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* In the ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' story "Dark Justice", with Mega-City One becoming an increasily unlivable clusterfuck (moreso than usual), the city's wealthiest decide to leave the Earth on a GenerationShip to find an off-world colony to populate. They didn't get very far because the [[OmnicidalManiac Dark Judges]] hitched a ride.
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* Toward the conclusion of ''VideoGame/Halo2'', there’s a civil war going on above the Covenant holy city of High Charity between the Brutes and the Elites (the species, not the kind the trope title is referring to), the Master Chief has launched a one Spartan assault, and a Flood infested ship has crash-landed in the center of the city. Where are the Covenant High Prophets during this time? The end cutscene of Chief’s penultimate mission shows the High Prophets and their Brute honor guard boarding ships on their way out of the city. Somewhat subverted in that the Flood attacks before they could board, resulting in the Prophet of Mercy’s death.
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* This trope is what used to happen during most of plagues in the Middle Ages (such as TheBlackDeath). The rich fled the cities and towns, escaping to their private residences in the countryside in hope that the fresher air there would protect them (it was widely believed at the time that plagues were caused by "corrupted air"). This is also the premise of the novel, ''Literature/TheDecameron''.
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* This trope is what used to happen during most of plagues in the Middle Ages (such as TheBlackDeath). The rich fled the cities and towns, escaping to their private residences in the countryside in hope that the fresher air there would protect them (it was widely believed at the time that plagues were caused by "corrupted air").air")[[note]]It did protect them to a degree, since contagion spreads more slowly in less densely populated regions.[[/note]]. This is also the premise of the novel, ''Literature/TheDecameron''.
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* In ''Literature/TheReclamationProject's backstory, humans abandoned the surface of the Earth when civilization collapsed, moving up to flying cities held in the air by anti-gravity.
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* In ''Literature/TheReclamationProject's backstory, the backstory of ''Literature/TheReclamationProject'' humans abandoned the surface of the Earth when civilization collapsed, moving up to flying cities held in the air by anti-gravity.
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Some awful calamity is happening. The [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt world might be ending]]. There's maiming and killing afoot. Cities are on fire. The Masses are sick, starving, and dying. Screaming and cursing, cries for mercy, the sound of society tearing itself apart. The public is crying out for aid and their leaders to guide them through this catastrophe. It's a horrific situation.
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Some awful calamity is happening. The [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt world might be ending]]. There's maiming and killing afoot. Cities are on fire.flame[[note]][[Music/BlueOysterCult possibly with rock and roll.]][[/note]]. The Masses are sick, starving, and dying. Screaming and cursing, cries for mercy, the sound of society tearing itself apart. The public is crying out for aid and their leaders to guide them through this catastrophe. It's a horrific situation.
* Proposed in ''Film/DrStrangelove'' when it is suggested that the military and political elite retreat to deep mine-shafts to avoid the coming nuclear war. Since they are older men, it's suggested that they take 10 young women each to restock humanity. The Doomsday device wipes them all out before the idea can be implemented.
* ''Film/KingsmanTheSecretService''; lightly zig-zagged, as it's less that they're all jumping ship and more that some of them are choosing to sign up with, and some are just being kidnapped by, the BigBad. The film implies that Barrack Obama, most of the British Royal Family, and Elon Musk are all on board.
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* Proposed in ''Film/DrStrangelove'' when it is suggested that the military and political elite retreat to deep mine-shafts to avoid the coming nuclear war. Since they are older men, it's suggested that they take 10 young women each to restock humanity. The Doomsday device wipes them all out before the idea can be implemented.[[/folder]]
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* This is the core plot of ''Literature/AtlasShrugged'', as elite businessmen and industrialists "go Galt" and disappear from the world stage in protest of growing socialist policies, forming their own community called Galt's Gulch.
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* This is the core plot of ''Literature/AtlasShrugged'', as elite businessmen and industrialists "go Galt" and disappear from the world stage in protest of growing socialist policies, forming their own community called Galt's Gulch. [[note]]By author Creator/AynRand's Objectivism philosophy they're considered the ''heroes'' of the story.[[/note]]
* In ''Literature/TheReclamationProject's backstory, humans abandoned the surface of the Earth when civilization collapsed, moving up to flying cities held in the air by anti-gravity.
* In ''Literature/TheReclamationProject's backstory, humans abandoned the surface of the Earth when civilization collapsed, moving up to flying cities held in the air by anti-gravity.
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Proposed in ''Film/DrStrangelove'' when it is suggested that the military and political elite retreat to deep mine-shafts to avoid the coming nuclear war. Since they are older men, it's suggested that they take 10 young women each to restock humanity. The Doomsday device wipes them all out before the idea can be implemented.[[/folder]]
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* Proposed in ''Film/DrStrangelove'' when it is suggested that the military and political elite retreat to deep mine-shafts to avoid the coming nuclear war. Since they are older men, it's suggested that they take 10 young women each to restock humanity. The Doomsday device wipes them all out before the idea can be implemented.[[/folder]]
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[[/folder]]
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Proposed in ''Film/DrStrangelove'' when it is suggested that the military and political elite retreat to deep mine-shafts to avoid the coming nuclear war. Since they are older men, it's suggested that they take 10 young women each to restock humanity. The Doomsday device wipes them all out before the idea can be implemented.[[/folder]]
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* Used in the swan song of the ''TabletopGame/Planescape'' metaplot, ''Faction War''. The module's events would be expected to heavily involve the faction leaders and established characters, all of whom have a stake in the fight and should be actively intriguing, fighting, and betraying. Since that would be complicated to write (and to run), the named characters not immediately relevant to the story "go to ground" and can't be contacted.
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* Used in the swan song of the ''TabletopGame/Planescape'' ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'' metaplot, ''Faction War''. The module's events would be expected to heavily involve the faction leaders and established characters, all of whom have a stake in the fight and should be actively intriguing, fighting, and betraying. Since that would be complicated to write (and to run), the named characters not immediately relevant to the story "go to ground" and can't be contacted.
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* This is the core plot of ''Literature/AtlasShrugged'', as elite businessmen and industrialists "go Galt" and disappear from the world stage in protest of growing socialist policies, forming their own community called Galt's Gulch. [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment And that's all we have to say about that.]]
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* This is the core plot of ''Literature/AtlasShrugged'', as elite businessmen and industrialists "go Galt" and disappear from the world stage in protest of growing socialist policies, forming their own community called Galt's Gulch. [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment And that's all we have to say about that.]]
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* This is the core plot of ''Literature/AtlasShrugged'', as elite businessmen and industrialists "go Galt" and disappear from the world stage in protest of growing socialist policies, forming their own community called Galt's Gulch. [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment And that's all we have to say about that.]]
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[[folder:Podcasts]]
* It's a running gag in ''Podcast/WelcomeToNightVale'' that the City Council hits the bricks as soon as serious trouble starts, generally going on an extremely coincidental vacation. This is despite the City Council being [[spoiler:initially]] composed of a multi-body EldritchAbomination that probably has a better chance of survival than any of the city's human inhabitants.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:TabletopGames]]
* Used in the swan song of the ''TabletopGame/Planescape'' metaplot, ''Faction War''. The module's events would be expected to heavily involve the faction leaders and established characters, all of whom have a stake in the fight and should be actively intriguing, fighting, and betraying. Since that would be complicated to write (and to run), the named characters not immediately relevant to the story "go to ground" and can't be contacted.
[[/folder]]
* It's a running gag in ''Podcast/WelcomeToNightVale'' that the City Council hits the bricks as soon as serious trouble starts, generally going on an extremely coincidental vacation. This is despite the City Council being [[spoiler:initially]] composed of a multi-body EldritchAbomination that probably has a better chance of survival than any of the city's human inhabitants.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:TabletopGames]]
* Used in the swan song of the ''TabletopGame/Planescape'' metaplot, ''Faction War''. The module's events would be expected to heavily involve the faction leaders and established characters, all of whom have a stake in the fight and should be actively intriguing, fighting, and betraying. Since that would be complicated to write (and to run), the named characters not immediately relevant to the story "go to ground" and can't be contacted.
[[/folder]]
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!Examples
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[[folder:ComicBooks]]
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[[folder:Film - Live Action]]
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** In a clearer example of this trope, a huge group of A-list celebrities, most of them famous - with a lot of NoCelebritiesWereHarmed going on - take refuge in a beautiful, reinforced mansion on Long Island... [[IdiotBall which is broadcasting 24/7 to the people.]] [[InsaneTrollLogic In an inevitable turn of events]], hundreds of desperate refugees break into the mansion looking for some form of solace or shelter, the scene descends into chaos and anarchy, and most (if not all) of the elites are killed and their bodyguards and other servants abandon it.
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** In a clearer example of this trope, a huge group of A-list celebrities, most of them famous - -- with a lot of NoCelebritiesWereHarmed going on - -- take refuge in a beautiful, reinforced mansion on Long Island... [[IdiotBall which is broadcasting 24/7 to the people.]] [[InsaneTrollLogic In an inevitable turn of events]], hundreds of desperate refugees break into the mansion looking for some form of solace or shelter, the scene descends into chaos and anarchy, and most (if not all) of the elites are killed and their bodyguards and other servants abandon it.
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[[folder: Live Action TV]]
* Done fairly often in ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995''.
** Tragically presented in ''[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S7E21TheHumanFactor The Human Factor]]'', where the SoleSurvivor of the first ever colony on Ganymede receives a message from Earth that WorldWarIII broke out, and nukes have wiped out a lot of the planet (including the survivor's family). A shuttle carrying the President and other officials is heading for Ganymede and will arrive in a few months. In despair, the survivor re-rigs the place to explode before they arrive.
* Done again in Series/TheTwilightZone1985
** In "Quarantine", a man named Matthew Forman [[HumanPopsicle cryogenically frozen]] during the early 21st Century due to a terminal illness is revived 300 years later by PerfectPacifistPeople with PsychicPowers living in an {{Arcadia}} based on an agrarian lifestyle supplemented by OrganicTechnology. They need his help, supposedly to reactivate orbital particle beam cannons from his time to deflect an incoming asteroid. Questioning their motives, he discovers that they are an AfterTheEnd society, a mere 200,000 people descended from survivors of WorldWarIII. The "asteroid" is actually a U.S. spacecraft loaded with elite politicians and military personnel that fled Earth just as the war began in a bid to survive by using a relativistic orbit that would take advantage of TimeDilation to return them to Earth and take over once the aftereffects of the war had passed. [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans Turns out the future people want Matt to destroy the spacecraft so human warfare will not return to Earth.]]
* Done fairly often in ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995''.
** Tragically presented in ''[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S7E21TheHumanFactor The Human Factor]]'', where the SoleSurvivor of the first ever colony on Ganymede receives a message from Earth that WorldWarIII broke out, and nukes have wiped out a lot of the planet (including the survivor's family). A shuttle carrying the President and other officials is heading for Ganymede and will arrive in a few months. In despair, the survivor re-rigs the place to explode before they arrive.
* Done again in Series/TheTwilightZone1985
** In "Quarantine", a man named Matthew Forman [[HumanPopsicle cryogenically frozen]] during the early 21st Century due to a terminal illness is revived 300 years later by PerfectPacifistPeople with PsychicPowers living in an {{Arcadia}} based on an agrarian lifestyle supplemented by OrganicTechnology. They need his help, supposedly to reactivate orbital particle beam cannons from his time to deflect an incoming asteroid. Questioning their motives, he discovers that they are an AfterTheEnd society, a mere 200,000 people descended from survivors of WorldWarIII. The "asteroid" is actually a U.S. spacecraft loaded with elite politicians and military personnel that fled Earth just as the war began in a bid to survive by using a relativistic orbit that would take advantage of TimeDilation to return them to Earth and take over once the aftereffects of the war had passed. [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans Turns out the future people want Matt to destroy the spacecraft so human warfare will not return to Earth.]]
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* Done fairly often in
**
* Done again in
**
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[[folder:VideoGames]]
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* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' the ruling American elites hid themselves in bunkers known as Vaults on the onset of the global nuclear war. Ironically, many of those elites were used for Darwinist social experiments by Vault-Tec without them even knowing.
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* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'':
** The ruling American elites hid themselves in bunkers known as Vaults on the onset of the global nuclear war. Ironically, many of those elites were used for Darwinist social experiments by Vault-Tec without them even knowing.
** The ruling American elites hid themselves in bunkers known as Vaults on the onset of the global nuclear war. Ironically, many of those elites were used for Darwinist social experiments by Vault-Tec without them even knowing.
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* In ''VideoGame/DontEscape: 4 Days To Survive'', the protagonists find out most of the elite and wealthy fled to a base on the moon after it was accidentally cracked it in half during a mining operation, which in turned utterly screwed with Earth's gravity and turned it into a wasteland. Once there, they went into machines to transfer their minds into the bodies of another universe where the operation never happened. The goal is to ultimately survive the dangers of the hostile environment through the days, get to the last unused rocket ship and get there [[spoiler: before the remains of the moon eventually collide with the planet on the final day.]]
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* In ''VideoGame/DontEscape: 4 Days To to Survive'', the protagonists find out most of the elite and wealthy fled to a base on the moon after it was accidentally cracked it in half during a mining operation, which in turned utterly screwed with Earth's gravity and turned it into a wasteland. Once there, they went into machines to transfer their minds into the bodies of another universe where the operation never happened. The goal is to ultimately survive the dangers of the hostile environment through the days, get to the last unused rocket ship and get there [[spoiler: before the remains of the moon eventually collide with the planet on the final day.]]
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--> '''Sam Yao''' "Judging by the Rofflenet rage when people found out about the Henley Compound, they are pretty damned sure. One of the few Comansys scientists not still with them, an expert in the micro-power systems used by most of the company's technology, living a life of luxury in a high security super rich survival colony on the banks of the Thames. The Rofflenet folks hit the roof!"
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----
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* ''VideoGame/UruAgesBeyondMyst'': Kadish, one of the most influential citizens of D'ni, fled the underground city when a plague began wiping out its residents, holing up in a vault in one of his luxurious, privately-owned Ages. [[spoiler: You can find his skeleton inside the vault, surrounded by the riches that'd done jack squat to save him.]]
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Likely to overlap with WhileRomeBurns or DancingInTheRuins as the characters in question indulges in their decadent personal behavior in response to the chaos around them. Hardly expect anyone involved in this trope to be the [[KickTheDog least bit sympathetic]] and expect them to be a combination of RichJerk, CorruptCorporateExecutive, an UpperClassTwit, AristocratsAreEvil, DirtyCoward, PresidentEvil and his contemporaries, or all of the above. If the aforementioned elites are actually ''responsible'' for the calamity they're running from in the first place, [[MoralEventHorizon don't expect them to be sympathetic at all]]. If the world itself is crumbing, WatchTheWorldDie can overlap, but the characters are in the group who happen to be in the upper crust and simply let the rest of the world rot to save their own skins. Or at least try to at everyone else's expense.
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Likely to overlap with WhileRomeBurns or DancingInTheRuins as the characters in question indulges in their decadent personal behavior in response to the chaos around them. Hardly expect anyone involved in this trope to be the [[KickTheDog least bit sympathetic]] and expect them to be a combination of RichJerk, CorruptCorporateExecutive, an UpperClassTwit, AristocratsAreEvil, DirtyCoward, PresidentEvil and his contemporaries, or all of the above. If the aforementioned elites are actually ''responsible'' for the calamity they're running from in the first place, [[MoralEventHorizon don't expect any sympathy for them to should be sympathetic at all]].thrown right out the window]]. If the world itself is crumbing, WatchTheWorldDie can overlap, but the characters are in the group who happen to be in the upper crust and simply let the rest of the world rot to save their own skins. Or at least try to at everyone else's expense.
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Likely to overlap with WhileRomeBurns or DancingInTheRuins as the characters in question indulges in their decadent personal behavior in response to the chaos around them. Hardly expect anyone involved in this trope to be the [[KickTheDog least bit sympathetic]] and expect them to be a combination of RichJerk, CorruptCorporateExecutive, an UpperClassTwit, AristocratsAreEvil, DirtyCoward, PresidentEvil and his contemporaries, or all of the above. If the aforementioned elites are actually ''responsible'' for the calamity they're running from in the first place, [[MoralEventHorizon expect even less sympathy]]. If the world itself is crumbing, WatchTheWorldDie can overlap, but the characters are in the group who happen to be in the upper crust and simply let the rest of the world rot to save their own skins. Or at least try to at everyone else's expense.
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Likely to overlap with WhileRomeBurns or DancingInTheRuins as the characters in question indulges in their decadent personal behavior in response to the chaos around them. Hardly expect anyone involved in this trope to be the [[KickTheDog least bit sympathetic]] and expect them to be a combination of RichJerk, CorruptCorporateExecutive, an UpperClassTwit, AristocratsAreEvil, DirtyCoward, PresidentEvil and his contemporaries, or all of the above. If the aforementioned elites are actually ''responsible'' for the calamity they're running from in the first place, [[MoralEventHorizon don't expect even less sympathy]].them to be sympathetic at all]]. If the world itself is crumbing, WatchTheWorldDie can overlap, but the characters are in the group who happen to be in the upper crust and simply let the rest of the world rot to save their own skins. Or at least try to at everyone else's expense.
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Likely to overlap with WhileRomeBurns or DancingInTheRuins as the characters in question indulges in their decadent personal behavior in response to the chaos around them. Hardly expect anyone involved in this trope to be the least bit sympathetic and expect them to be a combination of RichJerk, CorruptCorporateExecutive, an UpperClassTwit, AristocratsAreEvil, DirtyCoward, PresidentEvil and his contemporaries, or all of the above. Even less so if the aforementioned elites are responsible for the calamity they are running from in the first place. If the world itself is crumbing, WatchTheWorldDie can overlap, but the characters are in the group who happen to be in the upper crust and simply let the rest of the world rot to save their own skins. Or at least try to at everyone else's expense.
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Likely to overlap with WhileRomeBurns or DancingInTheRuins as the characters in question indulges in their decadent personal behavior in response to the chaos around them. Hardly expect anyone involved in this trope to be the [[KickTheDog least bit sympathetic sympathetic]] and expect them to be a combination of RichJerk, CorruptCorporateExecutive, an UpperClassTwit, AristocratsAreEvil, DirtyCoward, PresidentEvil and his contemporaries, or all of the above. Even less so if If the aforementioned elites are responsible actually ''responsible'' for the calamity they are they're running from in the first place.place, [[MoralEventHorizon expect even less sympathy]]. If the world itself is crumbing, WatchTheWorldDie can overlap, but the characters are in the group who happen to be in the upper crust and simply let the rest of the world rot to save their own skins. Or at least try to at everyone else's expense.
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And where are the leaders and the elites during this whole quagmire? The rich and powerful with the money and influence to help people through this chaos? [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere Certainly not where the danger is!]] They've jumped ship, gotten on an aircraft and flown to a safe haven, sailed to a private island, locked themselves in a bunker, or all of the above, basically telling the rest of the world: "Screw you, you're on your own."
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And where are the leaders and the elites during this whole quagmire? The rich and powerful with the money and influence to help people through this chaos? [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere Certainly not where the danger is!]] They've jumped ship, gotten on an aircraft and flown to a safe haven, sailed to a private island, locked themselves in a bunker, or all of the above, basically telling the rest of the world: "Screw you, you're "You're on your own."
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Where are the leaders and elites during this whole quagmire? The rich and powerful with the money and influence to help people through this chaos? [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere Certainly not where the danger is!]] They have jumped ship, gotten on an aircraft and flown to a safe haven, sailed to a private island, locked themselves in a bunker, or all of the above and basically told the rest of the world: "Screw you, you're on your own."
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Where are the leaders and elites during this whole quagmire? The rich and powerful with the money and influence to help people through this chaos? [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere Certainly not where the danger is!]] They have jumped ship, gotten on an aircraft and flown to a safe haven, sailed to a private island, locked themselves in a bunker, or all of the above and basically told the rest of the world: Screw you all; you're on your own.
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Where are the leaders and elites during this whole quagmire? The rich and powerful with the money and influence to help people through this chaos? [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere Certainly not where the danger is!]] They have jumped ship, gotten on an aircraft and flown to a safe haven, sailed to a private island, locked themselves in a bunker, or all of the above and basically told the rest of the world: Screw you all; "Screw you, you're on your own.
own."
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Where are the leaders and elites during this whole quagmire? The rich and powerful with the money and influence to help people through this chaos? [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere Certainly not where the danger is!]] They have jumped ship, gotten on an aircraft and flown to a safe haven, sailed to a private island, locked themselves in a bunker, or all of the above and basically told the rest of the world: You are on your own.
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Where are the leaders and elites during this whole quagmire? The rich and powerful with the money and influence to help people through this chaos? [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere Certainly not where the danger is!]] They have jumped ship, gotten on an aircraft and flown to a safe haven, sailed to a private island, locked themselves in a bunker, or all of the above and basically told the rest of the world: You are Screw you all; you're on your own.
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* In ''VideoGame/TheOuterWorlds'', the Board's "plan" to deal with the current crisis of dwindling food supplies and the colonies' wearing out (both of which are largely due to the Board's own incompetence) is to kill or cryogenically freeze most of the lower class citizens and let the wealthy elites survive on the remaining resources.
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** In a clearer example of this trope, a huge group of A-list celebrities, most of them famous - with a lot of NoCelebritiesWereHarmed going on - take refuge in a beautiful, reinforced mansion on Long Island...[[IdiotBall which is broadcasting 24/7 to the people.]] [[InsaneTrollLogic In an inevitable turn of events]], hundreds of desperate refugees break into the mansion looking for some form of solace or shelter, the scene descends into chaos and anarchy, and most (if not all) of the elites are killed and their bodyguards and other servants abandon it.
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** In a clearer example of this trope, a huge group of A-list celebrities, most of them famous - with a lot of NoCelebritiesWereHarmed going on - take refuge in a beautiful, reinforced mansion on Long Island... [[IdiotBall which is broadcasting 24/7 to the people.]] [[InsaneTrollLogic In an inevitable turn of events]], hundreds of desperate refugees break into the mansion looking for some form of solace or shelter, the scene descends into chaos and anarchy, and most (if not all) of the elites are killed and their bodyguards and other servants abandon it.
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* In Creator/EdgarAllenPoe's ''Literature/TheMasqueOfTheRedDeath'' a wealthy duke and his fellow nobles attempt to wait out a deadly plague decimating the populace by holding a constant party in a secluded abbey. [[KillEmAll It doesn't work out well for them.]]
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* In Creator/EdgarAllenPoe's Creator/EdgarAllanPoe's ''Literature/TheMasqueOfTheRedDeath'' a wealthy duke and his fellow nobles attempt to wait out a deadly plague decimating the populace by holding a constant party in a secluded abbey. [[KillEmAll It doesn't work out well for them.]]
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Some awful calamity is happening. The [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt world might be ending]]. There's maiming and killing afoot. Cities are on fire. The Masses are sick, starving, and dying. Screaming and cursing, cries for mercy, the sound of society tearing itself apart. The public is crying out for aid and their leaders to guide them through this catastrophe . It's a horrific situation.
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Some awful calamity is happening. The [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt world might be ending]]. There's maiming and killing afoot. Cities are on fire. The Masses are sick, starving, and dying. Screaming and cursing, cries for mercy, the sound of society tearing itself apart. The public is crying out for aid and their leaders to guide them through this catastrophe .catastrophe. It's a horrific situation.
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* In ''Literature/SixWakes'', it's mentioned that most of the HumanPopsicles who signed on to the ''Dormire'''s voyage to Tau Ceti did so, in part, because the Earth is starting to become a CrapsackWorld thanks to GaiasLament. Hence the quote above.
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* In ''Literature/SixWakes'', it's mentioned that most of the HumanPopsicles {{Human Popsicle}}s who signed on to the ''Dormire'''s voyage to Tau Ceti did so, in part, because the Earth is starting to become a CrapsackWorld thanks to GaiasLament. Hence the quote above.
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->The Earth was losing habitable land as the oceans rose, and territorial and water wars were breaking out worldwide. So the rich, as always, left because they could.
-->-- ''Literature/SixWakes''
-->-- ''Literature/SixWakes''
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* In ''Literature/SixWakes'', it's mentioned that most of the HumanPopsicles who signed on to the ''Dormire'''s voyage to Tau Ceti did so, in part, because the Earth is starting to become a CrapsackWorld thanks to GaiasLament. Hence the quote above.
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* Averted in ''Anime/CrossAnge'' when Embryo pulls the plug on Mana triggering the eventual collapse of the World of Mana, and denies the world leaders the opportunity of leaving with him, [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness leaving them to an ambiguous fate]].
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* In ''VideoGame/DontEscape :4 Days To Survive'', the protagonists find out most of the elite and wealthy fled to a base on the moon after it was accidentally cracked it in half during a mining operation, which in turned utterly screwed with Earth's gravity and turned it into a wasteland. Once there, they went into machines to transfer their minds into the bodies of another universe where the operation never happened. The goal is to ultimately survive the dangers of the hostile environment through the days, get to the last unused rocket ship and get there [[spoiler: before the remains of the moon eventually collide with the planet on the final day.]]
to:
* In ''VideoGame/DontEscape :4 ''VideoGame/DontEscape: 4 Days To Survive'', the protagonists find out most of the elite and wealthy fled to a base on the moon after it was accidentally cracked it in half during a mining operation, which in turned utterly screwed with Earth's gravity and turned it into a wasteland. Once there, they went into machines to transfer their minds into the bodies of another universe where the operation never happened. The goal is to ultimately survive the dangers of the hostile environment through the days, get to the last unused rocket ship and get there [[spoiler: before the remains of the moon eventually collide with the planet on the final day.]]
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[[folder:Film - Live Action]]
* In ''Film/TwoThousandTwelve'', the social and political elite flee to secretly built Arks to save themselves and leave the rest of the world to rot, even the builders of the Arks. The governments of the world knew beforehand of the calamity that would cause planetary upheaval and countless death, but didn't tell anyone even after it started, assassinating everyone who tried to tell people the truth, except for obvious nutjobs like Charlie Frost. Explained as being the only way they could build any Arks without the place being swarmed by refugees, terrorists, renegade army units, etc. that would jeopardize any humans surviving. Though a message is later sent out to the rich and elite to make their way to China so they can board boats and literally ride out the coming apocalypse. The main character, a lowly limo driver/struggling novelist, manages to stumble on the plot by complete accident and seeks to get his family on board as well.
* In ''Film/{{Elysium}}'', the people living on the space station Elysium are the wealthy and TheBeautifulElite, due to being far away from the harsh environment on Earth, not having to lift a finger to work, and especially due to the advanced healing machines they have access to. Earth is devastated and overpopulated and the people who still live on it are destitute and sick. The Elysium population do not care about the people on Earth and will stop at nothing to maintain the distinct separation between the two classes of people and prevent immigration.
* In ''Film/{{Snowpiercer}}'', the titular train was originally intended to save only the richest people and those who served them and maintained their lifestyles after an experimental attempt to stop global warming ended up causing an ice age. It's only down to luck that lower-class people managed to find the train and seek refuge aboard.
[[/folder]]
* In ''Film/TwoThousandTwelve'', the social and political elite flee to secretly built Arks to save themselves and leave the rest of the world to rot, even the builders of the Arks. The governments of the world knew beforehand of the calamity that would cause planetary upheaval and countless death, but didn't tell anyone even after it started, assassinating everyone who tried to tell people the truth, except for obvious nutjobs like Charlie Frost. Explained as being the only way they could build any Arks without the place being swarmed by refugees, terrorists, renegade army units, etc. that would jeopardize any humans surviving. Though a message is later sent out to the rich and elite to make their way to China so they can board boats and literally ride out the coming apocalypse. The main character, a lowly limo driver/struggling novelist, manages to stumble on the plot by complete accident and seeks to get his family on board as well.
* In ''Film/{{Elysium}}'', the people living on the space station Elysium are the wealthy and TheBeautifulElite, due to being far away from the harsh environment on Earth, not having to lift a finger to work, and especially due to the advanced healing machines they have access to. Earth is devastated and overpopulated and the people who still live on it are destitute and sick. The Elysium population do not care about the people on Earth and will stop at nothing to maintain the distinct separation between the two classes of people and prevent immigration.
* In ''Film/{{Snowpiercer}}'', the titular train was originally intended to save only the richest people and those who served them and maintained their lifestyles after an experimental attempt to stop global warming ended up causing an ice age. It's only down to luck that lower-class people managed to find the train and seek refuge aboard.
[[/folder]]
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[[folder:Live Action Film]]
* In ''Film/TwoThousandTwelve'', the social and political elite flee to secretly built Arks to save themselves and leave the rest of the world to rot, even the builders of the Arks. The governments of the world knew beforehand of the calamity that would cause planetary upheaval and countless death, but didn't tell anyone even after it started, assassinating everyone who tried to tell people the truth, except for obvious nutjobs like Charlie Frost. Explained as being the only way they could build any Arks without the place being swarmed by refugees, terrorists, renegade army units, etc. that would jeopardize any humans surviving. Though a message is later sent out to the rich and elite to make their way to China so they can board boats and literally ride out the coming apocalypse. The main character, a lowly limo driver/struggling novelist, manages to stumble on the plot by complete accident and seeks to get his family on board as well.
* In ''Film/{{Elysium}}'', the people living on the space station Elysium are the wealthy and TheBeautifulElite, due to being far away from the harsh environment on Earth, not having to lift a finger to work, and especially due to the advanced healing machines they have access to. Earth is devastated and overpopulated and the people who still live on it are destitute and sick. The Elysium population do not care about the people on Earth and will stop at nothing to maintain the distinct separation between the two classes of people and prevent immigration.
* In ''Film/{{Snowpiercer}}'', the titular train was originally intended to save only the richest people and those who served them and maintained their lifestyles after an experimental attempt to stop global warming ended up causing an ice age. It's only down to luck that lower-class people managed to find the train and seek refuge aboard.
[[/folder]]
* In ''Film/TwoThousandTwelve'', the social and political elite flee to secretly built Arks to save themselves and leave the rest of the world to rot, even the builders of the Arks. The governments of the world knew beforehand of the calamity that would cause planetary upheaval and countless death, but didn't tell anyone even after it started, assassinating everyone who tried to tell people the truth, except for obvious nutjobs like Charlie Frost. Explained as being the only way they could build any Arks without the place being swarmed by refugees, terrorists, renegade army units, etc. that would jeopardize any humans surviving. Though a message is later sent out to the rich and elite to make their way to China so they can board boats and literally ride out the coming apocalypse. The main character, a lowly limo driver/struggling novelist, manages to stumble on the plot by complete accident and seeks to get his family on board as well.
* In ''Film/{{Elysium}}'', the people living on the space station Elysium are the wealthy and TheBeautifulElite, due to being far away from the harsh environment on Earth, not having to lift a finger to work, and especially due to the advanced healing machines they have access to. Earth is devastated and overpopulated and the people who still live on it are destitute and sick. The Elysium population do not care about the people on Earth and will stop at nothing to maintain the distinct separation between the two classes of people and prevent immigration.
* In ''Film/{{Snowpiercer}}'', the titular train was originally intended to save only the richest people and those who served them and maintained their lifestyles after an experimental attempt to stop global warming ended up causing an ice age. It's only down to luck that lower-class people managed to find the train and seek refuge aboard.
[[/folder]]
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Changed line(s) 5,6 (click to see context) from:
Likely to overlap with WhileRomeBurns or DancingInTheRuins as the characters in question indulges in their decadent personal behavior in response to the chaos around them. Hardly expect anyone involved in this trope to be the least bit sympathetic and expect them to be a combination of RichJerk, CorruptCorporateExecutive, an UpperClassTwit, AristocratsAreEvil, DirtyCoward, PresidentEvil and his contemporaries, or all of the above. Even less so if the aforementioned elites are responsible for the calamity they are running from in the first place. If the world itself is crumbing, WatchTheWorldDie can overlap, but the characters are in the group who happen to be in the upper crust and simply let the rest of the world rot to save their own skins. Or at least try to at everyone else' expense.
to:
Likely to overlap with WhileRomeBurns or DancingInTheRuins as the characters in question indulges in their decadent personal behavior in response to the chaos around them. Hardly expect anyone involved in this trope to be the least bit sympathetic and expect them to be a combination of RichJerk, CorruptCorporateExecutive, an UpperClassTwit, AristocratsAreEvil, DirtyCoward, PresidentEvil and his contemporaries, or all of the above. Even less so if the aforementioned elites are responsible for the calamity they are running from in the first place. If the world itself is crumbing, WatchTheWorldDie can overlap, but the characters are in the group who happen to be in the upper crust and simply let the rest of the world rot to save their own skins. Or at least try to at everyone else' else's expense.
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Changed line(s) 14 (click to see context) from:
* In ''Manga/{{HellstarRemina}}'', The Prime Minister of Japan abandons Japan with his family for [[DeathWorld Remina]] as soon as it becomes apparent Earth will be destroyed. Naturally this ends poorly for the lot of them.
to:
* In ''Manga/{{HellstarRemina}}'', ''Manga/HellstarRemina'', The Prime Minister of Japan abandons Japan with his family for [[DeathWorld Remina]] as soon as it becomes apparent Earth will be destroyed. Naturally this ends poorly for the lot of them.
Changed line(s) 16 (click to see context) from:
* In ''Manga/{{OnePiece}}'', Wapol pulled this when serving as King of the Drum Kingdom when the Blackbeard Pirates arrived. Despite his arrogance, when he learned how strong Blackbeard's crew was, Wapol took his army and ran rather than fight them, leaving his country defenseless.
to:
* In ''Manga/{{OnePiece}}'', ''Manga/OnePiece'', Wapol pulled this when serving as King of the Drum Kingdom when the Blackbeard Pirates arrived. Despite his arrogance, when he learned how strong Blackbeard's crew was, Wapol took his army and ran rather than fight them, leaving his country defenseless.
Changed line(s) 27 (click to see context) from:
** The CorruptCorporateExecutive who has touted what turns out to be a false treatment runs off to Greenland in order to escape prosecution.
to:
** The CorruptCorporateExecutive who has touted what turns out to be a false treatment runs off to Greenland a private island rented from Russia in order to escape prosecution.
Changed line(s) 37 (click to see context) from:
* In ''Film/{{TwoThousandTwelve}}'', the social and political elite flee to secretly built Arks to save themselves and leave the rest of the world to rot, even the builders of the Arks. The governments of the world knew beforehand of the calamity that would cause planetary upheaval and countless death, but didn't tell anyone even after it started, assassinating everyone who tried to tell people the truth, except for obvious nutjobs like Charlie Frost. Explained as being the only way they could build any Arks without the place being swarmed by refugees, terrorists, renegade army units, etc. that would jeopardize any humans surviving. Though a message is later sent out to the rich and elite to make their way to China so they can board boats and literally ride out the coming apocalypse. The main character, a lowly limo driver/struggling novelist, manages to stumble on the plot by complete accident and seeks to get his family on board as well.
to:
* In ''Film/{{TwoThousandTwelve}}'', ''Film/TwoThousandTwelve'', the social and political elite flee to secretly built Arks to save themselves and leave the rest of the world to rot, even the builders of the Arks. The governments of the world knew beforehand of the calamity that would cause planetary upheaval and countless death, but didn't tell anyone even after it started, assassinating everyone who tried to tell people the truth, except for obvious nutjobs like Charlie Frost. Explained as being the only way they could build any Arks without the place being swarmed by refugees, terrorists, renegade army units, etc. that would jeopardize any humans surviving. Though a message is later sent out to the rich and elite to make their way to China so they can board boats and literally ride out the coming apocalypse. The main character, a lowly limo driver/struggling novelist, manages to stumble on the plot by complete accident and seeks to get his family on board as well.
Changed line(s) 44 (click to see context) from:
** Tragically presented in ''Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S7E21TheHumanFactor'', where survivor of the first ever colony on Ganymede receives a message from Earth that WorldWarIII broke out, and nukes have wiped out a lot of the planet (including the survivor's family). A shuttle carrying the President and other officials is heading for Ganymede and will arrive in a few months. In despair, the survivor re-rigs the place to explode before they arrive.
to:
** Tragically presented in ''Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S7E21TheHumanFactor'', ''[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S7E21TheHumanFactor The Human Factor]]'', where survivor the SoleSurvivor of the first ever colony on Ganymede receives a message from Earth that WorldWarIII broke out, and nukes have wiped out a lot of the planet (including the survivor's family). A shuttle carrying the President and other officials is heading for Ganymede and will arrive in a few months. In despair, the survivor re-rigs the place to explode before they arrive.
* Just like in the movie, ''Series/{{Snowpiercer}}'' depicts the rich of the world buying their way onto the titular [[TheArk ark train]] in order to survive the artificially-induced new Ice Age. They live in comfort, while the poorer passengers who managed to earn tickets do all the menial labor, and the poor who ''didn't'' get tickets but managed to break onto the train as it departed are kept locked up in the tail cabins like cattle.
Changed line(s) 53 (click to see context) from:
* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' the ruling American elites hid themselves in bunkers known as vaults on the onset of the global nuclear war, ironically, many of those elites were used for darwinists social experiments by Vault-Tec without them even knowing.
to:
* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' the ruling American elites hid themselves in bunkers known as vaults Vaults on the onset of the global nuclear war, ironically, war. Ironically, many of those elites were used for darwinists Darwinist social experiments by Vault-Tec without them even knowing.
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Created from YKTTW
Added DiffLines:
Some awful calamity is happening. The [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt world might be ending]]. There's maiming and killing afoot. Cities are on fire. The Masses are sick, starving, and dying. Screaming and cursing, cries for mercy, the sound of society tearing itself apart. The public is crying out for aid and their leaders to guide them through this catastrophe . It's a horrific situation.
Where are the leaders and elites during this whole quagmire? The rich and powerful with the money and influence to help people through this chaos? [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere Certainly not where the danger is!]] They have jumped ship, gotten on an aircraft and flown to a safe haven, sailed to a private island, locked themselves in a bunker, or all of the above and basically told the rest of the world: You are on your own.
Likely to overlap with WhileRomeBurns or DancingInTheRuins as the characters in question indulges in their decadent personal behavior in response to the chaos around them. Hardly expect anyone involved in this trope to be the least bit sympathetic and expect them to be a combination of RichJerk, CorruptCorporateExecutive, an UpperClassTwit, AristocratsAreEvil, DirtyCoward, PresidentEvil and his contemporaries, or all of the above. Even less so if the aforementioned elites are responsible for the calamity they are running from in the first place. If the world itself is crumbing, WatchTheWorldDie can overlap, but the characters are in the group who happen to be in the upper crust and simply let the rest of the world rot to save their own skins. Or at least try to at everyone else' expense.
Note the '''Rules Of Cautious Editing''' must apply when describing RealLife examples to avoid unnecessary FlameWar disputes. For the sake of example clarity, all spoilers shall remain unmarked.
----
!Examples
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* In ''Manga/{{HellstarRemina}}'', The Prime Minister of Japan abandons Japan with his family for [[DeathWorld Remina]] as soon as it becomes apparent Earth will be destroyed. Naturally this ends poorly for the lot of them.
* In ''Anime/FLCLAlternative'', when [[BiggerBad Medical Mechanica]] start up their plan to flatten the Earth with their irons many of the rich and powerful board rockets to flee to Mars while leaving the planet to its fate. This includes the smug Japanese Prime Minister occasionally seen through the series and [[spoiler: Pets whose family is revealed to be wealthy, forcing her to leave her friends behind, especially after a bad argument with Kana that they sadly never resolve before her departure.]]
* In ''Manga/{{OnePiece}}'', Wapol pulled this when serving as King of the Drum Kingdom when the Blackbeard Pirates arrived. Despite his arrogance, when he learned how strong Blackbeard's crew was, Wapol took his army and ran rather than fight them, leaving his country defenseless.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:ComicBooks]]
* In the ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'', the Pride are a cabal of rich couples who intend to destroy the world on behalf of a trio of fallen angels... while ensuring that their own children get to live in the paradise that the angels promised to build in the ruins.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Literature]]
* In ''Literature/TheLightFantastic'', a massive fire breaks out in Ankh-Morpork. The citizens from the richer quarters across the river are seen [[SarcasmMode ''heroically'']] chopping down the bridges to prevent refugees from invading to reach safety.
* Attempted in the final novel of ''Literature/TheInterdependency''. Once the leaders of several Guild Houses were convinced there really ''was'' a problem, their plan was to evacuate themselves and their families to the one place that would survive the upcoming collapse and leave the commoners to die.
* In ''Literature/WorldWarZ'', a few prominent examples are seen:
** The CorruptCorporateExecutive who has touted what turns out to be a false treatment runs off to Greenland in order to escape prosecution.
** In a clearer example of this trope, a huge group of A-list celebrities, most of them famous - with a lot of NoCelebritiesWereHarmed going on - take refuge in a beautiful, reinforced mansion on Long Island...[[IdiotBall which is broadcasting 24/7 to the people.]] [[InsaneTrollLogic In an inevitable turn of events]], hundreds of desperate refugees break into the mansion looking for some form of solace or shelter, the scene descends into chaos and anarchy, and most (if not all) of the elites are killed and their bodyguards and other servants abandon it.
** [[UsefulNotes/HMTheQueen Queen Elizabeth II]] is noted as being an incredibly rare subversion, as in-universe, she refuses to leave the UK during the zombie attacks.
* Demonstrated by the Indian Prime Minister in ''Literature/EndersShadow''. In the second book, ''Shadow Of The Hegemon'', when the Indian Empire finds itself set up for invasion and conquest by China thanks to Achilles, the Indian Prime Minister flees the country rather than be caught by China. The third book sees Virlomi, an Indian graduate of Battle School, successfully free India, then deny the Prime Minister's claim of a government in exile and assume power herself, stating that it is a leader's job to protect their people, not run to safety and leave them to despots.
* In Creator/EdgarAllenPoe's ''Literature/TheMasqueOfTheRedDeath'' a wealthy duke and his fellow nobles attempt to wait out a deadly plague decimating the populace by holding a constant party in a secluded abbey. [[KillEmAll It doesn't work out well for them.]]
* The setting of ''Literature/TheCompound'' is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a compound]], built underground for wealthy magnate Ray Yanakakis and his family, including protagonist Eli, to live in during the event of nuclear fallout. It's a massive, luxurious place with a lot of rooms and tech, created specifically so the family can survive while the rest of the world dies. The story deconstructs this by revealing that two of the family members weren't able to make it into the compound and got left behind, the fact that they're running out of edible food due to being there for ''years'', and [[spoiler:it all turns out that there were never nukes dropped at all, meaning they had no ship to jump ''from''.]]
* Done horribly in the ''Dark Skies'' book of the ''Literature/DarkShores'' series. When the enemy Derin, who worship [[GodOfEvil the Seventh god]], cross the wall and invade Mudamora, most of aristocrats flee the capital Mudaire by ships, leaving the common people to suffer and starve. Made worse by the fact that at night Mudaire's skies are filled with Deimos, a kind of flying demonic horses, which kill anyone who is out in the open. Deimos also make fleeing Mudaire on foot impossible and for the same reason, very few ships with supplies come to the city's harbor. As a result, prices of shelter and food go up very steeply and common people are reduced to spending nights in overcrowded public shelters and [[ReducedToRatburgers eating rats (as long as rats last).]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Live Action Film]]
* In ''Film/{{TwoThousandTwelve}}'', the social and political elite flee to secretly built Arks to save themselves and leave the rest of the world to rot, even the builders of the Arks. The governments of the world knew beforehand of the calamity that would cause planetary upheaval and countless death, but didn't tell anyone even after it started, assassinating everyone who tried to tell people the truth, except for obvious nutjobs like Charlie Frost. Explained as being the only way they could build any Arks without the place being swarmed by refugees, terrorists, renegade army units, etc. that would jeopardize any humans surviving. Though a message is later sent out to the rich and elite to make their way to China so they can board boats and literally ride out the coming apocalypse. The main character, a lowly limo driver/struggling novelist, manages to stumble on the plot by complete accident and seeks to get his family on board as well.
* In ''Film/{{Elysium}}'', the people living on the space station Elysium are the wealthy and TheBeautifulElite, due to being far away from the harsh environment on Earth, not having to lift a finger to work, and especially due to the advanced healing machines they have access to. Earth is devastated and overpopulated and the people who still live on it are destitute and sick. The Elysium population do not care about the people on Earth and will stop at nothing to maintain the distinct separation between the two classes of people and prevent immigration.
* In ''Film/{{Snowpiercer}}'', the titular train was originally intended to save only the richest people and those who served them and maintained their lifestyles after an experimental attempt to stop global warming ended up causing an ice age. It's only down to luck that lower-class people managed to find the train and seek refuge aboard.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Live Action TV]]
* Done fairly often in ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995''.
** Tragically presented in ''Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S7E21TheHumanFactor'', where survivor of the first ever colony on Ganymede receives a message from Earth that WorldWarIII broke out, and nukes have wiped out a lot of the planet (including the survivor's family). A shuttle carrying the President and other officials is heading for Ganymede and will arrive in a few months. In despair, the survivor re-rigs the place to explode before they arrive.
* Done again in Series/TheTwilightZone1985
** In "Quarantine", a man named Matthew Forman [[HumanPopsicle cryogenically frozen]] during the early 21st Century due to a terminal illness is revived 300 years later by PerfectPacifistPeople with PsychicPowers living in an {{Arcadia}} based on an agrarian lifestyle supplemented by OrganicTechnology. They need his help, supposedly to reactivate orbital particle beam cannons from his time to deflect an incoming asteroid. Questioning their motives, he discovers that they are an AfterTheEnd society, a mere 200,000 people descended from survivors of WorldWarIII. The "asteroid" is actually a U.S. spacecraft loaded with elite politicians and military personnel that fled Earth just as the war began in a bid to survive by using a relativistic orbit that would take advantage of TimeDilation to return them to Earth and take over once the aftereffects of the war had passed. [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans Turns out the future people want Matt to destroy the spacecraft so human warfare will not return to Earth.]]
* A major plot point in ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryApocalypse''. When it came to the nuclear war that would kill all but a tiny majority of the world's population, the extremely wealthy had rented out rooms for themselves in fallout shelters. [[PreppyName Coco St. Pierre Vanderbilt]]'s entire family had one (but her parents and brother weren't able to get to the flight in time), as did Creator/OprahWinfrey {{expy}} Diana and her son. Coco also insists on her hairdresser and her personal assistant, Mallory (who are not elite) coming along because she is [[UpperClassTwit so sheltered]] that she can't do anything without them. However, zigzagged in that [[spoiler:Coco, Mallory, and Diana are actually all witches, and their survival was to ensure they could find the Antichrist Michael Langdon and reverse time to stop him, so they weren't ''really'' jumping ship but were actually just trying to avert the crisis. However, Coco and Mallory weren't aware of this due to identity spells put on them.]]
* Attempted in ''Film/{{Threads}}''. Sheffield town council evacuate themselves to a fully-stocked bunker as soon as the alarm goes off. This in fact just shows how completely unprepared they are, because while they mostly survive the initial blast, they are trapped in a shelter with limited food and water, all their orders are useless, and they're eventually found dead a few weeks later anyway.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:VideoGames]]
* In ''VideoGame/Hitman2'', the Ark Society is a group of elites preparing to jump ship. They gather money, resources, technology, cultural artifacts, etc. to survive a societal/environmental collapse they believe is going to happen. Their plans range from simple bunkers and strongholds to colonies on Titan, and even [[BrainUploading living in a simulation]].
* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' the ruling American elites hid themselves in bunkers known as vaults on the onset of the global nuclear war, ironically, many of those elites were used for darwinists social experiments by Vault-Tec without them even knowing.
** As he learnt about an imminent global nuclear war, Mr. House of ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' turned himself into a robot, ensured no nukes would fell on Las Vegas and then hid himself in a bunker, ready to come back after the cataclysm.
* In ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'', the surviving [[AbsoluteXenophobe Founders]] pulled this trope in one of the {{Alternate Universe}}s that Booker and Elizabeth travel to. In that universe, the Vox Populi revolutionaries succeed in overthrowing the rule of the white racist elite Founders who run Columbia. The Founder elites who don't end up killed and scalped are shown fleeing Columbia in airships and leaving everyone else in Columbia to their fate.
* ''VideoGame/{{Deponia}}'' is set on the remains of a planet where all the wealthy have moved to the space station Elysium. The remaining planet is a literal dump, like a scrap heap. Naturally a main goal of the protagonist is getting aboard and enjoying the sweet life. [[spoiler:Turns out that they want to blow up the planet and use it as a boost to get moving into space. But only because they are certain that nobody is still living on the planet. Them making doubly sure is what kickstarts the plot.]]
* In ''VideoGame/DontEscape :4 Days To Survive'', the protagonists find out most of the elite and wealthy fled to a base on the moon after it was accidentally cracked it in half during a mining operation, which in turned utterly screwed with Earth's gravity and turned it into a wasteland. Once there, they went into machines to transfer their minds into the bodies of another universe where the operation never happened. The goal is to ultimately survive the dangers of the hostile environment through the days, get to the last unused rocket ship and get there [[spoiler: before the remains of the moon eventually collide with the planet on the final day.]]
* PlayedForLaughs in In ''VideoGame/ZombiesRun'', when [[https://zrtranscripts.tumblr.com/post/149135929571/season-3-mission-53-there-is-power-in-a-union Season 3 Mission 53]] introduces the Henley Compound and explains its history.
--> '''Sam Yao''' "Judging by the Rofflenet rage when people found out about the Henley Compound, they are pretty damned sure. One of the few Comansys scientists not still with them, an expert in the micro-power systems used by most of the company's technology, living a life of luxury in a high security super rich survival colony on the banks of the Thames. The Rofflenet folks hit the roof!"
* [[AristocratsAreEvil Governor Vandis]] pulls this trope in ''VideoGame/DawnOfWarII''. He ruled as Governor of the Hive World and sub-sector capital, Meridian, and served as the primary obstacle to the Blood Ravens for gaining access to Angel's Forge. After initially brushing off a possible Tyranid invasion, he decided to flee the sub-sector once it becomes apparent that the Tyranids are there in force and leaves his planet and the whole sector to die.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Presented in ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "The Deep South" where it's revealed that the city of Atlanta, Georgia became an island and eventually sank from over-development. As the city sank, its "gods of our legends" evacuated, including Ted Turner, Hank Aaron, Jeff Foxworthy, "the guy who invented Coca-Cola" and [[Music/{{Donovan}} "The Magician"]]. [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg Oh, and Jane Fonda was there, too.]] Leaving the rest of the city population to sink and mutate into fish people.
* Presented for laughs ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' in the third segment of "Treehouse of Horror IX", where the Y2K computer virus bug creates an world apocalypse, and a rocket ship with the most beloved celebrities is launched so they can start a new society on the Mars. Homer and Bart sneak onboard another rocket, only to find that it's full of the most ''hated'' celebrities and is being fired into the Sun.
* Darkly PlayedForLaughs In ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'' episode "Fried Chicken Flu'', an apparent plague pandemic occurs which causes chaos around the world. In response, US President Obama makes a calming speech to the public preaching compassion, only to reveal him and his family have gone underground to live in a fully-stocked bunker and have essentially let America rot.
-->'''President Obama:''' In conclusion, I wanna say that we are all in for some tough times ahead. And when I say ''We'', I mean ''You''.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Real Life]]
* In 1815, after the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_M%C3%A9duse_(1810) French ship]] ''La Meduse'' agrounded in the Bank of Arguin, the commanders and officers, who put themselves on the lifeboats, cut the rope that relied them to the raft where the [=NCOs=], soldiers and sailors were, leaving them to drift at sea until a British ship rescued the considerably small group of survivors.
* This trope is what used to happen during most of plagues in the Middle Ages (such as TheBlackDeath). The rich fled the cities and towns, escaping to their private residences in the countryside in hope that the fresher air there would protect them (it was widely believed at the time that plagues were caused by "corrupted air"). This is also the premise of the novel, ''Literature/TheDecameron''.
[[/folder]]
Where are the leaders and elites during this whole quagmire? The rich and powerful with the money and influence to help people through this chaos? [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere Certainly not where the danger is!]] They have jumped ship, gotten on an aircraft and flown to a safe haven, sailed to a private island, locked themselves in a bunker, or all of the above and basically told the rest of the world: You are on your own.
Likely to overlap with WhileRomeBurns or DancingInTheRuins as the characters in question indulges in their decadent personal behavior in response to the chaos around them. Hardly expect anyone involved in this trope to be the least bit sympathetic and expect them to be a combination of RichJerk, CorruptCorporateExecutive, an UpperClassTwit, AristocratsAreEvil, DirtyCoward, PresidentEvil and his contemporaries, or all of the above. Even less so if the aforementioned elites are responsible for the calamity they are running from in the first place. If the world itself is crumbing, WatchTheWorldDie can overlap, but the characters are in the group who happen to be in the upper crust and simply let the rest of the world rot to save their own skins. Or at least try to at everyone else' expense.
Note the '''Rules Of Cautious Editing''' must apply when describing RealLife examples to avoid unnecessary FlameWar disputes. For the sake of example clarity, all spoilers shall remain unmarked.
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!Examples
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* In ''Manga/{{HellstarRemina}}'', The Prime Minister of Japan abandons Japan with his family for [[DeathWorld Remina]] as soon as it becomes apparent Earth will be destroyed. Naturally this ends poorly for the lot of them.
* In ''Anime/FLCLAlternative'', when [[BiggerBad Medical Mechanica]] start up their plan to flatten the Earth with their irons many of the rich and powerful board rockets to flee to Mars while leaving the planet to its fate. This includes the smug Japanese Prime Minister occasionally seen through the series and [[spoiler: Pets whose family is revealed to be wealthy, forcing her to leave her friends behind, especially after a bad argument with Kana that they sadly never resolve before her departure.]]
* In ''Manga/{{OnePiece}}'', Wapol pulled this when serving as King of the Drum Kingdom when the Blackbeard Pirates arrived. Despite his arrogance, when he learned how strong Blackbeard's crew was, Wapol took his army and ran rather than fight them, leaving his country defenseless.
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[[folder:ComicBooks]]
* In the ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'', the Pride are a cabal of rich couples who intend to destroy the world on behalf of a trio of fallen angels... while ensuring that their own children get to live in the paradise that the angels promised to build in the ruins.
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[[folder:Literature]]
* In ''Literature/TheLightFantastic'', a massive fire breaks out in Ankh-Morpork. The citizens from the richer quarters across the river are seen [[SarcasmMode ''heroically'']] chopping down the bridges to prevent refugees from invading to reach safety.
* Attempted in the final novel of ''Literature/TheInterdependency''. Once the leaders of several Guild Houses were convinced there really ''was'' a problem, their plan was to evacuate themselves and their families to the one place that would survive the upcoming collapse and leave the commoners to die.
* In ''Literature/WorldWarZ'', a few prominent examples are seen:
** The CorruptCorporateExecutive who has touted what turns out to be a false treatment runs off to Greenland in order to escape prosecution.
** In a clearer example of this trope, a huge group of A-list celebrities, most of them famous - with a lot of NoCelebritiesWereHarmed going on - take refuge in a beautiful, reinforced mansion on Long Island...[[IdiotBall which is broadcasting 24/7 to the people.]] [[InsaneTrollLogic In an inevitable turn of events]], hundreds of desperate refugees break into the mansion looking for some form of solace or shelter, the scene descends into chaos and anarchy, and most (if not all) of the elites are killed and their bodyguards and other servants abandon it.
** [[UsefulNotes/HMTheQueen Queen Elizabeth II]] is noted as being an incredibly rare subversion, as in-universe, she refuses to leave the UK during the zombie attacks.
* Demonstrated by the Indian Prime Minister in ''Literature/EndersShadow''. In the second book, ''Shadow Of The Hegemon'', when the Indian Empire finds itself set up for invasion and conquest by China thanks to Achilles, the Indian Prime Minister flees the country rather than be caught by China. The third book sees Virlomi, an Indian graduate of Battle School, successfully free India, then deny the Prime Minister's claim of a government in exile and assume power herself, stating that it is a leader's job to protect their people, not run to safety and leave them to despots.
* In Creator/EdgarAllenPoe's ''Literature/TheMasqueOfTheRedDeath'' a wealthy duke and his fellow nobles attempt to wait out a deadly plague decimating the populace by holding a constant party in a secluded abbey. [[KillEmAll It doesn't work out well for them.]]
* The setting of ''Literature/TheCompound'' is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a compound]], built underground for wealthy magnate Ray Yanakakis and his family, including protagonist Eli, to live in during the event of nuclear fallout. It's a massive, luxurious place with a lot of rooms and tech, created specifically so the family can survive while the rest of the world dies. The story deconstructs this by revealing that two of the family members weren't able to make it into the compound and got left behind, the fact that they're running out of edible food due to being there for ''years'', and [[spoiler:it all turns out that there were never nukes dropped at all, meaning they had no ship to jump ''from''.]]
* Done horribly in the ''Dark Skies'' book of the ''Literature/DarkShores'' series. When the enemy Derin, who worship [[GodOfEvil the Seventh god]], cross the wall and invade Mudamora, most of aristocrats flee the capital Mudaire by ships, leaving the common people to suffer and starve. Made worse by the fact that at night Mudaire's skies are filled with Deimos, a kind of flying demonic horses, which kill anyone who is out in the open. Deimos also make fleeing Mudaire on foot impossible and for the same reason, very few ships with supplies come to the city's harbor. As a result, prices of shelter and food go up very steeply and common people are reduced to spending nights in overcrowded public shelters and [[ReducedToRatburgers eating rats (as long as rats last).]]
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[[folder:Live Action Film]]
* In ''Film/{{TwoThousandTwelve}}'', the social and political elite flee to secretly built Arks to save themselves and leave the rest of the world to rot, even the builders of the Arks. The governments of the world knew beforehand of the calamity that would cause planetary upheaval and countless death, but didn't tell anyone even after it started, assassinating everyone who tried to tell people the truth, except for obvious nutjobs like Charlie Frost. Explained as being the only way they could build any Arks without the place being swarmed by refugees, terrorists, renegade army units, etc. that would jeopardize any humans surviving. Though a message is later sent out to the rich and elite to make their way to China so they can board boats and literally ride out the coming apocalypse. The main character, a lowly limo driver/struggling novelist, manages to stumble on the plot by complete accident and seeks to get his family on board as well.
* In ''Film/{{Elysium}}'', the people living on the space station Elysium are the wealthy and TheBeautifulElite, due to being far away from the harsh environment on Earth, not having to lift a finger to work, and especially due to the advanced healing machines they have access to. Earth is devastated and overpopulated and the people who still live on it are destitute and sick. The Elysium population do not care about the people on Earth and will stop at nothing to maintain the distinct separation between the two classes of people and prevent immigration.
* In ''Film/{{Snowpiercer}}'', the titular train was originally intended to save only the richest people and those who served them and maintained their lifestyles after an experimental attempt to stop global warming ended up causing an ice age. It's only down to luck that lower-class people managed to find the train and seek refuge aboard.
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[[folder: Live Action TV]]
* Done fairly often in ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995''.
** Tragically presented in ''Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S7E21TheHumanFactor'', where survivor of the first ever colony on Ganymede receives a message from Earth that WorldWarIII broke out, and nukes have wiped out a lot of the planet (including the survivor's family). A shuttle carrying the President and other officials is heading for Ganymede and will arrive in a few months. In despair, the survivor re-rigs the place to explode before they arrive.
* Done again in Series/TheTwilightZone1985
** In "Quarantine", a man named Matthew Forman [[HumanPopsicle cryogenically frozen]] during the early 21st Century due to a terminal illness is revived 300 years later by PerfectPacifistPeople with PsychicPowers living in an {{Arcadia}} based on an agrarian lifestyle supplemented by OrganicTechnology. They need his help, supposedly to reactivate orbital particle beam cannons from his time to deflect an incoming asteroid. Questioning their motives, he discovers that they are an AfterTheEnd society, a mere 200,000 people descended from survivors of WorldWarIII. The "asteroid" is actually a U.S. spacecraft loaded with elite politicians and military personnel that fled Earth just as the war began in a bid to survive by using a relativistic orbit that would take advantage of TimeDilation to return them to Earth and take over once the aftereffects of the war had passed. [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans Turns out the future people want Matt to destroy the spacecraft so human warfare will not return to Earth.]]
* A major plot point in ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryApocalypse''. When it came to the nuclear war that would kill all but a tiny majority of the world's population, the extremely wealthy had rented out rooms for themselves in fallout shelters. [[PreppyName Coco St. Pierre Vanderbilt]]'s entire family had one (but her parents and brother weren't able to get to the flight in time), as did Creator/OprahWinfrey {{expy}} Diana and her son. Coco also insists on her hairdresser and her personal assistant, Mallory (who are not elite) coming along because she is [[UpperClassTwit so sheltered]] that she can't do anything without them. However, zigzagged in that [[spoiler:Coco, Mallory, and Diana are actually all witches, and their survival was to ensure they could find the Antichrist Michael Langdon and reverse time to stop him, so they weren't ''really'' jumping ship but were actually just trying to avert the crisis. However, Coco and Mallory weren't aware of this due to identity spells put on them.]]
* Attempted in ''Film/{{Threads}}''. Sheffield town council evacuate themselves to a fully-stocked bunker as soon as the alarm goes off. This in fact just shows how completely unprepared they are, because while they mostly survive the initial blast, they are trapped in a shelter with limited food and water, all their orders are useless, and they're eventually found dead a few weeks later anyway.
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[[folder:VideoGames]]
* In ''VideoGame/Hitman2'', the Ark Society is a group of elites preparing to jump ship. They gather money, resources, technology, cultural artifacts, etc. to survive a societal/environmental collapse they believe is going to happen. Their plans range from simple bunkers and strongholds to colonies on Titan, and even [[BrainUploading living in a simulation]].
* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' the ruling American elites hid themselves in bunkers known as vaults on the onset of the global nuclear war, ironically, many of those elites were used for darwinists social experiments by Vault-Tec without them even knowing.
** As he learnt about an imminent global nuclear war, Mr. House of ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' turned himself into a robot, ensured no nukes would fell on Las Vegas and then hid himself in a bunker, ready to come back after the cataclysm.
* In ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'', the surviving [[AbsoluteXenophobe Founders]] pulled this trope in one of the {{Alternate Universe}}s that Booker and Elizabeth travel to. In that universe, the Vox Populi revolutionaries succeed in overthrowing the rule of the white racist elite Founders who run Columbia. The Founder elites who don't end up killed and scalped are shown fleeing Columbia in airships and leaving everyone else in Columbia to their fate.
* ''VideoGame/{{Deponia}}'' is set on the remains of a planet where all the wealthy have moved to the space station Elysium. The remaining planet is a literal dump, like a scrap heap. Naturally a main goal of the protagonist is getting aboard and enjoying the sweet life. [[spoiler:Turns out that they want to blow up the planet and use it as a boost to get moving into space. But only because they are certain that nobody is still living on the planet. Them making doubly sure is what kickstarts the plot.]]
* In ''VideoGame/DontEscape :4 Days To Survive'', the protagonists find out most of the elite and wealthy fled to a base on the moon after it was accidentally cracked it in half during a mining operation, which in turned utterly screwed with Earth's gravity and turned it into a wasteland. Once there, they went into machines to transfer their minds into the bodies of another universe where the operation never happened. The goal is to ultimately survive the dangers of the hostile environment through the days, get to the last unused rocket ship and get there [[spoiler: before the remains of the moon eventually collide with the planet on the final day.]]
* PlayedForLaughs in In ''VideoGame/ZombiesRun'', when [[https://zrtranscripts.tumblr.com/post/149135929571/season-3-mission-53-there-is-power-in-a-union Season 3 Mission 53]] introduces the Henley Compound and explains its history.
--> '''Sam Yao''' "Judging by the Rofflenet rage when people found out about the Henley Compound, they are pretty damned sure. One of the few Comansys scientists not still with them, an expert in the micro-power systems used by most of the company's technology, living a life of luxury in a high security super rich survival colony on the banks of the Thames. The Rofflenet folks hit the roof!"
* [[AristocratsAreEvil Governor Vandis]] pulls this trope in ''VideoGame/DawnOfWarII''. He ruled as Governor of the Hive World and sub-sector capital, Meridian, and served as the primary obstacle to the Blood Ravens for gaining access to Angel's Forge. After initially brushing off a possible Tyranid invasion, he decided to flee the sub-sector once it becomes apparent that the Tyranids are there in force and leaves his planet and the whole sector to die.
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[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Presented in ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "The Deep South" where it's revealed that the city of Atlanta, Georgia became an island and eventually sank from over-development. As the city sank, its "gods of our legends" evacuated, including Ted Turner, Hank Aaron, Jeff Foxworthy, "the guy who invented Coca-Cola" and [[Music/{{Donovan}} "The Magician"]]. [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg Oh, and Jane Fonda was there, too.]] Leaving the rest of the city population to sink and mutate into fish people.
* Presented for laughs ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' in the third segment of "Treehouse of Horror IX", where the Y2K computer virus bug creates an world apocalypse, and a rocket ship with the most beloved celebrities is launched so they can start a new society on the Mars. Homer and Bart sneak onboard another rocket, only to find that it's full of the most ''hated'' celebrities and is being fired into the Sun.
* Darkly PlayedForLaughs In ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'' episode "Fried Chicken Flu'', an apparent plague pandemic occurs which causes chaos around the world. In response, US President Obama makes a calming speech to the public preaching compassion, only to reveal him and his family have gone underground to live in a fully-stocked bunker and have essentially let America rot.
-->'''President Obama:''' In conclusion, I wanna say that we are all in for some tough times ahead. And when I say ''We'', I mean ''You''.
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[[folder:Real Life]]
* In 1815, after the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_M%C3%A9duse_(1810) French ship]] ''La Meduse'' agrounded in the Bank of Arguin, the commanders and officers, who put themselves on the lifeboats, cut the rope that relied them to the raft where the [=NCOs=], soldiers and sailors were, leaving them to drift at sea until a British ship rescued the considerably small group of survivors.
* This trope is what used to happen during most of plagues in the Middle Ages (such as TheBlackDeath). The rich fled the cities and towns, escaping to their private residences in the countryside in hope that the fresher air there would protect them (it was widely believed at the time that plagues were caused by "corrupted air"). This is also the premise of the novel, ''Literature/TheDecameron''.
[[/folder]]
