World War III: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|''"I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."''|'''[[Albert Einstein]]'''}}

* DC Comics has had ''two'' storylines canonically titled "World War III".

* The [[Big Bad]] of ''[[Watchmen]]'' saw World War III coming and determined that the world would not survive. {{spoiler|He ended up stopping said war before it began by tricking NATO and the Warsaw Pact into thinking Earth was being scouted for an [[Alien Invasion]].}}

 

=== Films -- Live-Action ===

* ''[[Threads]]'' and ''[[The Day After]]'' - still considered horrific a quarter of a century later.

** The HBO movie ''[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099197/ By Dawn's Early Light]'' from [[The Nineties]] isn't exactly a cheerful story, either.

 

=== Literature ===

* The "Wet Firecracker War" is alluded to in ''The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.'' Judging from the name, it wasn't quite as devastating as some other versions of WWIII, though it evidently went nuclear. ("Sovunion" used [[Mnogo Nukes|megaton nukes]], but seems to have lost anyway; while America was hit badly and ended up becoming a "directorate" of the subsequent world government, of which "Great China" seems to be the hegemon, with India a close second.)

** Heinlein was fond of this scenario: ''Sixth Column'' was set in the United States conquered by the [[Yellow Peril]] in the war (and we're actually treated to the radio announcing that the States couldn't fight any longer), while ''[[Starship Troopers]]'' has the war happening in 1987 between the Chinese Hegemony and the Russo-Anglo-American Alliance, causing the collapse of the previous nations and paving the way to the Terran Federation to replace it.

 

=== Music ===

* Cheerfully parodied by [[Tom Lehrer]] in "We will All Go Together When we Go" and "So Long, Mom".

* Similarly parodied by [["Weird Al" Yankovic]] in [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t039p6xqutU "Christmas at Ground Zero"].

 

=== Tabletop Games ===

* ''[[Twilight 2000]]'' is set in the aftermath of a nuclear World War III between [[NATO]] and the Soviet Union. The set-up was more contrived in the alternative timeline written after [[The Great Politics Mess-Up]]; suffice it to say the action that triggered World War III was not dissimilar to [[World War II]].

** "To simulate the battlefield use of strategic nuclear weapons, simply soak the map in lighter fluid and apply a flame."

* The ''[[Shadowrun]]'' universe has the planet on the brink of a nuclear war in the 2010s, but it is averted by the advent (or return) of magic. In the following decades, there is no direct World War, but we get the Eurowars in the 2030s, including an Islamic Jihad 32-37, so [[History Repeats]] as the Turks once more stand before the gates of Vienna. Two cities get nuked: Damascus and Tripolis (if memory serves).

* ''[[Paranoia]]'' might be set after World War III: the historical files are too messed up to really know, and you don't have clearance for them anyway.

* ''[[Twilight Struggle]]'' features World War III as a [[Nonstandard Game Over]]: Trigger it, and your superpower loses immediately.

 

* While the opposing force in the backstory of ''[[Fallout]]'' was China, not the Soviet Union, the same principles apply. By all accounts, the war, known by it's survivors as "The Great War", - started by a Chinese invasion of Alaska - lasted for ten years before nuclear weapons were exchanged, after which it lasted for about two hours. No one knew which of the sides fired the first warhead (one log you can find, in a place that means it won't be known to anyone else, says China shot first, but [[Word of God]] deems it non-canon), and at the end of the day no one really cared.

** From what history you can learn, the Americans took back Alaska and were pretty much on Beijing's doorstep. It's possible that the Chinese fired first, knowing that they were screwed and intending to [[Taking You with Me|bring the Americans down with them.]]

* ''[[EndWar|Tom Clancy's End War]]'' is based on World War III where the [[Yanks With Tanks|United]] [[The Federation|States]], [[United Europe|European]] [[The Alliance|Federation]], and [[Russians With Rusting Rockets|Rus]][[The Empire|sia]] go at each others' throats for what appears to be a European [[Kill Sat]] shooting down a US spacecraft carrying the final components for a US military space station without warning. This provokes the US into declaring war on the Federation, shortly followed by Russia declaring war on the Federation as well to "liberate the oppressed states of Eastern Europe"... only for the US to declare war on them as well in response to their sudden expansionism. What actually happened is that when the US and Europe jointly created an [[Kill Sat|orbital missile shield]] that automatically eliminates any and all ICBMs in flight (thus making a nuclear war kinda problematic), Russia perceived it was only a matter of time until the two superpowers team up to get Russia's oil and natural gas supplies. Therefore, they hired a bunch of terrorists to attack all three factions and planted false evidence that the Federation did it. The US bought the bait alright and the last spark was provided by Spetznaz commandoes disguised as terrorists uploading a virus into the missile shield that made it mistake the US spacecraft as an ICBM targeting Paris. [[Cycle of Revenge|The rest is history]] - and logically, neither side wanted to needlessly escalate the situation so the missile shield was left in place to make sure no one nukes the others. The whole game is fought with conventional warfare.

** [[Rule of Fun|Obviously because, while just nuking everything would be instantly gratifying, it would get old fast.]]

* ''[[World in Conflict]]''. That is all.

* ''Wasteland'' features this as well. Nukes do fly, too. You're in a bit that didn't get worked over too much, although fallout radiation still hangs out in a few spots.

** The events of the next game push World War III into overdrive, with Ultranationalist maverick Vladimir Makarov taking over Russia in a coup and proceeding to launch a full-scale invasion of Europe, made possible by simultaneous chemical attacks on all major European capitals carried out by his terrorist cronies. Interestingly, it never becomes a full-blown nuclear war, most likely because all sides know that that would effectively end the world. Makarov ''wanted'' to get control of Russia's nuclear arsenal from the President, but was unable to extract it from him before he was rescued.

* ''[[Metal Gear]]'' series: Volgin, Gene, and Coldman each nearly caused World War III to occur, with Coldman being the one who came the closest to succeeding in achieving it.

** Although there is speculation that one of the four scenarios takes place in a [[After the End|post-nuclear exchange Europe]].

* ''[[Missile Command]]'' was all about stopping [[Failure Is the Only Option|(and eventually failing)]] nuclear missiles from hitting your cities.

 

* [http://althistory.wikia.com/wiki/1983:_Doomsday 1983: Doomsday] is located at the Alternate History Wiki and involves a world where a worldwide nuclear exchange between the Soviet Union and the United States happens on September 26, 1983. The USA has <s>ceased to exist</s> been succeeded by a [http://althistory.wikia.com/wiki/United_States_%281983:_Doomsday%29 much smaller rump nation] and [http://althistory.wikia.com/wiki/North_America_%281983%3A_Doomsday%29 a host of small states], the USSR is a [http://althistory.wikia.com/wiki/Socialist_Siberia_%281983:_Doomsday%29 rump state in Siberia], the [http://althistory.wikia.com/wiki/Commonwealth_of_Australia_and_New_Zealand_%281983:_Doomsday%29 Commonwealth of Australia and New Zealand] is the most influential nation on Earth and [http://althistory.wikia.com/wiki/South_American_Confederation_%281983:_Doomsday%29 South America] is an economic powerhouse.

** Don't forget that most of Europe has had it's population numbers knocked down to Dark Age levels and the only European nations that aren't broken up into collections of mini-nations (some little more then city states) and uncontrolled wasteland are the Nordic Union (all the Nordic Nations, plus a couple of others) and the Alpine Confederation (Switzerland, Lichenstein and Austria), thanks to them having been neutral in 1983.

*** And that's not counting other unlikely surviving countries like Prussia/former East Germany, Andorra, Monaco and Luxembourg.

 

 

== Non-Classic / Undefined Examples ==

 

*** [[All There in the Manual|Supposedly]], the whole conflict is over a dwindling number of global resources and the two hemispheres are vying for whatever's left. One of the expansion packs also adds a third wheel to the war, meaning it truly is a new World War.

* ''[[Command & Conquer|Red Alert 2]]'' would probably count as World War III, in spirit if not in name; due to Einstein's [[Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act|meddling]], "World War II" as we know it was replaced with "The Great War". However, add to that Red Alert 3 and the ''entire'' Tiberium series (which, [[Flip-Flop of God|maybe chronologically takes place]] after [[Timey-Wimey Ball|one or more of the Red Alert games]]), and the idea of a "World War" kinda loses its impact.

* The [[All in The Manual|manual]] for the ''[[Earth 2150|Earth]]'' games reveals that WW3 was of the "everyone against everyone" variety, with most of the nations obliterated in a matter of hours by massive nuclear strikes. Due to a better anti-missile system, a decent chunk of the U.S. remained unscathed, and the remaining twelve states reformed into the United Civilized States. On the other side of the pond, a Russian army colonel took his surviving men out of the fallout shelter, walked to Mongolia and met up with the nomadic Khan tribe. Realizing the potential, he married the chief's daughter and formed the Eurasian Dynasty that conquered all of Europe and Asia.

** From the same developers came ''World War III: Black Gold'' which has the Middle East deciding to stop oil exports to the west. Naturally, the US decides to step in with military force... but somewhere around the way, the once-again Soviet Russia decides that the Middle East is in ''their'' sphere of influence and steps in. And to drive the point even further, some of the game's cutscenes were included in ''Earth 2160'''s trailer which heavily implies that this game is actually a prequel of sorts to the Earthverse and shows how the world seen in ''Earth 2140'' came to be.

* Another World War was part of the backstory for [[Youju Senki AD 2048]]. The player is never given the details, just that a lot of nukes were used and most of the world is now completely uninhabitable for normal humans.

* The early 80s Apple II/C64 game ''Raid Over Moscow'' involves the Soviets launching nukes at major American cities, and the U.S. sending orbital space planes to take out their control centres. The very limited scale of the nuclear strikes is [[Handwaved]] by a fictional treaty where both sides were supposed to have completely eliminated their nuclear arsenals, so the Soviets had to hide theirs.