History Main / EverybodysDeadDave

* Around 550 BC, [[UsefulNotes/AncientGreece Sparta got into a conflict with Argos]] which they decided to settle in the so-called Battle of the 300 Champions. Each side sent only its 300 finest soldiers to the fight, and the outcome was meant to [[HonourBeforeReason decide the whole war]]. Only one Spartan and two Argive soldiers survived. The requirements of the fight called for one side to be entirely destroyed, and the fact that the one spartan lived came from one of the biggest FailedASpotCheck in Greek history. The Spartans loopholed their way out of that embarrassment and won the war anyways.

* Pickett's Charge from Gettysburg, (as under films, above). The Confederates moved in on the Union position assuming the Union had stopped firing their cannons because they were overheated. [[OhCrap They weren't.]] It was such a slaughter that the creek ran red with blood. For some units only a small handful of people showed up for roll call the next morning.

** Three million years after a nuclear reactor leak killed the crew of an interstellar mining ship, the only survivors of [[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonITheEnd the pilot episode]]'s disaster are the main characters. Well, one survivor (who was in Stasis during the leak). The other three protagonists are the ship's AI computer, an evolved, humanoid descendant of the main character's pet cat (and, therefore, not actually ''born'' at the time of the disaster) and a holographic simulation of the main character's roommate. Why a hologram? Because he's dead, Dave. Being [[RuleOfFunny a comedy]], the page quote (wherein Holly breaks the news and [[TropeNamers names the trope]]) quickly spirals into an OverlyLongGag -- and [[Literature/RedDwarf the book adaptation]]'s take ends with Holly ranting every possible grammatical combination of the words, "everyone", "is", "dead" and "Dave".

** "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E8TimeEnoughAtLast Time Enough at Last]]": Henry Bemis appears to be the only survivor of an atomic bomb. He despairs to the point of suicide until he realizes that now that his high-pressure, work-a-day life is over, he finally has enough time to read to his heart's content. [[spoiler:[[CruelTwistEnding Until...]]]]
** "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E82OneMorePallbearer One More Pallbearer]]": Subverted. Millionaire Paul Radin sets up a phony broadcast of a nuclear attack to trick three authority figures from his past into begging his forgiveness to be allowed into his bunker. They refuse his offer, preferring to die with dignity. Their rejection [[VillainousBreakdown drives him insane]], and he falls for his own hoax. He thinks the world has been destroyed by a nuclear holocaust, with him the only survivor, but he's really wandering the streets of the fully intact city, surrounded by people he can't see or hear.

* In the bad endings of ''VideoGame/{{Insanity}}'', Keisuke is the last protagonist living and [[GoMadFromTheIsolation begins losing his mind as a result]].

** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E11TurnLeft Turn Left]]" is one long conversation between Donna and Rose Tyler. [[ForWantOfANail Donna turns right instead of left]], and the whole world changes. Every other character that's ever had billing in all three series and is not already dead, dies in this episode through one HeroicSacrifice after another. That is, the Doctor (who does ''not'' get better), Martha, [[Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures Sarah Jane, Maria, Clyde, Luke]], [[Series/{{Torchwood}} Gwen and Ianto]]. Jack is still alive, but a prisoner of the Sontarans and is in no position to help.

* ''Series/TheLastManOnEarth'', self-explanatory. Though the title's still deceptive, since there are at least 7 other people left, but that still puts humanity down to one billionth of its old number.

* Also by "Kill Em All" [[Creator/YoshiyukiTomino Tomino]], ''Anime/AuraBattlerDunbine'' ends with [[spoiler: the whole cast dying in a dramatic final battle, except for [[OurFairiesAreDifferent Cham Huau]], and her fate afterwards is left ambiguous.]]

** [[spoiler:Tatarigoroshi-hen and Yakusamashi-hen]] end like this. In both instances, the point-of-view character ([[spoiler:Keiichi]] in the former and [[spoiler:Satoko]] in the latter) is the sole survivor, and for similar reasons; they both fall off the same bridge into a river that carries them out of [[DoomedHometown Hinamizawa]].]] [[spoiler:Keiichi]] spends the rest of his life in an asylum because he thought he caused the accident, while [[spoiler:Satoko]] ends up comatose and is killed when she wakes up.

* In the most recent arc of ''Manga/Reborn2004'' Tsuna and Co. are transported 10 years into the future where they are told many major supporting characters have been killed by a rival mafia group. Including [[spoiler:all the arcobalenos (including Reborn), Yamamoto's father and ''Tsuna himself'' [[note]]Though this is later revealed to be false[[/note]]. Tsuna's parents, Vongola 9th boss, Shamal and Naito Longchamp are still MIA.]]

* In Robert Kirkman's ''Comicbook/TheWalkingDead'', the main character wakes in a hospital after being shot in a firefight -- he's a cop -- only to find the hospital apparently empty. Then he finds the zombies. The city is in much the same state. He does find survivors though, including his wife and son. Although it's not good news for the survivors either. It's a ZombieApocalypse, [[ForegoneConclusion so that's expected]].

-->'''Robin Hood:''' Blinkin, listen to me. They've taken the castle!\\

* In ''Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura'', you start out as the only surviving passenger of a zeppelin after its untimely crash. And depending on how you play and which options you pick during the endgame, [[spoiler: you will end up the only living being in the entirety of Arcanum AND the Void.]]

* Early in ''Videogame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'', you can find holdouts of Arkham Security or medical staff all over the island. Batman saves them from whatever peril and tells them to stay put where it's safe. This almost never works, as Batman finds them dead on his next trip through the area. By the end of the game [[spoiler:Gordon, Cash, Sharp, Batman]] and a handful of guards and doctors look to be the only survivors of the nights' events.

** And let's not forget that [[spoiler:the Jedi have been driven to extinction with just three remaining in hiding. None of those three survive the game, meaning if you go Dark Side, the Jedi are completely extinct by the end.]]
-->[[spoiler:'''Kreia:''' Your actions have crippled the Order, perhaps destroyed them. - Stay here and die, apprentice, among the wreckage of all that remains of the Jedi. It is a fitting grave until the Sith come to end you... to end everything.]]

* ''VideoGame/PokemonSuperMysteryDungeon'': By the end of [[GutPunch Chapter 16]], [[spoiler: with the exception of Ampharos and Jirachi, everyone in the Expedition Society, including the player and partner characters, have been turned to stone by Yveltal and its followers, who then precede to petrify almost everyone else on the planet, including most of the Legendary Pokémon.]]

* At the end of the first ''VideoGame/SakuraWars'', as your party marches through the [[FloatingContinent Seimajou]], they are killed off one by one, until only [[PlayerCharacter Ogami]] and your chosen love interest remain. The player then either has to kill the traitor (Ayame) or watch her [[DeathEqualsRedemption sacrifice herself to save you]]. Then, after you beat the {{Big Bad}}, he reveals himself to be the devil. Ogami despairs that he can't go on without the rest of the party, then Ayame as an angel shows up and they get revived.

* ''VideoGame/{{Theresia}}'' is, in essence, a BeautifulVoid without the beauty. There are an a lot of rotting corpses, but if anyone else is still living (and setting those traps that keep targetting you), they're awfully good at keeping out of sight.

-->[[color:red:[[spoiler:TT]]: Everybody's dead, [[spoiler:Jake.]]]]
-->[[color:red:[[spoiler:TT]]: [[spoiler:Dirk]]'s dead, [[spoiler:Jake]]. [[spoiler:Jane]]'s dead. [[spoiler:Roxy?]] She's dead, [[spoiler:Jake]]. Everybody is dead, [[spoiler:Jake.]]]]

* In ''Webcomic/OffWhite,''[[spoiler: Gebo and Kaya both]] go through this.

'''Jake''': [[SubvertedTrope I was just kidding.]] I saved them. [[EverybodyLives Everyone's fine]], see? *points to group of alive and well Goblins*
* This is the situation [[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender Aang]] finds himself in when he wakes up from his 100-year sleep. All of his people, the Air Nomads, have been completely wiped out by the Fire Nation, and almost all of the friends he had in other nations died, if nothing else, of old age.

-->'''Zapp:''' "How many men did we lose?"\\

-->'''Prof. Farnsworth:''' Everyone we ever knew died hundreds of years ago.\\

-->'''Creator/GaryGygax:''' Anyone want to play TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons for the next quadrillion years?

* Curiously enough, even invoked in '''''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''''' during its fifth season finale. Twilight Sparkle and [[spoiler:Starlight Glimmer]] do battle in the past [[TimeyWimeyBall a few times,]] and each time Twilight fails to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong. Each time, she returns to the present to find one of the previous villains has succeeded in [[TheBadGuyWins taking over the world.]] Each time, that is, except the last; in that one, she takes [[spoiler:Starlight]] back with her, and the only thing we see is a [[DesolationShot panorama of grey, decaying landscape.]] The only reason they don't outright say that everyone was murdered is because the target audience is a bunch of little girls. Thankfully, [[spoiler:Starlight]] completes her HeelFaceTurn and everything goes [[StatusQuoIsGod back to the way it was.]]

* In the last game of the ''Sarge's Heroes'' continuity of ''[[VideoGame/ArmyMen Army Men]]'' games, ''Sarge's War,'' [[spoiler:every major character from the previous games - all of Bravo Company, Sarge's love interest Vikki, Colonel Grimm and the series' former antagonist General Plastro - gets [[DownerBeginning killed in the game's introduction]] by a hidden bomb explosion at a peace treaty signing, leaving Sergeant Hawk as the sole survivor of the series. The ending hints at the possibility of their revival or return via cloning, but this thread has remained unresolved, as 3DO filed for bankruptcy shortly before the game's launch and no future games by the new rights holders have returned to the ''Sarge's Heroes'' story since.]]

** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS15E1HorrorOfFangRock Horror of Fang Rock]]": Everybody on the island except the Doctor and his companion, dead.

* In the ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode "[[Recap/StargateSG1S4E162010 2010]]", [[spoiler:we find ourselves in a future where Earth has been manipulated by a seemingly friendly alien race who have shared their technology to improve human life. In reality, they have secretly plotted to take over the Earth by reducing the human population. Finding this out, SG-1 try to escape into the past through the stargate to warn the SGC -- none survive the attempt, although O'Neill does manage to toss a note through just before he dies, and the warning makes it]].

* ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'' begins with [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Celes/Ceras/Seras]] Victoria's entire police unit being slaughtered by vampires. [[FirstEpisodeResurrection Technically, she gets killed by a vampire too, but...]]

I never should have let him on this page in the first place.

'''Since this is a DeathTrope, expect spoilers'''.

* ''Manga/SaintSeiyaTheLostCanvas''. Nearing the end, with [[spoiler:Aries Shion and Libra Dohko supporting each other thinking they are the only surviver after RocksFallEveryoneDies]]. They aren't, but they may as well be.

* The AU movie for ''Series/KamenRiderFaiz'', [[Film/KamenRider555ParadiseLost Paradise Lost]]. The number of humans alive doesn't even get close to the five-digit mark. At the start.

* In the miniseries ''Series/TheStand'', the CDC office where Stu was imprisoned while ThePlague was decimating the general population was adorned with the uplifting graffiti "All Dead Here".

** Doctor Who spin-off ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' essentially ends this way.

* Ethan Hunt is the only survivor of the six man team from the Prague mission in the first ''Film/MissionImpossible'' film. ("My team! My team is DEAD!")

*** It is also one possible reason suggested for why Lot's daughters [[spoiler: [[ButLiquorIsQuicker got their father drunk]] and [[ParentalIncest slept with him]] in order to get pregnant- there were no other obvious men left around to carry on the family line.]]
*** Technically Lot's wife was spared for about five minutes, but when God says "don't look" and you look anyway, no one's going to have a lot of sympathy for you.
*** Okay, if you really want to get technical here:
-->'''Gen 19:17 (NRSV):''' "When they had brought them outside, they[[note]]'he' in Septuagint/Syriac/Vulgate[[/note]] said 'Flee for your life; do not look back or stop anywhere in the Plain; flee to the hills, or else you will be consumed.'" End quote. [[ReadTheFreakingManual The speaker is an angel of the Lord.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'':
** This sets the stage for the first game, when the hero is the only surviving member of a squad of marines sent to ''two'' survivorless moons (overrun by demons go figure) and then ''Hell.''

-->-- ''Series/RedDwarf''

* The ending of the original ''Manga/{{Devilman}}'' manga. '''Everybody''' except [[spoiler:Satan]] bites it.

* Happens to Sousuke in ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'' in [[spoiler:Episode 17]]. The events of that episode also parallel a part of his BackStory.

* ''Series/TwentyFour'': Jack's backstory involves [[spoiler:a mission by a Special Forces team to take out Victor Drazen, a genocidal Milosevic lieutenant. An emotionally scarred Jack is presumed to be the only one who makes it out alive...until team member Stephen Saunders surfaces as the Big Bad in Season 3.]]
** [[spoiler:They failed to kill Victor Drazen and his sons as well]]

* ''Series/BabylonFive'' gets one in [[spoiler: Gropos]]. Note, however, that this may be more of a RedshirtArmy.
** Babylon 5 gets two, actually. In the episode [[spoiler: Confessions and Lamentations]], members of one of the minor species on the station ([[spoiler: the Markab]] start coming down with an unknown illness, which eventually begins to kill them off. Rather than looking at it scientifically, they get whipped into a religious fervor and decide that it's the judgment of God killing the immoral, and all they need to do to be saved is to come together to pray and perform sacred rituals. As they lock themselves away, Delenn and Lennier (two regular cast members, immune to the plague because of the species difference) go in with them to offer help. At the end of the episode, the doctor on the station figures out a cure and races down with it to save everyone... [[spoiler: and they're all dead. The two regular cast members are the only ones left alive, to the point where Delenn is holding the corpse of the obligatory cute child that had been dancing around earlier in the episode. In fact, news reports at the end of the episode state that the plague was severe enough that it effectively killed off the entire species, and they never appeared on the show again.]] It was shocking and utterly depressing, but amazingly well done.
*** Delenn and Lenier ''thought'' they were immune, and shortly after they go in with [[spoiler: the Markab]], the disease jumps species (but only to certain ones, the Minbari are still safe. But watching them open up the quarantine, and seeing Delenn absolutely break down surrounded by so much death, is the series' ultimate TearJerker.
** "War Without End" features the station picking up a DistressSignal from the BadFuture, unintentionally [[FlingALightIntoThePast sent back in time]] by the NegativeSpaceWedgie in Sector 14, where Ivanova reports that TheCaptain is dead, and that the station is about to be destroyed by the enemy. This is during the ColdOpen, the ''real'' spoilers don't show up until '''[[LargeHam DRAAL]]''' gets in contact with Captain Sheridan.
* Both the [[Series/BattlestarGalactica2003 new]] and [[Series/BattlestarGalactica1978 old]] ''Battlestar Galactica'' series begins with a devastating Cylon attack on the Colonies, leaving only the [[TheBattlestar Galactica]] and a number of civilian ships. [[spoiler:ThereIsAnother.]]
* ''Series/DoctorWho'' did this several times:
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E3PyramidsOfMars "Pyramids of Mars"]]: Everyone dies but the Doctor and Sarah Jane.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS15E1HorrorOfFangRock "Horror of Fang Rock"]]: Everybody on the island except the Doctor and his companion, dead.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E1WarriorsOfTheDeep "Warriors of the Deep"]]: Every named character but one is killed (and that one is a fairly minor one). Famous because the Doctor figures out how to destroy the invaders quite early in the story, but can't bring himself to kill them until it's too late for all the people he might have saved ([[GreyAndGreyMorality Including the invaders.]])
** Let us not forget [[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E4ResurrectionOfTheDaleks "Resurrection of the Daleks"]]. The only survivors besides the Doctor, Tegan, and Turlough are Davros and the Mercenary Commander (who gets killed off in a later episode).
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E6TheCavesOfAndrozani "The Caves of Androzani"]]: Everybody on the (sparsely populated) planet of Androzani Minor except the Doctor's companion, dead (at least every named character — we are not told explicitly that all of the soldiers were involved in the failed attack in the caves died, but we are not told that anybody survived, either). And yes, that includes the Doctor. [[TheNthDoctor He gets better]]. Bonus points for also killing off all but one of the characters who appear in scenes on Androzani Major, although the off-screen population survives intact.

** Both [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] and joyously averted in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E10TheDoctorDances "The Doctor Dances"]], in the process [[TropeNamer naming]] a contrasting trope:
--->"EverybodyLives, Rose. Just this once, EVERYBODY LIVES!!!"
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E13ThePartingOfTheWays "The Parting of the Ways"]]: Everybody not evacuated from the Game Station except companion Rose Tyler, dead. (Including the Doctor again. And his other companion, Jack Harkness, although he gets brought back by AppliedPhlebotinum ([[WhoWantsToLiveForever permanently, it turns out]]). Plus a considerable percentage of Earth's population.)
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E3Gridlock "Gridlock"]]: A major reveal is that, due to a plague 24 years before, everyone in the upper city of New New York is dead, leaving the people sealed below in the undercity and the motorway the only people alive on New Earth besides the Face of Boe and Novice Hame.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E11TurnLeft "Turn Left"]] is one long conversation between Donna and Rose Tyler. [[ForWantOfANail Donna turns right instead of left]], and the whole world changes. Every other character that's ever had billing in all three series and is not already dead, dies in this episode through one HeroicSacrifice after another. That is, the Doctor (who does ''not'' get better), Martha, [[Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures Sarah Jane, Maria, Clyde, Luke]], [[Series/{{Torchwood}} Gwen and Ianto]]. Jack is still alive, but a prisoner of the Sontarans and is in no position to help.
** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E16TheWatersOfMars "The Waters of Mars"]], it is flat-out stated by the Doctor himself near the beginning of the episode that every single character except himself dies. When he tries to saves them, the leader, Adelaide, commits suicide anyway, knowing that she was meant to die, although two of her subordinates do remain alive.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E4TheTimeOfAngels "The Time of Angels"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E5FleshAndStone "Flesh and Stone"]]: Everybody but the Doctor, Amy, and River Song are dead by the end of it. Several of the clerics are even erased from time, remembered only by the TARDIS veterans.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E12ThePandoricaOpens "The Pandorica Opens"]] takes this to the absolute extreme. Auton Rory kills Amy, River Song gets trapped in the TARDIS as it explodes, and every single person on every single planet is wiped out of existence as the entire universe collapses.
* The end of the ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' episode [[spoiler:"Different Destinations"]]. What's worse, it's the heroes' fault [[spoiler:due to changing history]], and just to twist the knife, the "everybody" in question was [[spoiler:a monastery-full of NUNS. ''Nurse-nuns''. With ''children''.]]

*** In the Season 6 finale, [[spoiler: Margaery, Loras, and Mace die when Cersei blows up the Sept of Baelor with them in it. Only Olenna is left alive, but since Olenna is a Redwyne by birth, the Tyrell bloodline is extinct. In the books, there are numerous minor Tyrell cousins (through Mace's two sisters, and old Lord Luthor's younger brothers). Some of the female cousins serve as Margaery's handmaidens. Even the TV series briefly acknowledged that other Tyrell cousins exist in Season 3 — one of them even had a speaking line and outright called Olenna "Nana" (grandmother). The ''main branch'' of the family, however, is very clearly dead beyond recovery. With her death in Season 7, House Tyrell has been extinguished]].
*** At the end of Season 6, the [[spoiler: Baratheon line is effectively extinguished. The legitimate ones were killed following the Battle of Winterfell, while the King's Landing branch (the three supposed offspring of Robert Baratheon and Cersei Lannister) which is Baratheon in-name-only died one by one under different circumstances. Joffrey was poisoned for being a madman and a threat to the Tyrells, Myrcella was poisoned due to a potentially avoidable rivalry with Dorne thanks to Tywin Lannister allowing Gregor Clegane to kill Elia Martell years earlier (along with her brother's death when the two clashed), and Tommen committed suicide when his mother murdered all of her political adversaries (including his wife) with a massive explosion that killed hundreds (if not more) of his subjects. Ultimately, Lannister pettiness was the King's Landing branch's downfall, and only Joffrey could be said to have invited the fate brought upon him. All that's left of the once great house is an unknown number of bastard children fathered by Robert. Most of the known ones (except Gendry) were purged by King Joffrey in the beginning of his reign and unlikely to ever be legitimized by the current regime in order to not threaten it. As far as could be known, Gendry is the last Baratheon, and he's an unacknowledged bastard with no way to prove his lineage if anyone asked. In Season 8, Daenerys legitimizes Gendry.]]

* ''Series/{{Life On Mars|2006}}''[=/=]''Series/{{Ashes to Ashes|2008}}'': [[spoiler: Everyone is already dead - bar Sam Tyler and he later kills himself]].
* In ''Series/{{Lost}}'', [[spoiler:only a handful of Flight 815 survivors and Others make it to the end of the series following the fire arrow attack in Season 5 and the Monster's purge of the Temple in Season 6, and the only known survivors of the Kahana are Miles and Lapidus.]]

** And [[spoiler:Ben, acting on behalf of the Others,]] kills nearly all of [[spoiler:the Dharma Initiative folks]] in "the Purge," using poisonous gas to wipe them out. It's a pretty chilling image.
** The Season 6 episode "Ab Aeterno" shows us what happened when [[spoiler:the Black Rock crashed on the island.]] All concerned except that episode's POV character ended up dead within a few weeks.
** Everyone in the [[spoiler:flash sideways]] who wasn't already dead died [[spoiler:after living out the remainder of their lives offscreen]].
* PlayedForLaughs in ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000''. In the episode featuring ''Film/{{Gunslinger}}'', many of the secondary characters and extras disappear just before the final shootouts that claims the lives of the main characters save for main heroine Rose. Joel and the Bots run with the idea that the entire town died in the final shootouts, leaving replacement sherriff Sam Bass with a pile of dead bodies.
* Appears in ''Series/PowerRangersRPM's'' basic premise. Save for Corinth, the DomedHometown CityOfAdventure, the entire planet is a dead empty wasteland, all inhabitants dead (a few refugees get to Corinth, of course, but obviously most don't).

** Three million years after a nuclear reactor leak killed the crew of an interstellar mining ship, the only survivors of the pilot episode's disaster are the main characters. Well, one survivor (who was in Stasis during the leak). The other three protagonists are the ship's AI computer, an evolved, humanoid descendant of the main character's pet cat (and, therefore, not actually ''born'' at the time of the disaster) and a holographic simulation of the main character's roommate. Why a hologram? Because he's dead, Dave. Being [[RuleOfFunny a comedy]], the page quote (where Holly breaks the news and [[TropeNamer names the trope]]) quickly spirals into an OverlyLongGag - and the book adaptation's take ends with Holly ranting every possible grammatical combination of the words, "everyone", "is", "dead" and "Dave".

{{beat}}\\

** At the start of the second series the crew give a similar speech to Kryten, who hadn't realized his masters had been dead for centuries. Even after they tell him, it still takes a few minutes for it to register.

** In "Skipper", Rimmer travels to a parallel universe where the nuclear leak hasn't yet happened, and this trope is inverted, as Holly informs him "Nobody's dead" in much the same way that he did to Lister.

* In the ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode 2010 [[spoiler: we find ourselves in a future where Earth has been manipulated by a seemingly friendly alien race who have shared their technology to improve human life. In reality, they have secretly plotted to take over the Earth by reducing the human popluation. Finding this out, [=SG-1=] try to escape into the past through the stargate to warn the SGC...none survives the attempt, although O'Neill does manage to toss a note through just before he dies and the warning makes it.]]
* An episode of ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' involved Sheppard being propelled tens of thousands of years into the future to find Atlantis long abandoned. An AI hologram of [=McKay=] tells him that the Wraith eventually forced them out of the Pegasus galaxy and that he must go back to his own time (no easy task) armed with foreknowledge of how to stop this chain of events from occurring.
* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''
** "The Siege of AR-558" ends with the main characters in addition to 10 or so soldiers alive -- out of a 150-strong unit.
** In an earlier episode, "Valiant", the titular ship, sister ship of "Defiant", is destroyed [[spoiler: and the only survivors are Nog, Jake, and one girl -- the rest of Red Squad dies.]]
* Similar to the ''[=SG-1=]'' example above, another AlternateUniverse gives us this. In the well-received ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' "Twilight" we see an alternate timeline in which the Xindi have succeeded in destroying the Earth and nearly every other Earth colony or human outpost. When the episode proper takes place, the retired Captain Archer is a resident of a small human colony of barely 20,000 and the ''Enterprise'' herself is the last true capital ship humanity has. They do manage to undo this bleak turn of events, but they narrowly succeed as the Xindi lay siege to the last of humanity's ships, including nearly completely destroying the ''Enterprise''.
* In ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "Dragon's Teeth", The Vaadwaur, once 6 billion strong and a major power, are reduced to less than 600 -- [[spoiler: but are no less dangerous...]]
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' has a few of these, most notably in the episode "Croatoan" where a town's population except the brothers and one doctor (not counting one kid who turns out to be working for the BigBad) are wiped out.
** Another memorial episode is "Jus In Bello" where the brothers could easily have stopped any more deaths just by allowing Ruby to sacrifice one virgin girl, who was prepared to be the sacrifice. Even for Supernatural, this episode has a DownerEnding...
*** Season 5 has the episode "The End". [[spoiler: 5 years into the future, Dean witnesses a zombie apocalypse where Bobby is dead, Lucifer possesses Sam's body, and possibly every other hunter he's ever known dead as well. All that's left is him, Castiel (who is self-destructing fast), and Chuck. At the end of the ep, future-Dean leads a suicide run at Lucifer wherein he sacrifices Castiel and everybody else he brought along with him except past-Dean. Lucifer kills him without effort and so, in the future, the only main character left is Chuck.]] This episode was put-a-gun-in-your-mouth-and-pull-the-trigger depressing.
** At the end of Season 7 [[spoiler: Bobby is dead, as is the entire angelic garrison, Kevin and Meg have both been kidnapped by Crowley, Dean and Castiel have been zapped to purgatory, and this is on top of the high character attrition of the previous seasons. The last scene is of Sam standing alone in the wreck of the BigBad's office.]]

** In the [[Recap/SupernaturalS15E19InheritTheEarth second-to-last episode of the series]], Chuck has already destroyed every other universe in the multiverse. He then wipes out all life in the remaining universe, leaving the Winchester Brothers and Jack Kline as the last surviving mortals in all of creation. [[spoiler:Fortunately, once Chuck is stripped of his power and Jack becomes the new God, everything is restored to what it once was]].

** "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E8TimeEnoughAtLast Time Enough At Last]]": Henry Bemis appears to be only survivor of an atomic bomb. He despairs to the point of suicide until he realizes that now that his high-pressure, work-a-day life is over, he finally has enough time to read to his heart's content. [[spoiler:[[CruelTwistEnding Until...]]]]

* An ''Series/TheXFiles'' episode saw Mulder have a fever dream which ended with him lying in bed as an old man and Cancer Man explaining that they're the only ones left -- everyone else he knew is dead. Mulder looked out the window and saw a burning city that resembled Hell.
* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'':
** The Battle of Serenity Valley, the climax to the GreatOffScreenWar that Mal and Zoe fought in, is implied to have been bloody enough that their infantry regiment (exact numbers unspecified but probably about two thousand soldiers) had about enough survivors to fill a ''platoon'' by the time a ceasefire was called.
** Arguably, the entire setting springs from an example of this trope. Canon is vague about just how many people escaped Earth before it became EarthThatWas, but since they were apparently travelling by {{Sleeper Starship}} and/or GenerationShip it's safe to assume they were a ''very'' small fraction of the planet's total population.

** In the novel ''Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers'', Holly has to start rearranging the words and inflections in the hopes that some combination will get through to him, eventually succeeding after "Dead Dave, everybody is. Everybody is Dave, dead." When it finally does sink in, Lister's reaction... [[FreakOut isn't pretty.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'', Mr. Incredible hacks into Syndrome's computer to discover that variations of the giant robot have killed off many former superheroes — perhaps ''all'' former superheroes except for Frozone, Elastigirl, and Mr. Incredible himself. Genocide makes for a fairly bleak subject in a family-friendly movie.

* The first ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMarvel'' comic book starts its UnCancelled run (pictured above) with the bad guys victorious and the good guys reduced to one pacifistic medic and a bunch of scrap.

* ''ComicBook/TheUltimates'': The Ultimates go with all their military forces at their disposal to fight an alien invasion in Micronesia. It was actually a trap of the aliens, who detonate an atomic bomb. The Ultimates themselves managed to survive thanks to Iron Man's forcefield, but everybody else was history.