We’ve all seen spoof movie trailers that use the cliche/parody opening phrase, “In a world where… (fill in the blank).”
This cliche must’ve originated with one real and serious trailer that was mindlessly parroted by more real trailers until the phrase became so overused as to be eyeroll-inducing.
Anybody know what that first trailer was?
Thanks all, in advance.
Angels & Insects did it in 1995, so that gives you a baseline to work back from.
Goodfella’s apparently had it, as did Mad Max 2. Don LaFontaine is the one who first did it, which should narrow down the search pool.
Here’s the trailer from Mad Max 2 (aka The Road Warrior). It doesn’t start with “in a world” but if definitely includes it. So that moves it back to at least 1981.
Goodfellas, really? That doesn’t make sense. “In a world where gangsters pull off the Lufthansa heist, just like… you know, just like the real world…”
But since Don LaFontaine voiced like 98% of all movie trailers, it only narrows it down a little bit. 
Here’s the Goodfellas trailer:
LaFontaine doesn’t actually come in until the last 20 seconds, and his first line is “In a world that’s powered by violence…”
in a world where ignorance was rife and cites were rare, a brave band of heroes stubbornly takes up a fight that would last way longer than they could have ever imagine.
Tesla had a movie where he filmed the answer to life, the universe and everything (which he called 42), and it started with “**IN A WORLD…**where people think nothing makes sense, actually it does… and here’s a surprisingly simple explanation to figuring it all out.”
Unfortunately Edison sicced some lawyers on it and had every print burned because he said it was copyright infringement as he was also in a world too.
In a world where steam powered punks exist…