Flash Forward Examples

A flash forward in a literary text occurs when the writer leaves the current action to "flash" to a scene in the future. This is the opposite of a flashback, which occurs when the author leaves the current action to "flash" back to a previous occurrence.

The purpose of a flash forward is to show events as they are imagined by characters.

In a story about a middle school student who is not popular, the student daydreams about making the football team and being the most popular kid in high school.

A young mother has just had her child, and there are flash forward scenes of all of the things she cannot wait to do-first steps, first words, first bike ride, first day of school, etc.

A teacher talks with her students about what they might become, and there are flash forward scenes of students as doctors, lawyers, teachers, etc.

Examples of Flash Forward from Literature and Film

In Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, Scrooge experiences a flash forward, as the ghost of Christmas future takes him to see what his life (and death) will be like if he does not change his selfish ways.

In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, there is a flash forward scene of nuclear destruction, that the characters in the present day are working to prevent.