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{{trope}}
[[File:bioshock19592 7019.jpg|frame]]
{{Video Game Examples Need Sorting}}
Standard video game set-up, particularly for the [[Survival Horror]] and [[Adventure Game]] genres.
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{{examples}}
== [[Anime]]
* The last two episodes of ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'', with the ''narrative'' arriving late and {{spoiler|[[Instrumentality]]}} being the party.▼
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* ''[[With Strings Attached]]'': The four are sent to C'hou, specifically the continent of Baravada, when its entire (dysfunctional anarchistic dystopian/utopian) way of life is dying out. There are hints of a much more orderly past to the planet, especially the magnificent [[Ghost City]] of Ehndris and the implied behavior of the [[Jerkass Gods]] some centuries in the past.▼
== [[Film]] ==
* In the movie ''[[28 Days Later]]'', main character Jim [[Abandoned Hospital Awakening|wakes up in a deserted hospital]] after England has been ravaged by the [[Hate Plague|Rage virus]]. This leads to a "last man on earth"-type scenario, at least until he stumbles upon some zombies and ends up being saved by survivors who actually know what happened.▼
* Ripley and the Colonial Marines in ''[[Aliens]]''.▼
{{quote|Sergeant Apone: Sir, this place is dead. Whatever happened here, I think we missed it.}}▼
* ''[[The Rocky Horror Picture Show]]'', with a literal party. Still, it's not ''quite'' over.▼
* [[John Carpenter]]'s ''[[The Thing (film)|The Thing]]'' got dug up by, and slaughtered, a <s>Scandinavian</s> Norwegian expedition team before it found its way into the American outpost in Antarctica.▼
== [[Literature]] ==
* In the book ''Prince Caspian'' from ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]'', the characters arrive at the ruins of the castle, and, over the course of the book, discover that Narnia has been overthrown by evil forces and they have been summoned to save it. Classic.▼
* ''[[Angels & Demons]]'' has the heroes reaching each of the four cardinals less late each time, but too late to save them nonetheless.▼
** Not entirely. If memory serves me correctly,{{verify}} Robert Langdon arrived early to where one of the cardinals was going to be executed, but was unable to keep the cardinal from drowning.▼
** Perhaps in the novel - in the film version, he actually saves the fourth cardinal.▼
* In ''[[At the Mountains of Madness]]'', all of the dying happens before the viewpoint characters arrive.▼
* ''[[Empire From the Ashes]]'' includes this in each book. First book: "What happened to Dahak's crew?" Second book: "What happened to the Fourth Imperium?" Third book: "What happened to Pardal's techbase?"▼
* ''[[Star Wars]]: [[Shatterpoint]]'' has ''the Clone Wars and the Republic at large'' be late to the "party" known as [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Summertime_War the Summertime Wars]. Basically, conflict between offworlders and natives led to a war that starts when the winter snows melt and end when the autumn rains began. Each year. For thirty years as of the start of the book. The natives only support the Republic because the offworlders are supported by the Separatists. Mace Windu, the narrator, notes that his young native companions do not speak of [[Retirony|what they will do " after the war]]". Because it's all they've ever known. {{spoiler|Which makes it kind of heartbreaking when Nick admits his feelings about what he wanted to do with Chalk ''if'' the war ever ended, while holding her corpse.}}▼
* In ''Chains of Loss'', the first book of the ''[[Hero's Chains]]'' series, Derek arrives several centuries late to a world gone from a sci-fi utopia to a fantasy hellhole.▼
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
* ''[[Star Trek]]'': Can you say "Assemble an away team to explore the derelict/ruin"? How about "Jim, this man is dead!"?▼
* ''[[Doctor Who]]'' begins ''quite'' a few episodes with the Doctor landing right in the middle of a national/planetary/universal crisis, spending about half of the episode working out what's going on and the second half either fixing it or getting the hell out of there.▼
** There are a few examples, though, which fit this trope especially well:▼
*** "Silence in the Library"/"Forest of the Dead:" the Doctor and companion (and an archaeological expedition) arrive a century after the "event"▼
*** "Blink:" as told from the perspective of Sally Sparrow, she is learning of actions the Doctor took decades earlier. [[Timey-Wimey Ball|Which he hasn't done yet]].▼
* ''[[Lost]]'' was partially inspired by games such as ''[[Myst]]'' in which the character finds himself in a strange place with little information, including the objectives of the game. As the characters have explored the island, they've found the abandoned Dharma stations, numerous skeletons, and what was once a large statue, which now has been reduced to a lone foot.▼
* ''[[Power Rangers Ninja Storm]]'' begins with our heroes-to-be late for training yet again... thus missing the [[Big Bad]]'s initial sacking of their training hall.▼
* In the pilot episode of ''[[Crusade]]'', [[The Captain|Gideon]] arrives to Earth days after the battle with the Drakh (see ''[[Babylon 5]]: [[A Call To Arms]]''). All the crew see are ship wreckage and infected Earth. Matheson comments that they were late for the party even before they jumped. Then again, there's not much they could've done with a research vessel with enough weapons to scare off an occasional [[Space Pirates|raider]] or two.▼
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* The [[Post Apocalyptic]] tabletop RPG ''[[The Morrow Project]]'' starts with this premise: elite troopers were equipped and put into [[Cryogenically Frozen|cryogenic suspension]], to be revived just after the coming nuclear war so they can help rebuild society -- except something went wrong and they don't awaken until ''centuries'' later.▼
== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''[[Space Quest]] I'' In the very beginning, Roger Wilco awakens in his closet from the sounds of gun fire and commotion as the ship he is on is taken over by the enemy Sariens. By the time he exits the closet, the crew is already dead, the self-destruction sequence is already engaged, and he has to find his way to the escape pod while avoiding the invaders who are still looking for any living souls who they might have missed.
* ''[[The 7th Guest]]'' and its sequels. The main character in ''The Seventh Guest'' is late for a literal party ? so late that all the guests are ghosts! {{spoiler|It later turns out that he is, in fact, the eponymous Seventh Guest, and was on time, as he, too, is a ghost.}}
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* Most of the ''[[Resident Evil]]'' games. ''[[Resident Evil]] 2'', where Leon and Claire show up to a zombie-infested Raccoon City, takes it the most literally: Partway through, you find the party favors and decorations for a welcome party the Raccoon City Police Department was going to throw for Leon.
* ''[[Dead Rising]]''. Frank West enters Willamette to investigate a story...which turns out to be a zombie outbreak. Somewhat of an oddball example, as Frank's mission from the start is to uncover the story.
* In ''[[Nosferatu: Wrath of the Malachi]]'' the protagonist is late for the wedding of his sister. He arrives the castle at 10 PM, and has time until midnight to find out what happened.
* ''[[Half Life]] 2'' has an overarching plotline of the player being Late to the Party for the subjugation of earth. There's a nested trope in the Ravenholm portion of the game, where the player is Late to the Party for the much more recent slaughter of an entire town.
** Averted, however, in the first game, in that the player character causes the resonance cascade, and all the expansions except ''Opposing Force'' put the player as other Black Mesa employees present as everything goes to <s>hell</s> Xen.
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* Also in Super Metroid where you arrive at the Ceres Space station post receiving a distress signal but finding all the scientists dead.
* Then there is Megaman Zero 2. Arriving at Neo Arcadia 2 only to find every soldier involved dead (with the exception of one)
* The Asimov-inspired ''[[Robot City]]''.{{context}}
* ''[[Star Control|Star Control 2]]''. The protagonist is sent to aid Earth and its allies in a war against hostile aliens, only to find that Earth was conquered twenty years earlier.
** Done again later, when you go looking for the Androsynth homeworld only to find out that the Androsynth were researching something they shouldn't have, and were seen by something when they really didn't want to be seen. [[Eldritch Abomination|There are no more Andryosynth, only Orz.]]
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** This trope is lampshaded, perhaps inadvertently, in Bioshock's Alternate Reality Game. In Quain's "Utropolis" manuscript, it details his arrival at Rapture and discovery of the aforementioned New Year's celebration—at which point he muses that he was "Late for the party."
** Averted in [[BioShock Infinite]], however. Both factions are still fighting, and Columbia hasn't been reduced to the horrific crumbling state of Rapture where everything seems to be hanging by a thread and ready to flood at the slightest provocation. It's still going to be very dangerous though.
** In
* In Bungie Software's ''[[Pathways into Darkness]]'' the player is part of an elite special forces team sent with only hours to stop the [[Sealed Evil in a Can]] at the bottom of a nightmarish jungle pyramid dungeon from waking up. But your parachute malfunctions before you can land, and your team leaves you for dead. Since [[It's Up to You]], you awaken hours later (also finding that the barrel of the awesome M16 in your [[Bag of Spilling]] was bent in the landing, rendering all of your ammo useless) to discover that your team has failed.
* This occurs a number of times in ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'', usually involving a previous bloody massacre by Sephiroth or the shady dealings of the Shinra organization.
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* Every level in ''[[Killer7]]'' amounts to this - the titular assassin group arrives to perform a job, and Travis fills them in on why, exactly, someone has to be killed.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* Taken to a ridiculous degree in ''[[8-
== [[Web
▲* The last two episodes of ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'', with the ''narrative'' arriving late and {{spoiler|Instrumentality}} being the party.
▲* In the book ''Prince Caspian'' from ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]'', the characters arrive at the ruins of the castle, and, over the course of the book, discover that Narnia has been overthrown by evil forces and they have been summoned to save it. Classic.
▲* In the movie ''[[28 Days Later]]'', main character Jim [[Abandoned Hospital Awakening|wakes up in a deserted hospital]] after England has been ravaged by the [[Hate Plague|Rage virus]]. This leads to a "last man on earth"-type scenario, at least until he stumbles upon some zombies and ends up being saved by survivors who actually know what happened.
▲* ''[[Star Trek]]'': Can you say "Assemble an away team to explore the derelict/ruin"? How about "Jim, this man is dead!"?
▲* ''[[Doctor Who]]'' begins ''quite'' a few episodes with the Doctor landing right in the middle of a national/planetary/universal crisis, spending about half of the episode working out what's going on and the second half either fixing it or getting the hell out of there.
▲** There are a few examples, though, which fit this trope especially well:
▲*** "Silence in the Library"/"Forest of the Dead:" the Doctor and companion (and an archaeological expedition) arrive a century after the "event"
▲*** "Blink:" as told from the perspective of Sally Sparrow, she is learning of actions the Doctor took decades earlier. [[Timey-Wimey Ball|Which he hasn't done yet]].
▲* ''[[Lost]]'' was partially inspired by games such as ''[[Myst]]'' in which the character finds himself in a strange place with little information, including the objectives of the game. As the characters have explored the island, they've found the abandoned Dharma stations, numerous skeletons, and what was once a large statue, which now has been reduced to a lone foot.
▲* Ripley and the Colonial Marines in ''[[Aliens]]''.
▲{{quote|Sergeant Apone: Sir, this place is dead. Whatever happened here, I think we missed it.}}
▲* ''[[The Rocky Horror Picture Show]]'', with a literal party. Still, it's not ''quite'' over.
▲* ''Angels & Demons'' has the heroes reaching each of the four cardinals less late each time, but too late to save them nonetheless.
▲** Not entirely. If memory serves me correctly, Robert Langdon arrived early to where one of the cardinals was going to be executed, but was unable to keep the cardinal from drowning.
▲** Perhaps in the novel - in the film version, he actually saves the fourth cardinal.
▲* ''[[Power Rangers Ninja Storm]]'' begins with our heroes-to-be late for training yet again... thus missing the [[Big Bad]]'s initial sacking of their training hall.
▲* In ''[[At the Mountains of Madness]]'', all of the dying happens before the viewpoint characters arrive.
▲* [[John Carpenter]]'s ''[[The Thing (film)|The Thing]]'' got dug up by, and slaughtered, a <s>Scandinavian</s> Norwegian expedition team before it found its way into the American outpost in Antarctica.
▲* Taken to a ridiculous degree in ''[[8-Bit Theater|Eight Bit Theater]]'' where the protagonists were late to {{spoiler|''the final villain's defeat'' when they briefly fled from him and a group composed mostly of characters ''we've never seen before'' killed him}}.
* Jay in ''[[Marble Hornets]]'' begins his investigation nearly three years after the events recorded in the tapes. Most of the cast has scattered or disappeared and several locations trashed by the time Jay looks for them.
** Averted at the same time though: As Jay starts going through the tapes, it becomes apparent that {{spoiler|he had much more to do with the party [[Laser-Guided Amnesia|than he remembered]]}}
▲* ''[[Empire From the Ashes]]'' includes this in each book. First book: "What happened to Dahak's crew?" Second book: "What happened to the Fourth Imperium?" Third book: "What happened to Pardal's techbase?"
▲* In the pilot episode of ''[[Crusade]]'', [[The Captain|Gideon]] arrives to Earth days after the battle with the Drakh (see ''[[Babylon 5]]: [[A Call To Arms]]''). All the crew see are ship wreckage and infected Earth. Matheson comments that they were late for the party even before they jumped. Then again, there's not much they could've done with a research vessel with enough weapons to scare off an occasional [[Space Pirates|raider]] or two.
▲* In ''Hero's Chains'', Derek arrives several centuries late to a world gone from a sci-fi utopia to a fantasy hellhole.
▲* ''[[Star Wars]]: [[Shatterpoint]]'' has ''the Clone Wars and the Republic at large'' be late to the "party" known as [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Summertime_War the Summertime Wars]. Basically, conflict between offworlders and natives led to a war that starts when the winter snows melt and end when the autumn rains began. Each year. For thirty years as of the start of the book. The natives only support the Republic because the offworlders are supported by the Separatists. Mace Windu, the narrator, notes that his young native companions do not speak of [[Retirony|what they will do " after the war]]". Because it's all they've ever known. {{spoiler|Which makes it kind of heartbreaking when Nick admits his feelings about what he wanted to do with Chalk ''if'' the war ever ended, while holding her corpse.}}
▲* ''[[With Strings Attached]]'': The four are sent to C'hou, specifically the continent of Baravada, when its entire (dysfunctional anarchistic dystopian/utopian) way of life is dying out. There are hints of a much more orderly past to the planet, especially the magnificent [[Ghost City]] of Ehndris and the implied behavior of the [[Jerkass Gods]] some centuries in the past.
▲* The [[Post Apocalyptic]] tabletop RPG ''[[The Morrow Project]]'' starts with this premise: elite troopers were equipped and put into [[Cryogenically Frozen|cryogenic suspension]], to be revived just after the coming nuclear war so they can help rebuild society -- except something went wrong and they don't awaken until ''centuries'' later.
----
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Video Game Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Late to the Party]]
[[Category:Examples Need Sorting]]
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