Is there any work of fiction where people constantly have to keep moving away from a threat they can't defeat?

[signal]

Was looking at clips from the Shin Godzilla movie where it's destroying Tokyo and seems unstoppable and it got me wondering if there's any piece if fiction where some antagonistic force like this exists but it's unable to be stopped for whatever reason and people just have to keep living nomadically and fleeing from it. It would be particularly cool if it was something as slow moving as Godzilla but that's maybe asking too much.

In some ways I guess Snowpiercer is maybe adjacent to this, but anything else?

Also this might happen in some scifi works but maybe asking about something more local. Warp driving away from the zerg or whatever is cheating.

 

[Rated-G]

It Follows

 

[Mindwipe]

In to the Night.

 

[RedHeat]

I pretty sure the Legendary Godzilla films also have that sorta plot considering significant sections of the states were deemed uninhabitable

 

[Cheesebu]

Walking Dead for an obvious one. Honestly it seems like there are a lot.

 

[signal]

Walking Dead for an obvious one. Honestly it seems like there are a lot.

Click to shrink...

Oh yeah I guess this is an obvious one, maybe the Godzilla scenes had me thinking solely of some singular entity 🤔

 

[Serebii]

The Crystalline Entity in Star Trek

(Missed the last bit but I think it still counts)

 

[bwahhhhh]

it was also basically a kaiju, but Sin from FFX was kinda like this. just an accepted fact of life, like a natural disaster the people had to weather.

 

[Night]

Battlestar Galactica

Edit: Ah just saw the last part. Idk.

 

[AlexBasch]

Maybe I'm remembering wrong but the seventh Harry Potter book kinda bored me because it was about the three kids camping since they couldn't be at Hogwarts, fighting and then having to relocate because of Voldemort's followers.

It happens several times, but again, I might be mistaken, I barely remember shit from that book.

 

[AlexBasch]

it was also basically a kaiju, but Sin from FFX was kinda like this. just an accepted fact of life, like a natural disaster the people had to weather.

Click to shrink...

Man I remember thinking the Cloverfield monster was like Sin, because of the pods and little monsters spawning from the big thing.

 

[signal]

it was also basically a kaiju, but Sin from FFX was kinda like this. just an accepted fact of life, like a natural disaster the people had to weather.

Click to shrink...

Yeah that's kind of one. I guess minus the nomadic part since people just build huge places like Luca and hope it doesn't get destroyed or something lol.

 

[Ashes of Dreams]

Fortnite

 

[Rassilon]

The first time the Borg show up in TNG

 

[Biestmann]

It Follows really is just that. It's really unsettling.

Fortnite

Click to shrink...

lol

 

[jediyoshi]

It Follows

Click to shrink...

Quite possibly the most literal interpretation of what OP is looking for lol

 

[Deleted member 2752]

 

[StraySheep]

In addition to the ones already listed, these aren't great examples because I don't think its really shown but one would assume thats what they are doing in Annihilation and Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey as the mysterious death zone grows on Earth.

 

[AstronaughtE]

Does Dantes Peak count?

 

[Aprikurt]

Any stories involving climate change in the next 50 years...?

 

[Euler]

The Pale in Disco Elysium is a sort of void zone that keeps expanding and reducing the livable area on the planet

 

[Pygrus]

The Everstorm from The Stormliggt Archives is kinda like this. Most cities/ villages become uninhabital because of it.

 

[NeoGold123]

I mean, I kindof don't remember it well, but isn't that the plot of Shyamalan's The Happening? They just run from the invisible force they can't stop cause it's plant spores on the wind or something?

 

[sir_crocodile]

The Highlanders cartoon

-edit, oh nevermind, that's just the protagonist's group, not everyone.

 

[tadaima]

The Simpsons and creative bankruptcy.

Spoiler

I thought Dante's Peak was a neat suggestion

 

[The Dragon Mask]

Berserk, imo.

 

[Sarobi]

Click to shrink...

This is actually great

 

[CreepingFear]

I don't know how there wasn't a sequel to It follows.

 

[V23]

Resident Evil 3?

 

[ClassAndFear]

THE LANGOLIERS.

 

[Joni]

It Follows and Into the Night would be my thinking as well.

 

[echoshifting]

Invasion of the Body Snatchers. They never manage to get much of a plan together beyond run, hide, don't fall asleep. I think the 70s remake is still one of the scariest movies out there largely because their situation is so hopeless.

 

[hjort]

I don't have any good suggestions, but back when I started watching Attack on Titan I was always hoping that it would be an example of this. Just a constant onslaught of fucked up giants that nobody could really deal with. I always knew it wasn't going to be like that, but I hoped it would, you know? Those first three or so episodes are the best of the series, to me, just because of the sheer terror of it. The helplessness.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers. They never manage to get much of a plan together beyond run, hide, don't fall asleep. I think the 70s remake is still one of the scariest movies out there largely because their situation is so hopeless.

Click to shrink...

That ending could so easily have seemed silly with different actors and/or direction, but it turned out so well. Memorable for the right reasons.

 

[L Thammy]

The Freeza saga is my first thought, but I guess that's stealth and you're looking for moving on a permanent basis.

 

[Shyranui]

Neverending Story?

 

[SABO.]

is this thread about the snail meme going on the internet right now?

 

[lazycat]

It Follows, seems to be what OP is looking for, quite literally.

 

[Mafro]

THE LANGOLIERS.

Click to shrink...

I just googled this and it sounds wild

 

[DNgamers]

Obvious answer: It Follows.


Beaten by everyone, haha.

 

[RefreshZ]

Isn't this kinda what happened in TLJ?

Only comically slowly and Finn's fetch quest thrown in to add some "spice"?

 

[Kalte]

Wheel of Time. This is exactly what sets the plot in motion.

Spoiler

Main characters cannot hide, cannot escape and must stay on the run at least throughout first few books.

Go read it, it has always be and still is utterly fantastic

 

[Joni]

Isn't this kinda what happened in TLJ?

Click to shrink...

Which is basically the same as Battlestar Galactica's 33.

 

[Anarion07]

It Stains the Sands Red is based on a similar premise, I suppose. Albeit on a smaller scale

 

[tusharngf]

Attack on Titan

 

[Koyaannis]

It Follows is the right answer.

We can add Cloverfield to the list, i guess !

And, for video games, it's the exact pitch of The Eternal Cylinder

The Eternal Cylinder - Announcement Trailer

The Eternal Cylinder is an ambitious take on open-world survival adventure games is expected to release in 2020 on gaming consoles and will be available for ...

www.youtube.com

 

[Gernau Morat Gurgeh]

The Greenfly from Revelation Space

 

[Patitoloco]

Resident Evil 3

 

[GTOAkira]

Technically speaking, in Romero zombies movies, you cant flee from the virus since the instant you die you turn into one of them. Not only that but in land of the dead the zombies have become smart enough that you cant really hide from them anymore.

 

[Deleted member 25721]

There was an asimov short that followed this premise; I can't remember the name though. Not quite a twist ending, but definitely unexpected.

 

[Gangster Gastino]

On the Beach by Nevil Shute

Spoiler

The looming, inescapable radiation is scarier than any villain ever will be