http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Earth_Exploding.jpg
[[caption-width:300:[[LooneyTunes T-t-t-that's]] [[ThatsAllFolks all]] [[EarthShatteringKaboom folks!]]]]

--> ''That's great, it starts with an earthquake.''\\
''Birds and snakes, an aeroplane,''\\
''and Lenny Bruce is not afraid.''\\
-- R.E.M., "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)"

This is what will happen if the heroes don't stop the BigBad or the OmnicidalManiac from doing its nasty work. It can be either supernatural or superscience, depending on the villain, but in either case the bad guy must be beaten down and his toys broken in order to save the planet, or the universe, depending on the focus of the story.

Usually it's figurative -- expressed as "merely" the death of humankind, the obliteration of Civilization, or its subjugation to aliens, for example -- rather than the literal [[EarthShatteringKaboom rendering of the planet down to gravel]].

This is a common trope in SpeculativeFiction, horror and over-the-top espionage shows, as well as many [[NoteworthyAnime anime series]]. It may serve as a prequel to an AfterTheEnd series. May also include {{Cosy Catastrophe}} and/or {{Scavenger World}} elements. It's also very common in video games, where it's occasionally unavoidable, sometimes unforgivingly occurring halfway through the game.

If the heroes are slated to succeed in preventing the End, they (and the audience) may be treated to [[StoryboardingTheApocalypse a detailed preview]] of what's coming.

Inevitably draws the suitably heroic into a SavingTheWorld plot. See ApocalypseHow for various types of End Of the World. For when TakeOurWordForIt simply won't do, ApocalypseWow is this trope given dramatic form.

----
!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Advertising]]
* In many political ads, this is the implied consequence of voting for anyone other than the person who paid for the commercial. The most famous example, and perhaps the trend setter, is the 1964 presidential election "Daisy" commerical, which literally said that voting for Barry Goldwater, or indeed not voting at all, would cause TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. See it for yourself [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf-MEdAPhYA here]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* The ''{{Digimon}}'' multiverse, which shares similarities with the ''PrettyCure'' worlds except for the whole [[{{shonen}} shounen]] [[{{mons}} mon]] series thing, has the exact same looming threat every time.
* ''MagicKnightRayearth''.
* ''{{Mai-HiME}}'' threatens the end of the world with the approaching of the [=HiME=] Star precipitating natural disasters and [[spoiler: the last surviving [=HiME=] gaining the power to remake the world as she sees fit]].
* ''KannazukiNoMiko''.
* The first two seasons of ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'' involved unstable [[LostTechnology Lost Logia]] and {{the hero}}es trying to prevent the destruction of a few worlds, including the one they call home. The third season, however, had a BigBad who ''knew'' how to handle Lost Logia, and thus would have only ended with TheFederation obliterated and the entire multiverse effectively taken hostage should the heroes fail. Jail's an EvilutionaryBiologist, not an OmnicidalManiac, after all.
* The final StoryArc in ''[[PrettySammy Magical Project S]]'' revolves around saving Earth.
* ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'' has not one but ''three'' groups trying to destroy the world, each in their own way and for their own reason. [[spoiler:Gendo Ikari wishes to be re-united with his dead wife, which involves ending the world as we know it. SEELE wishes to [[{{Instrumentality}} end the individuality of the human race]] in accordance with Ancient Prophecy. The Angels merely want to eliminate all of humanity.]]
** Of course, being Evangelion, it's not clear [[MindScrew which one of]] [[GainaxEnding the three succeeded]].
*** [[spoiler:Actually, none of them did. Gendo's plans were scrapped when Rei betrayed him and took Adam to Lilith herself, Seele won to a degree but not completely, as humans have the ability to resume their lives if they wish to. If anyone truly won, it was [[WildMassGuessing Yui, Shinji's mother, who planned to place]] {{Instrumentality}} in his hands all along.]]
* While the main cast of ''{{Pretear}}'' eventually succeeds in preventing TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt (the standard BigBad's goal), the manga gives a nice description of the world drained of LifeEnergy -- not only without living beings, but without wind, sounds, temperature, light. The anime version further illustrates the possible outcome by having the BigBad destroy the local MagicalLand.
* Anyone living in the world of any ''Pretty Cure'' series should try not to get ''too'' attached to the universe. It was ''already'' one lost fight away from total destruction in the very first episode, with multiple near-misses along the way; in particular, almost all life was wiped out near the end of ''FutariWaPrettyCureSplashStar'', though the heroines managed to [[NoOntologicalInertia reverse it by defeating the bad guy]].
* The main goal of the AncientConspiracy from ''RahXephon'' is to [[spoiler:both cause and reverse this.]]
* ''SailorMoon'' comes close to this here and there. The Moon Kingdom was completely destroyed in the past; [[TheWorldIsAlwaysDoomed the Earth is constantly in danger]], as one villainous group invades it after another. In the manga, the world (along with the BigBad) ''is'' destroyed at the end of the third story arc by [[PersonOfMassDestruction Sailor Saturn]]... only to be immediately restored by [[TheMessiah Princess Serenity]]. The last season's BigBad has already rendered ''most of the Galaxy'' dead before attacking the Earth.
** In ''PrettyGuardianSailorMoon'', in addition to the destruction of the Moon Kingdom in the past, [[spoiler:Princess Serenity does the same with the Earth at the end of the series]].
*** [[spoiler: [[IGotBetter It Got Better]].]]
* The ''SuzumiyaHaruhi'' franchise has a rather unusual condition for The End Of The World as We Know It to happen: [[spoiler:if the title character becomes ''too'' bored with her life, she could inadvertently destroy the universe in a subconscious attempt to create one more to her liking]]. Not only that, the rest of the SOS-dan suspects that [[spoiler:she has already done it]] at least once before -- but obviously no-one can tell.
* ''TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' is set AfterTheEnd, when most of humanity was wiped out [[spoiler: by the machinations of the Anti-Spiral]]. When they start making a comeback thanks to the protagonists, [[spoiler: a failsafe kicks in to [[ColonyDrop drop the moon]] on the planet and finish humanity off]].
** And on top of that, [[spoiler:Spiral Energy's ability to [[HammerSpace generate energy and matter from nothing but HeroicResolve]] risks destroying the entire universe if overused, and the [[WellIntentionedExtremist Anti-Spirals]] are trying to ''prevent'' that from happening.]]
* In ''TokyoMewMew'', the aliens want to cause this by accelerating humans' destruction of the environment, just so the {{Muggles}} can see what they've done to the Earth and actually care about it.
* In the anime ''[[{{X1999}} X/1999]]'', both sides actually believe they are fighting to prevent the end of the world. The Dragons of Earth are attempting to destroy all humans to prevent humans from destroying the Earth, while the Dragons of Heaven are trying to save humanity from the Dragons of Earth.
* The second and third season of ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh}}'' ([[{{Macekre}} dub version only]]), emphasized with a mantra frequently repeated by Yugi to the point of exasperation: "The fate of the world depends on it!"
** This is also the goal of the BigBad in TheMovie. This motive is questioned (and {{lampshade}}d) by Yami in ''Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Movie,'' where he asks the BigBad what he hopes to gain from the destruction of the world. Receiving an unsatisfactory answer, he dismisses the BigBad as "the most disappointing movie villain since General Grievous."
* Carried over in the second season of ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh GX}}'' but with the pressure upped even more, when Jaden is told, "The fate of the ''universe'' now rests with you."
* Of ''{{Drakengard}}'s'' MultipleEndings, two imply the end of the world, one [[DownerEnding overtly]] and the other [[BittersweetEnding not so much]].
* The ''{{Pokemon}}'' films typically leave preventing TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt to the ten-year-old Ash Ketchum.
* Standard thing the heroes of ''DragonBallZ'' are trying to prevent, although the ante was upped in the Buu saga, where the BigBad could easily have wiped out the entire universe had he not been stopped.
* ''{{Bokurano}}'' takes this trope to a whole new level of cruelty by adding a twist: [[spoiler: to save the world from ending the kids must cause the destruction of other worlds. And let us not forget that the pilots die regardless of the outcome of the battle.]]
* In the end of ''{{Saikano}}'' [[spoiler: the world does come to an end. Chise loses her body in a climactic final battle and becomes a ball of light and Shuuiji is the sole survivor in the entire planet.[[TearJerker Few things could be sadder.]]]]
* Parodied in the ''{{Clannad}}'' game with this quote:
--> '''Misae''': For Sunohara to have such a cute sister, and for Okazaki to have such a cute girlfriend... If it were the end of the world, it'd be bad for the sister and Furukawa-san, but... I'll say it. It's the end of the world.
* In ''SuperDimensionFortressMacross'', the SDF-1, after a year of fighting, returns to Earth only to [[spoiler:witness the nuclear bombardment of the planet by Boddolza's main Zentradi fleet of over 4,000,000 warships (killing "most" of the population and destroying 95% of the environment)]], however, [[spoiler:with a little help from a wave motion cannon back on Earth, and Lynn Minmei of course, the Macross nukes Boddolza's remaining flagship]]. The remnants of humanity and the Zentradi are then shown to be co-existing on what remains of the planet, but because of some of the bored Zentradi, their alliance quickly turns to crap.
* This is Friend's ultimate goal in ''TwentiethCenturyBoys''. [[spoiler: He comes [[NearVillainVictory dangerously close to succeeding]], too.]]
* It is feared that this is what will happen if there should ever be a "[[SuperHappyFunTropeOfDoom Second Summer Of Love]]" in EurekaSeven.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* The ''{{Lucifer}}'' comic books, somewhat ironically, involved the Devil's efforts to ''prevent'' this.
* Many a comic book CrisisCrossover has this as its premise, the archetype being ''CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'' (see below).
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]
* In ''{{Armageddon}}'', a large asteroid is coming with enough force to blow every last bit of life into oblivion, and two teams are sent with a very large amount of explosives to split the asteroid in half [[strike:just at the right moment]] before it's too late, so the two halves fly over and under the earth.
* ''TheDayTheEarthCaughtFire'' (1961). Massive nuclear testing at the poles throw the Earth out of orbit towards the Sun, but a series of massive nuclear detonations in Siberia may avert the catastrophe. The last scene shows the journalists waiting in the print room with two next editions ready for printing, one saying "WORLD SAVED" and the other "WORLD DOOMED".
* In Kevin Smith's ''{{Dogma}}'', the continued correct functioning of the laws that govern the universe are all dependent on/derived from one truth: that God is infallible. The heroes have to stop the "villains," angels cast out of Heaven, from exploiting a loophole in some obscure Catholic canon to get themselves re-admitted to Heaven, thereby contradicting God and unmaking the whole of Creation.
* ''{{Fallen}}'' (1998), with Denzel Washington. The demons of the film are said to desire the destruction of human civilization, which they call "the fall of Babylon" and pursue this by possessing people. Though not said, this would presumably account for much of the evil in the world. Also not said but speculated is that true believer Christians will be immune to demonic possession.
* The film (and book) of Douglas Adams' ''HitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' puts a comedic twist on this -- the world is destroyed to make way for an interstellar bypass. The joke is that the protagonist was trying to stop his house from being demolished for much the same reason...
** This becomes even more of a ShootTheShaggyDog moment when it is revealed that the destruction of Earth took place mere ''moments'' before the unveiling of the Heart of Gold and Infinite Improbability Drive, which render hyperspace bypasses completely obsolete.
* Playfully subverted in ''MenInBlack'' -- the universe is inches away from Armageddon due to alien interference all the time. The Men in Black casually erase the memories of anyone who catches wind of these impending disasters to prevent a general panic. Very similar to TheWorldIsAlwaysDoomed
** What did the Earth do before the MIB? It was only formed in the 60's. Surely all the Global Disasters weren't kindly waiting in the wings for the Earth to develop the means to defend itself before attacking?
* ''SkyCaptainAndTheWorldOfTomorrow'' (2004). The distant-planet-colonizing rocket seems benign, until it's revealed that the rocket's afterburners will ignite the Earth's atmosphere.
* The sun is dying in the sci-fi movie ''{{Sunshine}}'' and has to be reignited with a nuclear bomb the size of Manhattan Island.
* ''{{Godzilla}} Final Wars'' not only has the titular monster saving the world from an asteroid, but also dozens of other monsters as well.
* The British film ''{{Threads}}'' and its American counterpart ''TheDayAfter'' both deal with this trope in a very grim and realistic way. In both, nuclear war breaks out between [[ColdWar The U.S. and the Soviet Union]], resulting in a dark ScavengerWorld inhabited by the hapless victims of the catastrophe. Both were Anvilicious in the sense that they resorted to scare tactics to show people what the world would be like if they allowed political tensions to get the better of them, but at a time when some people thought nuclear war was survivable and a handful even cried out for war, this [[SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped may have been a good thing.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* Spider Robinson's novel ''Callahan's Key'' is based on the notion that if the heroes do not accomplish the save-the-day task, the entire universe not only will cease to exist, but will retroactively cease ''ever to have'' existed.
* Every couple of books, the ''{{Discworld}}'' is threatened with TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. In ''Discworld/TheLightFantastic'', it nearly collided with a red star; in ''Discworld/{{Sourcery}}'', the birth of a sourcerer nearly brings about a second Mage War and the Apocralypse [sic]; in ''Discworld/TheLastHero'', Cohen the Barbarian's scheme to get revenge on the gods threatens to destroy the magic that holds the Discworld together; and in ''Discworld/ThiefOfTime'', the Auditors trick a human with unusual abilities into building a clock that will leave the {{Discworld}}, and possibly the universe, frozen in time forever.
* DoubleSubversion in Weis and Hickman's novel series ''The Sword of Joram'', in which [[spoiler:Joram succeeds in stopping the destruction of Thimhallan by the attackers from the Earth, only to end up destroying the magic that made it habitable]]
* An angel and a demon team up to prevent the scheduled Biblical Apocalypse in ''{{Good Omens}}''. Hilarity ensues.
* Subverted in an old RayBradbury short story titled ''The End of the Beginning''. The narrator describes people all over the world staring at the sky waiting for the world to end because they know the exact date, time and place that it will begin. Eventually a searing white light appears in the sky and ends the world. The twist is... I'll give you a second to guess... [[spoiler: The bright light is a spaceship that has visited the first intelligent life humanity discovered. Naturally this marks the "end" of the world and the "beginning" of the universe.]]
* Many of the ''{{Dragonriders of Pern}}'' novels concern the heroes' struggle to avert the End Of The World As The Pernese Know It, by defending human civilization against Threadfall. Granted, it's not the ''same'' world as this trope normally concerns itself with, but it still ought to count...
* The ''Laws of Magic'' books by Terry Goodkind, where Richard and Kahlan save the World as we Know it... again... and again... and again. One can only assume that, since the world was just fine before they met, it's ''them knowing each other'' that's the ultimate cause for all the trouble they have to go through.
* Some time before the beginning of ''Hyperion'', the Earth is destroyed by [[WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong an experiment with black holes conducted in Kiev]]. [[spoiler:Later on, it is revealed that the error was not due to human fault but was deliberately orchestrated by [[AIisaCrapshoot elements of the TechnoCore]] to promote usage of the Farcaster network, which allows them to exploit humans for computational power.]]
** [[spoiler:It's then revealed that the Earth was not destroyed, but instead whisked away to the Lesser Magellanic Cloud, implying that the Kiev Experiment was the TechnoCore's first attempt at the creation of a Farcaster.]]
** [[spoiler:The story then doubles back on itself, saying that the TechnoCore ''did'' intend to destroy Earth, but instead in an attempt to move their existence into [[SubspaceOrHyperspace Planck Space / The Void Which Binds]] ''and'' promote usage of the Farcaster network. They then encounter [[SufficientlyAdvancedAliens the Others (dubbed the Lions and Tigers and Bears by one element of the TechoCore)]] that are vastly more powerful than they are and leave Planck Space, desperately trying to prevent the black hole from destroying Earth. Before they can do so, the Others whisk Earth away to the Lesser Magellanic Cloud for their own experiments.]] Whew.
* S.M. Stirling's ''Dies the Fire'' and its various sequels are set in a world where every kind of "energy-dense" technology stops working, plunging the human race back in TheDungAges... forever. Not the end of the ''world,'' but certainly the end of the world ''we'' know. (And, for the overwhelming majority of people, the end of ''them'': try feeding seven billion people with twelfth-century technology.)
* In ''Fragment'', scientists and the military must act fast to eradicate the hyper-lethal, hyper-invasive wildlife of Henders Island, before it can spread to other landmasses and spell The End Of The Biosphere As We Know It.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* [[TwentyFour Jack Bauer]] and his allies have ''[[TwentyFour 24]]'' hours to stop the End of the World As We Know It.
* ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' built each season around a BigBad whose plans usually threatened the End of Everything if he wasn't stopped by late Spring. At one point, when Giles proclaimed the BigBad was about to cause the end of the world, everyone present groaned, "Again?"; one of Buffy's [[BadassNormal boyfriends]] once lamented that hanging around her had caused him to need to know "the plural of ''apocalypse''."
** When ''{{Angel}}'' spun-off, the world was often facing two ends at once, one L.A.-based in the form of Wolfram & Hart's ongoing plans for Armageddon, the other Sunnydale-based with a different villain threatening the world each season. It even reached the point where, in the Buffy GrandFinale, [[spoiler: Wolfram & Hart helped ''stop'' Sunnydale's apocalypse, partly because it interfered with their own apocalyptic plans]].
*** With the alarmingly frequent amounts of Apocalypses going on, it's pretty safe to assume there are several happening all at the same time. Wolfram and Hart has an archive specifically devoted to upcoming Apocalypses for Christ's sake!
** This troper remembers one occasion when Giles said "It's the apocalypse!" someone checks the clock and replies, "It seems a little early." This is because the apocalypse that Giles was talking about was happening in the middle of the season. The real one shouldn't be up until the end of the season.
* The aliens in the 1980s miniseries ''{{V}}'' intended to harvest the human race for use as snack food and were turning the planet into a thinly disguised version of Nazi Germany to make it easier.
* The destruction of all life on Earth happened, then un-happened, at least once a season on ''SevenDays''.
* The series ''TheDeadZone'' has a recurring {{Arc}} about Greg Stillson somehow being responsible for TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt in the near future, and Johnny Smith has to find a way to stop him.
* ''StarTrek'', repeatedly and in many different ways.
** Most notably, the third season of ''StarTrekEnterprise'' features the ship in a race against time to save not only the World, but the Universe As We Know It. If a group of genocidal aliens succeed in destroying the Earth, it will alter history and the Federation will never exist. An episode called ''Twilight'' showed what might happen if they succeeded.
* ''{{Supernatural}}'' has a demon apocalypse on the horizon. Any day now. Really. Soon. We promise.
** [[WhamEpisode It's]] [[NothingIsTheSameAnymore here.]]
* Subverted in the ''DoctorWho'' episode 'The End of the World'. The Doctor takes Rose to see planet Earth finally bite the dust billions of years in the future, but it's a natural event that's supposed to happen. When asked if he's going to swoop in at the last moment and save the planet, he replies that there's no point because everyone has moved to greener pastures already.
** Played straight several other times, though. Menaces such as the Slitheen, the Daleks, the Cybermen, or the Master are all the time trying to cause TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.
***The Master actually succeeds towards the end of "The Sound of Drums", but then [[spoiler:the Doctor reverses time, saving the day, er, year, and only a select few people remember 'the year that never was'.]]
* The premise of ''BattlestarGalactica'' is that this has already happened, and now the Colonials are on the run in search of a new home.
** Of course when they get there [[spoiler: it had already been obliterated in a nuclear attack 2000 years in the past. They find another one though]].
* In the sci-fi series ''{{Lexx}}'', the main characters go through much of the second season unaware that an enemy they defeated earlier is still alive. The villain, Mantrid, rebuilds himself, takes an army of simple-minded floating robot drones, and destroys much of the "Light Zone", one of two parallel universes. The heroes eventually stop him, but soon afterwards, the entire universe collapses in on itself. The main characters (and their ship, the Lexx) are spit out as interstellar debris into the "Dark Zone", the second universe.
* One episode of ''BigWolfOnCampus'' has hero Tommy Dawkins prevent the end of the world by winning a wrestling match against a demon.
* Occurs during the {{Timeskip}} between seasons 16 and 17 of ''PowerRangers''. [[DarkerAndEdgier The entire biosphere has been destroyed globally]], except for a single city fighting for survival.
* Channel 4 ran the "documentary", {{''LifeAfterHumans''}} which speculates on what would happen to the Earth if humans suddenly disappeared...
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* [[TomLehrer ''We will all go together when we go...'']]
* The TropeNamer: "It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" by R.E.M. Whether or not the lyrics of the song accurately reflect the title, this troper couldn't really tell you.
** [[WordSaladLyrics They don't accurately reflect ANY title, let alone this one]]. To the point that even Michael Stipe [[FlipFlopOfGod isn't entirely sure of the official lyrics]], ''and he wrote them.''
* The 1982 hardcore punk wave was also called "no future" punk, as the fear of an imminent nuclear holocaust, or environmental destruction was a common theme.
* The Ayreon [[RockOpera]] depicts the world ending around 2084-2085 despite [[CassandraTruth warnings from the prophet who foresaw it's end]] the end comes thanks to [[LuddWasRight technology]] and the like.
* This happens twice in Fireaxe's Food For the Gods album. Once with the earth itself being destroyed by waring ideologies and their prophets. The second comes when Satan faces down God himself and enrages him to destroy all creation. This leaves only him and the darkness goddess in what the song describes as "cold and dark infinity"
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99_Luftballons "It's all over, and I'm standing pretty / In this dust that was a city..."]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* From ''BlissStage:'' "The effects of [[LotusEaterMachine the Bliss]] were sinister and immediate: every human above the age of 18 were struck with a sudden weariness, and when they fell asleep, they did not awaken... ...Society, particularly industrialized society, begins to collapse one month later, as food production and utilities break down."
* Dominaria, the central world of ''MagicTheGathering'', has suffered no less than ''three'' apocalypses: the Brothers' War (the entire face of the planet shattered, two thousand years of ice and snow), the Phyrexian Invasion (the greater part of the world's population slaughtered by demonic invaders), and Karona's apocalypse (all magic in the world briefly extinguished); each of these had the good guys fending off an even greater threat, but at high cost. The "Time Spiral" crisis was an attempt to keep the entire plane from folding in on itself in the wake of these and various other huge magical events- an apocalypse caused by having too many apocalypses, and this doesn't count near-apocalypses like the end of the Thran War. It's a wonder the old rock's still holding together.
* Quite a few D&D game-settings have a World-Shattering Kaboom in their backstory, such as Krynn's Cataclysm or Mystara's Great Rain of Fire.
* ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'s'' universe is entering the eleventh millenium of the ongoing end of the world. The only reason the world's lasted this long is because most of the bringers of the end are as happy to fight each other as humanity.
** You're talking about The End of the Galaxy as we know it. The End of a ''World'' As We Know It happens ''all the time''. But what's the loss of one planet when there are billions more out there?
*** Actually, That Troper is talking about ''one of'' The Ends of the Galaxy As We Know It. On the one hand, the legions of hell are fighting everyone, including each other, in an attempt to destroy everything, on the other hand, a race of undead machine... things are trying to wipe out all life, and on the third hand (probably hacked off of a fallen enemy) there are a group of genetically engineered bugs that EAT ENTIRE GALAXIES arriving. It's also been argued that if the orkz ever collaborated as an entire species, they could wipe out all of the other factions on their own. So, uh.... [[SoYeah yeah]].
* This what mostly likely will happen if the Titans win in ''{{Scion}}''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* The ''SuperRobotWars Alpha'' sub-series's finale had several endings that involved trying to stop the death of all sentient life in the universe. The worst one involved the embodiment of life and rebirth going nuts and using its WaveMotionGun at the party... which kills everyone in the quadrant.
* ''{{City Of Heroes}}''... if there were a time when the world ''isn't'' imperilled by callous villains, giant robots, aliens from AnotherDimension, Experiments Gone Wrong and so forth, it was probably removed in beta. Even the villains get a few cracks at saving the world in a bit of Destiny subversion [[spoiler: a certain arc shows you what would happen if you fulfill your potential as a Destined One and take over the world -- there'll be no world left to take over. You then have to thwart {{Big Bad}} Lord Recluse in the future to convince the present Recluse not to go through with the plan... which really does mess with the whole ball of {{Timey Wimey Stuff}}, not to mention player's heads.]]
* ''Treasure of the Rudras'' pretty much followed this pattern of extinction of races about 5 times before the game actually begins; Every 4,000 years, a being called Rudra kills off the current race and creates a new one. [[spoiler: This turns out to be a plan established by Mitra: Creator of the world in order to create a race that can defeat invaders from destroying the world in the first place when she is defeated or unable to do her duty.]]
* In ''[=~Star Ocean: The Second Story~=]'' the main antagonist plans on erasing the universe by causing the Big Crunch. [[spoiler:His plan goes through anyway even after you defeat him.]]
** And in ''[=~Star Ocean: Till the End of Time~=]'', the BigBad intends to ''delete'' the Universe.
* The Halos in the ''{{Halo}}'' video game series are weapons designed to wipe out all sentient life in the galaxy, ie The End Of The Galaxy As We Know It, to prevent the Flood from spreading; naturally enough, when such an outbreak occurs in the first game, the PlayerCharacter has to stop the weapon from firing.
* ''CommanderKeen'' had to prevent this a couple of times in the classic platform-game series by Apogee. His first game-series was titled ''The Earth Explodes'', and he had to prevent the [[MindControl mind controlled]] Vorticons -- who were being manipulated by his EvilCounterpart -- from doing just that. The sequel, 'Goodbye Galaxy', upped the ante as suggested. The next series was supposed to be about him preventing the end of the entire ''universe'', but at that point, Apogee was running out of money, and he only got enough funding to save his babysitter.
** In the second game [[spoiler:it is in fact possible to blow up the earth by 'accident' by flipping the switch on one of the [[DeathRay Death Rays]] before disabling it, leading to a [[NonstandardGameOver Nonstandard Game Over]]]].
* This is the main goal of the BigBad in the ''Chains of Promathia'' expansion in ''FinalFantasyXI''. It really doesn't help that the avatar Bahamut [[spoiler:thinks that the best way to prevent this is to wipe out all sentient life on Vana'diel]].
* In ''TheLegendOfZelda Majora's Mask'', a falling moon threatens to wipe out the world of Termina. In most other games in the series, the villain's only trying to ''rule'' the world.
* A Similar event occurs in ''DarkCloud 2'': [[spoiler: The being who is the true identity of the assumed BigBad is the one who has invoked and is responsible for stopping the Star of Oblivion from falling]].
* Would have been the fate of the world in three of ''{{Drakengard}}'s'' [[MultipleEndings multiple endings]] if not for the intervention of the protagonists.
* In ''KingdomHearts,'' The Darkness is attempting to extinguish [[TheLifestream the Heart of reality itself]]. The protagonists get a glimpse what will happen to the multiverse if they fail when they visit [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon a place literally called "The End of the World."]] It's the center of all Darkness -- a bleak, mostly formless mess made up of the stuff of worlds devoured by TheHeartless, who themselves are made up of the stuff of ''people'' devoured by TheHeartless or devolved by their own [[ThisIsYourBrainOnEvil descent into evil]].
* In ''SuperPaperMario'', Count Bleck [[spoiler: and Dimentio]] wish to destroy ALL worlds via the Dark Prognosticus. [[spoiler: They actually succeed in destroying the Sammer Guys' Kingdom -- ''almost'' while the heroes are ''still in it''.]]
* In ''LiveALive'' [[spoiler: You are actually given the option to end all of existence by your own hands just by selecting the Armageddon option!]]
* Every ''ShinMegamiTensei'' game (including the spinoffs) deals with this in some fashion or another.
** In one of those spinoffs, ''{{Persona 3}}'', the Main Character is explicitly told pretty much from the start that "the End" is coming soon. [[spoiler: If he chooses, he can delay it a couple of months and have it come without knowing it's coming. Or, he can go out fighting, but it's ultimately portrayed as futile. [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu And then you win.]]]]
***[[spoiler: [[BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu Kind of.]]]]
** In ''ShinMegamiTensei: Nocturne'' (or [[spoiler:''Lucifer's Call''), the world ends after the first hour of gameplay and you spend the rest of the game rebuilding it while not getting ganked by the Demons who roam freely now.]]
** In ''DigitalDevilSaga'', another spinoff, not only does [[spoiler:the world of the Junkyard end at the end of the game]], but [[spoiler:the real world that you end up in was half destroyed five years ago, and starts literally disintegrating into the sun halfway through the game. Your goal is, of course, to stop it.]]
* There's a free online flash game ''[[http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/360724 Pandemic]]'' in which the player assumes control over a virus by spending evolution points on symptoms like fever or making the virus transmited by air. The goal is to kill every single human on earth.
** Meanwhile, in [[MemeticMutation Madagascar...]]
* This is at least part of the villain's plan in almost every ''FinalFantasy'' game.
** Subverted in ''FinalFantasy VI,'' wherein the BigBad Kefka ''actually succeeds in destroying the world'', despite your best efforts otherwise. You watch as countless [[NPCs NPCs]] are killed as their land is ripped apart, and the world map is left permanently scarred. The rest of the game is basically spent trying to get revenge because you failed the first time around and trying to break his tyrannical grip on society.
*** It is heavily implied that all plant and animal life on the planet is gradually going extinct due to Kefka's influence, so the heroes at least get to prevent a more thorough TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.
** In FinalFantasyX [[spoiler:this is subverted towards the end, as the protagonists try to end the "eternal spiral of death" that had the entire world in it's grip for a thousand years, bringing TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. In ''Final Fantasy X-2'', the world is recovering from the confusion left after the removal of the CorruptChurch. It's played straight with the original creation of Sin, which turned a futuristic cyber world into a society of villages outlawing the use of machines and advances technology.]]
* In ''ChronoTrigger'', the driving point of the game is to prevent Lavos from destroying the world in 1999 AD. (Bear in mind that the 'present' year in the game is 1000.)
** And that one of the [[TimeTravel time periods you eventually find yourself]] is 2300 AD, thus providing the player a playable [[StoryboardingTheApocalypse Post-Apocalypse]].
* In ''MassEffect'', Shepard's mission is to prevent the End of the Galaxy As We Know it at the hands of Saren, whose [[spoiler:ship is in reality an AI known as Sovereign, a representative of an ancient race of sentient machines (AIs) who are responsible for bringing about the destruction of all sentient organic life in the galaxy every 50,000 years or so.]]
* ''{{Terranigma}}'' kinda reversed it. The world has already ended from the start of the game and it's then the job of the Hero to starts the world again.
* All four games in the ''GuildWars'' series involve a looming threat that will destroy the world if the player characters don't stop it. The first game (''Prophecies'') twists the trope by having you discover at the end (just in time to be able to do something about it) that [[spoiler:you've been duped by the BigBad, and all your actions have been ''helping'' to bring the end of the world, instead of averting it.]] The next two (''Factions'' and ''Nightfall'') play the trope straight. The fourth (''Eye of the North'') subverts it at the end, when a cutscene seen by the players (but not the characters) hints that [[spoiler:you didn't actually kill the BigBad, and something end-of-the-world-ish is still going to happen anyway.]] WordOfGod has confirmed this interpretation in pre-release information about ''Guild Wars 2''.
* In ''WorldOfGoo'' -- and this meets the original definition of sheer -- the world [[spoiler:becomes incompatible with its inhabitants, like ''software'', when it's ''upgraded'' into three dimensions]].
* ''SuperMarioGalaxy'' has one, but purely by accident and is not a part of Bowser's plan. After beating Bowser for the final time, [[spoiler: his star reactor sinks into the sun, causing a huge chain reaction that creates a massive super black hole that begins to suck up everything in the universe. This is literally the end of the ''universe'' as they know it! All the Lumas throw themselves into the black hole to stop the destruction in a HeroicSacrifice]].
* ''AvalonCode'' has this as its premise. The world is going to get destroyed, and your job is to collect (well, scan them by hitting them with the book...) anything worth being recreated into the next world. [[spoiler:It turns out that this particular end is happening too soon, due to Werner and Olly's meddling.]]
* ''{{Mother 3}}'''s [[SealedEvilInACan Dark Dragon]] would easily destroy the world if [[spoiler: Porky's]] minions managed to pull at least four of the [[CosmicKeystone Seven Needles]].
** [[spoiler: He does anyway, but in the finale you find that most if not all of the good characters survived, presumably to be reborn into the next world.]]
* Several of these in the WingCommander series.
** In ''WingCommander III'', one of the missions is to shoot down missiles carrying biowarfare warheads that would render a planet uninhabitable by humans for centuries. Also the fate of Earth in the losing scenarios of the game, though just hinted at with a Terminator-esque scene of a [[MegaNeko Kilrathi]] boot crushing a human skull.
*** Of course, from the same game there's also the [[EarthShatteringKaboom more literal world-enders]] of the ''Behemoth'' and the Temblor Bomb.
** Believed to be the fate of humanity by [[WellIntentionedExtremist Tolwyn]] in ''WingCommander IV'', without his plan to shape humanity into a race focused on killing, as enacted by the [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Black Lance]].
** The novel ''Fleet Action'', by William Forstchen, not only has the Earth threatened with orbital bombardment by "dirty" nukes (averted by a BigDamnHeroes moment), but actually kills off a colony in orbit around Sirius by that manner, on the way to Earth.
*** ''Two'' colonies. And there's ''Wing Commander: Standoff'', a [[BetterThanItSounds fan-made]] space sim that follows the course of said novel.
* In ''[[ArmoredCore Armored Core for Answer]]'', it's implied that the ''[[VillainProtagonist main]] [[CompleteMonster character]]'' wiped out the rest of humanity on ending C. Other paths to humankind's extinction exist in the game as well...
* The ''{{Resistance}}'' series on the PS3 features TheVirus systematically conquering and assimilating humanity in an alternate history setting.
* This is the goal of pretty much everyone in ''[[ArTonelico Ar Tonelico 2]]''. [[spoiler: There are two different {{Instrumentality}} plans: Ascension halfway through the game and Sublimation at the end. You yourself almost destroy the known world when you [[NiceJobBreakingItHero screw up singing Metafalica]] early in the game, and at the end you have to destroy half of it in order to reveal the VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon.]]
* In ''TheElderScrolls IV: Oblivion'', the demonic lord Mehrunes Dagon seeks to destroy the mortal world, so Player Character & Friends have to stop him. In the expansion pack, the player must save ''another'' world...from its own creator, who is insane and has an irresistable urge to destroy his creations every once in a while.
* ''{{Touhou}}'', in its eleventh game, finally featured a BigBad who was actually willing to pull one of these off. She just happened to be a crow who was ''[[ILoveNuclearPower powered by nuclear fusion, and turning the underworld into a new Sun]]''.
* Skarin from ''VikingBattleForAsgard'' brings this about. Granted it's more the extremely uncomfortable variety but it still counts [[spoiler: since he unleashes Fenrir who kills the Gods thus bringing about the Norse version of the Apocalypse]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''CollegeRoomiesFromHell''. Don't be fooled by the early years; the "from Hell" part is quite literal.
* In ''TheWotch'', Anne actually [[http://www.thewotch.com/?epDate=2007-05-21 laughs at Xaos]] when he reveals that he wants to use her to [[http://www.thewotch.com/?epDate=2007-05-18 destroy all worlds]], claiming she is "not sure [he] thought this diabolical plan all the way through."
* This is the threat K'Z'K poses in ''SluggyFreelance''. [[AnotherDimension Other dimensions]] shown in the series have visited have faced similar threats. On a couple occasions the main characters have helped save these other worlds; on a couple other occasions, they're actually the ones responsible (directly or indirectly) for the destruction of the human race. Oops.
* Tom Siddell described ''City Face'' (a ''GunnerkriggCourt'' interim comic) as "a story of how love can save the world". It turns out to be literal: a fairy informs City Face that if he doesn't win the heart of his dream girl, the world could be destroyed, prompting the quote at the top of the page.
* Averting this trope is the main reason ''TheOrderOfTheStick'' have been struggling to foil Xykon and Redcloak. [[spoiler: May turn out to be a subversion, as recent revelations suggest there's more to the Snarl's prison than both good and bad guys have been led to believe.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* If the Dimensional Guardians from ''DimensionHeroes'' don't find the seven cybaspheres and fix the rip the space/time continuum, both their world and Creturia will destroy one another.
* In the animated UrbanFantasy ''BrokenSaints'', the EvilPlan of TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness involves [[spoiler: the death of almost every major politician and military leader on the planet, which, combined with the psychic trauma to surrounding populations and visions of "the eye of God" watching from the sky, will result in a collapse of modern societies, allowing for the BigBad to rebuild civilization anew, [[WellIntentionedExtremist more in keeping with his enlightened, philanthropic, and humanitarian views]].]]
* In the [[{{OrderOfTheStick}} Giant in the Playground]] [[http://www.giantitp.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=32 Freeform Roleplaying section]], this has apparently been threatened three times, and a fourth is planned. Although this one's going to be a conquer, not destroy, the world.
** Only Four? Back in the days when it was still known as "{{The Town}}," FFRP was threatened by a new end of the world scenario every week. From AMEN causing Apocalypses or the current BBEG threatening the World Tree to Irate Drakens causing blizzards. These Traditions have been carried over to The Town spin-off, Enupnion.
* ''SCPFoundation'' catalogs these as "XK-class end-of-the-world scenarios", and has many [[ArtifactOfDoom Artifacts Of Doom]] capable of triggering them.
* [[http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/end This video]]. You've probably seen it, it's the one with the nuclear holocaust and the fucking kangaroos.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* This sort of thing happens a lot, to any number of planets, at various points in the assorted ''{{Transformers}}'' cartoons, comics, etc. Some planets make it, some don't.
* The end of the world was threatened so many times by so many different villains of ''XiaolinShowdown'' that it was eventually [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]].
* Used in ''{{Futurama}}'', when the Professor and his crew must prevent a giant ball of 20th century New York garbage from returning to Earth and destroying the planet.
** Then there was the What If episode where Fry destroyed the universe by never coming to the future and causing a TemporalParadox.
** And again when the Brainspawn plan to destroy the Universe after learning every piece of data in it.
** And again when a box containing our Universe is about to be destroyed because [[spoiler: it's in a Universe that's about to be destroyed because it's in a box that's about to be thrown into the Sun.]] Try to sort that out.
* ''TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'' enjoyed doing this in as many ways as possible: Martian Zombies, all-powerful demons, everyone being turned into Cthulu-esque monsters, everyone being turned into demons, everyone being turned into a different TYPE of monster...
** Then there's the time Mandy grabbed a genie's lamp and wished everyone in the world would just go away. [[VillainProtagonist For her, that was a happy ending.]]
* The GrandFinale of ''DannyPhantom'' does this with [[spoiler: an asteroid]].
* The Season 4 3-part finale on ''TeenTitans'' to conclude the big Raven arc. [[spoiler: The world ended, but was restored after the BigBad was destroyed in Raven's big moment of CallingTheOldManOut.]]
* JusticeLeague faced these several times.
** ThePilot had the formation of the League to stop an invasion by the aliens that destroyed all life on Mars.
** ''War World'' [[SadisticChoice forced Superman to choose]] between death and letting this happen to an innocent planet.
** The second season finale, ''Starcrossed'', has the Earth invaded by the Thanagarians. They say they're building a giant shield generator to [[ForYourOwnGood protect us from even more hostile invading aliens]]. [[spoiler:It's actually a [[ShoutOut hyperspace bypass that will destroy the Earth.]]]]
** ''The Return'' has the super-android Amazo come streaking back in from wherever he's been, destroying [[GreenLantern Oa]] on his way back. [[spoiler:Turns out he just moved it out of the universe because it was in his way.]]
** ''Dark Heart'' had a gray goo scenario, with fairly large goo.
** ''The Once and Future Thing'' culminated with the unraveling of reality due to the [[TimeParadox injudicious use of time travel]].
** ''Divided We Fall'', the second season finale of ''Justice League Unlimited'', brought back [[spoiler:Brainiac, and his standard procedure of absorbing all information on a planet and then destroying the original]].
* Parodied in the ''SouthPark'' episode "Make Love, not [[WorldOfWarcraft Warcraft]]." A player in the game has become so powerful that even the admins can't stop him from killing other players, and the fear is that everyone will become frustrated and stop playing:
--> Gentlemen, this could very well lead to the end of the World... of Warcraft.
[[/folder]]
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