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[[quoteright:337:[[VideoGame/DistortedTravesty https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/advancing_wall_of_doom.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:337:The claustrophobe's worst nightmare.]]

->'''Charlotte:''' Huh?! Something's after us!\\
'''Jonathan:''' This doesn't look good! Let's run for now!
-->-- Running from the Behemoth in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaPortraitOfRuin''

A level (or segment thereof) in which the player must make rapid progress to outrun a giant threat. The threat in question can be anything from rising water levels, to giant robots, or, as the name implies, a slowly advancing giant wall lined with all manner of painful things. Other times, there isn't even a visible threat, and the screen simply scrolls on its own. Sometimes going off the screen or contacting the said wall means instant death, at other times, it simply pushes the player forward, over a cliff, or just squishing them to death if necessary.

See also: RiseToTheChallenge, TheWallsAreClosingIn, DescendingCeiling, IndyEscape, AdvancingBossOfDoom and OutrunTheFireball for specific types of this. When the screen itself forces you to keep moving and anchors the camera to the wall, it's a AutoScrollingLevel. Also compare EscapeSequence and DeadlyWalls. May be justified with LivingStructureMonster or an advancing AnimalStampede.
----
!!Examples:
[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Action Adventure]]
* ''VideoGame/ANNOMutationem'': During her progress through The Consortium's ElaborateUndergroundBase, Ann comes across a large red sphere of energy that chases after her, leading to a brief auto-scrolling segment to escape until she can find a weapon capable of destroying it.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Badland}}'' , the whole gameplay consists of your character forced to move forward because of one, while also avoiding the chains, spikes, etc. and pick up one's clones along the way.
* The ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'' series has more than a few of these.
** In ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaBloodlines'', there's one going down to keep up with draining water. No idea why, since there's no huge drop to kill you (unless you go too fast and discover your SuperDrowningSkills). That's not the only one in the game, by the way; the second level features one.
** ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaIIIDraculasCurse'' has several as well, including one 'rising water' stage, a few auto-scrolling stages towers (one up, one down), and one where the auto-scrolling occurs in noisy "jumps."
** ''VideoGame/SuperCastlevaniaIV'' has a level near the end of the game where a huge circular saw blade chases you upward as you ascend the level to meet a BossBonanza before meeting the Count himself. It's also a level which automatically advances the screen whenever you move up (and, you die if you fall below it), which means you actually have ''two'' advancing walls to keep up with. Thankfully, the saw doesn't move that fast, meaning you're usually in more danger of falling off the screen than getting hit by the saw.
** ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaTheAdventure'' had a level that was ''MADE'' of this trope. Stage 3, Death Fair, featured a corridor where you had to destroy giant screws to keep the spiked ceiling from crushing you, a tower up which you had to slowly climb via ropes while being chased by a spiked floor, and finally another corridor where you had to outrun a spiked wall while killing enemies and balancing over bottomless pits.
** ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaRondoOfBlood'' has the Behemoth chase you through part of Stage 2. The scenario gets repeated in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaPortraitOfRuin''.
* ''VideoGame/DemonSkin'' has a HairTriggerAvalanche in the first stage that you must outrun or lose a life.
* ''VideoGame/HollowKnight'' inverts it in an interesting way during the fight against [[spoiler:the Radiance.]] When badly wounded, it begins to flee into the sky from the Knight's pursuit; as you leap up platforms to give chase, dodging its desperate laser attacks, a massive wall of darkness follows behind you. [[spoiler:The wall is made up of the Knight's kindred void spirits, and catching up to the Radiance one last time allows your brethren to engulf it, letting you rip the Radiance into pieces and annihilate the threat of the Infection once and for all.]] Falling into the wall deals a single mask worth of damage.
* ''VideoGame/LANoire'': In one segment late in the game [[spoiler:Jack Kelso must get away from a bulldozer advancing on him.]]
* [[Manga/{{Strider}} The NES version of ''Strider'']] features a corridor in Los Angeles where spiked walls advance quickly one after another, and one has to duck in holes on the ground to avoid getting damage.
* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'':
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'': The Fire Temple has an advancing wall of fire, and the only way to escape it is to attempt a jump to a ledge that appears to be too far away to be grabbed, and Link does it.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'' has a puzzle variation, where you have to move blocks to get the height to leap off a ledge before a wall of flame reaches you.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' has one in a shrine added in the ''Champions' Ballad'' DLC. The spikes that cover the advancing wall normally wouldn't be much of a threat, but you have to do the shrine while Link is temporarily a OneHitPointWonder.
* There's also one or two death traps like this in ''VideoGame/Nightshade1992'', a game that spoofed 30s supernatural noir.
* ''VideoGame/TronTwoPointOh'' also did this in one level, where you had to flee a "Reformat Wall", and got obliterated if it touched you.
* ''VideoGame/{{Typoman}}'': A firey one of these pursues the player in Chapter Two.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Action Game]]
* In the final stage of ''VideoGame/CannonDancer'', right after defeating [[MirrorBoss a mirror copy of Kirin]], a giant wall of fire/energy comes up and starts moving forward, erasing the entire stage. The player must run the opposite way, increasing speed as they run down a steep incline and then jump at the last moment before being caught.
* In the PC version of ''VideoGame/TheFairlyOddparentsBreakinDaRules'', one level has Timmy travel to the past and meet the younger-aged version of Vicky and Tootie's mom (named Nicky here), who romantically pursues him though the stage. The fact that she's the future mother of his nemesis and his StalkerWithACrush is one reason to keep away from her (the other being that you have to start the level over if she catches you).
* ''VideoGame/GodOfWar'' has these a few times; the first two (one each in ''VideoGame/GodOfWarI'' and ''VideoGame/GodOfWarII'') are defeated by killing off the horde of {{Mooks}} that spawns on top of you, while the second is actually a time-based puzzle where you have to open a door.
* ''VideoGame/GunstarSuperHeroes'' has the File Crasher. If you get caught by it, it, um... erases your file. [[spoiler:Actually, it only ''claims'' it will erase your save file, and only in the original Japanese version.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget: Operation Madkactus'' had quickly rising water in World 2-2, which invoked SuperDrowningSkills. In the final mission, the wall of doom was the vehicle.
* ''VideoGame/SpiderManAndTheXMenInArcadesRevenge'' for the Super Nintendo had, in ComicBook/{{Gambit|MarvelComics}}'s first level, a gigantic spikey ball of doom, slowly crushing everything in his path.
** ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}'s second level had the ComicBook/{{Juggernaut|MarvelComics}} serving this same purpose.
* In the ''VideoGame/SpiderMan2000'' game on the Platform/PlayStation, the final level had you being chased by Carnage-Ock.
* In ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheCloneWars'', there is a level where the player has to outrun the purple wave of death created by the Sith Harvester (ball shaped thing that absorbs the force from living things and stores it or some such thing).
* In ''VideoGame/LegoStarWars II: The Original Trilogy'', the level based on the assault on the Death Star II in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' ends with the player flying away from the ensuing explosion from its core. In ''LEGO [[WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars Star Wars III: The Clone Wars]]'', the level based on the episode "[[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsGeonosisArc Legacy of Terror]]" ends with the player being chased by a swarm of Geonosian zombies.
* The 4th boss in ''VideoGame/RunSaber'' is a large robot called Southern Jambalaya, and its first phase has it walking forward while he tries to kill the player(s).
* The third level of ''VideoGame/StriderArcade'' has a particularly frustrating one: it starts as a simple wall slowly moving forward while the stage auto-scrolls, but then becomes a [[TheWallsAreClosingIn frantic race upwards to avoid being flattened by two walls closing in]]; if you lag at all (or get hit by the small flying enemies coming from above), you won't have time to come out without being crushed.
* ''VideoGame/VersusUmbra'': The grinder in First Strike chases you through the entirety of 2-5 and kills you in one hit if it gets you, though it's possible to destroy it with good enough weaponry.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Beat Em Up]]
* Two instances shows up in ''VideoGame/BloodyZombies'', firstly when you trigger a set of gears which pursues you relentlessly, and a later stage where you encounter an ''Advancing Zombie Horde of Doom'' near London's Tower Bridge where you must make a sprint to the bridge's other side before it opens up.
* Later levels of ''Express Raider'' have enemies pushing stacks of crates towards you, which you must break through before they push you off the train.
* ''VideoGame/JackieChanStuntmaster'' have several stages with trucks pursuing Jackie down alleyways, with Jackie sprinting like crazy until he reaches a section too narrow for the truck to enter.
* ''VideoGame/ShuihuzhuanLiangshanYingxiong'' have these obstacles in the underground mausoleum, and you'll need to repeatedly lash out and punch the walls to push them back and reveal an exit. Often, mooks will try getting in your way.
* The original ''VideoGame/{{Splatterhouse}}'' has the player pursued by a creepy pulsing purple wall of...something. You'll only see it if you dawdle significantly, though.
* In ''VideoGame/StreetsOfRage 3'', Stage 3 has an Advancing Bulldozer Of Doom, which you must outrun while destroying concrete walls that are blocking your way. It can, however, be hit to knock it back a few meters. At the end of the section, the 'dozer slams into a support beam and a barrel falls from the ceiling, knocking the Mook out.
* ''VideoGame/TheTakeOver'' have a bulldozer in the first stage that pursues you down an alleyway full of barricades and boxes, where you'll need to jump over or destroy.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Casual Videogame]]
* ''VideoGame/CorridorZ'': The zombies pursuing the PlayerCharacter will slowly get closer and closer until they catch up. You can knock them back by knocking down objects and vent shafts.
* ''VideoGame/HarryPotterPuzzlesAndSpells'': Devil's Snare will spread into squares next to it unless you take out at least one overgrown square with a match or item.
* In ''[[VideoGame/WithFriends Stampede Run]]'', you're being chased by three bulls the whole time you're running. Stumble and one will be right on your tail for about 5 seconds. Stumble twice in quick succession and you'll be run down.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fighting Game]]
* There's one of these in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' stage in ''VideoGame/SoulCaliburIV'', but it never comes close to actually crushing you.
* The Pig King Statue in Lucas' first stage of ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Brawl''[='=]s "Subspace Emissary" mode. [[spoiler:Until Ness one-shots it with PK Flash.]]
** The Norfair stage in the same game has advancing walls of lava; two move toward the center of the stage from either the left or right side (though they don't go any further and move back after a while), while the third start from behind the stage and move towards it. Only a few characters can effectively jump over it, so a small safe room appears to assist those who can't. Getting hit by any of them is not a good thing.
** One of the ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' stages in ''Melee'' also has a giant advancing wall of lava that comes in to cover over half the stage.
** A vortex serves as one in the sole bonus stage of ''Ultimate''.
** The worst one involves not only a scrolling screen, but randomly moving cars that you have to jump between on the "Big Blue" track.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:First Person Shooter]]
* ''VideoGame/ApexLegends'' features a large energy field around the play area known as the Ring. Anyone outside it takes damage at a slow rate, increasing in damage as the round timer goes on.
* In the first mission of ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty 4: VideoGame/ModernWarfare'', the ship you are raiding is hit by enemy aircraft and begins to sink. You must run behind your teammates all the way to the helicopter. If you lag behind just a little, you'll be "killed" and forced to retry the mission. It's made even worse by the fact that the ship begins to list heavily to one side, so you're actually running diagonally. And in the end, you need to jump over the side of the ship to reach the helicopter.
* In ''VideoGame/Condemned2Bloodshot'', you have to outrun a rabid bear through a deserted hunting lodge. And when you finally do get a chance to kill it, it's in a OneBulletLeft situation.
* ''[[VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon F3AR]]'' features a cooperative AWOD mode, appropriately entitled F**king Run!", in which a massive black cloud rushes at you throughout the level. Naturally, getting caught in this cloud is [[OneHitKill instantly fatal.]]
* A few custom ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' levels give the same effect as an AWOD by having the player chased through a maze of {{Insurmountable Waist Height Fence}}s by either ExplodingBarrels or revenants' homing missiles.
* ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' has the advancing wall of the Citadel at the end of the level Nova Prospekt, which crushes you against a non-moving wall unless you can quickly find a small opening through which you escape in the latter wall.
* In the Armory level of ''VideoGame/Metro2033'', after being handcuffed by the Red Lines for simply being at the wrong place at the wrong time after stumbling on an interrogation, you and another prisoner must outrun the Red Line officers through a crowded station, and failure to do so results in a Red Line officer cracking your skull open with the stock of his shotgun.
* ''VideoGame/{{Quake}}'' has a few examples, the first notable one being in in E1-M6.
* ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheTriad'' has a few of these. Some just squish you, some burn and squish you at the same time.
* ''VideoGame/TronTwoPointOh'' had one level where the protagonist is trying to outrun a hard disc reformat, rescue [=Ma3a=] and Byte, and get to the exit before they're all destroyed by it.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Maze Games]]
* ''VideoGame/PacMan256'' has The Glitch, the KillScreen from the 256th maze of ''VideoGame/PacMan'', closing in on you as you travel through an endless maze. It also appears in ''VideoGame/CrossyRoad'' when you play the game as Pac-Man.
* The {{Platform/Intellivision}} game ''Maze-a-Tron'' [[{{Film/Tron}} (yes, based off the film)]] had the protagonist running through a maze of circuitry to reach the RAM chips in the center with the screen continually scrolling. Unusual in that meeting the wall wasn't instant death -- but it did send you back to the beginning, forcing you to run the whole thing again. Other things, like forcefields and Recognizers were what could actually kill you.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Miscellaneous Games]]
* In the iOS/Android game, ''VideoGame/ClayJam'', one would control a pebble by rolling it in various worlds while it was being pursued by a red mass of clay that consumed everything in its path. Failing to move the pebble quickly enough would result in a GameOver as it got eaten by the mass. Thankfully, the red mass wasn't that close to the pebble and moved rather slowly, so it wouldn't be a problem (except in later stages, where the mass would move much more quickly). This also applies to its defunct spinoff game, ''Play-Doh Jam''. [[note]]This doesn't count as an AutoScrollingLevel since the player could move the pebble (and by that extent, the screen) at their own pace, though movement needed to be forward in order to complete a stage.[[/note]]
* ''VideoGame/TheEternalCylinder'' is a SurvivalSandbox game all about trying to outrun the titular Cylinder, an incredibly tall impossibly long MechanicalAbomination crushing everything in it's path. Gameplay-wise levels are divided between areas where the Cylinder doesn't move so you can collect abilities and advance the plot, and levels where you move as fast as you can to get to the next checkpoint that will temporarily halt the Cylinder.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:[=MMORPGs=]]]
* The ''VideoGame/ClubPenguin'' minigame "Catchin' Waves" involved a penguin surfing along the wave while trying to avoid the tube. Downplayed, because it could surf inside the tube, just not dive too far into it, otherwise he would be knocked out.
* In ''VideoGame/DCUniverseOnline'', in the Solo mission for the Atlantis DLC, the PlayerCharacter, [[ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} Mera and Ocean Master]] are chased by the Crown of Thorns, which will kill the player if they touch it. Making the chase harder is various guards standing in your way that you need to take out before you can proceed.
* ''VideoGame/DungeonsAndDragonsOnline'' players in the raid known popularly as "The Shroud" must solve several puzzles, each inside locked rooms. Once the puzzles are done, players must avoid deadly invulnerable whirling blades as they return to the solved puzzle rooms to deliver water in each room. If the raid party takes too long, the dreaded Prismatic Wall appears and circles the entirety of the area, killing anyone it touches who cannot continually outrun it until the last of the water is delivered.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' brings back the Demon Wall, which gradually advances on the party while summoning [=AoE=] and single-target attacks. If the fight goes on long enough -- which usually it does -- it'll summon two giant gnats to terrorize the party (although they were removed in patch 2.2) as well as covering the rear end of the pathway with a dark [=AoE=] that will slowly drain away your health if stood in. It's also entirely possible to fall off the side of the platform to your death if you aren't careful.
** Rather than slowly and gradually advancing, the Demon Wall will periodically use a potent knockback move on your party before scooting up several feet. It's not clearly known what happens if he advances all the way back to the doors; most parties either defeat the demon wall or are defeated themselves before this ends up happening.
* In the MMORPG ''VideoGame/MapleStory'', there is a particularly annoying area where you have to navigate through a maze of platforms while keeping well out of the area of a moving pillar that logically shouldn't kill you with one touch. [[DeadlyWalls But it does.]]
* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' gives us Instructor Chillheart of Scholomance, who uses an advancing wall of solid ice, slowly shrinking the area in which you can fight. You have to slay her before it catches and kills you.
** The fight with Yu'lon has an advancing wall of fire.
** The Brawler's Guild has this in the form of fireballs that start raining down if you don't kill a boss fast enough. They slowly cover the whole ring and kill you instantly if they reach you.
** Though he's technically an AdvancingBossOfDoom, the Lich King in the last sequence of the Halls of Reflection is more this in effect because there's no way to do enough damage to kill him and just being close enough to him causes you to undergo an area-effect damage that kills you within seconds.
* A lesser version in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarships'' if you get a wide enough spread of torpedoes, especially if two or more ships launch coordinated salvoes.
* Towards the end of the ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' mission The Khitomer Discord, J'mpok uses the mycelial weapon on Khitomer while the player and their away team are planetside. Escaping the expanding mycelial rift that the weapon makes while saving as many people as possible makes up the final portion of the mission's ground segment.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Party Game]]
* ''VideoGame/TheJackboxPartyPack'': In the final round of "Trivia Murder Party" and its sequel, the players must answer questions that involve identifying which entries fit a category, with right answers moving players closer to the exit and winning the game. After a few rounds, an ominous darkness starts closing in on the players, covering the last four spaces of the board when it first appears and then covering two additional spaces after each question. Anyone overtaken by the darkness will be eliminated from the game, and if all the players get caught before escaping nobody wins.
* Some minigames in ''VideoGame/MarioParty'' use the collapsing-track version. They're races, and getting caught in the wall means you probably lost regardless.
** ''VideoGame/MarioParty1'': Running of the Bulb has the players collaborate to get a lightbulb to the end of the level without Boo catching up to all four of them.
** ''VideoGame/MarioParty3'': Cheep Cheep Chase has four players compete to outswim a giant Cheep Cheep.
** ''VideoGame/MarioPartyAdvance'': In the minigame Stompbot XL, a solo player is driving the eponymous vehicle to outrun a wave of lava that is pulsating its way forward. The driver has to dodge lava pits along the way, as they can take away one heart (the player's vehicle has three); there are rocks that obstruct the path and must be dodged as well. The minigame ends when the vehicle's LifeMeter is depleted, so the player has to drive as far as possible until that happens to achieve a record. In Shroom City mode, they have to make it to a goal line to win.
** ''VideoGame/MarioParty7'': Funstacle Course has all four players try to reach the end of the course while being pursued by the Koopa Kids in a flamethrower vehicle.
** ''VideoGame/MarioPartyDS'': In the minigame Dust Buddies, all players have to flee from a vacuum cleaner that is approaching them. As they run forward, various objects like ribbons, buttons and balls will be sucked in, and the characters have to avoid them accordingly as well. The last player standing wins, though more than one can win if they reach the goal line at the end; conversely, if the last remaining players are sucked by the cleaner at the same time, the minigame ends in a tie.
** ''VideoGame/MarioParty10'': Bowser in the Bowser Party mode. The player controlling him pursues the car the four other players are riding in, and if Bowser catches up to them, he forces them to play a Bowser mini-game that can damage and knock them out of the game.
* ''VideoGame/NESRemix 2'' Remix Levels contain Boos that can close in on the player when not looking.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Platform Game]]
* ''VideoGame/AladdinCapcom'' and ''VideoGame/AladdinVirginGames'' each had a level in which Aladdin uses the FlyingCarpet to escape the enormous wall of lava that is consuming the Cave of Wonders.
* ''VideoGame/TheAngryVideoGameNerdIIAssimilation''
** The level "Croc Conundrum", where the wall takes the form of a crocodile. This time around the croc is not a one-hit kill. He merely damages you. The level "Slide Down the Shaft" is a vertical variant which also includes a descending wall of doom, both of which are one-hit kills.
** "Slide Down the Shaft" has a variation with [[LaserHallway lasers]] in the floor and ceiling, forcing you to slide down the walls in steady pace.
* Towards the end of the Sega Genesis version of ''VideoGame/{{Animaniacs}}'', the entire level begins to disintegrate behind you after you open a door at the beginning, forcing you to run for your life. One mistake in this part of the game spells curtains for the Warner siblings.
* ''VideoGame/AzureStrikerGunvoltSeries'':
** ''VideoGame/AzureStrikerGunvolt'' has a downplayed version in the Subaquatic Base. Rising water levels won't kill you right away. Rather, it slowly drains your HP, and also instantly overloads Gunvolt's electricity, gimping your damage output.
** ''VideoGame/AzureStrikerGunvolt2'': In Gunvolt's intro stage Teseo sends a digitizing wave after him. Touching it deals very high damage, although it's possible to survive it with sufficient LevelGrinding and preparations, that you wouldn't have the first time around. Given that it's essentially a tutorial stage, the wall is pretty easy to outrun.
* In ''VideoGame/BladeKitten'', Kit has to outrun an Advancing {{Kaiju}} of Doom called Acland at the halfway mark. Every so often, she has to stop and wait for it to smash through the floors so that she can proceed. If she is hit by the monster's large claws during the fixed-scrolling portions, it's usually instant death.
* ''VideoGame/{{Braid}}'' has a pretty strange variation [[spoiler: in the final level]] where the advancing wall actually represents [[spoiler: barrier between the present and the future]], and [[spoiler: dissapears when you replay the level forwards]].
* ''VideoGame/{{Bug|1995}}'' had a few sections like this in [[UnderTheSea Quaria]]. Oftentimes the wall was also lined with spikes, and one section had the wall be an instant kill (Bug normally takes 5 hits to die), but was thankfully slow enough to outrun with relative ease.
* ''VideoGame/CogenSwordOfRewind'': Stage 3 has a segment where you have to climb through a vertical shaft to escape from a rising wave of ''molten metal''. Naturally, the shaft is full of enemies, inconveniently placed platforms and switches you have to flip in order to progress. The boss of the stage also features a similar segment in its second phase, but the shaft is effectively endless until you beat it.
* ''VideoGame/ConkersBadFurDay'' has a rising water level. Although you can swim, the water rises toward exposed high-voltage wires you have to [[ContextSensitiveButton sever]] to prevent electrocution. [[FridgeLogic Apparently water touching the now-bare but still-live terminals doesn't shock you.]]
* The first ''VideoGame/{{Crash Bandicoot|1996}}'' game had levels where you have to run from a giant boulder. The worst part being that you're running ''towards'' the camera, making obstacle dodging and box collecting very much a process of TrialAndErrorGameplay. These levels even carried over to other games of the series, where you run away from such things as giant polar bears, dinosaurs, dragons, tsunamis, and [[OutrunTheFireball giant fireballs]].
* ''VideoGame/CurseCrackersForWhomTheBelleToils'': Some rooms will have a black wall with red skulls on it that can come from any direction, and quite fast as well. If you see one of these, it's a hurry to make your way through the room before it gets you, since touching it causes instant death. They usually [[RiseToTheChallenge come from below]], but sometimes come from left or right as well, and at least one of them comes from above.
* ''VideoGame/DeCapAttack'' features this in Stage 3-1 with a kind of weird totem pole thing which kills Chuck in a single hit. It can be surprisingly hard to escape from at times.
* This is ''VideoGame/DinoRun'''s entire concept. It manages to still be fun because:
## You can get caught up in the doom wall and still escape with your life, and in fact can get bonuses for doing so, and
## The 'Pyroclastic Wall of Doom' is really, really cool looking.
* The Flash game ''[[http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/582472 Discount Mayonnaise]]'' ([[WordSaladTitle yes, really]]) uses a SandWorm.
* The ''VideoGame/DistortedTravesty'' series loves these, especially the third installment. Even finding some especially unorthodox takes on the concept [[https://youtu.be/b9QCSApwslo?t=14s such as trying to keep ahead of an exploding floor to avoid falling to your death.]]
* ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'':
** ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry1'': Some of the temple-themed levels feature Gnawties in giant stone wheels, which chase after DK and Diddy until stopping in an alcove. The underwater stage Croctopus Chase uses pursuing Croctopuses instead. Neither is technically a one-hit kill, but they're as dangerous as anything else since you can only ever take just two hits before dying.
** ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry2DiddysKongQuest'': Toxic Tower and the unceasing rising level of toxic slime. The official Nintendo Power strategy guide even stated 'This level will eat up lives like candy' when talking about it. Good luck getting through without losing a dozen lives or more. Additionally, Castle Crush could also qualify, even if it's a lot more forgiving than the other level mentioned. In addition, Slime Climb and Clapper's Cavern have rising pools infested by a vicious piranha that can and will try to bite the Kongs if they wind up in the drink.
** ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry3DixieKongsDoubleTrouble'' has Ripsaw Rage, in which a giant bandsaw is cutting through several trees, forcing the Kongs to climb upward to avoid getting cut, as the saw comes after them.
** ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryReturns'':
*** There's a level where you're being chased by [[WaveOfBabies a cascading "wall" made up of thousands of]] [[BigCreepyCrawlies spiders]]. Which later turns into a "floor" as you have to blast your way up. And because Retro just loves you, the level itself is NintendoHard.
*** Subverted in a later level. Near the end, a wave of lava chases you for a short time, but no matter what you do, it won't reach you and will be left behind. It's more of a psychological obstacle and SceneryPorn than anything else. There’s also a rare cross-dimensional example in the beach, where you can see waves [[DepthPerplexion come from the background and wash everything in the game area off the stage]].
* ''VideoGame/DrawnToLife: The Next Chapter'' has one in the aptly named Volcanic Eruption (Wilfre's Wasteland). Aptly named because the AWoD is made of lava.
* In ''VideoGame/DynamiteHeaddy'', the "Twin Freaks" boss is an insane AWOD. The screen scrolls at a set speed, but the boss ''doesn't''. On top of this, hitting various switches needed to make progress makes him faster and invincible.
* ''VideoGame/{{Ever|sion}}[[DarthWiki/{{Eversion}} sion]]'' features two, the latter apparently [[spoiler:made of ''blood''. It's actually the avatar of Yog-Sothoth.]]
* One puzzle of ''VideoGame/{{Fez}}'' requires the player to rigger the rise of [[LavaIsBoilingKoolAid red water/lava]] as they navigate a series of challenging vertical jumps. At the end there is a platform which you must be on which will float to the room exit.
* ''VideoGame/{{Flashback}}'' has one of these, with insta-kill pits to jump over and a floating orb that will knock you flat if it gets in melee range. And you have to destroy it to roll into the end of the level. And it's a TimedMission.
* The entire point of the ''VideoGame/FloodRunner'' games is trying to outrun the advancing threat, be it a big wave of water or lava or a giant monster.
* In ''VideoGame/FroggersAdventuresTempleOfTheFrog'', the second stage of Ancient Ruins has segments where Frogger is chased by a huge wave of water that floods entire hallways. He has to outrun the wave in order to survive.
* ''VideoGame/GatoRoboto'': The Ventilation area has a section where Kiki, [[OneHitPointWonder sans mechs suit]], has to run from a wall of spikes piloted by the mouse, and through a dangerous obstacle course.
* ''VideoGame/{{Ghostrunner}}'': The final level is spent trying to outpace and giant red wall that consumes the level as you go. If you touch it, it's an instant gameover. [[spoiler:The wall represents the Architect's effort to erase Ghostrunner's peronality, personality, so you can only stop it by getting to the Architect]].
* ''VideoGame/GreyArea2023'' has a few chase scenes where Hailey maneuvers through an obstacle course while some kind of hazard follows after her. Chapter 3 has the level boss, the Guardian, chasing Hailey before the boss fight, and Chapter 6 starts with a wave of ghosts pursuing her.
* ''VideoGame/InBetween'' has a wall of darkness that is a manifestation of the protagonist's fear of the darkness in his MentalWorld, which can be forced back by facing the darkness and staring at it. This also happens later when he faces manifestations of his anger, which sometimes slowly pursue him, inflicting a time limit on the player in the occasions where he is cornered.
* ''VideoGame/{{Inkulinati}}'': In the Fires of the Apocalypse event, which starts when a battle wears on for too long, gouts of fire form at the edges of the field and start moving inwards by one space per turn, destroying any Beasts, Tinies, or items that get caught in them.
* ''VideoGame/IWannaBeTheGuy'' has a segment where you have to outrun a big wall of spikes that originally starts off as just another expanse of spikes that just flips up once you've jumped over it and starts chasing you. And you have to wall jump and dodge flying [[strike:apples]] [[strike:giant cherries]] Delicious Fruit the entire way.
* ''VideoGame/JakAndDaxter'':
** ''VideoGame/JakAndDaxterThePrecursorLegacy'': There's a segment where the duo has to climb to the top of an underwater tower to escape a rapidly rising flood of Dark Eco.
** ''VideoGame/JakIIRenegade'' plays homage to its ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot'' roots in one scene where you flee a giant boulder through an underground tomb playing as Daxter. [[spoiler:The boulder is revealed to be a giant spider egg.]] A similarly hairy chase sequence occurs towards the end of the game where you must run from a giant centipede -- this time away from the camera rather than towards it.
* ''VideoGame/JurassicParkRampageEdition'' has a flood variation of this trope in the cargo ship level.
* ''VideoGame/KidChameleon'':
** Three of the game's levels feature a "murder wall", which could [[RubberBandAI only be outrun to an extent]]. Poking it equals instant death. One is a straightforward introduction to the murder wall, a second is a series of timed block puzzles, and the last one gives you a rather unwieldy tank to try (and fail) at navigating the level with.
** A level late in the game, Forced Entry, has a murder wall and ends with a choice between top route and bottom route. If you pick the wrong one, "too bad!", there's a big wall, forcing you to die and start the level from the beginning.
** The difficulty spike represented by these levels (especially Hills of the Warrior, the first murder wall level, and Bloody Swamp, which was just plain goddamn sadistic), coupled with their music, can push them very close to the border of horror territory. %%Have a listen to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y42pTIF9f50 this]] and tell me you wouldn't be soiling yourself if you were fleeing a +9000 Wall of Meat Grinding to the tune of this little number.
* From the ''Franchise/{{Kirby}}'' series:
** ''VideoGame/KirbySuperStar'' used this, much to the annoyance of some younger players. Particularly notable in the Great Cave Offensive, where one of them is hidden in a room that immediately scrolls extremely fast past the treasure and the door, showing a flaming skull on the wall to the right.
** ''VideoGame/Kirby64TheCrystalShards'' also did this on one level of Rock Star. There was also a segment of the factory stage in Shiver Star involving electric moving walls.
** ''VideoGame/KirbysEpicYarn'' also had giant angler fish chase you.
** The alternate dimensions in ''VideoGame/KirbysReturnToDreamland'', made worse by obstacles blocking your path that required a Super Inhale. It's not as bad in that the wall of doom moves SO slowly, and that after using a super inhale, you can spit the resulting star at the wall of doom to beat it back.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendaryStarfy'' series:
** There are two in ''VideoGame/DensetsuNoStafy3'':
*** Both stages 4-3 and 4-4 end with Starfy having to outrun a massive avalanche that acts as an advancing wall to his left.
*** Stage 6-4 has a similar event near the end of the stage, only given [[LethalLavaLand the location]] this time it's a huge lava flow you have to outrun.
** The fifth game (the localized one) featured a series of stages in which fire chased our five-armed hero upwards. Touching it meant losing a heart and restarting that bit of the stage.
* ''VideoGame/LepsWorld'': At least one level is formatted as an endless runner where the PlayerCharacter needs to stay ahead of one.
* In ''VideoGame/TheLionKing'', the Elephant Graveyard level had a rising geyser of doom.
* ''VideoGame/LittleBigPlanet'' has the [[spoiler:Skulldozer, a giant skeletal machine designed to destroy everything in its path.]] Oh, and it emits an infinite supply of Horrible Gas that dissolves player characters. Not too long afterwards, you are sent running from a giant flaming boulder.
** [[spoiler:Skulldozer]] (as well as [[spoiler:Copernicus the Guard Turkey]] in the sequel) are arguably examples of AdvancingBossOfDoom, though since they're "defeated" by outrunning them to the end, they can also be considered this trope. The boulder, on the other hand, is ''definitely'' an AWoD.
** The custom level "Temple Run" and its hundreds of knockoffs.
* ''VideoGame/MarbleMadness'' implemented this wall in two player games, and only advances it when the players go through the track. If one player moved quickly enough and the second player lagged behind, the slow player is teleported forward and loses 5 seconds.
* Taken to its logical conclusion with a giant 30 foot high [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] that destroys everything in its path in this video of the aptly named [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvKAE6E8To8&feature=channel_page The Mario]] by raocow.
* ''Super VideoGame/MeatBoy'' features this on several levels, usually paired with a Retreating Wall of Doom to keep you from rushing too far ahead. One such level is the final boss level. [[spoiler:Well, the first half of said level. The second half is not any easier despite the lack of either wall.]]
* ''Franchise/MegaMan'':
** ''VideoGame/MegaManClassic'':
*** There are auto-scrolling segments in Dr. Cossack Stage 3 in ''VideoGame/MegaMan4''.
*** ''VideoGame/MegaMan11'' has large walls of OneHitKill fire in certain places in Torch Man's stage, as well as in Wily Stage 2. The first of these encounters is fairly relaxed, but the second and beyond are full of inconveniently placed walls and shielded enemies which the player is encouraged to use the Speed or Power Gears to overcome. Or you can just freeze the fire with Tundra Man's weapon.
** ROMHack ''VideoGame/Rockman4MinusInfinity'' has a ''very'' fast wall in Dust Man's stage.
** The mining equipment in Armored Armadillo's stage in ''VideoGame/MegaManX1'' can be destroyed with concentrated firepower, but will cause instant death if touches you. However, it's also completely possible to simply fake it out then climb up a nearby wall to let it pass by harmlessly.
** The same cannot be said of the advancing wall of ''magma'' in Area K of ''VideoGame/MegaManZX''.
* ''VideoGame/MetalStorm'' has one of these in level 5, but it's so slow that it'll only catch you if you're deliberately waiting.
* ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'':
** ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'' features some rising lava pits. They don't kill you right off, but they do sap your health at a fast rate upon contact.
** ''VideoGame/MetroidSamusReturns'' has Samus chased by the Diggernaut's drill arms in Area 4. Contact with them is [[OneHitKill instant death]], and Samus only escapes by rolling up and hiding in a nook at the end of the path. [[spoiler:You fight the Diggernaut as a boss later, and while its drill arms can't instakill you anymore, contact with them still hurts like hell.]]
* Played with in ''VideoGame/MindYourManors''. Before the second boss, the player must outrun a rising cloud of perfume that drains their [[LifeMeter willpower]]. [[spoiler: However, the cloud can't kill them even if all their willpower is drained. In fact losing all your willpower is the only way to get the White Orb of that segment, and you'll need to fight past the cloud anyway to get the Purple Orb.]]
* ''VideoGame/OriAndTheWillOfTheWisps'' has Ori flee from a GiantWallOfWateryDoom in the Wellspring, an avalanche on Baur's Reach, and a SandWorm in the Windtorn Ruins. Three of the bosses (Howl, Kwolok, and Mora) also act as this during their [[ChaseScene chase phases]], as getting caught results in a OneHitKill.
* ''Papa Louie 2: When Burgers Attack'' has a rising wall of spikes right before the final boss fight.
* In the ''VideoGame/{{Prehistorik}} 2'', one level has you platforming your way down a giant hollow tree. The screen steadily goes down and if you go completely off the top, ''or'' fall to the bottom before another platform appears, you die. The SNES version ''Prehistorik Man'' has no slow-descending level, but it has [[RiseToTheChallenge the tree on fire level]].
* ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'' has two: First takes place in an air-bubble at a bottom of a lake, and there's also a rising water level in the Meat Circus level. (shudder)
* In ''VideoGame/RainbowIslands'' the player must keep above the rising water of Doom.
* ''Franchise/RatchetAndClank'' has quite few of these; for example, in ''Into The Nexus'' you have to fly away from a sewer that's flooding on planet Silox after activating it.
* ''VideoGame/Rayman2TheGreatEscape'' features three walls of doom. One is in the cave of nightmares, where the monster pursues you down a slide -- hit too many obstacles and it catches up, which means you have to start over. The other two are the cliff levels where the brittle bridges you hurry along break down as they are shot at.
** The first game, in addition to a few straightly played takes, has an interesting variation, which can't really be explained very well verbally. See [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3anfBkIcn0&fmt=18 here]], about 2:25 in.
*** If you cannot watch the vid: you are stuck between a Retreating Floor of Doom, specifically slowly decreasing deadly water, and Advancing Ceiling of Hopelessness, a wide flat stone that's pulled down by two stringbound... things. Unfortunately, the gap between the two is decreasing. To not get drowned, you have to cut both strings, so the ceiling stops. Now, in addition to all of this, you are cutting them with your spinning hair, a part of temporary flying power used in this level.
** ''VideoGame/RaymanOrigins'' requires the protagonist/s to outrun an advancing wall of evil red fish in one of the swimming levels.
** ''VideoGame/Rayman3HoodlumHavoc'' features some lava floods in the final levels.
* ''VideoGame/RaymanM'' has such a wall in ''Speed Stress'', the final racing level of the game. As the level doubles as an InterfaceScrew where the camera points towards the wall (and the player's face) instead of pointing ahead of the player, meaning you can only see 15m of the level ahead of the player, a heavy reliance on boost pads, and the fact the wall gets faster on lap 3 (coupled with shorter distance between the trampoline pads you'll want to avoid), makes this a very menacing wall to run away from.
* ''VideoGame/RocketKnightAdventures'' has a few of them:
** A sort of a maze/descending ceiling hybrid in the middle of Stage 5. This gets extra tough when you consider that rocketing around, your primary means of moving fast, has ricochet. Very easy to bounce yourself right back under the crusher...
** The fifth boss has [[EvilCounterpart Axle Gear]] coming after you in a giant robot. However, this level redeems itself from being a total ScrappyLevel because you get your OWN giant robot at the end of it, making it one of the few such levels where you get to fight back, in rock'em-sock'em style even!
* In ''VideoGame/{{Rosenkreuzstilette}}'', you have the Cross Wall, which will move menacingly towards you. Like the example above and the Mecha Dragon from ''VideoGame/MegaMan2'', you get to destroy it once you get to a certain area.
* In ''VideoGame/ShantaeHalfGenieHero'', after the FinalBoss is defeated, the very last level is Shantae sliding down a conveyor belt while being tailed by a wall of lava created by the destruction of [[BigBad Risky Boots']] [[EternalEngine lair]].
* ''VideoGame/{{Skully}}'' has a couple of levels where you'll need to outrun obstacles, like your first confrontation with Wanda the Water Elemental leads to her delivering a tidal wave at your direction, and later when negotiations with Fiona the Fire Elemental has her launching a pursuing wall of flames.
* The Genesis ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' games had a few.
** In [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1 the first game]], Act 2 of Marble Zone has lava that starts flowing from left to right when you get to its level, if not before. It's only one narrow, if longish, passage before you can jump up to a high open area, but for the length of that passage, there's an Advancing Wall of Doom -- and if you're not careful, it'll advance almost as fast as you do.
** In Angel Island Zone, Act 2 of ''VideoGame/{{Sonic 3|AndKnuckles}}'', there's a portion before the BossBattle where the screen starts scrolling to the right, then Robotnik's airship starts dropping bombs at you. If you let off the speed for a second, you'll drift too far left and get hit. All you have to do is hold right for 20 seconds.
** On the other hand, the advancing brick wall in the very next level -- the beginning of Act 2 of [[UnderwaterRuins Hydrocity]] Zone -- was pretty darn nerve-wracking.
** Then there's the section in Marble Garden Zone where an earthquake starts bringing the land and the ceiling together and you have run before your escape window is closed and you're crushed between the two.
** In ''[[VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles Sonic and Knuckles]]'', in between the two Boss Battles in Flying Battery Zone, Act 2, you have to run through the collapsing airship quickly, otherwise you'll be crushed between it and the single wall and floor that remain airborne.
** Then in the ''next'' level, Act 2 of Sandopolis Zone had several areas where throwing a switch would cause sand to pour from the ceiling, and the sand would form a floor rising from below. With the winding passageways of the level, you could easily get crushed between the sand and the ceiling if you dawdled.
** Yet again, the Death Egg Zone FinalBoss isn't really an Advancing Wall of Doom, but sorta becomes one if you die on your first try (there's no place to get rings on subsequent attempts). He's pretty easy, though; it's the run afterward that's tough, as you have to stay ahead of a collapsing platform and hit the fleeing Robotnik at the same time. Doesn't sound too hard, but unless you hit Robotnik ''just'' right, the rebound as you bounce off will launch you to your doom or rob you of your momentum (causing you to fall to your doom).
** And then there's the pachinko-themed bonus levels, in which you collect powerups while outrunning a glowing double helix that crawls steadily upward.
** ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehogCD's'' Stardust Speedway Act 3. You are racing against Metal Sonic and Dr. Robotnik/Eggman is chasing after the two of you in his pod shooting lasers of death out from the bottom. If you touch it, you die. If you beat Metal Sonic, it slams against the locked door and then Robotnik flies at the door, blasting the mech to pieces.
** ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'' contains infamous mach speed (mock speed) levels where Sonic was forced to run forward regardless of what happened to him, including if he died. If hit, he reacted by what appeared to be break dancing ''while still barreling forward at insane speeds''. [[http://www.viddler.com/explore/pokecapn/videos/10/ It has]] [[http://www.viddler.com/explore/pokecapn/videos/11/ to be seen]] to be believed.
** ''VideoGame/SonicHeroes'' features a section where you have to climb out of a vat of "energy" (lava) that's rising up below you in Power Plant. It's more difficult if you're playing as Team Dark, but then again, so is most of the other stuff in the game.
*** In the Ocean Palace level (the first level), there's a section where you run from one...then two...then ''three'' gigantic, ornately carved stone wheels. Apparently created and placed there for no reason other than to harass anyone who should happen upon that particular hill.
*** Another one appears in the level Lost Jungle, this time with a colossal alligator. In this case, however, instead of running away from it, the heroes have to ''swing across a series of vines'' as it chases them or else they'll risk falling into the swamp and becoming its appetizer.
** The [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog18Bit 8-bit version of]] ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog18Bit Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' had a version during Jungle Zone Act 2, but only in the Master System version. Most of the level is a vertical climb. The camera followed you up the level, but not downwards. If you fell and hit the bottom of the screen during that section, it was instant death time. The near-identical Game Gear version didn't have this, probably because it would've made the level stupidly hard with the Game Gear's lower resolution.
** ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog4'' gives us [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2 Mad]] [[EternalEngine Gear Zone]] Act 3: Impending Doom, featuring an Advancing Wall Of Horrible Whirling Death accompanied by RedAlert lights and sirens.
*** Lost Labyrinth Act 3 also has a wall of doom, but it's much shorter.
** The last level of ''VideoGame/SonicColors'', Terminal Velocity. Act 1 requires dashing along the space elevator's girders while avoiding fleeing robots that pursue you from behind. Act 3 is a straighter example; Sonic must outrun the black hole that is consuming the space station. [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption It gets him anyway]], but the Wisps [[BigDamnHeroes save him at the last minute]], a la ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy's'' ending. Also, in the DS version, Planet Wisp: Act 2 has a similar device, but it drills down, and it doesn't appear until Sonic is already in Yellow Drill mode and headed downward. You can get crushed by this giant drill machine.
** This is the entire premise of the ''VideoGame/SegaSonicTheHedgehog'' arcade game. One of these is always after you, be it lava, ice stalactites, tornadoes, or gears.
** ''VideoGame/SonicBlast'' has a fair few of these in the Silver Castle Zone.
* In ''VideoGame/SpeedRunners'', a red shrinking letterbox appears after the first elimination in a race. Anyone that gets caught along the edges is eliminated, until only one racer remains.
* World 3-4 "Doodle a Sea Do" in the Platform/GameBoyAdvance version of ''VideoGame/TheSpongeBobMovieGame'' features a curtain of bones that is constantly falling requiring [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick to continue moving downward to progress through the stage and avoid it.
* ''VideoGame/StargirlAndTheThiefFromTheExplodedMoon'' has two. The second makes it much more annoying, since it randomly stops the scrolling for one of its attacks, either causing you to either miss a planned jump or throw the bomb just short of its hitbox.
* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'':
** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'' has two of the missions in the Dusty Dune Galaxy including a rising floor of sand trying to crush the player against the roof, and a later mission involving a whole mountain sinking into lava ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3aUa6Qongc&feature=PlayList&p=C23D878909A93659&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=61 at 3:25]]).
** ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros'' has Mega Unagi, a gigantic Advancing Eel of Doom.
** ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBrosWii'' has such a wall of doom in the first level of world 8, with a giant wall of smoke/fire coming from behind Mario. Oddly enough, it's actually too slow for a whole lot of people to notice its existence.
** ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros2'' has Boohemoth, a giant Boo that acts as this. Like other Boos, looking at him will cause him to hide his face and stop, but he will peek with one eye and inch forward a few feet every couple of seconds.
** ''VideoGame/SuperPrincessPeach'' has Advancing Walls of Boos.
** ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DWorld'' has a level focused on dodging an instant-kill swarm of Fuzzies that rise and move through the area. It has a redone counterpart in one of the bonus worlds, which also has a ''Falling'' Wall of Fuzzies near the end.
* ''VideoGame/TazInEscapeFromMars'' has the drilling machine in Act 2 of Mole World.
* ''VideoGame/ThomasWasAlone'' has a few, generally in the form of [[RiseToTheChallenge rising water]], though there is one spiked wall.
* The ''Franchise/TombRaider'' series is chock full of spiked walls/ceilings that are too eager to impale and crush Lara. A secret room in the first level of ''VideoGame/TombRaiderIII'' is guarded by such a spiked wall of doom.
* ''VideoGame/{{Trine}}'' includes a variation on the rising water version, with rapidly rising lava instead.
* ''VideoGame/{{Uncharted}}'' has Drake running away from a crumbling city in both the 2nd and 3rd games.
* An extremely annoying version can be seen in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3fPfDgm1SE&feature=channel_page this]] ''VIP Mario 4'' video by LetsPlay/{{raocow}} in the Temple of Homing level, where the entire second half the level is trying desperately to outrun a homing missile at top speed, including flight.
* The indie game ''VideoGame/{{VVVVVV}}'' has this in two areas with spikes, and it has a catch; you can't go too much faster than the screen, or spikes get you. Like other examples, you can't go too slow either.
* ''VideoGame/WarioLandSuperMarioLand3'' uses an advancing wall of lava (which stays straight vertical the entire time, oddly) for the first in the volcanic stages.
* ''X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse'' opted for the pursuing wall of lava approach, first horizontally, then vertically. Made even nastier by random walls dropping into your path that had to be destroyed. This, in turn, made the section nearly impossible for some characters (while others, such as Wolverine, could plow through with relative ease).
* ''VideoGame/YoshisIsland'' had featured sections where a giant chain chomp pursued you across a disposable platform. The chomp was accommodating, however, and as long as you ran and jumped in the proper locations, you were fine.
** ...the Potted Ghost boss battle was about fighting an advancing wall of doom in the form of the boss's potted body. You had to counter its efforts to knock you off the platform by knocking it off the platform instead.
** ... a later boss filled the whole space between the floor and the ceiling, advancing inexorably. You had to throw eggs to pound its jello body until its heart was exposed, then shooting its heart. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBH2fw9jO1o&feature=channel_page Quite stressful]].
** ...the GenreShift [[FinalBoss final]] [[MakeMyMonsterGrow boss]], [[TurnsRed on its last hit]]: it just [[SelfDestructiveCharge runs toward the screen]] and must be hit in the mouth before it [[CollisionDamage touches you]]... [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption not that it would matter]], because it simultaneously destroys what's left of the final castle, leaving only a {{Bottomless Pit|s}}. [[WeOnlyHaveOneChance You only get one chance.]] Video [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjwLnUSoaig&hl=fr here]].
** ''VideoGame/YoshisIsland DS'' often has you running from a giant spiked ball, over floating platforms that become fewer and [[{{Crunchtastic}} fallier]]. Yes, it eventually gets NintendoHard.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Puzzle Game]]
* In ''VideoGame/{{Braid}}'', the character (Tim) has to outrun a [[spoiler:flaming wall of doom in one of the final worlds of the game.]]
** Even weirder, [[spoiler:since the whole level is actually playing in reverse of what "really" happened, the wall is actually ''The Future receding into the past.'' Cross the barrier between present and future and you enter the oblivion of what hasn't happened yet.]]
* In ''VideoGame/CandyCrushSaga'', chocolate expands by one tile if no match is made near it.
** Later in the game, Dark Chocolate is introduced. It works the same as normal chocolate, except that it has two layers.
* ''VideoGame/HenryHatsworthInThePuzzlingAdventure'' has a monster fish that chases you in one of the mid-game stages.
* ''VideoGame/Portal2'' has a version of this during the escape section with Wheatley. In a last-ditch attempt to stop you, [=GLaDOS=] runs two test chambers into eachother to crush the catwalk you're running on. You have to keep running to reach the elevator before you get squashed.
* ''VideoGame/{{Waveform}}'' has a [[UnrealisticBlackHole black hole-like entity]] called "The Singularity" chase after you at the end of each planet. You'll need to collect nuclear-powered rockets to propel yourself forward fast enough to avoid getting sucked in.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Racing Game]]
* One of the four "Special Races" game modes in ''VideoGame/BattleRacingStars'', UFO Apocalypse. It features linear maps with [[VideoGame/BarrySteakfries Professor Brains]] pursuing racers on the FlyingSaucer. Getting caught by its tractor beam will result in elimination.
* ''VideoGame/{{Wipeout}}'' has the Quake Disruptor powerup, which creates a wall of asphalt to rise up out of the track and rush forward, smashing into everyone in front of you. And unless they have a shield handy, there's nothing they can do about it.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Time Strategy]]
* ''VideoGame/StarCraftIIWingsOfLiberty'' has the Supernova mission, where you need to build up your force and get the artifact before the supernova torches the planet with advancing firewall of doom. This map would be very difficult if not impossible for the Zerg or the Protoss, but most Terran buildings can slowly fly, meaning that your base can be moved from one resource node to the next as you use it up and/or the moving wall catches up to you.
* Crops up in the expansion ''VideoGame/StarCraftIIHeartOfTheSwarm'' in the penultimate mission, in the form of the Psi Destroyer, which projects an InstantDeathRadius that obliterates any creature inside it that is connected to the zerg HiveMind. Your mission is to destroy the power links that allow it to function using [[ChekhovsGunman Dehaka and his brood]] (who lack a hive-mind connection and are therefore immune) before it reaches your base. Then, while the device is non-functional, you have to do as much damage as possible before it comes back.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Roguelike]]
* In ''VideoGame/{{Baroque}}'' one of the enemies that you face is [[http://www.atlus.com/baroque/ps2/ikei/ikei2/ikei16.htm Bubugel]], a meta-being who is a WALL WITH A FACE ON IT. Bubugel will rapidly close off the hallway leading to the next portal and turn its back to you, making you think that it is a dead end. If that wasn't enough, his attacks involve rushing at you and... screaming.
* In ''VideoGame/{{DRL}}'', some of the randomly generated levels (and one special level, the Halls of Carnage) feature Advancing Lava of Doom. Doomguy starts near the left or right, the exit is on the opposite side and lava starts to flow in from the player's starting side, with speed proportional to the difficulty level. If the Doomguy has the right equipment, this can be used to his advantage, as non-flying non-boss enemies drown in lava within seconds.
* In ''VideoGame/FTLFasterThanLight'', the entire game is spent running from the Rebel Fleet, a gigantic advancing fleet. Getting caught by the fleet forces you into a fight with a fairly tough rebel ship that only drops a single unit of fuel when it does go down.
* In ''VideoGame/OneWayHeroics'', the advancing wall of doom is the main force that sets the plot in motion. The Darkness your character is trying to stop is slowly consuming the world, forcing you to keep going forward or face certain death. The only way to stop it is to slay the Demon Lord who summoned it. [[spoiler:During later runs, if you have obtained the right item, you can directly attack the Darkness to get a special ending.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Roleplaying Game]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Exile}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Avernum}}'' use [[{{Hellfire}} Quickfire]] for a similar effect. Every time you move one square outside combat, it enlarges one square in every direction that isn't blocked by walls--and each turn you're in combat, it enlarges ''three'' squares in the same manner. Once it's unleashed, you need to either get on the other side of a door (proper or hidden), or get out of the area ASAP. That said, you can survive it in the short term, as it does damage rather than killing immediately.
** In the Test of Speed, the solution is to enter combat mode, where you get about four steps to its three (more if you have extra action points). Made a little harder by the goblins you have to fight in the tunnels, but the fire doesn't make use of DiagonalSpeedBoost, while your character can.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' manages to get one into a turn-based RPG -- the Demon Wall. If you don't beat it before it gets halfway across the screen, it starts using its Crush attack, which is instant death.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' brings back Demon Walls twice in the same area. The first one is an optional boss, one you're supposed to come back later to fight after you've done half a game's worth of level grinding (or you spam Quickenings or Reflected magick). The 2nd Demon Wall in the next room is the actual dungeon boss, the one you're required to kill to advance the plot. Both Demon Walls keep moving forward and if they press you against the door, it's an instant Game Over. The 2nd Demon Wall has a lot more space to work with than the first one and if you touch a correct flame during the fight, you can slow it down for a bit. Touching the wrong one will speed up the enemy's movement. Speeding up the game's battle system through the options menu does not speed up either wall's advancement.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsA2'' has the same boss, which largely resorts to hindering your ability to act so that it can back you up against the wall and start [[OneHitKill One-Shotting]] your units. While you can teleport behind it using the Fairy Shoes, it'll use Telega to warp any unit that does so in front of it, while simultaneously inflicting them with the Immobilize status to keep them from doing it again (Unless said unit happens to be immune to that status...).
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX2'' has an irritating subversion in one area. The wall of doom is easily avoided, but you have to ''[[StupidityIsTheOnlyOption let it hit you]]'' to progress. Not because of anything special about the wall -- it just cues a cutscene which lets the characters make a jump [[CutscenePowerToTheMax impossible in actual gameplay]].
* In ''VideoGame/TheReconstruction'', the Tatzylvurm has powerful "Ceiling Drop" attack which starts out at the backmost row but increases its area of effect by one column every time it's used.
** The Cryomancer has an attack that is nearly identical, though it also freezes the squares it affects.
* In ''VideoGame/SecretOfMana'', the aptly named Wall Face boss will begin slowly close in on you once you've exposed its weak point by taking out its two eyes, eventually pushing you into the spikes at the back of the room. Not defeating it in time means game over, though this is only an issue if you're trying to defeat it with your weapons, as its weak point can be struck with magic at any time.
* ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles'' features a mission where Squad 7 must divert the Marmota, the Imperials' ''battleship-sized tank'' into a detour. At the end of each turn, the Marmota would advance downwards on the map, decimating anything it ran over. If any of Squad 7 is unfortunate enough to be caught underneath the Marmota, they were not only instantly incapacitated, but instantly killed with no chance of a medic rescue.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Wadanohara}}'', during TheWarSequence, Wadda has to flee from an advancing wall of Tosatsu Kingdom soldiers. If they touch her, it's an automatic game over.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Shoot Em Up]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Abuse}}'' had a mining drill/bulldozer machine that tried to run you over. You could destroy it, but it had a ton of health.
* ''VideoGame/BoogieWings'' have a FerrisWheelOfDoom in Konyi Island that functions in this manner; halfway through the wheel breaks off and rolls after you, necessitating you to run to avoid getting squished. Enemy mooks and tanks getting in it's way will inevitably be squished.
* At least two stages in the various ''VideoGame/MetalSlug'' games feature a variant of this as Boss Battles. You have to not only stay ahead/above the screen filling menace but avoid its attacks and shoot back.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Stealth Based Game]]
* In the original ''[[VideoGame/MetalGear1 Metal Gear]]'' game for the ''[=MSX2=]'', the player had to destroy a bulldozer in a small corridor that would advance towards them pretty quickly. If it touched them, they would instantly die. However, the player could leave the room into the previous one if they failed to get a sufficient amount of hits in on time, but this would restore all of the bulldozer's health.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Survival Horror]]
* ''VideoGame/AlanWake'' has one level where you have to outrun the darkness (sorry, The Darkness, it's a personification) across a dam as it rips up things around you. It doesn't just destroy the dam ''ahead'' of you, and for good reason [[spoiler: you’re the writer of this story, and have been writing yourselves out of such dead ends for quite a while by now.]]
* ''VideoGame/AloneInTheDark2008'' has an advancing ''road'' of doom in the first major driving scene.
* In ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu: [[VideoGame/CallOfCthulhuDarkCornersOfTheEarth Dark Corners of the Earth]]'', you must at one point escape an enraged shoggoth that fills the entire corridor behind you, shutting down bulkheads to slow its advance. Turning to see what it even looks like means almost certain death, but few people can resist the first time around.
* ''[[VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon Fear 3]]'s'' co-op mode, aptly titled [F$%^ING RUN!!!] is a 4-player survival shooter game where you have to barge deep into enemy territory to escape an encroaching wall of smoke and screaming faces. The designers wanted to create a unique, horror-based multiplayer shooter that fit with F3ar's horror-based gameplay... and it is awesome.
* The second ''VideoGame/HysteriaProject'' game has a moment where you're trying to enter a code on a keypad, while the ax murderer that has [[ImplacableMan been stalking you throughout the series]] is advancing upon you. If you don't get the code typed out in time... It ain't pretty.
* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilRemake'' has an advancing statue-with-a-spinning blade of doom in one of its puzzles.
* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'':
** At one point, you save Ashley from an advancing drill of doom in a narrow castle corridor. It makes no sense to have it in the castle anyway.
** There's an ''Advancing Giant LivingStatue of Salazar'' in the last part of the Chapter 4, shortly before confronting the real Salazar.
* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilVillage'': There's a ghastly, fetal abomination. [[TheSpook What it really is, how it got there]], and [[NoGearLevel why all your weapons have suddenly vanished]] aren't explicitly spelled out (you're trapped in the home of a malevolent MasterOfIllusion), but what's made very clear is that you don't want to be anywhere ''near'' this monstrosity and running away is the only thing keeping you from facing a [[SwallowedWhole very gruesome death]].
* In ''VideoGame/SilentHill2'', Pyramid Head acts as one of these in the alternate hospital basement. If he hits Maria too many times before you reach the elevator (or if Maria takes too many hits at any time), it's NonStandardGameOver. Do not use ampoules during this sequence, as Maria then can't keep up with James. However, it turns out to be a ShaggyDogStory in the end, as Maria is given a PlotlineDeath.
* ''VideoGame/SilentHill3'':
** There's a harmless amusement park 'haunted house' with rather cheesy narration... until the exit, where a mysterious red light starts chasing you out of the building. If it overtakes you, it's instant death. (Made worse by a sudden perspective shift partway through that can leave you running the wrong direction.)
** The [[SpikesOfDoom spiked ceiling]] quickly comes down low enough to kill Heather unless she crouches, then stops at the very last second. The narrator apologizes: [[spoiler:It wasn't supposed to stop. ]]
* In endgame of ''VideoGame/SilentHill4'', your DamselInDistress is compelled to shuffle into a whirling deathtrap while you fight the final villain. Defeating him before her doom is the only way to get either the GoldenEnding or the second best ending.
* ''VideoGame/SpookysJumpscareMansion'' has Specimen 7, an advancing red wall of screaming faces that chases you through a maze for a few rooms. Touching it is an instant game over.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Third Person Shooter]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}'':
** In ''Save the World'', "Eliminate and Collect" missions have the Storm gradually encroaching on the mission area. This serves as the primary danger in what would otherwise be a MontyHaul mission.
** In ''Battle Royale'', the Storm forms around the edge of the map just after a match starts, and the eye shrinks and moves around every so often. If the match goes on long enough, it'll stop pausing between circles, and if it goes on even longer than that, the eye will shrink away to nothing, leaving no safe areas at all.
** In ''Creative'', the "Basic Storm Controller" gadget lets the mapmaker control a ''Battle Royale''-style storm, though the eye will always center on the gadget rather than moving around.
* ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar2'' is full of these in the level "Intestinal Fortitude," which is set [[spoiler:inside the Riftworm]]. The Gears are trying to find a way out and to kill TheDragon's giant pet. At one point they have to avoid a "Debris Wall" or get crushed. Later in the level, while chainsawing [[spoiler:the Riftworm's cardiovascular arteries (or whatever they are)]], you have to do it quickly and then escape the room before the rising water [[spoiler:actually blood]] drowns you.
* Every time you reset a Vault in ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'', a baleful greyish-red energy cloud spawns at the center of the installation and proceeds to expand at a rapid pace, killing everything organic it touches and thus triggering a hectic sprint to the exit lest Ryder and team get incinerated. While the thing isn't instantly lethal to the protagonists, the roughly three seconds it takes for your shields and health to collapse don't leave much room for error anyhow, so you better memorize the Vault's layout before you hit its reset button.
* ''VideoGame/{{Vanquish}}'' has you outrunning a collapsing highway of doom in Act 3-3.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Turn Based Strategy]]
* ''[[VideoGame/NintendoWars Advance Wars: Days Of Ruin]]'' had a map where you had to get at least one allied (uncontrollable) unit to an allied city which was on the other side of two Laser Walls. Behind you follows a whole army, who can deploy new units (you can't) and outnumbers you from the start. Your strongest unit is uncontrollable and works as a temporary wall (until it's destroyed).
* In a puzzle map in ''VideoGame/WildArmsXF'', the player has to navigate two characters in a small maze of crates and teleporters while a OneHitKill laser moves one tile forward after the characters make their turn.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Non-Videogame Examples]]

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', Donquixote Doflamingo uses his string-powers to create a "birdcage" of razor-wire around an entire island, which he then starts ''contracting''. Luffy and the Straw Hats have less than an hour to defeat him before everyone in Dressrosa is reduced to LudicrousGibs.
* In ''Manga/OPartsHunter'', Jio and Ball are in a pit with a spiked wall closing in, and given the advice that an enemy can be a friend. Jio realizes that they can climb the spikes to escape the pit.
* In ''Anime/PokemonGiratinaAndTheSkyWarrior'', due to the BigBad's machinations, an enormous glacier between the valley gets knocked off of its foundations, and starts to move, destroying everything in its path. All the Pokémon in the valley try their hardest to stop it, to no avail. The guardian of the valley, [[OlympusMons Regigigas]], was able to halt it, but only temporarily. The crisis was only averted when the heroes finally defeat the BigBad.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'' had the anti-matter wave, which was destroying all universes. Its "sequel" ''ComicBook/ZeroHourCrisisInTime'' had the Entropy wave, which destroyed ''time'' as it was going backwards and forwards (one character noticed the familiarity). Both stories had the heroes trying to figure out how to stop them.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Fanfic ]]

* The Barrier from ''Fanfic/TheConversionBureau'' and its {{Recursive Fanfiction}}s. It's characterized as a shield existing around Equestria that expands out and is harmful to humans and destroys human-made objects. ''Fanfic/TheConversionBureauTheOtherSideOfTheSpectrum'' and its reboot ''Fanfic/{{Spectrum}}'' has a much darker take on it -- the started out as a simple shield in a portal, only to grow and disintegrate every human and human made object in its path and not only is it driving away and destroying any human in its path, but it's also erasing all evidence that humanity even existed, and it doesn't even leave behind dust to mark their destruction.
* The Cursed Series ability '''Eventual Victory''' from ''Fanfic/FamilyOfTheShield'' takes a form similar to the [[Franchise/FinalFantasy Demon Wall]]. Naofumi summons this creature by "offering" it his Shields to power it up further; which would then appear on the segment of wall that makes up Eventual Victory's body [[PowerAtAPrice but results in him losing any of those Shields' unlock bonuses]], and that when summoned [[SuperPersistentPredator it will pursue its' designated target for 30 days and nights without rest]] until it dies. [[spoiler:Naofumi uses this ability against Pope Balmus and watches as it [[EatenAlive nearly devours the Pope]]: whose strongest abilities launched by the Holy Replica and the entirety of the Three Heroes Church couldn't even as much as scratch the Eventual Victory.]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Film ]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/IceAgeContinentalDrift'', due to Scrat accidentally breaking up the continents as a result of him trying to get his acorn out of the Earth's core, a giant wall destroys the home the protagonists live in, forcing them out to sea to find a new home.
* The slave-powered head chopping machine from ''{{Film/Caligula}}'' qualifies. Its victims are [[SandNecktie buried up to the neck]], so there's no getting away.
* The pyroclastic flow at the end of ''Film/DantesPeak'' serves as a version of this: a massive wall of ash and gas hot enough to completely incinerate you in seconds advancing at as much as a hundred mph, while the heroes desperately try to get their busted truck with its melted-off tires to go fast enough to reach a mine shaft before this wall of death reaches them.
** While on the subject of [[ChekhovsVolcano volcanoes]], [[spoiler:the pyroclastic flow and, preceding it, the [[GiantWallOfWateryDoom tsunami]]]] in ''{{Film/Pompeii}}.''
* In ''{{Film/Labyrinth}}'', The Cleaners are this. [[NightmareFuel They are quite horrifying.]]
* Imhotep in ''Film/TheMummy1999'' and ''Film/TheMummyReturns'' can create a wall of sand and water (respectively) sent to destroy his enemies. The walls always has his face roaring against Rick and his allies.
** Ahmanet in ''Film/TheMummy2017'' follows suit, as she summons a sandstorm with her roaring face in it for similar purposes.
* Two show up in ''Film/RogueOne'', both courtesy of [[spoiler:a low-power test firing of the Death Star's superlaser. The first time, it blows a country-sized chunk out of Jedha, and the shockwave peels the crust off the planet in an expanding kilometers-high wall of earth -- the heroes only escape by jumping to hyperspace moments before it hits them. The second time, on Scarif, takes the form of an approaching wall of light. [[AnyoneCanDie They don't escape this one]].]]
-->'''K-2SO:''' There seems to be a problem on the horizon: ''There's no horizon.''
* ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory2'': The Buzz Lightyear video game seen at the start of the movie features a moving wall of spikes Buzz has to outrun.
* An energy wall in ''Film/{{Tron}}'' derezzes Sark's carrier while Flynn and Yori are still on board -- although technically the ship is advancing into the wall of doom.
* The movie for ''Music/TheWall'' uses a variation of this during the scene for "Empty Spaces/What Shall We Do Now?", featuring a wall that advances by stretching outwards rather than pushing forwards, corrupting everything it builds over.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* ''Literature/TheSunlitMan'': Sunlight on the world of Canticle is powerful enough to melt stone and metal and almost instantly kill anyone it touches. As such, life on this world is a constant race to try and stay ahead of the sun.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live-Action TV ]]

* The main threat of an entire season of ''Series/The100'' is [[spoiler:a deathwave of radiation, which is estimated to reach the main setting in mere months. Everyone scrambles to find some way to survive it, as this is a force that simply cannot be beaten.]]
* In ''Series/{{CSINY}}'s'' episode, "[[Recap/CSINYS06E10 Death House]]," a penthouse was filled with booby traps, including one particular room whose walls would close in or, alternately, cook you to death.
* In ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E16StarshipMine Starship Mine]]", the decontamination field advances along ''Enterprise'' in the form of a green wall. And in "Remember Me," Dr. Crusher was trapped in a reality bubble where everything was being erased from existence, including the ''Enterprise'', as the bubble grew smaller and Crusher was literally outracing a wall of consuming nothingness.
* The ''Series/WandaVision'' episode [[Recap/WandaVisionEpisode6AllNewHalloweenSpooktacular "All-New Halloween Spooktacular!"]] ends with [[spoiler:Wanda expanding the boundaries of [[EldritchLocation the Hex]] to envelop the S.W.O.R.D. base observing it, sucking them all into her sitcom FisherKingdom. Only Monica, Jimmy, Hayward, and two other S.W.O.R.D. agents are able to escape, and even then, just barely.]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Music ]]

* The [[ConceptAlbum concept album]] Music/TheLambLiesDownOnBroadway by Music/{{Genesis|Band}} begins with the protagonist, Rael, being chased by a "wall of death" that drops into Times Square. As the wall passes over him, he blacks out, and [[DownTheRabbitHole later re-awakens in a surreal world]] [[BeneathTheEarth beneath]] New York City.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Tabletop Game ]]

* In ''TabletopGame/DamnationDecade'', the Bloc's Purity Wall is described as a four-foot-thick iron wall mounted on tank tracks that demarcates its sphere of influence, which is expanding into Esperanto and Sina.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* The Gamma Dome created by the Leader in the "Gamma World" two-parter of ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'' is a spherical variant. It expands outwards from its origin point and would have grown to envelop the whole world and turned all of humanity into gamma mutants had the Avengers not stopped it.
* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'' features an expanding sphere of doom that not only chases the heroes down hallways, but sometimes emerges from the walls.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Webcomic ]]

* ''Webcomic/UnicornJelly'' has one on a ''civilizational scale'': the destruction of Myrmil resulted in a column of falling debris (extending endlessly both up and down due to the universe's geometry) which is gradually expanding by pulverizing the worlds it reaches. [[spoiler:[[GovernmentConspiracy The government is well aware of this]], keeping it a secret in order to keep society intact long enough to [[HomeworldEvacuation save a small portion of the population]] on [[TheArk an ark]] bound for a world further from danger. [[ViciousCycle Such a migration has been undertaken many, many times before]], contrary to the legend that the human characters' ancestors came directly from Myrmil. But even if they successfully rebuild civilization enough to relaunch an ark before the wall's arrival every time]] they're still doomed, since there are only so many worlds available that the calamity hasn't reached yet.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Pyroclastic flows are also this. A pyroclastic flow is an avalanche of hot gas and rock produced by a volcano. They can reach speeds of up to 450 mph and can reach temperatures of up to 1,830 degrees fahrenheit. These [and surges] almost always have OhCrap written all over them when they happen.
** On top of that, you also have Pyroclastic Surges which are basically Pyroclastic Flows on steroids. Not only are they larger and faster, they are also hotter and can go farther. It's a perfect example of why you don't ever live near any mountain ''that explodes'' or ''has the potential to explode''. Unfortunately, volcanic formations are highly unpredictable and if a Cinder Cone can rise up from beneath a farmer's corn field, then they can rise from anywhere, but there are limitations.
** Many explosive volcanic eruptions usually end like this when it comes to well... their explosiveness. The violent eruption of Mount Vesuvius ended with a lethal Pyroclastic Surge plowing the entire city of Pompeii and town of Herculaneum like snow. Volcanic bombs took down boats like Mortar rounds and to put the cherry on top, volcanic gases basically suffocated anything that didn't get crushed by a bomb, drowned by a lava flow, or get its head exploded via Pyroclastic Density Current or Pyroclastic Surge.
* Speaking of volcanic eruptions, volcanic gases are essentially this, especially when they're the result of a limnic eruption (expulsion of dissolved carbon dioxide from deep lake waters) or a volcano just decides to be sadistic and suffocate people occupying a nearby town or city.
** Adding on to volcanoes here, lahars (fast flowing mudslides) and lava flows definitely count as classic awods. Lava flows are pretty obvious ones due to their very high temperatures and tendencies to overwhelm eveything that gets in their way, even if it's titanium. Lava may not be able to melt everything, but it doesn't have to if it can just climb right over it or literally force things out of its way.
** In fact, pretty much anything expelled from a volcanic eruption counts as an advancing wall of doom, including the volcano itself.
* Tsunamis by default are this. In fact, many tsunamis tend to behave as walls of doom. The fact that they can be caused by varying disturbances in the ocean floor (such as volcanic ejecta, volcanic eruptions, large explosions underneath the sea floor, earthquakes, large objects landing in the ocean, very violent storms, and so on) just makes them worse.
* While not entirely walls of doom, runaway locomotives and rollingstock (or a combination of both as a consist) can really fuck up whatever gets in the way of them. There have been far too many instances where errors in railyard management (human or computer or just gravity) have resulted in rollingstock (and occasionally locomotives) rolling down mainlines, ''or damn near close to'', unexpectedly into oncoming rail traffic and even cruising through railroad crossings with or without the signals activating. There is a Rescue 911 episode that recalls a runaway train incident involving a curious boxcar just rolling down the tracks by itself and killing an unlucky couple at a railway crossing ''which didn't even go off due to how slow the boxcar was going down the tracks.'' You'd think someone would have seen the moving boxcar ''before'' it just aimlessly wandered it's way out of the yard and stopped it before it could do any serious damage.
** This is what makes the descending grade of Cajon Pass so infamous. While climbing the steep grade is already a challenge for many freight trains, going ''down'' is even more dangerous since the descending grade is literally notorious for sending trains flying down the grade without any brakes to use. Cajon Pass is the perfect route for trains to lose their brake shoes fighting with the descending hill or make a difficult trip down with an extremely long and heavy train, both of which are what caused or are the contributing factors to the infamous [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Bernardino_train_disaster San Bernardino]] [[https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/RAR9002.pdf train disaster]] and two more runaways in [[https://www.jonroma.net/media/rail/accident/usa/ntsb/RAR9504.pdf 1994]] and in [[https://images.spinics.net/rail/RAR9605.pdf 1996]].
** Cajon Pass is not the only route that's perfect for a sequel to Unstoppable either. One incident in Canada had an engineer following a typical unsafe railroad practice, ''that railroads had no business normalizing and allowing in the first place'', which is not hooking the air hoses together when moving rollingstock around and in and out of the yard. The train the engineer was operating wasn't able to stop because there were no air brakes to stop it. The independent brakes ''couldn't even stop the damn thing''. After barreling through so many railway crossings, it finally derailed. The engineer lived, but Canadian National attempted to sue the engineer. CN also lied to the engineer about the amount of railcars he was moving. Various organizations that protect engineers from unwrongful treatment by their companies had put CN in its place since the locomotive itself didn't come with dynamic braking nor did CN take action to prevent an incident like this from happening.
* Speaking of runaway vehicles here, trucks are definitely advancing walls of doom if their brakes fail when traveling down steep grades.
* Tornadoes can certainly behave like this, especially if they're large, powerful, and [[OhCrap headed your way]]. A [[ExaggeratedTrope particularly extreme example]] of a tornado behaving like this would be the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Smithville,_Mississippi_tornado 2011 Smithville Tornado]]. Part of the larger [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Super_Outbreak Super Outbreak of 2011]], and while often overshadowed by the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Tuscaloosa%E2%80%93Birmingham_tornado Tuscaloosa Tornado]] and the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Hackleburg%E2%80%93Phil_Campbell_tornado Hackleburg-Phil Campbell Tornado]] (the former for going through two major cities and the latter for having the highest death toll), the Smithville Tornado deserves credit for a different reason: being what is likely [[WorldsStrongestMan the single most powerful tornado of the entire outbreak, and perhaps one of, if not the most, powerful of all time]]. Namely, it did damage on level with the feared [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_Central_Texas_tornado_outbreak#Jarrell,_Texas Jarrell Tornado]], and did [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill that level of damage]] [[ShockingMoments while moving at]] [[FromBadToWorse a forward speed of at least 60 MPH]] (for comparison, the Jarrell Tornado had been near-stationary when it did its famous damage). A survivor of this ridiculously powerful tornado described it as less like a tornado and more like a ''nuclear shockwave''.
* Large sandstorms often appear like this.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1qY8nPqcCw This video]] shows an advancing landslide pursuing a truck along a slope, destroying trees, cars, and houses in its wake. There's also the much more complete version that includes extensive footage of the aftermath [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw-5I71xtj4 here]].
* A [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrage_%28artillery%29#Moving_barrage Moving Barrage]] can be this, especially for the force not using it.
* A rare type of severe weather event known as a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derecho derecho]] (from the Spanish word for "straight") behaves like this. These form when so many severe thunderstorms occur in an area that they congregate together, forming a veritable bow-shaped wall of rain that plows onward for hundreds of miles. The gust fronts of each of these storms add up together as well, resulting in dangerously powerful hurricane-force winds that can span entire states.
* The swelling of the Sun into a red giant in 5 billion years will become this to the Solar System's inner planets as it gradually engulfs them as it expands when seen from the now-sterilized Earth's surface.
[[/folder]]

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