Line #59 Main/DistantPrologue


1	->''"Millions of years ago, in a distant galaxy..."''
2	-->-- ''Film/StargateTheArkOfTruth''
3
4	The Distant Prologue is a short introduction scene that takes place a significant amount of time before the main plot starts.
5
6	Bonus points if it has [[TitleIn subtitles in visual media]]: for example, "8,000 Years Ago", followed by "Present Day" after the TimeSkip to the period when the majority of the work takes place. Can overlap with WhenItAllBegan.
7
8	Supertrope to AMinorKidroduction (the prologue introduces a character as a child before cutting to the present) and MythPrologue (the prologue tells a fantastical story around which the plot is based). Contrast of course DistantFinale. See also FramingDevice.
9
10	----
11	!!Examples:
12	[[foldercontrol]]
13
14	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
15	* The ''Anime/{{Akira}}'' film starts with a very short prologue set in 1988 (basically showing the destruction of Tokyo with what initially appears to be a new kind of bomb) and quickly cuts to the year 2019.
16	* ''Manga/{{Doraemon}}''
17	** ''Anime/DoraemonNobitasDriftsInTheUniverse'' begins with a flashback 300 years ago when the denizens of Planet Laguna evacuates their home in a PlanetSpaceship, one of them collecting a sapling. Cut to the present, Doraemon and friends managed to rendezvous with the Space Knights, a group of heroes descended from the denizens of Planet Laguna, and there's a 300-year-old Holy Tree serving as their protector.
18	** ''Anime/DoraemonNobitaInTheWanNyanSpacetimeOdyssey'' begins in an ancient, advanced civilization of andromorphic cats and dogs, existing on earth millions of years ago, with an elderly dog-man leaping on a TimeMachine trying to travel to the present for reasons unknown before being [[FountainOfYouth hit and de-aged by a time drift]]. The story then cuts to the present-day.
19	** ''Anime/DoraemonGreatAdventureInTheAntarcticKachiKochi'' has a prologue set 100,000 years ago involving the new main characters, Carla and Hyakkoi being pursued by Octagon the giant squid in an ancient city. Carla lose a valuable gold artifact in the process, and the scene cuts to present-day Tokyo.
20	* ''Anime/DragonBallZKai'' opens with the final scenes of the ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' [[MadeForTVMovie TV special]] Bardock: The Father of Goku, set 23 years before the start of the series.
21	* ''Manga/FlameOfRecca'' has the prologue take place 400 years earlier.
22	* ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikers'' begins with Nanoha rescuing a child Subaru before fast-forwarding to the present time with a now teenage Subaru preparing for her qualifying mage exam for [[RandomPowerRanking B-Rank]]. According to the lore, four years pass in-between.
23	* ''Anime/MyOtome'', to 14 years ago, when all three main characters were infants (and the series is intentionally misleading on which one of them appears in the prologue).
24	* ''Manga/OnePiece'' starts with the execution of Gold Roger on the first page, time skips to Luffy's childhood for the rest of the first chapter, then time skips another 10 years to when Luffy becomes a pirate. (In the anime, Gold Roger's execution was exposition put in the start of the opening theme and Luffy's backstory became a WholeEpisodeFlashback just after Zoro joined the crew.)
25	* ''{{Franchise/Pokemon}}'' films have done this in the [[Anime/Pokemon4Ever fourth]], [[Anime/PokemonDestinyDeoxys seventh]], and [[Anime/PokemonLucarioAndTheMysteryOfMew eighth]] movies.
26	* The ''Manga/SilentMobius'' TV series opens with Project Gaia going awry in 1999 and then cuts to somewhere around 2029 or 2030.
27	* ''Manga/TegamiBachiLetterBee'' begins with Gauche Suede taking Lag to Cambel Litmus to live with his aunt after his mother is abducted. A few years later, Lag sets out with the goals of becoming a Letter Bee, meeting Gauche again and finding his mother.
28	* ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' has "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e2CiFbmQEg Parallel Works 8]]", a video made after the show's end that [[spoiler:shows the first war between humanity and the Anti-Spirals, 1000 years before Simon fought against them, and [[FallenHero Lordgenome]]'s crossing of the DespairEventHorizon that led to him betraying his own people, in a desperate attempt [[WellIntentionedExtremist to save them at all costs.]]]] It was later incorporated into ''Lagann-Hen''.
29	* ''Manga/WorldWitches'':
30	** The ''Manga/StrikeWitches'' episode "[[Recap/StrikeWitchesEp1MagicalGirl Magical Girl]]" opens with the Neuroi's invasion of Karlsland in 1939, five years before story begins.
31	** ''Anime/StrikeWitchesTheMovie'' begins with the Neuroi's attack on Europe in 1943, one year before the formation of the titular squadron.
32	** The ''Anime/LuminousWitches'' episode "[[Recap/LuminousWitchesEp1WonderfulWorldNiceToMeetYou WONDERFUL WORLD — Nice to Meet You]]" begins in 1941, which depicts Grace Maitland Steward's participation in the Dunkirk evacuation and Virginia Robertson's encounter of Moffy.
33	[[/folder]]
34
35	[[folder:Asian Animation]]
36	* The beginning of episode 1 of ''Animation/FlowerAngel'' occurs in the past, having An'an's dad tell her the story of Labelle and its secret envoy at bedtime. The actual events of the episode take place in the present day.
37	* The first episode of ''Animation/PleasantGoatAndBigBigWolf'' begins with an introduction to the wolves and their history with attempting and failing to capture the goats, which took place in the year 3010 whereas the rest of the series is supposed to be in the year 3513.
38	[[/folder]]
39
40	[[folder:Comic Books]]
41	* ''ComicBook/ElfQuest'' starts with the arrival of the first elves, trolls and preservers on the World of Two Moons and their fateful meeting with humans, and then jumps forward about ten thousand years between two panels!
42	* ''ComicBook/ImmortalIronFist'' starts in the 13th century with one of the early Iron Fists defending his home; from this point on the story takes place in the modern day.
43	* ''ComicBook/TheMagnificentMsMarvel'': The first issue begins hundreds of years in the future, with a Saffan father telling his child about the legend of the Destined One -- that is, the events of the story.
44	* ''ComicBook/UltimateMarvel'':
45	** The first issue of ''ComicBook/TheUltimates2002'' narrates the ultimate fate of Captain America during World War II. The next one continues in modern day, half a century afterwards.
46	** The first issue of ''ComicBook/UltimateVision'' details the Vision's creation and journeys across the space, thousands of millions of years ago (previously included as bonus scenes in ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan'', ''ComicBook/UltimateXMen'' and ''ComicBook/UltimateFantasticFour''). The second issue starts the actual story, set in the modern day, right after the ''ComicBook/UltimateGalactusTrilogy''.
47	%%* ''ComicBook/YTheLastMan'' does this in some issues.
48	* ''ComicBook/LegendsOfTheDeadEarth'':
49	** ''[[ComicBook/{{Superman}} Adventures of Superman]]'' Annual #8 begins with a {{Hologram}} of Jor-El appearing to Superman in the 20th Century and downloading a great deal of information about Krypton into his brain. The remainder of the story takes place on Colu 500,000 years later, where the same thing happens to the Curatti Willigig.
50	** In ''ComicBook/{{Superboy}}'' Annual #3, the first scene depicts the metahuman Sanson posing as the god Quetzalcoatl and promising the people of Aztlan that a superman would be delivered to them. Sanson then pretended that his previously secret powers were a gift from Quetzalcoatl. The rest of the story takes place 500 years later when Aztlan is ruled by a [[BewareTheSuperman tyrannical Superman who abuses his great power for his own benefit]].
51	* ''ComicBook/Ronin1983'' begins in Feudal Japan, depicting the titular {{Samurai}} and his battle with the demon that murdered his master before cutting away to the {{Cyberpunk}} future the story takes place in. [[spoiler:It's actually a {{subver\|tedTrope}}sion; the whole prologue in ancient Japan is really just a clip from a ShowWithinAShow that Billy watches, which has heavy influence on how his PsychicPowers manifest (namely, creating robot facsimiles of the Ronin and his supporting cast to make his personal fantasies real). The scene transition from "past" to present is, in truth, a brilliantly disguised pan from the TV screen Billy is looking at to his face.]]
52	* ''ComicBook/{{Pathfinder\|DynamiteComics}}: Hollow Mountain #1'' takes us back all the way back to the last days of Thassilon, where Alaznist, Runelord of Wrath and mistress of the mountain, entombs herself in her Runewell just as the first meteors of [[https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Earthfall Earthfall]] begin to strike. We then fast-forward nearly ten thousand years to the comics' present day in the mid-4700s.
53	[[/folder]]
54
55	[[folder:Fan Works]]
56	* ''Fanfic/AbraxasHrodvitnon'': The very first scene in the first chapter is set during the events of ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'', just after San is decapitated from Ghidorah; whereas the rest of the story is set after the events depicted in the film.
57	* The first chapter of the "Rewrite the World" arc in the ''Fanfic/AlternateTailSeries'' starts in the year X761 with Joseph and his students facing off against a powerful water-controlling horse.
58	* In the ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'' fanfic, ''Fanfic/CourtneyAndTheViolinOfDespair'', the prologue is set roughly 230 years before the beginning of the main story.
59	* An inversion of this trope: the beginning of "Days Of Future Smurfed" in ''Fanfic/EmpathTheLuckiestSmurf'' takes place in the early 21st Century, with Empath and his great-grandson Polaris Smurf (who would soon become Traveler) as the last two Smurfs alive. The rest of the story cuts between that time period and the medieval Europe time period that the entirety of the series takes place in, as Polaris!Traveler's purpose is to create a StableTimeLoop.
60	* ''Webcomic/TheLegendOfGenji'': The prologue has Jinora delivering an eulogy at [[WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra Avatar Korra's]] funeral just days after Korra's HeroicSacrifice. The first chapter of Book 1 then jumps ahead seventeen years to the main story.
61	* ''Fanfic/ThePiecesLieWhereTheyFell'': Chapter Zero takes place a thousand years before the main events of the story.
62	* The prologue of the ''Manga/MedakaBox'' fanfic ''Fanfic/WorldAsMyth'' is split up into three parts. One kicks off the plot. One happens fifteen years before. And one happens one hundred and fifty years before.
63	[[/folder]]
64
65	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
66	* ''WesternAnimation/AtlantisTheLostEmpire'' [[WhatCouldHaveBeen was originally supposed to start with a group of Vikings searching for Atlantis and then being dispatched by the Leviathan]], but it was decided that, in order to become invested in Kida's arc in the story, they needed to show the actual destruction of Atlantis
67	* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanUnderTheRedHood'': The film opens with the Joker murdering Robin, five years before the events of the main story.
68	* ''WesternAnimation/BrotherBear'' opens with an Inuit clan gathering around a fire as an elderly Denahi tells them the story of his brother Kenai.
69	* ''WesternAnimation/EetuJaKonna'': The opening scene shows how the intelligent frogs were originally forced into hiding in their secret pond society by cavemen who ate them.
70	* ''WesternAnimation/TheJungleBook1967'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Tarzan}}'' start off with the discovery of an orphaned or otherwise abandoned child.
71	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}}'' has not one but two of these: first, the Muses talk about "Back when the world was new" and [[MythPrologue show the battle between Zeus and the Titans]]; then a few scenes, taking place about two decades before the main plot, show baby Hercules beign born and getting kidnapped and turned mortal by the minions of Hades.
72	* ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda2'' begins by showing the prophecy surrounding the villain Shen's fall, his extermination of the pandas, and banishment from Gongmen City, many years ago. The whole thing is rendered in Chinese shadow puppetry for added effect.
73	* ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'': The "Deliver Us" number takes place decades before the main story.
74	[[/folder]]
75
76	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
77	* ''Film/TwentyEightDaysLater'': The movie opens before the titular 28-day time skip, with an AnimalWrongsGroup accidentally releasing a fast-incubating HatePlague from a Cambridgeshire laboratory, which leads to the [[ZombieApocalypse post-apocalyptic state of Britain]].
78	* ''Film/TwentyEightWeeksLater'': Has a fairly lengthy one which takes place inside the original 28-day outbreak from the first movie, depicting the backstory of Don Harris and his reluctant abandonment of his wife and his kids' mother Alice when they were attacked by the Infected.
79	* ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'' starts out at "The Dawn of Man", and then flashes forward to 2001.
80	* ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'':
81	** ''Film/AlienCovenant'': The film starts well before the plot of ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'', let alone ''Covenant''; showing David interacting with a much younger Peter Weyland and choosing his name and [[spoiler:having the seeds of his disdain for humanity safely rooted]].
82	** ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'' starts with an Engineer drinking some liquid and dissolving into primordial goo, thus kick-starting life on Earth billions of years ago. The events then move to the future.
83	* ''Film/Armageddon1998'':
84	-->'''Narrator:''' This is the Earth at a time when the dinosaurs ruled a lush and fertile planet. A piece of rock just six miles wide changed all that.
85	-->65 MILLION YEARS LATER
86	%%* ''Film/BatmanReturns''.
87	* ''Film/BlackPanther2018'' has a JustSoStory discussing the origin of Vibranium and Wakanda before we jump to 1992. After this we jump to the present day, a week after the events of ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar''.
88	* ''Film/BramStokersDracula'' begins by showing the backstory of Dracula in 15th century Wallachia.
89	* ''Film/DemolitionMan'' starts out in 1996 and then John Spartan and Simon Phoenix are frozen and thawed out in 2032.
90	* ''Film/TheFifthElement'' starts in c.1914 when aliens take artifacts from an archaeological dig. The story then jumps forward to the far future, where we meet the main characters... and they end up needing to look for the artifacts.
91	* ''Film/TheFinalSacrifice'' has the opening scene, the opening credits, and then "Seven years later." In the ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' version, they ask, "Seven years after the credits?"
92	* ''Film/GenesisII'' (1973) starts in 1979 with scientist Dylan Hunt taking part in an experiment in suspended animation. A collapse covers him up, and he's awakened 154 years later in the year 2133.
93	%%* The ''Film/GhostRiderDuology''.
94	* ''Film/GIJoeTheRiseOfCobra'' opens with Destro's ancestor getting a mask glued to his face (which is referenced when the villain's head becomes metallic).
95	* ''Film/Godzilla2014'': The film starts in Japan in 1999, where Joe Brody tragically loses his wife at the power plant before cutting to the main plot fifteen years later.
96	* ''Film/HeadlessHorseman'' opens during UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar when two Confederate soldiers guarding a bridge are attacked by Headless. The film then jumps ahead about 150 years to a group of teens on a road trip to attend a Halloween party.
97	* ''Film/{{Hellbound}}'': The movie opens during UsefulNotes/TheCrusades, then flashes forward to the twentieth century.
98	* ''Film/Hellboy2004'' begins by showing the origin story of Hellboy during World War 2 before cutting to TheAughts.
99	* ''Film/HocusPocus'' opens with the hanging of the Sanderson sisters in 1693 and then flashes forward to 1993, the year the film is set.
100	* ''FIlm/TheHotChick'' begins in Abyssinia 50 B.C. and tells the story of Princess Nawa and the curse of the body switching earrings.
101	%%* Ang Lee's ''Film/{{Hulk}}''.
102	* ''Franchise/IndianaJones'':
103	** At first, it looks like ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'' opens with a pair of boy scouts stumbling upon one of Indiana's archaeological digs. Then the man in the fedora looks up and we see that he's not Indiana Jones. It's then revealed that the scene takes place in 1912 (twenty-six years before the rest of the movie) and one of the boy scouts is a young Indy.
104	** ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheDialOfDestiny'' opens with Indy going on an undercover mission during the waning years of World War II before jumping to The60s.
105	* Film/JamesBond:
106	** ''Film/GoldenEye'': The film starts with an ActionPrologue in 1986 with Bond and Alec "006" Trevelyan on a mission to blow up a secret Soviet chemical warfare compound. The rest of the film happens nine years later in 1995.
107	** ''Film/NoTimeToDie'': Twofold. The film opens in TheNineties in Madeleine Swann's childhood when Lyutsifer Safin killed her mother and nearly killed her. Then it immediately cuts to the present-day aftermath of ''Film/{{Spectre}}'', with the love life of Bond and adult Madeleine being disturbed in Italy by a Spectre ambush. They end up separating, and the rest of the film happens five years after that separation.
108	* ''Film/{{Jumanji}}'' has the first minute of the film taking place in 1869, the next ten minutes taking place in 1969, and the majority of the film taking place in 1995.
109	* ''Film/JurassicWorldDominion''; the film opens in the Late Cretaceous Period, 65 million years ago, and shows dinosaurs living in their natural habitats before cutting to the present day and showing the disruption brought upon by new dinosaurs in modern society.
110	* ''Film/KongSkullIsland'': The film opens with Lieutenant Hank Marlow's backstory, showing him and Gunpei Ikari getting stranded on Skull Island during the Second World War, before the film cuts to the main plot in the 1970s.
111	* ''Film/TheLastWitchHunter'' has the prologue set in the times of Black Death plague, then jumps forward eight hundred years to the present day.
112	* Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse:
113	** The ''Thor'' franchise likes doing this, with [[Film/{{Thor}} the first film]] opening with Odin narrating the Asgardians' battle with the Frost Giants in Norway circa 965 A.D., and [[Film/ThorTheDarkWorld the second one]] continues the trend, but with the war against the Dark Elves around 2988 B.C.
114	** ''Film/AntMan1'' and [[Film/AntManAndTheWasp it's sequel]] also play with this, with flashbacks to the sixties when Hank Pym was active as the titular superhero.
115	** ''Film/SpiderManHomecoming'' opens years earlier with the aftermath of [[Film/TheAvengers2012 the Battle of New York]], setting up the actions of the main villain.
116	* ''Film/MirrorMirror1990'' opens with a scene in 1950s Iowa where Mary Weatherford sacrifices her sister Elizabeth in front of a large mirror, stabbing her to death on a bed. The movie then cuts to 1990 with Susan and Megan Gordon moving into the house.
117	* All three films of ''Film/TheMummyTrilogy'' start with a retelling of the origin for the film's BigBad, which takes place in 1290 BC, 3067 BC, and the 200s BC, respectively, before shifting to 1923, 1933, and 1946, respectively.
118	* ''Film/MyScienceProject'' opens in 1957, with soldiers destroying all of a UFO except for the central mechanism, which is apparently indestructible. The movie then skips to 1985.
119	* ''Film/OnlyLove'' begins in 1981 following Heller's rescue in Africa where Silvia breaks up with him to marry Nico as part of a deal with her father and the film jumps to 1998, where the two met again when she has brain tumor being treated by Heller, her former fiance.
120	* ''Film/PineappleExpress'':The movie begins in the year 1937 where the military conducts a secret experiment on "Item 9" also known as the smoking pot before declaring it ‘Illegal’.
121	* ''Film/RulesOfEngagement'' opens with a jungle. Obviously it's going to be Vietnam, and it is. It's a prologue to establish Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson's characters.
122	%%* ''Film/TheSixthSense''.
123	* ''Film/TheSorcerersApprentice'' has several. The first one takes place in 740 AD, with Myth/{{Merlin}} and [[Myth/ArthurianLegend Morgana]]'s final battle. Merlin is killed (due to one of his apprentices betraying him), and Morgana (along with Balthazar's LoveInterest) is trapped in a SoulJar. We then see several short flashes of Balthazar traveling the world throughout history, trying to find the [[TheChosenOne Prime Merlinian]], a good sorcerer who is destined to become equal to Merlin in power. The plot then moves to the year 2000, where a 10-year-old boy named Dave finds Balthazar's antique shop during a field trip. Dave accidentally releases Balthazar's rival Horvath from the SoulJar. During the resulting battle, both sorcerers end up being trapped in a ''different'' SoulJar for 10 years (to the day). TimeSkip to 10 years (to the day), and the now free sorcerers start looking for Dave, who is now in college.
124	* ''Film/{{Stardust}}'' has this, in both forms, where it depicts the father of the actual protagonist crossing the Wall and eventually meeting up with the mother of the protagonist.
125	* The Franchise/StargateVerse loves doing this, in both movies and TV series.
126	** The original ''Film/{{Stargate}}'' movie had ''two'' distant prologues: one in Egypt in 8,000 BC, followed by Egypt in 1928, and finally the United States of the "present day" (which is somewhere in 1994-1996 -- the franchise is somewhat inconsistent about this).
127	** ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' starts with a flashback to "several million" years ago, when the Ancients left Antarctica for the Pegasus galaxy in the titular city-ship.
128	** ''Film/StargateTheArkOfTruth'' starts with a Distant Prologue in an even earlier time period, when the Ancients left their home galaxy for the Milky Way galaxy. The [[ALongTimeAgoInAGalaxyFarFarAway specific wording]] also sounds like a parody of ''Franchise/StarWars''. Which would hardly be the first time Star Wars got brought up on the show.
129	* ''Film/StarTrekGenerations'' and ''Film/StarTrek2009''. The former shows the launch of the USS Enterprise-B and its encounter with the Nexus to set up Picard and Kirk's meeting; the latter shows Nero's initial appearance at Kirk's birth to set up pretty much the entire film.
130	* Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium:
131	** ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheFellowshipOfTheRing'' starts with Galadriel narrating several crucial events leading up to the series. These include the creation of the Rings of Power (c. 4900 years ago), the War of the Last Alliance (c. 3000 years ago), and Bilbo Baggins taking the One Ring from Gollum (60 years ago). It then cuts to Bilbo's 111th birthday party and his departure for Rivendell, leaving Frodo and the One Ring behind, which happened a decade before the film proper begins.
132	** The opening of ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing'' explains how Smeagol came into the possession of the One Ring, which corrupted him into Gollum. This takes place 556 years before the rest of the film's events.
133	** ''Film/TheHobbitAnUnexpectedJourney'' opens by showing Erebor's rise and fall to Smaug, around 170 years ago.
134	* ''Film/TheTreeOfLife'' starts at the Big Bang and goes on from there.
135	* ''Film/UnderworldEvolution'' starts in 1202, showing the capture of the [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent Lycan]] [[MonsterProgenitor Elder]] William by his twin brother Marcus (the first [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampire]]), [[VampireMonarch Viktor]], and the other vampires. Viktor then betrays his word to Marcus and has William hidden away in a secret dungeon, far away from his brother. The events then shift to shortly after the end of the first film, with [[ActionGirl Selene]] and Michael fleeing after the fight in the catacombs of Budapest.
136	* ''Film/VForVendetta'': The movie starts with Evey Hammond narrating the story about Guy Fawkes' failed Gunpowder Plot and his execution.
137	* ''Film/XMenFilmSeries'':
138	** ''Film/XMen1'' begins with a scene in Nazi Germany before cutting to TheNineties.
139	** ''Film/TheWolverine'' opens with the atomic bomb being dropped on Nagasaki in 1945, where Wolverine was a POW. Logan then wakes up in 2013 somewhere in the Yukon wilderness.
140	** ''Film/XMenApocalypse'': The caption of the introductory scene reads, "Nile Valley, 3600 BCE." The opening credits sequence is a time tunnel which takes viewers to Ohio, 1983.
141	[[/folder]]
142
143	[[folder:Literature]]
144	* ''Eagle Strike'', the fourth novel in the ''Literature/AlexRider'' series, begins with a prologue set some two decades before the main plot of the book. It does not become clear how the events of the prologue are relevant to the rest of the book until the end of the penultimate chapter.
145	* ''Literature/AngelMage'' starts off with a prologue set during the Doom of Ystara where the nation's last Cardinal and her last surviving guard have a moment of refuge from attacking monsters before their deaths. It then jumps ahead 137 years to the main plot.
146	* Almost every book in ''Literature/TheBelgariad'' and its sequel series, ''The Mallorean''. Most of the time these prologues are told in the style of a historical document or legend.
147	* ''Literature/ChocoholicMysteries'': "Kidnapping Clue", the short story that kicks off the series, features Lee as a sixteen-year-old who's staying with her aunt and uncle for the summer. The first novel then picks up twelve years later, when she's twenty-eight and has moved up to work in their shop full-time.
148	* ''Literature/DeathDay'' has a prologue set about 500 years before the main story.
149	* Every novel in the ''Literature/DirkPittAdventures'' starting with ''Raise the Titanic!'' features one, sometimes two. Sometimes, the plot point established in the prologue doesn't come into play until about halfway through the main story.
150	* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': ''Literature/GoingPostal'' has "The 9000 Year Prologue" and "The One Month Prologue". The former is from the point of view of a golem stuck on the bottom of the ocean.
151	* ''Literature/EmpireFromTheAshes'': The first book starts out 50,000 years ago.
152	* Although the prologue in ''Literature/TheFallOfTheSeaPeople'' is set nearly 900 years before chapter 1, it is a character's childhood example rather than an ancient history example: Éirime is an immortal by the time she returns home.
153	* ''Literature/GoodOmens'' has ''three''. Genesis, sealing the garden, and twelve years ago.
154	* ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'': ''The Horror at Chiller House'', ''Wanted: The Haunted Mask'', ''Zombie Halloween'', ''The 12 Screams of Christmas'' and ''I Am Slappy's Evil Twin'' all begin with prologues set some decades prior to set up the backstory.
155	* The first chapter of the first book of the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' series, "The Boy Who Lived", takes place right after Voldemort's attempt to kill baby Harry backfires and Harry is left on the [[DoorstopBaby Dursleys' doorstep]]. The next chapter takes place right before Harry's eleventh birthday.
156	* One of the novels in ''Literature/TheHistoryOfTheGalaxy'' series starts with a SpaceBattle nearly a thousand years before the setting of the novel itself. Naturally, the novel deals with the consequences of said battle. Another novel has the prologue take place 3 million years ago, which is trumped by yet another novel with the prologue set a ''billion'' years ago.
157	* In ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', roughly 15 years pass after Bilbo hands off the ring to Frodo, then Gandalf shows up with an InfoDump of the ring's history (which roughly corresponds to the prologue in the movie), and only after that does the actual adventure get underway.
158	* The 1979 [=YA=] novel ''Literature/TheLostStar'' opens "long ago," with the Toapa civilization fleeing their planet as the titular "lost star" (their sun) prepares to go nova, then state that one of their generation ships had landed on the distant world where the action takes place. During the course of the story proper, humans and their allies [[spoiler:(along with the descendants of the Toapa refugees, who have reverted to a foraging culture and are viewed as something akin to docile space bears)]] view the supernova from a distance [[spoiler:as the Toapa ship is excavated from its ancient resting place]].
159	* Done in several books in the ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'', either in the form of TheTimeOfMyths or conventionally.
160	** The prologue of ''Literature/MemoriesOfIce'', for instance, starts at -320,000 something years prior to the series' timeline, jumps forward to about -120,000, then jumps to the "current" date.
161	** The prologue of ''Literature/MidnightTides'' takes places at an unnnamed point during TheTimeOfMyths, in this case during the Sundering of the Realm of Kurald Emurlahn in the Time of the Elder Gods, and is continued as the prologue of ''Literature/ReapersGale''.
162	* ''[[Literature/TheBookOfLies2004 Master of the Books]]'' begins with a couple visiting a seer, who foresees the future of the unborn Fergus and Marcel. The next chapter skips to the present day, with the two children now tweens.
163	* The Literature/ModestyBlaise novel ''The Night of Morningstar'' opens with a prologue describing Modesty's first encounters with two characters who will be important in the main plot, which takes place over a decade after the prologue.
164	* ''Literature/PushingIce'' by Alastair Reynolds, maybe (it appears at first to take place in the distant future, but it doesn't take too long for the main action of the book to move into the even more distant future).
165	* ''Literature/TheRadix'': The story is set in modern times, but the prologue takes place in 1502, featuring Cesare Borgia and Niccolo Machiavelli.
166	* The ''Literature/RedDwarf'' novel ''Last Human'' begins with a short prologue detailing the birth of the ''first'' human, before jumping forward to the series' main setting: 3 million years in the future.
167	* Creator/GregEgan's ''Literature/SchildsLadder'' has a slight subversion. The book opens with a group of scientists accidentally creating the SphereOfDestruction that drives the plot, and then jumps about six hundred years forward to the beginning of the main story. But since most of humanity is immortal (bordering on StarfishAliens), six hundred years isn't considered a particularly long time.
168	* Lightweights all. The prologue to ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' takes place ''before the Creation''.
169	* The first chapter of ''Literature/{{Sisterland}}'' describes three devastating earthquakes that hit the Louisiana Territory in the early 1800s. Most of the rest of the book is set in 2009.
170	* ''Literature/TheSocietyOfSylphs'' opens with the protagonist's grandfather almost getting shot by Nazis during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.
171	* ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'': ''Literature/{{The Way of Kings\|2010}}'' starts with a prelude set roughly 4500 years in the past, followed by a prologue 5 years in the past, then has an 8 month time jump between the first and second chapters.
172	* ''Literature/StrangerInAStrangeLand'' begins with the first ship to Mars taking off, along with some information on the crew before it crashes. It picks up again years later when the next ship to Mars is sent out and Michael is found.
173	* Several ''Literature/WarriorCats'' books have prologues which take place long before the main story. The most notable ones are ''Firestar's Quest'' and ''[=SkyClans=] Destiny'', which take place several generations before the story begins, long enough that [=SkyClan=] - the Clan featured in the prologues - has been forgotten by the modern Clans.
174	** Also notable is ''Dark River'', which takes place at least twice as early as those: before the Clans were formed, and before even the Tribe of Rushing Water was formed.
175	* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' starts with Lews Therin Telamon finding out that in his madness he killed his wife. He kills himself and the story picks up 3,000 years later where Lews Therin is reborn as Rand al'Thor.
176	* ''Literature/TheWrongSideOfGoodbye'': Starts with a soldier going down in a helicopter crash in Vietnam, before jumping 2016. Literature/HarryBosch's investigation eventually leads him to find out who that boy was and who his daughter was.
177	[[/folder]]
178
179	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
180	* The prologue of ''Series/AvatarTheLastAirbender2024'' depicts the Fire Nation's genocide of the Air Nomads a hundred years before present.
181	* ''Series/{{Awaken}}'': The prologue takes place twenty-eight years before the rest of the series.
182	* ''Series/BeingHumanUK'': The {{Cold Open}}s of series two and three are flashbacks to Mitchell's Mysterious Past (except one that shows Ivan recruiting Daisy). Series four occasionally does the same, one such prologue being some centuries in the past.
183	* The ''Series/YediYuz'' episode "Büyük Günahlar" opens in a Balıkesir schoolyard, where a trio of girls discuss a classmate, Mete, whom Elif has a crush on; they are interrupted by the sound of fighting on the court. The rest of the episode occurs in the present-day, but its close returns to the original scene, providing critical context to the inciting incident.
184	* ''Series/AirCrashInvestigation'': The China Airlines Flight 611 episode opens 22 years before the crash, showing the tailstrike that eventually led to the plane's breakup.
185	* ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' opens with an inversion: it shows what happens to Saul long after the end of ''Breaking Bad'', which ended in-universe around 2010, then skips back to 2002 long before Saul met Walt.
186	* ''{{Series/Cybervillage}}'' starts with Nikolay and Konstantin as young men, working on a consciousness transfer device.
187	* The pilot of ''Series/{{Defiance}}'' opens in 2013, showing the Votan Ark fleet descending into the atmosphere as the astonished people look up. The view then shifts to 33 years later. The ending of the pilot flashes back to the arrival, showing that the scene was taking place in St. Louis, which returns to the "present" to show the town of Defiance, built atop the ruins of that city, with the Arch still in the same place but slightly damaged. Additionally, the opening shows a teenage boy looking up in awe at the Votan ship. The ending makes it fairly obvious that Nolan was that boy, and he is looking at what has become of his hometown.
188	* ''Series/BreakingBad'' limits its use of {{Flashback}}s (and {{Flash Forward}}s) to the ColdOpen of episodes. Some of them take place earlier in the series, while others can go back as early as a character's childhood.
189	* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
190	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E10TheBattleOfRanskoorAvKolos "The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos"]] begins with the two Ux choosing a spot on their planet to build a structure, before being interrupted by something appearing. The rest of the episode takes place 3,407 years later, and deals with the fallout of that moment.
191	** [[Recap/DoctorWho2019NYSResolution "Resolution"]] begins in the 9th century, chronicling how three armies defeated the villain before [[SealedEvilInASixPack splitting it into three]] and entrusting the parts to three custodians who were supposed to guard the pieces. The rest takes place 1200 years later.
192	* ''Series/GoodOmens'': Like the [[Literature/GoodOmens book]], season 1 starts with Genesis, Adam and Eve being cast out, and then 11 years before the main series. Another episode also shows flashbacks of Aziraphale and Crowley running into one another over the centuries. Season 2 also starts with Genesis, with Aziraphale helping Crowley (still an angel) kick-start his part of the Creation. Another episode shows them running into one another during the torment of Job.
193	* ''Series/TheFlash2014'' starts when Barry is a boy, witnessing [[spoiler:the Man in the Yellow Suit]] killing his mother, resulting in his father being imprisoned for the murder. The story then moves to the present day, with Barry working as a crime lab tech for the Central City Police Department, while secretly looking for anything "weird" that might be related to his mother's murder. [[spoiler:In a twist, Barry ends up going back to that night in the season 1 finale in an attempt to prevent the murder, only to be stopped by his future self. He does get to say goodbye to his mother this time, though]]. At the end of Season 2, [[spoiler:he goes back to that night again and saves his mother, creating the Flashpoint timeline. At the end of the Season 3 opener, he allows the Reverse-Flash to go back there again and put things back the way they were... sort of]].
194	* ''Series/{{Fresno}}'' starts with Spanish explorers entering the area of land that would become the city of Fresno. They also think the grapes taste nasty.
195	* ''Series/{{House}}'' takes this to extremes in what might be its only use of the trope, opening centuries ago aboard a slave ship that is host to an epidemic of what may be smallpox.
196	* ''Series/HouseOfTheDragon'': The series opens at Harrenhal during the event that saw Viserys being chosen as king nine years before the present time of the first episode, with [[OpeningMonologue narration]] by Rhaenyra Targaryen (Creator/EmmaDArcy).
197	* ''Series/TheLegendOfXiaoChuo'': The prologue is set eighteen years before the main series.
198	* ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'' starts with Galadriel narrating her MinorKidroduction in Valinor, than jumping to the War of Wrath which takes place at the end of the First Age. Galadriel does inform the audience that she spent several centuries searching for Sauron. Current events take place in the Second Age.
199	* ''Series/{{Lost}}'''s "The Incident" begins in a period that's at least a couple hundred years prior to either main plot.
200	* ''Series/LoveAndRedemption'': The prologue is set over a thousand years before the main series.
201	* ''Series/Mouse2021'': Different parts of the first episode take place twenty-five, twenty and fifteen years before the rest of the series.
202	* ''Series/TheOptimists'': The first scene of this Russian TV series is set at the American National Exhibition in Sokolniki in the summer of 1959, in a scene that establishes both UsefulNotes/ColdWar tensions and several characters. The action then springs forward the better part of a year to April 30-May 1, 1960, and the downing of the U-2 spy plane, which opens the story.
203	* ''Series/PowerRangersDinoCharge'': The series' distant prologue begins 65 million years, at the end of the Cretaceous period (to be precise, on the day that marked the asteroid impact that kicked off the K-T boundary).
204	* ''Series/RedDwarf'' starts off in 2180 (though that date has changed several times. Only the first book and ''Ouroboros'' have confirmed this, with the first two series saying late 21st century and series 3/4 saying 23rd). Skip three million years once Lister enters stasis.
205	* ''Series/{{Search}}'': The prologue is set in 1997. The main series takes place over twenty years later.
206	* Inverted in the ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' series finale "Endgame", where the story starts off in the year 2404, about 17 years after the current time-period where Voyager is still in the Delta Quadrant, and Admiral Janeway travels back to the past to help her self and her crew get back home sooner to avoid certain personal catastrophes such as Tuvok becoming mentally ill and Seven of Nine's death leading to Chakotay's.
207	** Also inverted in the episode "Timeless", where Chakotay and Harry Kim discover Voyager buried and frozen in ice 15 years after the quantum slipstream accident had caused the ship to crashland on a barren planet in the Beta Quadrant.
208	* ''Series/StargateAtlantis'': The opening scene of "The Brotherhood" depicts Porta and Astrum, the last surviving members of the Quindosim, being culled by the Wraith ten generations earlier.
209	%%* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''.
210	* In ''Series/{{Timeless}}'', episodes frequently start with certain historical events being showcased (e.g. the ''Hindenburg'' crash, the Lincoln assassination, a V2 launch, the Moon landing, the killing of Bonnie and Clyde). The protagonists then have to [[TerminatorTwosome go back to those events and try to keep Flynn from changing them]]. [[spoiler:Most of the time, the events do end up changing at least a little, such as the ''Hindenburg'' crash killing only two people, Lincoln being shot by Flynn instead of Booth, the V2 exploding, Neil Armstrong's speech delayed, and Bonnie and Clyde being killed a few hours earlier in their hideout instead of on the road]].
211	* ''Series/UFO1970'' begins one year in the future (i.e., 1970) with Colonel Straker witnessing a UFO attack. The rest of the series takes place 11 years in the future (1980) when Straker is head of the anti-UFO organization SHADO.
212	* ''Series/WhenTheCamelliaBlooms'': The opening scenes of the first episode, in which Dong-baek comes to Ongsan and starts her bar, are followed by a six-year TimeSkip. The bar is a success and her toddler has grown to an 8-year-old boy, but the mean ladies of the neighborhood still hate her.
213	* A few episodes of ''Series/TheXFiles'' have prologues that take place years after the actual episode is set, such as Duane Barry and Young At Heart. The opening scene of TheMovie actually opens in prehistoric times and then flashes ahead to 1998.
214	* ''Series/TheBarrier'': Most of the series takes place when New Spain has been a dictatorship for twenty-five years. Its very first scene happens when one of the adult protagonists is still a young child, on the day the dictatorial government takes over.
215	[[/folder]]
216
217	[[folder:Video Games]]
218	* If used in video games, it's often a JustifiedTutorial. For example, in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'', the prologue puts you in the shoes of a rookie soldier caught in an unexpected ambush, having to quickly learn the ropes. Afterwards, you flash forwards to his younger brother, in another time and place, and the game proper begins.
219	* ''VideoGame/AlbaAWildlifeAdventure'': The prologue is set ten years earlier, complete with "Ten Years Later" caption when it ends.
220	* ''VideoGame/BrokenSwordTheSerpentsCurse'' opens with Marques leaving Castell del Sants with his mother to escape from fascists during Spain's civil war of 1936-39. Then we cut to present day Paris.
221	* At the start of ''VideoGame/DeadSpace3'', you control Private Caufman, a rookie soldier of the Sovereign Colonies Armed Forces, sent to retrieve a MacGuffin on a crashed ship apparently vital to stopping the [[ZombieApocalypse Necromorph infestation]]. [[spoiler: Once you get the MacGuffin stolen by General Mahad, he shoots you in the face, then kills himself]]. Then the game skips 200 years in the future, back to the familiar setting and characters from the past 2 games.
222	* In ''VideoGame/{{Dishonored}}'', both Corvo and Daud's prologues involve the assassination of Empress Jessamine, 6 months before the story continues for either.
223	* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIII'' has a prelude showing bits and pieces of your father Ortega's journey, leading up to his fateful confrontation with a dragon atop a volcano. After he vanishes, the king declares that you, his then-infant son or daughter, must continue his journey once you're old enough. The game proper begins on your Dangerous16thBirthday.
224	* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestV'' starts with the main character's birth.
225	* ''VideoGame/DreamfallTheLongestJourney'' starts with Brian Westhouse (a side character from ''VideoGame/TheLongestJourney'') in a Tibetan monastery in 1933. Chapter one is about Zoe Castillo, resident of Casablanca in 2219. ''DF'' then tops it by having a reverse-DistantFinale: TheStinger is about Briant Westhouse ''before'' he arrives at the monastery in the prologue.
226	* The opening text scrawl in ''VideoGame/DungeonMakerIITheHiddenWar'' tells the story of a war from 70,000 years ago.
227	* The beginning of ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' takes place on [[JustBeforeTheEnd October 23, 2077, the day of the]] [[ApocalypseHow Great War]]. It also serves as a tutorial and character creation stage in the first part. The second part involves you running towards the Vault, getting there just in time before a nuke hits. Inside the Vault, you get stuffed into a tube in order to get [[HumanPopsicle "decontaminated"]]. You wake up briefly 150 years later to witness [[spoiler:Kellogg killing your spouse and kidnapping your son]] before being put back to sleep and woken up in 2287 by a system failure that killed everyone else in the Vault. The game begins there.
228	* The opening stage of ''VideoGame/FobiaStDinfnaHotel'' is set in the 1960s, where you play as a prisoner named Luis. The following stage skips to 2009 where you play as Roberto, the real protagonist.
229	%%* ''VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia''.
230	%%* ''VideoGame/TalesOfInnocence''.
231	%%* ''VideoGame/LufiaAndTheFortressOfDoom''.
232	%%* ''VideoGame/Mother3''.
233	* The intro from ''VideoGame/{{Freelancer}}'' picks up almost a century after ''VideoGame/{{Starlancer}}'' ends, with an "800 years later" separating the intro from the game proper (making the total gap between games about 900 years).
234	* ''VideoGame/GerdaAFlameInWinter'' starts in December 1939 with Gerda returning to Tinglev after her time in nursing school and being received by Anders and Dieter, with UsefulNotes/WorldWar2 having begun but not yet reached Denmark. The game proper begins near the end of the war, in early 1945, with the Nazi occupation starting to crack down on opposition.
235	* ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}}'', as seen [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrW4jkQdmjI here]]. This turns out to be just a taste, as the backstory of the video game is extended further, later, and a [[VideoGame/HomeworldDesertsOfKharak prequel game]] fleshes it out even more.
236	* ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'''s opening cutscene shows Rost taking an infant Aloy to be blessed by the Matriarchs. The game starts with a tutorial level, with the player controlling Aloy as a child and finding her Focus device before jumping again a few years to Aloy growing up as a teenager.
237	* ''VideoGame/LufiaAndTheFortressOfDoom'' starts in [[ATasteOfPower the shoes of Maxim and his party]] fighting and defeating the Sinistrals. The main game proper starts 99 years later with Maxim's descendant.
238	* ''[[VideoGame/LunarTheSilverStar Lunar: Silver Star Harmony]]'' opens with the final battle of the Four Heroes, several decades before the story begins.
239	* ''VideoGame/MaxPayne'' starts off with a [[HowWeGotHere scene from the ending]], then jumps back three years, to [[WhenItAllBegan the day Max's wife and daughter were murdered]], then forward to the start of the game proper.
240	* [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] in ''VideoGame/ANewBeginning''--the intro takes place almost six centuries ''after'' the main game thanks to time-travel shenanigans.
241	* The first few levels of ''[[VideoGame/RedFaction Red Faction 2]]'' start on Mars with the player controlling a Commonwealth soldier sent to recover a piece of Ultor nanotech. The game then {{Time Skip}}s to several years (or decades) later and shifts the setting to the Commonwealth on Earth. The recovered tech was used by the dictatorial Chancellor Sopot to make a squad of nano-enhanced SuperSoldiers (the player now controls one of them). Thinking he made a mistake, he orders them killed, resulting in them joining the local [[LaResistance Red Faction]] in order to take out the tyrant.
242	* The intro to ''VideoGame/ReturnToCastleWolfenstein'' shows the sealing of Heinrich I in 943 AD. The actual game is set [[DuringTheWar in 1943]], with the player attempting to [[{{Ghostapo}} halt the Nazi SS Paranormal Division's attempts to bring Heinrich back]].
243	* ''VideoGame/SakuraWars2019'' game opens in 1930, with Sakura Shinguji rescuing Sakura Amamiya from a demon attack. It then skips forward 10 years.
244	* Used in the little-known ''VideoGame/SteambotChronicles'', where the tutorial shows a young boy being taught how to maneuver one of the titular Steambots, prior to a lengthy boat-trip. The game proper begins with ''another'' boy waking up with EasyAmnesia after a shipwreck.
245	* ''VideoGame/SystemShock2'' opens with a cutscene setting up the game's main premise, then jumps back four years previous to when the player character enrolls in the armed forces. He then spends the next four years in training before the main story begins.
246	* Many of the ''Franchise/TombRaider'' games begin this way:
247	** The [[VideoGame/TombRaiderI original game]] begins in an unnamed time period but it's heavily implied to be the Trinity Test, as the next cutscene flashes forward to the present day, where we meet Lara for the first time. ''Anniversary'' uses the same type of intro, but with minor script changes to reflect the change in continuity and improved graphics.
248	** ''VideoGame/TombRaiderII'' also begins on an unknown date centuries in the past, when the Chinese army was defeated by the Tibetan monks, who returned the Dagger of Xian to its place in the Great Wall of China. After the title screen, the game flashes forward to present day when Lara lands in the Great Wall of China area.
249	** ''VideoGame/TombRaiderIII'' begins in prehistoric times when a comet wiped out the dinosaurs. After this, it flashes forward to present day when some Antarctic scientists discover said meteor.
250	** ''VideoGame/TombRaiderTheLastRevelation'' features two levels at the beginning where you control teenage Lara, guided by her (then) mentor Von Croy. After these tutorial levels, the game switches to present day.
251	** ''VideoGame/TombRaiderLegend'' begins when Lara was nine.
252	* The intro reel for ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X3: Terran Conflict]]'' starts in 2146, with the [[HopelessWar Hopeless]] RobotWar against rogue terraformer ships ravaging Earth. The game takes place almost 800 years later, with an [[HumanityIsAdvanced advanced Earth State]] still smarting about the Terraformers, now known as the Xenon.
253	* ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'' has an opening cutscene set several thousand years before the main plot. Its connection to the plot only becomes apparent many hours in.
254	* ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'' opens with the discovery of a mysterious artifact on Earth. The games take place a long long time later, after Earth has been lost.
255
256	[[/folder]]
257
258	[[folder:Visual Novels]]
259	* The prologue of ''VisualNovel/DaughterForDessert'' starts with Lainie’s death, and the protagonist raising an infant Amanda on his own while opening up a diner to support them. The story proper starts 19 years later.
260	* Downplayed in ''VisualNovel/DoubleHomework''. The prologue takes place at the end of winter or beginning of spring, while the story proper starts at the beginning of the vacation period for that summer.
261	[[/folder]]
262
263	[[folder:Webcomics]]
264	* In the pilot chapter of ''Webcomic/BronzeSkinInc'' , right on the first page we are introduced to the fateful day when the women became giants, some pages ahead have a leap of three years in time, showing that the prologue was an explanation of Vanessa.
265	%%* ''Webcomic/{{Drowtales}}'', [[http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive.php?&id=3 as seen here]].
266	* The first storyline of the "Sister 3" arc of ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'' takes place several centuries before the rest of the arc and, indeed, any of the other events of the comic for that matter.
267	* ''Webcomic/ErrantStory'' opens with a scene involving a pregnant Sarine and her human husband, then skips to 2000 years later for all the rest of the action, except of course Sarine's painful flashbacks.
268	* ''Webcomic/Rain2010'' opens with a prologue set in 1999, back when Rain was about four years old. The main story takes place in 2012, during her final year of high school.
269	* ''Webcomic/StandStillStaySilent'': The prologue takes place mostly JustBeforeTheEnd, while the later part of it and the main story take place 90 years AfterTheEnd.
270	[[/folder]]
271
272	[[folder:Web Videos]]
273	* ''WEBVIDEO/StopmotionChess'': In the beginning of the video a text tells us the black and white armies fought each other seven years ago.
274	[[/folder]]
275
276	[[folder:Western Animation]]
277	* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'':
278	** [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE22JokersFavor "Joker's Favor"]] has an introduction scene taking place two years before the main plot starts.
279	** [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE25TheClockKing "The Clock King"]] introduction scene takes place exactly seven years before the main plot starts.
280	** The debut episodes of the Riddler, and Lock-Up also begin at their StartOfDarkness before skipping ahead to their actions as supervillains.
281	* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'':
282	** The [[Recap/BatmanBeyondS1E1E2Rebirth first episode]] begins with Bruce Wayne's final night as Batman in 2019, twenty years prior to the rest of the story.
283	** "[[Recap/BatmanBeyondS2E4LostSoul Lost Soul]]" begins with a news report of Robert Vance's death, thirty-five years before the main story (which is kicked off by the activation of his [[BrainUploading AI avatar]]).
284	* Played for laughs in ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'' when Todd starts writing a sci-fi rock opera called "Newtopia Rising, Book I: The Search for a New Utopia", which begins in a farmhouse in 19th century Georgia.
285	* The pilot of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' starts off in 1999, and the rest of the season takes place in the year 3000.
286	* The StorybookOpening of the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E1MareInTheMoon pilot]] tells of Princess Celestia sealing away her sister, Luna, corrupted into Nightmare Moon, 1000 years ago.
287	* The first episode of ''WesternAnimation/ShaolinWuzang'' opens with a montage of paintings depicting [[BigBad Heihu]]'s first reign of terror and his subsequent defeat and sealing, which take place a thousand years prior to the rest of the series.
288	[[/folder]]
289

Context Main / DistantPrologue