Life After People: Difference between revisions

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* [[Fling a Light Into The Future]]: Subverted. Our TV & radio waves - [[Aliens Steal Cable|once thought to last forever in space]], deteriorate after a few light years. The ''Voyager'' spacecraft and their Golden Records will be dinged up beyond recognition in a few thousand years.

** [[Did Not Do the Research]]: the Voyager Golden Record has already experienced nearly all of the erosion it will ever see from dust and particle impacts. Assuming no catastrophic events, the record and the probe attached to it could survive indefinitely.

** The [~~http://en.~~wikipedia~~.org/wiki/Crypt_of_Civilization~~ Crypt of Civilization] on the campus of Oglethorpe University in Atlanta is shown on its presumptive opening date of May 28, 8113.<ref>This is the only specific future date given in the series. It is exactly 6177 years from the date the Crypt was sealed (May 28, 1936), which was exactly 6177 years after the establishment of the ancient Egyptian calendar (at the time, the earliest known recorded date in history)</ref>. Sadly, the time capsule is shown to have been compromised by tree roots and the elements long before.

** The [[wikipedia:Crypt of Civilization|Crypt of Civilization]] on the campus of Oglethorpe University in Atlanta is shown on its presumptive opening date of May 28, 8113.<ref>This is the only specific future date given in the series. It is exactly 6177 years from the date the Crypt was sealed (May 28, 1936), which was exactly 6177 years after the establishment of the ancient Egyptian calendar (at the time, the earliest known recorded date in history)</ref>. Sadly, the time capsule is shown to have been compromised by tree roots and the elements long before.

* [[Follow the Leader]]: Both ''Life After People'' and ''Aftermath: Population Zero'' tread exactly in the same footsteps as the book ''The World Without Us'', which had become so explosively popular the previous year (Time Magazine named it one of their Books of the Year for 2007) that it was practically begging for exactly this type of series.

* [[Ghibli Hills]]: Eventually, the remains of human civilization will ultimately revert to this. The series seems to go out of its way to the point of being [[Anvilicious]] in emphasizing this. Every city or industrial area, no matter how polluted, will ultimately succumb to and be completely erased by nature (which returns with a vengeance within a few hundred years).

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* [[Ghost Planet]]: Well, duh.

* [[Ghost Ship]]: The fates of military and luxury cruise ships are depicted in several episodes.

* [[Hey ~~Its~~ That Sound]]: Quake teleporter sound.

* [[Hey, It's That Sound]]: Quake teleporter sound.

* [[Inferred Holocaust]]: Not just the humans, but the animals that are bound to die in our absence.

* [[Just for Pun]] - A number of comments about future results have some rather wry connotations, often also invoking the [[Bond One-Liner]]. Two of them include one about a major work by [[Leonardo Da Vinci]] which has needed restoration over many years including dehumidifiers. Now that people are no longer around to save it from degradation, "How long before nature finishes off ''The Last Supper''?" The second one mentions that the Taipei 101 building, the 2nd tallest building in the world, which "is often said to look like a stack of [Chinese food] take out boxes. How long before nature ''takes out'' Taipei 101?"

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* [[Monumental Damage]]: Every. Single. Episode. Slightly subverted in that it's nature doing the damage (and that the Lincoln Memorial is shown, for once), but definitely a way to show off the sheer power of nature, given enough time.

* [[Noodle Incident]]: Whatever caused the theoretical human extinction event that has led to Life After People. As the narrative explains, this series is more concerned with the stuff we leave behind.

** This, of course (This is the internet, after all), has lead to [[Wild Mass Guessing]] that it's the ''[[Firefly]]'' 'verse, as it's said that humans just left Earth [[Earth That Was|after we used it up]].

** This, of course (This is the internet, after all), has lead to [[Wild Mass Guessing]] that it's the ''[[Firefly]]'' 'verse, as it's said that humans just left Earth [[Earth-That-Was|after we used it up]].

* [[Painting the Fourth Wall]]: In a scene where an oil refinery [[Stuff Blowing Up|explodes]], some oil [[Camera Abuse|appears on the camera lens]].

* [[Pet the Dog]]: During the segments about the first weeks, the show explains that most pets locked in homes would die due to starvation and thirst. These segments show a dog who finds that its owners have disappeared and struggles to survive with food lying around and water seeping from the fridge. Ultimately, however, the show is kind enough to show the dog managing to find a way out, saving the audience from experiencing the dog's horrible fate if it hadn't escaped ([[A Million Is a Statistic|Even though millions of other pets do suffer that fate]]).

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[[Category:The History Channel]]

[[Category:Life After People]]

[[Category:Trope]]