The 2009 short-lived ABC drama FlashForwardshould be included on every “cancelled too soon” list. Although it only lasted one season, the show had a stellar ensemble cast and creative team behind it, coupled with a fascinating sci-fi premise that allowed for great character development. FlashForward centers around a group of FBI agents and their loved ones after a global blackout causes everyone on Earth to see six months into the future. The show poses the question to its characters, as well as the audience: If you could see into the future, would you think your fate had already been sealed, or would you try to change it?
Based on the Robert J. Sawyer novel, FlashForward was created byBrannon Bragaand David S. Goyer. The show takes place in Los Angeles after the entire world simultaneously loses consciousness for 137 seconds, causing mass chaos. When everyone wakes up, it’s discovered that everyone saw a few seconds from the exact same date six months in the future. Although the flash-forwards were brief, they raised many questions about fate and how much each person’s future is in their own hands.
Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars
Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you’d actually make it out of alive.
💊The Matrix
🔥Mad Max
🌧️Blade Runner
🏜️Dune
🚀Star Wars
01
You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one.
02
In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.
03
What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you’re honest about what you’re actually afraid of.
04
How do you deal with authority you don’t trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.
05
Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn’t just tactical — it’s physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.
06
Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.
07
Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they’re actually made of.
08
What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.
Your Fate Has Been Calculated You’d Survive In…
Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.
The Resistance, Zion
The Matrix
You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You’re a systems thinker who can’t help but notice the seams in things.
You’re drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
You’d find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines’ worst nightmare.
You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
The Matrix built an airtight prison. You’d be the one probing the walls for the door.
The Wasteland
Mad Max
The wasteland doesn’t reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That’s you.
You don’t need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you’re good at all three.
You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.
Los Angeles, 2049
Blade Runner
You’d survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.
You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
You’re not a hero. But you’re not lost, either.
In Blade Runner’s world, that distinction is everything.
Arrakis
Dune
Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.
Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they’re survival tools.
You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You’d learn its logic and earn its respect.
In time, you wouldn’t just survive Arrakis — you’d begin to reshape it.
A Galaxy Far, Far Away
Star Wars
The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn’t have it any other way.
You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
You’d gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire’s grip can be broken.
You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn’t something you’re capable of.
In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.
The show’s high-concept sci-fi elements lend itself to exciting and entertaining moments, high-octane action, and a compelling mystery. The heart of the show lies in its characters and how they grapple with what they saw in their flash-forwards — some good, some bad, some non-existent. The clashing beliefs in fate make relationships much more complex, and as the season goes on, those visions become closer to reality.
The series has a great cast led by Joseph Fiennes. While he may be known as a TV actor now, after portraying the chilling Commander Waterford inThe Handmaid’s Tale, back in 2009, this was his first TV role as a leading man. Fiennes plays FBI Special Agent Mark Benford, a recovering alcoholic who is at the center of the investigation into who caused the blackouts, also known as Mosaic.
The Sensational Cast in ‘FlashForward’ Depicts How Each Character Grapples With Their Future
While it’s no surprise that Mark’s vision shows him at work, there’s an unsettling development; in his flash-forward, he’s drinking again. He keeps this a secret from his wife, Olivia (Sonya Walger), who struggles to understand her flash-forward. In it, she sees herself in bed with a man she does not know. While Olivia comes clean to Mark and is adamant that she would never cheat on him, the specter of this potential future haunts the couple for the entire season. Walger and Fiennes have great on-screen chemistry as a couple clearly in love but grappling with this impending reality that may completely derail what they’ve built together.
Mark’s partner, FBI Special Agent Demetri Noh (John Cho), is about to marry his long-time girlfriend Zoey (Gabrielle Union), but he has a very different problem with his flash-forward. While everyone else saw the future, he saw nothing but blackness. Unsure and afraid of what this could mean, he hides it from Zoey, who is thrilled by her flash-forward of their future wedding. This creates a lot of tension in their relationship and causes Demetri to make some questionable decisions that jeopardize everything. Cho and Union both inhabit their roles authentically, showing emotions ranging from blissfully happy to terrified.
Simon Campos (Dominic Monaghan) is a brilliant but unpredictable scientific genius who has a mysterious link to the blackouts. While Monaghan was at the tail end of playing Charlie in the ABC series Lost, this role couldn’t be any different. Campos is seen as a villain who keeps a lot of secrets, which Monaghan plays with real intensity. Trying to hold everything together is Stan Wedeck (Courtney B. Vance), the Assistant Director of the LA Field Office of the FBI. With his signature gravitas and commanding screen presence, Vance plays Wedeck as a man desperate to keep the investigation under control while also leveraging his political savvy with some very powerful people he knows.
Unfortunately, ABC cancelled FlashForward after one season after an unusually long winter hiatus, even with a very compelling cliffhanger finale. While the show wasn’t perfect, it could be argued that, given a little more time, it could have been a hit. It certainly had the talent behind it, but maybe it was too ahead of its time and may have been too big for broadcast. If it had come out during the streaming boom, it might have been given the time it needed to flesh out the show’s concept and further develop its rich characters. Still, with its talent behind it, from the actors to the creators, and the great characters and questions the show presents in just one season, FlashForward is definitely worth a watch now.
