Flash-forward

A flashforward is a scene that temporarily moves forward in time from a story's current point in literature, film, television, and other media.

Flashforwards are often used to represent events that are expected, anticipated or imagined to happen in the future. They can also reveal important parts of the story that have not happened yet, but will be revealed in more detail soon.

It is similar to foretelling, where future events are not indicated, but implicitly implied. It is also similar to an ellipsis, but an ellipsis pushes the narrative forward and aims to overlook details that are boring or uninteresting, such as when a character is getting older. Primarily, it is a postmodern narrative device that reveals events that occurred in the past, named by analogy with the more traditional flashback.

Cinema is one of the media tools in which the flashforward technique is used the most. Below are examples of movies with flashforward scenes.

In the movie 'They Shoot Horses, Don't They?' directed by Sydney Pollack, the flashforward technique was used to show the scene where the character Robert Syverton, played by Michael Sarrazin, enters the prison. The point is to get the audience to focus on the decisions the character makes, wondering why Robert, who hasn't done anything wrong until now, went to prison.

The flashforward technique was also used wisely in the 2009 movie 'Sherlock Holmes' directed by Guy Ritchie. It tells the moves that Sherlock Holmes plans to make, especially before the fight scenes, in slow motion. The aim here is certainly not to arouse curiosity, because within a few seconds, these moves described by Sherlock were shown to the audience in real time. The purpose of Flashforward is to contribute to the characterization of Sherlock by emphasizing how accurate his predictions are.

'Terminator 2' used the flashforward to show what a future awaits humanity if Skynet is successful. James Cameron emphasized how important it is for John Connor to live by showing the war with machines after nuclear destruction in the scene showing the year 2029.