FlashForward

FlashForward
Flash Forward title screen
Genre	Drama, Thriller, Science fiction
Created by	Robert J. Sawyer (based on his 1999 novel) Brannon Braga David S. Goyer
Starring	Joseph Fiennes John Cho Jack Davenport Zachary Knighton Peyton List Brían F. O'Byrne Courtney B. Vance Sonya Walger Christine Woods
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	2 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Brannon Braga David S. Goyer Marc Guggenheim Jessika Goyer Vince Gerardis Ralph Vicinanza
Production location	Los Angeles, California
Running time	42 minutes
Production company	ABC Studios
Original release
Network	ABC
Release	September 24, 2009 – present

FlashForward is a science-fiction television series currently airing on ABC. It is based on the 1999 novel Flashforward by Canadian science fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer. It began airing on September 24, 2009.

Production

The pilot was written by David S. Goyer (who also directed) and Brannon Braga from Robert J Sawyer's novel with Goyer and Braga executive producing alongside Jessika Borsiczky Goyer, Vince Gerardis, and Ralph Vicinanza.

FlashForward originally was developed at HBO, which sold its option because it thought the show would be a better fit for a broadcast network. After purchasing the series and ordering a pilot ABC picked up FlashForward for thirteen episodes in May 2009.

ABC's pick-up of the show means Braga, who also serves as a co-executive producer on the 20th Century/Fox drama 24 will act as an executive producer on FlashForward while working full time on 24.

Cast

Main cast

• Joseph Fiennes as Mark Benford
• John Cho as Demetri Noh
• Jack Davenport as Lloyd Simcoe
• Zachary Knighton as Bryce Varley
• Peyton List as Nicole Kirby
• Brían F. O'Byrne as Aaron Stark
• Courtney B. Vance as Stanford Wedeck
• Sonya Walger as Olivia Benford
• Christine Woods as Janis Hawk

Recurring cast

• Barry Shabaka Henley as Agent Vreede
• Alex Kingston as Inspector Fiona Banks
• Lee Thompson Young as Al Gough
• Lennon Wynn as Charlie Benford
• Ryan Wynott as Dylan Simcoe

Season synopsis

Main article: List of FlashForward episodes

Season 1 (2009)

Main article: FlashForward (season 1)

A mysterious global event causes everyone on the planet to simultaneously lose consciousness for 2 minutes and 17 seconds, during which people worldwide see what appear to be visions of their lives approximately six months in the future, April 29, 2010. Every person has seen a vision that is occurring at the exact same time, adjusting for their local time zones. It is quickly established that the visions were shared. If one person was with another in their vision, the other person also reports the same events in their vision. The event results in deaths from accidents and leaves the survivors wondering whether what they saw will really happen.

A team of Los Angeles FBI agents, led by Stanford Wedeck (Vance) and spearheaded by Mark Benford (Fiennes), begin the process of determining what happened, why, and whether it will happen again. Benford is in a uniquely valuable position to lead this investigation because at the time of his flash forward, he was looking at a future project board of the investigation. The board was covered with pictures and notes, and Benford was able to remember several significant details, including a note that said "D. Gibbons". He also notices a woven friendship bracelet on his wrist that he does not recognize. Shortly thereafter, he is given that exact bracelet by his daughter.

With the help of his team, Benford creates a website database of people's flash-forwards from around the world. He calls it the Mosaic Collective after the case he saw himself investigating during his own flash-forward. The website is set-up so that anyone can enter and post their vision. The stories are then cross referenced with each other and similar stories are grouped together. This is how Agent Noh is informed that he will be murdered March, 2010.

Along with various catastrophic or joyful visions, people also see themselves engaging in unexpected behavior; for example, Benford sees himself drinking again, and his wife Olivia (Walger) has an intimate vision of herself with an unknown man. Some see themselves in unusual locations or see unanticipated events, such as a pregnancy for a woman who doesn't have a boyfriend. In some cases, the event prevents actions from occurring such as Olivia's intern Bryce who was on the verge of committing suicide. However, Mark's partner Demetri, had no vision of the future and it is later revealed by an unknown woman that he will be murdered on March 15, 2010.

The minutes after the event are followed by seemingly atypical occurrences: a kangaroo is seen hopping across a street in downtown Los Angeles, and in the last scene of the episode, CCTV tape shows a person in black walking through a baseball stadium in Detroit while all around him, people have blacked out. This person is labeled "Suspect Zero", and becomes the focus of the team's search.

In the second episode, a woman named D. Gibbons approaches the team and tells them of her vision. She describes herself in the cupcake shop she owns, having a heated telephone conversation about her credit cards and "pigeons". On the wall of the shop are posters showing dolls from horror movies. The team traces the reference to Pigeon, Utah, where a cloned credit card of Gibbons' was used. They find out that the individual who used Gibbons' credit card bought a bus ticket that was scheduled to leave Pigeon. Benford mobilizes the Utah FBI, and organizes a stakeout of the bus station. He and Demetri fly to Pigeon, where they meet the local sheriff Demetri is interested to learn that she too had no vision of the future. Her attitude is far more positive; rather than worrying, she is happy to not know the future. Hours after the sheriff shares she too had no vision, she was shot and killed.

The unknown suspect never appears at the bus stop, and the stakeout is eventually ended. Before leaving the bus stop, Benford notices an abandoned doll factory across the street from the bus stop. He remembers in his flash forward there was a picture of a burnt doll head, so the team decides to investigate the doll factory. They break in the factory and discover that someone is in the upstairs office. Benford ascends the stairs, but trips a sensor that alerts the suspect. The team barges into the office to find a computer hacker has camped out there. Forewarned, he has been able to activate a boobytrap. The hacker sets off an incendiary device, starting a major fire, and destroying the computers.

In the aftermath of the fire, Benford sees a photographer taking pictures of the evidence. He looks at the pictures on the camera, and sees the exact picture he remembered from his vision. The hacker's cell phone is recovered, and reveals that a call was made during the blackout, which means the hacker was awake. Moreover, that call went to "Suspect Zero". So the team now knows there are at least two people who were awake during the blackout, and that they were in communication.

Benford finds a clue in his vision. His daughter, Charlie, sees a boy, Dylan, and asks what is wrong with him. Dylan knows who Olivia is although she had never met him or his father. The boy's father, Lloyd Simcoe, is the man that Olivia found herself with. They meet and Olivia becomes frightened. Charlie asks Benford why there were scary dreams. He tells her they are warnings. Charlie said that D. Gibbons is a bad man; Nobody knows the contents of her vision, other than it has apparently terrified her. Demetri receives a phone call from a woman in Hong Kong who tells him she knows (through her vision) he will be murdered March 15, 2010. (This may be a nod to March 15th also being the Ides of March. In William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, Caesar is also forewarned about, and later murdered on, that date.)

While sitting with his wife, Benford burns the friendship bracelet given to him by his daughter. His wife has deliberately avoided getting to know Lloyd Simcoe in hopes of avoiding the future she saw. In the final scene, Charlie tells her dad that "D. Gibbons is a bad man."

International distribution

In Canada, episodes will be shown on A. The show airs on Five in the UK and on Australia's Seven Network.

In the Netherlands it was announced on September 11, 2009, that SBS had bought the rights to run the series there. In Portugal the episodes will air on AXN starting Wednesday October 7, 2009. The show will air in Italy beginning on Monday October 5, 2009, on FOX, and in Latin America, the show will be broadcast on AXN beginning in February 2010. {{citation}}: Empty citation (help) The show is set to air on RTE Television in the Republic of Ireland as part of its fall/winter season 2009. In the Russian Federation the show will air on Channel One, beginning on October 2, 2009. In Poland the show will premiere on November 14, 2009 on AXN under the title FlashForward - Przebłysk Jutra (The Flash of Tomorrow). In Spain the espisodes will be shown on AXN and Cuatro.

External links

• FlashForward at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com show
• "List of FlashForward episodes". TVGuide.