[[quoteright:350:[[Series/{{Heroes}} http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/epicfailheroes3.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:It happens to them every few weeks.]]
->''"First there was the dream, now there is reality. Here in the untainted cradle of the heavens will be created a new super race, a race of perfect physical specimens. You have been selected as its progenitors. Like gods, your offspring will return to Earth and shape it in their image. You have all served in public capacities in my terrestrial empire. Your seed, like yourselves, will pay deference to the ultimate dynasty which I alone have created. From their first day on Earth they will be able to look up and know that there is law and order in the heavens."''
-->-- Hugo Drax, ''{{Moonraker}}''

Sometimes, it's enough to just say "[[TheWorldIsAlwaysDoomed The World Is In Danger]]!" and hope the hero (and the audience) understand the urgency and risk and answer TheCall. Sometimes, though, a little more is in order. StoryboardingTheApocalypse is a disturbingly detailed narrated account of the impending {{Gotterdammerung}} and rise of the UltimateEvil, accompanied by a montage to give plenty of NightmareFuel inducing visions of the end to all parties involved.

StoryboardingTheApocalypse is used on a few different occasions: The hero might [[RefusalOfTheCall refuse the call]], forcing his {{Mentor}} to show him how the UltimateEvil can hurt him, by turning his [[HiddenElfVillage secluded hometown]] into a DoomedHometown. Or the BigBad might give a MotiveRant and expound at length on how they'll turn the world into {{Mordor}}, or bring about a new Eden via utter destruction because UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans. Especially detail oriented villains will have prepared dioramas, movies, and even commission an EarthShatteringPoster or two to help hammer it in. Or they might just [[ExpositionBeam beam it into the hero's skull with a laser.]] Occasionally this is given as a warning by less direct conventional methods; CassandraTruth can deliver it, or via PsychicDreamsForEveryone, or TimeTravel in the hope of driving the point home to the hero and the audience.

Compare JustBetweenYouAndMe, VillainWorld and BadFuture, which can be the Storyboarded Apocalypse given form. See also UnspokenPlanGuarantee. Contrast ApocalypseWow, which is also a narrative depiction of the apocalypse, only used for very different dramatic goals.
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!!Examples

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Anime ]]

* Just before making his wish, Emperor Pilaf of ''{{Dragonball}}'' takes a moment to visualize himself as emperor of the world, and we get a sequence showing him as emperor. (He spends the entire fantasy standing on a podium doing nothing but laugh while a crowd hails him.) Oolong uses this time to ruin the whole thing by wishing for panties.
* ''{{X1999}}'' (also known as "The Shoujo Armageddon") not only features a lengthy vision by [[WaifProphet dreamseer Hinoto-hime]] on how the apocalypse will proceed, it also flashes forward and flashes back to that dream sequence many times throughout the series.
* The Anti-Spiral Messenger in ''TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' explains exactly how and why the Earth will be destroyed, complete with a helpful 3-D simulation.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* During the Sons of Empire arc of ''{{Fables}}'', Lumi A.K.A. The Snow Queen details her plans to to wipe out life in the mundy world (our world). They consist of [[spoiler:using warlocks and witches to spread plagues across the globe, sending dragons and fire imps to burn our cities to the ground, coming in herself and putting the whole planet into perpetual winter]], then finally leaving us to wither and die without crops or any means of producing anything. When they're done the Empire will use our devastated, uninhabitable planet as a prison world.
** Subverted almost immediately afterward, however, by the Adversary's son, who's lived in Fabletown until recently Storyboards the Aversion of the Apocalypse. The big problem with Lumi's plan is that [[spoiler:we'll catch on to the fact that we're being attacked by germ warfare fairly quickly, and while that alone wouldn't help much as we have no idea how to leave this world for the Homelands of the Fables, the residents of Fabletown will likely approach the US government and go public with their existence. Once they do, they'll give us all the info we need on the Empire's location, and since the Empire has a ban on all modern technology from our world (The Adversary fears a rebellion if his subjects did carry it) our armies would obliterate theirs, and the Empire would fall]].
*** At the end of the arc, the Adversary decides to hold off on the invasion until they have the Fables living among us all killed so they can't intervene.
* Done in ''{{Angel}}: After The Fall'': [[spoiler: Wesley gives a dying Angel a vision of how the Shanshu Prophecy plays out for him, which involves a lot of heads on pikes. Angel then promptly wishes for death so he can avoid it!]]
* The ''[[UltimateUniverse Ultimate]] Galactus'' trilogy has a scene where Reed Richards lays out Gah Lak Tus's M.O.: [[spoiler: First it broadcasts a signal that drives those who receive it insane, absolutely destroying a civilization's infrastructure. Then, when the first shuttles land, they release a flesh-eating virus so that all organic life is killed. Then, it harvests the molten core of the planet and strip mines the surface before moving on to the next world]]. Reed ends up using a holographic projector, for that extra bit of NightmareFuel.
* In ''Saga of the Swamp Thing'', the resurrected Anton Arcane rants about how he's going to bring the worst of the damned back into the world, inciting chaos and a literal Apocalypse. Scenes of havoc wrought by those he's already unleashed provide a literal "storyboard" of the kinds of hell Arcane would've spread around the world, had he not underestimated [[strike: Holland]] Swamp Thing.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Film ]]

* In the JamesBond movie ''{{Moonraker}}'', The DiabolicalMastermind Hugo Drax had such an exposition.
* A possible parody of this occurs near the end of ''WhoFramedRogerRabbit'', referring to the interstate bypass, and eerily foreshadowing the modern stripmall.
-->'''Judge Doom:''' I see a place where people get on and off the freeway. On and off, off and on, all day, all night! Soon, where Toon Town once stood will be a string of gas stations; inexpensive motels; restaurants that serve rapidly prepared food; tire salons; automobile dealerships; and wonderful, wonderful billboards reaching as far as the eye can see! My God, it'll be beautiful.
* ''{{Hellboy}}'': "I will give you a brief, brief glimpse into the future..."
** The comic book did it on a number of occasions, most memorably in "Box Full of Evil". Hellboy wonders what might happen if he cuts off his EvilHand, and we see a splash page of a hooded man standing in a burning ruin, holding up the severed hand and chanting, "Anung un Rama..." (Hellboy's true name [[ScrewDestiny at the time]]).
* The ''{{Terminator}}'' movies gave us a glimpse of the future where humanity is being hunted down by [=SkyNet=]. The second movie also showed us Sarah Connor's nightmare of a city being destroyed, just to remind us of the nuclear holocaust, quite disturbing NightmareFuel for those who remember the ColdWar days.
* ''TheCore'' has the lead character explaining the Earth's ultimate fate with a peach and a makeshift flamethrower.
--> '''Keyes:''' As the electromagnetic field becomes more and more unstable, we'll start seeing isolated incidents - one plane will fall from the sky, then two, then, in a few month, anything, everything electronic will be fried.
--> '''Zimsky:''' Static discharges in the atmosphere will create superstorms with hundreds of lightning strikes per square mile.
--> '''Keyes:''' After that, [[ItGotWorse it gets bad.]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* Galadriel in ''LordOfTheRings: The Fellowship of the Ring'' shows Sam a vision of The Shire as an industrial work camp. It turns out she was bang on and Saruman was steadily on the way to turn The Shire into Mordor 2.0, but the timely intervention of the [[TookALevelInBadass leveled up Hobbits]] did short work of his small fiefdom and restored it.
** In the original novels it is ''Sam'' who sees what is actually beginning to happen back in the Shire, thanks to Saruman (not a vision of the future.) Frodo sees Sauron's Eye searching for him.
** She also memorably storyboards what would happen if she were to take the Ring for herself when Frodo offers it to her before ultimately refusing it.
* The Knights of the Word in Terry Brooks's overarching meta series have these occur to them every time they fall asleep.
* In the ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' giant novel 'Metamorphosis', Data learns the fate of the galaxy should he choose to [[spoiler:stay a human]].
* Although the hero of the ''{{Pendragon}}'' books is always trying to prevent whatever world he's in from falling apart, Bobby gets a good, long, disturbing look at what will happen if he fails in the third book [[spoiler:and the Nazis win World War II]].
* Ongoing subversion in the ''StarWars'' ExpandedUniverse--Jacen Solo's visions of what the future will be like [[spoiler:turn him to the Dark Side in order to prevent the galaxy from lapsing into unending war.]]
** Of course, [[SelfFulfillingProphecies self-fulfilling ominous visions]] are a central theme with the Skywalkers in ''Star Wars''.
* An early ''{{Animorphs}}'' book has the Ellimist showing the heroes a supposedly inevitable Yeerk-dominated world, and then actually ''giving'' them the opportunity to [[RefusalOfTheCall Refuse The Call]].
** Of course, this wasn't a message of doom, an easy out, or even a possible future, but [[spoiler:a XanatosGambit on the Ellimist's part to show the heroes where the location of a generator that will cripple the alien invasion for a short time is.]]
*Parodied in ''Science of {{Discworld}} II: The Globe'', in which Ponder Stibbons has set up an elaborate presentation to show the danger to the Roundworld Project, only for Rincewind to sum things up in one sentence when he still has "a dozen slides and a flowchart" to go.
* TheBible's Book of Revelation is pretty much the ur-example of this trope, meaning it's OlderThanFeudalism. Unfortunately, as no one can agree on which parts are symbolic and which parts are literal (even entirely literal interpretations can differ from one another due to the original work's obtusely poetic language), there's a myriad of interpretations as to what each part of its storyboarding means.
* During Ragnarok, how many steps backward will Thor take after slaying Jormungand before keeling over from the poison? The Poetic Edda can tell you. [[spoiler:It's nine.]]

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[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' does this once a season, and the writers imply that it will continue to happen once a season for the rest of the series, usually via TimeTravel or precognitive paintings.
* In the ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode "Doomed", after Giles reveals that the MonsterOfTheWeek wants to open the Hellmouth and end the world, everyone groans "Again?" and Xander comments that it's lost its impact. At which point Giles proceeds to remind them exactly what that means. In detail.
-->'''Xander''': "Hmm. Feeling the impact again."
** In the seventh season the First Slayer gives Buffy a vision of the inside of the Hellmouth. An entire army of the Ubervamps that are nearly impossible to kill.
* In the finale of ''PowerRangersMysticForce'', the Rangers are zapped by the BigBad to a barren world where he has taken control. Its precise nature wasn't exactly clear - we never saw much of it beyond a small cave - but it seemed to be less of an outright AlternateDimension than a mere taste of what was coming.
* A few [[TheSeventies 1970s]] ''DoctorWho'' examples:
**"Inferno" sends the Doctor into a [[{{Dystopia}} Dystopic]] MirrorUniverse where Project Inferno (ongoing in his reality) proceeds to destroy the world, thus giving him extra motivation to shut down his world's Project Inferno.
**"Day of the Daleks" has a future AlternateHistory where a NuclearHolocaust happens and the Dalek take over. Hearing about the averted timeline gives additional incentives for various diplomats to get it right.
**In "Pyramids Of Mars", the Doctor takes the TARDIS to 1980 to show Sarah Jane the lifeless Earth that will result if Sutekh isn't stopped in 1911.
* ''{{Terminator}}: TheSarahConnorChronicles'' begins with a scene of a terminator killing John Connor, triggering TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. Fortunately, it was AllJustADream.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

* The 3.5 ''DungeonsAndDragons'' supplement ''[[CosmicHorrorStory Elder Evils]]'' is basically a How To guide for ending your group's campaign world in a spectacularly apocalyptic manner via EldritchAbomination. Naturally, it gives detailed scenarios of such, including things from the ZombieApocalypse to the magical equivalent of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runaway_greenhouse_effect the runaway greenhouse effect]].

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* A scene in ''QuestForGlory IV: Shadows of Darkness'' has the main character experiencing a hallucination and seeing the Dark One's rise to power. (Near the end, if the player loses the game, the Dark One does rise, mirroring the sequence exactly.)
* A convoluted example appears in ''SinAndPunishment''. In an effort to motivate the ActionGirl to shoot her transformed-by-TheVirus partner, the MysteriousWaif shows her a vision of a future in which he has become evil. This vision becomes a stage, complete with the chance to get a Game Over. Yet, despite her mowing down hundreds of enemies during the dream sequence without any noticeable effect, the final shot she makes against the corrupted hero somehow causes her to ''shoot him in the present as well''.
* ''ChronoTrigger'' has a more literal example: [[spoiler:when the party finds a computer in a post-apocalyptic world, it shows them a visual record of the "Day of Lavos" from 300 years ago, almost giving one of the characters a nervous breakdown]].
* [[spoiler:Leder]]'s incredibly long {{infodump}} in ''{{Mother 3}}'', which [[spoiler:storyboards both the previous apocalypse and the forthcoming extra bad apocalypse.]]
* Alexandra Roivas receives a vision of the potential apocalypse in ''EternalDarkness: Sanity's Requiem'' caused by the Ancient [[spoiler:she has unleashed to defeat Pious's Ancient]].
* [[SubvertedTrope Noticeably missing]] in ''{{Drakengard}}''. Everyone loves to [[InfallibleBabble talk about it]], but no one seems to know precisely what will happen. The hierarch Verdelet flip-flops from thinking the Seeds of Resurrection will cause [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt untold catastrophe]] to thinking it involves [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence ascending to a higher reality]]. And the BigBad has more important things to worry about, [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} like dancing]].
* Done in ''MassEffect'', where you're treated to a detailed lecture on how the last [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt TEOTWAWKI]] occurred, and then reminded in no uncertain terms that [[spoiler:the next one is just around the corner]].
* The Big Bad in ''Under a Killing Moon'' storyboards his planned apocalypse for the Earth, which is to be cleansed of all mutant contamination and prepared for the return of his "pure" people from his space station (under his leadership, of course).

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Comics ]]

* Done hilariously in [[PennyArcade Penny Arcade]], [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/04/10/ here]].
* Done (in crayon format) by Redcloak in ''OrderOfTheStick'''s prequel, ''Start of Darkness''. Rather than destruction, however, he expects his plan to use a god-killing abomination to blackmail the deities of his world to result in a modern-style utopia for his people.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* When Batman archvillain Ra's Al Ghul lays out his plan to destroy humanity in ''BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', it is accompanied by a series of detailed stills showing the world being saturated by the Lazarus Pits, in chaos, and finally at "a blessed peace."
* At the end of the first episode of the 1994 ''Series/FantasticFour'' cartoon, Puppet Master takes one last stab at ultimate power and imagines ruling the world, complete with montage.
* In a fifth-season episode of ''TheBatman'', Lex Luthor uses one of these (in sepia tone) to describe his vision for the world.
* ''TeenTitans'' used this at least twice. In "Revolution", Mad Mod - who has control of the city and most the Titans on the run - gives a captured Robin a look at what he calls "coming attractions" (possibly a subtle reference to a scene in ''NineteenEightyFour'', which the episode takes much of its inspiration from). On a more serious note, in "Birthmark", Slade transports Raven into a devastated world that she is destined to bring about, a vision which actually comes true in the season finale.
-->'''Slade''': Skies will burn. Flesh will turn to stone. The sun will set on your world, never to rise again!
* A similar, but longer and considerably more elaborate speech is delivered to Superman by [[spoiler:Darkseid]] in the final episode of ''JusticeLeagueUnlimited''.
** In the second season finale, The Question has images of the end of the world projected directly into his mind as a form of interrogation.
** And in the ''JusticeLeague'' GrandFinale, there's a brief image of what'll happen to Earth when [[spoiler:the Thanagarians activate the hyperspace bypass]] - basically, the planet implodes. Worryingly, Batman's response is "Ingenious!"
* In an episode of ''[[SuperFriends Galactic Guardians]]'', Darkseid - in a plot to hijack the space station of Star City and [[KillSat outfit it with weapons]] - almost literally Storyboards The Apocalypse in a scene made relatively well-known by {{Seanbaby}}'s website:
-->'''Seanbaby''': Darkseid goes all out. A lot of villains tell everyone about their plan, but Darkseid filmed an elaborate dramatization of it. Look at those special effects. He didn't just have a computer rendered picture of what his battle station will look like, he got actors to run around on an airfield while planes were getting vaporized.
* A tongue-in-cheek Storyboarding appears in the first episode of ''SamAndMaxFreelancePolice'', "The Thing That Wouldn't Stop It", showing the fate of the world's frozen-food industry at stake due to a monstrous mutated TV dinner.
-->'''Max:''' [[TellMeAgain Tell me, Sam,]] ''why the heck are we doing this, again?!''
-->'''Sam:''' It's simple, Max. If this so-called "Thing" could somehow find its way into our world, devouring unsuspecting citizens who have no natural fear of frozen entrees, they would surely cause a nationwide mistrust of pre-manufactured foods of all kinds, forcing producers of salty, overcooked, man-sized portions to go bankrupt! To safeguard American businesses, Max! ''That's'' why the heck we're doing this!
*In the Rankin Bass production of ''Return of the King'', Samwise becomes the bearer of the One Ring, which tries to corrupt him with a vision of a world in which he has become all powerful. Of course, it being Samwise, this vision involves innocuous things like turning all of the orcs into cute animals and the entire world into a flower garden. Samwise realizes how silly the idea of him being an Evil Overlord would be and is able to resist the allure of the Ring.
**[[{{Narm}} "BEHOLD THE GARDENS OF MY DELIGHT!"]]\

* When the kids on ''Ben 10: Alien Force'' first meet Paradox (from their P.O.V. anyway), he shows them what the future will be like if a time-distorting entity isn't stopped. He does this by taking them to the Moon of the future and letting them look at the long-dead Earth from there ... and then warning them that it's their ''best'' possible future. Brief, but an effective demo.
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