History Main / GoneToTheFuture

'''Aku:''' I disagree...\\
'''Jack:''' What trickery is this? *poof* Aku—!!\\

* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales'': "Duck To The Future". Scrooge is trying to see his own future, resulting instead in this and a BadFuture where Magica de Spell took over his company and the city, if not the world. Magica tricked him into doing this, knowing full well what would happen, which might make her the first villain to do this intentionally. Fortunately, Scrooge succeeds in returning to his own time and thus sets things right.

* This is implied, but never directly shown, to be the result of Dr. Wily's time travel in ''MSPaintMasterpieces''. First, the "Too Serious" story arc shows a BadFuture and ends with that timeline getting erased from time-space, presumably because Dr Wily removed himself from history when he traveled to the future. Then the "Greatest Killer" arc shows the near-utopian future that came about in Wily's absence. This timeline also gets erased, presumably because of Wily's return to the comic's present.

'''Aku:''' I disagree.\\

* In Leo Frankowski's ''Conrad Stargard'' novels, something like this happening is a ''very bad sign indeed'', because the easy availability and utility of time travel means that no one is ever late for anything, because they can always go back in time in order to arrive when they are supposed to be. When a time traveller "disappears", it means something disastrous has happened to them.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/CaptainNTheGameMaster'' part of an issue of the ''SuperMarioBros'' comic, Kevin is knocked into a garbage chute. Samus takes a second-or-more-hand time gadget and tries to go forward just a little bit so she can catch him and take him back. But the device is defective and sends her 20 years forward, where due to the absence of Kevin and Samus, Garbageworld is the last place that [[{{Metroid}} Mother Brain]] hasn't taken over, and it's under attack as well, defended only by Kevin and VideoGame/KidIcarus (Pit in the game, but Kid Icarus here). She eventually warps back in time and prevents the incident, so he can defend Videoland again.

* ''WesternAnimation/GeneratorRex'' features the protagonist sent a mere six months into the future, which turns out to be more than enough time for everything to go to shit in a way like you wouldn't believe. With no means to go back time, Rex's only option was to defeat the bad guys in the new present.

* ''WesternAnimation/GeneratorRex'' features the protagonist sent a mere six months into the future, which turns out to be more than enough time for everything to go to shit in a way like you wouldn't believe.

Note that this trope only applies to the kinds of time travel where the traveller pops out of existence in the present and then back into existence in the future. Other forms of "time travel", such as [[HumanPopsicle cryonics]] and time dilation, where the "traveller" is still physically present for every second of the 20 years, don't count.

* Fred "travels" into the future after oversleep for decades in one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'', meeting a now very wealthy Barney, a grown up Pebbles already married with Bam Bam and a heartbroken Wilma that Barney and Betty took care of after his disappearing. Wilma, to his grief, is very resentful. Thankfully, is AllJustADream.

-->'''Aku:''' [[SamuraiJack/TropesSeason5 What?! YOU'RE BACK ALREADY!?]]

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Note that Unexpected Lack Of Future Me is usually a trope of the kinds of time travel where the traveller pops out of existence in the present and then back into existence in the future. For the forms of "time travel", such as [[HumanPopsicle cryonics]] and time dilation, where the "traveller" is still physically present for every second of the 20 years, Lack Of Future Me is the generally expected outcome.

Limit examples to instances in which the absence is unexpected or otherwise significant to the plot.

* ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'': When [[TheHero Jack]] was forcibly sent centuries into the future by [[BigBad Aku]], he is shocked to discover that [[VillainWorld Aku had conquered the whole]] [[BadFuture world during Jack's long absence]]. Aku had clearly learned form his last defeat at the hands of Jack's father -- sending the her into the future worked ''much'' more successfully than fighting him head on.

Everyone assumed you were dead. Any life you had is gone. If you were some kind of superhero or other positive force, don't be surprised if your absence led to a BadFuture. There's a good chance your ArchEnemy has managed to TakeOverTheWorld by now. Your true love probably had to marry someone else years ago. Also expect your closest friends, family, and/or party members to be slightly more depressed or cynical than they were before you mysteriously vanished. Because, well, you did technically abandon anyone who ever depended on you (which is exactly how they'll interpret it once they learn you've been alive all this time).

And if you had [[CompoundInterestTimeTravelGambit a savings account]], it's gone. And the fact that "The ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated" doesn't matter.

* ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'': When [[TheHero Jack]] was forcibly sent centuries into the future by [[BigBad Aku]], he is shocked to discover that [[VillainWorld Aku had conquered the whole]] [[BadFuture world during Jack's long absence]].

* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales'': "Duck To The Future". Scrooge is trying to see his own future, resulting instead in this and a BadFuture. He succeeds in returning to his own time and thus sets things right.

* ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'': When Jack was forcibly sent centuries into the future by [[BigBad Aku]], he is shocked to discover that [[VillainWorld Aku had conquered the whole]] [[BadFuture world during Jack's long absence]].

[[folder: Films -- Animated ]]
* In the ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' movie ''A Sitch In Time'', both Kim and Ron traveled into the future and removed themselves from the time line, allowing [[spoiler: Shego]] to take over.
[[/folder]]

* Happens in ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitchTheSeries'' when Lilo, tired of being just a kid, uses an experiment to jump forward ten years, becoming a teenager. She soon discovers that she had gone missing during those years, and later, when she uses the experiment to jump another ten years into the future and become a young adult, she discovers that during the time she and Stitch were absent, Dr. Hamsterveil managed to take over the world. Luckily, Jumba's future self manages to inform her of how to reverse the experiment's power and return to her own time and become a kid again.

* When ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'' was forcibly sent centuries into the future by [[BigBad Aku]], he is shocked to discover that [[VillainWorld Aku had conquered the whole]] [[BadFuture world during Jack's long absence]].

* When WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack was forcibly sent centuries into the future by [[BigBad Aku]], he is shocked to discover that [[VillainWorld Aku conquered the whole world during Jack's long absence]].

** In "Compromised", [[spoiler:JSA member Vixen left 1942 with the Legends aboard the Waverider. When she meets her JSA teammate Obsidian in 1987, for him it's been 45 years since he last saw her and he's resentful of the fact that she 'abandoned' the team]]. Additionally, [[spoiler:Amaya being absent during the 1956 mission to Leipzig means that she didn't end up being scattered across time with the rest of the JSA (minus Obsidian), which would negatively affect her destiny, as well as the destiny of her [[WebAnimation/{{Vixen}} granddaughter]]]].

** In "Compromised", [[spoiler:JSA member Vixen left 1942 with the Legends aboard the Waverider. When she meets her JSA teammate Obsidian in 1987, for him it's been 45 years since he last saw her and he's resentful of the fact that she 'abandoned' the team]].

* In ''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles'', this was the last cliffhanger ending before it got ScrewedByTheNetwork. John Connor traveled to the future, only to discover that this version of the future didn't even hear about him (since he wasn't there to become his legendary self).

* In the series finale of ''Series/{{Misfits}}'', Jess is transported 1 year in the future by an AbhorrentAdmirer. In this future they are married and have a baby. When she goes to the community center, she finds Finn (now a probation worker), who says that she has been missing all this time.

* In the ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'' episode "Star City 2046", Rip's team encounters a [[Series/{{Arrow}} Star City]] they left 30 years ago. Sure enough, the city's become a hellhole.
** This trope serves as a plot point in the later Season 1 episode "Progeny" wherein, on a trip to 2147, Ray discovers that [[spoiler: due to his disappearance in 2016, his brother Sidney eventually took over his company and inventions and this eventually resulted in the ATOM suit being used for law enforcement in Per Degaton's totalitarian regime.]] Also, in the Season 2 episode "Compromised" - [[spoiler: JSA member Vixen left 1942 with the Legends aboard the Waverider. When she meets her JSA teammate Obsidian in 1987, for him its been 45 years since he last saw her and he's resentful of the fact that she 'abandoned' the team.]]

[[folder: Film ]]

* The 2002 movie version of ''Film/{{The Time Machine|2002}}'' resulted in this, with the protagonist stuck in the future. However, this is the place where he finally finds peace, as he gets to rebuild civilization from the ground up, throwing out the old preconceptions. Back in the present, his best friend, who doesn't know where Alexander is, hopes that he never comes back (he was miserable in this time).