History Main / ApocalypticLog

* In ''Film/TheKillerShrews'' (another ''[=MST3K=]'' episode), there is a {{Narm}}ful scene where a scientist, having just been bitten by one of the title monsters, sits down at a typewriter and records the process of his body succumbing to the shrew's poisonous saliva. Based upon the real-life incident of herpetologist Karl P. Schmidt (see folder "Real Life", below).

* In ''Film/OverdrawnAtTheMemoryBank'' (which appeared on ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000''), there's one of these for the process the heroine uses to try to save Fingal's mind.

* ''Film/ParanormalActivity'' is presented as footage taken by a man whose girlfriend is being terrorized by a demon. It's made pretty obvious that putting up a camera has only made the demon more active -- and angry.

* Christa [=McAuliffe=] was recording her experiences of takeoff in Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' during its 1986 launch, no doubt for classroom material. When her tape recorder was later recovered, it confirmed that the seven on board had survived the intial explosion.

* Another unfortunate diver, Yuri Lipski, was diving at a blue hole in the Red Sea when something went horribly wrong and he uncontrollably sank to his death, his camera recording [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRj0lymMMGs the entirety of his fatal descent]].

* [[https://archiveofourown.org/works/27084541/chapters/66133225 Something WIcked This Way COmes,]] a ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' fanfic has an Apocalptic Captain's Log by the captain of a ship that went through an EldritchLocation in space - the log begins complaining of widespread space sickness among the crew and goes downhill from there, getting more nad more incoherent as the captain undergoes serious SanitySlippage. Kirk and the Enterprise crew finds the ship empty of everything but corpses... [[EldritchAbomination or so it seems, to begin with.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Felidae}}''. The progressively alcoholic veterinary Dr. Preterius holds a pre-mortem camera diary of him and his two lab assistants trying to develop a new "''glue''" for organic tissue, by experimenting with homeless cats in his practice in his house's basement. The first trials lead to gruesome deaths of several cats, as the prototype glue turns out to be acidic. The next trials on a special homeless cat promptly named [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic "Claudandus"]] are way more successful. However, they have to cut the agonized cat open again for further experimenting. Then, the experiment's funding is cut, and both of Preterius' lab assistants quit. Preterius, who is slowly succumbing to his alcoholism, keeps on working independently, and seemingly goes mad at the end when he claims Claudandus to be talking to him. It should be noted that ''Felidae'' is a crime story told from the viewpoint of a talking cat. Therefore, Preterius' ravings aren't as nutty after all.

* The Jonestown massacre in 1978 had so many victims testimony and evidence from several sources remained:
** The last speech that Jim Jones gave to the residents of Jonestown was recorded for posterity. In it, you can hear him direct the older members of the community to help the younger children, and for them to "not worry about the children's crying; [the punch] is just a little bitter. It's not painful." Makes for some [[http://www.archive.org/details/ptc1978-11-18.flac16 chilling night time listening]]. The effect of listening to it is enhanced by eerie "ghost" music heard throughout (an inadvertent effect of Jones taking an old audiotape of pop music recorded at high speed and taping over it at low speed).

* Amateur documentary filmmaker and bear enthusiast [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Treadwell Timothy Treadwell]] accidentally left a camera recording (audio only) on the 2003 night he and his girlfriend were fatally attacked by a starving Grizzly bear. While the tape has never been released for obvious reasons, according to those who have heard it, it's completely terrifying. The documentary ''Film/GrizzlyMan'' showed Creator/WernerHerzog listening to it and becoming increasingly freaked out in lieu of playing it.

* Ted Turner, upon the launching of Creator/{{CNN}}, vowed that the channel would never sign off, even to the point of becoming one of these. Luckily, it hasn't happened yet.

* Another unfortunate diver, Yuri Lipski, was diving at a blue hole in Red Sea when something went horribly wrong and he uncontrollably sank to his death, his camera recording [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRj0lymMMGs the entirety of his fatal descent]].
* 4chan's Bunker Map project is an attempt at tracking down and recording the locations of [[TheElitesJumpShip billionaire apocalypse bunkers]] like [[Creator/ShiaLaBeouf LaBeouf's]] [[Series/HeWillNotDivideUs flag]]. [[FilkSong Leslie Fish's]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKT1r-8viHk Digwell Carol]] is mentioned in terms of motivation.

*** One especially notable case: in "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E11Contagion Contagion]]", the ''Enterprise'' downloads one of these from the USS ''Yamato''. Unfortunately, the log had hidden in it the computer virus that caused the ''Yamato'' to blow up.

*** Also nicely subverted in one episode where it turns out the person who made the log is still alive, and quite upset that the crew was watching her video diary.

A story is told through a log, diary, or journal that a character used to document their activities and progress through the backstory before [[GoneHorriblyWrong something bad happened]] to its writer. A staple of [[AfterTheEnd Post-Apocalyptic Fiction]] to explain to the cast how the [[CrapsackWorld world]] ended up the way it is, it can also be used as a handy way to fill in heroes who arrive LateToTheTragedy, and one of the first (or [[RedShirt last]]) things that a "rescue" party answering a DistressCall will find.

This log can be written or recorded in a variety of ways; if it's a video log, the downhill progress of the situation will be punctuated visually, e.g. degradation in the appearance of the character, their surroundings, or even the video itself, perhaps with the SnowyScreenOfDeath on the last log. Bonus points if a video log's final entry shows the character ultimately succumbing to whatever horror took over, with blood splattering everywhere. Grand prize if it's a written log that somehow ''still'' records the author's final dying moments.

This log can be written or recorded in a variety of ways; if it's a video log, the downhill progress of the situation will be punctuated visually, e.g. degradation in the appearance of the character, their surroundings, or even the video itself. Bonus points if a video log's final entry shows the character ultimately succumbing to whatever horror took over. Grand prize if it's a written log that somehow ''still'' records the author's final dying moments.

* In ''Literature/TheCityOfEmber'', a journal from one of the first residents of Ember is found [[spoiler:as Lina and Doon find their way out of the city. In the prequel, ''The Prophet of Yonwood'', this log is shown to be the work of an elderly Nickie, the protagonist of ''Yonwood'']].

* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': In "Manifest Destiny", the UFS ''Mercury'' medical officer Dr. Will Olsten's record of the BoardingParty from his ship exploring the UFS ''Rhesos'' is one.

* Christa McAuliffe was recording her experiences of takeoff in Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' during its 1986 launch, no doubt for classroom material. When her tape recorder was later recovered, it confirmed that the seven on board had survived the intial explosion.

* ''Film/{{Cloverfield}}'' is a "worm's eye view" of a {{Kaiju}} film in which a man records himself and a group of survivors struggling through New York City during a monster attack.

* ''Film/{{REC}}'' and its American remake ''Film/{{Quarantine}}'' are found footage recorded by a female reporter and her camera man while trapped inside an apartment building with zombies. There's also a subversion of the trope when they discover a dictation machine in a RoomFullOfCrazy. You'd assume that the machine would hold an Apocalyptic Log about the zombie virus's origins, but the batteries are dead, so [[TheUnreveal the message is incomprehensible]].

* LetsPlay/ProtonJon was one of many who dared to try ''VideoGame/KaizoMarioWorld''. His breakdown over the ridiculous, soul-crushing difficulty of the game became the stuff off legend (and StupidStatementDanceMix).

* This is sort of the whole reason they have black boxes on airplanes. The Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) records everything said in the cockpit and over the radio on an aircraft, and the device is made of highly durable material that's unlikely to be destroyed in a crash. (And as for the old {{Stock Shtick|s}} about "why don't they just make the whole plane out of that material?"...well, such a plane would be too heavy to fly, and it wouldn't protect passengers from the impact anyway.)

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* In "How Things Smurf" from Raven Child's ''Fanfic/TheSmurfetteVillage'' series, Brainette finds Tattlerette's last Daily Report in the Smurf Village which recorded that Smurfette's final words about what went on during the time the SyntheticPlague spread through the village.

* A man driving with his daughter during the April 17, 2013 explosion of the fertilizer plant in West, Texas pulled out his camera phone to record the plant on fire, when the whole thing suddenly exploded ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROrpKx3aIjA about 30 seconds into the video]]). The last thing you hear in the footage is the man's daughter repeating: "Daddy, please get out of here... Dad, I can't hear, I can't hear." Both father and daughter were fine and relatively unscathed.

* The "scientist records his last thoughts, scientifically" variant was purportedly done in the early 1920's by Allan Blair, the scientist credited with proving black widow spider bites are dangerous to humans, took a rather direct route, as recounted in Gordon Grice's "The Red Hourglass." The guy continued writing notes until the pain proved too much; then he had an assistant continue taking notes. Fortunately, though he proved spiders can be dangerous, he did manage to survive the bite.

** An amateur radio operator named Gerry Martin also radioed to Vancouver to report the eruption. His last recorded words were "Gentlemen, the uh, camper and the car sitting over to the south of me is covered. It's gonna get me, too. I can't get out of here..."

* Purportedly, the last communication of the GhostShip ''Ourang Medan'' in either 1940, 1947, or 1948 (sources conflict) was a Morse Code message of grim portent. It is an Apocalyptic Log rather than a DistressCall on account of everyone, including the message sender, being dead by the time the message was received. The only ship able to attempt a rescue reportedly found the crew uninjured but all dead, staring and gaping at the sky. The ''Ourang Medan'' soon caught fire, exploded, and sank, sending the vessel, its crew, and its mystery to the bottom of the sea.
-->''SOS from Ourang Medan *** We float. All officers including the Captain, dead in chartroom and on the bridge. Probably whole of crew dead ***. I die.''
** If real, the running theory is either carbon monoxide or a chemical weapon leak. As the ship's mission was classified and the ship itself having been renamed, but not having been recorded as having done so in several records, the chemical weapon theory is viable. The explosion could then be caused by the gas being flammable and the victim's faces looking up in horror meaning it was at least in part somehow hallucinogenic (or deprived the brain of oxygen, causing hallucinogenic like symptoms) or incredibly painful or both. Some bodies were also reported to still be standing where they died, meaning whatever it was caused muscle stiffening, paralysis, and/or rigor mortis almost immediately.

-->'''7.30pm:''' Let it end, let it end, it's 46-all. It was funny when it was 16-all and it was creepy when it was 26-all. But this is pure purgatory and there is still no end in sight. John Isner has just struck his 90th ace. Nicolas Mahut, poor, enfeebled Nicolas Mahut, has only hit 72. Maybe we should just decide it on the number of aces struck? Give the game to Isner and then we can all crawl into our graves.[[note]]The match finally ended in its ''third'' day, having twice been suspended due to darkness, with Isner winning the final set 70-68.[[/note]]

** ''Literature/{{Thud}}'' has the numerous, disjointed, seemingly-random-numbered notes left by the painter of ''The Battle of Koom Valley'', who slowly went mad (including thinking alternately that he was being chased by a giant chicken and that he ''was'' a giant chicken). The last one -- only known to be so because it was found under his dead body -- read "It comes! ''It comes!!!''" He was found with his throat full of chicken feathers.

** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1983 SCP-1983 ("Doorway to Nowhere")]] is an extensive one, left by one of the many agents sent inside, the last one left alive when he wrote it. It details what he saw, how the creatures he saw inside work and reproduce, and what he thinks may work to take them down, punctuated with several statements of hopelessness. He finishes saying he'd leave the report where it could be found, and then make sure the creatures wouldn't be able to use his heart for their nest. [[spoiler:When they finally found the note, the SCP had been neutralized, but it's certain the one who did the deed had found the note]].