Kill'Em All: Difference between revisions

[[File:main2_5867main2 5867.png|link=Hamlet|rightframe|"A slaughterhouse, eight corpses all told"- [[Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead|The Player]]]]

In a [[Prequel]], they may be [[Doomed Byby Canon]]: all characters who do not appear in the sequel and can not be disposed of otherwise will have to die.

In [[Tabletop Games]], this is called a [[Total Party Kill]]. [[Game Master|Game Masters]]s who are ''really'' annoyed with their group (or just [[Killer Game Master|sadistic]]) may invoke [[Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies]].

A short historical digression: the words "Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius" ([[Ominous Latin Chanting|Latin]]: "Kill them all. God will know his own," popularly rendered as, "Kill 'em all, and let God sort 'em out.") are [http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Latin_proverbs#Kill_them_all attributed] to Abbot Arnold Amaury before the massacre of Béziers during the [[The Crusades|Albigensian Crusade]] -- albeit—albeit not in any of the numerous contemporary accounts of it.

See also [[Suicide Mission]] and [[Gotta Kill EmThem All]]. Contrast [[Everybody Lives]].

*** Enough so that ''[[Soukou no Strain]]'', whose directing team worked with Tomino, ended up being a subversion. It began as an [[EverybodysEverybody's Dead, Dave]] and ended that way, but just about everybody expected Sara and her cohorts to drop off.

** Many of the ''[[Gundam]]'' series directed by Tomino also have high death counts, ''[[Zeta Gundam]]'' and ''[[Mobile Suit Victory Gundam (Anime)|Victory Gundam]]'' in particular. [[Irony|The ironic thing]] about the ''Gundam'' series is that Tomino's stated reason for his Kill Em All tendencies was to discourage sequels.

*** Though Tomino is not involved with ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]'', the latter half of the first season (''especially'' episode 24) sees a ''massive'' die-off of both main and named characters.

* By the end of ''[[Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure (Manga)|JojoJoJo's Bizarre Adventure]]'' Part 6, pretty much all of the protagonists are dead.

* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' manages to avert this, sort of. The last two TV episodes and the movie all detail [[The End of the World Asas We Know It]], and while every human soul is merged into a giant amorphous sea of Tang, humanity manages to come out of it with most of its inhabitants surviving and whole. The main cast, however, is practically obliterated - only Asuka and Shinji are seen alive at the end, and most of the other mains were killed before Instrumentality even began, meaning that they probably couldn't come back even if they wanted to. However, the fact that the mysterious Quantum Rei "witnesses" their deaths implies that they might have another chance...

** The entire town of Hinamizawa is wiped out in one of the continuities in ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni (Visual Novel)|Higurashi no Naku Koro Nini]]'' ([[All There in the Manual|several, actually]]), and most of the main characters die - generally in horrible and bloody ways - in the other continuities as well.

** ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro Ni (Visual Novel)|Umineko no Naku Koro Nini]]'' follows suit and even underlines it by giving you the body count at the end of each arc, which is most frequently read, "[[Title Drop|When the seagulls cry]], [[Downer Ending|there are no survivors]]."

* In ''[[Dragon Ball (Manga)|Dragon Ball]] Z'', the villain [[Chaotic Evil|Super]] [[Complete Monster|Buu]] has an attack dubbed "Human Extinction," that does [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|exactly as the name implies]]. To add to that, anyone who isn't killed by this attack he kills personally (by turning them into candy, no less). Then he reverts to his ''even crazier'' Kid Buu form and immediately [[Earthshattering Kaboom|blows up the Earth]] for the lulz. Then, he turns to the rest of the universe, and eventually makes his way to the afterlife, and starts destroying stuff there. This is one of the rare cases where the heroes have a [[Reset Button]] - which itself becomes a plot point, as the surviving secondary cast rushes to find it before it becomes too late for everyone (as the [[Reset Button]] has a time limit, ''and'' it's something that Buu is capable of destroying if he gets to it first).

** What makes this example worse is that the attack was triggered when Piccolo [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|pointed out that Buu promised he would fight their promised fighter only after he had killed everyone on Earth, in an attempt to buy some time.]] Knowing the [[Reset Button]] existed, Piccolo figured it didn't really matter; bringing back the entire population of Earth would be just as easy as bringing back the millions Buu had already killed. But he thought killing everybody would be at least ''marginally'' time-consuming even for Buu. Whoops.

* The end of the second season of ''[[Monster Rancher (Animeanime)|Monster Rancher]]'' kills all of the [[Mons]] off. There is a third season where they come [[Back Fromfrom the Dead]], but it was never released in the US.

* Most of the cast of ''[[Fushigi Yuugi]]'' died through the course of the series. This was, however, [[Disney Death|undone]] in the [[OVA|OVAs]]s.

* Staying true to the original ''[[Seven Samurai|Shichinin no Samurai]]'', by the end of ''[[Samurai Seven|Samurai 7]]'', Gorobei, Kyuzo, Kikuchyo, and Heihachi have all died in battle, leaving only three of the original seven. Naturally, this is also true of its Western remake ''The Magnificent Seven''.

* Mangaka Mohiro Kitoh may be said to be a challenger to Tomino's [[Kill 'Em All]] Throne:

** ''[[Naru TaruNarutaru]]''... Don't mess with the little girl who can use the ''whole world'' as a weapon. Oh, and while at the end, it resembles ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion|The End of Evangelion]]'' in that there are [[Adam and Eve Plot|two people alive]], it doesn't [[Tear Jerker|feel]] that way.

* ''[[Basilisk]]'' is the fight between the Iga and Kouga clans. 10 members of each clan are pitted against each other, and they die one by one until all that is left are the [[Star -Crossed Lovers]], who are both [[Driven to Suicide]].

* In ''[[Wolfs Rain|Wolf's Rain]]'' every character dies, one at a time. While [[Apocalypse How|the world dies]]. And then the world is born again. And everyone is apparently reincarnated a really long time later... possibly in the modern day.

* The ''[[Chrono Crusade (Manga)|Chrono Crusade]]'' anime fell victim to this. In fact, the only major character that wasn't either permanently killed off or otherwise rendered ineffective was the [[Big Bad]]. [[Downer Ending]], indeed.

* ''[[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]]'': All but two of the main characters are killed off: Matsuda and Near, unless you count the SPK and the Taskforce.

* [[Osamu Tezuka]] used this trope often, even in his early career. In his late '40s work ''Lost World'', out of the dozen or so main characters, only three survive to the end & several nameless extras are killed when the rocketship crashes on top of them. [[Astro Boy (Mangamanga)|Astro Boy]] storylines frequently ended with everybody who wasn't a main character or a [[Recurrer]] dead (and sometimes even them!). Most of the ''Phoenix'' stories end with everybody except the eponymous bird dead, including the entire populations of a couple of planets, which is understandable since the main theme of the series is that the quest for immortality is futile & we should be happy with the lives we have.

* In ''[[Ga -Rei Zero]]'', the entire named cast dies in the last 2 minutes of the FIRST episode. It's an effective cliffhanger, but... Then they kill half of the cast not presented in first episode. The body count keeps rising in [[Ga -Rei|the manga]] including some survivors of [[Ga -Rei Zero]].

* ''[[Rah XephonRahXephon]]'' ends up with about half of the main cast dead by the end of the penultimate episode. However it's like that at first until Ayato "retuns" the world to get a happy ending.

** ''[[XXX Holic×××HOLiC]]'': By the end of the manga, all the main characters except Watanuki have long died, courtesy of Clamp's last minute timeskip, pardon the pun.

* By the end of ''[[Akira (Manga)|Akira]]'' ([[The Movie]], not the manga it's based on) the only survivors are Kaneda, Kei, Kai, and the Colonel. Everyone else is either killed by Tetsuo or killed when Akira sucks everyone else into a vortex; Tetsuo's fate is left ambiguous.

* By the end of the first volume of ''[[Urotsukidouji (Anime)|Urotsukidouji]]'' (otherwise known as Legend of the Overfiend) the only survivors are Jyaku, Megumi, Nagumo, and Akemi; everyone else is killed by demons, Niki, or Nagumo in his transformed state.

* The entire point of ''[[Saiyuki]]'''s prequel, Saiyuki Gaiden, which deals with the original incarnations of three of the ikkou, and Goku's childhood in Tenkai. Contains flavours of [[Foregone Conclusion]] as well, because of this. It ends with three out of the four main characters horribly dead and the fourth subjected to [[Laser -Guided Amnesia]] and sealed in a cage for 500 years.

* By the end of the ''[[Kite (Anime)|Kite]]'' movie, Every important character is dead except for the main heroine, who is so so screwed up inside it seems implied she will keep waiting for her dead boyfriend until she dies from starvation or dehydration.

* ''[[Toward the Terra]]'' introduces many characters over the decades of time and light-years of distance it spans. In the end, the only named survivors are a small handful of minor characters, one major character who's been there the whole time, and one major character who was introduced in the second half. Compare that to the dozens-strong kill count of named characters, [[The Hero Dies|including both main characters]], and it's [[Bittersweet Ending|a wonder the ending is as upbeat as it is]].

* The anime ''[[Gilgamesh]]'' killed all of the characters but one in an event that also wiped out everyone else on Earth, but gave birth to one new life, which was immediately strangled by the sole survivor. Since she would have died alone shortly after, I guess this counts as ''[[Kill 'Em All]]'' + 1.

* In the [[Hentai]] ''[[Spy of Darkness (Anime)|Spy of Darkness]]'', the protagonist Anne sacrifices herself to kill the rampaging "sex-beast" known as Dragon after it brutally rapes and murders all of her companions. In the end, it's stated that the records of Anne and her comrade's deaths will be sealed away under top level clearance, which means that very few people will even ''know what happened to them.''

* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' comes very, ''very'' close. Eventually Father succeeds in turning everyone in Amestris into a Philosopher's Stone, tearing the souls out of and killing everyone who isn't him, his remaining homunculi and anyone who wasn't in the immediate vicinity at the time. Fortunately, Hoenheim had already had a plan to counter this, and manages to reverse the process, returning everyone's souls to their bodies.

* It is never actually made clear if this is how ''[[Gao Gai GarGaoGaiGar]] FINAL'' ends, but considering that the Brave Robots all get defeated in the quite brutal ways (Volfogg is impaled by 5 clones of one Soul Master, ChoRyuJin is cut in half vertically, after which both Enryu and Hyoryu use Supernova, destroying them both and their enemy). And even after the [[Big Bad]] is defeated, GGG is only able to send two people back to our own solar system, while the rest will be stuck in an alternate universe that is on the verge of collapsing. And you thought [[Gao Gai GarGaoGaiGar]] was a happy-go-lucky [[Super Robot]] Anime?

* In the JapaneaseJapanese version of the final episode of the 80's series of ''[[Kimba the White Lion (Manga)|Kimba the White Lion]]'' almost all of the main cast, including the main character, died after 52 episodes of them appearing regularly. This even extends to characters who didn't die in the original manga.

* ''[[DT Eightron]]'', another Sunrise show, does this in a particularly maddening way - it happens out of the blue in the last 2 minutes of the show!

* The [[Alternate Continuity]] story "[[The Punisher]] Kills The [[Marvel Universe]]" is [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin]].

* The [[Elseworlds]] graphic novel ''[[Batman (Comic Book)|Batman]]: Crimson Mist'' ends up with every named character in the Batman world, except Dr. Jeremiah Arkham and, apparently, a female expert in the supernatural, killed off.

* ''[[Marvel Zombies]]'' ([[Zombie Apocalypse|as one would expect]] [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|from the title]]) killed off a good 90% of its characters.

** Furman would be brought in to write the series finale for ''[[Beast Wars (Animation)|Beast Wars]]''. His first question to the staff? "Who can I kill?" The answer? Tigerhawk, Depth Charge, and every Predacon except Megatron and Waspinator.

** Probably the only safe characters are Mr. Immortal (whose power is [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin]]; he absolutely cannot be killed by any means, not even by completely obliterating his body) and Squirrel Girl (who's too popular to kill).

** Make that 70% of named ''mutants''. Looking at the casualty list on [[The Other Wiki]], there are nearly two dozen ''[[Ultimate X -Men]]'' characters dead (including Xavier, Magneto, Cyclops, and Wolverine), compared to a handful from ''[[The Ultimates]]'' (Ant-Man and Wasp), ''[[Ultimate Fantastic Four]]'' (Dr. Doom and Dr. Storm (Sue and Johnny's dad)), and miscellaneous heroes (Daredevil and Dr. Strange). The ''[[Ultimate Spider -Man]]'' cast got out relatively unscathed, even gaining a few [[Transplant|Transplants]]s from the other series (Iceman and Human Torch).

* The ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes (Comic Bookcomics)|Legion of Super-Heroes]]'' storyline "End of an Era", which rebooted the Legion, ended up by killing off everyone from the old history before restarting history.

* ''[[Doom Patrol]]'' pre-dated most of this by pulling a [[Total Party Kill]] in the ''[[Older Than They Think|Sixties]].'' All four of the actual members (The Chief, Rita Farr, Cliff Steele, Larry Trainor) were nuked saving a small fishing village.

* At the end of the prison arc in ''[[The Walking Dead]]'', every single character present during the attack from the Governor, including a ''baby'', were brutally murdered, save for Rick and Carl. That's seven of the main characters!

* The last issue of ''[[Fables (Comic Book)|Jack of Fables]]'' kills off everyone but the [[Infant Immortality|baby]] and the [[Black Dude Dies First|black guy]].

== Fan Fiction[[Film]] ==

* ''[[Nine (Animation)|Nine9]]''. First, humanity is, apparently, completely wiped out. Then, the only two explicitley named human characters die, one before the movie even begins. ''Then'', all of the stitchpunks, except 3, 4, 7 and 9, die along the course of the film. Granted, the ending itself [[Bittersweet Ending|isn't all that bleak]], but that doesn't mitigate the loss of life.

* ''[[Final Fantasy: the Spirits Within (Anime)|Final Fantasy theThe Spirits Within]]'' is a prized one. Only two characters survive at the end: Aki Ross (the main character) and Dr. Sid. All the other characters are killed by phantoms except Major Elliot (who gets shot) and General Hein, the antagonist, who is blown up inside his ship.

* ''[[Sidehackers]]'' was a brutal, gritty biker film in which almost every character (including the hero's extremely likable love interest, whose death ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' had to cut out of the aired version and have Crow explain) was gang raped and killed. The hero himself was gunned down by the fatally wounded villain whilst walking away from a [[Mexican Standoff]]. The three that lived (the black guy, the guy who told bad jokes, and the hero's friend) all ran off when the battle was in progress. ''Sidehackers'' incidentally, was the movie which prompted Best Brains to institute their policy of watching a movie ''all'' the way through before selecting it for their show.

* ''[[Rocketship X-M]]'' features a bunch of people going to the moon, but [[Sci -Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale|ending up on Mars]]. They are able to find about people that are horribly mutated from a war and on the way back, and only have enough time tell the people of Earth about this, before [[Diabolus Ex Machina|a leak makes them run out of gas on the way home and they are unable to land]]. As Crow put it on ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'', "There's nothing more depressing then being stuck in a spaceship, watching people die in a spaceship."

* ''[[Beneath the [[Planet of the Apes]]'' ends with pretty much the entire cast getting shot. And then Charlton Heston's dying act is to trigger a gigantic nuke that [[Earthshattering Kaboom|destroys the entire planet]]. They still managed three more films, though (with only two main characters, who escaped through [[Time Travel]]).

* In [[John Carpenter]]'s ''[[Village of the Damned (Film)|Village of the Damned]]'' remake with Christopher Reeve, only the teacher girl and her kid (the only alien child who had more or less normal emotions) survive. Everyone else in town is dead.

* ''[[The Wild Bunch (Film)|The Wild Bunch]]''. [[The Good, the Bad, Andand The Evil|Good guys. Bad guys. Worse Guys.]] Bystanders. Livestock. Only two named characters are still breathing as the closing credits roll.

* In ''[[The Fall (Filmfilm)|The Fall]]'', Roy almost ends his story this way, much to Alexandria's horror. Only her confession of love convinces him to allow their avatars to live.

* ''[[DeadmanDead Man (Filmfilm)|DeadmanDead Man]]''. Interestingly, the only death we don't really see is that of William, presumably the eponymous "dead man."

* The entire crew of Icarus II dies in the sci-fi movie ''[[Sunshine (Filmfilm)|Sunshine]]'' (2007), but they do manage to save the world in the process.

* ''[[Quarantine (Filmfilm)|Quarantine]]''. There's a few [[Hope Spot|Hope Spots]]s, in particular one close to the end when the landlord says there's a way to get out through the basement, but really. What really sells it is that most characters who die pop back up as [[Not Using the Z Word|(let's just say)]] zombies, and near the end there's a sequence where the two leads have to fight through what's left of the rest of the cast.

** It and ''Cloverfield'' actually share the premise that makes it inevitable: "hey, look, we found this camera in the woods" and "hey, look, we found this camera in the rubble." Of course, there wouldn't be new footage of the owners of said camera if they had been dug out alive at some point, so there's a chance.

* ''[[Star Wreck]]|Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning]]'' ends with pretty much everybody dying in the massive P-Fleet vs Babel 13 space battle. A few survive, though, and Earth is freed from Emperor Pirk's tyranny.

* All eight characters who got a speaking part in ''[[The Descent (Filmfilm)|The Descent]]'' died. At least in the original version, the US got a different ending.

* The ''[[Final Destination (Film)|Final Destination]]'' series. The survivor of the first movie gets killed in the second and the survivors of the second one all survive the BBQ finale, with a [[Red Shirt]] biting the dust instead, but are said to be dead at the beginning of the third one. The third movie decides to not waste time and kills everyone in a not very ambiguous ending. The next movies turn it into outright [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog]] stories: the protagonists never had any influence on their respective demises, and all their actions were for naught. Death is a sadistic cosmic entity who plans out everything just the way he intended.

* ''[[Valkyrie (Filmfilm)|Valkyrie]]'' ends with the deaths of virtually all of the major conspirators who organized the botched July 20th20 assassination attempt on Hitler. [[Based Onon a True Story|It's not like the screenwriter had a choice]].

* Very common in European war movies, especially [[WWII]] movies from Germany:

** And in ''[[Stalingrad (Film)|Stalingrad]]'', only 3 characters are alive near the end, and then a Russian sniper kills one of them, and the last two take cover and slowly [[Snow Means Death|freeze to death in the snow]] in the most beautiful scene ever.

* Russian war movies about [[WW 2]]WWII, while being somewhat more upbeat, also include this:

** Similarly, the [[Based Onon a True Story]] film ''The Brest Fortress''. The whole garrison is ultimately killed, with exception of a few captured soldiers. However, the causualties they inflicted on the enemy were horrendous.

** ''The Commander's Daughter'', [[Overly Long Gag|also being based]] on the Brest Fortress siege, also pulls this off , with all the protagonists dead, except the eponymous heroine, whose survival, however, is of [[I Died]] category, as we see the enemy killing everyone. This is [[Truth In Televison]], however, as both her prototypes survived the war.

* By the end of the first ''[[Scary Movie]]'' everyone except for Cindy's father, Sherriff Gale, and Doofy are killed. Of course, many of said characters inexplicably come [[Back Fromfrom the Dead]] in the sequels.

* In ''[[Dead Snow (Film)|Dead Snow]]'', the cast is slaughtered one by one during an exceptionally bloody standoff against the Nazi Colonel Herzog and his stiff soldiers. The toughest one survives after figuring out that the Nazis are after a box of stolen gold and presenting it to them. Though when he finally gets back to the car, he discovers he has accidentally brought a gold coin with him. The Colonel appears and offs him shortly afterwards.

* The [[Akira Kurosawa]] film ''[[Ran]]'' -- not—not surprising since the plot closely resembles that of ''[[King Lear]]'', with a bonus [[Cycle of Revenge]] element thrown in for good measure.

* The 2009 film ''[[Avatar (Filmfilm)|Avatar]]'' pretty much kills off everyone but Jake, Neytiri, Mo'at and a few supporting characters. The amount of main characters still alive can pretty much be counted on one hand.

* In the Spanish movie ''Nicotina'' every single person that is plot pertinent dies. Actually, even that ones that aren't important ended up dying, since the whole building explodes.

* In the Russian film ''Zvezda (The Star)'', the eponymous scout unit is eventually cornered, shot, and [[Kill It Withwith Fire|flamethrowered]] to death by SS and Wehrmacht troopers. The captain who sent their team out narrates the result of their sacrifice, then mentions that he also [[Posthumous Narration|died later in the war]].

* The events of the ''[[Cube]]'' series take place in a [[Alien Geometries|bizzarebizarre]] structure designed to kill people. And it's VERY good at it. The final rate of survival in the movies is: 1, 0, 2.

* The Hong Kong Kung Fu flick ''[[Duel to Thethe Death (Filmfilm)|Duel To The Death]]'' is a film about a duel between the best swordsmen in China and Japan for bragging rights between the two nations. By the end everyone is dead except for the two leads, (well, aside from one character who has undergone a [[Break the Haughty]] experience and possibly [[Freak -Out|gone insane]] as a result) and both of ''them'' are dying from wounds suffered in the duel as the credits roll.

* The [[Jean -Claude Van Damme]] movie ''Legionnaire'' has everyone who didn't die earlier be killed by a rebel army except for Van Damme character

* Zombie's ''[[Halloween (Filmfilm)|Halloween]] II'' has everyone die... including Dr. Loomis, Michael Myers, ''and'' Laurie!

* In Uwe Boll's ''[[GoodA TroiDay Episodein the Limelight|Tunnel Rats]]'', only two soldiers survive the Viet Cong massacre of their camp... only to be killed when the Air Force levels the place. A third soldier that had nearly escaped the VC's labyrinth of tunnels was buried alive and slowly suffocated.

* Applied [[In -Universe]] in the film ''[[Formula of Love]]'', where one of Caliostro's servants sing a song with nonsense words, and when asked by some woman what the song means (she presumes it's in Italian), he tells her a tragic story ending with "So in summation, everybody died."

* Subverted in ''[[Galaxy Quest (Film)|Galaxy Quest]]'', where a [[Kill Them All]] ending is [[Ret -Gone]].

* In the Dolph Lundgren movie ''[[Diamond Dogs]]'', every main character except Dolph is dead by the end. 3Three of them die within seconds of eachother.each other.

== [[Literature]] ==

* The fourth, fifth and sixth ''[[Harry Potter (Literaturenovel)|Harry Potter]]'' books each ended with an increasingly major character dying. Then along came [[Harry Potter (Franchise)/Harry Potter and Thethe Deathly Hallows (novel)|the seventh]], which was a "bloodbath of epic proportions." It was so bad that Muggle Net took bets on character deaths before it even came out. Who died? Dobby, Hedwig, Mad-Eye Moody, Tonks, Remus Lupin, Fred Weasley, Colin Creevy, Peter Pettigrew, Severus Snape, Crabbe, Bellatrix Lestrange, Lord Voldemort, and oh, yeah, [[Near -Death Experience|Harry Potter himself]] (sort of). Those were just the major characters. The complete list can be found [http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_deaths#Harry_Potter_and_the_Deathly_Hallows here].

* ''[[The HitchhikersHitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy|Mostly Harmless]]''. At the end, most of the main characters and all possible Earths are completely obliterated from all possible timelines. Permanently. (The only possible survivor is a character who stepped into a teleporter in a previous book and wasn't seen again.) And then, to make it even worse, the ''author'' [[Author Existence Failure|died]].

* In ''[[IslandoftheIsland of the Blue Dolphins]]'', the [[The Aloner|protagonist]]'s entire people sailed away from her island, and the brother left behind with her is killed by wild dogs soon after. Then it's revealed that their ship sank, killing everybody on it. So even after she leaves her island, she's [[Last of His Kind|very, very alone]].

* ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire (Literature)|A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' went this way at full speed since ''A Storm of Swords'', and it's not like the first two books lacked corpses either.

** From [httphttps://web.archive.org/web/20001005212114/http://eventhorizon.com/sfzine/chats/transcripts/031899.html Martin himself]: "No one will be alive by the last book. In fact, they all die in the fifth. The sixth book will be just a thousand-page description of snow blowing across the graves..."

* [[HPH.P. Lovecraft]] never pulled this off, probably because he always presented his stories in a semi-realistic manner, so ending it with "then everybody died" when the world is, very clearly, not dead, would kinda ruin the setting. Instead he had lots of "everybody WILL die. And there's nothing we can do about it".

* In ''[[And Then There Were None (Literature)|And Then There Were None]]'' by [[Agatha Christie (Creator)|Agatha Christie]], everyone on the island is killed off and the culprit leaves a confession in a bottle, sends it out to sea, and commits suicide.

** Like a character from the Honorverse? Too bad - there's roughly a 50% chance they'll die within a few books. Unless, of course, that character is the favorite character of David Weber's wife, i.e. {{spoiler|James MacGuinness.}}

* ''[[Sometimes Never: aA Fable Forfor Supermen]]'', the human race is wiped out in the fictional WWIII and WWIV. The Gremlins survived by hiding underground, only to learn that they are going to cease to exist because they are created by the imagination of humans.

* ''[[All Quiet On the Western Front (Literature)|All Quiet Onon the Western Front]]''. Almost every character dies, even including the narrator. Only two survive, Tjaden and Kropp, who is crippled.

* A few of the [[One Hundred and Eight108]] heroes of ''[[Heroes of the Water Margin (Literature)|Heroes of the Water Margin]]'' (or ''Suikoden'', for those of you more familiar with the Japanese title) had already died before the end, but a huge list of them get killed off fighting another rebel group, just as the government had hoped because they feared the heroes' power. Whichever survivors that didn't scatter to the winds after that were poisoned by order of the emperor.

* [[King Arthur|The Arthur legend]]. At the end, a whopping ''five'' characters are left living: Lancelot and Guinevere (who join the Church and die anyway), Bedivere, Morgan, and Arthur, who [[Ascend to Aa Higher Plane of Existence|was carried off to Avalon with a mortal wound]], [[King in Thethe Mountain|to wait and sleep there until England needs him again]].

* [[Crapsack World|Inevitably]], ''[[Warhammer 40000 (Tabletop Game)|Warhammer 4000040,000]]'' literature has plenty of examples:

** In the [[Horus Heresy]] novel ''Battle for the Abyss'', every single character, named and unnamed, ends up dead. By [[Horus Heresy]] standards, this is a [[Bittersweet Ending]]: at least the loyalist Space Marines' [[Heroic Sacrifice|Heroic Sacrifices]]s are not in vain.

** In ''Daemon World'', the epilogue states that there is a ''legend'' that one of the book's characters lived. Other than that slight possibility, all the characters (named and unnamed) and the entire population of the world died -- plusdied—plus [[Genius Loci|the world itself]]. An Eldar maiden world, it was [[Driven to Suicide]] because of all the horrors that had been committed on it.

** In the ''[[Grey Knights (Literature)|Grey Knights]]'' novel ''Hammer of Daemons'', Alaric himself survives. Also some low-level unnamed [[Mooks]], and two Grey Knights who weren't captured in the opening chapter. Other than that, every named character and large chunks of the unnamed masses die.

** The ''[[GauntsGaunt's Ghosts (Literature)|Gaunts Ghosts]]'' novels inevitably go this way. The author started killing off major characters in book 5 (of 12, with no ending in sight), hasn't stopped since, and explicitly stated that he's going to continue writing for the series until people lose interest in them or there is no-one left to write about.

* From David Weber and Steve White, [[The Shiva Option|General Directive 18]].

* Has a lampshade hung on it by [[Mark Twain]] in the afterword to ''[[Pudd'nhead Wilson,]]'', where he explains that the solution to the convoluted original plot was to drop the original characters down a well in the back yard, which only ceased when it seemed likely the well would fill up.

* This is exactly the point of the eponymous [[Deadly Game|thereality HungerTV Gamesshow]], in ''[[The Hunger Games|the (novel's]])|The eponymousHunger reality TV-showGames]]. Subverted when Katniss and Peeta attempt a double suicide with poison; to avoid this, the Capitol makes them ''both'' winners. The Capitol is not very happy about it, either.

** Not to be outdone, ''Catching Fire'' has even more people dying. Though, subverted slightly in the end of the Quarter Quell as the six remaining victor-tributes survive the end of the book. Of course District 12 is bombed so, more deaths. Though an estimate of survivors is not given until ''Mockingjay''.

** Though the one that really takes the crown in the trilogy is ''Mockingjay''. Finnick, Boggs, Prim, Cinna, Portia (along with the rest of Peeta's prep team), all except seven of the 41 living victors of previous Hunger Games, a random woman in the Capitol that Katniss shoots, quite a few Capitol children, Snow, Coin, all except for four other members of Katniss's team. And if your counting when we see it, almost 2/3 of District 12's citizens, including Madge and her family are all dead by the book's end. Really, you could tell someone who's never read the books "Everyone dies" and you wouldn't be too far off.

* In all of Matthew Reilly's books except for ''Hover Car Racer'', nearly all characters die except for the small main group of people.On average this leaves about 4 characters unharmed at the end of each book.

* At the end of ''[[The Children of Hurin (Literature)Húrin|The Children of Hurin]]'', main character Turin, his sister Nienor, their mother Morwen, Turin's best friend Beleg, romantic rival Brandir, the entire kingdom of Nargothrond, a plot-significant outlaw tribe, and several important villains are all dead. About the only significant characters to make it out alive are the (immortal) [[Big Bad]], Hurin himself, Thingol and Melian, and Mablung- and the last four all have their days numbered. [[Sarcasm Mode|Fun times]]! And this story is but a mere chapter of ''[[The Silmarillion (Literature)|The Silmarillion]]'', where the surviving characters can be counted on one hand.

* Alma Alexander's ''The Secrets of Jin-Shei'' features eight main characters. Four die dramatically in quick succession toward the end of the book, and one disappears. Then comes the epilogue, where the one remaining main character muses on the deaths of the others--ohothers—oh, and her husband and son are dead by then, too.

* Garth Nix's ''[[Keys to Thethe Kingdom]]'' subverted it. Every character, named and unnamed, dies, except for the main character, who comes out of it with a [[God Job|slight change of vocation]]. He decides to [[Reset Button|fix things]], but is unable to restore everyone, including all the Denizens, a vast majority of the named characters in the series. Further, two humans are (arguably) affected: his mother and himself, though the New Architect [[I Just Want to Be Normal|buds off a new Arthur]].

* ''[[The Book Thief]]'' by Markus Zusak. Almost the entire cast in one scene. Notably, [[Oh, and X Dies|we're told this well in advance.]]

* ''[[Catch-22]]''. The first two thirds of the book are extremely light hearted and funny. And then they remind you that this is a war. The brilliant part though, is that their deaths happen so gradually, you don't realize just how many people have died until Yossarian tries to picture all the people he's known who're dead.

* The ''[[Nibelungenlied (Literature)|Nibelungenlied]]'': None of the Burgundians who get to Etzel's court survive, tons of Etzel's men, his brother Blödel, wife Kriemhild and son Ortlieb are killed as well, as are Rüdiger of Bechlaren and all his men, and all of Dietrich's retainers except Hildebrand. The only named Burgundian survivors the two queens left behind in Worms (Ute and Brunhild, although in some adaptations, notably the Fritz Lang movie, Brunhild commits suicide or dies after Siegfried's murder - having loved only him, she has no reason to go on living). And there's the (unnamed) chaplain who had to return home after Hagen unsuccessfully tried to drown him in the Danube.

* Brian Keene's [[Zombie Apocalypse]] two-parter ''The Rising'' and ''City Of The Dead'' culminates with all the human characters being killed via means ranging from "[[Taking You Withwith Me|self-immolation by firing a flamethrower at a gas line while surrounded]]" to "[[Non -Human Undead|eaten in their sleep by zombie rats]]" to "killed by zombie crocodile in the sewers". On the other hand, they did get an afterlife which... well, no details beyond the presence of loved ones are actually mentioned, but given that it presumably did ''not'' feature demonic spirits reanimating the dead, it can only have been an improvement.

* ''[[Black AdderBlackadder|The Black Adder]]'' ended with all but two of the main characters dying from drinking poison as a result of a convoluted power struggle. Later seasons of the ''[[Black AdderBlackadder]]'' also tended to end with the wiping out of all or most of the cast. This was played for morbid laughs in ''Blackadder II'' (and averted ''Blackadder the Third''), but treated ''[[Tear Jerker|deadly seriously]]'' in ''Blackadder Goes Forth''.

* The ''[[Dinosaurs]]'' finale, "Changing Nature," had the dinosaurs in the process of going extinct due to environmental catastrophe brought about by the actions of the [[Fun Withwith Acronyms|WESAYSO]] Corporation. A [[Downer Ending|very bleak ending]] to a generally light-hearted show.

* ''[[Cold Case (TV)|Cold Case]]'' dealt with a mall shooting where the perps killed and maimed more than 15 people before offing themselves. After further investigation, it's learned that one of the survivors helped motivate them into the shooting, thinking they'd just take out the jerks who tried to rape her earlier that day, only to have this revenge plan backfire when she realized they were unstable enough to go after people at random. The survivor eventually tried to off herself, as well, thus fulfilling the trope in spades.

* ''[[V (TV series)|V]]: The Series'' had numerous secondary characters being killed off during the series, including resistance fighters who had been present since the original miniseries (not to mention other long-term characters simply leaving, never to be seen again). At the end, the viewer is left to infer that resistance member Robin's child, Elizabeth (a.k.a. "The Star Child") and her boyfriend were killed when they boarded a transport with a hidden bomb on it.

* A number of ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' stories end like this. It's worth noting that in these cases the Doctor's actions usually prevent a far greater number of casualties, and the Doctor and his companions (almost) always survive, but the high body is rather unsettling for what is ostensibly [[What Do You Mean ItsIt's for Kids?|a family program]].

*** "Castrovalva" has seemingly everyone except the Doctor and his three companions die. The Master also seems to die, though he somehow escapes [[Joker Immunity|with no explanation whatsoever]].

** Even though it's set in another timeline, "Turn Left" has to be mentioned here. The Doctor, Martha, [[The Sarah Jane Adventures (TV)|Sarah Jane, Maria, Clyde, Luke,]] [[Torchwood (TV)|Gwen and Ianto]] are all killed [[For Want of a Nail|because Donna turned right at a intersection]]. With Donna and Rose the main characters of the episode and Jack immortal and Owen and Tosh already dead, that's every character that's ever had billing in all three series. Since this all gets reversed by the end of the episode, it's also an example of the [[Second Law of Metafictional Thermodynamics]].

* The short-lived NBC show ''[[The Others (TV series)|The Others]]'' ended with all but one character (Albert) biting it.

* The final episodes of the Canadian TV series ''Butch Patterson: Private Dick'' ended with five of the seven main characters being killed off one by one, the sixth going to jail for their murders, with only the title character being the last man standing.

* ''[[Forever Knight (TV)|Forever Knight]]''. Oh, ''[[Forever Knight (TV)|Forever Knight]]''. Virtually everyone on the show was killed off over the course of the third season, culminating in the hero seemingly killing his beloved and then asking his sire to stake him.

* ''[[Angel (TV)|Angel]]''. In the final episode, Wesley and Lindsey are both killed in the final battle, and Eve refuses to leave the collapsing building, and may or might die. Doyle, Cordelia and Fred have all died previously. Connor escapes, as does Lorne. The last thing we see is Angel, Spike, Illyria and a mortally wounded Gunn facing off impossible odds. Although [[Joss Whedon]] later wrote comics in which most characters survive (sort of, but in the process the entire city of Los Angeles was literally sent to Hell), this was the end for a lot of the TV audience.

* ''[[Twenty Four (TV)24|Twenty Four]]''. Virtually every major, recurring character introduced in the first four seasons has been killed off, with the exceptions of Jack, Kim, Chloe, and Tony (who is now in prison for probably several consecutive life sentences).

* Out of 25 main characters and several minor ones on ''[[Harpers Island|Harper's Island]]'', 4 make it out alive (2 due to [[Infant Immortality]]). There are 29 deaths on screen.

* The season one finale of [[Spartacus: Blood and Sand|Spartacus: Blood And Sand]]. [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin]].

* Often done with ''[[Lost (TV)|Lost]]'' with the minor characters: by the beginning of Season Five, all of the background survivors are dead, and by season six most of the background Others are dead.

* In [[The Protomen (Music)|The Protomen]]'s Act I, Dr. Wily orders the robot army to kill the crowd. In live performances, he sometimes says the line verbatim.

* [[Iron Maiden (Music)|Iron Maiden]]'s concept album "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son". An entire town is wiped out due to an disaster, and Lucifer plans on canceling mankind.

* [[REM|It's]] [[The End of the World Asas We Know It]]...

** An [https://web.archive.org/web/20121212171737/http://www.spookhouse.net/angelynx/manson/ACS.HTM alternative explanation] is that this didn't mean that everyone would be killed, but rather that instead of eternal paradise or damnation (noted as lies in the previous line), people [[Take a Third Option]] and just... end.

* [[Porcupine Tree (Music)|Porcupine Tree]]'s "Strip The Soul," from the 2002 album ''In Absentia'': "Strip the soul, kill them all.."

** ''[[WerewolfVampire: The Apocalypse (Tabletop Game)|Werewolf: The ApocalypseMasquerade]]'' promised thisnothing end fromof the word gokind, andbut toin itsa credit, mostcouple of the end-game scenarios defaultedthe best you can really do is "life will someday toevolve itagain."

* ''[[FATAL]]'' has this as the eponymous spell, which destroys the universe. The spell can be cast as a random effect of a spell miscast.

* In the [[Cthulhu Mythos]] board game ''[[Arkham Horror]]'' (and the dice game ''Elder Sign'') the players are investigators trying to seal away a [[Eldritch Abomination]] before it awakens. If it does wake up, there's a last-ditch [[Boss Fight]] against it. Except Azathoth. Azathoth takes longer to wake than other [[GO Os]]GOOs, but if he does then ''everyone dies immediately''.

** By the end of ''[[Hamlet (Theatre)|Hamlet]]'', the only major character left alive is Horatio. Hamlet's Dad is dead before the curtain goes up in the first place, Polonius is murdered by Hamlet in a case of mistaken identity (though Hamlet's not too unhappy about that), which causes his daughter Ophelia to commit suicide. The final scene then ends with a bloodbath that kills off Hamlet's mother, his uncle, Ophelia's brother Laertes and finally Hamlet himself.

** ''[[King Lear (Theatre)|King Lear]]'' is scarcely less bloody, featuring seven (eight if a given production kills off the Fool) deaths, and it's all but explicitly stated that the Earl of Kent exits at the end of the play to commit suicide, which leaves only Edgar and Albany alive.

** ''[[Titus Andronicus (Theatretheatre)|Titus Andronicus]]'', where the only major characters left alive when the play ends are Lucius, Marcus and [[Card -Carrying Villain]] Aaron. And Aaron's being taken off to his execution.

** ''[[Romeo and Juliet (Theatre)|Romeo and Juliet]]'', anyone? Romeo, Juliet, Tybalt, Mercutio, Paris, [[Demoted to Extra|Benvolio]], Lady Montague... It's almost a trope in itself for a character [[Analogy Backfire|not to realize this]] and say something like: "Oh, what a beautiful, heartwarming love story, just like Romeo and Juliet!"

** Just about the only two members of the main cast who survive ''[[Othello (Theatre)|Othello]]'' are the ''bad'' guy (Iago), who probably will be executed soon, and one now-crippled good guy (Cassio), but everyone else (Othello, Desdemona, Rodrigo, and Emilia) is deader than a doornail.

* ''Götterdämmerung'', the final play in [[Richard Wagner]]'s operatic cycle ''[[Der Ring Des Nibelungen|Der Ring des Nibelungen]]'', culminates with Siegfried's death prompting Brünnhilde to make a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] that burns down Valhalla with all the gods inside.

* In ''[[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Theatretheatre)|Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street]]'', all but Toby, Anthony, and Johanna wind up dead. The original Broadway musical and [[Word of God|Stephen Sondheim himself]] indicate that Anthony and Johanna do, in fact, survive, having burst onto the scene with the constable in tow (Sondheim has said that they are the only two characters to have a "happy" ending, relatively speaking). Toby, however, has gone completely and incurably insane.

* Greek tragedies often killed off all or nearly all the main characters, leaving only one or two minor characters to carry on. Example: ''[[Antigone (Theatre)|Antigone]]''. Other times it was [[EverybodysEverybody's Dead, Dave]].

** And if they don't die? Well, the wounds they carry aren't usually just of the psychological variety. Case in point, ''[[Oedipus Tyrannusthe (Theatre)King|Oedipus Tyrannus]]'' (or ''Rex'', depending on the translator), who, after his mother/wife hangs herself, uses her cloak-pin to gouge out both of his eyes. Basically, when you get up and leave the theatre at the end of a Greek Tragedy? Expect to [http[wikipedia://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catharsis |feel phenomenally relieved]] that ''it didn't happen to you''.

* [[PDQ Bach]]'s "half-act opera" ''The Stoned Guest'' kills off its four principal characters in a minute and a half: Donna Ribalda strangles Carmen Ghia to death. In revenge, Don Octave tries to stab Donna Ribalda, but she dodges and he is [[Hoist Byby His Own Petard]]. Il Commandatoreador draws a pistol and fells Donna Ribalda in one shot, but he then succumbs to an overdose of alcohol. Then all four of them inexplicably get better and sing a happy finale.

* The show ''[[Urinetown: The Musical]]'' ends with the rebels, led by the villain's daughter avenging the death of the Protagonist and throwing the Big Bad off a building. Unfortunately, it turns out the "evil" measures the villain had taken to ensure water conservation really were the only sensible choice. Everyone, save for the secretary Mr. [[Mc Queen]]McQueen who moves to the amazon, ends up dying slowly of dehydration whilst singing a gospel of how the only water they need is inside them. Yeah, it's not.

== [[Video Games]] ==

* ''[[Doom (Video Gameseries)|Doom]]''. By the end of the first of three episodes every single living character, no matter how minor, is confirmed dead. That's every single one of the scientists your crew was sent to check up on, every single one of your teammates no matter what station, and the protagonist himself is killed in the episode finale to boot.

* ''[[Odin Sphere]]'' ends in [[The End of the World Asas We Know It|Ragnarok]] - the game's five protagonists must each fight against the five harbingers of apocalypse. Fighting them in any but one order (as hinted at through a [[[[No Man of Woman Born]] series of prophecies) results in everybody dying, regardless of the player winning the fights.

* ''[[Planescape Torment|Planescape: Torment]]'' ends with the entire party dead and one's character sent to eternal punishment in the lower planes or erased from existence entirely. It's possible to save everyone but the main character, who goes to his eternal punishment if you do so. And that's the ''good'' ending. Though it is implied that he kicks ass in the afterlife, as well.

* ''[[Unreal II: theThe Awakening (Video Game)|Unreal II the Awakening]]'' ends with a massive [[Dropped a Bridge Onon Him|Bridge Drop]] on the whole squad except the main characters. While there was a vibe of [[The War Has Just Begun]], the sequel hook was surprisingly vague and no actual sequel materialized. [[Downer Ending]] all around.

* The Base Defense missions in the middle-late portions of ''[[Marathon (Video Game)|Marathon]] 2: Durandal]]'' have the player scouring a friendly base from evil clones of the friendlies. How to tell them apart (except that clones explode when approached)? Well, the first such mission is called ''God Will Sort the Dead''. Yes, it's a very viable strategy, and on the Xbox 360 port, it's actually necessary for [[One Hundred Percent Completion]].

* The [[Multiple Endings|bad ending]] of ''[[Persona 3]]'' has this happen to SEES, as well as about [[The End of the World Asas We Know It|six billion-plus]] extras.

* [[Sarcasm Mode|Surprisingly]], ''[[God of War (Video Gameseries)|God of War]]'' features this type of ending, with every member of the main cast but (possibly) Kratos dying by the end by the end of the third game. Even then, it's extremely ambiguous.

* The [[Multiple Endings|appropriately named Armageddon Ending]] in ''[[Live a Live]]''. The worst part is that ''You're playing as the bosses, it's you who gives out the command and to gain access to the ending, you must let the heroes beat you within an inch of your life, so you must deliberately search for the ending.'' [[The End of the World Asas We Know It|You sick filthy bastard]].

** Also the [[Secret Character|Asagi]] Route; in a divergence from her normal characterization, Asagi spitefully destroys the world, forcing you to start a [[New Game Plus+]] with her on the team.

* The losing team in ''[[Team Fortress 2 (Video Game)|Team Fortress 2]]'' is stripped of their weapons and made to run slower while the winning team gets a speed boost and 100% critical hit chance. [[Hilarity Ensues]].

** In the finale of Payload maps, both teams will be usually be near the bomb as it explodes (one team pushing the cart into the others spawn point), usually resulting in both team being killed.

* Most of the lead and supporting cast of the ''[[Max Payne (Video Gameseries)|Max Payne]]'' games is dead by the end of the second game, with only Max himself and one of the minor secondary characters surviving, unless you beat the game on the hardest difficulty, in which case Mona Sax also survives.

* A humongous number of named characters are dead by the end of ''[[StarcraftStarCraft]]: Brood War'', with only five characters of note from the first game surviving (Kerrigan, Jim Raynor, Zeratul, Artanis and Arcturus Mengsk).

* [[Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors]]: The "Submarine" ending plays it perfectly straight, with every other Nonary Game participant dead and covered in blood, before you get knifed [[In the Back]]. That's every character killed. Of course, Ace feigned death, and the Snake that was dead in Door 3 was not the actual Snake that you met. Snake would probably still die, though.

* ''[[FEARF.E.A.R.]]: Extraction Point'', the [[Canon Dis ContinuityDiscontinuity|non-canon]] [[Mission Pack Sequel]] to ''[[FEARF.E.A.R.]]'', ends with all the protagonist's teammates dead, the protagonist himself on the verge of death, having failed to defeat the [[Big Bad]], and [[The End of the World Asas We Know It]] looming.

* ''[[Dead Space (Videovideo Gamegame)|Dead Space]]'' has you see everyone die, except Isaac, who goes on to the sequel ''[[Dead Space 2 (Video Game)|Dead Space 2]]''.

** So does the animated film ''[[Dead Space: Downfall (Film)|Dead Space Downfall]]'', in no uncertain terms.

* ''[[Shin Megami Tensei I]]'' in the Neutral Ending. Starts off an ordinary day in a modern Japanese town setting. By the end, it's just you, the Heroine and the Old Man left alive in the entire world, more or less. The Lawful Ending has God's chosen people [[Ascend to Aa Higher Plane of Existence]], which [[The End of the World Asas We Know It|sort of fits]]. It's averted in the Chaos Ending, but the survivors have a far worse world to look forward to.

* In ''[[Final Fantasy X 2 (Video Game)|Final Fantasy X-2]]'', losing, or taking too long, against the final boss Vegnagun will result in it [[Bad End|firing, obliterating not only your party, but all of Spira]].

* ''[[DEFCON]]'''s motto is "Everybody Dies". Appropriate as [[Kill Em All|everybody DOES die]] as a result of a [[Cold War|nuclear war.]]

* ''[[Mortal Kombat]]: [[Mortal Kombat: Deception (Video Game)|Deception]]'' [[Dropped a Bridge Onon Him|drops a bridge]] on most of the older characters at the beginning of the game, including Cage, Sonya, Kitana, Jax, Liu Kang, and Raiden.

** Liu Kang was actually already killed [[Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance (Video Game)|in the previous game]]. And as for Raiden, it's not like death keeps him down for long - he's unlockable anyway (as the [[Came Back Wrong]] [[Fan Nickname|Dark Raiden]]).

** The climax of ''[[Mortal Kombat 9 (Video Game)|Mortal Kombat 9]]'''s story mode kills off a pretty sizeable chunk of the cast. The ending hints that the Netherrealm will be the primary setting of the sequel, so said characters [[EverythingsEverything's Deader Withwith Zombies|might not be as dead as you think]].

* The final battle of ''[[Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 2]]'' is the aptly-named "[[Suicide Mission]]". [[Anyone Can Die]], up to and including [[Player Character|Commander Shepard]] him/herself if you're insufficiently prepared. Anyone except Joker, anyway.

* Bioware was ''stopped'' from doing this for [[Knights of the Old Republic (Videovideo Gamegame)|Knights of the Old Republic]]. A female-only ending had Carth making a [[Heroic Sacrifice|last-ditch effort to plead with the PC]] if she chose the Dark Side. The player could accept his offer to turn on Bastila and allow the Republic to destroy the Starforge, [[Together in Death|dying with him to save the Republic]].

* In ''[[Fate/stay Stay Night (Visual Novel)night|Fate Stay Night]]'s'' Heaven's Feel route, almost the entire supporting cast, and Saber, the [[Love Interest]] from one of the other routes die, and in one ending even ''Shiro'', the ''protagonist'', dies.

** The prequel ''[[Fate /Zero]]'' is even worse. The protaganist Kiritsugu is [[Your Days Are Numbered|diseased]], and everyone else except for [[Big Bad|Kotomine]] and another main character dies.

* ''[[Muv Luv Alternative]]'' ends with one final, [[Suicide Mission]] for Takeru and his squadmates: Operation Cherry Blossom. [[Dwindling Party|One by one]], you see each of the girls - characters developed over the course of three games and friends who Takeru (and the player) has come to care for very deeply - perform a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to let Takeru go on, and get killed in ways so brutal and graphic that an outcry from the fans resulted over the [[Gorn]], culminating in Takeru [[Player Punch|being forced to]] [[I Cannot Self -Terminate|to blow up Meiya (the girl he cared for the deepest aside from his girlfriend Sumika)]] [[Shoot the Hostage|to kill the Big Bad]]. Only three make it out of the Original Hive alive: Takeru, Sumika and Kasumi, and of ''them'' Takeru [[Ret -Gone|ceases to exist]] and Sumika dies due to [[No Ontological Inertia]]. Of the unit Takeru and his squadmates joined, all (except the three who spent the operation hospitalized) are dead (including the commanding officers), and the three ''may'' follow suit if the sidestories released by the makers are any indication.

* Depending upon your interpretation of the ending of ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics (Video Game)|Final Fantasy Tactics]]'', it might be just this. Every villain is killed, possibly all of House Beoulve the entire playable cast might have been blown away by the Final Boss's death explosion in the Airship Graveyard, and as for Delita and Ovelia, they have a frank discussion of their mutual differences using knives.

* At the end of its second part, ''[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TrafficDepartment2192 [Traffic Department 2192]]'' kills off [[Apocalypse How|the entire population of the planet on which it was set]], except for a few members of the Traffic Department who escape. In part 3, everyone in the Traffic Department except [[Villain Protagonist|Velasquez]], [[Robot Buddy|Bob]], and Velasquez's [[Infant Immortality|young son Ian]] dies, but they take with them all of the [[Alien Invaders|alien chain of command]] in their region of space except [[Redemption Earns Life|Orlok, who wants to reform the invaders from within]], and Mala, another child. Between the two factions an entire species of [[Silicon -Based Life]] is completely annihilated. Velasquez's [[Cybernetics Eat Your Soul|cybernetic implants are damaging her brain and will kill her soon]], so that leaves a grand total of four survivors out of everyone who appears onscreen.

* The two "worse" endings in [[Cave Story (Video Game)|Cave Story]]:

* While few characters are shown dying in ''[[Sunset Over Imdahl]]'', the end implies that absolutely nobody within Imdahl's walls got out alive--thealive—the few who survived the plague were slaughtered by soldiers and dumped in a mass grave, which is found in a [[Bad Future]] that the hero [[You Can't Fight Fate|utterly fails to avert]].

* In ''[[Halo: Reach]]'', all of Noble Team dies one by one, with the exception of Jun, who gets ''[[Put Onon a Bus]]''.

* The ending of ''[[Agarest Senki (Video Game)|Agarest Senki]]'' implies that everyone except the party members are going to die. And guess what? This is not the bad ending or the normal ending. This ''is the TRUE ENDING''. Justified due to the fact that the gods have supported the world and since you just kicked their asses, the world now belongs to the mortals but first, the ones who live at the continents have to die first.

* The vast computer system that controls the [[Precursors]] of ''[[MegamanMega Man Legends]]'' pretty much operates on this trope. Good thing Mega Man's the only surviving entity that can override it, or else it would've actually happened. ''Twice''.

* ''[[Dawn of War (Video Game)|Dawn of War]] 2: Retribution'' has this occur in the Tyranids' ending: the resurgent Hive Fleet drives off the Inquisition, then proceeds to devour the subsector, killing 94% of all Guardsmen stationed there, and every last loyalist Blood Raven... to say nothing of the billions of civilians in the subsector. The last shot in the ending is bugs as far as the eye can see.

** The Ork ending of ''Winter Assault'' has every character except Gorgutz and his unnamed [[Yes -Man]] dead.

** The Necron endings of both ''Dark Crusade'' and ''Soulstorm'' have the [[Omnicidal Maniac|omnicidal]] [[Killer Robot|Killer Robots]]s do what they do best.

* Almost every protagonist in ''[[Eternal Darkness (Video Game)|Eternal Darkness]]: Sanity's Requiem'' is killed off. Technically there are three survivors (and Alex), as the three characters don't die on-screen, though the final character implies that even if they're still alive in the present day, they'll be hunted down for the rest of their lives.

* In the Gamecube's ''[[Resident Evil (Videovideo Gamegame)|Resident Evil]]'' (which is for all practical purposes the original ''RE''), everybody but the player could and probably would die. In the worst ending, everyone dies except for the player character. Canonically, Jill, Chris, Barry, Brad, and Rebecca all survive, although this is impossible to achieve in the game.

** In ''[[Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (Video Game)|Resident Evil 3]]'' the entire city is nuked, killing all but the lucky few who escaped.

* The original "good" ending for ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2 (Video Game)|Neverwinter Nights 2]]'': due to having a [[Load -Bearing Boss]], [[The Very Definitely Final Dungeon]] collapses, burying the party. ''[[Expansion Pack|Mask of the Betrayer]]'' rectified the matter; over half the party survived.

== Webcomics[[Web Comics]] ==

* ''[[College Roomies From HellCRFH]]'' seems to be heading in this direction - with Mike murdered by April and Marsha gunned down by Mike's mother to keep her from killing April... before she could. <br />They all recovered. For a given value of "recovered", of course; this being CRFH!!!.

* ''[[The Last Days of Foxhound]]'' [[Doomed Byby Canon|has]] [[Foregone Conclusion|its]] [[Metal Gear Solid|reasons]] to kill of most of the main cast.

* In the circus arc of ''[[Schlock Mercenary (Webcomic)|Schlock Mercenary]]'', Schlock is getting a little twitchy about his undercover janitor job, and comes up with a [[Cutting the Knot|simple solution]]:

{{quote| '''Schlock:''' I say we burn the place down until the smells go away, then interrogate the survivors.<br />

'''Chelle:''' Would there ''be'' any survivors in that scenario?<br />

* ''[[Homestuck (Webcomic)|Homestuck]]'' became this as of Act 5 Act 2, with it presumably mostly abating with the conclusion of said act. As you'd expect from such a [[Genre Savvy]] work, it's been lampshaded to hell and back both in and out of the comic.

{{quote| '''[http://mspandrew.tumblr.com/post/11960418585/about-eoa5-part-3 Andrew Hussie, on the end of Act 5 flash]''': All of Act 5 could be subtitled “Jack Noir Kills Everybody” and that’s pretty much the guiding principle I had in structuring it from the start.}}

{{quote| ''"Oh god, you're right! There are still a few characters I haven't killed yet. I almost forgot about them."''}}

** [http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=006713 Not even] [[Author Avatar|Hussie himself]] [http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=006713 survived the comic.]

* In ''[[Sinfest]]'', [httphttps://wwwweb.archive.org/web/20140209193157/http://sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=3523 Crimney complains about a ] [[Zombie Apocalypse]] thrown into a story to achieve this.

* ''[[Madness Combat (Web Animation)|Madness Combat]]'':

** Episodes 3 and 4 are straight [[Kill 'Em All]] episodes.

** Through the series as a whole, every character except Sanford and the [[Memetic Bystander|Hot Dog Vendor]] dies at least once, with some characters dieingdying multiple times an episode. Basically, if you live in Nevada, you WILL die.

* In ''[[The Demented Cartoon Movie]]'', the ending credits point out that only one character survived the movie. Everyone else died in explosions, head explosions, car accidents, explosions, crushing, and explosions.

* ''[[Fine Structure (Literature)|Fine Structure]]'' ends with nearly the entire named cast dead, usually by [[Bolt of Divine Retribution]], [[Heroic Sacrifice]], or [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|old age]].

* This is a fairly common way for episodes of ''[[Teen Girl Squad (Web Animation)|Teen Girl Squad]]'' to end.

* Walrusguy's final [[YoutubeYouTube Poop]] is somewhat infamous for this.

* ''[[Fate Nuovo Guerra (Roleplay)|Fate Nuovo Guerra]]'', [[Alternate Universe]] game that it is, hinges its [[Backstory]] on a [[Point of Divergence]] where [[Fate/stay Stay Night (Visual Novel)night|Fuyuki City]] is destroyed by a berserking Holy Grail.

* Pretty much the entire premise of ''[[Survival of the Fittest (Roleplay)|Survival of the Fittest]]'' (although it's something of a given, considering it is based off of ''[[Battle Royale (Literature)|Battle Royale]]''). By the end of the game, only one student it going to be left alive, something which entails the death of over 100 named characters to get to that point. Even then, one of the winners was thrown back into the game and hasn't been heard from since that version's conclusion, and another winner was killed a year after their game.

* Several episodes of ''[[Teen Girl Squad (Web Animation)|Teen Girl Squad]]''. [[Played for Laughs]] thanks to [[Negative Continuity]].

** In ''[[Strong Bads Cool Game for Attractive People (Video Game)|Strong BadsBad's Cool Game for Attractive People]]'', you can play a Teen Girl Squad minigame. Strong Bad gives you the most points by, you guessed it, killing all four girls as creatively as possible.

* "[[SpongeBob SquarePants (Animation)|Once there was an]] [[The Ugly Barnacle (Literature)|ugly barnacle]]. [[Eldritch Abomination|He was so ugly]] [[Downer Ending|that everyone died]]. [[The End|The end]]."

* ''[[The Animals of Farthing Wood]]'', while it ultimatleyultimately has an [[Earn Your Happy Ending]], has a ''massive'' body count for a children's cartoon. Only eight of the twenty-nine characters introduced in season one make it to the end, and that's not counting the casualties among later introductions. [[Infant Immortality]] is no solace, either.

== [[Real Life]] ==

* The biggest mass extinction in Earth's history actually occuredoccurred between the Permian and Triassic periods. About 90% of all life on Earth actually died out.

** More than twice that long ago, another mass extinction apparently killed off ''all'' conplexcomplex organisms on earth, leaving only algae as the most advanced form of life. This extinction was so complete that nothing even remotely related to them survived to evolve into other organism. It seems quite likely that they were neither animal, nor plant, nor fungus, and once they were gone complex life had to completely evolve once over again from much more primitive organisms.

* After the Khwarezmian Empire killed and shaved some of [[Genghis Khan]]'s messengers--whomessengers—who were sent to propose an alliance--Khanalliance—Khan marched his forces there and completely destroyed the Empire. This included slaughtering every living creature, pouring silver down the emperor's throat, and ''diverting rivers to cover the empire's territory". It is considered one of the first historical uses of total warfare.

{{quote| [[The Stinger|And then they died.]] [[The End]].}}

[[Category:KillDepressing Em AllTropes]]