History Main / SoleSurvivingScientist

* ''Franchise/PlanetOfTheApes'': An interesting non-human example is Corneiluis and Zira arguably in the third film when they escape their nuclear war and go back in time*

[[caption-width-right:316:They often end up like this.]]

* In the Creator/LaurenceFishburne film ''Film/TheColony2013'', set in an ice age brought on by malfunctioning weather machines, we see one of these on a video feed. He managed to find and fix one of those machines to bring about a thaw in the icy terrain but his group needs seeds(which the protagonists have) to grow food and start over.

* ''Film/{{Interstellar}}'' doesn't start out this way, with lots of brilliant minds, recourses and infrastructure dedicated to the homeworld evacuation, but by the film’s last act, on Earth NASA is crumbling, along with society, with the death of their leader and the reveal that [[spoiler: his research giving them hope was a MotivationalLie]]. but Murph Cooper and her colleague Getty press on trying to find a way that will let their ships escape the gravitational pull. Meanwhile, in space, the last of the scientists is [[spoiler: Amelia]]., who can’t figure out a way to help those still on Earth and is alone and prepared to set up a new colony with genetic samples on the one life-bearing planet that the expedition found.

* ''Film/IndependenceDay'': While the work that Dr. Okun and his team do, along with their disheveled appearances scream tis trope, they’ve been like that before the alien invasion started. Dr. Isaacs becomes a more literal version of this when all of the others are killed or incapacitated, although his role afterwards isn’t that huge.
* ''Film/{{Pandorum}}'': Nadia is a biologist who helped collect Earth's biosphere on the colonization ship. When she wakes up to find the ship infested by cannibals, she guards the area her work is fathered and works on an (incorrect, it turns out) theory about where the Hunters came from. Notably Nadia probably isn't the only scientist left but any others are still cryogenically frozen.

* ''Film/TheDayOfTheTriffids'': Marine Biologist Dr. Goodwin becomes this by accident, when while simply trying to fight off the attacking plant creatures, he discovers that [[spoiler: salt water kills them]]. and quickly moves to work on this.

* ''Film/TwoThousandTwelve'': Helmsley has some of this as an expert on the environmental factors threatening to destroy the world. He zigzags this by having figured everything out years before the apocalypse hit and getting government backing while making preparations, only for things to get strained when those preparations couldn’t solve as much as expected. He spends most of the film's final act (assisted by colleagues Scotty and West) clashing with authority figures about how to implement the life-saving Arks.

* ’’Series/{{Crusade}}’’: Dr. Chambers is the Medical officer aboard a ship working to FindTheCure in time to keep everyone on earth from dying, and thus the one most likely to make the actual. Exes aren’t medical breakthroughs for their mission.

* ‘’Series/Day5’’: in a world where sleep has mysteriously become lethal, the first season features a group of scientists led by Dr Abrams and Lex who are testing a drug that keeps sleepers from dying but has failed to save over two hundred test subjects so far.

* ''Series/{{Lost}}'': Kelvin is a technician version of this; the last survivor of the defunct DHARMA Initiative. He was stranded on the island manning a device that kept the Earth's magnetic field from going crazy due to pressing a button at regular intervals, while training Desmond, a shipwreck victim, as his apprentice, secretly planning to leave the island behind and have Desmon continue his work), the fight they had when Desmond discovered this caused them to miss pushing the button, which cause the plane crash that the plot centers around.
* ‘’Series/TheLottery’’: Inna world that’s spent six years ravaged by an infertility plague, we have Allison and her assistant, who’ve managed to fertilize a hundred new eggs. The plot (and the title) comes from the governments decision about what to do with them.

* In the Laurence Fishburne film ''Film/TheColony'', set in an ice age brought on by malfunctioning weather machines, we see one of these on a video feed. He managed to find and fix one of those machines to bring about a thaw in the icy terrain but his group needs seeds(which the protagonists have) to grow food and start over.

* ''Film/{{Doomsday}}: Dr. Kane started out as one of these among the quarantined population of Scotland, seeking a cure to ThePlague, but suffered from both a DespairEventHorizon and a FaceHeelTurn and by the time we meet him, has completely abandoned science in favor of ruling as a feudal dictator.

* ''Film/{{Pandorum}}: Nadia is a biologist who helped collect Earth's biosphere on the colonization ship. When she wakes up to find the ship infested by cannibals, she guards the area her work is fathered and works on an (incorrect, it turns out) theory about where the Hunters came from. Notably Nadia probably isn't the only scientist left but any others are still cryogenically frozen.

* Another ice age apocalypse example is Wilford, the Big Bad of ''Film/{{Snowpiercer}}''; who built the train that serves as a refuge from the blizzard and keeps it running at the cost of oppressing hundreds. It’s played with though as 1) if you take the original comic as cannon to the film timeline then Alec Forrester was the one who invented the train that could do survive the ice age and Wilford is more of a businessman who financed it and 2) Wilford supposedly wanted to build the train to go around the world before there ever was an apocalypse, meaning that it was only by accident that he had the technology to save humanity and install himself as its leader.

* ''Film/ZombielandDoubleTap'': a cutaway scene shows a scientist in eking out an existence in a hi-tech lab several years after the end of civilization before being killed by an evolved Hawking zombie.

* ComicBook/VandalSavage ends up a sole surviving scientist in the episode "Hereafter" from ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague''. Not to mention the sole surviving human being. Turns out a few millennia alone with nothing but himself for company was all that was needed to show Savage the folly for his thirst for power.

* Dr. Logan from ''Film/DayOfTheDead1985'' is a prime example. His obsessive pursuit of understanding the undead was a harsh critique on the pursuit of scientific knowledge without practical application.
** That being said, he had made some remarkable achievements; he managed to train a zombie to be peaceful and empathic, and even remember parts of his past life. Had he been allowed to continue his work, he could have used "tame" zombies to perform tasks out in the open without fear of being eaten, and even potentially influence an entire horde's behaviour.
** This is true, but when confronted he didn't bring up any such practical applications. He simply raved on a bout a need to understand, hence his focus was on satisfying his own curiosity rather then accomplishing anything productive.
*** Notably, Logan has two saner colleagues, Sarah and Fisher, who are focused on finding a cure but make significantly less progress than he does.

* Dr. Robert Neville from the film version of ''Film/IAmLegend'' is about as alone as you can get.
* So is Robert Neville on ''Film/TheOmegaMan''.

* ''Film/ZombielandDoubleTap'': a cutaway scene shows one who is killed by an evolved Hawking zombie.

* ''Literature/StationEleven'': Although the StoryWithinAStory follows one, who is also a ScienceHero, in the actual story, ThePlague spread too fast for anyone to work on an effective cure or vaccine, although many surviving engineers are trying to reestablish electricity (and even the internet) in the decades that follow, with limited success.

* ''Series/TheDayOfTheTriffids2009'' gives us Brian Cox's character, the father of the main character. He is introduced experimenting on the Triffids, trying to make a new strain of the species which will launch sterile spores, and end their infestation. [[spoiler: He does succeed in his efforts, but. it's only a HopeSpot, as a subsequent attack kills him and destroys his work]].

* Doc Henry from ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' was a contemporary of Dr. Curling who wanted to cure the mutants instead of eradicate them. In the decades since, following the collapse of his former faction, he became a high-functioning FrontierDoctor, using his experibste to cure one disease plaguing TheWasteland at a time, largely just because he can.

* ''VideoGame/Fallout76'': Had this role taken by Keesha McDermot (a former science teacher who worked to purify the water from the fallout) and Miguel Caldera (who built robots they put to effect in trying to rebuild), of The Responders and Grant McNamara (an engineer who restored a hydroelectric dam, dismantled or installed various futuristic security systems and making devices to kill the Scorchbeasts) of The [[TheRemnant The Appalachian Brotherhood of Steel]].

* Doc Henry from ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' was a contemporary of Dr. Curling who wanted to cure the mutants instead of eradicate them. In the decades since, following the collapse of his former faction, he has remained one of these on a lesser-scale, curing one disease plaguing TheWasteland at a time, largely just because he can.

''Film/{{2012}}'': Helmsley has some of this as an expert on the environmental factors threatening to destroy the world. He zigzags this by having figured everything out years before the apocalypse hit and getting government backing while making preparations, only for things to get strained when those preparations couldn’t solve as much as expected. He spends most of the film's final act (assisted by colleagues Scotty and West) clashing with authority figures about how to implement the life-saving Arks.

* ''VideoGame/Fallout76'': Had this role taken by Keesha McDermot (a former science teacher who worked to purify the water from the fallout) and Miguel Caldera (who built robots they put to effect in trying to rebuild), of The Responders and Grant McNamara (an engineer who restored a hydroelectric dam, dismantled or installed various futuristic security systems and making devices to kill the Scorchbeasts) of The [[TheRemnant The Brotherhood of Steel]].

* ''Literature/GalaxyofFear'':''The Doomsday Ship'' is set aboard a ship where most people fled in escape pods (as opposed to being killed like this trope usually implies), has this role filled by Malik, the computer technician who is the only one with the skills to potentially shut down the AiIsIsCrapshoot program he helped create.

* In ''Literature/TheGirlWithAllTheGifts'', [[spoiler:Dr. Caldwell]] is that, because [[spoiler:although quite competent, she wasn't among the scientists chosen to research the virus that caused the ZombieApocalypse. Those scientist then disappeared, leaving only Dr. Caldwell to do the job]].
** the prequel novel, ''Literature/TheBoyOnTheBridge'', [[spoiler: centers around those scientists and their military escort before they disappeared]].

* 'ComicBook/YTheLastMan'' gives us Allison, who is trying to save humanity though cloning after nearly all the men on Earth die. Other scientists with similar efforts are her own parents, and the geneticist Hartle twins.

* ''{{ComicBook/Crossed}}'': Generally averted due to the grim and/or deconstruction nature of the series but not entirely absent. Jack from ‘’Shrink’’ is an interesting version of this, a psychologist trying to study Crossed. The human antagonist of volume 3 claims to know of a convoy of these but it’s quickly revealed to the audience that he’s lying. Professor Nelson looks like an example of this given that before the apocalypse he spoke about something that sounds a lot like the Crossed virus and is hiding in a bunker afterwards with a rescue mission looking for him and his work, but he didn’t survive, and it’s never revealed if he was actually right with his theory. In ''Wish You Were Here'', the narrator lampshades the absence of these after the first two years, noting that when they actually do find someone who might be the immune if there was a movie they’d rush him to some bunker to make a vaccine out of his blood but there’s nowhere left to do that anymore.

** the prequel novel, ''Literature/TheBoyOnTheBridge'', centers around those scientists and their military escort before they disappeared.

* ''Series/ZNation'' The show begins by showing one, Dr. Merch, working hard on a vaccine using prisoners as test subjects with a pair of soldiers trying to keep the zombies out. Surprisingly, she succeeds then and there, but the remainder of the show gets taken up by the long journey of other characters trying to get her patient somewhere where someone can actually do something about all of that, while Merch herself gets put on a bus and fades into the background. Sun Mei in the final season is another one of these who shows up to intercept the main character and try to harvest the cure from him with a bunch of soldiers.

* Doc Henry from ''VideoGame/ FalloutNewVegas'' was a contemporary of Dr. Curling who wanted to cure the mutants instead of eradicate them. In the decades since, following the collapse of his former faction, he has remained one of these on a lesser-scale, curing one disease plaguing TheWasteland at a time, largely just because he can.
* ''VideoGame/Fallout76'': Had this role taken PosthumousCharacter’s Keesha McDermot (a former science teacher who worked to purify the water from the fallout) and Miguel Caldera (who built robots they put to effect in trying to rebuild) kind of filled this role for The Responders.

* ''Film/WorldWarZ'': First we have Fassbach who has a decent idea and strategy how to identify the virus and maybe find a cure for the zombie plague, but proves to be a DecoyProtagonist. Later we meet four surviving scientists at a WHO outpost who play this trope straighter; they make mention of having tried and failed to infect the zombies with lethal diseases and while the idea to get humans sicker to see if the zombies ignore them comes from another source, they help carry it out and the success of that idea turns the tide.

* ''{{ComicBook/Crossed}}'': Generally averted due to the grim and/or deconstruction nature of the series but not entirely absent. Jack from Shrink is an interesting version of this, a psychologist trying to study Crossed. The human antagonist of volume 3 claims to know of a convoy of these but it’s quickly revealed to the audience that he’s lying. Professor Nelson looks like an example of this given that before the apocalypse he spoke about something that sounds a lot like the Crossed virus and is hiding in a bunker afterwards with a rescue mission looking for him and his work, but he didn’t survive, it’s never revealed if he was actually right with his theory. In ''Wish You Were Here'', the narrator lampshades the absence of these after the first two years, noting that when they actually do find someone who might be the immune if there was a movie they’d rush him to some bunker to make a vaccine out of his blood but there’s nowhere left to do that anymore.

* Before Logan, in ''Film/DawnOfTheDead1978'', there was Dr. Rausch, who appeared on several TV emergency broadcasts, describe the zombies abilities and behaviors for anyone still listening and proposes feeding them any dead bodies that don't reanimate as a way to distract them.

* ''Film/{{Interstellar}}'' doesn't start out this way, with lots of recourses and infrastructure dedicated to the homeworld evacuation, but by the film’s last act, on Earth NASA is crumbling, along with society, with the death of their leader and the reveal that his research giving them hope was a motivational lie, but Murph Cooper and her colleague Getty press on trying to find a way that will let their ships escape the gravitational pull. Meanwhile, in space, the last of the scientists is spoilers Amelia, who can’t figure out a way to help those still on Earth and is alone and prepared to set up a new colony with genetic samples on the one life-bearing planet that the expedition found.

* ''Film/TheMosquitoCoast'': Allie wants to be one of these but lacks the apocalypse to make it real, so he pretends there was one to make his engineering abilities seem more valuable.

* ''Film/{{Daybreakers}}''; an interesting variation of the scenario-there’s a vampire plague and humans are in hiding while vampire society is strong but struggling due to lack of blood. Edward one of the vampire scientist working to produce a blood substitute shifts his efforts to creating a cure, after an encounter with the human resistance. He’s hardly the sole surviving scientist but the sole one on the right side that we see. The film Has a ray of hope ending as his effort succeed and could be widespread
* ''Film/IndependenceDay'': the work Okun and his men do and their disheveled appearances scream tis trope, they’ve been like that before the alien invasion started. Dr. Isaacs becomes a more literal version of this when all of the others are killed or incapacitated, although his role afterwards isn’t that huge.

* In ''Literature/ThePassage Dr. Leer feels like one of these for having been involved in the project that started everything and surviving the initial outbreak but unusually for this trope he died during the time skip without working on anything that might try to save humanity in the aftermath.
* ''Literature/GalaxyofFear'':''The Doomsday Ship'' is set aboard a ship where most people fled in escape pods (as opposed to being killed like this trope usually implies), has this role filled by Malik, the computer technician who is the only one with the skills to potentially shut down the crapshoot AI (which he also helped create).

* ''Literature/{{Safehold}}'': several of these are responsible for the backstory, in the aftermath of a war against alien invaders who slaughtered all of mankind except for a couple colony ships. They had a schism about whether or not to get rid of all technology and rewrite history to deter the other survivors from eventually striking back against the aliens, or whether doing so would just cause their descendants to re-establish technology on their own in several generations and go back to the stars, unprepared for any encounter with the aliens. By he present day, the populace remembers the former group as angels and saviors, and the later group as fallen angels, although this viewpoint changes by the final book.

* ''Series/TheLastShip'': Rachel and Tophet are this for a while in season one as the only scientists working on a cure aboard an isolated ship. Gradually, we meet various other scientists (some good, some bad) making similar efforts in quarantine zones, some of whom provide aid to the crew of the Nathan James, such as Julius Hunter, Michael Neustadter and Dr. Milowsky.

* ''Series/{{Lost}}'':Kelvin is a technician version of this; the last survivor of the defunct DHARMA Initiative. He was stranded on the island manning a device that kept the Earth's magnetic field from going crazy due to pressing a button at regular intervals, while training Desmond, a shipwreck victim, as his apprentice, secretly planning to leave the island behind and have Desmon continue his work), the fight they had when Desmond discovered this caused them to miss pushing the button, which cause the plane crash that the plot centers around.

* ''Series/ZNation'' begins by showing one, Dr. Merch, working hard on a vaccine using prisoners as test subjects with a pair of soldiers trying to keep the zombies out. Surprisingly, she succeeds then and there, but the remainder of the show gets taken up by the long journey of other characters trying to get her patient somewhere where someone can actually do something about all of that, while Merch herself gets put on a bus and fades into the background. Sun Mei in the final season is another one of these who shows up to intercept the main character and try to harvest the cure from him with a bunch of soldiers.

* Doc Henry from ''VideoGame/ Fallout: New Vegas'' was a contemporary of Dr. Curling who wanted to cure the mutants instead of eradicate them. In the decades since, following the collapse of his former faction, he has remained one of these on a lesser-scale, curing one disease plaguing TheWasteland at a time, largely just because he can.
* ''VideoGame/Fallout76'': posthumous characters Keesha McDermot (a former science teacher who worked to purify the water from the fallout) and Miguel Caldera (who built robots they put to effect in trying to rebuild) kind of filled this role for The Responders.

* ''Film/DayOfTheTriffids'': Marine Biologist Dr. Goodwin becomes this by accident, when while simply trying to fight off the attacking plant creatures, he discovers that [[spoiler: salt water kills them]]. and quickly moves to work on this.

* ''Series/DayOfTheTriffids2009'' gives us Brian Cox's character, the father of the main character. He is introduced experimenting on the Triffids, trying to make a new strain of the species which will launch sterile spores, and end their infestation. [[spoiler: He does succeed in his efforts, but. it's only a HopeSpot, as a subsequent attack kills him and destroys his work]].

* ''Literature/DownToASunlessSea'': some of the passengers aboard the plane that's crossing the Atlantic when the nuclear war that wipes out practically the entire world breaks out become this as they scramble to figure out where the radiation fallout will travel to and, where it would be safe to land.
* ''Literature/TheHost: Doc is the only member of the group with the skills to work remove the Hosts from people as a way of fighting the invasion. That being said he’s consistently unsucsesful (killing both the hosts and their subjects in a way similar to a lot of examples on this page related to zombie fiction), although unlike many examples on this page he eventually gets better at that (with Wanda’s help) and survives, still being able to do it well. All the other scientists aren’t really dead but they are prisoners losing their consciousness. He’s also a bit of a “closest thing we’ve got” since he seems to be more of a back-alley doctor than a scientist.