List of works of fiction set in 2012

This is a list of works of fiction set largely or wholly in 2012. Several publications and media references reflect a popular prediction that the end of the world would occur in this year.

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.
• Resurrection (2000) and Domain (2002) by Steve Alten: A fictional series that tells the events of the Gabriel twins after discovering the mystery behind 2012.
• The True Meaning of Smekday (2007) by Adam Rex (later adapted into the 2015 DreamWorks animated film Home) is partly set in 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.^[1]
• 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.^[2]
• 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. There is also a controversial meeting of the Howard Families. In both novels Methuselah's Children and Time Enough for Love, Lazarus Long refuses to answer questions about it.
• 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.
• Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn is set in the summer of 2012 when Amy is presumed missing.
• "12.21" by Dustin Thomason, set during the days preceding December 21, 2012, is a novel in which a transmittable variant of FFI, or Fatal Familial Insomnia, spreads from Mayan ruins in Guatemala by way of an infected looter on a smuggling trip and becomes a US epidemic.

Comics

• Give Me Liberty by Frank Miller (1990): The final chapter is set in 2012. By this time, Martha Washington has been incarcerated in prison.
• 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 Part 6: Stone Ocean (1999–2003): Jolyne Cujoh, the youngest member of the Joestar bloodline, must stop Enrico Pucci from exterminating her family and resetting the universe in favor of his devotion to the Joestars' archenemy Dio Brando before December 21, 2012.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 8: JoJolion (2012–): After the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in the fictional town of Morioh, a young man with the assumed identity of Josuke Higashikata tries to find out who he really is after being found buck naked underground, and with no memory of who he once was, or as he discovers, were.
• The final chapter of Tsugumi Ohba's manga Death Note takes place on January 23, 2012, when the main protagonist is killed by Ryuk after Light Yagami lost in his battle to become God of a new world. Ryuk uses his Death Note to kill Light with a heart attack, which was a part of their original agreement when they met. (2006)

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.
• Melodic death metal band Scar Symmetry have referenced 2012 in two songs. First being The song "2012 — Demise of the 5th Sun" from the album Symmetric in Design (2004) with the lyrics: 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" and the song "Radiant Strain'" from the album Dark Matter Dimensions (2009) with the lyrics: 2012, now we all see what it holds.
• 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.
• A Certain Shade of Green by Incubus mentions "2012A.D."
• "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.^[3]
• 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 Pop-punk/Emo 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.
• Awolnation's song Knights of Shame's lyrics include a reference to this year. The lyrics are: "Yeah, it's almost 2012 call your girls over."

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.
• Ben 10: Alien Swarm takes place.
• 12 Disasters of Christmas (2012), a Syfy movie on the end of the world prophesied by the Maya for December 21, 2012.

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.
  • "Asylum of the Daleks", "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship", "The Power of Three", "The Angels Take Manhattan": Present day scenes are set in this year.
• Futurama
  • "Xmas Story," 1999: The War of 2012 occurs, during which talk-show host Conan O'Brien lost his "freakishly long legs."
  • "Bender's Big Score," 2007; Philip J. Fry's dog Seymour Asses dies in this year as a result of Bender blowing up Panucci's Pizza, turning an alternate Fry into Lars Fillmore.
• 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) is 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.
• "Twenty Twelve": A 'mockumentary' series following the team behind the 2012 London Olympic Games.
• The Worm that Turned (1980): The Two Ronnies comedic vision of a future England run by women.
• The events of Ben 10: Alien Force take place.
• The Disney Channel/Disney XD show Gravity Falls takes place during the summer of 2012.

Video Games

• Shadowrun: With the sixth Mayan world beginning, magic returns to the world in an event called "The Awakening."
• 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 (2005), 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.
• 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'.
• In Persona 4, which is set in 2011, the characters fight to prevent catastrophe from striking the world at the end of the year. In addition, the game ends in the year 2012 no matter which story ending you get.
• The Assassin's Creed series modern-day story is set in 2012, and deals with the eponymous Brotherhood's attempts to prevent a predicted cataclysm 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― happens around the solar eclipse in the morning of May 21, 2012 in Japan, and the main plot is related to the 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.
• Resident Evil 6: Part of the game takes place in the fictional Eastern European country of Edonia on Christmas Eve of this year.
• Street Fighter X Mega Man takes place in this year. However, it is implied that the game is breaking the fourth wall, as the official storyline states that both Mega Man and the Street Fighter characters were celebrating the 25th anniversary of their respective franchises.

Radio

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

References

• Gary C. Daniels (2012). Mayan Calendar Prophecies: Predictions for 2012-2052. Lulu.com. ISBN 1300266465. Retrieved May 17, 2014. 
• Antonio Grimaldi (2011). Teoxi, Mayan Prince: I. The End of Tikal. AuthorHouse. p. 272. ISBN 1449023444. Retrieved May 17, 2014. 
• Chris Eboch (1999). The Well of Sacrifice. Illustrated by Bryn Barnard (illustrated ed.). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 0547532938. Retrieved May 17, 2014. 

See also

• 2012 phenomenon
• Mesoamerican Long Count calendar
• Nibiru collision