10 Movies That Clearly Foreshadow Their Own Plot

It takes an eagle eye to spot these dead giveaways.

It Pennywise
Warner Bros

In writing, 'Chekhov's Gun' is the idea that anything introduced in a storyline matters: "If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there." And by that principle, anything and everything - from the described pattern in the wallpaper to the strange way a door creaks - matters.

These filmmakers have taken that advice to heart, crafting clever movies that spell out their intentions sometimes from their very opening scenes, disguising foreshadowing as detailed exposition so as not to give the game away. For those paying attention closely however, or at least, for those who pretend they were paying attention and watch the film again to act as authority to their friends about all the obvious giveaways they totally missed, there's plenty of little clues to be found that are self-referential gold when you look at the wider context.

So put your bulletproof vest on as we've hit Chapter 3 of WhatCulture's foreshadowing finest, and this rifle's about to go off. Or something like that that's far less cringe...

10. It: Chapter One - Bloody Beverly

It Pennywise
Warner Brothers

When Bill decides to get arty and draw a picture of Beverly, it seems innocuous enough that he's drawn it in red ink. There's no ulterior filmmaking motive there. No. None at all. At least, not until water starts dripping from the ceiling onto her likeness and makes the pencil splatter like blood across the page. And where have we seen this before?

Not only does this reference Beverly's fear that she faces up against when Pennywise is out being a d*ck, when he causes supernatural blood to shoot out of the pipe in her sink and stains her bathroom something awful, but it's an exact replication (and premonition) of Beverly waking up in the sewers.

After being abducted and taken to Pennywise's lair, she's woken up by splashes of blood falling on her face in an exact replica of Bill's drawing. Though she gets a lost less smudged in real life, I guess.

 
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Horror film junkie, burrito connoisseur, and serial cat stroker. WhatCulture's least favourite ginger.