Line #18 AfterTheEnd/LiveActionTV


1	%%%
2	%%
3	%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. Thanks!
4	%%
5	%%%
6
7	----
8
9	* Two particularly notable UK-based nuclear war examples are ''Film/TheWarGame'' (1965, broadcast 1985) and ''Film/{{Threads}}'' (1984). Both build up to and feature a full-scale thermonuclear holocaust, then - ''Threads'' in particular - keep going and get worse. ''Threads'' continues to scare those who watched it almost 40 years ago.
10
11	----
12
13	* ''Series/The100'' takes place 97 years after a nuclear holocaust destroys civilization on Earth. The only survivors are the inhabitants of a space station called "The Ark" which was cobbled together from a dozen other stations in orbit at the time of the war. The plot is about an attempt at recolonization of the Earth's surface using juvenile delinquents. They find a world inhabited with mutant flora and fauna and tribes of primitive humans. [[spoiler:The Season 4 finale ends with Earth being completely cleansed of life outside of a single valley, and ''that'' gets destroyed at the end of Season 5.]]
14	* The History Channel's SpeculativeDocumentary ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r97xoSOEjM&feature=related After Armageddon]]''.
15	* Happens in ''Series/{{Aftermath}}''. ''Population Zero'' deals with the aftermath of humanity's sudden disappearance. Every other episode, in one way or another, always involves an apocalyptic scenario, but ''World Without Oil'' and ''Population Overload'' have optimistic outcomes. Despite the hypothetical scenarios in those two involving TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, [[WorldHalfFull the world is still half full]], as shown by humanity getting back on its feet by the end. However, [[{{Anvilicious}} the narrator is quick to point out that the scenario resulted in destruction and death in each of said episodes]].
16	* ''Series/{{Andromeda}}'' is set 300 years after the collapse of [[strike: the Federation]] the Commonwealth so it's AfterTheEnd on a galactic scale.
17	%%* ''Series/ArkII''
18	* [[Recap/BabylonFiveS04E22TheDeconstructionOfFallingStars The Season 4 finale]] of ''Series/BabylonFive'' [[spoiler:shows Earth being bombed back into the Dark Ages about 500 years after the end of the series only to emerge as Vorlon-like creatures a million years later]].
19	* ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'' [[spoiler:takes place "after the end" of the Colonial civilization but "before the beginning" of ours. Colonial civilization was in turn "after the end" of civilization on Kobol, which was in turn "after the end" of civilization on the original Earth. All of this has happened before, and will happen again]].
20	* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E9TheWish The Wish]]" causes Cordelia to be transported to a post-Apocalyptic world, because she wished Buffy never moved to [[{{Hellgate}} Sunnydale]].
21	* ''Series/CaptainPowerAndTheSoldiersOfTheFuture'' is set after the invention of robotic soldiers has resulted in decades of unending war. And that's how things were ''before'' the BigBad Lord Dredd came to power and started digitizing humanity en masse.
22	* In ''Series/Cleopatra2525'', humans have been driven from the surface by terraforming machines [[AIIsACrapshoot gone rogue]] with only a few primitive villages of people who worship Baileys (those same machines). The remaining humans live in vast underground tunnels, fighting one another as well as the [[Franchise/{{Terminator}} terminator]]-like robots called Betrayers sent by the Baileys to infiltrate the human society. Interestingly, the Baileys have fulfilled their primary programming and have restored the polluted Earth to a lush paradise. Oh, and it's made clear that the humans who live underground have forgotten much of their scientific knowledge and don't quite know how to maintain the tunnels.
23	* ''Series/{{Cockroaches}}'' is a BritCom which takes place in a post-apocalyptic enviroment, 10 years after nuclear war has devastated the Earth.
24	* The Creator/DiscoveryChannel has a pseudo reality series based on this trope called ''The Colony'', where a group of ten people with varying skills, professions, and backgrounds band together to try and eke out a living in a simulated post-apocalyptic environment. It's filmed in UsefulNotes/LosAngeles, so you conclude the joke. The second season was set in an abandoned industrial area of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, so TruthInTelevision applies to an extent.
25	* The ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode "[[Recap/CommunityS1E23ModernWarfare Modern Warfare]]" invokes this trope (and related tropes) [[PlayedForLaughs for laughs]] in a PaintballEpisode. After Dean Pelton announced the prize to the school's paintball competition (priority scheduling), almost all of the students destroy each other and their school almost immediately.
26	* ''Series/{{Defiance}}'': Between the devastation of the Pale Wars and massive environmental changes caused by malfunctioning Votan terraforming equipment, there is little left of the Earth that existed before their arrival. The titular town stands atop what was once St. Louis with the remains of the Gateway Arch still towering over the town.
27	* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
28	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E11Utopia "Utopia"]] is set in a time when all of the stars have gone out, most civilizations have fallen, and the heat death of the universe is fast approaching.
29	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E13LastOfTheTimeLords "Last of the Time Lords"]]: One year of [[spoiler:the Master's]] rule has turned Earth into this. A short bit in the intro shows it's bad enough that travellers from other planets are officially advised to avoid the place entirely.
30	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E6TheDoctorsDaughter "The Doctor's Daughter"]]: Messaline is a desolate planet with a surface covered in radiation, with the humans and Hath in a never-ending war beneath the surface. [[spoiler:It's actually a subversion. The planet looks like that because it hasn't been terraformed yet, and the colonists only got there very recently.]]
31	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E15PlanetOfTheDead "Planet of the Dead"]]: [[spoiler:The Doctor arrives on a once-inhabited world which has been turned into a wasteland by a HordeOfAlienLocusts.]]
32	* The ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'' episodes "Epitaph One" and "Epitaph Two" take place [[spoiler:after massive remote wiping and imprinting is used as a weapon, resulting in the fall of civilization.]]
33	* The version of Mongo in the ''Series/{{Flash Gordon\|2007}}'' series is this, after a massive explosion known as the Sorrow on one of the moons causes a toxic mineral to rain down on the planet, killing anyone who wasn't able to evacuate and contaminating most of the water. Currently, Mongo has only one city, built atop a clean water source and ruled by a Third World dictator-like Ming "the Benevolent Father" and his Patriot army. All the other tribes (or cantons) live in small villages and are forced to rely on Ming for uncontaminated water. Those who drink the "grey water" go insane and become mutated Deviates. Even many of the tribes suffer from some mutations (some beneficial, such as the Dactyls' ability to soar on winds).
34	* The final season of ''Series/{{Fringe}}''; [[spoiler:The Observers have completely taken over Earth, and killed most of its population. Those who remain are either on their side (The Loyalists) or fugitives (The Resistance).]]
35	* ''Series/{{Jeremiah}}'' is set 15 years after a pandemic kills [[OnlyFatalToAdults everyone over the age of 13]].
36	* ''Series/Jericho2006'' takes place in an America which has had most of its major cities wiped out by terrorist nukes. However, the rest of the world is unaffected (except for Iran and North Korea, which were nuked by the remnants of the US military in retaliation) making it a pocket example of a CozyCatastrophe.
37	* ''Series/TheLastManOnEarth'' centers on Phil Miller, an isolated survivor two years after ThePlague eradicated the human race. It's a comedy.
38	* ''Series/TheLastTrain'' is based around the passengers of the titular last train on Earth, who were accidentally cryogenically frozen under a tunnel, whilst an asteroid devastated the planet in 1999. When they emerge from the tunnel, they discover their destination of Sheffield, England, has changed beyond recognition - and after some time roaming the overgrown wasteland, inhabited by few survivors besides barbaric infertile tribes and feral dogs, realize with horror that they had been frozen for 52 years.
39	* ''Series/LifeForce'': Set in 2025, where GlobalWarming has flooded much of the planet in an event known as "The Drowning". With the surviving population in turmoil and dwindling on the remaining islands, the United Kingdom is reduced to a mere archipelago, and oppressed by The Commission, a ruthless federal task force employed by the oppressive last factions of its government. Science is made illegal; scientists, climate refugees, and 'senders' (genetically-engineered psychics) are treated with contempt.
40	* In Season 2 of ''Series/OnceUponATime'' [[spoiler: Emma and Snow are sent back to the Enchanted Forest where they find that it still exists and there are survivors.]]
41	* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S4E17Lithia Lithia]]" takes place after a war and plague which killed most of humanity, the latter including all males, and left an all-female society of survivors.
42	* ''Series/PowerRangersRPM'' takes place in the third and final year of a RobotWar which had, in the earlier years, gone nuclear. The city the series takes place in is explicitly stated to be ''the only one left on Earth'' due to its protective shield.
43	* ''Series/{{Primeval}}'': The SeriesFinale gives us a glimpse into life in the apocalyptic BadFuture which [[spoiler:Matt]] comes from. Thanks to the manmade ApocalypseHow/Class4 Apocalypse which has put the future world in this timeline on a course for [[ApocalypseHow/Class6 Total Extinction]], humans are forced to live in underground shelters with water supplies (which turn toxic over time), moving across the planet's DeathWorld surface from shelter to shelter despite the toxic storms and ravenous Future Predators.
44	* ''Series/RedDwarf'', though it diverges wildly, being, not after the end of ''Earth'', but after everyone on the spaceship Red Dwarf died, except Lister, who was in stasis. Since it's 3 million years after, the characters assume that all other humans are deceased. The first episode was actually titled "The End". Take that as you will.
45	* ''Series/{{Revolution}}'' is set 15 years after all electricity-based technology mysteriously shuts down, causing the collapse of modern tech-dependent society.
46	* ''Series/SeaQuestDSV'': Two episodes, both involving TimeTravel, deal with AfterTheEnd scenarios. One of them shows us a BadFuture, where increased reliance on technology has resulted in humanity being woefully unprepared for a pandemic that wiped out almost everyone. The survivors locked themselves in and lived out their fantasies of in HumongousMecha war games, which results in there being [[AdamAndEvePlot only two people left in the world]]. Another episode shows an alternate timeline, where the Cuban Missile Crisis went hot, resulting in a nuclear apocalypse. The crew of the titular sub has to go back to the crisis and prevent a fatal mistake.
47	* ''Series/TheShannaraChronicles'' has shots of ruins that clearly indicate that at one time, the planet the characters are now on was at one time present-day Earth. This is confirmed with subsequent episodes. Some of the previous buildings and technology are still around too.
48	* As ''Series/{{Sliders}}'' was premised on the main characters traveling dimensions, with each having their own versions of Earth, they encountered examples of this trope quite often, starting with their first slide together.
49	* ''{{Series/Spellbinder}}'': The show is partly set in an alternate, rustic universe where a reasonably-sized pre-industrial society exists in the midst of an incalculably-large wasteland. It's eventually determined that the Wasteland was created by the Darkness, a nuclear winter created by the Spellbinders' failed attempt at increasing power. As a result, though the Spellbinders have electromagnetic capability in the "Power Stones", they've forgotten how it works, and only really know how to use the stones to power the flying ships and powersuits.
50	** A later season involves traveling to parallel worlds. Several of these have experienced world-changing catastrophes. One takes place after a devastating RobotWar, after which humans spend much of their time seeking out and destroying any form of "tech". Another one is [[CozyCatastrophe cozier]] but takes place in the aftermath of a deadly plague that wiped out much of humanity. The survivors live only because of a cure that made them immortal but also sterile (i.e. no more new humans).
51	* ''Franchise/StarTrek'' creator Gene Roddenberry made together three separate pilot movies for essentially the same series premise: ''GenesisII'', ''Series/PlanetEarth'', and ''StrangeNewWorld''.
52	** In the Original series episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E15LetThatBeYourLastBattlefield Let that Be your Last Battlefield]]", two dual-toned aliens hijack the Enterprise and force it to take them to their home planet Cheron. When they get there, they discover that a civil war over which sides of the body were what color has wiped out the entire planet's population. In the original version, the planet was shown to be dark mesh of shades of grey, whereas in the remastered episode, lights can be seen on the surface. The SceneryGorn that passes through the alien's heads suggests that those lights could very well be fires that are ''still burning'', even though the war is long over.
53	** More than one episode involved the Enterprise or Voyager discovering a planet or civilization in this trope.
54	** One ''Voyager'' episode actually involved finding a situation like this that was inadvertantly caused by humans... from half-a-galaxy away. During the early days of interstellar exploration (pre-''Series/StarTrekEnterprise''), humans sent out warp-capable probes to contact other civilizations and provide them with warp technology. Unfortunately, warp travel involves playing with AntiMatter, and an unprepared species may destroy itself before actually making it into space. As expected, the survivors blame humans.
55	** The entire franchise is set AfterTheEnd, as shown in ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact''. The titular First Contact happens not long after WorldWarIII.
56	* ''Series/TheStarlost'' takes place on a generation ship launched from an Earth that was destroyed by some unspecified disaster shortly afterward.
57	* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' has two different worlds where the Apocalypse took place and the Winchesters were powerless to stop it. The first was a BadFuture where Lucifer was victorious, creating an Earth inhabitated by zombies and demons. The other is an AlternateUniverse where the archangel Michael was victorious, but his version turns out to be an eternal battlefield where angels stomp on humans and demons alike. They're both bastards.
58	* ''Series/{{Survivors}}'' tells the story of a group of people attempting to rebuild after a plague wipes out 99% of Earth's population.
59	* A recurring sketch in the third season of ''Series/ThatMitchellAndWebbLook'' parodied the concept through an AfterTheEnd GameShow, "The Quiz Broadcast"; turns out, having a quiz show after 'The Event' is quite difficult when almost all human knowledge has been eradicated.
60	* ''Series/TheTribe'' has a selective DepopulationBomb called TheVirus, [[OnlyFatalToAdults which has wiped out all the adults]], [[TeenageWasteland leaving kids and teenagers]] in a CosyCatastrophe world.
61	* ''Series/TribesOfEuropa'' follows the storylines of three survivors of an attack on their community through which we see the aftermath of a worldwide technological collapse some decades before.
62	* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': Many episodes deal with survivors of nuclear war. One of the most famous of the lot is "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S1E8TimeEnoughAtLast Time Enough at Last]]", in which a neurotic bookworm survives an apocalyptic nuclear war (only by his sheer luck of being inside a bank vault at the time a random nuclear war breaks out). The man stumbles among the ruins of his hometown, finding he is the lone survivor and then comes upon a huge library of books. (It's all for naught, as he breaks his glasses, and the man -- blind without the specs -- is unable to engage in a lifestyle of uninterrupted reading.)
63	* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'': In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1985S1E17 Quarantine]]", Matthew Foreman is awakened from [[HumanPopsicle suspended animation]] in 2347, 304 years after a [[WorldWarIII devastating nuclear war]] wiped out 80% of the world's population.
64	* ''Series/TwistedMetal2023'': The series is set two decades after the world “went to shit” courtesy of a mysterious cyberattack, with most cities now walled off and the criminal element locked out to fight over the scraps of the old world.
65	* ''Series/UtopiaFalls'': New Babyl is the only human settlement in the world, with all other life wiped out by a past great war. Little is known of the past by most people starting out, but some start to learn more about this from The Archive, a forbidden digital library that contains information from them. Bodhi says it's been four hundred years since our time based on this. [[spoiler:However, it turns out they aren't all that was left-they've been lied to.]]
66	* ''Series/VanHelsing2016'' starts three years after Yellowstone erupts, blocking out the sun with ash and enabling "The Rising" -- vampires coming out of hiding and taking over the world, leaving humans as either slaves or scattered bands of survivors constantly being hunted.
67	* ''Franchise/TheWalkingDeadTelevisionUniverse'' is a ZombieApocalypse setting, with the various shows depicting different groups of people in different locations reacting after the dead rise:
68	** Original show ''Series/TheWalkingDead2010'' begins some time after the dead started coming back and consuming the living, which rapidly led to the collapse of modern civilization.
69	** First spin-off show ''Series/FearTheWalkingDead'' initially starts JustBeforeTheEnd, right at the point the dead start walking, but by the start of Season 2, society has collapsed. Season 7 would later add another layer to this trope's usage, following Season 6 ending with [[spoiler: an ApocalypseCult nuking Texas]] and collapsing the burgeoning new civilization in the region.
70	** Second spin-off ''Series/TheWalkingDeadWorldBeyond'' starts ten years after the ZombieApocalypse began, as the first post-apocalyptic generation comes of age.
71	** ''Series/TheWalkingDeadDeadCity'' starts a few years after the conclusion of the mother series and follows Maggie and Negan into a post-apocalyptic [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity Manhattan Island]] cut off from the mainland in search of Maggie's kidnapped son, Hershel.
72	** ''Series/TheWalkingDeadDarylDixon'', which also starts a few years after the end of the original series, depicts how France has rebuilt itself in the decade-plus since the walkers ended modern civilization.
73	* ''Series/TheWarOfTheWorlds2019'': The series frequently jumps forward to several years after the Martian invasion. The Earth's natural biosphere is all but gone due to the [[AlienKudzu red weed]] choking the land and clogging the ocean, and the surviving humans in the apocalyptic ruins of London are farming only scraps of food, with the local preacher's PropagandaMachine keeping the village going. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Oh, and Darwinism never took off as accepted fact because of the invasion's timing]].
74	* ''Series/WaywardPines'' [[spoiler:has the titular town turn out to be in this setting, 2000 years from now. Anyone who attempts to get to Wayward Pines, Idaho in the 21st century is targeted for an "accident", at which point he or she is placed in [[HumanPopsicle suspended animation]] to be revived some time after the town's founding in the future (usually in order of the freezing). The whole thing is a project by a scientist who predicts the end of the world and wants to preserve some humans to repopulate the world. The only humans in 4028 are the ones who survived through suspended animation. The closest things out there are the "Abbies" (short for Aberrations), feral mutated descendants of humans, who have since become the apex predator in this new world. Luckily, the town is protected by a giant wall, keeping humans in and Abbies out. Anyone who disobeys the town's rules is publicly executed, and most of the inhabitants are unaware of the truth. Only children are told the truth, as they are claimed to be the "first generation" and are forbidden from telling anyone, including their parents. Supposedly, this is because one child ended up doing that, resulting in the parents committing suicide]].
75	* ''Series/{{Woops}}''! was an actual ''sitcom'' based on a small group of survivors living in a barn after a nuclear war, and the hijinks they got into.
76

Context AfterTheEnd / LiveActionTV