Basic Trope: A story starts with a part that takes place at the middle/end, and then tells the story of how they got to that point.
- Straight: The movie Alice and Bob opens with the titular characters having just gotten into a car accident. Most of the movie tells the story of how they got into that collision, with it finally being shown again in a scene towards the end.
- Exaggerated: The movie ends up telling Alice and Bob's entire life stories before getting to that point.
- Downplayed: The scene where Alice and Bob get into a car crash only happens about 15-20 minutes into the movie.
- Justified: In-universe, Charlie is the one witnessing the accident, and Alice and Bob are telling him about the events leading up to it.
- Inverted: ???
- Subverted: Towards the end of the movie, there's a scene where Alice and Bob are in a car together. The scene plays out very much like the collision shown at the beginning of the movie, but they manage to safely avoid it instead.
- Double Subverted: ...and then they crash anyway.
- Parodied: The film then tries to "start at the beginning", only to show some Embarrassing Old Photos of Alice and Bob's childhood, much to their confusion.
- Zig-Zagged: ???
- Averted: The fact that Alice and Bob get into a car accident later in the movie is never brought up until it happens.
- Enforced:
- To set up a Driving Question and/or Framing Device.
- The creators are trying to create a sense of suspense/mystery in the audience.
- Lampshaded: ???
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: ???
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: "When that movie opened with the characters getting in an accident, I kept watching and wondering when it'd happen."
- Played for Laughs: The work opens on the protagonist in a ridiculous situation, with a Record Needle Scratch and Freeze-Frame Introduction, as the protagonist narrates "Yep, that's me. You may be wondering how I got into this situation..."
That's me. You may be wondering How We Got Here...
