History Main / UrbanRuins

Cities are a great sign of city achievement. They're huge, filled with people, and hubs of business, which makes it narratively interesting to see them [[SceneryGorn torn down.]] Fire raining from the sky, buildings collapsing on each other, monsters roaming the streets, and any kitchen sinks left intact being thrown in your face.

* Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse:
** During the massive battle at the end of ''Film/ManOfSteel'', Metropolis is reduced to a smoke-filled wasteland for the survivors to straggle around while avoiding collapsing buildings.
** In the sequel ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'', the same environment is presented, but from the perspective of a desperate ComicBook/{{Batman}}, who sees Superman tear through buildings with his heat vision.

* ''Film/TheHungerGamesMockingjay'' reduces the Capitol to this by its second part, between the hundreds of traps the Gamemakers have placed all over the city and [[spoiler:the bombings by the rebel insurgency.]]

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': "The Day of the Doctor" depicts the capital of Gallifrey as the Daleks begin to destroy the planet. This destruction is what pushes the War Doctor past the GodzillaThreshold and leads him to use the Moment to end the Time War.

* Arrowverse:

* ''Series/TheFlash2014'' turns Central City into this in "Out of Time", thanks to the Weather Wizard's tidal wave.

* In the original version of ''TheWarOfTheWorlds'', London is reduced to an empty city of with abandoned ruins, partially destroyed buildings, and an infestation of the extraterrestrial red weed.

* For the fiftieth anniversary of ''Series/DoctorWho'', "The Day of the Doctor" depicts the capital of Gallifrey as the Daleks begin to destroy the planet. This destruction is what pushes the War Doctor past the GodzillaThreshold and leads him to use the Moment to end the Time War.

* ''Literature/TheLastHuman'': Every day, [=XR=]_935 and its assigned parent-bots walk through the crumbling remains of a human city to get to and from work. Parent_1 and Parent_2 state to [=XR=] that the reason the ruins were left as they are is as a reminder of humanity's flaws.

** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E66Two Two]]", the man and woman are the first people to set foot in the ruined city since the war that devastated the world five years earlier. They discover the skeletal remains of several people and even two birds that someone kept as pets.

* For the fiftieth anniversary of ''Series/DoctorWho'', "The Day of the Doctor" depicts the capital of Gallifrey as the Daleks begin to destroy the planet. This destruction is what pushes the Doctor pass the GodzillaThreshold and use the Moment to end the war.
* ''Series/TheFlash2014'' turns Central City into this in "Out of Time," thanks to the Weather Wizard's tidal wave.
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' dabbles into this in "The End," when Dean has a vision of the world upon Satan's rise to power.
* The ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' episode "Time Enough At Last" ends in this setting, since the world was destoyed by nuclear war.

* The ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' series frequently employs this trope:

* ''VideoGame/{{Sheltered}} is set in the aftermath of a nuclear war, meaning the landscape has plenty of ruined buildings in it.

* ''WebComic/StandStillStaySilent'', post-apocalyptic as it is, has the main characters pass through quite a few on their journey; particular attention is paid to what used to be Copenhagen, and [[RealPlaceBackground Real Place Backgrounds]] abound.