How Many Times Did Fry Save The Universe In Futurama?

At first, Philip J. Fry's trip into the far flung future of 2999 may have seemed like a twist of fate to "Futurama" viewers. But the show slowly peeled back the layers of his true purpose, leading to the revelation that Fry was The Mighty One, a figure destined to save the galaxy with a combination of incredible stupidity, a true heart, and a lack of a delta brainwave.

Through his heroic actions, Fry showed a new side of himself to Leela and saved the future for his newfound friends  — even though most of them would never fully appreciate the incredible odds he beat. Fry has gone out of his way on several occasions to save their collective bacon from fates worse than death itself. It begs the question: just how many times did Fry save the universe from terrors beyond comprehension due to his special destiny? Here is every moment when Fry's actions helped avert certain catastrophe.

Fry has saved the universe in Futurama three times, but the show's canon strongly hints that if he didn't exist, the universe would collapse in on itself. According to CBR.com, It all starts with Season 3's "The Day the Earth Stood Stupid." Earlier in the season, during a trip to the past in "Roswell that Ends Well,"  Fry sleeps with his own grandmother. to avoid a butterfly effect erasure of his own existence This results in Fry lacking a delta brainwave. 

That fact becomes crucial to his success against the Brain Spawn in "The Day the Earth Stood Stupid," though Fry won't learn why until the following season. The Brain Spawn's main goal is to harvest the knowledge of a planet's population, eventually vaporizing all of its inhabitants when they're done. Fry's lack of delta brainwaves means he's the only earthling with the mental capacity to fight back against them. 

Nibbler, Leela's voracious and secretly intelligent alien pet, reveals Fry to be a Nibblonian, one of a hyperintelligent but adorable race of aliens destined to protect the universe against invasive species. The Brain Spawn attempt to trap Fry in several illusory worlds after Fry tracks it down to the New York Public Library. But, with Nibbler and Leela's assistance, Fry manages to trick the lead Brain Spawn into calling off the invasion by playing with the rules of the universe. He writes an ending of his own, forcing The Brain Spawn to call off the invasion "for no raisin." 

The Nibblonians erased the memories of every earthling but Fry after the events of this episode, but it wouldn't be the last time Fry was called upon to save the universe. In the following season, the Brain Spawn return during "The Whys of Fry," planning to consume Earth's knowledge and destroy it for good. 

During this escapade, Nibbler gives him a Quantum Interphase Bomb, which will blast the Infosphere into another dimension — and planting the bomb is a mission only Fry can undertake. During the journey, he's unable to escape from the Brain Spawn due to a shoddy vehicle but nobly decides to detonates the bomb, making a self-sacrifice that will send him into another dimension with them. The Brain Spawn try to deter Fry by showing him that Nibbler traveled back in time to 1999 and was the one who tipped him backwards and into the cryogenic tube that preserved his body until 2999, knowing he was the prophesized Mighty One. 

Fry is transported back to 1999 by the Brain Spawn and given a chance to change his fate, but when Nibbler agrees to help Fry win Leela's romantic affection, he allows his past self to be frozen, successfully detonating the bomb thanks to Nibbler's intervention.

Finally, in "Into the Wild Green Yonder," the final direct-to-DVD "Futurama" movie, an accident leads to Fry's ability to hear the thoughts of others, which slowly begins to drive him mad. Told to wear tinfoil hats and beware of The Dark One, he eventually joins a group of telepaths, who inform Fry of the battle between The Dark Ones, who seek to exterminate all life in the universe, and the Encyclopods, who preserve the DNA of other species with the hope of replicating any who become extinct. 

There is only one Dark one left, and Fry is the only one immune to its mind control. This allows Fry to prevent the destruction of a violet dwarf star, the last surviving Encyclopod egg. It's Fry's job to sniff out the Dark One, whose unreadable mind will single him out to a telepath, then destroy him via an Omega Drive given to him by the telepaths.

Fry can read every mind he encounters at the dwarf star's implosion ceremony, led by Leo Wong, who wants to implode the star to make way for a miniature golf course. Fry activates the device, which reveals that the Martian bog leach Leela rescued earlier in the movie is the Dark One. But the Omega Drive launches the maturation of the Encyclopod Egg, who kills the Dark One and ensures the survival of the Encylopod species. Once more, the pizza delivery guy has kept the universe from disappearing.