Flashforward

This article is about the narrative device. For other uses, see Flashforward (disambiguation).

A flashforward (also spelled flash-forward; also called a prolepsis) is a scene that temporarily takes the narrative forward in time from the current point of the story in literature, film, television and other media.[1] Flashforwards are often used to represent events expected, projected, or imagined to occur in the future. They may also reveal significant parts of the story that have not yet occurred, but soon will in greater detail. It is similar to foreshadowing, in which future events are not shown but rather implicitly hinted at. It is primarily a postmodern narrative device, named by analogy to the more traditional flashback (or analepsis), which reveals events that occurred in the past.

Examples in literature

An early example of prolepsis which predates the postmodern period is Charles Dickens' novel A Christmas Carol, in which the protagonist Ebenezer Scrooge is shown the future following his death. The subsequent events of the story imply that this future will be averted by this foreknowledge.

Terry Brooks' Word & Void series features a protagonist who, when he sleeps, moves forwards and backwards through time to before and after a great cataclysm. This is both analepsis and prolepsis.

Muriel Spark makes extensive use of prolepsis in her novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.

Examples in television

Every season of Damages makes an extensive use of flashforwards, revealing the outcome of the season to the viewer. The whole season then revolves around discovering the circumstances that led to this outcome. For instance, the first season starts with a flashforward of the protagonist, Ellen Parsons, running in the streets of New York, covered in blood. 6 months earlier, she was only a naive young woman who had just become a lawyer in the firm of a powerful attorney, Patty Hewes. What led Ellen to the situation presented in the flashforwards is revealed little by little throughout the season. Furthermore, the series is known for its misleading use of flashforwards, which are often examples of the red herring device.

After making extensive use of flashbacks in the first two seasons, the TV series Lost used flashforwards throughout the remainder of the series. The first use of this was in the third season finale: what appeared to be a flashback to before the characters were stranded on the island, was revealed at the end to be a flashforward of them returned to civilization. A later episode featured what appeared to be flashforwards involving the couple Jin and Sun, showing them safely returned home and awaiting the birth of their baby, but it is then revealed that Jin's scenes were flashbacks and only Sun's were flashforwards.

The series finale of Star Trek: Voyager, "Endgame", uses a technique similar to a flashforward. It depicts a future in which the U.S.S. Voyager has returned home after decades lost in deep space with various personal tragedies, prompting the ship's captain to use time travel to return to the timeframe of the series and return the crew home more directly.

The U.S. sci-fi TV series FlashForward revolves around everyone on Earth losing consciousness for 137 seconds, during which each person experiences a glimpse of events 6 months in the future.[2]

British soap opera Hollyoaks flashed forward six months in May 2010 for a special episode.[3]

The last episode of Six Feet Under has an extensive flashforward depicting the deaths of all the central characters as they unfold.

Breaking Bad uses flashforwards throughout its second season showing a mystery regarding debris and corpses in Walter White's house and neighborhood, revealed to be the result of two planes crashing overhead. The first half of the fifth season begins with a flashforward one year into the future where Walter is fifty-two years old, and the second half begins with a continuation of the story, where he returns to his abandoned home. The plot of these flashforwards is resumed in the series finale.

How to Get Away with Murder uses in every episode flashforwards of scenes from future episodes and the season finale.

Examples in film

Midway through the film They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, there is an abrupt flashforward when Robert, the character played by Michael Sarrazin, is seen being thrust into a jail cell by a police officer, even though he has done nothing to provoke such treatment. The audience is notified, later in the story, that Sarrazin's character would have indeed made choices that warrant his arrest.

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://www.thefreedictionary.com/flash-forward
  2. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1441135
  3. ↑ Green, Kris (15 December 2009). "Hollyoaks to air flashforward episode". Digital Spy. Retrieved 2009-12-15.

External links

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