Works of fiction set in 2012

This is a list of references to the year 2012. Several publications and media references reflect a popular prediction that the end of the world may occur in the year of 2012.

Literature

• "Angel Fire East" (1997) by Terry Brooks is set in Christmas of 2012. The plot begins on December 22, 2012.
• Decipher (2001) by Stel Pavlou depicts the discovery of Atlantis and a polar shift being caused by solar flare activity.
• Domain (2002) and Resurrection (2000) by author Steve Alten: A fictional series that tells the events of the Gabriel twins after discovering the mystery behind 2012.
• 2012: The War for Souls by author Whitley Strieber (2007) is a novel about three parallel earths and the occurrences leading up to December 21, 2012 in each as the walls between them begin to thin and allow passage through gateways to the others. A film adaptation, produced by Michael Bay, was rumoured but has yet to be produced.
• The Lost Symbol (2009) by Dan Brown has several references to apocalypse, the year 2012, and the number 2456282.5, which is the Julian date for December 21, 2012.
• "The Joshua Files" (2008) by M. G. Harris is a series of thrillers for young adults published by Scholastic Children's Books UK, Walker & Company in the US from July 2010. The books feature the adventures of British teenager Josh Garcia who discovers he's linked to an ancient prophecy about the coming events of 2012.
• 2012: El Código Secreto del Necronomicón (2010) by Luis G. Abbadie is a novel in which the author, through self-insertion, trails down a copy of the Necronomicon while dealing with contactees and occultists bent on furthering or impeding the events predicted for December, 2012, in previously lost chapters of the Necronomicon.
• In Robert Heinlein's Future History, Nehemiah Scudder is elected President of the United States in 2012, and establishes a theocracy.
• In Jack London's The Scarlet Plague (1912), it is mentioned that Morgan the Fifth was appointed President of The United States by the Board of Magnates in 2012, a year prior to the spread of the Red Death.
• In Chuck Barris's "The Big Question," the title game show takes place in the year 2012.

Comics

• The Invisibles ("The Invisible Kingdom," 1999–2000): The Invisibles' "fictional" universe expands into the meta-context of the "higher universe," possibly our own.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure by Hirohiko Araki: In the 6th part of this manga, the protagonists Jolyne Kujo, Hermes Costello, Emporio Alnino, Narciso Anasui and Weather Report have to stop the villain Enrico Pucci from resetting the universe. Pucci obtains the Stand Made in Heaven, which has the power of accelerating time to the point that the universe loops back upon and repeats itself, and tries to use the Stand to create the perfect world for his deceased friend Dio Brando, and ultimately all humanity. This entails first extinguishing the Kujou bloodline that opposed Dio, then making the cosmos restart and loop back so quickly that all the remaining spirits of the world do not die, but instead possess subconscious precognition of everything that will ever happen. Pucci believes that when reborn this way, humanity will never again know horror or sorrow. All these events occur in 2012, with the current universe being reset and altered near the completion of the thirteenth cycle of the Mayan calendar.

Music

• Genesis's song "Get'em Out By Friday" from their 1972 album Foxtrot, sets "18/9/2012" (on the printed operistic-dialog lyrics) as the date when "Genetic Control" would set a height restriction on human beings so that twice as many people could fit on real estate properties.
• The Anaal Nathrakh song "Timewave Zero" is about the apparent end of the world on December 21, 2012. The lyrics are translated as "The 21st Of December, 2012, The time will come."
• British nu-rave outfit Klaxons sing about apocalyptic horsemen in their song "Four Horsemen of 2012" from the 2007 album Myths of the Near Future.
• The song "2012 — Demise of the 5th Sun" by the melodic death metal band Scar Symmetry is a reference to the year 2012. "For the lines on the fractal wave / Fit the course of history / They're created to work as one till the end / When the winter solstice comes / Actualizing the prophecy / The demise in 2012 realized"
• The Testament song "3 Days in Darkness", off of The Gathering album is a song about 2012, and speaks of the earth being swallowed in molten fire.
• VNV Nation's album Praise the Fallen" has the subtitle "PTF 2012", which is also the name of a track in the album, which seems to be predominantly about an upcoming war. The song, "Honour" starts with the line, "Passive fields, January 2012..."
• Heavy metal band Burnt By The Sun's two albums both deal with prophecies concerning the year 2012.
• "2012" is the name of the 2005 album by the experimental rock band Old Time Relijun, and several songs make references to ancient Mayan culture, such as "Burial Mound" and "The King of Lost Light."
• Metal band Ewigkeit's album Radio Ixtlan has a track entitled "Live at Palenque 2012" referencing both the Mayan calendar date and the site at which the Temple of Inscriptions where it is carved.
• Industrial metal band Hanzel und Gretyl's fifth album is called 2012: Zwanzig Zwölf referencing the belief that the world will end in this year, as foretold in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar.
• On DJ Muggs and Sick Jacken's album Legend of the Mask and the Assassin, they "prophetize" Armageddon and other catastrophic events occurring in "2012 (feat. Cynic)."
• The lyrical theme of Brain Drill's 2010 album Quantum Catastrophe is the destruction of humankind in 2012.
• The 2010 single "2012 (It Ain't the End)" by Jay Sean and Nicki Minaj references the world ending in the title as well as in the song's lyrics.
• The music video for Britney Spears' 2011 single "Till the World Ends" depicts the date December 21, 2012, in which an apocalyptic meltdown has enraptured the industrialised world.
• The 2010 album Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys by rock band My Chemical Romance is a concept album with a plot based in a post-apocalyptic future. Promotional websites by the band reference 2012 as a date for the fictional catastrophe.

Film

• I Am Legend (2007) is set in the year 2012.
• 2012 mockbusters by The Asylum, a series of direct-to-DVD films depicting alternate 2012 scenarios.
  • 2012: Doomsday (2008), a plot similar to the 2009 film 2012
  • 2012: Supernova (2009), another film by The Asylum which sets the catastrophe in space
  • 2012: Ice Age (2011), an Asylum film set in 2012, loosely depicting the doomsday scenario in a similar vein to The Day After Tomorrow
• 2012 (2009) is based on the fictional significance of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar.
• Death Race (2008) references 2012 as the year when the U.S. economy falls.
• In I Spit on Your Rave (2009), a virus which causes a zombie apocalypse is released during the 2012 Summer Olympics.
• Titanic II (2010), another film by The Asylum, is set in 2012, the 100th anniversary of the Titanic disaster.

Television

• Doctor Who
  • "Dalek," 2005: A Dalek breaks loose under the Utah salt plains, and plans to kill every living thing on Earth.
  • "Fear Her," 2006: The episode is set during the lead-up to the 2012 Summer Olympics in London involving a reclusive girl possessed by an alien.
  • Some Series 7 episodes, which will be released in 2012/13.
• Futurama
  • "Xmas Story," 1999: The War of 2012 occurs, during which talk-show host Conan O'Brien lost his "freakishly long legs."
  • "Jurassic Bark," 2002; Philip J. Fry's dog Seymour dies in this year.
• Joe 90 is a 1968 television series devised by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson set in the years 2012-13.
• The X-Files ("The Truth," 2002): On December 22, Aliens begin colonization of Earth.
• In the anime version of Death Note, the SPK organization is formed (in the manga, this occurs in 2009) following Near's meeting with the President of the United States.
• Rahxephon: The Mu attack on Tokyo trigger a series of events leading to the "tuning of the world".
• Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, (2009) set in this year.
• Star Trek: Voyager: The Millennium Gate in Portage Creek, IN, is completed.[VOY:11:59]
• That Mitchell and Webb Look, 2009: A recurring series of sketches about a game show in a post-apocalyptic future are hinted to be linked to the 2012 doomsday prediction.

Games

• Shadowrun: With the sixth Mayan world beginning, magic returns to the world in an event called "The Awakening."
• Escape 2012: The player's mission is to escape from alien captivity.
• In Dark•Matter, a campaign setting for the Alternity and D20 Modern roleplaying games, the institute that the protagonists belong to believe that 2012 will be the end of the world.
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R — Shadow of Chernobyl is set in this year
• Psychic Force 2012 is set during this year.
• In Universe at War: Earth Assault, the Hierarchy invasion on Earth begins.
• An in-game document from The Secret World contains the date 2012 circled and underlined but the significance of this is yet unknown.
• In Shattered Union, U.S. president David Jefferson Adams accepts his second term in office after the Supreme Court disqualifies all other presidential candidates.
• Events of Mega Man III, Mega Man's Soccer, Wily and Right's Rockboard: That's Paradise and Mega Man V are set in this year.^{[citation needed]}
• One of the puzzles later on in La Mulana (A freeware PC game based on many of the older MSX games released) states you need to 'walk the end year of the Aztec's Fifth Age.' The player must then light only the torches of the gates that correspond to the numbers in the year '2012'.
• The game Persona 4 ends in the year 2012 no matter which story ending you get.
• The Assassin's Creed series is set in 2012 and deals with a conspiracy related to an event predicted to occur on December 21, 2012.
• The game Oni briefly mentions a series of 'Freedom Riots' that occurred in 2012.
• According to the front cover of the game, Road Trip Adventure is set in September of this year.
• The Japanese visual novel 12Riven ―the Ψcliminal of integral― happened around the solar eclipse that will happen on the morning of May 21, 2012 in Japan, and the main story plots also related to (solar) eclipse; there are also references to the transit of Venus on June 6 and the end of Mesoamerican Long Count calendar.
• The Conduit series for the Wii takes place on Mar. 1 2012.
• Corridor 7: Alien Invasion takes place in 2012.
• Chicken Invaders 5: The Paradoxical Paradox takes place in 2012, becoming the fifth video game in the series.

Radio

• The sitcom Deep Trouble, set on a nuclear submarine, takes place in 2012.

See also

• 2012 phenomenon
• Mesoamerican Long Count calendar
• Nibiru collision