Adam and Eve Plot: Difference between revisions

This is a plot where the remainders of a group, especially an entire race, must be protected from extinction. Occasionally, the final two actually do perish, but not before producing offspring who repopulate the species.

In particularly [[Anvilicious]] scenarios, the two survivors who rebirth their species will actually be [[Adam and or Eve|named "Adam" and "Eve"]], or some fairly obvious variations on those names.

* Will Ferguson's novel ''Happiness (tm)'' mentions this phenomenon from an editor's perspective.

* A Damon Knight short story had two survivors of a biological war, one being an infirm pilot who barely survived the plague and the other being a nurse who had a natural immunity. The repopulating never happens, because she is a very moral woman and they're not married. (And where are they going to find a priest?) The pilot eventually dies, because he has an attack of the sickness in the one place she would never follow him: The men's bathroom.

* Played in ''[[Animorphs]]'', the book "The Change." There are several Adam and Eve references to Jara Hamee and Ket Halpak, the first two free Hork-Bajir since the Yeerks enslaved them.

* Subverted in "The Silent Towns", one of [[Ray Bradbury]]'s ''[[The Martian Chronicles]]'' short stories. A man wakes up to find that he's been left on Mars by accident after most of the Martian colony has gone back to Earth. He begins dialing phone numbers in a desperate attempt for human contact and manages get in touch with a woman, who he begins to fall in love with (based on their brief phone conversation). When they finally meet, he finds her obnoxious and decides he'd prefer a life of isolation.

* ''[[Xanth]]'' has numerous examples of this trope with novel types of [[Mix-and-Match Critters|crossbreeds]]. Typically, it starts with one crossbreed looking for another of his/her kind to mate with. Somehow, he/she finds one, and then a few books later their child goes on a similar quest.

** Toyed with the the first novel. After doing research in Castle Roogna, Trent is the first person to realize that even though there are plenty of humans around, without fresh blood the omnipresence of magic will eventually lead to humanity's extinction. They will keep producing more crossbreeds, or just plain mutate from too much magic (Humphrey is implied to be on his way to becoming this). As inconvenient as the sporadic invasions from Mundania are, they provide fresh, non-magical genetic stock for humanity.

* Averted in "Rescue Run", one of [[Anne McCaffrey]]'s short stories, by the handful of colonists left alive on the Southern Continent of [[Dragonriders of Pern|Pern]]. Convinced that all other humans have been wiped out by Threadfall, domineering [[Jerkass]] Kimmer forces marriage on the sole remaining female in his group, then refuses to allow any further breeding due to the limited gene pool.

* In ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia|The Magician's Nephew]]'', Aslan appoints a London cabby and his wife to be Narnia's first king and queen, as well as its first (and only) human inhabitants. Incest issues are averted when their kids grow up to marry wood nymphs and other spirits. This eventually dilutes their bloodline to a point where, when the White Witch returns to conquer Narnia, there's apparently no one left in Narnia who's human enough to contest her claim. After a time, Aslan sends the Pevensie children to do so.

* A classic, and rather literal, example can be found in ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' episode "Probe 7, Over and Out". An astronaut named Adam Cook crash lands on what appears to be a barren planet. Equipment failures keep him from radioing his homeworld, but he receives transmissions that indicate it has blown itself up in a nuclear war. While searching the planet, he comes across a woman, also stranded here. They can't communicate in words, but they make do by gestures and drawing in the sand. Eventually, it comes out that she's [[Planet of the Apes Ending|called the planet "Irth"]] and her name is... Eve Norda. It should be noted that [[Rod Serling]] [[Anvilicious|wielded an anvil]] as well as anyone in television.

*** Although to be fair to the man, ''Probe 7'' was in the the fifth season of a show in which Serling contributed 80% if not more of the writing. By his own admission, quoted in ''The Twilight Zone Companion'', he was getting burned out, not knowing good writing from bad anymore and falling into his own cliches.

* ''[[The Outer Limits]]'' [[Revival]] did this in a two-part story with the episodes "Double Helix" and "Origin of Species". The sample size was 8 students and one professor, and it is immediately pointed out that they could not possibly repopulate the planet alone. It's [[Hand Wave|hand waved]] by the {{spoiler|spaceship that took them into the future, which altered their genes to ensure maximum diversity and created hundreds of babies to further pad the gap}}. Subtly played with in the fact that both the professor and his son are exempt from being "Adams" due to a genetic disease (and are therefore vaporized), {{spoiler|but live on as holograms to assist their friends}}.

** Several episodes feature the destruction of nearly all life on Earth. In fact, in one case, Parker is the only survivor of a plot by an alien conveniently nicknamed "Adam" and has to manually start the Sphere to backstep.

** Also part of Luke Rattigan's plan to take his group of genius students to another planet in recompense for selling Earth to the Sontarans - he's even drawn up a breeding schedule! Needless to say, the one girl in the group isn't too happy with the idea.

** Suggested by [[Genre Savvy|Clyde]] in an episode of ''[[The Sarah Jane Adventures]]''. [[All Women Are Prudes|Rani has other ideas.]]

== Radio ==

* From a sci-fi series called "X - 1" (''[[Punctuated! For! Emphasis!|X! Minus! One!]]''): A scientist in [[Captain Ersatz]]-East Germany, along with his assistant Alan and [[Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter|beautiful daughter]] Ava have developed a way to shrink things to subatomic size and are planning to use it to smuggle aid and, eventually, people. Fascist government thugs break into the lab and [[Punny Name|Alan and Ava]] are forced to hide in the shrinking machine, which gets turned on either by accident, a plan by the scientist, or because the leader of the fascist thugs demanded a demonstration. Alan and Ava are briefly seen exploring the surface of a planet-sized electron, which they liken to a desert with the central atomic cluster as its sun (I know I [[You Fail Physics Forever|fail physics forever]] and [[Science Marches On|atoms aren't described that way anymore]]). {{spoiler|When the scientist reverses the machine, to his surprise Alan and Ava are gone but a mysterious voice issues in their place, saying that they eventually populated the electron-planet and it was a peaceful and prosperous land for thousands of (atomic) years, and to make sure the peace lasted beyond their deaths they [[The Bible|wrote a book of instructions]] for their descendants. The scientist is incredulous that Alan and Ava are both long-since dead and the parents of a peaceful race; unfortunately I can't recall the fascist thugs' reaction.}}

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Halo 3]]'': {{spoiler|A series of secret terminals give a [[Backstory]] that really runs with this. Along with the fact that a small group of [[Precursors|Forerunners]] were trapped on an obscure planet (Earth), they were in the process of indexing (i.e. naming) all of the animals, one of them builds a garden which is named Eden and in a description of this garden the trees are prominently mentioned. Also, the main antagonists in the games are the alien Covenant and a race of parasites called the Flood, to survive the invasion you must travel to a Forerunner installation called the Ark.}}

* In ''[[Duke Nukem]]: Land of the Babes'', the invading aliens [[Mars Needs Women|kill all the men]], and [[La Résistance]] calls up Duke from their past to help. [http://youtube.com/watch?v=E6__xhci6lY&fmt=18 The ending] shows a clear Adam and Eve Plot, although in this case it's more an "Adam and [[Lady Land|Eve-land]]" Plot.

* The good ending of ''[[Odin Sphere]]''. {{spoiler|After [[The End of the World as We Know It]], Oswald and Gwendolyn are the only two humans left alive and presumably, the ones who repopulate the devastated planet. Well, Velvet and Cornelius survived it too, but they're not exactly human anymore.}}

* Referenced in ''[[Half-Life]] 2'' (one of the episodes, anyway) where the [[Genius Ditz|well-intentioned]] Dr. Kleiner mentions on the monitors previously used for Breencasts (and which are therefore presumably scattered strategically worldwide) that since the Combine suppression field that had been inhibiting pregnancies was now gone, that those so inclined might as well set about replenishing the human population. Alyx incredulously asks the question that was likely in every player's head at that moment: "Did he just tell everyone to... get busy?"

** The second game's Neutral ending has the Heroine say this is what they need to do as they walk off into the sunset.

* ''[[Shadow of the Colossus]]'' {{spoiler|The bridge to the Shrine of Worship is destroyed as Lord Emon and his men escape. That just leaves Mono and Wander to repopulate the Cursed Land.}}

** Polydactyly (having more than 5 fingers) is more common in the Amish than elsewhere, for similar reasons (endogamy means small gene pool).

** 75-80% of Fundamentalist Mormons (not to be confused with the 'regular' Mormons) are related in some way to Joseph Smith or John Barlow. There is also an unusual amount of fumarase deficiency in Mormon populations, the result of Fundamentalists continuing to practice polygamy and endogamy.

** The modern day inhabitants of Pitcairn Island, all descendants of the Bounty Mutineers, are subject to a variety of genetic defects associated with several generations of inbreeding.

** The CCR5-Delta 32 mutation is descended from Europeans during the time of the Black Death. It's theorized that those that had the mutation then were immune to the disease, thus after it passed, a significant number of Europeans left had the mutation. It's almost unknown in African and indigenous American populations, but about 10% of European-descended humans have the mutation. It would be unremarkable now, except that if you have two parents with the mutation, you have immunity to HIV.

*** "Died out", in this context, could mean "produced only male offspring for a generation", not actual extinction of the bloodline. As mitochondria are inherited solely through the female line, having sons doesn't do anything to preserve these organelles' genes.

*** In fact, the Y-Chromosomal Adam was dated to live 50,000 years ''after'' Eve.<ref>To quote [[Stephen Fry]]: "Obviously, this means that for 50,000 to 80,000 years, the human race ran on heavy to industrial-strength lesbianism."</ref>

** There are some (hotly debated) theories that say after this eruption, for a short time there were as few as thirty some-odd breeding human females on the planet. Most estimates put the count as higher, but still considerably low.

* This is touted as an actual newspaper headline, in the vein of the stuff sent in to ''[[The Tonight Show]] With Jay Leno'' for his "headlines" segment: '''Panda Mating Fails; Veterinarian Takes Over'''.