Apocalyptic Log: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''... even now I can hear the footsteps of that shambling monstrosity, and hear its eerie piping upon the wind. Poor Blakely, he never dreamed -- but now the door is being smashed to flinders, and at last I behold what my meddling has awakened! And now it is dragging me across the floor toward its hideous suckered mouths! Ia! Ia! The Goat With a Thousand Young! No!''
A story is told through a log, diary, or journal that a character uses to document their activities and progress through the plot. Suddenly, [[Gone Horribly Wrong|something happens]], the effects of which are slowly made known to the reader through by its effects on the medium.
Expect that one dedicated character will keep recording events up until their last breath and that log will be discovered by the Hero or the audience. These logs generally start the same way with hopeful characters recording the details of their lives and work. But when things start going sideways the entries will start conveying concern, disbelief, desperation and ultimately insanity. They might ominously report about how mysteriously [[Horror Hunger|hungry]] they now feel, among other symptoms. The final entry can either be incoherent gibberish as the remaining character tries to warn the world of what happened, or a final cogent statement [[Fling a Light Into
This log can be written or recorded. If it's a video log, the downhill progress of the situation will be punctuated by a degradation in the appearance of the character, their surroundings, or even the video itself. Bonus points if the log's final entry has the character ultimately succumbing to whatever horror was released. Double bonus if the log is ''written'' and still records the author's last seconds. (See the page quote.)
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Depending on the nature of the apocalyptic event, the recording may have gone through [[Ragnarok Proofing]].
A handy way to fill in heroes who are [[Late to
Not to be confused with the apocalyptic Loge from [[Richard Wagner]]'s ''[[Der Ring Des Nibelungen|Götterdämmerung]]'', or for that matter, {{smallcaps| The Log}} from ''[[Naruto the Abridged Series]]''. Or with Apocalyptic [[Just for Pun|Lag]]. See also [[Video Will]], the various times when the [[Cassette Craze]] applies to disappearances, and some of the less pleasant cases of [[Message in
This Trope is almost always a part of [[Found Footage Films]]. See also [[Lost in Transmission]], [[Distress Call]], [[Late to
{{examples
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* The Director's Cut of episode 21 of ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' opens with a security video taken about a month before Second Impact. It starts off in a mundane way, picking up not only chatter from staff but a conversation between Gendo and Keel on the nature of scientists. Then with a crash, the scene cuts to the moment when Adam begins to grow into [[Our Angels Are Different|the Giant of Light]], and we hear shouting from scientists trying to get the Angel under control. The picture cuts off just as Adam's giant, glowing hands reach into the frame.
** Similarly, all we see of the activation of Unit 04 is a mushroom cloud rising up from the test site, followed by static.
* In ''[[Pokémon:
{{quote|
* In the visual and sound novels of ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro
* The horror manga, ''Mail'', has a story titled "Portrait"; it starts with a woman picking up and arranging her sister's belongings after she had committed suicide via self-immolation and discovering her diary. The diary describes the last few weeks of her sister's life including finding a rare portrait and her growing obsession with it. It starts of with her trying to discover more about the painting, to learning more about the girl in the painting, to writing in her diary that she thinks there is something creepy going on in her apartment, to thinking that the source of the creepiness is that new painting she is so fond of to realizing that sometimes, the eyes of the sleeping girl would open up, to finally writing over and over again how she wants to die. When reading that last page, the woman who finds her sister's diary realizes that {{spoiler|the last few pages handwriting slowly changes from her sister's handwriting to someone else's. When she realizes this, she looks at the portrait and realizes that it's looking straight at her. It turns out that the portrait of the girl still has the girl's spirit trapped inside due to the sympathy she got in life, cheering her to live on despite the fact that the only thing she ever wanted was to die and end her suffering and since then, has been committing suicide through the various owners of the portrait!}}
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* [[Doctor Strange]]'s log in ''[[Marvel 1602]]''.
* In ''Countdown'', when an unstoppable virus destroys an [[Alternate Universe]] (a universe that had ALREADY been destroyed and remade), we see the last days from through the journal of Buddy Blank. We watch through his eyes as the universe becomes a planet where humans and animals are transformed into violent, bloodthirsty [[Half-Human Hybrid|Half Human Hybrids]].
* Brilliantly used in ''[[Grendel]]'' to illustrate the self-doubts and conflicts within Brian Li Sung, as he slowly succumbs to the Grendel identity. {{spoiler|The brilliant part is that what at first seemed to be mere doodles in his journal's margins turn out to be the musings of the increasingly self-directing Grendel spirit, itself!}}
* Twitch's journal in ''[[Spawn]]''.
* Dr. Delia Surridge's journal in ''[[V for Vendetta]]''. In the graphic novel (though not the movie), she describes V's art projects in fascinated detail; these turn out to be intricate bombs and poisons that he later uses to destroy Larkhill and escape.
** The graphic novel also mentions that many pages are missing, leading to much speculation over what info they may have contained.
* Rorschach's journal in ''[[Watchmen (
* The entirety of the illustrated novel ''Zombies: A Record of the Year of Infection'' is treated this way. The book is framed as a journal that was being kept by a young doctor attempting to survive the [[Zombie Apocalypse]]. {{spoiler|It cuts off suddenly, mid journal entry, several days after the character reaches a supposedly safe haven. No explanation is given, and it is simply stated that the journal was recovered later, and no one knows what happens to the journal writer, or the other people from the safe haven.}}
** There is a [[Epileptic Trees|possible explanation.]] {{spoiler|The zombie plague was started by a totally-not-high-fructose-corn-syrup-honest food additive, with sufficient concentrations causing those who ate it to become the living dead. While the narrator is fairly strict about his diet, he has only one food he indulges in--[[Weaksauce Weakness|baked beans,]] which he always eats with aplomb. The moral of this story is to always check the ingredients list of the food you eat. ...seriously, the book was rather [[Anvilicious]] in that regard.}}
* [[Superman]] has one in the [[Elseworld
* Dan Turpin's internal monologue in ''[[Final Crisis]]''.
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* ''[http://meganphntmgrl.livejournal.com/80785.html A Statement in the Ice]'',{{Dead link}} a one-shot ''[[Watchmen (comics)|Watchmen]]/[[Cthulhu Mythos]]'' crossover which uses the concept that {{spoiler|Adrian}} called down a ''real'' [[Eldritch Abomination]] rather than had one custom built.
* ''[http://featherfish.livejournal.com/196763.html#cutid1 The Baker Street Record]'', an epic ''[[Sherlock Holmes]]/[[House of Leaves]]'' crossover, is one giant Apocalyptic Log, much like ''[[House of Leaves]]'' itself.
* In ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6562450/1/Subject_014 Subject 014]'', a ''[[Naruto]]'' fanfiction, Anko is in an [[Abandoned Area|abandoned base]] and is reading one of these and the last entry sudden trails off the clipboard. Anko then checks the date. [[Oh Crap|The last entry had been written seventeen minutes earlier.]]
{{quote|Anko: "Fuck!"}}
* The ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' [[Dark Fic]], ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5251546/1/Log_of_the_End_of_the_World Log of the End of the World]'', is [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|exactly what you'd expect it to be]]. Although there are a few chapters where it goes out of the log format, the majority of the fic is written as journal entries written by the surviving [[Anthropomorphic Personification|Nations]] after {{spoiler|a nuclear war kills millions around the world, including Nations like Russia, Poland, Hungary, Finland, Ukraine, Belarus, (South) Korea, Taiwan... The list truly ''does'' goes on}}.
* Dr. Brainstorm records something similar to one while his lab is ablaze in ''[[Calvin and Hobbes: The Series]]''.
==
* ''[[WALL-E]]'': Override Directive A113.
* ''[[Felidae]]''. The progressively alcoholic veterinary Dr. Preterius holds a pre-mortem camera diary of him and his two lab assistants trying to develop a new "''glue''" for organic tissue, by experimenting with homeless cats in his practice in his house's basement. The first trials lead to gruesome deaths of several cats, as the prototype glue turns out to be acidic. The next trials on a special homeless cat promptly named [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic|"Claudandus"]] are way more successful. However, they have to cut the agonized cat open again for further experimenting. Then, the experiment's funding is cut, and both of Preterius' lab assistants quit. Preterius, who is slowly succumbing to his alcoholism, keeps on working independently, and seemingly goes mad at the end when he claims Claudandus to be talking to him. It should be noted that ''Felidae'' is a crime story told from the viewpoint of a talking cat. Therefore, Preterius' ravings aren't as nutty after all.
* In the "found footage" genre of horror movies, a good portion of the film is supposed to be footage recorded by someone experiencing a horrific scenario.
** Infamous exploitation film ''[[Cannibal Holocaust]]'' is split into halves, the first being the recovery of an Apocalypse Log, and the second being the log itself. Because the film was made way back in 1980, this makes the found footage genre [[Older Than They Think]].
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** ''[[The Last Broadcast]]'' is a pseudodocumentary featuring found footage from a disastrous cable-access paranormal program. The film pre-dates the vastly more successful ''Blair Witch Project'' by a short time, causing many viewers to mistake it for a rip-off.
** ''[[Cloverfield]]'' is a "worm's eye view" of a [[Kaiju]] film in which a man records himself and a group of survivors struggling through New York City during a monster attack.
** ''[[REC]]'' and its American remake ''[[Quarantine (
** ''[[Paranormal Activity]]'' is presented as footage taken by a man whose girlfriend is being terrorized by a demon. It's made pretty obvious that putting up a camera has only made the demon more active - and angry.
** ''[[Man Bites Dog]]'' is also an example that predates the ''Blair Witch Project''.
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* ''[[I Am Legend]]'' is a variation on the typical setup, as its the main character keeping the log of his continuing research into the plague, almost three years after the [[Zombie Apocalypse|Vampire Apocalypse]].
* ''[[Island of Terror]]'' had such a log, explaining how anti-cancer research resulted in the creation of the bone-eating Silicates.
* In ''[[
* George Pal's version of ''[[The Time Machine]]'' in the form of the talking rings.
* In ''Overdrawn at the Memory Bank'' (which appeared on ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]''), there's one of these for the process the heroine uses to try to save Fingal's mind.
* In ''The Killer Shrews'' (another ''MST3K'' episode), there is a [[Narm
** Based upon the real-life incident of herpetologist Karl P. Schmidt (see folder "Real Life", below).
* From ''[[Monty Python and
{{quote|
'''Brother Maynard:''' It reads, "Here may be found the last words of Joseph of Aramathia. He who is valiant and pure of spirit may find the holy grail in the Castle of Aaaaarrrrrrggghhh..."
'''King Arthur:''' What?
'''Brother Maynard:''' "The Castle of Aaaaarrrrrrggghhh".
'''Sir Bedevere:''' What is that?
'''Brother Maynard:''' He must have died while carving it.
'''Sir Lancelot:''' Oh come on!
'''Brother Maynard:''' Well, that's what it says.
'''King Arthur:''' Look, if he was dying, he wouldn't have bothered to carve "Aaaaarrrrrrggghhh" into the rock. He'd just say it.
'''Sir Galahad:''' Maybe he was dictating it.
'''King Arthur:''' Oh shut up! }}
* A very abbreviated version can be found in ''[[Event Horizon]]'', wherein the salvage crew finds the ship's logs. The first portion shows the ambitious crew getting ready to perform the experimental hyperspace jump, but it cuts out at the moment of entry, to be replaced by horrific images of what happened to the crew after [[Hyperspace Is a Scary Place|the trip]]. The last coherent line recorded on the log is {{spoiler|"Liberate tutume ex inferis", or "Save yourself from hell".}}
* The remake of ''[[A Nightmare
* Both the ''[[Zombie Diaries]]'', and ''[[Diary of the Dead]]'' have this for the [[Zombie Apocalypse]].
* The pseudo-remake of ''[[Day of the Dead]]'' had the survivors come across a scientist's video-log in a underground medical facility (which was very reminiscent of ''[[Resident Evil]]''). The log also shows the scientist turning into a zombie.
* In the cult classic ''[[Night of the Creeps]]'', James Carpenter "J.C." Hooper leaves a audio recording for his friend explaining how the alien leeches get into your head and incubate. They then create more "brain slugs" before they kill you and reanimate your corpse. His voice is clearly changing, due to the fact he's slowly turning. It's one of the few things in this Horror/Comedy hybrid film that's played bone chillingly straight.
* The DVD extras for [[Zack Snyder]]'s remake of ''[[Dawn of the Dead (2004
* Subverted in ''[[The Core]]'': Zimsky records his thoughts on his impending death... until he realizes the tape recorder's going to die with him and bursts out laughing. His final words are "What the fuck am I doing?"
* The 2001 ''[[Planet of the Apes]]'' has this, explaining how the crash of Leo Davidson's ship turned the desolated planet into a simian dystopia.
* The original 1954 ''[[Gojira (
* ''[[The Thing (
** Incidentally, you end up being able to ''listen'' to this log in the unofficial 2002 video game sequel of the same name.
* ''[[The Lord of the Rings (
{{quote|
** The last three words are written in a jagged scrawl with the final letter terminating in swift descending line. It's fairly obvious the author wrote this just before the last line of defense was breached.
* The ''[[Evil Dead]]'' trilogy uses this trope as the catalyst for its plot, as Professor Knowby, the researcher who first unearthed the [[Tome of Eldritch Lore|Necronomicon]], kept an audio journal chronicling his battle with his [[Demonic Possession|demon-possessed]] wife Henrietta, and his failed attempt to survive the night. Unfortunately, he'd also recorded the recitation of the demon summoning spell that'd accidentally caused the mess to begin with, meaning that anyone who listens to the whole tape ends up going through the exact same thing.
* As the rescue team enter the deserted Glasgow in ''[[Doomsday]]'' we're treated to excerpts of Kane's log, detailing his frantic attempts to survive in a barricaded hospital as civilisation outside crumbles and burns in the aftermath of the [[The Virus|Reaper virus]] outbreak.
* Timothy Treadwell's tapes in ''[[
* Such log in [[Lucio Fulci]]'s ''[[The House
* In ''[[Dagon]]'' the [[Only Sane Man]] tells Paul all about the rise of Dagon.
* The BBC docudrama ''Supervolcano'' has a group of people watching the logs of a dying scientist, who documents the conditions of the U.S. after the eruption of Yellowstone. Subverted, in that {{spoiler|the scientist actually survives, and is one of the people watching the logs}}.
== [[Literature]] ==
* The ''Last Survivors'' series is done this way.
* John Barnes' ''[[wikipedia:The Sky So Big and Black|The Sky So Big And Black]]'' is set in a solar system where they're [[Terraforming]] Mars for living room. They can't use Earth any more, because it's inhabited by a [[Hive Mind]] united by a behavioural [[Memetic Mutation|meme]], Resuna, which is aggressively trying to spread itself to the rest of humanity (it just wants to help!). The novel is the log of a psychiatrist going over and adding to his notes of his latest patient, plucky [[Action Girl]] Teri, and is one part her adventures [[Terraforming]], one part a discussion of exactly how memes work to take over a person, and one part, well, where these two things intersect. The psychiatrist catches the meme off Teri, and the entries in his log show his mind going.
* Played with in ''[[World War Z]]'', which is an oral history of a narrowly-averted [[Zombie Apocalypse]].
* ''And the Ass Saw the Angel'', by Nick Cave, is the protagonist's stream of thought as he sinks into [[Quicksand Sucks|quicksand]].
* Mark Z. Danielewski's ''[[House of Leaves]]'': "Ftaires! We have found ftaires!"
* [[Neil Gaiman]]'s ''[[Neverwhere]]'': not a scientific log, but a video recording left by Door's father, as he is increasingly fearing for his life, that ends with his almost on-screen death.
* Charlotte Perkins Gilman's ''[[
* ''The Moth Diaries''. {{spoiler|Or, you know, it might not be that at all.}}
* ''[[The House
** Also by the same author, Chapter One of ''The Boats of Glen Carrig'' features a shorter example.
* The heroes of Barry Hughart's ''[[Bridge of Birds]]'' find one of these carved into the wall of an ancient ruined city, describing the monster that ruined it.
* [[Stephen King]]'s ''The End of the Whole Mess'', found in the collection ''Nightmares & Dreamscapes''. Like ''[[Cloverfield]]'', this one is a variation in that the entire story is the Apocalyptic Log and the reader is the one discovering it.
** ''Survivor Type'' follows a similar tack, with the survivor of a shipwreck recording his time on a desert island where there's pretty much no local wild life or edible plants. He eventually resorts to [[
** One of King's recent stories {{spoiler|''1922''}} turns out to be this. In somewhat Lovecraftian fashion, the writer apparently continues to write even as {{spoiler|the supernatural rats that have stalked him since he murdered his wife finally get around to devouring him}}. Of course, it's possible that he's just insane...
** King seems to like this trope. It's also in [[The Stand]], in the form of Stu and Harold's diaries.
* [[
** ''Dagon'' and ''The Thing on the Doorstep'' are even better examples.
*** As referenced in the page quote, ''Dagon'' (and a number of other tales) end with the author writing something ''as the horror is entering the room''. Why he actually ''writes'' his final despairing scream is a question only Monty Python can answer.
* ''[[The Tomorrow Series|Tomorrow, When The War Began]]'' by John Marsden includes a letter to one of the main characters from her father, early in the text. The sentiment is something like, "I'm going home to destroy this letter as soon as possible, so if you find this letter, I'm right and something is very, very wrong. ''Go bush''."
* In [[Garth Nix]]'s ''[[Old Kingdom|Sabriel]]'', the titular heroine discovers a magical recording of the last moments of a soldier's life.
* [[Older Than Radio]] example: ''M.S. Found in a Bottle'' by [[Edgar Allan Poe]], also a [[Message in
* The ''[[Discworld]]'' novel ''[[
** ''[[
** In ''[[
* ''[[Frankenstein (
* [[Shel Silverstein]] combines this with [[Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion]] in the poem ''Boa Constrictor''.
{{quote|
''And I don't like it one bit!
''Oh no, he swallowed my toe
''Oh gee, he's gotten my knee
''Oh fiddle, he's up to my middle
''Oh heck, he's up to my neck
''Oh dread, he's ''mmmmmfffff...'' }}
* [[Dan Simmons]] seems to really enjoy these. In ''[[Hyperion]]'' the
* ''[[The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde]]'' has Dr Jekyll give the narrator his
* [[
* W.J. Stuart's [[Novelization]] of ''[[Forbidden Planet]]'' has an excellent example of the
* The heroes in [[
* In the novel based on true events ''Mila 18'', one person decides to keep a log of his starving to death as a Jew in Nazi occupied Warsaw. He figures since he is starving, he might as well contribute to science with full logs of all the effects. That is not the only instance of
* ''[[
* A ''[[
* Australian novel ''Underground'' is essentially a set of memoirs written by Leo
{{quote|
* In the ''LOTR'' parody novel ''[[Bored of the Rings]]'', Tim Benzedrine leaves a note for the boggies the morning after they stay with him in which he enters a drug flashback ''while writing''.
* The poem ''The Slithery Dee'': "...He came out of the sea;/He ate all the others,/But he didn't eat---SL-U-R-P..."
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* At least half of ''Strange Objects'' by Gary Crew is taken up by the serialized journal of Wouter Loos, one of two convicted killers marooned on the western coast of Australia in 1629. At first a straightforward record of Loos and his "friend," Jan Pelgrom, attempting to seek shelter with a local tribe, the journal slowly becomes more and more supernatural- especially with the introduction of a mysterious ruby ring that Pelgrom wears. However, the truth of this particular matter is never quite resolved, as the most overt record of anyone displaying magical power is in the final chapter- by which time, Loos is [[Unreliable Narrator|delirious]] and barely coherent in his last pages.
** Being a [[Scrapbook Story]], ''Strange Objects'' also includes diary entries written in 1986 by the scrapbook's "compiler," Steven Messenger. The diary begins with Messenger's accidental discovery of a small cache of artefacts that once belonged to Loos and Pelgrom: though most of them are quickly handed over to the authorities, Messenger succeeds in taking one- a small jewelled ring, which he keeps on a necklace. As the months pass, he begins to experience a feeling of [[Being Watched]], and frequently mentions encountering a silent "double" of himself. Eventually, Steven begins wearing the ring on his finger; according to the epilogue, he vanished from his home soon after and was never seen again.
* [[
* In the last ''[[Empire From the Ashes]]'' book, Sean and friends find an ancient digital diary documenting the fall of society on that planet
* ''[[Friday the
* ''[[
* In ''[[Ratmans Notebooks]]'' (
* ''[[Otherland]]'' uses this trope in a rather interesting way by having the narrative point of view occasionally shift to Martine Desroubin's subvocalized journal entries. The segments are thus effectively an apocalyptic log in the progress of being written. They're doubly intriguing because she is blind and is therefore writing solely from her own experiences and perspective. Later, her journals are recovered from Otherland and she spends time reading them to analyze her own [[Character Development]].
* The [[
* [[George
* In [[David Brin]]'s ''Kiln People'', several of the disposable clones of Albert Morris get to describe their own demise in first person. As a [[Lampshade]]/justification, Albert is used to them being unable to return to him for inloading, so he deliberately orders blanks fitted with voice recorders and a compulsion to recite.
* The style of ''[[
* An in-story example for ''[[Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close]]''. {{spoiler|Oskar comes home from school early on the morning of September 11th and finds to the voice mails his father, who works in the WTC, has left on the answering machine. When he calls again, Oskar freezes and listens as his father's last words go to voice mail. He hides the tape out of shame and panic and never tells anyone, but listens to it by himself at times.}}
* ''[[The Sound and
* In ''[[The City of Ember]]'', a journal from one of the first residents of Ember is found {{spoiler|as Lina and Doon find their way out of the city. In the prequel to ''Ember'', ''The Diamond of Darkhold'', this log is shown to be the work of the protagonist of ''Darkhold''.}}
* Hans Heinz Ewers's short story ''The Spider'' is about a hotel room whose guests always end up hanging themselves, and it mostly consists of the journal of Richard Bracquemont, a medical student who offers to investigate.
* The novel of ''[[Double Indemnity]]'' consists of entries from the main character's diary leading up to his [[Suicide Pact]] with the [[Star
* The end of ''[[Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey]]'' by [[Chuck Palahniuk]] subtly implies a strange subversion of this. The interviews that make up the story are from a world that doesn't exist, but only because the events of the story caused it to cease existing. What's worse is that the story not only fails to tell the reader how to avert this "apocalypse" from happening again, it pretty much states that it can't be stopped, that it '''will''' happen again, and that nobody will ever notice except for the [[Complete Monster|twisted degenerates]] that figured out how to pull this trick. Basically, except for the few people who have become gods through murder and rape, the entirety of reality is one big [[Lotus Eater Machine]].
* ''[[Non-Stop]]'' by Brian Aldiss conveys the story of the disaster that made the setting [[After the End|post-apocalyptic]] through a diary found by one character.
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
* ''[[Buck Rogers in the 25th Century]]'', episode "Space Vampire". The title creature (called a "Vorvon") is being tracked by a man named Helson (possibly from "Dr. Van Helsing", as a [[Shout-Out]] to ''[[Dracula]]''). Helson's drone makes a recording of him confronting the Vorvon: it ends with him being killed. Buck discovers the monster exists by watching the tape.
* ''[[Doctor Who]]'': in the episode "Silence in the Library", the Doctor and his companion listen to a recorded message (censored "for tone and content") on a data-terminal in an abandoned library. "Message follows: Run. For God's sake, run. Nowhere is safe... We can't--Oh, they're here. Argh. Slargh. Snick. Message ends."
** "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S26/E03 The Curse of Fenric]]" featured the runic inscriptions of a Viking who made the mistake of stealing a flask [[Sealed Evil in a Can|containing Fenric, Evil Incarnate.]]
{{quote|"I am the only one left now. I raise these stones to my wife, Astrid. May she forgive my sin. The day grows dark, and I sense the evil curse rising from the sea. I know now what the curse of Fenric seeks: the treasures from the Silk Lands in the east. I have heard the treasures whisper in my dreams. I have heard the magic words that will release great powers. I shall bury the treasure for ever. Tonight, I shall die, and the words die with me."}}
** "The God Complex": The episode opens with a young policewoman writing an account of her final moments as she succumbs to brainwashing that seems to befall everyone who arrives in the 'hotel'. The Doctor and the others later discover this.
* Parodied by ''[[
{{quote|
* Played for laughs ([[Tear Jerker|sort of]]) in the final episode of ''[[Blackadder Goes Forth]]''. Darling is preparing to go over the top to his death.
{{quote|
* ''[[
** One especially notable case from ''[[Star Trek:
** In at least two ''TNG'' episodes ("Time Squared", "Cause and Effect"), the ''Enterprise'' crew receive an
** Also nicely subverted in one episode where it turns out the person who made the log is still alive, and quite upset that the crew was watching her video diary.
** In the second pilot of [[Star Trek:
* The Atlantis expedition finds an Apocalyptic Log in the [[Pilot]] episode of ''[[
{{quote|
** Also happens in "The Daedalus Variations". Sheppard & Co., aboard an empty Daedalus, find a video log left by the captain before the ship was abandoned.
* ''[[
** This wound up being recursive: at the end of the episode, Matt records a second
* ''[[The X
** The seventh season episode "X-Cops" starts with a homage to ''[[
* This happens in an episode of the ''[[Logan's Run]]'' series. The protagonists discover an ancient bunker from [[After the End|before the end]] holding a few [[Human Popsicle]] survivors (the best and brightest) from the ancient civilisation devasted by a plague. There is also an Apocalyptic Log from a man dying from the disease, but holding long enough {{spoiler|to reveal he discovered that one of the hibernated people is an imposter (and potentially a murderer).}}
* The [[Clip Show]] episode of ''[[Power Rangers RPM]]'' featured an
* ''[[Jericho]]'' did this in the first episode with an answering machine. It's still a bit of a [[Tear Jerker]].
** Doubles as one heck of an ''[[Oh Crap]]'' moment, as we quickly find out that {{spoiler|the message originated in a totally different city than the one that the characters and viewers knew had just been nuked, meaning that the disaster was not just local.}}
* The original ''[[Land of the Lost (TV series)|Land of the Lost]]'' had the Marshall's tracking down installments of a diary by a predecessor to the land. Eventually, they enter a cave full of dormant Sleetaks and find his long decayed corpse and his final entry in a small section. They read that he never found a way home and was doomed because of being trapped in the cave with the Sleetaks awake. Suddenly, the Marshall's heard the sound of the Sleetaks waking up, take the hint and barely manage to escape themselves.
== [[Music]] ==
* "Death Story" by Lecrae is the last-minute prayer of a gangster on his deathbed.
{{quote|
''But I ain't really sure if you'll forgive me my sins...
''Well, this is it. No more discussion to do.
''I don't know much, but I know I should be trusting in... [[Flatline|BEEEEEEEEEEEEP...]]'' }}
* "The Chariot" by The Cat Empire.
{{quote|
''When the news it had been telling me
''About one more war and one more fight
''And 'aeh' I sighed but then
''I thought about my friends
''Then I wrote this declaration
''Just in case the world ends.'' }}
* "Chiron Beta Prime" by [[Jonathan Coulton]].
{{quote|
''We really hope you'll come and visit us soon
''I mean we're literally begging you to visit us
''And make it quick before they [message redacted]'' }}
* "Experiment IV" by [[Kate Bush]].
{{quote|
''All they wanted
''Was a sound that could kill someone
''From a distance.
''So we go ahead,
''And the meters are over in the red.
''It's a mistake in the making.
''...
''We won't be there to be blamed.
''We won't be there to snitch.
''I just pray that someone there
''Can hit the switch. }}
* "Space Oddity" by [[David Bowie]].
{{quote|
''Your circuit's dead, there's something wrong
''Can you hear me, Major Tom?
''Can you hear me, Major Tom?
''Can you hear me, Major Tom?
''Can you.... '' }}
** The acoustic version on the ''Sound+ Vision'' album even [[Last
* Dr. Jekyll sings an Apocalyptic Log in the musical version of ''Jekyll and Hyde''.
* "Two Suns in the Sunset" by [[Pink Floyd]] describes the last few moments of a man's life before he is killed by a nuclear bomb.
{{quote|
''that keeps the anger in
''gives way
''and suddenly it's day again
''the sun is in the east
''even though the day is done
''two suns in the sunset
''could be the human race is run
''and as the windshield melts
''my tears evaporate
''leaving only charcoal to defend
''finally i understand
''the feelings of the few
''ashes and diamonds
''foe and friend
''we were all equal in the end''}}
* [[Billy Joel]]'s "Goodnight Saigon" - the first two lines let you know that it doesn't end well.
* [[
* "Pioneers over C." by [[Van
{{quote|
''Fingers groping for the galaxies
''Reddened eyes staring up into the void
''A thousand stars to be exploited
''Somebody help me, I'm falling
''Somebody help me, I'm falling down...
''Into sky, into earth, into sky, into earth }}
* [[Rush]]'s "Cygnus X-1" is about a space pilot flying his ship directly into the heart of a black hole. Subverted in the second part, "Hemispheres", where he comes out the other end.
* Mind.In.A.Box's "Stalkers". By the sound of things, the singer is either suffering from a mental breakdown from paranoid schizophrenia, or being [[You Will Be Assimilated|forcibly assimilated]] by a [[Hive Mind]].
{{quote|
''so my last thought is just your name
''and it is all that will remain...'' }}
* "30k ft" by Assemblage 23 is about a doomed airline passenger making a final phone call to his wife/lover. The song [[Killed Mid
== [[Radio]] ==
* In [[Orson Welles]]' infamous [[The War of the Worlds (radio)|radio version of ''The War of the Worlds'']], commentator Carl Phillips describes the effects of the Martian heat ray right up to the bitter end:
{{quote|'''Phillips:''' A humped shape is rising out of the pit. I can make out a small beam of light against a mirror. What's that? There's a jet of flame springing from the mirror, and it leaps right at the advancing men. It strikes them head on! Good Lord, they're turning into flame!
''(screams and unearthly shrieks)''
** An even better example is the announcer broadcasting from atop the CBS building in New York, watching the Martian's poisonous smoke drift across the city.
{{quote|
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* The prologue to the [[Zombie Apocalypse]] game ''All Flesh Must Be Eaten'' has a scientist, just bitten by a zombie, discuss the transformation from human to infected cadaver in a truly disturbing series of logs. The last few are ''after'' his death, as the brain is the last thing to go... and the final one has him reduced to groaning that the hunger is all he has left.
* There's at least three examples along these lines from the ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' magazine ''White Dwarf'', although two are merely dealing with attacks by vampires and Necrons respectively.
* Not a tabletop RPG, but a ''letter-writing'' RPG, the out of print [[Cosmic Horror Story|Lovecraftian]] game ''De Profundis'' was presented wholly as a collection of letters from someone gradually going insane after having a dream about a book that laid out the game's rules. Part of the supernatural insanity gripping the "author" involved writing down and sharing the game to try to spread the insanity.
* The ''[[Warhammer
** We never get to read it, but the galaxy-sized locust swarm that is the Tyranid race was named because of the
** Similarly, the ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' background book ''Liber Chaotica'' is written as an in-character study of the Chaos Gods. As the book goes on, the author starts having more and more ominous visions and making less and less sense as he descends into madness. At least half of the quotes in the Necron, Tyranid, and Dark Eldar codexes fit this trope.
* ''[[
** A ''[[Planescape]]'' supplement contained, as [[Flavor Text]], the diary of an explorer describing his journey around the Concordant Plane of the Outlands. The diary takes on a distinct tone of encroaching madness after he set foot into the Caves of Thoughts, the domain of the mindflayer deity Ilsensine the Great Brain. It doesn't end well.
** Module S4, ''The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth'', had a diary left by a previous expedition into the title dungeon. It had vague hints of what was to come, with several sections with [[Lost in Transmission|vital information being smeared and smudged]]. It ended with the party meeting the [[Final Boss]] of the dungeon.
** The ''Tome of Strahd'' is something of a half-journal/half-manifesto written by [[Ravenloft|Count Strahd von Zarovich]], which details in his own words the night he made his pact with Death and sacrificed his younger brother in exchange for immortality and the love of his brother's fiancee. Said fiancee, consumed with grief, flung herself from the castle walls rather than live without her love. The Tome's final words reflect Strahd's anguish at seeing her being constantly reincarnated by the Dark Powers only to be lost to him time and time again.
** [[Dragonlance]] module DL12 ''Dragons of Faith''. A page from a ship's log tells of the destruction of the ship and the fate of its crew.
** Module DA1 ''Adventures in Blackmoor''. In the Comeback Inn the [[PC
** In the 2nd Edition ''[[Ravenloft]]'' setting, most of what is known of the realm of Demise and [[Gorgeous Gorgon| Althea]], its Darklord, comes from a journal that was written by a Lamordian native named Johan Wehner. The sole survivor of a group of sailors who found themselves in the cruel medusa's maze-like domain, Johan escaped at the cost of his eyesight. He sealed the journal in a waterproof container and threw it into the sea, hoping to dissuade anyone from exploring Demise and meeting the grim fate of his crew. {{spoiler|Unbeknownst to anyone, however, [[Subverted Trope| he survived]], and to this day lives a hermit, and might be a valuable ally to anyone who finds himself on Demise.}}
* ''[[Call of Cthulhu (tabletop game)]]''
** Adventure "The Warren". When the [[Player Character]]s enter a room sealed by rubble, they find a skeleton and a piece of paper with the last words of the victim. It describes how he heard cult members chanting, a bolt of lighting striking the house and finding the door blocked. His last words were that he'd been waiting for rescue for several hours.
** Also, in the adventure "Horror on the Orient Express," the ''player characters'' keep Apocalyptic Logs to allow replacement investigators to join a very long, detailed investigation fully up to speed.
** Supplement ''Cthulhu Companion'', adventure "The Mystery of Loch Feinn". Professor Gibbson's journal details his investigation of the Water Horse and his run-ins with the MacAllans - the Cthulhu cultists who eventually killed him.
** ''Fearful Passages'', adventure "Armored Angels". Professor Powell's notes give information on his plan to open a gate to the planet Yuggoth. The last page of his diary give a horrifying account of the invasion of Mi-Go and a Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath through the gate.
* ''[[
* Many of the cards one can draw on the Forbidden Island in the ''Touch of Evil'' expansion "Something Wicked" detail an exploration party gradually succumbing to a lycanthrophy curse. Several other cards can ''inflict'' lycanthopy on the exploring player.
* The recent "Jihad" series of [[
* ''[[Normality]]'' can pretty much be described as
* ''[[Role Master]]'' campaign setting ''Shadow World'', supplement 'Norek: Intrigue in a City-State of Jaiman''. A powerful crystal inside a mine causes radiation poisoning in the miners. They think it's a plague and seal off the mine to protect the outside world. After the effects get worse, the miners seal themselves in their rooms to await death. One of the miners leaves a diary of the events that the [[PC
* ''[[Magic:
* The free solo RPG Swords of the Skull Takers on 1km1kt.com is about the player creating an apocalyptic log, unless they win. Even then, Diabolic Victories can get even more disturbing.
* ''The Morrow Project'' adventure R-002 ''Project Damocles''. In the [[Backstory]], a group of scientists create an artificial intelligence but a nuclear holocaust begins while they're testing it. They try to escape the underground area where they're working but the AI (named Damocles) malfunctions and won't let them out. One of the project members, William Lezrow, records the events that led up to the disaster and the fate of each of the team members. The [[PC
== [[Theme Parks]] ==
* At [[Disney Theme Parks]], one of these can be heard while waiting in line for the Jungle Cruise ride.
* At Busch Gardens Europe, the former attraction Curse of Darkastle
** The plot of Curse of Pompeii and many other Howl O Scream rides is often one of these, too.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* A staple in the ''[[System Shock]]'' series; logs from personnel can be found scattered everywhere and frequently out of order. ''[[System Shock]] 2'' in particular, contains an audio log which follows this trope word-for-word, where a scientist tries to focus on conveying useful information about [[Big Bad|The Many]], even as he is being devoured.
** In ''[[System Shock]] 2'', the logs each come with a little icon of the speaker's head and face, not moving, probably just there to show players what they looked like. One, Anatoli Korenchkin, is infected by the Many early on, as the logs show. At one point he leaves a log full of him speaking in a warped voice about the glory of the Many; the icon, rather than his face, shows a mass of unfacelike tissue, vaguely like a jellyfish. At a later date he sends the player character an e-mail which contains the same icon; it can be seen a few minutes into [https://web.archive.org/web/20120116202243/http://www.viddler.com/explore/Raar/videos/19
* You find quite a few of these through the course of ''[[System Shock]]'''s [[Spiritual Successor]] ''[[
** And it gets the bonus points too. In one log, Dr. Suchong is reporting that the plasmid he designed intended to force the Big Daddies to bond with Little Sisters and protect them, violently for preference, is more or less a failure. At the same time, a Little Sister can be heard in the background, trying to get his attention. Fed up with her bugging him, Suchong slaps her, and then a Big Daddy's whalecry can be heard. Guess what happens next.
*** What's even better? {{spoiler|You find it on a body stuck to a desk by a [[Lightning Bruiser|Bouncer's]] [[This Is a Drill|drill]]. [[Nice Job Fixing It, Villain|Gee, how could that have happened?]]}}
** Both ''[[System Shock]]'' games relied on this trope thematically. The times that the player is able to make human contact are so rare as to be notable; the only communication the character typically gets is through voice logs and emails left by the dead...or those who will be dead by the time he reaches them.
*** ''[[
*** Due to Adam absorbing and containing memories of it's previous users, you can sometimes see Ghosts throughout Rapture. The Apocalyptic part comes in because, well, obviously ''something'' had to have happened to them.
* ''[[
{{quote|
* ''[[Brink]]'', as unlockable Audio Logs.
* In ''[[
* Parodied in ''[[
{{quote|
* Much of ''[[Dead Space (
* In the undersea lab level of ''[[
** Likewise, the Antarctica level of ''[[Deus Ex: Invisible War
** It is to be noted that the designer of ''Deus Ex'', Warren Spector, had previously worked on ''System Shock'', which, as noted above, used this trope effectively as a core means of plot progression.
* Though your protagonist is present for the beginning of the Apocalypse in ''[[Doom]] 3'', most of the story of the game, as well as the How and Why of said event, is told through the scattered Apocalyptic Logs of Mars City's scientists, soldiers and workmen.
* Practically every book you can find in ''[[Dungeon Siege]]'' and its expansion. For bonus points, most of them contain variations on "The rest of the pages are covered in what appears to be blood."
* In ''[[The Elder Scrolls
** There is also a second example in the dungeon of the tower Tel Vos. A construction crew was working on building the place, and fragments of the foreman's journal are all that is left. They are scattered around to be found by the player.
** What's mildly funny is that the Telvanni who owns the place doesn't actually care that much there's an eldritch abomination under his tower. Or that he sent the construction crew or hired them in the first place.
* Some quests in ''[[The Elder Scrolls IV]]
** There is also a miniquest near Kvatch involving a man that believes he must appease "The Sunken One" to prevent the rest of the world from suffering the same fate as Kvatch. You don't meet him while he is still alive, learning of his quest (and its depressing ending, as he died believing that his failure to appease The Sunken One will doom the entire world) through journal entries.
** A [http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Trolls_of_Forsaken_Mine Fighter's Guild quest] sends the player to find out why some comrades (including the guildmaster's over-protected son Viranus, who [[I Just Want to Be Special|desperately wants a chance to prove himself in battle]]) haven't come back from clearing out a troll-infested mine. They're all dead, of course. The son's journal, found on his body, explains how it all went wrong, ending with:
{{quote|
I'm sorry Mother}}
* The Mo'ia Atoll tablets in ''Endless Ocean'', albeit a lot less disturbing than most. Also, the emails you get after discovering parts of the Deity Idol.
** "There is something... from the window..."
* In the online game ''[[Exmortis]]'', while exploring the abandoned house you discover the journal of the most recent inhabitant, a man who found the house while hunting deer in the surrounding forest. The earliest entries report that shortly after he started exploring the house, he heard countless voices screaming at him in rage before he fell unconscious: when he awoke, he found himself unable to leave, forced to listen to the ghostly voices speaking to him- voices belonging to "The Exmortis." Over the course of the next few entries, the writing grows increasingly deranged, as the man is slowly brainwashed into a pawn of the Exmortis. The final entry claims that a party of five hikers is approaching the house, and all of them are to be sacrificed in a ceremony to release the Exmortis into the mortal realm. Later {{spoiler|it's revealed that the writer is none other than the player character, suffering from amnesia after making four out of the five sacrifices needed to release the Exmortis.}}
** ''[[Exmortis]] 2'' features the diary of a farmer who found himself unlucky enough to observe the destruction caused by the Exmortis in the months after they were released, recording the news of initial attacks on isolated communities, the first autopsy of an Exmortis creature, the [[Red Sky, Take Warning|sky turning red]], the assaults on capital cities, the failed [[Nuke
* In one quest in ''[[
** The promotional site for ''Fable II'' also included one of these to explain the fall of the Heroes Guild, covering the journals of an unnamed Hero who survives the fall and then tries to escape extermination at the hands of the anti-Hero mobs. {{spoiler|He even writes a journal entry as he's dying of a gunshot wound with the mob breaking down the door to his house. What a trooper.}}
*** Another chilling example is "Terry Kotter's Army", the area behind the Wraithmarsh Demon Door. Cotter was a shy, young [[
*** Also, the first cave you enter also has three pieces of paper - a journal entry, a letter and a suicide note - written by three dead treasure hunters who grew to mistrust each other and, amusingly, poisoned each other at the same time.
* ''[[Amnesia: The Dark Descent]]'' is basically built upon this trope. The main character, Daniel, wakes up in a castle with, you guessed it,
* ''[[
** Croc's is a close second for most unsettling... his doctor simply can't believe that he's cannibalistic like the rumor's say... well, at the end he escapes... she makes it out unscathed, but the scene she sees... [[An Arm and
* The ''[[Fallout]]'' series is packed with these, most notably [[Evilutionary Biologist|The Master]]'s.
** Probably the best example in ''[[Fallout 3]]'' is in the [[
** The Keller Family Tapes one must collect in order to get the Experimental MIRV in ''
*** [http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Diary_of_Candace_Keller There's a cut tape that provides an epilogue] for the Keller family's saga that can be obtained in the PC version through the console. It was originally meant to be found in the shelter that the other tapes are about trying to get to, and indicates that at the very least Dad and Candace survived. However, Candace complains that her father keeps leaving the shelter and going out into the bombed-out DC ruins to scavenge for useless junk and that everytime he does, he lets a little more radiation in...
** There's also the notes and holotapes from the residents of Vault 92, and the scientists performing experiments on them.
** And then there's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-5hd5DSNsU this] in the Point Lookout DLC.
** ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' has Vault 11. The first thing the player hears when searching is an audio log of three people swearing they can never mention what happened inside, then one of them turning a gun on the other two. Searching the terminals inside, {{spoiler|you slowly piece together that the vault was operating under the assumption that one of theirs had to be sacrificed every so often to keep operations functioning. They tried doing it through elections, at least, until one "candidate's" wife tried extorting favors from others, then killing them when they backed out. After that, it went to a random selection process, until only five people were left and they refused to give anyone up... which, it turned out, they were supposed to do in the first place.}}
** You also find four letters at the Matthews Animal Husbandry Farm, showcasing the mental collapse of the writer who is forced to kill their own parents when they become feral ghouls, then develop the paranoid conviction that the farm animals have become ghouls too. The last note is found in the burnt-out house, as the writer decided to burn themself to death to prevent the ghoul animals from eating them. (How the last note survived the fire is a mystery.)
** The radio signal Oscar Zulu in Fallout 3 consists of a man broadcasting a distress call asking for medicine for his sick son, repeating over and over. {{spoiler|If the player investigates they will find an improvised fallout shelter in a nearby sewer drain, with one room containg the skeletons of a man and woman, and another the still active ham radio. However a child's skeleton cannot be found, leaving the son's fate unknown.}}
* The ''[[Fatal Frame]]'' series of games include text diaries, audio logs and, as appropriate to the genre, ghostly apparitions that record exactly what happened before the whole situation went to hell in a handbasket. Sometimes, the last expression can be taken quite literally...
* ''[[
** The DS remake of ''[[
* In ''[[Grandia (
* In ''[[
* The ''[[Half-Life]]'' mod ''[[They Hunger]]'' has a series of audio logs left by a doctor experimenting on the... [[Not Using the Zed Word|creatures]]. His final recording (which describes his own infection) plays {{spoiler|right before he attacks you}}.
* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' has ''lots.'' Some of the most memorable:
** A journal found in Azuna written by the tauren Paladin Aponi Brightmane details how she and her comrades have fought the Burning Legion for days, only to fail. The final entry claims they've been captured and are about to be dragged through a portal to the Legion's hellish domain. Ultimately A subversion, as she still lives, and can be rescued and recruited.
** In Sumar, a journal left by Arcanist Kel'danath, a Nightfallen mage, details his attempts to find a cure for the Nightfallen's condition. While he came very close to success, the Legion's initial invasion ruined his research, and the last entry suggests he is about to succumb to his addiction and become withered. Which is exactly what happened; when the player actually find him, he is a mindless husk of what he once was, and can only be put out of his misery. However, his work was not in vain, because the player can bring it to the other Nightfallen to continue and improve it, eventually finding an actual cure.
* ''[[Killer7]]'' has as its second-to-last level a high school in Seattle dotted with old style tape-recordings containing the details of a detective's investigation of the murderer and assassin Emir Parkreiner. The tapes become increasingly disturbing, as the facts presented seem bizarre and contradictory (much to the exasperation of the detective). The final tape ends with him mentioning in shock that Emir is standing ''right in front of him'', with his final words cut off by a gunshot.
* Ansem's Reports in ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]''. Especially subtle in the first game, where you only have the odd-numbered logs to begin with, showing Ansem under steadily increasing threat from the Heartless... then you're handed the even-numbered logs in the second-to-last area, {{spoiler|and learn that he ''created'' the things.}}
* ''[[Metroid]] Prime 2'' includes several logs from the doomed Marine crew. The corpses of certain Luminoth warriors (which mark the locations of [[Plot Coupons]] in the Dark World) can also be scanned to get accounts of their deaths (generally concluding with a [[Bolivian Army Ending]]).
Line 392 ⟶ 383:
*** Bryyo is also a variant, as {{spoiler|it details the literally planet-shattering civil war that drives the surviving natives to savagery, ''before'' [[The Corruption]] arrives.}}
*** There's also a message from {{spoiler|the Aurora Unit of the destroyed Valhalla? First you have to activate the message by getting a code from a dead trooper, then you have to listen to its deep voice go on about how it feels the "Darkness Coming..." Add in the effects such as the ship rattling and it just adds to the apocalyptic factor.}}
* Bungie has a long history with this sort of exposition. Their early games ''[[Pathways
** This trope is also invoked to the letter on at least one computer terminal in ''Marathon Infinity''.
{{quote|
** There's also:
{{quote|
Arther Frane calling all USEC personnel. Calling Cmdr. Robert Blake... Calling Security Chief Jones... Arther Frain calling any USEC controlled ship in vicinity... Station hull breached, we are losing pressurization. More than half the men are without vacuum suits. Patrols reporting intruder, last location unknown. Any USEC controlled ship surviving nova event, transport when ready. Arther Frain calling. That is all...
** ''Pathways'' in particular took this even further, as instead of reading the journals lying next to mangled corpses in order to progress, you can use a mysterious artifact to ''talk to them''. Needless to say, most people aren't very talkative after spending twenty or forty years trapped in their corpse as the Horror-spawned monstrosities that killed them shamble by and occasionally nibble on them in the darkness.
** ''[[Halo]] 3'', also by Bungie, includes something similar in the form of the Terminals, which contain reports, memos, and recordings made the Forerunner chronicling their war with the Flood.
** ''[[Halo]]'' first introduces the Flood by way of a video recording from the helmet cam of a (deceased) Marine. If you read the novelisation, though, you find out that the marine who's video the Chief watched wasn't dead at
** ''Halo 3: ODST'' features 30 hidden Audio Logs littered about New Mombasa that reveal a subplot called "Sadie's Story," in which a girl attempts to reach her scientist father during the panic of the Covenant finding Earth. {{spoiler|It's best described as a [[Bittersweet Ending]].}}
** ''Halo CE Anniversary'' also had terminals added, telling backstory to the upcoming ''Halo 4''.
* ''[[Persona 3]]'': The tape left by Yukari's father, and the Old Documents found in Tartarus. Interestingly, the writer of the Old Documents ''survived'' - according to the last one, {{spoiler|she now runs the Antique Store in Paulownia Mall}}.
* ''[[Phantasy Star|Phantasy Star Online]]'' has the character find the logs of Red Ring Rico, a fellow hunter who is always one step ahead of the player. The logs mostly serve as a guide for the levels, enemies, and bosses the player encounters. It's not until the final level that Rico notices all the creepy architecture and realizes something is wrong. The final log found right before the last boss {{spoiler|which Rico unknowingly released, killing her}} was presumably recorded minutes before the player got there. It makes the whole thing a lot more personal than something that was recorded a while ago.
* The original ''[[
** The movie adaptation goes on to use the same trope in describing Mewtwo's origin (see above in Anime and Manga), through a narrating scientist who's almost Lovecraftian in his devotion to finishing his report. "We dreamed of creating the world's strongest Pokémon...and [[Gone Horribly Right|we succeeded]]."
** ''[[Pokémon Colosseum|Pokémon XD]]: Gale of Darkness'' has one during the {{spoiler|Cipher takeover of Phenac City}} when the player goes to the mayor's house, only to find {{spoiler|he's not there. There is a note, however, to Justy on the second floor, which shows his growing concerns over the increasing Cipher presence in Phenac. The letter abruptly ends.}}
*** A subversion also appears in the first [[Pokémon Colosseum]]: Late into the game, Rui's grandfather sends Wes an email, but most of it is cut off, causing Rui to fear that her grandpa may be in trouble. They arrive at Agate Village, and learn that her grandfather's perfectly alright: It was cut off because her grandfather was unfamiliar with current technology. He then supplies Wes with the thing he alluded to in an email: a Master Ball.
* At various points throughout ''[[Portal (
* '''Every''' ''[[Resident Evil]]'' game has these, often including succumbing to [[The Virus]] and committing suicide. Generally, since everyone you meet in the average ''[[Resident Evil]]'' game is dead or crazy, nearly the entire [[Backstory]] of the game series is told through this trope. One obliviously continues writing about how ''itchy'' and ''hungry'' he's become. {{spoiler|After you read the last page, the author bursts out of the closet behind you.}}
*** ''"Itchy...tasty."''
** The remake of the first game for the Gamecube even has one written by one of the ''monsters''. {{spoiler|Lisa Trevor, the daughter of the architect of the Spencer Mansion, and the first test subject of the Mother virus. By the time you face her (and her diary ends) she is essentially a 45 year old woman with the personality of an insane 14 year old, that being the age at which she was infected. The final entries of her diary are broken, incoherent, desperate cries for her mother, whom she had become obsessed with and had murdered several years earlier, believing her to be an imposter and tearing off her face.}}
*** The monster's diary, combined with the letter written by {{spoiler|her mother}} and {{spoiler|her father}}'s journal, makes it a truly heartbreaking [[Tear Jerker]], made even moreso when you hear {{spoiler|her moan "Mo...ther..."}}
** Saving the game requires a typewriter and consumes a typewriter ribbon, meaning the player's save files are an
** ''Resident Evil 4'' is different from the others in that the logs are generally written by your enemies, and usually detail either general orders or what plans they happen to have for you. Nevertheless, there is at least one "Oh crap the protagonist has killed us all" note to be found.
* In the beginning of ''[[
** Later on you'll find one in Mort'ton, a ruined town where the populace has gone mad with a strange affliction. The log tells of the affliction's spread and concludes with the author succumbing and writing gibberish. {{spoiler|The quest in the area deals with using the author's research to develop a cure.}}
** However, easily the most literal use of this trope is during the quest Ritual of the Mahjarrat where you have to go to a ruined plane called Kethsi and, after an extensive puzzle, find a bunker with a log sitting at a desk detailing how {{spoiler|The natives of this plane found the Stone of Jas and, upon using it for a few months, learned rather unfortunately that its use causes creatures known as the Dragonkin to appear and [[Disproportionate Retribution|destroy every living thing on the plane the stone was used on.]]}}
* In ''[[Seiken Densetsu 3]]'', the party stumbles upon the captain's log of a [[Ghost Ship]]. The last page is nothing but "death" (or "die") repeated over and over again, and one party member is cursed to become a ghost soon afterward.
* ''[[
** The other games feature this to an extent, such as the scattered pages near the beginning of 2 (which are basically a tutorial on how to deal with enemies). However, it is often the ''absence'' of explanation as to [[Mind Screw|what on earth is going on that makes things creepier]].
** The final tutorial you find, though, greatly increases the creepiness: it's just the phrase "Run away!" [[Madness Mantra|repeated over and over]].
Line 427 ⟶ 418:
* The infamous "The Cradle" level of ''[[Thief]] 3: Deadly Shadows'' was built around this, allowing a separate (and chilling) diversion from the main story line.
* ''[[Threads of Fate]]'' has a somewhat silly example of this: Mint comes across the remains of a workshop and finds a diary. There are only a few entries, but the second to last one has the magician howling about how incredibly genius he is for hiding the item inside a monster. The final entry has his lamenting his foolishness for doing the same thing, once the monster escapes. Mint's only response the situation: "Moron."
* ''[[
* The ''[[
* The recordings of doctor Grout, the LA Malkavian Primogen, in the madhouse sequence of ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines|Vampire: The Masquerade -- Bloodlines]]''. Hey, he's a Malkavian. They ''all'' go insane.
** There's also less logical examples (Grout wasn't in any direct danger when he wrote his last log) found in the Ocean House Hotel and the LA sewers, with people even writing down "aaaaah!" ''while they were being assaulted''.
*** The Ocean House Hotel is a terrible offender, where a woman's diary describes how during their stay her husband was basically acting out ''[[The Shining]]''. It ends with an entry where she wrote down that her son seemed to be knocking on her door (who writes that in their diary?), then the woman apparently went to open the door, found her husband who just murdered their son, and then WENT BACK to write so panickly in her diary before being murdered herself.
* The generally weird ''You Are Empty'' had a level set in an abandoned farm. Along the way you'd see written notes from the former owners indicating that the chickens were growing strangely quick, and that something was wrong with them. Sure enough, near the end of the level, you have to fight van-sized chickens.
* Both ''[[Penumbra (
* The logs of the Republic ship ''Harbinger'' from ''[[Knights of the Old Republic (
** As well as the entire Peragus level before it, containing holographic recordings of the crew being systematically killed off by an assassin droid turning the station's automated systems against them.
*** "Mocking Query: Coorta? Coorta, are you dead yet?"
* In ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'', whilst out on a particular quest on Kashyyyk, you find the corpses of several
{{quote|
** ''KOTOR'' enjoys this trope quite a bit. ''KOTOR 1'' let you find the journals of a Terentatek hunting party, each written shortly before the final fights of their owners, each written in a manner that suggests doom. At least one Sith student heading into a tomb left a datapad on how he or she was going to get around the traps and monsters left in there. A party going after a malfunctioning assassination droid with oversensitive hearing and using stealth belts takes a moment to log this and note with irritation that one of their number is clumsy. ''KOTOR 2'' had these in multiple places, from the holorecordings on Peragus to the journal left inside the Jekk' Jekk Tarr's ventilation system...It's hard to find a planet that doesn't have one of these.
*** Malachor V. Unfortunately, this only serves as a stunning reminder that the entire planet and everybody on or around it were obliterated too fast for even The Force to catch up, so maybe it doesn't much count.
*** Not to mention a reminder that level is no where near finished.
* The tradition of dying words holograms continues in [[Star
* ''[[Mass Effect]]'' has a few of these. In one case, the party boards a spaceship that is seemingly abandoned besides one brain-dead man on life support. It eventually becomes clear that the comatose man's lover, a powerful biotic, was violently opposed to his being taken off life support. Logs left by the captain and the ship's doctor reference her declining mental state, and it's fairly obvious that she eventually killed all the other passengers. {{spoiler|If you turn off the man's life support, she will appear behind you and attack.}}
** And then there's Ilos, where you can hear recordings from the Protheans {{spoiler|as they try to get the word out about the Reapers in the vain hope of fighting them off.}} The fact that the recording is slightly garbled doesn't help.
{{quote|
** The second game lives on this trope; nearly every mission or sidequest includes, at a minimum, a datapad or two documenting events in the process of going horribly wrong. Notable examples include the excavation site with the datapad reading, "If you're reading this, GET OUT RIGHT NOW," the {{spoiler|logs of the quarian scientists on the ''Alarei'' (including [[Tear Jerker|Rael'Zorah's last message to Tali]])}}, and {{spoiler|1=the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1APcaqh0jJs logs of the Cerberus team] studying the derelict Reaper, which depict the horrific course of reaper indoctrination, even though the reaper is supposed to be dead.}}
{{quote|
** That last has one log that stands out, at first seeming more banal and harmless than the others. Someone talking about his wife Katy's anger management issues. The other exclaims that Katy is ''his'' wife, he must have told the first the story. He hadn't. They wonder how the hell they can remember the same thing. In context, you can see that this is part of the [[Loss of Identity]] and indoctrination they're going through.
** Part [[Video Game]] and part [[Web Original]], in the days and hours leading up to the release of [[Mass Effect 3]], the Twitter account [https://twitter.com/#!/AllianceNewsNet Alliance News Network], [[Audience Participation|along with hundreds of fans]], performed a flawless viral ad campaign, releasing tweets in real time of the [[Eldritch Abomination|Reaper]] "invasion" of Earth, not unlike the radio show [[War of the Worlds]].
* ''[[Notrium]]'' has you the player writing a log each day you're trapped on the planet for any who find your corpse, it can very easily turn apocalyptic after you've been on the planet awhile and succumb to one of the many ways of dying.
* ''[[The
* ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]]'' Storm of Zehir has an example of this in the wizard tower "Tempest's Fury". In this tower, they were experimenting on a djinn. Then the obvious happens, as it does with most [[Turned Against Their Masters|unpleasant experiments on extremely powerful entities.]] You can find a journal in one of the rooms, of which the last two entries are "I'm certain the wards on my room can keep him out," and, presumably moments before being obliterated, "I was wrong about the wards."
* [[Ben Croshaw|Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw]] adores these. Episode 1 of ''1213'' includes a document of the days before an orderly's demise at the hands of the {{spoiler|mutants}}, ending with said orderly holding his pistol to his head, ready to fire. In Trilby's Notes, the third installment of the ''[[Chzo Mythos]]'', diaries are found belonging to a dead traveler, telling of the death of his wife and his own slow loss of sanity, concluding with the series' [[Arc Words]]: {{spoiler|it hurts}}. Not forgetting the tie-in fiction, ''The Expedition'', charting a journey in the Mythos [[Dark World]], {{spoiler|with repeated [[Arc Words]] at the end, signifying the narrator's continuing terrible, painful existence.}}
** Additionally, if Trilby dies during ''Notes'', you are treated to a brief note stating that these were the last words written in a notebook found in the wrecked hotel (as Trilby was himself keeping a log during the game).
* In ''[[
* Sierra's ''[[Space Quest]] V: The Next Mutation'' has this as Roger Wilco pokes around in Genetix, finding around what causes the [[Body Horror]] disease he has been witness of, explained in the scientist logs. Pretty chilling when combined to the creepy background music, and when you realize they dumped this vicious mutagen where they could dispose of it, by bribing high-ranking [[Star Con]] officers.
** A Second example is on ''Klorox II'', where Roger digs up the doomed colonist's log. A third is in ''Space Quest 4'', where Dr. Lloyd is describing the destruction the Vohaul-possessed supercomputer has done to Roger's homeworld. For a comedy series, ''[[Space Quest]]'' was nasty about inducing [[Fridge Horror]].
** In another Sierra game, ''[[Quest for Glory IV]]'', the hero will find, in the adventurer's guild, the story in the logbook written by a paladin called Piotyr of how he attempted to defeat the [[Eldritch Abomination|Dark One]] and ended up dead, and how the mage Erana tried to seal it away and was trapped with it for eternity.
* The journal collecting missions in ''[[
* Alric's journals in ''[[
* In ''[[Second Sight]],'' while searching the abandoned village of Dubrensk, John Vattic finds a diary belonging to one of the dead villagers- apparently the mother or father of one of the psychic children being experimented on nearby. As the writer refused to leave the village when {{spoiler|Director Hanson's}} mercenaries invaded, it's safe to assume that he or she was murdered some time after writing it.
** Also, scattered throughout the Zener facility under Dubrensk are notes on the various children that were held in the facility: almost all of them ended up horribly deformed by their medication.
* ''[[Resistance]] 2'' has a live version of this: At various points in the game, you can listen to live radio broadcasts delivered by Henry Stillman from the [[Zombie Apocalypse|overrun]] city of Philadelphia. After running out of food and booze, his last broadcast ends with: "I think I'll go for a walk."
* ''[[
* In the fifth chapter of ''[[Eternal Darkness]]'', Max Roivas picks up three notes from his father, each more distressed than the last.
** Four if you count the envelope with the key. There's also Brother Andrew's diary entries in Paul's chapter and Private Jackson's letters in Peter's chapter.
* Either subverted or mis-handled in the casual game ''Mystery Case Files: Dire Grove'', in which you collect videotapes from some graduate students'
* You find one right near the end in ''[[The Spirit Engine 2]]'', attempting to [[Fling a Light Into
* Bones are scattered throughout the Crystal Desert in ''[[Guild Wars]]''. Examining some of them lets you read the last written entries by the person when they were alive. The desert really, ''really'' sucks, by the way....
* A quest related diary in ''[[Tibia]]'' ends like this:
{{quote|
<from here on, all of the pages have been torn out, only the last page remains:
[[Came Back Wrong|THE FIRST DAY OF ETERNITY I CAN SEE NOW. FOOLS. ALL OF YOU. HAHAHAHAHA.]] }}
* The Dorfs of ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'' will often make artworks depicting significant events in the fortress. "Significant events" usually means "terrible, bloody violence": "On the item is a finely-designed image of a goblin and dwarves in pink tourmaline. The dwarves are dead. The goblin is laughing."
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* The first ''Descent: [[Free Space]]'' game has the main plot hinge on one of these. The log itself is shown throught the player in segments during cutscenes, and documented the rise of an empire, their conquest of hundreds of star systems, their contact with a powerful new race, and ends just before their destruction by the [[Omnicidal Maniac|Shivans]], thousands of years before the game starts. Bonus points for being the last recording not just of an individual, or a group, but an entire species. The last message, which is found by the player's side of the war late in the game, is the key to the survival of the human and Vasudan race.
** {{spoiler|There is little left for us. Little time. But much irony. The galactic destroyers that darkened out skies are not invulnerable. The can be stopped, but we have no way to deliver the blow. This, then, will be our legacy. In subspace, they cannot use their shields. And into subspace, they can be tracked.}}
* ''[[Doom]] 3'' and ''Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil'' both have a few PDA's in them with this. Most of the PDA's are members of the task force complaining about security problems, other members, or the occasional [[Things That Go Bump in
* At least one of the ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' games does this, detailing {{spoiler|Shou Tucker}} cracking under the pressure of having to create
* In the ''[[
* The Steam game ''Alien Swarm'' has a number of
* Professor Windlenot's tape recorder in ''[[Shivers]]'' plays back an audio journal in which he discovers the [[Sealed Evil in
** Both of the two kids (who unwittingly released the Ixupi) leave behind notes too. The boy's notebook is instructive and helpful at first, but end in panicked scribbles about having to find some place to hide. Do some poking around near where you find it, and you'll find... his dessicated corpse, curled up inside one of the displays. Hiding didn't help, evidently.
* Parodied in the ''[[
* The summer camp in ''[[Psychonauts]]'' has a history of the area display, complete with gradual decent into madness of the entire town. The display is matched with the rings of an ancient tree, making it a literal Apocalyptic Log.
* One of the secret Reports in ''[[Dissidia]] 012 Duodecim Final Fantasy'' is written by a {{spoiler|Lufenian}} scientist. It's a log of the events happening around his lab in {{spoiler|Cardia}}, including a few things about {{spoiler|Garland}}'s growth and {{spoiler|Cosmos}}. When disaster strikes, his final log is this:
{{quote|
Lab is on fire as I write this. But I'm not letting go of these documents. This will be my final stand.
Sucks to know you're going to die. }}
* ''[[
** One of them is the Book of Mazarbul from the original saga, which you actually get to write the final entry in during the "We Cannot Get Out" session play in Moria.
** In an early quest, you are tasked with recovering the journal of a dead Dwarf outside a cave filled to the brim with spiders. Piecing together the pages reveals an Apocalyptic Log that ends with the Dwarf preparing to take the battle to the spiders to keep himself from being used as bait for his cousin, a spider-slayer who has passed his prime.
* There are a quite a few of these in ''[[Skyrim]]''. One example can be found in Japhot's Folly. Japhot's journal chronicles his ill-fated attempt to start a settlement on the inhospitable hellhole of an island. Even when the rest of the settlers went [[Screw This, I'm Outta Here]], he stubbornly refused to leave. He was eventually reduced to eating ice-moss before starving to death. The journal is found in a a small locked room with Japhot's dessicated body. The final entry in the journal?
{{quote|
* In the original 1992 ''[[Alone in
* Every dungeon in ''[[Tales of Maj
* The True Laboratory sequence in ''[[Undertale]]'' give us two of these:
** The logs in the computer screen tell us the story of an experiment Alphys did: {{Spoiler|Alphys intended to investigate how human Determination worked and if it was possible to use it to empower monsters, so she injected determination extracted from human souls on dying monsters and on inanimate flowers in increasing doses, with increasing desperation. The monsters then appeared to having recovered, only to completely collapse and become ungodly abominations just the day before their intended release. Oh, and one of her flowers injected with determination mysteriously disappeared in the middle of the chaos...}}. One screen has also an alternate log, obtainable only by poking in the game code, {{Spoiler|implied to be the last thing wrote by unpersoned scientist W.D. Gaster before he booted himself out of reality}}.
** The tapes in the resting room tell the story of the death of the children of the Underworld kingdom. {{Spoiler|More exactly, how the human Fallen Child convinced his adoptive monster brother Asriel to enact a plan which involved the death of the Child via ingesting poisonous flowers and Asriel absorbing his soul and how Asriel reluctantly agreed to it.}}
* The ''Clannad'' visual novel, ''Kotomi's route'', her parents left her a testimony and a teddy bear in a briefcase despite of many important scientific files are being contained in it, and they wrote the testimony ''during'' a horrible airplane crash. A powerful [[Tear Jerker]] indeed.
* {{spoiler|Professor Imagawa}} in ''[[YU-NO|Yu No]]'' left one of these to chronicle her last days after becoming trapped underground. While she eventually discovered the way out, she grew too weak to actually take that method of escape and instead wrote down how to do it. Unfortunately, the solution is no longer at her body because Takuya wasn't the first one to find her, so he has to figure it out himself.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* In Warren Ellis's ''[[Superidol]]'', a pop culture writer describes a computer-generated [[Idol Singer]]'s [[The Virus|viral]] takeover of the world.
* In ''[[
*** [[Alternate Character Interpretation|Or he just made it up, writing a story in the hopes it would be published should someone find it.]] After all, what's a better way to kill time when you're trapped?
** Later, when they travel to the sunken Sea Shrine in a submarine which is ''really'' their aptly-named airship "The Deathtrap", Black Mage falls into a spoken version. After he tells you of his team's decent into madness, Red Mage tries to tell him it's only been a few hours since they started the journey. Black Mage keeps narrating with something to the effect of "I ignored the gibberish which sprouted from my former teammates misshapen lips". Apparently he really likes doing this. Or he just [[Omnicidal Maniac|wants to see them all dead. As usual.]]
* [[Lampshaded]] and parodied in the first KITTEN arc of ''[[
* [http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=005260 This memo] from ''[[
** [http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=004443 This one] as well, when Sollux starts talking.
** ==>[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=002104 TT: The walkthroughs vaguely suggest an impending threat before they end. The already poorly constructed sentences become even more curt and ambiguous. As if written hastily and with a sense of alarm. Actually, their dedication to updating the walkthrough under such circumstances is admirable.]
* ''[[The Unspeakable Vault of Doom]]'' [http://www.goominet.com/unspeakable-vault/vault/361/ explains] why apocalyptic logs are more and more detailed these days.
* [http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=69 This strip from] ''[[
== [[Web Original]] ==
* In ''[[
* There's a web-only story which isn't an apocalypse log, but a diary found in a life raft out at sea. The sole survivor of a shipwreck saw dolphins around her all the time and believed that she was turning into one; the last entry is more or less a heavily misspelled variant of "Flippers are useless. Fuck it, I'm going into the water."
* Numerous ''[[
** From the Spanish branch, [http://lafundacionscp.wikidot.com/scp-es-019 SCP-ES-019] is an MP3/radio headphones whose radio can tune to transmissions of several (and quite disturbing) sceneries of human extinction. Listening directly to those, however, causes in the listener effects varying from knowing how the disaster could have been avoided, to related PSTD as if they lived thorough the disaster, to directly exhibiting symptoms of what wiped people in first place.
* ''[http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Journal_of_Kith The Journal of Kith]'' chronicles one dwarf's ill-fated quest to re-discover [[Dwarf Fortress|the ruins of an (in)famous dwarven fortress]] -- [[Boatmurdered]].
* It is very common in ''[[The Slender Man Mythos]]'' for the stories to be told in an
** ''[[Everyman HYBRID]]'' has Doctor Corenthal's reports, which are left in bags for viewers to find. {{spoiler|The weirdest part is that the three patients he mentions have the same names as the main characters, despite the reports supposedly being written in the 1970s.}}
** The journal that set ''[[My Name Is Zytherys]]'' in motion seems to be one... though it's filling itself out [[Tome of Eldritch Lore|independently]] with the title character's own handwriting.
* [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1732348/regex-match-open-tags-except-xhtml-self-contained-tags/1732454#1732454 A web programmer who has seen too much reports back from the abyss]. Also a [[Crowning Moment of Funny]].
* Several notes in ''[[
* The Alternate Reality Game "[[
* The [http://www.somethingawful.com/d/news/that-insidious-letter.php "Active Area"] entry in the [https://web.archive.org/web/20130618033430/http://www.somethingawful.com/series/30.php "That Insidious Beast"] series from Something Awful. It's written by an everyman rather than a scientist, but it does describe unspeakable horrors and it also ends {{spoiler|with his suicide}}.
* [
* "[[Zalgo]]": H̬̬̯̺̠͈̥͎̓̾̇ͦ͑ͣ́̚͢e̛͉̺͂ͦ̋ͬ͂̕ ̛̥͎̮̤͓̭͍̂͡ͅc̴̰͎͖ͮ͊́o̴͈͕̙̬̟͔̣̤̤͑͌̂͐̈̍̉ͩm̝͔̗̖̥͎͇͗̽ͪ͢͠e̝̩ͦ͆́̂͆͐̉͠͝͝s͎̮̈́̿̓͑́́͒͊͢͝
* [[Sevenshot Kid]] has gone this way not once, but twice.
* Right-wing [[You Tuber]] Nightvisionphantom made an "If Obama Wins" video during the 2008 election (needless to say, it was quietly removed afterwards), in which he claims to be the last surviving member of a resistance who fought a losing battle against the Islamofascist hordes that Obama unleashed upon the world.
* The [[ARG]] viral campaign for the Nine Inch Nails album ''Year Zero'' is a wide collection of barely decypherable websites That describe a [[Crapsack World]]. These websites are sent from the future by a team of computer programmers and quantum physicists as a warning to those of us living in the time of the events triggered their circumstances. Bonus points for one entry written by a White House aide describing the monster sent to allow the Earth to... shall we say, [[Kill
* [[Played for Laughs]](?) [http://failbook.failblog.org/2011/12/31/funny-facebook-fails-failbooks-best-of-2011-countdown-5/#more-54271 here].
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[Code Lyoko]]'' features a rather unique and disturbing take on this trope, as Franz Hopper (a.k.a. Waldo Schaeffer), the creator of [[Cyberspace|Lyoko]], uses the supercomputer's "Return to the Past" function to create a [[Groundhog Day Loop]], while preserving a video file of his attempts to avert his and Aelita's impending abduction by government agents during that looped day. By the time the entry for "day 1000" rolls around, his sanity seems to be hanging by a thread (and there are still a thousand more entries to go). Meanwhile, as far as his daughter and the outside world are concerned, no time has actually passed at all.
* [[Memetic Mutation]] has turned [[Candle Jack]] from ''[[Freakazoid!]]'' into a perpetual generator of exam
* In ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' episode "King of the Hill", Grandpa tries to talk Homer out of climbing the Murderhorn, telling him how, in 1928, he was nearly killed when he and his partner C.W. McAllister tried to climb it, only for McAllister to betray him, steal all the supplies, and shove him off the mountain, then continue on his own. Later, when Homer is making his own attempt and is too tired to go further, he finds McAllister's frozen body and Apocalyptic Log, detailing a very different story: Abe had been the betrayer, and had even tried to eat McAllister's arm after stealing the supplies. Presumably, McAllister shoving Abe off the mountain had been self-defense, but he could only crawl into a nearby cave where he likely died of altitude sickness after writing the last entry of the log. The last sentence was, "Tell my beloved wife that my last thoughts were of her... blinding and torturing Abe Simpson. Cheerio.”
* In an episode of ''[[Futurama]]'', the Planet Express team, on their way to the hive of giant space bees, aka "deadly, deadly bees," on a quest to gather space honey, discover the wrecked ship of their predecessors, who were killed whilst undertaking the same mission. They discover the black box recording, which recorded a conversation between a nervous underling suggesting they turn back because it's too dangerous, and the over-confident captain insisting they press on to glory. And then recorded the sounds of their horrible, horrible deaths moments later. Leela, who has been taking the role of "over-confident captain" in the current team's efforts, is particularly keen to pretend they never found it.
* ''[[Jonny Quest]]'' Classic episodes "The Invisible Monster" (Isaiah Norman's notebook) and "The Sea Haunt" (the ship captain's log).
* Seen in the multipart episode "Notes From The Underground" in the 2003 ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003
* A classic ''[[Space Ghost]]'' episode, "The Energy Monster", features a posthumous recording by the scientist who created it.
* Done in Disney's ''[[Tarzan]]'' series by a character who actually lived, but thought he was going to die and didn't get to finish his entry. Didn't help when he said that the item that he (falsely) believed would solve the problem plaguing the jungle was "hidden inside the p-", leaving Tarzan and Jane to run around the hut exploring every item they could find beginning with "P" (it was the phonograph machine, for the record.)
* ''[[Star Trek:
* ''[[
* In ''[[Batman:
* ''[[The Amazing World of Gumball]]'' episode The Joy is a parody of a zombie apocalypse. With Miss Simian playing the role of the protagonist, she has a video camera that she uses for this trope.
== [[Real Life]] ==
* David A. Johnston: [[wikipedia:David A. Johnston|"Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!"]]
* Vince Coleman: [[wikipedia:Vince Coleman (train dispatcher)|"Stop trains. Munitions ship on fire. Approaching Pier 6. Goodbye."]]
* The ''RMS Titanic'': [[wikipedia:RMS Titanic|"We are sinking fast...women and children in boats. We cannot last much longer."]]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viCAX8WupTY "They are piling dead and wounded in our tunnel. Arm's weak from pounding key, long hours, no rest, short rations, tired. I know how a mouse feels. Caught in a trap waiting for guys to come along and finish it up."]
* Scott's diary from the 1912 [
{{quote|
It seems a pity but I do not think I can write more.
Robert.
[Scrawled]
Last entry. ''For God's sake look after our people'' }}
* The onboard video camera was recovered from the wreckage of Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' after the disaster and the last few minutes were played, although it stopped before the actual disintigration.
* There are a number of appropriately awful accounts from the Submarine world, notably the brief log kept by the survivors of [
* And so forth. Real life examples aren't going to detail an apocalyptic horror, or anything, but will definitely qualify in the "desperation and insanity grow from entry to entry" sense.
** And even in cases where the witnesses weren't part of those who died, records of traumatic events still capture moments in history with terrifying clarity: the [[Zapruder film]] of JFK being shot, the radio dispatch of the Hindenberg crash, the morning of 9/11/2001...
* ''Any'' detailed, candid diary writing by a person in the grips of depression or similar can read like one of these. Things are going great, then one starts going downhill...
** For example, the last words Kenneth Williams wrote in his diary before his apparent suicide were, [[Tear Jerker|"What's the bloody point?"]]
* [[The Diary of a Young Girl
* A heroic example from September 11 is Todd Beamer, who used an on-plane telephone to recount what had happened on United Flight 93 and a plan to take back control of the plane: "[[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|Are you guys ready?]] [[Tear Jerker|Let's roll]]."
** Less 'heroic', but far more fitting with this trope is [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTMF6k3c3q4 Kevin Cosgrove's last phone call] from an upper floor in the south tower of the World Trade Center. As he describes the situation, he suddenly shouts, "''Oh, '''God!'''''" and screams as the building collapses around him.
* Less known is the 1349 [https://web.archive.org/web/20130210010842/http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/ashorthistory/archive/topic38.shtml report of the Black Death]:
{{quote|
(in another hand) Here it seems the author died. }}
* This is sort of the whole reason they have black boxes on airplanes. The CVR, or Cockpit Voice Recorder, records everything said in the cockpit and over the radio on an aircraft.
{{quote|
ATC - you think so? ok let's head for LA.
ALA 261 - [thump]
ATC - yo feel that?
ALA 261 - yea.
ALA 261 - ok gimme sl-- see, this is a bitch.
ATC - is it?
ALA 261 - yea.
ALA 261 - [[Kinetic Clicking|2 clicks, then a extremely loud noise 1 sec later]]
ALA 261 - [upside down and falling fast] [[Distress Call|Mayday]] }}
** The most common last word on black box recordings is "Shit" (or its equivalent in the pilot's native language). This is rendered as "Unintelligible" when said recordings are broadcast on the news.
* Christopher
* The last speech that Jim Jones gave to the residents of Jonestown was recorded for posterity. In it, you can hear him direct the older members of the community to help the younger children, and for them to "not worry about the children's crying; [the punch] is just a little bitter. It's not painful." Makes for some [http://www.archive.org/details/ptc1978-11-18.flac16 chilling night time listening.]
** [https://web.archive.org/web/20120708232603/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/JTResearch/eRollerJournals/ The Edith Roller journals.] A former college professor, she kept a detailed log of her daily life in America and Jonestown. She never came home.
* After the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004, a tourist victim's camera was recovered with the memory card still readable. Photos of the wave were published, one of them shot just a few seconds before the guy was pulled under.
* Even the "scientist records his last thoughts, scientifically" variant has occurred; Allan Blair, the scientist credited with proving black widow spider bites are dangerous to humans, took a rather direct route, as recounted in Gordon Grice's "The Red Hourglass." The guy continued writing notes until the pain proved too much; then he had an assistant continue taking notes. Fortunately, though he proved spiders can be dangerous, he did manage to survive the bite.
Line 595 ⟶ 583:
* While it doesn't work 100%, it's still an interesting type of this. In Aokigahara, a forest in Japan famous for the amount of suicides that have taken place there, photos have been taken of trash and items strewn around where the bodies were found. There are things like shoes, hair brushes, papers, glasses, and much, much more. If you were to look through it, it would probably give you a great deal of information about the person and what was going on in their lives before they ultimately ended themselves.
* On a lighter note: [http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/jun/23/wimbledon-2010-tennis-live Xan Brooks of the Guardian liveblogs the Isner-Mahut match at Wimbledon].
{{quote|
** The blog reached full-on [[Zombie Apocalypse]] proportions in a couple of places.
* An episode of ''I Shouldn't Be Alive'' recalled the story of two campers, hopelessly lost in the woods, stumbling upon the abandoned campsite of a more experienced climber. Among his belongings, there was a detailed journal recording the climber's attempts to get out of the valley, and his dwindling food supply. {{spoiler|They later found his body.}}
* A [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eejQPUyeNiY recorded footage] of a diver who had a diving accident and died, the video shows how he goes in the water, starts diving just as he normally would, but things starts to go wrong when the diver begins sinking and cannot react. The video basically records the process along with the reaction of people watching it. Be warned, the footage is rather disturbing...
* On a lighter note, some [[Let's Play]] footage also sound like apocalyptic logs, especially those of [[Nintendo Hard]] Rom Hacks. (See, for example, [[
{{quote|
* There is an [[Urban Legend]] of a man detailed his agony of being [[Locked in
* The events that the film ''Lost Signal'' are based on.
* The Balibo Five - a group of TV reporters from Australia and New Zealand who travelled to East Timor in 1975, shortly before the Indonesian military seized control of the territory. Three days before he was killed - suspected to be the work of Indonesian militants - one of the reporters, Greg Shackleton, recorded a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojS0B2WRS3o film newsreel] about the local villagers and their impending plight in the face of military aggression.
* [[American Civil War|"June 3rd 1864, Cold Harbor Virginia, I was killed." The final entry of a Massachusetts volunteer in the Army of The Potomac.]]
* The [
{{quote|
* [[Ulysses S. Grant]] completed his autobiography five days before succumbing to throat cancer. His notes concerning the progress of his cancer were reportedly required reading in medical schools for many years.
* During the shooting at Columbine High School a library phone line was left open by a teacher who called 911 before the shooters entrance forced her to leave the phone to go hide. The open line caught and recorded the sounds of students being killed and injured, the dialog of the shooters to their victims and each other, and after the shooters leave the surviving students being told to quickly flee out a nearby door then dead air.
----
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Fictional Document]]
[[Category:Madness Tropes]]
[[Category:Cosmic Horror
[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
[[Category:Information Desk]]
[[Category:Horror Tropes]]
[[Category:Apocalyptic
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