History Main / FalloutShelterFail

* Invoked on ''WesternAnimation/TheIronGiant''. After a nuclear strike is accidentally called on the town, Kent Mansley, [[spoiler:who called said attack]], suggests going to a nearby shelter, but General Rogard tells him point blank that there is no way to survive a direct hit from a nuke. [[spoiler:Fortunately, they are all saved by the Giant's HeroicSacrifice.]]

*** [[Series/Fallout2024 Vault 32]] is found to have fallen victim to a raider attack in which the entire population was massacred, leaving the entire facility as a nightmarish tomb littered with mangled corpses and dead crops. However, an investigation by Norm [=McClean=] reveals that [[spoiler: that the inhabitants of 32 were actually killed in a massive riot kicked off by the realization that they were all part of an experiment being conducted from Vault 31, and the raiders had nothing to do with it.]]

*** [[Series/Fallout2024 Vault 32]] is found to have fallen victim to a raider attack in which the entire population was massacred and left a nightmarish tomb littered with mangled corpses and dead crops. However, an investigation by Norm [=McClean=] reveals that [[spoiler: that the inhabitants of 32 were actually killed in a massive riot kicked off by the realization that they were all part of an experiment being conducted from Vault 31, and the raiders had nothing to do with it.]]

 *** [[VideoGame/Fallout4 Vault 111]] was designed to study the effects of prolonged cryogenic suspension, but the staff turned on each other in a mutiny, leaving the inhabitants on ice for the next two centuries, only for them to end up getting killed by sabotage to the life-support systems: the only survivors of this were the player character, their spouse, and baby Shaun.

*** [[VideoGame/Fallout4 Vault 111]] was designed to study the effects of prolonged cryogenic suspension, but the staff turned on each other in a mutiny, leaving the inhabitants on ice for the next two centuries, only for them to end up getting killed by sabotage to the life-support systems: the only survivors of this were the player character, their spouse, and baby Shaun.
*** [[VideoGame/Fallout3 Vault 112]] is a [[LotusEaterMachine virtual reality playground]] under the control of Vault-Tec director [[PsychopathicManchild Dr. Stanislaus Braun]], with every resident brainwashed into serving his sadistic whims. Only a case of this trope gives the player an opportunity to stop him: one of the memory chips used to brainwash the residents is offline, allowing Mrs. Dithers to help you out when you enter the simulation.

* As quoted above, ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' has one strip in a fully-stocked post-nuke bomb shelter where a woman is berating her companion for forgetting [[NoCanOpener the most critical item]].

* At the start of ''ComicBook/WhenTheWindBlows,'' the British government provide instruction on how citizens can build their own fallout shelters out of doors and cushions. Not realizing that this advice is shoddy placebo-based rubbish designed to keep him, Jim Bloggs takes the leaflets seriously and builds his "inner core or refuge" right in the middle of the house -- [[TooDumbToLive declining to use the root cellar]]. Combined with the limited supplies and the simple fact that the Bloggses don't really understand the threat of radiation, the shelter is ''hopelessly'' inadequate. [[spoiler:Even before Jim and Hilda make the mistake of leaving the shelter two weeks early, they've already been exposed to a lethal dose of fallout, and the book ends with the two dying of radiation sickness.]]

** Another chapter of the book discusses how a coalition of various American celebrities built a zombie-proof luxury compound on Long Island where they could live out the apocalypse in safety and comfort. Well-stocked with provisions and protected by armed guards, it looked to be perfect... up until the celebrities broadcast their activities and location on national TV as a "reality show". Not long after they start broadcasting, the compound was attacked and overrun -- not by zombies, but by other survivors looking for food and shelter.

** The Boston Mayoral Shelter from ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' was constructed by the mayor of Boston shortly before the Great War, with the intent of sheltering his family, a few servants... and no one else. What's worse, not only did he use taxpayer money to finance it, but the shelter was ''much'' bigger than one family could possibly need, and included things like several bedrooms, a gym, and even a basketball court. After the bombs fell, civilian survivors ended up breaking into the shelter, overrunning security and killed everyone inside, with the mayor committing suicide in the hopes that his death would satisfy the survivors and spare his wife and children. [[PoorCommunicationKills His well-meaning bodyguard instead locked the body away to spare his family the sight.]]

** One of the last gambits of the Protheans to survive the Reaper invasion in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' involved building a sheltered stasis vault to store a million of their people until the Reapers finished harvesting all advanced life in the galaxy, with the intent of rebuilding their Empire with these survivors and fortifying it against future harvests. Unfortunately, the vault was nowhere near as lucky as the one on Ilos: it was discovered by Indoctrinated Protheans and critically damaged before it could be activated, with only a few hundred stasis pods surviving. To make it worse, the systems for automated reawakening were disabled, so only one Prothean lasted long enough to be awoken -- and not until the Reapers returned at that.

** Narrowly averted in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E14BartsComet Bart's Comet]]". When a comet is headed on a collision course for Springfield, the whole town crowds into the Flanders' bunker though Ned states they'll likely die of suffocation before the comet hits and there's no food for all of them but he allows it because [[GoodSamaritan he just can't refuse to help]]. Indeed, it's very comically crowded and filled to the breaking point, to the point where Ned himself is forced out. Eventually everyone leaves to face their demise together, but luckily the comet burns up in the atmosphere and is reduced to a small rock, which bounces off the bunker -- causing the whole thing to ''[[EpicFail instantly crumble on impact]]''.

* ''WesternAnimation/ProtectAndSurvive'' was the British equivalent of ''Film/DuckAndCover'', meant to serve as an InstructionalFilm with accompanying brochures explaining how to convert your home into a fallout shelter. Problem was, the advice was wholly useless and contradictory with examples such as removing the doors of your home (giving it even ''less'' protection) to construct a refuge in your living room, then later saying to keep those same doors shut to prevent the spread of fires. ''ComicBook/WhenTheWindBlows'' and ''Film/{{Threads}}'' were produced in response, with the former acting as a scathing TakeThat showing just how futile following said advice would be.