After the End: Difference between revisions

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[[File:~~PostApocalypseLondon001_2039~~.jpg|link=Hellgate:London|thumb|400px|The book of humanity closes and the words "The End" are given upon us all, yet the story continues in a new location: [[Hell on Earth]].]]

[[File:PostApocalypseLondon001 2039.jpg|link=Hellgate:London|thumb|400px|The book of humanity closes and the words "The End" are given upon us all, yet the story continues in a new location: [[Hell on Earth]].]]

{{quote|"''It was not, as some had predicted, [[The End of the World as We Know It|the end of the world]]. Instead, the [[Apocalypse How|apocalypse]] was simply the prologue to another bloody chapter in human history.''"|'''[[Ron Perlman]]''', ''[[Fallout 3]]'' intro monologue.}}

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[[The End of the World as We Know It|Something hugely nasty]] has happened to humanity. Be it nuclear war (which was once very popular but has gone out of vogue, in part due to [[The Great Politics Mess-Up]]), plague (which currently seems to be the most popular), natural disaster (which seems the most likely to happen in the near future in [[Real Life]]), [[World-Wrecking Wave|supernatural disaster]] (usually the case with a [[Sealed Evil in a Can]] or missing [[Cosmic Keystone]]), devastating [[Gaia's Lament|environmental changes]] (which are happening in [[Real Life]] right now, debatably) or [[Alien Invasion]] (God help us if ''that'' one happens)-- most of humanity is gone.

The result is generally that you have the remnants of humanity fighting to survive in a [[Crapsack World|crapsacked]] [[Scavenger World]] full of [[Ghost City|Ghost Cities]] and [[Scenery Gorn]], or at least plenty of [[Schizo-Tech]] and [[Lost Technology]] (or even [[Weird Science]]). People inevitably degrade down to [[Disaster Scavengers]] and [[Crazy Survivalist~~|Crazy Survivalists~~]], for whom staying alive may well mean being [[Reduced to Ratburgers]] or [[I'm a Humanitarian|worse]]. If enough time has passed, those born after the end may hear stories of [[The Beforetimes]] from those few who survived the catastrophe, trying to impress upon the children what humanity was and still is capable of. Expect a [[Fish Out of Temporal Water]] who [[Slept Through the Apocalypse]] to wake up to see their world changed.

The result is generally that you have the remnants of humanity fighting to survive in a [[Crapsack World|crapsacked]] [[Scavenger World]] full of [[Ghost City|Ghost Cities]] and [[Scenery Gorn]], or at least plenty of [[Schizo-Tech]] and [[Lost Technology]] (or even [[Weird Science]]). People inevitably degrade down to [[Disaster Scavengers]] and [[Crazy Survivalist]]s, for whom staying alive may well mean being [[Reduced to Ratburgers]] or [[I'm a Humanitarian|worse]]. If enough time has passed, those born after the end may hear stories of [[The Beforetimes]] from those few who survived the catastrophe, trying to impress upon the children what humanity was and still is capable of. Expect a [[Fish Out of Temporal Water]] who [[Slept Through the Apocalypse]] to wake up to see their world changed.

Large civilizations that were able to recover or at least preserved can include a [[Divided States of America]] and [[Balkanize Me|other interwarring states split up from a former empire]], a [[Dystopia]] struggling to survive, or a [[Days of Future Past]] with a [[Future Imperfect]] attempt to recreate happier times.

In any post-apocalyptic story created after the release of ''[[Mad Max]]'', it is almost assured that the obvious and natural way for the world to look after a civilization-destroying cataclysm is "the Australian Outback". [[Sarcasm Mode|There is no need to explain this. Global catastrophe causes gang-filled anarchy and turns the world into Australia. It just follows logically]]. However, in any [[After the End]] story created around the 1950s, expect to see plenty of [[Nuclear Nasty|Nuclear Nasties]] due to [[Rule of Cool]].

In any post-apocalyptic story created after the release of ''[[Mad Max]]'', it is almost assured that the obvious and natural way for the world to look after a civilization-destroying cataclysm is "the Australian Outback". [[Sarcasm Mode|There is no need to explain this. Global catastrophe causes gang-filled anarchy and turns the world into Australia. It just follows logically]]. However, in any '''After the End''' story created around the 1950s, expect to see plenty of [[Nuclear Nasty|Nuclear Nasties]] due to [[Rule of Cool]].

Related, if not quite the same, [[Dark Age Europe|is the period immediately after the fall of Rome]]; most [[Film]] and TV set in this time tend to depict it as a time of post-apocalyptic savagery. Thus, expect parallels with humanity's decay into [[Medieval Morons]] [[The Dung Ages|wallowing in filth]]. In fact, while there was a significant increase in banditry and piracy, most areas were peaceful most of the time.

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* ''[[Scrapped Princess]]''

* ''[[Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou]]'' - whether or not humanity gets better is up for debate, but it [[Cosy Catastrophe|puts a very comfy, delicious blanket]] on what would in lesser hands be a [[Downer Ending]].

* ''[[Simoun]]'' ([[After the End]] on a different planet)

* ''[[Simoun]]'' (After the End on a different planet)

* ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' takes place [[After the End]] (in fact, [[Epileptic Trees|some people]] think it happens centuries after the [[End of the World Special|conclusion]] of ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]''). Humanity gets better.

* ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' takes place After the End (in fact, [[Epileptic Trees|some people]] think it happens centuries after the [[End of the World Special|conclusion]] of ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]''). Humanity gets better.

* ''[[ICE]]''

* ''[[Trinity Blood]]''

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* ''[[Gilgamesh]]''

* Part of ''[[Kurozuka]]'' takes place after the world has been devastated by {{spoiler|''unintentional'' nuclear holocaust (the nuclear powers were trying to destroy an asteroid, but accidentally targeted each other instead) and the resulting nuclear winter}}.

* ''[[Hyper Police]]'' ~~-- the~~ apocalypse brought most fantasy creatures to Earth (gods, oni, beastpeople including werewolves), and left humanity as a protected, endangered species.

* ''[[Hyper Police]]''—the apocalypse brought most fantasy creatures to Earth (gods, oni, beastpeople including werewolves), and left humanity as a protected, endangered species.

* ''[[Overman King Gainer]]'' has the cast believing that the Earth has healed from mankind's presence, and trying to reach Yapan, the home of their ancestors, from Siberia where a good portion of humanity went to live in Domes.

* ''[[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]]'', in Acid Tokyo, a Tokyo destroyed by acid rain where the survivors protect the eponymous reservoir, and, consequentially, {{spoiler|Clow}}.

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* In the ''[[Archies Sonic the Hedgehog|Sonic The Hedgehog]]'' series by Archie, the world of Mobius is actually Earth ten-thousand years later, and Mobians the result of the alien Xorda's gene bombs - which wiped out most humans, mutated most of the surviving humans into Overlanders, and created the Chaos Emeralds - mixing human DNA with animals.

** And then there's the time Silver comes from (200 years in the series' future), where an unexplained disaster has completely destroyed the world, except for a few isolated pockets of civilization.

* ''[[Kamandi]], The Last Boy On Earth''. This Jack Kirby series had [[Schizo-Tech]] run rampant and [[Funny Animal~~|Funny Animals~~]] ruling feudal nations. Done by [[DC Comics]], although it didn't originally tie into [[The DCU]].

* ''[[Kamandi]], The Last Boy On Earth''. This Jack Kirby series had [[Schizo-Tech]] run rampant and [[Funny Animal]]s ruling feudal nations. Done by [[DC Comics]], although it didn't originally tie into [[The DCU]].

** Kamandi's world later became the setting for a bevy of other post-apocalyptic DC comics that got lumped in with it when they were incorporated into [[The DCU]], including the Atomic Knights, Hercules Unbound, and Hex.

* ''[[The End League]]'' Post apocalyptic superheros who suck really hard at what they do.

* ''[[Killraven]]'' was set in a world where the Martians from ''[[The War of the Worlds]]'' came back in the '90s and won this time. It focused on one of the few free human rebels and his attempts to overthrow the alien scourge.

* The [[Esperanto, the Universal Language|Esperanto]] comic book ''[[Ten Jarojn Poste|10 Jarojn Poste]]'' ("10 Years After") is set after a devastating nuclear war; the subsequent plague of male sterility, from which only a few men are immune, threatens humanity with extinction.

* ''[[Judge Dredd]]'' is set [[After the End]] where outside of a few giant city-states (and a Lunar colony, for some reason), the entire world is a barren radioactive desert filled with bizarre mutants.

* ''[[Judge Dredd]]'' is set After the End where outside of a few giant city-states (and a Lunar colony, for some reason), the entire world is a barren radioactive desert filled with bizarre mutants.

* Before [[The Flash]] [[Canon Welding|merged timelines]] at the end of ''[[Flashpoint (comics)|Flashpoint]]'', the entire [[Wildstorm]] universe was experiencing this. Just ''what'' happened and how many are dead is still up in the air.

* ''[[Strontium Dog]]'' is set on Earth after a nuclear war.

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* In the French Comic ''Les eaux de Mortelune'' (''The waters of Deadmoon''), most of humanity is wiped out or has degenerated into grotesque mutants [[I Am a Humanitarian|hunted for their meat]]. Pockets of humanity remain in places (such as Paris, renamed "Mortelune") where they have both the technology and the fuel to purify the toxic water, and buildings that can resist to acid rains, but it is later revealed that Lyon is now inhabited by [[Big Creepy-Crawlies|giant flies]], Avignon by [[Big Creepy-Crawlies|giant termites]] and Les-Baux-de-Provence by [[Big Creepy-Crawlies|giant telepathic praying mantis]]. All three races are actually more advanced and way more prone to long-term thinking than what's left of humanity.

* ''[[Old Man Logan]]'' Is a Marvel story that takes plac in an alternate timeline where all the Supervillains banded together and took over, turning the world into a wasteland.

* Pretty much every [[Superman]] story, perhaps especially those dealing with other survivors, such as the floating city of Argo, the bottle city of Kandor, etc., is set [[After the End]] of Krypton.

* Pretty much every [[Superman]] story, perhaps especially those dealing with other survivors, such as the floating city of Argo, the bottle city of Kandor, etc., is set After the End of Krypton.

* "[[Scud the Disposable Assassin]]": Not until late in the series that we learn the rapture began not long after the release of Ghost Busters 2 and has been going on ever since because the Devil was usurped by a mechanical stuff-collector named System. There weren't any raging wars or apocalyptic scenarios, but there was an influx of supernatural creatures, black magic, random mutations, and intergalactic alien businesses opening up on earth. Basically society is the same but a little more messed up.

* [[Just a Pilgrim]] is set in a world where the sun went nova billions of years early. The Earth's a barren desert waiting for the sun to burst.

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== Film ==

* ''[[The Book of Eli]]'' has Denzel Washington [[Twenty Minutes in The Future]] in a world decimated for an unknown reason and literature, most notably the Bible was blamed.

* ''[[The Land Before Time]]'' is, in fact, [[After the End]] for the dinosaurs, although whether or not it's their final extinction is never made clear. The too-numerous-to-count direct-to-video sequels would suggest that it's not for the universe's lack of trying, considering [[Everything Trying to Kill You|everything it's thrown at them]] so far.

* ''[[The Land Before Time]]'' is, in fact, After the End for the dinosaurs, although whether or not it's their final extinction is never made clear. The too-numerous-to-count direct-to-video sequels would suggest that it's not for the universe's lack of trying, considering [[Everything Trying to Kill You|everything it's thrown at them]] so far.

* ''Stalker''

* The [[Disney Animated Canon|Disney]] film ''[[Dinosaur]]'' is similar, and ''is'' clear on the subject, explicitly showing the meteors falling.

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** It's somewhat unclear since there's no proof of this other than [[The Man]] hinting at it.

* Nearly any zombie movie franchise with enough sequels will eventually have an "after the apocalypse" sequel. ''[[Day of the Dead]],'' ''[[Land of the Dead]]'', ''[[Resident Evil]]: Extinction'', and presumably any future sequels to {{spoiler|''[[28 Weeks Later]]''}}.

** In fact, ''[[Zombieland]]'' is about as [[After the End]] as it gets, right from the start of the film.

** In fact, ''[[Zombieland]]'' is about as After the End as it gets, right from the start of the film.

* ''[[12 Monkeys]]''

* ''[[A Boy and His Dog]]''

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* ''[[Sky Blue]]''

* ''[[Star Trek: First Contact|Star Trek First Contact]]'' uses the power of [[Time Travel]] to visit this time period.

* ''[[Logan's Run]]'' is set on a post-apocalyptic Earth where the only survivors live in a hermetically-sealed domed ~~city -- except~~ for one crazy old man who lives in the U.S. House of Representatives with his cats.

* ''[[Logan's Run]]'' is set on a post-apocalyptic Earth where the only survivors live in a hermetically-sealed domed city—except for one crazy old man who lives in the U.S. House of Representatives with his cats.

* Taken to an extreme in ''The Time Machine'' where Alexander travels to the year 802701, where humanity has started over and split into the normal-looking Eloi and the savage Morloks, and then again to the year 635,427,810, where the latter has taken over the planet.

* The future scenes in the ''[[Terminator]]'' series.

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* ''[[Hothouse]]'' by Brian Aldiss.

* R. Scott Bakker's ''[[Second Apocalypse]]'' takes place two thousand years after the First Apocalypse. Large parts of the continent are still wasteland.

* ''By the Waters of Babylon'' by S. V. Benet. Remarkable because it depicts what feels like a world post-atomic-war, complete with ideas of what would and would not be safe to handle after the ~~end--only~~ it was written in the 1930s.

* ''By the Waters of Babylon'' by S. V. Benet. Remarkable because it depicts what feels like a world post-atomic-war, complete with ideas of what would and would not be safe to handle after the end—only it was written in the 1930s.

* [[The Tripods]] series by [[John Christopher]] deals with a post-alien invasion future where the only humans not turned into zombie-like slaves are young children.

* [[The Passage]] by Justin Cronin has this in spades, due to a [[Depopulation Bomb]] resulting in {{spoiler|rampant vampires wiping out most of the American Continent}}.

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* [[Andre Norton]] examples:

** ''Breed to Come'' is set in a post-human world in which the disease that wiped out the humans led to the rise of several other [[Intelligent Gerbil|intelligent species]], among them [[Catfolk|the protagonist's]]. His eldest surviving relative has spent his life studying the remains of human civilization and acquiring any technological advances that might benefit his people.

** The short story "The Gifts of Asti" opens just as Memphir, the protagonist's homeland, is falling to a barbarian invasion. She - the last priestess of a mostly-forsaken religion - follows a standing order about what to do [[After the End]] (which was mentioned in prophecy), and takes a prepared escape route. She ends up on the far side of a mountain range to find a vast plain that was glassed in a now-forgotten war.

** The short story "The Gifts of Asti" opens just as Memphir, the protagonist's homeland, is falling to a barbarian invasion. She - the last priestess of a mostly-forsaken religion - follows a standing order about what to do After the End (which was mentioned in prophecy), and takes a prepared escape route. She ends up on the far side of a mountain range to find a vast plain that was glassed in a now-forgotten war.

** ''No Night Without Stars'' opens several generations after [[The End of the World as We Know It]], which appears to have been due to a [[Colony Drop]].

** ''Sea Siege'' opens on a small Caribbean island that is having trouble with [[Mutants|mutant]] sea creatures - just before [[World War III]].

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* In [[John Calvin Batchelor]]'s novel THE BIRTH OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF ANTARCTICA, a convincingly-portrayed international social breakdown is summed up by one character as "There's been no war. Just a bloody shuffle." It is implied that by the narrator's "present", new global social patterns have developed, without detailing them.

* ''[[Horseclans]]'' series by Robert Adams.

* [[S.M. Stirling]]'s ''[[Emberverse|Dies the Fire]]'' series begins with a mysterious "Change" in the laws of physics that abruptly makes all powered machinery (even steam engines) inoperable and explosives inert. (Eventually it's revealed that this was caused by {{spoiler|what might be called the Universal Mind attempting to stave off an even worse fate for humanity.}}) Before long most of humanity dies of starvation and the survivors have to rebuild society on a low-tech basis. "Ethnogenesis", the emergence of new cultures, ensues. One state, founded by [[Society for Creative Anachronism|SCAdians]], is modeled on Medieval Normandy; another, founded by Wiccans or neopagans, consciously imitates a Medieval Scottish clan; etc. Large areas are inhabited only by [[~~Cannibal|cannibals~~]] who have forgotten about civilized culture entirely. The new states are often at war with each other, using armor, swords and bows.

* [[S.M. Stirling]]'s ''[[Emberverse|Dies the Fire]]'' series begins with a mysterious "Change" in the laws of physics that abruptly makes all powered machinery (even steam engines) inoperable and explosives inert. (Eventually it's revealed that this was caused by {{spoiler|what might be called the Universal Mind attempting to stave off an even worse fate for humanity.}}) Before long most of humanity dies of starvation and the survivors have to rebuild society on a low-tech basis. "Ethnogenesis", the emergence of new cultures, ensues. One state, founded by [[Society for Creative Anachronism|SCAdians]], is modeled on Medieval Normandy; another, founded by Wiccans or neopagans, consciously imitates a Medieval Scottish clan; etc. Large areas are inhabited only by [[cannibal]]s who have forgotten about civilized culture entirely. The new states are often at war with each other, using armor, swords and bows.

* In ''[[The Peshawar Lancers]]'', also by [[S.M. Stirling]], the End came in the Victorian era in the form of a [[Colony Drop|Big Rock From The Sky]] and so much effort went into survival the technology and culture has more or less frozen at the time period (at least in the dominant culture).

* [[Harry Turtledove]]'s ''Valley-Westside War'' is set in a fairly typical post-nuclear world. The twist is that it's set in an [[Alternate History]] (this is a Turtledove story after all) where the war happened in 1967 and the protagonists are scientists from a future history where travel across alternates has been discovered who are studying the world to see how and why things went wrong.

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* In the ''Pendragon'' novel, ''The Pilgrims of Rayne'', Bobby discovers that {{spoiler|the tropical island paradise of Ibara is actually part of Veelox, after three hundred years have passed since Aja Killian's time. The rest of Veelox is a crumbling wasteland and the people not living in Ibara aren't much better than animals.}} In ''Raven Rise'', {{spoiler|Third Earth}} could probably also fit this trope well.

* The Gold Eagle adventure series ''[[Deathlands]]'' takes place in a post-[[WW 3]] United States plagued by crazed mutants and power-hungry barons.

* ''The Shattered World'' and ''The Burning Realm'' are fantasy novels set a thousand years [[After the End]] of a world that literally got broken into fragments. Desperate damage-control by the resident mages has preserved the fragments in a vast envelope of air, and equipped all the pieces big enough for settlements with Runestones that provide gravity and a regular orbit. {{spoiler|Unfortunately, the Runestones' magic is almost exhausted, making these both [[After the End]] novels ''and'' [[Just Before the End]] novels.}}

* ''The Shattered World'' and ''The Burning Realm'' are fantasy novels set a thousand years After the End of a world that literally got broken into fragments. Desperate damage-control by the resident mages has preserved the fragments in a vast envelope of air, and equipped all the pieces big enough for settlements with Runestones that provide gravity and a regular orbit. {{spoiler|Unfortunately, the Runestones' magic is almost exhausted, making these both After the End novels ''and'' [[Just Before the End]] novels.}}

* ''Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?'' by Philip K. Dick, earth was nuked, a lot, the few remaining survivors wear clothes made of lead when going outside.

* Patrick Tilley's ''Amtrack Wars'' takes place about a thousand years after a nuclear war and revolves around the conflict between the surface dwelling Mutes and the underground based Amtrack Federation.

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* Terry Brooks' ''[[Shannara]]'' series is set after the Great Wars have dramatically altered the landscape and reduced civilization to medieval levels. Gnomes, dwarves, and trolls are mutant humans. Elves are real elves, having come out of hiding after the war.

* The German pulp series ''Maddrax'' takes place after a comet hits the Earth, moving the axis of rotation, and causing all sorts of mutations and retardations. Intelligent rats, vampires, primitive people, world conspiracies and more arise out of the ashes.

* Alfred Bester's seriocomic novella ''They Don't Make Life Like They Used To'' features the last man and woman on ~~earth -- at~~ least, they think they might ~~be -- trying~~ to carry on with their daily lives in a decimated midtown Manhattan.

* Alfred Bester's seriocomic novella ''They Don't Make Life Like They Used To'' features the last man and woman on earth—at least, they think they might be—trying to carry on with their daily lives in a decimated midtown Manhattan.

* In Jeanne DuPrau's series ''[[The City of Ember]]'', human society was destroyed by a combination of war, radiation, and disease. However, the titular city was built underground as a safehold for human culture and survives for 200-odd years after the war ended... [[Oh Crap|and then the lights start going out]].

* Mike McQuay's ''Pure Blood'' and ''Mother Earth'', which involved North American culture devolving into feudalism and the use of [[Horse of a Different Color|giant dogs]] (inexplicably renamed "[[Call a Rabbit a Smeerp|woofers]]") as mounts.

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* ''[[The Starlost]]'' takes place on a generation ship launched from an Earth that was destroyed by some unspecified disaster shortly afterward.

* ''[[Star Trek]]'' creator Gene Roddenberry made together three separate pilot movies for essentially the same series premise: ''[[Genesis II]]'', ''[[Planet Earth]]'', and ''[[Strange New World]]''.

* ''[[Star Trek]]'' itself could be considered an "After The After The End" story - centuries before the show, humans almost destroyed themselves in a nuclear war, but then climbed their way back up to become greater than they were before. The [[After the End]] stage, known as the Postatomic Horror, is seen in "[[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Encounter at Farpoint]]" and ''[[Star Trek: First Contact|Star Trek First Contact]]'', although the latter is set in one of the less-wrecked areas, rural Montana.

* ''[[Star Trek]]'' itself could be considered an "After The After The End" story - centuries before the show, humans almost destroyed themselves in a nuclear war, but then climbed their way back up to become greater than they were before. The After the End stage, known as the Postatomic Horror, is seen in "[[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Encounter at Farpoint]]" and ''[[Star Trek: First Contact|Star Trek First Contact]]'', although the latter is set in one of the less-wrecked areas, rural Montana.

** Likewise, it is stated that the Vulcans fought a similar world war which left their planet in ruins (and may explain the desert-like state of the planet). However, they learned to embrace logic and became a major power in the Galaxy.

** More than one episode involved the Enterprise or Voyager discovering a planet or civilization in this trope.

* ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'': Many episodes dealt with survivors of nuclear war. One of the most famous of the lot is "Time Enough at Last," where a neurotic bookworm (Burgess Meredith) survives an apocalyptic nuclear war (only by his sheer luck of being inside a bank vault at the time a totally random nuclear war breaks out). The man stumbles among the ruins of his hometown, finding he is the lone survivor and then comes upon a huge library of books. (Of course, it's all for naught, as he breaks his glasses, and the ~~man -- blind~~ without the ~~specs -- is~~ unable to engage in a lifestyle of uninterrupted reading.

* ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'': Many episodes dealt with survivors of nuclear war. One of the most famous of the lot is "Time Enough at Last," where a neurotic bookworm (Burgess Meredith) survives an apocalyptic nuclear war (only by his sheer luck of being inside a bank vault at the time a totally random nuclear war breaks out). The man stumbles among the ruins of his hometown, finding he is the lone survivor and then comes upon a huge library of books. (Of course, it's all for naught, as he breaks his glasses, and the man—blind without the specs—is unable to engage in a lifestyle of uninterrupted reading.

* Two American TV movies made in the early 80s, ''[[Testament]]'' and ''[[The Day After]]'', both attempted to dramatize the horrors of a nuclear war and its aftermath in as realistic a fashion as possible.

** Thankfully, the only channel likely to show them nowadays is the [[Syfy]].

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* In the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' special "Planet of the Dead", {{spoiler|the Doctor arrives on a once-inhabited world which has been turned into a wasteland by an alien invasion}}.

** Also, the entire finale episode of season three explores the Earth a year after the Master has taken control of it.

* ''[[Andromeda]]'' is set 300 years after the collapse of <s> the Federation</s> the Commonwealth so it's [[After the End]] on a galactic scale.

* ''[[Andromeda]]'' is set 300 years after the collapse of <s> the Federation</s> the Commonwealth so it's After the End on a galactic scale.

* The [[Discovery Channel]] has a pseudo reality series based on this trope called ''The Colony'', where a group of ten people with varying skills, professions, and backgrounds band together to try and eke out a living in a simulated post-apocalyptic environment. It's filmed in [[Los Angeles]], so you conclude the joke.

* The ''[[Dollhouse]]'' episodes "Epitaph One" and "Epitaph Two" take place {{spoiler|after massive remote wiping and imprinting is used as a weapon, resulting in the fall of civilization.}}

* A recurring sketch in the third season of ''[[That Mitchell and Webb Look]]'' parodied the concept through an [[After the End]] [[Game Show]], "The Quiz Broadcast"; turns out, having a quiz show after 'The Event' is quite difficult when almost all human knowledge has been eradicated.

* A recurring sketch in the third season of ''[[That Mitchell and Webb Look]]'' parodied the concept through an After the End [[Game Show]], "The Quiz Broadcast"; turns out, having a quiz show after 'The Event' is quite difficult when almost all human knowledge has been eradicated.

** REMAIN INDOORS

* The Australian TV series ''[[Spellbinder]]'' is partly set in an alternate, rustic universe where a reasonably-sized pre-industrial society exists in the midst of an incalculably-large wasteland. It's eventually determined that the Wasteland was created by the Darkness, a nuclear winter created by the Spellbinders' failed attempt at increasing power. As a result, though the Spellbinders have electromagnetic capability in the "Power Stones", they've forgotten how it works, and only really know how to use the stones to power the flying ships and powersuits.

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** {{spoiler|Iran and North Korea were both nuked to protect the [[Government Conspiracy]]}}, so it's not so cozy.

* ''[[The Walking Dead]]'' is an [[Zombie Apocalypse]] example.

* Obligitory [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]] mention: The Wish causes Cordila to be transported to an [[After the End]] world, because she wished Buffy never moved to [[Hell Gate|Sunnydale]]

* Obligitory [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]] mention: The Wish causes Cordila to be transported to an After the End world, because she wished Buffy never moved to [[Hell Gate|Sunnydale]]

* The History Channel's [[Speculative Documentary]] ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r97xoSOEjM&feature=related After Armageddon]''.

* In ''[[Community]]'' epsiode [[Community/Recap/S1/E23 Modern Warfare|Modern Warfare]] invokes this trope (and related tropes) [[For Laughs]]. After Dean Pelton announced the prize to the school's paintball competition (priority scheduling), almost all of the students destroy each other and their school almost immediately.

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** If the recent High Programmer book is to be believed {{spoiler|it's San Francisco that's domed and underground, because a really big rock (or something) was going to hit the Earth, then commies took over the world}}

** It's pretty much intentionally vague, but the main constant is {{spoiler|not available at your security clearance, citizen.}}

* ''[[The Chronicles of Fate]]''. [[After the End]] + [[Earth Is a Battlefield]] + [[Schizo-Tech]] + [[Weird Science]] + [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink]] + [[Person of Mass Destruction|People Of Mass Destruction]] + [[Trope Overdosed]] + [[Serial Escalation]] + [[Up to Eleven|Turned Up To Eleven]] = good clean fun for the whole family.

* ''[[The Chronicles of Fate]]''. After the End + [[Earth Is a Battlefield]] + [[Schizo-Tech]] + [[Weird Science]] + [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink]] + [[Person of Mass Destruction|People Of Mass Destruction]] + [[Trope Overdosed]] + [[Serial Escalation]] + [[Up to Eleven|Turned Up To Eleven]] = good clean fun for the whole family.

* ''Earthdawn'' is set in the Earth after a devastating invasion of other-dimensional Horrors wiped out most living things on the surface and mutated what was left. The Horrors (mostly) returned to their home plane after the level of magic dropped too low for them to stay, allowing the survivors to re-emerge from their retreats and begin to repopulate the planet.

* ''[[Shadowrun]]'' is set in the future of Earthdawn, in 2070 our calendar, after a series of nasty magical cataclysms and wars (including a war between all the major continental European powers that ended with a massive nuclear airstrike on every nation's entire command structure by (presumably) England) and other disasters that created the politically-divided megacorporation-run [[Crapsack World]] it is.

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** The Alliance has it rough as the Horde invades Northshire and Elwynn Forest while Orgrimmar is subjected to [[Fantastic Racism]] as most of the Horde races are kicked out.

*** They didn't actually leave, the Tauren had a Coup happen in Thunder Bluff, and the Troll's left to take back their old homeland and because Garrosh is THAT big of a dick. Vol'Jin actually has a chat with Thrall via some kind of Scrying spell about why he chose to put Garrosh in charge. After a lengthy chat, Vol'jin sees the reasoning behind it...he doesn't LIKE it, but it makes sense to him and he decides to stay in the Horde.

** This is actually the ''second'' time that Azeroth had an [[After the End]] scenario. Ten-thousand years ago, the Well of Eternity imploded, causing the sole continent to split into what there is today. It's noted in one of the [[Expanded Universe]] novels that the event happened so quickly that the heroes barely made it to safety. While it wasn't seen, we can pretty easily conclude that hundreds of thousands died - certainly, most of the night elf empire was completely obliterated.

** This is actually the ''second'' time that Azeroth had an After the End scenario. Ten-thousand years ago, the Well of Eternity imploded, causing the sole continent to split into what there is today. It's noted in one of the [[Expanded Universe]] novels that the event happened so quickly that the heroes barely made it to safety. While it wasn't seen, we can pretty easily conclude that hundreds of thousands died - certainly, most of the night elf empire was completely obliterated.

** Azeroth actually had it relatively easy. Outland, on the other hand, is a barely-habitable remnant of a literally shattered planet which broke up with the Demon Controlled leader of the Orcs opened a massive amount of portals for the Demon-Powered Horde to go through to aid in the Burning Crusade...The sheer amount of magical energy released to do it was enough to shatter the entire planet...Although the demonic corruption and loss of the natural shamanistic energies that usually flow through the Planets probably did weaken it a fair bit.

* ''[[Doom (series)|Doom]]'', ''Doom II'' and ''Final Doom'' all take place with practically every other human on whichever chosen planet the game takes place on dead before you even start moving. Although ({{spoiler|in ''DOOM II'' you return the favor and destroy almost every demon in existence.}})

* ''[[Half-Life 2]]'' takes place about a decade after an alien invasion of Earth and revolves about a human resistance fighting the against the occupation. When the G-Man takes Freeman out of stasis and releases him out into the world again, the words he sends him off with are: ''"So wake up, Mister Freeman. Wake up and... smell the ashes."''

* The ''[[Fallout]]'' series takes place in a world that's been ravaged by global thermo-nuclear war. Most of the world is a desolate wasteland, and of the few places that haven't been destroyed most are either highly toxic, radioactive, or inhabited by the worst scum of humanity. See the quote at the top of the page.

** However unlike a lot of apocolyptic stories which end before civilization starts to get back up on its feet, the world in Fallout slowly gets better with each game and by the time of ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' (204 years [[After the End]]) nearly all things mention above is gone (to an extent, or at least around what was California), and a lot of the former United States appears to be occupied by tribes, settlements (both friendly and unfriendly), and at least one known (sizable) nation.

** However unlike a lot of apocolyptic stories which end before civilization starts to get back up on its feet, the world in Fallout slowly gets better with each game and by the time of ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' (204 years After the End) nearly all things mention above is gone (to an extent, or at least around what was California), and a lot of the former United States appears to be occupied by tribes, settlements (both friendly and unfriendly), and at least one known (sizable) nation.

* ''The [[The House of the Dead (series)|House of the Dead]] III'' takes place after the "world collapse", a [[Zombie Apocalypse]] brought about by [[The Virus]] thought to be unleashed by EFI.

** Its prequel, ''The House of the Dead 4'', is set during said collapse; the town you're in is completely abandoned save for a [[Zombie Apocalypse]], and it's implied that the rest of the world has fallen into this condition as well.

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* The [[Visual Novel]] ''[[Planetarian]]'' takes place in a future world that is slowly dying after a devastating war that killed off most of humanity.

* The games in the ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'' series all take place after the end of the world, for the most part. The nuclear apocalypse occurs about a fourth of the way through [[Shin Megami Tensei I|the first game]], {{spoiler|when God sends Thor to own Japan.}}

** Actually the Second Megaten game Megami Tensei (NES) starts immediately [[After the End]] In other words the world is already laid to ruin from Nuclear war.

** Actually the Second Megaten game Megami Tensei (NES) starts immediately After the End In other words the world is already laid to ruin from Nuclear war.

** ''[[Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne]]'' starts the game by ending the world. You spend the rest of the game [[End of the World Special|rebuilding it in your image.]]

** ''[[Digital Devil Saga]]'' also takes place [[After the End]]. {{spoiler|Though not in the way it appears at first.}}

** ''[[Digital Devil Saga]]'' also takes place After the End. {{spoiler|Though not in the way it appears at first.}}

* ''[[Deus Ex: Invisible War|Deus Ex Invisible War]]'' takes place 20 years after the Great Collapse triggered by JC Denton, yet in that time, civilization has returned to its pre-collapse level. See [[Apocalypse Not]].

** The [[Game Mod]] for ''Deus Ex'' ''[[2027]]'' features this in the {{spoiler|epilogue for the Omar ending, after they nuke most of the planet.}}

* The ''[[Mega Man (video game)|Mega Man]]'' timeline is complicated. Every series but the original has a point either in-series or in-backstory could be considered "the end" [[From a Certain Point of View]], from ''[[Mega Man X]]'' and ''[[Mega Man Zero]]'s'' [[Colony Drop~~|Colony Drops~~]], to the war that took place between them that killed the vast majority of humans and Reploids, to the End of Humanity in ''[[Mega Man Legends]]'', a series where the [[MacGuffin]] is ''the last remaining sample of intact human DNA''. ''[[Mega Man Star Force]]'' takes the cake for least ambiguous End in an alternate timeline found in the postgame of the second game, which is basically the darkest point in the metaseries.

* The ''[[Mega Man (video game)|Mega Man]]'' timeline is complicated. Every series but the original has a point either in-series or in-backstory could be considered "the end" [[From a Certain Point of View]], from ''[[Mega Man X]]'' and ''[[Mega Man Zero]]'s'' [[Colony Drop]]s, to the war that took place between them that killed the vast majority of humans and Reploids, to the End of Humanity in ''[[Mega Man Legends]]'', a series where the [[MacGuffin]] is ''the last remaining sample of intact human DNA''. ''[[Mega Man Star Force]]'' takes the cake for least ambiguous End in an alternate timeline found in the postgame of the second game, which is basically the darkest point in the metaseries.

* ''[[Homeworld]]''

* 2300 A.D. in '''[[Chrono Trigger]]''.

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* ''[[Combat of Giants]]: Mutant Insects'' takes place in a world 300 years after a meteor crashed the Earth and destroyed human civilization. Making way for giant mutated insects to rule the world.

* ''[[The Wager]]'' takes place after an event known only as "the Shattering," which was powerful enough to permanently alter the world's geography but left humanity seemingly intact.

* Subverted in ''[[The Reconstruction]]''. {{spoiler|The game doesn't start out like this, but an apocalypse happens towards the end that turns the final chapter into an [[After the End]] scenario.}}

* Subverted in ''[[The Reconstruction]]''. {{spoiler|The game doesn't start out like this, but an apocalypse happens towards the end that turns the final chapter into an After the End scenario.}}

* Crisis City in ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 (video game)|Sonic the Hedgehog 2006]]'' is essentially Soleanna's capital city after the [[Sealed Evil in a Can|Iblis Trigger]] wrecks up the place. [[Scenery Gorn|It ain't pretty.]]

* The [[Roguelike]] ''[[Caves of Qud]]'', set in a world of ruins, mutants, and remnant killer robots.

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** [http://everything2.com/user/cassparadox/writeups/Electrocuted+crows+hung+the+wrong+way+up+on+the+power+lines%252C+smoking+feathers+falling+like+leaves.?author=cassparadox Electrocuted crows hung the wrong way up on the power lines, smoking feathers falling like leaves], which follows [[Final Girl|Caramia]] as she [[Action Survivor|scrounges]] for something [[Horror Hunger|to drink]].

** [http://everything2.com/title/if+i%2527m+right%252C+you%2527ll+be+here+to+read+this+any+day+now#misterfuffie If I'm right, you'll be here to read this any day now]. An [[Apocalyptic Log]] as the world is being destroyed in a sci-fi-ish [[Norse Mythology|Ragnarok]]

* ''[[Fine Structure]]'''s {{spoiler|[[~~Dystopia|dystopian~~]]}} "[http://qntm.org/?crushed Crushed Underground]" chapter takes place after a nonspecific [[The End of the World as We Know It|apocalypse]] called the "Hot Wars". The surface is uninhabitable and humanity is reduced to a small population.

* ''[[Fine Structure]]'''s {{spoiler|[[dystopia]]n}} "[http://qntm.org/?crushed Crushed Underground]" chapter takes place after a nonspecific [[The End of the World as We Know It|apocalypse]] called the "Hot Wars". The surface is uninhabitable and humanity is reduced to a small population.

** ** MAJOR SPOILERS** {{spoiler|Actually, we learn in later chapters (after Earth is sealed off from the rest of the universe by a black hole, much like a piece of a twisted balloon animal,) that humanity suffers a Crash EVERY FEW CENTURIES. Just when humanity is on the verge of discovering subatomic theory, everyone on the face of the planet has his or her memories and technological knowledge wiped in an instant. Of course, surrounded by working vehicles, factories, and skyscrapers, civilization recovers pretty quickly. It turns out this is the plan of two protagonists to keep humanity from rendering Earth uninhabitable via nuclear war.}}

*** {{spoiler|Again.}}

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* The setting of [[Apocalypse Lane]], due to a nuclear war. It's a comedy series, so everything is [[Played for Laughs]].

* The Alternate History Dot Com thread Protect and Survive is set in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, after a nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the West. Newcastle is somewhat spared, but suffers in the aftermath of the nuclear war.

* The Alternate History Wiki ''[[1983: Doomsday]]'' takes place after a nuclear war caused by [[For Want of a Nail|a Soviet Air Defense Forces officer being reassigned to a different bunker]] and his replacement mistaking a [[wikipedia:Stanislav Petrov#1983 incident|false alarm ]] for an American nuclear attack. The timeline continues to be updated in real time via the [[Kent Brockman News|WCRB NewsHour]].

* The Alternate History Wiki ''[[1983: Doomsday]]'' takes place after a nuclear war caused by [[For Want of a Nail|a Soviet Air Defense Forces officer being reassigned to a different bunker]] and his replacement mistaking a [[wikipedia:Stanislav Petrov#1983 incident|false alarm]] for an American nuclear attack. The timeline continues to be updated in real time via the [[Kent Brockman News|WCRB NewsHour]].

* [http://www.ubernorden.com Tales of Ubernorden] is set some time after a [[Golden Age]] is destroyed.

* The web-published story ''[[Lost Boys of the Cascades]]'' is about a group of children struggling to survive in southern Oregon a year after a plague destroyed almost all of the world's adult population.

* [http://vimeo.com/31894179 Rosa]is set after humans left cyborgs to fix the ecosystem they destroyed by causing all natural life to disappear.

* [http://vimeo.com/31894179 Rosa] is set after humans left cyborgs to fix the ecosystem they destroyed by causing all natural life to disappear.

* Several stories in ''[[Hitherby Dragons]]'', although the intro to "[http://imago.hitherby.com/2004/09/the-arena-and-what-happened-there/ The Arena and what happened there]" sums it up rather well.

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* Parodied in ''[[Futurama]]'', in which Fry, believing that he has somehow been frozen for ''another'' thousand years, {{spoiler|finds himself in a post-apocalyptic world; as it turns out, it's just contemporary Los Angeles.}}

** Note that in Fry's first millennium freeze, aliens in flying saucers came and leveled civilization on Earth (or, at the very least, New York ([[Fridge Logic|and excluding the cryonics building]])), from which it rose again. ''Twice!'' {{spoiler|One of which was apparently time-traveling Bender's fault.}}

** In Season 6, Fry, Bender, and Professor Farnsworth time travel in a fast-forward-only time machine to the year 10,000 -- [[After the End]], in the sense that society has crumbled. {{spoiler|They continue moving forward, hoping society will rebuild and one day someone will invent backwards time travel. We get to society collapse several more times, for varying reasons including enslavement by giraffes, [[Robot War]], a flood, an apparent ice age, and a parody of the time machine people. They keep going until they reach the year One Billion -- [[After the End]] of all life on Earth. They decide to keep going forward, as they really have nothing else to do, [[Exaggerated Trope|to see the end of the universe]], billions of more years in the future, after the last proton "dies". Turns out time is actually cyclical, and the Universe then restarts, allowing them to move "forward" to their starting point...which they proceed to miss, forcing the Professor to take them "around again."}}

** In Season 6, Fry, Bender, and Professor Farnsworth time travel in a fast-forward-only time machine to the year 10,000 -- After the End, in the sense that society has crumbled. {{spoiler|They continue moving forward, hoping society will rebuild and one day someone will invent backwards time travel. We get to society collapse several more times, for varying reasons including enslavement by giraffes, [[Robot War]], a flood, an apparent ice age, and a parody of the time machine people. They keep going until they reach the year One Billion -- After the End of all life on Earth. They decide to keep going forward, as they really have nothing else to do, [[Exaggerated Trope|to see the end of the universe]], billions of more years in the future, after the last proton "dies". Turns out time is actually cyclical, and the Universe then restarts, allowing them to move "forward" to their starting point...which they proceed to miss, forcing the Professor to take them "around again."}}

* An often overlooked movie called ''Rock & Rule'' (or ''Ring of Power'' as the chopped-up kids version is called) is about a world where, after a nuclear war, humans and animals merged together. The world has become surprisingly civilized, as most everything is done using rock music. The [[Big Bad]] of the film, a person known as "Mok" (a parody Rolling Stones front man Mick Jagger) pilots a giant airship shaped like his face, and plans to throw a giant concert in which he hopes will raise the Anti-Christ.

* ''[[Skyland]]'' was set after a point in which the entire world had broken up into sections, and required air vehicles to move between sections.

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== [[Real Life]] ==

* Europe and Asia after the plague of [[The Late Middle Ages|1347-1350]], otherwise know as the Black Death, the Great Mortality, and the Year of Annihilation, is pretty much as close as human history has ever gotten to [[After the End]]. The plague hit nearly every city in Europe and Asia and death rates ranged from 15% to over 60%. In Europe it dealt a crippling blow to the old feudal society, undermined the moral authority of the Church, wiped out villages and families completely, and in some areas led to religious fantascism and anarchy (such as the anti-Semetic, anti-authority flagellants). This does not take into account the 100 Years War, Mongol invasions, famine, and environmental disasters such earthquakes and non-stop, wheat-destroying rain that immediately preceded the plague. The 14th century was not the best of times to be a human being, to put it mildly.

* Europe and Asia after the plague of [[The Late Middle Ages|1347-1350]], otherwise know as the Black Death, the Great Mortality, and the Year of Annihilation, is pretty much as close as human history has ever gotten to After the End. The plague hit nearly every city in Europe and Asia and death rates ranged from 15% to over 60%. In Europe it dealt a crippling blow to the old feudal society, undermined the moral authority of the Church, wiped out villages and families completely, and in some areas led to religious fantascism and anarchy (such as the anti-Semetic, anti-authority flagellants). This does not take into account the 100 Years War, Mongol invasions, famine, and environmental disasters such earthquakes and non-stop, wheat-destroying rain that immediately preceded the plague. The 14th century was not the best of times to be a human being, to put it mildly.

* It was no coincidence that Plymouth was the first successful colony in North America. The settlers arrived just shortly after a massive smallpox pandemic had swept the area, which wiped out over 90% of the native American population. Instead of trying to eke out an existence in the untamed wilderness, they took over an empty Indian town and its surrounding farmland and infrastructure, even going as far as opening the graves of the dead to search for anything useful to salvage. In addition, what little remained of the local population was in no shape to seek any fights with the newcomers. Some people have speculated that the American fascination with post-apocalpytic scenarios is based on the fact that the first years of the colonies that later became the United States were basically just that.

* The period of European history between the fall of Rome and the rise of Charlemagne is sometimes called "The Dark Ages", and said to be characterised by doom and gloom. This is somewhat of a misnomer created by Renaissance scholars, who were such Ancient Greece and Rome fanboys ([[Always Male|well, mostly fanboys]]) they didn't think a period without classical knowledge could be anything other than post-apocalyptic (Petrarch, the father of Renaissance humanism, said "What, then, is history but the praise of Rome?"). In truth, a lot of classical knowledge ''was'' lost, but it was more on the order of "we can't build classical-style ampitheatres anymore" than "devastated [[The Dung Ages|world of crap]]". It wasn't that horrible most of the time, save for Viking attacks. And constant border wars. And the rise of the mercenary aristocracy. And 30 and 100 year long wars. And serfdom.

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* Actually, the entirety of human history has happened after the end...of the dinosaurs. That's right kids, we live in a post-apocalyptic world.

** And the dinosaurs themselves lived after the end of the Permian-Triassic mass extinction, so you could say the dinosaurs themselves lived in a post-apocalyptic world.

** There is evidence that the entire solar system is cobbled together from chunks of other solar systems blown apart by super novas (novea?) which, given the age of the universe, were probably made from other systems and so forth. In fact the Milky Way itself is probably a new system made up of older galaxies which in turn were made up of the remnants of quasars and so forth and so on right on back to the big ~~bang -- which~~ was probably the result of a universe-ending event.

** There is evidence that the entire solar system is cobbled together from chunks of other solar systems blown apart by super novas (novea?) which, given the age of the universe, were probably made from other systems and so forth. In fact the Milky Way itself is probably a new system made up of older galaxies which in turn were made up of the remnants of quasars and so forth and so on right on back to the big bang—which was probably the result of a universe-ending event.

* The Native American Civilizations is arguably an example. The Aztecs even had a myth that Quetzalcoatl will come and end the world and he would come around 1519, from the east, and look white. And Cortez somehow managed to came at the exact time, from the right direction, and with the right skin color. What came after for the civilization and race was a total collapse and replacement.

* The best real life example would have to be the [[wikipedia:Toba catastrophe theory|Toba catastrophe theory]]. Shortly put, our numbers were reduced to around 10-15 thousand individuals due to a volcanic eruption around 70,000 years ago. Of course, since written history doesn't extend that far in time, it's just a theory, but still...