A flashback, which is also called analepsis, is a scene that takes the story back in time from the current point. Flashbacks are often used to show important events that happened before the main story to help explain the characters or plot. In the opposite direction, a flashforward, also called prolepsis, shows events that will happen in the future. Both flashbacks and flashforwards help organize a story, develop characters, or add structure to the narrative. In literature, internal analepsis is a flashback to an earlier part of the story; external analepsis is a flashback to a time before the story began.

In films, flashbacks show a character’s memory of a past event and are often used to help explain a mystery. Flashbacks are especially common in film noir and melodrama movies. In films and television, certain camera techniques, editing styles, and special effects are used to signal to the viewer that a scene is a flashback or flashforward. For example, the edges of the picture may be blurred, the photography may be shaky or quick, or the colors may be unusual, such as a brownish tone or black-and-white when the rest of the story is in full color. The scene may fade or dissolve, often with the camera focused on a character’s face, and a narrator’s voice (often from the character experiencing the memory) may be heard.

Notable examples

An early example of flashbacks is found in the Ramayana and Mahabharata, where the main story is told through a story that happens later. Another early use of this technique in a murder mystery is in "The Three Apples," a tale from Arabian Nights. The story starts with the discovery of a dead woman. Later, the murderer explains his actions through a series of flashbacks that show events before the body was found. Flashbacks are also used in other Arabian Nights stories, such as "Sinbad the Sailor" and "The City of Brass."

Author Ford Madox Ford and poet Robert Graves used flashbacks in their works. The 1927 book The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder is considered the first modern disaster story in literature and film. It shows how a single disaster connects people, and their lives are explored through flashbacks to events before the disaster. Flashbacks are also used in Night by Elie Wiesel. If flashbacks are in order, they can form the present of the story, while other parts of the story may show future events. If flashbacks are out of order, the time of the story can be unclear. For example, in Slaughterhouse-Five, the story jumps back and forth in time, so there is no clear present timeline. Os Lusíadas is a story about Vasco da Gama’s journey to India. The story begins when he arrives in Africa but quickly goes back to when he left Portugal.

In the Harry Potter series, a magical tool called a Pensieve allows characters to experience flashbacks directly, making them feel like real events. The first film to use flashbacks in cinema was Histoire d'un crime by Ferdinand Zecca in 1901. D.W. Griffith’s 1918 film Hearts of the World also used flashbacks, such as during a scene with a boy at 1:33. Flashbacks were first used in sound films in City Streets (1931) by Rouben Mamoulian, but they were rare until 1939. In Wuthering Heights (1939), the housekeeper Ellen tells the story to a visitor, similar to the original novel. In Le Jour Se Lève (1939), the story is mostly told through flashbacks, beginning with a murder in a hotel.

A famous example of flashbacks is in Citizen Kane (1941), where the main character, Charles Foster Kane, dies at the beginning. The rest of the film shows his life through interviews and flashbacks. The film was influenced by The Power and the Glory by William K. Howard. In Heaven Can Wait (1943), a flashback is used to tell the story of Henry Van Cleve. Flashbacks can also be unreliable, as seen in The Thin Blue Line (1988), where different testimonies create conflicting stories. Rashomon (1950) uses flashbacks to show different perspectives of a crime.

Sometimes, films add flashbacks even if the original story didn’t have them. The 1956 film Carousel used a flashback that changed how a dramatic moment was received. In Camelot (1967), a flashback was added to adjust the tone of the story. In Double Indemnity (1944), a flashback is used to show a confession. Fish & Cat (1953) is the first film to use a single shot with multiple flashbacks.

In The Locket (1946), a unique use of flashbacks within flashbacks adds depth to the story of a woman accused of crimes. The first scene of La Jetée (1962) is both a flashback and a future event, showing a man seeing his own death. Some stories have flashbacks within flashbacks, such as in L'Atlantide (1929) and Little Annie Rooney (1925). In The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), the main story is told through flashbacks, with another flashback within that. Other films with nested flashbacks include Lone Wolf Isazo (1968) and The Phantom of the Opera (2004).

Director Upendra in Kannada films uses flashbacks extensively in movies like Om (1995), A (1998), and Super (2010). Satyajit Ray used flashbacks in films like Nayak (1966), which tells the hero’s past through seven flashbacks. Quentin Tarantino uses flashbacks and flashforwards in films like Reservoir Dogs (1992) and Pulp Fiction (1994). Television shows like Quantico, Kung Fu, Psych, How I Met Your Mother, and Grounded also use flashbacks.