History Main / TakeOverTheWorld

* ''Series/AlexRider'': Dr Greif's plan. [[spoiler:He's created eight clones of himself and is surgically altering them to replace his pupils, all of whom are children of super-rich global industrialists, with the eventual aim of taking control of the world and becoming ANaziByAnyOtherName despotic overlord.]]

* ''Series/AlexRider'': Dr Greif's plan. [[spoiler:He's created eight clones of himself and is surgically altering them to replace his pupils, all of whom are children of super-rich global industrialists, with the eventual aim of taking control of the world and PuttingOnTheRiech.]]

* ''Anime/CodeGeass'': Lelouch vi Britannia eventually decides to conquer the whole world, rather than just destroy the Britannian Empire, as was his original plan. In subversion [[spoiler:he doesn't actually want to ''keep'' it for himself. [[MagnificentBastard Magnificently]], having taken over half the world and been betrayed, he the proceeds to take over the ''other half'', then uses that to finish the job.]]

* Light Yagami in ''Manga/DeathNote'' wants to be the god of the world, which effectively is the same thing.

** The BigBad of season 3 ''literally''manages it at the end of the season. After exposing himself and breaking the Brave Snatcher, he turns the entire earth into his own body and absorbs every human and Digimon in the world onto him... and Tagiru and Gumdramon were the last ones on earth left to stop him. Thankfully, the destruction he causes comes undone after he's hunted down.

* * In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E1TerrorOfTheZygons Terror of the Zygons]]", this is the Zygons' plan. The Doctor questions whether a compulsively secretive race could manage this.

* ''Fanfic/ThousandShinji'': [[AntiHero Shinji]] often mentions in passing that he plots to conquer the world after the Angel War. His motivation for it varies depending on the time: he is ambitious just like that, he doesn't want anything hurt him and Asuka again, or in revenge for Asuka, Rei and Misato's getting hurt. Whatever the case may be, for the end of the story [[spoiler:he's become the God-King of humanity and [[HeroesWantRedheads Asuka]], [[BrotherSisterIncest Rei]] and [[StacysMom Misato]] are his three Queens ruling alongside him.]]

** In ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerbTheMovieAcrossTheSecondDimension'', Dr. Doofenschmirtz meets an AlternateSelf who actually [[AlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesome suceeded in taking over the Tri-State Area]], transforming it into a {{Dystopia}}, planning to do the same thing with Phineas and Ferb's home dimension too.

* Thst is the ultimate goal of [[WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse]]'s ArchEnemy, the Phantom Blot, in the ''ComicBook/MickeyMouseComicUniverse''.

* "Rule the world" is the key phrase that Piffany taught Yeagar to differentiate between the good guys and the bad guys in ''ComicStrip/{{Nodwick}}''.

* Kuvira is given a vision of herself doing this by the Swamp in ''Fanfic/RepairsRetrofitsAndUpgrades'', showing how far her megalomania would have developed had she not been stopped.

* ''Fanfic/SoulEaterTroubledSouls'': The end goal of Medusa Gorgon. Her research is catered toward the evolution of the Black Blood to help her develop ways to manipulate Madness itself, with the Black Clown and the Portable Purple Clown being by-products. Kishins are the only entities capable of manipulating Madness and creating one takes too much time and effort, so she sets her sights on Kishin Asura. With the Black Blood, she wants [[FusionDance to fuse and resonate]] with the Kishin via Madness. Why? As she says: “Those who control Madness control the world.”

* While it's never explicitly stated that Lydia, the [[EvilSorcerer villain]] of ''WesternAnimation/BarbieAndTheDiamondCastle'', wants to take over the world, the heroines bent on stopping her treat her actual goal, ruling the birthplace of all music (and keeping all the music for herself) as the same thing.

* Deconstructed in ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}''. The titular character, who is a supervillain, actually ''succeeds'' in taking over the world, or at least the city he had been spending his whole life trying to conquer. However, he quickly becomes bored and decides to create a new enemy, which backfires.

* Drax's EvilPlan in ''Film/{{Moonraker}}'' is to wipe out humanity and replace it with a "master race" under his rule.
* Recurring villain goal in the ''Scanners'' movies:

* General Zod in ''Film/SupermanII'' did take over Earth after defeating the pesky son of Jor-El. It just didn't last because of Superman.
* Clu in ''Film/TronLegacy'' wants to escape from the Grid into RealLife and bring his army with him. How he plans to take over the world with a few thousand troops and no real weapons (or, at least, something that would work in the real world) is never explained, although some fans claim he can program more troops once outside. One thing's for sure though, if Clu escapes he will stop at nothing to make our world open and available to all of them. [[MemeticMutation Yes!]] '''[[MemeticMutation TO ALL OF THEM!!!!!]]'''

* ''Film/{{Help}}'' - an indestructible ring stuck on Ringo's finger is coveted by a trite, hackneyed MadScientist (as described by John):
--> Fantastic! With a ring like that I could - dare I say it - rule the world.
* Darwin Mayflower in ''Film/HudsonHawk:'' is blatant about it. Having run out of other things to achieve, there is only one remaining thing to do.

** In ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'', [[{{Ghostapo}} Hydra]] [[ThePurge tries to kill millions of people]] in their attempt to rule the world, and in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'' [[spoiler:they [[NearVillainVictory come even closer to winning]] than they did during their first attempt, proving themselves to be more ruthlessly [[PragmaticVillainy pragmatic]] than ever in their [[DespotismJustifiesTheMeans pursuit of power.]]]]
** In ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'', Loki wants to rule Earth so that [[DespotismJustifiesTheMeans he can have the throne]] [[TheUnfavorite he was]] [[InferioritySuperiorityComplex promised]], and because he seems to believe that if he rules Earth, [[FantasticRacism his less advanced subjects]] [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans will be too busy worshiping him]] [[WellIntentionedExtremist to war with each other]]. Tony verbally deconstructs this for Loki, telling him that you can't just "take over the world" because no one is just going to roll over and let that happen, no matter how many aliens you throw at them.

* ''{{Film/Phantasm}}'': This seems to be the end goal of the Tall Man, who has been traveling dimensions and worlds, conquering and building up his army, seemingly to try and conquer all of existence, though in his case, it seems he doesn't want to rule the worlds he conquers so much as [[DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans reduce them to chaotic hellscapes where only he and his minions can survive]].

* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'': Sauron already controlled the greater part of the world when the main story opens. Two ages before that, his boss -- a [[{{Satan}} fallen angel type]], name of [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Morgoth]] -- had similar ambitions before the gods dethroned him. The key difference is that for Morgoth, world domination was merely one step in his ultimate plan to [[OmnicidalManiac corrupt and destroy all reality]], whereas for Sauron it was an end in and of itself.
* ''Literature/HarryPotter'': Lord Voldemort has this goal, now that he's [[spoiler:functionally immortal]].
* {{Deconstructed|Trope}} in ''Literature/SoonIWillBeInvincible''. As he works on his latest EvilPlan (and afterwards) Doctor Impossible wonders what "taking over the world" even means, having tried everything from TimeTravel to [[NoodleIncident an army of fish]]:

* ''Literature/EndersGame'': Peter Wiggin, the brother of Ender begins putting his Take Over The World plan in motion at the age of, like, fourteen? [[spoiler:He succeeds several books later. And in an interesting turn, is a very effective and respected leader.]]

* The [[spoiler:title hero]] in ''Literature/UltimateHero'' tries to do this, although he first focuses on conquering America.
* ''[[Literature/{{Julian}} Julian The Apostate]]'', having been assured by a PhonyPsychic that the gods ([[ItMakesSenseInContext and Alexander The Great]]) are with him, launches an invasion to this end. They aren't with him, and it ends badly.
* In ''Literature/TheMysteriousBenedictSociety'' books, Mr. Curtain's goal is to take over the world, [[{{Brainwashed}} manipulating people's opinions and memories]] with his Whisperer so that they accept him as [[FunWithAcronyms M.A.S.T.E.R.]] (Minister and Secretary of All the Earth's Regions.)
* Pretty much every villain in the ''Literature/AgeOfFire'' series wants to conquer the world, for varying reasons.

* This is ComicBook/DoctorOctopus' entire goal in ''Literature/SpiderManGlobalWar''.
* ''Literature/TheStainlessSteelRat''. After losing track of [[FemmeFatale Angelina]] on an alien planet, Jim [=diGriz=] uses a combination of drugs and hypnosis to [[ToKnowHimIMustBecomeHim take on her sociopathic personality]] to get some insight into her next move. Things almost go badly wrong, but experiencing that self-centred narcissism makes Jim realise that nothing short of this trope will satisfy Angelina. Sure enough, she's working behind the scenes to launch a revolution.

** Hyrule is pretty much the center of the ''Zelda'' universe, so the whole world is screwed if Ganon takes over Hyrule.

* [[BigBad Bowser]], the main villain of the ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' series games is constantly known for his tendency to take over the entire Mushroom Kingdom besides kidnapping Peach, but there are actually occasions where Bowser will actually expand his plans for world domination by actually [[VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy taking over]] [[VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2 outer space!]]
* This is the stated objective of the various Campaign modes in ''VideoGame/RiseOfNations'':