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 revisited it, you realized all the now-obvious clues had been undermining the story all along? You’re not alone. These clues are a form of foreshadowing, a powerful storytelling technique that helps make 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 a very effective way to hook an audience. If it’s too obvious, the audience may lose interest. If it’s too subtle, they might miss it completely.

Before we look at examples of foreshadowing in film, we first need to define foreshadowing and its function. What is foreshadowing to begin with? How does it help you tell your story?

What Is Foreshadowing?

Foreshadowing is a literary device used to hint at or signal future events in a story. It can be a very effective tool for building curiosity, intrigue, suspense, or even a sense of narrative harmony at the end of a film or novel. Writers often use foreshadowing early in a story to set up later events. “Hinting” and “foretelling” are both synonyms for foreshadowing. While you can categorize types of foreshadowing by how subtle or direct they are, its main purpose is to capture the audience’s attention.

• Creating suspense
• Dramatic buildup
• Cultivating anticipation

Two Types of Foreshadowing

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

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

An example of direct foreshadowing can be found in Macbeth.

In the opening, 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 it gives us information while making both us and the characters want to know more. Why will Macbeth become king, yet Banquo’s line eventually take the throne?

Indirect foreshadowing is when elements of the story hint at what is to come by leaving subtle clues about future events. These hints are not obvious and can only be fully understood once the events they foreshadow have occurred.

Of Mice and Men is a great example.

Throughout the book, it’s mentioned that Lennie accidentally kills things when he pets them. This sets up the climactic moment between Lennie and Curley’s wife.

Although there may be two ways to define foreshadowing, both approaches can be effective when used well, and both serve the same goal: capturing 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, 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 device refers to the works 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 highlight at the beginning of a story should pay off later. Sound familiar? 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 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, that’s a red herring. A red herring is an element in the story designed to lead us in one direction so we’ll be surprised later.

Foreshadowing hints at the future; a flashforward shows us the future. But a flashforward can be vague enough to function as 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 we cut back to events before this reveal. That’s foreshadowing.

Examples of Foreshadowing in Literature

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

In William Shakespeare’s famous tragedy, there are several instances of foreshadowing. Romeo says, “Death, I welcome it. Juliet wills it so.” This (rather obviously) hints at the fate of Romeo and his lover.

Juliet also dreams of seeing Romeo “as one dead in the bottom of a tomb.” This likewise foreshadows that things are not going to end well.

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 edge, expecting things to go very wrong.

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

Examples of Foreshadowing in Film

Although there are primarily two types of foreshadowing, filmmakers have found ways to use almost every tool in cinema to foreshadow story events — from the title of the film to a character’s wardrobe. Analyzing and breaking down some of these examples can help you discover foreshadowing opportunities in your own stories that you might have overlooked.

Sometimes a film’s title itself foreshadows the story. This method must be vague enough to spark curiosity before the audience watches, yet clear in hindsight once the credits roll. The Coen brothers did this perfectly with their 2007 film No Country for Old Men.

The title, coined by author and screenwriter Cormac McCarthy, hints that Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) is not suited to the new breed of crime he encounters.

“When you can’t sleep, nothing’s really real.”

Fight Club is one of the most notable twist-ending films in recent years. If you’ve watched it a second or even third time, you’ve probably noticed the subtle clues throughout the film 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 nearly every main character dies. But did you know director Martin Scorsese left very clear clues as to which characters would die? Borrowing from the 1932 Scarface script, Scorsese places an “X” somewhere in the frame of every shot featuring a character who is going to die.

This classic “whodunit” keeps audiences curious and immersed until the very last moment. How? The Usual Suspects deftly balances subtle, indirect foreshadowing throughout the film with quick, direct foreshadowing beats 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 after its release, largely because of how effectively it pulls together all the foreshadowing clues to conclude the story.

The Prestige is a great example of using just enough foreshadowing to keep the audience engaged without spoiling the major twist. One of the film’s best scenes is 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 use to spark audience curiosity and hold their attention. However, it’s important to understand how much foreshadowing a story needs and what kind. Too much foreshadowing can make a story predictable and cause the audience to lose interest. Too little, and the story may feel dull or confusing, which also drives them away.

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