History Main / ThePromisedLand

[[folder:Anime]]

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[[quoteright:350:[[Series/BattlestarGalactica2003 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/badland.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Cynical Flavor -- [[AwfulTruth Truth Hurts]].]]

!!Examples

[[caption-width-right:350:Cynical Flavor -- [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome Truth Hurts]].]]

* '''No Promised Land:''' The Promised Land never really existed; it was just a myth, perhaps created to give people hope of a possible better life, or from a misunderstood or distorted legend of the past. Sometimes, even more cynically, the idea of the Promised Land is a lie, deliberately concocted in order to control people with a false promise of better times with the price of submitting under a cruel rule, or to lure people into danger and death. In {{Dystopia}}n works, an even crueler variant exists in the form of being ReleasedToElsewhere.

[[caption-width-right:350:Cynical Flavor -- [[RealityEnsues Truth Hurts]].]]

* ''Series/Red Dwarf'' has a species of evolved cats who believe in a Promised Land known as Fushal. It is, in fact, Fiji, where Lister, who they worship as a God, planned on settling down with a farm. In the 90-minute special called The Promised Land, [[spoiler: Lister reveals that he's not their God and that Fiji probably doesn't exist anymore. The cat people respond by telling him that they now believe that the promised land isn't a place, but within you.]]

* '''No Promised Land:''' The Promised Land never really existed; it was just a myth, perhaps created to give people hope of a possible better life, or from a misunderstood or distorted legend of the past. Sometimes, even more cynically, the idea of the Promised Land is a lie, deliberately concocted in order to control people with a false promise of better times with the price of submitting under a cruel rule, or to lure people into danger and death. In {{Dystopia}}n works, an even crueler variant exists in the form of ReleasedToElsewhere, where being sent to this land is code for being killed.

* '''No Promised Land:''' The Promised Land never really existed; it was just a myth, perhaps created to give people hope of a possible better life, or from a misunderstood or distorted legend of the past. Sometimes, even more cynically, the idea of the Promised Land is a lie, deliberately concocted in order to control people with a false promise of better times with the price of submitting under a cruel rule, or to lure people into danger and death. In {{Dystopia}}n works, an even crueler variant exists in the form of being ReleasedToElsewhere, where being sent to this land is code for being killed.

* '''No Promised Land:''' The Promised Land never really existed; it was just a myth, perhaps created to give people hope of a possible better life, or from a misunderstood or distorted legend of the past. Sometimes, even more cynically, the idea of the Promised Land is a lie, deliberately concocted in order to control people with a false promise of better times with the price of submitting under a cruel rule, or to lure people into danger and death. In {{Dystopia}}n works, an even crueler variant exists in the form of being ReleasedToElsewhere.

* '''No Promised Land:''' The Promised Land never really existed; it was just a myth, perhaps created to give people hope of a possible better life, or from a misunderstood or distorted legend of the past. Sometimes, even more cynically, the idea of the Promised Land is a lie, deliberately concocted in order to control people with a false promise of better times with the price of submitting under a cruel rule, or to lure people into danger and death.

* ''Film/TheIsland'' is named for its so-called Promised Land which people can "win" a one-way trip to -- in reality, [[spoiler:they're clones being harvested for parts. Winning your trip to the Island means that it is your time to be harvested]].

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/promised-land-waterfall_565.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Idealistic Flavor -- No worries, for the rest of your days.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheMarvelousMisadventuresOfFlapjack'', everyone in Storm-Along-Harbor wants to find Candied Island. [[spoiler: None of them ever find it. The closest anyone in the series ever gets is when Flapjack and K'nuckles are travelling with the Moon, and come within inches of actually reaching Candied Island... before being pulled back by the Moons gravity. They never find it again, and in the final episode, Flapjack, K'nuckles and Bubbie simply set off to find somewhere else to live (after turning live-action for some reason]]

** "Out west, we hear it's back east. Back east, they hear it's out west. It's all just nonsense. You know, you're like a penguin on the North Pole who hears the South Pole is really nice this time of the year."

* Elysium in ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'', a rumored lush land where the creator of the world lives atop the World Tree. Given that the entire world lives on floating, living beings who are prone to [[SinkingShipScenario dying of old age and sinking,]] the concept of an actual permanent piece of land where people can live is pretty appealing. [[spoiler:It ends up being a ruined habitat in an eons-old space station located in orbit above the World Tree (a Crappy Promised Land), but then the Titans end up forming a true one at the end of the game.]]

* This is what Eden is believed to be by The People of [[TabletopGame/MutantYearZero Mutant: Year Zero]], because The People are all mutants who can not conceive children. And most of them believe that Eden will give them prosperity.

* [[color:green:Rupeeland]] in ''Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland''

[[folder: Folklore]]

[[folder: Live-Action Television]]

[[folder: Video Games]]

[[folder: Western Animation]]

[[folder: Real Life]]

* ''Film/LogansRun'' features a Promised Land by the name of Sanctuary, which the Runners are trying to reach. In the movie, it doesnt exist, the Runners who left before the story takes place [[spoiler:were harvested and turned into nutrition by the malfunctioning robot Cube. The outside world still exists though, and is mostly unspoiled.]] In the novel its based on, Sanctuary IS real [[spoiler:and it's an old abandoned space station orbiting Mars. However, by the time of the sequel novel, it has fallen apart due to supply ships no longer arriving after the resistance leader back on Earth dies in a suicide charge]]

** The intended destination of the besieged "villagers" in ''Film/TheRoadWarrior'' qualifies (described as fertile place of plenty, with "nothing to do but breed"). It's never revealed wether or not their destination fits this exact description, but since the narrator (who's actually the Feral Kid as an old man) reveals that the villagers successfully built a mighty tribe with the Gyro Captain as their new leader, it can be assumed that their new home was atleast better than the one they left.

* The Nesting Grounds in ''Disney/{{Dinosaur}}''. Although according to the viewers of the film, the Herd is going there because it's the only part of prehistoric Earth that was not destroyed by the meteorite, [[AllThereInTheManual according to the book]] ''[[AllThereInTheManual Dinosaur: The Essential Guide]]'', the main reason the Herd was going there is that during the winter, the Nesting Grounds actually become too cold and infertile for the dinosaurs to lay their eggs, and as a result they were all evicted into the desert where they all remained for days until springtime. The film's events actually take place in the spring since that is when the Herd is supposed to return to the Nesting Grounds.

* '''No Promised Land:''' The Promised Land never really existed, or if it did exist, it is nothing but a shell (or even less) of its former glory. Here, the Promised Land was just a myth, perhaps created to give people hope of a possible better life, or from a misunderstood or distorted legend of the past. Sometimes, even more cynically, the idea of the Promised Land is a lie, deliberately concocted in order to control people with a false promise of better times with the price of submitting under a cruel rule, or to lure people into danger and death.

** The intended destination of the besieged "villagers" in ''Film/TheRoadWarrior'' qualifies (described as fertile place of plenty, with "nothing to do but breed")
** The lost kids in ''Film/MadMaxBeyondThunderdome'' think that Max is the SecondComing of Captain Walker, who will take them to "Tomorrow-morrow Land."
** ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad'' has "The Green Place", where Furiosa planned to take the Five Wives to, only to find out it's now an uninhabitable swamp land.
* Dry Land in ''Film/WaterWorld''.

* Indentured service in lthe 17th and 18th century was basically an Unreachable Promised Land. A poor man would basically sell himself as a slave to get to the Americas and work as a slave for several years at the plantation, factory or farm. Once the period of servitude was over, the indentured servant was free to live as an inhabitant of the land. Providing, of course, that he survived the harsh treatment, climate, work and diseases first.