Doomsday Device: Difference between revisions
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== Literature == |
== Literature == |
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* [[Frank Herbert]] used such plots now and then, both in the form of superweapons and plots to send a [[Terminally Dependent Society]] crashing; he also paid attention to why it's supposed to be a serious threat at all: |
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** ''[[Con Sentiency|Whipping Star]]'' had it done by a lunatic who hoped to survive the mayhem (but turned out to be even more terminally dependent in the end). |
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** ''[[Dune]]'' has Paul's hold on spice work not just as a plain threat, but because the key targets among those he intimidated were precognitives, who he knew kept seeing only a wall of discontinuity and as such already were quite terrified. |
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** ''Hellstrom's Hive'' had those issuing the ultimatum specifically note (in the inner circle) that an absolute threat, due to its [[Taking You with Me|suicidal]] nature, ''at best'' only creates a stalemate allowing to win time for some better leverage. |
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* A short story by Edmund Cooper has teams of American, Russian and British scientists all building incredibly elaborate Doomsday Devices that will destroy the world completely if anyone tries to use nuclear weapons or invade their countries at all. This ends up causing world peace; in a subversion {{spoiler|the scientists reveal to each other at the end that none of the machines actually work, but are just impressive collections of cables, strange chrome things and flashing lights, with the exception of the Russian doomsday device, which will blow up anyone who tries to use it.}}. |
* A short story by Edmund Cooper has teams of American, Russian and British scientists all building incredibly elaborate Doomsday Devices that will destroy the world completely if anyone tries to use nuclear weapons or invade their countries at all. This ends up causing world peace; in a subversion {{spoiler|the scientists reveal to each other at the end that none of the machines actually work, but are just impressive collections of cables, strange chrome things and flashing lights, with the exception of the Russian doomsday device, which will blow up anyone who tries to use it.}}. |
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* Doctor Impossible's current scheme in ''[[Soon I Will Be Invincible]]''—most of his part of the story covers the "[[Gotta Catch Them All|Collect The]] [[Plot Coupon]]" quest. |
* Doctor Impossible's current scheme in ''[[Soon I Will Be Invincible]]''—most of his part of the story covers the "[[Gotta Catch Them All|Collect The]] [[Plot Coupon]]" quest. |
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* In Gary Gygax's [[Greyhawk|Gord the Rogue]] novels, the villains are on a quest to find three parts to a doomsday device that will free [[Cosmic Horror|Tharizdun]], a universe-destroying insane god who was [[Sealed Evil in a Can|imprisoned by the rest of the gods for eons]]. However, the villains do not want to USE the device -- [[Even Evil Has Standards|instead they want to make sure the three parts are kept as far away from each other as possible]]. [[Apocalypse How|That doesn't work out too well...]] |
* In Gary Gygax's [[Greyhawk|Gord the Rogue]] novels, the villains are on a quest to find three parts to a doomsday device that will free [[Cosmic Horror|Tharizdun]], a universe-destroying insane god who was [[Sealed Evil in a Can|imprisoned by the rest of the gods for eons]]. However, the villains do not want to USE the device -- [[Even Evil Has Standards|instead they want to make sure the three parts are kept as far away from each other as possible]]. [[Apocalypse How|That doesn't work out too well...]] |
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* The antimatter canister in ''[[Angels & Demons]]''. |
* The antimatter canister in ''[[Angels & Demons]]''. |
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== Live-Action TV == |
== Live-Action TV == |
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