Meaningful Background Event: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}{{Needs Image}}
When some critical event is due to happen, it usually happens all of a sudden and this moment is accompanied by camera focusing and music effects. But think of a scene where we can see the event going on for some time. No [[Ominous Latin Chanting]], no triumphant music, just some sort of silent background process, which an attentive viewer can notice some seconds earlier than his attention will be drawn to it forcefully by some means.
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{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==▼
▲== [[Anime]] ==
* In ''[[Paprika]]'', it's entirely possible to miss {{spoiler|Osanai's bloody hand moving across the glass}} in the background of a mostly still shot of Dr. Chiba and Shima.
* Before the sudden and gruesome death of {{spoiler|[[General Ripper|General Regius]]}} in ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]] StrikerS'', we actually see the killer moving closer to the victim in the background with each shot of the room they're in. But since {{spoiler|she was [[Master of Disguise|disguised]] as a [[Living Prop]]}}, it's quite easy for the audience's mind to ignore it the first time around.
* In the ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi]]'' anime, during the episode "Live Alive", we can see Haruhi and Yuki with their musical instruments walking through the background, foreshadowing their unexpected involvement in the [[Fake Band|ENOZ]] concert. Earlier on, the two uninjured ENOZ members can briefly be seen running past in the foreground while the main characters are talking. And, even earlier on, all four members of ENOZ can be seen arguing with the student council representative in the background, as shown up close in the flashback later in the episode.
* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]] Brotherhood'', while Al, Heinkel, Marcoh and Yoki's car breaks down in Central, you can see {{spoiler|Fuhrer Bradley}} walking in the background.
* ''[[Code Geass]]'' has a rather [[Broken Base|divisive]] example. The [[Back
* In the background of episode 6 of ''[[Persona 4: The Animation]]'', Nanako leaves a television show playing while the conversation with Yu and Dojima is going on. The words are fully intelligible, and it's very obviously reminiscent of {{spoiler|Naoto's show on the Midnight Channel,}} much later on.
{{quote|
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* There's [http://www.elfquest.com/gallery/OnlineComics/OQ/OQ06/DisplayOQ06.html?page=27 a scene] in #6 of the original ''[[Elf Quest]]'' series where Cutter is telling the Wolfriders he's made an important decision. This goes on over three panels, and in the background of these panels his lifemate Leetah and his best friend Skywise are apparently conspiring literally behind his back.
* In ''[[Marvel Zombies]]'', the Wasp surprises people on two separate occasions. Both times, you can see her in the background the panel before she pops up.
* In one issue of ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes (
* The strange-looking redheaded man carrying the "End is Nigh" sign in ''[[Watchmen (comics)|Watchmen]]''. {{spoiler|Later revealed to be Rorschach without his mask.}}
* In the beginning of the ''Half a Life'' arc of ''[[Gotham Central]]'', almost a full issue before the [[Reveal]], Brian Selker ([[Private Detective]]) is following Renee Montoya to a restaurant called "Maloney's", taking intrusive pictures for a lawsuit that is about to be leveled against her. Being a long-distance shot in a comic book, with hand-drawn lettering instead of typed, there is not a lot of detail to be made out about the restaurant, and the name almost seems to be drawn as an afterthought: Maloney's Bar & ''Girl''. It is not a typo, it is a ''[[Gay Bar Reveal|revelation]]'', and if you missed it you need to wait until the end of the issue to get the full story.
* In ''Transformers: All Hail Megatron'' while the Decepticons are smashing up everything in New York, the reader might notice that in the background Thundercracker dosen't look particularly happy about what's going on. {{spoiler|Sure enough in the finale of the story Thundercracker betrays the Decepticons and ends up saving the day}}.
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* In the ''[[Firefly]]'' fanfic ''[[Forward]]'', during the "Charity" episode, there are several minor scenes involving Zoe walking around with a child from the village named Katie, whose parents were killed in a raid, and whom Zoe became attached to out of a sense of maternal protectiveness. {{spoiler|Katie's full name is Kathryn Wade, and she's an "Inducer" psychic who escaped from the Academy, and can apparently control emotions and perceptions in people around her - and is apparently behind everything that happened in that arc of the story.}}
* Rare literary example: In ''[[With Strings Attached]]'', the four and the Hunter find themselves on a ledge overlooking a 500-foot-wide canyon that they have to get across. Paul and John get into an inane argument about whether or not Paul should jump across and thus break the ledge, while behind them, the Hunter calmly sets up a series of magic stepping squares across the canyon.
== [[Film]] ==
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* The Japanese horror film ''[[Chakushin Ari]]'' (remade as ''[[One Missed Call]]'') had an example of this. The main girl and her love interest are in the ghost child's former apartment, in broad daylight, searching for clues about the child's death... {{spoiler|and the girl suddenly reacts in horror to the sight of the ghost's hand and face crawling slowly out of the kitchen cupboard behind her head}}. They are visible in the scene for a good few seconds before attention is drawn to them.
* In [[Alfred Hitchcock]]'s ''[[The Birds]]'' there's a scene where Tippi Hedren's character is sitting outside a school, and behind her we see one or two crows flying down to perch, and then a few more, and a few more, until one of them ''finally'' catches her eye and she turns to see hundreds of them perching on the playground climbing frame...
* In the movie ''[[Don't Look Now]]'', the main character is convinced that his daughter (who drowns in the opening) is alive and wandering around the town he is staying in. During the movie's events, background noise coming from nearby radios and televisions warn civilians about a serial killer terrorizing the town. When the man finally corners the apparition of his daughter, {{spoiler|it turns out to have been the serial killer - an elderly midget - in disguise the whole time}}.
* ''[[
** A classic scene from both the Japanese and American films is the lead in an elevator travelling up, with aforementioned little boy staring at her from the second floor. And the third floor. And the fourth floor. And the fifth floor...
* Michael Myers just sort of appearing all over the place in ''[[Halloween (film)|Halloween]]''.
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* In ''[[Darkness Falls]]'', the evil Tooth Fairy (don't ask) pulls this trick when the good guys have made it to the top of the lighthouse. Everything seems okay to ''them'', but after a moment we can see the monster out the window, drifting closer...
* In the beginning of ''[[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (film)|The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]'', a man is pretending to be Allan Quatermain, while halfway through the conversation we can see Sean Connery, the real Quatermain, sitting in shadows just to his left. Eventually he turns around and tells the impostor to toddle off.
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* In ''[[The Dark Knight]]'', {{spoiler|Two-Face}} (or at least his hand) can be seen grabbing Maroni's passenger as Maroni gets in the car, before {{spoiler|Two-Face gets in and kills his driver.}}
* In the [[Dario Argento]] film ''[[Deep Red]]'', when the main characters enters the psychic's apartment after her murder, the murderer's face can briefly be seen in a mirror as he passes. He spends the rest of the movie trying to remember what he's seen, and doesn't put it together until the very end; nowadays, an alert viewer with a DVD and a pause button can figure it out immediately.
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* In the [[Stan Winston]] directed horror film [[Pumpkinhead]] there's a moment when a character walks across the room and we just see the titular monster walking past the window behind her.
* Happens a lot in ''[[Coraline (animation)|Coraline]]''. Mr Bobinsky is often doing stuff in the background before the titular character notices him, as well as Wybie and the cat in the beginning. At one point, while Coraline's fighting yellow flowers, a bunch of bigger, blue flowers creep in from behind her. (It's very noticeable, though, because of the sounds and the very next scene is from the flowers' "point of view" crawling to her.)
* The film ''[[The Strangers]]'' did this once. One of the killers just walked right into the house, a few feet behind the main character, with absolutely no fanfare. You might not actually notice him at first, and he leaves a shortly after entering. When you ''do'' notice him, it can be quite [[Nothing Is Scarier|unsettling]].
* In ''[[Boiler Room]]'', during the scene when Seth and Abby are talking in the car, you see the FBI agents pull up and start walking over (to arrest Seth) in the background quite a few minutes before it actually happens.
* In the [[Saw|James]] [[Dead Silence|Wan]] horror film ''[[Insidious]]'' Renai walks right by {{spoiler|the demonic boy in her new house}} on her way to the kitchen less than a minute before he actually appears.
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** Also in "After Life", when Xander is on the phone to Willow and Anya after the {{spoiler|Buffy impostor attacks them}}, and just out of focus, we see {{spoiler|Anya walking back into the room, possessed}}.
** Another example ([[Joss Whedon]] loves this trope) in "Conversations with Dead People" - Dawn is alone in the house, and strange things are happening. As she tries to figure out what's happening, the camera suddenly shifts angle, and we see {{spoiler|her mother's body}} in the background. Cue [[Scare Chord]] as she suddenly realizes what's behind her, and turns to see {{spoiler|[[Nothing Is Scarier|nothing.]]}}
** On a subtler note, {{spoiler|Spike}} can be seen in the background of a minor scene in the two episodes prior to his main appearance in the series, dancing in The Bronze the first time, and in class with our heroes the second.
* In ''[[The Middleman]]'' there is a scene where the focus is on the Middleman speaking to his [[Mission Control]], who is telling him that the [[Monster of the Week]] MUST be captured alive. In the background, the Middleman's sidekick is shown finding, fighting, and ultimately killing the fish. Really more of a [[Funny Background Event]], but plot-relevant.
* In ''[[ER]]'', when Doctor Pratt was seeing off a patient up on the roof, there were two faint lights behind him. Then, when Pratt turned around, we see that the two lights collided. A commercial plane and a private jet had crashed.
* In the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode ''[[Doctor Who
** Rose appearing unnoticed on video screens was one of the running themes for series 4 that replaced the [[Arc Words]] of the past three series, with her showing up at some point in nearly every issue.
** Also in Doctor Who, ''The Waters of Mars'': the first person to get infected by the Flood does so in the background of the shot with his back to us, with lots of jerking and writhing, so that we know something is wrong and are yelling for the character in the foreground to get out of there.
** In ''[[Doctor Who
** In "The Time Of Angels", you can notice Amy occasionally slipping numbers into her dialog. It's so fast you'll have trouble noticing it, and you might not even pick up that she's counting down. {{spoiler|Eventually the Doctor notices, and realises that it means the Weeping Angels are possessing her [[For the Evulz]]}}.
* [[Spin-Off]] series ''[[Torchwood]]'' continues this - in the episode "Captain Jack Harkness", a "[[Doctor Who
* In ''[[Fringe]]'' every single episode has an observer in the background of an important scene.
* In the ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' episode ''The Brocha Divide'', you can see one of [[The Virus|the Touched]] in the forest behind Daniel and Teal'c as they tend to the body of a woman. They actually attack a couple of minutes later.
* ''[[Mad Men]]'' did this well with JFK's assassination as two men are in an office having a conversation with the TV on with very low volume. The report becomes a special report, but neither pay attention as they are busy in their conversation.
* In the ''[[Firefly]]'' episode "Safe", while Simon and Kaylee are arguing in the general store, River can be observed in the background wandering away, setting up the rest of the episode.
** In the episode "Objects in Space", while (almost) everyone's asleep, Serenity is boarded by a bounty hunter looking for River. The hunter's ship could actually be seen in the background in the previous episode, although its significance wasn't immediately apparent.
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* In the mini-series ''Whitechapel'' the camera would often linger on a red-headed nurse who worked in the hospital that the investigators keep visiting. She ends up being {{spoiler|the Ripper's last victim}}.
* The ''[[Lost]]'' episode The Other 48 Days opens with a beach scene. Several dots appear in the blue sky, which slowly get bigger and reveal themselves as the tail and other pieces of Oceanic Flight 815 hurtling towards the island.
* In an early episode of ''[[True Blood]]'', two characters are talking in the foreground. In the background, a hanging corpse is visible through a doorway for several minutes before the characters draw attention to it.
* In the [[Kamen Rider Double/Recap/
* ''[[The Nanny]]'' did it once ([[Funny Background Event|combining with the humorous cousin]]): when Fran describes to Mr. Sheffield the reactions of children being disappointed by their parents, C.C. is on the patio acting out these symptoms on Niles. Then [[Lampshade Hanging|commented on]] by Fran "As seen in our audio-video theater production here."
* In the ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'' ([[Wham! Episode|Wham]]) episode "Bad News", numbers starting at 50 and counting down can be seen strewn about random locations throughout the entire episode. When the "countdown" finally hits zero, {{spoiler|[[Mood Whiplash|Marshall learns]] [[Tear Jerker|his father's just died]].}}
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* In ''[[
* ''[[Psychonauts]]'' has these -
** Multiple times throughout the scene where the Lungfish is attempting to fish for Lili and Raz.
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** While ascending the insane asylum, it's easy not to notice the sobs or the flashes of a girl's image. (Unless you have subtitles on...) {{spoiler|It's Sheegor, trying to warn Raz off.}}
** Throughout the Meat Circus level, one might notice a strange blue apparition appearing randomly to scare the crap out of players. {{spoiler|Raz's father is trying to break into Raz's mind to save him.}}
* ''[[Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas]]'' - During the [[Cutscene]] for the 'Wu Zi Mu' mission, a man in a black jacket and green jeans is sitting casually on a car in the background. That man is Claude, the player character of ''[[Grand Theft Auto III]]'', who is Catalina's new boyfriend in the next mission and who gives CJ his car garage in San Fierro.
* Most of the G-Man's appearances in ''[[Half Life]]''. The first is even before all the trouble starts - you look through a window and see a scientist arguing with him.
** Actually, you can see him even earlier, before you get off the tram.
** The advisers can be seen in monitors throughout episode 1.
** Well actually, the first one shows up on a monitor at the very end of Half-Life 2, {{spoiler|having a discussion with Breen.}}
* When [[The Cake Is a Lie|Princess Peach's birthday cake]] is first seen in ''[[New Super Mario Bros. Wii]]'', you may notice for a second that the 'decorations' are actually the hair/headgear of [[Quirky Miniboss Squad|the Koopalings]].
* In [[Brutal Legend]], upon arriving at the Kill Master's domain, there's a difficult to see event occurring just above the default camera position (and above the focal points of the scene): {{spoiler|Razor Girls, who will not be introduced for a couple of missions, are peering through the holes in the rock building to see if Ophelia is going to be okay.}}
* In ''[[Call of Cthulhu (tabletop game)]]: [[Dark Corners of the Earth]]'' there are several instances early in the game where you get visions of being watched. If you look in the right direction at the right moment, you may catch glimpses of your watchers on the rooftops, hinting at what's waiting for you later in the game. Also, if you look through certain windows in the starting area, you can see various disturbing sights, such as corpses being dragged away.
* A number of suspense scenes from ''[[The Lost Crown]]'' have small yet creepy details in the background, like the face of an Ager brother looking on when {{spoiler|Nigel is attacked by flies in the Nightmare Room}}.
* A lot of plot points in ''[[Golden Sun]]'' games tend to be foreshadowed in NPC dialogue or [[Mind Probe|thoughts]], browsing through bookshelves in random houses, or the like.
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* This trope is the only reason [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0764.html this] ''[[Order of the Stick]]'' page isn't filler. Elan tells Haley that he just found she was right about [[Devil in Plain Sight|his father]].
* In [http://www.gpf-comics.com/archive/2005/12/03 this] ''[[General Protection Fault]]'' comic, Fooker gets a call from his brother that turns out to be much more meaningful than he lets on.
* In ''[[Drowtales]]'', Shodun, a previously introduced character {{spoiler|and a member of the [[Big Bad]] Nidraa'chal}}, [https://web.archive.org/web/20190823171134/http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive.php?order=chapters&id=1710 appears briefly in the foreground of a scene], and then later [https://web.archive.org/web/20191030081725/http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive.php?order=chapters&id=1713 shows up out of focus] through several pages before [https://web.archive.org/web/20191030081725/http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive.php?order=chapters&id=1716 coming into the foreground again], where she {{spoiler|blasts Sandaur out a window}}.
== Web Original ==
* In ''Final Fantasy III Trilogy'', while the heroes are answering the bridge troll's questions, you can briefly see Kefka pull Celes offscreen and then replace her after taking her likeness.
* In ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'', in Season 2, Church and Tucker are having a conversation about something (this troper thinks it was about the "switch") and someone just runs by in Blue Base. In Season 3, it's revealed to be {{spoiler|Church from the future (or "past") trying to fix everything that went wrong in the past two seasons. [[What the Hell, Hero?|Didn't work well.]] }}
* Crosses over with a [[Funny Background Event]] in the first ''Tankmen'' cartoon. During one scene there's a gag in the background where we see a soldier get shot right after learning that he's about to have a son with his wife. It seems like just a minor one-off joke in the background. Over the course of the various ''Tankmen'' cartoons we learn who he was, how he joined the Tankmen, how he met Sgt. John Captain, his origins, some of his personality, and who killed him.
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* In the ''[[Futurama]]'' pilot, Nibbler's shadow can be seen for a split second after Fry falls into the cryogenic chamber. You'll have to be looking for it to notice. In another episode, Nibbler's eye can also be seen sticking out of a trashcan in a flashback. As with the shadow example, it's only there for a split second and you have to pay close attention to see it.
* Used in [[X-Men: Evolution]], not in terms of plot, but theme. After the kids are outed as mutants, there's an episode about whether mutants should be allowed to go to the same schools as 'normal' people. In the shot when they walk back into the school for the first time, there's a black kid in the background drinking from a water fountain; a clear nod to a rather less [[Fantastic Racism]].
* Sort of a "blink-and-you'll-miss-it" [[Easter Egg]] example appears in [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVSjc4JVULo this promotional spot] for ''[[Amphibia (TV series)|Amphibia]]'' where Sasha interrupts the theme song to replace it with her own version. Pause at the 0:45 mark, and you can see Anne and Sprig fleeing from the giant chicken monster, a scene that is shown close-up at approximately the same time in the regular credits.
== [[Real Life]] ==
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[[Category:Drama Tropes]]
[[Category:Horror Tropes]]
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