Emergency Alert System Scenarios note are a collection of videos dedicated to telling fictional stories regarding the Emergency Alert System, the United States' national warning system. These scenarios usually deal with horror related situations, whether made realistically, made with surreal situations or problems, or not having the threat(s) visible or described. They are a subtrope of the Disaster Movie, although the Disaster Movie is usually a much more high-budget production, whereas the EAS scenario is often a single-creator or small group of creators shoestring budget independent production. Nonetheless, quite a few EAS scenarios have better quality/production value/ research than some disaster movies ever could aspire to have.
Much of the trends and themes common to Analog Horror videos were first popularised through videos like these; while EAS Scenarios themselves have been included in the Analog Horror genre, it can be argued that the genre as a whole bloomed from videos like these.
Several common traits shared between them are as follows:
- Screens made from the EAS, usually recreated visually and audibly to be almost as exactly as it would appear on TV. note
- A disclaimer detailing that the events presented in videos are not real and are not to be taken seriously. note
- A main threat, usually escalating to where it may become uncontrollable and cause dire situations.
- A Bittersweet Ending or Downer Ending is presented, depending on how severe the threat is. In uncommon situations, there may be No Ending. A Happy Ending is very rare, but not unheard of.
- Transitions used to deliver more information regarding the plot.
- Voice acting used to deliver a more detailed story, and can provide Character Development if characters are used throughout the story, usually causing an Establishing Character Moment.
- Simplistic graphics used to depict and explain disaster situations, with people represented by bathroom sign-style stick figures.
Scenarios can be found on YouTube.
EAS series with their own pages:
Examples:
- Alien Invasion: One main narrative for scenarios, often caused without any motive, other than extermination.
- Alternate History: Uncommon but still used scenarios, often regarding universes where the 2012 apocalypse or the Y2K virus actually happened, or where presidential elections turned out differently.
- And I Must Scream:
- According to Word of God, those affected by the events in Demonized
and Sleepless are aware of what's going on, but unable to do anything, as their bodies are being controlled or have their consciousness suppressed. - In Do Not Look Up (not to be confused with the live action film), if you stare at the supernova that fills the sky you will never be able to move again, and worse yet, you will be completely conscious of what is happening but be unable to do anything about it until you eventually drop dead.
- According to Word of God, those affected by the events in Demonized
- Apocalypse How: And how. Most scenarios often deal with many different ways of the world ending., with scenarios dealing in all categories at least once.
- Art Evolution: Often, when a scenario is remade, either by its creator or by another creator, it will usually have reworks done on its screens, audio, visuals, or overall editing and may include having a longer video length.
- Atomic Hate: Probably the most popular narrative for scenarios after zombie plagues. Sometimes both at once are mixed.
- Bittersweet Ending: Often used for when the threat(s) of the story is over, but the damage has been done, and is the ending used often, though a Downer Ending or No Ending is also possible.
- Chekhov's Volcano:
- While not used often as a plot, scenarios centered around this topic will usually refer to a supervolcanic eruption, the most popular of which is the Yellowstone Caldera.
- Yuan P's V-DAY takes this to its extreme conclusion, albeit one that has to rely on a lot of Artistic License to get its premise to worknote - by having every volcano on Earth erupt within the span of 24 hours.
- While not used often as a plot, scenarios centered around this topic will usually refer to a supervolcanic
- Christmas Episode: Special scenarios uploaded around Christmas will often be regarded as specials, often with the subject matter being related to the winter in some way.
- Cluster F-Bomb: "Angry EAS" scenarios, which often have the system itself go on an angry, swear-laden rant about the viewers' incompetence in following the warning directions.
- Cold Snap:
- The plot of Absolute Zero, revealed to be caused by the Earth gradually moving away from the Sun.
- The premise of nullDorito's Piercing Freeze is that an anomaly stemming from the Earth's North Pole causes temperatures throughout the Northeast and Midwest United States to go as far down as negative 70 degrees. Eventually, it's revealed that It's not an anomaly at all - It's a very technologically advanced terrorist attack, which the sequel Retribution focuses on.
- The plot of Absolute Zero
- Colony Drop:
- KnucklesHedgehog2010’s The Wrath of Jupiter has Jupiter itself inflict this on the Earth by changing its orbit and moving towards the sun in a similar scenario to the Grand tack hypothesis. The colony drop comes courtesy of a hail of some of the Asteroid Belt’s largest objects. Humanity manages to survive, but many millions die, and no one knows why Jupiter’s orbit happened to move, which kickstarted the disaster.
- A similar plot happens in Harvester’s Nibiru, with the twist that governments have been attempting to cover up the existence of the titular planet and its crash course towards Earth in order to give everyone a chance to Face Death with Dignity.
- KnucklesHedgehog2010
- Death of a Child: While some creators go out of their way to avoid having this occur, some have outright made passing comments, to demonstrate how bad things get.
- Decade-Themed Filter: Mainly in the Turn of the Millennium, as most televisions still possessed some grain, though scenarios featuring the EBS note will possess more film grain.
- Demonic Possession: What's seemingly occurring in Demonized.
- Disaster Dominoes: Many of the more prolonged scenarios are like this. Sometimes in a more realistic manner (e.g., most disasters are caused by a series of events *and* lead to other events), sometimes in an absurd or surreal manner (e.g., that missing kid is the trigger for a series of events that lead up to global thermonuclear war, that weird little stolen artifact discovered carries destructive potential, etc.)
- Do Not Adjust Your Set: Often an In-Universe warning delivered through an alert, as the information needs to be relayed in order to preserve the safety of civilians. Truth in Television, as this is an instruction usually delivered through the EAS.
- Do Not Touch the Funnel Cloud: Tornado and severe thunderstorm events (whether historical or fictional) are surprisingly common storylines, and pretty much the only ones that don't end in anything beyond a Class 0 apocalypse.
- Don't Try This at Home: Some EAS videos start with a disclaimer telling viewers not to play the videos over the air or in public, so people will not be scared and think there is a real emergency (and so it doesn't trigger the real EAS system).
- Downer Ending: This is usually done when the threat(s) end up killing off humanity directly or indirectly, with worldwide damage or destruction.
- Driven to Suicide:
- If the threat in a scenario gets too severe, the EAS text may urge viewers to take this measure. Though depending on the threat, doing this may be more of a Mercy Kill…
- Some end-of-the-world scenarios will actually try to avert this by urging viewers not to commit suicide, on the basis of suicide causing unnecessary emotional and physical pain instead of a calm and peaceful end.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: The Asteroid plays this straight, as humanity manages to fight back against the aliens' forces, bringing in an era of peace.
- Emergency Broadcast: How scenarios are presented, naturally.
- Emergency Presidential Address: For any scenario that contains an Emergency Action Notification, this is common. This is rarely if ever visually shown, only heard through the broadcast. Sometimes they're text-to-speech and sometimes they're fully voice acted, but oftentimes, they're on the more pessimistic side of the scale.
- The End of the World as We Know It: Arguably the most common ending in most scenarios. The End of the World is titled almost word for word as such.
- Extremely Short Timespan: Scenarios will often show events unfold over the course of a few hours or a few days and will sometimes mention the aftermath of such events despite never being seen in the scenario.
- The Faceless: If a character is used, expect to not see what they may look like. Obviously subverted if recorded live-action scenes are used.
- Flaming Meteor: Another popular narrative for scenarios, whether world-destroying, or not as major.
- From Bad to Worse: Threats in scenarios will always get more severe as it progresses.
- Genre Blind: Quite a lot of apocalypse scenarios happen because of many idiotic actions humans take.
- The Great Flood: Alert World’s two part The Flood series focuses on this.
- Grey Goo: One such scenario, titled Ecophagy: The Gray Goo has this as the main threat.
- Heat Wave:
- Rising Heat's plot is the focus of one. The exact reason being that the Earth is moving closer and closer to the Sun.
- On the other end of the extreme, we have Absolute Zero by the same creator. This time the threat is the Earth moving farther away from the Sun.
- Rising Heat's
- Hell on Earth: Demonized has this occur.
- Hell Is That Noise:
- The sounds used during scenarios are designed to attract your attention and to add realism due to adding depth to the videos. Truth in Television, as the EAS is designed this way to get your attention.
- In addtion to the EAS sounds, there is also the occasional air raid siren, which drives home the fact that something very bad is about to happen very soon.
- Humans Are Warriors: The Asteroid has this occur near the end, where the humans fight back against the invading aliens.
- Jump Scare: Often, a scenario may include static as a type of jump scare to indicate that things are worsening. Other forms include images, sounds, or even mobile emergency alerts.
- Kill Sat: The Rods From God videos involve satellites launching tungsten rods, creating a kinetic bombardment.
- Multiple Endings: While not as common as before, some scenarios often include two endings: one good, one bad.
- No Ending: Many scenarios will have no conclusion and creators often leave the ending to be pondered by the audience.
- Nothing Is Scarier:
- Due to how many scenarios are made, if a threat is mentioned, expect it to only be described through a voice, or through audio.
- Lost In Silence scenarios will never have any information regarding the main threat due to a glitch, which leaves the alert with mostly complete silence, until the end.
- In "No Way Out", the monster on the moon causing the anomalies gets more powerful when people look at it, so in Veritas' broadcasts, it is just represented by a red X.
- Not Using the "Z" Word: Subverted. Very few zombie scenarios will often refer to zombies as creatures.
- Nuke 'em:
- The most popular narrative for scenarios, often done with one country deciding to launch nuclear warheads at another, usually at the U.S.
- In "No Way Out," Veritas launches every nuclear bomb on the planet at the monster on the moon. They don't even leave a scratch.
- Our Demons Are Different: The demons in Demonized are more akin to stereotypical demons. At least, until the end.
- Poor Communication Kills: The "Lost in Silence" scenario among various channels, popularized by The EAS Experience. The scenario involves a national emergency of any sort being played but the listener unable to receive the message before it's too late. Whether because of poor connection, an internal failure within the EAS system, or trouble finding the channel that serves the listener's area, it almost always ends in a Downer Ending.
- Retraux: Scenarios taking place further back in time will often evoke older graphics in some way to represent older emergency systems such as CONELRAD, the EBS, or a pre-IPAWS EAS.
- Schmuck Bait: Some EAS scenarios warn viewers to stay in their homes until further notice because there is an unknown killer creature on the loose. Then, the creature hijacks the broadcast (often impersonating a government agency such as the FBI) and tells viewers that it is safe to go outside, and in fact it is highly recommended that they do so.
- Second Coming: Some videos deal with the eponymous hypothetical scenario which involves Jesus returning to the earth.
- Setting Update: Without Warning is a modern retelling of the 1994 film of the same name, with the events presented through present-day EAS broadcasts.
- Shown Their Work: Often, creators will replicate alerts with incredible accuracy, which includes alert tones modified to sound exactly as they do on different stations, to the inclusion of weather radars, and even the air raid sirens used.
- Spiders Are Scary: The main focus of Spider Earth.
- Stiff Upper Lip: In scenarios where the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) is broadcasting about an apocalypse/alien invasion/etc., they will always tell viewers to remain calm and not panic, even when the world is ending.
- Stylistic Suck: Some scenarios, as things get worse, will have graphics worsen (or disappear entirely to audio-only) to match the severity of the situation affecting broadcast ability/quality.
- Synthetic Voice Actor: Most dialogue in EAS scenarios is done by text-to-speech programs.
- That's No Moon:
- The asteroid in The Asteroid isn't an asteroid, but an alien spacecraft.
- That's No Moon... is Exactly What It Says on the Tin, with what can only be assumed is the Death Star itself vaporizing Earth.
- The asteroid in The Asteroid
- The Virus: Scenarios often will feature a pandemic starting due to the discovery of a new disease, with varying results.
- This Is a Work of Fiction: Disclaimers are often used to ensure that no events portrayed are occurring.
- Wendigo: The Wendigo focuses on the eponymous creature, though on a grander scale.
- Wham Shot:
- Extraterrestrial Invasion ends with the epilogue revealing the invaders managing to remain hidden amongst humanity, not having been defeated.
- Rising Heat reveals the reason for the rising temperatures is due to the sun approaching the Earth.
- Sleepless ends with a shot revealing the scenario being part of a bigger reality.
- Extraterrestrial Invasion
- Zombie Apocalypse: Most scenarios often include this as a plot, often with the ending varying.
