Basic Trope: A "mirage" in a desert that's actually a hallucination, usually of an oasis or something else that could provide water and/or a means to cool down.
- Straight: Alice is stranded in the desert and sees a lake of water with palm trees and grass. When she runs towards it, it turns out she was just seeing things.
- Exaggerated: Alice's hallucination doesn't even include any water — it's a tall building.
- Downplayed: The "water" was a genuine mirage, i.e. a refracted image of the sky. However, the trees and grass were hallucinations.
- Justified:
- Heatstroke can cause hallucinations.
- Alice is old, and dehydration is known to cause hallucinations in the elderly.
- Alice is starving, which can cause hallucinations.
- Alice was already delusional.
- Inverted: Alice is said to be hallucinating, but actually all she's seeing is a refracted image of the sky.
- Subverted:
- As it turns out, it was a real oasis that disappeared due to magic.
- Alice complains about the "mirage", but Bob corrects her that what she experienced was a hallucination, not a mirage.
- It turns out that it was a genuine mirage; there are trees and grass in the sky for some reason.
- Double Subverted:
- The "wizard" was just a hallucination too.
- The "sky plants" were also a hallucination.
- Parodied: Alice doesn't see things she wants, such as water or a hotel, but instead she sees bizarre, arbitrary things like an acid trip.
- Zigzagged: Alice sees several things in the desert, some of which are hallucinations and some of which are real.
- Averted:
- There are no mirages.
- Alice sees a genuine mirage; a refracted image of the sky.
- Enforced:
- Lampshaded: "Wait — why am I seeing trees?! That's not how mirages work!"
- Invoked: An evil sorcerer brainwashes people to make them hallucinate their greatest desires, which, since this is a Thirsty Desert, are usually water, food, and/or shelter.
- Exploited:
- Defied:
- Discussed: "Mirages aren't actually wishful hallucinations — they're just an optical illusion where you see an image of the sky on the ground."
- Conversed: "Why do they always call it a mirage?! It's clearly a hallucination!"
- Implied:
- Deconstructed:
- Reconstructed:
- Played for Laughs:
- Played for Drama: It's a sign that Alice has severe heatstroke and may die.
- Played for Horror:
Back to Hollywood Mirage.
