History Main / FakeOutOpening

** Steven Moffat has made an art of this trope. The Girl In The Fireplace, is a particularly good example, the pre titles sequence being 18th Century France, The first shot after the titles is a spaceship and the words "3000 years later"

* ''Film/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' begins with a catchy number sung by dolphins, [[LyricalDissonance although about Earth's impending destruction]].

* ''Film/HitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' begins with a catchy number sung by dolphins, [[LyricalDissonance although about Earth's impending destruction]].

* ''Film/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' begins with a catchy number sung by dolphins, [[LyricalDissonance although about Earth's impending destruction]].

* ''TheTripletsOfBelleville'' starts as a 1930s-style black-and-white cartoon, which is actually playing on the main character's TV set.

* The first ''Literature/HarryPotter'' book opens with a description of the Dursleys and their banal existence. The fourth book opens by describing events which occur in a town that had never been previously mentioned in the series. The sixth book opens with the unnamed Muggle Prime Minister of all people. Although to be fair, especially the beginning of book four is relative to the following plot.

* ''Film/MrsDoubtfire'' opens with a WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry-style animation about a cat and a canary, then does a RevealShot to show the main character in a recording studio doing the voices.

* The ''DextersLaboratory'' episode "D & DD" (or "Siblings and Sorcery") begins with a fantasy-type adventure involving a swordsman, a magician and an archer. When they're attacked by a wizard, one of them cries out "cheater!" It's revealed that it's Dexter and three of his friends playing a Dungeons and Dragon-type game, which is the focus of the episode.

* ''WesternAnimation/DuckAmuck'' starts out as a swashbuckling adventure--and then goes completely off the rails.

* The very first thing after the cutesy opening expository narration and theme song of ''NurseWitchKomugi'' is... a dramatic car chase/gunfight. Turns out Komugi's an actress and she was shooting a scene...

* ''Film/TheThreeStooges'' computer game from TheEighties opens with the title screen for ''Defender of the Crown'' for a few moments before the Stooges show up and correct the error.

* ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory3'' begins with a Western-themed adventure with Woody and Jessie chasing [[CallBack One-Eyed Bart (Mr. Potato Head)]]. Later, Buzz arrives to help Woody and Jessie, and [[CallBack Evil Doctor Porkchop (Hamm)]] also comes in. It turns out to be a play scenario by Andy from when he was a child.

* In Disney's ''Disney/ChickenLittle'', the narrator tries to find an opening to the film, apparently because he was so sick of starting with "Once upon a time.." The opening he shows after he said he was sick of this is [[Disney/TheLionKing a familiar sunrise]]. He then says "Eh, that was used already." He then goes with "Once upon a time..."

** In te final book, the first line of the second chapter - and the first appearance of Harry in the book starts out "Harry was bleeding.", catching the reader off guard and making them wonder what terrible thing has befallen Harry before the book even began. It turns out he merely cut his finger while cleaning out his school trunk.

* The first ''Literature/{{Harry Potter|and the Philosophers Stone}}'' book opens with a description of the Dursleys and their banal existence. The fourth book opens by describing events which occur in a town that had never been previously mentioned in the series. The sixth book opens with the unnamed Muggle Prime Minister of all people. Although to be fair, especially the beginning of book four is relative to the following plot.

* The first ''Literature/{{Harry Potter|and the Philosophers Stone}}'' book opens with a description of the Dursleys and their banal existence. The fourth book opens by describing events which occur in a town that had never been previously mentioned in the series. The sixth book opens with the unnamed Muggle Prime Minister of all people. Although to be fair, especially the beginning of book four is relative to the following plot.

* The first episode of the new ''Series/DoctorWho'' started off with a normal day in Rose's life: she wakes up, goes to work in a shop, has lunch with her boyfriend...and then a bunch of mannequins come alive and start attacking her.

* The ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "Cartoon Wars, Part II" opened with a screen saying that the conclusion to Part I "will not be seen tonight" and would instead be replaced by a Terrance and Phillip cartoon. This made reference to the premiere of season 2, which aired on April Fool's Day and was in fact an entire episode devoted to the show-within-a-show, rather than the promised conclusion to season 1's cliffhanger ending. (To add insult to injury, at one point Terrance and Phillip started watching the "real" ''South Park'' season premiere on TV, but changed the channel before the cliffhanger resolution could happen.) This time, however, the Terrance and Phillip episode only lasted for about a minute before the prophet Muhammed showed up, though the visual of the actual character is censored out by the HBC network (the censorship of Muhammed is the point of conflict in the Cartoon Wars episode). Terrance and Phillip then get into an argument with the network president, who tells them, "Your show has become [[VerySpecialEpisode so preachy and full of messages]] that you've forgotten how to be funny!" The duo then argue that ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' is going to show an episode with Mohammed uncensored, but the president says that someone might be on their way to FOX Network to get that episode pulled. At that point the actual episode began.

* The first half hour of ''{{Cloverfield}}'' [[DevelopingDoomedCharacters plays like a romantic comedy]]. This is done deliberitely, to show how random the monster's attack is from the character's perspectives.

* ''KissKissBangbang'' begins in a church picnic with a kid doing magic tricks.

* ''SnakesOnAPlane'' opens on a sunny beach scene on a tropical paradise.

* Double subverted in ''Film/MissionImpossible III''. [[spoiler:Ethan's wife, Julia, does die as depicted in the opening when the scene is repeated before the climax; however, as it turns out, [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness that was one of the Big Bad's mooks wearing a latex mask resembling Julia's head]], and the real Julia is still alive somewhere.]]

* Creator/TheCoenBrothers' film ''ASeriousMan'' takes this to BigLippedAlligatorMoment levels. The first ten minutes of the film are done in the style of a Jewish folk tale, complete with [[YiddishAsASecondLanguage actors speaking entirely in Yiddish]]. Of course, it has thematic connections with the rest of the movie, but it's not difficult for a first-time viewer to begin to wonder ''what the hell is going on''.

* In ''The Real Thing'' by TomStoppard, the first scene of the play is from a play written by the protagonist and starring his wife, an actress. This is not indicated till well into the 2nd scene.

* The first episode of the new ''Series/DoctorWho'' ([[ExamplesAreNotRecent which one??]]) started off with a normal day in Rose's life: she wakes up, goes to work in a shop, has lunch with her boyfriend...and then a bunch of mannequins come alive and start attacking her.

* The first episode of the new ''Series/DoctorWho'' ([[ExamplesAreNotRecent which one??]]) started off with a normal day in some blonde girl's life: she wakes up, goes to work in a shop, has lunch with her boyfriend...and then a bunch of mannequins come alive and start attacking her.

* ''Jersey Boys'' opens with a rap version of "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)" that's in French, complete with loud beat and skanky dancing. It's meant to explain both how far music has come since TheSixties and how popular The Four Seasons' work remains, as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December,_1963_(Oh,_What_a_Night)/#Cover_versions that particular version really exists]].

* ''Jersey Boys'' opens with a rap version of "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)" that's in French, complete with loud beat and skanky dancing. It's meant to explain both how far music has come since TheSixties and how popular The Four Seasons' work remains, as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December,_1963_(Oh,_What_a_Night)/#Cover_versions/ that particular version really exists]].

* ''Jersey Boys'' opens with a rap version of "December 1963" that's in French, complete with loud beat and skanky dancing. It's meant to explain how far music has come since TheSixties.