# In medias res > Opening a story in the middle of the action and filling in how we got there later. Latin for "into the middle of things". On screen it often looks like a cold open in a crisis, followed by a title such as TWO DAYS EARLIER. ## In practice In medias res is Latin for "into the middle of things". A story told this way skips the setup and starts with the action already under way, then supplies the background as the audience needs it. Most screenplays do some version of it, because a script that starts too early spends its first pages on scenes where nothing is yet at stake. Screenplays use it in two ways. One starts in a scene that is already under pressure and lets the context come through action, so the reader is never told what they can work out. The other opens on a crisis from later in the story, then cuts back with a title such as SUPER: TWO DAYS EARLIER and catches up to that moment by the midpoint or the climax. The flash-forward version makes a promise. If the opening crisis plays out exactly as shown when the story reaches it, the audience spent the film waiting for a scene they had already seen. The strongest versions recontextualize it: the second time, we understand what the first showing hid. ## Opening in medias res **A flash-forward opening, then the jump back** ``` EXT. DESERT HIGHWAY - DAY A delivery van lies on its side in the sand, smoking. RUTH (50s), still in a dentist's white coat, crawls out of the driver's door dragging a duffel bag that is not hers. Sirens, far off and getting closer. She looks at the bag, then at the empty road. RUTH Okay. Okay. Think. She runs. SUPER: "FOUR DAYS EARLIER" INT. RUTH'S DENTAL PRACTICE - DAY Ruth, calm and unhurried, polishes a patient's molar and hums along to the radio. ``` The opening shows the crisis and withholds its cause. The audience now watches four days of an ordinary dentist's life with one question running underneath every scene: how does she end up in that van? The story should reach the desert again by the midpoint or the climax, and when it does, the scene should mean something it could not mean the first time. ## Where it comes from The phrase comes from Horace's Ars Poetica, a verse letter on writing from the first century BC. Horace praised Homer for hurrying the listener into the middle of things instead of beginning the Trojan War from the egg, meaning the birth of Helen. The opposite approach still goes by his other phrase, ab ovo: from the egg. Homer's two epics show both uses. The Iliad opens in the tenth year of the war, with a quarrel, and lets the war's history arrive in passing. The Odyssey opens with Odysseus near the end of his journey and has him tell his earlier adventures himself, as a story within the story. Both moves are still the standard toolkit. ## Two ways to start in the middle The first is to enter late. Raiders of the Lost Ark opens with Indiana Jones already deep in the jungle on another expedition, and we learn who he is from what he does under pressure. This version needs no change of timeline, only the discipline to start each scene, and the script, after the setup a lesser draft would show. The second is the flash-forward. Sunset Boulevard opens on a dead man floating in a swimming pool, and the dead man narrates how he got there. Goodfellas opens on a killing in 1970 before cutting back to Henry Hill's childhood. The pilot of Breaking Bad opens with Walter White in his underwear in the desert, holding a gun, before jumping back three weeks to show the chemistry teacher he was. ## How to write it on the page For a mid-scene open, write the scene as you would any other and resist the urge to explain. Character introductions still go in the action line, and anything the reader must know to follow the scene should come out of behavior, a prop or a line of dialogue the scene would have anyway. For a flash-forward, close the opening on its most unresolved moment, then mark the jump clearly. A SUPER such as "FOUR DAYS EARLIER" is the most common choice; some writers add the time to the next scene heading instead. When the story catches up, signal the return so the reader knows the timelines have met, for example with the same scene heading, a SUPER such as "PRESENT DAY", or an action line that repeats the opening image. ## Common mistakes Opening on action we have no reason to care about. A chase is only tense if we want someone to get away, so the middle you start in needs a character the audience can read quickly, even if they do not yet know their name. Paying for the jump with exposition. If every scene after the opening exists to explain it, the film has traded one slow start for another. The catch-up should be its own story with its own tension, and the flash-forward should only add a second question on top of it. Using it to hide a slow first act. A borrowed scene from the climax can buy a reader's attention for a few pages, but if the first act still has nothing happening in it, the reader notices as soon as the cut back lands. ## Official sources & context Sources reviewed Oct 18, 2026 - [Merriam-Webster — in medias res](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/in%20medias%20res) [Test your opening pages with Cold Open](https://www.inkwell.software/skills/cold-open) ## Common questions ### Is it in media res or in medias res? In medias res is the correct Latin, meaning "into the middle of things". In media res is a common misspelling, so use medias in anything you send out. ### What is an example of in medias res in film? Raiders of the Lost Ark opens mid-expedition. Sunset Boulevard and Goodfellas open on a death before going back to explain it, and the Breaking Bad pilot opens in the desert before jumping back three weeks. ### How do you write in medias res in a screenplay? Open on a scene already in motion and give no explanation the action does not carry. For a flash-forward, close the opening scene at its most unresolved point, then use a SUPER or a scene heading to place the jump back in time. ### Why do writers start in medias res? To make the audience ask a question from the first page. A story that starts in the middle gives the reader something to work out, which holds attention through the setup that would otherwise come first. ### What is the opposite of in medias res? Ab ovo, Latin for "from the egg": starting at the chronological beginning. Horace used the phrase for an epic that would start the Trojan War with the birth of Helen. ### What is the difference between in medias res and a flashback? In medias res is where the story starts: in the middle. A flashback is a scene that jumps back from the present of the story. A story that begins in medias res often uses flashbacks to fill in what it skipped. ## Related terms - [Cold open](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/cold-open): A teaser before titles — common in TV pilots and episodes — that hooks the audience before the episode’s formal act structure begins. - [Flashback](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/flashback): A scene or sequence set in earlier story time. Scripts mark the shift with FLASHBACK (or similar) and return with BACK TO SCENE or a clear present-day slugline. - [Superimpose](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/superimpose): Text or graphics laid over the picture — titles, dates, locations, captions. On the page, commonly written as SUPER: or SUPERIMPOSE: followed by the overlay copy. - [Inciting incident](https://www.inkwell.software/glossary/inciting-incident): The event that breaks the protagonist’s ordinary world and forces the main story to start — early, concrete, and hard to ignore. --- Canonical page: