point of no return

Other observers, however, predict that momentum has already passed a point of no return and full-scale war is inevitable.

“This scene is a point of no return. Mariko’s defiance has set her on an unstoppable trajectory that finally allows her to claim the purpose she has been seeking all her life.”

“He wanted to develop the capital up to the point of no return,” said Yanuar Nugroho, his former deputy chief of staff.

"It’s the point before the point of no return," he says.

It's also regarded as a potential tipping element of the Earth's climate, meaning that a tiny perturbation could push the system to a point of no return.