What Is Foreshadowing – Examples in Film and Literature

Have you ever watched a movie or read a book where a plot twist completely stunned you, but when you revisited it, you realized all the now-obvious clues had been there all along, quietly subverting the story? You’re not alone. These clues are a form of foreshadowing, a powerful storytelling technique that makes an ending — no matter how wild — feel earned. Using foreshadowing in your story can create anticipation and keep your audience engaged until the very end.

Foreshadowing

When used well, foreshadowing can be extremely effective at drawing in an audience. If it’s too obvious, viewers may lose interest. If it’s too subtle, they may miss it altogether.

Before we look at examples of foreshadowing in film, we first need to define what foreshadowing is and what it does. What is foreshadowing, fundamentally? 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 very effective tool for building curiosity, intrigue, suspense, or even a sense of narrative harmony by the end of a film or novel. Writers often use foreshadowing early in the story to set up later events. “Hinting” and “predicting” are both synonyms for foreshadowing. Although you can categorize types of foreshadowing based on how subtle or direct they are, its main function is to hold the audience’s attention.

• Creating suspense
• Dramatic buildup
• Building anticipation

Two Types of Foreshadowing

Now that you understand the definition of foreshadowing, you may already be thinking of examples from books or films that immediately come to mind. All of these examples fall into one of two types of foreshadowing.

Direct foreshadowing is when an element in the story explicitly suggests events that are about to happen. This can be done through dialogue, a narrator, or a prophecy within the story.

One example of direct foreshadowing can be found in Macbeth.

At the beginning, Shakespeare has the three witches clearly state Macbeth’s fate: that he “shalt be king hereafter,” but that Banquo will be the father of future kings.

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

Indirect foreshadowing is when story elements hint at upcoming events by planting subtle clues about what will happen next. These hints are not obvious and can only be fully understood once the events they foreshadow have actually occurred.

Of Mice and Men is a strong example.

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

Although there may be two main ways to define foreshadowing, both can be equally effective if used correctly. Grabbing and holding the audience’s attention is at the heart of this technique.

Foreshadowing and Related Devices

Foreshadowing is often confused with, or used to refer to, a number of other literary devices. Let’s look at some of the terms commonly associated with foreshadowing.

Chekhov’s gun is a very famous form of foreshadowing. The device comes from the work of Anton Chekhov and, put simply, says that if a gun appears at the beginning of a story, it must be fired by the end.

The point of the rule is that details you emphasize early on should pay off later. Sound familiar? That’s foreshadowing.

A red herring is a device that uses the audience’s familiarity with foreshadowing against them. Suppose we see a gun hidden under a pillow in the first act — we’ll 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, then that was a red herring. A red herring is a story element designed to lead us in one direction so we’ll be surprised later.

Foreshadowing hints at the future; a flashforward shows it to us. But a flashforward can be vague enough that it functions like foreshadowing. For example, we see a close-up of someone pulling a gun from under a pillow, but we can’t tell who it is or why they’ve taken it, and then we cut back to events prior to this reveal. That’s foreshadowing.

Examples of Foreshadowing in Literature

Foreshadowing appeared in books long before it appeared in movies. Writers of any genre can learn from the following examples.

Shakespeare’s famous tragedy contains several instances of foreshadowing. Romeo says, “Come, death, and welcome. Juliet wills it so.” This (rather obviously) hints at the fate of Romeo and his beloved.

Juliet also dreams of seeing Romeo dead at the bottom of a tomb. This likewise foreshadows that something bad is coming.

The ending of “The Monkey’s Paw” is also quite grim, and not without warning. The previous owner of the magical 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.”

After reading this, most readers are on high alert, worried that things are about to go very wrong.

Here’s another bleak story. John Steinbeck hints at (spoiler alert) Lennie’s fate in his famous work. In the book, one character explains in detail that animals too weak to survive in this harsh world should be killed for their own good. As the story progresses, George begins to believe that Lennie may fit this 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 of cinema to foreshadow story events, from the film’s title to a character’s wardrobe. Analyzing and breaking down some of these examples will help you spot foreshadowing opportunities in your own stories that you may never have noticed before.

Sometimes, the title of a film itself can hint at its plot. This method of foreshadowing must be vague enough to spark curiosity before viewing, but clear enough that it makes sense after the credits roll. The Coen brothers did this perfectly in their 2007 film No Country for Old Men.

The title, taken from writer and screenwriter Cormac McCarthy, suggests that Ed Tom Bell (played by Tommy Lee Jones) is out of place in the new generation of crime he encounters.

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

Fight Club is one of the most notable twist-ending films of recent decades. If you’ve watched it a second or even third time, you’ve likely noticed the subtle clues scattered throughout that foreshadow the fact that Tyler Durden (played by Brad Pitt) isn’t real — including this line of voiceover.

If you’ve seen The Departed, you know it’s full of twists and that almost all of the main characters die. But did you know director Martin Scorsese left very clear clues as to which characters would die? Borrowing from the 1932 Scarface screenplay, Scorsese places an “X” somewhere in the frame whenever a character who will die appears on screen.

This classic “whodunit” keeps viewers curious and immersed until the very last moment. How? The Usual Suspects cleverly balances subtle, indirect foreshadowing throughout the film with quick, direct foreshadowing scenes that tie everything together. The result is a plot twist that still ranks among the best more than twenty years later.

That incredible final scene has been copied and parodied for years, in large part because of how effectively it pulls together all the foreshadowing clues to close out the story.

The Prestige is a prime example of a film that includes just enough foreshadowing to hook the audience without spoiling its major twists. One of the best scenes in the film is Alfred’s birdcage trick, in which he kills a bird and then brings it back.

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

Try identifying a few moments in your story where you can apply some foreshadowing techniques, and see which ones work for you.