A narrative that begins in medias res (which means "into the middle of things") starts in the middle of the story, not at the beginning. This approach skips explaining details right away, instead revealing them slowly through conversations, memories, or descriptions of past events. For example, the play Hamlet begins after the death of Hamlet’s father, which is later shown to be a murder. Characters talk about the king’s death without first explaining how it happened. Since the story focuses more on Hamlet’s revenge than on why it happened, the writer skips unnecessary explanations.

Stories that use in medias res often later include flashbacks or tell events out of order to explain what happened before. In Homer’s Odyssey, the reader first learns about Odysseus’s journey when he is trapped on an island. Later, the story explains that most of his journey happened before this moment. In Homer’s Iliad, the story begins during the Trojan War, and there are fewer flashbacks, though it still starts in the middle of the action.

First use of the phrase

The Roman lyric poet and satirist Horace (65–8 BC) first used the phrases "ab ovo" ("from the egg") and "in mediās rēs" ("into the middle of things") in his work Ars Poetica ("Poetic Arts," around 13 BC). In lines 147–149 of this text, Horace describes the ideal epic poet as someone who does not begin a story at the very start, like the beginning of the Trojan War, but instead jumps directly into the action. He writes, "Nor does he begin the Trojan War from the egg, but always he hurries to the action, and snatches the listener into the middle of things…"

The phrase "from the egg" refers to a myth about the origin of the Trojan War. According to the story, the Trojan War began with the birth of Helen and Clytemnestra, who were said to have come from two eggs laid by Leda after she was seduced by Zeus, who appeared to her as a swan. This myth explains how the war started. In contrast, Homer’s Iliad begins nine years after the war’s start, not at its very beginning.

Literary history

The storytelling method of beginning a story in the middle of the action, called in medias res, has its roots in spoken stories. This technique is commonly used in epic poems, such as Homer's Iliad and Odyssey from the 7th century BC. Similarly, the Indian epic Mahābhārata, written between the 8th century BC and 4th century AD, also starts in the middle of the action.

The Roman poet Virgil, who lived from 70 to 19 BC, used this method in his work The Aeneid. Later examples include the story "The Three Apples" from One Thousand and One Nights (around the 9th century), Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy (1320), the German poem Nibelungenlied (12th century), the Spanish poem Cantar de Mio Cid (about the 14th century), Luís de Camões' The Lusiads (1572), Torquato Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered (1581), John Milton's Paradise Lost (1667), and many works from Modernist literature.

Modern writers like William Faulkner and Toni Morrison use in medias res with flashbacks to tell their stories. Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Tell-Tale Heart" also begins in the middle of the action. Some biographers start their books with a key moment in a person's life, such as David McCullough's Truman, which begins with President Truman's experiences during World War I.

Cinematic history

Film noir often begins in the middle of an action, such as when a private detective joins a story that is already happening. The movie Crossfire (1947) starts with the murder of Joseph Samuels. As police investigate the crime, the story of the murder is shown through flashbacks. In Dead Reckoning (1947), the film opens with Humphrey Bogart as Rip Murdock running from the law and hiding in a Catholic church. Inside, the backstory is revealed through flashbacks as Murdock explains his situation to a priest.

This storytelling technique has been used in many types of films. Examples include dramas like Through a Glass Darkly (1961), 8½ (1963), Raging Bull (1980), and City of God (2002); crime thrillers such as No Way Out (1987), Grievous Bodily Harm (1988), The Usual Suspects (1995), and Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004); horror films like Firestarter (1984); action films from the James Bond series; and comedies like Dr. Strangelove (1964). Some people say that Star Wars uses this technique because its first movie, A New Hope (1977), is the fourth part of a nine-part story.

Superhero films with humor, such as Deadpool (2016) and Birds of Prey (2020), also use this method to begin their stories. Animated films like Grave of the Fireflies (1988), The Emperor's New Groove (2000), Hoodwinked! (2005), Happily N'Ever After (2006), Megamind (2010), and The Mitchells vs. the Machines (2021) start with a scene in the middle of the action. This scene is shown again later but in a different way. Many war films, such as The Thin Red Line (1998), also begin in the middle of a battle, with the main characters already in combat and no scenes showing events before the story starts.