History Main / TowerOfBabel

* ''ComicBook/JLA1997'': In the storyline titled "[[ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmericaTowerOfBabel Tower of Babel]]", Ra's al Ghul creates a series of towers around the world that transmit a signal affecting all of humanity. Phase 1 causes people to no longer understand spoken language, leaving mankind unable to talk to one another. Phase 2 ramps this up to extend to written language: all labels and signs are now gibberish, with the intent being that the ensuing chaos will reduce the population to a size that Ra's approves of (and can easily control, of course). The League is only able to coordinate their counterattacks thanks to a telepathic link, courtesy of Martian Manhunter, although things have been made even harder for them by Ra's stealing and using ComicBook/{{Batman}}'s [[CrazyPrepared contingency plans]] for disabling the members of the League...

This page is for allusions and references to the legend; for the trope about ominously imposing skyscrapers in general, see TheTower. See also CurseOfBabel for the language mix-up, LanguageBarrier for the RealLife version, and SpaceElevator for the ScienceFiction version. As to whether the successful completion of one will lead to God confounding our tongues ''[[StarfishLanguage even more]]'', stay tuned! Compare with {{Yggdrasil}}, The WorldTree of Norse Mythology that has a similar height. SubTrope of JourneyToTheSky.

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This page is for allusions and references to the legend; for the trope about ominously imposing skyscrapers in general, see TheTower. See also CurseOfBabel for the language mix-up, LanguageBarrier for the RealLife version, and SpaceElevator for the [[ScienceFiction SciFi]] version. As to whether the successful completion of one will lead to God confounding our tongues ''[[StarfishLanguage even more]]'', stay tuned! Compare with {{Yggdrasil}}, The WorldTree of Norse Mythology that has a similar height. SubTrope of JourneyToTheSky.

* In ''Anime/ACertainMagicalIndexMiracleOfEndymion'', Academy City debuts a SpaceElevator called Endymion. Index compares it to the Tower of Babel. [[spoiler: It turns out the elevator's creators deliberately modeled Endymion to be like the Tower of Babel in an attempt to ruin the world by recreating the original Biblical disaster.]]
* In ''Manga/AnimalLand'', the biblical tower is alluded to with a location named after it [[spoiler: however, unlike the biblical one which caused all languages to be separated, it contains a device that will enable all animals to understand one another.]]
* In ''Manga/BabelII'' the legend of the tower is mixed with AncientAstronauts to become the core of the plot.
* Creator/MamoruOshii's planned ''Franchise/LupinIII'' film was going to feature a MadScientist who rebuilt the Tower of Babel in Tokyo. The film was canceled for being too [[MindScrew Mind Screwy]] (more info [[http://lupincentral.tumblr.com/post/115201151708/asphaltwilderness-in-1984-mamoru-oshii-was-hired here]]), but apparently TMS Entertainment liked the idea of having a ''Lupin'' movie with Biblical lore enough to have the "replacement" movie ''Anime/LegendOfTheGoldOfBabylon'' use the Tower of Babel as a plot point. [[spoiler:In the movie, it was built by aliens. No, really.]]

* In ''Anime/{{Symphogear}}'', the first season's BigBad, Finé, is motivated by revenge on God[=/=][[{{Precursors}} "The Custodians"]] for inflicting the Curse of Babel on mankind, which culminates in her [[spoiler:building a new Tower that doubles as a WaveMotionGun in an attempt to [[DetonationMoon destroy the moon]], which she claims is the curse's physical anchor]]. The Symphogears [[ThePowerOfRock are powered by music]] because it's a form of communication which transcends language, [[spoiler:and in their {{Super Mode}}s, usually triggered by [[CombinedEnergyAttack the group song "Song (Babel) of the Beginning"]], can simply [[{{Telepathy}} transmit the user's thoughts and feelings directly]]]]. [[spoiler: Turns out the Custodians had a pretty Good Reason for inflicting the Curse of Babel on humanity, as Shem-ha, the GreaterScopeVillain of the franchise, was actually trying to use {{Yggdrasil}}, the norse counterpart of the tower, to take over all of humanity when they all shared the original language, and in reality, using Kadingir on the moon actually jump started Shem-ha's plans to return. Ooops.]]
* ''Manga/HellGirlEmma'': King Nemrod is building a massive tower no matter how many slaves it kills. His son, suffering from a skin condition that makes him unable to live in direct sunlight (in the Middle East), wishes he'd stop, [[spoiler:then it's revealed the entire reason Nemrod was building it in the first place was to reach the sun and demand it stop making his son miserable.]]
* ''Anime/Metropolis2001'' starts with the Government building a massive ziggurat in the center of the eponymous city, and explicitly compares it to the Tower of Babel. They also note that while the original was built to defy God, their structure is instead dedicated to Him. [[spoiler:It's actually a {{Superweapon}} intended to win the upcoming World War, and requires the android Tima to control it.]]

[[folder: Art]]

* The Tarot card "The Tower" (currently described at TheTower) gains its implications of overweening pride and impending disaster by reference to the Tower of Babel.

[[folder:Comics]]
* ''ComicBook/TheSimpsons:'' In one anthology-style issue, the Prodigal Child at one point removes two poles from a construction site, hoping to entice his friend into playing with them. It doesn't work, and the Child doesn't even notice as behind him the tower collapses, the construction workers wondering, in different languages, what the heck just happened.
* ''ComicBook/JLA1997:'' There was a storyline titled [[ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmericaTowerOfBabel 'Tower of Babel']], in which Ra's Al Ghul created a series of towers around the world that transmitted a signal affecting all of humanity - phase 1 caused people to no longer understand spoken language, leaving mankind unable to talk to one another. Phase 2 ramped this up to extend to written language - all labels and signs were now gibberish, with the intent being that the insuing chaos would reduce the population to a size that Ra's approved of (and could easily control, of course). The League was only able to coordinate their counter attacks thanks to a telepathic link, courtesy of Martian Manhunter, although things had been made even harder for them by Ra's stealing and using ComicBook/{{Batman}}'s [[CrazyPrepared contingency plans]] for disabling the members of the League...

* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5304252/6/I-shall-endure-to-the-end I Shall Endure to The End]]'' has the demon Crowley and the angel Azaraphile present at the fall of a large sky-pointing structure. As Genesis is still being edited and written at the time, their account becomes the basis for the Biblical Babel. [[note]]what they have actually witnessed is the collapse of one of the first pyramids, at Maidun in Egypt. The Egyptians didn't quite have the hang of it, tried to build this pyramid too high and steep, and the unstable structure collapsed. As it was meant to "reach the stars" in the metaphorical sense of astronomy, and because peoples of many tribes and languages were working on it, this became the Babel of Genesis. It helped one of the peoples working to build it were obscure Hebrew-speaking Semites who wrote it into their holy book, who later left Egypt to found a land of their own...[[/note]]

* In the MatureAnimalStory ''Comicbook/CaptainCarrotAndHisAmazingZooCrew'' {{Elseworld}} ''The Harmony Trap'', the parable is [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/673833/9/Amazing-Zoo-Crew-The-Harmony-Trap Aesop's Tower]], which was built by the Primal Beings, without fur, feathers or scales. While the story gets interrupted before the end, it seems to be implied that God's punishment involved the speciation of the Primal Beings, resulting in the {{Funny Animal}}s that inhabit the world today.

[[folder:Film]]
* ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'': The city's ruler lives in the unsubtly-named skyscraper "New Tower of Babel". Maria's sermon/allegory of Why Metropolis Is Messed Up is a retelling of the Babel legend.
* A model of the tower is used by future One Nation Earth agents preparing for the coming one-world order and its ReligionOfEvil in the Film/{{Apocalypse}} film series movie ''Tribulation''. It's also on the cover of Franco Macalousso's book ''Babel Becomes One''.
* According to the DVDCommentary, the Oscorp tower in ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan'' was designed to invoke the image of a Tower of Babel, the tallest building in New York where scientists play God.
* In ''Film/{{Napoleon}}'', the council of war held by the forces defending Toulon is described by the intertitles as "a veritable tower of Babel" (five languages are spoken: English, German, Spanish, Italian, and French).

* In Creator/TerryPratchett's science fiction novel ''Literature/TheDarkSideOfTheSun'', set in the distant future, the people have a legend which is a sequel to the Tower of Babel. It tells of how, in the late twentieth century, mankind once again attempted to reach heaven, and God caused them to be unable to communicate with one another by striking them with the curse of Jargon.
* C.S. Lewis was alluding to this in ''Literature/ThatHideousStrength''. While the bad guys weren't making a big tower, they were planning to go against God's will by perverting science. The title of the novel even comes from Sir David Lindsay's ''Ane Dialog'', describing the original Tower of Babel.
* In the novel ''Literature/{{Hollow}}'', the Tower has long since fossilized into a stone mass and become indistinguishable from mere mountain, albeit very tall and oddly shaped, that the locals call "Das Kagel". The books and the stones have been pressed together into one from the massive weight of the structure and the passage of time, and eating these pieces grants incomplete knowledge of whatever the books used to contain.
* In the short story ''[[http://www.ibooksonline.com/88/Text/tower.html Tower of Babylon]]'' by Creator/TedChiang, the tower has been built over centuries to well past the moon, with people living on it their entire lives, and everyone a little nervous because God has remained silent on the issue. They finally hit a ceiling, and the protagonist is part of a group of miners brought in to dig their way into Heaven...

* In the setting of ''[[Literature/{{Somewhither}} A Tale of the Unwithering Realm]]'', there exists a universe (the main antagonists, in fact) where the biblical Tower of Babel was built succesfully--and promptly built up into a StarScraper over the centuries; it is now called simply "The Dark Tower".
* In ''Literature/{{Chindi}}'' by Creator/JackMcDevitt a virtual reality recording of Babylon taken by AncientAstronauts is discovered. On watching it, the protagonists are amused to see the real Tower is only a dozen stories high.

* [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Castiel]] from ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' remembers when the Tower Of Babel fell...all thirty-five feet of it ("which I suppose was impressive in those days"). And it didn't fall because of divine retribution, it fell because dried dung can only be stacked so high.
* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "Journey to Babel". The Enterprise carries a group of Federation ambassadors to a planetoid named Babel. Several of the ambassadors quarrel with each other repeatedly during the trip, almost as if they were speaking different languages.
* ''Series/BabylonFive'' was named in reference to this, with the titular station being the fifth of a series of stations that were built by the humans to serve as a meeting place for all the major alien powers to talk out their differences rather than risk another massive interstellar war like the Earth-Minbari War. Why was it the fifth such station? The first three were destroyed during construction, and the fourth one [[UnstuckInTime just plain disappeared]]. [[GenreBlindness What did they expect]] [[WhatDidYouExpectWhenYouNamedIt with a name like that?]]

** "A Wild, Wild Party", a number in Andrew Lippa musical likens the setting of a prohibition-era party to the Tower of Babel and other Biblical instances of decadence.

-->Welcome to our Tower of Babel
-->Learn the language come what may
* In ''Theatre/{{Godspell}}'', the opening number "Tower of Babble" consists of eight famous philosophers singing in counterpoint and arguing with each other, evoking a metaphorical Tower of Babel in which incompatible worldviews are causing dissension and conflict among the people, until UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} shows up and teaches them the true way.
* Music/PeterGabriel's "The Tower That Ate People" is a modern industrial take on the legend.

* Namco's 1986 Famicom puzzle-platformer aptly named ''VideoGame/TheTowerOfBabel''. It stars adventurer-archaeologist Indy Borgnine on a journey to reach the top of the eponymous tower to prove the existence of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
* ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor'' runs on this [[spoiler: with Babel being the final boss and the focus of much of the story]].
* In ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne'', [[FinalDungeon the Tower of Kagutsuchi]] has some ''damn'' strong vibes of this, as it not only leads to the Avatar of God Almighty himself, but is ''666 floors tall''.
* In ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiImagine'', mankind erected a 666-floor tower in the ruins of Shinjuku to celebrate mankind's retaking the world from the demons that threatened to destroy them. The tower's creation, however, caused three obelisks to emerge, as well as a resurgence in demon activity. Thus, the tower came to be known as "Shinjuku Babel". The Babel mythology is also recounted in the game's intro.
* In ''VideoGame/EvolveIdle'', there are demon races (and an [[spoiler: evil universe]]) where the science boosting wardenclyffes are replaced with Towers of Babel, complete with flavor text that reads "A vantage point to challenge the heavens." Since there appears to be DevilButNoGod, your race isn't then stricken with different languages and forced to disperse since nobody can understand each other anymore, as in the original story.
* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'':
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'':
*** Golbez and the Four Fiends erect the Tower of Babil. Based in the underworld, it rises through the Earth's surface into the sky. It's powered by the stolen [[PowerCrystal Crystals]].
*** The Giant of Babil, a HumongousMecha built by the Lunarians in order to wipe out humanity, looks like a fortress with legs in Amano's concept artwork and it's huge enough to be a dungeon. [[spoiler:In the DS/cell phone version, a prototype of it can be fought as a {{Superboss}} in NewGamePlus, and it's considered the most difficult battle in the game.]]
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' has the babil, a type of {{Golem}} that (like some of the other golems) physically resembles a tower. It also has a rarer, more powerful version called "Tower".
** The Tower of Babel is a wonder in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics''.
* The Tower of Babel in ''VideoGame/IllusionOfGaia''. It serves as the final dungeon of the game, as well as being a point of interest and recurring element in the plot. The main character actually joined an expedition (headed by his father alongside the father of one of his friends) that was meant to "discover" and explore the Tower... which ultimately went south, leaving the protagonist with partial amnesia of the expedition and setting up the events of the game.

* The Tower of Babel is the last monument to be built in ''Videogame/DoshinTheGiant''. Bad stuff happens immediately afterwards.

* ''VideoGame/MentalOmega''. The name of the final Epsilon mission, Babel, alludes to the tower. The biblical tower was possible due to all men sharing a single language, and it was stopped when people started speaking different tongues. Instead, "Babel" here refers to [[spoiler:the Mental Omega Device, a large tower that will mind control everyone on the planet. Yuri plans to use the Device to bring all of humanity under "one mind" and put an end to war.]]

* ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheTwoThrones'' takes place in Babylon, with the royal palace built as an immense circular tower, slowly tapering as the tower rises. Considering that there are several wooden gantries with counterweights and ropes around the walls of the palace, it is apparently still in a state of construction, even as big as it is. The parallel with the Tower of Babel is probably intentional.
* ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'' has Babel Tower. In order to contact Shevat, the party must climb to the top of it, [[GameplayandStorySegregation never mind the fact that Gears can fly.]] [[PlatformHell There aren't really any stairs, so you progress by jumping across platforms.]] ''Xenogears'' has a jump button, but it is by no means a platformer. If a random encounter is loading, you lose the ability to jump, and if you're doing this while approaching the edge of a platform and the button doesn't respond, you fall. When you fall, you go ''all the way down to the bottom of the tower and have to do the whole godforsaken thing over again.'' "ThatOneLevel" doesn't even ''begin'' to describe it. [[spoiler: The truth about the tower is it's actually a remnant of a giant spaceship that crashed into the planet thousands of years ago.]]
* The Tower of Babel is the final stage in ''VideoGame/ForgottenWorlds'', found in the Heaven-like "Sky World" and serving as the lair of the BigBad, "Celestial Emperor Bios", the "God of Gods".
* ''VideoGame/{{Freespace}} 2'' references the parable through [[spoiler: Admiral Bosch's ETAK (short for Etemnanki) Project, which seeks to establish contact, and if possible an alliance, with the Shivans.]]
* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr1aFFmPqmY opening cinematic]] for ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}} III'' seems to be alluding to it, with a slow, circling pan up what starts as an ancient Mesopotamian tower that transforms into medieval crenelations, industrial brick dwellings, and finally modern skyscrapers at the top.
* Though the {{Franchise/Nasuverse}} does not explicitly reference the Tower, Masters of Babel are people who speak the language of ancient Babylon, when humanity had one culture and language. As the root of all human communication the Unified Language possesses unique power over any human listener.
* ''VideoGame/PopNMusic 19 TUNE STREET'' pays homage to the Tower with its final 3 unlockable songs of Town Mode, all of which have a 2-parter title starting with Babel with a capital L at the end (～Grand Story～, ～Next Story～ and ～roof garden～). Incidentally, the rival character being displayed while playing the three songs is the tall tower being built and upgraded with the aforementioned Town Mode.
* The Stone Tower in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'' has been interpreted as a metaphor for the Tower of Babel. Read more [[http://www.zeldauniverse.net/2011/09/13/the-message-of-majoras-mask/ here.]]
* The hideout Carmen Sandiego uses in ''[[VideoGame/CarmenSandiegoWordDetective Word Detective]]'' is called "[[PunnyName The Tower of Babble]]". [[DontExplainTheJoke Get it?]] The pun is continued with the Babble-On ("Babylon") Machine that Carmen is using to [[IntangibleTheft steal language]].
* The Tower of Babel is the site of a SpaceElevator to the moon in both ''VideoGame/BattleClash'' and its sequel, ''Metal Combat: Falcon's Revenge''
* ''VideoGame/AceCombat7SkiesUnknown'' revolves around a SpaceElevator known as "the Lighthouse." [[spoiler: The IUN-PKF Gargoyle Squadron has secret orders to destroy the Lighthouse in Mission 4 while Mage Squadron is rescuing the former Osean president.]] Fittingly enough, the code words to signal this operation are "Babel, Babel, Babel."
* ''VideoGame/CrusaderOfCenty'' has the Tower of Babel somewhere in the middle. At the top, there's a rope ascending further into heaven. You have to climb the rope, at which point it collapses and turns into a boss monster, and the tower collapses after the battle. MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext.
* The ''Forgotten Sanctuary'' stage from ''VideoGame/DragonsCrown'' was once a massive tower made in an attempt to reach the Gods' realm. Needless to say, this pissed the Gods off royally, and both the tower and its surrounding city were leveled.
* While not a true "Tower of Babel", the Shrine of Worship in ''VideoGame/ShadowOfTheColossus'' is heavily inspired by the Tower of Babel, being remarkable in how unbelievably massive it is. Not only is it easily visible across the entire map, it is also the residence of Dormin, the [[BlueAndOrangeMorality morally ambiguous]] deity who promises Wander the resurrection of Mono(To further add to the comparison, Dormin spelled backwards is Nimrod, the king who ordered the Tower of Babel's construction).
* In ''Barbie Explorer'', the third level in Babylon is called "The Tower." The tower is question houses the treasure to be found.

* Played with in [[https://xkcd.com/2421/ this]] ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}''. God is actually impressed by the tower, and decides to reward humanity with an abundance of one specific thing they want. [[InSpiteOfANail Unfortunately, one of the people to reach the top is a linguist.]]
* Reimagined in the comic [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Webcomic/MilhamahFightingWords Milhamah: Fighting Words]] as a broadcast tower, [[https://milhamah.com/comic/ch-1-past-and-present-pg-2/ Bavel]].

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* The [[Creator/MaxAndDaveFleischer Max Fleischer]] WesternAnimation/ColorClassics short “Greedy Humpty Dumpty” heavily alludes to the Tower of Babel with the titular egg forcing all of Mother Gooseland to build him a wall to reach the sun [[InsaneTrollLogic because he thinks the sun has gold in it]]. This ends with him [[RageAgainstTheHeavens PISSING OFF THE SUN]] and a [[LightningCanDoAnything lighting bolt coming to life to spank him for his greed]] before the tower and subsequently his castle collapses; you can probably guess how the story ends from there...
[[/folder]]

This page is for allusions and references to the legend; for the trope about ominously imposing skyscrapers in general, see TheTower. See also CurseOfBabel for the language mix-up, LanguageBarrier for the RealLife version, and SpaceElevator for the SciFi version. As to whether the successful completion of one will lead to God confounding our tongues ''[[StarfishLanguage even more]]'', stay tuned! Compare with {{Yggdrasil}}, The WorldTree of Norse Mythology that has a similar height. SubTrope of JourneyToTheSky.

** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "Babel". An engineered virus is released that afflicts people with aphasia, rendering them unable to understand any language.

** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNini'' episode "Babel". An engineered virus is released that afflicts people with aphasia, rendering them unable to understand any language.

* [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Castiel]] from ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' remembers when the Tower Of Babel fell...all thirty-five feet of it. And it didn't fall because of divine retribution, it fell because dried dung can only be stacked so high.

The Tower of Babel (Hebrew: מגדל בבל‎ Migdal Bavel Arabic: برج بابل‎ Burj Babil), according to the Literature/BookOfGenesis, was an enormous tower built in the plain of Shinar, a tower so tall it offended God.

*** The Giant of Babil, a HumongousMecha built by the Lunarians in order to wipe out humanity, looks like a fortress with legs in Amano's concept artwork and it's huge enough to be a dungeon. [[spoiler:In the DS/cell phone version, a prototype of it can be fought as a BonusBoss in NewGamePlus, and it's considered the most difficult battle in the game.]]