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Can also be used to crank [[Dramatic Irony]] [[Up to Eleven]].
 
[[Historical Fiction]] isand nonfiction in general tied to this trope, since history ain't changing (unless the author pulls a [[Written by the Winners]] and claim that the events as portrayed in his work is what "really" happened).
 
Compare [[External Retcon]], where the audience is expected to be familiar with an entire ''existing'' story.
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This is [[Older Than Feudalism]]. Everyone who heard [[Homer]] sing already knew that Troy falls and Achilles and Hector both die; nobody walked out of [[Sophocles]]'s play saying, "Dude, he married his ''mom?''" There's a long, long tradition of retelling the story everyone knows.
 
[[Historical In-Joke]] is sometimes like this, but sometimes subverts it.
 
{{endingtrope}}
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* A ''[[Naruto]] Shippuden'' filler takes a character from the manga who we only knew from sourcebooks and from a manga spread and spread it out. The character is Utakata, a rogue ninja from the hidden mist village and host of the six-tailed beast. Unfortunately, anyone who read the manga knew that he did not show up and was implied to have been captured off-screen. So this obviously was ''not'' [[Doomed by Canon|going to end on a happy note...]]
** Likewise, the manga's flashback story showing Minato's life prior to the Nine-Tails' attack. {{spoiler|We've already been told beforehand that he and his wife will die immediately after their son Naruto is born, with Minato's final act being to seal the Nine-Tails into Naruto's body.}}
* ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'':
** Subverted in the ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' episode "Holy Matrimony!", where James tells Jessie, Meowth, and the twerps the sad story of his childhood as an orphan, living alone with only his Growlithe for companionship. James dies at the end of his (obviously fictional) story, and promptly confuses himself when Misty reminds everyone that he's still alive.
** In-universe example, film director Cleavon Schpielbunk says he always shoots the conclusion of a movie first, so that when he makes the rest, he knows what he's heading towards.
* ''[[Windaria]]'': The story is narrated by Alan after he's gone old and grey and so a number of things are clear from the start: 1. Alan survives the story. 2. Marie does not. 3. The world has recovered from the damage about to unfold. 4. Alan has done something so terrible that not even being lauded as the hero who rebuilt the world can ease his guilt. The ''how'' of the story is not even alluded to and no other character is mentioned so there are still plenty of surprises.
* This trope is rather apparent in both of the ''[[Dragonball Z]]'' TV specials:
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* ''[[Senko no Night Raid]]'': [[Imperial Japan|Japan]] would eventually plunge into imperialistic militarism and [[Second Sino-Japanese War|ravage China]], and the rest of the world would also descend to [[Second World War|war]] eventually, despite whatever efforts the protagonists might attempt to do.
* ''[[Fate/Zero]]'', as a prequel to ''[[Fate/stay night]]'', is subject to this. Anyone who is familiar with the latter will know that {{spoiler|the Grail is corrupted, and Kiritsugu will be forced to order Saber to destroy it, resulting in the fire. Kiritsugu saves Shirou by implanting Avalon in him and adopts him, and he will die from the the Grail's curse a few years later, without ever seeing his daughter again. Kotomine will give in to his inclinations and [[Start of Darkness|become a villain]]. Kariya will fail to rescue Sakura, and Rider will be unable to convince Saber that her ideals are flawed. Tokiomi, Aoi, and Irisviel are all [[Doomed by Canon]] as well.}}
 
 
== Comic Books ==
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* Interestingly for a fanfic, ''[[Past Sins]]'' derives its foregone conclusion not from ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic]]'' canon, but from its ''cover art.'' Every last scene depicted happens....
* From ''[[Fallout Equestria: Pink Eyes]]'', the little filly Puppysmiles just wants to find her mom. The only problem is [[Apocalypse How|the world ended]] and due to her [[Undead Child|ghouli]][[Our Zombies Are Different|fication]], it's been centuries since her mother could have plausibly been alive.
* The comic-animatic ''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcZSAvZ0eWU "Death of Cherri Bomb (How Cherri Bomb Died)"]''. Even if you aren't a fan of ''[[Hazbin Hotel]]'', the title makes it clear that Cherri isn't going to survive this story; the events leading up to it and ''why'' it happens are far more important to the plot.
 
 
== Film ==
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** And the 1955 version is based on the actual life of Toulouse-Lautrec (and the novel).
* ''[[Boys Don't Cry]]'' is based on the last days of a famous murder victim, so the climax of the film is {{spoiler|a very carefully choreographed [[Mexican Standoff]]}}, [[Subverted Trope]] when the inevitable happens.
* ''[[Valkyrie (film)|Valkyrie]]'': Even if you are not familiar with the historical details, everyone knows that [[Adolf Hitler]] will survive the bombing.
** And if you don't like that, well, just watch ''[[Inglourious Basterds]]'' instead.
* ''[[Downfall (film)|Downfall]]'': considering it's a movie advertised as "Hitler's last days", you'd have a hard time finding someone who doesn't know how it ends.
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* For ''[[Ip Man]]'', everyone watching it already knows that he would survive the Japanese invasion of China and become Bruce Lee's martial arts master.
* ''[[D.O.A.|DOA]]'': "I want to report a murder -- mine!"
* The film ''[[Barry Lyndon]]'' makes excessive use of this trope. Everything that is going to happen is stated outright by the title cards and the narrator well in advance of the outcome. [https://web.archive.org/web/20091007014155/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19750920/REVIEWS/60510001%2F19750920%2FREVIEWS%2F60510001 In his review], [[Roger Ebert]] even suggested this is the entire point of the film.
* You might notice this trope at play in [[John Carpenter]]'s ''[[Ghosts of Mars]]'' as soon as we find out how the alien spirits operate. There is NO discernable way to kill them, and they will just continue [[Body Surf|jumping from body to body]] if their current host is killed. This means that in order to even temporarily defeat them, our heroes would have to kill every human being on the entire planet of Mars, ''including themselves''. Guess which side wins?
* In ''[[Seven Pounds]]'' the movie starts with {{spoiler|the main character calling in his own suicide to 911.}}
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* ''[[The Emperor's New Groove]]'' starts with a wet llama shivering in the jungle, and a voice-over telling you that he used to be a human emperor.
{{quote|This is his story. Well, actually my story. I'm that llama.}}
*:* And when the film actually comes to that, [[Narrator]] Kuzco and On-screen Kuzco start arguing—and from that point on, the film has no voice-over.
 
* ''[[Stranger Than Fiction]]'': "Little did he know that this simple seemingly innocuous act would result in his imminent death." "What? What? Hey!" {{spoiler|Subverted, though: he lives at the end.}}
* ''[[Brick]]'' starts with Emily lying face down in a drainage ditch. When she shows up again in the flashback sequence, you already know she's doomed.
* ''Veronica Guerin'' is not only based on the life and death of the aforenamed Irish journalist, the movie begins with a depiction of her murder. The film then flashes back to two years prior, when she began her investigations into the Irish drug trade, which is what lead to her gruesome fate.
* ''[[The Eagle Has Landed]]'': A team of Nazis land in [[World War II|wartime]] Britain to assassinate [[Winston Churchill]]. {{spoiler|And they succeed! [[Double Subversion|Except he's not really Churchill, but a double]].}}
* Most of ''[[Tora! Tora! Tora!]]'' is about the Japanese planning to attack Pearl Harbor and the Americans fretting over their attempts to discover what Japan is up to. {{spoiler|The Japanese achieve complete surprise.}}
* The ''[[Terminator]]'' series. Kyle Reese will live through ''Salvation''. The humans will win the [[Robot War]] in the end.
* ''[[Godzilla vs. Destoroyah]]'' shows that Godzilla is slowly dying of a nuclear overload at the beginning of the film.
** Which actually starts even before the film, as the trailers for the film actually flat out state "'''''Godzilla Dies!'''''" as part of the advertising campaign to draw in viewers!
* Both Averted and Played Straight in ''[[Tangled]]''. The movie opens with the narration 'This is the story of how I died.' And {{spoiler|he technically does die at the end. It just doesn't take.}}
* ''[[X Men Origins: Wolverine]]'' and ''[[X-Men: First Class|X Men First Class]]'' are both prequels to the first three ''[[X-Men (film)|X-Men]]'' films (though the prequels [[Continuity Snarl|contradict each other in some regards]]) and therefore contain numerous examples of this trope (assuming that the viewer has seen the first three films and/or is familiar with the comic book source material).
** In ''Wolverine'', we know that Logan, Sabretooth, and Stryker will all survive the film. We know that Logan will receive his adamantium skeleton from the Weapon X program. Finally, we know that Logan's memories of everything in his life up to, and including, the events of the film will somehow be erased by the end of the film.
** In ''[[X-Men: First Class]]'', we know that despite Xavier and Magneto starting out as best friends, Magneto's inevitable [[Face Heel Turn]] will result in them becoming the leaders of two opposing mutant factions. We also know that Mystique will make a [[Face Heel Turn]] of her own and will work for Magneto. We also know that Beast's attempts to "cure" the physical appearance aspect of his mutation will not only fail, but will actually backfire, making his condition much worse.
* Everything in ''[[Captain America: The First Avenger]]'' led up to him being frozen for decades before waking up in the present time.
* The plot of ''[[The Thing (2011 film)|The Thing]]'' is a prequel about the Norwegian camp story, and we all know through MacReady and his team's investigation in [[The Thing (film)|the 1982 film]] the overall fate of the Norwegian camp and its occupants, including how some of them are going to die. It also foreshadows the ending that "The Thing" will imitate a dog and 2 survivors from the Norwegian camp will chase and hunt it down, which they will fail to accomplish.
* ''[[Sherlock Holmes (film)|Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows]]'' gives us a really good view of a waterfall during the establishing shot of the castle in which the climax of the film takes place. Those familiar with Holmes mythology could tell where the movie was headed from there.
* The 1997 made-for-TV movie ''Two Came Back'' depicted five young people left adrift in an emergency raft after their yacht sinks. Guess how many of the characters survived the ordeal and returned to land safely? {{spoiler|If you need to, take another look at the title.}}
* The segment of the anthology film ''[[Creepshow]]'' starring [[Stephen King]] is entitled "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill".
* ''[[The Blair Witch Project]]'' states at the beginning that the [[Found Footage Films|found footage]] is the only trace left of the four teenagers, a non-subtle hint that they won't survive. In fact, even the promotional material for the movie had this.
 
 
== Literature ==
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* Nabokov's ''[[Lolita]]'' has a [[Literary Agent Hypothesis|foreword]], which tells us that Humbert died from coronary thrombosis {{spoiler|and Lolita died in childbirth. However, it refers Lolita as "Mrs. Richard F. Schiller", her married name, which we don't learn until the end of the book.}}
* Stephen R Donaldson's ''The Real Story'' spends the first chapter describing how a [[Damsel in Distress]] got rescued from an evil villain by a dashing hero. Then we spend the rest of the novel finding out that both the situation and the characters were in fact rather more complex than they seemed to a casual observer. Following books compound the process.
* Daniel Defoe's ''[[Long Title|The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the]] [[MissReally YoGets Yo KnickersAround|Famous]] [[Moll Flanders]], Etc. Who Was Born In [[Cardboard Prison|Newgate]], and During a Life of Continu'd Variety For Threescore Years, Besides Her Childhood, Was Twelve Year [[My Girl Is a Slut|a Whore]], Five Times [[Ugly Guy, Hot Wife|a Wife]] (Whereof Once To [[Brother-Sister Incest|Her Own Brother]]), Twelve Year a Thief, Eight Year a [[Put on a Bus|Transported Felon]] In Virginia, At Last [[Rags to Riches|Grew Rich]], [[Heel Face Turn|Liv'd Honest]], and [[Hijacked by Jesus|Died a Penitent]]. [[Literary Agent Hypothesis|Written from her own Memorandums]].''
* In [[Mercedes Lackey]]'s first ''[[Heralds of Valdemar]]'' novel, she details the dramatic death scene of Vanyel, the last Herald-Mage of Valdemar. When Vanyel gets his own trilogy, everyone knows where this is ultimately going.
** The same thing happens with Lavan Firestorm, whose death is described in the first ''Heralds of Valdemar'' trilogy long before his story is told firsthand in ''Brightly Burning.''
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* It's not hard to see how the author would expect you to know the ending of ''The Death of Ivan Ilyich''.
** In ''[[Ikiru]]'', the narrator tells us when and how Watanabe will die. We get to see what he does before then, and then watch his funeral.
* From [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] novels:
* There's a [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] novel,* ''[[Death Star]]'', which takes place [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|on the first Death Star]]. It gets used on Alderaan and is later destroyed. The characters, of course, don't know that. We have a cantina owner whose bar got burned down getting an offer to work in a bar up there, and deciding that there probably isn't a safer place to work than an invincible battle station. The head gunner, uneasy about being in a station which theoretically could destroy a planet, consoles himself by thinking that it will be used purely on large ships, enemy space stations, maybe some moons, since no one would be evil enough to order him to fire on a populated world. A few other characters vaguely wish they could leave, maybe join the Rebellion, but with something like the Death Star cruising around, the Rebellion would come to naught, since people who would gladly die for their cause would hesitate to risk their planet. War as they knew it would end. A lot of the tension comes from wondering who, if anyone, survives, and how, since most of them don't have [[Resignations Not Accepted|permission to leave]].
** Another EU example is ''[[Outbound Flight]]''. Anyone who's been paying attention to [[Timothy Zahn]]'s other ''[[Star Wars]]'' books would know that it doesn't end well for the titular project.
* Second book in the Coruscant Nights Trilogy—Captain Typho, Padme's [[Bodyguard Crush]], seeks to avenge her death, eventually deciding that he has to kill Darth Vader. Even ''he'' thought it would be a [[Curb Stomp Battle]] unless he was really prepared. {{spoiler|Didn't really work.}}
** Second book in the Coruscant Nights Trilogy—Captain Typho, Padme's [[Bodyguard Crush]], seeks to avenge her death, eventually deciding that he has to kill Darth Vader. Even ''he'' thought it would be a [[Curb Stomp Battle]] unless he was really prepared. {{spoiler|Didn't really work.}} It introduces a [[Continuity Snarl]], though, as {{spoiler|Typho is cut down by Vader, even though existing canon confirmed that he was still alive 18 years later}}.
** ''[[Darth Plagueis]]''; if you've seen ''[[Revenge of the Sith]]'' you know that Plagius is killed at the end and have a pretty good idea who the murderer is. In fact, the prologue of the novel is a [[Flash Forward]] showing the aftermath of his death. {{spoiler| Plagius' death or how it happens is ''not'' supposed to be a the story's twist, it's ''when'' it happens.}}
* Julie Buxbaum's ''The Opposite of Love'' is mostly centred around the main character's difficulties forming relationships following the death of her mother—problem is, any tension that might arise over whether she'll ever work things out is sapped by the flash-forward prologue, where she's married with a baby on the way.
* In ''[[The Godfather]]'' Mario Puzo frequently mentions something that will happen, and then "rewinds" to show us ''how'' it happened. For example, the deaths of {{spoiler|Sonny -- the scene with Vito calling in the favor from the undertaker appears before the tollbooth sequence}} and {{spoiler|Vito}}.
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* ''[[Crime and Punishment]]''. There is a crime. There is a punishment.
* ''[[Why We Broke Up]]''. It's a girl telling her ex-boyfriend why they broke up; throughout her 300-or-so-page description of their relationship, you know the entire time that they're going to break up, assuming you read the title.
* ''[[I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream]]''. Yep, by the end of the story, the [[Narrator]] has no mouth, and [[And I Must Scream|you'd better believe he wants to scream]].
 
== Live -Action TV ==▼
 
▲== Live Action TV ==
* Game shows provide many examples of the winner being virtually assured before the episode's natural conclusion—that is, the contestant in the lead will have such a great lead that it is impossible for the other players to catch up. For instance:
** ''[[Jeopardy!]]!'': When a first-place contestant has more than double the cash amount (score) of the second-place contestant at the end of the "Double Jeopardy" round, the situation is known as a "lock." That is, unless the leader does something very stupid (such as bet everything in "Final Jeopardy!" and then give a wrong answer) he is assured of winning.
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'''Marge''': Homer, he obviously got out alive if he wrote the article.
'''Homer''': Don't be so... [flips ahead] Oh, you're right. }}
*:* Likewise, any flashback episode that shows problems with Homer & Marge's relationship (i.e. "That 90's Show"). Since they're married in the present, it's pretty obvious they're going to be fine.
*:* In "Homer's Paternity Coot" Abe unsurprisingly turns out to be Homer's real father after all.
* A recent ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' episode is entitled "Candace Gets Busted". Two guesses as to what happens at the end.
* ''[[Young Justice (animation)|Young Justice]]'': [[Aquaman]]'s younger brother Orm makes an appearance and seems to be a devoted servant to the king and an all-around nice guy. [[wikipedia:Ocean Master|This won't end well]].
* For ''[[Transformers Prime]]'', everyone is waiting for [http://tfwiki.net/wiki/The_many_deaths_of_Optimus_Prime Optimus Prime to die] and [[Death Is Cheap|come back to life]], just to get it over with.
** {{spoiler|There's a twist this time. Since a dead character can't come back in this series, they killed Prime metaphorically. Unleashing the Matrix on Unicron took away all of his memories of being Optimus Prime. He is now Orion Pax, and has joined the Decepticons via Megatron taking advantage of his current state. Now we're waiting to see how they "ressurect" him this time.}}
* ''[[Celebrity Deathmatch]]''
** Before ''[[Celebrity Deathmatch]]''they showed a classic match between OJ Simpson and Joe Namath, Nick started making OJ jokes. Johnny explained the fight took place before the ugliness in a simpler time.
** In the episode with the match between Kevin Spacey and Michael Caine, there was this parody of the opening line from ''[[American Beauty]]'':
{{quote|'''Spacey:''' My name is Kevin Spacey, and I'm 49 years old. This is my life. In less than half an hour, I'll be dead. [[It Makes Sense In Context| I'll also be dressed like a giant hamburger]].}}
::* Downplayed, because {{spoiler|he won the match with Caine, but was then killed by Dave Thomas, who was in the show's previous match.}}
* Any time they come close to capturing or killing an important figure in the Separatist Alliance in [[Star Wars: The Clone Wars]], or if any of the Jedi are in peril. You already knew Nute Gunray was going to get away and that Obi Wan somehow escapes the supposedly inescapable trap. The series does avert this to a degree whenever they feature clones, since you never know which among them will get offed the next minute.
 
 
== Real Life ==
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