Quicksand Sucks: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"What is it that's not exactly water, and it ain't exactly earth?"''
|'''Bart''', ''[[Blazing Saddles]]''}}
Quicksand is a common and deadly element of jungle and desert terrain, and its most dangerous feature is its ability to suck people and animals down and drown them in a malevolent blend of sand and water. Although most victims blunder blindly into quicksand, it sometimes seems that the merest touch of an extremity is enough to pull the unwary into its muddy and all-consuming depths like iron filings to a magnet.
In truth, quicksand (while real) isn't terribly common, and exerts none of its movie counterpart's mythical "sucking" power. In fact, real quicksand is so dense that you ''can't'' sink in it; the usual advice for someone who finds themselves caught in deep quicksand is to simply relax and float on their back. While animals and people ''do'' die in quicksand, it's almost never from the sand or
Okay, if you are weighed down by something you can't remove, you could sink, but that would even happen in boring, old regular water.
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Originally a movie serial and B-film device, this trope has been carried over to television by way of programs that mimicked or paid homage to those films, or to pulp fiction in general. Then it also moved to [[Video Games]]. This trope is pretty much a [[Discredited Trope]] nowadays, although the [[Shifting Sand Land]] of video games is [[Grandfather Clause|still allowed]] to [[Undead Horse Trope|play it straight]], as a gameplay challenge if nothing else.
See also [[Sand Is Water]], [[Mucking in the Mud]], [[Swamps Are Evil]], and [[Bubblegloop Swamp]]... Also compare [[
{{examples}}
== Anime
* Mikan and a friend of hers encounter this in episode 3 of ''Gakuen Alice''.
* A scene of this happens in episode 5 of ''[[Deltora Quest]]''.
* A scene of this happens in episode 8 of a forgotten anime known as ''[[Fortune Quest L]]''.
* Sir Crocodile's "Desert Girasole" attack in ''[[One Piece]]'' involves him using his sand-controlling powers to create a giant whirlpool of quicksand. He does explain, however, that he's tapping into an underground water source to do this, and he's never seen doing it outside of a desert.
==
* In one [[Spider-Man]] comic, Spidey is facing Kraven the Hunter in the jungles of Africa. Kraven uses a blowdart to drug Spider-man, making him lose most of his strength and his spidey-sense, then tricks him into falling into quicksand.
== Fan
* One entry into a Miniatures forum about what to do when you have nothing but standard bearers in your army is to plant the standards in a sandtrap; the enemy will waste a lot of time to "avoid the quicksand".
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* Fondly parodied in the book and movie ''[[The Princess Bride (film)|The Princess Bride]]'', which featured a super-quicksand called "lightning sand," which is dangerous because its grains are so small that you fall straight through it.
** At least as dangerous (in the novel, at any rate) is the way the stuff gets into your lungs.
* While it may be a magical plant rather than quicksand, the devil's snare in the film version of ''[[Harry Potter
* The live-action film version of ''[[The Jungle Book (film)|The Jungle Book]]'' starring Jason Scott Lee had this happen to a villain. He even explicitly states "It's sucking me down!" while struggling.
* In ''[[The Mummy Trilogy|The Mummy]]'', a biplane sinks into a pit of quicksand... in the middle of a desert. The protagonists stand atop a dune and solemnly watch it sink. The sequence takes so long that it's hard to tell if it's [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshading]] its own absurdity or just deathly oblivious to it.
** The same thing happened in [[Mad Max]]: Beyond Thunderdome, at least the desert-quicksand part.
*** It wasn't really quicksand, more of a sand pit, but it still sucked them in.
*** It's supposed to be a pothole with sand packed on top of it.
* ''[[Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull]]'' provides a [[Hand Wave]] for the inaccurate depiction by having Indy explain that what he and Marion are sinking into is not actually quicksand, but some sort of collapsing dry sand pit.
* ''[[Tank Girl]]''. A non-liquid version: the dust/sand covering the Rippers' subgates.
* In the film ''[[Lawrence of Arabia]]'', Lawrence has two young servant boys, Daud and Farraj. Daud falls into quicksand, and Lawrence and Farraj try to save him, but fail. In real life, Daud died of hypothermia.[https://web.archive.org/web/20120225175559/http://telawrence.net/telawrencenet/works/spw/sp_08_092.htm
** Hypothermia in Arabia, no less. Desert nights are very, very, very cold.
* In [[Pure Luck]], Martin Short's extremely unlucky character manages to walk into a quicksand pit in the California desert.
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* A pit appears early in ''[[Blazing Saddles]]''; other than the fact that it shows up in the middle of an arid desert, it's actually a pretty accurate representation.
* Averted in ''[[Once Upon a Forest]]''. The quail firmly belive this trope, leaving one poor bastard who gets stuck in the mud to die. Luckily for him, the party comes through and the [[Smart Guy]] has them build a lever device to pry him out.
== Literature ==
* Nick Cave's novel ''And The Ass Saw The Angel'' uses this as a framing device. The narrator recounts his story while sinking into a bog. The unlikelihood of this contingency is easy to swallow compared to some of the other stuff we're [[Magic Realism|asked to believe]], or [[Through the Eyes of Madness|asked not to believe]].
* During a stint of being [[Reassigned to Antarctica]] [[Vorkosigan Saga|Miles Vorkosigan]] runs across a nasty arctic version called a "Permofrost Inversion Zone"; this appears to be solid ground, but has the potentially lethal property of unexpectedly thawing into a gooey sea of mud. Miles manages to sink an entire "scat-cat" (a kind of arctic all-terrain jeep) in one after he parks on top of it rather than try to drive back to base at night, and very nearly dies because he chained his tent to it.
* In the [[Known Space]] stories of [[Larry Niven]] some areas of Mars have sand that is so fine that it essentially is a liquid and people can sink in it.
* Many older science fiction stories portrayed the Moon as having areas very fine dust that functioned like quicksand, ''A Fall of Moondust'' by [[Arthur C. Clarke]] being a good example.
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* Occurs in Book 7 of ''[[The Hardy Boys]] Casefiles'', ''Deathgame''. Joe starts sinking in the quicksand and knows enough to float on it, but then has to force himself to sink below the surface to hide from his attacker. The caked mud later serves him as improvised camouflage.
* ''[[Sherlock Holmes|The Hound of the Baskervilles]]'' uses the swamp version, which is dangerous to enter if if you know the way, and nigh impossible to traverse without a guide.
* In one of the [[Guilty Pleasure|smaller, chapter]] ''[[Dinotopia]]'' books, Magnolia and Paddlefoot, her dinosaur companion, get mired in quicksand. However, the author has done their
* The Shivering Sand in ''[[The Moonstone]]'' by Wilkie Collins. Dangerous, but not an impossible trap. It's used by a certain character to {{spoiler|hide an incriminating piece of evidence, using a locked box and a chain, and to commit suicide}}.
* ''[[The Neverending Story (novel)|The Neverending Story]]'' contains a particularly charming scene in which Atreyu's [[Sapient Steed]] Artax sinks to his death in quicksand in the [[Swamps Are Evil|Swamp of Sadness]]. It is [[Hand Wave|explained]], however, that Artax' sinking [[Faux Symbolism|was not due to quicksand, but sadness]].
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== Live-Action TV ==
* ''[[Tales of the Gold Monkey]]''
* This trope has been [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BhVebTMiiY disproved] by the ''[[
** And disproved earlier by ''[[Bill Nye the Science Guy]]''.
* Even [[Power Rangers]] has used this, a couple times over the years. "Ninja Quest" in season three, and "Fire Heart" in Mystic Force.
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* Subverted in an episode of ''[[Magnum, P.I.]]'': Rick stumbles in what he believes is quicksand and yells for help; when TC and Magnum arrive, Magnum tells Rick he's in a swamp - "There is no quicksand in Hawaii."
* The [[Big Bad]] in ''[[The Wild Wild West]]'''s "The Night of the Bottomless Pit," who absolutely hates muck, [[Death by Irony|meets his maker that way]].
* Averted in, of all places, the campy ''[[Batman (TV series)|Batman]]'' series, where the Riddler's [[Death Trap]] involves tricking the Dynamic Duo into posing for a picture on a giant cake which is made of quicksand (long story). Batman warns Robin that the key to surviving quicksand is not to panic, and once this advice help them stay buoyant, he is able to use a rocket-device on their belts to propel them upward and escape.
== Music ==
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== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[Dungeons
** Supplement I13 ''Adventure Pack I'', adventure "The Weird Woods of Baron Orchid". Several patches occur near a lake.
** Adventure Q1 ''Queen of the Demonweb Pits''. One of the rooms in Lolth's spider ship has a quicksand floor to trap unwary party members.
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** Adventure OA7 ''Test of the Samurai'' has several patches in the other-dimensional plane of Qui.
* Several Classic ''[[Traveller]]'' adventures have this as a possible encounter on alien planets.
** ''Twilight's Peak'' has quicksand as a possible encounter in wetlands on the planet Fulacin. If [[PC
** In the Double Adventure ''Marooned/Marooned Alone'', [[PC
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** There's also a middle type that sucks Mario in quickly but not instantly. It's the most common type.
** Of course, quicksand first appeared in the Mario series in ''Mario 2'', probably one of the elements borrowed from its source material ''Doki Doki Panic''. At least one hidden area involved going through quicksand.
** And again in ''[[Super Mario Bros 3]]'' and ''[[New Super Mario Bros. Wii]]''.
** Subverted in ''Mario Teaches Typing 2.'' During a cutscene, Mario and Luigi fall through a hole in a bridge and are saved by a pool of quicksand below.
* ''Super [[Metroid]]'''s many quicksand pools present no danger at all, because Samus wears a sealed space suit and can't drown. If you don't feel like jumping out, you can sink all the way in and walk around on the bottom. In a few places this allows access to new areas.
*
** The Arbiter Grounds in ''[[Twilight Princess]]'' has quicksand, including the instant-death type, as a frequent and dangerous obstacle.
** ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time|Ocarina of Time]]'''s Haunted Wasteland has a river of no-escape quicksand that you cross by either using the Longshot or the Hover Boots. Once across, you are still in danger of sinking if you stray off the path.
** ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks|Spirit Tracks]]'' has quicksand pits in the Sand Temple and parts of the Tower of Spirits.
** You fight a Moldorm in a pit of quicksand in ''[[Links Awakening]]''. You only get sucked downward (to a cave you must traverse to get back to the surface) if you get put in the center of the pit; the rest of the quicksand simply pulls you toward that center.
** In ''[[Skyward Sword]]'', Link can keep from getting sucked into the quicksand of Lanayru Desert if he [[Videogame Dashing|sprints across it]]. Also, the Timeshift Stones can change it back into the solid, grass-covered ground it once was [[Before the Dark Times]].
** A variation is the Bottomless Bogs in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild|Breath of the Wild]]'' and ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom|Tears of the Kingdom]]'', a mire that can cause Link to drown almost instantly.
* Subverted in ''[[Banjo-Kazooie|Banjo-Tooie]]''. While there is quicksand in Mayahem Temple and Terrydactyland, it doesn't pull you down, the Dragundas living in it do, then spit you back onto solid ground. The wading boots are used to cross the quicksand. The Dragundas are also in Grunty Industries' toxic waste and polluted water.
* Used in an absolutely laughable manner in the [[Sonic the Hedgehog (2006
* Appears in ''[[Toejam and Earl]]'' which makes the protagonists start sinking and move slower. The sand also resembles a desert, complete with [[All Deserts Have Cacti|cacti]].
* Used rather realistically (given the medium) in ''[[Sonic 3 and Knuckles]]''. In Sandopolis Zone (and the 2-player mode Desert Palace level), quicksand would slowly pull the character under but it could be escaped by jumping properly. Marble Garden Zone also featured surfaces that acted the same way, but looked like black water.
* In ''[[Mega Man X Command Mission]]'', one character falls into a quicksand trap, which pulls him and his two friends down into it. Which wouldn't make sense in the first place, but made even worse by the fact that all three are ''super-strong reploids'' that could have easily pulled themselves out (especially since one was still on firm ground). They even treat it like it's deadly, despite the fact they don't even need to breathe and would, at worst, just be stuck.
* In ''[[Mega Man (video game)|Mega Man]] 10'', Commando Man's level has Mega Man rushing through quicksand pits. Although he can move and shoot normally in them, even completely buried, he needs to jump to exit it, and if he's dragged to the bottom of the screen, he dies as if he had fallen in a bottomless pit.
** ''4'' has it as well.
* [[Ratchet and Clank]] has the planet Aridia, a desert planet with massive LAKES of quicksand. You can hop out, but only three times before you sink, for whatever reason.
* It doesn't pose a direct hazard to your player characters, but [[Final Fantasy VII|Corel Prison]] is described as "a natural prison in the middle of the desert... surrounded entirely by quicksand."
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* Averted in ''[[The Curse of Monkey Island]]''. Guybrush gets trapped in a pool of quicksand, but only up to his waist, and he sinks so slowly that the player has ample time to figure out how to use a balloon, a rock, and a nearby thorn bush to get him out before anything unpleasant happens to him.
* ''[[Adventures of Dino Riki]]'' has quicksand whirlpools popping up from the ground.
== Web Originals ==
* Shows up in ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'', where it's used to kill both {{spoiler|Melina Frost}} and {{spoiler|Beth Vandelinder}}, one getting stuck in the sand long enough to be stabbed, the other being pulled in head first and drowned.
* [
* [[Ninjai:
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* Duke falls into a pit of quicksand while escaping from Cobra in an episode of ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' and goes in over his head in a matter of seconds.
* Happens in the form of dry desert quicksand ''[[The Transformers (animation)|The Transformers]]'' episode "Countdown to Extinction".
* Happened to the whole cast of [[Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends]]. They were rescued by BEES. A bit perplexing, even if you DO accept imaginary beings springing into life for no explained reason.
** The ending of the episode implied it was [[All Just a Dream]], with the whole camping trip being imaginary, but, possibly, [[Your Mind Makes It Real]]. Not that that makes it any less perplexing, as imagination, despite its life-giving powers in the setting, was never shown to have power to that degree before or since.
* ''[[Max Steel]]'' both plays this straight and partially subverts it. In season two, Max and Berto walk in to quicksand and start sinking, having to use a vine to pull themselves out. In season three, Berto and Kat walk in to quicksand; however, Berto says that the human body is lighter and they manage to swim out of it.
* Happens two different times in [[Totally Spies!]].
* Crossing the line between [[Did Not Do the Research]] and [[Rule of Cool]], the [[Recycled: the Series]] of ''[[The Little Mermaid]]'' had ''underwater'' quicksand.
* Catwoman leaves [[Batman]] and Robin in a quicksand [[Death Trap]] in the Filmation series episode "The Nine Lives of Batman".
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* Heloise throws a bunch of [[Pandaing to the Audience|pandas]] into a quicksand pit on an episode of ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]''. They only approve of the mudbath.
* A ''[[Robot Chicken]]'' sketch has a giraffe step into quicksand and, because its tall body takes so long to go down, goes through the five stages of grief as it sinks. {{spoiler|The giraffe's life is saved when its feet hit bottom!}}
* [[Subverted Trope|Subverted]] harshly in ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy|Ed Edd & Eddy's Big Picture Show]]''. Ed and Eddy at first appear to be sinking in quicksand, and appear to die as Edd attempts to save them. However, as Edd mourns their deaths, it turns out it was [[Kick the Dog|just a joke that Ed and Eddy played on him.]] Naturally, Edd gets [[Screw This, I'm Outta Here|pissed off at the two and immediately leaves them to return to the cul-de-sac,]] [[Lesser of Two Evils|preferring to be punished by the kids for]] [[Noodle Incident|the scam that backfired and sent them on the run in to first place]] rather then continue on the journey with [[Jerkass|Ed and Eddy]].
* Mozenrath's Black Sand in the [[Aladdin (Disney film)|
* In ''[[Scooby
* ''[[Johnny Bravo]]'': Johnny Bravo ends up stuck in quicksand while marooned on an island. Fortunately, he keeps his shirt on in the situation... so to speak. It was smart of him to call for help though. No point in allowing himself to go under.
== Real Life ==
* Interesting counterpoint: Water with a great deal of gas bubbling through it behaves suitably, in that a human would sink like a rock in it, and subsequently drown. This isn't encountered very often, however, which probably comes down to most writers [[Did Not Do the Research|not doing the research]]... the only example this contributor can come up with is a pool of this in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]]'', where its dangers are carefully described by Vamp. Who then, seconds later, starts swimming through it with ease (He does have superpowers). This has been implicated in the loss of ships at sea, because of a subsidence or other event on the seabed which causes a dramatic release of gas. ''Mythbusters'' did this one, too, and in Code Geass R2 episode 7, the Black Knights take advantage of this.
** An example in real life which has taken many lives: The Niagra Falls massive amount of fallen water has the same effect of the aerated water of ''Metal Gear Solid 2'' and has resulted in many people drowning.
** Another take on this version appeared in an episode of ''[[SeaQuest DSV|Sea Quest DSV]]''. A French leisure submarine was lost and the SeaQuest was sent to investigate. Their findings? Small underwater caverns were filled with FRESH water, and they caved in like undersea potholes. Rather than aerated water causing the issue, the freshwater mixed with the sea water and desalinated it through dilution. This made the vessels too heavy to remain buoyant in the brackish zone, and they fell to the bottom of the freshwater pockets, unable to escape as their oxygen dwindled.
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*** That's why gravel traps are so common at racing circuits. No matter if a car that goes screaming off the tarmac is doing it forwards, backwards or sideways, loose sand and gravel stop it up since the vehicle digs into the gravel, pulling itself in and creating resistance. However, since this also tends to ruin the underbody and wheels of a car, another option that's become popular in recent years is to create a large tarmac runoff area so a driver can recover from a loss of control or error in judgment and quickly rejoin the race. On cars with slicks, especially light ones such as [[Formula One]] cars, they're so grippy that gravel traps actually cause ''more'' slippage in comparison.
* An interesting article on the rise and fall of this trope (it's now [[Discredited Trope|discredited]]) can be found [http://www.slate.com/id/2264312/ here].
** Alan Davies, incidentally, laments the decline of quicksand in a recent episode of ''[[QI]]''.
* Non-Newtonian fluids behave in a similar way; they are so viscous that if a great deal of force is applied to them in a brief time, they behave like solids, but if the same force is applied slower it will allow it to pass through. It can be very difficult to get something out from being trapped in a pool of a non-Newtonian fluid.
* Soil liquefaction, a rare phenomenon associated with earthquakes, can cause water-saturated sandy ground to temporarily turn so slippery and unstable that it becomes too weak to support buildings' foundations.
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[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]
[[Category:Discredited Trope]]
[[Category:Quicksand Sucks]]▼
[[Category:Tropes Examined by the Mythbusters]]
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