History Main / MeanwhileInTheFuture

** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E1E2Spyfall Spyfall]]": Part 2 flips between the Doctor's conflict with [[spoiler:the Master]] in two different past time periods and the companions' efforts to try and derail Daniel Barton's plans in the present day. To make things more fun, the amount of time everyone experiences is indicated to be different: the Doctor (and her allies Ada and Noor) experience at most a few hours; Ryan, Graham and Yaz go through around a day or more, due to having been initially stuck on a plane flying from San Francisco to the UK and later being seen taking shelter at night; while [[spoiler:the Master's]] initial hunt for the Doctor in two different time periods is indicated by the growth of a BeardOfEvil to take longer than is shown onscreen, even before he gets stuck on TheSlowPath.

* In ''ComicBook/TheFlash'' Vol. 1 #125, the Flash (Barry Allen) travels to the year 2287 and finds that aliens have conquered Earth by sending a hive-shaped device to the year 100,842,246 BC which removed all radioactivity in the minerals there, thus leaving the people of the future with no atomic weapons to fight off the invaders. Even stranger, when he returns to the 20th century, he finds that all atomic-powered devices there have abruptly failed as well. When Kid Flash (Wally West) goes back in time and destroys the hive, atomic power is "simultaneously" restored in both time periods, and the invaders are driven off.

** ''ComicBook/TimeAndTimeAgain'' features Superman travelling back and forth between the past and the future. OnceAnEpisode, we see scenes taking place in the same night Superman disappeared. Lois is worried about her fiance's disappearance, Perry White slowly repairs his relationship with his wife, Jimmy Olsen has his date with Lucy Lane ruined by the untimely appearance of his own mother (driving him into getting his own apartment in the process), [=LexCorp=] is in turmoil trying to cope with the fallout of Lex Luthor's apparent death and the trouble of locating his son to inherit the empire, and Bibbo Bibbowski is celebrating his recent lottery winnings by getting drunk with his pals.

* ''Anime/DragonBallKai'' did this with the final episode in the Cell Saga, "Peace For the Future! The Spirit of Goku is Forever!" In addition to showing the heroes living their lives after saving the day as normal, it also depicts Future Trunks returning to his dystopian timeline and using his new-found knowledge and power to defeat the Androids and Imperfect Cell. This was also present in the original ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' episode "Free the Future", but to a much lesser extent, as almost the entirety of that episode is spent on Trunks and the Androids.

** Used as a plot device in a 1969 ''ComicBook/ActionComics'' story where the President asks Franchise/{{Superman}} not to fly into the past or future for the next 24 hours to avoid disrupting a military experiment. No sooner has he agreed this than Superman receives an urgent distress call from the year 101,970. Instead of simply waiting until the next day before setting off, Superman uses a defective time-bubble belonging to the Legion. It takes him to his destination, but the defect causes him to age every year along the way, leaving him trapped in the future and over a hundred thousand years old. (He got better.) The point was raised in the letter column, with the editor eagerly accepting the reader's suggestion that Superman hadn't been thinking straight due to the effects of Red Kryptonite.

Related to TimeTravelTenseTrouble. See also SequencingDeception, in which the fact that there are multiple timeframes is concealed. FlashbackBPlot can be considered a more specific variant, in which a story alternates between two storylines in the past and present, both centering around the same character(s).

Related to TimeTravelTenseTrouble. See also SequencingDeception, in which the fact that there are multiple timeframes is concealed. TwoLinesDifferentTimes can be considered a more specific variant, in which a story alternates between two storylines in the past and present, both centering around the same character(s).

Note: Please don't duplicate entries between this trope, SanDimasTime, PortalToThePast, and TwoLinesDifferentTimes.

Related to TimeTravelTenseTrouble. See also SequencingDeception, in which the fact that there are multiple timeframes is concealed. TwoLinesDifferentTimes can be considered a more specific variant, in which a story alternates between two storylines in the past and present, usually centering around the same character or characters and taking place within the same few decades at most.

Related to TimeTravelTenseTrouble. See also SequencingDeception, in which the fact that there are multiple timeframes is concealed. TwoLinesDifferentTimes is a more specific variant, where a story alternates between storylines in the past and present, usually centering around the same character or characters.

* The two plotlines in ''Nemesis'' by Creator/IsaacAsimov are separated in time as well as in space, but they alternate chapter by chapter and do converge at the end, as the plotline that starts at an earlier date catches up to the one that takes place later. The differences in chronology are not immediately obvious at the beginning of the book.

* ''Film/{{Memento}}'' alternates between two plot streams, one told in normal chronological order, [[BackToFront the other in reverse]] to highlight the character's memory disorder. The jumps back and forth between plots enhance the disorientation caused by the reverse-order plot.

* In Fanfic/TheUnitySaga crossover, a PortalToThePast [[OurWormholesAreDifferent con intergalactic worm hole]] opens up in the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' universe, linking them to the ''StarWars'' universe (the latter, [[LateArrivalSpoiler bear in mind]], [[ExactWords takes place "[a] long time ago in a galaxy far, far away"]]). Although the PortalToThePast aspect justifies Meanwhile, in the Future... for most situations, at one point when Darth Vader is in the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' universe, he communicates with the Emperor through Force meditations. And it's implied that this doesn't make use of the wormhole; they are just somehow able to link minds at times that correspond with the fixed temporal displacement of the wormhole.

TimeTravel is not a necessary element for this trope, but in those scenarios it can also reflect the ability of past, present, and future to interact with one another. Examples with TimeTravel sometimes turn out to be SanDimasTime instead.

* ''Series/TheFlash2014'': In "[[Recap/TheFlash2014S5E22Legacy Legacy]]", [[spoiler:when Cicada's power-dampening dagger is destroyed in 2019, it "immediately" also disappears in 2049, allowing Eobard Thawne to escape his imprisonment just before his execution.]]

An unusual form of MeanwhileBackAtThe. The story cuts back and forth between two plotlines, just as in MeanwhileBackAtThe, but here the plotlines are separated in time as well as space; one of them is chronologically in advance of the other. The narrator treats the two different plot threads in different times as if they were happening simultaneously, despite the fact that, chronologically, the plot thread in the past is going to be resolved long before the thread in the future starts.

* In Fanfic/TheUnitySaga crossover, a PortalToThePast [[OurWormholesAreDifferent con intergalactic worm hole]] opens up in the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' universe, linking them to the ''StarWars'' universe (the latter, [[LateArrivalSpoiler bear in mind]], [[ExactWords takes place "[a] long time ago in a galaxy far, far away"]]). Although the PortalToThePast aspect justifies MeanwhileInTheFuture for most situations, at one point when Darth Vader is in the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' universe, he communicates with the Emperor through Force meditations. And it's implied that this doesn't make use of the wormhole; they are just somehow able to link minds at times that correspond with the fixed temporal displacement of the wormhole.

** Meanwhile, in 1893, [[RunningGag Grover Cleveland has just "so owned" Present!Andy]] [[spoiler:and eventually [[TheDogBitesBack been owned by]] Present!Andy]]. More specifically, the Present!Andy of a few seconds previous to [[{{Flashback}} 100 years]] and [[PresentDay 112 years]] respectively into the future of 1893. The example was a rare and [[MindScrew vaguely disturbing]] use of changes in the future affecting a [[MeanwhileInTheFuture simultaneous point in]] the past.

Related to TimeTravelTenseTrouble. See also SequencingDeception, in which the fact that there are multiple timeframes is concealed. TwoLinesDifferentTimes is a more specific variant, where a story alternates between the present day and and the past, usually centering around the same character or characters.

Related to TimeTravelTenseTrouble. See also SequencingDeception, in which the fact that there are multiple timeframes is concealed.

Note: Please don't duplicate entries between this trope, SanDimasTime, and PortalToThePast.

** Also in the episode "Roswell that ends well," the crew travels to the past and accidentally leaves Bender behind. Back in the year 3002, Fry wonders how lonely Bender must be stuck 1,000 years in the past... until he realizes that 1,000 years later, Bender would be back to the year 3002 and they can just go find him.

* In ''ComicBook/TheFlash'' Vol. 2 #125, the Flash (Barry Allen) travels to the year 2287 and finds that aliens have conquered Earth by sending a hive-shaped device to the year 100,842,246 BC which removed all radioactivity in the minerals there, thus leaving the people of the future with no atomic weapons to fight off the invaders. Even stranger, when he returns to the 20th century, he finds that all atomic-powered devices there have abruptly failed as well. When Kid Flash (Wally West) goes back in time and destroys the hive, atomic power is "simultaneously" restored in both time periods, and the invaders are driven off.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E6Extremis "Extremis"]]: The action shifts between Missy's execution, which takes place not long after [[Recap/DoctorWho2015CSTheHusbandsOfRiverSong "The Husbands of River Song"]], and the situation involving ''[[TomeOfEldritchLore The Veritas]]'' in the present day — which is actually [[spoiler:a computer simulation created by the Prophets of Truth in preparation for their planned invasion of Earth, and which the real Doctor is watching a recording of while guarding the Vault.]]

* ''Disney/MeetTheRobinsons'' inverts this when Louis is in the future, then we use a MatchCut to transition to Bowler Hat Guy arriving at [=InventCo=] in the present day.

* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Discworld/{{Jingo}}'' Commander Vimes got, in a strange turn of events, a magical PDA that told him what was happening to his self in a different timeline, where he did not go to Klatch. [[spoiler:[[strike:He]] Everybody dies.]] Maybe more a ''Meanwhile right now'', but a very good example none the less.

* ComicBook/TheFlash had a whole storyline that relied on this for it to work. The Flash (AKA Wally West) is stuck thousands of years in the future, forced to go past his top speed over and over again in order to get closer to his home time. Each time he does this, he risks dying -- but he survives because the love of his girlfriend, Linda, is "like a lightning rod" which keeps him from getting lost in time and space. Meanwhile, in the...present, Linda has given Wally up for dead and moved on to a new guy. The moment she kisses him, (thus severing the connection between herself and Wally) the story cuts to an image of Flash, in the future, seemingly dying, despite the fateful kiss having happened over FOUR THOUSAND YEARS AGO from where he's standing.

* In ''Film/TheLakeHouse'', two people living two years apart in the same house exchange letters through time. Near the end of the film, the woman (who's the one who lives in the future) realises that the bloke she's been writing letters to is the one that died in her arms near the beginning of the film. Thus she frantically races to inform him of what happened before he gets run over.

** Similarly, ''Literature/TheQContinuum'' has Q take Picard on a journey through ''Q's'' life in order to show Picard why he should abandon his current mission. The trip through time is interspersed with chapters detailing what The ‘’Enterprise’’ is going through under Riker’s command in Picard's absence.

* Sharyn [=McCrumb=]'s Ballad Novels are a mystery series set in UsefulNote/{{Appalachia}}. Each novel is split between a murder case in the present investigated by Sheriff Spencer Arrowood and a historical case with some parallel or connection to it.

* In ''Radio/TheGoonShow'' episode "The Treasure in the Tower", the plot switches between a pirate ship trying to bury its treasure in 1600 , and an attempt by the Ministry of Works in 1957 trying to find the treasure. At the end of the episode the pirates end up burying their treasure in 1600 in the hole dug in 1957 to find the treasure.

* Carried out even further with the obscure ''Videogame/BillAndTedsExcellentAdventure'' game for the UsefulNotes/AtariLynx. The player could travel to nearly a dozen different time eras, and many puzzles would require setting something up in the past to resolve an obstacle in the future.

** The story is spilt between two characters that are in different time periods. Near the end they do eventfully end up in the same time period but as Kain is immortal it makes you wonder why he even cares about waiting for 100 years to meet up.

* PlayedForLaughs and refenced by name in [[http://www.poisonedminds.com/d/20010108.html this]] ''Webcomic/{{SSDD}}'' strip.

** Also in the episode "Roswell that ends well," the crew travels to the past and accidentally leave Bender behind. Back in the year 3002, Fry wonders how lonely Bender must be stuck 1,000 years in the past... until he realizes that 1,000 years later, Bender would be back to the year 3002 and they can just go find him.

* ''Film/TwelveMonkeys'' features characters communicating with scientists in the future with a business's answering machine in the "present", which a team of scientists spend months and years recovering from the decayed magnetic tape. While the continuity is well-explained, the interaction between future and present, even with the time machine, is relatively sequential.

* Justified in ''Film/DejaVu'', the timetravel-based monitoring machine only has the power to "see" in the fixed time of 4 days and 6 hours earlier, being only able of controlling the P.O.V., and [[spoiler:sending the main character's in the same past.]]

* ''Film/{{Memento}}'' alternates between two plot streams, one told in normal chronological order, [[BackToFront the other in reverse]] to highlight the character's memory disorder. The jumps back and forth between plots enhance the disorientation caused by the reverse-order plot.
* ''Film/TimeRunner'': The movie repeatedly cuts back and forth between the BadFuture where the aliens have invaded Earth and the past where a time traveller is [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong trying to prevent all this]].
* ''Film/TheMartian'': At the climax of the movie, a rescue attempt at Mars is broadcast live to Mission Control and around the world. The scene cuts back and forth between the events happening at Mars and the reactions from those back at Earth, even though it was expressly stated that Mars was 12 light minutes away, which means the scenes at Earth are happening 12 minutes later than the scene at Mars.
* ''Film/CloudAtlas'': Used throughout the whole movie to maintain the pace for each of the plotlines.
* ''Film/BillAndTedsExcellentAdventure:''' "It is time. Their separation is imminent." By which he apparently means that their separation almost happened 600 years ago, but they might as well fix it now.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E13ThePartingOfTheWays "The Parting of the Ways"]] has Rose contemplating the Doctor's imminent destruction — several hundred millennia in the future. She's in a tremendous hurry to get back the future and rescue the Doctor, despite the fact that, logically, there's really no need to rush, as her companions point out totally unconcerned, while for her it had just been happening right then. Given that [[spoiler:Rose pilots the TARDIS by effectively becoming a God, so can put it where/when she needs]], there really was no real need to rush.

** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E12ThePandoricaOpens "The Pandorica Opens"]], the Doctor and River are in a constant conversation over the phone while one is on the TARDIS traveling in time. After they get cut off, things stay "in sync": [[spoiler:the TARDIS explodes in 2010 and the shockwave is "immediately" felt in the second century (but not before).]]

* ''Series/TheXFiles'' episode "Triangle" is split between modern-day shenanigans and the events of a doomed 30s cruise liner.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'' audio plays:

[[folder:Web Original]]
* A line almost identical to the title of this trope is used in The Banjo Kid's [[http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/community/myvideos/74334-thebanjokid/video/4029-Banjo+Kid+Reviews%3A+Hell+Girl/ review of Hell Girl]]. (By the way, he was talking about the present).
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[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime "The End of Time"]]: An Ood says "Things that have happened are happening ''now''" as the Doctor races back to the 21[[superscript:st]] century, and arrives too late to stop [[spoiler:the Master's resurrection]]. It's strongly implied there's a great big TimeyWimeyBall involved in the events of the story.

* In ''Series/PowerRangersTimeForce'', the Rangers summon their [[HumongousMecha zords]] from the year 3000 when needed, and after a battle they return to the future. In one episode, the zords are damaged and have to be repaired in the future, preventing the Rangers from using them in the next episode. No explanation is given as to why they can't just summon the zords from 1000 years ''plus one week'' into the future, where they would be fully repaired.

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* ComicStrip/AlleyOop: [[http://www.gocomics.com/alley-oop/2013/07/12 "Meanwhile, in 2013, Doc has a meeting..."]]
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