History Main / WorldWreckingWave

* The short film ''Film/{{Pixels}}'' shows parts of New York being disintegrated into tiny cubes by various creatures and objects from arcade games that escaped into our world from a thrown-out TV. Then a giant bomb finishes it off by pixellating everything in the blast, and eventually turning entire world into one giant black cube that drifts silently through space.
* In ''Film/RogueOne'', the Death Star is revealed to have this as a lower setting. Instead of shattering a planet completely, as in ''Film/ANewHope'', it just creates a massive physical upheaval in a localized area. The super-heated ground literally rises up and travels outward from the blast site like a thousand-foot tsunami. [[spoiler: It's used twice.]]
--> '''K-2SO:''' We have a problem on the horizon. [{{beat}}] ''There is no horizon.''
* ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014'': The Infinity Stone has the effect of converting any organic matter it touches into energy, unless it is held by a being of incredible power. If used on a planet, the resulting chain reaction would rip through the microbes in soil and seawater, rendering the entire planet lifeless.

* Maybe more a World-Changing Wave, or at least Town-Changing Wave, than a WorldWreckingWave. But, ''Series/{{Eureka}}'' has a Christmas episode where a [[TechnoBabble Super Photon Generator]] goes haywire and turns the entire town into a cartoon. Each wave pulse from the generator changes the style of animation present. Still, non-real cartoon elements like Sninjas (Snowman Ninjas) are able to be created by a child's toy in this altered world which pose a threat.
* Likewise, in ''Series/WandaVision'', [[spoiler:the latent reality-warping ability of Wanda Maximoff]] converts the entire town of Westview, New Jersey into a 1950s-era sitcom.

* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls:'' Bill Cipher uses a giant pink "weirdness wave" to flood Gravity Falls with the chaos of [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Weirdmageddon]].

* The arrival of [[GodOfEvil Trigon]] in ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' had this effect, turning the entire world into a volcanic wasteland and turning all life on Earth to stone. Raven destroying him (or rebanishing him, it's not exactly clear) triggers a WorldHealingWave.

* In the second-to-last episode of ''WesternAnimation/Ben10UltimateAlien'', Diagon emits a World Wrecking Wave [[spoiler:that turns ''every human being on Earth'' into an Esoterica (except Julie who escapes thanks to Ship encasing her in its power armor form).]]

* The Dakara superweapon in ''Series/StargateSG1'' can be this, a WorldHealingWave, or even both at the same time, depending on how it's programmed before activation. And when tied into the Stargate network, its range spans not merely a world but the entire galaxy. [[BigBad Anubis]], having a [[AGodAmI god complex]] that's [[UpToEleven massive even by Goa'uld standards]], planned to use it in exactly that manner: wiping out all life in the Milky Way and simultaneously creating new life of his own design.

* [[UpToEleven On a cosmic level]], there is a theory that the universe may be in a "false vacuum". To put it simply, the universe is like a ball that naturally rolls downhill in terms of energy state, but may be stopped by some kind of barrier. If that barrier is breached via quantum tunnelling, the universe would collapse rapidly into a lower energy state, manifesting as a World Wrecking Wave that shoots out from a point at nearly the speed of light, destroying all of existence as we know it. This is known as a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_vacuum_decay false vacuum decay]] scenario, and can best be described as a cataclysm that would completely destroy chemistry, life and possibly even astrophysics as we know it, blowing apart atoms into their base elemental particles and hurling them away into the void.

* Third Impact in ''[[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion End of Evangelion]]'' manifests using this trope. Wherever the wave passes, the oceans turn red, all people explode into LCL while their souls fly off into low orbit and the ground spontaneously sprouts billions of CreepyCoolCrosses with the entire scene overlaid by '''humanity's collective DeathCryEcho'''. It's utterly [[ApocalypseWow awesome]] and horrifying at the same time.

* [[UpToEleven On a cosmic level]], there is a theory that the universe may be in a "false vacuum". To put it simply, the universe is like a ball that naturally rolls downhill in terms of energy state, but may be stopped by some kind of barrier. If that barrier is breached via quantum tunnelling, the universe would collapse rapidly into a lower energy state, manifesting as a World Wrecking Wave that shoots out from a point at nearly the speed of light[[note]]And considering [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale how abysmally slow light is]] when it comes to scales this large, we'd see it coming millennia in advance. And there would be absolutely nothing we could do to stop it.[[/note]], destroying all of existence as we know it. This is known as a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_vacuum_decay false vacuum decay]] scenario, and can best be described as a cataclysm that would completely destroy chemistry, life and possibly even astrophysics as we know it, blowing apart atoms into their base elemental particles and hurling them away into the void.

* ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'': At the conclusion of the Millennium Falcon Arc, [[spoiler:Griffith uses the Skull Knight's dimension-warping attack to fuse the planes of existence together]], which is percieved by everyone as a wall of light expanding from the epicenter in all directions and washing over the entire globe so that it's visible from outer space. TheMagicComesBack all over the world, stirring benign and evil magical creatures in equal measure. While nobody is directly harmed by the wave, the world is thrown into chaos and everyone who can begins migrating to the only place that is safe from monsters: [[spoiler:Falconia, Griffith's ShiningCity at the foot of the World Tree]].

* ''TabletopGame/DarkConspiracy''. The release of extradimensional evil on of Jupiter's moons leads to an invasion of modern day Earth, resulting in the creation of areas called Demongrounds.

* The effect of the world-altering missile in the ending of Nod camaign of VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianSun is this. We are treated to a scene of a massive greenish wave engulfing the entire planet and turning it into a Tiberium-ridded waste-hole.

* The different armageddon events if ''VideoGame/FallFromHeaven'''s Armageddon counter rises, though spread out more over time.

* [[UpToEleven On a cosmic level]], there is a theory that the universe may be in a "false vacuum". To put it simply, the universe is like a ball that naturally rolls downhill in terms of energy state, but may be stopped by some kind of barrier. If that barrier is breached, the universe would collapse rapidly into a lower energy state, manifesting as a World Wrecking Wave that shoots out from a point at nearly the speed of light[[note]]And considering [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale how abysmally slow light is]] when it comes to scales this large, we'd see it coming millennia in advance. And there would be absolutely nothing we could do to stop it.[[/note]], destroying all of existence as we know it. This is known as the [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Rip Big Rip]] scenario, and out of the current theories as to how the universe will end, it would be the soonest to occur. Thankfully, though, it doesn't appear to be likely -- the acceleration force of dark energy does not seem to be strong enough for this to happen.
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[[caption-width-right:300:Pretty sure the insurance company won't cover that. [[BlackComedy They were in the blast radius]].]]

* [[UpToEleven On a cosmic level]], there is a theory that the universe may be in a "false vacuum". To put it simply, the universe is like a ball that naturally rolls downhill in terms of energy state, but may be stopped by some kind of barrier. If that barrier is breached, the universe would collapse rapidly into a lower energy state, manifesting as a World Wrecking Wave that shoots out from a point at nearly the speed of light, destroying all of existence as we know it.

* [[EldritchAbomination The Destroyer]] from ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfSpyro: Dawn of the Dragon'' will let loose one of these in the event it finishes its trek around the world, destroying it in a wave of fire and ash. [[spoiler:Spyro reverses this by emitting a WorldHealingWave.]]

** UsefulNotes/TheMoon shows the effects of a World Wrecking Wave caused by the huge impact that formed the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mare_Imbrium Mare Imbrium]] in the form of radial grooves and faults extending thousands of kilometers, caused respectively by projectiles launched at low angles and the Moon's crust shattering under the impact's force.

[[folder:Poetry]]
* [[Creator/RobertFrost Robert Frost's]] "Once by the Pacific" infers just such an eventual wave, an apocalyptic tsunami doubling as "God's last ''Put out the Light''."
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* Is theorized that an impact with a sufficiently big asteroid (with a diameter of 500 kilometers, or 300 miles) would create several phenomena worthy of this trope. The first is the "crust tsunami", a titanic wave flinging the Earth's crust into outer space in the regions close to the impact. The second is a cloud of rock vapor expanding from the crater as the result of the disintegration of the impactor, which would proceed to engulf the Earth over the course of approximately a day, and hot enough to cause nature to spontaneously combust even while it is still below the horizon.

* Both the Ultimate Annhilator and the Genesis Waves of [[ComicBook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog Sonic the Hedgehog]] were this. Subverted in that the results of all three incidences, which were always meant to be destructive, didn't quite turn out how their architects had intended due to sabotage of some kind either before or after implementation. As a result, most of the intended changes didn't take or weren't permanent. [[spoiler: Then its ''doubly'' subverted with the reversion of the last Genesis Wave. Only this time, its ''Eggman'' who sabotages ''Sonic''.]]