"In one of the countless billions of galaxies in the universe lies a medium-sized star, and one of its satellites, a green and insignificant planet, is now dead".
— Ending Narration, Beneath the Planet of the Apes
The global version of a Bolivian Army Ending. Rather than actually showing a Cataclysm Climax, some films or other works skip the actual carnage, fading to black and rolling credits just as the wave of destruction begins building on the horizon. Nukes might be seen launching ominously from their silos; the Big Red Button might get pushed; the plague-bearer might be seen striding into an airport, clearly about to spread contagion across the planet. The End of the World as We Know It is obviously nigh, but for reasons of budget, drama, and/or use of an Apocalypse Discretion Shot, the audience doesn't actually get to see it happen.
The main difference between this trope and Just Before the End is that there's no way to tell if a work is going to have this ending until late in the work, unlike the aforementioned trope, which has the ending of the world as its very setting. In other words: if, during the transcourse of the plot, things seem well until something near the climax triggers The End of the World as We Know It, it's this trope. If it instead happens at the very beginning of the work (or a season, for that matter) and the entirety of the plot is based around trying to prevent it to no avail, it's Just Before the End. Both tropes are mutually exclusive. Bear this in mind when adding an example.
Not to be confused with Inferred Holocaust, in which Fridge Logic leads viewers to independently conclude that a disaster must necessarily follow the events in-story. Compare Cliffhanger, when the aftermath of the imminent disaster is expected to be displayed in the next installment. If there's an attempt to prevent the cataclysmic event by way of time travel as a Sequel Hook, it's Set Right What Once Went Wrong. If, instead, the cataclysmic event happens but another party is left to pick up the pieces in said hook, it's Fling a Light into the Future. Beware of the Cliffhanger Wall.
As an Ending Trope, this trope is Spoilers Off, so all spoilers are unmarked and all entries folderized. Proceed with caution. You Have Been Warned.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- The urban horror manga (and only in the manga) Tokkô ends rather abruptly after a side story with new characters with a closing monologue from previous main character Ranmaru Shindo stating that "Two years later, we were the ones to witness the end of the world."
Comic Books
- Black Moon Chronicles: The Big Bad's contingency plan involves smashing the moon to the planet's surface, and cannot be stopped. Wis opts to evacuate as much of the planet's population off-world as he can (the elves and dwarves choose to stay instead). The sequel series is about his trying to rebuild civilization (several civilizations, in fact, as the assorted Fantasy Counterpart Cultures spread out over their new world), but make it better this time (he personally slaughters the ruling family of the Aztec equivalent when he finds out they're still practicing Human Sacrifice despite his explicit ban).
Films — Live-Action
- Downplayed in 12 Monkeys, where the pandemic's aftermath is amply depicted in scenes of the future, and the movie ends with the post-apocalyptic time traveler failing to change events in the slightest, although his boss appears at the end to collect a viral sample and thus, make the more distant future less grim. The person carrying the deadly virus is then forced to open the canister by airport security, which is the exact moment that dooms mankind. We never get to see the virus spread, but we already know that it's inevitable.
- 28 Weeks Later ends with the zombies, after a period of containment, taking over France and spreading as far as Russia.
- The Cabin in the Woods ends with the Ancient One's gigantic hand ripping its way out of the ground, as it emerges from below to destroy humanity... an event we don't get to see.
- The end of Doctor Strangelove plays this for laughs with the President and other members of his cabinet discussing how best to organize the survival of American society and perving out that this means they will need to have sex with many women and figuring out they cannot allow the Russians to outdo them, while a montage of multiple nuclear explosions gets "We'll Meet Again" played as background music.
- The film version of Fight Club ended with the Narrator and Marla watching the destruction of the financial companies' buildings, which was intended to eliminate debt and 'reboot' society: the destruction of our consumer culture and the dawn of a new hunter/gatherer civilization.
- Planet of the Apes:
- Beneath the Planet of the Apes: The film fades to white just as a dying Taylor presses a lever on a Doomsday Device that will completely destroy the planet.
- In Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the film's last scene is of a virus-infected airline pilot heading off to work. The credits play over a global schematic of how the resulting lethal epidemic spreads rapidly from city to city.
- Invoked in Rogue One, as the last two survivors of the titular Rogue One sit and watch as the blastwave caused by the Death Star firing on the planet they're on slowly fills the sky as it spreads in their direction. The action then shifts to the desperate attempts by the Rebel Alliance fleet in orbit to retreat after successfully receiving the priceless Death Star plans from Rogue One on the surface. We don't actually see what became of the planet, but considering a low-power blast already caused widespread devastation on another planet...
- Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines ends with Skynet launching multiple nukes to start a nuclear holocaust as John Connor and Kate Brewster hide in a deep underground bunker.
- In These Final Hours, James spent the last 12 hours before an asteroid hits his hometown Perth to save Rose and to consider what is really important in his final moments.
Literature
- The Burning Realm ends with Pandrogas and Amber realizing that the events of the novel have accelerated the decay of the fragments' orbits, ensuring they'll become uninhabitable in a year or less rather than the decades they'd expected.
- In Dead of Night, the heroine and her boyfriend save the little town, but the boyfriend going back for his girl is why the government is not notified in a timely fashion of Patient Zero who is a sentient zombie, cheerfully infecting everyone he encounters while everybody was trying to contain the infection in the small town.
- Jeff Long's novel Deeper ends with Chinese nuclear missiles heading for the United States.
- Lady of the Lake ends with Ciri cheerfully failing to fulfill her destiny of saving the world (or at least, its inhabitants) from the impending global glaciation, the effects of which aren't mentioned.
- Isaac Asimov's short story Nightfall ends with the planet's first darkness in centuries and civilization starting to break down.
- Arthur C. Clarke's Nine Billion Names of God ends with the stars starting to wink out, implying the end of the universe.
- In Neal Stephenson's novel Seveneves, the disaster happens near the beginning of the book, when the moon is shattered into pieces that rain onto Earth, causing natural disasters. A technological effort to preserve humanity in a genetic ark works, for a while,]] but it is also nearly ended by disasters. Ultimately, this trope is subverted, with a semi-happy ending for humanity.
- We All Died At Breakaway Station, by Richard Meredith, has a relay network on a small planet sustain faster-than-light communications between Earth and its outer colonies. Most of the story is told from Breakaway Station's perspective, they're mostly Bell Telephone grunts trying to keep the network running, knowing that the Jillies, an alien assault force with a Take No Prisoners attitude, is coming to obliterate them. The Jillies damaged the Station during an attack, but the Tachyon link went unbroken. A desperate battle ensues between a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits (mostly sentry craft and a hospital ship) and a Jillie assault force. The Earth forces are wiped out, but not before critical intel is routed through the station: the location of Jillie homeworld. However, the story simply ends here, and there's no guarantee that knowing the location of the Jillie homeworld will decide the war.
Live-Action TV
- Downplayed in Blackadder Goes Forth, set during World War I, the end shows the cast running out of a trench and then crossfades to a field of poppies.
- The series Dinosaurs ended with the self-inflicted end of the dinosaurs fast-approaching. The news predicts that it will be tens of thousands of years before the suns comes out again, and there is constant snowfall. Earl says that it's not like dinosaurs are just going to die out, and the final scene shows Howard Handupme doing one last broadcast, and he ends his brief monologue with "Good night... Goodbye." Throughout the credits, snow continues to fall.
Video Games
- In Final Fantasy VII, after the midway point, the villain Sephiroth uses the Black Materia to summon a huge meteor that is gonna crash on Gaia in a few days' time. Cloud and Avalanche fly to the Northern Crater to stop Sephiroth. After the Final Battle, there is a credits scene: the group escapes from Northern Crater; the meteor is approaching Earth near the Northern Crater, but, as soon as it approaches the area, light green energy flows into the crater, and an image of Aeris is seen smiling to the camera. Cue credits. A post-credits scene begins on-screen text: "Five hundrd years later", then Red XIII is seen with its cubs among the wreckage of Midgar, which is now overtaken by nature.
- Golden Sun: Dark Dawn ends with the biggest Psynergy vortex ever seen ready to engulf Matthew's house.
- Inverted in Guilty Gear Xrd's story mode: Ramlethal Valentine begins the story by triggering the events that should have triggered the end of the world, but she's stopped by her sister Elphelt.
- Subverted in Halo: Reach: the game ends with the planet in the final stages of being reduced to glass, and then it cuts to the distant future showing the planet being rebuilt.
- If your robot is destroyed in Maabus, you get a message from Admiral Jefferson where he somberly informs you that because of your failure, the source of radiation on the island that you were supposed to neutralize has grown to the point that the island itself is completely gone and that the rest of the world will soon follow. He then excuses himself to be with his family during what time they have left, and the game's credits roll.
- In Riven, your character falls into the Star Fissure just as it begins to spread, and thus miss witnessing the final breakup of that Age.
- Carrion ends with the creature, now having obtained a perfect human disguise that's completely indistinguishable even to scanners, strolling out of the quarantined facility and into the city proper, free to feed on humanity. Cue the credits playing over a panning shot of the city as an ominous music track (called "The End As We Know It") plays. The End.
Western Animation
- The Amazing World of Gumball ends with the ground breaking open to reveal The Void, which has deemed Elmore a mistake for being too wacky. Rob (who had been to get everyone to escape) notes that "it's started..." before being sucked in and the series ends with the implication that all of Elmore is about to get sucked into the void.
- Beast Wars has two examples; in both cases, the aftermath is shown in the following season, usually with a measure taken in order to prevent a full-on cataclysm:
- Season 1 ends with the Vok launching an anti-planetary beam just as Optimus was entering into its range. While the explosion of Optimus's coffin-shaped ship is shown as the weapon is fired, we don't get to see any effects until the next season. Cut to the screen showing the phrase "The End?" in the very center.
- Season 2 ends with Megatron damaging the original Optimus Prime's face in order to mess with the time-space stream and preventing the Maximals from existing. The effects of his actions are displayed, as the screen cuts to black and the words "To be continued?" are displayed.
- In the Horrible Histories episode "The Savage Stone Age", the episode ends with Mo and Stitch going back to their real time after it begins to snow. It's never outright proven, but everyone believes it to be the start of the Ice Age, which makes Neanderthals almost die out.
