison Blues", which gets paid off in "What Is And What Should Never Be" where he's practically orgasming over his Mom's homemade food.
- In the 4th season finale, "Lucifer Rising," when Zachariah reveals to Dean that his role as the angels' Chosen One is not to stop Lilith, but to defeat Lucifer, they are standing in front of a painting of the Archangel Michael with his foot on Lucifer's neck. In the 5th season premiere we learn that Dean is the intended vessel for the Archangel Michael.
- The new Doctor Who series always foreshadows its season finale as early as the second episode of the season. It uses, however, very (very, oh so very) cryptic foreshadows like "Bad Wolf" or "Doctor-Donna". Whenever psychics are in, expect to hear a lot of complete nonsense that will finally be put together in the final episode.
- In the Series 3 episode "Utopia", the whole episode is pretty much foreshadowing of the return of the Master
- Which started a lot sooner than that: when the Face of Boe tells the Doctor You Are Not Alone, many fans thoughts instantly jumped to the Master.
- "Silence in the Library" foreshadows "The Time of Angels" (and presumably a few more) through a throwaway line from River.
- Series Five's "The Vampires of Venice" ends with the villain of the week telling the Doctor to dream of her and her race, a subtle foreshadow of what the next episode is about.
- Day One of Torchwood: "Children of Earth" had an incredibly blatant and yet easy to miss piece of foreshadowing in this bit of banter by Jack and Ianto:
Ianto: You are going to get us all killed.
Jack: No, you get killed, not me. You die like a dog, like an ugly dog.
- Strangely, the much maligned decision to turn an entire season of Dallas into a dream seems to have had plenty of accidental Foreshadowing. The 'Dream Year' has a strange, slightly surreal air completely at odds with the rest of the show as noted in this article.
- House: In Season Three, Wilson's reasoning - he was afraid that House might think he was God and take an even bigger fall later on if he made a mistake - for his ill-advised, badly timed attempt at teaching House humility turns out to be well-founded when House pisses Tritter off in "Fools For Love" and utter disaster ensues.
- In one of the many Season Four examples foreshadowing the finale, when the Hospital Inspector tells House that he's heard his name before, House replies that most people have because his name is also a noun. In the finale, the mystery woman's (who is really Amber) amber necklace helps House solve the mystery of who's dying.
- Each season finale foreshadowed the Season 5 finale, with increasing obviousness.
- Firefly has several foreshadowing moments. It is possible that some of them never were fulfilled, because of the cancellation.
- In the pilot there are two. 1) Jayne tells Mal that Dobson tried to bribe him, but didn't accept because "the pay wasn't good enough". In Ariel, it was. 2) Kaylee asks for a new compression coil for the engine, warning that they'll be adrift in space if it breaks. That happens in Out of Gas.
- River sometimes repeats "two by two, hands of blue". The two agents who hunt River have blue gloves.
- And in Ariel, though it looks like River's attack on Jayne is just regular River craziness, he IS wearing a Blue Sun t-shirt at the time...
- When Simon mentions Early knocking out Book, Early says "that ain't no Shepherd" in Objects in Space. Book also seems to be come kind of Alliance VIP, as shown by their willingness to give him medical aid.
- In the first episode "Serenity", when the ship is about to be boarded by by Reavers, the camera cuts to a scene of Inara taking out a syringe of some description. Later in "Out of Gas", Inara utters the line "I never want to die at all". Both foreshadowed the fact that Inara had a terminal illness, and was aboard Serenity as a means to see more of the world before her demise. The payoff was never revealed though, due to premature cancellation. Confirmed by Word of God.
- In the Freaks And Geeks pilot, Nick declares, "Disco sucks! I hate disco!" The show's final episode sees him wholeheartedly embracing disco culture.
- The Heroes Season One episode "Five Years Gone" foreshadows much of Volume Four, "Fugitives".
- Law And Order Criminal Intent. In "The Healer", a voodoo priestess warns Det. Logan: "You think before was bad, Detective? Just you wait." In Logan's next episode, "To the Bone", Logan shoots an undercover cop, which leads to Captain Deakins being accused of recommending a promotion for a cop in exchange for backing Logan's account of the incident. (In fact, Deakins was set up by Frank Adair, a former friend & ex-cop, whom Goren and Eames arrested for murder in "My Good Name".) As a result, Deakins resigns.
- Smallville has this almost as often as spoken dialogue. The Smallville wiki has a list of how many times they do this. Right here.
- Numb3rs. In the episode "Dark Matter", Colby gave out an detailed explanation about technology used in school ID tags to track students. Everyone else stared at him and he explained that he read it in a magazine. At the end of the season, it's revealed that's he's a Double agent for China. So, someone like him would know a great deal about tracking technology.
Manga & Anime
- The opening narration to Suzumiya Haruhi foreshadows a lot of the upcoming plot, and one fact that is so spoilery that it can't even be mentioned on this page.
- Additionally, both Yuki and Mikuru give Kyon cryptic warnings that, after the fact, seem incredibly obvious.
- Another thing for something that has happened in the anime as of the second season episode one: Haruhi asking Kyon "Have I met you before?" — She has. Two words about that meeting: Loli Haruhi. Loli Haruhi! (she's kinda cute)
- Yuki is reading Hyperion when Kyon first walks in. A major plot point of the first two books in that series is a computer intelligence that has started creating Artificial Humans one of which is murderously violent and another that is very helpful and honest and in the second half of the Hyperion Cantos God (okay, Jesus) turns out to be a Genki Girl that drags a helpless boy along on her adventures that potentially threaten the entire world.
- In Melancholy, Ryoko tries to kill Kyon with a knife. Having sealed off the whole area with data manipulation. Now, for the spoiler. In the 10th novel, Ryoko arrives to fight Kuyoh in a Big Damn Heroes moment. With her military knife. And again, she manipulates the surroundings to close off all exits.
- In the fourth episode of Neon Genesis Evangelion, Shinji watches a B Movie about some sort of Freak Lab Accident, with the characters lamenting how bad science has gone. And, well...
- Let's not forget Ritsuko's lamenting on the Hedgehogs Dilemna. Some fans connect this with Shinji's choice regarding Instrumentality.
- In the opening sequence, we see many images of characters and plot important words. After showing a picture of Kaworu and Rei, the word 'Angels' appears.
- A bit of musical foreshadowing occurs during fight scenes. Note one of the Angel themes is titled "The Beast"; compare with whenever EVA-01 goes berserk, the theme is titled "The Beast II", referencing how Evangelions are living beings.
- Although only noticeable in the english translation the Mechas are all called EVA which can be read as Eve who is infamous among the Abrahamic Religions. This hints to the fact that they're all actually the Pilot's Mother in Giant Robot Form.
- Misuzu's fate in AIR gets foreshadowed a lot by Yukito's remarks. The viewer then gets fed false hope when things seem to be alright after the "last dream", but it all ends pretty much as predicted.
- Madame Christmas of Fullmetal Alchemist seems like a strange name when you remember that Christmas or Christianity are not in the manga version of FMA. Of course it makes perfect sense when it's just a nickname based off her real name of Chris Mustang, who is Roy's foster mother. That explains how he became such an amazing flirt.
- Fullmetal Alchemist does this quite often, usually with things said in passing by the homonculi. "Human Sacrifices" indeed...
- In episode 11 of Brotherhood, a wanted poster with Greed on it appears near the end. Guess who appears two episodes later.
- There's a particularly chilling example in the most recent arc. In Chapter 94, Hawkeye gets a minor scratch on her neck during a fight with Envy. Then in Chapter 100 she is mortally injured in the same place.
- Remember Lust's curse to Mustang as he killed her? I long for the day your eyes are twisted in agony. Well... Mustang ends up blinded.
- In his fight with Lan Fan, Ed uses a decoy to defeat her and references getting the idea from animals who are trapped sacrificing a limb. Later on, Lan Fan is hunted by Wrath and forced to chop off her arm.
- Ling and Greed are the only two characters to go around without shirts. Minor foreshadowing? Maybe.
- When Ling sees Ed perform alchemy without a circle, it looks to him as though Ed is praying to God. Later, we find out that Amestrian alchemy is powered by a god-like Homunculus who actually absorbs God.
- Some people, really, such audacious thoughts... Guess what Father is planning to do.
- Princess Mononoke: After San is temporarily incapacitated during a fight, Lady Eboshi warns her men that she's still dangerous with the words, "If you cut off a wolf's head, it can still bite." Now try to guess what rips Eboshi's arm clean off late in the movie.
- Also, while fighting Ashitaka, Eboshi declares, "Why don't I just cut the damn thing off?" in regards to his cursed arm.
- You'd surely never see it coming: at the beginning of Read Or Die the OAV, Yomiko wakes up and hums Beethoven's "Ode to Joy"; later on, it's revealed that the true threat is Clone Beethoven and his Suicide Symphony.
- In One Piece, Luffy states that even though it is shortening his lifespan, he wants to use 2nd Gear to protect 'what is in front of him now'. It's a noble sentiment, but it wound up foreshadowing the Wham Episode when he uses it, but still fails to protect his nakama from getting poofed by Kuma.
- Usopp's lies often turn out to be foreshadowing as well.
- During the Alabasta arc, Sanji makes frequent references to and jokes about 'okama' (Japanese equivalent of 'queer'). Later, he ends up on an island of gay men. Who all really, really like him.
- The Amazon Lily arc seems to be a payoff to earlier foreshadowing. Between them, Boa Sandersonia and Boa Marigold use via Ambition (or Haki, if you prefer) abilities remarkably similar to Skypeia's Mantra, CP9's Life Return, Garp's ability to physically harm Luffy despite his rubber body, suggesting all of these are forms of Ambition which the previously seen users may or may not have known about.
- In the Jaya arc, Buggy the Clown's crew contemplate taking an ideal chance to kill Portgas D. Ace when he falls asleep on their ship. Buggy warns them against it because the one thing Ace's captain Whitebeard will not tolerate is the death of his crew. The Impel Down and Marineford arcs center on the Marines preparing to publicly execute Ace, even though it will certainly mean war with Whitebeard.
- In 2006, there was an anime special, where the Straw Hats were mythical animals. Luffy was a dragon. Guess who turned out to be his father? Monkey D. Dragon, the world's most wanted man.
- Related to that revelation, way, way back in Chapter 5, Zoro asks Luffy if he's the offspring of the devil. Four hundred and twenty-seven(!) chapters later, we find out that Luffy is the son of Dragon, who the World Government considers to be the "The Worst Criminal in the World."
- When Nami first joined the crew in the Buggy Arc, she said that she'd only join for the time being, and that she would eventually leave the crew. I doubt anyone remembered this when she actually did leave the crew at the end of the Baratie Arc.
- That ocean was "Paradise◊...
- Gundam SEED does this with incredible subtlety. It's pretty much seen in the first ending sequence, which is essentially a wide shot of all the important characters, namely the crew of the Archangel, the 4 ZAFT pilots, and Lacus Clyne. However, there is ONE important character missing. Mwu La Flaga. Lt. Raimus happens to be staring at a soldier's helmet and a dog tag on a cross. The kicker? The ruins of the Strike Gundam in the background. And that's THE FIRST ENDING! This was planned quite well.
- Rau Le Creuset is missing too.
- Five Centimeters Per Second : You know the tune of the background music in the scene where Takaki and Akari part ways when they're 13 after meeting for the first time in years? Sure is pretty, ain't it? It's actually taken from a pop song, which supposedly pretty much everyone in Japan has heard about. It's about a man who persistently longs for his doomed love. If you know what the song is about beforehand, then you probably had a pretty good idea of where the plot of the movie was going.
- There's quite a few moments of foreshadowing in the original Chrono Crusade manga that made it into the anime, only to never have the payoff work out thanks to the Gecko Ending. This includes Chrono's Unstoppable Rage tendencies becoming a major plot point, to Rosette's watch causing her to appear as a ghost to people in the Order later being a key to raising her from the dead.
- Princess Tutu has foreshadowing all over the series, to the point where it'd be pointless to list them all here. They include background characters becoming important later, several details about the fictional fairytale The Prince and the Raven and Fakir's fear of crows/death.
- Dragonball Z pretty much foreshadows Goku's first transformation to Super Saiyan all throughout Namek.
- There are many, many examples in Dragon Ball. Including:
- From Goku's first transformation into an Oozaru and him turning to normal after his tail is removed, Oolong asks if "he's some kind of space alien". Turns out he's a member of the Saiyan race.
- In the beginning of Z, Raditz when he arrives on Earth makes reference to the Galactic Market which he's a mercenary for. The good guys then have to face off against their the head of the organization, Freeza.
- Piccolo becoming less evil, and allowing them to pass on. While it shows he is changing into a Noble Demon, it also ominously notes that his life may end soon.
- Lord Kaio noting that if Vegeta was at Kuririn's mercy and was killed, it wouldn't "[destroy] the roots [of evil]". He was likely referring to Freeza.
- Nail noting Piccolo as a one of two beings (Kami), and remarked if they united again, he'd be more powerful than Freeza. He did this later and was strong enough to go toe-to-toe with Imperfect Cell.
- Ignoring Future Trunks' message, looking back on it, it can even be implied that Bulma and Vegeta may get together, when she offered him a place to stay alongside the Nameks in her home, although at first sight it would be simply her being a decent person as an Earthling would be. She even described a dream she to her then-boyfriend Yamcha about Vegeta being a decent guy to her. Of course this is just a few episodes just before Trunks appears.
- Kami being reluctant to fuse with Piccolo to observe if the Artificial Humans are really as evil as Trunks claimed they were, and observing a new evil developing (Cell). Turns out with the former he was correct.
- Goku noting that Majin Buu is more of an naughty Adult Child than a evil monster, after their fight. He is redeemed after the Enemy Without was destroyed by Goku, and decides to spare his life.
- Rah Xephon owing to it's Jig Saw Puzzle Plot has tons of moments like this, Megumi casually mentioning Haruka's old boyfriend is one.
- In the Sailor Moon manga, Chibi-Usa creates a clay replica of the Holy Grail two chapters before the real thing is introduced. The clay Grail subplot also exists in the anime, but the search for the Holy Grail is made the entire focal plot point of that arc in the anime, so it loses some of its forshadowing properties. Ironically, Chibi-Usa's decision to give her clay Grail to Hotaru in the manga foreshadows Sailor Moon's descision to give the real grail to Hotaru in the anime.
- Say, remember how in the early chapters of Mahou Sensei Negima, there was that Negi is a prince rumour that spread in Negi's class? Guess what's been revealed more than two hundred chapters later?
- Not to mention this statue, which also appears in that chapter, is quite closely related to Negi's royal lineage. The mage just so happens to be Negi's direct ancestor, and the first Queen of Ostia.
- There's more. When Asakura first witnesses Negi's magic, she briefly wonders if he might be on a (genderflipped) version of a Magical Girl Queenliness Test, or that he may be a hero of justice or an alien. Negi was actually sent to Mahora as some sort of test, and as the above spoiler shows, he's technically a royalty, so the Magical Girl Queenliness Test thing was partially correct. And then there's Negi's quest to become a hero like his father, fitting the hero of justice one. Lastly, his mother was born on Mars, so he's also technically an alien.
- Even earlier, there was this, which is the first time Negi's father is shown. The foreshadowing part is what appears to be the shadow on the right side of his face, which shows up again here, and eventually revealed to be blood (spoilers). It's subtle, but that hint of blood is the earliest hint of the Genre Shift that the series would eventually undergo.
- When Yue and Nodoka ask Negi if they could become mages, there's an imagine spot showing what they think it will look like. Some 140 chapters later, it turns out that their imaginations were spot on.
- And that image spot continues to foreshadow "more than two hundred chapters later" (seems to be a theme for Negima) as it may look a bit different, but we finally get to see Nodoka confident and wielding a magical staff.
- From the cover of Volume 3◊, look at the logo on Negi's shirt. It's the Ala Alba symbol.
- In Martian Successor Nadesico, half of the major plot points for the show are foreshadowed by the Show Within A Show Gekiganger 3, such as Gai Daigoji's death and even predicting the end episode being pretty lackluster.
- Kannazuki No Miko has lots of foreshadowing, such as quick, very short flash-backs of the priestess ritual seen a few times. The whole first part of Episode 8 heavily hints that Chikane's ''up to something'', and watching the show several times will induce cringing during some seemingly perfectly innocent moments, such as Chikane commenting that she likes the color of Himeko's robes better than her own or even just Nekoko saying she doesn't like to get injections... There's also the fact that on the painting-thing of the Orochi, seen in the very first episode, the eighth head is quite obviously separated from the others and won't be seen at first glance.
- At one point in the Spiral manga, Hiyono starts spouting out Kanone's "data" ; he stops her when she's about to say his father's name. Said name is revealed about three books later, said father is central to the plot. ... And the reason Hiyono knows that name is more than the fact she's got insane info-collecting skills. As all Hiyono manages to say is "Ya" before Kanone angrily interrupts her, though, it seems like some random pained cry the first time you read it. (And that's how it got "translated" in the English publication.)
- Oburi is hit by a basketball thrown by a little girl near the beginning of Kite, in the process splashing water on the back of his coat. At the end of the series, he walks past the same little girl as she innocently bounces a basketball off of the wall... right before she non-chalantly pulls out a gun and shoots him in almost exactly the same spot.
- A minor one in Naruto. In chapter 91, Gaara casually mentions Shukaku is more blood thristy during the full moon. Over 350 chapters later, it is revealed the body of the creature the Shukaku was born from is sealed in the moon.
- On the title page of chapter 24, Sasuke is standing in a badass pose with snakes sorounding him. Guess who he ends up working for later on?
- [1] I Take Your Snakes And Raise You A Bird.
Music
- In Journey's Don't Stop Believing, the guitar solo plays the same tune as the chorus before the chorus comes in.
Newspaper Comics
- A darkly funny one in Gary Larson's The Far Side: Some Natives are bidding farewell to a group of European explorers, when one of them turns to the man just to his right and asks: "Did you detect something ominous in the way they said 'See you later'?"
Video Games
- Banpresto must be the king of this with its Super Robot Wars multiverse, where things will be foreshadowed that usually don't even happen in the same universe. The big one of which is the Axel Almer and Kyosuke Nanbu rivalry, which was foreshadowed before either of them even appeared. "Throwaway" lines across three games where neither actually met each other (or, in one case, showed up at all) ended up being a game-long theme of Original Generation 2.
- Another version happens in Original Generation 2. Ryusei mentions substitute names for his Humongous Mecha, and comes up with DaiRaiOh, partially naming it after one of his teammates. Another character mentions that the name may already be taken. Sure enough, in Alpha 3(an Alternate Universe), a Super Robot named RaiOh is introduced, and later gets rebuilt/upgraded to DaiRaiOh.
- Which then comes back in Original Generation Gaiden, when the guy who ends up piloting DaiRaiOh makes an Early Bird Cameo.
- Axel takes this even further in Original Generation Gaiden. He mentions a predecessor of Lamia, W-07, which is said to have some exclusive devices installed in only Lamia and W-07. Surely enough, later on, Banpresto worked on a spin-off game and introduced Aschen Brodel, a somewhat regular Lamia Expy... only to later (recently) reveal that she is W-07.
- Another far more direct version in the same game, which featured missions that made up the prologue of Super Robot Wars MX. A more humorous version when MX's female protagonist makes a cameo of her own, and remarks that she would never wear an outfit as Stripperiffic as Lamia's... of course, the outfit she wears in MX is even more so.
- The Shadow Moses Island stage in Super Smash Bros Brawl seems to be the usual collection of Shout Outs that the other stages in the game are, until you reach the fourth chapter of Metal Gear Solid 4, and realize that Hideo Kojima, who designed the stage himself, was dropping a big hint.
- In the Metal Gear series itself:
- EVA's refusal to answer Snake's "Who are The Patriots?" codephrase in MGS3. Also the fact that Eva's gun and shooting style are Chinese.
- Naked Snake asks the Boss why she defected. Her response? "I didn't."
- A conversation Snake has with Mei Ling after "killing" Liquid Snake in MGS1 about the inability to store the human personality digitally.
- "I see age hasn't slowed you down one bit."
- Naomi Hunter's surname is a huge clue to her relationship with a certain Frank Jaeger: "Jaeger" is German for Hunter and Naomi is Frank's adoptive sister.
- This plot twist is also used in Metal Gear 2 when
Natasha Marcova Gustava Heffner talks about her old lover "Frank Hunter". However, the manual spoils this twist by mentioning that her lover's name is "Frank Jaeger".
- The Ace Attorney games have a lot of this, particularly Trials and Tribulations and the bonus case 'Rise from the Ashes' in the first game, which was created as part of an Updated Rerelease with the writers knowing what was going to happen in later games, leading to lines foreshadowing Trials and Tribulations ("We certainly can't get a dead person to testify")and Apollo Justice (when Phoenix shows Lana his attorney's badge, her response is something along the lines of "The paint's flaking off. Give it three more years, then we'll see the real you." Three years later, between Trials and Tribulations and Apollo Justice, Phoenix is disbarred. The last one is subtle because many characters make comments on the badge aging.
- Also in the second case of Trials and Tribulations, when talking about Mask DeMasque Phoenix says that when you're famous there are always imitators. Pearl then says that if Phoenix works hard, someday he'll have his own imitators. The next case revolves around Furio Tigre impersonating Phoenix to cover a crime.
- Lana's line is quite subtle, as the paint on his badge is something a quite a few NPCs mention; the time it will finish is not.
- In Phantom Brave, Marona fantasizes Scarlet the Brave as a strong, masculine hero. Ash dismisses it with "Scarlet is a girl's name," and imagines him as effeminate. Scarlet turns out to actually be female.
- One of the unlockables in Mega Man ZX Advent is a 1-level NES-style remake of the game. Shortly thereafter, Mega Man 9 came out.
- In the ending of Mega Man X 4, the title character is asking Zero that if he (X) goes Maverick, then Zero must "take care of him". This actually foreshadows two events, although the circumstances have been twisted by the time they occured:
- 1) In X5, wherein their destined battle finally happens, although here it was X who thinks Zero has gone Maverick (or, in the non-canon path, Zero actually is).
- 2) And in the first Mega Man Zero game, it wasn't the real X that was a Maverick and who Zero must destroy, but actually a clone.
- Another way to look at X's situation in X4 would be The reason why Copy X was created. X used his body to seal the Dark Elf following the Elf Wars. The first game hints at a nervous breakdown from the trauma of the fighting. Though never confirmed, it does explain why X never inhabited a new body since the Zero series confirms that his or Zero's body can be perfectly copied. Whatever the reason, since X abandoned his post without preparing someone to take over, humanity scrambled for a leader and put the unstable Copy X in charge. All the death and destruction that followed is partly X's fault, so he did become a Maverick.
- Mega Man Zero 4 begins with a visit to an ancient Colony Drop impact site. And ends with the protagonist sacrificing himself to prevent another Colony Drop.
- After you get the star force in Mega Man Star Force 1, there are two separate events that foreshadow the event of Luna Platz finding out that Geo Stelar and Mega Man Geo-Omega are the same person:
- First when the kids do the class play that Luna came up with, Pat Sprigs Gemini Spark is absent, so she asks Geo to fill in and when he puts on the suit she imagines that she is seeing him in wave form.
- Later when they get attacked by a jammer, he puts her in a classroom and orders her to stay there, and as he is leaving to take care of it she thinks that he is talking in Mega Man's voice, and of course he is as they are the same person.
- Also acts as an Early Bird Cameo: an ending in the Mega Man arcade game shows off the blueprints (actually a silhouette, making it a literal Foreshadowing) of Dr. Wily's greatest masterpiece, Zero.
- Chop Chop's cryptic lyrics in the first song on Um Jammer Lammy ("Pick burnin' cry fly, chop choke!") actually foretell events that will happen in later stages.
- Final Fantasy X has a shot of the penultimate boss, and the stage in which you fight him, within the first twenty minutes of the game.
- Grim Fandango loves this. A lot of the dialogue, most of it optional, hints at what's going to happen as the game progresses, and the solutions to certain puzzles are foreshadowed early on.
Manny: I wonder if I'd be happier working on a ship. Then again, I'm so competitive, I wouldn't be able to relax until I was captain.
- In Disgaea, when Flonne is introduced, she mentions she wants to be like a flower. At the end she's turned into a flower, although she gets better in the good and not-quite-so-bad endings.
- In Disgaea2, a mid-game encounter with some Power Ranger Captain Ersatzs has them identifying Adell as a demon, which is written off as a scouter malfunction. Given it's inclusion on this page, you might come to an alternate conclusion.
- In Freddy Pharkas, Frontier Pharmacist, an event is foreshadowed and the narrator hangs a lampshade on it by saying "Foreshadowing alert! Foreshadowing alert!"
- Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People has lots of foreshadowing. For one, there's a Trogdor arcade cabinet sitting in Strong Bad's basement, but it doesn't work. The final episode has the machine being fixed as the first part of the plot. Also, the Videlectrix games in the first four episodes foreshadow the appearance of the characters from those games in the final episode.
- The much-maligned plot twists of Final Fantasy VIII do get some foreshadowing during the game, although for the most part it's too sparse and hidden too well to be very effective. Most notably, Ultimecia's existence is heavily foreshadowed by the New Era Speech Edea makes when she takes control of Galbadia, but neither the player nor any of the characters have any way of understanding it since she's talking about events which will take place in the future. The orphanage reveal is likewise foreshadowed, albeit not very clearly, by both Cid and Irvine.
- Psychonauts has two of these in the first level of the game, the mind of Coach Oleander. When you reach the white corridor at the end of his mind, the easiest to notice is the curtain, that hides the blueprint of the psychic tank Oleander wants to use to conquer the world, but there is another: if you look very closely, you'll find that the wall has a rabbit pattern. Oleander's Start of Darkness was the slaughter of his rabbits by his father, a butcher.
- Silent Hill 2 with some unsettling messages in the beginning parts of the game. "There was HOLE here, It's gone now." and "The door that wakes in darkness, opening into nightmares." The messages point to psychological plot events later in the game.
- Super Metroid foreshadows the final battle very subtly. Part of the world is the ruined Tourian from the first Metroid game, complete with Mother Brain's broken glass case. There is a secret room just beneath it with a few power ups to collect. Since there are hundreds of secret rooms in the game, the usual player won't give it a second thought, but after seeing Mother Brain's full body at the end of the game, it becomes clear that the room was there to house her huge body.
- Metroid Prime does this much more directly with Meta Ridley's fight, not him appearing altogether - many of the scans describe what happened to Ridley, and of course, you SEE HIM right at the beginning of the game, then later on in Phendrana Drifts. Maybe it's obvious, but it worked very well as you knew eventually you would have to face off with him. Very well done indeed.
- Halfway through Final Fantasy IX, when the heroes meet the villain Kuja for the second time, he responds to Zidane's inquiries about his plots with the line "Oh, brother... But you're not ready yet!" On the first playthrough this just seems like uncharacterically crude choice of words from him (he speaks like he's in a Shakespearean play most of the time). After you play the game again, knowing that he and Zidane are brothers, the line seems like such an obvious hint.
- Sort of odd the first time around, but very blatant on your second time through, in Raidou Kuzunoha Vs The Soulless Army, once you get the translation you need in Episode 11, all the NP Cs start talking about...cats. Huh... (For best results, talk to the servant on the landing at the Daidouji Residence.)
- Bio Shock starts with the main character looking at a picture of his family, and he keeps seeing shots of his family in flashbacks throughout the game. It later turns out that his family aren't real.
- In Fallout 3, you meet a Megaton citizen who is obsessed with the Enclave, believing that the American government will come and clean up the wasteland and restore it to it's former glory. Guess which government is corrupt and evil, and guess which citizen gets captured by them.
- Your dad also says "Now I know you don't like it when daddy leaves you alone" to your Toddler self. The forshadowing doesn't last very long, but it still fits the trope.
- Leo Stahl has an addiction which he tries to keep secret. If you ask him what he does to entertain himself, he gets very awkward.
- Galaxy News Radio often has news stories about sidequests that you can get. It's forshadowing until you realize that he is talking about sidequests. He also makes references to meeting the player's Dad during the quest where you meet Three-Dog for the first time.
- In the Point Lookout expansion, the tribal religion involves getting sprayed by hallucinatory spores from a plant and having a vision quest. While they're out, someone cuts open their heads and removes a chunk of brain. When the player does this, a chunk of his brain is removed as well. Later, someone else finds out that it wasn't a part of the religious ritual, it was just a madman taking advantage of their drugged state to have some fun. It was Tobar, the ferryman who brought you to Point Lookout. When you enter his shop menu to buy a ferry ticket, you may or may not notice that there's a scalpel, surgical tubing, a bonesaw, and tweezers in there for seemingly no reason.
- Also, the vision quest itself involves a hallucination where a bonesaw cuts a rift in the ground in front of you, and then a needle and thread comes by to sew the ground back together again.
- Knights Of The Old Republic was very subtle. The Jedi masters say that normally they would not train anyone past a certain age, but you are a special case.
- And that's only one instance. There are actually quite a few spoken lines that in retrospect aren't just coincidental foreshadowing, but in some cases actually talking about the event itself without actually spelling it out. When The Reveal is made, the cutscene flashes back to each character as they spoke these lines.
- This is actually one of the brilliant things about Knights Of The Old Republic which few people notice. The Jedi do not train past a certain age, but anyone playing this game will know about Luke Skywalker, trained when he was already a young man. The game plays on the players own expectations to make this moment less significant than it should be, meaning they don't have to try and hide the foreshadowing because the player has already hidden it themselves. They do say that they make very rare exceptions for adult recruits, but even then, the player is liable to assume this has more to do with the war thinning their numbers, the same way there would've been no more Jedi if Luke hadn't been trained.
- Knights of the Old Republic 2 tried it but messed up, making the reveal incredibly obvious.
- In Ever17 it hardly seems worth pointing out the foreshadowing. If you play it, you'll look back from the final route and go OH! That's what that meant! Then if you play a second time, it's even more so because the entire story up to that route is foreshadowing. The lemur costume, the password, Tsugumi's jerkass status being inconsistent, the door she stopped Takeshi from touching, the pendant and even stuff like arguments over how many hot dogs there were. Everything. It's almost some type of one of the different aneurysm moment tropes except it's often minor and subtle.
- Mass Effect Did an excellent job with Foreshadowing at the very first mission when you talk to the mad scientist Manuel it is very easy to dismiss what he's saying as the rant of a raving lunatic, later on it becomes very obvious that the things he says are in fact visions of the reapers much like your own beacon-induced ones.
- In Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, there is a secret room where the Baby Mario Bros. can visit Fawful, and listen to one of his long, maniacal rants. However, this could possibly be a foreshadowing of his role in Bowser's Inside Story.
- Postal 2: Apocalypse Weekend. On Saturday, Postal Dude gets caught in the middle of a minor zombie invasion, which he jokingly suggests was caused by an outbreak of mad cow disease. Later, on Sunday, he gets a call from Running With Scissors head Vince Desi, saying that marketer Mike J has caught mad cow disease, and Dude has to take over marketing duties. At the end of Sunday, Dude faces the expansion's final boss: a giant zombie-cow-demon Mike J, or in his own words, "Kosher Mad Cow Zombie God of Hellfire!"
- Tales Of Symphonia uses this a lot.
- For fun times, take a drink whenever anyone says, "It's nothing." It's never nothing, it's something that if revealed would solve a lot of problems and make your life a lot easier. (Raine is so bad at this that her habit carries through to the sequel.)
- Fate Stay Night has this across routes. In one bad ending in the Fate route, for instance, Shirou is thrown out a third floor window and lands hard, only to then discover he is mortally wounded; not because of falling three stories, but because swords have erupted from inside his body. (Rather confused, he then dies.) The actual explanation for this really odd event isn't given until the final route, when it is revealed that Shirou instinctively projects when his body is badly damaged in an attempt to reinforce it; unfortunately, this instinctive projection sometimes results in swords being forged inside his body.
- Yume Nikki has a very specific bloodstain on the floor at various points of the game. In the ending, the protagonist commits suicide by jumping off her balcony. We then see that bloodstain again, now knowing its cause.
- In one Vanguard arc in City Of Heroes, after Vanguard rogues have attacked your Rikti allies, you tell them that they were Nemesis automatons. Then in the next arc, you discover that the Earth heroes who originally attacked the Rikti homeworld, causing the Rikti war in the first place, were, in fact, Nemesis automatons.
- Baldurs Gate I manages to do this with a total lack of subtlety by having a "Lord Foreshadowing" show up and mention the fake identity the Big Bad is using in passing.
- Many people cite the spaceship and aliens plot twists in Okami as "Unexpected" and "Came out of fucking nowhere"... Forgetting that earlier, Kaguya leaves on a Bamboo shaped spaceship, doesn't sound like much, but this foreshadows a few things about the game you don't realize untill the next playthrough.
- For all the complaining about how General Shepherd's Face Heel Turn in Modern Warfare 2 "comes out of nowhere," the article's entry on Foreshadowing consists of six bullet-points about things that hint about it earlier in the game.
- In Morrowind, the first thing you hear, even before the main menu appears, is the deep rumble of a beating heart. The rhythm continues throughout the whole piece, and, as the music plays during regular gameplay, permeates the entire island of Vvardenfell.
- In Mother 3, on Tanetane Island, the entire party hallucinates after eating mushrooms. They meet several people who spout weird and often disturbing things, but one line made this troper blink:
Hallucination! Claus: Yes! Okay, then I'll be at the very end!
- Also, at in Chapter 1 after Hinawa dies and Flint goes berserk and has to be put in jail, Claus has this to say:
Claus: I'm going to get so strong even Dragos won't stand a chance against me!
- In Dragon Age: Origins, the Human Noble origin has your brother Fergus say some very innocent-sounding words to your nephew which have a chilling, portentous double meaning in retrospect.
Fergus: Don't worry, son. You'll get to see a sword up close real soon, I promise you. Could also qualify as Black Comedy or a Funny Aneurysm Moment depending on your sensibilities.
- In BlazBlue, Hakumen's Shipuu (Squall) Distortion Drive is a slower, stronger version of Jin's Touga Hyojin (Arctic Dagger) Distortion Drive.
- Deadly Premonition is crammed full of foreshadowing, much of which is easy to miss the first time through. Playing the game a second time, it is astonishing how many seemingly innocuous details are actually foreshadowing: The doll of a fat man in the White Room. FK in the coffee. All the comments about York's scar. The red tree growing in George's backyard. George is a passionate man. The "Love G" tattoo. The potted plant Kaysen carries around. The picture in Harry's mansion of Emily with the goddesses. The fat man among the military members in Harry's story. Leads to a ton of Fridge Brilliance when you complete the game.
- Singularity is extremly upfront about its foreshadowing, with the player finding messages scrawled on the walls everywhere that say things like "It's still not fixed" and "we've already tried" and even "What if this is supposed to happen?" That this is a time-travel story gives these messages an almost-obvious status as markers of a Stable Time Loop or Groundhog Day Loop, and to make it even more obvious, the messages are so old they've faded away...but they're scrawled in the game's Unobtanium, which means they must be meant for the player, because only the player's time-manipulation device can revert the ink back to its pristine state. It turns out the messages are actually as true as you initially assume, but this lulls you into a false sense of security, because the Stable Time Loop isn't what you think it is.
- In Episode 304 the Telltale Sam And Max games, Girl Stinky is making out with her secret lover Sal, a six foot tall cockroach, and the titular heroes witness this. When the lovers notice them, Girl Stinky calls Sam and Max Droopy and Stitch respectively. At the end of the episode, guess the resemblance Max has to after his transformation and Sam's resulting reaction...
- Maximillian Roivas learns some real disturbing things about his mansion at some point in his life - like, for instance, that it's built on top of a city predating humanity. Eventually, he descends into the depths of his mansion, and he gets a glimpse of a prison cell from the inside before he gets too far. After killing one of the abominations in his expedition, he goes right back to the surface to garner military aid in its further exploration. No points for guessing what happens to the poor guy.
- There is an Easter Egg in Red Faction: Guerrilla in which you can meet and talk to Parker, the protagonist from the first game, who is now an old miner. One of the things he says is "But you don't see monsters around these parts no more... Unless you look real hard." In the upcoming sequel, Armageddon'', a group of explorers end up doing exactly this, uncovering an old Marauder base, and releasing a horde of monsters into the underground.
- The opening cinematic of Starcraft 2 makes it clear that Tychus Findley is a double agent working for Mengsk. What isn't so clear is the specific task Mengsk gave to Tychus. However, everything Tychus says and does throughout the campaign foreshadows his true objective: kill Kerrigan.
Theatre
- In Street Scene, the Gossipy Hens' talk about Mrs. Maurrant's Cheating With The Milkman includes this ominous prediction:
Olsen: Some day, her hoosban' is killing him.
Mrs. Fiorentino: Dot would be terrible!
Jones: He's li'ble to, at that. You know, he's got a wicked look in his eye, dat baby has.
Mrs. Jones: Well, it's no more than he deserves, the little rabbit—goin' around and breakin' up people's homes.
- The song "The Wizard and I" from the musical Wicked has several examples of foreshadowing. In this song we see starry-eyed teenage Elphaba, who we already know is going to become the infamous Wicked Witch of the West, fantasizing about being the Wizard's right-hand girl one day. She dreams about "a celebration throughout Oz that's all to do with me" after we've just seen the townspeople rejoice at her presumed death. She also says "I'd be so happy I could melt" and "when people see me they will scream." This could also be considered an interesting example of a Funny Aneurysm Moment.
- There's a nice one in the musical version of The Secret Garden where Martha sings to Mary about what she can do now that she lives out in the middle of nowhere. She talks about all kinds of fantastical things to explore out there, including pirate caves and fairies. Tucked into all this fantasy, she sings If you chance to see a garden guarded by a tree and meet a bird who speaks to thee... which of course turns out to be real.
Western Animation
Web Comics
Web Original
- In the Youtube video The Devil And Daniel Webster, the main character, Javez, along with 2 others mention 'not selling [Javez's] soul to the devil. After doing so, a character will look puzzled, and whoever said it will reply, "Foreshadowing."
- In this Left 4 Dead custom campaign video, at about 3:40, the person playing as Zoey tells another person, when asked to predict the future, that he will die and everyone else will live. This actually turns out to be true. Lampshaded by a annotation at the end.
- In Dr Horribles Sing Along Blog, all of Bad Horse's communications are sung by a trio of cowboys. Guess what the ring tone sounds like when he calls?
- Commonly in The Slender Man Mythos, whenever someone mentions childhood fears or something along the line of that, expect Slendy to be intersected with those fears at some point. For a more specific variant, see Just Another Fool, in which Josh mentions breaking an arm after some man in a suit refused to get off the road, so he swerved out of the way and fell off his motorbike. It's heavily implied that the next time this happens, it's not just his arm that gets broken.
Real Life
- Stalin said in 1931 "We are 50-100 years behind the advanced world powers. We must cover this gap in ten years, or elase they will crush us" . They made it. Barely.
- When the passage denouncing slavery was removed from the Declaration of Independence, John Adams said that it must be kept in, because if they didn't resolve the slavery issue there would be "trouble a hundred years hence." Well, he was only fifteen years off...
- Ferdinand Foch, French general in World War I said after the Treaty of Versailles (1919): "This is not a peace. It is an armistice for 20 years." And twenty years later...
- Chamillionaire's song "The Evening News" contained the lyrics "The White House is gonna stay white, even though we know that Obama's black." The album came out in September of 2007.
- Bismarck is credited for having predicted: The next great European conflict will be started by "some damned foolish thing in the Balkans". And of course, in 1914...
- Comics National Comics #18 was telling a story about a Nazi attack at Pearl Harbor. One month before it happened.
- Just to be pedantic, but the Nazis didn't attack Pearl Harbor. Is it really foreshadowing if it didn't happen?
- After seeing the devestation of WWI, one British soldier (the name escapes me) said something to the effect of 'Man now has the capacity to utterly annihilate himself'. Fast forward some 20-30 years and mankind would stand on the brink of nuclear war for half a century.
- Sports example: In Super Bowl XXV in January 1991, the Buffalo Bills, trailing 20-19 late in the game, had driven to the New York Giants' 30-yard line to set up what would be a game-winning field goal by Scott Norwood. As he prepared to kick, ABC ran a graphic stating that Norwood was pretty much at the outer limits of his kicking range, and later added that he had never kicked well on a grass field. Sure enough, he missed.
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