Storyboarding the Apocalypse: Difference between revisions

* In the [[James Bond]] movie ''[[Moonraker]]'', The [[Diabolical Mastermind]] Hugo Drax had such an exposition.

* ''[[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:

'''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.

* ''[[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 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.

'''Keyes:''' After that, [[It Got Worse|it gets bad.]] }}

* Galadriel in ''[[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:

'''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.

'''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.

* 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.

** A straighter example is from ''[[Discworld/The Last Hero|The Last Hero]]''. Ponder Stibbons has said that unless an explosion at the Hub is prevented, the magical field will collapse for up to 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]].

* The season opener for ''[[Battlestar Galactica Classic|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]]'' 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.]]

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* When Batman archvillain Ra's Al Ghul lays out his plan to destroy humanity in ''[[Batman: The Animated Series|Batman the Animated Series]]'', it is accompanied by a series of detailed stills showing the world being saturated by the Lazarus Pits, in chaos, and finally at "a blessed peace."

'''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 (animation)|Fantastic Four]]'' cartoon, Puppet Master takes one last stab at ultimate power and imagines ruling the world, complete with montage.

* In a fifth-season episode of ''[[The Batman]]'', Lex Luthor uses one of these (in sepia tone) to describe his vision for the world.

* ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'' used this at least twice. In "Revolution", Mad Mod - who has control of the city and most the Titans on the run - gives a captured Robin a look at what he calls "coming attractions" (possibly a subtle reference to a scene in ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'', which the episode takes much of its inspiration from). On a more serious note, in "Birthmark", Slade transports Raven into a devastated world that she is destined to bring about, a vision which actually comes true in the season finale.

* A similar, but longer and considerably more elaborate speech is delivered to Superman by {{spoiler|Darkseid}} in the final episode of ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]''.

** 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 (animation)|Justice League]]'' [[Grand Finale]], there's a brief image of what'll happen to Earth when {{spoiler|the Thanagarians activate the hyperspace bypass}} - basically, the planet implodes. Worryingly, Batman's response is "Ingenious!"

* In an episode of ''[[Superfriends|Galactic Guardians]]'', Darkseid - in a plot to hijack the space station of Star City and [[Kill Sat|outfit it with weapons]] - almost literally Storyboards The Apocalypse in a scene made relatively well-known by [[Seanbaby]]'s website:

* 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.

'''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.