History Main / BigBlackout

** The 2014 thriller ''Film/Blackout2014'' (aka ''Then There Was'') has a similar premise.

** The Tokyo Electric Power Company had to institute rolling blackouts because of all the power plants, nuclear and non-nuclear, that were knocked out by the earthquake. [[ItsTheOnlyWay If they don't, they'll have a total blackout and won't be able to restart the plants]], but this doesn't stop the bureaucrats from accusing them of not caring about all the people in critical care whose lives will be endangered.

* ''The Days''. After an earthquake damages the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and the subsequent tsunami shorts out the backup generators, the staff have to handle a nuclear accident without any power at all, something [[DidNotSeeThatComing they don't even have a contingency plan for]]. This causes a serious delay in the decision to evacuate the surrounding area as everyone thinks the cooling units for the reactor are still functioning, until they wire up a couple of car batteries to the readout and discover that [[OhCrap they've been turned off since the start of the disaster]]. Even when a mobile generator arrives on site it's the wrong voltage and they run into more problems trying to find a working switchboard and connect it up.

* ''The Days''. After an earthquake damages the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and the subsequent tsunami shorts out the backup generators, the staff have to handle a nuclear accident without any power at all, something [[DidNotSeeThatComing they don't even have a contingency plan for]]. This causes a serious delay in the decision to evacuate as everyone thinks the cooling units for the reactor are still functioning, until they wire up a couple of car batteries to the readout and discover that [[OhCrap they've been turned off since the start of the disaster]].

* ''The Last Assassin'' by Creator/BarryEisler. [[ProfessionalKiller John Rain]] arranges for his FriendOnTheForce to knock out the power so he can enter a nightclub in night vision goggles and kill his target without being seen. The hitch is, city regulations require an investigation if power goes out on an entire Tokyo city block for longer than two minutes, so that's all the time his friend can give him.

* A major military conflict may also precipitate deliberate blackouts as a civil defense measure, in addition to those inadvertently caused by bombing or battle damage; during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII the whole of Great Britain was blacked out at night for nearly six years.[[note]]It was felt that offering German bombers the opportunity to home in on major cities simply by flying towards very obvious lights at night was making it too easy for them. Whilst Britain took this to absolute extremes, and advances in night navigation and radar would have made this largely irelevant by 1945, there was a certain truth here. German U-boat commanders operating off the east coast of the USA in early 1942 were amazed at the way American ports were still lit up as though the war had never started. This made it a lot easier to get navigational fixes -- and to acquire targets. A lot of American shipping went down before the US authorities realised why. British-style blackouts belatedly became the norm on both coasts of the USA, but were only sporadically applied elsewhere.[[/note]]

* Much of the northeastern United States (including [[BigApplesauce New York City]]) and the Canadian province of Ontario saw massive power outages on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_1965 November 9, 1965,]] and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_2003 August 14, 2003,]] the latter of which, at one point, extended as far west as parts of southwest UsefulNotes/{{Michigan}}. New York City itself had another one on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_blackout_of_1977 July 13, 1977]], as well as a smaller one (localized to Manhattan's Upper West Side) [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_blackout_of_July_2019 exactly 42 years later]].

* In ''Film/{{The Day The Earth Stood Still|}}'', Klaatu demonstrates his power by causing a global blackout for exactly thirty minutes. He thoughtfully makes exceptions for such things as hospitals and airplanes in flight.

* In 2013 the British TV channel simply know as Channel 4 did a one off {{Mockumentary}} about the UK's national grid failing and the results of what a modern Britain not having power for a entire week be like. It was simply called ''Blackout''.

* The ''Series/ColdCase'' episode "Blackout" revolves around the 1996 drowning of an elderly woman in her mansion during a blizzard-related power outage. [[spoiler: The VictimOfTheWeek's daughter had turned out the lights before killing her after she found out that her mom [[DirtyOldWoman had attempted to seduce]] [[{{Squick}} her 13-year-old son]]]].

* Happens in ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'' as a result of [[{{Foreshadowing}} Boo giggling too much]].

* In the ''ComicBook/BatmanHush'' storyline, Batman follows a lead on ComicBook/PoisonIvy's whereabouts to Metropolis, only to find that she's used her poisons to control Franchise/{{Superman}}'s mind. After initially getting away, Batman gets the drop on Superman and electrocutes him with a main power line. All of the lights in Metropolis (which is generally shown to be a highly modern, borderline Crystal Spires kind of city) momentarily go off. Superman was only stunned for a short time, but Batman was only buying time until he could break Ivy's control anyway. This is a ShoutOut to ''ComicBook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns'', where Bats hooks into Gotham's power grid to stun Superman.

* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'' foe the Shocker once initiated a series of blackouts, one block at a time, in a pattern to spell out his name when viewed from above.

* In the {{O|riginalVideoAnimation}}VA ''Manga/GiantRobo The Animation'', a key part of the backstory is the "Tragedy of Bashtarlle", a test of an experimental [[AppliedPhlebotinum Phlebotinum]] drive [[GoneHorriblyWrong Goes Horribly Wrong]] causing an blackout of all power sources worldwide that lasted for seven days, killing two-thirds of the world's population. (The explosion at ground zero also annihilated the country where the test took place. Guess the country's name - we'll wait.) The BigBad's plan revolves around three {{MacGuffin}}s meant to power a PhlebotinumBomb that would repeat the effect of the original disaster.

* In 2013 the British TV channel simply know as Channel 4 did a one off {{Mockumentary}} about the UK's national grid failing and the results of what a modern Britain not having power for a entire week be like. It was simply called ''[[http://www.channel4.com/programmes/blackout Blackout.]]''

* ''Film/{{Volcano}}'' invokes the "sector-by-sector" city blackout after a major quake (a preamble to the titular volcano). For bonus effect, the skyscrapers in the city center are the last to go dark.

-->'''Steve Urkel:''' [[CatchPhrase Look what you did]].

* ''{{Series/Revenge}}'': The second season's main plot revolves around the [[NebulousEvilOrganization Americon]] [[WesternTerrorists Initiative's]] efforts to obtain a computer program Nolan wrote that can knock Manhattan off the power grid in less than a millisecond.
** [[spoiler: The blackout finally comes to pass in the second season finale, albeit ironically the blackout itself is not actually their main objecetive, merely a cover for the initiative's ''real'' agenda, to blow up Grayson Global's Headquarters.]]

** In ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'' a big blackout has hit most of Lumiose City apart from the Southern Boulevard. Like the above example the player cannot move beyond Southern Boulevard until they solve the situation at the Power Plant causing the blackout. Also if the player plays at night the whole city is [[GameplayAndStorySegregation still brightly lit]].

* In ''Literature/TheCityOfEmber'', these happen more and more frequently because of problems with the Generator.

* ''Every'' British town and city was blacked out for six years [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII between September 1939 and May 1945.]] While the power supply was still connected to homes and workplaces, draconian penalties were imposed on those who allowed even the slightest chink of light to show from outside their home; a corps of air-raid wardens was recruited to enforce the legislation and were widely hated for their petty-Hitler attitude. This was satirised in the personality of air-raid warden Hodges in wartime-set TV show ''Series/DadsArmy''. The fact that public lighting was shut down for so long caused real problems as the war's end approached: some towns found the infrastructure had deterioriated badly from years of disuse and needed major work. And when London had test-runs of its street lighting in March and April 1945 prior to the great switch-on, people accustomed to living and travelling in near-total darkness found it un-nerving, upsetting and so over-lit, by comparison, that it hurt their eyes.