History Main / FakeActionPrologue

* The last episode of ''Manga/TentaiSenshiSunred'''s first season features Sunred in his full sentai suit battling the Evil Organization Florsheim who have unleashed hell on Kawasaki city and are genuinely looking to take over the world. Vamp grows to a massive size and Sunred breaks out his Firebird Form to match him, everything looks set for the final clash... And then Vamp wakes up. The remaining episode goes back to the standard GoKartingWithBowser shenanigans.

* ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'': The hand-drawn opening sequence and its BuffySpeak meets TotallyRadical narrative voice over are revealed to be part of a dream Po is having: the rest of the film is 3D animation and more conventionally written.

* The last episode of ''Manga/TenteiSenshiSunred'''s first season features Sunred in his full sentai suit battling the Evil Organization Florsheim who have unleashed hell on Kawasaki city and are genuinely looking to take over the world. Vamp grows to a massive size and Sunred breaks out his Firebird Form to match him, everything looks set for the final clash... And then Vamp wakes up. The remaining episode goes back to the standard GoKartingWithBowser shenanigans.

* ''Anime/CyberpunkEdgerunners'' opens with a heavily armed cyborg blowing a cop's head off, followed by a violent and bloody battle with police and finally [=MaxTac=] troopers before the psycho is put down, only for the killshot to reveal that the entire experience was a braindance (digital memory upload) being relived by a high school adrenaline junkie in his living room. Partially subverted in that the event being depicted ''did'' actually happen, it just happened the night before.

* ''VideoGame/CrisisCore'' opens with a dramatic infiltration sequence into Midgar's Sector 7 via train to stop disguised Wutai insurgents, emulating the opening of the original ''VideoGame/FinalFantasy7''. After Zack Fair slays a Behemoth and has a run-in with Sephiroth, Zack's mentor Angeal intervenes and it's revealed to be a simulation in Shinra's training room.

* ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'' opens with the simulated [[UnwinnableTrainingSimulation Kobayashi Maru test]], which is relevant to the ''Enterprise'''s current mission as a training vessel, and the importance of facing a No-Win Scenario becomes a major plot point later in the story.

* ''[[ComicBook/ModelsIncMarvelComics Models, Inc.]]'': The murder mystery comic starts its first issue with the models confronted by a wolf in the woods, which is then revealed as a perfectly safe photoshoot. The same approach is used to open subsequent issues, with the cast seemingly finding a body or locked up in jail. [[spoiler:The last issue begins with them seemingly trapped in a burning building - which is a BaitAndSwitch of sorts, as this time it ''is'' real]].

* ''Film/XMenTheLastStand''. After two false starts (one a flash back and another to do with [[spoiler: a future X-man named Archangel]]) we finally see the team assembled. [[spoiler:The sentinel's head came of of the smoke]] but it was merely [[spoiler:a danger room simulation]].

* ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'' begins with the "dream" variant [[spoiler: though it's really a vision of the future]].

* The first issue of detective series ''ComicBook/DakotaNorth'' starts with her associate Mad Dog shouting a warning to Dakota, while shooting at a half-seen silhouette. The next page reveals he's training in her basement and has just failed a ShootingGallery test by opening fire on a "bag lady" civilian target.
* A ''[[ComicBook/MickeyMouseComicUniverse Mickey Mouse]]'' comic that has Mickey as a professional detective solving a mystery in the superhero comics industry starts with two pages of a reptilian SuperHero fighting a MadScientist and his MechaMooks. Since it was already said the story is about superhero comics, you can probably guess [[ShowWithinAShow what that really is]].
* The murder mystery comic ''ComicBook/ModelsIncMarvelComics'' starts its first issue with the models confronted by a wolf in the woods, which is then revealed as a perfectly safe photoshoot. The same approach is used to open subsequent issues, with the cast seemingly finding a body or locked up in jail. [[spoiler:The last issue begins with them seemingly trapped in a burning building - which is a BaitAndSwitch of sorts, as this time it ''is'' real]].
* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: Issue 32 appears to open with Uvo bombing the Empire State building and leaving it a pile of burning rubble. The next page reveals that this was a slightly sized down model on the planet Uranus and that the bombing is just a test for the intended attack on Earth.

* WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'': The hand-drawn opening sequence and its BuffySpeak meets TotallyRadical narrative voice over are revealed to be part of a dream Po is having: the rest of the film is 3D animation and more conventionally written.

* ''Film/{{Sunset}}'' opens with a robbery and a runaway stagecoach. It turns out to be a movie that Tom Mix is shooting.

* ''WesternAnimation/LegionOfSuperheroes'' second season opens with an intense battle in which Brainiac 5 makes a near HeroicSacrifice to protect Superman. The two share a very intimate moment before the scene is revealed to be a simulation created by Brainiac 5, who has missed Superman greatly.

* ''Film/Vice20015'' opens with a high-octane BankRobbery that turns intro a HostageSituation and then a BlastOut as the robbers shoot their way out through the cops. This is then revealed to be one of the fantasies being acted out in the Vice resort.

* ''Film/MurdersIntheRueMorgue1971'' opens with a KillerGorilla breaking loose, kidnapping Madeline, then being shot by the police and beheading a MadScientist before he dies. This is then revealed to the climax to Cesar's stage version of ''Murders in the Rue Morgue''.

* ''Le Magnifique'' begins with the most ludicrous SharkPool ever. Then it's revealed to be a SpyFiction novel being written.

* ''VideoGame/OctopathTravelerII'': Temenos's story starts with the epic, playable battle of Aelfric the Flamebringer against the wicked god Vide... Until Aelfric forgets his lines and the scene cuts to Temenos acting the scene in front of a bunch of kids.

* Averted in ''Film/GalaxyQuest'', which begins with what is revealed to be an episode of the ShowWithinAShow being exhibited to fans at a convention. This sets up a major theme of the film, which is how blurry the line between fiction and reality can become for truly obsessed fans (especially the Thermians, whose belief in the canceled TV show is so strong that they ''make'' it real by building the ship and abducting the actors to serve as the crew).

* ''Film/FromRussiaWithLove'' begins with James Bond dueling with Red Grant in a hedge maze, only to be killed by Grant. It turns out that it's actually a test for Grant to determine his efficiency; the "Bond" killed is actually another man in disguise working for Grant's new employers.
** The video game likewise has the hedgemaze duel as the second level, with players controlling the fake James Bond for the first half of the mission.
* The "unofficial" James Bond film ''Film/NeverSayNeverAgain'' opens with Bond infiltrating a tropical compound to rescue a hostage (a beautiful woman tied to a bed, naturally). After taking out the guards, he starts untying the hostage, not noticing as she discreetly pulls out a knife. He looks away for a second, she stabs him in the chest... and he fails the training exercise (the knife was fake).
* ''Film/{{Sunset}}'' opens with a robbery and a runaway stagecoach. It turns out to be a movie that Tom Mix is shooting.
* ''Film/KillerParty'' opens with a creepy funeral where one of the mourners is dragged into the coffin and subjected to MurderByCremation. This is then revealed to be a movie that two teenagers are watching at the DriveInTheater. And then this turns out to be the intro to a music video one of the main characters is watching.
* ''Film/StageFright2014'' opens with a man in evening dress being stabbed by a figure black robes and a WhiteMaskOfDoom. This turns out to a staging of the musical ''The Haunting of the Opera''.
* ''Film/FlightOfTheNavigator'' opens with a lingering shot of a shiny FlyingSaucer hovering in midair... and then a dog leaps up and catches it. It was a frisbee.
* ''Film/MajorGromPlagueDoctor'' has the CowboyCop hero introduced in an ActionPrologue, but one that ends with him being killed and [[FakeKillScare given a funeral]]. Grom then [[RuleOfFunny wakes up in his coffin and realises this won't do]], so we cut back to earlier in the action with Grom trying to think up a plan that ''won't'' get him killed, which takes a couple of goes before he gets it right. This [[RunningGag happens several times]] during the movie.
* ''Film/LoneHero'' opens with a ShowdownAtHighNoon between a town marshal and a trio of {{Outlaw}}s, which turns out to be part of a WildWest show at the local tourist trap.
* ''Film/UltramanGaiaTheBattleInHyperspace'' had one of these where Gamu, the HenshinHero host of Series/UltramanGaia, prepares to battle the alien Satan-Bizorm who transforms himself kaiju-sized. As Gamu turns into Ultraman Gaia, it's revealed to be a ShowWithinAShow seen on a television screen.

* The first episode of ''Anime/TheTowerOfDruaga'' is a RPGEpisode ClicheStorm that is in fact a dream the main character has after getting knocked out.
* The ''Anime/SanrioBoys'' [[AnimatedAdaptation anime]] starts of with princely politics and swordfighting that is really just a part of the ([[HamAndCheese somewhat]] [[NarmCharm melodramatic]]) school play, all of which [[InMediasRes occurs much later]].

* In the ''Toy Story'' sequels:

* Po's kung fu dream in ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda''.
* Sort of half used in ''WesternAnimation/{{Bolt}}'', which starts out looking like a typical girl-meets-dog story that suddenly turns into a [[Creator/MichaelBay Michael Bay-esque]] action film about an AnimalSuperhero. It all turns out to be a ShowWithinAShow, which Bolt believes is real. His gradual realization that everything he knows is wrong, and his need to understand what reality actually is, drive the film's plot.

* ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHeadDoAmerica'' starts with a scene of the two as giants rampaging through a city.

* ''Film/HeartOfDragon'' opens with a bunch of terrorists (led by Creator/JackieChan, no less!) battling a platoon of SWAT personnel in a dense forest, with the entire SWAT team getting killed (one even suffers a NeckSnap from Jackie) and the personnel leader facing Jackie in a MexicanStandoff. Then, Jackie hands over his gun... the next scene reveals it to be a training exercise with Jackie's team tasked with training some junior operatives. In fact the fake prologue which is filled with shootouts is a BaitAndSwitch for the entire film in general, since the rest of the movie is a {{narm}}y melodrama about Chan's character raising his mentally-ill brother with few action scenes countable on one hand.
* ''Film/SullivansTravels'' starts with an exciting action sequence involving two men fighting on top of a train. One man [[DisneyVillainDeath falls off the train to his death]]. TheEnd pops up. It turns out that the movie is actually about a Hollywood movie director, and the train sequence is the end to his latest film.
* ''Film/XMenTheLastStand''. After two false starts (one a flash back and another to do with [[spoiler: a future X-man named Archangel]]) we finally see the team assembled. [[spoiler:The sentinel's head came of of the smoke]] but it was merely [[spoiler:a danger room simulation]].
* ''Film/JohnnyEnglish'': The title character is right at the bottom of the secret agent ladder, but dreams of being a veritable Film/JamesBond.
* Frank Drebin's anxious dream at the beginning of ''[[Film/TheNakedGun Naked Gun 33⅓]]'', where all sorts of bizarre catastrophes are about to happen and he can't stop them.

* Two sets in ''Film/TropicThunder'': The opening of the movie is some [[RealTrailerFakeMovie Fake Trailers]] for films starring the lead characters (if you watch it on DVD you might skip these, figuring they're just more ads before the start of the film); then we get to the big Vietnam fight scene, which we eventually discover is just a movie they're shooting.
* ''Film/InspectorGadget1999'' starts with the hero (a loser security guard) heroically saving the day, then waking up from his dreams.
* ''Le Magnifique'' begins with the most ludicrous SharkPool ever. Then it's revealed to be a SpyFiction novel being written.
* ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'' opens with the simulated [[UnwinnableTrainingSimulation Kobayashi Maru test]], which is relevant to the ''Enterprise'''s current mission as a training vessel, and the importance of facing a No-Win Scenario becomes a major plot point later in the story.

* ''Film/Frankenstein1970'' opens with a monster chasing a girl. It also turns out to be a shooting of a film.
* ''Film/{{Serenity}}'' opens with a triple fake, of which one is a Fake Action Prologue: The narrated history lesson ''turns into'' a lesson being viewed by young River ''turns into'' a hallucination by the grown River, who is rescued by Simon, ''and this then turns into'' a holographic [[MagicalSecurityCam security recording]], being watched by the Operative.
* Averted in ''Film/GalaxyQuest'', which begins with what is revealed to be an episode of the ShowWithinAShow being exhibited to fans at a convention. This sets up a major theme of the film, which is how blurry the line between fiction and reality can become for truly obsessed fans (especially the Thermians, whose belief in the canceled TV show is so strong that they ''make'' it real by building the ship and abducting the actors to serve as the crew).
* The director's first vision for ''Film/TheWayOfTheGun'' was for the first sequence to be filmed like an action-packed, cliche-filled trailer for a movie starring the two main characters and detailing their backstories, then move on to the actual film's more realistic setting.

* In ''Film/AntManAndTheWasp'', we first see Scott in the midst of an elaborate heist, which is quickly revealed to be a game he planned for his daughter. Being under house arrest gives him lots of free time for this kind of thing.

* The ''Film/InspectorGadget'' movie starts with the hero (a loser security guard) heroically saving the day, then waking up from his dreams.