History Main / GasolineDousing

As you might guess, this occurs when a captor takes out a container of gasoline, douses it over something -- whether it be a restrained living victim, a corpse and/or the property of a victim -- and sets it ablaze.

Can overlap with VaporTrail, FieryCoverup, ManOnFire, IgnorantAboutFire, or ReusableLighterToss.

* In ''Manga/BlackLagoon'', this was implicitly done to Mr. Chin with bombs and a jerrycan (not shown being set up on screen but later the results were) by the Russian Mafia for trying to kill the Lagoon Company. It's triggered by an explosion set off by Balalaika, the leader of the gang.

* ''Manga/GTOTheEarlyYears'':
** Akutsu did this to Kamishima twice. In the 2020 live-action, he does it to Ryuji as well.
** Kamata does this to some Yokohama punks and threatens to light it when he's trying to find out where the Yokohama Cavalry are.

* ''Manga/JujutsuKaisen'': Reggie Star uses his technique to drench Megumi in gasoline, attempting to set him on fire in combination with Hazenoki's explosive projectiles.

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* ''Fanfic/WithPearlAndRubyGlowing'':
** The cult God's Will First did this to [[WesternAnimation/BigHero6 Tadashi]].
** When [[WesternAnimation/VillainousCartoonNetwork Dr Flug]] learns that Black Hat molested 5.0.5, [[PapaWolf Flug]] does this to kill him.
** [[WesternAnimation/{{Rango}} Rattlesnake Jake]] tries to do this to [[WesternAnimation/BuddyThunderstruck Darnell]], but Buddy has a BigDamnHeroes moment just in time.
** [[Series/TheBasilBrushShow Basil Brush]] accidentally does this to himself, [[WesternAnimation/OneHundredAndOneDalmatianStreet Fergus]], and the inside of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral when he tries to disarm a bomb and breaks the casing, spilling the contents. Luckily he and Fergus survive.
* Happens to Chet Kelly in the ''{{Series/Emergency}}'' fic [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7967979/1/A-is-also-for-Alone "A is Also for Alone"]]. The crew arrives before his captors can burn him but has to remove his clothes and douse his skin to wash off the stuff so he won't have irritation from it while he's taken to the hospital.
[[/folder]]

* ''Film/AmericanGangster'' opens with a tied-up gangster being doused with a gas can by the VillainProtagonist before being set on fire. Him and his boss watch [[{{Pun}} coldly]] for a few moments, before putting the screaming man out of his misery with a few gunshots to the chest.
* ''Film/{{Airplane}}'' has a SelfImmolation version, with a man (desperate to end the agony of hearing Ted Striker tell the story of his relationship with Elaine) pouring gasoline on himself, then lighting a match. Ted is called away, and the man blows out the match with relief. [[spoiler: Then goes up anyway.]]

* In the opening of ''Film/EbolaSyndrome'' the villain Kai attempts to do this to a [[WouldHurtAChild little girl]] whose family he massacred. He's thankfully interrupted and escapes to Johannesburg, and over a decade later the girl - now a teenager - recognizes Kai as "the creepy man who soaked her as a kid" when he returns.

* ''Film/{{Fido}}'': After saving Timmy from the bullies (who are now zombies because of Fido's unbridled hunger [[TooDumbToLive and their own stupidity]]), Helen empties a gas can inside the bullies? clubhouse and sets it on fire with their corpses inside it. She then tells her son to forget everything he just saw her do.

* ''Film/TeamAmericaWorldPolice'': The titular team are momentarily subdued by F.A.G in the final shootout, and had a keg of gasoline emptied on them. They regain consciousness and fight back before they can be set alight.
* ''Film/GokeBodySnatcherFromHell'': The [[PuppeteerParasite Gokemidoro]] inhabits the hijacker's body and tries coming after Sugisaka. The latter sees a bucket of airplane fuel nearby, grabs it and splashes its contents on Goke before throwing a lit lighter. It works until Goke simply abandons it's incinerated host body.
* ''Film/{{Hatchet}}'': Ben tosses Misty's Zippo lighter at Victor Crowley to turn him into a ManOnFire after first dousing him in gasoline.
* ''Film/HeadlessHorseman'': Liam spreads gasoline around Rusk's garage and then lights it by tossing Doc's lighter inside.
* ''Film/HouseParty'': After being refused entry to Play's party, Stab, one of the bullies that was harnessing Kid at the start of the movie, tries to burn the house down in revenge and starts to do so by getting some gasoline and dousing the side of the house. His brothers, Pee-Wee and Zilla, aren't exactly onboard with the plan however but Stab tries to kowtow them. Luckily some passing cops spot and prevent them from going through with it.

* One of the first (of many) action scenes in ''Film/ProudAndConfident'' revolves around a HostageSituation where a psychopath took over a gas station, spilled petrol all over the floor and is waving a lit lighter around threatening to blow up the whole place. Wah, the hero, then demonstrates his ImprobableAimingSkills when the psychopath drops the lighter for real - by shooting said lighter in mid-air and neutralizing the threat.

* ''Film/RedDragon'': After Will Graham determines Francis Dolarhyde was behind the Tooth Fairy/Red Dragon murders. Dolarhyde breaks out the gas can, with the apparent intent to kill himself and his girlfriend Reba in a house fire. It turns out that this is is actually meant to throw Graham off so Dolarhyde can go after him and his family.
* ''Film/RedWolf'' has ''Paint'' Dousing. The terrorist henchwoman and DarkActionGirl, Elaine, tries killing Christy Chung's character Lai only to be splashed by buckets of paint on a scaffolding Lai pushed over. Elaine then tries firing away, and in stereotypical action movie fashion somehow the pistol's sparks can set the paint alight turning Elaine into a [[ManOnFire woman on fire]].
* ''Film/ReservoirDogs'' has a scene where Mr. Blonde gets a gasoline container and douses a police officer being held hostage with it, planning to kill him by setting him on fire. Subverted when Mr. Blonde is killed before he can light the fire and the officer is later shot instead.
* ''Film/RunAndKill'', an infamously violent CAT-III ExploitationFilm, have the main villain drenching a gasoline keg on a ''[[WouldHurtAChild child]]''. And incinerating her right in front of her father, who's ForcedToWatch, in the film's most infamously disturbing moment. Before [[CrossesTheLineTwice picking up the child's charred, black carcass and toying it like a puppet to taunt her father]].
* Averted in ''Film/SinCity'': Marv buys a bunch of lethal equipment when preparing to attack Kevin's farmhouse, including a big gas can. Rather than dousing the place, he stuffs a handkerchief into the spout and lights it, creating a giant Molotov cocktail that he hurls through a window, blowing up the farmhouse and forcing Kevin outside to face him.

* ''Series/TheBlacklist'': Subverted. Reddington tied up a rival criminal, doused him in alcohol, and put a lit cigar in his mouth. He got impatient waiting for the cigar to burn down and [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim just shot him]].

* Episode 8, Season 1, ''Series/CobraKai:'' This is the aftermath of yet another fight. Daniel's cousin along with some other thugs pour gasoline from cans onto Johnny's car and set it ablaze to make a point.
* ''Series/{{CSI}}'': The episode "Crime after Crime" has a victim who was placed in car tires and then set ablaze with gasoline while still alive. It turns out this was a vigilante murder as the victim in question had killed the innocent girlfriend of his rival in the same manner years ago and gotten away with it.

* One ''Series/{{Flashpoint}}'' episode has a subject pour gasoline on himself and threaten suicide by self-immolation. This presents a challenge for SRU because they want to try to take him down safely, but all of the tools they would normally use to do that (flash-bangs, less-lethal rounds, tear gas, etc.) produce enough of a spark to potentially ignite the gasoline vapors. Parker eventually improvises a solution using industrial fans, which are turned on at a safe distance and then brought in already active.
** Occurs again in a later episode; gang members douse a man in gasoline and tell ''him'' to set ''himself'' on fire, or they'll tell his daughter that he set the fire that killed her mother.
* ZigZagged in one case of ''Series/ForensicFiles'', after an elderly woman perished in a house fire. Investigators determined that the fire spread very quickly, as though an accelerant had been used. Testing found traces of gasoline in the floorboards, leading to a homicide-by-arson charge against the woman's only son. Further testing found tetra-ethyl lead in the gasoline, which the [=EPA=] had abolished in 1973. The home builders had used cheap gasoline instead of expensive thinner when varnishing the floors, so the suspect was cleared of charges.

* ''Series/{{MASH}}'': Corporal Klinger decides on extreme method of getting out of the Army once and for all when he sits in the middle of the compound, dumps two gas cans all over himself and threatens to strike a match; unfortunately for him, Colonel Potter quickly realizes the cans were actually filled with water, and has Radar switch them out with the real deal while Klinger is distracted. Cue Klinger running into the nurses' shower, screaming for no one to light a match.

* ''Series/{{Misfits}}'': After [[spoiler: future!Simon]] jumps in front of a bullet for [[spoiler: Alisha]], he makes her burn his body with petrol and not tell anyone, in order to preserve the timeline.

* ''Series/WireInTheBlood'': The delusional killer from "The Darkness of Light" who see's herself as a Joan of Arc like figure who purges heretics (who only exist as such in her mind) then kills their children, finally traps the son of one of her victims in the path room tipping a gas can into the bath she's standing in believing herself to be on a pyre to martyr herself.

* ''Podcast/TheMagnusArchives'': When Gertrude is planning on destroying [[spoiler: the Archives]] she casually points out that "Paper burns well," followed by the sound of sloshing liquid. "...But petrol burns better."

* In ''VisualNovel/FourTwoEightShibuyaScramble'', Detective Tateno doused himself in gasoline while attempting to talk down an arsonist. Kano considered this an inspiring act of bravery and idolized Tateno for it, to the point of wanting to become a detective just like him. [[spoiler:It's later revealed that Tateno fell into despair after failing to protect the woman he loved. Dousing himself in gasoline wasn't a negotiation tactic; Tateno simply didn't care about his own survival.]]

* ''VideoGame/MafiaIITheBetrayalOfJimmy'' has the titular protagonist do this to [[spoiler:Judge Hillwood's]] mansion at the ending of ''Vendetta'', in order to cover his tracks from any potential pursuers.

* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'': One of the Pyro's items, the Gas Passer, is a throwable gas can that explodes into a cloud of gasoline when it hits the ground, and anyone who gets caught in this cloud would get covered in it. If they take damage while drenched, they would catch on fire. Spies who attempt to cloak are also [[GlamourFailure more visible]] since being wet works similarly to getting hit by the Sniper's [[UrineTrouble Jarate]] or the Scout's Mad Milk.
* This is how the Arsonist in ''VideoGame/TownOfSalem'' operates. They have the ability to douse people with gas, and then ignite them on a following night.

* In ''WebAnimation/HelluvaBoss'', The Crazy Cannibal parents tries to set the demons on fire by dousing them with gasoline from a jerrycan and lighting the post with a torch. Hilariously, this has no effect on them since demons are [[NoSell immune to fire]].

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Invincible|2021}}'': At the end of the first season, The Mauler Twins use gas to set their garage hideout ablaze to head somewhere else to set up shop. They didn't get far as the Global Defense Agency managed to track them down, and with them being outnumbered they decide to accept arrest.

-->-- ''Podcast/TheMagnusArchives''

* The opening of ''Film/EbolaSyndrome'' have the villain, Kai, attempting to do this to a [[WouldHurtAChild little girl]] whose family he massacred. He's thankfully interrupted and escapes to Johannesburg, and over a decade later the girl - now a teenager - recognizes Kai as "the creepy man who soaked her as a kid" when he returns.

'''Note: As a potential DeathTrope, there may be spoilers ahead!'''

[[caption-width-right:350:When someone pulls this thing out, things are about to get hot!]]

[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rick_spills_gas.jpeg]]]]

[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare2 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ghost_and_roach_death_scene_modern_warfare_2_remastered__loose_ends__4k_60fps_1_42_screenshot_1.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:When someone pulls this thing out, things are about to get hot!]]

* ''Film/AmericanGangster'' opens with a tied-up gangster being doused with a gas can by the VillainProtagonist before being set on fire. Him and his boss watch [[IncrediblyLamePun coldly]] for a few moments, before putting the screaming man out of his misery with a few gunshots to the chest.