# Fictional works that are revealed to be fictionally fictional **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 26, 2013, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866 "2013-11-26T23:19:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866/1 "2013-11-26T23:19:04Z")
_Likely spoiler warning, since this is a question about endings_ Apologies for the clumsy title. Are there any notable works of fiction in which there’s a revelation at the end that the bulk of the work is canonically false? None of it happened, just a lie being told by a character within the world? The version in my head would be, say, a novel with a framing narrative of a character telling a story, but said character revealing at/toward the end that he’s been lying the whole time. I don’t want to include “it was all a dream” scenarios (say, the film version of Wizard of Oz) or simple unreliable narrators. A work of fiction (like a book or story) within another fictional work might count, but only if the nature of the sub-work is only revealed at the end. I’ll admit I’m partly asking because I’m currently reading John Dies at the End, and it occurred to me that such an ending would be pretty in-character for the book. ---
**Author:** ![Critical1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866/2 "2013-11-26T23:27:02Z")
The Usual Suspects sort of fits this, much of the story happened just not at all like it was told to the detective. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866/3 "2013-11-26T23:27:34Z")
_The Usual Suspects_. Keyser Soze mocks the police for two hours and then strolls right out from under their noses. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866/4 "2013-11-26T23:29:43Z")
There’s an episode of Voyager where the ship is destroyed and the crew dies…except it turns out to be an exact duplicate of the “real” ship/crew, created by mumble-tech-babble on one of the weird planets they visted… ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866/5 "2013-11-26T23:31:19Z")
I suppose the _Life of Pi_ would count, depending on how ambiguous you thought the ending was. ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866/6 "2013-11-26T23:35:02Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > _The Usual Suspects_. Keyser Soze mocks the police for two hours and then strolls right out from under their noses. I thought of The Usual Suspects, but unless I’m misremembering, everything he tells them is correct and happened as described, he’s just leaving out a big, big detail. The scenario I’m looking for is more of an intentional challenge to the audience – most of what you just read / watched _didn’t happen_. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866/7 "2013-11-26T23:48:27Z")
> [@typoink](#): > > I thought of The Usual Suspects, but unless I’m misremembering, everything he tells them is correct and happened as described, he’s just leaving out a big, big detail. > > The scenario I’m looking for is more of an intentional challenge to the audience – most of what you just read / watched _didn’t happen_. That’s the beauty of it. Most of it didn’t happen. But enough of the story beats did happen that if anyone doublechecked Verbal’s story, it would check out until he got to leave. ---
**Author:** ![LibrarySpy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f9ae1b/32.png) [@LibrarySpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LibrarySpy)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866/8 "2013-11-27T00:06:40Z")
_Life of Pi_ immediately came to mind. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866/9 "2013-11-27T00:23:04Z")
The [Nested Story Reveal](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NestedStoryReveal) appears to be the TV trope that you want. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866/10 "2013-11-27T00:36:29Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > That’s the beauty of it. Most of it didn’t happen. But enough of the story beats did happen that if anyone doublechecked Verbal’s story, it would check out until he got to leave. The beauty of it is that we really don’t know if ANYTHING he told the FBI Agent was true. The only thing we know for sure is that the guys were killed hitting that boat. We don’t know if the story of how they got together was true, we don’t know if the New York’s Finest Taxi Service story ever happened, we don’t know if he actually threatened their loved ones to get them to do the job, we don’t know anything. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866/11 "2013-11-27T00:45:14Z")
_Princess Bride_? Does that count? ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866/12 "2013-11-27T01:06:08Z")
A Beautiful Mind and Ender’s Game have elements of this in them. Possibly The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Total Recall. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866/13 "2013-11-27T01:07:36Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > _Princess Bride_? Does that count? That’s the first one I thought of. The framing story is very different in the book than in the movie, and the book never admits that the nested story of Westley and Buttercup is not the real work of S. Morgenstern. How about _The Twilight Zone_? Rod Serling starts and ends each episode with the tacit admission that what we’re watching takes place in some nebulous, fictional reality, although there is one episode where he interacts with, and is essentially erased by, one of the characters within the story. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866/14 "2013-11-27T01:11:33Z")
Cordwainer Smith’s short story, “The Crime and Glory of Commander Suzdal.” The final two lines are: “That’s the story. Furthermore, it isn’t true.” However, this ending is set up so that it might be disinformation from the Instrumentality. Saki’s “[The Open Window](http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/OpeWin.shtml)” should fit the bill ( **Note** : in this context, “romance” means “wild exaggeration.” ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866/15 "2013-11-27T01:13:43Z")
Roseanne? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866/16 "2013-11-27T01:23:07Z")
_American Psycho?_ ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866/17 "2013-11-27T01:27:07Z")
This would be sort of the opposite of what you’re looking for, in that large parts of the story are being left _out_ of the book because they were (probably) tall tales: In Heinlein’s _Time Enough for Love,_ a 2,000-year-old man is telling the story of his life to an AI, which is going to transcribe them all for posterity. Whether or not they make their way into “print” (the book) is dependent on how much the AI believes them to be true; there are several points where Lazarus takes off into a new story and the AI inserts something along the lines of [7,500 words omitted]. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866/18 "2013-11-27T01:32:22Z")
The events in the movie [Deathtrap](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083806/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) turned out to actually be a stage play titled _Deathtrap_. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866/19 "2013-11-27T01:45:28Z")
Pretty famously the awful 1965 movie **Monster a Go-go** > [@](#): > > Monster a Go-Go! is a 1965 science fiction horror film directed by Bill Rebane and Herschell Gordon Lewis (who remained uncredited in association with this film). The film is considered to be one of the worst films ever. > > The film was featured in an episode of movie-mocking television show Mystery Science Theater 3000 on Comedy Central. As it is an incredibly blatant deus ex machina, the phrase “but there was no monster!” became an often repeated riff for similar events in other films. The team felt that this was the worst film ever featured on the show.[1] > > … > … > … > > At the end of the film, the scientists receive a telegram stating that Douglas is in fact alive and well, having been rescued in the North Atlantic, perhaps implying the monster was an alien impersonating Douglas. After the monster seemingly vanishes, the narrator provides the film’s closing dialogue: > As if a switch had been turned, as if an eye had been blinked, as if some phantom force in the universe had made a move eons beyond our comprehension, suddenly, there was no trail! There was no giant, no monster, no thing called “Douglas” to be followed. There was nothing in the tunnel but the puzzled men of courage, who suddenly found themselves alone with shadows and darkness! With the telegram, one cloud lifts, and another descends. Astronaut Frank Douglas, rescued, alive, well, and of normal size, some eight thousand miles away in a lifeboat, with no memory of where he has been, or how he was separated from his capsule! Then who, or what, has landed here? Is it here yet? Or has the cosmic switch been pulled? Case in point: The line between science fiction and science fact is microscopically thin! You have witnessed the line being shaved even thinner! But is the menace with us? Or is the monster gone? > **[Monster a Go-Go](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster_A_Go-Go)** > > Monster a Go-Go! is a 1965 American science-fiction horror film directed by Bill Rebane and Herschell Gordon Lewis (who remained uncredited in association with this film). The film is considered to be one of the worst films ever made. > The plot concerns an American astronaut, Frank Douglas, who mysteriously disappears from his spacecraft as it parachutes to Earth. The policemen in one scene inspect the landing site of Douglas's capsule and notice a burned patch, only to dismiss it as a prank. ... ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866/20 "2013-11-27T01:50:24Z")
The Fellini film **And the Ship Sails On** from 12983: > [@](#): > > The film opens depicting a scene in July 1914 immediately prior to the cruise ship Gloria N. setting sail from Naples Harbor. The opening sequence is in sepia tones, as if it were a film shot in that era, with no sound other than the whirring of the projector. Gradually the sepia fades into full colour and we can hear the characters’ dialogue. > … > … > … > But the revels end when the menacing flagship of the Austro-Hungarian fleet sails into view, demanding the return of the Serbian refugees. The captain agrees on condition that Edmea Tetua’s ashes be dispersed at Erimo beforehand. After the ceremony, the refugees are loaded into a lifeboat for delivery to the Austrians but a young Serbian hurls a bomb at the flagship, causing pandemonium. The Austrians respond by cannon fire. The Gloria N. sinks while Albertini wields his baton, aristocrats march to the lifeboats, a grand piano slides across the floor smashing mirrors, and butterflies twitter serenely above the melee of suitcases in flooded corridors. > > In a reverse tracking shot, Fellini reveals the stupendous behind-the-scenes of his floating opera of a movie - giant hydraulic jacks (constructed by Oscar-winning set designer, Dante Ferretti) that created the ship’s rolling sea movements, along with acres of plastic ocean, an army of technicians burning naphthalene for the smoke of disaster effect, and, finally, an enigmatic figure that may be Orlando or Fellini intentionally hiding behind his own camera filming the main camera filming himself. > **[And the Ship Sails On](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_the_Ship_Sails_On)** > > And the Ship Sails On (Italian: E la nave va) is a 1983 Italian film directed and co-written by Federico Fellini. It depicts the events on board a luxury liner filled with the friends of a deceased opera singer who have gathered to mourn her. The film was selected as the Italian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 56th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee. > The film opens depicting a scene in July 1914 immediately prior to the cruise ship Gloria N. setting sail from Naple... [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-works-that-are-revealed-to-be-fictionally-fictional/674866.md?page=2)