History Main / SoftWater

* Completely averted in an episode of ''{{Forever}}'', where a victim was pushed from a bridge into a river, where she met her death. When Dr. Morgan goes to check out that spot on the bridge, his voiceover narration gives a detailed explanation of why this sort of fall is deadly, and he ranks it as one of the top twenty worst ways to die.

* Averted in ''Film/TheThreeMusketeers1993''. Lady de Winter [[DisneyVillainDeath throws herself off a cliff]] rather than suffer a beheading. Given the rocks in the water below, the distance, and the obvious reactions of the witnesses, it was a real death.
** In contrast to which, the 2011 film has her jumping out of an [[{{Steampunk}} airship]] and turning up alive, apparently only having been knocked unconscious and being in danger of drowning rather than being completely splatted. A particularly laughable example because even films that normally play this trope straight wouldn't have someone surviving a freefall from airplane heights.

* Averted in ''Film/BatmanReturns'', The Penguin actually dies after falling into sewer water from above the street. Of course, it probably helps that the water was toxic, but not enough to kill other characters who felt in it from lesser distances and the blood out of his mouth implies internal bleeding.

** Mary Watson is thrown from a moving train into water with little injury.

** 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. Though he does mention later that he broke four ribs and damaged "some of the less vital organs."

This trope has resulted in a rather interesting side effect. Either believing this trope to be true, or being aware that a majority of the audience believes it to be true, writers know that they can't present a simple long drop into water as a threat, because [[TheCoconutEffect the audience will assume it's survivable.]] Usually, in order to show that a potential fall into water would be dangerous, they'll [[RuleOfPerception show the water as turbulent with jagged rocks]]. Because that's somehow more fatal. Even though, you know, violently choppy water is actually safer to fall into, due to lacking surface tension. The rocks'll still hurt, though, because, y'know, rocks.

** FridgeLogic: in ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga'', Luigi knocks Fawful over the edge of the castle, falling a great distance down. However, ''[[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiPartnersInTime Partners in Time]]'' reveals that he survived. The only explanation is that he fell in water, which is likely given where Bowser's Castle falls once it's blown up. This is also implied to happen with Bowser, since he's also sent flying smack into the [[CameraAbuse GBA screen]] (which is above the ocean) when his castle explodes, but is seen only with a cold in the credits.

This trope has resulted in a rather interesting side effect. [[TheCoconutEffect Either believing this trope to be true, or being aware that a majority of the audience believes it to be true, writers know that they can't present a simple long drop into water as a threat, because the audience will assume it's survivable.]] Usually, in order to show that a potential fall into water would be dangerous, they'll [[RuleOfPerception show the water as turbulent with jagged rocks]]. Because that's somehow more fatal. Even though, you know, violently choppy water is actually safer to fall into, due to lacking surface tension. The rocks'll still hurt, though, because, y'know, rocks.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom'': After your BagOfSpilling is emptied, the very first thing the game teaches you is that water will harmlessly stop your fall from any height. {{Exaggerated|Trope}} as you leave the Great Sky Island and return to Hyrule; Link dives from at least cruising altitude into a lake miles below, and [[MadeOfIron comes up without so much as a bruise]].

* {{Justified}} in ''Literature/QuestOfTheUnaligned''. When a masked villain drops Deshamai off the tallest tower of his castle and into his moat, he manages to use his water magic to make the water cushion his fall.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom'': After your BagOfSpilling is emptied, the very first thing the game teaches you is that water will harmlessly stop your fall from any height. [[Exaggerated Trope Exaggerated]] as you leave the Great Sky Island and return to Hyrule; Link dives from at least cruising altitude into a lake miles below, and [[MadeOfIron comes up without so much as a bruise]].

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom'': After your BagOfSpilling is emptied, the very first thing the game teaches you is that water will harmlessly stop your fall from any height.

* Notably averted in the ''VideoGame/SyphonFilter'' series starting with ''DarkMirror'', where falling into the water from a sufficient height is ''definitely'' harmful. Judging the fatal height (for both water and solid landings) is also quite difficult thanks to ''VideoGame/SyphonFilter'''s health system, where characters are given a (literal) BulletproofVest, but very little health. The earlier installments also sort of averted the trope, by virtue of ''not having any real bodies of water to speak of''. In ''VideoGame/SyphonFilter2'', for example, a fatal fall from a bridge or a sheer cliff in an environment where a river at the bottom may be assumed to be present, are actually just well-disguised BottomlessPits. If you fall in, the water is not shown -- the screen just [[FadeToBlack fades to black]], the "Mission Failed" message is shown, and you're brought back to your last {{checkpoint}}.
** In ''Omega Strain'', falling a height that would be fatal on land (only a few meters) also kills you if you land in water.

* Followed to a T in the ''Series/{{Hornblower}}'' miniseries, episode "Retribution", when Lieutenants Hornblower, Kennedy, and Bush decide to jump from a cliff to get back on their ship. We even get the choice quote: "It's only water! You won't break anything!" And then we get a ''Film/ButchCassidyAndTheSundanceKid'' shout-out with Lt. Bush screaming that he can't swim.
* On ''Series/{{Alias}}'', Sidney dives from a balcony into a pool from a height with dubious survivability.
%% * Done twice in the ''Series/{{Alice|2009}}'' mini-series.

* Invoked in the ''Series/Batman1966'' live-action series, when [[spoiler:Catwoman]] takes a huge fall and then lands in a river. Batman specifically says that she could have not made it because hitting the water from such a height would've killed her. [[spoiler: Subverted, she actually ''did'' survive, but it's not clear if it was due to this trope being played straight or if she managed to avoid falling in the first place.]]

** Downplayed in ''Heaven Sent'' where the Doctor falls from a great height but realizes the fact that he'll fall into water won't ensure his survival. He's right: the impact knocks him out, but he sustains no other injuries and wakes up before he drowns.

* ''Series/BlakesSeven''. Played with in "Orbit" when the VillainOfTheWeek sabotages a shuttle so it will crashland in a marshy area and he can salvage the MacGuffin it's carrying. However, it's stated that the crew will be turned to jelly by the impact.

* In episode 2 of ''Series/TheWheelOfTime'' Perrin and Egwene jump off a city wall into a moat some 20 metres below without any consequences. Not even catching a cold on a cool March night. Being ''[[WeirdnessMagnet ta'veren]]'' must've helped.

** ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'': You can get into a jet, go over a body of water at full screaming-engine speed and drop without a parachute and all you'll get will be wet clothes. Of course, previous games in the series [[SuperDrowningSkills lacked a swimming mechanic]], and so treated any body of water greater than waist-deep as a pool of instant death.

* Creator/{{Disney}}'s ''WesternAnimation/{{Pocahontas}}''. The title character dives off what looks to be a 500-foot cliff into the lake below. To no ill effect whatsoever. And she's such a good diver she enters the water barely making a tiny splash.
* In Disney's ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}'', the title character and his best friend escape from Pleasure Island by jumping of a gigantic cliff (though to be fair Pinocchio is at least a bit scared about doing so). They both survive. Made all the more bizarre by the fact that the best friend is a cricket -- which ordinarily would drown quickly even entering from a mundane height.

* Both played straight and averted in ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles''. Mr. Incredible jumps off a high waterfall and lands safely below but hey, his superpower ''is'' being MadeOfIron. The aversion is listed below.

* ''Film/JourneyToTheCenterOfTheEarth'' (2008) tried to justify this by having heroes land on the (nearly vertical) water slide that slows down their speed, and then fall into deep water. That's probably more plausible than tons of other scientific inaccuracies in this movie.

* In ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'', Touma Kamijou gets pushed out of an airplane. His parachute malfunctions and he lands in a river. He almost drowns before Itsuwa rescues him.

* Subverted in ''LightNovel/GroundControlToPsychoelectricGirl'' -- Makoto hits a lake from very high up and seems fine, but in the next episode it's almost immediately revealed that he actually broke his arm in the process. Erio was apparently okay, though she did virtually the same thing before the start of the series by herself and it ended with a broken leg.

* Conversed in ''VideoGame/AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAAARecklessDisregardForGravity''. At one point, it's mentioned that some people prefer living above a body of water, because if they fall off their [[FloatingContinent floating island]], they'll land safely in the water. It's then mentioned that falling into water from that height is like falling onto concrete. There is no way to see for yourself, as the instant death grid at the bottom of every stage is always above the water.

* Averted in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid 2'', as if you slip whilst navigating the outside of the Big Shell you get treated to a short of Raiden screaming as he plummets to his demise before switching to the mission failed screen.

* ''[[VideoGame/{{Battlefield}} Battlefield 1942]]'' and ''Vietnam'' treated this realistically, where any fall that would kill if you hit the ground killed if you hit the water, but it reached new heights in absurdity when they took this mechanic out in ''[[VideoGame/{{Battlefield}} Battlefield 2]]'' and you could jump out of a jet at 1500 feet and be perfectly fine if you only landed in a body of water.

* Particularly flagrant in ''VideoGame/HalfLife'' and the mods and sequels thereof, in which a drop from fatal heights could be stopped by landing in any fluid, including but not limited to radioactive waste and spilled coffee, as long as it was [[http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Dimensions#Falling_Damage two "units" (roughly 1 to 1½ inches, depending on the game's scale) or deeper]], in which case ''all damage is negated'' (not counting any damage from the liquid itself, if it happens to be radioactive waste).
** Some maps in ''Half-Life'' and its mods even incorporate the "fall into a puddle of spilled coffee" game mechanic into their level design. For example, the ''VideoGame/CounterStrike'' map Aztec has a ''slightly'' flooded canal flowing below a bridge -- players can jump off the bridge and aim for the ''ankle-deep'' water to make a strategic shortcut if necessary. Most levels in ''[=HL2=]'' with significantly high falls into water avoid this trope by placing an instant-death trigger at the water level (most notably in the bridge level).
** There are at least two instances, one in ''[=HL1=]'' and one in ''[=HL2=]: Episode Two'', where [[StupidityIsTheOnlyOption in order to proceed]] the player is required to fall an absurd amount of distance into a pool of water.

** ''Avatar'' has an army of soft-waterbenders. Given the amount of water some waterbending attacks take, they should be incredibly painful if not fatal but are often brushed off. In the second season finale, Katara attacks Zuko and Azula's men with a huge wave of water that should have been fatal if only because of the sheer weight of the water and not the concussive force. They get all up with no injuries.

** Also on the episode before that, Sokka lures an entire army of firebenders to the lower deck, flies significantly lower but not too low, where he promptly opens the conveniently placed giant trapdoor, sending them straight off the ocean (somehow including even those who stood on the ramp). They manage to survive, apparently rising unscathed from at least thirty meters above sea level despite many of them wearing heavy armor and to top it all off, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking it is a mook's birthday]].