History Main / NaturalEndOfTime

* As noted in the "Other" folder of the TimeStandsStill trope, once the Universe reached heat death even if time itself would continue its progression towards infinity no physical processes to use to measure its advance means it would be impossible to know if it's still or advancing. Some cosmologists consider that an end of time.

* ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'': The Spiral Nemesis is a scenario resulting from Spiral Beings (life that evolves and possesses willpower) producing enough Spiral Power that it would become uncontrollable and set off a chain reaction causing spiral lifeforms to transform into entire galaxies, thus dramatically increasing the amount of mass in the universe and causing it to collapse in a premature Big Crunch. The Anti-Spirals repressed countless worlds of Spiral Beings and put a set limit on their population [[WellIntentionedExtremist to make sure the Spiral Nemesis never happens]].

* Creator/AlanMoore's "''The Big Chill''" deals with the heat death of the universe, where the last immortals gather to deal with the inevitable end of their existences.
* Creator/DCComics: The End of Time is a recurring feature for time travelers in the DC Universe. Vanishing Point is established right before the end of time, serving as the base for time travelers. A null-bubble is used to freeze time so everything isn't destroyed around it.

* Creator/MarvelComics
** ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'': ComicBook/{{Galactus}} originates as Galan of Taa, a civilization that lived at the end of [[PlaceBeforeTime the previous universe]]. He was part of a crew trying to avoid the inevitable Big Crunch, only to fail. As the universe ended Galan was able to be reborn in the current universe as Galactus, some time after the Big Bang.
** ''ComicBook/GreatLakesAvengers'': Craig "Mr Immortal" Hollis is stated to have such CompleteImmortality that he will live to the end of the universe. It's implied that he'll be reborn into the next universe and function as the Galactus of that reality.
** ''ComicBook/ImmortalHulk'': The end of Issue #24 is a FlashForward to the end of the universe, where the sentience of the universe is waiting for Mr Immortal so it can merge with him as it did with Galan to bring forth Galactus. [[spoiler:Unfortunately he and Franklin Richards have been killed the Immortal Hulk, at this point [[GrandTheftMe completely possessed by]] [[TheAntiGod The One Below All]], who ''eats'' the horrified sentience. Issue #25 sees the resulting CosmicEntity tear through the new reality and eventually [[OmnicidalManiac kill everything]].]]
** ''ComicBook/UltimateMarvel'': The ComicBook/UltimateFantasticFour built a ship that can go to other universes, and explored the N-Zone, a universe that was about to die. They met Nihil (the Ultimate version of Annihilus), who tried to kill them to steal their ship and escape to their younger universe.

* ''Franchise/CthulhuMythos'': As reality is [[AlmightyIdiot Azathoth's]] dream, it is destined to stop existing when it wakes up. [[CosmicHorrorStory Which could be at any time]].
* Creator/JamesBlish has his series ''Literature/CitiesInFlight'' end with the death of the Universe and the characters creating separate new ones.
* Creator/MichaelMoorcock's "''Dancers at the End of Time''" series is about a group of superpowered decadent hedonists living in a FreeLoveFuture PostScarcityEconomy in the final years before the heat death of the universe.
* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Literature/{{Eric}}'', one of the characters travels to the end of time, where Death is just about to metaphorically put all the chairs up and turn off the lights.
* In Creator/PoulAnderson's ''Literature/TauZero'', a ship moving at near-light speed experiences an accident in transit and becomes incapable of deceleration. Due to TimeDilation the trip only takes a few years for them, even though outside the universe has ended and a new one begun by the time they get the ship repaired.
* Zigzagged in ''[[Literature/TheThreeBodyProblem Death's End]]''. [[spoiler:The natural fate of the universe -- or rather, what's left of it following eons of dimensional warfare between {{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s -- is to collapse back into a singularity, triggering another Big Bang that will create a new universe untouched by war. However, [[AliensAreBastards those same alien races]] have been siphoning away matter to create new pocket universes, meaning that the old universe now doesn't have enough left for it to contract, and it will instead expand indefinitely until it reaches heat death, and remain dead forever. There is, fortunately, a BigGood race called the Returners who hope to return the missing matter so that the universe will reset properly -- the titular Death's End -- but it's left open whether or not they succeed]].
* ''Series/DoctorWho'' [[Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse Expanded Universe]]:
** In the ''Literature/PastDoctorAdventures'', the end of time is described as "Event Two" (the Big Bang is "Event One"), taking place much farther in time from the examples in the series with the last proton decaying, and the universe collapses into a single point.
** In the Past Doctor Adventures novel ''The Infinity Doctors'', the Doctor travels to a point near the end of time, and finds a small group of people still somehow clinging on to existence.
* ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'': The end of the universe is a popular destination that you can visit as many times as you want through time travel via Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe. The place is built on an asteroid and equipped with a shield to protect it from the end of the universe as well as engines that can move it back in time to relive the end of the universe over and over again. Mention is made of "the photon storms gather[ing] in swirling crowds around us, preparing to tear apart the last of the red hot suns", so presumably either a combination of the Big Freeze and the Big Rip or a flowery description of the Big Crunch[[note]]as stars are [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Crunch#Effects "cooked" by the ever blueshifting cosmic microwave background]][[/note]] are intended here.
* Creator/IsaacAsimov's "Literature/TheLastQuestion": Multivac is often asked if entropy can be reversed, forestalling the end of the universe, and each time it answers that there is "insufficient data for a meaningful answer". Eventually, it becomes a Galactic AC, existing entirely in [[SubspaceOrHyperspace hyperspace]], but even then it fails to provide an answer before the universe dies. [[spoiler:Alone in hyperspace, [[TimeAbyss no longer on a time limit, it spends eons upon eons collating its data to figure out an answer]]--when it does, there is no one left to share the answer with, so instead, it decides to put its answer to use by [[CausedTheBigBang creating a new universe]].]]
-->''"And AC said: [[spoiler: 'LET THERE BE LIGHT!'\\
And there was light [=--=]]]"''
* Creator/BenBova's "''Stars, Won't You Hide Me?''" has a [[LastOfHisKind single human survivor]] of a light-speed intergalactic war fleeing in his ship from the pursuing enemies for an objective billions of years, living through time dilation right up until the Big Crunch, which he joins triumphantly, proof that humanity had survived until the end.
* Creator/HarlanEllison's "''The Wine Has Been Left Open Too Long and the Memory Has Gone Flat''" is a surreal story set billions of years in the future, where reality is tired and worn and sapients are gathered for a symphony of [[InsubstantialIngredients sounds of things that shouldn't necessarily have sounds]] to stave off ennui. The main character plays the sound of the end of the universe, and, in response to the assertion that the universe will oscillate back to the beginning and begin again, another character plays the sound of the end of everything, which seemingly heralds the actual end of existence.
* Both Creator/HGWells' ''Literature/TheTimeMachine'' and Creator/WilliamHopeHodgson's ''Literature/TheNightLand'' have the world (and implied) the Universe ending with the Sun burning out a few million years in the future, before nuclear fusion was known to power it, in a case of ScienceMarchesOn.
* ''Literature/TheWorldAtTheEndOfTime'': [[StarfishAliens Wan-To]] comes from a point so far into the future that most protons have decayed through heat death, [[spoiler:and the protagonist reaches it through extreme TimeDilation]].

* Toward the end of ''[[Literature/{{Proxima}} Ultima]]'', it's revealed that the multiverse will blink out of existence 3.5 billion years after the present day, and that all the [[EldritchAbomination Dreamers]]' machinations have simply been for the sake of [[spoiler:communicating with each other before the end]].

--> Where fate ends.\\

* Played with in the ''Literature/XeeleeSequence'': While the universe eventually suffers from heat death due to natural processes of entropy, [[spoiler:the [[OurDarkMatterIsWeirder Photino]] [[EldritchAbomination Birds]] accelerate the process a hundredfold]]. All official timelines end with Singularity: [[TitleDrop Timelike Infinity]].
** However, there is a HopeSpot as ''Ring'' reveals: [[spoiler:The Xeelee managed to create a gateway to another universe, ensuring Baryonic life would survive.]]

** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E11Utopia Utopia]]": In order to escape [[CompleteImmortality Captain Jack]] holding onto it, the TARDIS travels all the way to the year 100 trillion. They land on Malcassairo, at a point where heat death has led to all the stars' deaths, with the last of humanity trying to get off-world so they can go to "Utopia", believing it's their salvation. [[spoiler:"[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E13LastOfTheTimeLords Last of the Time Lords]]" reveals it was AllForNothing and humanity cannibalized itself into murderous cyborgs called the Toclafane to survive, eventually joining the Master in a GrandfatherParadox to take over the 21st century.]]
** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E4Listen Listen]]": 22nd century time traveller Orson Pink accidentally ended up at the end of the universe, with the planet he was on the only place not to fall to the ravages of time.
** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent Hell Bent]]": Ashildr, already TheAgeless, has managed to outlive the rest of the universe. She dwells on the ruins of future Gallifrey, waiting for the inevitable.
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': Similar to ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'', [[TheGrimReaper Death]] states that he will be the only being left at the end of time and will be there to reap {{God}}. [[spoiler:[[TheDeathOfDeath He dies before being able to prove it]].]]

* ''UsefulNotes/{{Islam}}'': According to some readings of the Muslim End of Days, after the Day of Judgement the universe will eventually collapse.

[[folder:Radio]]
* The AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho audio drama [[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho076Singularity Singularity]] features this as the origin of the mysterious Somnus Foundation, a point in the far-distant future when all other forms of life are extinct and all but a handful of stars are dead - as Turlough discovers when the Foundation [[GrandTheftMe use his body to house one of their brethren]] in 21st-century Earth, leaving him trapped in the future, in one of the [[DarkLordOnLifeSupport barely-preserved]] [[{{Cyborg}} Somnus]] bodies, with "a ringside seat to the Heat Death of the Universe." [[spoiler:As with the Toclafane in the later TV episode Last Of The Time Lords, the Somnus are actually the last remnants of the human race, and are trying to take over 21st-century Earth in order to change the past in their favor.]]
[[/folder]]

*** At the very end of all things, the last black holes have evaporated and the last protons decayed. Nothing is left except for endless darkness and for the Cold Ones, strange, vast intelligences birthed by fluctuations in the quantum foam. They endure, and think about nothingess in toughts that span over eons, and seek to entrap foolish time travelers and use them to return to past ages of light and energy. The Terminals lived here, in the original timeline, but now only the Cold Ones exist in this dead future.

* ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' has [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin The End Of Time]], which also functions as a PlaceBeyondTime. [[TheWatcher Gaspar, The Guru of Time]] was flung there by Lavos.

* ''VideoGame/OuterWilds'': You're stuck in a GroundhogDayLoop, and one of your [[DrivingQuestion biggest goals]] is finding out why the Sun keeps exploding 22 minutes into each time loop, and how you can stop it. The ultimate answer is [[spoiler:the Sun is going nova because it's reached the natural end of its life cycle. All the other stars are burning out as well, because you're living in the final moments before the heat death of the universe. There's nothing you can do to stop it. At most, you can complete the BenevolentPrecursors's research to find the "Eye of the Universe" and leap into it, and from there you can play a role in the creation of a new universe.]]
* The aborted ''[[VideoGame/ZeroXOneZeroC 0x10]][[superscript:[[VideoGame/ZeroXOneZeroC c]]]]'' is set in the year 281,474,976,712,644 CE. At this stage in the universe’s dying millennia, star formation is long over, and there are black holes everywhere.
* In ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsIII''. The [[CosmicKeystone First Flame]], which was meant to go out eons ago and bring about the Age of Dark, has been artificially extended ''eons'' past its natural death. As a result, it's subtly implied a fantasy equivalent to the Big Crunch is trying to push against these unnatural changes during the [[PlayerCharacter Ashen One's]] journey: Lothric is a "convergence of the lands", a kingdom created by locations across time and space having been smashed together, while mountains at the edge of the world push in towards the [[VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon Kiln of the First Flame]] at its very centre. [[spoiler: It only succeeds several thousand years later at the end of the ''Ringed City'' DLC, and even then, it's implied the natural progression of Light to Dark has been so twisted by the Lords of Cinder's actions that the universe can't ever properly recover. Which is what leads [[TrueFinalBoss Gael]] to take the Dark Soul into his own body so the Ashen One can take his blood to a painter, who can use it as a pigment to paint a new universe free of the cycle of life and death the ''Dark Souls'' universe is trapped in]].
* ''VideoGame/SlayThePrincess'': [[spoiler:The setting takes place in a pocket dimension whose parent dimension is on the verge of experiencing whatever happens before the universe reincarnates. The narrator, a mortal with power inherited from an entire universe's culmination of Dark Science, tried to anthropomorphize the abstract concepts of stillness (you) and change (the princess) in a desperate attempt to get the former to kill the latter, which would stall the absolute end forever. You decide whether to accept the end of existence, end the princess and kill death itself, or change yourself and the princess into mortals and confront the end as yourselves.]]

* ''WebAnimation/{{Hololive}} EN's'' [[TimeTravel Amelia Watson]] eventually shows the ''hololive'' setting's version of it: an endless desert wasteland of sand and clock faces, with naught but a single bus stop sign and bench, where a Smol Ame and Bubba are resting. It is said to be the final resting place of all versions of the time travelling detective, fated to end up at the bus stop and rest for eternity, frozen in time as to not wake up ever again.

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* ''Webcomic/ABeginnersGuideToTheEndOfTheUniverse'': [[spoiler:The series takes place after the heat death of the universe, with only the pocket universe the Everyman lives in left.]]

* ''Webcomic/ItHurts'': On the orders of God, Pasqualo takes the long path to the very end of the universe, when every star in the universe finally runs out of fuel. His reward, straight from the avatars of Harmony and Chaos, is a seed that can create the next universe. [[spoiler:He decides to make a universe where his existence is erased and retconned to become Aurora's, since she can't exist without some kind of tragedy]].

* The villain from a story arc in ''Webcomic/{{Magellan}}'' is a being from a parallel universe who achieved {{Immortality}} by turning himself into an [[EnergyBeings eternal being of energy]]. [[WhoWantsToLiveForever That immortality lost some of its luster]] when he ended up outliving not just his peers, or even his race, but the very stars of his universe.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''ARG/CatGhost'': Played with. Elon discovers that her universe is ending and is powerless to do anything but wait with Naarah. The universe does indeed explode... and the characters get transported to a strange room where they do nothing but answer questions. When ''that'' falls apart, they go to a new universe entirely, even changing form.
-->'''Elon:''' The universe never truly ends. It just changes.
[[/folder]]

* ''WebVideo/IsaacArthur'': Using the Heat Death/Big Freeze model, The "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p58yFf7aZsM&list=PLIIOUpOge0LvHsTP5fm8oxB1qPS54sTMk Civilizations at the End of Time]]" series discusses how intelligent life might learn to survive long past the period where all the stars have gone out, and life as we know it can no longer form naturally.
* ''WebVideo/SymphonyOfScience'' (melodysheep): ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uD4izuDMUQA Timelapse of the Future]]'' is a video showing what happens to the universe up to the heat death 1 googol (1 with 100 zeroes) years into the future. Set to hauntingly beautiful, epic, and melancholy music, the timelapse exponentially gets faster, and for a vast majority of the universe's "lifespan," only black holes exist.

** [[Recap/FuturamaS3E14TimeKeepsOnSlippin "Time Keeps On Slippin]]" manages to make the natural end of the universe a more immediate doomsday scenario. Thanks to taking chronotons out of where they're supposed to be, the universe suffers from [[SmashCut time skips]] where [[MentalTimeTravel time passes but people don't remember what happened]]. Because the skips may reach the natural end of time, but without any memory of what happened, it simultaneously functions as an immediate threat.
--->'''Farnsworth''': At this rate, [[TimeTravelTenseTrouble by Tuesday it will be Thursday]]. By Wednesday, it will be August. And by Thursday, it will be the end of existence as we know it.

* Creator/IsaacAsimov's "Literature/TheLastQuestion": Multivac is often asked if entropy can be reversed, forestalling the end of the universe, and each time it answers that there is "insufficient data for a meaningful answer". Eventually, it becomes a Galactic AC, existing entirely in [[SubspaceOrHyperspace hyperspace]], but even then it fails to provide an answer before the universe dies. [[spoiler: Alone in hyperspace, no longer on a time limit, it spends eons upon eons collating its data to figure out an answer--when it does, there is no one left to share the answer with, so instead, it decides to put its answer to use by [[CausedTheBigBang creating a new universe]].]]
--> ''"And the computer said: [[spoiler: 'LET THERE BE LIGHT!']]"''

* ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStoneOcean'': The plot of the BigBad Enrico Pucci revolves around the fact the universe will eventually end, [[EternalRecurrence leading it to be reborn the same way]]. He plans to speed up time so souls can't die before the universe's end, allowing them to be reincarnated with knowledge of their futures, and through that, peace of mind in knowing their fates.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' ''Endwalker'', it's revealed that [[spoiler:the Ea, an ancient alien race that achieved biological immortality and dedicated themselves to discovering the laws of the universe, discovered that the Heat Death of the Universe was not only a thing that could happen, but ''will'' happen. The discovery sent the entire species on a spiral of despair, as they felt all their work was meaningless and performed a mass euthanization on themselves.]] At the end of the Expansion, it's revealed that [[spoiler:Meteion's endgame after wiping out all life will be to speed up said Heat Death to end the cycle of reincarnation sooner, though she's stopped before she can.]]
* In ''VideoGame/OuterWilds'', you're stuck in a GroundhogDayLoop, and one of your [[DrivingQuestion biggest goals]] is finding out why the Sun keeps exploding 22 minutes into each time loop, and how you can stop it. The ultimate answer is [[spoiler:the Sun is going nova because it's reached the natural end of its life cycle. All the other stars are burning out as well, because you're living in the final moments before the heat death of the universe. There's nothing you can do to stop it. At most, you can complete the BenevolentPrecursors's research to find the "Eye of the Universe" and leap into it, and from there you can play a role in the creation of a new universe.]]