History Main / DepopulationBomb

* ''Series/AlexRider'': Dr. Greif gives a lecture in which he discusses a mass cull as a solution to overpopulation. Alex questions this, asking who decides who gets killed off, and Dr. Greif laughingly tells him that [[BlatantLies it's only a thought experiment]]. This makes Alex pretty sure that a mass cull is part of Dr Greif's long-term plan.

* The 1974 MadeForTVMovie ''Where Have All the People Gone?'' has a SolarFlareDisaster causing this.
* In ''The World, the Flesh and The Devil'' (adapted from M.P. Shiel's ''The Purple Cloud''; see Literature below), use of a radioactive poison kills most of the earth's population, resulting in a remaining New York population of only three people.

* In ''The World, the Flesh and The Devil'' (adapted from M.P. Shiel's ''The Purple Cloud'', see Literature below), use of a radioactive poison kills most of the earth's population, resulting in a remaining New York population of only three people.

** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E8TimeEnoughAtLast Time Enough at Last]]", Henry Bemis may be the last survivor in the aftermath of the nuclear war.
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E127TheOldManInTheCave The Old Man in the Cave]]", a nuclear war devastated Earth in 1964, killing millions of people in the process. Major French tells Mr. Goldsmith that there are approximately 500 people alive between Buffalo, New York and Atlanta, Georgia. In the ten years since the war, many people have died as a result of eating food contaminated with Strontium-90 or from the plague.
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E129Probe7OverAndOut Probe 7, Over and Out]]", Colonel Cook's people are wiped out in a devastating war within less than a day. The entire coast of Cook's country was destroyed in only 12 minutes, after which they responded in kind.
* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'': In "Quarantine", a nuclear holocaust occurred in 2043 when each side fired six missiles at the other. 80% of the world's population were wiped out and all of the major cities were destroyed. By 2347, Earth has a population of only 200,000.
* The '70s MadeForTVMovie ''Where Have All the People Gone?'' has a SolarFlareDisaster causing this.

* In ''Manga/DrStone'', some mysterious event [[TakenForGranite turns all of humanity to stone]] (except [[spoiler:[[WhatAboutTheAstronauts six astronauts on the ISS]]]]). {{Subverted|Trope}} in that the petrification is reversible, and the means to do so is one of the first things the protagonist discovers.

# Random genetic immunity to the virus-form of the Depopulation Bomb can be a plot device in itself, as an allegory for historical and/or contemporary themes (like racism and segregation) or as the social obstacle for a pair of star-crossed lovers.

* In ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDXD'', it's not the [[{{Muggles}} blissfully ignorant]] humans who are dealing with population problems, it's everyone else. Previously, Angels were created by God, and enough of them were led astray for the Fallen Angels to keep their numbers up; Devils reproduced sexually, their low fertility [[ImmortalProcreationClause offset by long lifespans]]. After the GreatOffscreenWar, GodIsDead, and with him any new Angels, and those that are left are far too devout to ever fall, leaving both those factions considering each individual more precious than ever. Meanwhile, Devils experienced such a severe depopulation that extinction was an inevitability and created the Evil Piece system in response in order to stabilize their population with reincarnated humans. [[spoiler:Later in the series, Angels and Fallen Angels have both borrowed the reincarnation techniques in their own ways, just in time for the vital element of it to get stolen.]]

* John Birmingham's ''Without Warning'' has a mysterious energy wave vaporize almost everyone in the continental United States, as well as the bulk of the populations of Canada, Mexico, and Cuba. While not a global depopulation bomb, it still thoroughly depopulates North America.

* In Creator/AlanDeanFoster's remake of ''Design for Great-Day'', the Solarian Combine is said to have used a Depopulation Bomb on the worlds of a particularly belligerent species; the effect of said bomb being to completely stop them from reproducing. One hundred or so years later, there were no more belligerent aliens. This rumor is enough to bring the Solarians' current target species to the negotiating table, although it's later revealed that they've grown far beyond such crude methods in the intervening centuries.

* In ''In the Mothers' Land'' by Élisabeth Vonarburg, far in the future, many children don't survive to adulthood, and the survivors are [[LadyLand more than 95% female]]. Different societies in this world cope with the situation in various ways, but this story takes place in Maerlande, where the official religious explanation is that things changed to the current state as [[GaiasVengeance divine punishment on men who misused technology and behaved badly]]. In this society, men have very few rights and are confined to reproductive duty, being traded between cities to keep genetic diversity up.

* In ''A Planet for the President'', in order to put an end to the growing environmental crisis derived from global warming, the United States cabinet decides to infect most of Earth's population with a deadly virus, which the US inhabitants are vaccinated against. Thing is, the President is allergic to eggs, so his vaccine must be produced elsewhere. However, all the vaccines (save for the President's) turn out to be faulty, and the illness also affects the US population: in the end, the President is the last human alive.

%%* Creator/JackLondon's ''The Scarlet Plague''.%%Administrivia/ZeroContextExample

* In ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'', [[spoiler:Thanos successfully obtains all six of the Infinity Gems and wipes out half the population of the entire universe. ''Film/AvengersEndgame'' shows both the fallout of this, and eventually restores all the snapped-out life]].