History Main / DoomsdayClock

As of January 2023, [[https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock it is 90 seconds until midnight.]] That said, in the 75 years that the clock has existed, the furthest it's ever been till midnight (1991, after the end of the Cold War) was 11:43PM, so keeping track of it can cause people to think “TooBleakStoppedCaring”: if it's ''always'' so close to potential doomsday that WWIII could erupt in the time it takes to drive into town on a routine errand, why bother get worked up about the precise location of the minute hand?

* "11:59" by {{Music/Blondie}}.

This is a subtrope of WhenTheClockStrikesTwelve. It may overlap with TimedMission. Also see DeathsHourglass. For the Creator/DCComics mini-series crossing over with ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'', click [[ComicBook/DoomsdayClock here]] or the "Comic Book" icon above.

* In ''VideoGame/PandorasTower'', while not a Doomsday Clock perse as the fate of the world is not at stake, but the humanity of one girl, there is a clock that ticks throughout the game while you are in the towers. As it depletes, Elena's humanity will slowly fade away as she's painfully transformed into a monster. If it runs out, you get a ''NonstandardGameOver'', though you can extend the time whenever you want by giving her flesh from the monsters of the towers.

* In Creator/KimStanleyRobinson's ''[[ThreeCaliforniasTrilogy The Gold Coast]]'', where it's about 2050 AD and the UsefulNotes/ColdWar is still going on, one character mentions that the Doomsday Clock has been set at three seconds to midnight for several decades.

It's also worth noting that the Bulletin evaluates every January every year to discuss whether events in the previous year warrant bring the minute hand closer to midnight, move it farther away, or keep it at the same time.

As of January 2023, [[https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/ it is 90 seconds until midnight.]] That said, in the 75 years that the clock has existed, the furthest it's ever been till midnight (1991, after the end of the Cold War) was 11:43PM, so keeping track of it can cause people to think “TooBleakStoppedCaring”: if it's ''always'' so close to potential doomsday that WWIII could erupt in the time it takes to drive into town on a routine errand, why bother get worked up about the precise location of the minute hand?

As of January 2022, [[https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/ it is 100 seconds until midnight.]] That said, in the 75 years that the clock has existed, the furthest it's ever been till midnight (1991, after the end of the Cold War) was 11:43PM, so keeping track of it can cause people to think “TooBleakStoppedCaring”: if it's ''always'' so close to potential doomsday that WWIII could erupt in the time it takes to drive into town on a routine errand, why bother get worked up about the precise location of the minute hand?

* " One Minute to Midnight" by Music/{{Justice}}.

* Laid close to the Twelve Zodiac Houses in ''Manga/SaintSeiya'', is a tower whose clock has blue flames where the numbers would normally be. When Athena gets hit by a cursed arrow, the flames tell how many hours remain until the arrow ends up killing the wounded goddess. Once every hour, one flame is extinguished, so the main characters have only twelve hours to travel through the twelve houses, defeat the Gold Saints patrolling said houses, and convince the head honcho to remove the arrow from Athena's chest. In the end, [[spoiler:all twelve flames in the clock disappear, but Athena manages to lift the curse and the arrow with her cosmic energy]].

* One Sunday strip of ''ComicStrip/BrewsterRockitSpaceGuy'' had Agent X bring aboard the Doomsday Clock, itself a physical representation of the time to doomsday. Brewster, having missed this explanation, thinks the clock is off and sets to the proper time of midnight. This causes nuclear explosions all around Earth in the background.

* In Creator/KimStanleyRobinson's ''[[ThreeCaliforniasTrilogy The Gold Coast]]'', where it's about 2050 AD and the UsefulNotes/ColdWar is still going on, one character mentions that the Doomsday Clock has been set at three seconds to midnight for several decades.

* ''Series/{{Lost}}'' reveals in later seasons that [[spoiler: the repeated number sequence, 4 8 15 16 23 42]] is in fact a component of an insanely accurate Doomsday Clock: [[spoiler:the Valenzetti Equation, which predicts the extinction of mankind, with the Numbers serving as the input.]]

* While not an exact representation, ''VideoGame/RiseOfNations'' has an example clearly based on the Doomsday Clock. When a player researches nuclear weapons, a counter appears on his HUD. Every time ''any'' player uses a nuke, it goes down by 1. If it reaches zero, the game ends with everyone losing as the clock strikes midnight.

* Used for a TimedMission in ''VideoGame/EmpireEarth 2'', where the final confrontation between the US and the USSR happened in the Bering Strait. The clock starts at one hour, goes down by 10 minutes every time the Soviets destroy a unit or building, and goes up by the same amount whenever you kill a unit or building. They also have an invincible bomber flying around that regularly destroys one of your buildings with complete impunity until you hijack it.
* Used in ''VideoGame/TheNewOrderLastDaysOfEurope'' for [[spoiler:Sergey Taboritsky's Holy Russian Empire. The clock represents the [[SanityMeter regent's sanity]]. When the clock strikes twelve, Taboritsky finally sees through his myriad delusions and realises Alexei Romanov is dead and not coming back, and dies from the sheer despair. Things go FromBadToWorse for Russia from there.]]

As of January 2022, [[https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/ it is 100 seconds until midnight.]] That said, in the 75 years that the clock has existed, the furthest it's ever been till midnight (1991, after the end of the Cold War) was 11:43PM, so keeping track of it can cause DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: if it's ''always'' so close to potential doomsday that WWIII could erupt in the time it takes to drive into town on a routine errand, why bother get worked up about the precise location of the minute hand?

As of January 2021, [[https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/ it is 100 seconds until midnight.]] January 20th, 2022 is when the Bulletin will announce whether the clock will remain 100 seconds, or will be moved closer or further from midnight.

The ''[[http://www.thebulletin.org/ Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists]]'' at the University of Chicago actually keep one as a prop... of [[DoomyDoomsOfDoom DOOM]]! When it was originally introduced [[UsefulNotes/ColdWar in 1947]] the clock symbolized how close the world was to nuclear war, with the metaphor supporting it being: talks have broken down, and once midnight hits, the attacks start. [[DespairEventHorizon And we are all DOOMED]]. Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, the original metaphor is (supposedly) obsolete, and it was expanded to [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt catastrophic destruction]] of any sort, provided it's on a global scale. The ''Bulletin'''s website specifically mentions GlobalWarming and [[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke bioengineering]] as possible causes of [[DoomyDoomsOfDoom DOOM]] in addition to nuclear war; however, given they can never go a year without also mentioning "global nuclear weapons modernizations" it's most probable that the simple ''[[AsLongAsThereIsEvil existence]]'' of nukes remains a big AuthorTract for the Bulletin.

As of January 2021, [[https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/ it is 100 seconds until midnight.]]

The ''[[http://www.thebulletin.org/ Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists]]'' at the University of Chicago actually keep one as a prop... of [[DoomyDoomsOfDoom DOOM]]! When it was originally introduced [[UsefulNotes/ColdWar in 1947]] the clock symbolized how close the world was to nuclear war, with the metaphor supporting it being: talks have broken down, and once midnight hits, the attacks start. [[DespairEventHorizon And we are all DOOMED]]. Since [[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp the fall of the Iron Curtain]], the original metaphor is (supposedly) obsolete, and it was expanded to [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt catastrophic destruction]] of any sort, provided it's on a global scale. The ''Bulletin'''s website specifically mentions GlobalWarming and [[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke bioengineering]] as possible causes of [[DoomyDoomsOfDoom DOOM]] in addition to nuclear war; however, given they can never go a year without also mentioning "global nuclear weapons modernizations" it's most probable that the simple ''[[AsLongAsThereIsEvil existence]]'' of nukes remains a big AuthorTract for the Bulletin.

The ''[[http://www.thebulletin.org/ Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists]]'' at the University of Chicago actually keep one as a prop... of DOOM! When it was originally introduced [[UsefulNotes/ColdWar in 1947]] the clock symbolized how close the world was to nuclear war, with the metaphor supporting it being: talks have broken down, and once midnight hits, the attacks start. [[DespairEventHorizon And we are all DOOMED]]. Since [[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp the fall of the Iron Curtain]], the original metaphor is (supposedly) obsolete, and it was expanded to [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt catastrophic destruction]] of any sort, provided it's on a global scale. The ''Bulletin'''s website specifically mentions GlobalWarming and [[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke bioengineering]] as possible causes of [[DoomyDoomsOfDoom DOOM]] in addition to nuclear war; however, given they can never go a year without also mentioning "global nuclear weapons modernizations" it's most probable that the simple ''[[AsLongAsThereIsEvil existence]]'' of nukes remains a big AuthorTract for the Bulletin.

* In Creator/PiersAnthony's novel ''Literature/WieldingARedSword'', the Incarnation of War can use the DoomsdayClock to bring about WorldWarIII.

* ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' episode "Murder 2.0" had the DoomsdayClock, at the time set to five minutes, used as a clue to indicate the next murder would take place at 11:55 p.m.
* ''Series/{{Lost}}'' reveals in later seasons that [[spoiler: the repeated number sequence, 4 8 15 16 23 42]] is in fact a component of an insanely accurate DoomsdayClock: [[spoiler:the Valenzetti Equation, which predicts the extinction of mankind, with the Numbers serving as the input.]]

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGummiBears'' featured a DoomsdayClock built by an evil sorcerer, which would actually destroy the world if it ever struck twelve -- unless, of course, it was destroyed first.

The ''[[http://www.thebulletin.org/ Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists]]'' at the University of Chicago actually keep one as a prop... of DOOM! When it was originally introduced [[UsefulNotes/ColdWar in 1947]] the clock symbolized how close the world was to nuclear war, with the metaphor supporting it being: talks have broken down, and once midnight hits, the attacks start. [[DespairEventHorizon And we are all DOOMED]]. Since [[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp the fall of the Iron Curtain]], the original metaphor is (supposedly) obsolete, and it was expanded to [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt catastrophic destruction]] of any sort, provided it's on a global scale. The ''Bulletin'''s website specifically mentions ClimateChange and [[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke bioengineering]] as possible causes of [[DoomyDoomsOfDoom DOOM]] in addition to nuclear war; however, given they can never go a year without also mentioning "global nuclear weapons modernizations" it's most probable that the simple ''[[AsLongAsThereIsEvil existence]]'' of nukes remains a big AuthorTract for the Bulletin.

The ''[[http://www.thebulletin.org/ Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists]]'' at the University of Chicago actually keep one as a prop... of DOOM! When it was originally introduced [[UsefulNotes/ColdWar in 1947]] the clock symbolized how close the world was to nuclear war, with the metaphor supporting it being: talks have broken down, and once midnight hits, the attacks start. [[DespairEventHorizon And we are all DOOMED]]. Since [[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp the fall of the Iron Curtain]], the original metaphor is (supposedly) obsolete, and it was expanded to [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt catastrophic destruction]] of any sort, provided it's on a global scale. The ''Bulletin'''s website specifically mentions GlobalWarming and [[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke bioengineering]] as possible causes of [[DoomyDoomsOfDoom DOOM]] in addition to nuclear war; however, given they can never go a year without also mentioning "global nuclear weapons modernizations" it's most probable that the simple ''[[AsLongAsThereIsEvil existence]]'' of nukes remains a big AuthorTract for the Bulletin.

As of January 2020, [[https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/ it is 100 seconds until midnight.]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Film]]
* ''Film/DrStrangelove - How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb'' has this.

** The story ''Four to Doomsday'' was released when the real life clock was at four minutes. Possibly a coincidence.
** The story ''Kinda'' has an apocalyptic dream sequence that features a multitude of Doomsday Clocks of different technological types.
** In ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E7ThePyramidAtTheEndOfTheWorld The Pyramid at the End of the World]]'', every clock on earth displays the doomsday time, beginning at three minutes to midnight and advancing throughout the episode as the event that threatens to wipe out all life on earth unfolds. The closest the clock gets to midnight is 23:59:40.
* The ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' episode ''Seven to Midnight'' revolved around stopping a nuclear bomb from going off in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity. At the time it was aired the clock stood at seven minutes.
* ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' episode ''Murder 2.0'' had the DoomsdayClock, at the time set to five minutes, used as a clue to indicate the next murder would take place at 11:55 p.m.
* ''Series/{{Lost}}'' reveals in later seasons that [[spoiler: the repeated number sequence, 4 8 15 16 23 42]] is in fact a component of an insanely accurate DoomsdayClock: [[spoiler: the Valenzetti Equation, which predicts the extinction of mankind, with the Numbers serving as the input.]]

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGummiBears'' featured a DoomsdayClock built by an evil sorcerer, which would actually destroy the world if it ever struck twelve - unless, of course, it was destroyed first.

[[folder:RealLife]]

[[/folder]]

This is a subtrope of WhenTheClockStrikesTwelve. It may overlap with TimedMission. Also see DeathsHourglass.