Death World: Difference between revisions

* Morganthus in [[Roger Corman|Roger Corman's]] ''[[Galaxy of Terror]]''.

* The Fire Swamp in the book and film ''[[The Princess Bride (film)|The Princess Bride]]'', featuring spontaneous bursts of fire, Lightning Sand, and the [[Rodent of Unusual Size|R.O.U.S.]]

'' '''Buttercup's''' expression makes it clear that in her opinion her true love is stark staring mad.'' }}

* The jungle inside the board game in ''[[Jumanji]]'', down to the plants.

* ''[[Star Wars]]'': Yoda's chosen refuge of Dagobah is nobody's idea of a vacation destination (at least nobody who isn't a Jedi Master). Then there's Tatooine and Hoth... According to several Expanded Universe sources, Felucia is no walk in the park either.

* Outworld in ''[[Mortal Kombat (film)|Mortal Kombat]]'' certainly applies.

* Subverted and pretty much parodied in the movie version of [[Tank Girl]].

* The 'game preserve' in [[Predators]] is a jungle Death World full of lethal imported flora and fauna. And then, of course, there's [[Hunting the Most Dangerous Game|the Predators themselves]].

* The film ''[[Signs]]'' features one of the most dangerous death worlds in existence. 60% of the surface is covered by a fatal, skin-dissolving acidic liquid that also permeates the atmosphere, frequently falling from its skies like rain. All the local flora and fauna are suffused with the acid, with the crowning example being a sentient apex predator that bleeds, spits and excretes the substance through the skin through physical activity. {{spoiler|For those of you who haven't seen the film, the substance is water and the planet in question is Earth. It's not a death world to ''us'', obviously, but [[Weaksauce Weakness|the alien invaders were another matter]].}}

* The dinosaur-filled islands in the ''[[Jurassic Park]]'' movies ([[The Film of the Book|and books]]) which are even known to Costa Rican locals as "Las Cinco Muertes" (the five deaths). We only get to see Isla Nublar and Isla Sorna though. From ''Jurassic Park III'':

** ''Face of the Waters'' takes place on an aquatic example. The entire planet is water and a few floating "islands" of coral, inhabited by invincible rammerfish, mouths that can swallow islands whole, orifice-invading eels, and worse. The only actual land is the Face of the Waters, a hunk of bare psychic-radioactive rock that possesses whoever comes near it. The humans face all this with Bronze Age level technology, since there's no metal or trade on the planet.

** This trope could have been '''very easily''' instead named ''Planet Of Death'', after his 1960 novel. With such wonderful things upon the 'Let me eat you first' carnivorous flora-covered landscape like quicksand-like pits that are actually incredibly intense forms of acid and razor-toothed, flesh-eating birds, this is a place where ''literally everything that you see'' has one thought on its mind: '''it wants to eat you.'''. [[More Dakka|After the heavily-armed explorers]] are wiped out to all but the last two men, they have the following conversation before they get the hell outta there:

'''Man #2: [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|"That's easy. We just call it the 'Planet Of Death'."]] ''' }}

* While technically not a Death World per se, Henders Island from ''Fragment'' fits this trope so beautifully it just has to be included. The entire island's ecology is a vast biological orgy of violence made up of a mix of killer mantis shrimp on steroids and acid excreting Ediacaran fauna. The average survival time for a non-native creature on the island? Two minutes. ''Everything'' eats '''everything'''. Even tiger-sized creatures are regularly eaten and killed by swarms of badger, rat, and wasp-like creatures. Cannibalism is rampant. Even the "trees", which mostly turn out to be giant killer mantis shrimps as well, want to suck your blood. And they have [[Vagina Dentata|vertical biting mouths]]. This fauna is so good at killing that even single celled organisms not native to the island cannot survive here. In fact, there are only two species on the island that won't kill you in horrible, nasty ways the moment they see you. And one of those two can still kill you if you tick them off enough.

** ''[[Eberron]]'' has a lot. First there's Khyber, its underdark [[Follow the Leader|stand-in]]. Then there are certain planes of existence (Xoriat, the plane of madness, Shavarrath the Battlefield, Mabar, the plane of death, etc...) and some evocatively named regions of the mortal world: the Shadow Marshes, the Mournland, Frostfell, the jungle continent of Xen'drik & the Demon Wastes.

** ''[[Dark Sun]]'''s Athas, a world rendered barren by [[Green Aesop|overuse of magic]], which in ''D&D'' 2nd Ed. had you starting at level 3 so you weren't killed the first time you stepped outside. As ''Yamara'' [http://www.yamara.com/yamaraclassic/index.php?date=2006-02-23 put it]--

No, before its ''[[Planet Eater|entire planetary mass]]'' is eaten by inhabitants. }}

** In basic ''D&D'' cosmology, there's Negative Energy plane, which starts ''draining'' your life energy the minute you step in. Then there's the Positive Energy plane, which fills you with so much life energy ''you soon explode''. The elemental planes of Fire and Earth have an atmosphere is solid earth.

** The Lower Planes. Besides the infestation of devils, demons, and other nasty things, 3.5 makes them quite literal death worlds. In several senses. The Abyss' colloquial description is "Too horrible for conventional wisdom to comprehend" (one of the random things you can encounter on its infinite layers is an ''ocean of insects'', for example), and the Nine Hells of Baator are all actively trying to kill you in some way shape or form:

'''Dis''': Superheated environment meets government that makes [[Nineteen Eighty-Four|1984]] look like happy flower hippies. <br />

'''Minauros''': Acid swamp perpetually absorbing the structures built on it, largely a wilderness in which giant [[Eldritch Abomination|things]] lurk which the ''devils'' are afraid of. <br />

*** Naya, the green-centred shard, also qualifies. At first glance it may seem less threatening than Grixis or Jund, assuming your first glance happened to miss the ''50 foot tall monsters walking around the place''. Fortunately, they're prone to missing you too--just don't get stepped on. And don't offend the natives, who worship them. And also watch out for the plants, who have to fend off the herbivorous behemoths. And...

** The recent plane Zendikar is shaping up, too. Zendikar is a world where D&D-style adventuring isn't the path to wealth and glory, but survival. Full of ancient ruins filled with booby traps, with variable gravity, the land itself alive and cranky, and a chaotic force called the Roil ripping through and randomizing the landscape...well, let's put it this way: the largest center of civilization on the whole plane is a city of vampires.

*** And then the [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldrazi]] [[It Got Worse|returned]]. Which isn't necessarily a catastrophe, [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=193658 as long as you've lived a fulfilling and complete life without regrets].

** The plane of Rath, an artificial plane created by Yawgmoth (yes, that's the same guy who runs Phyrexia) as a forward base for attacking the plane of Dominaria. The entire plane is made of "flowstone", a semi-intelligent rocklike material that can be commanded to take any shape or form. It contains such lovely locations as the Death Pits of Rath, the Furnace of Rath, and the City of Traitors. It is also (probably) the original home of the slivers, a species of vicious, predatory, vaguely insectoid creatures with a hive mind that not only allows them to share thoughts, but also ''physical traits''. Any sliver born with a new mutation quickly passes that trait onto the rest of the hive, and this rapid adaptability makes them a deadly menace to most other forms of life. When the invasion came, the plane of Rath "overlaid" itself on the central plane of Dominaria, ceasing to be a distinct plane and unleashing its myriad horrors on Dominaria. (The stronghold, however, overlaid on a volacno; the slivers, in the bowels of the fortress, were cooked alive. As it turned out, though, extinction only delayed their threat.)

** There's there's one comic (based on an alternate future to the [[Transformers Film Series|live-action movies]]) where Unicron makes Cybertron itself his new body.

* ''[[Invader Zim]]'' makes an offhand reference to such a place:

'''Almighty Red:''' Or one of those exploding head planets. }}

** There's also Hobo 13, the military training planet. It's a barren wasteland inhabited by deadly predators and covered all sorts of other hazards. The Tallest send Zim there to get rid of him and immediately open a betting pool on how long he'll survive.