The End of the World as We Know It: Difference between revisions

* In the end of ''[[Saikano]]'' {{spoiler|the world does come to an end. Chise loses her body in a climactic final battle and becomes a ball of light and Shuuiji is the sole survivor in the entire planet.[[Tear Jerker|Few things could be sadder.]]}}

* Parodied in the ''[[Clannad]]'' game with this quote:

* In ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]'', the SDF-1, after a year of fighting, returns to Earth only to {{spoiler|witness the nuclear bombardment of the planet by Boddolza's main Zentradi fleet of over 4,000,000 warships (killing "most" of the population and destroying 95% of the environment)}}, however, {{spoiler|with a little help from a wave motion cannon back on Earth, and Lynn Minmei, the Macross nukes Boddolza's remaining flagship}}. The remnants of humanity and the Zentradi are then shown to be co-existing on what remains of the planet, but because of some of the bored Zentradi, their alliance quickly turns to crap.

* This is Friend's ultimate goal in ''[[Twentieth Century Boys]]''. {{spoiler|He comes [[Near Villain Victory|dangerously close to succeeding]], too.}}

** The Serpent God Set's children were successfully born in issue #25 (vol.2), they then in turn wipe out all life on Earth before moving on to conquer other planets and other dimensions.

* The R.E.M. song is [[Crowning Moment of Funny|referenced]] in [[Final Night]].

 

 

== Film ==

* [[Time Bandits]]...

'''Kevin''': "But don't you understand?...If we don't stop Him, He'll ''destroy the World''!" }}

* Happens at the end of ''[[Dr. Strangelove]]''. After the US recalls all other nuclear bombers, and the Russians damage (but don't destroy) the last one, the final bomber drops a bomb, which triggers Russia's [[Doomsday Device]] to end the world. Since it is a [[Dark Comedy]], we see a large number of nuclear explosions with "Until We Meet Again" as the background music.

* This ironic and somewhat disturbing poem by Archibald [[Mac Leish]], titled -- appropriately enough -- "The End of the World" (which, come to think of it, might also work as an example of the [[Nothing Is Scarier]] trope):

 

Quite unexpectedly the top blew off: }}

 

Of nothing, nothing, nothing --- nothing at all. }}

* [[Orson Scott Card]]'s novel ''[[Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus]]'' takes place in an [[After the End]] world, where humanity (now numbering less than a billion) struggles to restore the ecology and reverse the effects of global warming. By all accounts, the results are promising. Except, as it turns out, the politicians are lying. The Amazon rainforest replanting project is failing due to the top-soil erosion, as is the Sahara restoration project. The Carolina dykes fail, allowing the rising ocean to sweep through the farmland. Humans around the world are using 100% of the arable land in all the world with less and less crops each year due to the increasing cloud cover (a result of the rising ocean levels). Without public knowledge, the politicians are keeping people ignorant of this, while dipping into the grain reserves to maintain the illusion. The weather satellites will eventually malfunction, but with more people being reassigned from factories to farms, they will not be replaced. The person who tells (and shows) all this to the protagonists sounds hopeful (although ironic) that Earth will, eventually, restore itself naturally. It's just that we, as a civilization, won't be around to appreciate it. Humanity is predicted to be thrown back to the Stone Age without the hope of recovery. Which is why the project meant to alter history has received every political support it can. Changing history means that this is still the case. The previous world is indeed gone.

* The 1982 hardcore punk wave was also called "no future" punk, as the fear of an imminent nuclear holocaust, or environmental destruction was a common theme.

* From the [[Tom Waits]] album ''[[Darker and Edgier|Bone Machine]]'', we have [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|aptly named]] ''And the Earth Died Screaming''. The primitive-sounding percussion([[Fridge Horror|implying it's being sung]] [[After the End]]), [[Mind Screw|weird lyrics]] and [[Guttural Growler|Tom Waits's voice]] make for one [[Nightmare Fuel|very creepy song]].

And the earth died screaming }}

* The Ayreon [[Rock Opera]] depicts the world ending around 2084-2085 despite [[Cassandra Truth|warnings from the prophet who foresaw it's end]] the end comes thanks to [[Ludd Was Right|technology]] and the like.

* The [[Insane Clown Posse]] song "It's All Over" posits everything ending in one massive, chaotic rush. However, it presents the end of the world as a ''positive'' thing -- you have no worry of [[Dying Alone]], for all others will die with you... and isn't it glorious, to know that you're witnessing the very end of the world itself?

* The [[Genesis (band)|Genesis]] song "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o02v0hkq3IA The Day The Light Went Out]" is about ''something'' that arrives here and puts out the light... and then, it prepares ''[[Nightmare Fuel|to feed]]''...

''The day the light went out of the daytime sky.'' }}

* Front Line Assembly's "[[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Armageddon]]":

Faced with human annihilation }}

* Matchbox 20 - How Far We've Come:

Let's see how far we've come }}

* [[Metallica]] - Fight Fire With Fire

All shall die }}

** "Blackened" too, though it's more about Earth [[After the End]].

* ''Armageddon'' by [[Gamma Ray]]:

when the day of the judgement will come }}

* Outkast's song "Da Art of Da Storytellin' Part 2" is this in spades, although it has one of the strangest plots of a [[Endofthe World As We Know It]] that I'm currently aware of.

** There is a wizard in the middle of every planet. You have to tunnel through the planets.

** More obvious in the good ending:

* This is the theme of [[World of Warcraft]]'s next expansion pack, appropriately titled ''[[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Cataclysm]]''.

* In the first two ''[[Space Quest]]'' games, [[Big Bad]] Vohaul plots to destroy Xenon. Roger must save Xenon from an [[Earthshattering Kaboom]] in the first game, and from insurance salesmen in the second.

* At the end of the [[Chaos Timeline]], [[World War III]] between the superpowers Germany and China breaks out, and although it doesn't last long (less than one day, in fact), the world will never be again as it was before. {{spoiler|1=Because the <s>hackers</s> Logos and their allied AIs take over the world and the military and tell the war off.}}

* ''[[Skippy's List|Skippys List]]'' has examples:

 

 

** And finally, in the two-part [[Grand Finale]] ''Destroyer'' and ''Alive!'', {{spoiler|[[Darkseid]] comes [[Back From the Dead]] and decides he's going to bring this about, [[Revenge by Proxy|purely to get back as Superman for killing him the first time]]. He nearly succeeds, and actually defeats the Man of Steel in battle, but [[Lex Luthor]] (seemingly) destroys him and himself with the Anti-Life Equation. [[Pyrrhic Victory|That or they are both coming back in the future to enslave the universe.]]}}

* Parodied in the ''[[South Park]]'' episode "Make Love, not [[World of Warcraft|Warcraft]]." A player in the game has become so powerful that even the admins can't stop him from killing other players, and the fear is that everyone will become frustrated and stop playing:

** [[The Movie]] had this happen when Satan rises at the climax and starts two thousand years of darkness.. [[Sarcasm Mode|Thank you, Sheila]].

* In ''[[Turtles Forever]]'', the [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003|2003 Shredder]] plans to set out on a conquest of the [[The Multiverse|Turtles Multiverse]], until he learns that there ''will'' be a team of Ninja Turtles that would be waiting to stop him in ''each'' and ''every'' dimension. He decides to destroy all of them at once by going after the source, [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mirage|Turtle "Prime"]], blind to the fact that destroying the multiverse would mean the end for ''him'', as well. And he almost ''won'', too.

* Various theories in modern physics predict that baryons have a limited lifetime. Considering that pretty much everything is made a baryons this would mean that given enough time the whole universe will simply fall apart no matter what happens.

* There's always that threat that Mankind will stuff up something before any of the above "Real Life" Tropes even come close to coming true. There is even rumour of a small cult of people who believe that Mankind will push their "playing God" role too far and rather spectacularly fail, thus killing themselves. A wonderful quote from ''[[Jurassic Park]]'' which is much worth mentioning:

'''Dr. Ellie Sattler:''' Dinosaurs eat man. Woman inherits the earth... }}

** Never fear though; it'll be years before some corporate giant realises that it's only a simple task of some genetic mutation and they'll be making millions out of Raptor-thigh cutlets.