History Main / FlashForward

%%* ''Chaos;Head'' begins with one of these.

Not to be confused with {{Seers}} - characters who can view the future (or a possible future) inside the context of the story. Compare Futureshadowing.

* ''[[WesternAnimation/{{Archer}} Archer Vice]]'' ends the first episode of the season with a montage of snippets from every crazy plot point that's going to happen through the season. Apparently it's all being imagined by Archer and it is awesome.

* At the beginning of the "Futures Trading" arc of ''WebComic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja'', while Doc is caught up in the TimeyWimeyBall, he ends up in a scenario where he's [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/21p05/ injured and trapped in a building, being ordered to surrender or be bombed]]. Doc doesn't recognize the incident, and Chuck Goodrich reveals Doc's gone a little too far ahead in his own timeline before pulling him back in and stabilizing their time-jump. [[spoiler: In "The End, Part 2", while fighting [[PresidentEvil King Radical]] in his Presidential Warehouse, Doc begins to realize [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/33p95/ he's been there before]]. [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/33p126/ Sure enough...]] (though it turns out it's [[DragonAscendant Frans Rayner]] making the threat)]].

* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' has one from [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=004018 here]] to [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=004020 here]], showing to readers in advance how Tavros got a pair of robotic legs, weeks after the events shown prior.

* Season 7 of ''Series/TheWestWing'' opens with a Flash Forward of most of the cast in the future, waiting for Bartlet's successor (who we don't see the face of). Leo isn't present at this scene- a FunnyAneurysmMoment in retrospect, as John Spencer died three months later.

Opposite of a FlashBack and different from a DistantFinale and not quite TimeTravel or a DreamSequence. The Flash Forward is a look ahead at what may be a possibility in the characters' futures. When it occurs once at the very start of a work, it's HowWeGotHere.

Not to be confused with {{Seers}} - characters who can view the future (or a possible future) inside the context of the story.

* Manga/VenusVersusVirus's anime begins with a flash forward to the climax of the show. Though it is more of an ActionPrologue.
* Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann starts out with a flash forward to an alternate version the end. (Or maybe [[spoiler:a FlashBack to the last cycle]].)
** Word of God has confirmed (with [[AscendedFanon a little help and random guesses from its fans]]) that it's a flash forward toward a BadEnding.
* In Manga/D.Gray-Man the Alma Karma arc begins with a flashforward to the attack of the North American Branch by The Earl. It then cuts back to the events some hours earlier.
* Chaos;Head begins with one of these.

* ''ComicBook/{{Powers}}'', episode "Future Box".

* Movie example: in ''Lola Rennt'', a.k.a. ''Film/RunLolaRun'' in the US, an encounter with another pedestrian sometimes triggered a {{Blipvert}} showing what would happen to that person.

* Elie Wiesel's Literature/{{Night}} has this at one point, to show him meeting a woman he met in the concentration camps again, in Paris.

* On ''Series/That70sShow'', there is a Flash Forward showing where the kids will be at their 10-year high school [[ClassReunion reunion]] -- in the 1980s, including big hair and New Wave Music.
** Also an episode when Eric imagines his future with Donna as 1950s style with her at home and him at work and she's rather upset and then comes back at him with her working and him at home with the kids. Both times it was shown to the audience.

** In the season 3 two-parter, ''War Without End'', Sheridan himself flashes forward in time 18 years to see a devastated Centauri Prime, followed by the events of the dream/premonition Londo spoke to Sinclair about in the very first episode. We don't get to find out what was really going on there until the arrival of a spin-off trilogy of novels.

* ''Series/NipTuck'' has done this at least twice.
* Used in the finale of ''Series/TheOC.''
* On ''Series/{{Lost}}'', [[spoiler:the typical FlashBack story in the Season 3 finale is revealed to be a Flash Forward at the very end, when Jack meets Kate outside an airport]]
** [[spoiler:Season 4 has more of these, although no longer that eleborately set up (i.e. it usually becomes clear pretty soon into the episode whether it's a flashback or a flash-forward, unlike in the season 3 finale, where it wasn't revealed until the very end.]]
*** [[spoiler:An exception is Ji Yeon. It appears to show a flashforward with Sun and Jin-Sun is giving birth while Jin is trying to get there in time...until, at the end, Jin's story is revealed as a flashback when Hurley and Sun visit Jin's grave.]]
** A weird one is in the season 5 premiere, [[spoiler:which opens with a flashforward to Daniel in DHARMA]]. Strange, since this is a flashforward to [[spoiler:a event that occurred 30 years prior to the present]], but that wouldn't happen until [[spoiler:towards the end of the season]].
*** [[spoiler:For Daniel it was a flash-forward. He hadn't experienced it yet, even if everyone who wasn't one of the Lostaways had.]]
* There have been a couple of flashforwards in ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'', ranging from short (about a week, to Lily and Marshall's wedding) to long (21 years, when Marshall open Lily's death letter). The real question is, considering that [[WholeEpisodeFlashback every episode is technically a flashback]] with the story told during 2030, are these flashforwards or just flashbacks set later then the other flashbacks? Aahh, brain hurt! Brain hurt!
** They're all flashbacks, but since we don't live in 2030 we can call them Flash Forwards.

* ''Series/FamilyTies'' had AnAesop episode when Alex "sees" his future as a bald, potbellied rich man visiting his family. They are pathetically grateful to see him, but he acts like a total RichBitch and afterwords is totally disgusted with his future greedy self and vows to change. Naturally, the joke is that he is at first mostly upset that he is bald.
** I'm pretty sure it was the episode that adapts "A Christmas Carol", as a bitter Alex is enlightened by the meaning of the Christmas season.

* Frequently appears in {{Sunstone}} showing that even at the comics low points everything works out for the better...eventually.

* Used on ''TheSimpsons'' several times, including the episode "Lisa's Wedding", which is almost entirely Flash Forward (in spite of her advanced age, Maggie never gets the chance to speak, or sing as the case may be: see TheVoiceless). "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie" ends with Homer taking Bart to see the movie he banned him from seeing forty years before.

** Generally the Flash Forward episodes have NegativeContinuity with each other but the most recent one "Holidays of Future Passed" contains several {{Continuity Nod}}s to the others - Bart married (and then divorced) Jenda (his future girlfriend according to "Future-Drama"), Lisa ended up with Milhouse and Maggie became a famous singer as "Lisa's Wedding" predicted.

* ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'' also used Flash Forward in its finale.
* The end of the series ''WesternAnimation/AsToldByGinger'' features this. The episode in question, "The Wedding Frame", is on DVD.
* Cleverly facilitated in ''WesternAnimation/MuppetBabies'' by the use of footage from ''Film/TheGreatMuppetCaper''.

* ''Series/TheFlash'', a short-lived 1990 series about the titular DC superhero, had a Flash Forward episode, which had the name [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Flashforward]].

* In ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'', the unaired thirteenth episode, Epitaph One, shows several of these that will seemingly happen in the next five years of the Dollhouse future. After a tease that this could have been a computer simiulation, the series ended with Epitaph Two, which continued from that episode.

* ''Series/{{Arrow}}'': The first episode of the fourth season has a scene set 6 months in the future [[spoiler:with Oliver and Barry standing by a [[TonightSomeoneDies grave of an unknown Team Arrow member.]]]]

* Used in ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' in [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0763.html this strip]], in which EvilOverlord Tarquin makes a GenreSavvy prediction about how Elan's struggle with him will go.

* The revivals of OneLifeToLive & AllMyChildren are set one and five years in the future, respectively.

* Season 7 of ''Series/TheWestWing'' opens with a FlashForward of most of the cast in the future, waiting for Bartlet's successor (who we don't see the face of). Leo isn't present at this scene- a FunnyAneurysmMoment in retrospect, as John Spencer died three months later.
* On ''Series/That70sShow'', there is a FlashForward showing where the kids will be at their 10-year high school [[ClassReunion reunion]] -- in the 1980s, including big hair and New Wave Music.

* The entire final episode of ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'', "These Are The Voyages" is both a FlashBack ''and'' a FlashForward. The main story is set some six years after the rest of the series, and is told as a holodeck reenactment. The framing story takes place two centuries later during the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "The Pegasus", which aired over a decade earlier. As the entire episode is recreated on the Holodeck of the Enterprise D circa 2370 and the only real people we see are Riker and Troi the rest being holographic recreations, it's really only a Flashback episode as we are viewing an historical event.

* ''Series/TheFlash'', a short-lived 1990 series about the titular DC superhero, had a FlashForward episode, which had the name [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Flashforward]].

* Used on ''TheSimpsons'' several times, including the episode "Lisa's Wedding", which is almost entirely FlashForward (in spite of her advanced age, Maggie never gets the chance to speak, or sing as the case may be: see TheVoiceless). "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie" ends with Homer taking Bart to see the movie he banned him from seeing forty years before.

** Generally the FlashForward episodes have NegativeContinuity with each other but the most recent one "Holidays of Future Passed" contains several {{Continuity Nod}}s to the others - Bart married (and then divorced) Jenda (his future girlfriend according to "Future-Drama"), Lisa ended up with Milhouse and Maggie became a famous singer as "Lisa's Wedding" predicted.

* ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'' also used FlashForward in its finale.

* The ABC series [=FlashForward=], [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin as can logically be expected]], has this as its premise. Everyone in the world blacks out at the same time and sees a glimpse of their future.

* In ''Literature/BraveNewWorld'', one of the doctors creating test-tube babies is interrupted, and can't recall if she added one of the components to a specimen. She decides that she has, and moves on. The scene then flashes forward twenty-two years to show the aformentioned person suddenly dropping dead.
* In ''The Future of Us'' by Carolyn Mackler and Jay Asher, this happens. In 1996, neighbors Josh and Emma install AOL on their computers and are immediately logged on to {{Facebook}}. Obviously, Facebook hasn't been invented yet, so they are viewing their futures. In fact, every time they log on, their page changes.

* ''[[ArchieComics Archie Marries Veronica]]'' is stated to be a flashforward story arc, set after Archie and the gang have graduated from college.

* A moderately common device in ''ArthurKingOfTimeAndSpace''. Whole-strip flashforwards are signalled by the page having a red background (just as [[WholeEpisodeFlashback whole-strip flashbacks]] have a blue background), but more common are strips that flash forward in the last panel, usually using the Lancelot/Guenevere relationship for HypocriticalHumour.

* Used in ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' in [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0763.html this strip]], in which EvilOverlord Tarquin makes a DangerouslyGenreSavvy prediction about how Elan's struggle with him will go.

* In ''The Bug-Type Queen'', a ''Literature/{{Worm}}'' x ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' crossover, the interlude's take place six years ahead of the current story, after Taylor has returned to Brockton Bay years later. However, because of the time-shenanigans, she returns back at the moment she left.