History Main / CatchingUpOnHistory

* ''Film/TheFifthElement'': When the [[UltimateLifeForm Supreme Being]] Leeloo is regenerated FromASingleCell, she catches up on the last 5000 years of human history by speed-reading the encyclopedia. This causes [[HeroicBSOD some difficulty]] when she gets to [[HumansAreBastards the entry on War]].

-->'''Prof. X:''' Logan, don't you have a class to teach?\\

* ''Film/XMenApocalypse'': {{Hand Wave}}d with En Sabah Nur's {{mutant|s}} power of [[ExpositionBeam knowledge absorption]]. When he wakes from a 5000-year slumber, he gains an in-depth understanding of the modern age just by touching a television screen and making it cycle rapidly through various shows.

* ''Series/{{Angel}}''. Sahjhan brings Daniel Holtz, a VampireHunter from [=18th=] Century England to [=20th=] Century Los Angeles to kill Angel. Holtz is shown binge-watching news videos on OminousMultipleScreens. On first arriving he asks if England has changed much.

* ''Series/{{The Boys|2019}}'': After Soldier Boy is freed from the Russians, who have held him captive for over forty years, he spends time watching the news, looking at advertisements and just walking around.
* ''Series/{{The Flash|2014}}'': After being trapped in the [[PlaceBeyondTime Speed Force]] for 6 months, Barry decides to catch up on all the TV/news that he missed. Luckily, being a [[SuperSpeed speedster]], he had [[GadgeteerGenius Cisco]] put all the shows play at an extremely fast speed so that he could finish it all in only a few hours.

* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode ''Space Seed'', Khan Noonien Singh is released from suspended animation and learns about the 23rd century by reading through the Enterprise's computer records. His genetically-enhanced brain allows him to [[SuperSpeedReading read through them at super speed.]]

[[folder:Web Video]]

* In the first episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs|2020}}'' (2020), the Warner siblings sing about what they missed in the past 22 years such as smartphones, [[GlobalWarming rising sea levels]], the recession, Uber, Website/{{YouTube}}rs, [[PlutoIsExpendable Pluto as a dwarf planet]], online shopping, and the [[UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush Bush]], [[UsefulNotes/BarackObama Obama]], and [[UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump Trump]] administrations. They lampshade that since the show is written in 2018 due to AnimationLeadTime, they sing predictions about the next two years such as chips in their brains, further climate disasters, living underground, living on Mars, and a movie about a time-travelling talking police car.

* ''Series/TheBoys'': After Soldier Boy is freed from the Russians, who have held him captive for over forty years, he spends time watching the news, looking at advertisements and just walking around.

* In ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'', Steve Rogers is still adjusting to the modern era (though pleased with a lot of the advancements, especially The Internet which is useful for this trope) and has been making a list of all the things that he needs to catch up on. The exact items on the list varied depending on the international market in which the movie was playing, as [[https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Captain_America%27s_To-Do_List this article]] illustrates. It also notes that ''Franchise/StarWars,'' ''Franchise/StarTrek,'' ''Franchise/{{Rocky}}'', ''Music/{{Nirvana}}'', Music/MarvinGaye's ''Trouble Man'' soundtrack and Thai food are on every iteration of the list. Later in the movie, Natasha makes a ''Film/WarGames'' reference, but when she starts explaining it to Steve he says he's already seen it.

* In ''Literature/TalesOfTheMagicLand'', evil sorceress Arachna wakes up after a five thousand-year-long enchanted sleep and spends many days afterwards reading the chronicle of the Magic Land to find out what the country is like at present and especially if there are any strong witches and wizards she should be wary of. The chronicle is immediately available to her because it's been written by the dwarves, Arachna's faithful servants who live right by the side of her cave and have taken care of her in her sleep as well.

So you're a FishOutOfTemporalWater who's just come back to the world either through TimeTravel, [[HumanPopsicle cryosleep]], [[BackFromTheDead death]], or maybe you've just been away for a while. You've surely missed out on a lot, so you better study up! Whether through intense reading, television, the internet, or other means, this trope is when a character catches up on history through some sort of means.

So you're a FishOutOfTemporalWater who's just come back to the world either through TimeTravel, [[HumanPopsicle cryosleep]], [[BackFromTheDead a case of the dead]], or maybe you've just been away for a while. You've surely missed out on a lot, so you better study up! Whether through intense reading, television, the internet, or other means, this trope is when a character catches up on history through some sort of means.

So you're a FishOutOfTemporalWater who's just come back to the world either through TimeTravel, [[HumanPopsicle cryosleep]], or maybe you've just been away for a while. You've surely missed out on a lot, so you better study up! Whether through intense reading, television, the internet, or other means, this trope is when a character catches up on history through some sort of means.

* This is the entire plot of ''WebAnimation/IfTheEmperorHadATextToSpeechDevice''. In short, the Emperor from ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' is given a text-to-speech device to get out of his KingInTheMountain state. He spends his time catching up on all the stuff that he missed over the millenia, and is [[EnragedByIdiocy not happy with what he learns]].

* In ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'', Steve Rogers is still adjusting to the modern era (though pleased with a lot of the advancements, especially The Internet which is useful for this trope) and has been making a list of all the things that he needs to catch up on. The exact items on the list varied depending on the international market in which the movie was playing, as [[https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Captain_America%27s_To-Do_List this article]] illustrates. It also notes that ''Franchise/StarWars,'' ''Franchise/StarTrek,'' ''Franchise/{{Rocky}}'', ''Music/{{Nirvana}}'', Music/MarvinGaye's ''Trouble Man'' soundtrack and Thai food are on every iteration of the list.

* WebVideo/AtunSheiFilms. In "Frozen 50's Man", the eponymous HumanPopsicle is shown catching up on history by reading newspapers. He shrugs in indifference over headlines about the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, then recoils in horror over how segregation has ended.