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{{trope}}
[[File:PBF-ExecutiveDecision.png|link=
{{quote|''"[[Where's the Kaboom?]] There was supposed to be an [[Trope Namer|Earth-shattering Kaboom!]]"
|'''Marvin the Martian'''|''[[Looney Tunes]]''}}
Sometimes, [[The End of the World as We Know It]] just isn't enough. If you really want to end the world, why not destroy the whole
[[Science Fiction]] writers have devised many methods of demolishing a planet: you can [[Wave Motion Gun|blast it with a laser]], you can [[Colony Drop|hit it with a really big object]], you can feed it to self-replicating all-consuming [[Nanomachines]], or use [[Apocalypse How|other, even more imaginative ways]].
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This is understandably worse than just conquering a world or wiping out the present civilization. Mankind can always rebuild after that. There's usually no [[After the End|"After"]] for ''this'' End. Destroying a planet is usually reserved for the most "[[HSQ|Holy crap]]" moments in a Sci-Fi or even Fantasy series. Blowing up an entire, inhabited planet is one of the fastest ways to really [[Kill'Em All|ratchet up the body count]] and cross the [[Moral Event Horizon]].
Some series prefer to have this as the final goal of the [[Big Bad]], with the heroes racing to stop him. In other series, there's no way to stop the Earth Shattering Kaboom, and the subsequent storylines focus on the actions of the few survivors as they try to carry on, seek revenge or simply live with the fact that their home has been completely obliterated.
A slightly less devastating variation of this is to simply blast the surface of the planet until the air hums with radioactivity and nothing can live on it, for example, the "glassing" of planets in the ''[[Halo]]'' verse. This is [[
Think of it as a [[The Tokyo Fireball|Tokyo Fireball]] on a planetary scale. The full-on Earth Shattering Kaboom is a Class X on the [[Apocalypse How]] scale, often represented with an [[Earth-Shattering Poster]]. Oh, and if you're in the right position, [[You Can See the Explosion from Orbit]]. Of course, some villains one up this by going [[Star-Killing]].▼
Wikipedia refers to ships and weapons capable of doing this as [[wikipedia:Planet killer|Planet Killers]]. Actually ''shattering'' a world is in fact [http://qntm.org/destroy considerably harder than TV makes it look]. Even if your huge laser manages to blast into the planet, you still have to overcome the gravity of all that rock with some sort of explosion capable of sending all thousands of quintillions of tons far enough away that it won't just clump together again. 'Cause if you've just got a big laser, all you're going to do is drill a button hole in it.▼
The villain archetype who wants to cause this is called the [[Omnicidal Maniac]]. Alternatively, if he does it by accident (or just doesn't know ''why'' he'd do it), he's the [[Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds]].
▲Think of it as a [[The Tokyo Fireball|Tokyo Fireball]] on a planetary scale. The full-on Earth Shattering Kaboom is a Class X on the [[Apocalypse How]] scale, often represented with an [[Earth-Shattering Poster]]. Of course, some villains one up this by going [[Star-Killing]].
▲
▲The villain archetype who wants to cause this is called the [[Omnicidal Maniac]]. Alternatively, if he does it by accident (or just doesn't know ''why'' he'd do it), he's the [[Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds]].
Oh, and if somehow if some part of planet still remains, and someone settles on that, then it becomes [[Shattered World]]. See also [[Why You Should Destroy the Planet Earth]].
Contrast [[Genesis Effect]], where planets are created instead of destroyed.
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==▼
▲== Anime ==
* ''[[Gunbuster]]'' goes past mere planetary destruction with the Black Hole Bomb, a weapon capable of destroying the core of the galaxy. One of the weapon's components? The planet Jupiter. (Quick! Blow up Jupiter!)
** I think a certain pair of moronic monarchs from ''[[Heroic Age]]'' could help you out with that one.
** It should also be noted that in the images of the final battle, entire planets and moons are shown being destroyed as ''collateral damage''.
* The Jabberwock from ''[[Project ARMS]]''. {{spoiler|After it absorbes a nuclear missile}} it is capable of generating ''two fists'' of {{spoiler|antimatter}}.
** Also should be noted that {{spoiler|it was super-sized at the time, so those 'fists' were probably car-sized or bigger.}}
* ''[[Space Runaway Ideon]]'' goes even further than that, as the titular [[Humongous Mecha]] has three main weapons that ''start'' at planet-killing, and go up from there.
* The ''[[Dirty Pair]]'' count as planet-killing weapons all by themselves - they have blown up at least seven planets ''[[Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds|entirely by accident]]''.
* The ''[[Dragon Ball]]'' saga is full of characters who can destroy the world. All the major villains starting with Vegeta are capable of it (we see Vegeta destroy other planets, although it should be remembered that the times we do see him destroying planets are in [[Filler
** They added a nice touch when it was destroyed by the worst villain of the series, Pilaf, in GT.
** Let's not forget that Freeza destroys Planet Vegeta and Planet Namek, Gohan blows up the Makyo Planet, Cell blows up King Kai's planet, and Earth isn't the last planet destroyed by Kid Buu.
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* Angol Mois from ''[[Keroro Gunsou]]'' is from a whole tribe of [[Humanoid Aliens]] with the power to destroy planets.
* Subverted in the Clow Card arc of ''[[Cardcaptor Sakura]]''. With the Clow Cards free, Kero warns of a catastrophe that will befall the world if they're not captured, only to later reveal that the catastrophe ''isn't'' this trope. In fact, it's actually worse... kinda'.
* [[Tsutomu Nihei]], the author of ''[[Blame]]'', stated that Killy's [[Weapon of Mass Destruction|GravitonBeamEmitter]] would cause a substantial environmental change when fired on Earth.It doesn't take a genius to figure out what would happen if it's fired ''at'' Earth.
* ''[[Toward the Terra]]'' has two such cases.
** {{spoiler|Nazca, Mu’s new home, gets completely destroyed by Megido}} and even the combined efforts of Blue, Jomy and the Nazca children aren't enough to prevent this.
** {{spoiler|The Earth}} almost gets shattered into a million pieces, when the Grandmother decides it's time to get rid of the Mu for good.
* ''[[Gurren Lagann]]'' has {{spoiler|planets being ''thrown'' at the Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann.}} And that's ''nothing'' compared to the [[Final Battle]]: {{spoiler|'''GALAXIES THEMSELVES BECOME WEAPONS!'''}}
== Card Games ==▼
* In Flying Buffalo's ''[[Nuclear War]],'' there is a rule that allows an improbable series of events to result in a nuclear chain reaction that not only destroys the Earth, but the entire solar system.▼
== Comic Books ==
* Comic books like this trope as a sufficiently worthy threat for the best heroes to deal with. The most famous is probably [[Galactus]] of the [[Marvel Universe]], a gargantuan being who literally [[Planet Eater|eats planets]].
** While there is some debate over what ''actually'' happens if Galactus succeeds in eating, the zombies who ''ate'' his dimensional double definitely create massive rubble.
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* [http://www.ghira.mistral.co.uk/bombs.gif This strip] by [[Quino]].
* In ''[[Starslayer]]'', Torin mac Quillon comes into possession of a weapon that can implode a sun into a black hole. He ends up using it.
* Possibly the oldest comic book example is in [[The Monster Society of Evil
== Fanfiction ==▼
* In Chapter 10 of ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3140820/10/Chronicles_of_the_Crusade_Book_2_The_Long_Road Chronicles of the Crusade: The Long Road]'', Captain Gideon and the crew of the ''Excalibur'' detonate the Mark IX inside of Enceladus so that Kathenn can be destroyed. They later remark that Sheridan would be pissed that he wasn't the one who pushed the button to detonate it.
* This happens several times throughout ''[[Reunions Are a Bitch]]''.
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* In ''[[Keepers of the Elements]]'', [[Big Bad|Radcliffe]] does this to Zenith by taking out its central power core.
* During the course of ''[[Thirty Hs]]'', Harry kills the fuck out of at least two planets, and Dumblecop kicks another planet in half.
== Film ==
* One of the most famous Planet Killers is the Death Star from ''[[Star Wars]]'', and of course, poor Planet Alderaan to supply the Kaboom. Later on in the movie, the Death Star gets its ''own''
▲* One of the most famous Planet Killers is the Death Star from ''[[Star Wars]]'', and of course, poor Planet Alderaan to supply the Kaboom. Later on in the movie, the Death Star gets its ''own'' [[Earthshattering Kaboom]] (okay, space station the size of a small moon, close enough).
** The second (and larger) Death Star gets its own as well in ''[[Return of the Jedi]]''.
** The lesser version is known to the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] as Imperial Order ''Base Delta Zero''. Much is made of the fact that the Empire can do this in a few hours or days with ''standard'' fleet elements. Superweapons are just for flash.
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* ''[[Titan A.E.]]'' begins with the destruction of the Earth, and [[After the End|continues with the survivors from there]].
** {{spoiler|Near-perfectly inverted at the end with an Earth Creating Kaboom. The [[Big Bad]] shows up to try to destroy the Titan AE, but instead destroys himself and creates <s>a new earth</s> Bob.}}
* ''[[The
* The Genesis Device from ''[[Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan|Star Trek II the Wrath of Khan]]'' and ''[[Star Trek III: The Search For Spock|Star Trek III the Search For Spock]]''. While technically a subversion (not only does it actually create habitable planets through [[
** Kirk's son couldn't actually get the technology to work so he put proto-matter in it. It then worked initially , but proto-matter being unstable that's why the planet self destructed.
* Not to be outdone, ''[[Star Trek Generations]]'' introduced the "Trilithium Warhead," a small device which could implode a star, causing a shock wave that could destroy an entire solar system, and which could be produced and deployed by one person.
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* In ''[[Red Planet (film)|Red Planet]]'', [[Mad Bomber|Burchenal]] triggers a [[World-Wrecking Wave|Surface Kaboom]] by [[Playing with Fire|dropping a torch]] on ''[[Chemistry Can Do Anything|oxygened-algae]]'' and ''[[Kill It with Fire|oxygened-bugs]]''.
* In ''Beneath the [[Planet of the Apes]]'' (the first sequel), a group of mutants (who captured Taylor, his girl and the guy who came to rescue him) [[Cargo Cult|worships a powerful nuke]], that when detonated would destroy Earth. Then the apes attack, and while Taylor is falling dead, he triggers the bomb... one hell of a [[Downer Ending]], specially due to the [[Insignificant Little Blue Planet]] speech that follows.
** Parodied in ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' in Season 8. The Satellite of Love was orbiting a Planet of the Apes-like Earth...when Mike Nelson gives advice that starts the bomb that a cult worships. Predictable results...and Mike was [[Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds|only beginning]].
** It is slightly hinted that ''[[Spaceballs]]'' parodies this as well. {{spoiler|When [[Big Bad|President Skroob]], Dark Helmet, and Colonel Sandurz crashland on the Planet of the Apes, an ape says "''Oh shit, there goes the planet.''" The scene changes after that, and never switches back to the planet, making it seem more of a [[What Happened to the Mouse?]], but if you've seen ''Beneath the Planet of the Apes'', [[Genre Savvy|we can assume what happens next]].}}
* In ''[[Battle Beyond the Stars]]'', the [[Big Bad]] has a weapon called a Stellar Converter that, well, [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|converts planets into stars]].
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* In ''[[Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D.]]'', the Daleks planned to detonate a bomb which would remove the Earth's core.
* A Q-Bomb is used to crack Planet OM-1 in ''[[Starship Troopers (film)|Starship Troopers 3: Marauder]]'', though the sight wasn't enough to distract General Dix Hauzer from snogging Captain Lola Beck (seeing as we're talking about [[Ms. Fanservice|Jolene Blalock's]] luscious lips I can't blame him).
* In ''[[Plan 9 from Outer Space]]'', an alien comes to Earth to explain that, since [[Humans Are
* The [[John Carpenter]]'s ultra low budget film ''[[Dark Star]]'' featured a starship crew whose job was to traverse the Galaxy, using "Exponential Thermostellar Bombs" to destroy planets that might someday threaten human colonies. For twenty years. On the ragged edge of terminal boredom.
* In ''[[Godzilla vs. Destoroyah]]'', it's revealed that Godzilla's heart is basically a nuclear reactor. When Birth Island erupts and exposes Godzilla to a bed of radioactive materials, he absorbs too much and begins to undergo meltdown. Unfortunately, his self-destruction will also take most of the planet with him, sending scientists and the military scrambling for a way to prevent it. Things get more complicated when Destoroyah arrives on the scene, making Godzilla's meltdown occur faster and become more powerful due to his rage at Destoroyah's actions.
* The [[Warhammer
* The beginning of ''[[Men in Black (film)|Men in Black]] II'' shows Sarleena destroying planets she passed by.
* In the end of ''[[Transformers: Dark of the Moon]]'', {{spoiler|Cybertron collapses in on itself when the Autobots destroy Sentinel's Space Bridge.}}
* Lars von Trier's ''[[Melancholia]]'' revolves around the destruction of Earth by collision with an immense rogue planet (though there's not a lot of suspense about it, as the world's fate is revealed up front in the opening sequence).
==
* The Douglas Adams book ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]'' starts with the Earth being demolished to make way for a hyperspace expressway.
** And then ratchets it up at the end of the series by {{spoiler|destroying every Earth in every alternate dimension ever.}}
*** [[Fridge Logic|Then why are we still here?]]
*** [[Fridge Horror|They're not finished yet.]]
* In the ''Gray Lensman'' book of [[E. E. "Doc" Smith]]'s ''[[Lensmen]]'' series, two planets have their inertia dampened (i.e. forward momentum placed in stasis),{{verify|reason=That definition sounds like the exact opposite of inertia dampening.}} after which they are moved into place on opposite sides of a planet of villains. When their inertia or forward momentum is returned, they rush together to crush the planet between them. This is merely a coda to the use of an antimatter bomb of planetary size. Later in the series, this is deemed insufficient and even more powerful weapons are used, including planets from other universes with intrinsic velocities significantly above lightspeed.
* The [[Revelation Space]] universe features many
** The eponymous device of Alastair Reynolds' short story, ''[[Merlin's Gun]]''.
* Julian May's ''Magnificat'' - the final book of the [[Galactic Milieu]] series - ends with the destruction of
* In [[Dan Simmons]]'s ''[[Hyperion]]'' saga, the Earth has been destroyed a long time ago, but not before mankind had colonized a major part of the known universe. It later turns out that it wasn't destroyed, only hidden by some [[Powers That Be|Higher Power]].
* [[Orson Scott Card]]'s ''[[Ender's Game]]'' involves the "Little Doctor" device, which is indeed capable of blowing up a planet, and is used for that purpose near the end of the book. In the sequel ''Children Of The Mind'', a second such disaster is narrowly averted.
** The device is nicknamed the "Little Doctor" because it's actual name is the Molecular Disruption device, abbreviated MD, which is also the abbreviation for "Medical Doctor". It works by creating an energy field that prevents atoms from clinging together. The field's strength and area of effect is related to how much mass the target has. The effect spreads from atom to atom in a chain reaction. This means that the weapon requires the same amount of energy to be used against a single ship as it does an entire planet.
*** The weapon's range isn't actually that great, which means that any ship using it against a planet is on a suicide mission, as the field from the planet's destruction will get anything in orbit. Of course, the ships using it in the first book had 70-year-old equipment, so it's possible that later developments upped that range.
* David Weber and Steve White's ''The Shiva Option'' features this (in the form of anti-matter warhead barrages from fighter swarms) being used against a genocidal alien race as a regular tactic, once the good guys discovered the aliens communicated by telepathy. Kill anything over several hundred million on-planet, and the psychic
** In Weber's ''[[Honor Harrington]]'' stories, pretty much everyone has the ability to do it, but no one does because of the "Eridani Edict." Anyone indiscriminately bombarding planetary targets will themselves meet the same fate, when everyone else in the galaxy turns around and does the same to them.
* In ''[[Stranger in
** In the epilogue of the expanded edition of that novel, it is noted that
* In the novel ''[[Starship Troopers (novel)|Starship Troopers]]'', the Terran Federation develops the Nova Bomb. It is used on planets that are heavily occupied by bugs and of no strategic importance to the Federation.
** Heinlein originally used the term "nova bomb" in the 1953 version of his short story "Gulf". It was a theoretical bomb that could destroy the entire Earth.
* In Greg Bear's ''The Forge of God'', {{spoiler|Earth was blown up after (a) being shot with one giant neutronium bullet and one giant anti-neutronium bullet that met and exploded '''and''' (b) having vast quantities of hydrogen extracted from the oceans and turned into hydrogen bombs. Talk about overkill!}}
** {{spoiler|Actually, not really overkill at all. Unlike many other examples here, this one involved just a little more boom than the gravitational binding energy of the Earth. The explosion took a realistic several minutes. To make something explode as fast as, say, [[Star Wars|Alderaan]] takes several orders of magnitude more energy.}}
* Possibly {{spoiler|1=Charlie McGee}} from [[Stephen King
* ''[[Battlefield Earth|Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000]]'', in both the book and movie, Johnny "Goodboy" Tyler detonates {{spoiler|the Psychlo homeworld by teleporting a nuclear device to the planet}}.
** It should be noted that {{spoiler|the nuke}} is a plain old one (very old, actually). It's the way {{spoiler|nuclear radiation}} interacts with the {{spoiler|Psychlos' breath-gas}} that causes the big boom.
* [[Alan Dean Foster]]'s ''[[Humanx Commonwealth]]'' series features a couple of these, starting with the basic mechanism used for [[Faster-Than-Light Travel]]
* [[Matthew Reilly]]'s ''Temple'' has the Supernova - a nuke capable of vaporising one third of the Earth's mass and knocking the rest out of it's orbit around the sun. {{spoiler|There's 3 of them}}
* [[C. J.
* In Michael Reaves' ''The Shattered World'' and ''The Burning Realm'', this had happened to a fantasy world a thousand years ago. The damage-control efforts of every wizard in the world allowed fragments of the broken planet to be saved, orbiting one another in a bubble of atmosphere. The Shattering was blamed on the power-mad Necromancer's final, spiteful spell, cast when the nations of the world refused to bow down to him.
* The oldest and still canonical example of this in the ''[[Perry Rhodan]]'' universe is the Arkon bomb, a reasonably portable device capable of causing a runaway nuclear chain reaction that will destroy the planet it is planted on over the course of only a few days. The arguably most destructive weapon ever built by Terrans, the Hyperinmestron, was used only three times in the series and only once for actual military
* ''Creatures of Light and Darkness'' by [[Roger Zelazny]] includes shattering "worlds", supposed to contain multiple planets, in the course of the battles of the gods.
* In the ''[[Warhammer
** And in the [[Ciaphas Cain]] novel ''Caves of Ice'', a bomb that was placed in a mine that was flooded with millions of gallons of highly volatile promethium resulted in a gigaton range explosion that obliterated a mountain range and caused a shockwave that could be felt from ''orbit''. Despite that, they're still not certain whether or not the explosion destroyed the Necron tomb hidden below the mine.
* In the ''[[Nights Dawn Trilogy]]'', the scientists studying the ruins near the habitat Serenity crap themselves when they realize that the planet of this ancient alien civilization was ''actually destroyed'', as in reduced to large chunks of rock floating around space. This reaction is largely provoked by the fact that the ''best'' that their technological advances so far, which include light-speed warping, anti-matter bombs, living thinking Bitek space vessels and habitats (Serenity is actually one of these), and techno-telepathy, have only made it as far as being able to [[Depopulation Bomb|completely screw with the surface of a planet and destroy its climate and ecology]]. It gets worse, because for reasons unknown, this ancient alien race apparently ''[[Cyanide Pill|did it]] [[Starts with a Suicide|to themselves.]]''
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** Thallon in ''[[Star Trek: New Frontier]]'', by virtue of the Great Bird of the Galaxy, which has been gestating inside its core for millennia. Now ready to "hatch", it destroys the planet from within.
** Several planets in the Taurus Reach during the 2260s, due to the use of Shedai technology by Federation and Klingon researchers. Some planets were destroyed accidentally as a result of inept use of [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens|Shedai]] artifacts, others were [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|destroyed deliberately by the Shedai Wanderer]] in her attempts to prevent her people's technology coming into the hands of other, younger races. Palgrenax was one such planet. See: ''[[Star Trek: Vanguard]]''.
** In ''[[Star Trek: Titan]]'', the Shalra homeworld was destroyed by a space-going creature, which fed on the remains. Also, Oghen - and possibly other worlds in the Neyel Hegemony - were destroyed by the effects of the Red King protouniverse.
** Erigol in ''[[Star Trek: Destiny]]'', deliberately destroyed in order to maintain a stable time loop.
** Dokaal in ''[[Star Trek: A Time to...]]'', in a natural disaster.
* Vernor Vinge's ''[[Zones of Thought|A Fire Upon the Deep]]'', set in the part of his [[Zones of Thought]] verse that allows FTL and other ubertech, contains at least two types of planetcracker weapons: antimatter warheads (with sufficient yield to, at the very least, sterilize a planet's surface) and kinetic missiles accelerated to relativistic speeds. As typical warships carry thousands of the former as their standard armament, space conflicts can (and do) become fast and bloody...
* In the ''[[Sten]]'' series, the Empire has Anti-Matter Two weapons called planetbusters. The Eternal Emperor tries not to use them much, for the pragmatic reason that blowing up entire worlds tends to attract unwanted attention from other governments and is generally bad for business. {{spoiler|However, in ''Empire's End'', one is deployed against the Manabi homeworld.}}
* The old earth is destroyed in this fashion at the end of the [[Left Behind]] book ''Kingdom Come''.
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* In [[Sergey Lukyanenko]]'s ''[[A Lord From Planet Earth]]'' trilogy, quark bombs are relatively small spheres. One is fully capable of starting a process of total subatomic fission that is impossible to stop and consumes a planet in a matter of minutes. Even small chunks of the planet can re-start the process on another world if they happen to make it that far. Luckily, the bomb has to be delivered by ship, as teleportation renders it inert. After only two uses, it was banned by the entire galaxy. The only safe way to dispose of the bomb is to take it to a very remote area of space and blow it up.
* In the 1932 novel ''When Worlds Collide'' by Edwin Balmer and Philip Wylie, a Jupiter-sized rogue planet drifts into the Solar System on a direct course for Earth with a result one character compares to tossing a walnut in front of a cannon at the instant the cannon is fired.
* [[Robert Westall]]'s ''[[Urn Burial]]'' has this happen to the home planet of the [[Eldritch Abomination
* The print version of ''what if?'' (by Randall Munroe, the creator of ''[[xkcd]]'') ends with a question about what would happen if a magnitude 15 earthquake hit a major city. The reply includes the sentence, "To put it another way, [[A New Hope|the Death Star caused a magnitude 15 earthquake on Alderaan]]."
* In ''[[Star Trek]]'',
▲== Live Action TV ==
** The ISS Enterprise in the Mirror Universe clearly does have the capacity to destroy a planet, or at least sterilize its surface. Mirror Kirk's first action as captain was the suppression of the "Gorlan uprising" through the destruction of the rebels' home planet.▼
▲* In ''[[Star Trek]]'', The USS Enterprise can be assumed to have planet-killing abilities (of the lesser kind), unless Captain Kirk was bluffing when he mentioned General Order 24...
▲** The ISS Enterprise in the Mirror Universe clearly does have the capacity to destroy a planet or at least sterilize its surface.
** In "A Piece of The Action", the Enterprise is able to knock out the entire population of Sigma Iotia with the main phasers on "stun", the lowest setting.
*** Not the entire population, just everyone "in a one-block radius of [Kirk's] coordinates." And only the ones who were outdoors.
** And of course the planet killer from the episode "The Doomsday Machine".
** In addition, in ''[[Star Trek:
** The Xindi superweapon in season three of ''[[Star Trek:
** In "The Die Is Cast", it is stated that a fleet of 20 Romulan and Cardassian ships can destroy a planet down to its core within 6 hours (1+5). The opening volley alone destroyed 30% of surface,
** The Defiant could supposedly reduce the surface of the new Founder Homeworld to a smoking cinder in short order. (While it was Garak who said this, he said it to Worf, who would be the most familiar with the Defiant's systems).
* ''[[Doctor Who]]'':
** Subversion: Earth is destroyed on-screen in the
** In the season finale episode "Journey's End," {{spoiler|the Daleks}} prevent {{spoiler|Martha Jones}} from using {{spoiler|the Osterhagen Key doomsday device}}. Just as well.
** This is played straight in ''Doctor Who'' too many times to count. Not always with ''Earth,'' mind, but with ''a'' planet inhabited by humanoids. Gallifrey, for instance, goes boom in the new series, and in ''The Invasion of Time'', the
** And in ''The Pirate Planet'', the eponymous planet destroys other worlds by materialising around them, stripping them of their resources and shrinking them down to the size of a basketball, after which they are displayed in the captain's trophy room.
** It's the plan in ''[[Doctor Who/Recap/S6
* ''[[Babylon 5]]'' destroyed at least two dozen planets in its fourth season, when the Vorlons and the Shadows both went, "Oh, now it's ''on'', bitch!", culminating in the entire Earth solar system getting blown up a million years in the future. But it didn't end there, either, as yet more planets were destroyed in the sequel movie, ''A Call to Arms''. Strangely enough, the Earth has come to the brink of planetary destruction three different times, and averted it each time. Lucky, much?
** Maybe not. Under normal circumstances, the solar system will continue to exist pretty much as-is for billions of more years (the Sun is about halfway through its life-cycle.) The [[J. Michael Straczynski|show's creator]] has claimed that he knew this when making the episode, thus, the destruction happening a "mere" million years in the future is possibly an indication of deliberate destruction by... someone.
*** In fact, in one of his interviews he stated that unusual readings inside the sun were being caused by millions of jump gates (portals into hyperspace) being opened, which would be channeling available hydrogen out of the star and shrinking its mass. Not fun.
**** [[Fridge Logic|Although reducing the mass of the Sun would actually increase its lifespan, not shorten it.]] It would reduce the pressure and temperature in its core, thus slowing the fusion reaction and allowing it to continue longer before exhausting its fuel. The most massive stars have lifespans of less than a hundred thousand years, while the puniest red dwarfs might as well be immortal.
** It should be noted that the Shadow planetkiller didn't actually destroy planets
* ''[[Lexx]]'' featured the destruction of many planets over the course of the series (some deliberately, some accidentally), culminating in the last episode, when
** "Lexx, use every last bit of juice you've got to
* The Showtime series ''[[Odyssey 5]]'' started with the world blowing up, and had five astronauts, who had survived because they were on the titular Odyssey space craft at the time, getting sent five years into the past to prevent it.
* Probably named for Heinlein, the series ''[[Andromeda]]'' had Nova Bombs. How powerful were they? Well, the Andromeda carrying 40 of them was enough to send resident badass and proud warrior race guy Tyr into a fit because it was enough firepower to conquer an empire. The bombs cause stars to go super-nova, and can be volley-fired into black holes to turn them into white holes.
** Incidentally, {{spoiler|there is a literal Earth-shattering kaboom in the series' final episode. Nova Bombs are not to blame but rather something called Radical Isotopes: stuff with negative mass from another dimension.}}
** Harper also designs an even more destructive variant of the Nova bomb, and it's used to destroy an artificial sun.
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** ''[[Stargate Universe]]'' blows up a planet in the first episode through a combination of an unstable radioactive core, plugging a Stargate into said core and dialing it to a ship billions of light-years away, and having the Lucian Alliance bombard the base.
*** And then, in the season finale, the situation gets reversed - it's a Lucian Alliance base planet getting attacked/destroyed by Earth forces.
* The doomsday planet from [[Vintergatan]]. Of course, with a name like that, it was pretty certain to be... well, [[Incredibly Lame Pun|doomed]].
* While not actually ever used for its intended purpose, missiles with the power to blow up a planet are known to exist in [[Power Rangers]]. In ''[[Power Rangers in Space]]'' it took one of them to take out the [[Dimension Lord]] [[Big Bad]] [[Man Behind the Man]]. He was stabbed in the back with it by [[The Starscream]].
** And it's notable that being hit with said missile ''didn't kill him''. It took Darkonda hitting him with a ''second'' Planet Killer to destroy him for good, and he still survived long enough to [[Taking You with Me|take Darkonda with him]].
** Also from Power Rangers is [[Our Dragons Are Different|Serpentera]], a colossus of a Zord (which is saying something) built by Lord Zedd and his subordinates which on its maiden voyage blew up an abandoned planet in an attempt to stop the [[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
*** And [[Power Rangers Wild Force|the one time it did]], the [[Rookie Red Ranger]] rammed his motorcycle into it and blew it up.
* ''[[Kamen Rider Kuuga]]'' is said to be able to do this in his Ultimate Form with his Rider Kick... probably why we never see it.
== Music ==
* The video for [[Frankie Goes to Hollywood]]'s [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTOQUnvI3CA Two Tribes].
* On the cover of the album ''Fragile'' by [[Yes]].
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* On the cover of the [[Self-Titled Album]] ''Boston'', by [[Boston (band)|Boston]].
== Tabletop Games ==
▲=== Card Games ===
▲* In Flying Buffalo's ''[[Nuclear War]],'' there is a rule that allows an improbable series of events to result in a nuclear chain reaction that not only destroys the Earth, but the entire solar system.
=== Tabletop RPG ===
* ''[[Warhammer
▲* ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' gives us a number of ways to kill a planet, from the appropriately named [[Cool Starship]] ''Planet Killer'', to fleets of Space Monsters that can literally ''eat'' a planet down to the rock. Like ''[[Star Wars]]'', they also have a planet-killing order, called "Exterminatus." Exterminatus is usually used on planets where there is no possible way of ever using the planet again, say because soldiers deployed to it invariably defect to Chaos.
** Most of these methods usually leave a dead ball of rock, however. Except the Planet Killer; that really ''does'' blow up planets. And then we get to the Blackstone Fortresses...
*** There are many methods of Exterminatus, and while it is true that most of them just leave a dead rock, Two-Stage Cyclonic torpedoes indeed cause a
* ''[[Maid the RPG]]'' includes among its numerous strange items (which venture often into territory) the "Earth-destroying bomb," which when used turns the world setting to post-apocalyptic.
* The Alphatians of ''[[Mystara]]'' came to that planet after destroying their own in an academic dispute between rival factions of wizards.
* ''[[Exalted]]'': [[The Trope Without a Title|She Who Lives In Her Name]] invoked a Creation-shattering KABOOM that destroyed ''90% of the the world she helped create''. [[If I Can't Have You|Apparently one of the creators of the universe decided that if she can't rule it, she would rather have it destroyed]]. The fact that her very name is deeply intertwined with the sub-structure of the universe make it very easy for her to do so.
** Fans and Authors argue about the Three Sphere Cataclysm. Some feel that making it too cosmic runs the risk of causing the pre-cataclysm era to be fundamentally unrelateable as a storytelling medium. Others feel that letting her destroy 90% of just raw land mass isn't grand enough for a newly-minted cosmic horror. The deepest fan-theories hold that she annihilated Creation's Dynamic Link Library (its card catalog), thus making it impossible for anyone in the world to feel like the world as a whole makes sense... which, granted, is the one thing she would've coveted over the purely physical parts of reality.
** Note that Creation isn't actually a planet, but it's close enough in that it's a bubble of stability in an infinite ocean of chaos. To [[The Fair Folk]] who lives outside Creation, even the glorious First Age was but a tiny spark of what Creation used to be in the age of the Primordials.
** Then there's the giant dragon, what was his name, Kukla-something? Anyway, he's a 1,200 foot long gently slumbering beast guarded by twelve high-level war gods, whose job it is to kill anyone who tries to summon or otherwise disturb Kukla's sleep. Why? Because when he wakes up, he'll blow up Creation through liberal application of insane quantities of the five elements, and then go on to blow up the Wyld. Then, seven scales will fall down from his body and form the continents of a new world... Yeah.
*** That's The Kukla. He's given as one example of a mid-power Greater Elemental Dragon. This isn't even touching the Five Elemental Dragons, who are the apexes of the Elements.
== Video Games ==
* ''[[Star Ruler]]'' allows players to bombard planets until they break up - usually by shooting giant railgun slugs the size of Cyprus at a sizable fraction of the speed of light.
** And then there's the DSM, or Directed Spatial Manipulator, a super-weapon so powerful it can only be fired manually, which is capable of blowing up planets, and even suns.
* ''[[Defender]]''.
* ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' deals with the destruction of several worlds by [[The Heartless]], {{spoiler|which are reformed, just as they were before they were destroyed, at the end of the game.}}
* ''[[
* The Covenant in ''[[Halo]]'' "glass" planets - they blast them from orbit until the surface has melted into a glasslike substance.
** The UNSC NOVA bomb. To elaborate, it is a cluster of nine nukes, each surrounded by a shell that, when the bomb goes off, [[Techno Babble|briefly compresses each of the nine explosions to neutron-star density]], giving each blast a 100x boost. One is {{spoiler|accidentally set off on an Elite loyalist vessel in orbit around a loyalist world: the planet is wiped clean of life, its moon ''is shattered'', and nearly the entire fleet massed nearby is annihilated.}}
* The ''[[Wing Commander (video game)|Wing Commander]]'' series of games had ''two'' of these in ''Wing Commander III'' - a Cool Ship (the ''Behemoth'') basically a slimmed down Death Star (read as: one honkin' big cannon with a ship wrapped around it) is used to destroy a world, and is later destroyed itself since the ship conveniently wasn't finished before being rushed off to destroy the [[Big Bad]]'s homeworld. The job is later finished by a "Temblor Bomb" dropped into a faultline by a solo space fighter ([[It's Up to You|the player, of course]]), resulting in the [[Big Bad]]'s home being utterly blown apart through the resulting earthquakes, magically stopping the war.
** In the first game of the series, fighter missiles are armed with an explosive mineral referred to in the (necessary for the copy protect scheme) manual as Illudium Q36. Missile explosive power was measured by their "ESK" rating. Three guesses what "ESK" stood for.
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** Kefka very nearly succeeded with the lesser version, notably.
** Kuja fully succeeded in doings so, {{spoiler|fortunately, it was merely a long-dead planet hidden inside the regular world...somehow.}} Frankly, it didn't make much sense while they were explaining it in-game either.
** Zodiark's Final Eclipse boosts right past
** It should be noted that some of these (e.g. Sephiroph's Supernova) are regular magic attacks that get used possibly dozens of times in the relevant boss battles. How that works is anyone's guess.
*** Weaker versions, maybe?
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** His father, the overlord, split a planet in two when his wife died.
* In what may be one of the earliest examples of player-controlled planet-cracking power, ''[[Starflight]]'' gives the player 3 Black Eggs, artifacts that are capable of literally destroying a planet. Of the 3, you only need to use at most 2 in the course of the game, and can beat the game with only ''one'' of them...so which planet would you like to see destroyed today?
* Several ''[[Metroid]]'' games love to blow up planets and have Samus [[Always Close|narrowly escape]] (more info at Samus' entry in [[Never Live It Down]]). Some examples are Zebes, Dark Aether, Phaaze, and
* ''[[Pokémon Diamond and Pearl]]'' had Team Galactic set off a bomb at one of the three main lakes, and the resulting kaboom was enough for a city ''on the other side of the region'' to feel it.
** This is ignoring, of course, the semi-kaboom (but probably counting as 'earth-shattering') that was born from the top of Mt. Coronet...
** According to ''[[VG Cats]]'', an
* In ''[[Spore]]'', the most powerful weapon in the Space stage is the Planet Buster. It does [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]] and gets nearby empires mad with you, even if they were not the target.
** Destroying Earth is actually ''required'' for [[
* In ''[[Super Paper Mario]]'', Mario and his friends are on a quest to assemble the Pure Hearts in order to stop the destruction of all worlds. They don't achieve this goal in time for some.
** ALL worlds. Each of the game's levels are actually separate universes, meaning that Count Bleck is literally destroying everything. Everything as in EVERYTHING everything - including Heaven (the Overthere), Purgatory (the Underwhere), and Hell. In fact, the only universe left would be the one created by Dementio, which was created specifically for that.
*** Actually, the Big Bad emphasizes that he is not destroying worlds, but actually erasing them, so that the worlds would have never existed, if that makes sense.
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* In ''[[Sins of a Solar Empire]]'', Siege ships do exactly that, and one of the specialized Capital Ships you can build does it with a bigger bang. Also, the Novalith Cannon superweapon fires an obscenely large nuke at faster than light speed. The explosion takes up a large portion of the gravity well and kills nearly everyone planetside.
* In ''[[Turok (series)|Turok 2: Seeds Of Evil]]'', it is said that if the [[Cosmic Horror]] Primagen escapes, he will cause a rupture in the fabric of space, leading to a universe-shattering kaboom. However, as told by [[Retcon]] in the manual for ''Turok 3: Shadow Of Oblivion'', it happened anyway after you destroyed him. Although a few characters survived, including another [[Cosmic Horror]], Oblivion.
* Averted in ''[[Sonic Unleashed]]'', where Eggman uses a cannon that one would think would cause an
** Prior to (and similar to) ''Unleashed'', this trope was part of the plot of ''[[Sonic Advance Trilogy|Sonic Advance 3]]''.
** The ARK's Eclipse Cannon was capable of destroying a planet with the power of the Chaos Emeralds. It was used twice: first to blow apart half of the moon in ''[[Sonic Adventure 2]]'', and to annihilate the Black Arms Comet in ''[[Shadow the Hedgehog]]''.
* In ''[[R-Type]] Final'', the Giant Warship's Giant [[Wave Motion Gun]] is said to have the capability to do this.
* The goal of the [[Mad Scientist]] villain in ''[[
* In the first ''[[Ratchet & Clank (video game)|Ratchet & Clank]]'' game, the villainous Drek needs to remove a planet in order to give his man-made world the perfect orbit. Drek's tool for achieving this goal is the appropriately named Planet Buster. The weapon does produce an Earth Shattering Kaboom, but not on the planet you'd expect.
* In ''[[
* In ''[[Darius]] Gaiden'''s Zone Z ending, {{spoiler|Darius}} explodes.
* In ''[[Might and Magic]] VI'' if you don't {{spoiler|[[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|release a previous villain, Archibald]] so he can give you a seriously powerful scroll that encloses an area in its own pocket dimension. Without it when you blow up the reactor in the Kreegan Hive ship, or if you die afterwards thus preventing you from using it}} not only does the world explode but the moon inexplicably blows up afterwards.
* ''[[Ray Force]]'' ends with the explosion of the Con-Human-transformed Earth.
* ''[[Star Ocean]]''
** The
** In the [[Star Ocean: Till the End of Time|third installment]], the Earth itself is destroyed from an attack by the Executioners. In this case, the Executioners doom many other worlds off-screen as well.
* Atrea, the world in which ''[[Aion]]'' takes place, is a hollow sphere whose inhabitants live on the ''inside'' rather than the outside. The Tower of Eternity is a large tower running through the inside of the planet which provided light to its inhibitants in lieu of a star, although the planet does still orbit a star. However, when the Tower of Eternity broke in two, the resulting explosion blew the planet into two pieces connected only by a magical field created through [[Heroic Sacrifice]].
* ''[[Marathon Trilogy|Marathon]]'': At the beginning of ''Infinity'', a [[Cosmic Horror]] Wrkncacnter escapes and causes a universe shattering kaboom, forcing our hero to jump between [[Alternate History
* Happens in ''[[Anachronox]].'' {{spoiler|What else do you think could happen to a planet called "Sunder"?}}
* The ''[[Warcraft]]'' series: At the end of ''Warcraft 2: Beyond The Dark Portal'', the orcish warlock Ner'zhul opens up too many portals at once and ends up ripping the orcish homeworld to pieces - the remnants are [[Shattered World|still reasonably habitable]], though, and are featured in Warcraft 3 and the Burning Crusade expansion to ''[[World of Warcraft]]''.
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* Can be invoked by the player in the [[Nintendo 3DS]] AR Games. When playing with the globe, all you can do is spin it around by shooting it at different angles. However, shooting it repeatedly causes it to start turning red. Should you keep shooting it beyond that state, it ''explodes'' into a million fiery pieces, leaving behind a message that says "Take care of our planet" and is accompanied by creepy doomsday-like music that shifts into a sad melody. The globe is erased from your games list and you have to buy it again to play with it again.
* In ''[[Evolva]]'', the Parasite tries this in the final level.
* In ''[[Asura's Wrath]]'', Asura does this to Wyzen, after
* ''[[Terminal Velocity]]'' features two planet killers: one the ''Moon Dagger'', that must be taken out ''before it cores the Earth'' (actual in-game text), and the other the asteroid ([[Science Marches On|now minor planet]]) Ceres that has been sent on a collision course with Earth.
* In ''[[Saints Row IV]]'', Zinyak threatens it if the Saints try to escape. {{spoiler|He goes through with the threat, killing several characters in the process and horrifying the rest, but also [[Nice Job Fixing It, Villain|changing the Boss's mind from wanting to fold and flee to wanting to fight back]].}}
== Web Comics ==
* In ''[[Folly and Innovation]]'' this trope is used with [https://web.archive.org/web/20121215115127/http://follyandinnovation.com/2010/10/going-out-with-a-bang/ hilarious effect].▼
▲* In ''[[Folly and Innovation]]'' this trope is used with [http://follyandinnovation.com/2010/10/going-out-with-a-bang/ hilarious effect].
* The Earth exploding randomly is a constant [[Running Gag]] in the [[Sprite Comic]] ''[[Neglected Mario Characters]]''.
* The end of the War In Hell arc in ''[[Dominic Deegan]]'' ends with an
* ''[[Irregular Webcomic]]'' ended 2008 with not just an
** It was actually the ''entire MULTIVERSE''.
* Played for laughs in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' when this happens to the planet of Gritania during the GOFOTRON arc.
** The GOFOTRON arc ends with a universe-shattering kaboom, in fact. But it's only a tiny universe.
* In ''[[Quentyn Quinn, Space Ranger]]'', the Racconan Empire of the Seven Systems owns a small fleet of Stellar Lances. One of which was used to destroy a Kvrk-Chk solar system. [[Word of God]] is that the Lance operates by firing a planet-sized beam of "antigravitons" through the heart of the system's star, causing it to hemorrhage from either side, spraying the surrounding planets with white-hot stellar matter (picture a water balloon with a pinhole on either side spinning on a string).... the lawn sprinkler from Hell. If conditions are just right, it goes downhill from there, into a stellar collapse and supernova...
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110122085806/http://www.salon.com/entertainment/comics/this_modern_world/2010/05/25/this_modern_world This] ''[[This Modern World]]'' strip.
* In ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]],'' space villain Fructose Riboflavin likes to extort cooperation from people by threatening to do this. "Remember, Galatea... threatening to blow up a planet ''always'' works." Bob is the only person who has ever [[Too Dumb to Fool|called him on it,]] realizing the fact that Riboflavin ''[[Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds|needed]]'' [[Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds|Earth for his plan and so]] ''[[Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds|couldn't]]'' [[Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds|blow it up,]] so the threat was an obvious bluff.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120607082054/http://www.drunkduck.com/The_KAMics/4790117/ God shows how it's done] in ''[[The KAMics]]''
* Used [http://www.viruscomix.com/amtaham.html here] in [[Subnormality]].
* In [[Bob the Angry Flower]] it is [http://www.angryflower.com/yes.gif easy to do].
{{quote|
'''Freddie''': ...and then you blew up the Earth!
'''Bob''': Yeah, yeah, yeah... are you ''ever'' gonna let that go? }}
* Fractal bombs in ''[[Buck Godot: Zap Gun for Hire|Buck Godot Zap Gun for Hire]]''.
* [[Eldritch Abomination|The Snarl]] did this to the first world the gods made in ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]''.
* The [https://web.archive.org/web/20130702233254/http://www.drivecomic.com/archive/110623.html Spark of Thought] in ''[[Drive (webcomic)|Drive]]''.
* ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'' had [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2008-02-29 Io-shattering kaboom].
== Web Original ==
* On [[Deviant ART]], there are "Power emoticons" that [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|take regular emoticons to the EXTREME]]. Many include a view of the Earth (or a part of it) being destroyed.
*
** Don't forget "Zeeky Boogy Doog".{{context}}
*** Technically, one of the latter by itself wouldn't do the trick. A whole *bunch* of "Zeeky Boogy Doog"s (or one broadcast all over the world), however, would and did.
* ''[[Tech Infantry]]'' has an dinosaur-killer-sized asteroid dropped on earth in the backstory. After the Earth partially recovers and is just starting to be recolonized by rebels against the main human government, said government sends in a fleet that blows up the moon, first by firing several small black holes through it to weaken its structure, then ramming it with a miles-long starship moving at 90 percent of the speed of light. The shattered fragments of the moon rain down on the surface of the earth, melting the top few miles of crust into a continuous layer of molten lava, boiling off the oceans, and blasting the atmosphere away. A few decades later, some nasty aliens invade, and the invasion is only stopped by using Dooms Day Devices to send the suns of the main alien homeworlds into supernova.
* Parodied in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series|Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged]] [[The Movie|Movie]]'': when Anubis announced his intention to destroy the world, Yami asks him what he could possibly gain from that. As revealed on his LiveJournal, the creator included this because he considered Anubis to be a terrible movie villain with, in his own words, '[[Card-Carrying Villain|generic motives]]'.
** Also in the Abridged Series, a running series called "Zorc and Pals" features [[Big Bad]] Zorc Necrophades and Yami Bakura discussing Zorc's plans to destroy the world. The clip from "Zorc and Pals: The Movie" in the Abridged Movie details what Zorc is going to do after he destroys the world... [[I'm Going to Disney World|He's going to Disney World.]] And then he's going to destroy it. However, he found it much too fun, so he destroyed Euro Disney instead.
* In ''[[Fine Structure]]'', {{spoiler|this is the ultimate fate of Earth during the [[Final Battle]]. Luckily humanity from the [[Alternate Universe|next universe over]] jumps in to pick up survivors.}}
== Western Animation ==
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* In ''[[The Transformers (animation)|Generation 1]]'', the Quintessons blow up their own planet to destroy the Autobot Matrix (they fail). Later, Rodimus Prime has the planet Paradron detonated to prevent its energon falling into Decepticons. Then in ''[[Transformers Headmasters]]'', Scorponok succeeds in blowing up both Cybertron and Mars before the show is halfway through. Later, the ''[[Transformers Zone]]'' [[OAV]] begins with the planet Feminia being destroyed.
* ''[[Futurama]]'' has never shied away from destroying planets, but the best example of destruction comes from the episode "I Dated A Robot":
{{quote|
Fry: "Sure! What have they ever done for me?"
''Fry presses a button - a planet explodes''
Leela: "Wow! The most mundane events look almost exciting through your eyes." }}
* In the ''[[Totally Spies!]]'' episode "Evil Professor", the titular professor tries to use the stolen "inflator" weapon to blow up the planet.
* ''Once Upon a Time, Man'' ("Il était une fois l'homme") was a multiple nationality and educational cartoon,from 80's and about History (as a serious ''[[Histeria!]]!''). The credits were Abridged History, and future of humanity was already told [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNURUGCOQ5I at the end:] mens running away with rockets and then, Ka-boom.
* An episode of ''[[Pinky and The Brain]]'' had the destruction of the Earth at the end of the episode, but it's all right...everyone had already moved to Brain's papier-mache replica.
* ''[[
* In the ''[[Kim Possible]]'' episode "Car Alarm", Shego seems to [[Depending on the Writer|graduate to]] [[Omnicidal Maniac]] by hoping to use a rocket car she and Motor Ed stole in order to use its full powered rocket boost to destroy the planet. Ed on the other hand just wanted to use it to drive around with Shego as arm candy.
* ''[[Batman: The
* ''[[The Little Mermaid]]'': King Triton blows up the model of the planet Earth in Ariel's lair, along with the other of Ariel's human things.
* The French cartoon ''Once Upon a Time... Space'' has a type of warship used by the androids of planet Yama that combine to form one larguer star-shaped vessel with enough firepower to destroy a planet. It's tested on a planet of their system {{spoiler|and in the penultimate episode of the series it's used to force the surrender of Cassiopeia threatening to destroy that planet.}}
* The ending of the ''[[I Am Weasel]]'' episode "The Hole" had this, due to I.R. Baboon plugging up a huge hole that turned out to be a ground-level volcano (complete with buildings, cars and a plate of ''pork butts and taters'' flying from the explosion). The only survivors left are Weasel, his local assistant and Baboon, on a very small fragment of land left from the blast, but then Baboon gets in his car and ''drives off the edge to his death''.
== Real Life ==
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* The current prevailing theory of the formation of Earth's moon is that the proto-Earth was hit by another proto-planet that blasted both the proto-Earth and the impacting planet into a loose conglomeration of material, most of which reformed into the Earth and some of which coalesced into Luna, the moon Earth has today. ''Literally'' Earth-Shattering. Although there was [[Space Is Noisy|(probably)]] no Kaboom.
** It is a testament to just how hard it is to blow up a planet. Even running head long into another planet at full speed isn't going to cut it.
** On a smaller scale than that, there was the Late Heavy Bombardment - a few hundred
* It's been hypothesized that Miranda, a moon of Uranus, had been shattered by an impact and its fragments reassembled; thus explaining the patchwork of geological features on the moon.
** Insert [[Incredibly Lame Pun|rocky fragments near Uranus pun]] here.
* Discussed in the History Channel series ''The Universe'', where they point out that blowing up the planet would require hitting it with something extremely massive (i.e. another planet).
* Forget ''Earth''-Shattering Kabooms. Try ''Star''-Shattering. Stars have a limited supply of nuclear fusion
{{reflist}}
[[Category:
[[Category:
[[Category:Apocalyptic Index]]
[[Category:Death From Above]]
[[Category:Narrative Devices]]
[[Category:Overdosed Tropes]]
[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
[[Category:Stuff Blowing Up]]
[[Category:This Index Earth]]
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