History Main / BadPresent

** In ''Film/BackToTheFuture'', Marty [=McFly=] figures out he's returned to his own time when he notices a filthy bum sleeping on the park bench. On the other hand, he also finds that he's changed the history of his family for the better, making the original timeline the Bad Present and defying the usual YouCantFightFate trope!

** A straighter example, and perhaps the most well known example on film, is the horrific 1985-A in ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'', caused by 2015!Biff Tannen stealing the time machine. Marty's hometown becomes the armpit of the West Coast filled with pollution, crime and [[AllBikersAreHellsAngels biker gangs]], and Biff's political clout kept Nixon in office for fifteen years. Doc Brown says that ''Hell'' couldn't be much worse.

* [[LivingRelic Javik]] from ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' might consider himself in one, despite coming from a time when things were arguably just as bad, if not even worse. He wakes up in the present day to find that the galaxy is still threatened by the same enemy his people fought 50,000 years ago, only now he is quite literally TheLastOfHisKind, and surrounded by [[CatchPhrase primitives]].

* In ''Film/BackToTheFuture'', Marty [=McFly=] figures out he's returned to his own time when he notices a filthy bum sleeping on the park bench. On the other hand, he also finds that he's changed the history of his family for the better, making the original timeline the Bad Present and defying the usual YouCantFightFate trope!
** Not to mention the horrific 1985-A in the second film, caused by 2015!Biff Tannen stealing the time machine. Marty's hometown becomes the armpit of the West Coast, and Biff's political clout kept Nixon in office for fifteen years. Doc Brown says that Hell couldn't be much worse.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_Upon_a_Time_(The_Twilight_Zone) Once Upon a Time]]" (1960). A janitor from 1890 is sent to 1960 via a time helmet. He finds it much noisier and hectic, with higher prices and ruder people. He eventually escapes back to the past, which he finds much better. In fairness, another character is displaced from 1960 to 1890 and finds it equally miserable, the explicit message being that the present isn't necessarily worse, but that people are best suited for their own time.

* The world of 2005 from Sparky (and to some extent Lillian's) point of view in ''/Webcomic/TheLastMechanicalMonster''. The local neighborhood is poor and run down, and there's no magic or incredible inventions anymore.

* Similarly, the 1940s Creator/MarvelComics heroes in ''Avengers/Invaders'' arrive in the aftermath of ''ComicBook/CivilWar'' and briefly think that the Germans won UsefulNotes/WorldWarII as a result.
* Another example from ''DC 2000,'' wherein a villain shows the 1940s era ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica members the present day in order to convince them everything's gone horribly wrong.

[[folder:Film]]

* The age 1000 of ''Videogame/DragonBallOnline'' is a bad present for the Future Trunks from [[Manga/DragonBall the main series]] due to the Earth being overrun by monsters, two separate factions trying to TakeOverTheWorld and an ever present threat of invasion by remnants of Freeza's planet trade federation and King Kold's empire. On the other hand, the future isn't any better due to it being inhabited by the Time Breakers who want to make ''everything'' worse by [[MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight making wrong what once went right]].

* Downplayed in J.B. Priestley’s ''Time and the Conways''. When the play returns to 1919 for the third act, Kay still has some vague memory of the bad present (1937) of the second act. But she doesn’t remember it clearly enough to avert it, even if such a thing is possible.

** Magik discovered that she would die from the Legacy Virus when she and her team time-traveled to the present. Sadly, if she hadn't time-traveled in the first place, she wouldn't have died, as it was in the present that she was infected with the Virus [[spoiler:by her brother]].

* ''Film/TerminatorGenisys:'' When Sarah and Kyle time travel to the future ([[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture Twenty Minutes Into Our Future]]), they are shocked to find that now everyone is completely connected to machines and computers ''all the time''. [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything Just like real life]], no one sees anything wrong with revolving your entire life around machines for social media, streaming, mobile gaming, or [[TVTropesWillRuinYourLife Tv Tropes.]]

* In ''ComicBook/WhateverHappenedToTheManOfTomorrow'', when the Comicbook/{{Legion Of Super-Heroes}} visits Franchise/{{Superman}} just before what is likely to be his last battle, they bring ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} with them. Since the story is set post-Crisis (but before the new continuity kicked in), Supergirl is dead in the "present", and Superman tells this version of Supergirl that his Supergirl "is in the past," without specifying that it's not on a mission as the visitor thinks.

* Despite his feelings in ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'', Steve Rogers does admit in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'' that there are a few good things about the future, such as better food, no polio, and the Internet. [[spoiler:However, this is later overshadowed by the revelation that the future in which he woke up was essentially railroaded by his old enemy HYDRA from within SHIELD. A good chunk of the misery in the world was deliberately engineered by them to make people more amenable to surrendering their freedom for the illusion of security.]]

* ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'': Gilgamesh came from an era where the humans of Uruk were part of a [[Precursor precursor race]] that had greater magic and technology compared to modern humans. After spending ten years in the modern era, he has come to see the present world as corrupt and weak, and wants to use the Holy Grail to create a disaster that would leave only the strongest humans left, with himself to guide them.

* ''Series/TheForeverWar'': The protagonist is stuck fighting a war far, far away from Earth. Since all travel is done at relativistic speeds, time dilation means everytime he arrives back on Earth, it's far into the future. The world progressively becomes more and more crapsack, mostly because he barely understands the new way of things. So he repeatedly re-enlists, and repeatedly returns to a world he understands less and less. Done as a metaphor for returning Vietnam War vets (and returning soldiers of any time).

* A mundane example: In ''Series/TheSopranos'', a large number of Mafiosi are released from long prison sentences throughout the series; Season 4 sees the release of "the class of 2004", a group of New Jersey and New York wiseguys convicted and given 20-year sentences in the big Mob prosecutions of the early 80s. Many of these guys have some issues with the way the Mob works in the 21st century--including its increasing suburbanization (both the Jersey boss and NYC underboss live in ''North Caldwell''), its increasing cooperation with other criminal organizations, and the laxity of certain Mob traditions.

** The central point of Creator/BrianMichaelBendis's ''All-New X-Men'': the original X-Men team are taken to a nightmarish future where mutant relations are at an all time low, Jean's dead, Beast's dying and Scott is [[spoiler: a villain]]. It's the present day, post ''Comicbook/AvengersVsXMen'' MarvelUniverse.

** Each time Cap's origin is retold, the level of 'bad' present gets worse. When he was first unfrozen in 1964's Avengers #4, only twenty years had passed. All his friends and loved ones were [[OhTheHumanity middle aged]] and had moved on with their lives. Also there were hippies and peace movements. Since major events in the MarvelUniverse remain at fixed points X number of years ago, retellings of his unfreezing now include all his friends and loved ones being either old or dead, and the technology of the world nigh-unrecognizable.

* Played with in ''Series/TheGoodPlace''. After Michael and Janet's manipulation of the timeline in season 3, Gen tells them that the ripples from their actions are warping reality: "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brexit England left Europe]]. That [[Film/TheGreatestShowman Hugh Jackman musical about P.T. Barnum]] made, like, 400 million dollars. Also, the Jacksonville Jaguars are good now!"

* Another example from ''DC 2000,'' wherein a villain shows the 1940s era Justice Society members the present day in order to convince them everything's gone horribly wrong.