‘Foreshadowing’ is a clever plot device used by fiction writers to hint or to tease about what might come later on. With the dawn of internet culture, people the world over can discuss their favourite TV shows and the meaning of clues that are placed into them ‘ far more than we can with books. Producers feed off of this frenzy to generate more interest. However, foreshadowing has been a plot device in literature for as long as there has been fiction.

1. Movie: The Others

Nicole Kidman plays a wartime mother in an isolated house in the Channel Islands and has become a recluse following the death of her husband in combat. They boy has a skin condition which means he must avoid sunlight. This takes its toll and at one point, the young girl is playing up and starts deliberately hyperventilating. Kidman screams ‘Stop breathing!’ It was a comment that made moviegoers chuckle but its stark reality led to a penny-drop moment when later discovering that they were the ghosts and the children had indeed stopped breathing as a result of their mother smothering them

2. Movie: The Empire Strikes Back

On reflection and after a second viewing, the biggest hint as to the parentage of Luke Skywalker comes during his training scenes in the swamps of Dagobah. Yoda sends Luke to face his final test alone. Luke ignites his lightsabrr, steps into the clump of trees and Darth Vader steps out. Luke attacks – slicing off the head of what is actually a hallucination. The mask explodes to reveal Luke’s face. Yoda comments later to the spirit of Obi Wan ‘much anger in him, like his father’. The big reveal would come shortly afterwards

3. Movie: Reservoir Dogs

It’s Mister Orange’¦ he’s the cop. Of course he is, because all of the clues foreshadow the big reveal that comes halfway through the film. When Nice Guy Eddie is arguing on the phone about discovering the rat, an orange balloon passes behind his car. In the bathroom, Mister Pink and Mister White discuss who the rat might be. All of the toiletry bottles are pink, white’¦ and orange. Mister Orange is also the one that tells Joe why Mister Pink didn’t put in a tip ‘ he couldn’t wait to tell the boss

4. Movie: The Shawshank Redemption

Andy Dufresne is now the most famous man wrongly convicted murderer in the history of filmmaking. The twists and turns and ultimate triumph over adversity makes it one of the most inspiring films of the generation. It is also one of those films where the bad guy gets his comeuppance. In the best bit of foreshadowing in the film, the Warden, who has just turned over Andy’s cell, picks up the Bible, waves it under Dufresne’s nose and tells him ‘salvation lies within’. It does because that is where Andy has hidden the hammer that he uses to dig his way out.

5. TV Show: Babylon 5

Series creator Joseph Michael Straczynski used foreshadowing to great effect throughout the five year run of this cult sci-fi series. The first big moment came roughly halfway through season 1 with an episode called ‘Signs and Portents’. A Centauri nobleman arrives on the station looking for a missing artefact. He has a prophetess with him who immediately predicts that the station would be destroyed by fire (which itself is foreshadowing much later events). Amused by this, the nobleman tells people not to take her seriously as she once said he would be ‘killed by a shadow’. At the end, his ship leaves the station and is destroyed by an unidentified vessel belonging to an ancient race known as ‘The Shadows’

6. Video Game: Bioshock Infinite

The series has more instances of foreshadowing than could ever be listed in a 1000 word article but the most startling revelation is explained to the player early on in this, the third game in the series. Private Detective Booker DeWitt must travel to the floating city of Columbia to rescue a girl from the clutches of its religious zealot of a ruler (and founder) ‘ Zachary Comstock. Only, DeWitt is Comstock from another reality and the big reveal is an embroidered message on the wall of the lighthouse interior right at the very beginning ‘To Thine Own Land Shall I Take Thee’.

7. TV Show: Lost

If one TV show ever built itself on foreshadowing, then this show about a group of plane crash survivors lost on a mysterious island is it. Each episode built up a bit more story only for a big reveal to come later. An early revelation was that the dying FBI agent was escorting a prisoner back to the USA. Eagle-eyed viewers might have noticed the first appearance of the character Kate (played by Evangeline Lilly) rubbing her wrists for the first few minutes of screen time

8. Literature: Frankenstein

Mary Shelley uses foreshadowing to such superb effect in a book that is ultimately about foreshadowing the errors that a man can make. When narrating his story to the ship’s Captain, Frankenstein hints at tragedy using heavily-loaded words like ‘portent’ and ‘sign’. Many times Victor Frankenstein will begin to discuss a character and then come out with an outburst such as ‘the poor man!’ making the reader want to read on to discover their fate

9. Literature: The Hobbit & Lord of the Rings

Both Bilbo’s and Frodo’s inability to kill Gollum / Smeagol when both are given the opportunity at various points throughout the books are rewarded in the final scene. Frodo, now fully consumed with the ring, refuses to throw it into the Crack of Doom leading to a fight with Gollum in which he tumbles into the crack, taking the ring with him. In the film version, this foreshadowing is further emphasised when Gandalf tells Frodo ‘My heart tells me that he has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before the end; and when that comes, the pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many ‘ yours not least.’

10. Literature: Macbeth

Thanks to the witches at the start of the play, many examples of foreshadowing exist here. Macbeth takes little notice of some of the more bizarre prophecies, particularly this one: “Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill shall come against him” which seems to suggest that the trees will stand up against him. What it actually meant was that the rebels united against him would use the trees to make shields.

Conclusion

Foreshadowing is a great plot device when used effectively. Some simply refer to it as ‘Chekhov’s Gun’ ‘a gun in chapter one must be fired by chapter three. Basically, when editing everything in a piece of fiction, especially when it is seemingly prominent, must be part of the story. Foreshadowing gives clues to the reader about what is about to happen without actually giving the plot away