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| 9 | [[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/SuperManSonOfKalEl https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/supes_badfuture.png]]]] |
| 10 | |
| 11 | ->''"And now the wheels of heaven stop\ |
| 12 | You feel the devil's riding crop\ |
| 13 | Get ready for the future:\ |
| 14 | It is murder."'' |
| 15 | -->-- '''Music/LeonardCohen''', "The Future" |
| 16 | |
| 17 | A Bad Future is one of the most common {{Alternate Timeline}}s and one, who if TimeTravel exist in their [[TheVerse universe]], any stars of a long-running series will surely visit. The heroes are sent into the near future (common intervals are [[ExactlyExtyYearsAgo 5, 10, and 20 years]]), and discover a CrapsackWorld. Usually [[TheBadGuyWins the villain(s)]] [[TakeOverTheWorld have taken over]]. They may even [[FutureMeScaresMe encounter]] ''[[FutureMeScaresMe themselves]]''. 90% of the time the hero(es) will meet LaResistance and/or FutureBadass versions of their friends who were left in the past. Typically they go back in time to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | Conveniently, in many cases the catalyst that ruined the world was the absence of whoever was sent to the future. Thus all the heroes have to do to fix things is return to the present. |
| 20 | |
| 21 | Technically {{Dystopia}}n, but doesn't fit that trope description well as it's usually ascribable to a single villain-related event. It's a good (or cheap, depending on the execution) way of becoming DarkerAndEdgier and adding tension while working under StatusQuoIsGod. If a series gives only a brief glimpse of the Bad Future instead of actually going there, it may be StoryboardingTheApocalypse. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | If this happens to a character from the past to "[[LikeRealityUnlessNoted our]]" future, then they've entered a BadPresent. If the reason the bad future is so bad is because TheBadGuyWins, it's a VillainWorld. Sometimes the characters find out about the Bad Future via an OminousMessageFromTheFuture rather than {{Time Travel}}ling themselves. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | [[InvertedTrope Good Future]] variations are practically unknown, since knowing that the future is going to turn out okay removes any dire need for the characters to change things in the present. They do sometimes appear as an epilogue to show that the heroes did in fact succeed in changing the future, or potentially as a means to encourage the heroes to shoot for something like that future. |
| 26 | |
| 27 | Compare with FutureMeScaresMe, DarkWorld, TechnoDystopia, ItsAWonderfulPlot and MirrorUniverse. |
| 28 | ---- |
| 29 | !!Example subpages: |
| 30 | |
| 31 | [[index]] |
| 32 | * BadFuture/AnimeAndManga |
| 33 | * BadFuture/ComicBooks |
| 34 | * BadFuture/FanWorks |
| 35 | * BadFuture/LiveActionTV |
| 36 | * BadFuture/VideoGames |
| 37 | * BadFuture/WesternAnimation |
| 38 | [[/index]] |
| 39 | |
| 40 | !!Other examples: |
| 41 | |
| 42 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 43 | |
| 44 | [[folder:Films — Animated]] |
| 45 | * ''WesternAnimation/BarbieInAChristmasCarol'': Instead of dying alone, Eden ends up destitute and eventually making her best friend as cruel as she is. |
| 46 | * Played with in the ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'' movie ''WesternAnimation/EgoTrip''. Two of Mandark's future selves, [[BigBadDuumvirate Executive Mandark and Overlord Mandark]], are responsible for taking over the world and turning it into a wasteland full of dumb people, but we are told from the beginning of the movie that the future was saved, and even see the (happy) ending before the DarkestHour with the kingdom of Dextopia ruled by Old Man Dexter. |
| 47 | * ''WesternAnimation/MeetTheRobinsons'', with the alternate future ruled by a robotic ''bowler hat''. Specifically, when the Bowler Hat Guy takes credit for Lewis's Memory Scanner, he unwittingly helps Doris and her demonic, robotic bowler-hat offspring destroy the bubblegum neo-fifties {{Zeerust}} future in favor of a {{dystopia}}n future. Bonus points for a FutureBadass mind-controlled Robinson family. You can tell they're Future Badass because all the women wear black lipstick. |
| 48 | * The climax of the {{Edutainment}} film ''WesternAnimation/OurFriendMartin'' involves protagonist Miles Woodman using time travel to bring a teenage Martin Luther King Jr. to the present to avoid his assassination. This results in an alternate timeline where MLK's civil rights work never occurred, where Miles' school is named after Robert E. Lee instead, his best friend Randy is now a racist bully, and his classmate Maria and his mother are both impoverished and work as maids. Miles is reluctantly forced to send Martin back to his time to restore the future. |
| 49 | [[/folder]] |
| 50 | |
| 51 | [[folder:Films — Live-Action]] |
| 52 | * Most of ''Film/{{APEX}}'' takes place in an alternate version of 2073 where thanks to a time-travelling project to 1973 gone wrong, humanity in the future are on the losing end of a RobotWar instigated by rogue A.P.E.X drones. The protagonist, Dr. Nick Sinclair, was from the original 2073 timeline, and most of the film revolves around Sinclair's attempts to return to the good timeline [[spoiler:which he succeeds in the end]]. |
| 53 | * One of those rare inversions drives the plot of ''Film/BillAndTedsExcellentAdventure'': the good future is in danger of ''not'' happening if Bill and Ted don't get to start their band. |
| 54 | ** This continues as a plot point in ''Film/BillAndTedFaceTheMusic'', because they ''still'' haven't gotten around to writing the all-important song despite being told about it three decades previously. They also come across versions of themselves that are muscled crooks in prison. |
| 55 | --->'''Prison!Bill:''' How'd you like our song?\ |
| 56 | '''Ted:''' It's a little on the dark side, but, you know...that's cool. |
| 57 | * Averted in ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'' in 2015. The filmmakers stated that they didn't want to just rip off ''Film/BladeRunner'' and wanted to get people out of that sort-of grim mindset, so they portrayed the future as a generally nice place to live, though not perfect, and that any trouble was caused by the people (like Griff) there, not technology. Also, they knew that whatever they showed would likely become [[{{Zeerust}} badly dated or inaccurate]] as the ''real'' 2015 came around, so they just [[RuleOfFunny made it all into jokes]]. The BadPresent, on the other hand... |
| 58 | * ''Film/ElmoSavesChristmas'': Christmas exactly one year later, with everyone having crossed the DespairEventHorizon. Some examples: |
| 59 | ** The Fix-It Shop [[spoiler:is closed down because it can't be open on Christmas, and Luis and Maria haven't worked at all. "Goodbye, Fix-It Shop" indeed.]] |
| 60 | ** Big Bird [[spoiler:is in tears over missing Snuffy.]] |
| 61 | ** The Count [[spoiler:has become [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness tired of counting]], because there have been too many Christmases.]] |
| 62 | ** The carolers have [[spoiler: lost their voices from singing too much.]] |
| 63 | ** Christmas trees have become an endangered species. |
| 64 | ** People are running out of gift ideas, leading to a priceless scene in which a Muppet mugs Kermit for his microphone during a news report. |
| 65 | * Inverted in ''Film/HotTubTimeMachine'', as the movie starts out in one. Nick works a dead-end job of cleaning dogs' anuses, Jacob [[BasementDweller lives in his uncle's basement]], and Lou's life is so bad, he attempts suicide. [[spoiler:In the new timeline at the end of the film, Nick lives his dream of being a musician, Lou becomes a billionaire by exploiting what he knew would happen after the '80s, Jacob lives with his rich father and Adam winds up with the woman he loves.]] |
| 66 | * The ''Series/KamenRiderKabuto'' movie ''God Speed Love'' is set in such a future. The meteor that brought the Worms to Earth was much larger than in the series and as a result vaporized Earth's oceans and turned the entire planet into a desert wast land and to make matters worse, [[spoiler: an evil Kamen Rider exclusive to the movie wants to let the Worms take over the world]]. Interestingly, this was actually the [[spoiler: original future and the series timeline is caused by the title character going back in time.]] |
| 67 | * In ''Film/TimeChasers'' Nick goes to the future with Lisa the first time and it looks like our time with a few futuristic looking touches. On his second visit to the same time period, he finds the world was ravaged by Time Travel used as a weapon (as a result of his having signed up with the CorruptCorporateExecutive for more funding.) The rest of the plot is him trying to undo his mistake. Due to the movie's abysmally low budget, the future is more "really rather messy I guess and peoples' faces are dirty" than the "there is an ongoing armed conflict and only killers survive" they were going for. |
| 68 | * The premise of ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'' is preventing a horrific dystopian future (set in 2023) in which the robots created by humans to hunt down and eliminate Mutants, the Sentinels, now rule a decrepit world (they turned on humans with potential Mutant genes after genociding Mutants). |
| 69 | * ''Film/TheSantaClause3TheEscapeClause'': Happens after Jack Frost tricks Scott into invoking the Escape Clause by wishing he was never Santa so he can become Santa in his place. In this alternate timeline, Scott is still a worker who forces his partners to work on Christmas, Laura and Neil have divorced, Charlie has become a misbelieving delinquent, Carol has moved away, and Frost has converted the North Pole into an amusement park, where he stops the toy deliveries and has people come up there to buy presents and pay to put their children on the nice list. |
| 70 | * ''Film/ThrillSeekers'': After a reporter finds out that tourists from the future are visiting disasters in his own time, he [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong actively seeks to prevent these events]]. Two agents travel back to stop him from changing anything else. Their boss at one point calls them up from the future which is now overpopulated, polluted, and had bad people get voted into power. |
| 71 | * ''Film/TimeRunner'': In 2022, the Earth is [[AlienInvasion invaded by a race of aliens]] who have already infiltrated most layers of society by [[TheyLookLikeUsNow posing as humans]]. A wormhole allows the hero to go back in time to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong. |
| 72 | * Frodo sees a bad future of the entire Middle Earth conquered by Orcs looking at Galadriel's fountain in Creator/PeterJackson's ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheFellowshipOfTheRing'', this is film only as is not in the books. |
| 73 | ** In the book Sam has the vision, limited to the Shire, as it's a temptation to see if he will give up the quest |
| 74 | * The famous EarthAllAlong ending from the original ''Film/PlanetOfTheApes1968'', where apes rule the Earth and the humans are enslaved. |
| 75 | * Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse: The ensemble films directed by Creator/ZackSnyder have scenes set in an apocalyptic future in which Earth has been conquered by ComicBook/{{Darkseid}} and the ComicBook/NewGods of Apokolips, and in which several superheroes died. It has been nicknamed "the Knightmare". |
| 76 | ** ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'': [[Franchise/{{Batman}} Bruce Wayne/Batman]] has a nightmare in which he sees himself leading a [[HopelessWar hopelessly outgunned]] [[LaResistance resistance]] against a ReignOfTerror by Franchise/{{Superman}}, who has become an ally of Darkseid after the death of ComicBook/LoisLane. The [[Franchise/TheFlash Barry Allen / Flash]] from this future wakes him up from this nightmare when using the Speed Force to briefly [[TimeTravel travel in time]] and [[OminousMessageFromTheFuture warn him]] in the hope of [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong preventing said future]]. |
| 77 | ** ''Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague'' explores further glimpses of this future, showing that Batman is even willing to ally himself with ComicBook/TheJoker to stop Superman. |
| 78 | * ''Film/LostInSpace'' shows Professor Robinson, Major West, Dr. Smith and Will traveling in time 20 years in the future of the same planet they crashlanded thanks to Future Will's time machine. In the future Robinson finds the ship in ruins, his wife and daughters were killed [[spoiler:by Smith]], Will as an angry and bitter adult, the Robot is a killing machine and Smith himself [[spoiler:mutated due to an alien spider bite into some sort of spider monster]]. |
| 79 | [[/folder]] |
| 80 | |
| 81 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 82 | * ''Literature/ElevenTwentyTwoSixtyThree'' shows one as a result of Jake preventing the assassination of JFK. [[spoiler: The Civil Rights Movement crashed and burned, turning violent after the FBI assassinated Martin Luther King Jr. Kennedy ran Vietnam poorly, and his successors [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain George Wallace]] and [[GeneralRipper Curtis LeMay]] wrapped things up by nuking Hanoi. The Soviet Union collapsed and is now selling nukes to terrorists (one of whom blew up Miami), and the Middle East is now in flames. India and Pakistan got into a shooting war that went nuclear. Vermont Yankee melted down and blanketed much of New England and Quebec with radiation, and several islands in Japan (including all of Hokkaido) have sunk into the ocean due to massive earthquakes caused by reality itself pulling apart thanks to Jake's time travelling.]] |
| 83 | * ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' has two different Bad Future plots. In book #7, the Ellimist shows them a future in which the Yeerks had taken over; they had all been made Controllers, except Tobias, who was eaten by the others (This book took place before he regained his morphing ability, so he was useless as a host. They complain that he was a "bit stringy," but good with barbecue sauce). In book #41, Jake wakes up in another Yeerk-controlled Bad Future; in that one, the characters' fates are more varied. Ax is dead, Tobias is stuck in Ax morph, Cassie is a Controller involved in the resistance, Marco is a Controller who leads the yeerk forces on Earth, Jake is a regular Controller, and Rachel was severely injured in battle and is now paralyzed, somehow unable to morph. |
| 84 | * In ''Literature/ConcienciaYVoluntad'' the future isn't very bright: economical crisis and warfare has bring down most nations, and a catastrophical technological disaster (Massive {{EMP}}) get back the technology level at an uncertain point between 1950 and 1980, although many of the knowledge is saved. |
| 85 | * In a strange example, everything after the Chaos War in the ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'' universe ''is'' the bad future. We know this because in the War of Souls trilogy Tasslehoff mentions visiting a much better future on a previous trip through time. |
| 86 | * In ''Literature/ASwiftlyTiltingPlanet'', Bad Futures are called "Projections." Charles Wallace and the flying Unicorn occasionally get blown into them. |
| 87 | * ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'': |
| 88 | ** The book features [[spoiler:a possible bad future, observed during Aviendha's final tests to become a Wise One. It seems that her descendants become embroiled in a war with the Seanchan Empire, who have acquired gunpowder weapons, conquered Tar Valon and subjugated the rest of the world. Decades or centuries later, the once-proud warrior Aiel have been reduced to scavengers living off the refuse of the Seanchan and their vassals. Rand manages to possibly prevent this by incorporating Aiel in to the new society as an international peacekeeping force.]] |
| 89 | ** One of the legs of the White Tower's Accepted test is apparently designed to invert this trope. The women taking the test are shown an ideal future where they're not part of the White Tower but have to decide to abandon it in favor of staying. |
| 90 | * Averted in ''Literature/ThePendragonAdventure'', where part of Bobby's quest in the third book involves talking to a contact from the year 5010, which is a nice time to live. [[spoiler:Played straight later on, when Saint Dane's meddling changes timelines in multiple territories.]] |
| 91 | * In ''Literature/ObsidianMirror'', Sarah is from one. She travels back in time to try and prevent it. |
| 92 | * ''Literature/TheCandyShopWar'' features one near the end of the book. It's only a few days or so in the future, but so powerful is the villain's corrupting influence--which they've spent the past several days building up--that they've already got one town completely under their control, and the rest of the world isn't far off. |
| 93 | * The ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' serial novel, ''The Lost Slayer'' had Buffy make a tactical mistake trying to rescue Giles, then get sent five years into the future, to her older self's body, to see a world where Sunnydale was ruled by vampires--with Giles as their king. |
| 94 | * ''Literature/DarkFuture'': The title gives it away, doesn't it? A FallenStatesOfAmerica riven by environmental collapse, ruled by corrupt politicians and being edged closer to destruction by [[ReligionOfEvil The Church of The Path Of Joseph]]. |
| 95 | * ''Literature/TheForeverWar'': The effects of the war cause Earth to fall further and further into chaos, getting more and more [[CrapsackWorld Crapsack]] as the war drags on--every time Mandella returns to Earth from one of his deployments [[TimeDilation light years away]], he becomes more and more estranged. |
| 96 | * In ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'', the Ghost Of Christmas Yet to Come shows Scrooge the future consequences of his miserly ways: Tiny Tim dies, the deceased Scrooge's belongings are pawned off for chump change, everyone rejoices and nobody mourns his death, and he is buried in a neglected corner of the cemetery. |
| 97 | * The hero of the ''Literature/BelisariusSeries'' is given a number of visions of what will happen if he fails to defeat the Malwa. They range from the horrific to the apocalyptic. |
| 98 | * The Queen of ''Literature/{{Rolitania}}'' and her army manage to escape a future filled with an Earth ruined beyond repair. A good portion of those considered "normal" are dead. Espers have ravaged the landscape with their reality-warping powers. Marauding bands of crazed Espers roam freely and often clash. |
| 99 | * Clover Lappina of ''Literature/SpectralShadows'' gets a vision of one of these for Suburbia, and how she can be the cause of it. |
| 100 | * In ''Literature/TimeRiders'', it's constantly referenced that in the 2070s [[spoiler:mankind is all but wiped out by the Kosong-Ni virus]]. Rashim is even close to witnessing it first hand. |
| 101 | * The Time War in the Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse Literature/EighthDoctorAdventures (not to be confused with the Last Great War in the RTD TV series) is a Bad Future for the whole ''Doctor Who'' universe and the Time Lords in particular, which dominates the first half of the series before getting averted in ''The Ancestor Cell'' by Justin Richards. |
| 102 | * In ''Literature/SuperPowereds'', [[spoiler:Alice and Mary]] are shown a glimpse of a possible future, where [[spoiler:humans, Supers, and former [[PowerIncontinence Powereds]] start a MeleeATrois that devastates the world]]. What's worse, [[spoiler:it's only three decades away]]. And they are the key figures who might have a chance of preventing it. |
| 103 | * In ''Literature/AllOurYesterdays'', Em is trapped in one thanks to James, and goes back in time to avert it. |
| 104 | * "Consider Her Ways" by Creator/JohnWyndham. The narrator agrees to take part in clinical trials of an hallucinogenic drug which causes dissociation from the body, and wakes up in a post-{{Gendercide}} world where society has been totally restructured into something more closely resembling an ant's nest. It's explained to her that the plague that wiped out all men in this future was caused by a mutation of a virus created to kill off brown rats. When the narrator returns to her body, she seeks out the researcher whose work caused the plague and murders him, not realizing [[spoiler: that he had a son who did similar research and, of course, had the same name as him]]. |
| 105 | * Halfway through the 1st book of ''Literature/TheLicaniusTrilogy'', a future Davian appears as a vision to Asha warning that he'll be imprisoned, she'll be wanted for execution, and everyone else will have their minds read by the BigBad in a matter of 2 years. |
| 106 | * ''Literature/FrannyKStein'': |
| 107 | ** In ''The Fran That Time Forgot'', Franny uses time-travel to alter her EmbarrassingMiddleName into something else while also telling her infant self that there is nothing worse than being laughed at. Before returning to the present, Franny decides to visit the future out of curiosity at what she'll be like when she's older. Franny is shocked to see her house in ruins and her adolescent self creating an army of elephant monsters to make everyone pay for laughing at her, as changing Franny's middle name still resulted in her being laughed at and Franny's lecture to her infant self exacerbated how much being laughed at over her middle name upset Franny. |
| 108 | ** Franny saves the day in ''Recipe for Disaster'' by using her Visualizer Helmet to show everyone what their future will be like if they don't stop feeding their addiction to the Muffin Man's muffins. They all are convinced to stop making and eating muffins when they see that their futures will be bleak and miserable due to their lives being ruined by their muffin obsessions, with Franny's dog Igor especially distraught to learn that he'll end up homeless and alone if he continues ignoring Franny in favor of continuing to help the Muffin Man. The Muffin Man himself is also convinced to stop what he's doing when the helmet shows him that his muffins will only make everyone miserable in the long run when he promised Franny that he wouldn't do anything destructive and that he'd make the best thing he could possibly make. |
| 109 | * Creator/IsaacAsimov and Creator/JanetAsimov's ''Literature/NorbyFindsAVillain'': When Norby tries to go to Space Command, he misses the mark by five hundred years, ending up in a future where creatures from an AlternateUniverse have invaded and established a fascist regime over every planet in the galaxy. |
| 110 | * In ''Literature/QualiaThePurple'', Hatou [[spoiler:dies young and in not-so-nice ways in many of the parallel worlds.]] Ultimately, she decides that any future in which she doesn't find Alice is bad and to be avoided. |
| 111 | [[/folder]] |
| 112 | |
| 113 | [[folder: Magazines]] |
| 114 | * ''Series/ThreeTwoOneContact'': The [[MultiPartEpisode two-part]] Time Team story "Future Shock" has Jenny and Sean travel to [[AfterTheEnd post-apocalyptic]] [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture 2098]], where humans have been forced to relocate BeneathTheEarth due to [[GaiasLament destruction of the ozone layer and other environmental pollution]]. |
| 115 | [[/folder]] |
| 116 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 117 | * The music video for Music/{{Disturbed}}'s "Another Way To Die" shows one where the entire world is ruled by corporations with the rest of humanity in worse conditions than people in concentration camps. As in the VideoGame/{{Fallout}} universe is a better world. It's illegal to garden or share in this post-apocalyptic wasteland. |
| 118 | * In Music/{{Ludo}}'s RockOpera ''The Broken Bride,'' we get to see the Bad Future caused by the narrator messing around in the time stream. |
| 119 | * In Music/BlackSabbath's "Iron Man", a man time-travels and witnesses the Bad Future, but when traveling back to the present, he gets turned into Iron Man, [[SelfFulfillingProphecy who ends up causing the bad future.]] |
| 120 | [[/folder]] |
| 121 | |
| 122 | %% [[folder:Pinball]] |
| 123 | %% * ''Pinball/{{Robot}}'' features a RobotWar between the remains of humanity and an army of [[HumongousMecha Humongous]] {{Killer Robot}}s, while once-great cities lie in ruins on the horizon. |
| 124 | %% [[/folder]] |
| 125 | |
| 126 | [[folder:Podcasts]] |
| 127 | * Two are scene in the second arc of ''Podcast/{{Sequinox}}'' during the team's battle with Gemini, who distrcts them by constantly clapping them into different dimensions and timelines. In one, [[spoiler: the girls find themselves in a world where they agreed to join the Sky Queen and have razed Westbrook and the surrounding area, becoming very powerful but also very, very evil]]. In another,[[spoiler: they're AfterTheEnd and have to act as a militia against the entirety of the Star invasion force]]. |
| 128 | * At the beginning of the ''A Touch of Darkness'' from ''Podcast/InterstitialActualPlay'', a [[Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica Homura]] from the future appears, warns her past self not to speak with Hiram Lodge, and is then dragged back through time by a clawed hand and killed. Homura isn't phased, since it happens to her a lot. |
| 129 | [[/folder]] |
| 130 | |
| 131 | [[folder:Radio and Audio]] |
| 132 | * The ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'' audio drama ''The Mutant Phase'' has a similar event to the ''Day of the Daleks'', a [[spoiler:StableTimeLoop]] causing an alternate future where the Daleks are mutating into creatures even more dangerous then them. |
| 133 | * At the end of the primary phase of ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1978'', Ford Prefect tells the Golgafrinchams (with whom he and Arthur Dent have landed in prehistoric days) that their days as the human race will be numbered in 2 million years when the Vogons destroy Earth. |
| 134 | * ''Radio/BleakExpectations:'' An unusual one, caused deliberately by the heroes. At the end of series 4, Pip Bin sides with Mr. Benevolent in taking over the world, which lasts for decades, until mankind collectively gets fed up with them and decide they'd rather risk total annihilation than live under Pip and Gently's rule. It takes divine intervention (and a WhatTheHellHero from God Himself) for Pip to go back and prevent it. |
| 135 | [[/folder]] |
| 136 | |
| 137 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 138 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Rifts}}'' is this to prequel game ''Beyond the Supernatural'', which is set in the present day. Victor Lazlo, a parapsychologist who got time-shifted from the 1970's to this future is horrified when he meets, and is recognized by, an old friend (who was secretly a dragon) and realizes that this ''is'' his world's future, and not just an alternate one. |
| 139 | * ''TabletopGame/SentinelsOfTheMultiverse'' has a few plot points involving the Bad Future. Visionary came from the Bad Future to the past in order to prevent it, while Iron Legacy (from another, separate future) is what Legacy would become if Young Legacy was killed by Baron Blade. Chrono-Ranger was just a lawman from 1883 who was sent to a third, distant Bad Future where humanity was wiped out whose goal is to time travel and kill the monsters of the past before they take over the future. The last one is the only ine that is actually a bad future of this specific timeline. The others were alternate timelines. However, since chrono-ranger has been altering the past this one is also quickly becoming an alternate timeline. |
| 140 | * In the Rise of the Eldrazi storyline of ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'', one character witnesses a future where Kozilek succeeds and she is driven mad. Ulamog and Emrakul are gone, either consumed by Kozilek or left to inflict the same fate on other planes. When Gideon, last of the Gatewatch, finally falls, Kozilek makes a sound that can only be described as ''laughter''. |
| 141 | [[/folder]] |
| 142 | |
| 143 | [[folder:Theatre]] |
| 144 | * ''Theatre/HarryPotterAndTheCursedChild'', Albus and Scorpio use a time turner to save Cedric's life, as Cedric's father begs them. Unfortunately [[spoiler:they cause him so much humiliation in the process that he joins the Death Eaters and kills Neville, so no one kills Nagini, Voldemort kills Harry and [[TakeOverTheWorld takes over the world]], and worst of all, Dolores Umbridge once again becomes headmistress of Hogwarts.]] |
| 145 | [[/folder]] |
| 146 | |
| 147 | [[folder:Visual Novels]] |
| 148 | * ''VisualNovel/ClockZero'' has one, as a direct result of [[spoiler: an alternate Nadeshiko getting into a coma from a car "accident" and alternate Takato going through extreme lengths to save her and prevent the same thing from happening to her again, even if it means he has to commit downright ruthless acts in doing so.]] King's attempts of preventing the aforementioned incident from happening kickstarts the VN's plot. |
| 149 | * ''Franchise/WhenTheyCry'': |
| 150 | ** ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'': |
| 151 | *** The first episode of the second season features a destroyed Hinamizawa, an aging Oishii going back there to find out what went wrong accompanied by a grieving, regretful Akasaka and a broken, nigh catatonic, middle- aged Rena. |
| 152 | *** There's also the one where we find that [[spoiler:one month after the events of Tatarigoroshi-hen]], Keiichi tries to kill himself, gets locked up in an insane asylum, and we get that tape of the miserable wreck he became. |
| 153 | *** In a continuation of the first example, Yoigoshi-hen is in its entirety a Bad Future from the way Tsumihoroboshi-hen was "supposed" to end. |
| 154 | ** In a series with plenty of {{Bad Ending}}s, the third arc of ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'' leads to a Bad Future that is inextricably tied to the fourth arc thanks to the miracle of TimeTravel [[spoiler:[[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane (or maybe not)]]]]. [[spoiler: By the end of the series, it's clear that this particular future is in fact ''the'' future in this series, with no way to avoid it happening. Despite everything that happens, though, there is [[BittersweetEnding an undercurrent of happiness]] at the end.]] |
| 155 | ** In ''VisualNovel/CiconiaWhenTheyCry'', [[spoiler:the "other" Miyao]] shows Miyao a future where [[spoiler:he kills all his friends]]. Later on, Miyao is shown another vision of the future that makes the first one look downright pleasant: Miyao, his family, and thousands of other people are taken to a facility where [[spoiler:they are given a (insufficient) dose of painkillers, dipped into a chemical that removes their skin (but leaves their muscles), and are then sorted into different machines that remove their body parts, leaving only the (still-living) brain, skull, and spinal cord to be taken for an unknown purpose]]. Miyao is told that the only way he can prevent this future from happening is by killing himself. |
| 156 | * ''VisualNovel/SteinsGate'' has two: time travel research by [[spoiler:SERN leads to them [[TakeOverTheWorld using time travel to take over the world]] and establishing a communist dystopia]]. The protagonists' actions prevents this and inadvertently causes [[spoiler: ''every country in the world'' to [[LensmanArmsRace race to become the first with a working time machine]], which touches off a hellish WorldWarIII that kills 5.7 billion people.]] |
| 157 | * ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'': the game is revealed to [[spoiler: actually ''take place'' in one of these. Shortly before many of the protagonists were taken and put into cold sleep, a deadly virus called Radical-6 began spreading, causing those infected to [[DrivenToSuicide commit suicide]]. Only four months later, on April 13, 2029, the world's eighteen anti-matter power generators simultaneously exploded, plunging the world into nuclear winter for seven years. By 2074, the world's population has fallen to two billion and the atmosphere is still tinted red with dust and debris.]] The aim of the Nonary Game and AB Games is [[spoiler: unlocking Phi and Sigma's MentalTimeTravel powers, giving them a chance to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong.]] |
| 158 | [[/folder]] |
| 159 | |
| 160 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 161 | * In ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' the demon KZK takes over the world and inflicts horrible torments on humanity, such as making everyone watch a stage production of ''Series/GilligansIsland'' with Torg as the Professor. Berk and Dr. Schlock traveled back in time to prevent this, and were seemingly successful. However, since KZK is NotQuiteDead, it may still take over the world at some future date. |
| 162 | ** Then there's the 4U City world, where HappinessIsMandatory and dissidents are beamed into AnotherDimension at the drop of a hat. Technically, it appears to be an AlternateUniverse, not TimeTravel related, but it's clearly foreshadowed in the main universe, where [[MegaCorp Hereti-Corp's]] master-plan is steadily leading up to the same technological developments that will create it. |
| 163 | * ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'': [[spoiler: John gets killed by his denizen because he fought it much earlier than intended, thanks to following the advice of Terezi. Jade is presumed dead because she was unable to enter the Medium before a gigantic meteor struck her island. The game is now {{Unwinnable}} without them. [[FutureBadass Future!Dave]] [[TimeMaster reverses time]] and goes back to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong by warning John.]] |
| 164 | ** Bad Futures are also really easy to create in the world of ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}''. Didn't run a certain computer virus? [[spoiler: One of your best friends goes crazy about a month ahead of schedule and kills you and your entire team horribly!]] Let an old rival go because you couldn't bring yourself to kill her? [[spoiler: Wind up killed by the demon said rival wanted to fight!]] Made a mistake during [[ItMakesSenseInContext frog-breeding]]? [[spoiler: Somehow wind up ruining everything!]] Due to the sheer ease that players can doom themselves, every session has a player with the ability to manipulate time. Aradia, the troll's Hero of Time wound up with this trope so many times she was able to make an army - which turned out being essential to defeating the Black King. |
| 165 | ** For Time players, this is the result of not keeping {{Stable Time Loop}}s Stable, since any divergence from the main "Alpha" timeline[[note]]''(not to be confused with the Alpha universe or the Alpha session)''[[/note]] will inevitably result in the timeline in question being destroyed and everyone in it dying along with everything else. [[spoiler: [[TheHero John]], however, recently obtained the power to [[{{Retcon}} alter events in canon]] without dooming a give timeline.]] |
| 166 | -->DAVE: the thing is\ |
| 167 | DAVE: being a time guy\ |
| 168 | DAVE: like actually MASTERING time travel\ |
| 169 | DAVE: im pretty sure what that involves is\ |
| 170 | DAVE: learning to never use it |
| 171 | ** All of the prior examples are overshadowed by the [[NamesToRunAwayFromVeryFast Game Over Timeline,]] the mother of all Bad Futures. This timeline pretty much makes every other doomed timeline look like a walk in the park. There are prior clues that the timeline is going down the drain, such as Gamzee going unpunished for his crimes, Terezi entering an abusive relationship with Gamzee, and Rose developing an alcohol addiction. But even in light of these clues, what is probably the biggest WhamEpisode in Homestuck, the aptly-named [S]GAME OVER, is still unexpected. [[spoiler: Jane and Jade become BrainwashedAndCrazy, several planets are smashed together and ''set entirely on fire,'' Dirk commits suicide, and ''every single one of the heroes'' except John and Roxy die.]] The cause? [[spoiler:[[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished Terezi trying to save everyone's life]] by killing Vriska before she could accidentally lead [[HeroKiller Bec Noir]] to their hideout]]. The faults in the timeline run so deep that John has to rewrite ''three years'' of his and his friends' lives via ButterflyOfDoom to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong. |
| 172 | * There are ''hundreds'' of bad futures in ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja'': |
| 173 | ** There's a future in which superintelligent dinosaurs rule the world and most of the characters are either dead or part of LaResistance. |
| 174 | ** Chuck Goodrich came to the past the first time around to prevent the ZombieApocalypse, but instead ended up branching the universe into a split timeline where another Chuck Goodrich comes to the past to prevent his own future, and so on. Because if the zombies don't destroy the future, the robotic vacuum cleaners will, and if they don't, then the superintelligent dinosaurs will. This seems to be a constant of ''all'' timelines, with each subsequent Chuck Goodrich (and it's ''always'' Chuck Goodrich) only diverting from one potential bad timeline to the next. [[spoiler: This includes King Radical, whose goal is to save his kingdom from the Bad Future where Sparklelord destroyed everything.]] |
| 175 | * In ''Webcomic/{{Narbonic}}'', Dave mentally time travels into one of these, which turns out to be [[spoiler:the future if he to take a very specific action [[PointOfDivergence at the right moment]], some years down the line]]. In this future, [[spoiler:Dave himself]] caused a thermonuclear war, Helen is an angry, resentful brain in a tank [[spoiler:because of him]], Mel is in line for the US ''presidency,'' (this is almost the worst part, knowing her) and Dave is fat, balding, cheerless [[spoiler:and not together with Helen.]] Basically, the main trio are estranged, unhappy and more villainous in this future, and [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse also there's been a nuclear war.]] |
| 176 | ** In a way, the original timeline is also more subtly a bad future for young Dave, as he [[spoiler:got so hung up trying to impress Majel Mappelthorpe that he took up smoking while underage and became a chainsmoker.]] In the CloseEnoughTimeline that he returns to after being unstuck in time for several days, he's healthier and has more money for not having done so, plot-holes notwithstanding. |
| 177 | * In ''Webcomic/PowerpuffGirlsDoujinshi'', [[spoiler:there's at least one timeline where Megaville and everyone in it are slaughtered due to one of the heroes performing a FaceHeelTurn. Said timeline is explored in a spinoff to its sister comic, ''Webcomic/GrimTalesFromDownBelow''.]] |
| 178 | * Seeing one of these with ''her'' as the cause is what starts off Kendra's FaceHeelTurn in ''Webcomic/ToPreventWorldPeace''. In said future Kendra would lead other {{Magical Girl}}s to destoy all villains and then TakeOverTheWorld, supposedly for its own good. |
| 179 | * ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' has one of these, through not in the main comic, but on Othar’s twitter. Apparently in this future Lucerezia [[spoiler: manages to take over Agatha’s body for good]] and marries mind-controlled Klaus, gaining control over Europa. Many years later Europa is completely deserted, with only a handful of survivors hiding in the remote corners of the continent. |
| 180 | * The Dark Future story in ''Webcomic/DeviantUniverse'' where an [[AIIsACrapshoot evil AI]] all but destroys all life on Earth. |
| 181 | * In ''Webcomic/LuminaryChildren'', Earth is in poverty and the galaxy is ruled by a corrupt government that hunts down kids. |
| 182 | * In ''Webcomic/{{Wayfarer 1805}}'', would-be writer "Tussel" Lee learns she's [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom somehow]] responsible for ''three'' different bad futures: one in which Earth is fighting a losing war against an AlienInvasion, one in which it's been subjugated by an all-knowing moon-sized supercomputer, and one in which the planet is slowly freezing to death in a new ice age. This news doesn't bother her as much as the fact that she doesn't finish the novel she's working on in ''any'' of them. |
| 183 | [[/folder]] |
| 184 | |
| 185 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 186 | * The ''Website/SCPFoundation'' developed a time machine labeled [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2003 SCP-2003]] and learned that in January 2349 humanity gets [[ColonyDrop wiped out by an asteroid]]. They then begin to desperately ensure that this takes place because every possible future they encountered managed to be ''even worse'', excluding one with a depopulated but more advanced human race that they're still investigating. |
| 187 | * TabletopGame/NewVindicators has several of these. First, there's the future of Hikari's alternate dimension-where Apocatasis wins and rules most of the world. Then, there's the one where Jason Lamperouge has manipulated most of the heroes and villains in one way or another and culminates in the death of most of the Vindicators, Jason himself, and a few others dimension hopping and unable to get back. Lastly, there's the far future where Sol Invictus, an immortal Neo-Sapien, rules over an empire with his family, the Pantheon, as god kings. Humans are treated as second class citizens, and by the time Sol Invictus is eventually stopped, most of the heroes are dead as well. |
| 188 | * One of ''WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd'' christmas episodes parodies A Christmas Carol by having the Ghosts of the Past, Present and Future Christmas show the Nerd his never ending cycle of getting tortured by bad games, beginning with his childhood. The last ghost (which turns out to be Dracula from ''Simon's Quest'') shows the Nerd a ''bad future'' in which he continued to complain about games all the way up to the Wii, even starting to enjoy it. |
| 189 | * ''Website/TheOnion'''s [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKC21wDarBo Future News From the Year 2137]]. Wyoming nuked itself by popular referendum after gay marriage was legalized, there is one Palestinian and one Israeli left on Earth in the Gaza Scrap, and the United States is building a particle accelerator to create a black hole in the Earth to end everyone's suffering. |
| 190 | -->'''Zesty Lewis:''' Meanwhile, criticalism is piling up near President Performance H. Wilson, who was voted into office for a sixth term, [[PresidentEvil primarily because he promised to kill us all]].\ |
| 191 | '''President Wilson:''' YOU DON'T NEED A BUNCH OF EMPTY PROMISES! HA HA! YOU NEED TO ''[[OmnicidalManiac DIE!]]'' DO YOU WANT TO DIE?! ''(the audience cheers)'' I CAN'T HEAR YOU! ''DO YOU WANT TO DIE!?! (audience cheers louder)''\ |
| 192 | '''Lewis:''' President's Wilsons approval ratings have gone down steadily since the delays, excepting a small rise when he personally murdered 7,000 people with a hatchet. |
| 193 | * WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic's review of ''Film/TheRoom2003'' features one ruled by seahorses. |
| 194 | * Played with in ''[[WebAnimation/CPUChampionshipSeries CPUCS]]''. The [[DarkWorld Dark Realm]] is a world where [[BigBadWannabe ToyConvict]] took over the world, which caused [[TheHero Vincent]] to turn into the evil [[BigBad Dark Vincent]], who takes over the world from [[TheEmperor ToyConvict]], then travels to the timeline where [[TheBully ToyConvict]] was locked up in jail and attempted to take over the world there with the help of [[TheDragon Blood Falcon]]. He fails, but [[spoiler: [[HeroKiller Blood Falcon]] kills [[EnsembleDarkHorse King Dedede]], [[TheHeroDies Vincent]], and [[GoodCounterpart Parsec Captain Falcon]]. Then in Season 4, he nearly kills [[TheAtoner Tony]], but he [[TheDeterminator refused to die]].]] |
| 195 | * Played with in ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged''. The future where the Androids conquer the Earth is just as horrible as it was in canon, but [[KnightInSourArmor Future Gohan]] doesn't consider it to be the "bad" future. His friends were constantly dying all around him long before the Androids ever showed up, so to him, it's just "the future." Other than that, it's pretty much the same, except [[spoiler:Yamcha, rather than being killed by the Androids, hangs himself when he finds out Bulma was pregnant with Vegeta's child]]. |
| 196 | * In "10 EPIC BATTLES that Changed History FOREVER!" by WebVideo/MatthewSantoro, Matthew returns from the future only to be freaked out by the fact that the future was taken over by robots. |
| 197 | * ''WebAnimation/SocietyOfVirtue'' parodies it in the episode ''Undesired Days Of Future Past'' and plays it straight in ''Season Finale''. |
| 198 | * As part of their 25th anniversary in 2021, Website/InternetArchive created the "[[https://wayforward.archive.org/ Wayforward Machine]]" as a satirical depiction of what the internet might look like in another 25 years if efforts by powerful interests to restrict access to information aren't stopped. |
| 199 | * ''WebVideo/TheFinalMinutes'': The ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asvaYp2u4SI Trumpocalypse]]'' scenario takes place in one of exactly seventeen timelines... this specific timeline having collapsed via entropy, which already doesn't sound good. It's then revealed that the President refused to step down after being impeached and [[FromBadToWorse escaped with the nuclear launch codes]]. |
| 200 | [[/folder]] |
| 201 | |
| 202 | ---- |
| 203 | ->Well, we just got back in our TimeMachine and, hahahaha, you guys are so boned. Oh yes, especially ''you''. |
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