You remember it from high school English, but how often do you notice the classic technique of starting a story ‘in the middle’ in the books you read, the movies you see, and even the games you play? Here are 5 of my favorite examples:
1. The Odyssey
The advantage of starting a story in the middle, or even at the end, and then doubling back to the same point is the ability to hook the audience immediately, without any exposition, plopping him down right in the middle of the action. Some of the earliest uses of in medias res are still the most formidable. Homer’s Iliad makes use of the technique, but The Odyssey is an even better example. If you recall, it starts with most of Odysseus’ journey already finished. The story up to that point is then told through flashbacks as we learn about all the fantastic characters he met along the way.
2. The Divine Comedy
Another long, narrative poem that makes great use of the technique is Dante’s The Divine Comedy . In fact, not only does it start in the middle, the first line of the Inferno (that’s part 1 for those who haven’t yet read it), starts Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita, Italian for “Midway into the journey of our life.”
3. The Gambler
I’ll skip some of Shakespeare’s works that make use of the technique ( Cymbeline for example) and jump up to Dostoyevsky and a story you may not have read. Most people are familiar with his biggies, like Crime and Punishment or The Brothers Karamazov, but it’s his lesser-known work, The Gambler, that makes use of in medias res. The novel begins like this:
At length I returned from two weeks leave of absence to find that my patrons had arrived three days ago in Roulettenberg. I received from them a welcome quite different to that which I had expected. The General eyed me coldly, greeted me in rather haughty fashion, and dismissed me to pay my respects to his sister. It was clear that from SOMEWHERE money had been acquired. I thought I could even detect a certain shamefacedness in the General’s glance.
It works so well because it immediately and irrevocably immerses us in the world of the protagonist, begging us to ask questions, to turn the page and find out who the narrator is, and what his plight is.
4. Raging Bull
While there are more films that use the technique than there are novels (again, because movies need to hook their audiences in even faster than novels do), my absolute favorite is Scorcese’s Raging Bull, with Robert De Niro. It starts in 1964 as the hero, Jake LaMotto (De Niro) is rehearsing for a one-man show. The movie ends when Jake walks on stage to deliver the show. What happens in between is the stuff of Oscar-winning films. Through a series of amazing flashbacks, we get the story of how Jake became a pro boxer, married a woman he thought he loved, and lost everything along the way. This enables us to understand why he’s an overweight loser at the end of the film doing stand-up for a living.
5. God of War
Of course, the technique isn’t limited to just books and movies. Many video games have made great use of in medias res, like Final Fantasy X. But to come full circle back to where we started, how about the PlayStation 2 game, God of War, an action-adventure game based on Greek mythology. Dubbed the “Greatest PlayStation Game of All Time” (or something similar) by many (including IGN), God of War pits Kratos, a former captain in the Spartan army, against Ares, the god of war. The story begins at the very end, and then moves chronologically through flashbacks. But it’s the bloody battle at the beginning that really sets the pace for the rest of the game and immediately hooks the player in.
What are some of your favorite examples?
Star Wars is one of my favorite examples! And Oldboy, as well (the opening scene is so riveting, yet to inconsequential to the actual plot).
posted by Xavier on 1-15-2009 at 8:22 am
I would have to give my vote to the movie Memento. If you are asking yourself “What movie is that?”, write it down somewhere and rent it. You will not be disappointed.
posted by Sean on 1-15-2009 at 8:42 am
In books, What is the What by Dave Eggers. And what about Citizen Kane in movies?
posted by grant on 1-15-2009 at 8:43 am
Last Temptation of Christ begins with a scene in the middle that doesn’t happen when we start over and proceed forward. So confusing. So cool.
posted by karen on 1-15-2009 at 8:52 am
Usual Suspects, my favorite film falls into the category of an unreliable narrator which i believe memento does too. Good call Sean.
posted by solipsismal displacement on 1-15-2009 at 9:06 am
I’m FINALLY reading Lord of the Flies for the first time (somehow I missed out on reading it in high school), and was surprised to find the book starts with them already on the island. It’s not exactly the “middle”, but I expected to read about how they got there first.
posted by Craig on 1-15-2009 at 9:34 am
What about TV shows? I know two of my favorites, Firefly and Studio 60, use the technique, but those are the only ones coming to mind at the moment.
posted by nutmeag on 1-15-2009 at 9:47 am
The Time Machine.
posted by BSid on 1-15-2009 at 9:50 am
Current film hit “Slumdog Millionaire” uses in media res to great effect. Great movie.
posted by Missy on 1-15-2009 at 9:55 am
Pulp Fiction starts with the Pumpkin and Honey Bunny diner scene, which happens after much of the other parts in the movie. Funny thing is that PF also ENDS with the Diner scene too. I wonder what that technique is called?
posted by Ian on 1-15-2009 at 10:18 am
Just an addendum to the previous post, Pulp Fiction’s ending diner scene happens BEFORE some of the action in the movie.
posted by Ian on 1-15-2009 at 10:22 am
Two examples from film are Walk the Line (Johnny Cash, about to start a prison concert, sees a saw in a workroom and flashes back to childhood) and It’s a Wonderful Life (in the opening scene, everyone is already praying for George)
My recaptcha: $10,000 Hungarian (which sounds like a student film)
posted by Paul on 1-15-2009 at 11:15 am
@Ian – Quentin Tarantino uses this form in the Kill Bill movies as well.
posted by bzzyb on 1-15-2009 at 11:30 am
I’m seconding Missy’s call of Slumdog Millionaire…it was a unique use of it as well
posted by Lauren on 1-15-2009 at 11:45 am
Catch 22 – awesome story that doesn’t work out all the story lines until the very end. You have to read it twice to fully understand all that’s going on.
posted by crovenpaver on 1-15-2009 at 11:52 am
Rashomon starts well after the main story happens and is made up of numerous flashbacks, all of which are slightly false and slightly true. Great flick…
posted by SpaceMonkeyX on 1-15-2009 at 12:13 pm
One of the greatest movies of all time: Fight Club
I like at the end when we finally catch up to where the story started and Tyler Durden asks The Narrator (Ed Norton’s character who does not have a name) again if he’d like to mark the occasion by saying a few words and The Narraror says “I still can’t think of anything” and Tyler smirks and says “ah…flashback humor”.
posted by Mike James on 1-15-2009 at 12:35 pm
I saw the title of this blog an immediately thought of ‘Of Mice and Men’ by John Steinbeck. Had to study it for pre-university exams…lecturer was always going on about how it started in medias res!
posted by Raylene on 1-15-2009 at 1:34 pm
The Red Violin with Samuel L. Jackson is a fabulous film. I had to watch it s second time to fully figure it out, but it’s totally worth it.
posted by Bethany on 1-15-2009 at 1:43 pm
I second The Red Violin. It is truly a beautiful and underappreciated film.
I may be remembering incorrectly, but I believe the movie The Legend of 1900 (which is also quite good though underappreciated) uses in medias res.
posted by Bryan on 1-15-2009 at 1:55 pm
A controversial to include might be Mulholland Drive, since even at the end we can’t really be sure of the ‘real’ events and the order in which they occured, but it seems likely that many events in the second part of the film must have occured first.
posted by TheBear on 1-15-2009 at 2:10 pm
Two of the best examples in film are Sunset Boulevard and All About Eve. The image of William Holden’s dead body in the pool as he reflects on how he got into this predicament is one of best film openings ever; and the ending scene is my favorite of all time.
posted by Nathan on 1-15-2009 at 2:40 pm
Forrest Gump. The first part is him waiting for the bus to see Jenny and meet his son.
posted by Scott on 1-15-2009 at 2:41 pm
Alias, Seas 2, ep Phase One.
This aired right after the Super Bowl, so it had a good lead in, but needed to hold the largely male audience.
The show starts Sydney Bristow’s (Jen Garner) in black lingerie (w/ riding crop!) strutting down a hallway to AC/DCs Back in Black, in Slo-Mo (cuz everything is better in slo-mo). She’s posing as a call girl, and her john tells her to “Put on the red one”. Restart same sequence, this time w/ red lingerie.
She kills the john (asking what was wrong w/ the black one), steals something, and his bodyguards shoot up the plane they’re flying in, and Syd goes flying out the open door at 30,000 ft, apparently w/ no parachute.
Credits, then we see “24 hours earlier”
posted by jonny on 1-15-2009 at 2:43 pm
A story arc in Calvin and Hobbes starts out with Calvin walking into frame with uncharacteristically tidy clothes and hair speaking politely to his parents and doing his chores without being asked. Only later do we learn that he’s a ‘good clone’ and yet another part of Calvin’s odd schemes.Aside from the mutant snowmen, it’s one of my favorite parts of the strip
posted by heather on 1-15-2009 at 2:47 pm
I second SpaceMonkeyX’s recommendation, Rashomon. Akira Kurosawa begins in the middle of the story with a small group recounting a rape that occured.
It then goes into a series of conflicting flashbacks, and flashbacks within flashbacks, leaving the viewer aware of what occurred but unsure of which account is true.
Excellent film! Go watch it!
posted by Jason! on 1-15-2009 at 2:57 pm
Pulp Fiction!
posted by tommy on 1-15-2009 at 4:12 pm
No mention of Kill Bill? O-Ren Ishii is already dead at the start of the movie, she kills Vernita Green, and then it takes you back to the beginning… or at least, halfway between the start of the movie and the beginning. You actually have to go to Kill Bill 2 to see the very beginning. Great movies.
posted by DYMongoose on 1-15-2009 at 4:17 pm
DYMongoose – Yes, it was. I prefer the second movie to the first because of the telling of the back story.
posted by bzzyb on 1-15-2009 at 4:21 pm
THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE by Audrey Niffenegger. You go back and forth in the chronology of Henry and Claire, and it’s utterly captivating.
posted by Q1Go on 1-15-2009 at 4:33 pm
An amazing use of this is the movie “Bad Education.” Almodovar takes us back in time twice, once with a fictionalized ending, and once with the real ending, before giving us the future of the current situation. It’s complicated to write about, but fascinating to watch.
posted by redondo on 1-15-2009 at 5:38 pm
@ jonny
I believe J.J. Abrams directed Alias and it seems to be a common technique used in his stuff. There are a number of Alias episodes that do that along with episodes of Lost and Mission Impossible II, also one of his.
posted by Jenna on 1-16-2009 at 1:52 pm
I mean Mission Impossible III… sorry
posted by Jenna on 1-16-2009 at 1:54 pm
“The Hours” by Michael Cunningham come to mind – it begins with the suicide of Virginia Wolfe.
posted by Ivan Sondel on 1-16-2009 at 7:33 pm
John Lee Hooker’s song, “Leave My Wife Alone” makes good use of in media res in its story. It begins with him giving his final warning to another guy that has been flirting with his wife, who’s been returning the gestures.
posted by Kaiser Omen on 2-10-2010 at 5:00 am
And another couple recent games that make use of it are Darksiders, which follows War, the First Horseman of the Apocalypse, as he is initially tricked into inciting the Apocalypse on Earth (we are thrown in the middle of the Apocalypse, with heaven and hell already warring and having no idea War has been tricked into starting it before the proper time). The game Bayonetta also uses the technique to a certain degree, as the opening sequence throws the player in the middle of her last battle before a magically induced 500 year hibernation that causes Bayonetta to lose most of her memories, which are revealed slowly through a series of brief flashbacks throughout the story.
posted by Kaiser Omen on 2-10-2010 at 5:05 am
Faulkner’s “The Sound and the Fury” is my favorite book and, in my opinion, have one of the best uses of the in media res technique.
“Through the fence, between the curling flower spaces, I could see them hitting.”
posted by JV on 11-3-2010 at 9:49 am