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Storyboarding the Apocalypse (view source)

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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.
 
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.
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== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* ''[[Twenty Four24 (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)|Heroes]]'' does this once a season, usually via [[Time Travel]] or precognitive paintings.
* 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.
{{quote| '''Xander''': "Hmm. Feeling the impact again."}}
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* 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 (TV)|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 (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' examples above: show what happened, then use [[Time Travel]] to go back and fix things.
* ''[[Terminator (Film)|Terminator]]: [[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'' begins with a scene of a terminator killing John Connor, triggering [[The End of the World As We Know It]]. Fortunately, it was [[All Just a Dream]].
* The last story arc of the first season of ''[[Stargate SG-1 (TV)|Stargate SG-1]]'' began with this. Even though it had been less than a season, the [[Big Bad|Goa'uld]] might have already been looking a bit [[Harmless Villain|harmless]]. Their foot soldiers had apparently attended the [[Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy]] and wore [[Armor Is Useless|Useless Armor]]. The SG-1 team was threatened inadvertently by [[Human Alien|Human Aliens]], [[Starfish Aliens]] and [[Negative Space Wedgie|Negative Space Wedgies]] as often as by the Goa'uld intentionally. But in the episode "There But For the Grace of God", Daniel visits an [[Alternate Reality]] and learns that if the Goa'uld ever made it to Earth ''in ships'' (at least, ships without saboteurs inside) Earth would be screwed. Apparently, the Goa'uld don't need good aim when they are bombarding Earth's cities from orbit.
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== 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:Runaway greenhouse effect|the runaway greenhouse effect]].
 
 
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Story Boarding The Apocalypse]]
[[Category:Trope]]
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