History Main / DownerBeginning

Compare StartToCorpse, which in itself is ''not'' a subtrope of this, because in many cases neither the characters nor the audience get any chance to develop a sympathy for the victim. Also compare YouCantThwartStageOne, which can be jumpstarted by this trope. See also RRatedOpening, where a work opens with something gruesome or inappropriate, which may overlap with this, for example if it involves a good guy dying horribly.

** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'''s opening chapter - it involves the caretaker of the Riddle mansion being accused of murdering the Riddles, being suspected by everyone in village for the rest of his life, and finally killed by Voldemort.
** The first three chapters of the first book, which begins by detailing the past eleven years of Harry's life with his abusive relatives, the Dursleys, years after the murder of his parents.

* One of the sequels to ''Literature/GorkyPark'', ''Havana Bay'', starts out with our hero going to Cuba to investigate the mysterious death of an old friend of his. He is shown to ''already'' be planning to [[DrivenToSuicide commit suicide]], because of the accidental death of his wife, due to a lazy nurse not reading her medical chart to find she was allergic to penicillin. Of course, just as he's about to kill himself, he's interrupted by a hitman sent to kill him, who he instinctively uses his suicide weapon to kill in self defense. [[HumiliationConga Poor bastard can't even off himself without some mishap getting in his way.]]

* ''Literature/{{It}}''. The first three chapters detail the gruesome murder of Georgie Denbrough, the beating and murder of Adrian Mellon, and the suicide of Stan Uris, respectively. ''It'' is not for the squeamish.
* ''Literature/TheKillingStar''. Humanity finds the first irrefutable proof of spacfaring aliens in the form of gamma rays consistent with antimatter-powered engines. Almost immediately afterward, every inhabited body in the Solar system is hit with [[KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter relativistic bombs moving at 92% the speed of light]], instantly destroying civilization and annihilating most of the human species. That's all within the first four chapters.
* ''Literature/LAConfidential:'' In the prologue, a lone crooked cop loses a shootout with a group of crooked cops. Before he dies, he, and the reader, learn that the leader of the crooked cops is a senior officer in the Los Angeles Police Department.

* ''Literature/{{Survivor|Dogs}}s'' begins with an earthquake, forcing the humans to evacuate and leave their dogs behind to fend for themselves. Lucky and Sweet are the only survivors of the rescue they were staying at after the building collapses.
* ''Literature/{{Bravelands}}'' starts off with Fearless and his pride being attacked by a group of males. The males murder Fearless' father Gallant, take over the pride, and try to kill Fearless and his sister. Fearless runs off and ends up rescued by a group of baboons, where he lives for the next year.
* ''Literature/TheStand'', as an AfterTheEnd story, begins with the outbreak of "Captain Trips", the weaponized virus that kills the vast majority of humanity.
* ''Literature/TheColdMoons'' starts with all the badgers in Bamber's region, including his brother, his mate, and his newborn cubs, being poisoned to death in human badger cullings. This leaves Bamber the only badger in Yellow Copse and causes him to flee.
* ''Literature/TheKid'' begins with Precious, the protagonist of [[Literature/{{Push}} the previous novel]] dying of AIDS and her son Abdul being placed into foster care.
* ''Literature/TheKaijuPreservationSociety'' starts with Jamie being fired by his boss and forced to work as a food delivery driver, just as the COVID-19 pandemic sweeps the nation.
* ''Literature/RoysBedoys'':
** “Get Well Soon, Roys Bedoys!” begins with Roys telling Mrs. Bedoys that he feels unwell.
** “Easter is Cancelled, Roys Bedoys!” begins with Roys and Loys crying about an Easter egg hunt being cancelled.
** “You Have No Friends, Roys Bedoys!” begins with Roys crying about his friends allegedly ignoring him.
* ''Literature/AStrangeAndStubbornEndurance'': Part One of the book is quite a bleak introduction. Protagonist Velasin is sexually assaulted by a former lover, and caught by a foreign envoy and his own father, who disowns him for his homosexuality. The agreement to marry him off to a foreign clan surprisingly is maintained, this time with a promise to marry him to a man instead, but it is also used as a way to exile him from his home country. Dealing with the post-traumatic stress of such violence, Velasin is inconsolable and near suicidal. It's not until Part Two, with the introduction of his husband-to-be, Caethari, that the story starts getting some levity as he proves an understanding and kind LoveInterest that helps him heal.

* ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfuwNU0jsk0 Right Wing Radio Duck]]'' starts off with WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck learning about the large income gap between the upper and middle classes, followed by him getting fired and unable to find a new job, and finally facing foreclosure on his house. The rest of the short follows Donald as he discovers a new idol in the form of Radio/GlennBeck.
* The sixth episode of ''WebVideo/DontHugMeImScared'' opens with Yellow Guy alone in his room, crying over the loss of his best friends after the events of 4 and 5. Before going to sleep, he looks at his buddies' now-empty beds and tearfully says, "Good night, guys. I miss you..."
* ''WebAnimation/ReversalOfTheHeart'' starts with a man killing a [[DeathOfAChild baby dragon]] to give its chest gem to his love.

* WebAnimation/LiftYouUp starts with Iris in a spaceship, video chatting with Mike while they're watching soccer, planning to leave her space mission to go home in a few weeks. But suddenly, a mysterious orange laser blasts the Earth, killing Mike and forcing Robot to move the spaceship to flee while a horrified Iris watches the explosion, tearfully calling out Mike's name. This starts the plot.

'''Warning: Unmarked spoilers ahead - some spoilers are marked, but having a work on this list can be a spoiler in itself.'''

* ''Literature/{{Gone}}'' starts the instant after all the adults disappear.

* ''Series/{{Stargirl}}'' starts with most of the ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica being wiped out by the [[BigBadDuumvirate Injustice Society]], leaving only Stripsey and Hourman alive. Before dying, Starman asks Stripsey to take care of the Cosmic Staff and to find a new wielder for it. Years later, Stripsey reveals that Hourman was killed in a car crash while following up on some leads into the Injustice Society.

* ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'' starts with showing Arda in its early stage when the world was not touch be Evil yet. But once [[DestroyerDeity Morgoth]] destroys the Two Trees of Valinor and turns the city of Tirion into a wasteland, this lead to the exile of the Elves and the War of Wrath against Morgoth. Galadriel narrates how she lost her brother and had to take over his quest driven by revenge.

* Every version of Franchise/{{Batman}}'s origin begins with his parents being shot dead in front of him.

* All versions of Franchise/{{Superman}}'s origin begin with an infant Kal-El being sent to Earth as his home planet Krypton is destroyed.

* ''Webcomic/FriendsTillDeath'': And HOW. It literally starts off with Herz begging God to let him die!

* ''WesternAnimation/SkullIsland2023'': At the climax of the series premiere, the [[KrakenAndLeviathan murderous sea kraken]] which functions as the BigBad [[spoiler:kill Mike's father and Cap's long-time old friend in front of them]], and it destroys their ship and casts the survivors adrift on [[IsleOfGiantHorrors Skull Island]] whilst separating the teenagers from the sole surviving adult, Cap.

* ''ComicBook/IdentityCrisis'' begins with Sue Dibny dying in the hands of Jean Loring, the latter which gave Captain Boomerang a mission to kill Jack Drake, [[LukeIAmYourFather the father of Tim Drake]].

* ''Almost'' all versions of Franchise/SpiderMan's origin start with his uncle's death, and it's ''always'' because he neglected to stop the killer when he could have.

* By the start of ''Corruptus'', the third and final installment of the ''WebOriginal/AbandonedByDisney'' trilogy, the Narrator has had his ISP drop him, his phone bricked, his library card revoked, and he's been subjected to stalking, harassment, vandalism, and paranoia-inducing incidents for the last two years. He's understandably quite bitter and tired, and wonders how long its been since there was [[EatTheRich a culling of the wealthy elite]].

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail'' opens with the Mousekewitz family's village [[WatchingTroyBurn being burned by Cossacks]].
* The start of ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'' shows how a prince got transformed into a monster, and how he begged for forgiveness but received none. Being so ashamed of his new form, he concealed himself inside his castle and lost all hope in the CurseEscapeClause. All of this happens with that beautiful yet melancholy music in the background.
-->'''Narrator''': For who could ever learn to love a beast?
* ''WesternAnimation/BrotherBear'' starts with one character [[HeroicSacrifice sacrificing himself to save his brothers from a bear]] and given a funeral pyre.
* Downplayed in ''WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewGroove.'' The film’s CueTheRain opening is purposefully over dramatic and PlayedForLaughs. But it still has a more somber tone than the rest of the movie, [[HarsherInHindsight especially when you learn why Kuzco is crying in the jungle]]: he’s a kid trapped in a ForcedTransformation who just learned his parental figure wants to kill him and has lost the only real friend he’s ever had. [[ABirthdayNotABreak All on his eighteenth birthday]].
* ''WesternAnimation/FlashGordon1979'' begins with fire falling from the sky and chaos in the city.
* The prologue of Disney's ''WesternAnimation/Frozen2013'' started with Anna and Elsa as little kids who joyfully played with each other until Elsa nearly killed her little sister by accident, continued with the two of them growing up isolated from each other as Anna lost her memory of Elsa's ice powers due to the trolls altering her thoughts, and Elsa lived in fear of her own powers, and ended with them as teenagers mourning the death of their parents. As co-director Chris Buck also co-directed Disney's ''Tarzan'', Simon Brew of [[http://www.denofgeek.com/ Den of Geek]] [[http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/frozen/28567/a-spoiler-y-nerdy-interview-about-disneys-frozen jokingly pointed out in an interview that he seemed to be Disney's go-to-guy for killing off parents at the beginning]].
* ''WesternAnimation/HowToCatchACold'': The short begins with the man lamenting his poor health.
* ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda2'' opens with the story of how Lord Shen tried to avert a prophecy by exterminating the Giant Pandas.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegoMovie2TheSecondPart'': The DUPLO aliens trashed the LEGO world and turned it into a wasteland.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaidIIIArielsBeginning'' begins with the death of Ariel's mother and the banning of all music from Atlantica.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Madeline}}'':
** The third film, ''My Fair Madeline'', starts as Madeline tries to stop some thieves, only to be dismissed as telling BlatantLies and [[DisproportionateRetribution sent to finishing school for "misbehaving"]].
*** Dividing the film into acts causes the beginning act to have a DownerEnding, invoking the second act's Downer Beginning. The final act's Downer Beginning is where Madeline gets thrown in jail, invoked by the penultimate act's DownerEnding where she is arrested.
* ''Anime/OneStormyNight'' begins with Mei's mother being ripped apart by a pack of wolves (she even bites off one of the alpha wolf's ears!) and telling her son to run away as she does so, in what appears to be a very bleak beginning for an otherwise lighthearted tale about the friendship between a goat and a wolf.
* Creator/{{Pixar}} has done this more than once:
** ''WesternAnimation/FindingNemo'': The movie begins with the death of Nemo's mother and all but one of their eggs.
** ''WesternAnimation/{{Up}}''. It starts with the main character Carl as a child, and shows him and the love of his life meeting, getting married, and growing old together. Since they were children, they had dreamed of going to Venezuela together to follow in the footsteps of their idol, but they kept having to postpone the trip. Carl finally buys two plane tickets, and his wife falls ill and dies before they can go. They also wanted to have kids, but at least one of them was infertile (or there was a miscarriage). We see Ellie in tears at the doctor's office when she is informed of the situation.
** ''WesternAnimation/WallE'', with its opening-scene depiction of Earth as an apocalyptic wasteland populated by roaches and [[LastOfHisKind a single still-functioning robot]], is one of the most depressing openings ever.
** ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles1'' starts with the incident that caused the superheroes' fall from grace, and then describes the SuperRegistrationAct through a montage. Next we see several scenes showing just how depressed they are, pretending to be normal.
** ''WesternAnimation/{{Ratatouille}}'' starts with the main character losing his home and family.
** ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory2'': Not the film itself, but Rex's attempt at playing the Buzz Lightyear video game sees him get disintegrated by Zurg right as the battle starts. It's implied at the end that Hamm had the same thing happen to him.
** ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory3'' opens with a sequence of Andy with his toys in their heyday, then timeskips to the stark contrast of them having been sitting in a chest, not having been played with for years.
** The prologue of ''WesternAnimation/{{Brave}}'' started with the loss of Fergus's left leg to the demon bear Mor'du.
** ''WesternAnimation/Cars3'' begins with Lightning [=McQueen=] enjoying his time as a race car until a new racer named Jackson Storm shows up and several of the veterans are replaced by next-gens as a result; eventually at the Los Angeles 500, when Lightning tries to catch up after being overtaken, one of his tires blows out, he swerves dangerously, then hits the wall sending him into a near-fatal crash, forcing him out of the race. Jackson eventually wins the Piston Cup, and Lightning spends the next four months worrying that he'll be forced to retire from racing for good.
* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirlsMovie'' opens rather dimly, with a dark background and crime rampant. Even the narrator's heart isn't in it.
* Even the cheerful film ''WesternAnimation/{{Rio}}'' is not exempt from this, showing the child Blu falling from a failed attempt to learn to fly and getting captured by a group of humans along with all the other birds - and shipped from Rio de Janeiro to the United States of America against his will.
* Not to be confused with ''Frozen'', but in ''Animation/TheSnowQueen2012'', the story starts with Gerda and Kai's parents being frozen into ice, killing them.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}'' zig-zags through this. The opening sentence is Flynn Rider saying "This is the story about how I died", however he goes on to assure the audience that things get better. It then goes on to show how the queen is dying of something, only to show her recover through a miraculous cure that is found. But ''then'', it goes on to show the newly-born princess being kidnapped by Mother Gothel.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Tarzan}}'' begins with Tarzan's future ape family losing their son to a vicious predator. Then Tarzan's human parents are killed, by the same predator. What's interesting is that it happens during an upbeat opening song by Music/PhilCollins, of all people, who is known for his more dark and depressing stuff. The song did at least slow down and become more melancholic during and right after the death of Kala and Kerchak's son. This is, of course, a [[{{Disneyfication}} Disneyfied]] version of what happened in [[Literature/{{Tarzan}} the novel]], which also fits this trope, although it takes a lot longer. In the book, Kala loses her child not due to a predator but her own clumsiness, when she is running away from Kerchak, who goes [[{{Pun}} apeshit]] and begins to attack the females of his tribe (he already bludgeons another female to death with a stick by this point). The child falls from a tree and dies. Tarzan's mother dies from a sickness, while his father is killed by Kerchak, who almost kills Tarzan before Kala grabs him.
* ''WesternAnimation/TitanAE'' begins with another race [[FinalSolution destroying planet Earth]].
* Remember sweet, gentle Mole from ''WesternAnimation/TheWindInTheWillows1995''? Well, the sequel film ''WesternAnimation/TheWillowsInWinter1996'' begins with him seemingly drowning in an icy river and his friends breaking down in tears over it.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/The14Amazons'' starts with the Imperial army being defeated by the invading Mongols, the heroic general of the royal army being ForcedToWatch as his surviving men gets brutally flogged to death by Mongol soldiers, before getting executed himself. Then cue opening titles.
* Who can forget the start of ''Film/AceVenturaWhenNatureCalls'', which parodies the DownerBeginning of ''Film/{{Cliffhanger}}'', where Ace attempts a solo rescue mission to save a raccoon who has been stranded on the top of a mountain and sadly fails to get a grip on its paw. The kicker is [[ReverseCerebusSyndrome it has nothing to do with the rest of the movie which is as wacky and lighthearted as any Ace Ventura film would be expected to be.]]
* ''Film/Alien3'': The third act of [[Film/{{Aliens}} the preceding film]] (in which lead character Ellen Ripley rescues Newt from the xenomorph hive and defeats the Xenomorph Queen) is rendered null and void when it's revealed that the Queen was able to lay a facehugger egg onboard the ''Sulaco''. The egg hatches, impregnates one of the survivors and is injured by broken glass, causing enough damage to create a fire and force the evacuation of the cryopods the survivors are in. The escape pod crashes on a backwater prison planet, causing Newt to drown and soldier Cpl. Dwayne Hicks to be impaled by a support beam, with Ripley barely surviving.
* ''Film/AllAboutMyMother'': Manuela's beloved teenaged son Esteban is struck and killed by a car 12 minutes into the movie. The rest of the film is about how Manuela grows and changes after the tragedy.
* ''Film/{{Arrival}}'' begins with Louise's 12-year-old daughter Hannah dying of cancer. [[spoiler:The twist is that this hasn't happened yet. In fact, her daughter won't even be born until after the events of the movie.]]
* The opening narration of ''Film/BalladOfASoldier'', about a Russian soldier in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, states plainly that at some date after the film's time frame, poor Alyosha will be killed in combat and buried near some town with "a foreign name".
* ''Film/BeyondTheLights'' begins with young Noni proudly getting 2nd place in a talent competition...and then her mother forcing her to throw out the trophy because second place isn't good enough for her, crushing Noni's excitement and joy.
* ''Film/BlackPantherWakandaForever'' begins with T'Challa dying of an unknown disease, which then cuts to his funeral a few scenes later.
* ''Film/BlondieJohnson'' begins with Blondie's mother dying, her not unable to get welfare, and becoming homeless.
* ''Film/BrokenBlossoms'' begins with the protagonist starting off as a bright-eyed Chinese missionary moving to England to teach foreigners about Buddha. It then cuts to him a while later, more cynical and now addicted to opium.
* ''Film/CarlitosWay'' begins with the protagonist being wheeled out of a train station on a gurney, critically wounded and narrating on his dismal prospects, which precedes another HowWeGotHere story.
* ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'' begins eight years after the last movie with Bruce emotionally stunted, Wayne Enterprises in financial trouble and cracks starting to show in Gotham's peace time.
* ''Film/DawnOfThePlanetOfTheApes'' begins with what might be the mother of all bummer beginnings in film; it picks off right where the [[Film/RiseOfThePlanetOfTheApes previous movie]] left off, with the ALZ-113 virus (now dubbed the Simian Flu) being spread globally, resulting in the fall of civilization and the near-extinction of the human race.
* The very first scene of ''Film/Deadpool2'' is Wade (trying) to commit suicide, with the implication that Vanessa is also dead. It happens a few scenes later.
* ''Film/TheDirtyDozen'' starts with a hanging scene. An American GI is being hanged in a British military prison for robbery and murder.
* ''Film/TheEightDiagramPoleFighter'' begins with the eight brothers of the yang family, the only survivors of their army after losing a war, fighting their way through hordes and hordes of Mongol invaders, only to be killed in battle, one by one before the opening titles. There are only two surviving brothers by the time they escaped the battlefield, and one of them goes insane by the first act.
* ''Film/AFarOffPlace'' starts with the protagonist's parents getting killed when poachers invade their African reserve.
* ''Film/FlyAwayHome'' begins with the heroine's mother dying in a car accident. The heroine survives with injuries.
* ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'':
** ''Film/Godzilla1954'': The original film begins with a doozy -- a group of innocent Japanese fishermen are heading home, playing the violin and dancing happily, when suddenly something erupts from the water, killing them all in a blinding flash of radiation. As if that wasn't bad enough, the whole scene is a reference to the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daigo_Fukuryu_Maru real-life Lucky Dragon No. 5 tragedy,]] an event that was still fresh in the minds of the Japanese people at the time of release.
** ''Film/GodzillaVsDestoroyah'': The film begins with an island being destroyed, Godzilla Junior presumed missing (or possibly dead. He shows up later in the film.), and Godzilla attacking Hong Kong with parts of his flesh literally burning orange as he is slowly dying of nuclear overload.
* ''Film/GrandmothersHouse'': The movie begins at the funeral for David and Lynn's father. Since their mother isn't in the picture, it can be assumed that they are orphans.
* The first words of ''Film/HappyAccidents'' are "Murder? Sam, Murder?" as Ruby confronts him tearfully.
* ''Film/{{Hostage}}:'' The opening scene features a failed hostage negotiation where a woman and child are killed.
* ''Film/HoundsOfLove'' begins with the antagonists, a serial killer couple, abducting a teenager and keeping her chained to a bed before torturing her, murdering her, and burying her body in the woods.
* ''Film/TheHungerGamesMockingjay, Part 1'' begins with Katniss hiding from hospital doctors, desperately trying to keep her mind stable by saying things that she knows are true, like her name. Then she meets her friend Finnick who wishes for everyone to be dead, including himself.
* ''Film/TheHungerGamesMockingjay, Part 2'' has Katniss visiting her love interest Peeta in hospital, only to watch in horror as Peeta totally freaks out with aggression against Katniss.
* ''Film/InglouriousBasterds'' starts with Shoshanna's (one of the protagonists') parents and siblings being massacred by Hans Landa and his Nazis, while she miraculously escapes the massacre.
* ''Film/{{Irreversible}}'' is in the same vein due to its BackToFront nature. The gruesome NoHoldsBarredBeatdown that concludes the story is put at the beginning, while the idyllic shots of an unharmed Monica Bellucci are the last thing we see. Let's talk about [[DownerEnding Downers]].
* ''Film/It2017'' opens with six year old Georgie Denbrough having his arm torn off and dragged into the sewers by a killer clown while screaming out his brother's name.
* Film/JamesBond: Some of the series' trademark {{Action Prologue}}s don't start that well for 007.
** ''Film/YouOnlyLiveTwice'': An American spacecraft is swallowed by a bigger spacecraft, cutting the lifeline of an astronaut and leaving him to die in space. Then Bond is seemingly gunned down to death in Hong Kong. Fortunately, he was just FakingTheDead.
** ''Film/TheWorldIsNotEnough'': The man Bond was tasked to protect, Sir Robert King, is assassinated, and the woman who killed him kills herself out of fear for what [[BigBad Renard]] could do to her without Bond having had time to gain informations from her.
** ''Film/DieAnotherDay'': After seemingly killing Colonel Moon, Bond is captured by the colonel's father's men and tortured for months.
** ''Film/{{Skyfall}}'': Bond is shot by mistake during a chase atop a train in Turkey and falls in a river, presumed dead.
** ''Film/NoTimeToDie'': In the DistantPrologue, Safin kills a young Madeleine's mother and tires to kill her. In the present, the ActionPrologue ends with Bond and Madeleine separating after being ambushed by Spectre agents.
* ''{{Film/Jaws}}'', ''Film/Jaws2'' and ''Film/JawsTheRevenge'' all open with horrific, fatal shark attacks that set the tone. ''Film/Jaws3D'' averts this by ''teasing'' an attack on the Sea World water skiing team. Unless you count the poor fish that gets eaten in the title sequence as a "victim."
* ''{{Film/Joker 2019}}'' begins with visibly distressed and down-on-his-luck clown Arthur Fleck putting on his makeup, trying desperately to smile as the news reports a garbage strike all over Gotham City which has entered its eighteenth day, signifying things going FromBadToWorse. When he's on the job at a closing-down music store, Arthur gets his "Everything Must Go" sign stolen by some punk kids who proceed to run off with it, lead him down into an alley, then smash the sign right over his head and beat the living shit out of him. All of this is in the first three minutes and forty seconds of the film, and considering that this is a [[ProtagonistJourneyToVillain villain origin story]], things don't get much happier for him from here.
* The [[Film/JurassicPark first]] and [[Film/JurassicParkIII third]] of the ''Franchise/JurassicPark'' films start with someone getting attacked by a dinosaur. Though misremembered as otherwise, the little girl attacked in the second film survives.
* ''Film/KickAss'' starts off with a BlackHumor downer, as a guy dressed as a superhero takes a swan dive off a building. (The comic version has ''another'' Downer Beginning.)
* ''Film/KungPowEnterTheFist'' begins with the Chosen One as a newborn on a rainy night as the villain enters his house and kills his parents. Then, the Chosen One [[ToiletHumor pees onto the villain's face]], setting the tone for the rest of the movie.
* In ''Film/TheLedge'', Hollis finding out that he is sterile, that he is not the real father of his children, and that he must now try to talk Gavin out of suicide.
* For the first fifteen minutes of ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad'', Max is captured, beaten, tortured, and made a blood bag. He also loses his equipment and his car.
* ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'':
** ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014'' starts with a young Peter at his mother's death bed. Stricken by grief, he runs away before being [[AlienAbduction abducted by aliens]].
** ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' starts with Thanos claiming two Infinity Stones, killing half the Asgardians, including Heimdall and Loki, and leaving badly injured Thor alone before the ship explodes.
** ''Film/AvengersEndgame'' starts off with Clint Barton (Hawkeye) and his family having a nice picnic. Clint turns his back on them for a second and when he turns back, he sees that they have all been disintergrated thanks to Thanos' snap. Three weeks later, the surviving Avengers and Captain Marvel ambush Thanos on his farm with the intention of getting the Infinity Stones and undoing the snap. To their horror, they learn that Thanos had destroyed the stones to prevent further use. An enraged Thor decapitates Thanos, and the entire group is shell-shocked at the fact there is no hope to restore the executed half of the universe.
* ''Film/{{Memento}}'': You see Leonard kill Teddy despite his protests, and then you have to spend the rest of the movie watching the poor guy interact with Leonard.
* ''Film/{{Midsommar}}'': The movie starts with the main character's family dying when her mentally unstable sister commits suicide by inhaling car smoke and gassing her parent's room, killing them as well. That happens right after a cut to her boyfriend revealing he is thinking of dumping her because she is too needy, which he doesn't just because of that tragedy.
* ''Film/NewPoliceStory'': The film opens with Inspector Chan's entire police team attempting to capture Joe and his gang of CopKiller professionals, only to screw up royally with the entire team dying, Chan being completely humiliated and barely surviving, and ultimately resulting in Chan [[DrowningMySorrows drinking himself to near unconsciousness every day for a whole year]].
* ''Film/OlympusHasFallen'' starts with Mike Banning failing to save the First Lady from falling off the bridge to her death when the President's limo crashes in the snowstorm, which gives Banning a motivation to become a ActionHero for the rest of the movie.
* ''Film/OsloAugust31st'' starts with the lead, Anders, attempting suicide in a river after getting permission for an overnight leave from his rehab facility. It fails, but it doesn't improve the tone of the movie.
* ''Film/ThePanicInNeedlePark'' opens with Helen riding home on the subway, alone, in distress, after getting an illegal abortion from a BackAlleyDoctor. Then it gets worse when she has to go the hospital because she won't stop bleeding. (The rest of the movie has her becoming a heroin addict so it doesn't get more cheerful.)
* [[EndOfAnAge Fitting its title]], ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd'' opens with the mass execution of anyone showing the slightest hint of sympathizing with a pirate. A child starts singing the coded song ''Hoist the Colours'' in defiance, which leads to the rest of the gallows joining in. This brief hint of hope is crushed when the villainous [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Cutler Beckett]] reveals that's precisely what he wanted them to do. "Finally."
* ''Film/AQuietPlace'' opens up with the youngest son getting killed by one of the monsters after it hears noise coming from the toy rocket the boy was playing with.
* ''Film/{{Sinister}}'' opens with an extremely graphic Super 8 video of a family (mother and children included) being hanged.
* Less than five minutes into ''Film/SonicTheHedgehog2020'', Sonic is chased by a violent echidna tribe, is forced to leave his home forever, and his adoptive mother is presumably killed by said tribe. And he was just a little child when it all happened. He then talks about the next ten years of his life in a [[ThePollyanna positive tone]] but it becomes quickly apparent to the audience that he is lying to himself and is desperately lonely and unfulfilled.
* ''Film/SlumdogMillionaire''. First, [[HowWeGotHere a scene from near the end]] with Jamal being tortured. Then, Jamal and friends are chased by angry cops. And the flashbacks that follow are far from happy.
* ''Film/SpecialFemaleForce'': The movie begins with the first iteration of the eponymous "Special Female Force" suffering a near TotalPartyKill in a botched mission. The movie then {{Time Skip}}s 20 years in the future where the SoleSurvivor trains the new generation.
* ''Film/SpringInASmallTown'': The opening scene has Yuwen, a young wife in a Chinese village just after the end of World War II, walking along the village's shattered walls. She talks in voiceover narration about how the town is boring, how she wishes she could leave, how her family's once-lavish mansion was mostly destroyed by the war, and how her marriage has failed so badly that she and her husband hardly ever talk.
* ''Film/SuckerPunch'' opens with Babydoll's mother dying, her younger sister being killed by her stepfather, and finally being dropped off for a lobotomy at the local sanitarium.
* ''Film/SuddenDeath'' starts with Darren failing to save a little girl in a fire, resulting in him quitting his job as a firefighter before becoming a security guard for the rest of the movie.
* ''Film/Super8'' opens with the funeral of the protagonist's mother.
* The ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' series, by virtue of being a franchise dealing with the potential genocide of the human race, dabbles with these openings frequently.
** ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'' starts with footage of the titular Judgment Day, followed by a futuristic battle that shows Resistance forces being killed in droves, humanity barely hanging on, and John Connor surveying the (close) battle before his scars are revealed.
** ''Film/Terminator3RiseOfTheMachines'' shows flashes of the RobotWar before revealing that Sarah Connor is dead (having died at some point between the two films) and John is a paranoid wreck who works a menial job and is prone to alcoholism.
** ''Film/TerminatorSalvation'' begins with a mission John and other Resistance forces undertake during the opening years of the Future War, only to discover that it was a trap. The hostages they were trying to save (and the entire Resistance team, save for John) are wiped out in the ambush.
** ''Film/TerminatorDarkFate'' goes one step further when it reveals that (as a result of an AlternateContinuity to the previous sequels past the second) John Connor is anticlimactically killed by a T-800 three years after the events of ''Judgment Day'', with Sarah powerless to stop it and her holding her dead son in her arms.
* ''Film/WhoAmI2014'' starts with the hero entering a hotel room with three dead bodies inside. The rest of the movie tells the story of HowWeGotHere.
* ''Film/TheWorldOfKanako'': The start of the movie is very dark in many ways: Akikazu finds out that his wife has a lover and he loses his job after a violent outburst. Some bloody murders are detected. The narrator gives a saddening speech about how helpless his situation is. Kanako's first boyfriend Ogata commits suicide and nobody takes notice.
* ''Film/XMenFilmSeries'':
** ''Film/XMen1'' starts in a concentration camp. So does ''Film/XMenFirstClass''.
** ''Film/XMenOriginsWolverine'': James Howlett's father is murdered, leading the boy to kill the assassin, Thomas Logan... and he discovers that Logan is his real father. So Jimmy is forced to run away along with Logan's other son, Victor.
** ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'': In the year 2023, we get a glimpse of a post-apocalyptic world where mutants (who are near extinction) and their human allies are either placed in internment camps, or are outright murdered en masse.

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/AmericanDirt'' begins with the slaughter of protagonist Lydia's entire family, including her [[HappilyMarried beloved]] husband, her mother, her fifteen-year-old niece, and her eight-year-old nephew. The only survivors are herself and her eight-year-old son Luca, but as the cartel who killed their family has eyes in the entire city of Acapulco, the two are forced to leave everything they've ever known to El Norte in hopes of sanctuary.
* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'': In the very first book, 43 pages in, the kids watch Elfangor get EatenAlive by Visser Three. By the end of the book, Tobias is [[ShapeshifterModeLock trapped as a hawk]]. It goes downhill from there.
* Rashel goes through a major TraumaCongaLine at the start of ''Literature/TheChosen1997''. She witnesses a vampire murdering her mother and best friend, and no one believes her. She's sent to live with her aunt Corinne, who is killed when the vampire returns and sets fire to her house in an attempt to kill Rashel, who gets put into the foster system. Her trauma compels her to become a vampire hunter and it's mentioned she started killing vampires at the age of ''[[TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior twelve]]''.
* ''Literature/TheBrokenEarthTrilogy'' starts with both TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt and the protagonist Essun's three-year-old son being killed by her husband.
* ''Literature/CarryOn'':
** ''Wayward Son'', the second book of the series, starts a year after the events of the previous entry. The book ended with Simon and Baz happy in a relationship together and looking forward to their life after school with Simon going to therapy and recovering from the book's events. The second book begins with their relationship in a rut due to Simon blowing off college and therapy due to a deep bout of depression, readying himself to break up with Baz to not bring his boyfriend into his downward spiral with him.
** Agatha ends the first book finally leaving the world of mages behind to start a normal life in California, only to realize she doesn't fit there either.
* ''Literature/ChroniclesOfAncientDarkness'' begins with the protagonist Torak's father dying after a bear attack. Then he has to survive on his own in the forest, with only a wolf cub for companionship.
* ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfThomasCovenant'' start with the protagonist somehow catching leprosy. Doctors show him the horrible fate that awaits him, another man with the same disease seriously advise him to commit suicide, his wife and daughter leave, his friends and family reject him, his neighbours avoid him, and nobody wants to have anything to do with him. ''Then'' he is abducted by a powerful evil deity from another universe who intends to use him to fulfil his agenda. Thomas is, quite understandably, a bit crazy, paranoid and hopeless after all of that, and it takes him a ''long'' time (during which he commits some really despicable acts of his own) to start recovering.
* The first chapter of the first book of ''Literature/CircleOfMagic'' is ''not'' fun. It tells the stories of four children in terrible situations: a neglected girl being ruthlessly bullied, a young street rat being sent to a life of hard-labour for his crimes, another girl who's marooned out in the ocean after her ship went down in a storm, killing everyone on board, and another girl who was locked in a supply closet in the hopes of protecting her from the plague that killed her parents, but now cannot escape. Even though they're all rescued, its tough.
* The first book in the ''[[Literature/TheDemonata Demonata]]'' series has the protagonist find his family horribly murdered in the second chapter. The third has him in an asylum dealing with both the grief of the mentioned tragedy and with the knowledge that demons exist.
* Taylor Anderson's ''Literature/{{Destroyermen}}'' series starts with the Second Battle of the Java Sea, where the remaining Allied warships near Java are being [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomped]] by the heavily-armed Japanese fleet. Then two of the American destroyers suddenly find themselves in a parallel world, where evolution took a completely different course. Humans never evolved on this world. Instead, a race of peaceful (some of them, at least) descendants of giant lemurs from Madagascar prowl the seas of the East Indies on giant wooden ships. The Lemurians reveal that they are being hunted to extinction by a race of velociraptor-descended LizardFolk called the Grik, who sail in three-masted ships remarkably similar to British East Indiamen and hail from Africa. The Americans agree to help the Lemurians, and the outdated destroyers, which are cannon fodder in their own world, become the most powerful warships in this one. Then things get worse, especially when it's discovered that the Grik have an armada of hundreds of ships, and they are being aided by a Japanese battlecruiser. In fact, most novels in the series start on this note.
* ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'' starts with middle-aged Dante lost in the woods with no place in life, unable to get anywhere due to the heinous beasts who block his way. Metaphorically, the beasts represents the sins that plague our hero and the dark forest he's in is suspiciously similar to the forest where suicides spend eternity. It's a good thing Virgil comes in to bring Dante to a better place: Hell.
* ''Literature/DoctorZhivago'' begins with the funeral of Marya Nikolayevna Zhivago, the mother of Yuri Zhivago, which leaves the ten-year-old living with his Uncle Kolya. The opening chapter also has his deadbeat father DrivenToSuicide without any of the main characters finding out until much later.
* ''[[Literature/TheStolenThrone Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne]]'' starts with the nation of [[FantasyCounterpartCulture Ferelden]] in the middle of the [[TheEmpire Orlesian]] Occupation, with the Usurper-King Meghren being a typical [[TheCaligula Caligula]]. The protagonist, Prince Maric has just witnessed his mother Queen Moira betrayed and murdered by her former subjects and is running for his life. On the other hand, since this is a {{prequel}}, any player should already know how it ends.
* Some of the trilogies from ''Literature/DragonsOfRequiem'' begin with tragedy. ''Dragonlore'', for one, starts with [[SacrificialLamb Prince Orin's]] death, followed by her younger sister, Mori, getting raped, and Queen Solina ready to attack Requiem with her army of phoenixes. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Also Mori's pet mouse dies]].
* The first book of ''Literature/TheEmberWarSaga'' has the civilian and Atlantic Union fleet unexpectedly find themselves sent to 30 years in the future (technically, they've been placed in stasis) and learn that the rest of humanity has been wiped out by a vast alien armada. They are all that's left, the embers of humanity.
* ''Literature/FelicityFlooVisitsTheZoo'' begins with all the animals sick and the hyenas crying.
* Creator/MichaelConnelly novel ''Literature/TheGodsOfGuilt'' starts by revealing that Literature/MickeyHaller's campaign to be DA, the SequelHook at the end of previous novel ''The Fifth Witness'', ended with humiliating defeat. A client that Mickey got off of a DUI charge killed two people in another DUI. Not only did this wreck his political career, and badly damage his legal practice, it turns out that it estranged him from his daughter, who was a classmate of one of the two people killed.
* ''Literature/{{Gone}}'' starts the instant after all the adults disappear.
* ''Literature/TheGraveyardBook'' begins with the murder of Bod's family.
* ''Franchise/HarryPotter'':
** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'''s opening chapter - it involves the caretaker of the Riddle mansion being accused of murdering the Riddles, being suspected by everyone in village for the rest of his life, and finally killed by Voldemort.
** The first three chapters of the first book, which begins by detailing the past eleven years of Harry's life with his abusive relatives, the Dursleys, years after the murder of his parents.
** The death of an anti-Death Eater teacher in the beginning of ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'' is not encouraging, even if she was a RedShirt. The next chapter involves Harry mourning Dumbledore and learning that Rita Skeeter is publishing an [[NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead unflattering]] book about him.
* One of the sequels to ''Literature/GorkyPark'', ''Havana Bay'', starts out with our hero going to Cuba to investigate the mysterious death of an old friend of his. He is shown to ''already'' be planning to [[DrivenToSuicide commit suicide]], because of the accidental death of his wife, due to a lazy nurse not reading her medical chart to find she was allergic to penicillin. Of course, just as he's about to kill himself, he's interrupted by a hitman sent to kill him, who he instinctively uses his suicide weapon to kill in self defense. [[HumiliationConga Poor bastard can't even off himself without some mishap getting in his way.]]
* ''Literature/IfIStay'' opens with the protagonist, Mia, being put into a coma after a car crash killed her parents and younger brother and being given the choice as to stay or go to the afterlife.
* ''Literature/{{It}}''. The first three chapters detail the gruesome murder of Georgie Denbrough, the beating and murder of Adrian Mellon, and the suicide of Stan Uris, respectively. ''It'' is not for the squeamish.
* ''Literature/TheKillingStar''. Humanity finds the first irrefutable proof of spacfaring aliens in the form of gamma rays consistent with antimatter-powered engines. Almost immediately afterward, every inhabited body in the Solar system is hit with [[KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter relativistic bombs moving at 92% the speed of light]], instantly destroying civilization and annihilating most of the human species. That's all within the first four chapters.
* ''Literature/LAConfidential:'' In the prologue, a lone crooked cop loses a shootout with a group of crooked cops. Before he dies, he, and the reader, learn that the leader of the crooked cops is a senior officer in the Los Angeles Police Department.
* ''Literature/TheLandOfOblivion'' begins with heroine's brother dying in a freak accident.
* ''Literature/TheLostFleet'' series starts with John Geary waking up from [[HumanPopsicle cold sleep]] to find out that the war with the [[OneNationUnderCopyright Syndicate Worlds]], the start of which he witnessed, has lasted for over 100 years. Worse, TheAlliance fleet has just been lured into an ambush far from Alliance space and crippled. The admiral in charge and his entire staff are dead, and Geary, who has been elevated to myth-like status by propaganda, is expected to take command and save everyone. Even worse, the near-constant brutal war has not only concepts like fleet tactics a thing of the past, but morality has been one of the first casualties of the war, with the Alliance fleet matching the Syndics atrocity-for-atrocity. Also, one of the first casualties Geary experiences is his grandnephew.
* Many of the novels in ''Literature/TheLostRegiment'' series start on this note. Alternatively, they might start with something good happening, which immediately turns into something bad. For example, the first novel has the 35th Maine retreating from Gettysburg after sustaining heavy casualties (including the protagonist's brother). Before they know it, they find themselves on another world, ruled by hordes of mounted 9-foot-tall HumanAliens with a [[ToServeMan taste for human flesh]]. The local humans (also transplanted) are hopelessly stagnated, their religious leaders are corrupt beyond measure, and the political leaders are little more than warlords fighting among one another.
* In the first book of ''Literature/TheNightAngelTrilogy'', before any of the action has even started, 12-year-old Azoth's guild leader dies, making the Rat the new leader. Rat then threatens Azoth with homelessness, kidnaps and rapes his best friend, Jarl, and mutilates Doll Girl.
* The first chapter of the third ''Literature/{{Noob}}'' novel reveals that the player presented as The Ace in the two previous got his avatar erased and all his accomplishments taken off record. Due to said avatar being illegally enhanced without him knowing about it.
* ''Literature/{{Noobtown}}'' begins with the main character being killed in a car accident and being reborn in another world.
* Creator/SeananMcGuire's ''Literature/OctoberDaye'' novel ''Rosemary And Rue'' opens with the heroine being turned into a fish for fourteen years, and as a consequence losing both her fiance and child, and turning into an almost complete basket case.
* ''[[Literature/{{Safehold}} Off Armageddon Reef]]'' opens with the last human fleet preparing for a battle they know they will lose against a foe that has exterminated all human colonies and they know will do the same to Earth itself.
* ''Literature/ThePosterchildren'' opens with Corbin Underwood's funeral.
* The beginning of the third book in ''Literature/BekaCooper'' begins with the funeral of the protagonist's abusive fiancée.
* By the second chapter of ''Literature/{{Reckless}}'' , Will is already turning into living stone. What happened in the twelve years since chapter one? [[{{Exposition}} You can catch up on that later.]]
* ''Literature/{{Remnants}}'', by K.A. Applegate, starts with the end of the world.
* ''Requiem for a Wren'' by Creator/NevilShute: The protagonist returns from England to Australia to take over his family's farm, and in the first few pages we learn that he had lost his feet in the war and that his parents are becoming old and frail. He is met at the airport by one of the farm staff instead of his father, because one of the house maids had killed herself that morning.
* ''Literature/TheSecretGarden'': The book opens with Mary's entire household ([[ParentalAbandonment including her parents]]) dying of the cholera.
* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' books starts with a prologue where [[DecoyProtagonist a POV character]], who is not really part of the cast, dies at the end of the chapter. The prologue of the first book, ''Literature/AGameOfThrones'', showcased the return of [[HumanoidAbomination The Others/White Walkers]] with the POV character dead at the end of the chapter.
* ''Literature/TheWildOnes'' starts with Kit's parents being murdered after the Flealess raid his home, and him left to fend for himself in Ankle Snap City.
* ''Literature/{{Survivor|Dogs}}s'' begins with an earthquake, forcing the humans to evacuate and leave their dogs behind to fend for themselves. Lucky and Sweet are the only survivors of the rescue they were staying at after the building collapses.
* ''Literature/{{Bravelands}}'' starts off with Fearless and his pride being attacked by a group of males. The males murder Fearless' father Gallant, take over the pride, and try to kill Fearless and his sister. Fearless runs off and ends up rescued by a group of baboons, where he lives for the next year.
* ''Literature/TheStand'', as an AfterTheEnd story, begins with the outbreak of "Captain Trips", the weaponized virus that kills the vast majority of humanity.
* ''Literature/TheColdMoons'' starts with all the badgers in Bamber's region, including his brother, his mate, and his newborn cubs, being poisoned to death in human badger cullings. This leaves Bamber the only badger in Yellow Copse and causes him to flee.
* ''Literature/TheKid'' begins with Precious, the protagonist of [[Literature/{{Push}} the previous novel]] dying of AIDS and her son Abdul being placed into foster care.
* ''Literature/TheKaijuPreservationSociety'' starts with Jamie being fired by his boss and forced to work as a food delivery driver, just as the COVID-19 pandemic sweeps the nation.
* ''Literature/RoysBedoys'':
** “Get Well Soon, Roys Bedoys!” begins with Roys telling Mrs. Bedoys that he feels unwell.
** “Easter is Cancelled, Roys Bedoys!” begins with Roys and Loys crying about an Easter egg hunt being cancelled.
** “You Have No Friends, Roys Bedoys!” begins with Roys crying about his friends allegedly ignoring him.
* ''Literature/AStrangeAndStubbornEndurance'': Part One of the book is quite a bleak introduction. Protagonist Velasin is sexually assaulted by a former lover, and caught by a foreign envoy and his own father, who disowns him for his homosexuality. The agreement to marry him off to a foreign clan surprisingly is maintained, this time with a promise to marry him to a man instead, but it is also used as a way to exile him from his home country. Dealing with the post-traumatic stress of such violence, Velasin is inconsolable and near suicidal. It's not until Part Two, with the introduction of his husband-to-be, Caethari, that the story starts getting some levity as he proves an understanding and kind LoveInterest that helps him heal.

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/TwentyFour'':
** Season 1 begins with [[ProfessionalKiller Mandy]] bombing a passenger plane.
** Season 4 begins with a suicide bomber blowing up a train.
** At the start of season 5, two main characters are killed, a third badly wounded, and Jack is forced out of a quiet life in hiding.
** Season 6 starts with a bus getting bombed and Jack almost getting tortured to death.
** Season 9 (''Series/TwentyFourLiveAnotherDay'') begins with British soldiers being killed by a hacked drone and one of their own framed for it. It's also revealed that President Heller (formerly Secretary of Defense) has developed dementia.
* ''Series/{{Andromeda}}'' starts with a massive rebellion. The protagonist is betrayed by his NumberTwo and best friend and is forced to kill him. He and his ship are trapped at the event horizon of a black hole and come out 300 years later, only to learn that the rebellion succeeded, and the once-mighty Commonwealth is gone. The three galaxies have been plunged into chaos for all this time. Things get worse from there.
* ''Series/BabylonFive'':
** The series starts with humanity almost being destroyed by aliens. Things get ''really bad'' after that.
** Especially notable is the intro for Season Three, in which Susan Ivanova (the most cynical character on the show) outright states that the characters and the entire premise of the station didn't succeed, and as a result, an entirely new phase for the show has begun. ''"[[HumansAreDiplomats The Babylon Project]] was [[EarnYourHappyEnding our last, best hope for peace]]. [[DespairEventHorizon It failed.]]"''
* ''Series/BattlestarGalactica1978'' and ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'': Both versions of this show begin with the Cylons nuking the Twelve Colonies and killing nearly 50 billion people.
* ''Series/BlakesSeven'': The first episode starts with the massacre of an Earth resistance group and ends with the murder of Blake's lawyer and the man's girlfriend, while Blake himself is tried under false evidence and exiled to the penal colony Cygnus Alpha. Now begins a four-year caper which leads...[[ShootTheShaggyDog nowhere. Except perhaps down.]]
* "Swan Song", the penultimate episode of ''Series/TheBigLeap'''s first season, starts just after Paula and Mike's wedding, and shows her decline as her cancer starts taking it's toll over the next few weeks. She passes away from an embolism before the opening credits.
* ''Series/AChefsLife'': You can't get a series premiere for a documentary about a chef more downer than her new restaurant burning down. The rest of the first season, particularly the next episode or so, concentrates on the rebuilding efforts for Chef and the Farmer.
* ''Series/DeadliestCatch'':
** The opilio crab fishing season during Season 17[[note]]This series starts its seasons with Alaska's red king crab season, followed by opilio season.[[/note]] started with this when ''Summer Bay'' captain "Wild Bill" Wichrowski got a phone call telling him that his deck boss Nick [=McGlashan=] had died from a drug overdose.
** Season 18 started with the announcement that the Alaska government had shut down the 2021–22 red king crab season, forcing the fleet to scramble for [[TakeAThirdOption different ways]] to make a living.
* Colombian {{telenovela}} ''Series/DecisionesExtremas'' had an episode [[https://youtu.be/mb_2upbohfQ "Las pulseras del sexo"]] that began with a high school teacher finding a girl lying on the classroom floor with her uniform made a mess and the tights torn off, implying she was raped to death.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
** Just about every story or episode begins with some [[TeaserOnlyCharacter disposable twerp]] getting killed by the villain or monster.
** The Doctor "dies" at the beginning of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E1TheImpossibleAstronaut The Impossible Astronaut]]". This also happened at the beginning of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS24E1TimeAndTheRani Time and the Rani]]" and [[Recap/DoctorWhoTVMTheTVMovie the TV movie in the nineties]].
* ''Series/FallingSkies'': The pilot has a child recall the AlienInvasion (and the death of his mother in the attack), illustrating it with a series of drawings. The actual show takes place six months [[AfterTheEnd after the invasion]] and the resulting devastation.
* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' opens with the Independents losing the Battle of Serenity Valley, the deciding battle of the civil war, and the DespairEventHorizon for the main character.
* ''Series/{{The Flash|2014}}'' starts with Barry's mom being killed by a strange yellow figure, and his father is sent to jail for her murder.
* The First Episode of ''Series/ForThePeople'' ends with Sandra losing her case defending a young man accused of terrorism (in a situation which was clearly [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entrapment entrapment]] and Seth and Allison breaking up over their case.
* Similar to its original source, ''Series/GameOfThrones'' starts with three Night Watch rangers scouting beyond the Wall until two of them were killed by [[HumanoidAbomination a White Walker]] which showcased their return to Westeros.
* The Jim Davidson sitcom ''Up the Elephant and Round the Castle'' had a sequel ''Home James'', which saw the main character lose the house he inherited that was the setting for the series and lose his factory job.
* ''Series/{{JAG}}'': Most of the openings start with an accident occurring or a crime being committed.
* ''Series/Jericho2006'': The pilot has the people of the titular town witness a mushroom cloud on the horizon, which signifies the destruction of UsefulNotes/{{Denver}}. It's not until later that they learn that 32 major cities across the US have been nuked. Things get worse for the town, as the infrastructure starts to crumble almost immediately.
* ''Series/KamenRiderDrive'' starts off with quite possibly one of the most BRUTAL opening scenes in the history of the franchise. To elaborate, the show starts with people just going about their own business. Then [[TimeStandsStill everything starts to dramatically slow down]]. But rather than this being the case of slowing time itself, everyone caught up in it is [[AndIMustScream fully aware of their surroundings but unable to move or even scream.]] And then to make the matter worse, the [[MonsterOfTheWeek Roidmudes]] start going around destroying everything in sight... all the while people are living statues and can't even scream for help. And to hammer the point home, this was a GLOBAL occurrence.
* ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'': The episodes tend to start with a really gruesome intro where some random citizen stumbles over someone who just got traumatized or murdered. This is also the case of the mother series, ''Series/LawAndOrder'', and it is true of the whole ''Franchise/LawAndOrder'' franchise as well.
* You wouldn't expect a program like ''Series/MisterRogersNeighborhood'' to have one of these, but episode 1210 begins with [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness an unusually sour Mr. Rogers singing the opening theme, which is played in an unusually staccato-ish and overall downbeat manner, and instead of changing into a sweater and sneakers, fiddles with a parking ticket he'd just gotten. Instead of "Hi, neighbor!", he then proceeds to say the following]]:
-->'''Mister Rogers''': I don't feel like singing "a beautiful day in this neighborhood." Oh, it's beautiful enough outside, all right, but ''I'' don't feel beautiful. In fact, I'd like to take this ticket and rip it up. This is a parking ticket. Yes, I parked my car in a... in one of those places that has a meter. You ever seen a parking meter? You know, you have to put nickels or dimes or something in and then... turn the thing and then this... ''[demonstrates with his hand]'' this just goes up like that? Pay for parking. Well, I drove downtown, and all I had was a dollar bill in my pocket. I didn't have change to put in there. Well, I went into the drug store and got some change, and when I came out again, there was a lady writing out this ticket. And I had the change right there and I said, "L-Look, I just went in there to get the change. Don't give me a ticket." And she said, "Here's your ticket. Tell your story to the judge."
* ''Series/OneFootInTheGrave'' begins with Victor losing his job (to an electronic box no less) and having to deal with early retirement.
* ''Series/{{Poirot}}'': Not the series itself, but the final episode ("Literature/{{Curtain}}") starts with Margaret Litchfield getting hanged during the opening credits... a victim of the MiscarriageOfJustice and of a GambitRoulette started by ManipulativeBastard Stephen Norton.
* ''Series/PowerRangersInSpace'' begins with the forces of evil celebrating the defeat of the Power Rangers after Divatox destroyed the Power Chamber, Zordon in captivity, and the [[Series/PowerRangersTurbo Turbo Rangers]] left adrift in space.
* ''Series/PowerRangersRPM'': Starts off with 99% of humanity dead from nuclear RobotWar, and only one city left.
* ''Series/ThePrisoner1967'': The episode "[[Recap/ThePrisonerE10HammerIntoAnvil Hammer Into Anvil]]" begins with a woman throwing herself to her death from a window to escape a brutal interrogation. What follows is one of the most comedic episodes of the show, with one of its happiest individual endings.
* ''Series/RedDwarf'' starts off with [[EverybodysDeadDave everybody dying]] from a radiation leak in what is surely the bleakest beginning any sitcom has ever had.
** In the first act of "Better Than Life", Rimmer receives a letter from his mother telling him that his father has died. While obviously everyone he'd ever known prior to the radiation leak besides Lister and Holly had been dead for millions of years, hearing the news makes the reality sink in.
** "The Inquisitor" starts with Lister and Kryten being erased from history, although [[StatusQuoIsGod inevitably they're able to reverse this]].
* ''Series/{{Revolution}}'': The [[Recap/RevolutionS1E1Pilot pilot episode]] begins with the blackout occurring worldwide, acting as an unusual form of the apocalypse.
* ''Series/{{Stargirl}}'' starts with most of the ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica being wiped out by the [[BigBadDuumvirate Injustice Society]], leaving only Stripsey and Hourman alive. Before dying, Starman asks Stripsey to take care of the Cosmic Staff and to find a new wielder for it. Years later, Stripsey reveals that Hourman was killed in a car crash while following up on some leads into the Injustice Society.
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'':
** The pilot kicks off with Sam and Dean's mother, Mary Winchester, dying a [[CruelAndUnusualDeath gruesome, nightmarish death]]- stabbed, pinned to the ceiling, and consumed by [[KillItWithFire flames]]. The same episode ends with Sam's girlfriend [[TheLostLenore Jessica]] dying the same way. Between that, Sam is ripped from his happy, [[IJustWantToBeNormal normal]] life when Dean tells him they have to save their missing father.
** The first episode of Season 2 ends with John Winchester trading his life for Dean's, and leaving Dean with feelings of immense self-hatred out of John's sacrifice. Not only that, but the sacrifice itself is the starting point of the series-wide trend of the Winchester brothers sacrificing their lives for the other over and over again. And it's revealed several episodes later that John's last words to Dean were to kill Sam if Sam's demon powers from Azazel went out of control.
** Season 13 opens with [[TrueCompanions Castiel]] and [[FriendlyEnemy Crowley]] dead, [[MamaBear Mary Winchester]] stuck in a post-apocalyptic AlternateDimension with Lucifer, causing the brothers to believe she's dead too, and Dean stuck in grieving over the former three.
* ''Franchise/SuperSentai'':
** ''Series/ChoujuuSentaiLiveman'' opens with the three main protagonists' friends at the Academia being murdered by three other treacherous students who join [[BigBad Professor Bias]], leaving the heroes heartbroken and betrayed.
** ''Series/ChikyuuSentaiFiveman''[='=]s first episode opens with the two alien friends of the heroes' family being killed in cold blood by the Zone Army, then the heroes as children are forcefully separated from their parents and forced to live far away on Earth for their safeties, which ends up nearly ravaged by the Zone arriving on the planet to destroy it.
** ''Series/UchuSentaiKyuranger'' starts off with eighty-eight constellations of the universe (including the planet Earth) suffers under the tyrannical [[TheEmpire Space Shogunate Jark Matter]]. While [[Series/KaizokuSentaiGokaiger it's spiritual predecessor]] started off with a similar invasion of Earth, in that series, all the previous 34 teams stopped the initial invasion. ''Kyuranger'' is confirmed to take place in alternate universe without previous teams, allowing Jark Matter to conquer Earth without a bigger struggle. Not any better.
* ''Series/TwinPeaks'': Begins with Laura Palmer's body being discovered and nearly the entire town grieving for her death.
* ''Franchise/UltraSeries'':
** ''Series/UltramanLeo'' starts off with Series/UltraSeven disabled and an entire island-city being destroyed by the villains, while the planet L77 is shown blowing up in ''the opening credits''. And it only gets [[FromBadToWorse worse from there]]...
** Of course, ''Leo'''s opening seems outright optimistic in direct comparison to it's SpiritualSuccessor, ''Series/UltramanGeed'', which has [[SatanicArchetype Belial]] ''[[TheBadGuyWins win]]'' within the first few minutes of the first episode, causing the destruction of ''the entire universe'' - while [[PhysicalGod Ultraman King]] manages to restore the universe, much like with ''Leo'', another Ultra ends up injured and stranded on Earth to help the titular Ultra of this series (in this case, it's Seven's son, Franchise/UltramanZero, who was injured after failing to stop Belial). And the kicker this time? The titular Ultra is Belial's ''own son''.
* ''Series/VeronicaMars'': At the beginning of this show, Veronica's dad has been voted out of office, her alcoholic mom has abandoned them, and none of her former friends are speaking to her...and those are just the things that are actually shown in the first episode. If we count things that are talked about and then shown later, we also get RapeAsBackstory and a murdered best friend.

[[folder:Manhwa]]
* ''Webcomic/KissWood'' starts with explaining how nature is slowly being weeded out of the world and how Sul, an ex-gardener, has the only garden left in the entire city. Nobody else in the city likes this and have demanded numerous times for him to remove it; his niece, who lives with him, leaves as she feels he pays all of his attention to the garden and none to her. Then Sul's garden and house is set on fire, during which he is blinded and is sent to the hospital. End of Chapter One. He then gets trapped in a dangerous world from which he needs to escape, fast.

[[folder:Music]]
* Music/{{Blutengel}}'s song "Frozen Heart" starts out just as bleak as the name sounds like, but it turns out to be more about DefrostingIceQueen.
* Music/DanielAmos's album ''Music/FearfulSymmetry'' opens with "A Sigh for You", a meditation on sorrow that would be {{wangst}} if it weren't paired with such an [[LyricalDissonance upbeat melody]]. The lyrics become far more hopeful on the rest of the songs.
* "Prelude" opens ''Bad Ideas'', Music/TessaViolet's darkest album yet, with a quiet, resigned description of an unhealthy relationship, admissions that this isn't the first relationship of this sort they've had, and the protagonist speculating that they might be the problem, and not their cold, taciturn lover.
* "Little Kings" by Music/PaulKelly from his ''Words and Music'' album is darker and more political than anything else on the album. Kelly has said that this song and the closing track "Melting" were the most difficult songs to sequence.

[[folder:Podcast]]
* The beginning of ''Podcast/GuidersOfOurDreams'' shows the apocalypse occurring while Artemis making a deal with Eclipse to create a new Earth, and Eclipse removing the atmosphere from it.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/KingdomDeath'' opens with a doozy: humanity is reduced to the dregs of the Stone Age, trapped in a realm of near-eternal darkness, and beset on all sides by [[EldritchAbomination grotesque monsters]]. A handful of starving people gather together by one of the few sources of light to try and build some kind of civilization. In most campaigns the story has a DownerEnding, too, as the survivors are wiped out in a suitably [[DeathByIrony ironic fashion]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theatre]]
* The first minute of ''Theatre/JasperInDeadland'' establishes that Jasper's life sucks for a number of reasons - [[ParentalAbandonment his mother is leaving]], his father is an AddledAddict, he has bad grades and no chance of getting into college, and the only real good thing in his life is his best friend, Agnes. [[FromBadToWorse And then Agnes drowns]] and he gets pulled into TheUnderworld when he tries to save her.
* The plot of the first scene of ''Theatre/LaForzaDelDestino'' goes like this: Don Alvaro of Incan descent and Spanish noblewoman Leonora love each othe to the immense disapproval of her father the Marquis of Calatrava because of the former's origins to the point that when he interrupts the lovers right in the middle of their attempted elopement her wants to get Alvaro executed (he also thinks he 'dishonoured' his daughter). To show he has no ill will, Alvaro tries to surrender and throws his pistol on the floor. Tragically, the pistol fires on its own upon hitting ground mortally wounding the Marquis who curses Leonora with his last words. The lovers have no choice but to run away only to get quickly separated (they won't see each other until the very last scene and their reunion goes [[DownerEnding horribly wrong]]).
* ''Theatre/OrfeoEdEuridice'' starts with Orpheus and the chorus in extreme grief over Eurydice's recent death.
[[/folder]]

* Every version of Franchise/{{Batman}}'s origin begins with his parents being shot dead in front of him.
* All versions of Franchise/{{Superman}}'s origin begin with an infant Kal-El being sent to Earth as his home planet Krypton is destroyed.

* ''ComicBook/StarWarsLegacy'' begins with the Sith allying with the Fel Empire, successfully defeating the Galactic Alliance and carrying out the first Jedi Purge since [[Film/RevengeOfTheSith Order 66]], with the remaining Jedi once again being sent into hiding. Afterwards the Sith betray the new Empire, resulting in a three-way war in the galaxy.

* ''ComicBook/TheTransformersAllHailMegatron'' starts in New York during a nice day. Then the Constructicons show up and explain how their here to spread peace and happiness, having apparently turned over a new leaf.... Then Scrapper and Hook laugh evilly before promptly starting a massive all out Decepticon attack on New York. The first two issues is pretty much made up of the Decepticons slaughtering their way through the hundreds of civilians and U.S. soldiers trying to survive or maybe fight back.

* ''Film/StarTrek2009'' starts with the destruction of the U.S.S. ''Kelvin'' and the HeroicSacrifice of Acting Captain George Kirk (though his wife and newborn son James survive).
* ''Franchise/StarWars''; ''all of them'' to various degrees of "downer". Let's take them in canonical chronological order:
** ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'': The greedy Trade Federation is behind a blockade of Naboo, but as few know, there's a far-more sinister motive in the works.
** ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'': As the scrolling text says, ''"There is unrest in the Galactic Senate. Several thousand solar systems have declared their intentions to leave the Republic"'' Most of this due to Palpatine's underhanded work. The film itself the opens by Padme's ship being blown up.
** ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'': The film starts with the Clone Wars at their worst and no end in sight. "The Republic is crumbling", as the text says.
** ''Film/{{Solo}}'': The teenaged Han Solo is trying to escape gangsters after his job failed.
** ''Film/RogueOne'': The Empire finds Jyn Erso's family, killing her mother and kidnapping her father. The first time we see Jyn as an adult, she's waking up in an Imperial prison.
** ''Film/ANewHope'': Despite the name of the movie, little actual hope exists, with the Empire's new super-weapon almost complete, the Tantive IV being overrun by the Empire, Darth Vader making a personal appearance, and Princess Leia, the leader of the Rebellion, being captured.
** ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'': The scrolling text does not mince words. "It is a dark time for the Rebellion" for sure, as they're on the defensive with the Empire in hot pursuit.
** ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'': The disaster carried over from the previous film sees Han Solo a prisoner of Jabba the Hutt, and a new Death Star being built, although the scrolling text is more optimistic.
** ''Film/TheForceAwakens'': Luke has disappeared during the TimeSkip, and the First Order is threatening to become as bad as the Empire was.
** ''Film/TheLastJedi'': The rebel base on D'Qar is evacuated before being bombed by First Order fleet and their Dreadnought.
** ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'': Emperor Sheev Palpatine is alive thanks to cloning techniques preserving his remains on the Sith homeworld of Exegol, and gives Kylo Ren a fleet of starships, each one armed with the full destructive power of the Death Star, with the intent to wipe out the Resistance once and for all.

* ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'': The first four or so episodes of the show are probably the most unrelievedly grim run in the whole of TV ''Trek''. Our protagonist launches an unsuccessful mutiny against her former mentor, sees those events lead to said mentor's death and everything that she feared would happen taking place, and gets sentenced to life imprisonment. Then she's let out of jail into a bloody war, on a top-secret science vessel that dumps Starfleet's usual MildlyMilitary atmosphere completely, and is run by a sinister and amoral but highly charismatic captain whose "win by any means necessary" approach might even be approved of by the show. [[spoiler:Then things lighten up, and by the end of the show the Federation has won the war without losing its soul, and the captain in question has turned out to be unambiguously a NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist who was EvilAllAlong, and deservedly died.]]

* ''Series/TwinPeaks'': Begins with Laura Palmer's body being discovered and nearly the entire town grieving for her death.
* ''Series/VeronicaMars'': At the beginning of this show, Veronica's dad has been voted out of office, her alcoholic mom has abandoned them, and none of her former friends are speaking to her...and those are just the things that are actually shown in the first episode. If we count things that are talked about and then shown later, we also get RapeAsBackstory and a murdered best friend.
* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' begins with the [[CurbStompBattle Battle of Wolf 359]], and [[TheLostLenore Jennifer Sisko's death]] along the way.

* The First Episode of ''Series/ForThePeople'' ends with Sandra losing her case defending a young man accused of terrorism (in a situation which was clearly [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entrapment entrapment]] and Seth and Allison breaking up over their case.
* ''Series/{{Stargirl}}'' starts with most of the ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica being wiped out by the [[BigBadDuumvirate Injustice Society]], leaving only Stripsey and Hourman alive. Before dying, Starman asks Stripsey to take care of the Cosmic Staff and to find a new wielder for it. Years later, Stripsey reveals that Hourman was killed in a car crash while following up on some leads into the Injustice Society.

[[folder:Multiple Media]]
* Franchise/MonsterVerse:
** ''Film/Godzilla2014'': Within the first 15 minutes, a giant monster has hatched in the Philippines and escaped into the ocean, and the tremors it causes at a Japanese power plant forces the husband and father played by Creator/BryanCranston to heartbreakingly lock his own wife inside an irradiated chamber to certainly die, whilst the entire city is evacuated and promptly becomes Japanese Chernobyl.
** ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'': The film opens with Monarch on trial by the government, Godzilla's heroism at the end of the previous film [[HeroWithBadPublicity largely overlooked]], and the world paranoid about the implications that there might be more monsters besides Godzilla and the [=MUTOs=] slumbering out there.
** ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'': The film's opening establishes that Skull Island has been destroyed, depriving Kong of a home and meaning that all of his indigenous charges except Jia are dead. Meanwhile, Godzilla, who was the hero of the previous films, suddenly charges into Pensacola and causes localized destruction with his atomic breath for mysterious reasons, leading the world to believe that he's turned on humanity.
** ''WesternAnimation/SkullIsland2023'': The first episode that kicks off the series ends with a giant tentacled sea monster attacking the cast's boat, brutally killing Mike's father and Cap's friend Hiro in front of Mike. The boat goes down and all the non-major characters onboard are massacred, with the main cast washing up on the shores of [[IsleOfGiantHorrors Skull Island]], with Charlie Mike separated from Cap and Annie.
[[/folder]]

* ''Franchise/TransformersGeneration1'': In the beginning, the Decepticons have dominated Cybertron, run it low on energon, and the Autobots are struggling to survive by building the Ark to escape the planet.
* "WesternAnimation/BlueCatBlues" (1956), an abnormally depressing ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' cartoon. It begins with a depressed Tom sitting on a railway track, SpurnedIntoSuicide. Jerry internally narrates his sad story; the dame he loves has left him for his more affluent rival, Butch. Tom tries everything he can to win her back, but to no avail. Broken, he takes to drinking, and has to be saved from his first suicide attempt by Jerry. Close narration, Jerry sees that the mouse he loves has also left him for a wealthier mouse; dejected, he sits next to Tom on the track, and together they wait for the train to come so they can pass into the next world. As you can imagine, there is little to nothing funny about it in the slightest.
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'', which begins with a prologue of an older Bruce Wayne having to retire as Batman after developing a heart condition that nearly gets him killed in a battle and forces him to [[BatmanGrabsAGun use a gun during the fight]]. When the setting then fast forwards to the contemporary era, the show's other protagonist Terry [=McGinnis=] promptly suffers a tragedy of his own when his father is murdered. Things do gradually get better for both characters over the remainder of the series.
* ''WesternAnimation/CapitolCritters'': The first episode begins with Max's family including various younger siblings being killed by exterminators.
* In ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'', the first episode ends with the title character almost defeating Aku after a brutal battle [[HopeSpot and at the verge of ending him]], and Aku opening a Time Portal, and throwing him millennia into the future, where he's the supreme ruler. Season 5 finale shows us Future Jack actually defeated him immediately after that.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Madeline}}'':
** The second act of the original begins when Madeline contracts appendicitis. Fortunately, when the doctors remove fix her damaged appendix, a HappyEnding is triggered.
** The third part of ''Madeline's Rescue'' starts with Genevieve [[BadPeopleAbuseAnimals being stolen by Lord Cucuface and abandoned where she would have a hard time surviving on her own]], invoking the third act's DownerEnding. However, these tropes get flipped on their heads for the next act when Genevieve arrives home. In the final act, Lord Cucuface shows up again to do his inspection, but this time, the DownerEnding gets [[HappyEnding turned on its head]] when he has a [[HeelFaceTurn change of heart]].
** Some of the specials have this:
*** Part three of ''[[FeudEpisode Madeline & the Can-can Cliques]]'' involves Yvette forming her own club, at which Danielle forms hers and the girls start hating those from the different club. Cue that part's DownerEnding where the girls warp their prayer into a hateful "But most of all we... hate each other!" and refuse to sleep together except with those from the same club. The fourth act begins as the taxi vanishes and they have to walk, and they get lost. Fortunately, Madeline and Miss Clavel use this to defeat ThePowerOfHate that the girls got infected by, paving the way for a HappyEnding.
* ''WesternAnimation/MastersOfTheUniverseRevelation'': Teela being promoted as her father's successor as Man-At-Arms is immediately overshadowed by Skeletor and Evil-Lyn successfully infiltrating Castle Grayskull and almost stealing its secret, which would've resulted in the end of the universe had been not for the Sorceress stopping time so that He-Man can perform a HeroicSacrifice. In the process, He-Man is revealed to be Adam and seemingly dies along with Skeletor, but the revelation of kept secrets and the loss of Eternia's prince causes King Randor to banish Man-At-Arms while Teela leaves.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' episode "Reaching Out", Luz wakes up only to find a note on her phone about an event with her mom, which makes her depressed as she ignores it at the cold opening. It turns out that she has a very good reason for it.
* ''WesternAnimation/TransformersTheMovie'' starts after a TimeSkip where the Decepticons have conquered Cybertron over the interim. It's not a nice place, to say the least. The opening act of the movie also contains many battles where beloved characters from the cartoon are KilledOffForReal in brutal ways.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Jem}}'' has one hell of a MoodWhiplash at the start of the series. At the start of the first episode all the Holograms are seen going to a premiere and surrounded by screaming fans. Then it cuts to the rainy funeral of their father.
-->Jerrica: "I remember how it all began.. With the unexpected death of my father."
* The FiveEpisodePilot of ''WesternAnimation/SheRaPrincessOfPower'' begins with Etheria in a bad state, Hordak having succeeded there where Skeletor has failed on Eternia. The entirety of the series dealt with the protagonists as LaResistance trying to overthrow the Evil Horde. (A goal they never truly achieved, due to well, [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption the plot of the show]].)

* In ''WesternAnimation/HighlanderTheAnimatedSeries'', the series started 700 years after an asteroid hit the Earth and plunged the world in chaos. One immortal, Kortan, rule over the world unchallenged and it's up to [[TheChosenOne a new immortal, Quentin, to defeat him.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/SimbaENatoUnRe'' starts with Simba's father being shot by humans. He's then [[InterspeciesAdoption taken in]] by wolves.
* The ''WesternAnimation/HerselfTheElf'' special starts with Herself being captured and imprisoned for a year while her friends fruitlessly search for her.
* The first half of ''WesternAnimation/ClassOf3000'''s pilot episode, "Home" is this. Sunny leaves the music business, the class loses their music teacher (and fears being separated), and their attempts to sell tickets for a benefit concert fall flat.

* Franchise/MonsterVerse:
** ''Film/Godzilla2014'': Within the first 15 minutes, a giant monster has hatched in the Philippines and escaped into the ocean, and the tremors it causes at a Japanese power plant forces the husband and father played by Creator/BryanCranston to heartbreakingly lock his own wife inside an irradiated chamber to certainly die, whilst the entire city is evacuated and promptly becomes Japanese Chernobyl.
** ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'': The film opens with Monarch on trial by the government, Godzilla's heroism at the end of the previous film [[HeroWithBadPublicity largely forgotten]], and the world paranoid about the implications that there might be more monsters besides Godzilla and the [=MUTOs=] slumbering out there.
** ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'': The film's opening establishes that Skull Island has been destroyed, depriving Kong of a home and meaning that all of his indigenous charges except Jia are dead. Meanwhile, Godzilla, who was the hero of the previous films, suddenly charges into Pensacola and causes localized destruction with his atomic breath for mysterious reasons, leading the world to believe that he's turned on humanity.

* ''Webcomic/Rain2010'' starts with a short prologue set in 1999, where a then-four year old Rain's dream of becoming a mother gets shot down by her mother and gets her laughed at by her siblings. Chapter 1 begins by cutting to 2012, with Rain transferring to a new school so she can attend as a girl.

** ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'' starts with the incident that caused the superheroes' fall from grace, and then describes the SuperRegistrationAct through a montage. Next we see several scenes showing just how depressed they are, pretending to be normal.

** ''Wayward Son'', the second book of the series, starts a year after the events of the previous entry. The book ended with Simon and Baz happy in a relationship together and looking forward to their life after school with Simon going to therapy and recovering from the books events. The book begins with their relationship in a rut due to Simon blowing off college and therapy due to a deep bout of depression, readying himself to break up with Baz to not bring his boyfriend into his downward spiral with him.

* ''Literature/CarryOn'': ''Wayward Son'', the second book of the series, starts a year after the events of the previous entry. The book ended with Simon and Baz happy in a relationship together and looking forward to their life after school with Simon going to therapy and recovering from the books events. The book begins with their relationship in a rut due to Simon blowing off college and therapy due to a deep bout of depression, readying himself to break up with Baz to not bring his boyfriend into his downward spiral with him.
** In another front, Agatha ends the first book finally leaving the world of mages behind to start a normal life in California, only to realize she doesn't fit there either.

* ''Sunrider 4: The Captain's Return'' opens with the FinalSpeech that Kayto Shields gave at the end of the previous game [[spoiler:as he prepared to sacrifice himself and his ship to save his home planet from annihilation]]. Six years later, the once-legendary starship captain is now a miserable nobody living on a backwater PACT-controlled mining colony. The monotony of his depressing new life is broken up by the sudden announcement that PACT has kicked the Solar Alliance out of the Neutral Rim. The war is over, and he lost.