History Main / EverybodysDeadDave

* In TheDCU mini-series ''ComicBook/KingdomCome'', viewpoint character Norman [=McKay=] has prophetic visions telling him that this will happen to Superman. In the end [[spoiler:it happens exactly like that. Except instead of redshirts, it's an entire battlefield filled with most of the superhuman characters in the DC universe which gets hit with a nuke. There ''are'' survivors, thanks to [[{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]]'s HeroicSacrifice, but most of them are dead, with Superman kneeling in the ashes, more or less unharmed but ''exceptionally angry''. Kingdom Come is worth reading just for this -- it's about the only time we've ever seen Supes in a true, unhindered, out-and-out homicidal rage]].
** [[spoiler: [[ComicBook/WhateverHappenedToTheManOfTomorrow Second time.]]]]
---> '''Superman''': [[spoiler: '''YOU HURT ''LANA''?!''']]

Sure, life might be going on elsewhere. Greece was still populated when [[Literature/TheOdyssey Odysseus lost his crew]]. But for the person who survived, everyone is gone -- they are alone. For now, at least. Maybe, though, [[HumanitysWake there really are no people left]] and you are officially AfterTheEnd -- the [[LastOfHisKind last group of survivors]]. Have fun with a [[TheAloner lifetime of isolation]]!

This trope can be an outcome of necessity to BringNewsBack, with the messenger alone surviving. A common subversion is that the whole event is part of some nefarious scheme to get a hero's cooperation, and no one is actually dead. And sometimes this is the prologue to a GhostShip story. If the main characters ''themselves'' start dying off, it's a DwindlingParty. This is a common trope for slasher films, where having more than one character from the main cast make it to the ending credits is somewhat unusual.

* This is the way ''Literature/TheSecretGarden'' ''opens'', oddly enough. Mary Lennox wakes up to find that her house is completely empty and silent. She is found a few minutes later by two soldiers, who proceed to tell her that her parents and everyone else in the household has died of cholera.

** Not only that, but we're informed that [[TearJerker she might never get there]]. [[ComplainingAboutShowsYouDontWatch Contrary to popular belief, she is not banned out of Heaven for liking lipstick or attending parties,]] but rather because [[SelfServingMemory she refused to believe they really did go to Narnia, believing (or more likely pretending to) that it was just a silly game they would play.]] Essentially she forgot what was important to her or what's real and replaced it with meaningless fancies. C.S. Lewis left it up to our own interpretation of Susan's personality whether she would find her way again.

** "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.

** "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 alien 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.

* 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]]

** 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.
*** And even after they tell him, it still takes a few minutes for this fact to register.

* [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald]], by Gordon Lightfoot, about the 1975 shipwreck of a Great Lakes freighter which cost all 29 crew their lives.

* Spoofed in a ''{{Peanuts}}'' strip where Peppermint Patty, after napping in class, wakes up to find the room empty except for Marcy, who tells her the world came to an end and they are the only survivors. Patty looks out the window and asks "So why is the playground full of kids?" Marcy replies "Sorry, sir. When I saw you got an A on that quiz, I thought the world had come to an end." (Schulz said he intended the strip to make fun of preachers predicting the end of the world, and was surprised when no one wrote him to complain about it.)

* Quite possible in several ending combinations in ''VideoGame/HeavyRain'' [[spoiler: Not saving Shaun alone kills Ethan AND Norman in their epilogues if they hadn't died already.]]

** In ''VideoGame/SystemShock'''s SpiritualSuccessor ''Franchise/{{BioShock}}'', the main character is the only survivor of a plane wreck [[spoiler:that he caused]] in the opening sequence. Rapture itself may qualify, as [[spoiler:nearly]] everyone there is either dead, homicidally insane (and killed by the main character during the game), or no longer truly human.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'', after TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt (which is roughly the midway point of the game; yeah, it's that kind of story), Celes wakes a year later to find herself and Cid on a tiny godforsaken spit of land. There are no other humans, all the animals are dead or slowly dying, and there is nothing visible to suggest that any other land survived the apocalypse. Truly the end of the world. Cid explains that all of the other survivors committed suicide in despair before too long. If Cid dies, Celes, seemingly the last human alive, jumps from the cliff like all the others. However, she survives, and a dove with a familiar bandanna tied to it gives her enough hope to try and find other survivors and other continents. Turns out that not everyone was dead after all. It's still close to that level of despair, though. If the player manages to save Cid, this doesn't happen, and instead he convinces Celes that she ought to take the raft he's made and check if there are any survivors on the mainland.

* In ''{{Punisher}}: Born'', Frank Castle's last Vietnam deployment ends with him as the sole survivor of Firebase Valley Forge, surrounded by the corpses of all his comrades and the hundreds of Vietcong who overran the base. The Vietcong directly around him have all been beaten to death with the butt of his gun. None of the soldiers who show up to "rescue" him are particularly surprised at what he eventually becomes.

* This is the situation near the end of ''Manga/SailorMoon'', [[spoiler: but (fast) everybody gets better at the end]]
** Still, seeing Chibi-Chibi fade out of Usagi's arms was quite a tear-jerker.

* In ''{{Saikano}}'', the [[spoiler:main character is the only one left on the desolated Earth at the end.]]

* Used to bleak effect in a couple of scenarios from a ''[[HeroSystem Champions]]'' supplement dealing with alternate dimensions. In particular, in one the player characters arrive in their home city's counterpart in a world where Germany won WW2, developed nuclear weapons before anybody else did, and conquered the US. They run into and fight power armored patrols, get in touch with the local resistance, get sent to another city to speak with the real leaders there...then the Nazis, alarmed that there are still superpowered individuals despite all their heretofore effective-seeming efforts to exterminate them, [[spoiler:drop a nuke on the city they just left]]. And then threaten to repeat that performance as necessary until the resistance surrenders for keeps...

* Another Russian film, ''The Dawns Here Are Quiet'' (1972), takes place during WorldWarTwo and follows an army sergeant in command of an AmazonBrigade made up of utterly incompetent volunteers. They try to stop a German diversion group and succeed at the cost of all of girls' lives (while the sergeant survives until twenty years after the war),

* "Nautical Disaster" by The Tragically Hip recounts the disastrous Dieppe Raid of WorldWarII where almost 4500 men, mostly Canadian infantry, die and only 10 survive.

* [[WorldWarII When the Bismarck fired on the Hood]], [[CriticalHit one shell passed through seven decks and hit a powder magazine]]. Of the 1,500 sailors on board, ''three'' survived. Hood's escort, the Prince Of Wales, could do nothing but run.
** Similar "instant death" occurrences happened in WorldWarOne, notably at the Battle of Jutland, where three British battlecruisers suffered catastrophic magazine explosions from single hits.

The guy who appeared in that one scene to offer advice, dead. CaptainEthnic, dead. TheAce, the IdealHero, the BadassNormal? Dead, all of them. Wait, what about that {{Nigh Invulnerab|ility}}le guy? In the end, even ''he'' was mortal. Sure, life might be going on elsewhere. Greece was still populated when [[Literature/TheOdyssey Odysseus lost his crew]]. But for the person who survived, everyone is gone -- they are alone. For now, at least. Maybe, though, [[HumanitysWake there really are no people left]] and you are officially AfterTheEnd -- the [[LastOfHisKind last group of survivors]]. Have fun with a [[TheAloner lifetime of isolation]]!

* Extreme example -- ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' where [[spoiler: only two young teenagers are left in the world, with everyone else turned into Tang]], along with it's spiritual predecessor ''SpaceRunawayIdeon'' [[spoiler: the whole cast and its namesake ship are killed off, but are able to be reborn]] Technically, the latter case is a KillEmAll, but this trope is briefly invoked when the hero realizes that he is the last of their group shortly before dying himself.
** In fact, many of the anime made by director YoshiyukiTomino between 1980 and 1997 have this sort of ending, Ideon being Tomino's 1980 work. Similarly, Zeta Gundam may spare some of the cast [[spoiler:but kills off the entire cast of villains (save the next show's big bad), well over half of the supporting cast, and then also mindwipes the main character]]. Victory Gundam does this similarly. [[spoiler:Long story short: if they're a part of the 'Shrike Team,' expect a death soon]].
*** There's a reason his FanNickname is "KillEmAll Tomino".
* ''[[Manga/{{X1999}} X: The Movie]]'' The movie literally ends in all the involved characters, except for the protagonist, Kamui, dies in some graphic, brutal way.

* ''SoukouNoStrain''
* ''GenesisClimberMospeada''
** And Macross, too.
** And ''Robotech - Shadow Chronicles'', partially, as [[spoiler: What the Invid didn't destroy, the Shadows did.]]

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

*** [[spoiler:Or at least, this is what he thought. (Un)fortunately, his best friend survived--[[BigBad but people are wishing that he]] ''[[BigBad had]]'' [[BigBad died]].]]

*** [[DontExplainTheJoke The problem being that Holly isn't simply saying all the crew are dead, but all of humanity is.]]

**** I do. That was a quite obvious case of entrapment just for the hell of it.
***** One could interpret the passage as meaning "she regreted leaving the place", which meant she had been corrupted by it. God never actually told them not to look back.

** There's no "maybe" about it, it's clear from the text that Horatio picks up the cup that recently contained the poisoned wine, and Hamlet forces him to put it down.
--> '''Horatio:''' I am more an antique Roman than a Dane: Here's yet some liquor left.
--> '''Hamlet:''' Give me the cup: let go; by heaven, I'll have't! ... if thou didst ever hold me in thy heart, absent thee from felicity a while
** Calling Fortinbras a "main" character is stretching the term till it squeals. He lives; that's about as "main" as he gets.
*** Maybe he's not main in terms of lines, but in terms of plot significance, well, this whole mess started when Hamlet's father killed Fortinbras' father, yet despite that, due to the rapid succession of deaths of Hamlet's father, uncle, and Hamlet himself, ''Fortinbras'' inherits the throne at the end.

** What about Young Lucius? I seem to recall him being called Young Lucius and being alive.
*** He survives, but most people forget about him, as he's only in one scene. Most productions cut him out, and have Titus' brother deliver his lines.

** Actually Averted, You can Find a note from Otis saying he managed to steal a helicopter and get everybody out.

* Ragnarök, the Norse equivalent of Armageddon, ends with all but six (or fewer) of the Norse pantheon dead, and with upwards of half the human population of the world massacred to boot. Everyone's dead, [[TheMessiah Baldr]], indeed.

* The end of the Wildstorm series ''{{Stormwatch}}'' has almost the entire team of superheroes killed by [[spoiler: Franchise/{{Alien]]s]]

* Something like this happens in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' in the beginning with the Grey Wardens. They all go to fight at war and your character and Alastair are given a mission outside the battle feild, after the war they wake at Flemeth's place to hear Logain and his men pulled out leaving the rest of the Wardens to die and you and Alastair are the last remaining (loyal) Grey Wardens.
** Also happens even earlier if you play as a human noble, where [[spoiler:your parents, along with their whole castle full of guards and servants, are murdered]].
* ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne''. TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt takes place within the first ten to fifteen minutes (depending on how fast you read.) In the entire planet, only the five humans at the Shinjuku Hospital (and one IntrepidReporter) escape the horror of the Conception, an apocalyptic event which destroyed the world outside Tokyo and turned the city into [[HollowWorld the Vortex World]]. All other humans, everywhere have died, and they have either become helpless ghosts who can only hope demons don't eat them, or their souls have been reduced to raw emotional energy called "Magatsuhi"... which demons crave to enhance their own powers. By the end of the game, not one true human exists anymore.

** Subverted in ''Dead Space 2''. We can see massive evacuation at the beggining of the game. Its highly propable that many people made it, they were just gone before Isaac woke up.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'', by the end of the episode "Future Tense" there are only two main characters left living. Though it was [[AllJustADream all a dream]].

* Extreme example -- ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' where [[spoiler: only two young teenagers are left in the world, with everyone else turned into Tang]], along with it's spiritual predecessor ''SpaceRunawayIdeon'' [[spoiler: the whole cast and its namesake ship are killed off, but are able to be reborn]] Technically, the latter case is a KillEmAll, but this trope is briefly invoked when the hero realizes that he is the last of their group shortly before dying himself.
** In fact, many of the anime made by director YoshiyukiTomino between 1980 and 1997 have this sort of ending, Ideon being Tomino's 1980 work. Similarly, Zeta Gundam may spare some of the cast [[spoiler:but kills off the entire cast of villains (save the next show's big bad), well over half of the supporting cast, and then also mindwipes the main character]]. Victory Gundam does this similarly. [[spoiler:Long story short: if they're a part of the 'Shrike Team,' expect a death soon]].
*** There's a reason his FanNickname is "KillEmAll Tomino".

* In ''VideoGame/SakuraTaisen'' (Sakura Wars) at the end of the game as your party marches through the [[FloatingContinent Seimajou]] they are killed off one by one, until only the main character and your chosen love interest remain. The player then either has to kill the traitor or watch her [[DeathEqualsRedemption sacrifice herself to save you]], then after you beat the big bad he reveals himself to be the devil... the hero dispairs that he can't go on without the rest of the party, then an angel shows up and they get better

** [[spoiler:And in another dying universe, Lord English complete obliterates the whole cast in one go.]]

-->'''Grig:''' Death is a primitive concept. I prefer to think of them as battling evil. In another dimension.
-->'''Alex:''' Another dimension? How many are left?\\
-->'''Grig:''' Including yourself?\\
-->'''Alex:''' Yeah!\\
-->'''Grig:''' One.

'''Alex:''' Another dimension? How many are left?\\
'''Grig:''' Including yourself?\\
'''Alex:''' Yeah!\\
'''Grig:''' One.