History Film / Avalanche

* CheatedDeathDiedAnyway: The subplot of Bruce's LoonyFan ends with said fan trying to commit suicide by pill overdose when Bruce tells her bluntly he does not loves her back. She pauses in the attempt when she feels the whole building trembling as the avalanche approaches, followed by the avalanche hitting the building and killing her.

* CheatedDeathDiedAnyway: The LoonyFan subplot ends with said fan trying to commit suicide by pill overdose when the skier she loves tells her bluntly he does not loves her back. She pauses in the attempt when she feels the whole building trembling as the avalanche approaches, followed by the avalanche hitting the building and killing her.

* RightForTheWrongReasons: Nick Thorne spends most of the film being a doomsayer about a possible avalanche, saying he feels "a heaviness" about the mountain. He was correct about an avalanche happening, but the thing that causes the avalanche is not a natural but unnoticed heavy build-up of snow but some idiot airplane pilot crashing into the side of the mountain [[MadeOfExplodium and exploding like a miniature nuke]].

** And then there's Nick. Pretty much everything he says to David goes in one ear and out the other.

* BystanderEffect: A news crew pulls up to the resort after the damage, sees the destruction and injured people... and simply set up their cameras for some B-roll footage instead of helping out.

[[caption-width-right:300:"Ugh, spoilers!"]]

* InfantImmortality: Zigzagged; little Jason escapes the disaster unscathed, but we do see other kids getting caught in the avalanche as it's happening, including one girl who is thrown against a fence by the snow and likely broke her back from the impact.

** Some of the characters (such as the figure skaters) are shown getting swept away during the avalanche and are simply never seen again afterward. It can be assumed that they either died or were rescued at some point off-screen.

** The most unlucky example is the poor fellow in town, ''nowhere near the avalanche,'' that gets run over by an out of control ambulance that careens off the street and hits him.

* KarmaHoudini: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed.]] David quite surprisingly survives the film, even getting through what appears to be a textbook RedemptionEqualsDeath setup of risking his life to save his ex-wife. However, he's severely humbled by seeing all the destruction his ego has wrought, and they don't actually get back together. He also loses his beloved mother.

** Some of the characters (such as the figure skater) are shown getting swept away during the avalanche and are simply never seen again afterward. It can be assumed that they either died or were rescued at some point off-screen.

* DrivesLikeCrazy: The incompetent ambulance/police/fire truck drivers. The scene as they pull out of town in response to the avalanche has to be seen to be believed. This winds up getting Florence killed when one of these drivers takes a curve ''waaay'' too hard and shoots off a bridge into a ravine.

* EpicFail: A surprising amount of the casualties of the avalanche are actually caused by the incompetence of the rescue workers. Florence in particular survives ''two'' near-death experiences in the avalanche, but dies due to the aforementioned idiot ambulance driver.

-->'''Crow:''' She died as she lived: Completely lit up.

-->'''[[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S11E04Avalanche Crow]]''': Oh no! The movie's starting over!!

Not to be confused with the UsefulNotes/{{Atari}} arcade game [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avalanche_(video_game) of the same name]] that was released the same year.