What Is Foreshadowing – Examples in Film and Literature

Have you ever watched a movie or read a book where a plot twist completely shocked you, but when you went back through it, you realized all the now-obvious clues were there, quietly undermining the story the whole time? You’re not alone. Those clues are a kind of foreshadowing, a powerful storytelling technique that helps make even the wildest endings feel earned. Using foreshadowing in your story can create anticipation and keep your audience hooked until the very end.

Foreshadowing

When used well, foreshadowing can be extremely effective at engaging an audience. If it’s too obvious, the audience may lose interest. If it’s too subtle, they may miss it entirely.

Before we look at examples of foreshadowing in film, we first have to define it and understand what it does. What exactly is foreshadowing? How does it help you tell your story?

What Is Foreshadowing?

Foreshadowing is a literary device used to hint at or suggest future events in a story. It can be a highly effective tool for building curiosity, intrigue, suspense, or even a sense of narrative harmony by the time a film or novel ends. Writers often use foreshadowing early in a story to set up later events. “Hint” and “omen” are both synonyms for foreshadowing. While you can classify foreshadowing by how subtle or direct it is, its main function is to capture the audience’s attention.

• Create suspense
• Build dramatic tension
• Foster anticipation

Two Types of Foreshadowing

Now that you know the definition of foreshadowing, you may immediately think of examples from books or movies you’ve seen. All of those examples fall into one of two types of foreshadowing.

Direct foreshadowing is when an element in the story explicitly signals an upcoming event. This can be done through dialogue, a narrator, or a prophecy within the story.

You can find an example of direct foreshadowing in Macbeth.

Shakespeare uses three witches in the opening to plainly state Macbeth’s fate: that he “shalt be king hereafter,” while Banquo will be the father of future kings.

This is a clever use of direct foreshadowing because it gives us information while also making us—and the characters—want to know more. Why will Macbeth become king, yet Banquo’s line ultimately inherit the throne?

Indirect foreshadowing is when story elements hint at what’s to come through subtle clues. These hints are not obvious and are only fully understood once the foreshadowed event actually happens.

Of Mice and Men is a great example.

Throughout the book, there are references to Lennie accidentally killing things when he pets them. This sets the stage for the climactic moment between Lennie and Curley’s wife.

Although there may be two ways to categorize foreshadowing, both can effectively achieve the same purpose if used well. Drawing the audience’s attention is at the heart of using this technique.

Foreshadowing and Related Devices

Foreshadowing can be confused with, or used to refer to, several other literary devices. Let’s look at some terms that are commonly associated with foreshadowing.

Chekhov’s gun is a very famous form of foreshadowing. The principle, based on Anton Chekhov’s work, can be summed up as: if a gun appears at the beginning of the story, it must be fired by the end.

The point of the rule is that details emphasized early in the story should pay off later. Remind you of anything? That’s foreshadowing.

A red herring uses the audience’s familiarity with foreshadowing against them. Suppose we see a gun hidden under a pillow in Act One—we’ll naturally assume this is foreshadowing that the gun will be used later. If the gun turns out to be fake, or is never used at all, that’s a red herring. A red herring is a story element designed to lead us in one direction so that we’re surprised later.

Foreshadowing hints at the future; a flash-forward shows it to us. But a flash-forward can be vague enough that it still functions as a kind of foreshadowing. For example, we see a close-up of someone pulling a gun from under a pillow, but we don’t know who it is or why they’re doing it, and then the film cuts back to events before that reveal. That’s foreshadowing.

Examples of Foreshadowing in Literature

Foreshadowing appeared in books long before it was used in films. Writers in any genre can learn from the following examples.

In William Shakespeare’s famous tragedy, there are several instances of foreshadowing. Romeo says, “Come, death, and welcome. Juliet wills it so.” This (quite plainly) hints at the fate awaiting Romeo and his beloved.

Juliet also dreams of Romeo dead at the bottom of a tomb. This too foreshadows that something very bad is going to happen.

The ending of “The Monkey’s Paw” is also quite grim, and not without warning. The previous owner of the magic talisman warns Mr. White: “I threw it on the fire. If you keep it, don’t blame me for what happens. Like a sensible man, throw it back on the fire again.”

Most readers, after seeing this, grow wary and apprehensive that things are going to take a turn for the worse.

Here’s another bleak story. John Steinbeck hints at (spoiler alert) Lennie’s fate in his famous work. In the book, a character describes in detail how animals that are too weak to survive in a harsh world should be killed for their own good. As the story progresses, George begins to believe that Lennie may fall under that description as well.

Examples of Foreshadowing in Film

Although there are mainly two types of foreshadowing, filmmakers have found ways to use nearly every tool in cinema to foreshadow story events—from the film’s title to a character’s costume. Analyzing and breaking down some of these examples can help you find foreshadowing opportunities in your own stories that you may never have noticed before.

Sometimes, the title of a movie itself foreshadows its plot. This method has to be vague enough to spark curiosity before the audience watches, but clear enough to make sense once the credits roll. The Coen brothers did this perfectly with their 2007 film No Country for Old Men.

The title, taken from writer and screenwriter Cormac McCarthy, serves to suggest that Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) is not suited to the new breed of criminals he encounters.

“When you can’t sleep, nothing seems real anymore.”

Fight Club is one of the most widely recognized twist-ending movies in recent years. On a second or third viewing, you might notice subtle clues throughout the film foreshadowing that Tyler Durden (played by Brad Pitt) is not real, including this voice-over line.

If you’ve seen The Departed, you know the film is full of twists and that nearly every main character dies, but did you know director Martin Scorsese left very clear clues about which characters would die? Borrowing from the 1932 film Scarface, Scorsese places an “X” somewhere in the frame whenever a character who will eventually die appears on screen.

This classic “whodunit” keeps audiences curious and engaged right up to the final moments. How? The Usual Suspects cleverly balances subtle, indirect foreshadowing with quick, direct foreshadowing beats throughout the film to tie everything together. The result is a plot twist that still ranks among the best more than twenty years later.

Its incredible final scene has been copied and parodied for years after its release, largely because of how effectively it brings all those foreshadowing clues together to close out the story.

The Prestige is a great example of a film that layers in enough foreshadowing to engage the audience without giving away its major twists. One of the film’s best scenes involves Alfred performing the birdcage trick, in which he kills a bird and then brings it back to life.

Foreshadowing is one of the most effective tools filmmakers have for stimulating curiosity and holding the audience’s attention. But it’s important to know how much foreshadowing your story needs, and what kind. Too much can make your story predictable and cause the audience to lose interest. Too little can make it dull or confusing—and lose them as well.

Try to identify a few moments in your story where you can employ some foreshadowing techniques and see which ones work for you.