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Apocalypse Wow: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
Okay, so they've spent the entire series talking about it, and it finally happens: The giant, crazy, blow-the-budget scene where they show [[The End of the World
Or, y'know, they open the movie with it. Whatever.
This can't ''just'' be [[The
In an academic sense, this trope has a wide variety of uses, from [[Ending Trope|Ending Tropes]] to the [[Cold Open]] and [[The Climax|everywhere]] [[Denouement|in between]]. Equally capable of introducing a setting or establishing a character, it can be used to underscore how brutal a situation has become, or render an [[Eldritch Abomination]] [[Deader Than Dead]]. Often an [[After the End]] scenario will have one as part of the [[Flash Back]] [[Backstory]]. When it comes right down to it, the only true constant between all the uses of this trope is the spectacular nature of the event itself.
This trope is the visual, descriptive embodiment of [[The End of the World
Compare [[Story-Boarding the Apocalypse]], which uses a (generally hypothetical) description<ref>visual or otherwise</ref> of an apocalyptic event to create dramatic tension. Contrast [[Scenery Gorn]], which has a rather specific narrative use.
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** ''[[Rebuild of Evangelion]] 2.0'' had a much more spectacular (read: less [[Squick]] and [[Mind Screw]]) version {{spoiler|but it was interrupted by Kaworu going [[Big Damn Villains|Big Damn Angels]] in the after-credits scene.}}
*** The [[Squick]] could have very easily exceeded the [[Eo E]] version. Giant Naked Shinji, anyone?
* This is how ''[[
** Same with the manga (although the ending was under ''very'' different circumstances)... except that the manga has yet ''another'' Apocalypse about halfway through. All three have the same cause though (namely Akira).
* It wasn't permanent, but late in ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' {{spoiler|Father ''succeeded'' in turning the souls of everyone in Amestris into a giant Philosopher's Stone (Including shots of Dying Winry, Gracia, and Elicia, among many others), turned himself into a giant [[Living Shadow]] covered in eyes, ''ripped open the door to [[God|Truth]]'', '''ate it''', then turned into [[Bishonen Line|a younger version of Hohenheim]]}}.
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* In ''[[Kurohime]],'' the end of the world is this plus [[Mind Screw]]. {{spoiler|The [[Hell Gate|Gateway to Hell]] opens and drowns almost the entire world under an ocean of corrosive blood. Skeletons and dead souls are running rampant [[I Am a Humanitarian|eating people,]] trees are dying and to cap it all off, the Head God is ''[[God Is Evil|eating the sun.]]'' }}
** The final chapter ups this by {{spoiler|having [[The Heroine]] slice the [[Earthshattering Kaboom|ENTIRE WORLD]] (and the [[Big Bad]]) in half using a [[Infinity+1 Sword|Infinity Plus One]] [[Wave Motion Gun|Wave Motion]] [[Laser Blade]]}}.
* The final chapter of ''[[Elfen Lied]]'' has ten or so pages dedicated to {{spoiler|Lucy initiating [[The End of the World
* [[Go Nagai]]'s ''[[Violence Jack]]'', after the introduction of its title character, spends the first chapter of the manga destroying Japan via massive earthquake and mass volcanic eruption before introducing us to the [[Crapsack World]] that the Kanto region has become.
* In the final episode of ''[[
* ''[[Angel Sanctuary]]'' loves this trope.
* ''[[Dragonball Z]]'s'' Frieza Saga had Frieza blowing up Namek, only for it to have a five minute delay (and a much longer one episode-wise). It also should be noted that this is the only time that the destruction of a planet is not instantaneous in the series.
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*** Sarah is tormented with dreams of Judgement Day in ''Terminator 2''. First, she discusses it with Dr. Silberman, then [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfZke069f4g we get to see it].
* ''[[The Road Warrior]]'' begins with one of these.
* The desperate evacuation and subsequent [[Earthshattering Kaboom]] at the beginning of ''[[Titan
** ''[[Inverted]]'' at the end of the movie. I don't care if it was scientifically inaccurate; it was [[
* Inverted at the end of ''[[Star Trek II:
* The [[Doomsday Device]] in ''[[Dr. Strangelove]]''
** [[Soundtrack Dissonance|While "We'll Meet Again" plays.]]
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* ''[[The Day After Tomorrow]]'': just about the entire movie.
** Also from [[Roland Emmerich]], there's the alien attack in ''[[Independence Day]]''.
*** [[Rule of Three|And then there's]] [[
**** Why can't we just say that pretty much anything by Roland Emmerich is going to be like this?
* The ending of ''[[Knowing]]''.
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* ''[[Star Wars]]'' had the Death Star blow up Alderaan.
** Although such an event would normally be a Class X Apocalypse, with intelligent life spread throughout an entire galaxy, this is a Class 0 Apocalypse at best.
* The 2009 ''[[Star Trek (
** Not before {{spoiler|(well... actually, yes, before...)}} the destruction of {{spoiler|Romulus in a super nova}}, which pretty much sparked off the whole chain of events.
* ''Surrogates'' ends in a way with this, {{spoiler|all the surrogates just shut down}}.
* Subverted in ''[[The
{{quote| ''Often this section is preceded by the words [[In a World]] [Earth explodes] but sometimes not.'' }}
** Played straight in the TV miniseries, where Earth heats up to a brilliant red before detonating.
* The basic premise of ''[[
* ''[[Escape From
* The original ''Nihon Chinbotsu''(1973) featured an extensive sequence of Tokyo being swallowed up in the disaster done by Teruyoshi Nakano, who is nicknamed "Japan's Michael Bay" for his love of [[Stuff Blowing Up]].
* Lars Von Trier's ''[[Melancholia]]'' does it twice. At the start of the movie, the titular planet engulfs Earth while [[Soundtrack Dissonance|classical music plays.]] The movie also {{spoiler|ends this way, but now we see the collision on a human scale from the Earths' surface.}}
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* Though the actual Shattering is not described, the vivid imagery of huge fragments of landscape tumbling through the Void in ''The Shattered World'' makes it clear that the titular world's breaking '''must have been''' an [[Apocalypse Wow]]. The collision between two fragments in the sequel, ''The Burning Realm'', gives an ominous preview of the surviving fragments' impending doom.
* It should be no spoiler to note that this happens in the 1933 classic ''When Worlds Collide'', in the kind of spectacular fashion that you'd probably have guessed from the title. The 1951 film adaptation did the best it could with this, but the upcoming remake certainly should provide more of the disaster porn as described in the book, to say the least.
* [[Arthur C. Clarke
** Clarke's early story (in fact, the first story he sold) "Rescue Party" also had the people of Earth set up cameras to beam images of Earth's end to the '''huge''' escape fleet in which they evacuated. It was following the line of those transmissions that led the alien rescue ship to the fleet.
* {{spoiler|The last remaining normal human}} broadcasts this at the end of ''Childhood's End''.
* [[
* The end of [[Chronicles of Narnia|Narnia]] is described in detail at the end of ''[[The Last Battle]]'' -- which, by no coincidence, heavily draws upon the Biblical Apocalypse.
* The [[Ciaphas Cain]] novel ''Caves of Ice'' ends with the detonation of a ''gigaton'' range Fuel Air Explosive. It completely obliterates the sole settlement on the planet, and the shockwaves are felt by ships in low orbit.
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* In [[Lucifers Hammer]], Niven and Pournelle detail the end of the world with beautiful descriptions. The meteor leaves behind a fiery rainbow trail that blinds anyone who looks at it. The resulting multiple-impacts cause earthquakes and giant tsunamis all arond the earth, flooding entire mountain ranges.
* The aftermath of {{spoiler|Operation Oyster Bay}} in the [[Honor Harrington]] series is described in substantial detail, despite being "only" a set of class 0 events.
* In ''[[
== Live Action TV ==
* ''Battlestar Galactica'' starts with one in both [[Battlestar Galactica Classic|the original]] and [[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined|the reimagining]]. ''Galactica 1980'' starts with a computer simulation of one, and goes downhill from there.
* ''[[Dollhouse]]'' deconstructs its premise to this conclusion: after a season of ridiculously, incredibly [[Misapplied Phlebotinum]], the Season One finale [[Something Completely Different|skipped forward]] [[Distant Finale|10 years]] and revealed that the Dollhouse's technology would literally destroy civilization if used just a little bit more creatively.
* The end of the final episode of ''[[Walking
* An alternate universe episode of ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise
* Shows up in the end of the pilot episode of [[Stargate Universe|SGU]], and again about halfway through the 19th episode.
== Radio ==
* Given, it doesn't last particularly long, but the sound of the Earth exploding in ''[[The
* The Halloween broadcast of ''The War of the Worlds'' should be mentioned. An hour long description of [[Humongous Mecha]] from another planet destroying everything in their path. Bonus points for making people actually believe it was happening.
== Video Games ==
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG1TNiJ6PjY As can be seen here,] ''[[
* The [[Death From Above|glassing]] of Taris near the beginning of ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]''.
** And keeping with tradition, [[The Old Republic]] has {{spoiler|[[Weapon of Mass Destruction|the Devastator's]] use on the formerly-fertile world of Uphora}}.
* [[Nonstandard Game Over|The moon crashing]] and destroying the world in a fiery inferno in ''[[The Legend of Zelda:
* The opening of ''[[Meteos]]'', involving a number of planets getting ''obliterated in seconds''.
* The ending of ''[[
* ''[[Nie R]]'' opens up with an intro beginning shortly after the apocalypse hit, with the hero scraping by to support himself and his daughter, fighting monsters off in the process. The game then skips forward thousands of years after the apocalypse, with humanity now struggling to scrape by.
* The end of the mission "Shock and Awe" in ''[[Call of Duty]] 4: [[Modern Warfare]]'', which comes complete with satellite images of the nuclear detonation that kills your character and most of his unit.
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* ''[[Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne]]''. The planet turned inside-out and all but five people on the planet were wiped out and replaced with demons before you enter a single battle.
** Six if you count Hijiri. {{spoiler|But he was [[Dead All Along]], so not really.}}
** Seven if you count [[Devil May Cry
* The [[
* [[Darksiders]] opens with the Biblical Apocalypse. Angels, Demons, the whole shebang. You get to run around and kill things (briefly).
* Losing to Lavos in ''[[
** "{{smallcaps| '''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oMXF9mzc38 BUT... THE FUTURE REFUSED TO CHANGE.]'''}}"
** The [[Colony Drop|Fall]] of [[Floating Continent|Zeal]] is also a pretty destructive scene in its own too.
* ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' is the setting that gave us Exterminatus, so when it gets adapted in a visual medium expect to see major fireworks. ''[[Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior]]'' features [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYPSg-Ab7Dc a spectacular orbital bombardment] for its ending, but was recently one-upped by ''[[Dawn of War]] II: Retribution'', where the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h67JpMyrOVE sudden death of a world] serves as a potent [[Wham! Episode]].
* In ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'', after Kefka destroys the balance of the Warring Triad, the [[World Sundering|world is torn asunder]]. This is depicted as the land shaking, shifting, mountains rising and chasms opening, all while helpless people run for their lives. Then the view changes to a [[Distant Reaction Shot|distant view of the planet]], covered in hundreds of explosions... and all of a sudden, to drive the point home that everything has changed, a chain of explosions travels across the planet and splits the continents apart.
** "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkPXG9ZDQzI On that day, the world was changed forever...]"
* In ''[[Super Metroid]]'', after defeating the Mother Brain and successfully making it back to your ship, the camera zooms out, showing massive cracks in the surface of the planet Zebes, which are apparently even visible from high orbit, before the planet is reduced to space debris. There is a secret sidequest at the end where the last surviving natives of Zebes escape with just moments to spare.
** SR-388 in ''[[Metroid Fusion]]'', the Biological Research Laboratory space station plummets into the plant and self-destructs, wiping out both in a titanic [[Earthshattering Kaboom]]. Planet Phaaze in ''[[Metroid Prime]]: Corruption'', with added drama with the Galactic Federation fleet trying to escape in time. [[Subverted Trope|Subverted]] in ''[[Metroid Prime]]: Echoes'' with the destruction of Dark Aether, we only get a space view of the half-visible Dark Aether fading from Aether.
* The aptly named "End of the World" stage in ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 (
* Nobody does [[Nuke'Em|nuclear apocalypse]] like the guys behind ''[[Fallout]]''. [[Ron Perlman]]'s narration is just the icing on the cake.
** Especially since ''[[Fallout 3]]'' displays said narration as a yellowed, faded slideshow (you can hear the projector in the background). The only scene which is not stopmotion is the one with the rising mushroom cloud - and which also features the screams of the terrified civilians of the town...
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* In ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'', you are right in the middle of the action when huge swarms of [[Kaiju]]-sized [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]] descend on planets and start to rip them apart while swarms of [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|Cyborg Zombies]] pour through the streets.
* ''[[Command and Conquer|Tiberian Sun]]'s'' ending of the Nod campaign has {{spoiler|Kane teleporting off the world while his Apocalypse missile starts, then launches its capsules and finally unleashes the Tiberium bomb that sets Earth's atmosphere ablaze and turns everything into pure Tiberium.}}
* The ending cutscene (one of only two not rendered using the game's engine) in ''[[
* In the [http://store.steampowered.com/video/201310?snr=1_5_9__400 opening cinematic] of ''[[X (
== Western Animation ==
* ''[[Transformers:
** The Unicron Trilogy version does it a bit differently: he generates sort of a suction that causes a planet to be ''torn apart'' as it's pulled toward him. By the time it reaches him, the planet is in chunks small enough to be pulled inside the (relatively) small circle on his body. [http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Image:Unicron_eats_blizzard.jpg Ouch].
* The Beast Planet, at least twice a season in [[Shadow Raiders]].
* ''[[The Critic]]''. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usegltieVAY Starring Marlon Brando].
* One episode of ''[[Captain Planet and
{{reflist}}
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