"I'll bet a lot of you folks don't believe that, about a wish coming true, do you? Well, I didn't either. Of course, I'm just a cricket singing my way from hearth to hearth, but let me tell you what made me change my mind."
— Jiminy Cricket, Pinocchio
"Ah, summer break, a time for leisure, recreation, and taking it easy... unless you're me. My name is Dipper. The girl about to puke is my sister Mabel. You may be wondering what we're doing in a golf cart, fleeing from a creature of unimaginable horror. Rest assured, there's a perfectly logical explanation. Let's rewind..."
— Dipper Pines, Gravity Falls, "Tourist Trapped"
"So, what better place to start than the beginning? Well, you could get all artsy and start somewhere in the middle. All the cool directors do that. Get you all excited. You're like, 'Whoa dude! What's goin' on, man? Why's that guy shooting that other guy?' Then they all do that rewind thing. Tell the tale, lay the breadcrumbs, roll the credits. Classic! But how about we start... before the beginning?"
— VIC, Red vs. Blue, "From Stumbled Beginnings"
"When and where did you find out about that world? How is it even possible to steal another's heart? Now, tell me your account of everything. ...Start from the very beginning."
— Sae Niijima, Persona 5
"So, I know what you're thinking. Why is that incredibly handsome hedgehog being chased by a madman with a mustache from the Civil War? Well, to be honest, it feels like I've been running my whole life. Is this too much? Am I going too fast? It's kinda what I do. You know what, let's back up."
— Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)
Luz: We're in the Emperor's mind?! That's bananas!
Hunter: I don't know what those are, and I don't care to. Remember what happened at the Night Market?
Hunter: I don't know what those are, and I don't care to. Remember what happened at the Night Market?
Abed: Three weeks earlier.
Frankie: Huh?
Abed: You know how sometimes a movie or a show begins on a random, intriguing scene with no context given encouraging you to wonder whoa, how'd this crazy scenario come to be? And then it cuts to black and a title comes up and says "Three weeks earlier".
Annie: Huh.
Abed: Here we are. Sitting in silence, crammed into an RV. Winding through the mountain roads of Colorado with a 19 foot fiberglass hand tied to the roof. If there was ever a time to cut to three weeks earlier it'd be right now. Know what I mean?
Frankie: Huh?
Abed: You know how sometimes a movie or a show begins on a random, intriguing scene with no context given encouraging you to wonder whoa, how'd this crazy scenario come to be? And then it cuts to black and a title comes up and says "Three weeks earlier".
Annie: Huh.
Abed: Here we are. Sitting in silence, crammed into an RV. Winding through the mountain roads of Colorado with a 19 foot fiberglass hand tied to the roof. If there was ever a time to cut to three weeks earlier it'd be right now. Know what I mean?
— Community: "Basic RV Repair and Palmistry"
"Well, there I am. Conker the King. King of all the land. Who'd have thought that? But how did I come to this, I hear you say. And who are those strange fellows that surround my throne, that you also say. Well, It's a Long Story. Come closer, and I'll tell you. It all started... yesterday. And what a day that was. It's what I call... a Bad Fur Day."
— Conker, Conker's Bad Fur Day
At the far end of town there the Grickle-grass grows,
And the wind smells slow-and-sour when it blows,
And no birds ever sing, excepting old crows,
Is the Street of the Lifted Lorax
And deep in the Grickle-grass, some people say,
If you look deep enough, you can still see, today,
Where the Lorax once stood just as long as it could
Before somebody lifted the Lorax away
What was the Lorax? And why was it there?
And why was it lifted and taken somewhere,
From the far end of town there the Grickle-grass grows?
The old Once-ler still lives here. Ask him. He knows.
>record scratch
>freeze frame
>"Sooooooo, yeah, I bet right now you're probably wondering how I got here, huh?"
>footage rewinds through the entire movie like a VHS tape
>stops at a crying bloody fetus covered in various muddy fluids being lifted up and accidentally dropped by some doctors
>"Kids in America" starts playing
>freeze frame
>"Sooooooo, yeah, I bet right now you're probably wondering how I got here, huh?"
>footage rewinds through the entire movie like a VHS tape
>stops at a crying bloody fetus covered in various muddy fluids being lifted up and accidentally dropped by some doctors
>"Kids in America" starts playing
"So I guess I'd become what they wanted me to be, a killer. Some rent-a-clown with a gun who puts holes in other bad guys. Well that's what they had paid for, so in the end that's what they got. Say what you want about Americans but we understand capitalism. You buy yourself a product and you get what you pay for, and these chumps had paid for some angry gringo without the sensibilities to know right from wrong. Here I was about to execute this poor bastard like some dime store angel of death and I realized they were correct, I wouldn't know right from wrong if one of them was helping the poor and the other was banging my sister..."
—Max Payne, Max Payne 3
