General Hidayat: Ibu Ratna, we brought you here to help us keep this from spreading. We need a vaccine or a medicine.
Dr. Ratna: I have spent my life studying these things. So please listen carefully. There is no medicine. There is no vaccine.
Hidayat: So what do we do?
Ratna: ...Bomb. Start bombing. Bomb this city and everyone in it.
Hidayat: [stares at her in mute horror]
Ratna: [wiping away tears] Excuse me, if someone could please drive me home? I would like to be with my family.
Dr. Ratna: I have spent my life studying these things. So please listen carefully. There is no medicine. There is no vaccine.
Hidayat: So what do we do?
Ratna: ...Bomb. Start bombing. Bomb this city and everyone in it.
Hidayat: [stares at her in mute horror]
Ratna: [wiping away tears] Excuse me, if someone could please drive me home? I would like to be with my family.
Something bad is happening, or it's about to happen. It can be as localised and relatively low level as a weapon at school, or it can be as wide-ranging as an apocalyptic event that will cause The End of the World as We Know It.
The average person is powerless to stop it. Maybe, depending on how bad it is, everyone is. What's the one thing people should do in these circumstances?
Go home.
The words "go home" are not always mentioned, especially if the protagonist has already left or destroyed a Doomed Hometown. It will almost always be something similar, though, like an instruction to be with family, friends, and/or loved ones. The reasons for this are usually to move emotions, to check on loved ones (especially dependents such as children), or because nobody should die alone.
This is often the Inciting Incident for The Homeward Journey. At times, it may happen before a Heroic Sacrifice from the person who says it, as they keep everything running while everyone else goes to be with their families. At other times, it may be played for tragedy if a character has no close family or friends, or it may create a Doomed Protagonist, if their family or loved ones are already dead. Especially if they don't know it yet. Another alternative is that nobody listens, making the speaker an Ignored Expert. The hometown may already be doomed, or it may be doomed by the time the protagonist returns home, but it isn't mandatory.
A subtrope to Screw This, I'm Outta Here!, which is about a person fleeing, but usually in a more fleeting manner, and not necessarily in times of crisis or to home. May overlap with Face Death with Dignity.
As this may involve death, including to the point of an apocalypse, please expect unmarked spoilers.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Ah! My Goddess: In one storyline, Sayoko makes a contract with the Demoness Marller, giving her control over Nekomi Technical Institute and transforming it into a literal palace. Keiichi, Belldandy, Urd, and Skuld try to intervene. At one point, Sayoko gains utter control over Belldandy, with whom she has long held a one-sided rivalry. She is content to bask in her apparent superiority, but Marller had wanted that control for a very precise reason, and is able to use her contract with Sayoko to force her to tell Belldandy to "Go Home". The others watch, unable to stop, as Belldandy enters a mirror, supposedly heading for Heaven. The twist is that for Bell, home is not heaven, but the temple where she lives with Keiichi and her sisters, obeying the letter of Marller's instructions, but not the intent.
- Cardfight!! Vanguard Divinez: Kagetsu Yakumo, introduced in DELUXE Arc, returns to Kaga for the Third DELUXE. However, throughout this and the following season, DELUXE Finals, he challenges various members of the cast to Cardfights, and gives them mysterious cards known as Mythisch units. The purpose of all of this would not be revealed until Parallactic Clash: All of this was to prepare to combat the Crimson Moon, a phenomenon that can rewrite all of reality every which way. Only the Mythisch Fighters can combat its power.
Comic Books
- Gotham Central: During one Crisis event, Detective Allen is too overwhelmed to continue his job and races home to check on his family.
- In Marvels #3, while witnessing the events of The Coming of Galactus (in which Galactus intends to consume the energies of the planet, leaving it as a lifeless husk), Phil Sheldon decides pursuing the story for the benefit of the Daily Bugle no longer matters as much as being with his family, so he heads home.
-- I didn't see the point any more. Who cared about tomorrow's morning edition?
Odds were there wasn't going to be one.
If this was really the end --
-- I knew where I wanted to be. - The Punisher: The End: The governor of a prison tells his assistant that he should go home and spend time with his family in the face of impending nuclear armageddon.
- Uncanny X-Men (2024): In the finale of the "Unbreakable X-Men" arc, Gambit leads his kids towards Atlantis to fight back against the monstrous Shuvahrak, but is stopped by Namor, who refuses to let them advance further towards his kingdom. Realizing that he's likely to die while trying to face the so-called "First Mutant", Gambit orders the kids to return home to take care of each other, because he fears he won't be coming back from this.
Fan Works
- There's No Rule That Says A Wolf Can't Be A Jedi: Anakin drops the bombshell that Chancellor Palpatine has revealed himself to be a Sith, and Swift responds by advising him to go straight home to Padmé. As a result, Anakin never intervenes in the confrontation between Palpatine and Master Windu; instead, Swift turns up and assists Windu.
Swift: You've been talking to Palpatine for years, I know that, and it'd be good for you to think about the reason he had for everything he said — now that you know who he was. But more than anything else, for now, you need to go to your wife and keep her safe.
Film — Live-Action
- The Dawn of the Dead (2004) bonus features include an example of Deadline News beginning during the earliest point of the outbreak. As things get increasingly dire, someone nukes China and that results in the transfer of the news to the emergency broadcast system. The newsreader concludes his broadcast by telling his wife that he will "back soon" and that she should get the kids ready because "I'm coming home." This is implied to be doomed by the direness of the situation.
- The Day After: In the end, Dr. Oakes eventually abandons his post at the university hospital, seeing no point to continue and already suffering from a severe radiation sickness. He heads home, only to find a pile of rubble there and a bunch of people squatting among it.
- Deep Impact: A Cabinet secretary resigns ahead of a comet strike because he is convinced it will hit and he would rather spend what time he has with his family, with the mystery behind his resignation being how the story leaks in the first place.
- Don't Look Up: After Earth's last hope of beating the killer comet fails due to elite greed/stupidity, Dr. Mindy chooses to spend his last moments among his family, deliberately rejecting an elite offer to ride along on their evacuation ships.
- A variant in Elephant (2003). In one of the parallels to Columbine, Alex tells John to "get the fuck out of here and don't come back." John in fact tries to warn others that something terrible is about to happen, but is ignored.
- In A House of Dynamite, the mysteriousness of the circumstances leads to a great deal of panic and confusion. As several "minor" support staff in the White House are trying to figure out what's going on, a military general pulls one aside and quietly tells him to "go home."
- I, Robot (2004): As the Zeroth Law Rebellion gets underway, Spooner rescues Farber from an altercation with an NS-5 and advises him to "stop cussing and go home". Spooner himself is promptly accosted by an NS-5, and has to repeat the warning once Dr. Calvin has bailed him out.
Spooner: Stop cussing—
Farber: "—and go home". I got you. [leaves] - In the first John Wick movie, John gets the drop on Francis, the bouncer at the Red Circle. A polite conversation ends with John suggesting Francis to take the night off. Francis immediately accepts. And thanks him.
- Knowing: After discovering that the end of the world cannot be avoided, and watching his son Caleb get taken away by aliens to continue the human race, John drives home to hug his mother and father as the solar storm engulfs them and the rest of the planet.
- Leave the World Behind: The Inciting Incident is that G.H. and Ruth have returned to their house on Long Island after a blackout in New York City. The only issue is that they've rented out their house to the Sanfords, who are still there.
- The Life of Chuck: In Act 3, with the world seemingly ending, Marty decides to travel to the home of his ex-wife Felicia (the two of them still clearly in love). They spend the night sitting in her backyard, watching the stars. Then the stars start going out, and the two really spend the end of their world together.
- Men in Black II: Played for laughs. K returns to his old apartment to grab some hidden weapons so that he, J, and the worms can stop Serleena and get the Light of Zarthon off of Earth before it explodes and destroys everything, revealing said weapons room to the innocent family now living there. J uses the Neuralyzer on the family, and the agents discuss the trope while rewriting their memories:
Agent K: You did not see a room full of shiny weapons, you did not see four alien nightcrawlers. You will cherish and love each other for the rest of your lives.Agent J: Which could be the next 27-28 minutes, so y'all better get to loving and cherishing.
- Shenandoah: How much Sam ever believed in the Confederate cause or still believes in at the end of the film is ambiguous. But after he and his men are rescued from the prison train, rather than return to the front to keep fighting for the Confederacy, he orders the others to go home, saying the South has already lost the war and no more of them should die before it's official.
- Titanic (1997): A variation. When the situation aboard the sinking ship becomes dire, some passengers choose to retreat to their staterooms to await the inevitable, fully aware that help is not coming and there is no point in trying to get to a lifeboat that likely no longer exists. A particularly heartwrenching example is an Irish mother with two small children, who had been background characters throughout the film. When the ship first began sinking, they could be seen behind locked barriers in third class, with the mother reassuring her children that it will be their turn to board the lifeboats when the crew is done boarding first and second class. Some time later, as the band plays "Nearer My God to Thee" and the last of the lifeboats are cut from the ship, she's seen tucking her son and daughter into bed in their room and telling them the traditional Irish folk tale of Tír na nÓg, a "land of eternal youth and beauty."
- Without Warning (1994): Dr. Avram Mandel, a Worm Guy with expertise in aliens within NASA, is so disgusted about the governments of the world reacting with hostility and nuclear weapons to what appears to be an attack by extraterrestrials but he theorizes that it is a misguided attempt at First Contact (and thus that they are telling the aliens that they do not want peace) that he defies an Apocalyptic Gag Order and tells the world about a trio of asteroids that are aiming for the most important cities of the world as part of said contact/attack and then leaves to spend what he thinks will be the last hours of mankind with his family. Dr. Mandel turns out to be correct, and by the time the scientists decode the aliens' message to discover that it says that they come in peace, it's too damned late and the aliens drop thousands upon thousands of asteroids on Earth in retaliation, killing millions including the news crew protagonists.
Literature
- Gotrek & Felix: After decades of adventuring together, Gotrek releases Felix from his rememberer's oath, telling him to get to safety. As a rememberer's role is to witness a Slayer's death and so bring word of his redemption, this is a huge deal.
- The Martian Chronicles: As nuclear war breaks out on Earth, all but a few of the human colonists on Mars return there.
- Station Eleven:
- On the news broadcast Clark watches, after four days, the newsreader says that they are switching over to the emergency broadcasting network so that the channel's staff may "be with their families."
- Played with by Jeevan, Hua, and Laura. Hua actually tells Jeevan to get out of the city. However, because Jeevan's brother Frank is disabled, Jeevan responds to his warnings by immediately stocking up and going to Frank's apartment. When Jeevan manages to speak to Laura, he tells her to go out of the city and to her mother's, but it seems that she doesn't listen to him.
- Played With in the Naomi Kritzer short story, Waiting Out the End of the World in Patty’s Place Cafe. An asteroid has been spotted that may or may not hit Earth, and narrator Lorien is one of many setting off in their car across the U.S.A. She runs out of fuel in a small town in South Dakota along with a crowd of other people, and ends up discussing her poor relationship with her parents, and her plan to reach them before what might be the end, with a couple she quickly befriends. Later, a chance to reach her parents presents itself, but by then she's reconsidered her plans and spends the time with her new friends.
Live-Action TV
- Babylon 5: Garibaldi tells his ex Lise to go home when she tries to seek him after they find out the truth about the serum Lise's husband developed to "cure" telepaths. The cure is for a virus Lise's husband developed to enslave telepaths, Garibaldi was turned into a Manchurian Agent by telepath Mr. Bester and just got activated.
- CSI: In "Blood Lust", a pair of brothers are told that they have to move, once again. The youngest of the two, not realizing it's because their abusive biological father has found where they're living, once again, believes his mother's current beau is responsible for this. The young brother steals a gun, intent on preventing the move from happening, and lures his mother's lover to a secluded place. His older brother learns too late what is happening and goes to try and stop it. There is an ensuing struggle, and the mother's beau is shot dead, and the older brother takes a knife to the gut by accident in the process. His younger brother, not knowing he's shot his older brother, tells him to go home. The older brother attempts to do just that, but ends up dying on the way. He collapses in a crosswalk, where he is subsequently hit by a cab driver who couldn't stop in time. A mob of people who saw it, and misinterpret the cabbie trying to reach for his radio to report it as him trying to escape, end up beating the unfortunate man to death.
- The Last of Us (2023): In the second episode, after mycologist Professor Ratna realises just how screwed humanity is after a Cordyceps outbreak, she advises General Hidayat to bomb Jakarta to dust before asking him to take her home to be with her family.
- Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: In "Taboo", Cragen sends Elliot home after he gets particularly aggressive with Ella. He cites that It's Personal because Kathy has taken the kids and limited the time he can spend with them, which made him especially angry to see a woman literally throw her newborn baby in the trash. It does then get a lot worse, with The Reveal that Ella did the same thing before.
- Paradise (2025):
- On "The Day", Cal first tells the White House support staff to go home. He makes the mistake of asking if any of them are willing to secure the White House, too, which clues everybody in to the fact that the President will be going to safety and they will not.
- He tells the White House cleaner, Jeffrey, to call his family. Jeffrey ignores him, saying that he's been here for 9/11, wars, and pandemics, and it's always treated as bad but it's never that bad.
- He also does an emergency broadcast where he reveals the dire situation they face, so that "so that you can make decisions based on where you want to be right now, and who you want to be with."
- Torchwood:
- In "Combat", Jack asks Gwen to go back home rather than participate in the case involving kidnapped Weevils and Mark Lynch, as he's noticed that her relationship with Rhys is deteriorating and he would rather she keep that relationship intact.
- In the Torchwood: Children of Earth episode "Day Five", with the handing over of the children to the 456 imminent, Jack asks the Government to take Gwen back to her home county of Cardiff from London. Part of it is to get her to inform Ianto's family that he is dead. However, part of it is because Ianto's death has made him give up, and seeing Gwen reminds Jack of his failures.
- The Twilight Zone (1959): In "One More Pallbearer", multi-millionaire and sociopath Paul Radin invites three people who he believes horribly wronged him in the past—his high school English teacher Mrs. Langford, who caught him trying to cheat on a test and flunked him, his former commanding officer Colonel Hawthorne, who had him court-martialed and dishonorably discharged for cowardly abandoning his battalion mates, and Reverend Hughes, who brought a public scandal on him for doing something so horrible to a young woman that she killed herself—to tour his new, state-of-the-art bomb shelter. Radin reveals that a nuclear war is set to begin that very night, and the three desperately attempt to invoke this trope by heading for the door, only to discover that Radin's locked it to begin a series of mind games against them in hopes of getting (entirely undeserved) apologies in exchange for the right to stay in the shelter. Ultimately, though, Langford, Hawthorne, and Hughes show their true characters by refusing to play along and going back to their loved ones anyway (as Mrs. Langford puts it, even being among strangers would be a better way to face her final moments than staying with Radin). It's all a trick, as there isn't a nuclear war—Radin set it all up for massive Disproprotionate Retribution, but the trio doesn't know that and thus think the trope is still at work.
Theatre
- West Side Story: Towards the end, Tony encounters Anybodys, who is heading to join the other Jets for their war against the Sharks. He angrily tells her to go home, because she's a girl, and girls have no place in a gang war.
Video Games
- Devil May Cry 5: When Vergil returns after the fusion of V and Urizen, Dante says "Go home, Nero. This doesn't concern you." Nero assumes Dante is indirectly calling him "dead weight" again and is denying him the chance to fight Vergil. This argument forces Dante to explain who their opponent really is; Dante simply wants to avoid the possibility of Nero killing his own father Vergil.
- The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask: If you complete the questline to reunite Anju and Kafei, you receive the Couple's Mask signifying their marriage. Returning to the first day and wearing the mask during Mayor Dotour's contentious meeting with Mutoh and Viscen will remind him of the importance of family, and he will send the participants home to be with their families for the moonfall instead of endlessly squabbling.
- One Chance: On the third day, after everyone discovers that the cancer cure has created a deadly apocalypse, your boss tells you to go home and be with your family because that's what matters now. You have the choice to listen, or go back into the lab regardless.
Web Original
- SCP Foundation: Lily's Proposal of SCP-001, "The World's Gone Beautiful", describes a doomsday phenomenon where 24 hours before the world ends, beautiful flowers will bloom all across Earth, all air pollution will cease, and all living creatures will be at a sense of peace before their demise. The only protocol for the Foundation in such an event is to honorably discharge all staff and any sapient, non-aggressive SCPs, allowing them to walk free and spend their final day however they please before it ends.
Western Animation
- Invincible (2021): In Season 3, Mark is outraged to discover Cecil has allowed D.A. Sinclair and Darkwing II to work for the GDA despite the crimes they've committed. Even as Cecil tries to explain his reasoning, Mark demands the two be sent back to prison, prompting Cecil to tell him that he should go home before he does something that he'll regret. When Mark still refuses to listen, it prompts Cecil to attack him with Reanimen.
Real Life
- Just before the Columbine massacre, Dylan Klebold told his on/off friend, Brooks Brown, that "I like you now. Get out of here. Go home." Brown wrote a book about the experience and factors that, he believed, led to the massacre, No Easy Answers: The Truth Behind Death at Columbine.
- Tsar Alexander II of Russia was assassinated via bomb👁 Image
. After the explosion mortally wounded the tsar, those near him heard him whisper his last words: "Take me to the palace...there...to die..." His wish was honored—Alexander II did, in fact, die in the Winter Palace, his official residence.
