History Main / CollapsingLair

[[caption-width-right:320:'''''Self-destruct sequence activated.''''']]

* Used ad nauseum in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries''. By the time an episode is nearing its final end, you just know that the whole place Batman is currently at is going to collapse or get destroyed in some convoluted way.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE25TheClockKing "The Clock King"]], Fugate's clock tower begins collapsing at the end of the episode.

* In the Roguelike game ''NetHack'', if there's an unrecoverable bug in the game, the dungeon collapses, and you lose the game, having "panicked"

* At the end of ''ForbiddenPlanet'', the hero throws a [[BigRedButton switch]] that will cause a [[SelfDestructMechanism chain reaction in the Krell furnaces]] that will destroy the planet Altair-4 in [[TimeBomb 24 hours]].
* ''OurManFlint''. Derek Flint's sabotage blows up the enemy base on Galaxy island.

* At the end of ''Film/BeneathThePlanetOfTheApes'', a cobalt bomb in an underground mutant lair is detonated and wipes out not only the lair, but [[EarthShatteringKaboom all Earth]] (This was detonated by Col. Taylor himself-- which is ironic, since he cursed mankind for doing the same in the original "Planet of the Apes" ([[EarthAllAlong famous "Statue of Liberty ruins" scene]]).

* In ''VideoGame/{{Faria}}'', after you defeat the boss of a tower and use the convenient exit located one screen up from it, the tower inexplicably crumbles to ruins.

{{I|tsGoingDown}}nevitably, once the BigBad (and sometimes even TheDragon) is defeated, his SupervillainLair (castle, secret headquarters, cave, etc.) will begin to destroy itself, triggering a ChaseScene where the heroes are chased out by the threat of falling rocks, timbers, masonry, etc. and whatever else is collapsing down upon them.

* ''MedalOfHonor: Allied Assault'' has you demolish Fort Schmerzen in the final level by detonating a gas main, and [[BigDamnFireExit run for the exit]] while it's being rocked by explosions.

* Happens 3 times in Lost Odyssey.

* At the end of TanzderVampire this happens to the castle of Count Krolock - for no goddamn reason as we aren't even shown if he died or not. Which is, given the {{fridge logic}} of the play, not even likely.

* In the Anime/{{Pokemon}} anime, Mewtwo blows up the Team Rocket base in the beginning of the first movie. The only known survivors are Giovanni and his signature pokémon (there could be more, but they're never addressed either way).

* A Baoa Qu at the climax of ''MobileSuitGundam'' doesn't quite collapse, but there's enough StuffBlowingUp by the end that the effect is the same.

* In ''AlphaProtocol'', the GrandFinale takes place as the Alpha Protocol base is being "sanitized" in preparation for the agency closing its doors and opening up shop somewhere else under a new name. This process has less to do with paper shredders and more to do with time bombs. As you proceed through each section of the base, the bombs in the previous sections go off, [[BrokenBridge cutting you off from going back the way you came]].

* At the end of ''Beneath the PlanetOfTheApes'', a cobalt bomb in an underground mutant lair is detonated and wipes out not only the lair, but [[EarthShatteringKaboom all Earth]] (This was detonated by Col. Taylor himself-- which is ironic, since he cursed mankind for doing the same in the original "Planet of the Apes" ([[EarthAllAlong famous "Statue of Liberty ruins" scene]]).

* [[Main/EvilOverlordListEvil Overlord Rule]] No. 107 : Even though I don't really care because I plan on living forever, I will hire engineers who are able to build me a fortress sturdy enough that, if I am slain, it won't tumble to the ground for no good structural reason.

* [[EvilOverlordListEvil Overlord Rule]] No. 107 : Even though I don't really care because I plan on living forever, I will hire engineers who are able to build me a fortress sturdy enough that, if I am slain, it won't tumble to the ground for no good structural reason.

* "Main/EvilOverlordList {{Evil Overlord Rule}}" No. 107 : Even though I don't really care because I plan on living forever, I will hire engineers who are able to build me a fortress sturdy enough that, if I am slain, it won't tumble to the ground for no good structural reason.

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** The final thing to go bye bye is none other than the Tower of Mirrors itself, though this one doesn't so much collapse as it does get sucked into itself. After defeating the final boss, the post-battle events result the [[spoiler: gate to the immortals' world]] malfunctioning, eventually growing into a massive portal that sucks the entire tower into it. Escape is automatic as the party flees by airship, just barely making it out as the entire tower fragments into pieces, then both the tower's remains and the gate vanish in an explosion.

** The final thing to go bye bye is none other than the Tower of Mirrors itself, though this one doesn't so much collapse as it does get sucked into itself. After defeating the final boss, the post-battle events result in what is essentially a miniature black-hole forming in the tower's center. Escape is automatic, as the party flees by airship as the tower gets sucked into itself and explodes.

* ''Franchise/{{Alien}} Franchise'':
** * In ''Film/{{Aliens}}'', after Ripley sets the xenomorph queen on fire, the atmosphere processor starts to collapse due to ExplosiveOverclocking and finally blows up in a nuclear detonation.

* ''Film/{{Alien 3}}'' was the only time Ellen Ripley didn't destroy everything as she left. Ron Perlman's character in ''Film/AlienResurrection'' says it "must be a chick thing".

* The abandoned oil rig that served as the base for the [[TheRemnant Foreigners of Grief]] in ''[[ShinkyokuSoukaiPolyphonica Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica Crimson S]]'' collapses at the climax of the final fight. Notable in that the bad guys, after having been given a series of speeches thoroughly deconstructing their UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans mentality, [[DrivenToSuicide willingly stay in their base as it collapses around them]].

* Every endgame location in every ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' ever made. Sometimes this even happens twice, as in ''Code Veronica''.

* In ''MirrorMirror'', the Queen's magic mirror lair collapses after her death.

* In ''VideoGame/SonicChronoAdventure'', the [[FloatingContinent Sky Empire]] starts to get [[spoiler:overrun by Eggman's own magnetic mass, prompting Sonic and Rodolia to escape. [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] because after the final battle in the city, the magnetic mass disappears, but Sky Empire miraculously floats for the next hundred years. It's also [[DoubleSubversion double subverted]] because the damages from the huge takeover prevent anyone from inhabiting in there.]]