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Glite Dictionary
flash-forward

flash-forward

1 7.5
A scene in a book or film that jumps ahead to show events in the future
  • noun
  • /flæʃ ˈfɔːrwərd/
  • Literature
translation icon : flash-forward
  • The film begins with a dramatic flash-forward that reveals the main character's future struggles.
  • flash-forward to the future

As if the next thing people see in the video is a flash forward?

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Examples

  • By using a series of flashbacks and flash-forwards, Sayles highlights the sociological disjunctions between Frontera's segregated past and its relationship to the ethnic tensions that plague the border town's historical present.

    Academic text (1998)

  • Sinclair's flash-forward, which shows Garibaldi fighting off overwhelming unseen invaders on Babylon 5, is too intense to forget about.

    Blog text (25)

  • Not everyone died due to the island; it was a flash forward.

    Blog text (4)

  • Even though I wasn't a fan of the later seasons, I still wish we got a flash forward.

    Blog text (11)

  • In a kind of flash-forward, the dead body of the calf ends up, literally, in the pages of a newspaper and on its way to be examined at a museum where it will be displayed and talked about.

    Academic text (2008)

  • Thus, the first page constitutes an excellent example of a flash-forward, another time-manipulating technique—but not the one we're going to be discussing now.

    Blog text (29)

  • At this point, Revenge wants us to remember the disembodied, wedding ring-wearing hand floating among Amanda's debris in the season premiere's flash-forward.

    Blog text (27)

  • Flash forward to June 1967, when the Israeli photographer David Rubinger photographed three paratroopers at the Western Wall shortly after they had captured it from Jordan during the Six-Day War.

    Academic text (2010)

  • This kind of gamble reminds me of nothing more than the "Opera House" flash-forward from Battlestar Galactica, which appeared at the end of its long-running Kobol arc in its first and second seasons.

    Blog text (25)

  • Following this hope, the novel ends on an optimistic note: one of the final chapters is a flash-forward to the future in which most of the main characters are attending a public rally on the streets of Dublin to 'protest against the low conviction rate for Irish rapists' (Keyes

    Academic text (2011)

Synonyms

prolepsis
vsflash-forward
  • Literature
9.9

Describing a future event as if it has already happened

interrupts the story to show a future event directly

Antonyms

flashback
  • Literature
41 4.5

A scene in a film or book that shows an earlier time

How Far Ahead

flash-forward
  • Literature
1 7.5
foreshadowing
  • Literature
8 6.7

Surface Forms

flash-forward singular
flash-forwards plural

Morphology

flash-forward = flash + forward (transparent) = flash + forward

The compound clearly combines 'flash' (a brief sudden event) + 'forward' (toward the future) to mean a brief scene that jumps ahead in time.

Etymology

Flash-forward comes from joining flash (a 'sudden light' or very short moment) and forward ('ahead in time'). So a flash-forward is like a quick 'flash' that jumps the story 'forward' to show what will happen later.