History Main / OnlyOneAfterlife

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Dilbert}}'': When Dilbert has a near-death experience, he finds himself in a white void that contains nothing but an office cubicle and struggles with the implication that this is all the afterlife is. After meeting The Wallyites, a cult focused on his co-worker Wally who believe we spend the afterlife with Wally, Dilbert has another near-death experience and finds that Wally is now sitting in the cubicle next to his. The ending leaves it ambigious wether or not anything Dilbert saw was real or if his brain just dreamed up his own expectations.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS23E16HowIWetYourMother "How I Wet Your Mother"]], as the family are falling to their deaths, Professor Frink tells them that he's managed to prove there's no doubt that Hell exists and everybody goes there. Though people have been seen going to Heaven have appeared in other episodes.

!!'''Warning. As a DeathTrope, all Spoilers will be unmarked ahead.'''

[[quoteright:260:[[WesternAnimation/RobotChicken https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/4ed15eb3_887d_47f2_aa1c_88b8625a4706.jpeg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:260:Yes folks. ''[[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Hitler]]'' in {{Heaven}}.]]

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[[folder:Film - Live-Action]]

!Examples

This kind of situation can be seen in stories as result from the factor of there being a DevilButNoGod. Then again it might just happen that GodIsEvil or the fact neither the God nor the Devil happen to exist. Sometimes this may be a case of ReroutedFromHeaven, if it's happening because evil forces have taken control of the system of the hereafter.

* In ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'', all human characters who perish in the series (Apostles especially) end up being sent to the Abyss, a realm consisting of only nightmarish forms and a swirling ocean of writhing souls known as both Heaven and Hell. Considering the CrapsackWorld that Berserk is set in, many would consider the Abyss to be Hell, especially since it is the source of the setting's primary supernatural villains, the demon gods known as the God Hand [[spoiler:and the Idea of Evil that created them]]. It's implied that the Abyss is actually the astral plane, the realm of the human subconscious mind and soul, which is why [[spoiler: The Idea of Evil]] is there in the first place, having been brought into existence by the collective subconscious of humanity.
* ''Manga/DeathNote'' sees Ryuk inform Light at the start of the series that "Those who use the Death Note don't go to Heaven or to Hell". Near the end, a flashback shows Light applying some thought to this and concluding that Heaven and Hell ''don't exist'', which Ryuk confirms. The Death Note's own rules state that all humans who die "go to Mu" - whether that's TheNothingAfterDeath or CessationOfExistence can be argued (most fans lean towards the latter), but either way, there's nothing there, and ''everyone'' goes to it.

* ''Comicbook/TheDarkness''. According to Danny Estacado, a previous host of the Darkness Entity, and Nick (who is actually the true Devil that religious stories of Lucifer and The Devil are all based on), all souls - whether they were good or evil in life - eventually fall into Hell. A rather disheartening side note is that there actually is a Heaven in the series but no human soul has ever been seen to enter it due to the fact only "beings of light" are allowed entrance.

* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/AllDogsGoToHeaven'': Every dog is immediately sent to heaven after death. And this applies specifically to dogs because, according to the greeting angel known as Annabelle, "All dogs go to Heaven because, unlike people, dogs are naturally good and loyal and kind." The catch is they don't always ''stay'' in the same afterlife. Dogs that aren't good boys tend to find it a HellOfAHeaven and try to return to life. Doing so makes them lose their automatic amnesty after which they are just as likely as men to end in the ''other'' place.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Coco}}'', everybody goes for the same afterlife as long as their family/descendants remember them. It's theorised that they might move on somewhere else when their descendants forget about them but it's ultimately unknown.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Soul}}'' has dead people moving on to an OffscreenAfterlife called The Great Beyond, apparently with no Hell analogue. There is however The Great Before where souls originate before they're born on Earth. Some dead people go to the Before to coach a soul before they move on to the Beyond themselves or you could fall off the StairwayToHeaven like the protagonist.

* In ''Film/DefendingYourLife'' after death everyone goes to an AfterlifeAntechamber called Judgement City for a few days where their life will be reviewed; if they were good enough - which boils down to whether or not they were able to overcome fear - they AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence, but if they weren't good enough (too fearful) they're reincarnated to try again. Everyone goes through it, but one perceives it differently based on their culture.
* ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}'': All dead go to the same afterlife were apparently they remain somewhat looking like the way they died and just live in a twisted gothic version of our world (some may haunt their old homes however), which is not really heaven or hell (depending on your liking) the only ones truly punished are suicides, who are forced to be government workers.

* There's a joke where an atheist dies and goes to FluffyCloudHeaven. As he's being shown around, he sees Muslims, Jews, Hindus and Buddhists all coexisting peacefully, and an enormous wall. When he asks what's on the other side, he's told "Christians- [[EgocentricallyReligious they think they're the only ones around.]]" There's variations of the joke with other groups instead as well.

* ''The Last Trump'' by Creator/IsaacAsimov has the Devil convince God to bring about the end of the world, with everyone dead being resurrected and put under the same conditions - endless existence with nothing besides the people. One person claims this is heaven, but then another points out that there is nothing beyond Earth, buildings are crumbling, hills are flattening, desires are gone... Soon, there will be nothing but a featureless plain and people. Fire And Brimstone Hell is unworthy of divine imagination; an eternity of nothingness is a different matter. This was the Devil's idea, with him claiming that since every group has their idea of afterlife, the proper design should be the greatest common divisor-nothing but eternal existence.

* ''Series/LegendOfTheSeeker''. Like in ''Literature/TheSalvationWar'', ''everyone'' who dies goes to a FireAndBrimstoneHell. However, Darken Rahl implies at one point that it's only because the veil has been torn that everyone who dies goes there -- in the normal course of things, only bad people go there, while good people go to some mostly unspecified but presumably much nicer place to "bask in the Creator's light forever".[[note]]In the books it's explained that the underworld has levels of a sort, with the righteous becoming "good spirits" that dwell on the top near the light, while the wicked plunge down into the depths where they're tormented by the Keeper forever.[[/note]]
* ''Series/TheGoodPlace'' has two afterlife destinations, the titular Good Place and its counterpart the Bad Place. [[spoiler:However, it's eventually revealed that the extremely arbitrary ranking system used to determine who goes where hasn't actually let any humans into the Good Place for ''hundreds'' of years, effectively creating a world with only one (very nasty) afterlife]].

** In UsefulNotes/{{Pandeism}}, the idea is that all people (and everything in our Universe) is simply ''part of'' a God which has chosen to become our Universe to experience our lives, and so cannot separately intervene in them; when we die we simply go back to being one with our Creator. This ultimate idea is reflected in pandeistic branches of UsefulNotes/{{Hinduism}}, though in those theologies we may be reincarnated many times before that happens (and through those reincarnations, become enlightened).

** In this case it's a logical exaggeration of the "repent and be saved" dogma, as everyone there says they accepted Jesus as their savior before death.

* ''Series/TheGoodPlace'' has two afterlife destinations, the titular Good Place and its counterpart the Bad Place. spoiler:However, it's eventually revealed that the extremely arbitrary ranking system used to determine who goes where hasn't actually let any humans into the Good Place for ''hundreds'' of years, effectively creating a world with only one (very nasty) afterlife]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Coco}}'', everybody goes for the same afterlife as long as their family/descendants remember them. It's theorises that they might move on somewhere else when their descendants forget about them but it's ultimately unknown.

* Creator/StephenKing's novel ''Literature/{{Revival}}'' has a particularly bleak example: everyone goes to the same hellish place. '''Everyone'''. Every single human being who has ever existed, including teens, children and babies, no matter their actions, end in the same nightmarish wasteland walking naked in an interminable line harressed by monstruous Lovecraftian ant-like creatures and prey upon by giant {{Eldritch Abomination}}s.

* TheUnderworld of many mythologies (notably Greek) is seen as the final destination of all mortals (and some immortals), in which they either receive eternal rest or torment and often with their deeds in life giving no difference to their fates. Some examples would include realms such as Hades (Greek) and Irkalla (Mesopotamian).
** Though Hades' realm is often described as split up into special areas for the worst and best of humanity. Most people go to the bleak Asphodel fields, those who have particularly offended the gods are tormented in Tartarus, and the greatest heroes and philosophers resided in the Elysian Fields.
** Mesopotamian Irkalla is a partial example, as people who did not receive a proper burial (having been burned, died alone in the desert…) simply [[CessationOfExistence ceased to exist]] instead of going there.

* ''Manga/{{Dorohedoro}}'': Everyone goes to Hell when they die. At least they do in the world of the [[WitchSpecies magic users]] (what the afterlife situation is like in the world of Hole isn't mentioned). This is because the creator of the magic user world is [[DevilButNoGod basically Satan]], who made Hell, the magic user world, and everyone in it [[ItAmusedMe all out of boredom]]. The best you can hope for is to become a Devil yourself, but that's an option only available to a few magic users hand-picked by other Devils and involves strenuous training and testing. Everyone else gets tortured for eternity. This is implied to be common knowledge, but nobody seems particularly broken up about it.

* In ''Literature/HisDarkMaterials'', ''everyone'', from all possible universes, ends up in the same queue for the same underworld.

Here is an example of such a situation so you can better understand. Let's say you're meeting two characters for the first time. You find out that one character is [[AllLovingHero a veritable saint]] and the other is [[JerkWithAHeartOfJerk a rude and completely unfriendly person]] who has committed crimes that [[MoralEventHorizon you would believe had grievously crossed the line]]. You would think (if you believe in an afterlife for the just and unjust) that the saint would go to one and the sinner would go to the other, right? In this case, you're dead wrong. This trope can land on the Cynical or Idealistic extreme of the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism depending on the nature of the afterlife in question and the setting that is mentioned in the story. Regardless of what end of the spectrum the story lands on, AllAreEqualInDeath is the way of the story's hereafter.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Coco}}'', everybody goes for he same afterlife as long as their family/descendents remember them. It's theorises that they might move on somewhere else when their descendants forget about them but it's ultimately unknown.

* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/AllDogsGoToHeaven'': Every dog is immediately sent to heaven after death. And this applies specifically to dogs because, according to the greeting angel known as Annabelle, "All dogs go to Heaven because, unlike people, dogs are naturally good and loyal and kind." The catch is they don't always ''stay'' in the same afterlife. Dogs that aren't good boys tend to find it HellOfAHeaven and try to return to life. Doing so makes them lose their automatic amnesty after which they are just as likely as men to end in the ''other'' place.

* In ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', everyone who dies ends up in a realm called the Pure Land, the afterlife in which the souls of earthly beings generally reside in death. [[ContuinityDrift Oddly]], this is casually portrayed as a verifiable fact, even though Zabuza talked about whether he'd go to heaven and hell much earlier.

* In ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', everyone who dies ends up in a realm called the Pure Land, the afterlife in which the souls of earthly beings generally reside in death.

Here is an example of such a situation so you can better understand. Let's say you're meeting two characters for the first time. You find out that one character is [[AllLovingHero a veritable saint]] and the other is [[JerkWithAHeartOfJerk a rude and completely unfriendly person]] who has committed crimes that [[MoralEventHorizon you would believe had grievously crossed the line]]. You would think (if you believe in an afterlife for the just and unjust) that the saint would go to one and the sinner would go to the other, right? In this case, you're dead wrong. This trope can land on Cynical or Idealistic extreme of SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism depending on the nature of the afterlife in question and the setting that is mentioned in the story. Regardless of what end of the spectrum the story lands on, AllAreEqualInDeath is the way of the story's hereafter.

The circumstance of a SelfInflictedHell (or Heaven) form of this trope can be present if the single afterlife has the same conditions for all, but it's resident can make it Heaven and Hell for themselves depending on who they are.

** Mesopotamian Irkalla is a partial example, as people who did not receive a proper burial (having been burned, died in the desert…) simply [[CessationOfExistence ceased to exist]] instead of going there.