History Main / GhostPlanet

* The planet Miranda in ''Film/{{Serenity}}''. [[spoiler: The Alliance tested an airborne drug meant to curb violent emotions on the people of the planet and make them compliant. The result was nearly all the population ceasing to fight... followed by them ceasing to do anything else, eventually laying down and dying. The tiny percentage of people who survived had the exact opposite ("paradoxical") reaction, becoming the psychotic and cannibalistic Reavers.]]

* Lh'owon from ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}'' was razed by [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Pfhor]] slavers. It is mostly a desert, with a few instances of nasty wildlife and aforementioned slavers.

* Creator/LucasArts' old PC adventure game, ''VideoGame/TheDig''. Astronauts end up playing archaeologist in the ruins of an alien civilization.

* ''VideoGame/{{Starbound}}'' has Barren planets, which are, well... [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin barren]]. Barren planets are contrasted with other worlds by their absolute lack of anything; creatures, ores, plants, even weather. Generally, the whole point of such planets is to construct buildings and settlements on them thanks to their relatively flat topography and lack of hazards.

* Franchise/GreenLantern: sector [[NumberOfTheBeast 666]], only 5 people survived the slaughter of every living being, all were held in a different sector. Even after the Red Lanterns use one planet in it as home base, it's still ruins as far as the eye can see.

* The Pocket Universe Earth where Superboy of the ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes came from immediately ComicBook/PostCrisis was turned into one by the Phantom Zone criminals that the world's Lex Luthor had released in ''ComicBook/TheSupergirlSaga'', when they decided to destroy all life on the planet by destabilizing the Earth's core and [[AtmosphereAbuse destroying its atmosphere]].

* In ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes, at one point Calvin daydreams about Spaceman Spiff being stranded on one of these. aided by the fact that he missed the lunch bell and is sitting alone in the classroom.

* Most all of the worlds visited by Samus Aran in the ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' games. And if they weren't at first, they are when she leaves. [[EarthShatteringKaboom If they're]] [[MikeNelsonDestroyerOfWorlds still there.]]
* In one sequence in ''VideoGame/NexusClash'', some of the ways to get lost in a planar maze left in the wake of a SpacetimeEater can drop players into one of these. It has no name, few surviving plants and animals, no useful resources, and the few signs of habitation all suggest that its entire history consisted of plague, failure and neglect. In contrast to the exhaustive histories provided for most Nexus locations, good or bad, we [[NothingIsScarier never]] get any explanation for it.

* The 16th episode of Fanfic/TheSilverscaleArena takes place on the Planet Xena, which once had a civilization much like Earth's, but has now been reduced to a wasteland thanks to the constant storms and has been overrun with [[Film/Prometheus David 8's]] latest creations: the [[InterplayOfSexAndViolence Vorealiens]].

[[folder:Films — Animation]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/TreasurePlanet'' the titular planet has been abandoned for at least a century, the only sentient inhabitant left is B.E.N. who was [[spoiler: marooned by Flint, presumably right before the pirate's death as his body is seen clutching B.E.N.'s memory circuit.]] Doppler notes that the ruins on the planet look much older than that, implying that an ancient civilization was the one to [[spoiler: construct the planet,]] and Flint later repurposed it for his own needs.

* The page quote comes from ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankFutureToolsOfDestruction''--the titular duo learn about a planet inhabited by Ratchet's species the Lombaxes named "Fastoon," and immediately take an escape pod to go there. Once they arrive, Ratchet discovers that the Lombaxes had long abandoned the planet, a fact that Clank had tried to tell him beforehand.

* The original ''[[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers Transformers]]'' series episode "Cosmic Rust" has the Decepticons stumble across an old Autobot colony world where everyone long ago died of a plague (a micro-organism that can cause even Cybertronian alloys to rust away to nothing). Naturally, they accidentally carry the plague back to Earth.

* The page quote comes from ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankFutureToolsOfDestruction''--the titular duo learn about a planet inhabited by Ratchet's species the Lombaxes, and immediately take an escape pod to go there. Once they arrive, Ratchet discovers that the Lombaxes had long abandoned the planet, a fact that Clank had tried to tell him beforehand.

* In Issue 14 of ''Comicbook/{{Planetary}}'', Elijah Snow visits one of these. Yet another one of the Four's atrocities.

** ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'': Morag, the planet Peter Quill finds the Orb on. At some point there was life on it, but something destroyed them a long time before and left the planet a volcanic ruin. It is strongly hinted to have been the deed of the Power Stone that's inside the Orb.

[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TreasurePlanet'' the titular planet has been abandoned for at least a century, the only sentient inhabitant left is B.E.N. who was [[spoiler: marooned by Flint, presumably right before the pirate's death as his body is seen clutching B.E.N.'s memory circuit.]] Doppler notes that the ruins on the planet look much older than that, implying that an ancient civilization was the one to [[spoiler: construct the planet,]] and Flint later repurposed it for his own needs.

* The ''TabletopGame/FateCore'' setting ''Ghost Planets'' has this as it's main premise. In the 23rd century, humanity finds itself alone in the galaxy but there are remnants of thousands of alien civilizations. Figuring what mysterious event destroyed these civilizations and how humanity can avoid it is the main goal of the player characters.

* Planet Juran in ''Film/UltramanCosmos2TheBluePlanet'', formerly full of life, until the Scorpiss invasion - a HordeOfAlienLocusts - wipes it blank of all life. The next movie, ''Film/UltramanCosmosVsUltramanJusticeTheFinalBattle'', have humans planning to transport earth's monsters to the now-deserted Juran, so that the monsters can exist peacefully in an empty planet without interfering with the humans, and eventually in ''Film/UltramanSaga'' it's revealed that Planet Juran was eventually restored to a lush blue planet filled with life and vegetation.

* ''VideoGame/RadiantSilvergun''[='=]s [[DownerBeginning prologue has the Stone-Like destroy all life on the planet]], leaving only four humans and their robot companion as the survivors because they managed to escape the Earth's atmosphere beforehand. The game's first stage takes place a year after the catastrophe, with the survivors having to return to Earth due to being low on supplies.

* In one sequence in ''VideoGame/NexusClash'', some of the ways to get lost in a planar maze left in the wake of a SpacetimeEater can drop players into one of these. It has no name, few surviving plants and animals, no useful resources, and the few signs of habitation all suggest that its entire history consisted of plague, failure and neglect. In contrast to the exhaustive histories provided for most Nexus locations, good or bad, we [[NothingIsScarier never]] get any explanation for it.

* The Pocket Universe Earth where Superboy of the ComicBook/{{Legion Of Super-Heroes}} came from immediately ComicBook/PostCrisis was turned into one by the Phantom Zone criminals that the world's Lex Luthor had released in ''ComicBook/TheSupergirlSaga'', when they decided to destroy all life on the planet by destabilizing the Earth's core and [[AtmosphereAbuse destroying its atmosphere]].

* A stand-alone mission from ''VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic II'' called ''Ghost Planet''... is not a proper example, but is well on its way there -- civilization still persists, but barely, and it is clear that had not you shown up, the ghosts would have soon overrun the planet completely and wiped out all life (as it was, they've already devastated enough that your character's first impression is that the planet ''does'' fit this trope).

** Ilos from ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'' fits the bill, and the place is appropriately creepy to boot. Every party member comments on how unsettling it feels, and that they ''shouldn't'' be there, except Wrex (who's just happy to kill stuff) and Liara (who is practically bouncing with excitement). Earlier on, you also visit Feros, a former CityPlanet built by ThePrecursors, now comprised only of lonely skyscraper spires jutting up from the perpetual layer of dust that ''still'' hasn't settled, 50,000 years since the planet's demise.

-->'''Gelt:''' The other planets in this sector formed a protective league. They raised an army and cleaned us out. We made them nervous.

* A stand-alone mission from ''VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic II'' ran on this premise (it's not completely empty, but there's not many people left) and started out with a TitleDrop of this trope, though further exploration reveals it to be TheNecrocracy (one that, amusingly, is ''not'' connected with necromancers -- the planet is being overrun by ghosts, and the Necromancers don't want that).

->''"There are secrets here that were '''meant''' to be forgotten."''
-->-- '''Garrus Vakarian''', ''VideoGame/MassEffect1''

** The page quote concerns Ilos from ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'', and the place is appropriately creepy to boot. Every party member comments on how unsettling it feels, and that they ''shouldn't'' be there, except Wrex (who's just happy to kill stuff) and Liara (who is practically bouncing with excitement). Earlier on, you also visit Feros, a former CityPlanet built by ThePrecursors, now comprised only of lonely skyscraper spires jutting up from the perpetual layer of dust that ''still'' hasn't settled, 50,000 years since the planet's demise.

* This trope certainly applies in force once you reach [[spoiler: Old Miltia]] in the third episode of ''Xenosaga'' - the entire planet is completely devoid of human life, though all the trappings of the setting's technologically-advanced society are in place, adding to the creep factor.

** Happened quite often in ''Series/StargateSG1''. Sometimes it was a plague, or technology gone wrong, or something else horrible happened to wipe out life on the planet. It was rarely not spooky. It's also mentioned frequently that the Goa'uld will take steps to cripple or wipe out any culture within their territory whose technology level begins to pose a threat.

* The DownerEnding of ''A Colder War'' by Creator/CharlesStross involves the remnants of humanity eking out an existence in the DomedCity XK-Masada, entered through a PortalDoor to a planet nearing the end of its tectonic life with the ruins of a long-disappeared civilization. The RuleOfSymbolism is obvious to everyone. EarthThatWas has long since become this trope once the [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos Eater of Souls]] consumed everyone there.