Convection, Schmonvection: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

Lava: primal force, essence of destruction that leaves behind fertile land; ''really, '''really''' hot''.

[[Lava Adds Awesome|As awesome as lava is,]] most TV writers and video game developers forget that "really hot" part. The hero is making his way through the [[Lethal Lava Land]], but wait! There are floating rocks, he can make it across in a really dramatic way! Except in the real world, the rising heat would have fried him already, [[Artistic License Physics|and rocks do not float in lava]] anyway. Put your hand above an open flame and you have an idea of how hot that room, cave, or [[Eternal Engine]] ''should'' be. While it's possible for the outer layer of lava to cool, forming an insulating shell where the inner layer flows but people can get close to it relatively safely as long as they don't touch it, this is never seen in fiction where red-hot lava flows [[Lava Is Boiling Kool-Aid|as free and exposed as river water]].

 

 

Although lava is the primary offender, this also applies to any time convection is ignored for the sake of [[Rule of Cool]], such as when a character is standing above or near a large fire or any other extreme heat source. If you don't touch the raging inferno, boiling lake, or white-hot walls, you'll be fine.

** At the very end of the series, {{spoiler|after absorbing God}}, Father creates a miniature sun in the palm of his hand. No one in the room so much as notices any heat, and his hand is unharmed. Of course, when you're precipitating nuclear fusion with a thought, convection is the ''least'' of the laws of physics that you're screwing with.

* Averted in the [[Filler]] Arc "Asgard" of ''[[Saint Seiya]]''. God Warrior [[Playing with Fire|Hagen]] of [[Stellar Name|Merak Beta]] lures the [[An Ice Person|ice-and-cold-wielding]] Saint Cygnus Hyoga into the depths of a volcano. While Hagen's Cloth and his own supernatural [[Battle Aura|Cosmo]] explicitly protect him from the heat (and, indeed, the lava enhances his attacks,) Hyoga has to spend such a ''considerable'' amount of his cooling Cosmo just to ''survive'' in the volcano, let alone ''attack'' his enemy, that he completely exhausts himself doing so.

 

 

* Subverted in one issue of ''[[X-Force]]'', where Wolverine's female clone, X-23 was above a vat of molten metal, and falls. The next time we see her, all her hair has burned away and she has third-degree burns all over. Her clothes were burned away too, making Elixir run around in his underwear after covering her up. Turned out she bounced off the side of the vat to the ground, but the brief exposure to the heat was still enough to harm her. Of course, she has a [[Healing Factor]] so she got better.

* [[Lampshaded]] in an issue of DC's ''[[Young Justice (comics)|Young Justice]]'':

'''Robin:''' You're ''complaining'' because it wasn't ''more'' difficult?!? Are you ''nuts''?! }}

* At one point, [[X-Men|Magneto]] had a base in the Antarctic surrounded by lava, the only thing keeping the lava from destroying the base was a force field. Yet, when the device controlling the force field is destroyed the lava only slowly leaks in before it finally bursts in. Magneto survives by using his powers to keep it away from him, but it's unknown how the rest of the X-Men survived all of it.

** Cold air (very poor heat conductor, anyway) and even touch of ice or snow on skin are nearly harmless ''for very short time''. People who take a bath in hot springs can exit and spend from a few seconds to a few minutes in sub-zero air while dressing up, or even rub themselves with snow and afterwards dress up quickly, with no ill effects. Prolonged exposure over many hours is the culprit for frostbite and death.

* Despite breaking almost as many scientific rules as ''[[The Day After Tomorrow]]'', ''[[The Core]]'' actually averted this nicely. One crewman had to step outside safe area of the ship, never touched lava, and still burned to death. He '''was''' wearing a protective suit - which is the only reason he could even open the door without immediately bursting into flame while simultaneously imploding from the intense heat and pressure. Previously they had to use liquid nitrogen, the ship's coolant, to exit the ship without bursting into flames. The crew is notably sweating through the rest of the movie, even while in the ship.

* Since we brought up ''[[Terminator]] 2'', it should be mentioned that this trope was lightly averted during the final chase scene when Sarah Connor declares that it is "too hot" to approach [[No OSHA Compliance|the open pit of molten metal]].

* A similar event in the [[Sylvester Stallone]] movie ''[[Demolition Man]]'' in which the villain holds a blowtorch mere inches away from a floor which is covered in gasoline. Never mind that the fumes coming from it would have surely caught fire instantly, as long as the naked flame doesn't touch the liquid itself it's fine.

** The poor sap who gets lowered before her ''does'' burst into flames.

** The [[Novelization]] goes into full detail of how excruciating the experience was for poor Willie. At one point it even explicitly says that her eyelashes singe and her dress starts smoking, and she eventually passes out from the high temperature.

** The other characters had to walk around the edge of the area to meet back up with him. This could be due to the fact that, as mentioned in many other pages, Goku is a super-powered alien and survived something like this in the original anime more than once. Or it could be due to the fact that this incarnation of [[Idiot Hero|Goku]] is ''incredibly'' dumb and completely missed the safer, cooler path around the pit.

* The destruction of the Cave of Wonders in ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]''.

* The ending to ''[[Godzilla]] 1985'' has the monster being trapped in a volcano. Not surprisingly, he's not affected at all by either the lava itself or any of the intense heat. Of course, he ''is'' Godzilla.

* The 2005 movie ''[[House of Wax]]'' has the main characters escaping from said house as it melts and burns. Not bothered by the heat at all.

* In ''[[Spider-Man (film)|Spider-Man]] 2'', Doctor Octopus builds what is effectively a miniature sun. Characters standing a few feet away show no signs of feeling the heat.

*** That was cold fusion, which doesn't actually 'work' but that's how you're supposed to do it in real life: Electrodes in a glass jar.

* The infamous Sci-Fi Channel Original Movie ''Raptor Island'' features a scene where the female lead runs across a tree over a river of lava.

* The climactic battle in ''[[Dr. No]]'' takes place in a room being flooded with coolant from a nuclear reactor. {{spoiler|Dr. No survives long enough in the superheated coolant to desperately claw for a way out even when submerged above his head, and [[James Bond]], of course, is unharmed despite being mere inches away from the coolant.}}

** Had the liquid coolant been water (from a Boiling Water Reactor or Pressurized Water Reactor) or heavy water, it would have turned to steam immediately after being exposed to open air. [[Fridge Brilliance|As long as it stood liquid, it was below 100°C]], still enough to kill you, [[Squick|but not so quickly]].

* The title character of ''[[Shrek]]'' and his donkey sidekick walk across a rickety bridge over a boiling lake of lave without seeming to feel any heat.

* ''[[Toy Story 3]]''. [[Tear Jerker|Not that we're complaining.]]

* The entire ending of ''[[Congo]]''.

* In [[Sandy Mitchell]]'s [[Ciaphas Cain]] novels, explicitly invoked and averted. Once Cain claims that a plasmabolt missed him by a millimeter. In a footnote, Amberley points out that he would have suffered flash burns that close, so he was wrong about the distance.

* Averted in ''[[Animorphs]]'' #34 when the team visit the Hork-Bajir homeworld and cross over a seriously deep chasm - as in, so deep they can see the core of the planet.

'''Cassie:''' (narrating) ''Sometimes I think hanging around Marco so much has given Ax a totally twisted sense of humour. Very un-Andalite.'' }}

** The same joke is used again (or before?) in the ''Hork Bajir Chronicles".

* In the ''[[Jedi Academy Trilogy]]'', Luke once walks through lava to impress a prospective student. He's stated to be using the Force to direct the heat away from his feet, so it's not much of a stretch to assume that he includes the rest of his body.

* In [[Aaron Allston]]'s ''[[Galatea in 2-D]]'', Roger is not burned by nearby lava. Justified because [[Art Initiates Life|it's his imaginary world]], and he hadn't thought of whether it would kill.

 

 

== Live-Action TV ==

** Also, when they went to Iceland to start their trip to the North Pole, James had a hard time standing within ten feet of a ''coagulated'' lava flow. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7rffcRFwD0&feature=relmfu\]

* Subverted on ''[[MacGyver]]''. In the episode "Flame's End", the villain has [[Death Trap|locked him and a companion in a room]] at a nuclear power plant and he plans to flood it with the reactor's coolant water. Mac's companion points out that convection alone is going to kill them long before they have a chance to drown, scald, or be irradiated to death.

* Played straight on ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode "The End of the World". Solar heat is shown to be a terribly lethal thing to let through, with special sun visors to block it out. But when the visors come down, the victims have plenty of time to scream and DUCK to avoid them (with mixed success, depending on the room and whether the Doctor is nearby). The walls seem to stand up to the energy reasonably well, too.

* In the ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' episode "Basics, part II", the "don't touch the lava" rule is very much in effect when, during an evacuation from a volcanic eruption, Chakotay rescues an alien girl who's somehow gotten herself stranded on a piece of rock.

* In an episode of the original ''[[Knight Rider]]'', the car runs over a lava spillage not once, but ''twice''. The tires are a little melted, but the Magical Impregnable Alloy protecting KITT is just a little dirty. [http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=brOfsNAQfU8 You can see it here in all its... glory?]

** It's a favorite trick of "life coaches" to demonstrate firewalking over wood or charcoal. Ask them to repeat the feat with a comparatively ''cooler'' metal plate.

* An episode of ''[[Eureka]]'' deals with a miniature sun springing into being over the title city, creating an unending, superhot day. It keeps growing and getting hotter until it collapses a silo, melts the tires on a Jeep and fries the circuitry on a rocket. No people suffer any ill effects worse than sweating, and the idea that a small sun might cause a fire in the forest it's hovering over is never even mentioned.

* In the ''[[Sanctuary]]'' episode "Pax Romana", two characters in insulation suits (which leave much of the head and hands exposed) leisurely execute a medical procedure surrounded by molten rock a few meters below. There's a dramatic close call where one of them falls extremely close to the lava. Sadly, her hair fails to start smoking.

 

 

== [[Multiple Media]] ==

** Only Matoran of fire, who have a greater heat resistance, do it for sport. Other characters surf on lava only if needed to escape. It was also mentioned that Toa of fire could survive a few seconds in lava. No one thinks that it is stupid to surf for sport on a liquid which kill you if you fall.

** Played very straight in the movie ''Mask of Light'', wherein Takua (''not'' a Fire Matoran) fishes the eponymous mask out of a lava flow with his bare hands, and only feels the hotness after holding it in his hand for a moment. Then, he hops onto his comically frail lava surf board... on all fours, with his fingers clinging onto its sides (literally hanging into the lava), but suffers no ill effects.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** Not only that, but the game includes rules for related things like hypothermia, sunstroke, sandstorms and forest fires. Notable in that you ''can't'' outrun a forest fire, and smoke inhalation from a fire (or lava or volcanic vent) at first damages you, and then is quite capable of killing you. You don't even want to consider attempting to assault the [[Lethal Lava Land|red dragon's volcano lair]] without magical protections against the heat effects, or else the superheated air will kill off a party long before even seeing said dragon.

** Played straight however with certain spells. If a wizard casts a fireball spell and you are 20 feet away expect to take up to 10d6 damage, more than you'd get from sticking a foot in lava. If you are 20 feet and 1 inch away? You're fine. Possibly justified as being intentionally designed that way by whoever invented the spell, allowing you to roast enemies while not harming your allies. It ''is'' [[A Wizard Did It|magic]] after all.

*** Anyone level 6 or up in D&D 3.5 is literally superhuman. (Anyone level 11 or up is literally legendary enough that magic itself takes note of them.) How is surviving a swim in lava at an appropriately high level an issue? D&D is not meant to simulate real world human abilities at all, except at very low levels. Sufficiently high skill checks are explicitly stated to allow you to rape physics out of sheer skill.

*** The latest edition's rules for falling into lava are simpler. [[Chunky Salsa Rule|You die]]. Well, except when they're not: in several published adventures, lava simply deals 10-20 points of damage per round, which is survivably even for a first-level character.

* Played painfully straight with the [[Hero Clix]] Muspelheim map. It includes special rules for squares containing lava, which basically allow a character to walk over it in complete safety, just so long as they don't end up standing in a lava square at the end of a turn, which will deal a pittance of damage. Admittedly, it is based on the superhero genre, so it's not like accurate physics was its top priority.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

Countless [[Video Game Tropes|video games]] have [[Lethal Lava Land]] levels [[Lava Is Boiling Kool-Aid|that you don't lose health for just being in]]. For example:

** Some ''[[Star Fox Adventures]]'' levels contain lava, none of which is harmful to be near, but which causes damage for as long as Fox stands on it.

* In ''[[Super Mario 64]]'', you can jump great distances, land in lava, and only lose three hit points.

** In fact, Nintendo has used this trope in nearly every Mario game since his early days on the NES. At the very least, it used to kill you instantly.

*** Although fun fact, the very first Super Mario Bros game treats the lava exactly like red water, it's not the <s>[[Not the Fall That Kills You|fall]]</s> contact that kills you, it's falling through it down the bottomless pit that kills you. Now, it just makes Mario run around like an idiot for three seconds, grabbing his butt and screaming "AAAAHHH - hothothothot!" It's a toss-up as to which fate is worse.

** New Super Mario Bros Wii raises the bar with a level that has a pool of lava below you coming in waves, and a pool of lava ''above'' you also coming in waves. The upside-down lava was in Super Mario 3 as well, but here, even veterans are guaranteed to have Mario coming within pixels of the lava without getting too hot (if the lava does touch you, it's an instant kill).

** One part of the final level of the original ''SMB'' featured Cheep Cheeps jumping in and out of lava. Though it features an underwater section as well, but it only featured Bloopers.

** [[ROM Hack]] ''[[Rock Man 4 Minus Infinity]]'' plays this straight in Pharaoh Man's level and averts it in part of Dust Man's: you get a temperature gauge, and you take damage when it fills up completely.

* ''[[Devil Survivor]]'' has the boss fight against Jezebel: in order to fight or even approach her, the heroes have to cross a scorching lava pit...while it's understandable that demons and heroes who [[Power Copying|cracked]] the proper skills to [[Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors|resist or absorb]] the Fire element don't get damaged or get healed, it still fails common sense that they can ''walk on the lava'' by merely getting some damage each turn. And without sinking to boot!

** And it was a [[Battle in the Center of the Mind]] so it was completely justified.

* In ''[[Digital Devil Saga]] 2'', the final dungeon is ''the sun''. Admittedly you're dead already, after a fashion, but still... It doesn't help that the sun is apparently a purple labyrinth populated by scores of monsters, the souls of the dead, and God.

*** Also in Sonic 3, the fire shield is an item that grants the player this as an ability, taken to an extreme - no fire/lava/magma in the game hurts if you have it, but it goes away if you touch water. Naturally, this makes many bosses (which have flames of some sort protecting the underside, and a couple of which use fireballs to attack), as well as Lava Reef much easier. Sadly, it only appeared in Sonic 3 & Knuckles.

** ''[[Sonic Unleashed]]'' takes it to a very silly level as the entirety of the endgame takes place within the planet's mantle with absolutely no indication that such heat has any impact on the characters or structures at all.

** As does ''[[Sonic Rush Series|Sonic Rush Adventure]]'', whose final level also takes place deep underground.

* Exception: The ''[[Metroid]]'' series, where you'll incur constant, significant damage from being in a hot area without the Varia armor upgrade. In the ''[[Metroid Prime|Prime]]'' series, your HUD will also warn you that your life-support system is in danger of failing due to overheating.

* In ''Narbacular Drop'', the [[Spiritual Successor|spiritual ancestor]] to ''[[Portal (series)|Portal]]'', you can ride "lava turtles", with only one foot of... something... separating you from the actual lava.

* Used in ''[[Urban Chaos: Riot Response]]''. In the fire levels (where you have to go into a building that's on fire. The enemies are called Burners for a reason) you don't take damage from the heat. You cough a lot in the smoke rooms unless you have your BREATHER (Caps are proper) on but of course smoke is the more visible secondary effect of fires.

* In the ''[[Thief]]'' games lava is harmless as long as you tiptoe around it, but coming into even the slightest contact with it will kill Garrett instantly. This is taken to an even more ridiculous extreme in the Thief Gold mission "The Mage Towers" where the interior of the Fire Tower is built almost entirely out of metal and there's a huge lava pool sitting right smack in the middle. In addition to convection, shouldn't the intense heat conduct through the metal and immolate any non-mages on contact?

* Treated somewhat schizophrenically in ''[[Guild Wars]]''. Lava isn't that huge a deal, and running in it will only cause you to take burning damage. This is true for pretty much the entire endgame of ''Prophecies'' (The final boss fight is in a volcano's ''caldera!''), several [[PvP]] arenas, and much of the endgame of ''Eye of the North''. The Desolation in ''Nightfall'' however consists of many, ''many'' sulfurous flats that are fatal within seconds to step on.

** That's because [[Conservation of Ninjutsu|he's a ninja]]. The same also applied to the previous game.

* Lovely scene in ''[[Myst]] III: Exile''. Not only can you stand comfortably on a platform inches above a room filled with lava, but after the lava drains away, the floor and all surfaces are ''instantly'' cool enough to touch.

* ''[[Escape from Monkey Island]]'' features a log flume on lava. Not that the game [[Rule of Funny|takes itself very seriously]].

** ''[[The Curse of Monkey Island]]'' also has a roller coaster that dips into lava. When the riders plunge into it, they come out as undead skeletons. Their cart is still fine, though.

* In ''[[Neverwinter Nights]]: Hordes of the Underdark'', there is a lava river running through the otherwise totally frozen over Cania. Oddly, it's averted the other way around; you do take cold damage in Cania unless you're near pretty much any fire except the lava river above.

* Somewhat bizarre in ''[[La Tale]]'', not only will lava not hurt you unless you touch it, but you can sit in it and regain HP faster than the lava takes it away.

* Lava or the "molten metal" on board the ''[[Marathon Trilogy|Marathon]]'' ship only damages you if you directly touch it, but the green slime on board the Pfhor ship damages you while you're jumping over it.

** On a related note, the ice cape even works if you lack the [[Power-Up]] necessary to swim in water without [[Super Drowning Skills|taking damage]]. This may be considered [[Sequence Breaking]], but it gives you something to [[Fridge Logic|think about]].

* ''[[Lemmings]]'' one-upped this trope: the fiery levels in the original not only had lava that was no danger to the little green-haired [[Too Dumb to Live]] critters as long as they didn't actually touch it, it also had a trap that continually sprayed fire and fried them - if they landed in the middle of it. The edges (especially the forward edge) were perfectly safe. And the masonry levels had something greenish as the liquid that looked suspiciously like the cliché depiction of acid - but without dangerous vapors. Then again, [[Everything Trying to Kill You|it's not exactly as if the lemmings were ''safe'' because of these omissions...]]

* ''[[Ratchet and Clank]]'' follows this trope. Particularly in ''[[Ratchet and Clank Going Commando]]'' where:

** If Ratchet grabs an edge just above lava, he'll hang there in lava ''up to his knees'' and take no damage.

* ''[[Quake (series)|Quake]]'' and its sequels have plenty of lava which is completely safe... until you touch it. Then it's ''very'' lethal.

* Justified in ''[[American McGee's Alice]]'', as Wonderland is entirely inside the heroine's own mind.

* Taken to ridiculous extremes in the last two levels of the eleventh ''[[Touhou]]'' game, Subterranean Animism. In the fifth level, you fly amidst the fires of Hell, which are portrayed as an endless sea of towering flames that seem to be just below you the entire time. Naturally, being right above them doesn't burn or affect either of the playable characters at all. The final level is even more ridiculous, as the heroines fly through the corona of a ''second sun'' created by the game's final boss. Said final boss plans to use her power over nuclear fusion to melt the entire Earth away, yet when you fight her, you can get mere millimeters from the miniature suns and nuclear explosions she produces without even getting singed.

** That said, the trope is also [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in the same game: in the composer's notes for the track to the sixth level, ZUN talks about how lava levels are pretty common in shooters, and then states, "I guess it's normal for shrine maidens to fly above lava. Crows also."

** As for the Utsuho battle, don't forget the danmaku rule: she has no right to kill the protagonist, therefore she's using a much weaker version of her full power. (Although this bring about another question, spellcard rules were introduced since Reimu's death would spell [[The End of the World as We Know It|doom for Gensokyo]], but that's what Utsuho whats to do anyways, why does she follow them?) If Utsuho was going all out, Reimu and Marisa would probably quickly have been reduced to piles of glowing green ashes on the floor.

* ''[[Donkey Kong Country]] 2'' has several lava stages. Touching the lava kills you, the rest of the stage gives no problems.

** And even then, you only die if you submerse yourself completely (the lava is just your bog standard [[Bottomless Pit]]). You're perfectly safe as long as part of your sprite is poking above the lava.

* While in ''[[Golden Sun]] 1'' you could get heatstroke by walking through a particularly warm desert, you can walk through a volcano (Magma Rock) in ''The Lost Age'' with nothing happening to you.

** That desert wasn't just hot though, it was very clearly stated to be EVIL.

** You might need an HDTV to see it, but if you look closely it is also ''raining molten lava'' all over the place during the entire fight. Granted, it's unrealistic lava rain (basically just normal rain but red, no ash or anything), but still it's red hot and hitting normal humans with exposed skin but they don't seem to mind at all.

* Played painfully straight in ''[[Heart of Darkness (video game)|Heart of Darkness]]''. Andy, a little kid with no protective gear whatsoever, is perfectly fine climbing a few feet above a lake of boiling lava, but bursts into flames the instant he is so much as scraped by a jet of lava; the only thing that remains is a single shoe which soon falls into the lava and burns up as well. Possibly [[Justified Trope|justified]] by the fact that the game [[A Wizard Did It|takes place in a world where the laws of physics don't work the same way]], what with shadows spontaneously coming to life and a floating island that has its own gravity.

* ''[[Star Wars Battlefront]]'' games are guilty of this. Mustafar is available in Battlefront II, though that can be handwaved by the above explanation. Then there's Hoth (ICE planet), Rhen Var (snow and ice, including an ICE CAVE in one level in Battlefront I), Tatooine (hot, and with periodic sandstorms)...

* ''[[Mass Effect]]'' features this on the lava planet Therum - walk right next to the lava, you're fine. Drive next to the lava, you're fine. Dip one centimeter of your back left wheel into the lava for a split second and -- [[Nonstandard Game Over|the vehicle and all its inhabitants freeze, and it's explained that the heavily armored and shielded vehicle and its inhabitants spontaneously combusts]]. Characters do comment on the heat, but even then it's not within hazardous levels.

* ''[[Dark Forces Saga|Jedi Academy]]'''s penultimate level is a [[Single Biome Planet|planet half-covered in lava]]. At first, the game primarily averts the trope: most of the action takes place high above the lava if not inside buildings, Jaden comments on the heat the first time you're required to cross a bridge close to the lava, and the bridge itself requires heat-shields on the sides. Then, ten minutes later, Jaden is jumping across the lava on rocks only jutting half a foot out of it.

* In ''[[Ultima]] VIII: Pagan'' orange lava was solid but would burn you every moment of contact, and yellow lava was instant death. Nonetheless, you could walk around in volcanic caverns without any ill effects, as long as you didn't touch the lava itself. The entire Sorcerer's Enclave was built inside one such cavern, and a quest involved using the Endure Heat spell to jump from patches of floating orange lava to reach the chest at the end. It was actually possible to navigate across orange lava prior to getting this spell by throwing objects down onto it to stand on.

* This was also played straight in the infamously flawed ''[[Ultima]] IX: Ascension'' where lava is little more than orange colored water that very slowly drains health on contact. You can even swim in the pools, though this makes a tad more sense if you use a white potion or the Infernal Armor spell. The biggest case is the town of Valoria, which makes you wonder if the townspeople's brains weren't already baked when the Guardian's column showed up. [http://hacki.bootstrike.com/english/nitpicks_u9_valoria.htm Hacki's Ultima Page] describes it best:

* Very much present in ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'', despite its horrendously complicated temperature system. Until somewhat recently, an long-standing [[Good Bad Bugs|bug]] caused ''ice'' to be considered a magma-proof material.

* [[Wii Sports]] Resort, where apparently being inside a volcano is perfectly safe, as long as there're guardrails.

* Part of one of the later stages of [[Dino Crisis]] 2 takes place inside an active volcano that Dylan can run around in (while wearing body armor, no less) with no problems despite coming perilously close to the lava flows.

* A slight aversion in classic [[Text Adventure]] ''[[Adventure]]'' (also known as ''[[Colossal Cave]]''): heat isn't an issue, but trying to walk across a (magical) bridge across the shaft of a volcano causes the PC to die from the toxic gases unless {{spoiler|wearing [[Guide Dang It|the mithril ring]].}}

* Quite a few ''[[Pokémon]]'' gym leaders have lava inside their gym, inside their room (in the case of the leagues), or are located near lava.

** While not strictly a lava hazard, Magcargo's Pokedex entry lists it skin [[You Fail Physics Forever|as being]] ''[[You Fail Physics Forever|twice as hot as the surface of the sun.]]'' Just let [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brWQpe-QN-o this guy] explain the further implications of this, especially in regard to ultraviolet radiation. {{spoiler|A Pokémon trainer standing near a Magcargo gets ''35 million times more'' UV radiation than an average life-form would get from the sun.}}

** Then again, the Pokemon world's idea of scientific investigation is to send a ten-year-old out to catch 'em all. The fandom strongly suspects the kids themselves are writing the entries and [[Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale|have no sense of scale]].

** ''[[Pokémon Diamond and Pearl]]''/ Platinum has Stark Mountain, which has this trope all over the place-the character is walking all around lava pools

** ''[[Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire]]'' has a lava pool area with one of the Team Magma grunts just making a comment about his ear burning.

* ''[[Jurassic Park]]'' for the Sega Genesis and ''[[Jurassic Park]] 2: The Chaos Continues'' for the SNES both feature levels set inside a huge volcano, with pits of lava you must jump over. Of course, as long as you don't touch the lava, you can run around just inches from it and be perfectly fine.

* The Xbox ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' game not only has Buffy casually crossing a stone bridge over lava with just a casual comment about the heat, but there's also a level fought in an active foundry with molten metal all around the place. [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in some dialogue, though.

* It's interesting to note that ''Kyrandia'' (an old DOS adventure game by Westwood) has a puzzle in which there is a massive lava flow going under a bridge. Seemingly played only for drama, when your character begins to cross the bridge he catches fire and burns up painfully. To get through you need to find a scroll of freezing to turn the lava into ice.

* Played mostly straight in the ''[[Dungeon Keeper]]'' games:

* In ''[[Adventures of Lolo]]'', there are plenty of rooms with lava and the hero is just fine. For the most part, it functions exactly like water, with one major exception; bridges built over lava will burn down, either on a set timer or after walking over it a certain number of times.

* Tragically/Hilariously averted with the ''[[Minecraft]] Alpha Update 1.0.15'', where lava got the ability to light nearby flammable blocks on fire. The exact point where [[Hilarity Ensues|hilarity ensued]] was when people loaded their saves and had their [[Violation of Common Sense|wooden houses with lava fountains]] burnt down. [http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=22404\]

* In [[Lufia|Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals]], there's Soma Temple, a temple way out in the ocean filled with lava. Actually jumping down into it sends you back to the platform you jumped off, and leaves you with minor damage. Unless you have the appropriate skill, which negates damage from falling from high places. Even into lava.

* In ''[[Clonk]]'', lava is only dangerous when you swim in it. You can ''stand'' in it, as long as it doesn't go higher than your clonk's knee, there'll be no harm done.

* In ''[[Will Rock]]'', many levels (like the Hepheasteum and the Underworld of Tartarus) will bring you close to the fiery, orange magma. However, as long as you don't step in it, you're sound and safe. There's, however, a red haze on the screen if you're really close to magma, suggestic heat. [[Fridge Brilliance|Then again, seen that Will is possessed by the Titan Prometheus, this may protect him from fire.]]

* In ''[[Jet Force Gemini]]'', molten steel or lava deal no damage as long as you're not explicitly standing on them, and if you're playing as Juno even that won't injure you.

* Arachnia in ''[[Bug!]]!''. Bug can be perfectly fine even when he is on a rock floating on a sea of lava. But once he [[Ash Face|touches]] [[One-Hit Kill|the]] [[I'm Melting|lava]]...

* ''Color Dark Castle'', the [[Video Game Remake|remake]] of the first ''[[Dark Castle]]'', replaced the log platforms floating in water with log platforms floating in ''lava'', essentially replacing [[Super Drowning Skills]] with this trope.

* ''[[Heretic]]''. Episode 2, Level 4 is "The Ice Grotto". On this level, there are stretches of ice, ''right next to lava pits''. Obviously, [[A Wizard Did It|D'Sparil did it.]]

* The final two areas of ''[[Diablo]] II''s act 4 are set in a [[Fire and Brimstone Hell]]. The area aptly titled the River of Fire is composed of stone platforms sitting in a lake of lava with small stone bridges linking the platforms, yet there is no gameplay effect for this. Then again, at this point in the game your character may have enough fire resistance to make Diablo's fire-based attacks a mild inconvenience.

* Taken to it's obvious extreme in [[Futurama]]: The Game. The crew lands ''in the sun'' and they're just fine... as long as they don't touch the lava "floor".

* Averted in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=NUL89jx7CDE#t=210s this] volcanic level of [[Bomberman]] Hero, where the player steadily loses health due to the heat of the lava below and must heal by entering "cooling rooms" conveniently placed inside the volcano.

* ''[[Vessel]]'' plays this completely straight. You can even run through lava splashes if you are fast enough. Though lava doesn't seem ''that'' hot in this game, as water cools it down pretty easily.

 

 

* Mounty Oum's CG [[Fan Film]] series ''[[Dead Fantasy]]'' probably takes this to its most extreme. During part II, the fighters end up on a stone raft floating down a river of lava. The raft is less than a foot thick, but does not melt or overheat. Similarly the girls suffer no problems from heat and toxic gas. Sounds pretty standard so far. Then Tifa gets knocked off of the raft. Yuna shoots Tifa to knock her onto the rocky ledge rather than into the lava, implies that falling in the lava would be a bad thing. But Tifa then proceeds to RUN ACROSS the lava, suffering no more than ignited shoes, used to deliver a fiery dropkick.

** Used again with Tifa and Hitomi's [[Battle Amongst the Flames]]. The whole church is on fire? No problem, it just makes an awesome backdrop to the fight.

* [http://wayofthemetagamer.thecomicseries.com/comics/pl/34423 Lampshaded in] ''[[The Way of the Metagamer]]''.

* [[Averted Trope|Averted]] and [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in the [[Whateley Universe]]. Team Kimba is in a holographic simulation of an evil lair inside a volcanic mountain, complete with a huge gap across molten lava to get to the [[Big Bad]]. [[The Smart Guy]] points out that even the toughest supers on the team wouldn't survive flying above the magma, and snarks that it isn't some stupid video game. But they have other resources.

 

 

** "''PROFESSOR! LAVA! '''HOT!'''''"

** Then there's this gem from a commerical off-screen:

'''Participant''': Ahhh! I'm burning to death! }}

* ''[[Transformers]]'' and lava... Don't go there. Just don't. Some of them have actually survived a dip in the lava itself, despite it being fatal to others. Officially? Not so much as a [[Lampshade Hanging]] on this. Attempts by fans to explain this are doomed from the start.

** Conversely, the 2007 movie gets convection mostly right, but was criticized by fans who did not fully understand that while space is infinitely cold, the ''lack'' of convection in space means that a body in space will cool very, very slowly - much more slowly than a superheated body falling into the Arctic Ocean. In fact, the TF Wiki ''links to our [[Space Is Cold]] page'' to explain why that's not an error. See, this stuff ''is'' educational!

*** Not only does "infinitely cold" not exist (there is a lowest possible temperature), but space is several degrees warmer than absolute zero. Specifically, it's about 3 Kelvin, or -270 degrees Celsius (0 Kelvin is absolute zero). Furthermore, unless there is evaporation going on, a body in space that is in view of the Sun tends to heat up unless it's already hotter than the Sun's surface, 6000K. And, of course, if it is not in view of the sun, it tends to cool down to that 3K I mentioned, but it happens very slowly because neither conduction nor convection are possible, only radiation, and things at "normal" temperatures tend to radiate very very slowly.

** Likewise, in "Volcano" Lois is right next to molten lava and is completely unaffected, even doing a hand-over-hand climb over a field of lava without being even singed.

** This is amended in later episodes, where Lois Lane is imperiled by fire, and passes out or is burned outright by the heat.

* An episode of ''[[Batman: The Animated Series]]'' involves Bruce Wayne battling a ninja rival on an erupting volcano. The climax of the fight comes when they are separated on the rocks and Wayne [[Save the Villain|throws a rope for the ninja to catch, thinking that if he jumps while he pulls he could make it.]] The ninja kicks the rope away, but not before giving a look that both says "I don't want your help" and almost looks as though he is thinking "Please, don't be so stupid."

* The trope is treated as a game of ping pong in ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''. In "The Awakening," Aang stands on top of solid but still-glowing lava rock in bare feet without getting burned. Curiously there is a subversion in the same scene, as his wooden glider caught on fire by just being next to a lava stream that Aang had just stepped by. In a later episode, Aang, Sokka, and Toph are running through tunnels within a dormant volcano with no problem running over the rock crust that has formed over a river of magma or soaring over an underground lake of the stuff. Strangely enough, in "The Avatar and the Firelord," a major character actually dies from the toxic gases released by an erupting volcano.

* In ''[[The Road to El Dorado]]'', the main characters are chased across a cracking layer of volcanic rock by a large stone jaguar. Lava comes within inches of splattering on them. But it must not be very hot itself, because the stone critter pops right back out.

* In ''[[Brother Bear]]'', Koda and Kenai traverse a field of heat (supposed to be lava...) This is impressive for two reasons: Kenai gets continuously hit by jets of steam (a la Princess Bride and the Swamp) and the nearby areas are covered in SNOW!

* In ''[[Cow and Chicken]]'' Red accidentally falls into a river of lava. Then notices it's not as hot as he had thought (he's the Devil, though).

* Most [[Egregious]] example: ''[[Star Wars: The Clone Wars]]'' did an episode in which a planet is apparently ''half lava.'' We don't know what took half the planet's crust off. What we do know is that you can walk within ''inches'' of pools of lava... ''in a cavern that would logically be like an oven'' with that much lava and nowhere for the heat to go. However, anything thrown into lava catches fire before it hits, a nice bit of realism... if the aforementioned oven-cave hadn't been mere seconds earlier. If the characters didn't have to ''cross the lava on a rope that's only a few feet above the surface'' and do so without harm mere seconds ''later.'' Perhaps it's production values, but in none of the episode's more ridiculous examples of this trope did anyone even ''sweat.'' Going back and forth on it like that made it crazier than anything you've ever seen play the trope straight from beginning to end.

** [[Averted Trope|Averted]] in another episode; things are seen catching on fire ''before'' making contact with lava.

* Displayed throughout ''[[The Secret Saturdays]]'' episode "Twelve Hundred Degrees Fahrenheit". Taken to a ridiculous extent when both Argost and Drew ''[[Lava Is Boiling Kool-Aid|swim through the volcano]]'' (wearing fireproof lizard-skin and a heatproof suit, respectively, but ''still!''). Particularly egregious in Argost's case, as the lava should have seeped in through the openings in the skin (eyes, mouth).

* ''[[The Land Before Time]]'' animated series episode "The Canyon of Shiny Stones" is all about this trope (although they do, at least, remember that volcanoes produce choking smoke).

** "Dragon Quest" has this in spades. Spike ''jumps into'' a [[Lava Pit]], ''submerges'' and then '''spits out some lava from his mouth''' as if it were a swimming pool, which, for the teenage dragons that he is hanging out with, is.

* ''[[American Dad]]'' episode "Magnificent Steven", they find lava deep beneath a certain Washington landmark and play it straight by featuring a bridge a couple feet above it while mocking it all the while:

 

== Real Life ==

** [http://xkcd.com/735/ This] ''[[Xkcd]]'' comic sums it up well.

* Subverted a bit by [http://youtube.com/watch?v=4b6n8riJaFo the Discovery Channel].

* In older aluminum plants, the metal is still poured partly by employees who work very close to 1300-1700°F aluminum - often as close as a foot or less distance between the worker and the aluminum. Dross is skimmed from the tops of crucibles and molds with hand-held metal skimmers. The workers wear heavy cotton gloves, double cotton sleeves and aluminized aprons to do this. While it is not the most comfortable job in the world, the protective gear does not singe or burn unless in direct contact with the metal, and the cotton is not fire retardant.

*** Kind of brings a whole new layer of meaning to "flares", that does:)

* Played pretty darn straight by the experience of Heimaey, Iceland, in the Vestmannaeyjar islands. In 1973, a nearby mountain erupted, sending, literally, acres of lava towards the town - and, from the inhabitants' perspective, more importantly, the harbor. In a desperate attempt to save the harbor from being filled by lava, the inhabitants, the government of Iceland, and, eventually, even the U.S. Navy, started pouring water directly on the lava to try and solidify the leading edge, hopefully sending the remaining lava ''somewhere else''. This took weeks, if not months, and for most of that time, not only were people walking directly on top of the lava, they were separated from actual liquid rock by, at times, ''nothing but ash'', but they were running hoses along it, and even driving ''bulldozers'' around on top of it. The treads of the bulldozers blued from the heat over time, and the soles of boots tended to melt when people stood, but for a significant amount of time, people were not only running near lava, they were working on top of it for twenty-hour-a-day stretches. Icelanders are hardcore.

* Played straight in real life (?!) with [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZCou2qkFKM&NR=1 this video], complete with lava.

** Yet also averted, given that he's not dipping the marshmallow ''in'' to heat it, and it melts quite a ways from the lava itself.

* The thermal radiation is particularly harmful to a person's eyes. Looking directly into glowing lava is physically painful. If you've ever looking directly at a heating element (and you shouldn't), imagine that times thousands.

** Also one of the reasons for which gas welders [[Captain Obvious|use dark goggles]].

* Averted with many living things, since most except for some species of bacteria actually cannot survive above the boiling point of water. The only place bacteria cannot survive at all is still inside volcanoes, however.

* Averted with the Sun, where its corona is actually much hotter than its surface, so in real life any spaceship that orbits that close will melt and vaporize instantly, killing any astronauts onboard, even if it is only a thousand miles away from the corona.

* Averted with certain exoplanets where most scientists think that the least habitable planets for life are those mostly covered in lava.

* One episode of [[The Magic School Bus]], though being as it is an educational show, they make it a point in the ending segment that realistically everyone would have been burned alive.

 

[[Category:Lava Tropes]]

[[Category:Sublime Rhyme]]

[[Category:Heat Index]]