History Main / SoftWater

* Averted in [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV GTA V]]. Falling from high enough will kill the character who hits the water.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' even if you build a tower to the top of the world, and have a hole at the bottom of the world, if there is water that is at least four blocks high -- you'll survive.

** Averted in GTA V. This Troper fell into the Alamo Sea from a chopper, and Trevor got wasted, despite the fact in the death scene he was still floating.

* There was a skydiver whose parachute failed to deploy, and she fell into water, and survived. There was a catch, though; it wasn't exactly clean water. She fell into an [[{{Squick}} open sewage receptacle]]. One guess what was keeping surface tension from forming.
** Non-aqueous fluids can also be considerably lighter than water, with oil being a prime example.

* Averted in ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'': being pushed off the top of a waterfall or catapulted into a pond causes realistic concussion, broken bones, organ damage and eventually death from trauma or internal bleeding.Even short falls (about 3 feet) can prove fatal, as they will still stun the victim long enough for them to drown.

* ''TombRaider''

** Similarly, the beginning of the Aldwych level in ''TombRaider III'', where you drop down from the bell tower into the sewers. The death scream doesn't loop here, though.

* Interestingly, an issue of the ''TombRaider'' comic had Lara dropping off a cliff, observing calmly that she will probably break every bone in her body if she hits the water, but that it was "better than kissing the rocks below". She falls into the water with such impact that her glasses shatter, bones are snapped and she falls instantly unconscious, possibly dead -- but since the drop was to get into the valley of Shangri-La, a legendary city of eternal health, she wakes up in a king-size bed fully healed.

** The danger for Gandalf in the hobbit was more due to the spears and weapons of the goblins than the fall, and he would have used more of his natural power fighting the balrog allowing him to survive the fall in moria, he also stepped into famirirs pyre to lift him out in the book, showing he has a resistance to fire, allowing him the battle the Balrog for some time while falling.

* ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians''
** In Rick Riordan's ''The Lightning Thief'', Percy explicitly thinks of the falsity of this trope, that water would be no different from concrete, before risking it because he's Poseidon's son. Which does prove enough to help him. In ''The Last Olympian'', he pulls off another such jump -- but he knows the demigod with him died, because not being Poseidon's children, he was not immune to the reality.

* Averted in the final chapter of the ''{{Batman}}'' storyline ''{{Knightfall}}'', Bane is driven off by the Jean-Paul Valley Batman (still wearing the classic Batsuit) and JP attempts to save his own life after the rope snagged on his foot breaks and his grappling hook doesn't catch right. He kicks the wall and attempts to somersault into a mall fountain, but the cape causes too much drag and he barely makes it. Though he's alive, he's injured his arm and he ends up limping out of the mall, his leg ended up smacking into the edge of the fountain in the end.

* Ironically used in ''Franchise/StarWars: Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', where Obi-Wan is believed dead after falling from a cliff into deep water from about 600 feet: in response, the clones say [[NoOneCouldSurviveThat "he couldn't have survived that fall"]], despite knowing full-well that Jedi are capable of falling safely from extreme heights -- and likewise knowing that Jedi carry compact SCUBA equipment (both of which Obi-Wan in fact uses to escape).
** In the novelization, the clone commander insists that Obi-Wan isn't dead until they find the body. They send probes to make sure, but Obi-Wan tricks a nearby predator into eating them.
* In HoneyIShrunkTheKids Nick survives falling what must be for him several hundred meters into his dad's cereal bowl. He appears to be completely unscathed from this (his glasses don't even come off).

* The ultimate example is shown in ''Film/{{Commando}},'' where Matrix jumps from the landing-gear of an airliner just after take-off-- only to be saved by landing in about 18 inches of water (it even has ''reeds and cat-tails'' in it!). Even if the falling-distance itself wasn't far enough to be harmful, the velocity of the plane at take-off (175 knots plus) would cause him to be moving faster than terminal velocity, being certainly fatal. Likewise, the lateral motion from the plane would cause him to skip like a stone across the surface of the water, causing a certain fatality. But in the movie, he just falls in as if he had stepped off of a 5-foot platform.
* The eponymous protagonist himself in ''[[Film/TheBourneSeries The Bourne Identity]]'' is shot, falls of a boat, and ends up injured further with his plot-driving amnesia. [[spoiler:In ''[[Film/TheBourneSeries The Bourne Ultimatum]]'', he jumps off a building into water and survives. Never mind that he gets ''shot'' while in mid-jump. However, it could be one of the reasons it took him so long to move after hitting, the wound and avoiding surfacing to be spotted also viable arguments. Meaning that he was even able to take a deep breath of air before impact! Even James Bond would be amazed.]]

* Used at the climax of ''DeathBecomesHer'' -- Ernest Menville falls off an enormous mansion, smashes through a ''stained-glass skylight'', and lands in an indoor pool, with only a nasty-looking (but utterly unthreatening) cut on his arm and a wet tuxedo for it. Cheap but forgivable on its own, until one considers the ''entire movie'' has been focusing on ways in which a body can be horribly mangled and [[BlackComedy playing them for laughs]]. Unless the mansion was over 100 feet high, then this is easily do-able; and the skylight would actually ''slow'' his fall; glass can't cut you if you hit it sideways. Finally, the water could ''protect'' him from the falling glass, as long as he was under it when it hit.
* Lampshaded and played straight in ''Film/FaceOff'' where the main character is on a prison oil rig with information that if you should attempt to swim away the fall with kill you. He jumps anyway, in shackles, and not only manages to survive the fall but somehow get back to mainland without too much of a problem.
* Subverted in ''Film/ClubDread'': Before jumping off a cliff into water, Juan tells the others to close their legs, or else they'll die from the fall. However, what he says will happen [[AssShove isn't exactly accurate]].
* Done by Riggs in the second ''Film/LethalWeapon'' movie when he falls out of a window and lands in a pool. To make matters worse, he gets mad at his partner for not following him out the window. Again, distance is important. 10 stories is plausible: 20 isn't.
* Happens in ''House'', starring William Katt. In a scene where Katt is going down a rope into nothing but darkness, the rope is cut and Katt falls for several seconds, landing in water. He is not harmed by the landing.
* In ''Film/HarleyDavidsonAndTheMarlboroMan'', the two title characters jump from the roof of a tall building into a swimming pool below without any injuries.
* ''Film/TheFugitive''. "The guy did a PeterPan right off this dam, right here!" The fall in question is a special case, however, as it's not straight down into a pool of water. Kimble drops into water that is flowing down the outside of the dam, which curves outwards. Provided he could hold his breath for long enough, and the initial contact was at a sufficiently shallow angle, he could have used the dam as a slide. Some may be familiar with the now-vanished funfair / amusement park rides that used the same principle, only with polished plywood rather than water down concrete.
* Happens to Plenty O'Toole in the ''Film/JamesBond'' film ''Film/DiamondsAreForever''.
** And in ''Film/{{Skyfall}}''; the opening sequence features Bond being shot twice and knocked off a speeding train as it crosses a bridge, falling at least 100ft into water. They don't even bother to handwave how he survives.
* ''Film/ResidentEvilAfterlife'' has some people in an elevator. The solution to not having a working motor? Cut the cable and drop the elevator in the water below.
* ''PiratesOfTheCaribbean''
** Elizabeth Swann faints from her corset being too tight, and falls off a cliff into some Soft Water. She ''is'' in danger of dying, but it's from drowning; the impact seems to have not hurt her at all. (Hitting the water backside-first might have saved her life by sparing her head... but in that case would have snapped her lumber (lower) spine, costing the use of her legs for life.)
** In ''On Stranger Tides'', Blackbeard makes Jack Sparrow jump off a high cliff into a river to retrieve a MacGuffin, though this time it's actually acknowledged that the fall could kill him (Hence Blackbeard sending Sparrow instead of one of his more trustworthy crewmen). Blackbeard's Quartermaster "solves" this by throwing a [[HollywoodVoodoo Voodoo Doll]] of Jack into the river. Since the doll was undamaged, Sparrow himself was also able to make the jump unharmed. Or maybe he just got lucky.
* At the end of the first ''Film/{{Ghostbusters}}'' movie, the EPA officer has a huge amount of melted marshmallow fall on him. It doesn't crush him to death, despite the fact that it is probably thicker than water and fell over 20 stories before hitting him.

* ''Film/SherlockHolmesAGameOfShadows''
** Mary Watson is thrown from a moving train into water with little injury.
** [[spoiler:Near the end of the film, inspired by ''The Adventure of The Final Problem'', Holmes falls down a waterfall with Prof. Moriarty and is [[NoOneCouldSurviveThat presumed dead]] until the last scene. The [[ChekhovsGun oxygen device]] he swiped from Mycroft explains how he didn't drown, but not how he survived the several hundred foot fall.]]
* Played straight naturally in ''Film/BatmanAndRobin''. Freeze demolishes a wall by freezing it with water (What, You expected Them to follow other laws of physics?), only to reveal an absolutely massive drop to water. They jump without any hesitation, only commenting about being able to swim.
* In ''Film/TheWolverine'', Noburo gets thrown a dozen hotel floors into an outdoor swimming pool yet after he lands, he's still moving.

* ''{{Pikmin}} 3'' has a truely absurd example [[UpToEleven even by this Tropes standards]]. Alph, one of the playable captains in game, gets ejected out of his ship in ''the Pikmin planets atmosphere, falls all the way to the planet below, but is only slightly dazed from it because he lands in a pool of water.'' Granted, his fellow captains, Brittany and Charlie, also survive the fall by landing in piles of snow, so it's quite possible that Koppai's are just MadeOfIron in general.

SoftWater comes into play when a fall from any height at all can be rendered harmless or merely incapacitating if, at the end of the fall, the character meets a body of deep water (and sometimes, not even all that deep).

* In ''XXx: State of the Union'' (''[=xXx=] 2: The Next Level'') the protagonist shoots a grenade into the water he's about to fall into, thus heavily aerating the water and actually making it Soft Water. Granted, he'd probably still die, but they tried.

** Elizabeth Swann faints from her corset being too tight, and falls off a cliff into some SoftWater. She ''is'' in danger of dying, but it's from drowning; the impact seems to have not hurt her at all. (Hitting the water backside-first might have saved her life by sparing her head... but in that case would have snapped her lumber (lower) spine, costing the use of her legs for life.)

** [[spoiler: Beckendorf]]'s death in ''The Last Olympian'' has less to do with SoftWater not applying and more to do with the fact that he was still on the ship when it exploded. [[spoiler: Luke/Kronos]] did survive both the explosion and the fall, but only because he was invulnerable. The book was very unclear on how exactly [[spoiler: Ethan]] survived, but it's indicated that the other demigods onboard were killed.

* There was a woman skydiver whose parachute failed to deploy, and she fell into water, and survived. There was a catch, though; it wasn't exactly clean water. She fell into an [[{{Squick}} open sewage receptacle]]. One guess what was keeping surface tension from forming.

** 30 feet, or ten meter, is also a fairly standard height for the highest amongst diving boards. It's a height at which even bad dive attempts are usually survived without too serious injuries. Which is why a foot of water can break ones fall: the diver goes on purpose for a very painful but ultimately survivable belly flop. This troper however would definitely not recommend trying it at home, not without some serious stunts and/or diving experience. Double that height and even professional cliff divers won't jump without a safety team standing by. At these heights air friction doesn't play much of a role yet, and a little extra height can make a big difference.

* In HoneyIShrunkTheKids Nick survives, perfectly unscathed, falling what must be for him several hundred meters into his dad's cereal bowl.

* Averted in ''TheBoatThatRocked''. The Count and Gavin play a game of Chicken that involves climbing the mast of the ship, and then jumping in the water. In the following scene, The Count is seen with a bruised and bandaged face, while Gavin appears relatively unscathed [[spoiler:until he stands up, and limps around on a cane]].
* Averted in ''TerminatorSalvation'', when Marcus Wright falls from a moving aircraft into a river, and goes skipping across the surface like a stone. [[spoiler:His not being killed is sort of justified because he's a cyborg.]]

* In ''HarleyDavidsonAndTheMarlboroMan'', the two title characters jump from the roof of a tall building into a swimming pool below without any injuries.

* Happens to Plenty O'Toole in the ''JamesBond'' film ''Diamonds Are Forever''.
** And in ''{{Skyfall}}''; the opening sequence features Bond being shot twice and knocked off a speeding train as it crosses a bridge, falling at least 100ft into water. They don't even bother to handwave how he survives.

* Somewhat averted in ''Disney/Tarzan''. In an early scene, Tarzan jumps off a cliff and dives into a pool a good hundred feet down, at least. He lands with a nasty smack and seems to be a little dazed, but eventually swims away unscathed.

* ''CallOfJuarez'' is a rare exception to this rule, where falling into water exerts the same damage as falling onto solid ground.

* The ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' series has this. Each installment has Solid Snake (or Big Boss) avoiding death by aiming at water. Sometimes even villains. The most blatant must be in ''[=MGS3=]'', when future Big Boss gets shot, after being tortured, is pretty much near death and falls about 300 feet in a waterfall into a mostly knee deep river, fights The Sorrow and survives. Would be impressive, if it had the slimmest sense.
** Lampshaded, as with many things, in ''TheLastDaysOfFoxhound'' when Big Boss' ghost is called on the ridiculous drop, he responds with something like "I'm Big Boss and I'll do what the hell I feel like." Given that this is man who lost his eye by having it shot out one can feel a little sympathy with his not dying ever.

** ''Series/MythBusters'' busted that one, too. The recoil does slow you down a bit, but not nearly enough.

* It's rather difficult to determine the exact diving height from which lethality is guaranteed, but surviving from around 200 feet (60 metres) isn't unheard of. The current world record is 177 feet (without injury) by Oliver Favre, and suicide attempts from San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge (220 feet) have been survived (over 90% aren't, however).