Storyboarding the Apocalypse: Difference between revisions

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{{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. [[Story-Boarding the Apocalypse]] is a disturbingly detailed narrated account of the impending [[Gotterdammerung]] and rise of the ultimate evil, accompanied by a montage to give plenty of [[Nightmare Fuel]] inducing visions of the end to all parties involved.

[[Story-Boarding the Apocalypse]] is used on a few different occasions: The hero might [[Refusal of the Call|refuse the call]], forcing his [[Mentor]] to show him how the [[Big Bad]] can hurt him, by turning his [[Hidden Elf Village|secluded hometown]] into a [[Doomed Hometown]]. Or the [[Big Bad]] might give a [[Motive Rant]] and expound at length on how they'll turn the world into [[Mordor]], or bring about a new Eden via utter destruction because [[Utopia Justifies the Means]]. Especially detail oriented villains will have prepared dioramas, movies, and even commission an [[Earth-Shattering Poster]] or two to help hammer it in. Or they might just [[Exposition Beam|beam it into the hero's skull with a laser.]] Occasionally this is given as a warning by less direct conventional methods; [[Cassandra Truth]] can deliver it, or via [[Psychic Dreams for Everyone]], or [[Time Travel]] in the hope of driving the point home to the hero and the audience.

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*** 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.

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{{quote|'''Judge Doom:''' I see a place where people get on and off the freeway. On and off, off and on, all day, all night! Soon, where Toon Town once stood will be a string of gas stations; inexpensive motels; restaurants that serve rapidly prepared food; tire salons; automobile dealerships; and wonderful, wonderful billboards reaching as far as the eye can see! My God, it'll be beautiful.}}

* ''[[Hellboy (film)|Hellboy]]'': "I will give you a brief, brief glimpse into the future..."

* 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

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== [[Literature]] ==

* In ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', Galadriel memorably storyboards what would happen if she were to take the Ring for herself when Frodo offers it to her before ultimately refusing it.

* 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: The Next Generation]]'' giant novel 'Metamorphosis', Data learns the fate of the galaxy should he choose to {{spoiler|stay a human}}.

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* 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 ''[[Animorphs]]'' book has the Ellimist showing the heroes a supposedly inevitable Yeerk-dominated world, and then actually ''giving'' them the opportunity to [[Refusal of the Call|Refuse The Call]]. However, this wasn't a message of doom, an easy out, or even a possible future, but a [[Batman Gambit]] on the Ellimist's part to show the heroes where the location of a generator that will cripple the alien invasion for a short time is.

** 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.

* Parodied in ''Science of [[Discworld]] II: The Globe'', in which Ponder Stibbons has set up an elaborate presentation to show the danger to the Roundworld Project, only for Rincewind to sum things up in one sentence when he still has "a dozen slides and a flowchart" to go.

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* 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.

** 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]] ''[[Doctor Who]]'' examples:

** "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 ''[[Doctor Who]]'' examples above: show what happened, then use [[Time Travel]] to go back and fix things.

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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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[[Category:Story Boarding The Apocalypse]]

[[Category:Story-Boarding the Apocalypse]]

[[Category:Apocalyptic Index]]