History Main / ThirstyDesert

* ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}: [[Recap/TintinTheCrabWithTheGoldenClaws The Crab With the Golden Claws]]'': As befitting Captain Haddock's first appearance as an alcoholic washout, he and Tintin wander through the Sahara. On learning where they are, the captain gets stuck on "the desert of thirst! the desert of thirst!" for a while.

* In ''Film/Dune2021'' and ''Film/DunePartTwo'', what makes Arrakis more alien in this adaptations is how the three other worlds in the movies all have abundant amounts of water (Caladan [[spoiler:Arcadia has vast oceans and lust vegetation]], Salusa Secundus [[PerpetualStorm is hit with heavy rain]], Geidi Prime [[ExcessiveSteamSyndrome has constant humidity leaking everywhere]]), Arrakis has none of those things. The planet is very, ''extremely dry'', and water is valued as more precious than gold. People extract water from corpses and slain foes. [[BlueAndOrangeMorality Spitting in considered respectful due to deliberately sacrificing fluids]]. And water is treated with reverence above all other things to the Fremen, even the spice.

* In ''Film/Dune2021' and '''Film/DunePartTwo'', what makes Arrakis more alien in this adaptations is how the three other worlds in the movies all have abundant amounts of water (Caladan [[spoiler:Arcadia has vast oceans and lust vegetation]], Salusa Secundus [[PerpetualStorm is hit with heavy rain]], Geidi Prime [[ExcessiveSteamSyndrome has constant humidity leaking everywhere]]), Arrakis has none of those things. The planet is very, ''extremely dry'', and water is valued as more precious than gold. People extract water from corpses and slain foes. [[BlueAndOrangeMorality Spitting in considered respectful due to deliberately sacrificing fluids]]. And water is treated with reverence above all other things to the Fremen, even the spice.

* In ''Film/Dune2021'', what makes Arrakis more alien in this adaptation is how the three other worlds in the movie all have abundant amounts of water (Caladan [[spoiler:Arcadia has vast oceans and lust vegetation]], Salusa Secundus [[PerpetualStorm is hit with heavy rain]], Geidi Prime [[ExcessiveSteamSyndrome has constant humidity leaking everywhere]]), Arrakis has none of those things. The planet is very, ''extremely dry'', and water is valued as more precious than gold. People extract water from corpses and slain foes. [[BlueAndOrangeMorality Spitting in considered respectful due to deliberately sacrificing fluids]]. And water is treated with reverence above all other things to the Fremen, even the spice.

* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'': Middle Earth has several deserts that are only mentioned, but Frodo and Sam spend three chapters [[CrossingTheDesert crossing]] the worst of them - northern Mordor. At one point they both try not to think about water and fail.

** The heroes visit Tatooine twice in ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear''... though both times the major danger is less in the desert, more in the cooler, damper respite from the suns where they spend their time: the palace of Jabba the Hutt.

[[caption-width-right:350:"''[[JustForPun Dying]]'' [[HaveANiceDeath for a drink, Graham?]]"]]

* ''Series/{{Branded}}'': In "Survival", [=McCord=] is traveling through the desert when he comes upon a dead horse. He follows the trail of footprints and comes across a tired, thirsty man. His name is Colbee and he and [=McCord=] strike out together to make the next town before their water runs out. Colbee is a family man with a wife and daughter and his fear of not seeing them again forces him to steal the horse and water and leave [=McCord=] in the desert.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Final Mission."

* In the Creator/ClintEastwood movie ''Film/TheEigerSanction'', his character gets revenge on an old enemy by driving him out into the desert and abandoning him to die of thirst.

* The Taklamakan Desert in Central Asia is often considered the world's worst desert to attempt to cross. A (probably apocryphal) legend claims that the name originally came from an old phrase meaning "Go in and you won’t come back out". Antarctica is actually far bleaker to cross, but it's not a Thirsty Desert (after all, lack of water is definitely not a problem in Antarctica).

* ''VideoGame/EarthlockFestivalOfMagic'': The Burning Desert region is so intensely hot that your character will pass out and die if they remain in direct sunlight for too long (roughly 15 to 25 seconds, depending on the character). The [[TechnoWreckage ruins of a technologically advanced civilization]] dot the area, and you need to strategically reactivate their machinery to create a path in the shade.

* ''Manga/MagiLabyrinthOfMagic'', being based on ''Arabian Nights'', has massive deserts to cross early on, usually though they're traveled by caravans. Still, [[TheHero Aladdin]] makes his debut in a desertic ruin infested with bandits, half-dead for the heat and thirst. Other than bandits, the series has sand-dwelling monsters, usually carnivorous plants, venomous birds and tigers and even gigantic spiders.

* Invoked with the powers of Chotenkun from ''Manga/SoulHunter'': his spatial Paopei "Kosajin" (Crinsom Sands Formation) brings the opponent into a ThirstyDesert where he can manipulate the sand and his position, and everything but him slowly dries and crumbles to dust. [[spoiler: Yozen only manages to save himself by using his half-demon form to transform into the sand itself and expand untill the Paopei's limits are broken.]]

You're in the desert, a [[SceneryGorn parched barren wasteland]] stretching for miles in every direction, with the occasional HollywoodMirage gleaming in the distance to provide a false sense of hope. If the maddening heat doesn't drive you into a MushroomSamba, then the freezing air of night will chill you harshly or just kill you, the lack of water or one of the desert's [[GiantSpider many]] [[ScaryScorpions hostile]] [[SandWorm inhabitants]] probably will. Expect CirclingVultures lurking ominously overhead in a sky as barren as the land, with not a single cloud in sight. The sun appears to fill the sky on its own and the camera will point at it just to make sure you know. A shot of the characters marching (or crawling) forward moaning "Water, water..." is a common element, especially in more humorous takes.