Flashforward

Literature

John Keats’s poem Isabella, or the Pot of Basil (1818) uses prolepsis to anticipate a character's assassination. Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol shows Ebenezer Scrooge a future after his death, which the story implies will be averted.

Terry Brooks' Word & Void series features a protagonist who moves forward and backward through time. Muriel Spark's 1961 novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie makes extensive use of prolepsis. The opening scene of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations shows Boruto Uzumaki facing an enemy in a ruined village, a flashforward.

Television

Damages uses flashforwards extensively each season, revealing the outcome early and then exploring the circumstances leading to it; the first season opens with protagonist Ellen Parsons running covered in blood, and the series is known for misleading flashforwards that act as red herrings. Lost began using flashforwards after its first two seasons of flashbacks, with a major twist in the third season finale where what seemed a flashback was revealed to be a flashforward of characters returned to civilization; a later episode showed Jin's scenes as flashbacks and Sun's as flashforwards, reflecting their separation in time and space.

The series finale of Star Trek: Voyager, "Endgame," depicts a future where the ship returns home after decades with tragedies, prompting the captain to use time travel to change events. FlashForward centers on everyone on Earth losing consciousness for 137 seconds and glimpsing events six months in the future, loosely based on Robert J. Sawyer's novel. British soap opera Hollyoaks aired a special episode flashing forward six months in May 2010, and later a flashforward to New Year's Eve 2020.

Film

In the 1969 film They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, a mid-film flashforward shows Robert being thrust into a jail cell, later explained by his choices. The 2016 film Arrival uses prolepsis disguised as flashbacks; the main character gains precognitive ability after learning an alien language and uses future knowledge to prevent war.

Did You Know?

• In the video game Until Dawn (2015), players can find artifacts that show premonitions of possible future events, which may or may not come true based on player actions.