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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]] ==▼
* Just before making his wish, Emperor Pilaf of ''[[
▲== [[Anime]] and Manga ==
▲* Just before making his wish, Emperor Pilaf of ''[[Dragonball]]'' 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.
* The Anti-Spiral in ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' explains exactly how and why the Earth will be destroyed, complete with a helpful 3-D simulation. Simon realizes through instinct that it's the truth, going briefly into a [[Heroic BSOD]].
* ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog The Movie|Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie]]''. When it becomes clear that Metal Sonic intends to destroy the world, Knuckles explains to the skeptical president how exactly a single robot could accomplish this: by puncturing the lava veins that flow through the giant mountain/glaciar that holds the various [[Floating Continent
* The major driving force of the ''[[Zettai Karen Children]]'''s plot is a prophecy of the devastating war between espers and normal humans, completed with realistic visions that several characters has experienced.
* Done twice in ''[[
** {{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]] ==
* During the Sons of Empire arc of ''[[
** Subverted almost immediately afterward, however, by the Adversary's son, who's lived in Fabletown until recently Storyboards the Aversion of the Apocalypse. The big problem with Lumi's plan is that {{spoiler|we'll catch on to the fact that we're being attacked by germ warfare fairly quickly, and while that alone wouldn't help much as we have no idea how to leave this world for the Homelands of the Fables, the residents of Fabletown will likely approach the US government and go public with their existence. Once they do, they'll give us all the info we need on the Empire's location, and since the Empire has a ban on all modern technology from our world (The Adversary fears a rebellion if his subjects did carry it) our armies would obliterate theirs, and the Empire would fall}}.
*** At the end of the arc, the Adversary decides to hold off on the invasion until they have the Fables living among us all killed so they can't intervene.
* Done in ''[[Angel]]: After The Fall'': {{spoiler|Wesley gives a dying Angel a vision of how the Shanshu Prophecy plays out for him, which involves a lot of heads on pikes. Angel then promptly wishes for death so he can avoid it!}}
* The ''[[Ultimate Universe|Ultimate]] Galactus'' trilogy has a scene where Reed Richards lays out Gah Lak Tus's M.O.: {{spoiler|First it broadcasts a signal that drives those who receive it insane, absolutely destroying a civilization's infrastructure. Then, when the first shuttles land, they release a flesh-eating virus so that all organic life is killed. Then, it harvests the molten core of the planet and strip mines the surface before moving on to the next world}}. Reed ends up using a holographic projector.
** In the original [[Fantastic Four|Galactus Trilogy]], [[The Watcher]] gives a similar description of just what will happen if [[Galactus]] [[Planet Eater|eats Earth]], though it's projected into the characters' minds as opposed to being holographic.
* In ''Saga of the [[Swamp Thing]]'', the resurrected Anton Arcane rants about how he's going to bring the worst of the damned back into the world, inciting chaos and a literal Apocalypse. Scenes of havoc wrought by those he's already unleashed provide a literal "storyboard" of the kinds of hell Arcane would've spread around the world, had he not underestimated <s> Holland</s> Swamp Thing.
* ''[[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:
== [[Film]] ==
* In the [[James Bond]] movie ''[[
* ''[[Armageddon]]'' contains ''two'' examples of this. One is at the beginning of the film, as Charlton Heston's voiceover about what happened to the dinosaurs threatens the same consequence for Earth later on. Truman later makes it explicit:
{{quote|
'''Truman:''' So when the rogue comet hit the asteroid belt it sent all these pieces spinning off. Next fourteen days, the Earth's in a shooting gallery. Now, if it's a Pacific Basin impact, which we think it will be, it'll flash-boil millions of liters and set off earthquakes when it hits the ocean bedrock. Half the Earth's population will be incinerated by the heat blast and the other half will freeze to death in nuclear winter ... this is as real as it gets. It's coming. Right now, at about eighteen thousand miles an hour. Not a soul on Earth can hide from it. }}
* A possible parody of this occurs near the end of ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?]]'', referring to the interstate bypass, and eerily foreshadowing the modern stripmall.
{{quote|
* ''[[Hellboy (
* The ''[[Terminator]]'' movie gave us a glimpse of the future where humanity is being hunted down by SkyNet.
** The second movie also showed us Sarah Connor's nightmare of a city being destroyed, just to remind us of the nuclear holocaust, quite disturbing for those who remember the [[Cold War]] days.
** The third showed the apocalypse happening as nuclear missiles rained down on cities
* ''[[The Core]]'' has the lead character explaining the Earth's ultimate fate with a peach and a aerosol can flamethrower.
{{quote|
'''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|
'''Finch:''' No. It was a feeling. But I can guess. With so much chaos, someone will do something stupid. And when they do, things will turn nasty. And then, Sutler will be forced do the only thing he knows how to do. At which point, all V needs to do is keep his word. And then... }}
** He finishes his guess a bit later.Fortunately, he was wrong.
{{quote|
'''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]] ==
* In ''[[
* The Knights of the Word in [[Terry Brooks]]'s overarching meta series have these occur to them every time they fall asleep.
* In the ''[[Star Trek:
* Although the hero of the ''[[Pendragon]]'' books is always trying to prevent whatever world he's in from falling apart, Bobby gets a good, long, disturbing look at what will happen if he fails in the third book {{spoiler|and the Nazis win World War II}}.
* Subversions abound in the ''[[Star Wars]]'' [[Expanded Universe]], where such visions often lead to the [[Self Fulfilling Prophecies|very events they depict]]. Jacen Solo's are the most specifically apocalyptic; his visions of what the future will be like turn him to the Dark Side in order to prevent the galaxy from lapsing into unending war. Ironically they all involve him killing Luke Skywalker, but it never occurs to him to kill himself.
* An early ''[[
** 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|
'''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.
'''Downey:''' All that'll happen in two years?
'''Ponder:''', No, all of that'll happen in the ''first ten minutes''. Magic isn't just coloured lights and balls; magic holds the world together. }}
** This is followed by a hypothetical illustration showing the Discworld [[After the End]], with the turtle and elephants reduced to skeletons and the disc itself turned [[Death World|reddish and dead]].
* [[
** Revelation itself was an example of apocalyptic literature, an entire genre of turn-of-the-common-era artwork in which this trope was the whole point. Going back even further in [[The Bible]], the Book of Daniel is another example.
* During Ragnarok, how many steps backward will Thor take after slaying Jormungand before keeling over from the poison? The Poetic Edda can tell you. {{spoiler|It's nine.}}
* In ''[[The General]]'' series by [[David Drake]] and
* The journal from ''[[The House
* Stoically averted in ''[[
* ''[[
▲== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' does this once a season, usually via [[Time Travel]] or precognitive paintings.▼
▲* ''[[Twenty Four (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.
* The season opener for ''[[
▲* ''[[Heroes (TV)|Heroes]]'' does this once a season, usually via [[Time Travel]] or precognitive paintings.
* In the ''[[
▲* The season opener for ''[[Battlestar Galactica Classic (TV)|BattleStarGalactica]]'' 1980 gives us simulation what a Cylon invasion of Earth would look like. For some reason promotional material for the movie that was made from that opener seemed to draw almost exclusively from this attack.
▲* In the ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)|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.
** In the seventh season the First Slayer gives Buffy a vision of the inside of the Hellmouth. An entire army of the Ubervamps that are nearly impossible to kill.
▲{{quote| '''Xander''': "Hmm. Feeling the impact again."}}
▲** In the seventh season the First Slayer gives Buffy a vision of the inside of the Hellmouth. An entire army of the Ubervamps that are nearly impossible to kill.
*** Only they're [[Conservation of Ninjitsu|strangely not, anymore.]]
* In the finale of ''[[Mahou Sentai Magiranger]]'' / ''[[Power Rangers Mystic Force]]'', the Rangers are zapped by the [[Big Bad]] to a barren world where he has taken control. Its precise nature wasn't exactly clear - we never saw much of it beyond a small cave - but it seemed to be less of an outright [[Alternate Dimension]] than a mere taste of what was coming.
** In ''Magiranger'', N. Ma claimed to be "devouring time", aging the entire planet except himself and the Rangers.
* A few [[The Seventies|1970s]] ''[[
** "Inferno" sends the Doctor into a [[Dystopia|Dystopic]] [[Mirror Universe]] where Project Inferno (ongoing in his reality) has progressed a few days faster and proceeds to destroy the world, thus giving him extra motivation to shut down his world's Project Inferno.
** "Day of the Daleks" has a future [[Alternate History]] where a [[Nuclear Holocaust]] happens and the Dalek take over. Hearing about the averted timeline gives additional incentives for various diplomats to get it right.
** In "Pyramids Of Mars", the Doctor takes the TARDIS to 1980 to show Sarah Jane the lifeless Earth that will result if Sutekh isn't stopped in 1911.
* ''[[Seven Days]]'' operate similarly to the ''[[
* ''[[Terminator (
* The last story arc of the first season of ''[[
* Although the deadliness of the Xindi threat was stated often in ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]''; the episode "''Twilight''" demonstrates EXACTLY what would happen if they made it to Earth.
* In the aptly named ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' episode "The End", the angel Zachariah shows Dean a [[Bad Future]] where Sam is [[Demonic Possession|possessed by Lucifer]], the angels are all either fallen or missing, and Dean himself has become [[Darker and Edgier|harder and more cynical]] because of the ongoing [[Zombie Apocalypse]].
* Sometimes happens on ''[[
* Burt on ''[[Tremors]]: The Series'' did this a few times, describing how failure to eliminate a Graboid or shrieker quickly will snowball into mass destruction if they breed and/or metamorphose.
* 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 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runaway_greenhouse_effect the runaway greenhouse effect].
== [[Video Games]] ==
* A scene in ''[[Quest for Glory]] IV: Shadows of Darkness'' has the main character experiencing a hallucination and seeing the Dark One's rise to power. (Near the end, if the player loses the game, the Dark One does rise, mirroring the sequence exactly.)
* A convoluted example appears in ''[[Sin and Punishment]]''. In an effort to motivate the [[Action Girl]] to shoot her transformed-by-[[The Virus]] partner, the [[Mysterious Waif]] shows her a vision of a future in which he has become evil. This vision becomes a stage, complete with the chance to get a Game Over. Yet, despite her mowing down hundreds of enemies during the dream sequence without any noticeable effect, the final shot she makes against the corrupted hero somehow causes her to ''shoot him in the present as well''.
* ''[[
** 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 ''[[
** 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
* Done in ''[[
* The Big Bad in ''Under a Killing Moon'' storyboards his planned apocalypse for the Earth, which is to be cleansed of all mutant contamination and prepared for the return of his "pure" people from his space station (under his leadership, of course).
* 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
* The intro sequences of ''[[
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* Done hilariously in ''[[Penny Arcade (Webcomic)|Penny Arcade]]'', [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/04/10/ here].
* Done (in crayon format) by Redcloak in ''[[
▲== [[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]] ==
* When Batman archvillain Ra's Al Ghul lays out his plan to destroy humanity in ''[[Batman:
{{quote|
'''Ra's al Ghul:''' Actually, Detective, we ''have'' counted: Two billion, fifty-six million, nine hundred and eighty-six thousand! A most impressive plan, would you not agree?
'''Batman:''' Yes... I can see it clearly now for the first time. You are completely out of your mind. }}
* At the end of the first episode of the 1994 ''[[Fantastic Four (
* In a fifth-season episode of ''[[
* ''[[Teen Titans (
{{quote|
* A similar, but longer and considerably more elaborate speech is delivered to Superman by {{spoiler|Darkseid}} in the final episode of ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]''.
{{quote|
** In the second season finale, The Question has images of the end of the world projected directly into his mind as a form of interrogation.
** And in the ''[[Justice League (
* In an episode of ''[[
{{quote|
* 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|
'''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 (
** [[Narm Charm|"BEHOLD THE GARDENS OF MY DELIGHT!"]]
* 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 [[
* The ''[[
* 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 ''[[
== Real Life ==
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