A Storm Is Coming: Difference between revisions

{{quote|'''[[Sherlock Holmes]]:''' There's an east wind coming, Watson.<br />

'''[[The Watson|Dr. Watson]]:''' I think not, Holmes. It is very warm.<br />

'''Sherlock Holmes:''' [[Literal -Minded|Good old Watson]]! You are the one fixed point in a changing age. There's an east wind coming all the same, such a wind as never blew on England yet. It will be cold and bitter, Watson, and a good many of us may wither before its blast. But it's God's own wind none the less, and a cleaner, better, stronger land will lie in the sunshine when the storm has cleared.|''His Last Bow'' ([[World War I|set in August 1914, published 1917]])}}

Something about the weather lends itself well to [[Ominous Foreshadowing]]. Whenever trouble looms in the near future, any suitably perceptive character can play narrative weatherman and give a plot forecast -- whichforecast—which, unlike a normal weather forecast, is 100-percent guaranteed to be true. If a storm isn't coming, then perhaps a cold wind is about to blow, or winter is setting in... all that matters is that the characters and audience are well-informed that The Plot is on its way.

Often contains [[Dramatic Thunder]] far off in the distance, or directly overhead. Can lead into [[Battle in Thethe Rain]], [[It Was a Dark Andand Stormy Night]], or [[Lightning Reveal]], or any combination.

Contrast [[Gray Rain of Depression]], which generally indicates muteness and lack of activity -- andactivity—and generally does not come with thunder or wind. Not to be confused with [[Grave Clouds]].

* Used in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp76ly2_NoI this political ad], made by the [[Politically-Incorrect Villain|National Organization for Marriage]] in response to [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/:Same-sex_marriage_in_Iowasex marriage in Iowa|the Iowa Supreme Court's decision in favor of gay marriage]].

* Amasawa, the self-proclaimed weather "fairy" from ''[[The Weatherman Is My Lover]]'', can literally sense when [[A Storm Is Coming]]. Dramatically this is used when he fails to convince his parents a typhoon is coming and that they shouldn't go on their trip, which results in their death.

* In ''[[Gosick (Light Novel)|Gosick]]'' Kujo's arrival during a period of peace was in the spring. As the year progressed events accelerated until {{spoiler|war broke out in the winter. The war then ended with the coming of spring}}.

* In ''[[Ponyo Onon the Cliff Byby Thethe Sea]]'', inverted: Ponyo's appearance is taken as a harbinger of a ''tsunami'', and actually brings about a near-apocalyptic storm and flood.

* In ''[[Laputa: Castle in Thethe Sky (Anime)|Castle in The Sky]]'', while on the Kiteglider, Pazu points out an approaching storm ''incredibly'' casually...

{{quote| '''Pazu:''' Storm ahead.}}

** Played much more dramatically with the <s> Thunderhead</s> hurricane {{spoiler|that contains [[Floating Continent|Laputa]].}}

* [[Cosmic Retcon|"Why the]] [[Red Skies Crossover|red]] [[Crisis Onon Infinite Earths|skies?"]]

* [[Hellblazer (Comic Book)|John Constantine]] said once "I'm kind of a tempest magnet" (not the exact quote, is a translation from the Spanish edition).

* The tenth chapter of ''[[Watchmen (Comic Bookcomics)|Watchmen]]'' ends with the lines from ''All Along The Watchtower'' quoted above - immediately presaging the final confrontation between {{spoiler|Ozymandias and the other characters}} in the concluding two chapters.

== FanfictionFan Works ==

* In the ''[[Firefly (TV)|Firefly]]/[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' crossover fanfic ''[[The Man Withwith No Name (Fanficfanfic)|The Man with No Name]]'', this is the last thing River says in chapter one, almost by trope name. The joke here being that in the new series the Doctor is kind of a bogeyman to lots of baddies, especially the Daleks, and one of the more frequently heard of the names they have for him is [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|The Oncoming Storm]]. Though the audience, the Doctor, and River herself get what she's saying (more or less), the rest of ''Serenity''{{'}}s crew had a [[Vagueness Is Coming|slightly different take on it]].

* Appears prominently in the ''[[Harry Potter (Filmfilm)|Harry Potter]] and the Order of the Phoenix'' trailer, less so in the movie itself.

* Said in ''[[Night Atat the Museum]]''... to a ''key-stealing monkey''.

* ''[[Dune]]'' (1984): "A storm is coming. ...'''Our''' storm!"

* The first ''[[X -Men 1 (Filmfilm)|first ''X -Men 1]]'' movie]]. Said by a security guard as the X-Men, [[A Worldwide Punomenon|including Storm]], fly past hidden by fog.

* Completely botched in the ''[[MST3KMystery Science Theater 3000]]''-worthy film ''[[Red Zone Cuba]]'', when ominous thunder during our "[[Anti-Hero|heroes]]"' plane ride with [[Ensemble Darkhorse|Cherokee Jack]] fails to match the local weather conditions...

{{quote| '''Servo:''' Man, it sounds pretty bad... wait a minute, it's ''beautiful'' out there!}}

* Subverted in ''[[Sherlock Holmes (Filmfilm)|Sherlock Holmes]]'' (2009). The storm is coming line is AFTER the finale, and everything being resolved... {{spoiler|Unless it was about Moriarty!}}

* One of the central reccuring symbols in ''[[The Curious Case of Benjamin Button]]'' is the gradual approach of [[ButThe ItTasteless But ReallyTrue Happened!Story|Hurricane Katrina towards New Orleans]] in the Daisy and Caroline storyline, as the characters discuss whether or not the storm will make landfall in Louisiana (spoiler alert: [[Foregone Conclusion|it does]]). Also briefly invoked in Benjamin's storyline by the old man who gets struck by lightning, after his speech about why he's grateful to be alive.

* Gandalfs utters a variation of this line in ''[[The Lord of the Rings (Filmfilm)|The Lord of the Rings]]'': The Return of the King when he and Pippin stand on the ramparts of Minas Tirith, watching dark clouds coming towards them in the distance. They are invoked by Sauron to make the march easier for his daylight-hating troops.

The narrator of ''[[Moonrise Kingdom (Film)|Moonrise Kingdom]]'' tells us to the minute when the storm is going to come.

* Used rather prominently in [[Neil Gaiman]]'s ''[[American Gods (Literature)|American Gods]];'' to the point of being [[Arc Words]].

* Every ''[[The Wheel of Time (Literature)|The Wheel of Time]]'' book opens with a description of a wind rising, which is "not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was ''a'' beginning."

{{quote| And for some reason, men and women who told the tales often found a need to add almost identical words. The storm is coming, they said, staring southward in worry. The storm is coming.}}

{{quote| When the winds of Tarmon Gai'don scour the earth, he will face the Shadow and bring forth Light again in the world.}}

{{quote| With his coming are the dread fires born again. The hills burn, and the land turns sere. The tides of men run out, and the hours dwindle. The wall is pierced, and the veil of parting raised. Storms rumble beyond the horizon, and the fires of heaven purge the earth. There is no salvation without destruction, no hope this side of death.}}

{{quote| The vendor snorted and tapped his nose. "I lived around this old lake all my life. There's a storm coming."}}

* In [[JRRJ. R. R. Tolkien (Creator)|JRR Tolkien]]'s ''[[The Lord of the Rings (Literature)|The Lord of the Rings]]'', when Gandalf came bearing news of Saruman's plans to the Rohirrim. Wormtongue mocks him by calling him a "stormcrow". Also used in ''The Return of the King'', where Sauron sends out storm clouds to shield his army from the sun.

** Played with in [[Terry Pratchett (Creator)|Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Discworld (Literature)|Discworld]]'' novel ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Jingo|Jingo]]'': when Vimes reflects on the (still remote) possibility of war with [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture|Klatch]], Sergeant Detritus comments that even he can tell which way the wind is blowing. Vimes is quite impressed, until Detritus explains that all you have to do is watch the weathercocks. "Beats me how dey know." He then double-subverts the trope when he notes that it feels like an old troll word that roughly translates to, "When you see the pebbles start rolling and you just know that there's a rockslide coming, but you can't do anything about it."

** And in ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Night Watch (Discworld)|Night Watch]]'', where in the opening of the first act, several characters note an approaching storm. {{spoiler|And when Vimes heads onto the roof of the UU library to take down a particularly nasty pyschopath, the storm rages overhead. At first it merely seems to be for dramatic effect, until [[Lightning Can Do Anything|the weather spazzes out and sends Vimes and Carcer 30 years into the past]]. Well... They ''were'' [[Justified Trope|on the roof of the library -- of the Unseen University]].}}

*** It should be noted that this storm is caused by Jeremy Clockson building his glass clock in the previous book (''[[Discworld (Literature)/Thief of Time|Thief of Time]]'' and ''[[DiscworldNight Watch (LiteratureDiscworld)/Night Watch|Night Watch]]'' take place at the same "time", until Vimes gets, well...).

* It's not spoken by a character, but the first line of ''[[Inheritance Cycle (Literature)|Eragon]]'' reads: "Wind howled through the night, carrying a scent that would change the world."

* Ray Bradbury's ''[[Something Wicked This Way Comes (Literature)|Something Wicked This Way Comes]]'' opens with a lightning rod salesman warning of the coming storm.

* In [[James Swallow]]'s ''[[Warhammer 4000040,000]]'' [[Horus Heresy]] novel ''The Flight of the Eisenstein'', Garro thinks of the unknown problems as a storm -- onstorm—on a spaceship.

{{quote| He forced away the chill impression of storm clouds and building threat, the sense of vast and silent machinications thundering unseen above him.}}

* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s [[Conan the Barbarian]] story "[[Black Colossus (Literature)|Black Colossus]]" part of a much longer [[Vagueness Is Coming]].

{{quote| ''"Whence came Natohk?" rose the Shemite's vibrant whisper. "Out of the desert on a night when the world was blind and wild with mad clouds driven in frenzied flight across the shuddering stars, and the howling of the wind was mingled with the shrieking of the spirits of the wastes."}}

* From [[The Stormlight Archive (Literature)|The Stormlight Archive]] "The Everstorm comes, the True Desolation, the Night of Sorrows." a warming given to Dalinar by {{spoiler|The Almighty}}, this world has massive storms across the entire landmass every few days, it's noted by some of the characters that they are [[It Got Worse|getting worse]].

* Happens a few times in [[Warrior Cats (Literature)|Warrior Cats]] with rain:

** In ''Bluestar's Prophecy'', Featherwhisker forecasts rain for a few days, and it starts raining just before the [[Battle in Thethe Rain|battle with WindClan]].

* In [[Michael Flynn]]'s ''[[Spiral Arm (Literature)|The January Dancer]]'', January gets his crew to abandon the alien treasure trove by pointing out that a storm is coming, because of the static on the comms.

* ''[[Dexter]]'', in the episode "Return to Sender": Dexter watches his police officer co-workers close in on him as the murderer of a woman found dead in a motorhome, and anticipates them finding out that he, is fact, a prolific serial killer. He imagines his father inviting him into a doorway with a "Better get inside, son. Storm's on its way." He looks behind him to see a mass of clouds rolling towards him, and puts his hand out to feel the rain. His hand is covered in blood.

* In [[Sci Fi]] Channel's re-imagined ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined (2004 TV series)|Battlestar Galactica]]'', at the end of season 3 (''Crossroads'', Part 1), the character Helo mutters, "A storm is coming." A somewhat subverted use, though, since there's no actual weather as they're in space.

* Parodied in ''[[Spaced]]'', where Mike quotes the "storm's coming" line from ''[[The Terminator]]''. The "storm" in question turns out to be all three of Tim's greatest fears -- lightingfears—lighting, dogs and bamboo.

* ''[[Babylon 5 (TV)|Babylon 5]]'' has a suitably ominous comment by [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens|Kosh]] on the subject of Narn/Centauri relations (or possibly not... This ''is'' Kosh, aka the [[Anthropomorphic Personification]] of [[Cryptic Conversation|Cryptic Conversations]]s we're talking about here...) during the second season:

{{quote| '''Emperor Turhan:''' How will this end?<br />

** Another, more explicit ''[[Babylon 5 (TV)|Babylon 5]]'' example occurred in the episode "The Geometry of Shadows", when Elric the Technomage is speaking to Captain Sheridan in the Zocalo (complete with eerie music):

{{quote| '''Elric:''' There is a storm coming, a black and terrible storm. }}

{{quote| '''Kosh:''' The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote.}}

*** The latter was possibly a reference to the events of the [[Pilot Episode]]. Possibly. <ref>The conversation was about how Kosh would hypothetically feel about having an unwanted medical procedure, which was exactly what Kosh underwent in the pilot. Hence, "It already happened; my feelings about it are irrelevant."</ref>

* ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]''; In "Fear Her", the Doctor and Rose randomly stopped to point at a coming storm at the end, in clear foreshadowing to the events of next episodes "Army of Ghosts" and "Doomsday"; but later it was noted that the storm they were foreshadowing had [[Fridge Logic|technically occurred several years previously thanks to the]] [[Timey-Wimey Ball]].

* Abed points this out during his arrival at the party in ''[[Community (TV)|Community]]'' episode "[[Community (TV)/Recap/S1 /E07 Introduction to Statistics|Introduction to Statistics]]".

{{quote| '''Echo:''' Something bad is coming. Like a storm. And I want everyone to survive it.}}

** "All Along the Watchtower" is an ominous song in itself, but it really kicks in at "And the wind began to howl", especially in the Jimi Hendrix and ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined (2004 TV series)|Battlestar Galactica]]'' versions, and in its use in ''[[Watchmen (Filmfilm)|Watchmen]]''.

* Rush's "Force Ten" plays around with this. Its title even came from [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaufort_scale:Beaufort scale|the Beaufort Scale]] according to Neil Peart.

* [[Blind Guardian (Music)|Blind Guardian]] songs often use this trope, e.g. in "Into the Storm," "Mirror Mirror," and "And Then There Was Silence".

* Jethro Tull's album "Stormwatch" is this trope turned up to eleven. Of course, it was written back when car exhaust & aerosol cans were going to trigger a new ice age...

{{quote| Teacher guarding the dwindling flame,<br />

How many of your kids have beaten the game?<br />

The wind is rising and the night's falling fast --<br />

* "When The Levee Breaks" by [[Led Zeppelin (Music)|Led Zeppelin]]

{{quote| ''Therefore in fierce tempest is he coming,<br />

In thunder and in earthquake, like a Jove,<br />

* In ''[[Wicked (Theatretheatre)|Wicked]]'', when deciding how to deal with Elphaba, Mrs. Morrible decides, "It's time for a change in the weather. She then summons the twister that drops a house on Nessarosa and brings Dorothy to Oz.

* The first time the party meets Janus in ''[[Chrono Trigger (Video Game)|Chrono Trigger]]'', he tells them that the black wind is howling... and interprets it to mean that one of them will die soon. {{spoiler|He turns out to be Magus as a child, and even as an adult, he recognizes the black wind as a premonition}}.

* Cairne Bloodhoof of ''[[War CraftWarcraft]]'' III has this as one of his possible responses when you select him as a unit in gameplay.

** Then again, given [[The Chessmaster|who is saying this]] to the PC, it's quite likely [[Indy Ploy|he doesn't actually know]]. Don't worry, [[Gambit Roulette|he'll make something up later]] to suggest he knew about it the whole time.

* In ''[[Devil May Cry (Video Game)|Devil May Cry]] 3'', Arkham states the Trope word for word as he walks off to deal with Lady at the beginning of Chapter 4.

* Used nearly word for word in ''[[Frontlines: Fuel of War|Frontlines: Fuel Of War]]''. {{spoiler|"We always knew. It's 2024, The storm is coming."}}

* Averted with a [[Lampshade Hanging]] in ''[[Skies of Arcadia (Video Game)|Skies of Arcadia]]'' - As the party and their allies leave for the final battle with Galcian's fleet, Gilder notes, "The skies are clear, and the wind is behind us. Considering we're about to enter a battle over the fate of the world, the weather is pretty good."

* Used in ''[[In FamousInfamous (Videovideo game Gameseries)|In Famous]] 2'', specifically for the {{spoiler|second to the last level.}}

* Justified in the ''[[Halo: Reach]]'' [[Never Trust a Trailer|trailer]], since the lightning shown at the end comes from a Covenant plasma flare.

** While the trailer has the circumstances "compressed" a bit for exposition's sake, the full game reflects this during the later levels, where the weather is increasingly stormy. Again justified, as the Covenant's plasma bombardment heats the atmosphere, causing rolling pressure waves and thunderstorms to break out. Some of the ice caps are even melted, causing rising floods and other climatic disturbances as more water is forced into the atmosphere.

* [[Lampshaded]] (and somewhat justified) in [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0199.html this strip] of ''[[The Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|Order of the Stick]]''.

* In ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court (Webcomic)|Gunnerkrigg Court]]'', Zimmy mentions "... a storm's brewin'. A biggun," near the start of Chapter 11. Though at the end, the foreshadowed storm ends up [[Redemption in Thethe Rain|relieving]] the rising tension.

* In the Sister II arc of ''[[El Goonish Shive (Webcomic)|El Goonish Shive]],'' this trope comes in to play [http://egscomics.com/index.php?arcid=66 here.] Needless to say, the high school shown is attacked by a wizard later that day.

* In ''[[Impure Blood]]'', [http://www.impurebloodwebcomic.com/Pages/Issue4PAGES/ib093.html Mac spots one, but thinks it's nothing]{{Dead link}}. The ever cheerful Mac.

* In ''[[Sinfest]]'', Fuschia brings up omnious impending rainstorms [httphttps://wwwweb.archive.org/web/20140209191958/http://sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=3232 when she considers being refused] and [httphttps://wwwweb.archive.org/web/20140209160342/http://sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=3239 when she calms down Tomey].

* When [[The Nostalgia Critic (Web Video)|The Nostalgia Critic]] was unable to find enough game show recordings to do his planned conclusion to Nickelodeon Month, he [[Tempting Fate|said he'd take anything Nickelodeon had to offer, even the worst]]. Storm clouds gathered and gathered, until revealing ''[[Good Burger]]''.

* ''[[Transformers]]: [[Beast Wars (Animation)|Beast Wars]]'' actually has an ''episode'' called "[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Before_the_Storm Before the Storm]".

{{quote| '''Megatron:''' There is a storm approaching. A storm of such power, such magnitude... it is ''beyond imagination''.}}

* The second season finale of ''[[Star Wars: Clone Wars]]'':

{{quote| '''Yoda:''' Mmm. Darker, the coming storm grows. I fear the dark cloud of the Sith shrouds us all.}}

* The animated TV show ''[[Clone High]]'' has an entire episode that continuously references an oncoming storm to highlight mounting tensions between two main characters. Joan of Arc's foster grandfather Toots [[Lampshadeslampshade]]s this by saying "Storm's a-brewin. Metaphorically, too."

* Happens in the ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' episode "The Storm". In this case, it's an unusual variant, where the metaphorical storm is a war that has already been going on for about 100 years. The literal storm in the episode isn't particularly important to the larger plot, but it brings up memories of Aang's past before the war started when the Air Nomads rushed his revelation as the Avatar because of the Fire Nation's escalating aggression (they could see the symbolic storm-clouds gathering). As a result, the young Aang was overwhelmed by the responsibility and ran away (getting caught in yet ''another'' literal storm) and ended up frozen for the next century. Of all the storms in this episode, only the one where Aang ended up frozen fits the traditional use of the trope.

* The first volume of [[Winston Churchill]]'s war memoirs are called ''The Gathering Storm'' and focus on the road to war and how he [[Cassandra Truth|unsuccessfully spent the 1930s trying to warn of the danger that Hitler posed to Europe, and remind people that Britain was unprepared for war.]] They made a movie out of it, with [[Albert Finney]].

[[Category:PortentOminous of DoomTropes]]

[[Category{{DEFAULTSORT:A Storm Is Coming]], A}}