History Main / MagicAntidote

* In ''{{Outbreak}},'' one of the CDC doctors contracts the disease (a hemorrhagic fever with a near-100% fatality rate), and is hanging on by a thread when she's given the antiserum. Barely a day later, the splotches on her skin have disappeared, and she's looking tired but otherwise perfectly fine. FYI, hemorrhagic fever causes massive internal bleeding and organ damage. Much of this damage should be permanent even if the disease was arrested, and certainly would not be healed in a single day.

* Subverted in ''DungeonsAndDragons''. Curing poison or a disease will stop things getting worse, but damaged attributes need to be restored separately. Natural healing is fairly slow and can be accelerated with expert care and bed rest -- and some particularly nasty kinds of damage (generally from supernatural sources) can never be naturally healed, requiring magical intervention to repair.

* Subverted in ''Literature/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy'', where Straff's former mistress has a cure-all poison she uses to save him from the frequent poisoning attempts by his son Zane. [[spoiler: Except that Zane never poisoned him at all. The "cure" she mixes contains the drug she's secretly addicted him too, and he mistakes the feelings of withdrawal for poisoning.]]

** Another subversion when Therkla is fatally poisoned. The villain, when [[CarryingTheAntidote the antitoxin is demanded of him]], replies that he drank it half an hour ago and it will last the remainder of said hour. Furthermore, antitoxins don't actually work as instant cures in Dungeons and Dragons: they increase a character's ''resistance'' to the poison. Even if it was administered, Therkla wouldn't be guaranteed to be saved, and she would not have recovered the strength she lost even if she were.

* In ''WesternAnimation/BarbieMariposa'', Queen Marabella is seconds from death when she smells the antidote. It suffices to make her recover completely.

* Played ludicrously straight in the ''SengokuBasara'' anime: [[BadAss Kojuro]] is facing the resident MagnificentBastard Matsunaga Hisahide and gets poisoned twice (first with a low level poison, then with a poison that makes the former deadly), and is seriously weakened. Then [[{{Ninja}} Sasuke]] passes by and gives him the antidote in form of a gas. Two deep breaths later Kojuro (who was enfeebled just a while ago) proceeds to [[CurbStompBattle send Matsunaga flying in a single]] SwordBeam.

* I'm not sure if this is what the main article refers to, but curare (which causes almost instant paralysis) and strychnine (which causes uncontrollable muscle contractions) are deadly poisons which act as each others' antidotes.

* In ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamOrigins'' Copperhead poisons Batman with a supposedly very deadly neuro-toxin, which causes Bats to hallucinate and will supposedly kill him in ten minutes. There is still enough time to have the poison analyzed and a cure synthesized and delivered. Once the cure is taken the hallucination's immediately end and Batman shows no sign of being weakened by the poisoning.

* In ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamOrigins'' Copperhead poison's Batman with a supposedly very deadly neuro-toxin, which causes Bats to hallucinate and will supposedly kill him in ten minutes. There is still enough time to have the poison analyzed and a cure synthesized and delivered. Once the cure is taken the hallucination's immediately end and Batman shows no sign of being weakened by the poisoning.

* Also subverted in ''SuikodenV''. The Hero's Rune has the power to keep Lyon from dying when she gets stabbed and poisoned, but she still has to spend a long time in bed recovering from the damage.
* Used in ''TreasureOfTheRudra'' [[spoiler:Foxy is put into the "Eternal Slumber" by one of the bosses, they need to get a special herb to save her.]]
* In BatmanArkhamOrigins Copperhead poison's Batman with a supposedly very deadly neuro-toxin, which causes Bats to hallucinate and will supposedly kill him in ten minutes. There is still enough time to have the poison analyzed and a cure synthesized and delivered. Once the cure is taken the hallucination's immediately end and Batman shows no sign of being weakened by the poisoning.

* In ''KingdomOfLoathing'', ailments can last an inconveniently long time, but the anti-anti-antidote un-un-unpoisons you in a jiffy!

* At one point in ''TheJourneymanProject'' the player is shot with a tranquilizer dart that causes fatigue and dizziness, and death if they try to leave the room. Fortunately, they are able to synthesize an insta-cure antidote in the laboratory.

** Depends on the edition, however. In some older ones, poison tended to [[OneHitKill outright kill]] fairly quickly -- sometimes even downright instantly -- rather than merely deal hit point or ability damage, and so antidotes, including literally magical ones like the ''Neutralize Poison'' spell, might have to actually be applied within a short period during which the victim was already technically ''dead'' (just of course [[OnlyMostlyDead not]] ''[[OnlyMostlyDead too]]'' [[OnlyMostlyDead dead yet]]) in order to revive them. After which they might or might not be any worse for the wear.

** Depends on the edition, however. In some older ones, poison tended to kill fairly quickly -- sometimes even downright instantly --, and so antidotes, including literally magical ones like the ''Neutralize Poison'' spell, might have to actually be applied within a short period during which the victim was already technically ''dead'' (just of course [[OnlyMostlyDead not]] ''[[OnlyMostlyDead too]]'' [[OnlyMostlyDead dead yet]]) in order to revive them. After which they might or might not be any worse for the wear.

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'': Federation medicine is generally pretty swift. Just to name one example, in "The Deadly Years" we see the effects of a disease that causes accelerated aging reverse before our eyes in response to a shot of adrenaline.
** Compare to ''Series/StargateSG1'''s take on the same concept, where O'Neill's rapid aging takes weeks of off-screen time to reverse.

* Possibly subverted (but then again, maybe not) in an episode of ''TheBurningZone'': an infected airplane pilot is given the cure to an ebola-like virus, but dies anyway because the damage to his organs was already too severe. On the other hand, upon receiving the cure, he instantly regained enough strength and clarity to land the airplane, destroyed organs and all.

Compare to InstantSedation. See also CPRCleanPrettyReliable.

* Subverted in the HarryPotter fic ''Blood Quill Consequences'', when Voldemort found out Snape was a spy and poisoned him via his Dark Mark. Even after being given the antidote and having the Mark removed it took him two days to wake up, at which point Madame Pomfrey pronounced that he'd need another two weeks of recovery time followed by two weeks of taking it easy.