A Molten Date with Death

Lava, as we all know, is one of the hottest substances on planet Earth, reaching up to thousands of degrees and is capable of burning anything or anyone unfortunate enough to fall into it or be in its path into charred nothingness within a matter of seconds. And if it doesn't kill you instantly, you won't actually submerge (as is invariably shown in films) but you'll just skitter on the surface like fat on a cast iron skillet, as lava is much denser than people. The same can also apply for superheated substances like molten metal, which typically has the same makeup and effects as lava if it has a high enough boiling/melting point. The process at which objects on contact burn or melt, depending on the media, can also vary from instantly, to very slowly. Either way, definitely not a fun way to die unless you like being burned to ash while still conscious enough to feel it.

This trope commonly happens in video games and other sorts of fictional media when characters are setting foot into a Lava Pot Volcano or a Lethal Lava Land, where Lava Pits are environmental hazards that can kill characters instantly (or in some cases, very quickly unless they can climb out in time, but may have to deal with being on fire for a period of time directly afterwards) unless some kind of equipment can be used to prevent it. In terms of video games, it also typically happens to bosses, specifically ones who decide to fight the player over or near a pit of lava, only for the bosses themselves to be the ones knocked into it.

It may also happen in real life, but happens a lot less frequently due to many people not being reckless or crazy enough to go anywhere near a lava pit or volcanic crater for the fun of it. Consequently, urban settings can invoke it with industrial steel plants and large vats of molten metal.

Again, not a pleasant way to go out.

Cases of submersion often overlap with Lava Is Boiling Kool-Aid. Contrast Convection, Schmonvection. See also Acid Pool and Kill It with Fire.

A No Recent Examples rule applies to Real Life examples of this trope. Real life examples shouldn't be added until 150 years after the death.

As this is a Death Trope, unmarked spoilers abound. Beware.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Doraemon: The Record of Nobita's Parallel Visit to the West have Nobita and gang, assuming the roles of Sun Wukong and the other pilgrims from the original story, battling the Bull Demon and Princess Iron Fan in a cavern, which is overflowing with lava. Princess Iron Fan ends up being knocked into the lava pool and burning up.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency: Joseph tries to do this to Kars in their final battle after the latter achieves Ultimate Lifeform status. It almost works, until Kars manages to find a way to protect himself from the lava by exploiting the Leidenfrost effect using a shell made of solidified air bubbles.
• One Piece: Portgas D. Ace infamously dies from Admiral Akainu sinking a magma fist through his chest. Infamous not only because of the author's almost ironclad no-named-characters-die (except in flashbacks) policy up to this point, but also the rather abrupt and questionable handwave as to why magma would kill a fire-based Elemental Shapeshifter.
• SD Gundam Force: Professor Gerbera goes out this way, rejecting Captain Gundam's attempt to save him and dropping into the smelting pool below, to feed his Gundanium frame to General Zeong.

Comic Book

• Magma from the X-Men faced a very literal example of this trope. She was dating a man who had fire powers, and one day they went swimming in a volcano. Then the Decimation happened and 90% of the world's mutants lost their powers. Magma kept hers. Her boyfriend did not.
• Happens to the Mustafarian witch who besieges Vader's castle in Issue #5 of Star Wars Adventures: Return to Vader's Castle. He uses the Force to take control of her mind, forcing her to make her own zombie minions drag her into the lava.

Fan Works

• Dungeon Keeper Ami: When fighting Nero, when he's a Dungeon Keeper, some of Ami's minions die by falling into the lava around his Dungeon Heart, the destruction of which is a key component of victory.

Films — Animation

• The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney): Frollo's ultimate fate is to fall from the top of the cathedral into a pool of molten lead, which happens right after his attempted Pre-Mortem One-Liner "And He shall smite the wicked and plunge them into the fiery pit!"
• Jonny's Golden Quest: Dr. Zin's clone kidnaps Jonny's mother and attempts to escape with her from his exploding Volcano Lair, only for a huge wave of lava to shoot up and engulf the helicopter they're in, killing them both.
• Osmosis Jones: Thrax is sneezed onto a bystander's false eyelash, which detaches and falls into a beaker of rubbing alcohol. Being an anthropomorphic virus, this kills Thrax quickly and quite gruesomely.
• Starchaser: The Legend of Orin: After becoming Half the Man He Used to Be, both the upper and lower halves of main villain Zygon fall off of a ledge into molten lava. As a bonus, the rebelling slaves push all the Minemasters into the lava as well.

Films — Live-Action

• This is how Ripley kills herself and the alien queen embryo/ chestburster at the end of Alien³ — by diving into the prison foundry's furnace, which had previously been used to heat lead to its melting point to kill the quadrupedal alien running loose in the prison.
• Dr. Evil tries to kill Austin and Felicity this way in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, placing them in a room with a floor that slowly retracts, revealing a pit of lava underneath. They manage to escape. One of Dr. Evil's Mooks isn't as lucky, and falls in after being Distracted by the Sexy ("What do you think of these, my man?"). Unlike most examples of this trope, the magma isn't shown flowing at any point, and the poor sap who falls in bursts into flames on contact without sinking in.
• When the volcano erupts at the end of Congo, flooding the lost city with lava, quite a few of the gray gorillas die this way. A few even leap into the lava (!) (presumably because the rocks they sought refuge on were so hot from being so near the lava that they just unthinkingly jumped off out of instinct).
• Happens to skekTek the Skeksis Scientist in The Dark Crystal. Mobbed by a bunch of escaped animals in the Chamber of Life while attempting to drain Kira's essence, he accidentally backs off a ledge and falls down the central shaft of the castle and into the molten lava at the bottom.
• In Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze, Don Gorro is so obsessed with gold that when dynamite thrown into a lake of molten gold during the final battle results in an explosion sending the liquid metal into the air, Gorro rushes out to try and catch the raining droplets in his bare hands, and ends up dying by being covered in the liquid gold, which hardens, turning him into a gold "statue."
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug: The dwarves try to kill the dragon Smaug by drowning him in molten gold. Subverted when he rises from the flood of gold seconds later, unharmed, furious, and shiny.
• In If Looks Could Kill, Steranko threatens to dip Mrs. Grober and her students into a huge vat of super-heated liquid gold if they don't talk, but Michael Corben saves them. Michael then fights Steranko's henchman Zigesfeld on top the vat, and Zigesfeld dies when a falling cage knocks him into the molten metal. Which explodes. Because of course it does.
• The Thuggee in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom sacrifice people by lowering them into molten lava. Indiana Jones also kills a few of the Thuggee priests during the final battle by throwing them into the lava.
• The Super Inframan: Princess Dragon Mom has a lava chasm in her lair, which she uses to dispose of minions whom are no longer useful for her service. At the end of the battle, Inframan manages to dispose of Dragon Mom's, erm, dragon, Witch-Eye, by knocking her into the pit.
• In Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Kirk kicks Commander Kruge into a gorge filled with lava during their final battle on the disintegrating Genesis Planet.
• Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith: Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker duel on Mustafar, a volcanic planet, where Anakin almost burns to death on the lava banks, necessitating his Darth Vader suit. Although he survives as Vader, the good person Anakin was dies there (at least until Return of the Jedi).
• In The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Gollum and the ring fall into Mount Doom's perpetually-erupting caldera, where he simultaneously sinks and melts. The ring manages to last a good 30 more seconds, but it's eventually melted into nothingness as well. In the book (and cartoon), they are both instantly killed on contact.
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day concludes with both its heroic and villainous Terminator Twosome being destroyed by a vat of molten steel. Which provides a sense of irony in the case of the T-1000, as a creature of liquid metal being killed by actual liquid metal.
• Volcano:
  • The L.A. transit official Stan goes to rescue the train motorman from a burning subway car; upon reaching the exit with the unconscious driver, he sees that the lava flow has passed the end of the car, forcing him to try and jump over it to safety. His comrades urge him to leave the driver and save himself, but Stan elects to make the jump with the driver, falling short due to the extra weight but getting far enough to be able to throw the driver to safety, before he dies a painful and screaming death as he melts into the molten liquid.
  • Earlier in the movie, a fire fighter trapped in an overturned fire engine dies this way quite horribly as well, as does the guy attempting to climb over the truck to pull him to safety before it's too late. Along with Stan's death saving the motorman, it's one of the film's more memorably grisly and tragic moments.

Gamebooks

• Legend of Zagor: The player may have defeated Zagor in the final battle, but it's not enough to destroy the evil warlock permanently, for Zagor has the ability to resurrect within minutes. The book's final challenge is for the players to carry Zagor's towering corpse from the throne room to the Chamber of the Heartfires, where they drop Zagor into the flames and destroy him for good.

Literature

• The Callista Trilogy: Superweapon engineer Bevel Lemelisk was once executed by the Emperor by being lowered into a vat of molten copper ("Why copper?" "It's what the smelter used that day"). Compared to the six other Cruel and Unusual Deaths the Emperor dealt him and revived him from, Lemelisk found it almost disappointingly banal in retrospect.
• In both A Song of Ice and Fire and the tv adaption Game of Thrones, Khal Drogo kills his utterly wretched brother-in-law Viserys by pouring a pot of molten gold over Viserys' head after Viserys threatened to harm Drogo's pregnant wife Daenerys and their unborn child.
• Starter Villain (2023): Discussed when a man comes to the villain's Volcano Lair to have his death faked. To his disappointment, the assistant says they don't bother with Lava Pits because bodies just lie on the surface and crisp — and because they installed geothermal generators instead. She offers making it look like the apparent victim was dissolved in acid.
• The Wheel of Time: In the Final Battle, one expert in Thinking Up Portals draws on all his allies' power and opens a massive Gateway into the heart of a nearby volcano, devastating the enemy army with a deluge of lava.

Live-Action TV

• In The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, when skekTek's two Gruenak slaves, who he's been using as Igors in the Chamber of Life, rebel against him, he fights them off and chucks one of them down the shaft into the lava - the very same way he dies later on in the movie.
• Mentioned in Rome, and also used as part of an Implied Death Threat. Mark Anthony has to scare Cicero, a respected Senator, into complying with his demands and agenda. Cicero, who utterly loathes Anthony, tells Anthony to at least make a good threat, as Cicero doesn't want to feel like a coward who immediately buckled under pressure to Anthony. Here's what Anthony comes up with:
  Cicero: Please go on, make your threats. I don't like to submit to mere implication.
  Antony: There is a question I've always wanted to ask you. Your old friend Crassus, when he was captured by the Parthians, is it true that they poured molten gold down his throat? Because that would really... sting.
• Ultra Series:
  • Return of Ultraman: Ultraman Jack's battle against Paragon on top of Mount Fuji, concludes with Jack using his Specium Ray to blow apart the platform Paragon was standing on, causing Paragon to fall backwards onto the lava and burn to death.
  • Ultraman Ace: The monster Lunaticks is killed using this method, when Ultramann Ace flings him headfirst into a pool of lava.
  • Ultraman Taro: The aerial battle between Ultraman Taro and Giant Flyer kaiju, Birdon, ends with Taro using his King Bracelet to summon illusions of himself, tricking Birdon into crashing itself headfirst into a volcano and get entombed alive in the lava.
  • Ultraman Tiga: Ultraman Tiga vs. Fire Golza. While Fire Golza was eventually taken down by Tiga's Zepellion Ray, it remains alive and needs to be carried and flung into the mouth of an active volcano. By throwing Fire Golza into the lava, Tiga managed to stop the volcano from erupting on a small village as well as finish Golza off permanently.

Tabletop Games

• Pathfinder:
  • Xin-Grafar, the lost City of Golden Death, has canals of molten gold that flood the streets at regular intervals as a defense mechanism. The mechanism's Ragnarök Proofing didn't save the control system, so it can no longer be turned off; player characters need to time their visits very carefully.
  • The top-level Wall of Lava spell creates exactly that: the wall deals fire damage to everyone nearby; causes far more damage, plus Damage Over Time, to anyone who touches it; and can be directed to erupt every turn.

Video Games

• War from Apocalypse, an Advancing Boss of Doom that chases the hero down a corridor, then the city streets, and finally a river of lava where the hero must jump on platforms while firing back. Once War's health is depleted to zero, he then falls and sinks into the lava.
• Azurik: Rise of Perathia: Lava pits are scattered all over the Fire Realm and one part of the Earth Realm, resulting in instant death when touched and respawning at your last save point.
• Banjo-Kazooie: Falling into a lava pit results in instant death and the loss of a life. "Grunty's Furnace Fun" takes place over one, with one the squares being capable of automatically hurling you into it if you get a question wrong, making you start all over again.
• The epic ending confrontation of Bound by Blades sees your mentor, Eldros the Wolf, defeating Magmyros the Final Boss (ironically a fire-breathing dragon) by dragging Magmyros into the lava in his death throes, performing a Heroic Sacrifice to destroy Magmyros' forces once and for all.
• BUTCHER features plenty of lava pits within some of it's levels for enemies to get kicked into or the player to fall into, with few levels even featuring set-pieces involving the lava level rising. The game even has the Shout-Out to the Terminator 2 at the end of the game when the Villain Protagonist gets his escape locked out, with him Flipping the Bird out of the lava.
• Dino Strike Wii have a Chekhov's Volcano that eventually erupts, drowning the game's Final Boss, a T-Rex, for you. Said T-Rex is a Time-Limit Boss where you need to fend it away long enough until the eruption finally occurs.
• In Divinity: Original Sin and Original Sin II, lava surfaces inflict near-instant death on contact, though in the first game, characters with Fire resistance over 100% are immune. They're usually stationary and can only be affected by a few specialized spells, though in the sequel, one master of Thinking Up Portals can drop lava on her enemies, and rains of lava complicate an escape from a Collapsing Lair.
  Loading Screen tip: If you see lava, it's time to relocate to... somewhere else.
• Donkey Kong 64: Dogadon is defeated this way twice by Diddy and Chunky, both using explosive barrels to knock him into the lava pit below. However, the same can also happen to the Kongs too, especially Chunky if he does not defeat him in time before the platform completely sinks into the lava, resulting in instant death. Most other lava pits in the game will instantly kill the player if they fall in and respawn at the beginning of the room they are in unless DK's Strong Kong ability is active.
• Doom (2016) falling into a vat of molten metal (ubiquoutous in the Foundry level) results in a humorous Shout-Out to Terminator 2 for a death animation: Doom Slayer gives a thumbs up as he sinks into the glowing substance.
• Dragon's Crown: The Chimera in the B-route of the Mage's Tower meets its end this way if the player fails the Timed Mission and the monster crashes through all the floors, falling into the lava caves seen in the stage's A-route.
• Lava is one common cause of death of Dwarf Fortress to the point it achieved a memetic status.
• Epic Battle Fantasy 5: Due to Black Comedy involving Lava Surfing. One guy in the Freezeflame Dungeon tries to surf on lava. Matt snarkily remarks that he hopes someone records it, otherwise it would be a waste of life. Come back later and you can find his apparently lavaproof surfboard stuck in lava next to what is likely his skull.
• During the initial release of EverQuest II, falling into any of the numerous rivers and lakes of lava in Lavastorm Mountains would result in an instant death. This was fitting for a high level zone, as the zone itself presented a challenge for high level players to stay alive. This was eventually changed as the game progressed so that lava would cause burning damage and give the player a chance to survive instead of flat-out killing them.
• EXTRAPOWER: Attack of Darkforce: V's intention in visiting Magarda Volcano is to offer his heart to Magma-O. As V is being hounded by demons for the power in his ore heart, and has already seen his sister killed by them, his solution is to destroy the heart in Magma-O's magma. This would, of course, destroy V as well, if Magma-O were to accept this offering.
• Hachoo! have a stage set in an active volcano, where there's a river of lava running across the side of the screen just as you're fighting mooks. You risk suffering this trope if you step into the lava, but since you're a brawler, you can grapple and throw mooks into the lava as well.
• Defeating Eyedol in Killer Instinct sees the twin-headed monster knocked off the bridge and into the lava river far below the stage.
• In both La-Mulana and La-Mulana 2, lava is a constant threat in the hotter parts of the ruins, and touching it drains away health at breakneck speed. The first game has one power-up that makes it harmless, and one that allows you to open your laptop when submerged in lava. The second game has lava be one of several hazards the stone spacesuit protects from.
• The Legend of Zelda has a few examples.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time:
    • Lava pits are numerous in places like the Dodongo's Cavern and Fire Temple, quickly killing Link if he stays in them for too long. Wearing the Goron Tunic helps to reduce the amount of damage taken from this, but does not give complete invulnerability to it. In areas where lava pits cannot be escaped from should one fall, which are the Death Mountain Crater, the Gerudo Training Ground and the entrance area to Ganon's Tower, they act as Non-Lethal Bottomless Pits instead, having Link scream as he falls onto it before the screen fades to black to put him back to the area's entrance with one depleted heart.
    • The boss of Dodongo's Cavern, King Dodongo, does this to himself out of disorientation, rolling into the lava pit in the middle of the room with it hardening around his partially submerged body.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: Lava in this game is confined to only the second dungeon, Goron Mines. While Link can fall on the lava but be A-okay afterwards, in stark contrast to other titles, falling on it will yield frighteningly realistic results, as Link will yell in pain and slowly sink into the molten liquid while trying to get out and holding out an arm. Yikes. Oh, and don't even try to jump into the lava with the Zora Armor put on - it's an instant death. Contrast the previous and next 3D games, where Link merely roasts his rump and jumps in pain...
• Machine Hunter has Lava Pit traps in the ruins and asteroid levels. You can end up burning yourself if you fall in, or, when fighting alien giant grubs, push them backwards (easy to achieve if you're in a large robot) so they end up drowning in lava.
• Metal Gear Solid: At one point, Snake has to go inside a steel mill with a pool of molten metal below and he has to wall sneak to get past it with a crane going by. He has to duck down just before it knocks him into the pool below. Incidentally, Snake can also throw off guards into the pool as well.
• Metroid:
  • Lava is a recurring hazard in the series that will quickly kill Samus if she stays in it for too long and can be tricky to get out of due to its gravitational effects that hinders her jumping capabilities. Most versions of the Gravity Suit can allow her to survive in it for indefinite periods of time and ignore its gravitational effects.
  • Super Metroid: This is how Crocomire is defeated (although what Crocomire falls in is considered acid, it's the same principle). Samus must back Crocomire onto an unstable bridge, which then collapses under Crocomire's weight and causes it to fall into the acid below. This results in a very gruesome death with Crocomire's skin visibly melting off its bones. Amazingly, it manages survive long enough to get out and break down the spike wall it was trying to back Samus into, but by that point, it's nothing more than a skeleton and dies right afterward.
• In games like Minecraft and Terraria, you can enter lava but it will continuously hurt for a lot of damage until you get off, but even then you will be inflicted with burning Damage Over Time that can kill you if you're injured enough. In Terraria, there are special accessories and potions that allow you to submerge in lava without harm (for a little while) and reduce damage taken from it, while in Minecraft, Fire Resistance potions nullify all of lava's damage and even improves visibility if you submerge in it.
• Rayman 2: The Great Escape: Admiral Razorbeard promises to punish a robo-pirate who failed to dispose of Rayman by dumping him in molten lava. This also happens to Razorbeard himself in the Final Boss battle while piloting the Grolgoth.
• The Snagglebeast must be defeated this way in Ratchet & Clank (2002). Ratchet is in cavern filled with lava with some solid surface and bridges between them while Snagglebeast is chasing him. You have to weaken him, then lure him on one of bridges, which will collapse under its weight, with him falling into the lava, hurting itself. When done third time, it will just sink and presumably melt in lava.
• Resident Evil:
  • In the "B" scenario of Resident Evil 2, Mr. X falls into a big pool of molten metal when he overbalances trying to grab Sherry's locket. Averted in that it fails to kill him, but only causes him mutate into his "Super Tyrant" form.
  • This can be the unexpected fate of Leon in Resident Evil 4 if the player isn't careful. There's a boss fight against two El Gigantes in the middle of a factory with a giant pit of molten iron in the middle. One of the ways you can defeat one of them is to trick it into walking into the center and flipping a switch that will drop it into the iron. If you do it but stray too close to the hatch before it closes, the badly burnt El Gigante will lurch out, grab Leon and drag him down with it.
  • This is the fate of Albert Wesker at the end of Resident Evil 5. After mutating himself into a horrible abomination, Chris and Sheva manage to knock him into the lava pool of an active volcano before a helicopter comes and picks them up. Before they can even catch their breath, Wesker resists the heat long enough to mutate further and use his Combat Tentacles to grab the helicopter with the intent of slamming it into the lava with him. It takes a pair of RPG rockets to the face to finally finish him off.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • Lava is a recurring hazard throughout the series, typically appearing in caves, fortresses, castles, and last levels, and usually results in an instant death when falling in it. Enemies who do not turn at ledges also tend to fall in and die when they come in contact. And, depending on the game, the player even has the option to dismount from Yoshi and let him fall and sink into the lava below.
  • This is typically how Mario defeats Bowser in most of their encounters, by running past him and activating a switch that sends the latter falling into the lava below. In New Super Mario Bros., this action in World 1 results in the creation of Dry Bowser. He gets better.
  • In Super Mario World: four of the seven Koopalings (Iggy, Lemmy, Wendy, and Larry) are defeated this way by Mario/Luigi in their respective castles.
• Spyro: A Hero's Tail: Molten Mount and Magma Falls are filled with lava pits that will instantly kill Spyro unless he has the Invincibility Gadget activated. The same applies for both Sgt. Byrd and Blink's minigames in located in Molten Mount and Dark Mine respectively, although they have nothing to protect themselves with unlike Spyro.
• Tekken:
  • This is how Kazuya Mishima meets his demise in the second game of being thrown to a volcano by Heihachi in the latter's ending (one-upping his attempt to kill him as a child by "just" throwing him off a cliff), and this is canon. He is then resurrected by G Corporation in the fourth game.
  • Kazuya and Heihachi do this again in Tekken 7 after their epic final battle on a volcano. This time, it's Heihachi who takes the lava plunge after his defeat, though he was technically killed by Kazuya's final strike. The lava pit was for irony and to make sure he's Deader than Dead.
  • And in the trailer for Kazuya becoming a Guest Fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, he's shown once again throwing various fighters into a lava pit, including Ganondorf, Captain Falcon, Pit, Min Min and Marth. Amusingly, the trailer ends with him trying to throw Kirby into the lava... and he just flies right back up behind Kazuya's back!
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day ends with the T-1000 getting blasted into a pit of molten metal, just like its movie counterpart. Curiously, this trope doesn't happen to the T-800.
• The boss fight against Red King in Ultra X Weapons takes place on an active volcano, with a large pit of lava at the back of the arena. Dealing damage on Red King will cut down it's health bar, and once Red King's health reaches zero it will fall backwards into the lava pool and sink in it, burning all the way.
• Wrack takes place in a factory filled with pools of molten steel you periodically need to jump across. Being an FPS, if you missed a jump you'll sink into the steel and burn up from a first-person perspective.
• Xena: Warrior Princess has a Golem boss on a floating platform in the depths of hell that can only be defeated when Xena knocks it off the platform into the lava.
• Xenoblade Chronicles X features numerous lava fields in the continent of Cauldros. Walking into it while on foot would deal out fire damage and could eventually kill a character if they stayed in it for too long. On the western part of Cauldros is a pool of radioactive molten white phosphor that in comparison makes the lava relatively safe to stand in.
• Yoshi's Island:
  • Lava pits are numerous in cave levels, fortresses, castles, and the final worlds, resulting in instant death and the loss of a life if fallen into.
  • Some of the franchise's bosses are defeated this way, such as Tap-Tap The Red Nose (destroy the blocks underneath him to make him fall into the lava below) and Big Guy The Stilted (throw eggs to make him stumble into the surrounding lava pit and then ground pound on top of him to send him further down into it).

Visual Novels

• Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair: The execution of Teruteru Hanamura has him get covered in batter and breadcrumbs and deep fried alive in a volcano.

Web Animation

• DEATH BATTLE! shows us an example when Heihachi Mishima goes up against Geese Howard. Considering how both villains are pretty famous for being prime examples of the Disney Villain Death trope, and combined with the fact this fight was taking place near a volcano of all places, one of them meeting their deaths this way was inevitable. While Heihachi is the one most known for being dropped in a volcano (Geese is more known from falling from a skyscraper) it's his opponent that gets killed with this trope. Geese tries one last effort to take down Heihachi, only to be met by the Mishima Zaibatsu leader's fist, getting impaled on a spike and the lava he blew apart trying to get out comes back to get him as he can do nothing but scream as he gets incinerated within the molten lava. It's as horrific as it is awesome!
• Red vs. Blue:
  • In Season 15, Sarge belatedly realises he's accidentally let go of Surge when trying to save him from falling into a lava spout during their fight.
  • This is likely what happens to Gene, as Simmons and Grif left him hanging over a river of lava and he's not among the imprisoned Blues and Reds in the epilogue.

Webcomics

• The climatic underwater duel in The Bikini Bottom Horror between The Tortured One and Porifera-Spongebob ends with both of them falling into the lava of Mount Krakatoa, though a single cell fragment from the latter survives in the aftermath.
• The Order of the Stick: When Crystal is reanimated with Super-Strength, Super-Toughness, and an even more homicidal personality, Haley tricks her onto a garbage disposal chute that drops her into a volcano's magma chamber. Immersion in the magma puts her down for good, screaming in rage all the while.
• Rusty and Co.: Grinner gets punted off a cliff into a river of lava with a live stick of dynamite pinned to his hand. It's unclear whether the explosion or the lava bath finishes him off, but the explosion does throw his severed hand clear of the lava, threatening the possibility that he'll be resurrected from it.
• Unsounded: Anyone whose unfortunate enough to get hit with the liquid aspect from an Allepakh will be melted into a boiling slurry along with their surroundings.
  Elka: A bomb that blankets an area and liquefies every material it's been set to. And it's not a quick swap. As it persists, the khert acts to normalize the environment, and since, ya know, liquefied things like stone and steel are supposed to be hot, the consequent temperature climb roasts everything. Whole area becomes...foul, boiling, dead soup. On fire.

Web Videos

• Critical Role: Lava pops up as a danger for both Vox Machina and the Mighty Nein in the respective campaigns.
  • While in the Underdark, Keyleth kills a Duergar by forcing him into lava and then holding him down so that she doesn't hear his screams (she is later quite terrified over her deed) and Vax gets one of his feet nearly burned to a crisp. Later, when fighting against Thordak in his lair, there is a giant stream of lava running through (as befitting for a fire dragon) and Keyleth nearly falls in while crossing.
  • The Mighty Nein also encounter lava - in the Underdark they have to cross a bridge over a lava river in a cave guarded by fire giants. Nott, the last to cross, falls in and doesn't submerge only due to her ring of water-walking. She still takes near lethal damage and has to get pulled out by Beau who catches fire from that alone.
• The Weather: One recurring skit in "Fire" involves a couple talking while near a volcano. The last time we see them, they've both drowned in lava, leaving only the man's arm and his still-working cellphone.
• Because Science has examined this. They concluded that in addition to all the aforementioned things happening to you, not only would you float in lava or molten metal due to their density, but thanks to something called the Leidenfrost effect, the water in the parts of your body closest to it would turn to steam and you'd skip across the surface like a drop of water on a hot skillet.

Western Animation

• Adventure Time: In "Furniture and Meat", after Finn and Jake cause chaos in the Wildberry Kingdom with their spending antics and piss off Wildberry Princess one too many times, she threatens to execute them by pouring their own molten gold over their heads.
• American Dad!:
  • At the end of "Tearjerker", Tearjerker (Roger) winds up falling into a volcano to his death, only for B (Bullock) to tell Stan in the sequel "For Black Eyes Only" that he survived, as you can apparently survive falling into a volcano if you fall in "the right way".
  • In "Black Mystery Month", President Jimmy Carter gets knocked into a lava pit by a falling boulder during his "God Bless America" speech, flailing about until he submerges and rises back up, melting down to just his skeleton.
• Back to the Future: In "Put On Your Thinking Caps, Kids! It's Time for Mr. Wisdom!", Wisdom tries to lose the pursuing time train by driving over Krakatoa right before the explosion. To his surprise, Doc, Marty, and the boys turn up unharmed while he's trying to sell the DeLorean.
• Beast Wars: At the beginning of the second season, Scorponok and Terrorsaur fall into a lava pool in the Predacon base, sink, and are never seen again.
• The Five-Episode Pilot of DuckTales (1987) had a temple filled with every form of gold imaginable, from coins to bricks to dust. The Arc Villain captures the heroes and forces them into a bucket that he believes descends into lava, listening for their horrible demise. When he hears them talking and realize it's actually a well of molten gold, he pulls them back up, saying he won't let them taste a drop of "his gold."
• DuckTales (2017): In "The Golden Lagoon of White Agony Plains!" Glomgold attempts to murder Goldie by dropping her into the titular lagoon of molten gold. Goldie's magical amulet makes her immune to heat. She just holds her breath until Glomgold isn't paying attention and climbs out.
• Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts: Scarlamange dipped the Mod Frogs in a pool of burning molten gold, displaying them as statues, and threatens to do the same to any animal who doesn't support him becoming King.
• In the first episode of Mighty Max, a Lava Beast sent to kill Max attacks and kills the cashier at the convenience store this way.
• The Legend of Korra: Ghazan the lavabender ends up inflicting this fate on himself, when he's faced with inevitable defeat, stating he'd rather die than go back to prison.
• Primal (2019): The episode "Plague of Madness" revolves around Spear and Fang being relentlessly chased by an Argentinosaurus-turned plague monster. The chase eventually leads to a volcanic field, where the plague monster falls into lava twice, and still chases the duo until it finally burns to death and turns to ash in the wind.
• Regular Show: A few antagonists throughout the show suffer this fate, such as Quillgin from "The Christmas Special" and Mitsuru Shinehara from "Fool Me Twice".
• Solar Opposites: In "The Lavatic Reactor", Korvo and Terry invite all their friends from college to a party at their house, until events lead to the titular machine malfunctioning. The lava released from the machine causes anyone who comes in contact with it to be frozen solid; and when it is all retracted, the victims thaw out, but turn into piles of ash all across the neighbourhood. Luckily, Korvo and Terry have a machine that allows all the victims to be reincarnated into newborn babies.
• South Park: In "Volcano", three guys attempt to do the "Duck And Cover" maneuver when a lava flow heads towards them. Predictably, all three of them wind up getting fried to the bone when the lava passes over them.
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars: In "Lair Of Grievous", one of the clone troopers in Kit Fisto's group is unlucky enough to not pull out his grappling hook in time and ends up falling into a lava pit located under a trap door.
• SWAT Kats used lava a few times as a threat.
  • In "The Pastmaster Always Rings Twice," two of what the script identifies as "long-necked flying reptiles" who follow the SWAT Kats into the volcano become overcome by the fumes and fall into the lava.
  • In "The Wrath of Dark Kat," the title villain has a Volcano Lair, complete with tubes that flood the tunnel leading to his control room with molten lava in the event of an enemy intrusion. He uses this in an attempt to kill the SWAT Kats, but fails.
  • In "The Deadly Pyramid," after Load-Bearing Boss Katchu Picchu dies, the entire pyramid begins collapsing. The floor gives out underneath the Pastmaster's feet, revealing a huge lake of lava, dumping the evil wizard to his (apparent) death in the molten rock far below (complete with his obligatory Big "NO!").
  • In "Caverns of Horror," a few of the giant killer scorpions are taken out by being knocked into lava.
  • In "Volcanus Erupts!", this is the evil fire demon's specialty. Not only does he form fireballs capable of melting whatever they hit, and can even hurl lava balls at targets, but his body heat is so intense that buildings melt just being in close proximity to him. At one point he simply walks through a bridge and it dissolves like melting candle wax.
• Teen Titans (2003): In "Aftershock, Part 2", Slade winds up dying this way when he is knocked into a lava pit by Terra after she has enough of his abuse and manipulations. He gets resurrected by Trigon in Season 4 to act as his agent in order to get his flesh and blood body back, with Slade's current one being nothing but his skeleton.
• Total Drama World Tour: In a parody of The Lord Of The Rings example above, the finale episode "Hawaiian Punch" has Ezekiel falling into the volcano trying to steal the million dollars from Chris. Subverted, however, as despite being totally submerged in lava, he somehow survives when the eruption sends him flying towards and sinks Chris' boat.

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