The world is always ending, for someone.
— Neil Gaiman, Signal To Noise
From the Greek word "apokalyptein", meaning uncovering or revealing, an apocalypse is a catastrophic event that changes the world as we know it, so that it "reveals" a new world (so to speak). It is a cataclysm in which the forces of good permanently triumph over the forces of evil. While the Christian Biblical tradition for the term refers to any revelation, it has come to refer to any universal or widespread destruction or disaster, such as a nuclear war or climate crisis. This index lists tropes relating to the apocalyptic.
See also Disaster Tropes for specific sorts of disasters which may cause or be a part of an apocalypse.
Tropes:
- Adam and Eve Plot: Humanity's numbers are greatly reduced, and it's up to two people to repopulate the Earth.
- After the End: The main setting of the story is post-apocalyptic.
- All Hail the Great God Mickey!: A cultural artifact is mistaken for a religious one or worshipped by post-apocalyptic people.
- And Man Grew Proud: A civilization collapses due to its own hubris.
- Animal Is the New Man: Humanity falls, and animals rise up to take their place.
- Apocalypse Anarchy: Once everyone knows that the world is about to end, society falls into chaos.
- The Apocalypse Brings Out the Best in People: The impending end of a society/people/world/etc leads one or more people to become kinder.
- Apocalypse Cult: A cult who strives to cause the apocalypse.
- Apocalypse Day Planner
- Apocalypse How: This trope is for categorizing the scope and severity of the "apocalypse" in question.
- Apocalypse Maiden: An innocent character is destined to bring about The End of the World as We Know It just by existing.
- Apocalypse Not: After the supposed "end" of everything, society has somehow managed to sustain itself, either barely or impressively.
- Apocalypse Wow: The apocalypse is absolutely nightmarish, but man if it isn't cool!
- Apocalyptic Gag Order: One or more world governments are aware that the apocalypse is coming, and they're trying to stop it — but no one else is allowed to know.
- Apocalyptic Log: During or leading up to "the End", a character records their thoughts.
- Apocalyptic Logistics: The total loss of imported goods and resources (oil, clean water, etc.) is only a minor inconvenience for everyone.
- Apocalyptic Montage: Montage of several landmarks leading up to, during, or after the world-ending catastrophe.
- The Apunkalypse: Once society falls, everyone becomes a vandalizing punk.
- Archaeological Arms Race: Everyone is racing to get the technology from a lost civilization.
- Assimilation Plot: Individuality is eradicated, and everyone becomes one entity.
- Beast of the Apocalypse: A monster that kick-starts The End of the World as We Know It.
- The Beforetimes: Survivors of the apocalypse refer to the way the world used to be as something along the lines of "The Beforetimes."
- Bizarro Apocalypse: The end of the world is really weird.
- Born After the End: The first generation to be born after a catastrophic event.
- Break Out the Museum Piece: Older machinery in storage may be more easily run or maintained in a post-apocalyptic society.
- But What About the Astronauts?: The planet is destroyed, and the astronauts must ask, "Now what?"
- Cataclysm Backstory: An advanced civilization violently collapsed long ago, and that event affects the plot of the setting.
- Caught Up in the Rapture: God removes the virtuous from the world to safety just before it ends.
- Citywide Evacuation: Some people are able to escape an entire city before the impending catastrophe destroys or heavily damages it.
- Civilization Destroyer: It doesn't necessarily destroy a world, but it does end a civilization.
- Celebrity Survivor: The world is falling around as they speak, but characters still ask someone, "Hey, aren't you from TV?"
- Climate Change Allegory: An event that invokes the themes of global warming/climate change in an allegorical way.
- Cockroaches Will Rule the Earth: Cockroaches — or an evolved form of them — take over the world after humanity falls.
- Conducting the Carnage: The best thing to do when everything is falling apart is to wave your hands conductor-style and treat it like music.
- Cosmic Flaw: There's something fundamentally wrong/out of place in the fabric of reality that will spell certain doom for the world.
- Cosy Catastrophe: The world ends, and that's fine. No biggie.
- Dancin' in the Ruins: An entire civilization has been destroyed...Hooray!
- The Day the Dinosaurs Died: The K-Pg extinction is often depicted in media for dramatic effect.
- Depopulation Bomb: It didn't necessarily destroy the planet, but it did wipe out most of its people, probably leaving only a few survivors.
- Desolation Shot: A slow, somber shot of a place once populated and kept, now barren and dilapidated.
- Destroyer Deity: A God, Goddess, or other entity associated, or solely responsible for, mass destruction.
- Disaster Democracy: A band of post-disaster survivors band together and elect some leaders.
- Disaster Scavengers: Post-disaster, the only way for characters to good food, water, and other supplies is to scavenge the surrounding areas.
- Doomsday Clock: When the literal clock strikes twelve, it's all over.
- Doomsday Device: A device/object capable of destroying the world.
- Dream Apocalypse: Everything and everyone is just someone's dream. So, if that someone were to wake up...
- Earth All Along: The desolated planet the story takes place on turns out to be Earth itself, not a fictional planet.
- Earth-Shattering Kaboom: An explosion so big the entire planet is destroyed.
- Earth That Was: Earth has been destroyed or is otherwise uninhabitable, contributing to the plot/setting.
- The Elites Jump Ship: The leaders, the rich, and the powerful left everyone else to rot during some calamity.
- Emergency Broadcast: An official government warning of an impending threat, broadcast to the population.
- Emergency Presidential Address: An emergency has become so dire that the leader of the nation makes a televised address to the citizens.
- The End Is Nigh (AKA Doomsayer): The random guy, preacher, or street hobo declaring over and over that "The End is neeeeaaaar!" Problem is, they're right.
- "End Is Nigh" Ending: An apocalyptic event is taking place at the very end of the world, but we don't get to see because before the events happen, we're shown the credits.
- Endless Daytime: The sun does not set, ever.
- Endless Winter: The world is trapped in a neverending Ice Age.
- The End of the World as We Know It: If the heroes don't manage to save the day, this is what will happen.
- Eternal Recurrence: The Apocalypse repeats at intervals.
- Fallout Shelter Fail: The shelter designed to save people from the apocalypse isn't up to the task.
- The Famine: Widespread, maybe even planetary, lack of food.
- Fleeing for the Fallout Shelter: A character is caught outdoors when the apocalypse begins and must run for their prepared shelter - or duck for cover.
- Flooded Future World: Due to disastrous flooding or sea level rise, the world becomes mostly or entirely covered by water.
- From Cataclysm to Myth: Whatever caused the "apocalyptic" state of the world becomes a simple myth over time.
- Future Primitive: Time passes by, but mankind has somehow managed to become dumber, or less capable of maintaining itself.
- Gaia's Lament: An extremely desolate or uninhabitable turn of a planet that was once verdant and full of life.
- Giant Wall of Watery Doom: A tsunami capable of quite a bit of destruction.
- Glacial Apocalypse: An ice age brings about the end of civilization.
- Global Warming: The global climate changes in a disruptive and dangerous manner, usually because of human action.
- Go Mad from the Apocalypse: Sanity Slippage in seeing the world ending.
- Gothic Country Music: A style of country music that plays with apocalyptic themes.
- Hell on Earth: Hell itself manages to invade the world.
- Hit So Hard, the Calendar Felt It: An event of such societal importance that they changed the calendar to reflect it.
- Homeworld Evacuation: Some people — maybe even everyone — manage to get off the planet before it's destroyed.
- Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Anthropomorphic Personifications of the The End of the World as We Know It from The Bible.
- Hostile Terraforming: Alien life invades and starts shaping the planet to suit their needs at the cost of the natives'.
- Humanity's Wake: Humans are extinct.
- The Immune: Humanity as a whole is threatened by a disease that has already killed quite a few — but one or more characters have an immunity to it.
- Inferred Holocaust: Technically, the aftermath of an event should have gotten a good lot of people killed, or ruined an area forever...But it's glossed over in the story.
- Just Before the End: The work takes place just a short bit of time before The End.
- Kill All Humans: An entity or organization's goal is humanity's extinction.
- Last Fertile Region: There's only one place left that still maintains wildlife.
- The Last Man Heard a Knock...: Someone believes that they are the last living being or human on the planet, but not only are there others, but they also manage to run into each other.
- Lost Common Knowledge: Society has suffered through some kind of disaster, and many years later, basic knowledge of how the world works is lost.
- Low-Angle Empty World Shot: A scene requires that only the actors are in the shot, even in a real-world busy city. Thus, the actors are shot at low angles to crop out passerby.
- Mayan Doomsday: December 21, 2012 — the date the Mayans supposedly predicted as the end of the world — is used as such in a story.
- Millennium Bug: The arrival of January 1, 2000, was believed to cause computers all over the world to malfunction, leading to disaster — it's used or mentioned in a work.
- Mistaken for Apocalypse: Someone believes that the apocalypse is coming or has already happened, but...no. They just misinterpreted some coincidences.
- Must Not Die a Virgin: When the world is coming to an end, at least one character's goal is to get laid once and for all.
- Mutually Assured Destruction: Nuclear warfare between two or more nuke-owning nations has the potential to cause the total destruction of all participants to the conflict — and this may also result in taking down the rest of the world with them.
- Mystical Plague: A plague is created by mystical powers, not a scientific mishap.
- Natural Disaster Cascade: A chain of natural disasters occurs at the same time or close to the same time.
- Natural End of Time: A Class X-4 apocalypse, caused naturally and by time rather than by a sudden cataclysm.
- New Eden: The land is utterly decimated after a disaster, but after a few good years, it's revived and inhabitants can return to it.
- The Night That Never Ends: The villain's main goal is to get rid of sunlight forever.
- No Bikes in the Apocalypse: The world has fallen, and the only way to get around is on foot, by horse, or by scavenged cars. Bicycle? Don't know her.
- No Can Opener: Hoarding canned items for emergencies but forgetting the can opener.
- No FEMA Response: Humanitarian aid fails to appear on the scene of a disaster.
- No Healthcare in the Apocalypse: Treatment for an injury, illness or disability is difficult to come by after the world ends.
- Nuclear Mutant: Radiation results in the creation of monsters, and sometimes villains.
- Omnicidal Maniac: A villain who doesn't just want to destroy the hero — they want to destroy everything.
- The Plague: A disease, either lethal or extremely dangerous, poses a threat to society or even the world at large.
- Planet Eater: A character, monster, or entity who eats planets.
- Pointless Doomsday Device: Its sole function is to cause mass destruction, so...why was it made, to begin with?
- Post-Apocalyptic Dog: In the event of an apocalypse, dogs will appear as either ravenous animals or Man's loyal best friend.
- Post-Apocalyptic Gas Mask: Survivors of an apocalypse don gas masks to protect themselves from the poison or radiation that caused said apocalypse.
- Post-Apocalyptic Traffic Jam: A road jammed full of abandoned vehicles (and perhaps the remains of their unfortunate drivers) left in the aftermath of the apocalypse.
- Post-Apunkalyptic Armor: Survivors don improvised and very punk-style armor.
- Post-Peak Oil: A work takes place after all of the world's oil has been depleted.
- Put Them All Out of My Misery: A villain is in such a state of misery that, for some reason, he concludes that killing everyone else will help.
- Ragnarök Proofing: Even after many, many years of desolation, ruins of a former civilization are still holding up pretty well.
- Reality-Breaking Paradox: Someone does something impossible, and reality basically blue-screens.
- Reclaimed by Nature: In the absence of people, nature reclaims lost ground.
- Reduced to Ratburgers: Food has become so scarce that characters turn to eating meager animals — rats, bugs, mice, etc.
- Regional Redecoration: The Earth itself is reshaped as a result of something huge.
- Restart the World: The world is just too far gone, so the only way to save it is to destroy it and start over.
- Rocky Mountain Refuge: The only American survivors of the apocalypse live here.
- Ruins of the Modern Age: The ruins of a fallen civilization come from our present-day world.
- Scavenged Punk: Technology or other appliances are built from scavenged junk.
- Scavenger World: After the end, a society emerges, and everyone in it is a scavenger.
- Screw the Rules, It's the Apocalypse!: People take advantage of the fear and chaos the apocalypse brings to do whatever they want.
- Set the World on Fire: Small area or big, the world is scoured by flames.
- Sign of the Apocalypse: Something particularly unexpected happening, usually O.O.C. Is Serious Business, is jokingly intimated to be a sign of the end times.
- Signs of the End Times: The apocalypse has several boding signs before it comes.
- Simulated Fantasy, Post-Apocalyptic Reality: After the apocalypse, virtual reality becomes a haven for survivors — or a hell.
- Slept Through the Apocalypse: Someway, somehow, someone manages to just miss the apocalypse.
- Solar Flare Disaster: A planet takes a hard hit from a solar flare. Disaster ensues.
- Sole Surviving Scientist: A scientist who has survived the apocalypse and might be able to fix things.
- Spreading Disaster Map Graphic: A map showing the source of the disaster slowly spreading across the land.
- Standard Post-Apocalyptic Setting: A post-apocalyptic featuring a lot of mutants, ruined cities, and brown palettes.
- Star Killing: Someone or something destroys a star, even one that has surrounding planets.
- The Stars Are Going Out: Stars disappearing from the night sky is a sign of bad, bad things.
- Sterility Plague: A disease has rendered those infected unable to bear children.
- Storyboarding the Apocalypse: Showing, in full detail, just what will happen and how if the day isn't saved.
- Sugar Apocalypse: A place of sunshine and rainbows falls apart.
- Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum: A villain tries destroying the entire world, themself included.
- Synthetic Plague: A plague was created by humans, intentionally or not.
- Teenage Wasteland: A world where children somehow gain power over adults.
- Unspecified Apocalypse: The cause or nature of the apocalypse is left unknown.
- Urban Ruins: Cities or other urban areas fallen to ruins.
- Villain World: The Bad Guy Wins, and he takes over the world.
- Wasteland Elder: The older leader of a small survivor group, probably with the knowledge of how the world was before it ended.
- Wasteland Warlord: The despotic leader of a survivor group, often organizing them into warbands to raid and harass other survivors.
- Watch the World Die: Instead of trying to survive, a character chooses to just sit back and watch the world end, probably too despaired to do anything else.
- We Just Need to Wait for Rescue: A character insists on sitting back and waiting to be rescued from some disaster.
- The World Is Always Doomed: It doesn't matter how many times the world is saved, because tomorrow, it'll just be threatened again.
- World War III: The next big world war, which changes everything.
- World War Whatever: World Wars after World War III.
- Zombie Apocalypse: The world ends via being overrun by the undead.
