History Main / InMediasRes

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'' begins by skipping over the origin stories of ComicBook/IronMan, the [[Characters/IncredibleHulkBruceBanner Hulk]], ComicBook/AntMan, and Characters/TheWasp, as well as the stories of how [[Characters/TheMightyThorThorOdinson Thor]] and ComicBook/{{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.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E135TheLongMorrow The Long Morrow]]" begins with Commander Douglas Stansfield aboard the ship in his suspended animation chamber as the date changes from December 31, 1987 to January 1, 1988. It then flashes back to Dr. Bixler recruiting Stansfield for the mission the previous June.

%%* ''Series/{{Castle}}'' is in love with this trope and does it frequently. How well it does it tends to vary from episode to episode.

* ''Literature/MalgudiDays'': In "Naga", a father goes around houses charming the titular snake to make a living for his son and himself. He eventually runs away with a woman, forcing the son to take up the snake-charming business on his own.

* ''Literature/MalgudiDays'': In "Naga", a father goes around houses charming the titular snake to make a living for his son and himself. He eventually runs away with a woman, forcing the son to take up the snake-charming business himself.

!!Examples:

* The insane WidgetSeries ''Anime/IppatsuKikiMusume'' uses this to amusing effect. The protagonist Kunyan always starts off each episode in some insane predicament (such as [[SaunaOfDeath trapped in a sauna]], or wedged between two buildings several stories up), and part of the humor comes from going back and seeing exactly how she got there in the first place.

* The first issue of ''ComicBook/SpiderMan2099'' opens with Spider-Man swinging around downtown and beating up criminals; he then goes back to his apartment and reminisces about how he became Spider-Man. This does a good job of making the issue a self-contained origin story, even though two issues of plot happen between the last page and first page of the comic.

* The first three parts of the Music/{{Rush}} saga "Fear", which was split across four albums, were released in reverse order (i.e. Part 3 first).

[[caption-width-right:320:An approximation. [[AnachronicOrder You should see the]] ''Film/PulpFiction'' [[http://dehahs.deviantart.com/art/Pulp-Fiction-Timeline-Enhanced-245666429 timeline.]]]]

[-[[caption-width-right:320:An approximation. [[AnachronicOrder You should see the]] ''Film/PulpFiction'' [[http://dehahs.deviantart.com/art/Pulp-Fiction-Timeline-Enhanced-245666429 timeline.]]]]-]

''"Into the middle of things"'' — taken from the poet Horace, this refers to the 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 -- and Creator/{{Aristotle}} diagnosed it in ''Literature/{{Poetics}}'', making it one of the first identified tropes.

When used in TV it's generally a preamble to a {{Flashback}} which falls under HowWeGotHere — where the action starts at the middle or end of the story and quickly flashes back to the ''real'' beginning.

* ''Manga/MarchComesInLikeALion'' begins when Rei is already living on his own and has already met the Kawamoto family. The early portion of the story alternates between the present and several flashbacks showing how he met the Kawamoto sisterss and how he got to where he is in life, before almost fully devoting itself to the present-day plot.

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' showed a "special preview episode" in the very first American run of the series; however, the series itself has a standard WelcomeEpisode. This would not be the only time [[Creator/FourKidsEntertainment 4Kids]] would air a mid-story episode as a preview: ''Magical [=DoReMi=]'' was previewed with the 4th episode (where Doremi [Dorie], Hazuki [Reanne] and Aiko [Mirabelle] become witch apprentices [witchlings]), and ''Winx Club'' was previewed with a episode from late in the first season, before then airing the proper premiere at the start of the regular run.

*** Issue #6 starts with ComicBook/{{Batgirl}} and Black Canary trying to botch James Gordon's kidnapping. The next scenes cut to Killer Moth and his partner plotting and carrying out James' kidnapping, and then the story cuts back to both heroines giving chase.

** ''ComicBook/SupergirlWomanOfTomorrow'': The first issue concludes with [[BigBad Krem]] fleeing into ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'s spaceship and getting blasted into space accidentally. The second issue begins with Kara and Ruthye travelling to another planet by starship. At the end of the issue, Ruthye remembers the events which led Kara and herself to hunt Krem down.

* The Franchise/MyLittlePony AbridgedSeries ''WebVideo/ScootertrixTheAbridged'' has a couple examples:

* ''[[WesternAnimation/HulkVs Hulk vs. Wolverine]]'' begins with ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} waking up after getting punched by the Hulk. The short then shows a lengthy flashback of Wolverine getting sent on a mission by Department H to hunt the Hulk, encountering Bruce Banner while searching, and leading to Banner HulkingOut.

* ''Don't Panic'', Creator/NeilGaiman's biography of Creator/DouglasAdams, starts out with the inception of Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy, then jumps back to Adams' birth.

* Each book of Stephenie Meyer's ''Literature/{{Twilight}} Saga'' opens with a preface that is describing a scene that happens near the climax of the story.

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'':

* ''VideoGame/StartAgainStartAgainStartAgainAPrologue'' opens with the heroes entering the [[FinalDungeon King's Castle]], and a brief FlashForward before jumping back again. For Siffrin, this is far from the ''first'' time [[GroundhogDayLoop he's gone through these events]], and his goal has shifted; in addition to finding some way to defeat the King, he's desperate to ensure his companions stay LockedOutOfTheLoop and don't learn what they've been going through.

* ''VideoGame/TormentTidesOfNumenera'' starts with the player character falling from the atmosphere. Not doing anything results in a NonStandardGameOver.

* Of the currently existent ''Webcomic/AgnesQuill'' stories, all but ''one'' use this, starting in the middle of the action late in one case, before wrapping it up and segueing to the one that will be the primary focus of the story. And the overall story ''also'' starts [[OneWePreparedEarlier in medias res]], with Agnes already fairly well-established in her new career -- the most important points of how she got there were covered in the Cast page, and further expanded on in [[AllThereInTheManual supplemental materials included in the book collection]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'' begins by skipping over the origin stories of ComicBook/IronMan, the [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk Hulk]], ComicBook/AntMan, and ComicBook/TheWasp, as well as the stories of how [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]] and ComicBook/{{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.
** Comicbook/CaptainAmerica's introductory episode begins after he became an American icon. However, it does open with a newsreel recounting his origin story, for the convenience of viewers who did not know it.
** This trope is averted for ComicBook/BlackPanther and [[Comicbook/CarolDanvers Ms. Marvel]], whose origin stories occur during the first season instead of before it, and ComicBook/TheVision, whose birth occurs during season two.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'', although the short that creator Craig [=McCracken=] initially submitted to Creator/CartoonNetwork was an origin story that wasn't used due to an inappropriate title ("The Whoop-Ass Girls") and was pretty much the same as the opening. While the opening sequence does introduce the characters quickly, a real origin story doesn't occur until TheMovie.
** This also happens with the episode "Him Diddle Riddle", as the Girls are already in the middle of solving Him's series of trials.

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' began this way, a surprising rarity for a superhero series. We didn't see a "proper" origin until the ''fifth'' season.

* ''{{Film/Tron}}'' starts by showing that a video game is a literal to-the-death battle between two humanoid characters; what might be called [[IncrediblyLamePun in medias derez]].

* ''VideoGame/MaxPayne'' opens with Max on the rooftop of a building, having landed a successful sniper shot. The entire rest of the game reveals [[HowWeGotHere How He Got There]] via FlashBack.

* ''Literature/TheMasterOfRagnarokAndBlesserOfEinherjar'' starts the entire series after the protagonist, Yuuto Suou has been the patriarch of the wolf-clan for several years, and slowly reveals how he got that way over an extended series of flashbacks as the story unfolds.

* ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine'' begins with a helicopter chase over Dubai that ends in a sandstorm and fiery crash before going back to "earlier" when Walker, Adams and Lugo first arrived in the city. When you reach the part of the plot where the helicopter chase happens, Walker, [[spoiler:who is crazy and going crazier,]] apparently gets a huge sense of Déjà Vu and says [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall "This isn't right, we've already done this..."]] [[spoiler:According to the game's writer, a possible interpretation is this is because he ''did'': Walker, Adams and Lugo actually died in the helicopter crash at the start of the game and the rest of the game is Walker's DyingDream.]]

* ''VideoGame/SyphonFilter3'' opens with the continuation from the cliffhanger of 2, skip to Logan being questioned in a hearing, and cut to a flashback of [[spoiler:Logan (allegedly) murdering a "world leader" with a sniper rifle]]. Your first mission is spent on how and in what context [[spoiler:Logan was shooting]], and the entire game is [[spoiler:a buildup to the climactic questioning scene, which is about 2 levels from the end]].

* Used as the opening to each successive season of ''Series/{{Revenge}}'', the reveal typically taking place mid-season.

* Creator/Statius: