History Main / InMediasRes

''"Into the middle of things"'' -- taken from the poet Horace, this refers to the poetic technique of beginning a narrative poem at a late point in the story, after much action has already taken place. Homer makes use of this in ''Literature/TheIliad'', making this trope OlderThanFeudalism.

* ''Film/FightClub'' opens with a gun in the narrator's mouth, then details all the events leading up to this point. The narrator then slightly changes the dialogue to lampshade the trope.

* The first level of {{Prototype}} takes place near the end of the game, so it is simultaneously this and a TasteOfPower.
* [[DawnOfWar Dawn Of War 2: Retribution]] starts with the FinalBattle as it unfolds from the point of view of side characters.

* ''MargaretAtwood'' is fond of this trope, ''TheHandmaidsTale'' as prime example, the current situation of the world visited in flashback. This is extended in ''TheYearOfTheFlood'', where characters and situations touched on in flashbacks in ''OryxAndCrake'' are given their own story.

* ''The Other Guys'' lampshades this trope.

* The first ''MetalGear'' game introduces the characters Solid Snake and Big Boss, and later games explore their backstories and incorporate it into an epic MythArc that has been in play for decades.

* Discussed In Webisode 1 of ''VideoGame/BravoMan'': Alpha mentions this trope by name as a fourth wall joke during a subversion of DeathByFlashback.

* Discussed In Webisode 1 of ''VideoGame/BravoMan'': Alpha mentions this trope by name as a fourth wall joke during a subversion of DeathByFlashback.

** ''Film/IronMan'' started off with Tony Stark riding in a Humvee with soldiers, established his amiable playboy charm, and then had the caravan attacked by [[TerroristsWithoutACause the Ten Rings people]]. Flash back 36 hours, and we learn more about him and how he got there. It's not a point in the ''middle'' of the film, though, just ''near-beginning''.

* ''ToKillAMockingbird'' starts with the sentence: "When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow." That happens at the end of the book. The idea seems to be that it comes up in a conversation the adult Scout is having, and the book is her explaining the events that lead up to it.

* The 2013 {{CBC|| movie ''[[Film/{{Jack2013}} Jack]]'' starts with Jack Layton in his old age at close to the time of the 2011 election, then alternates between the 2011 election campaign and various moments from Jack's past.

* ''Series/HoratioHornblower'': The second instalment of this miniseries has two parts "Mutiny" and "Retribution". "Mutiny" starts with Commodore Sir Edward Pellew visiting Lieutenant Hornblower in prison, telling him and the audience that he's going to be tried for his life. The whole episode is told in one long FlashBack and explains HowWeGotHere, though not entirely from Hornblower's point of view. The episode ends in prison when Pellew and Hornblower finish their conversation. The next part, "Retribution", resumes the story where it was left, but this time it's more like In Medias Res with telling scenes of badly injured Lieutenants Bush and Kennedy who are being treated in the prison infirmary. The lieutenants face a trial and they continue to give a full account of what happened during the rest of their mission. It's being constantly interrupted with court testimonies and the judges' private discussion happening in the present. "Retribution" mixes this trope with AnachronicOrder.

* Tends also to be used on ''Series/{{Alias}}''.
** Hell, it would be easier to list the episodes that *don't* use this trope. That might be about 10% of them.

** Cleverly lampshaded in "Love & Monsters", where Elton, who narrates the story, begins the episode with his encounter with the doctor and a hostile alien creature. He then admits that what we just saw wasn't the start of the story. "I just put that bit at the beginning 'cause it's a brilliant opening."
*** Later, once he gets to the point in the story where the beginning action takes place he says, "don't get too excited, that's the point where you came in", and the sequence gets a bit fast-forwarded.

** In a ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' episode T'Pol is screaming and thrashing in sickbay. After the intro, we see the events that led to this.

* {{DawnOfWar Dawn Of War 2:Retribution}} starts with the FinalBattle as it unfolds from the point of view of side characters.

* Roland Deschain from ''TheDarkTower'' started his journey many years before the beginning of the first book, and when taking into account how many years that actually ''was'', some would say the series itself only chronicles the end of the quest.

* [[DresdenFiles "The building was on fire]] [[RunningGag and it wasn't my fault...]]
** ''Grave Peril'' is particularly faithful to this trope, starting a few days after Dresden's battle with a sorcerer and his summoned demon, but not describing this encounter until he re-lives it in a nightmare several chapters into the book.

[-[[caption-width-right:320:An approximation. You should see the ''Film/PulpFiction'' [[AnachronicOrder timeline]].]]-]

* ''[[WesternAnimation/AvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes]]'' begins by skipping over the origin stories of ComicBook/IronMan, [[Comicbook/IncredibleHulk The Incredible Hulk]], Comicbook/{{Ant-Man}}, and TheWasp, as well as the stories of how Comicbook/TheMightyThor and {{Hawkeye}} became crimefighters. WordOfGod says the writers assumed that viewers would already know Iron Man's and the Hulk's origins from their respective movies, that Thor's heroic training didn't seem as important to depict as his arrogance and leave from Asgard did, and that detailing how Ant-Man and Wasp got their powers so early on in the series would leave the two of them with less time to impress viewers who never read their comics.

* Dennis Hopeless is fond of this trope. Both AvengersArena and Cable and X-Force, first and second issues released on the same days as each other, start this way.