History Main / StartsWithTheirFuneral

* ''Film/{{Awake}}'': The film opens with Dr. Jack Harper lamenting the fact that while he has lost patients before, Clayton Beresford is the only friend he's ever lost on the surgical table. He then ponders whether Clayton was thinking of "her" that day, before the scene switches to Clayton and his fiance Sam together in his apartment several days before the surgery.

* ''Literature/IWantToEatYourPancreas'' starts with Sakura Yamauchi's funeral, which the initially unnamed protagonist is absent for, and then goes back to show how he met her.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* ''Film/CitizenKane'' offers a variation on this by starting with his death, and then moving onto a newsreel about his life, before diving right into the flashbacks.

* The Creator/DickVanDyke movie ''Film/TheComic'' begins with his funeral (he narrates), where Mickey Rooney's character honors his last wish by hitting the preacher in the face with a pie! The film is a flashback over the titular comic's career.
* ''Film/TheBespokeOvercoat'': Starts with Morry, a poor Jewish tailor, attending the LonelyFuneral of his even poorer friend Fender. He's pretty surprised to go back to his room and find Fender's ghost there. Fender has some UnfinishedBusiness.
* ''Film/{{Awake}}'': The film opens with Dr. Jack Harper lamenting the fact that while he has lost patients before, Clayton Beresford is the only friend he's ever lost on the surgical table. He then ponders whether Clayton was thinking of "her" that day, before the scene switches to Clayton and his fiance Sam together in his apartment several days before the surgery.
* ''Film/ChariotsOfFire'' opens with the funeral of Harold Abrahams in 1978, before backing up to tell the story of his athletic career and triumph at the 1924 Olympics.
* ''Film/BigMoneyHustlas'' begins with the film's protagonist, Sugar Bear, attending the funeral of Officer Harry Cox. It then flashes back to show Sugar Bear's battles against crime lord Big Baby Sweets and the events resulting in Cox's death.
* ''Film/FatherAndSoldier'' starts two years after ''UsefulNotes/WorldWarI'', as white soldiers dig some dirt and find an unknown soldier's bones.
* ''Film/{{Gandhi}}'' opens with scenes of Gandhi's murder and funeral before telling the story of his life.
* ''Film/MichaelCollins'' opens with Collins' friends mourning him, before telling the story of his life.
* The 1954 Creator/AvaGardner film ''Film/TheBarefootContessa'' begins with the title character's funeral before flashing back to her rise to stardom.
* The movie adaptation of ''Film/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'' begins by showing Gregory Edgeworth in the afterlife, as Misty Fey contacts him to learn [[WhodunnitToMe the identity of his murderer]].
* ''Film/FirstBlood'': John Rambo's eulogy acts as the framing device for the film. [[spoiler:Only it turns out he's not really dead.]]
* ''Film/PowerfulFour'' starts with the funeral of one of the titular four, a quartet of police superintendents and heroes of the Hong Kong police, attended by his three partners, their children and grandchildren. The subsequent flashback to their younger days in the 1970s is a FramingDevice for the rest of the film.
* Possibly the TropeMaker, and certainly one of the earlier examples, is 1933 film ''Film/ThePowerAndTheGlory''. The film starts off with the funeral of RailroadBaron Tom Garner, before his loyal sidekick Henry's outrage at other people's dislike of Tom leads Henry to tell Tom's story in a series of flashbacks.
* ''Film/AChristmasCarol1999'' starts with the LonelyFuneral of Jacob Marley, in contrast to [[Literature/AChristmasCarol the source material]] where he's DeadToBeginWith and has been for seven years. [[Film/AChristmasCarol1984 The 1984 version]] also opens with a brief shot of his hearse making its way down the street before flashing forward to seven years later.

* The ''Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures'' novel ''So Vile a Sin'' starts with the death of companion Roz, then tells the events leading up to it. It wasn't planned to but when the almost-completed draft was lost in a computer crash it had to be rewritten from scratch so not only was the secret out, but it had a schedule slip too. Since books that took place chronologically after her death were being published before the one it actually occurred in, it made no dramatic sense to keep her death as a shocking climax.

* Nonfiction example: The prologue of ''Street Gang: The Complete History of Series/SesameStreet'' is a retold account of Creator/JimHenson's memorial service.

[[folder:LiveActionTV]]

* Subverted with the series two premiere episode of ''Series/NewTricks''. The episode opens ominously, with all the characters except for Gerry gathered outside a church watching solemnly as a coffin is carried into the funeral, making remarks that would seem to suggest that Gerry has passed away... until Gerry himself pulls up in front of the church in his car and runs towards everyone, obviously flustered and apologetic. Turns out he's just very late to his grandson's christening and everyone has had to let the vicar perform a funeral while they wait.

[[folder: Music Videos]]

[[folder: Theater]]
* ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}'' begins with everyone celebrating Elphaba's death. She didn't get a funeral. It's also a weird example in that [[spoiler: she's not really dead.]]

[[folder: Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/RamboTheVideoGame'' starts with the titular character's funeral, with his mentor Colonel Trautman delivering an eulogy - a reverse of what happened in the films, since in the movies Rambo out-lives Trautman (in the game it's the other way around).
* ''VideoGame/TombRaiderChronicles'' uses Lara Croft's funeral as a framing device, with each playable segment being a story told by one of the guests about her past exploits. However, since her (apparent) death occurred at the end of the previous game, the flashbacks don't actually catch up to the 'present.'
* Creator/AdamCadre's ''VideoGame/{{Photopia}}'' does this. We don't see [[spoiler:Alley's]] funeral, but the game opens with [[spoiler:her death]], and then the rest of the story leads up to it in a roundabout way. It's played with, though, because none of the events are in order, and you don't figure out what most of them mean until you finish the game.
* She is not exactly dead, but Zoe is first seen in ''VideoGame/DreamfallTheLongestJourney'' lying in coma she cannot awaken from, with her grieving father at her side. The rest of the story is Zoe recounting who left her in that condition.

[[folder: Western Animation]]

[[folder:Film]]

* ''Film/LawrenceOfArabia'' starts with his fatal motorcycle accident, then shows his funeral, and then flashes back to before he became famous.

* ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise''. "[[Recap/StarTrekEnterpriseS03E10Similtude Similtude]]" starts with the funeral of the Chief Engineer, Charles 'Trip' Tucker. We then proceed to a WalkingTransplant plot, and the funeral turns out to be for Trip's clone, with the real Trip [[AttendingYourOwnFuneral standing at the back of the crowd]].

* ''Film/AChristmasCarol1999'' starts with the LonelyFuneral of Jacob Marley, in contrast to [[Literature/AChristmasCarol the source material]] where he's DeadToBeginWith and has been for seven years.

* ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise''. The episode "Similtude" starts with the funeral of the Chief Engineer, Charles 'Trip' Tucker. We then proceed to a WalkingTransplant plot, and the funeral turns out to be for Trip's clone, with the real Trip [[AttendingYourOwnFuneral standing at the back of the crowd]].
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E18CauseAndEffect Cause and Effect]]" starts with the ''Enterprise'' getting blown up, then seemingly cuts back to show the events leading up to the explosion. It's a subversion: the ''Enterprise'' is caught in a time loop, and the crew is actually reliving the events, with slight variations each time, until they find a way out.

* The Creator/DickVanDyke movie ''The Comic'' begins with his funeral (he narrates), where Mickey Rooney's character honors his last wish by hitting the preacher in the face with a pie! The film is a flashback over the titular comic's career.

* ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' opens with the ''Normandy'' getting blindsided and torn apart by the Collectors. While much of the crew manage to escape, several others are shown dying, most notably Navigator Pressly and [[TheHeroDies Commander Shepard]] (the latter of whom [[IGotBetter gets better]]).

* ''Film/PowerfulFour'' starts with the funeral of one of the titular four, a quartet of police superintendents and heroes of the Hong Kong police, attended by his three partners, their children and grandchildren. The subsequent flashback to their younger days in the 1950s is a FramingDevice for the rest of the film.