History Main / SwarmOfRats

* ''Film/TwentyEightDaysLater''. The protagonists are having to change a tire on their vehicle in a darkened tunnel when a swarm of rats goes running up it--one man in particular is not happy as he's flat on his back under the cab at the time. Things go FromBadToWorse when they realise the rats are fleeing the Infected.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'': [[Ratmen Skaven]] Packmasters breed and command swarms of rats as well as packs of [[RodentsOfUnusualSize giant rats]], and their Grey Seers even have spells that summon them.

* ''WebAnimation/DorklyOriginals'': In a Franchise/{{Sonic}} video, Sonic and Tails open an animal pod containing thousands of rats that were to be exterminated by Eggman. Tails is immediately devoured, the rats overrun the nearby city, and Sonic gets bitten and dies of rat plague.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'': Skaven Packmasters breed and command swarms of rats, and their Grey Seers even have spells that summon them.

* ''Film/GhostbustersII'' averts this when the guys are down in the subway system.
-->'''Winston:''' Just shut up about the rats!
** In ''Film/{{Ghostbusters|2016}}'' (2016), one of the hauntings shown plaguing the city is a swarm of ''ghost'' rats that come flying out of a subway entrance.

* In the ''Manga/{{Akira}}'' manga, after [[spoiler:Akira causes the destruction of Tokyo upon reawakening]], there's one scene where Chiyoko is waist deep in a pool of water underground and swarms of starving rats swim to her trying to eat her.

* ''Manga/InuYasha'': Lesser {{youkai}} Zushinezumi carries around a zushi (a wooden container for buddhist scrolls) which spawns an endless horde of ravenous, one-eyes rats that devour everything in their path and multiplies if damaged. Hakudoshi unleashes them to wreak havoc in an entire valley in order to force Kikyo to come out.

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* Ratcatcher 2's powers when she really applies herself in ''Film/TheSuicideSquad'': she can summon an entire swarm of rats to do her bidding. First does it during a standoff against the rest of the Squad in the jungle, then in the climax to [[spoiler:chew down Starro after Harley Quinn impales its eye]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'', Ludo has an army of rats that helped him invade Mewni.

* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'': When [[BalefulPolymorph David]] returns, it's just after rat swarms overtake Rachel and Cassie. David then claims that he's become a RatKing and can command them with his superior intelligence; but since this isn't a setting where rats have secret high intelligence, Rachel doesn't believe him and realizes the swarms were arranged and controlled by [[GreaterScopeVillain something else]].

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* Evoked as an image by Heinrich Heine in "The Roving Rats" (1855), a satirical poem expressing Heine's view of the communist movement and the reactions to it. In it, a wandering horde of hungry rats (i.e. communists) swarms the countryside and threatens to overrun a walled town (the state, resp. the capitalist order), much to the terror of the burghers (the burgeoisie) and the clergy. The poem ends with an advice to the townsfolk to feast the rats with nice food, as good eating is what they really want.

* FRanchise/MarvelUniverse villain Vermin (originally a ComicBook/CaptainAmerica foe but probably most famous for his appearance in ''ComicBook/KravensLastHunt'') has the ability to control rats and stray dogs within a two-mile radius of his person and frequently uses this power to summon swarms of rat..

* ''Film/RatDisaster'' (a.k.a ''Junkrat Train'') involves an outbreak of rabies amidst an entire swarm of rodents populating a train station, which predictably becomes savage, going around biting people and passing the diesease. [[https://www.gamebyte.com/rat-disaster-is-a-zombie-movie-with-lots-and-lots-of-rats/ Online reviews called it a "zombie disaster movie with rats in place of zombies"]].

* ''Literature/LegendOfZagor'' have a horde of jet-black, red-eyed, oversized rodents infesting the long-abandoned kitchen of Castle Argent, where as soon as you enter, you'll be swarmed by giant rats. Even if you escape, you risk catching the Bubonic Plague, a disease that drains your Stamina stat periodically.

* ''Literature/DeltoraQuest''’s ''City of the Rats'' is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, a massive swarm of rats that have devoured every organic substance on the Hira plain before turning on each other and which are only contained by water (a bend in the massive River Broad on three sides and a canal dug by the locals to contain the rats on the fourth). The whole thing turns out to have been a deliberate plot by the city’s rat catchers, servants of the BigBad, which had the dual result of providing a food source for the enormous snake Rheah and giving the rat catchers an excuse to turn the former citizens of Hira into a nice, isolated little cult.

* In the BBC's "Dick Barton - Special Agent" (a 1972 re-recording of the lost original serial "Dick Barton and the Secret Weapon"), the heroes are lured into a room by the villain, who traps them there with a pack of bloodthirsty rats.

* In Stephen Gallagher's "The Last Rose of Summer", a 1977 science fiction production for Manchester's Picadilly Radio, the protagonist is attacked by rats in the dark buried streets below a future city.

* Taken UpToEleven in the [[HorrorAnimeAndManga horror manga]] ''Manga/{{Region}}'', as a plague of starving rats swarms across the entire nation of Japan.

* ''VideoGame/APlagueTaleInnocence'', set during the UsefulNotes/TheHundredYearsWar around the period of TheBlackDeath, takes the rat problem responsible for the plague and cranks it up to nightmarish proportions. Rats explode from the ground like geysers, whole battlefields turn into rounds of TheGroundIsLava as the protagonists move from safety area to safety area to avoid getting StippedToTheBone, and the rats nests they have to explore are these disgusting caverns covered in bones and MeatMoss.

* ''VideoGame/APlagueTaleInnocence'' is set during the Hundred Years War, around the period of TheBlackDeath. The rat hordes will eat anyone who isn't close to a light source.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'' has ''invisible'' [[https://gamepedia.cursecdn.com/zelda_gamepedia_en/thumb/a/a2/TP_Ghoul_Rat_Model.png/320px-TP_Ghoul_Rat_Model.png?version=c16611281a7ea3b83b9e61a789e90cd9 ghostly rat swarms]] in the Arbiter's Grounds. The only indication that they're on you is that you suddenly start moving slowly (and in wolf form, Midna gets all jittery). Use the wolf's senses and you'll suddenly see that you're covered in the things, though fortunately a good SpinAttack will clear them away.

* ''Webcomic/TalesOfTheQuestor": Has a swarm of shadow rats made by a rat king and a magical device.

* Starfire's "demise" in ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' episode "Fear Itself". Starfire is swarmed by the rat monsters and sinks into the floor. By the time Cyborg comes for her, she is completely submerged and the pile completely disappears with her along with it.

** Also happens in "Homer's Enemy" after the derelict factory Bart bought for $1 collapses overnight, and Bart wonders where all the rats will go. Cue a massive horde of rats swarming out of the wreckage... and right into Moe's Tavern.
--->'''Moe:''' Alright, everybody stuff your pants into your socks!
** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS13E15BlameItOnLisa Blame It On Lisa]]", when the family visit Rio de Janeiro to find the orphan Lisa was sponsoring, they walk through a slum which has been painted different colors by the government to not offend the tourists, including the rats that cut across them.
* In ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesofEvil'', Ludo has an army of rats that helped him invade Mewni.

* ''Film/RatDisaster'' (a.k.a ''Junkrat Train'') involves an outbreak of rabies amidst an entire swarm of rodents populating a train station, which predictably becomes savage, going around biting people and passing the diesease. [[https://www.gamebyte.com/rat-disaster-is-a-zombie-movie-with-lots-and-lots-of-rats/ Online reviews called it a "zombie disaster movie with rats in place of zombies"}}.

* In Star Vs., Ludo has an army of rats that helped him invade Mewni.