History Main / ApocalypseWow

* ''Film/Armageddon1998'' features the destruction of Paris by asteroid impact in one of the more impressive scenes of the movie.

* ''Literature/JurassicPark'' features this at the end [[spoiler:when the fictional Costa Rican Air Force destroys Isla Nublar with Napalm]].

* ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty 4: VideoGame/ModernWarfare'':

** Things get even worse (or better, in way of trope examples) in the sequel. We see [[spoiler:the US East Coast being invaded by the Russians, UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC in ruins, and an EMP occurring over the city wiping out all forms of electronics on the US East Coast!]]

* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer: Tiberian Sun'': The ending of the Nod campaign has [[spoiler:Kane teleporting off the world while his Apocalypse missile starts, then launch its capsules and finally unleashes the Tiberium bomb that sets Earth's atmosphere ablaze and turns everything into pure Tiberium.]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Crysis 3}}'' opens up with a vision Prophet has about the Ceph forces arriving at Earth, with him being unable to do anything but watch as it is destroyed. Towards the end of the game, [[spoiler: the very same thing happens and you can even watch the Ceph freeze the planet if you do not succeed in stopping them in time.]]

* The [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 PS2]] version of ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' has its New Dark Age Ending cutscene showing the lab explosion being seen from space, and [[BigBlackout the lit cities of Earth all going out]].

** In the second game, ''the Sun downloads the Earth''. That is depicted as the Earth slowly dissolving into - golden this time - data and being absorbed in a manner eerily similar to that of a black hole. It doesn't help that [[WeirdSun the sun is black]].

* Mark Geston's novel ''Literature/LordsOfTheStarship'' is about a vast rocketship that takes well over a century to complete, at which point two immense armies fight for control of it. Then the ship uses its rocket exhausts to incinerate the armies, and then reverses thrust to incinerate itself. Then the shadowy enemy that designed the ship in the first place sends a couple of city-sized fireballs to finish the job.
* The great freezing at the end of Creator/KurtVonnegut's ''Literature/CatsCradle'', which sounded like "the great door of heaven being closed softly" and, within moments, caused the sky to fill with tornadoes.

* The asteroid colliding with Earth and ''breaking it into pieces'' in ''Literature/{{Remnants}}'', near the end of the first book.
* Though the actual Shattering is not described, the vivid imagery of huge fragments of landscape tumbling through the Void in ''Literature/TheShatteredWorld'' makes it clear that the titular world's breaking '''must have been''' an ApocalypseWow. The collision between two fragments in the sequel, ''The Burning Realm'', gives an ominous preview of the surviving fragments' impending doom.
* This happens in the 1933 classic ''Literature/WhenWorldsCollide'', in the kind of spectacular fashion that you'd probably have guessed from the title. The 1951 film adaptation did the best it could with this, but the upcoming remake certainly should provide more of the disaster porn as described in the book, to say the least.
* Creator/ArthurCClarke:
** ''Literature/TheSongsOfDistantEarth'' had its doomed planetbound inhabitants set up cameras to record images of the end of the Earth for the posterity of those stargoing vessels which just managed to escape its final destruction. Music/MikeOldfield's album ''The Songs of Distant Earth'' which is meant as an accompaniment to that novel has a music track that ''chronicles the Earth's destruction''. The ship that features in the novel, ''Magellan'', was the last ship to leave the solar system. Its primary mission (before going on to set up a new colony) had been to operate as the relay station for all the cameras, probes, sensors and other telemetry, forwarding [[ApocalypticLog the data collected]] on to the rest of civilisation. [Insert video clip of the Giza Pyramids melting.]
** Clarke's early story (in fact, the first story he sold) "Rescue Party" also had the people of Earth set up cameras to beam images of Earth's end to the '''huge''' escape fleet in which they evacuated. It was following the line of those transmissions that led the alien rescue ship to the fleet.
** [[spoiler:The last remaining normal human]] broadcasts the earth essentially being vapourized at the end of ''Literature/ChildhoodsEnd''.
* The end of ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'' is described in detail at the end of ''Literature/TheLastBattle'' -- which, by no coincidence, heavily draws upon the biblical apocalypse.
* The Literature/CiaphasCain novel ''Caves of Ice'' ends with the detonation of a ''gigaton'' range Fuel Air Explosive. It completely obliterates the sole settlement on the planet, and the shockwaves are felt by ships in low orbit.
* The third act of ''[[Literature/BlackLegion The Talon of Horus]]'' opens with the nascent Legion completely annihilating the Canticle City by the way of throwing a kilometers-long ship at it from orbit. Khayon takes his sweet time observing it and notes, among other things, that the entire city is engulfed in a miles-tall layer of dust and smoke and that the entire continent shakes.
* ''Literature/HorusHeresy''

** ''Know No Fear'', of ''Literature/HorusHeresy'', spends nearly thirty pages to describe the opening attack on Calth. Ship speeding near c crashes into orbital installations, half of the waiting fleet is annihilated, two or three city-sized vessels hit the planet, the impact causes earthquakes and tsunamis and that's just the beginning. Highlights include: "It starts raining main battle tanks." and "For a brief moment, Calth has no nightside."
* The demolition of Vavatch [[RingWorldPlanet Orbital]] in ''Literature/ConsiderPhlebas'' is so spectacularly done[[note]] A Culture starship slices the ring in several places, and the Orbital's own spin makes it fly apart. ''Then'' they bombard the chunks with antimatter until they're smashed to atoms. [[BewareTheNiceOnes Don't Fuck with the Culture.]][[/note]], it almost qualifies as performance art.
* In ''Literature/LucifersHammer'', Niven and Pournelle detail the end of the world with beautiful descriptions. The meteor leaves behind a fiery rainbow trail that blinds anyone who looks at it. The resulting multiple-impacts cause earthquakes and giant tsunamis all around the earth, flooding entire mountain ranges.
* In ''Literature/{{Footfall}}'' (the publisher took a look at a partial draft, and suggested they do a book just on this event, which is Lucifer's Hammer) it included the aliens, after being driven off Earth once, dropping an asteroid in the Indian Ocean to soften up resistance before trying again.
* The aftermath of [[spoiler: Operation Oyster Bay]] in the ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' series is described in substantial detail, despite being "only" a set of class 0 events.
* In ''Literature/{{Cerberon}}'', the complete destruction of Loethess and everything around it is described in detail from multiple perspectives, from a mage in the center of the city paralyzed with OhCrap, to a family nearby hoping they'll survive, to a distant overview by a pair of people being carried away by a flying dragon.
* ''Literature/ThatIsAll'' goes through every day of 2012 as it deals with Ragnorak via the awakening of the 700 Ancient and Unspeakable Ones. All the oceans are flooded by a giant sentient pool of blood. All the dogs gather together and eat most of humanity, while the animatronic presidents finish off any remnants. Finally, all the Iron in the world magnetizes, burrowing into the Earth, cutting it in two.
* Despite the subversion of the film adaptation, ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxyTrilogy'' plays it straight:
--> [[MassOhCrap There was a terrible ghastly silence]].
--> [[EarthShatteringKaboom There was a terrible ghastly noise]].
--> [[EverybodysDeadDave There was a terrible ghastly silence]].
* Unsurprising for a series in which regular starship weapons can wipe a city off the map with a few shots, bombs exist that can consume an entire planet in a slowly but steadily spreading unstoppable nuclear firestorm, and even stars get blown up once in a while, ''Literature/PerryRhodan'' has been known to indulge in this in what over time amounts to a fair few issues.
* The Great Fire in ''Literature/IceForged'' by Creator/GailZMartin. First a green ribbon of fire snakes across the sky and fireballs begin to fall like meteorites across the city of Castle Reach, then the entire ribbon comes crashing down across the city and smashes Quillarth Castle to the ground.
* This is the meat of the book ''Literature/DeathFromTheSkies'' by the astronomer Phil Plait. It deals with the [[ApocalypseHow different ways everything may end]] in RealLife, from the effect of [[ColonyDrop asteroid impacts]] to the death of the entire Universe and everything between and each chapter opening with a description of one of those events not sparing details at all. [[note]]See Quotes/DeathWorld for an example[[/note]]

* The ''Literature/{{Lensman}}'' series provides a few examples as the trope namer to the LensmanArmsRace. Spaceships capable of depopulating or destroying a planet on their own are already present in the first book, and by the end of the sixth we've had the "[[ColonyDrop nutcracker]]" (hitting a planet from opposite sides with two other planets) and doing similar but with a planet made of antimatter, and end up with firing planets travelling faster than light by launching them from a parallel universe, not only giving them insane levels of destructive power but also making them impossible to detect or counter in any way.

* Michael Crichton's ''Literature/{{Jurassic Park}}'' features this at the end. [[spoiler: Where the fictional Costa Rican Air Force destroys Isla Nublar with Napalm]].
--> ''"Grant looked back just once, and saw the island against a deep purple sky and sea, cloaked in a deep mist that blurred the white-hot explosions that burst rapidly, one after another, until it seemed the entire island was glowing, a diminishing bright spot in the darkening night."''
* ''[[Literature/TheThreeBodyProblem Death's End]]'' includes an antagonistic alien race which [[spoiler: literally flattens the Solar System with a weapon that folds a dimension away into the quantum level, turning it 2D. This is described in horrifically intimate detail for several pages.]]
* The Ragnarök of Myth/NorseMythology. Literally meaning "The Final Fate of the Gods". Two wolves so massive that their open maw stretches from the earth to the sky devour the Sun and the Moon, kicking off the [[EndlessWinter three-year-long Fimbulvetr]]. Then [[TheLegionsOfHell the Fire Giants of Muspelheim invade]], and then the [[NightOfTheLivingMooks army of the Underworld too]]. A serpent so colossal that it can wrap around the world and touch its tail is unleashed. [[MutualKill Almost all the gods and all the monsters wipe each other out in an utterly titanic conflict]], and all life is wiped out as it is caught in the crossfire. The world will flood and [[DestroyerDeity Surtr]] will call the end of Ragnarök by wreathing the planet in fire, and then finally everything left will collapse into Yggdrasil. [[HijackedByJesus Or perhaps]] [[AdamAndEvePlot a single couple, Lif and Liftrasir, survive to build the world anew]]. Truly a final War in Heaven that is certainly deserving of that HeavyMetalUmlaut.
* ''Literature/QuantumDevilSagaAvatarTuner'' features the destruction of the Junkyard - which to the characters was their entire world. At first absolutely everything, including the [[EvilTowerOfOminousness impossibly tall Karma Tower]] is covered by the [[EldritchAbomination black ooze]]. Then, the ooze vanishes in an instant, leaving everything perfectly clean, and the whole Junkyard disintegrates in a gold light.
* The whole last volume, and especially the last few chapters, of the original ''[[Literature/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy Mistborn]]'' trilogy is a ''spectacular'' example, complete with volcanic particulate winter, the planets being ''moved in their orbits'' (by warring gods), and the entire surface of the world being scourged by fire as it is moved too close to the sun, while the surviving humans shelter in underground bunkers. And that's in a world that was a postapocalyptic wasteland from the very start of the series. It ends with an inversion, though: a WorldHealingWave.
* Creator/StephenBaxter's short story "Last Contact" ends with the earth (and universe) being ripped apart from the inside as cosmological inflation accelerates, as seen from the viewpoint of a mother and daughter awaiting the end in their backyard.
* ''Literature/HaloHuntersInTheDark'' starts with a family fleeing their home world as the Covenant arrive to [[OrbitalBombardment glass it]]. Luther Mann, four years old, is amazed by the power of the Covenant vessels and whispers "[[ChildrenAreInnocent Pretty]]". His mother flips out and hits him. As anyone who has played the games can tell you, the Covenant plasma fire ''is'' hauntingly beautiful. And deadly.

[[folder:Religion]]
* OlderThanFeudalism: Literature/TheBible's Literature/BookOfRevelation is one huge Apocalypse Wow: disasters unleashed on the world, the Four HorsemenOfTheApocalypse, the rise of TheAntichrist,[[note]]or at least "the Beast", the word "Antichrist" is [[BeamMeUpScotty avoided in the text itself,]][[/note]] the final battle of Armageddon, the last judgment, a visual tour of New Jerusalem... Evidently, the TropeNamer and the TropeCodifier. In fact, it even [[TropeNamer gives us the word "apocalypse"]] from its title in the original Greek -- ''apokálypsis'', meaning "unveiling" or "revelation."
[[/folder]]

* Nobody does [[NukeEm nuclear apocalypse]] like the guys behind ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}''. Creator/RonPerlman's narration is just the icing on the cake.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'' Kuja destroys [[spoiler: the entire world of Terra]] at the end of the third disk. This makes him one of the few FF villains to actually succeed in destroying a world.

*** Near the end of the original game, one of the antagonists, Nael Van Darnus, sends one of the moons on a collision course with the planet. As the moon reached closer and closer, the moon begins to break apart until...[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39j5v8jlndM this happens.]]
*** Even better yet, this cutscene was the last thing any player of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' saw before the servers were cut for good. So in a way, Bahamut's rampage completely destroyed the entire first world of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV''.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG1TNiJ6PjY As can be seen here,]] ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'' does this with [[spoiler: Weltall- Id fulfilling its programming and taking out main parts of the superstructure of Solaris. The resulting "reaction weapon" explosion leaves a significant hole in one of the nearby continents on the game map.]]
* ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'':

* The opening sequence of ''VideoGame/PrimalRage'' shows the Earth being struck by a meteor, triggering the cataclysm that reduces humanity to a primitive state and frees the god-like dinosaurs that rule the planet in the new AfterTheEnd setting.
* ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty 4: VideoGame/ModernWarfare'':
** The end of the mission "Shock and Awe" which comes complete with satellite images of the nuclear detonation that kills your character and most of his unit.
** A striking point...the people who made the game showed us part of how you would die if you were within about 3 miles of ground zero and not vaped in the blast. Yes folks, expect your death to include barfing your organs out in your last moments on earth to the sound of radioactive wind blowing away the last of your Organ of Corti, that is, the organ that does the actual hearing in your ears.
** Things get even worse (or better, in way of trope examples) in the sequel. We see [[spoiler:the US East Coast being invaded by the Russians, UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC in ruins, and an EMP occurring over the city wiping out all forms of electronics on the US East Coast!]]

* The [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 PS2]] version of ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' has its New Dark Age Ending cutscene showing the lab explosion being seen from space, and [[BigBlackout the lit cities of Earth all going out]].
* ''VideoGame/{{Darksiders}}'' opens with the Biblical Apocalypse. Angels, Demons, the whole shebang. You get to run around and kill things (briefly).
* ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger''
** Losing to Lavos will "treat" you to a scene where you see the world getting fried by Lavos's explosive fury. The most iconic scene is watching the viewscreen in the dome fill up with red dots that each represent a big crater, driving the point home that the world is now FUBAR.
** The [[ColonyDrop Fall]] of [[FloatingContinent Zeal]] is also a pretty destructive scene in its own too.
* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' is the setting that gave us Exterminatus, so when it gets adapted in a visual medium expect to see major fireworks. ''VideoGame/FireWarrior'' features [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYPSg-Ab7Dc a spectacular orbital bombardment]] for its ending, but was one-upped by ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar II: Retribution'', where the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h67JpMyrOVE sudden death of a world]] serves as a potent WhamEpisode.
* ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'':
** In ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'', after defeating the Mother Brain and successfully making it back to your ship, the camera zooms out, showing massive cracks in the surface of the planet Zebes, which are apparently even visible from high orbit, before the planet is reduced to space debris. There is a secret sidequest at the end where the last surviving natives of Zebes escape with just moments to spare.
** [=SR388=] in ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion''; the Biological Research Laboratory space station plummets into the plant and self-destructs, wiping out both in a titanic EarthShatteringKaboom.
** Phaaze in ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption'', with added drama with the Galactic Federation fleet trying to escape in time. {{Subverted|Trope}} in ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime2Echoes'' with the destruction of Dark Aether, we only get a space view of the half-visible Dark Aether fading from Aether.

* Nobody does [[NukeEm nuclear apocalypse]] like the guys behind ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}''. Creator/RonPerlman's narration is just the icing on the cake.
* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDPj2f1v2w0 LC campaign ending]] from ''VideoGame/{{Earth 2150}}''.
* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'':
** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'', after Kefka destroys the balance of the Warring Triad, the [[WorldSundering world is torn asunder]]. This is depicted as the land shaking, shifting, mountains rising and chasms opening, all while helpless people run for their lives. Then the view changes to a [[DistantReactionShot distant view of the planet]], covered in hundreds of explosions... and all of a sudden, to drive the point home that everything has changed, a chain of explosions travels across the planet and splits the continents apart.
--> [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-KKuOQXXG0 "On that day, the world was changed forever..."]]
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'' Kuja destroys [[spoiler: the entire world of Terra]] at the end of the third disk. This makes him one of the few FF villains to actually succeed in destroying a world.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' has ([[EldritchAbomination Sin]]) do this regularly. The fun comes when the rest of the world fights back. It was taken up to eleven at the conclusion of the game, when Sin was shown punching holes in continents, leaving trails of explosions visible from space, and releasing gravity magic that made the moon visibly shudder...
*** The [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX2 sequel]] has this as one of the optional endings. Lose the final battle on purpose to see it.
** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIIRevenantWings'', though hardly apocalyptic, we get treated to a rare fully animated scene when Bahamut first appears, just in time to show it shattering an entire floating continent, crumbling it almost to nothing.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'':
*** Near the end of the original game, one of the antagonists, Nael Van Darnus, sends one of the moons on a collision course with the planet. As the moon reached closer and closer, the moon begins to break apart until...[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39j5v8jlndM this happens.]]
*** Even better yet, this cutscene was the last thing any player of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' saw before the servers were cut for good. So in a way, Bahamut's rampage completely destroyed the entire first world of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV''.
*** The end of ''Shadowbringers'' has you witness firsthand [[spoiler: the destruction that befell the world that came before The Source and its shards. A terrible sound came from within the Star, with no known explanation of what it was. The native inhabitants of this world were driven mad by their fear of what could be causing it, and this, in turn, caused their natural ability of CreatingLife to spiral out of control, causing them to unwillingly manifest the very monsters that would tear their world apart. It's made especially tragic in that you get to meet and interact with shades of this world's original inhabitants, and they are all nothing but pleasant and friendly to you and your companions. As you make your way to the FinalBoss you are completely unable to stop any of the destruction going on or save any of the innocents you see dying around you.]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Freespace}} 2'' ends with [[spoiler: the Sathanas Fleet causing Capella to go supernova.]]
* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', you are right in the middle of the action when huge swarms of {{Kaiju}}-sized {{Eldritch Abomination}}s descend on planets and start to rip them apart while swarms of [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Cyborg Zombies]] pour through the streets.
* ''[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquer Tiberian Sun's]]'' ending of the Nod campaign has [[spoiler:Kane teleporting off the world while his Apocalypse missile starts, then launch its capsules and finally unleashes the Tiberium bomb that sets Earth's atmosphere ablaze and turns everything into pure Tiberium.]]
* The ending cutscene (one of only two not rendered using the game's engine) in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedRevelations'' shows exactly how the First Civilization was destroyed. There's a KickTheDog moment with a terrified mother clutching her child as an explosion slowly engulfs them. After this, the hologram simply mentions that out of two civilizations (humans and the First People), only about 10,000 individuals survived after only a few days of the catastrophe.
* The [[http://store.steampowered.com/video/201310?snr=1_5_9__400 opening cinematic]] of ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X3: Albion Prelude]]''. The [[BigDumbObject Torus Aeternal]] is a giant space station around Earth's equator that serves as a docking ring, trade center, [[KillSat orbital defense station]], and shipyard, as well as a symbol of Earth's prestige and might. Saya Kho suicide-bombs with a nuke it one year prior to the start of the game, an event akin to the 30th century equivalent of Hiroshima and 9/11 rolled into one: it kills thousands of people on the Torus alone, never mind the millions potentially killed by [[ColonyDrop deorbiting debris]]. It touches off an [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge all-out interstellar war]] between the Terrans and Kho's own [[HumansByAnyOtherName Argon]] [[TheFederation Federation]]. The event is at least [[ApocalypseHow Planetary/Societal Disruption]].
* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2Sy7qkkTy8 trailer]] of ''VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic IV'' depicts the cataclysmic battle between Gelu and Kilgor, the ensuing impressive EarthShatteringKaboom and some of the aftermath in loving detail.

* The [[WordOfGod still canonical]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7z2U-w53Tk extended opening cutscene]] from ''{{VideoGame/Freelancer}}'' features a massive Nomad ship triggering a supernova, eliminating almost everything in the solar system.
* ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic VI'' features an optional case -- at the end of the game, you are tasked with destroying a [[ReactorBoss reactor]]. If you do this but fail to take certain steps you were instructed to follow afterwards, you get to visit a cinematic showing first several explosions rocking the building the reactor was in, and then the scene shifts to a view of the planet, zooming out until you see the planet and its moon. Then the ''planet'' explodes, with the [[PlanarShockwave shockwave]] obliterating the moon.
* In ''VideoGame/SandsOfDestruction'', Kyrie's destructive powers are shown twice in all their sand-inducing glory.
* In the original ''Videogame/PlanetSide'', the Bending that caused the breakup of Oshur continent into 4 islands and scattered the rest of Auraxis across the cosmos culminated in a massive meteor storm across the planet as an unknown voice initiated the "bend sequence". When the game shut down after 13 years, the world ended in a cross-empire party around Ishundar's 'stonehedge' as meteors rained down and the ground shook as the shut down timer approached.

* ''VideoGame/DigitalDevilSaga'' features ''two'' of these:
** In the first game, the Junkyard disintegrates into green data, starting from the edges. Before it reaches them, the gates to Nirvana at the top of the [[EvilTowerOfOminousness Karma Temple]] explode and everything is engulfed in a golden light.
** In the second game, ''the Sun downloads the Earth''. That is depicted as the Earth slowly dissolving into - golden this time - data and being absorbed in a manner eerily similar to that of a black hole. It doesn't help that [[WeirdSun the sun is black]].
--->"It's transmitting from our side... Upload rate is... 945.56 zettabytes per second!"
* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' quite a few, almost always involving the Covenant.
** The WarIsHell [[DownerBeginning opening montage]] of ''VideoGame/HaloWars'' includes shots of vessels glassing the planet Harvest.
** ''VideoGame/HaloReach:'' The later levels have a WatchingTroyBurn feel, as you travel around Reach that is being further and further destroyed by the Covenant. The level "New Alexandria" has you fly around the city as the Covenant burn it around you. It is simultaneously visually amazing and absolutely heartbreaking.
** ''VideoGame/Halo4'' set on the [[DysonSphere shield world]] Requiem. One level is set in an inner level of the planet (in or near the core), and ends with you racing out of it as collapses around. You can't stay to take the (very impressive) destruction in though, or you'll be caught in it.

* [[LetsPlay/HermitcraftServer Hermitcraft Season 8]] ended with [[spoiler:a professionally-made animation of the moon crashing into the planet, featuring close-ups on some of the series' beautiful builds being torn apart by gravity and smashed by moon rocks.]]

** ''Literature/TheSongsOfDistantEarth'' had its doomed planetbound inhabitants set up cameras to record images of the end of the Earth for the posterity of those stargoing vessels which just managed to escape its final destruction. Music/MikeOldfield's album ''The Songs of Distant Earth'' which is meant as an accompaniment to that novel has a music track that ''chronicles the Earth's destruction''. The ship that features in the novel, ''Magellan'', was the last ship to leave the solar system. Its primary mission (before going on to set up a new colony) had been to operate as the relay station for all the cameras, probes, sensors and other telemetry, forwarding [[ApocalypticLog the data collected]] on to the rest of civilisation.

* The slow apocalypse in ''Literature/{{Seveneves}}'' is described in detail. It gets especially spectacular around the A+2 year point where the larger rocks start dropping (and there are still earthbound POVs to show it).

** ''End of Evangelion'' ended this way; episodes 25 and 26 just implied it. [[MindScrew Maybe]].

* In ''Manga/{{Kurohime}},'' the end of the world is this plus MindScrew. [[spoiler: The [[HellGate Gateway to Hell]] opens and drowns almost the entire world under an ocean of corrosive blood. Skeletons and dead souls are running rampant [[IAmAHumanitarian eating people,]] trees are dying and to cap it all off, the Head God is ''[[GodIsEvil eating the sun.]]'' ]]
** The final chapter ups this by [[spoiler: having TheHeroine slice the [[EarthShatteringKaboom ENTIRE WORLD]] (and the BigBad) in half using a [[InfinityPlusOneSword Infinity Plus One]] [[WaveMotionGun Wave Motion]] LaserBlade]].

* ''Manga/AngelSanctuary'' loves this trope.

* ''Anime/YourName'': A comet central to the story fragmenting results in [[spoiler:en entire small town's destruction]], but that same comet has a long technicolor tail and its fragments gets a smaller version of that tail, resulting in the sky becoming a beautiful sight while the whole thing is happening.

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':
** Many continuities open with the destruction of [[DoomedHometown Krypton]]. This serves the purpose of establishing Jor-El's character, and actually getting Superman -and later ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}- to Earth.
** ''ComicBook/AllStarSuperman'' averted this with Krypton but played it straight with a certain character.

** [[DuelingMovies Dueling film]] ''Film/Armageddon1998'' features the destruction of Paris by asteroid impact in one of the more impressive scenes of the movie.

* ''Film/EscapeFromLA''. "He did it, he shut down the Earth."

** Played straight in the TV miniseries, where Earth heats up to a brilliant red before detonating.

* ''Film/MadMax2TheRoadWarrior'' begins with one of these.

* The original ''Nihon Chinbotsu''(1973) featured an extensive sequence of Tokyo being swallowed up in the disaster done by Teruyoshi Nakano, who is nicknamed "Japan's Michael Bay" for his love of StuffBlowingUp.

* The start of ''Film/SupermanReturns'' shows the destruction of Krypton.

* ''Film/ThorRagnarok'': The destruction of Asgard by Surtur.
* The 1980s TV films ''Film/TheDayAfter'' and ''Film/{{Threads}}'' were made specifically to scare the world straight about the threat of nuclear war. Increasing the fear factor for audiences is how both films are set in smaller, lesser-known cities of the US and UK (Kansas City and Sheffield, respectively), showing that nowhere is truly safe, and that the characters are ordinary people just trying to survive.
** ''The Day After'' was originally going to have a more graphic nuclear holocaust scene, but this didn't get past the ABC censors.

* Mark Geston's novel ''Lords of the Starship'' is about a vast rocketship that takes well over a century to complete, at which point two immense armies fight for control of it. Then the ship uses its rocket exhausts to incinerate the armies, and then reverses thrust to incinerate itself. Then the shadowy enemy that designed the ship in the first place sends a couple of city-sized fireballs to finish the job.

* At the end of Creator/GregBear's ''The Forge of God'', the Earth's destruction is described in loving, ''agonizing'' detail.
** Same for the asteroid colliding with Earth and ''breaking it into pieces'' in ''Literature/{{Remnants}}'', near the end of the first book.
* Though the actual Shattering is not described, the vivid imagery of huge fragments of landscape tumbling through the Void in ''The Shattered World'' makes it clear that the titular world's breaking '''must have been''' an ApocalypseWow. The collision between two fragments in the sequel, ''The Burning Realm'', gives an ominous preview of the surviving fragments' impending doom.
* This happens in the 1933 classic ''When Worlds Collide'', in the kind of spectacular fashion that you'd probably have guessed from the title. The 1951 film adaptation did the best it could with this, but the upcoming remake certainly should provide more of the disaster porn as described in the book, to say the least.
* Creator/ArthurCClarke's novel ''Literature/TheSongsOfDistantEarth'' had its doomed planetbound inhabitants set up cameras to record images of the end of the Earth for the posterity of those stargoing vessels which just managed to escape its final destruction. Music/MikeOldfield's album ''The Songs of Distant Earth'' which is meant as an accompaniment to that novel has a music track that ''chronicles the Earth's destruction''. The ship that features in the novel, ''Magellan'', was the last ship to leave the solar system. Its primary mission (before going on to set up a new colony) had been to operate as the relay station for all the cameras, probes, sensors and other telemetry, forwarding [[ApocalypticLog the data collected]] on to the rest of civilisation.

** [[spoiler:The last remaining normal human]] broadcasts this at the end of ''Literature/ChildhoodsEnd''.

* ''Know No Fear'', of ''Literature/HorusHeresy'', spends nearly thirty pages to describe the opening attack on Calth. Ship speeding near c crashes into orbital installations, half of the waiting fleet is annihilated, two or three city-sized vessels hit the planet, the impact causes earthquakes and tsunamis and that's just the beginning. Highlights include: "It starts raining main battle tanks." and "For a brief moment, Calth has no nightside."

** And when they finally got around to finishing ''Literature/{{Footfall}}'' (the publisher took a look at a partial draft, and suggested they do a book just on this event, which is Lucifer's Hammer) it included the aliens, after being driven off Earth once, dropping an asteroid in the Indian Ocean to soften up resistance before trying again.

** Although the visual effect of the Earth being vaped by the Vogons, on the TV series, is good enough to provoke a shudder.

* This is the meat of the book ''Death from the Skies'' by the astronomer Phil Plait. It deals with the [[ApocalypseHow different ways everything may end]] in RealLife, from the effect of [[ColonyDrop asteroid impacts]] to the death of the entire Universe and everything between and each chapter opening with a description of one of those events not sparing details at all. [[note]]See Quotes/DeathWorld for an example[[/note]]

* Stephen Baxter's short story "Last Contact" ends with the earth (and universe) being ripped apart from the inside as cosmological inflation accelerates, as seen from the viewpoint of a mother and daughter awaiting the end in their backyard.

* ''Franchise/BattlestarGalactica'' starts with one in both [[Series/BattlestarGalactica1978 the original]] and [[Series/BattlestarGalactica2003 the reimagining]]. ''Series/Galactica1980'' starts with a computer simulation of one, and goes downhill from there.

* In ''Series/StargateSG1'', the episode "A Matter of Time" starts with one of a pair of binary stars collapsing into a black hole, while SG-10 desperately scrambles to reach the Stargate in slow-motion... at least, that's how it appears because of the massive time-dilation.

* OlderThanFeudalism: Literature/TheBible's Literature/BookOfRevelation is one huge Apocalypse Wow: disasters unleashed on the world, the Four HorsemenOfTheApocalypse, the rise of TheAntichrist,[[note]]or at least "the Beast", the word "Antichrist" is [[BeamMeUpScotty avoided in the text itself,]][[/note]] the final battle of Armageddon, the last judgment, a visual tour of New Jerusalem... Evidently, the TropeNamer and the TropeCodifier.
** In fact, it even [[TropeNamer gives us the word "apocalypse"]] from its title in the original Greek -- ''apokálypsis'', meaning "unveiling" or "revelation."

** [[spoiler: You can also see it from the Earth's side in a premonition the night before, and the failure cutscene if you don't get off the planet in time.]]

* The [[OrbitalBombardment glassing]] of Taris near the beginning of ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic''. A good minute of cutscenes showing a BeamSpam of turbolaser fire blowing up buildings and turning the sky red as the ''Ebon Hawk'' takes off.

* The end of the mission "Shock and Awe" in ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty 4: VideoGame/ModernWarfare'', which comes complete with satellite images of the nuclear detonation that kills your character and most of his unit.

* ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne''.
** The planet turned inside-out and all but five people on the planet were wiped out and replaced with demons before you enter a single battle.
** Six if you count Hijiri. [[spoiler:But he was DeadAllAlong, so not really.]]
** Seven if you count [[VideoGame/DevilMayCry Dante]], since he's only half-demon.

* Losing to Lavos in ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' will "treat" you to a scene where you see the world getting fried by Lavos's explosive fury. The most iconic scene is watching the viewscreen in the dome fill up with red dots that each represent a big crater, driving the point home that the world is now FUBAR.

*** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-KKuOQXXG0 "On that day, the world was changed forever..."]]

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' has ([[EldritchAbomination Sin]]) do this regularly. The fun comes when the rest of the world fights back.
*** It was taken up to eleven at the conclusion of the game, when Sin was shown punching holes in continents, leaving trails of explosions visible from space, and releasing gravity magic that made the moon visibly shudder...

* ''Freespace 2'' ends with [[spoiler: the Sathanas Fleet causing Capella to go supernova.]]

** Maybe -- the cinematic doesn't go close enough to show us if certain things Nod (and the rest of the world, right before the end) was told about what would happen was true or not. [[spoiler: The claim is that it would turn the world into a true Tiberian world -- complete with ''humans'' being adapted to the new ecosystem, but not turning everything into pure Tiberium. This isn't actually contradicted by the visible effect of a green Earth]].