History Main / WorldWarIII

* Cheerfully parodied by Music/TomLehrer in ''We will All Go Together When we Go'' and ''So Long, Mom''.

* The early 80s Apple II/C64 game ''Raid Over Moscow'' involves the Soviets launching nukes at major American cities, and the U.S. sending orbital space planes to take out their control centres. The very limited scale of the nuclear strikes is HandWaved by a fictional treaty where both sides were supposed to have completely eliminated their nuclear arsenals, so the Soviets had to hide theirs.

* TheSprawlTrilogy several times mentions "The War", which is implied to have been WWIII, although it was only a few weeks long.

* DC Comics has had TWO storylines canonically titled World War III.
** The first was a one-day war between a giant god-killing weapon against every hero/villain/alien/temporarily-superpowered-human plus "supergods" and every angel in the city of Pax Dei (re:heaven or a higher paradise dimension).
** The second was a week long war between, again, the entire planet against one man... [[{{Shazam}} Black Adam]] who's strength is on par with Superman & Captain Marvel/Shazam. This one, however, seems to have become the "official" WWIII in DC canon.

* In 1968, a tongue-in-cheek game, ''Nuclear War'' was made, where missiles and bombers fly to nuke fictional countries (your fellow players), prompted an early MemeticPhrase: "Have you got change for 25 million people?"
* The ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' universe has the planet on the brink of a nuclear war in the 2010s, but it is averted by the advent (or return) of magic. In the following decades, there is no direct World War, but we get the Eurowars in the 2030s, including an Islamic Jihad 32-37, so HistoryRepeats as the Turks once more stand before the gates of Vienna. Two cities get nuked: Damascus and Tripolis (if memory serves).
* ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'' might be set after World War III: the historical files are too messed up to really know, and you don't have clearance for them anyway.
** While the truth may not be known, the rulebook does give a "suggested" history that could be used, or at least heavily subverted to surprise [[GenreSavvy those people who already know it]]. Of course, the rulebook is ULTRAVIOLET clearance, so if you aren't ULTRAVIOLET clearance, don't highlight this spoiler: [[spoiler: After the end of World War III, the 'Polity' (a OneWorldOrder) was formed. Many Alpha Complexes were built in that time period, including one located in the city of San Francisco, controlled by The Computer. Everything was fine and dandy, until an asteroid the size of Sheboygan made its way to Earth, causing the Big Whoops. A Russian missile silo mistook the asteroid for a nuclear attack, and The Computer mistook that counter-nuclear attack as an attack by Communists (its information records were damaged, and it could only retrieve 1950's cold war propaganda at the time). The San Franciscan Computer challenged the Polity and the rest of the Alpha Complexes, declaring them all traitors working with the Communists...and the resulting confusion and chaos caused all the other Complexes to view themselves as the 'one true Complex' and every other Complex as being subverted by traitors. So, technically, PARANOIA takes place during World War IV...]]
* ''TheChroniclesOfFate'', currently in production, is mainly about a World War III between essentially a future United Nations / OneWorldOrder called "The Socs" and a heroic LaResistance called "The Revs."
* In ''{{Rifts}}'', World War III started with nukes being hurled at each other. It ended shortly afterwards. Not because of the nukes themselves, but because they happened to land during a total summer eclipse, on a solstice, during a planetary alignment. The LeyLines flared up and everything went to hell.
* ''TwilightStruggle'' features World War III as a NonstandardGameOver: Trigger it, and your superpower loses immediately.
* AllFleshMustBeEaten, the zombie tabletop rpg system, features a splatbook so that you can set your campaign in the middle of WWIII (where zombies want to TakeOverTheWorld) as well as post-apocalyptic settings.

* William Golding's ''LordOfTheFlies'' It is mentioned that London is destroyed by an atomic bomb.

** Then there is the [[ApocalypseHow nuclear holocaust]] that happened some time after ''Unity'' left for eponymous star system.

** ''The Pandora Directive'' reveals that the war was a pretty short nuclear exchange with a bunch of countries in MiddleEast, when the U.S. military decided to test their new anti-matter missiles against them. The geniuses didn't consider the ramifications of blasting bombs this powerful in a region known to dabble in bio- and chemical weapons. Much of that stuff, not to mention all the radiation, got spread throughout the world.

* Deadliest Warrior showed a highly likely 'what if scenario' of if North Korea and South Korea redeclare war in the episode US Rangers vs NKSOF. The allies of both nations would most likely assist them, causing a WW3. United States of America, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, France, Great Britian, and South Korea vs PRChina, Russia, Iran and North Korea. And these are only the most likely ones to join the war, more nations could join most likely.

* The hyperspace-capable Earth of the movie ''DarkPlanet'' is ''still'' trying to blow itself up. [[WorldWarWhatever They're on World War ''VI'' now]], but it'll be the last [[spoiler:because a chemical weapon from one side induced a mutation in a bioweapon from the other side.]]

* ProtectAndSurviveATimeline: A SpiritualSuccessor of sorts to '''{{Threads}}'''. Detailing the geopolitical effects of a nuclear war on the world.

* ''[[EndWar Tom Clancy's End War]]'' is based on World War III where the [[YanksWithTanks United]] [[TheFederation States]], [[UnitedEurope European]] [[TheAlliance Federation]], and [[RussiansWithRustingRockets Rus]][[TheEmpire sia]] go at each others' throats for what appears to be a European KillSat shooting down a US spacecraft carrying the final components for a US military space station without warning. This provokes the US into declaring war on the Federation, shortly followed by Russia declaring war on the Federation as well to "liberate the oppressed states of Eastern Europe"... only for the US to declare war on them as well in response to their sudden expansionism. What actually happened is that when the US and Europe jointly created an [[KillSat orbital missile shield]] that automatically eliminates any and all ICBMs in flight (thus making a nuclear war kinda problematic), Russia perceived it was only a matter of time until the two superpowers team up to get Russia's oil and natural gas supplies. Therefore, they hired a bunch of terrorists to attack all three factions and planted false evidence that the Federation did it. The US bought the bait alright and the last spark was provided by Spetznaz commandoes disguised as terrorists uploading a virus into the missile shield that made it mistake the US spacecraft as an ICBM targeting Paris. [[CycleOfRevenge The rest is history]] - and logically, neither side wanted to needlessly escalate the situation so the missile shield was left in place to make sure no one nukes the others. The whole game is fought with conventional warfare.

* Several dozen variations of WW III invasion games were made by AvalonHill and[=SPI=] in the 1970s. One game, ''[=NATO=]'', had [[http://boardgamegeek.com/image/643562/nato this]] classic rule:

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* HBeamPiper's Terro-Human future stories presuppose that World War III destroyed civilization in the northern hemisphere. Few of the stories examine the war itself.

* In ''Ape and Essence'' by Aldous Huxley, the great powers, acting on the fatal motives of Progress and Nationalism, obliterated each other's civilizations with not only atomic bombs but Super-Tularemia, Improved Glanders and plant diseases of all kinds. Some areas of the world, including New Zealand and Equatorial Africa, survived due to being too remote to be of any strategic importance; elsewhere, the increasingly mutated survivors refer to the catastrophe only as "the Thing."

* ''AdventureTime'': What kind of Mushrooms did you think were in the Mushroom War? (Hint: Not [[WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs those shrooms]].)

* It's all but stated that a nuclear war happened in the not too distant past of ''FistOfTheNorthStar'' due to the presence of radiation and part of [[TheMessiah Toki]]'s backstory involving saving people from a nuclear strike by closing them into a fallout shelter. It's never explicitly called a World War, but the implication is that the ''whole world'' is an AfterTheEnd-type ScavengerWorld wasteland as is seen during the show and manga, so if it wasn't a full blown World War, it's a civilization-ending nuclear war that manages to come pretty close.

* AndreiTarkovsky's film ''TheSacrifice'' features a small group of family and friends in Sweden awaiting their death by nuclear holocaust. But as par for the course with the director, all is [[MindScrew not as it appears]].

** The [[Franchise/StarTrekExpandedUniverse EU]] novel ''Literature/{{Federation}}'' is in the "not the same" camp. It happened largely due to a [[ANaziByAnyOtherName fascist movement]] called the Optimum gaining control over much of the planet.

* The hyperspace-capable Earth of the movie ''DarkPlanet'' is ''still'' trying to blow itself up. They're on World War ''VI'' now, but it'll be the last [[spoiler:because a chemical weapon from one side induced a mutation in a bioweapon from the other side.]]

* In ''GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'', a nuclear war was fought... somewhere... Tokyo was levelled again, but the Japanese managed to save the world by inventing machines that could could remove radiation from the environment. The series also contained World War ''IV'' a series of several guerilla conflicts and minor land wars six years before the start of the series around 2030. As in Nuclear World War III, World War II, but not World War I, Berlin was levelled over the course of the conflict, but has since been rebuilt.

[[WeaponOfMassDestruction Weapons of Mass Destruction]] are probably going to get used, [[NukeEm often recklessly]], causing massive casualties.[[note]]In fiction, anyway; in RealLife it's possible it might just be another very destructive conventional war, if it ever happens, due to the sheer suicidal nature of the usage of nuclear weapons. Then again, if a conventional war is actually fought, escalation to nuclear war is quite likely.[[/note]] A commonly-used GallowsHumor joke is about this war's ''length''; somewhere around an hour. If the destruction gets too out of hand it might result in TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, causing an AfterTheEnd situation set on a ScavengerWorld. If not, the winner might set up a OneWorldOrder, in which our heroes fight against TheGovernment in a [[{{Dystopia}} dystopian]] CyberPunk type environment. Of course, it's entirely possible for the war to kill ''[[KillEmAll everybody]]'', and have it center on the attendees to HumanitysWake. If the show was made before 1989, [[RedScare Communists]] are involved, [[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp even if the war is supposedly set years after 1989.]] A more modern take on WWIII is that it begins somewhere in the Middle East; Israel, Iran, India and Pakistan may be involved. Other times, it involves a [[MakeTheBearAngryAgain resurgent Russia.]] North Korea is now a likely candidate for the starter of WWIII as of April 4, 2013.

** While the truth may not be known, the rulebook does give a "suggested" history that could be used, or at least heavily subverted to surprise [[GenreSavvy those people who already know it]]. Of course, the rulebook is ULTRAVIOLET clearance, so if you aren't ULTRAVIOLET clearance, don't highlight this spoiler: [[spoiler: After the end of World War III, the 'Polity' (a WorldState) was formed. Many Alpha Complexes were built in that time period, including one located in the city of San Francisco, controlled by The Computer. Everything was fine and dandy, until an asteroid the size of Sheboygan made its way to Earth, causing the Big Whoops. A Russian missile silo mistook the asteroid for a nuclear attack, and The Computer mistook that counter-nuclear attack as an attack by Communists (its information records were damaged, and it could only retrieve 1950's cold war propaganda at the time). The San Franciscan Computer challenged the Polity and the rest of the Alpha Complexes, declaring them all traitors working with the Communists...and the resulting confusion and chaos caused all the other Complexes to view themselves as the 'one true Complex' and every other Complex as being subverted by traitors. So, technically, PARANOIA takes place during World War IV...]]