I recently read book nine of the Rachel Morgan/The Hollows series by Kim Harrison, and because Rachel is a witch, she has second sight. One of the few things she does with it (she doesn’t use it as often as Harry Dresden, for example) is see how Vegas would look if it were a complete ruin. It’s a bit more complicated than that because what she’s seeing isn’t our Vegas and she’s not just a witch anymore, but I think you get the idea.
Anyway, it occurred to me that there are probably several other characters who through visions of other versions of reality, through dreams, or through prophecy can see what others can’t: what a place would look like after an apocalyptic event.
These are the other ones I know, but please help me build on it:
Fringe, Olivia Dunham: During the first season Olivia unwittingly sees an alternate dimension that’s under attack overlaid her real location
Knight of the Word, John Ross: John is plagued by prophetic dreams that show him what the world will become like if he and Nest fail to overcome the void
who else? From books, tv shows, movies, comics, all okay.
Sarah Conner from The Terminator series. She dreams of the world obliterated by Skynet, which drives her on even after she kills the terminator(s).
Watership Down - Fiver has visions of the destruction of their warren, prompting a group of rabbits to join him in leaving before it happens.
Take Shelter was good. The twisted agent in Boardwalk Empire played a family man and you weren’t ever sure if he was perhaps a bit mentally ill like his mother or really having apocalyptic visions. Kept you guessing until the last 30 seconds.
Johnny Smith of Stephen King’s The Dead Zone foresees that a politician named Greg Stillson will cause a global nuclear war if elected President.
John Taylor of Simon Green’s Nightside series had occasional visions and at least two physical visits of a potential future timeline where he destroys the world and possibly the universe.
Paul and Leto II in the Dune series.
In the Belsarius series, Rana Sanga is given a vision of future apocalypses by the time traveling cyborg Link. Multiple apocalypses of multiple types on multiple worlds, including Earth.
In the 1984 movie Dreamscape, the President has dreams of the aftermath of World War III that may become reality if the hero can’t help him.
Hellboy has visions - of a ruined Earth under satanic rule - that he knows will become true if he doesn’t reject his birthright.
Elizabeth Deadly, a female vampire in the online comic strip The Deadlys, a sort of modern Addams Family.
She has visions of the future.
http://comic.thedeadlys.com/sdf6278345hsdfkg/
Later in the series, she predicts an Apocalypse.
The series is on temporary hiatus, but will resume in the Fall, and the complete archives are up.
I think it’s fun, so give it a look!
http://comic.thedeadlys.com/2010-10-04/