History Main / DesertPunk

* ''Sands of Salzzar'' is a desert fantasy set in a {{Wuxia}} world resembling the western areas of ancient China during the Silk Road days. The ruling dynasty had fallen from an uprising of an alliance of tribes grown ambitious. Unfortunately the usurpation took place during a eclipse event known as the Day of the Black Sunwhich brought the arrival of the Ifrit.

* ''Literature/CthulhuArmageddon'' by Creator/CTPhipps is set in post-apocalypse desert consisting of the former New England area around HP Lovecraft's Arkham. It's full of tribes, radioactive wastelands, weird temples, and ruins of Earth in the 21st century.

* ''Literature/CthulhuArmageddon'' is set in a post-apocalypse Earth where the Great Old Ones have destroyed humanity and everyone is reduced to living in WeirdWest small towns or tribes. The majority of the world is now barren wasteland and monsters roam the Earth. Even the stars are no longer the same.

* ''Film/MadMax'', set in the arid wastelands of post-apocalyptic Australia, is perhaps the Main/TropeCodifier of Desert Punk in western media. The franchise's scrapped together hot rods and homemade punk armor would go on to influence several of the examples on this page, including the game ''VideoGame/Rage2011'', which provides the page image.

* UrExample and TropeCodifier: The ''Film/MadMax'' sequels, especially ''Film/TheRoadWarrior'' and ''[[Film/MadMaxFuryRoad Fury Road]]''.

* ''VideoGame/Rage2011'', after Earth got hit by an asteroid and ecological disasters unfolded to turn large areas of the planet into wasteland, humanity broke down into violent factions that would loot cryogenically frozen survivors of the previous era. You're the ex-marine lone security guard for those frozen survivors and now it's time to make the raiders and crazies pay.

[[folder:Film]]

[[folder:Comics]]

* Creator/IanMcDonald's ''Ares Express'' and ''Desolation Road'' are this away from the urban zones. In the cities it's a mix of DieselPunk and CyberPunk.
* Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs' ''Literature/{{Barsoom}}'' novels take place on a Mars that is, mostly, a desert except for the areas bordering the canal network, a region surrounding an underground sea at the south pole, and a few swamps, which represent all that is left of the once-great oceans covering the planet. There is apparently still groundwater deep below the surface, though, since some plants and animals do manage to survive despite the complete lack of rainfall. Probably the TropeMaker.
* ''Literature/CthulhuArmageddon'' by Creator/CTPhipps is set in a post-apocalypse Earth where the Great Old Ones have destroyed humanity and everyone is reduced to living in WeirdWest small towns or tribes. The majority of the world is now barren wasteland and monsters roam the Earth. Even the stars are no longer the same.
* ''Literature/{{Dune}}'' and [[Franchise/{{Dune}} its sequels]], by Frank Herbert are especially prominent examples of desert punk scifi, though thematically it resembles a HeroicFantasy more than Desert Punk. Except that in ''Literature/{{Dune}}'' it's not so much TheWildWest [[RecycledInSpace In Space]] as [[UsefulNotes/TheMiddleEast The Middle East]] ([[RecycledInSpace In Space]].)

* Creator/ChinaMieville's ''Literature/{{Railsea}}'' takes place in a world where the "oceans" are barren, monster infested wastelands crisscrossed by railroads.

* ''Literature/CthulhuArmageddon'' by Creator/CTPhipps is set in a post-apocalypse Earth where the Great Old Ones have destroyed humanity and everyone is reduced to living in WeirdWest small towns or tribes. The majority of the world is now barren wasteland and monsters roam the Earth. Even the stars are no longer the same.

[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/Rage2011 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rage_6.png]]]]

* ''Film/ResidentEvilExtinction''. While it is set in the Nevada/Utah desert, the opening explains the whole world is a desert. The world got better in the sequels.

[[folder:Anime And Manga]]

* The live-action ''Film/SuperMarioBros'' movie.

* ''LightNovel/TheThirdTheGirlWithTheBlueEye'': After one last Great War, the world's been turned into an endless desert, with scant handfuls of humanity eking out an existence amid the ruins of civilization. The world is ruled by an enigmatic race of mutants known as The Third.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Journey}}'', a robed figure is born in a desert where your ancestors' civilization existed. While cloth fragments are still around, [[RagnarokProofing not as much technology functions well and the buildings have deteriorated]] [[spoiler: since the war machines' conflict against the White Robes]]. A exception to this is the snowy mountain, its peak split by a crevice.

* It's quite literally AllThereInTheManual, or at least it was until ''VideoGame/HomeworldDesertsOfKharak'' came along in 2016, but the early history of the protagonist race from ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}}'' had elements of this.

%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1408627788094985300

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/desert_girl_lizard_rider.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Good luck finding enough crickets to keep that thing fed.\\
[-[[https://www.deviantart.com/rayph/art/Desert-Punk-160766061 Image]] by [[https://www.deviantart.com/rayph Rayph]].-]]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}''. Turns out that’s just what [[spoiler:3003 Los Angeles]] looks like normally.

** ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}''; Justified in this case as, even though it's set in Washington D.C., it was hit ''hard'' by nuclear weapons (the White House is ''gone''), burning it even worse than the rest of the country.
** ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}''; Mostly averted, since Boston was not hit as hard as the rest of the country. However, the southern areas are still dangerous, mainly due to the presence of the Gunners, mercenaries who in practice are little better than raiders, as well as bands of Super Mutants. There's also the [[{{Mordor}} Glowing Sea]] in the southwestern corner, a radioactive wasteland (even by Fallout standards) created by the only nuke to hit the Boston area, which is filled with various types of DemonicSpiders that occasionally wander into the Commonwealth.

* ''VideoGame/{{Rage}}'', after Earth got hit by an asteroid and ecological disasters unfolded to turn large areas of the planet into wasteland, humanity broke down into violent factions that would loot cryogenically frozen survivors of the previous era. You're the ex-marine lone security guard for those frozen survivors and now it's time to make the raiders and crazies pay .

* Parodied in ‘’WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}’’. Turns out that’s just what [[spoiler:3003 Los Angeles]] looks like normally.

* ''VideoGame/PokemonColosseum''. The protagonist is not a plucky 10-year old, but an [[RedemptionQuest ex-Pokemon thief]] that rescues the female protagonist, [[http://cdn.bulbagarden.net/upload/archive/6/62/20121231043747%21Colosseum_Rui_3D.png who looks like a cheap, under-age hooker in the Japanese version]]. Together they fight their way through the badlands of Orre, [[MyHorseIsAMotorBike driving a rusty hover-cycle]] [[EnormousEngine with an engine presumably stolen from a Top Fuel dragster]]. Reinforced by the near-total lack of Pokemon (read: organic life) in the desert areas. The only real exceptions are Agate Village (a lovely green village built high in the mountains) and Phenac City, a veritable oasis city [[spoiler:whose mayor is secretly the BigBad]].
** The sequel game ''VideoGame/PokemonXDGaleOfDarkness'' takes place in the same region, but there are a few places where life has begun to find a way, and wild Pokemon have begun to appear. Strange, since Orre is not a post-apocalypse locale that has something to recover from, but merely in the Pokemon world equivalent of an actual desert in the south-western United States.

* The Orre region from ''VideoGame/PokemonColosseum'' fits this to a T. Unlike most Pokémon games, the criminal organization practically controls the entire region already, and even the protagonist is more [[AntiHero morally]] [[HeelFaceTurn gray]] than normal. Justified, as the region is based off of Phoenix, Arizona.

* ''[[ComicBook/JonahHex Hex]]'': In a bizarre turn of events, WildWest gunslinger Jonah Hex finds that he had been transported to the 21st century and he becomes somewhat of a post-apocalyptic warrior in a world ravaged by nuclear war. Radiation has rendered much of the available water undrinkabale, making water a precious commidoty, and giving the setting a very desert-like atmosphere.

%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1408627788094985300
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* Creator/ClarkAshtonSmith wrote a series of stories set on Zothique, a burned-out supercontinent in Earth's distant and bleak future. The typical Zothique story combines the CosmicHorrorStory with swashbuckling HeroicFantasy adventure.

* ''Webcomic/WeaponBrown''
* ''Webcomic/BicycleBoy'' takes place in a vast, dry post-apocalyptic desert.

* Bara Magna in Toys/{{Bionicle}}

* ''Manga/DesertPunk''
* ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'' seems to be about 25% Kenshiro wandering through sand.
* ''Manga/SandLand''

* ''LightNovel/TheThirdTheGirlWithTheBlueEye''
* ''Anime/{{Ozuma}}''

* Just A Pilgrim, by Garth Ennis, is set on an Earth devastated by a solar flare, literally burned out. The few survivors scrape along the arid ocean bottoms, beset by various mutant monsters.]

[[folder:Film]]
* UrExample and TropeCodifier: The ''Film/MadMax'' sequels, especially Film/TheRoadWarrior and [[Film/MadMaxFuryRoad Fury Road]].
* ''Film/TerminatorSalvation'' seems to have this as the setting outside of cities.
* ''Film/ResidentEvilExtinction''. While it is set in the Nevada/Utah desert, the opening explains the whole world is a desert. The world got better in the sequels.

* ''Film/TankGirl'' - At least Australia is sand, but we're not sure if it's the rest of the world too.

* TheMovie of ''Series/KamenRiderKabuto''

* ''Film/TheBookOfEli''
* ''Film/ABoyAndHisDog'' - Society on the surface world has been reduced to roving bands of scavengers prowling for food and sex. There is a civilization underground, but it's a bizarre, oligarchical, almost dystopian state.
* Much of ''{{Film/Cherry 2000}}'' takes place in the post-apocalyptic Nevada desert.
* ''Film/{{Solarbabies}}'' is an odd (and commercially disastrous) attempt to blend Desert Punk with roller-skating, teen dystopia, and elements of ''Film/ETTheExtraterrestrial'' of all things.

* Orgos from ''Desert Coral''.

%%* ''Anime/GunXSword''.

* ''Anime/SandsOfDestruction'' takes place InAWorld where SandIsWater, meaning that the whole planet is a desert except for islands of land which is capable of supporting plant life. The [[Manga/SandsOfDestruction manga]] is the same in terms of setting, though [[AlternateContinuity its plot is wildly different]].

* The ''Santiago'' books by Mike Resnick.
* ''The Literature/PitDragonChronicles''.
* Creator/IanMcDonald's ''Ares Express'' and ''Desolation Road'' are this away from the urban zones. In the cities it's a mix of DieselPunk and CyberPunk.
* ''Literature/TheMartian'' comes as close to this trope as a work of hard sci-fi possibly can.
* China Mieville's Literature/{{Railsea}} takes place in a world where the "oceans" are barren, monster infested wastelands crisscrossed by railroads.
* Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs' Literature/{{Barsoom}} novels take place on a Mars that is, mostly, a desert except for the areas bordering the canal network, a region surrounding an underground sea at the south pole, and a few swamps, which represent all that is left of the once-great oceans covering the planet. There is apparently still groundwater deep below the surface, though, since some plants and animals do manage to survive despite the complete lack of rainfall. Probably the TropeMaker.

* Any story set on [[Franchise/StarTrek Vulcan]]

* Similarly on ''Series/{{Earth2}}'', the equipment and the costumes of the Eden Advance survivors (survivors of a crashed advanced scout ship that arrived at an Earth-like planet ahead of the main colonial transport) lent themselves to a Desert Punk feeling in many episodes, although the planet G-889's terrain ''was'' more varied than just a [[SingleBiomePlanet desert planet]], and the group experienced different seasons as they traveled toward their original target destination. The Desert Punk equipment included futuristic Humvee trucks and dune buggies, cool guns, high-tech but utilitarian survival gear, and costumes that became more rugged and patched up as time wore on for the group on their journey.
* Since it takes place in a near future UsefulNotes/LasVegas surrounded by a desert wasteland (even more of one than now) ''Series/{{Dominion}}'' qualifies.

* The [[TabletopGames RPG]] ''Burning Sands'', being ([[WordOfGod by the author's admission]]) heavily inspired by ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'', is another example.

* TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons' TabletopGame/DarkSun campaign setting. This also crosses over with Burned-Out Earth as the planet of Athas used to be greener before Defiler mages burned away most of the plant life.

* Shows up from time to time in ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'', particularly on some of the less habitable worlds in the Periphery, where there's far less advanced technology available (to the point that some planets have an average tech level that's lower than 20th Century Earth) and the inhabitants get preyed on by pirates and gangs.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Journey}}'', a robed figure is born in a desert where your ancestors' civilization existed. While cloth fragments are still around, [[RagnarokProofing not as much technology functions well and the buildings have deteriorated]] [[spoiler: since the war machines' conflict against the White Robes]]. A exception to this is the snowy mountain, its peak split by a crevice.
* Many of the ''VideoGame/WildArms'' games have elements of this, as did the anime, with ''VideoGame/WildArms3'' being the straightest example (the others all have prominent oceans and forests). Like ''Journey'', crosses over with the Burned-Out Earth, though, since Filgaia as a planet is slowly dying.

* Motavia in ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarIV''. It's naturally a desert planet, but in between ''VideoGame/{{Phantasy Star|I}}'' and ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarII'', it was fully terraformed into a GhibliHills world that borders on CrystalSpiresAndTogas. However, Climatrol was destroyed in ''II'', and since then, the world has been slowly desertifying and monsters have been taking over the wilds, with only the Hunter's Guild to fight them back. Thus, this crosses over with the Burned-Out Earth variant. Obviously, it was a desert planet in the original ''Phantasy Star'', but it was far less "punk" back then.

* ''VideoGame/SandsOfDestruction'' downplays the "punk" part in favor of ScienceFantasy, but certain aspects take on a distinctly punk aesthetic - see, for example, the stern of Agan's CoolShip [[http://img.neoseeker.com/v_concept_art.php?caid=6156 The Sea Gale]].
* The world of ''VideoGame/HeavensVault'' consists of "moons" (actually small asteroids with Eatrh-like gravity and atmoshpere) connected by a network of "rivers" (water flowing between the moons). Most of the moons are mostly or completely dry, with a few notable exceptions. This makes water a valuable resource.

* ''VideoGame/{{Rage}}''