History Main / NestedStoryReveal

* The ''Dragonlance'' short story ''The Storyteller'' is about a popular tavern tale-teller who the people love, especially since the Dragonarmy occupied their city. They love him so much in fact, that he's arrested and sentenced to death for inspiring rebellion. But the people aren't going to take this lying down; his friends at the tavern organize and break him out, starting a revolution in the process. Except not. That was just one last story he told to his cellmate. [[DownerEnding No one was brave enough to try to rescue him and he's hanged at dawn.]]

* The ending of ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' reveals that an old man was retelling the events of the whole trilogy to his grandchild under an AlienSky; the child then asks for another story about "the Shepard".

%%* The episode "Doing Time" from ''WesternAnimation/{{SpongeBob Squarepants}}''.

* The second half of ''Film/{{Next}}'' is this, being revealed to be a precognition of what would have happened has the protagonist taken a different action.

* The final ending of the ''Repentance'' DLC for ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaacRebirth'' reveals the entire story isn't Isaac's {{dying dream}} as originally shown, but a bedtime story that Isaac's father, as the narrator, is telling him based on his son's vivid if dark imagination. Clearly concerned about [[TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior the grim nature of the story and [[DownerEnding its conclusion]], Isaac's father suggests a happier ending and Isaac agrees. When his dad begins telling the story again instead of it being about "Isaac and his mother" it's about "Isaac and his parents", removing anything to suggest this is just another loop of Isaac's dying imagination.]]

* The Audio Play version of ''Daughter of Discord'', (the sequel to ''FanFic/BrideOfDiscord'') reveals that the story was being told by Twilight to a now slightly older [[HalfHumanHybrid Zany and Applespike, as well as her daughter Twinkle and Rarity's youngest daughter Jewel, the latter having not even [[EarlyBirdCameo appeared in the fan fics, until stories later in continuity]].]]

* In ''Webcomic/{{Opplopolis}}'' a [[http://www.opplopolis.com/issues/3/1 brief sequence]] about an alien race is apparently revealed to be a fantasy of Marvin's. Later, the same aliens reappear and [[http://www.opplopolis.com/issues/7/4 discuss future events of the comic]], in the process implying that ''Opplopolis'' is actually the nested story (one told to the aliens by something called "the marvedyne").

* In "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejqv-dKkK68 Hypothetical Possibilities]]" by [=MindGame=] Studios, Andy builds a machine that can simulate potential future scenarios. When Andy uses the machine for the first time, it explodes... but it was just the machine simulating a scenario where it short-circuited. The video ends up going through multiple similar reveals, and in the end, everything turns out to be the machine simulating a scenario where the machine's actual owners (two aliens) uploaded the machine's blueprints to Earth's internet.

'''Note:''' This is a SpoileredRotten trope, which means that '''every single example''' on this list is a spoiler by default. The details of the actual Nested Story Reveal may be hidden with spoiler tags, but since the reveal is often used as an [[EndingTropes ending trope]], merely seeing a work's name mentioned here can spoil its plot.

For the last two hours we've been following the adventures of the brave Princess Alice in the magical kingdom of Marvellonia, but then the story suddenly cuts to a living room in a modern house... And we find out Alice is just a regular kid living in the suburbs, while the movie we just saw is actually a story told by Alice to her friends to spice up a boring Saturday evening.

Nested Story Reveal is a subtrope of NestedStory where the audience thinks they are witnessing "real" events (real within the fictional universe, that is), but later on these events are [[TheReveal revealed]] to be a piece of fiction within an outer story that [[FramingDevice frames]] the inner nested story. Normally this is done by starting the plot with the inner story and not revealing the FramingDevice until later on.

* The 12th episode of season 1 of ''Manga/LaidBackCamp'' starts with a scene, where most of the girls are waiting for Nadeshiko, who is a CEO now. Then she is coming by air within a tent with rocket propulsion. Naturally this turned out to be a fantasy of Nadeshiko.
* ''Manga/LevelE'': Episode [[spoiler:four]], up to TheReveal in the last two minutes, is the plot of a script [[spoiler:Prince Baka is trying to sell to television.]]
* ''Anime/LoveLive'' has a ColdOpen in season 2 with a scene that's half this and half AllJustADream - the girls are around the computer, waiting for the results of the recent preliminary competition. The results come in, and after a few "almost"s ("Mi...Mi... Midnight Cats! Mi... Myu... Myu... Mutant Girls!"), they aren't on the list of teams that made it. Cut to [[spoiler:Honoka saying, "And that was the dream I had!", to which the rest of the team reacts along with the audience.]]

* At the end of Creator/TheFiresignTheatre's ''AudioPlay/IThinkWereAllBozosOnThisBus'', it's revealed that all the events of the story were just [[spoiler:a vision seen in the CrystalBall of a Gypsy FortuneTeller.]]

* At some point in ''ComicBook/TheInvisibles'' we find out that a future version of Dane, the main character, is recounting the events of the comic to his dying friend. One possible interpretation of this is that [[spoiler:it's all just a story made up by Dane to cheer up the friend before his death.]] Later on, the series also suggests that its story might be a case of [[spoiler:[[SelfInsertFic self-insert fanfic]] written by Ragged Robin]], or a [[spoiler:massive virtual reality video game where various characters are roles the players can choose]]. Let's just say ''ComicBook/TheInvisibles'' is fond of this trope.

* The Audio Play version of ''Daughter of Discord'', (the sequel to ''FanFic/BrideOfDiscord'') reveals that the story was being told by [[spoiler: Twilight to a now slightly older [[HalfHumanHybrid Zany and Applespike]], as well as her daughter Twinkle and Rarity's youngest daughter Jewel, the latter having not even [[EarlyBirdCameo appeared in the fan fics, until stories later in continuity]].]]

* After his HeroicSacrifice, [[TheHero Emmet]] and the audience learn that the events of ''WesternAnimation/TheLegoMovie'' up to that point have been [[spoiler:a game played by a young boy named Finn using his father's Lego set, with the central conflict mirroring his relationship with the father.]] PlayedWith in that Emmet remains aware in the real world, and with great effort [[spoiler:is able to move to get Finn's attention, inspiring him to return him to the story.]]

* ''Film/TheAdventuresOfBaronMunchausen'' does this, [[spoiler:though it also suggests the NestedStory might've been real after all.]]
* A common interpretation of ''Film/TheFountain'' is that [[spoiler:the "Conquistador" subplot]] actually comes from a book written by the protagonist's wife. It's also possible [[spoiler:the "Astronaut" subplot]] is something the protagonist added to the book later on. But since the movie is very much a MindScrew, it's hard to tell.
* The ending of ''[[Film/TheHousemaid1960 The Housemaid]]'' reveals that the whole film, a dark tale of adultery and murder centering around a man who sleeps with his maid, is actually [[spoiler:a hypothetical story that the man tells his wife.]] She is not amused.
* ''Film/{{Inception}}'' falls somewhere between this trope and AllJustADream. The events of the first story (and possibly [[spoiler:the whole movie]]) are revealed to be a dream, but unlike with a typical AllJustADream scenario, most of the characters know they're within a fictional story, since they're the ones who created it. Also the events in the dream are in the same continuity, with the characters' interactions carrying over.
* In ''Film/LittleWomen2019'', there is an [[AmbiguousEnding ambiguous]] example of this trope. It is revealed that [[spoiler:the scenes showing Jo and Friedrich's romantic happy ending]] are fictitious and are part of Jo's novel. [[OrWasItADream But they may be real;]] it is up for interpretation.
* The last scene of the goofy drug comedy ''Film/TheMysteryOfTheLeapingFish'' (1916) reveals the story to be an idea that [[spoiler:star Douglas Fairbanks is pitching to a writer at the studio. The writer tells him to "go back to acting".]]
* The [[spoiler:second half]] of ''Film/{{Next}}'' is this, being revealed to be [[spoiler:a precognition of what would have happened has the protagonist taken a different action]].
* ''Film/{{Twixt}}'' starts with Baltimore Hall deciding to write a book about the murders in the small town he stopped in. After many alternating dream scenes and fantastic events that reflect the dream and involving vampires, the film cuts to [[spoiler:his agent saying that he loves the story, implying that the events of the story were merely the plot of a fictional book.]][[/folder]]

* ''Literature/{{Atonement}}'' was supposedly completely truthful and written by [[spoiler:Briony, but she gave it a happy ending instead of writing down what actually happened: that is, that her sister and Robbie both died before they could reunite. Then you start to wonder how much else she made up, and whether she could really have known the whole truth anyway.]]

* The ''Dragonlance'' short story ''The Storyteller'' is about a popular tavern tale-teller who the people love, especially since the Dragonarmy occupied their city. They love him so much in fact, that he's arrested and sentenced to death for inspiring rebellion. But the people aren't going to take this lying down; his friends at the tavern organize and break him out, starting a revolution in the process. [[spoiler: Except not. That was just one last story he told to his cellmate. [[DownerEnding No one was brave enough to try to rescue him and he's hanged at dawn.]]]]

* One episode of the ''Series/TheDeadZone'' had Johnny bump into a woman in a bar. He sees various visions which snap back to him bumping into her in the bar. He avoids all the visions by [[spoiler: calling his friend the sheriff and asking him to wait outside for the woman's future murderers.]]
* ''Series/DoctorWho'': The majority of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E6Extremis "Extremis"]] takes place in [[spoiler:the latest of many computer simulations created by the Prophets of Truth in preparation for their invasion of Earth. The Doctor, Bill and Nardole that we see for most of the episode are simulacrums in this virtual reality.]] ''This'' time, however, [[spoiler:the simulated Doctor]] manages to send [[spoiler:the real one]] an email with his memory-print of the last several hours, alerting him to what's going on. Most of the episode is just that -- the Doctor watching the recording.
* In one episode of ''Series/{{Frasier}}'', the eponymous doctor is seriously doubting whether he should help strangers in need. While driving his car, he sees a woman standing in the rain, and decides to give her a ride. The woman turns out to be [[spoiler:a transgender prostitute, and Frasier soon gets arrested by the police, who mistakenly think he's soliciting for her services.]] The whole event ends up being publicized in the media, making Frasier a laughing stock. Just before the episode ends, [[spoiler:it cuts back to the scene with Frasier in the car and the woman standing in the rain. Turns out everything that happened was just a worst-case scenario Frasier had been considering in his head. He gives the woman a ride anyway.]]
* In the season 2 finale of ''Series/{{Roseanne}}'', Dan builds Roseanne an office in which she can realize her dream of becoming a writer. In the final episode, it's revealed that [[spoiler:the entire series has been based on a semi-autobiographical story she's been writing in the office. In the story, she's changed a number of details about her life that she didn't like, while in reality, Dan actually died from his heart attack during Darlene's wedding; Darlene actually married Mark, while Becky married David; her sister, rather than her mother, was a lesbian; and Roseanne didn't win the lottery.]]
** Becomes a nested story within a nested story after the revival. [[spoiler:The epilogue from the season 9 finale is actually part of the story that she is writing, and in reality Dan is alive, David and Mark are with Darlene and Becky respectively, they didn't win the lottery, Bev is gay, and Jackie is straight.]]
* In ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' Season 5 episode ''The Recombination Hypothesis'', Leonard considers asking Penny out again and their dates go horribly, although there are frequent bedroom encounters after the fact. Leonard gets more and more confused [[spoiler:and it is eventually revealed that he is still in the original scene contemplating asking her out. Having "thought it through", he decides to ask her out and in later episodes they eventually get back together.]]

* The first five minutes of the extended music video for ''{{Music/Thriller}}'' are revealed to be a [[spoiler:werewolf B Movie starring Music/MichaelJackson and a girl--who are both in a theater watching the film.]]

* In the play ''A Madhouse in Goa'' by Martin Sherman, the second act reveals that the first act was [[spoiler:a fictionalized account of events written by a character in the second act; in the second act a CorruptCorporateExecutive wants to make the story into a movie musical]]. Production notes say that the first act may be performed separately, under a different name.

* The final ending of the ''Repentance'' DLC for ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaacRebirth'' reveals [[spoiler:the entire story isn't Isaac's {{dying dream}} as originally shown, but a bedtime story that Isaac's father, as the narrator, is telling him based on his son's vivid if dark imagination. Clearly concerned about [[TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior the grim nature of the story]] and [[DownerEnding its conclusion]], Isaac's father suggests a happier ending and Isaac agrees. When his dad begins telling the story again instead of it being about "Isaac and his mother" it's about "Isaac and his parents", removing anything to suggest this is just another loop of Isaac's dying imagination.]]
* The interactive fiction game ''[[http://ifdb.tads.org/viewgame?id=ii0k5l53vhghqyh6 Broken Legs]]'' is about a VillainProtagonist named Lottie who sabotages all her rivals to get selected for a prestigious singing job. Until you learn at the end that [[spoiler:it's a story made up by Mary, one of Lottie's rivals, to convince the school board to fire Lottie so that she can get the coveted job instead.]] This is cleverly foreshadowed by [[spoiler:Mary being the only character portrayed in a flattering light in Lottie's narrative.]]
* The ending of ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' reveals that [[spoiler:an old man was retelling the events of the whole trilogy to his grandchild under an AlienSky; the child then asks for another story about "the Shepard"]].
* The [[spoiler:[[GainaxEnding ending]]]] of ''VideoGame/MonkeyIsland2LeChucksRevenge'' is usually interpreted as this, though ''VideoGame/TheCurseOfMonkeyIsland'' {{retcon}}s it so that everything was real after all.
** However, series creator Creator/RonGilbert had no involvement in the series after ''[=LeChuck=]'s Revenge'' (aside from minor, early story advice on ''VideoGame/TalesOfMonkeyIsland''[[spoiler:, which was still part of the continuity created by the third game]]), having left Creator/LucasArts a year after it was released, and he said that the reveal in Curse wasn't what he had in plan for the story, so it might be a nested story after all.
* The InteractiveFiction game ''VideoGame/{{Photopia}}'' switches back and forth between two plots; the first is a slice-of-life story centered around a teen girl named Alley, and the second starts with an astronaut exploring Mars and gets stranger from there. [[spoiler:The latter turns out to be a story that Alley is telling to Wendy, who she's babysitting.]]
* In the penultimate mission of ''VideoGame/SaintsRowTheThird'', you have to choose between going after Killbane, the game's BigBad (who is about to escape on a plane) or save your teammate on the other side of the city. If you let Killbane escape, the final mission is a climactic showdown between you and him on Mars... [[spoiler:which is actually just a movie the Saints are making after becoming a massive cultural icon.]]

* Completing ''VideoGame/SonicMania'' in the unlockable [[spoiler:& Knuckles]] mode [[spoiler:while playing as Knuckles]] reveals that [[spoiler:the events of the mode are actually a story called ''Sonic Mania & Knuckles'' that Knuckles reads to some animal buddies.]]

* ''VideoGame/DoDonPachi Resurrection BLACK LABEL''[='=]s consumer-exclusive ''VideoGame/{{Ketsui}}''-crossover ArrangeMode appears to be a plotless crossover at first, with the game being a mishmash of ''Resurrection''[='=]s and ''Ketsui''[='=]s game mecahnics, and a variation of Evaccaneer DOOM as the TrueFinalBoss. However the ending reveals that [[spoiler:it's a training simulation for the ''Ketsui'' pilots in preparation for their assault on EVAC Industry, making it a StealthPrequel.]]

* The ending to ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'' reveals that the repeating time loop is actually Toya Hachijo's attempt to [[spoiler:recreate and speculate on the events of Rokkenjima 1986 by writing mystery novels based on the two original message bottles (''Legend'' and ''Turn of the Golden Witch'').]]
* The entire premise to the KineticNovel ''VisualNovel/OneThousandLies'' reveals is that the prologue and conclusion were in fact, what actually happened, while the entire main story, the "One Thousand Lies," [[spoiler:was actually a story penned by the main character, Ciaran.]]
* The freeware OtomeGame ''VisualNovel/RistoranteAmore'' is presented as a DatingSim in which the player takes the role of a young woman working in the eponymous restaurant. When the prologue ends, however, the role of the game's viewpoint character changes to [[spoiler:Pierre, whereupon it's revealed that all of the characters are actors on a planet called Erewhon fueled by feelings of love from the inhabitants of Earth, and they're staging a visual novel in order to encourage those feelings. Pierre isn't even really named Pierre; his name is actually Josh]].

* [[http://www.drawingboardcomic.com/index.php?comic=142 This strip]] of ''Drawing Board'' is a rather extreme example of this trope, showing a guy imagining what he would say to a girl on a train and then [[spoiler:going through multiple nested story reveals.]]

* In "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejqv-dKkK68 Hypothetical Possibilities]]" by [=MindGame=] Studios, Andy builds a machine that can simulate potential future scenarios. When Andy uses the machine for the first time, it explodes... but it was just the machine simulating a scenario where it short-circuited. The video ends up going through multiple similar reveals, and in the end, [[spoiler:everything turns out to be the machine simulating a scenario where the machine's actual owners (two aliens) uploaded the machine's blueprints to Earth's internet]].

** "Five Short Tables" takes this up to a whole new level; Ice King reads a Fionna and Cake fan-fiction that, at one point, has the Ice Queen sharing ''her'' fanfiction, in which her stand-in character Ice President is sharing ''his'' fan-fiction. At the end, the story is revealed to be [[spoiler: a series of themed vignettes just like in the "Graybles" episodes, and then it shows the whole thing was Cuber watching one of his graybles.]]
* There's that two-part episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' called ''Stewie Kills Lois'' and ''Lois Kills Stewie'' where Stewie tries to kill Lois, then tries to [[PresidentEvil take over the world]] when he realizes she survived, then she tries to stop him by any means necessary, but at the end of the second episode it turns out that [[spoiler:Stewie was just running a virtual reality simulation to see what would happen if he finally tried to kill Lois.]] The use of this trope is {{Lampshaded}} by Brian, who comments that anyone who were "watching" [[spoiler:the simulation]] and found out at the end it didn't happen would feel like they'd been given a "giant middle finger".
** In the later episode "Forget Me Not", the entire plot is revealed to be [[spoiler: an experiment by Stewie to test Brian and Peter's relationship.]]
* In the first "Anthology of Interest" episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', the Professor invents a Fing-Longer (a glove with an extended index finger), which leads the crew to discover his What-If machine. The rest of the episode is a series of shorts played out on the What-If machine based on questions that the others ask it. At the very end of the episode [[spoiler: there's a cut to the Professor watching the What-If machine alone, and he says "So that's what things would be like if I'd invented the Fing-Longer."]]
* Exaggerated in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'''s episode "The Seemingly Never-Ending Story": Lisa tells a story while the family is trapped in a cave, [[NestedStory which turns into a series of stories within stories]]. As she finishes all the events from her story come together to have Burns, the rich Texan, Moe, and Snake all trying to steal gold hidden nearby. When the story concludes it turns out the whole thing was [[spoiler:Bart explaining to the principal why he hadn't been able to do his homework.]]
* The ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "Woodland Critter Christmas" is revealed to be [[spoiler:a story narrated by Cartman]] near the end when Kyle objects to "Kyle" agreeing to host the Antichrist.

* ''VideoGame/DoDonPachi Resurrection BLACK LABEL''[='=]s consumer-exclusive ''VideoGame/{{Ketsui}}-crossover ArrangeMode [[spoiler:appears to be a plotless crossover at first, with the game being a mishmash of ''Resurrection''[='=]s and ''Ketsui''[='=]s game mecahnics, and a variation of Evaccaneer DOOM as the TrueFinalBoss. However the ending reveals that it's a training simulation for the ''Ketsui'' pilots in preparation for their assault on EVAC Industry, making it a StealthPrequel.]]