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{{trope}}
{{quote|''[[Darkseid]] goes all out. A lot of villains tell everyone about their plan, but Darkseid filmed an elaborate dramatization of it. Look at those special effects. He didn't just have a computer rendered picture of what his battle station will look like, he got actors to run around on an airfield while planes were getting vaporized.''
|'''[[Seanbaby]]'''}}
Sometimes, it's enough to just say "[[The World Is Always Doomed|The World Is In Danger]]!" and hope the hero (and the audience) may understand the urgency and risk and answer [[The Call]]. Sometimes, though, a little more is in order.
Compare [[Just Between You and Me]], [[Villain World]] and [[Bad Future]], which can be the Storyboarded Apocalypse given form. See also [[Unspoken Plan Guarantee]]. Contrast [[Apocalypse Wow]], which is also a narrative depiction of the apocalypse, only used for very different dramatic goals.
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==▼
▲== [[Anime]] and Manga ==
* Just before making his wish, Emperor Pilaf of ''[[Dragon Ball]]'' takes a moment to visualize himself as emperor of the world, and we get a sequence showing him as emperor. (He spends the entire fantasy standing on a podium doing nothing but laugh while a crowd hails him.) Oolong uses this time to ruin the whole thing by wishing for panties.
* ''[[X 1999]]'' (also known as "The Shoujo Armageddon") not only features a lengthy vision by [[Waif Prophet|dreamseer Hinoto-hime]] on how the apocalypse will proceed, it also flashes forward and flashes back to that dream sequence many times throughout the series.
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** {{spoiler|Pain}} had developed the design for a massively powerful weapon using the bijuu. His intent {{spoiler|was to use it in order to wipe out the current order, reducing humanity to a subsistence level. The weapon would be left intact, used by their descendants whenever hate overcame their fear, repeating the cycle and preventing a full-out war}}.
** {{spoiler|Madara}} intended to use the chakra of the bijuu for an incredibly powerful jutsu. {{spoiler|By reforming the bijuu into the Jubi and absorbing its chakra, he would gain enough power to cast an eternal genjutsu at the moon, which would then reflect to the earth. Every living being would be ensnared in his genjutsu and made into extensions of Madara}}.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
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* ''[[Hellboy]]'' did it on a number of occasions, most memorably in "The Right Hand of Doom". Hellboy wonders what might happen if he cuts off his [[Evil Hand]], and we see a splash page of a hooded man standing in a burning ruin, holding up the severed hand and chanting, "Anung un Rama..." (Hellboy's true name [[Screw Destiny|at the time]]).
* ''[[Justice League: The New Frontier]]'' features a particularly creepy example, where the [[Big Bad]]'s genocidal plans for Earth are communicated via the writings of a children's author—specifically, a Dr. Seuss [[Expy]].
== [[Film]] ==
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'''Zimsky:''' Static discharges in the atmosphere will create superstorms with hundreds of lightning strikes per square mile.
'''Keyes:''' After that, [[It Got Worse|it gets bad.]] }}
* Galadriel in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]: The Fellowship of the Ring'' shows Frodo a vision of The Shire as an industrial work camp. In the book it turns out she was bang on; in the movie Saruman gets shanked and that side of the conflict ends.
* In ''[[V for Vendetta]]'', Finch describes the upcoming revolution with shots spliced in of an overeager enforcer killing a kid with a Fawkes mask and then getting lynched by the angry neighbors:
{{quote|'''Dominic:''' So do you know what's gonna happen?
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'''Finch:''' What usually happens when people without guns stand up to people with guns. }}
* In ''[[Superman Returns]]'' Lex Luthor shows Lois Lane a series of maps detailing exactly how his plan will destroy pretty much the entire Western Hemisphere.
== [[Literature]] ==
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** Later on, an entire book is devoted to this, when Jake wakes up in a future where the Yeerks have won.
** There's also a Megamorphs based on the idea that they never walked through the construction site and got their powers (a deal that Jake agreed to in a moment of weakness). Suffice to say it doesn't end well.
* ''[[Discworld]]''
** Parodied in ''[[The Science of
** A straighter example is from ''[[
{{quote|'''Lord Downey:''' Well, we can get along without magic for two years, can't we?
'''Ponder:''' No. The sun will crash and burn. The seas will dry up and vanish. The turtles and the elephant might cease to exist altogether.
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* Stoically averted in ''[[Good Omens]]'': while a good bulk of the book revolves around the prophecies of Agnes Nutter, who predicted the apocalypse down to the slightest detail, and one of the protagonists knows all of them ''by heart'', nothing is ''ever'' revealed in the text before it actually happens.
▲== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* ''[[24]]'' will often feature a Presidential adviser or a CTU analyst using a [[Power Point]] presentation to literally storyboard what will occur if the terrorists' plot succeeds. A memorable second season episode shows [[Our Presidents Are Different|President]] [[Bald Black Leader Guy|David]] [[Benevolent Boss|Palmer]] staring in shocked silence at a computer projection of the death toll if the nuclear bomb goes off in LA.
* ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' does this once a season, usually via [[Time Travel]] or precognitive paintings.
* The season opener for ''[[
* In the ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' episode "Doomed", after Giles reveals that the [[Monster of the Week]] wants to open the Hellmouth and end the world, everyone groans "Again?" and Xander comments that it's lost its impact. At which point Giles proceeds to remind them exactly what that means. In detail.
{{quote|'''Xander''': "Hmm. Feeling the impact again."}}
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* The series ''[[Life After People]]'' examines what would happen to our cities (and everything else) if all humans were to suddenly and simultaneously vanish.
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==▼
* The 3.5 ''[[
▲== Tabletop Games ==
▲* The 3.5 ''[[Tabletopg Game/Dungeons And Dragons|Dungeons And Dragons]]'' supplement ''[[Cosmic Horror Story|Elder Evils]]'' is basically a How To guide for ending your group's campaign world in a spectacularly apocalyptic manner via [[Eldritch Abomination]]. Naturally, it gives detailed scenarios of such, including things from the [[Zombie Apocalypse]] to the magical equivalent of [[wikipedia:Runaway greenhouse effect|the runaway greenhouse effect]].
== [[Video Games]] ==
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** You'd think she'd be okay with it, {{spoiler|since it's 1,000 years in her future}}.
* {{spoiler|Leder}}'s incredibly long [[Info Dump]] in ''[[Mother 3]]'', which {{spoiler|storyboards both the previous apocalypse and the forthcoming extra bad apocalypse.}}
** The story of [[
* Alexandra Roivas receives a vision of the potential apocalypse in ''[[Eternal Darkness]]: Sanity's Requiem'' caused by the Ancient {{spoiler|she has unleashed to defeat Pious's Ancient}}.
* [[Subverted Trope|Noticeably missing]] in ''[[Drakengard]]''. Everyone loves to [[Infallible Babble|talk about it]], but no one seems to know precisely what will happen. The hierarch Verdelet flip-flops from thinking the Seeds of Resurrection will cause [[The End of the World as We Know It|untold catastrophe]] to thinking it involves [[Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence|ascending to a higher reality]]. And the [[Big Bad]] has more important things to worry about, [[Cloudcuckoolander|like dancing]].
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* In ''[[Star Craft 2]]: Wings of Liberty,'' an embittered Jim Raynor is dead-set on killing the zerg-infested Kerrigan. Then Zeratul appears and shows him a (playable) vision of what will happen if Kerrigan dies. It isn't pretty.
* In a trailer for the ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' content patch: ''Rage of The Firelands'', Thrall is begging the elemental spirits for guidance... when one answers. [[Nature Spirit|Ragnaros]] rises from the Maelstrom and brings Thrall on a ride to the end of the world, culminating in [[Capital City|Ogrimmar]] being destroyed by a sea of fire, which is about to engulf Thrall himself. Thrall [[Big No|screams as loud as he can]] before being interrupted by Aggra, realizing that the events he witnessed were a vision of what is to come if Ragnaros is not stopped.
* The ending of ''[[Assassin's Creed: Revelations]]'', true to its title, reveals the full scope of the plot of [[Precursors|Those Who Came Before]] to save the Earth from the second coming of the same catastrophe that destroyed their First Civilization. The scene where this is communicated has a FMV sequence showing in [[Scenery Gorn|lavish detail]] just exactly how that first catastrophe happened.
* The intro sequences of ''[[Fallout]]'' games.
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* Done (in crayon format) by Redcloak in ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'''s prequel, ''Start of Darkness''. Rather than destruction, however, he expects his plan to use a god-killing abomination to blackmail the deities of his world to result in a modern-style utopia for his people.
▲== [[Web Originals]] ==
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEeApYlVXzE This] [[Chairman Nuke]] video.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110923030707/http://mooninmyeyes.deviantart.com/#/d40i5am This] thing on deviantart. With giant suicidal sea serpents. Also, the author apparently reads TV Tropes.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
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{{quote|'''Seanbaby''': Darkseid goes all out. A lot of villains tell everyone about their plan, but Darkseid filmed an elaborate dramatization of it. Look at those special effects. He didn't just have a computer rendered picture of what his battle station will look like, he got actors to run around on an airfield while planes were getting vaporized.}}
* A tongue-in-cheek Storyboarding appears in the first episode of ''[[Sam and Max Freelance Police]]'', "The Thing That Wouldn't Stop It", showing the fate of the world's frozen-food industry at stake due to a monstrous mutated TV dinner.
{{quote|'''Max:''' [[Tell Me Again|Tell me, Sam,]] ''why the heck are we doing this, again?!''
'''Sam:''' It's simple, Max. If this so-called "Thing" could somehow find its way into our world, devouring unsuspecting citizens who have no natural fear of frozen entrees, they would surely cause a nationwide mistrust of pre-manufactured foods of all kinds, forcing producers of salty, overcooked, man-sized portions to go bankrupt! To safeguard American businesses, Max! ''That's'' why the heck we're doing this! }}
* In the Rankin Bass production of ''[[The Return of the King (animation)|The Return of the King]]'', Samwise becomes the bearer of the One Ring, which tries to corrupt him with a vision of a world in which he has become all powerful. Of course, it being Samwise, this vision involves innocuous things like turning all of the orcs into cute animals and the entire world into a flower garden. Samwise realizes how silly the idea of him being an Evil Overlord would be and is able to resist the allure of the Ring.
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* When the kids on ''Ben 10: Alien Force'' first meet Paradox (from their P.O.V. anyway), he shows them what the future will be like if a time-distorting entity isn't stopped. He does this by taking them to the Moon of the future and letting them look at the long-dead Earth from there ... and then warning them that it's their ''best'' possible future. Brief, but an effective demo.
* After the [[Time Police]] capture the Warden, the Judge of Time Court shows him the consequences of his plans to make [[Superjail]] a franchise. The phrase "property of me" is used by Overlord!Warden. Present!Warden thinks the nightmare scenario he's presented with is a movie.
* The ''[[American Dad]]'' episode "Rapture's Delight" includes Stan and Francine being shown a videotape intended to explain the Rapture to children, which includes graphic, ''[[Warhammer
* During the series finale of ''[[Roswell Conspiracies: Aliens, Myths and Legend]]'', {{spoiler|the Shadoen fleet}} plans to blow up earth's moon. Before actually carrying through with their plan they play footage of large chunks of said moon raining down all across the planet and estimating what the death toll with be.
* In ''[[Invader Zim]]'', ZIM slapped alien video goggles onto everyone to show them the horrors that would befall the earth [[Disproportionate Retribution|if they didn't buy candy bars from him]]. The scene was only aired in full once, shortly before 9/11, and was subsequently edited to no longer show [[Funny Aneurysm Moment|New York City in ruins]].
== Real Life ==
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:
[[Category:Apocalyptic Index]]
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