In medias res

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For the band, see In Medias Res (band).

In medias res (Latin for "into the middle of things") is a literary technique where the narrative starts in the middle of the story instead of from its beginning (ab ovo or ab initio). The characters, setting, and conflict are often introduced through a series of flashbacks or through characters relating past events to each other. Classical works such as Virgil's Aeneid and Homer's Iliad begin in the middle of the story.

The terms in medias res and ab ovo (literally "from the egg") both come from the Roman poet Horace's Ars Poetica ("Art of Poetry", or "The Poetic Arts"), lines 147–148, where he describes his ideal for an epic poet:

Nor does he begin the Trojan War from the double egg,

but always he hurries to the action, and snatches the listener into the middle of things ...

The "double egg" is a reference to the origin of the Trojan War with the mythical birth of Helen and Clytemnestra from an egg laid by their mother, Leda, after she was raped by Zeus in the form of a swan.

The narrative method has proven very popular throughout the ages, including frequent use in Modernist literature, e.g. Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Ford Madox Ford's The Good Soldier. This technique can also be seen in cinema, including Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas, Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, Taylor Hackford's Devil's Advocate and the Korean movie Oldboy.