History Main / EarthAllAlong

* The narrator of ''Literature/ByTheWatersOfBabylon'', the son of a priest who is "immune" to a certain kind of metal that can kill everyone else in his tribe, narrates in such a way that you think he is a member of a primitive tribe that may or may not possess magic of some kind. By the end it is clear that while there may be magic involved (specifically the flashback sequence), they most definitely are in the future, close to Washington DC. The holy metal spoken of is most likely radioactive, and the narrator, like his father, has inherited his radioactive immunity (this was quite prescient, because little public knowledge of radioactive material, let alone bombs, existed at the time). Its title is a reference to the Biblical prophecy that Babylon would be destroyed as a result of the Babylonians' sins (like the protagonist believes [[FromCataclysmToMyth the people in the past were]]).

* ''VideoGame/BrainLord'' is a fantasy puzzler RPG set in and around the ancient, lost city of [[CanadaEh Toronto.]]

* The original film ''Film/PlanetOfTheApes1968'' ends with the revelation that protagonist George Taylor is back home, which comes when he comes across the ruins of the Statue of Liberty, which acts as TheConstant. Reportedly, the writer who introduced this twist to an early draft of the script was none other than Creator/RodSerling, hence the multiple variations that ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' offered on this twist.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' episode "Hereafter" Superman wakes on a planet with a red sun and a moon with debris ring after being blasted by Toyman and presumed dead. He makes his way across the wasteland to a jungle area, dealing with strange local creatures along the way. Considering the page this is on, you can guess what he learns when he meets up with his old 'friend' [[Characters/DCComicsVandalSavage Vandal Savage]]. The AlienSky was not only caused by it being the future, but because Savage invented a gravity machine to TakeOverTheWorld, only it had GoneHorriblyRight and altered the planetary orbits, killing everyone on Earth except him.

* A classic twist in ''Franchise/TheTwilightZone'': the characters in the story turn out to be HumanAliens. They're stranded on a primitive planet and now have to colonize. On resigning themselves to their fate, the leader says, "And I shall call this planet 'Earth'." [[AdamAndEvePlot Double points if the leader is named Adam or Eve.]] (The original ''[[Series/TheTwilightZone1959 Twilight Zone]]'' actually used this plot in "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E129Probe7OverAndOut Probe 7, Over and Out]].") According to [[Website/{{Wikipedia}} The Other Wiki]], this one's known as the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaggy_God_story Shaggy God story]] and was overused to the point of being a DiscreditedTrope as early as the '60s.
* The preferred ''Series/TheOuterLimits1963'' version: the peaceful folks living in fear of alien invasion are really humanoid aliens. The aggressors? Humans. This variation is also a classic ''[[Series/TheTwilightZone1959 Twilight Zone]]'' episode, "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E51TheInvaders The Invaders]]".

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': The episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E15IShotAnArrowIntoTheAir I Shot an Arrow Into the Air]]" features three astronauts crash landing on what they think is an unknown desert planet. At the end, it is revealed that the "desert planet" is actually a stretch of Nevadan desert about 97 miles from Reno. Only one astronaut survives the infighting over water and supplies to discover this.

* The fantasy world of ''Literature/ImInLoveWithTheVillainess'', a.k.a. ''Revolution'', is revealed to be taking place on Earth in the late 21st Century. It was created by nanomachines through the [[EternalRecurrence Eternal Loop System]] by Rei Ohashi and the original Claire and Lene, largely due to Earth being so badly damaged by environmental crises of its time that creating a magic-based civilization permanently is the only way, with modern humans going into dormancy.

* The fantasy world of ''Literature/ImInLoveWithTheVillainess'', a.k.a. ''Revolution'', is revealed to be Earth in the late 21st Century. It was created by nanomachines through the [[EternalRecurrence Eternal Loop System]] by Rei Ohashi, largely due to Earth being so badly damaged by environmental crises of its time that TAIM, the artificial intelligence the ''real'' Rei, Lene and Claire created was the only way to fix it.

* ''Film/TheVillage'' is actually set in the present day instead of the past. This is a variation in that it is the time period that the viewer is being deceived about, not the location.

* ''Film/TheVillage'' appears to be set in a rural 19th century village. Beyond the woods surrounding the village, however, is present-day America; the village was founded by people who wanted to recreate 19th century society, and their children don't know what year it really is.

* ''Manga/GirlsLastTour'': The {{Eldritch|Location}} world that Chito and Yuuri are in was initially seen to be as an alien planet in another galaxy, due to how commonplace layered cities are, and with the world being totally artificial. Episode 12/Chapter 31 reveals that this is Earth set within the future, destroyed by a huge RobotWar, and they are implied to be what was once Japan. Due to [[HumansAreBastards humanity destroying all natural life in place for mass urbanisation]], Earth is so artificial that not even a single trace of natural environment is seen. The holographic map that Chito and Yuu seen in the space center confirms that this was once Earth.

* ''VideoGame/OdinSphere'' features the chipper, happy ending of almost every human being on Earth dying horribly. However, two people survive, who presumably go on to become that world's [[AdamAndEvePlot equivalent of Adam and Eve. The game proper ends, followed by the FramingDevice (a little girl reading a storybook) complaining that it ended like that before noticing a coin on the cover very similar to one of the {{MacGuffin}}s in the book. As she walks away, a character from the stories appears and takes the coin, implying that the de facto Adam and Eve actually are]].

* In ''Literature/ManyWaters,'' Sandy and Dennys spend the first third of the book assuming that they've been transported to some [[SingleBiomeWorld desert planet]] with HumanAliens. They're actually having AdventuresInTheBible, specifically a few months before TheGreatFlood.

* Subtly hinted at in ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime''. The Land of Ooo appears to be a crazy fantasy world, but the omnipresent modern wreckage implies that it's actually Earth AfterTheEnd. Ooo being Earth becomes gradually more explicit over the earlier few seasons, and how it got that way was eventually shown in the season 5 premiere: A nuclear war caused mutagenic particles to spread, mutating all of the objects on Earth, and nearly driving humans to extinction.

* Possibly {{inverted|Trope}} in ''Anime/{{FLCL}},'' as WordOfGod says that an unused idea would have revealed that the town of Mabase was actually on Mars this whole time. ''Anime/FLCLAlternative,'' which may or may not be a StealthPrequel, ends with Haruko on Mars with some human colonists.

[[folder:Fanfiction]]

** Parodied in the episode "The Cryonic Woman", where Fry thinks that he is in New [[BigApplesauce New York]] AfterTheEnd, but [[AcceptableTargets it turns out to be normal 31st-century Los Angeles]].

In a SpeculativeFiction story where our heroes have crash-landed their spaceship on apparently alien planet, maybe with time travel, wormholes, or portals being involved, they long to return back to Earth. After they spend the story trying to figure out how to get back, there is a DownerEnding and it turns out that this bleak, empty planet was none other than UsefulNotes/{{Earth}}, [[AfterTheEnd warped and twisted by disaster, disease, the passage of time]] (perhaps thousands of years passed during the wormhole/portal trip), or some other instrument of drastic change.

* Inverted several times in ''Manga/ThePromisedNeverland'': The children seem to be in a normal, if odd orphanage, until the existence of monsters is revealed and challenges the earth-like setting. As the story progresses we understand that it isn't earth with monsters, but not earth at all, with the children being kept like cattle by demons, until another twist explains that the world of human exists somewhere, simply divided from the demon one. The series is ongoing and might twist around some more.

* Sandy Planet from ''Anime/{{Photon}}: The idiot Adventures'' is implied to be Earth as it looks identical to our world after it's been terraformed.

* ''Series/LandOfTheLost'': Not Earth, but a similar situation; an advanced, civilized Sleestak arrives in the Land of the Lost by TimeTravel, only to discover that the primitive Sleestaks aren't from his past, they're from his ''future'', AfterTheEnd.

-->-- '''Homer Simpson''', ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''

In a SpeculativeFiction story where our heroes have crash-landed their spaceship on apparently alien planet, maybe with time travel, wormholes, or portals being involved, they long to return back to Earth. After they spend the story trying to figure out how to get back, there is a DownerEnding and it turns out that this bleak, empty planet was none other than UsefulNotes/{{Earth}}, [[AfterTheEnd warped and twisted by disaster, disease, the passage of time (perhaps thousands of years passed during the wormhole/portal trip), or some other instrument of drastic change]].

Almost invariably this involves a character who was sure he was anywhere but Earth discovering the AwfulTruth, after finding TheConstant. The Constant could be a crumbling relic from old Earth that they find, such as the tip of the ruins of the Statue of Liberty poking out of sand, as seen in the trope's image

At some point of a SpeculativeFiction story ([[DownerEnding often the end]]), the apparently alien setting turns out to be none other than UsefulNotes/{{Earth}}, [[AfterTheEnd warped and twisted by disaster, disease, the passage of time, or some other instrument of drastic change]].

Almost invariably this involves a character who was sure he was anywhere but Earth discovering the AwfulTruth, after finding TheConstant.