History Main / ApocalypseAnarchy

* [[AfterTheEnd The world has ALREADY ended]], and civilization is gone. All that's left are survivalist compounds, roving bands of brutal raiders, chaos and despair, [[Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar martial artists who can rend the flesh of the wicked with a single press of a pressure point]] and [[Film/MadMax a lone anti-hero with a cool car.]]

* [[AfterTheEnd The world has ended]], and civilization is gone. All that's left are survivalist compounds, roving bands of brutal raiders, chaos and despair, [[Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar martial artists who can rend the flesh of the wicked with a single press of a pressure point]] and [[Film/MadMax a lone anti-hero with a cool car.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsonsMovie'': When the Simpsons family (minus Homer) return to Springfield for the first time after it's [[DomedHometown sealed under a glass dome]] and cut off from the outside world, they find it a wrecked cityscape of seemingly abandoned ruins. The first human they meet is Moe Szyslak, who is wearing a bathrobe, two bandoliers filled with bullets and a traffic cone on his head, and pronounces himself the Emperor of All Springfield. When Barney, offscreen, denies this, Moe responds by chucking a grenade at him.

* The world has ended, and civilization is gone. All that's left are survivalist compounds, roving bands of brutal raiders, chaos and despair, [[Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar martial artists who can rend the flesh of the wicked with a single press of a pressure point]] and [[Film/MadMax a lone anti-hero with a cool car.]]

* The world has ended, and civilization is gone. All that's left are survivalist compounds, roving bands of brutal raiders, chaos and despair, and [[Film/MadMax a lone anti-hero with a cool car.]]

* The nuclear apocalypse in ''Literature/ACanticleForLeibowtiz'' and the rise of anti-intellectual terrorism that followed all but guaranteed the near-total collapse of civilization. It would be well over a thousand years before mankind surpasses the pre-Deluge world, [[spoiler:only to nearly destroy itself again in another nuclear war.]]

* Inverted and invoked by V in ''ComicBook/VForVendetta'' (both film and comic). He's trying to bring about the end of a fascist system by increasing the amount of disorder. He inspires the population to more acts of violence and vandalism, which causes the government to crack down, which leads to more uprising, and so on. The inversion comes from the fact that, for V, the anarchy was a means to an end; the fascist government was bad, the anarchy was ''worse'', but was a necessary step to achieve a truly happy ending with a "proper" government. It's telling that, as an agent of said anarchy, he didn't feel (in the comic at least) that he was even worthy of said happy ending.
** In the comic at least, he draws an explicit distinction between Chaos and Anarchy (which literally means "without leaders"). He likens it to the difference between "do-as-you-please" and "take-what-you-want". The Chaos is a temporary phase of disorder in which the repressed people vent their frustration and hostility, but it will eventually give way to a more ordered period of Anarchy in which people will be truly free and able to organize/cooperate without the oppressive fascism of the Norsefire government. Or maybe it won't. Comic V doesn't really care either way, tearing down the old being his only goal. Building something new he leaves for his successor.

* In ''ComicBook/ApocalypseNerd,'' North Korea bombs Seattle, and while a "nerd camp" and a feminist commune seem to be weathering being cut off by the U.S. government in the Cascade mountains just fine, outside the camps, there are raving gangs of big city refugees and Native Americans looting small towns and other settlements of any useful supplies.

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]

* ''The Last Policeman'' has this as a framing device: a comet has been detected that ''will'' hit Earth and wipe out all life, without any possibility of survival. Society continues for about a month before people start to realize the futility, and subsequently everything starts breaking down. Jobs are abandoned, food starts to get scarce, and people start partying like it's the end of the world. In the midst of all this, someone is killed, and the protagonist, the titular last policeman, takes it upon himself to find the murderer, even as all his colleagues ask why he even bothers when everyone is going to die anyway.

* Varies from region to region in ''VideoGame/AfterTheEndACrusaderKingsIIMod''. Some parts of America have descended into tribalism -- Viking raiders ply the Great Lakes, pirates descend from Canada to harass the East Coast, nomadic horsemen run rampant in regions of the Midwest not brought to heel by the more civilized Native Americans, and savage tribes worshiping the gods of the Franchise/CthulhuMythos dominate New England -- but others, including Mexico, the Holy Columbian Confederacy, the Anabaptists, the Native American tribes of the Midwest, and the Caribbean Empire, have managed to rebuild into large-scale feudal societies.

* ''Website/{{Cracked}}'' features a photoplasty contest [[http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_96_if-everyone-knew-world-was-ending-tomorrow/ "If Everyone Knew the World was Ending Tomorrow"]].
* [[{{Website/Cracked}} Cracked.com's]] [[http://www.cracked.com/video_18511_the-embarrassing-aftermath-mayan-apocalypse.html The Embarrassing Aftermath of the Mayan 'Apocalypse']]
* Subverted in [[http://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-2567-6-realities-growing-up-expecting-apocalypse.html 6 Realities Of Growing Up Expecting The Apocalypse]].

* ''Literature/OnTheBeach'': At the end, people were just taking stuff from stores. Also, hosting a lethal car race.
* ''Literature/MoonCrashSeries'': "The dead and the gone" - stealing from corpses on the street to get food on the black market.

* ''Literature/{{Newsflesh}}'' The novella ''Countdown'' has some of the major figures killing themselves as the rising begin. And ''San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats'' has people going to San Diego determined to go to San Diego Comic Con despite rumors of the zombie apocalypse...rumors which turn out to be true.
* In ''Literature/TheRoad'' the world has descended into chaos. It's the law of the jungle.
* ''The Last Policeman'' has this as a framing device: a comet has been detected that ''will'' hit Earth and wipe out all life, without any possibility of survival. Society continues for about a month before people start to realize the futility, and subsequently everything starts breaking down. Jobs are abandoned, food starts to get scarce, and people start partying like it's the end of the world. In the midst of all this, someone is killed, and the protagonist, the titular last policeman, takes it upon himself to find the murderer, even as all his colleagues ask why he even bothers when everyone is going to die anyway.

* Played with in ''Literature/TheTwilightsLastGleaming''. In part because of the nature of the apocalypse, society doesn't instantly collapse. However, as the reality of what has happened after the Yellowstone eruption sinks in, this trope plays out on the scale of ''nations'', with [[spoiler:Western Europe invading South America to grab their farmland, since Europe is about to turn into a frozen wasteland]].
* ''Literature/{{Victoria}}'' shows most of the United States gradually descending into this as the economy collapses and the [[OppressiveStatesOfAmerica tyrannical]] federal government loses control. In some places, there are militias or [=NGOs=] (though these are themselves not always nice people) who can take over in a ''relatively'' orderly manner -- e.g., the [[RightWingMilitiaFanatic Christian Marines]] in the Northeast or the [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Landwehr]] in the Midwest -- but in others the chaos is complete, with (for example) Pennsylvania lapsing into utter anarchy.

* ''Literature/TheStand'': As [[TheVirus Captain Trips]] sweeps across the U.S and quickly grows out of control, society begins to increasingly break down, but things don't get ''really'' bad until information leaks to the public that not only is the U.S military using lethal violence to supress protests and cover up just how bad the outbreak is, the government ''created the superflu in the first place'' and the entire disaster is their fault. Desertion becomes rampant as soldiers turn on their officers, civilians form into mobs, there's widespread looting, rape and murder everywhere, the only reason things aren't even worse is because the flu kills almost everyone. Even afterwards, survivors engage in this, such as a group of Army deserters forming a travelling rape gang with captive women.

* [[WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead Beavis and Butt-Head]] mistake a chemical train crash for the end of the world, and begin looting the town when everybody's gone.

* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''. Peter reponds to the news that a black hole is going to consume the Earth in 24 hours by going on a crime spree, but it's [[PsychopathicManchild ultimately just him doing what he normally does]], just a lot more of it in less time. Later subverted when he reveals that he's not doing it because of the end of the world, but because he's trying to avoid spending time with his kids.
* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' - During the opening story, Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter witness some looting going on during the AlienInvasion. Diana is unimpressed, but J'onn reminds her they're only acting out of fear. Having just become the sole survivor of a similar apocalypse, J'onn's empathy is not surprising.

* In ''The Survivalist'' series by Jerry Ahern, the protagonist John Rourke does a CrashCourseLanding when World War III breaks out, only for the survivors to be massacred by one of the outlaw biker gangs that spring up in the aftermath, while Rourke's family have to kill some rapists who try attacking them. However the upcoming [[InvadedStatesOfAmerica Soviet invasion]] soon gives everyone something else to worry about.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** After Springfield is nuked by France, Homer takes the opportunity to dance naked in the First Church of Springfield.

* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''. Peter reponds to the news that a black hole is going to consume the Earth in 24 hours by a black hole by going on a crime spree, but it's [[PsychopathicManchild ultimately just him doing what he normally does]], just a lot more of it in less time. Later subverted when he reveals that he's not doing it because of the end of the world, but because he's trying to avoid spending time with his kids.

-->'''Bender:''' Welp, let's get lootin'! [[picks up TV and walks out, whistling]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' Bender gave up his seat on the only evacuation ship just so he could participate in looting when earth was about to get destroyed (not that he doesn't steal under mundane conditions too). In fact, he displays this behavior as early as the eighth episode. When Fry accidentally discovers the smelliest object in the known universe and Prof. Farnsworth declares it's headed for Earth...
-->'''Bender:''' Welp, let's get lootin'! [picks up TV and walks out, whistling]

* in ''Film/EmpireOfTheSun'', Basie mentions to Jim that the worst part of a war were the beginning and end. When the Japanese invade, they bomb Shanghai, and eliminate any token resistance, while people run every which way they can, and Jim loses his parents in the chaos. When the occupation sets in, foreign nationals are rounded up where they try to lead a comfortable life under Japanese care. [[spoiler: When the Empire of Japan is defeated, the internees run out of the camp as allied forces systematically destroy any remnants of Japanese resistance, and Jim has to fend for himself for a while after being forsaken by Basie, until he's found by Allied forces and reunited with his parents.]]

* ''FanFic/TheConversionBureauTheOtherSideOfTheSpectrum'' has this in its background, marking it as a ''much'' DarkerAndEdgier ''FanFic/TheConversionBureau'' story. The few nations that still exist untouched and unconsumed by the Barrier aren't exactly in good shape.

* Before and during the AlienInvasion in ''FanFic/WorldwarWarOfEquals'', several examples pop up:
** According to ''Chapter 5: Interlude to War 2'' when The Race's existence was announced in Brazil, preachers in the street became common and there were rumors of cults abducting tourist.

* A nominally in-universe technical report parodying a fan-made Franchise/StarWars battle-cruiser describes conditions aboard the SDSD ''Freudian Nightmare'' that, due to the sheer overwhelming size of the vessel (approximately modeled after how "smaller" ships of usually look, but blown up proportionally to ridiculous size) have ''quickly'' degenerated into a punctually-described disaster.

* ''ComicBook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'': During the Martian invasion of England, there are scenes of people in London taking advantage of the chaos to loot stores when Hyde returns to the League's original base. [[spoiler: The looters, along with any other human still in London, are presumed to be killed along with the invaders when the British government unleashes Moreau's biological weapons on them.]]