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Revision as of 05:30, 14 July 2013 by Bubbathemonkey (talk | contribs) (Dickens' not Dickens's)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) This article is about narrative device. For other uses, see Flashforward (disambiguation).A flashforward (also spelled flash-forward; also called a prolepsis) is an interjected scene that takes the narrative forward in time from the current point of the story in literature, film, television and other media. 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 primarily a postmodern narrative device. In the opposite direction, a flashback (or analepsis) reveals events that have occurred in the past.
Famous 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 taken forward through time to visit his funeral.
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.
Famous examples in television
After making extensive use of flashbacks, the TV series Lost used flashforwards throughout the show's later seasons (the first use of this was in the third season finale; what appeared to be a flashback was revealed at the end to be a flashforward). Another episode featured what appeared to be flashforwards involving Jin and his wife Sun, showing Jin to have safely returned home and awaiting the birth of his baby, but in the end, it was revealed that Jin's flashes were flashbacks and Sun's were flashforwards. In season four, most of the episodes contained flashforwards, although flashbacks were still used.
The series finale of Star Trek: Voyager, "Endgame", uses a flashforward at the start to depict a future in which the U.S.S. Voyager has returned home by conventional methods, prompting the ship's captain to go back in time with more advanced technology to get her crew home sooner.
The U.S. sci-fi TV series FlashForward, which revolves around the entire planet losing consciousness for 137 seconds, during which almost everyone experiences a glimpse of events 6 months in the future.
British soap opera Hollyoaks flashed forward six months in May 2010 for a special episode.
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 fifth season begins with a flashforward one year into the future where White is fifty-two years old.
Famous 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
- http://www.thefreedictionary.com/flash-forward
- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1441135
- Green, Kris (15 December 2009). "Hollyoaks to air flashforward episode". Digital Spy. Retrieved 2009-12-15.