History Main / RisingWaterRisingTension

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* ''WesternAnimation/ThePerilsOfPenelopePitstop'': In "The Terrible Trolley Trap", Penelope is afloat in a sealed room that the Hooded Claw fills with water. While the water rises, the Ant Hill Mob search the ship for her. Just as Penelope is near the harpoon on the ceiling, the mobsters open the door and release all the water.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThunderbirdsAreGo'': In "Ring of Fire" Part 1", International Rescue have to save the crew of an underwater lab that has been damaged by an earthquake and is taking on water.

* In ''Film/TheWorldIsNotEnough'', the final showdown between Bond and Reynard takes in the flooding reactor room of a nuclear sub

* In ''Film/TheWorldIsNotEnough'', the final showdown between Bond and Reynard takes in the flooding reactor room of a nuclear sub.

* ''VideoGame/MegaManZero3'': Volteel Biblio's level is set in a sunken library where the water goes up and down at intervals. The danger isn't the water itself (Zero is fine underwater) but when the water touches the exposed wiring that hangs off the ceiling, shocking the water; Zero can get harmed if he doesn't go out of the water quickly.

* ''Film/{{Titanic}}'': Almost inevitably, Jack and Rose's final escape from the doomed ship involves a race through rooms slowly filling with water (and starting to tilt at an alarming angle).

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Sealab 2020}}'': In "Green Fever", a red alert is signaled after a supply ship's concrete mooring, cast off during a hurricane, unwittingly strikes Sealab's control dome and splits a major section of the shell, causing it to start flooding.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Sealab 2020}}'': In "Green Fever", a red alert is signaled after a supply ship\'s concrete mooring, cast off during a hurricane, unwittingly strikes Sealab's control dome and splits a major section of the shell, causing it to start flooding.

* The opening scenes of ''WesternAnimation/RockADoodle'' has young Edmond being read a bedtime story by his mother, while his father and older brothers struggle to sustain a barrier of sandbags against floodwaters that threaten to inundate the family farm. Persistent rains aren't helping; a break in the storm clouds is needed desperately.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Sealab 2020}}'': In "Green Fever", a red alert is signaled after a supply ship\'s concrete mooring, cast off during a hurricane, unwittingly strikes Sealab's control dome and splits a major section of the shell, causing it to start flooding.

* In ''Film/{{Daylight}}'', an explosion traps commuters in a tunnel under the Hudson River as water starts to seep in.

See also RiseToTheChallenge, where rising flood waters are one of the obstacles a character might have to avoid.

* ''Series/DalzielAndPascoe'': The climax of "Under Work" has Pascoe confronting a murdered in an abandoned mine that is slowly filling with water due to a storm.

This trope happens when characters find themselves in a location that is slowly disappearing beneath rising flood waters. Expect the heroes to be a race against time to retrieve the MacGuffin before it is lost forever beneath the water. In doing so they will face a familiar environment that has suddenly turned hostile, and run the risk of [[DrowningPit drowning]], [[ElectrifiedBathtub electrocution]] (from power cables in the water) and other unexpected forms of death.

See also RiseToTheChallenge, where rising flood waters are one the obstacles a character might have to avoid.

* The villain of ''VideoGame/HeavyRain'' kidnaps young boys and holds them inside a flood drain during the rain season, which slowly fills with water over several days. This means that when a new victim is kidnapped, the police and, particularly, the victim\'s father (who receives hints from the killer) have only limited time before the boy drowns, with the dramatic tension rising accordingly.

This trope happens when characters find themselves in a location that is slowly disappearing beneath rising flood waters. Expect the heroes to be a race against time to retrieve the MacGuffin before it is lost forever beneath the water. In doing so they will face a familiar environment that has suddenly turned hostile, and run the risk of [[DrowningPit drowning]], [[HighVoltageDeath electrocution]] (from power cables in the water) and other unexpected forms of death.

* ''Film/HardRain'' is essentially \'\'This Trope: The Movie\'\' as Christian Slater plays cat and mouse with gang of robbers [[spoiler:and a pack of {{Dirty Cop}}s]] to secure $3 million in stolen cash hidden in a town that is slowly disappearing beneath flood waters.

* ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot3Warped'': The level Tomb Wader is set in an Egyptian catacombs where water floods up and drains down at intervals. When the water goes too high you should find a tall footing for Crash to stand on and wait until the water drains, otherwise he\'ll be drowned in the water.

* ''Series/{{CSI}'': In "Lady Heather's Box", Lindsey is trapped in a wrecked car in slowly rising flood waters and Catherine has to race to locate and rescue her.

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* \'\'WesternAnimation/TheLEGOMovie\'\' has the heroes escape from the overrun Cloudcuckooland in a hastily built submarine. As they ponder their options, the wizard Vitruvius wonders why his feet feel wet. It turns out the submarine is leaking badly, and Lego-water is pouring in. Batman, immersed to his chin, snarls \"This is not how Batman dies.\" Wyldstyle is heard ordering \"Abandon ship! Abandon ship!\" moments before the doomed craft explodes.
* TheVillain of \'\'WesternAnimation/CatsDontDance\'\' is filling the soundstage with water in a scheme to drown or discredit the animal performers. While her victims try to remain afloat aboard a set piece never meant to be seaworthy, poor Pudge remains tied in the control room where the rising water submerges him entirely.

* \'\'Film/HardRain\'\' is essentially \'\'This Trope: The Movie\'\' as Christian Slater plays cat and mouse with gang of robbers [[spoiler:and a pack of {{Dirty Cop}}s]] to secure $3 million in stolen cash hidden in a town that is slowly disappearing beneath flood waters.
* In \'\'Film/{{Daylight}}\'\', an explosion traps commuters in a tunnel under the Hudson River as water starts to seep in.
* Happens in \'\'Film/{{Jumanji}}\'\' when the game unleashes a monsoon inside the house. To make matters worse, the rising flood waters contain crocodiles.
* The opening scenes of \'\'WesternAnimation/RockADoodle\'\' has young Edmond being read a bedtime story by his mother, while his father and older brothers struggle to sustain a barrier of sandbags against floodwaters that threaten to inundate the family farm. Persistent rains aren\'t helping; a break in the storm clouds is needed desperately.

* A storm descends on a small town, and the downpour soon turns into a flood. As the waters rise, the local preacher kneels in prayer on the church porch, surrounded by water. By and by, one of the townsfolk comes up the street in a canoe. \"Better get in, Preacher. The waters are rising fast.\" \"No,\" says the preacher. \"I have faith in the Lord. He will save me.\" Still the waters rise. Now the preacher is up on the balcony, wringing his hands in supplication, when another guy zips up in a motorboat. \"Come on, Preacher. We need to get you out of here. The levee\'s gonna break any minute.\" Once again, the preacher is unmoved. \"I shall remain. The Lord will see me through.\" After a while the levee breaks, and the flood rushes over the church until only the steeple remains above water. The preacher is up there, clinging to the cross, when a helicopter descends out of the clouds, and a state trooper calls down to him through a megaphone. \"Grab the ladder, Preacher. This is your last chance.\" Once again, the preacher insists the Lord will deliver him. Predictably, he drowns. A pious man, the preacher goes to heaven. After a while he gets an interview with God, and he asks the Almighty, \"Lord, I had unwavering faith in you. Why didn\'t you deliver me from that flood?\" God shakes his head. \"What did you want from me? I sent you two boats and a helicopter.\"

* Book Two of Mervyn Peake\'s \'\'Literature/{{Gormenghast}}\'\' trilogy sees the usurper Steerpike rising to higher levels in the castle-state\'s hierarchy. As he makes his final bid to overthrow the Groan family and become ruler, torrential unrelenting rain begins and the castle is flooded. The action of the book happens on two levels. As the lower levels of the castle are progressively swamped by floodwaters, its inhabitants struggle for survival, moving themselves and their possessions to higher and higher levels. This adds to the claustrophobic menace of the situation. The flooding becomes a metaphor for cleansing, both of an ancient civilisation strangling in its own history, and of the need to destroy a cancer in the social body - Steerpike. The water rises to menacing levels, and the Princess Fuchsia dies a lonely death by drowning; Titus Groan, the legitimate heir to Ghormenghast, seeks out and kills Steerpike at the point where the floodwaters rise to their highest. Symbolically, after Steerpike\'s death, the rain stops and the flood recedes.
* \'\'Literature/TheMillOnTheFloss\'\': A flood is used to provide a dramatic climax to the novel, in which Tom and Maggie use a boat to save Lucy Deane and her family from the rising waters.
* \'\'Literature/JoePickett\'\': In \'\'In Plain Sight\'\', Joe\'s daughters are abducted as one of the biggest storms in living memory sweeps in. Joe first has to find a way through the flood waters to the ranch where they are being held, and then race to find and rescue them as the ranch buildings slowly disappear beneath the flood.
* \'\'Literature/YoungBond\'\': In \'\'Literature/HurricaneGold\'\', Bond attempts to drive the Stone children to town after the hurricane wrecks the mansion. The car gets caught in a sudden flood and JJ almost drowns.

* \'\'Series/MidsomerMurders\'\': The final denouement in \"Let Us Prey\" takes place during a flood that is threatening to engulf the village, and in particular destroy the crypt that lies at the centre of the mystery.
* \'\'Series/{{CSI}}\'\': In \"Lady Heather\'s Box\", Lindsey is trapped in a wrecked car in slowly rising flood waters and Catherine has to race to locate and rescue her.

* The Music/JohnnyCash song \"Five Feet High and Rising\" is about a farm family forced to evacuate as their farm slowly disappears beneath flood waters.

** Their first hit single was \"Flood\", which uses the imagery as a metaphor for the hardships of life. \"But if I can\'t swim after forty days, / and my mind is crushed by the crashing waves, / lift me up so high that I cannot fall, / lift me up...\"
** The music video for \"Work\" starts off as a PerformanceVideo, then water spills into the studio where they\'re performing. The band just keeps playing as the water rises higher. By the end of the song, even the camera is underwater, and the band members appear to drift away with the current. \"I have no fear of drowning. / It\'s the breathing / that\'s taking all this work...\"

* The villain of \'\'VideoGame/HeavyRain\'\' kidnaps young boys and holds them inside a flood drain during the rain season, which slowly fills with water over several days. This means that when a new victim is kidnapped, the police and, particularly, the victim\'s father (who receives hints from the killer) have only limited time before the boy drowns, with the dramatic tension rising accordingly.
* \'\'VideoGame/GhostTrick\'\': A late level is set in a sinking submarine. You have to make a path for your companions to flee from the rising water.
* \'\'VideoGame/CrashBandicoot3Warped\'\': The level Tomb Wader is set in an Egyptian catacombs where water floods up and drains down at intervals. When the water goes too high you should find a tall footing for Crash to stand on and wait until the water drains, otherwise he\'ll be drowned in the water.
* \'\'VideoGame/MegaManZero3\'\': Volteel Biblio\'s level is set in a sunken library where the water goes up and down at intervals. The danger isn\'t the water itself (Zero is fine underwater) but when the water touches the exposed wiring that hangs off the ceiling, shocking the water; Zero can get harmed if he doesn\'t go out of the water quickly.
* The \'\'VideoGame/Left4Dead2\'\' campaign \'\'Hard Rain\'\' takes place during a heavy rainfall, which intensifies with every stage. Other than limiting visibility and attracting the Infected, the levels eventually get so flooded they severely hinder movement on the ground. This prompts players to instead seek higher ground and travel along walkways and ledges to keep up the pace.

* \'\'WesternAnimation/{{Sealab 2020}}\'\': In \"Green Fever\", a red alert is signaled after a supply ship\'s concrete mooring, cast off during a hurricane, unwittingly strikes Sealab\'s control dome and splits a major section of the shell, causing it to start flooding.