History Main / BreathableLiquid

* ''WesternAnimation/CaptainSimianAndTheSpaceMonkeys'': In the 23rd episode titled "Surf Monkeys Must Dive!", the crew are shot down by a militaristic society on a planet in danger of core destabilization and crash land in it's pink oceans, leading to their ship filling up with it's contents. Thankfully, the oceans are made up of an "oxygenated fluorocarbon", allowing them to breathe [[WaterIsAir and even talk, albeit partially garbled]].

* ''Anime/BangBraveBangBravern'': In Episode Three, "Lulu... That's Her Name", Bravern fills his cockpit with a breathable liquid in preparation for combat underwater. There's also a direct comparison to the scene from ''Film/TheAbyss''.

* ''WesternAnimation/CaptainSimianandtheSpaceMonkeys'': In the 23rd episode titled "Surf Monkeys Must Dive!", the crew are shot down by a militaristic society on a planet in danger of core destabilization and crash land in it's pink oceans, leading to their ship filling up with it's contents. Thankfully, the oceans are made up of an "oxygenated fluorocarbon", allowing them to breathe [[WaterIsAir and even talk, albeit partially garbled]].

* ''WesternAnimation/CaptianSimianAndTheSpaceMonkeys'': In the 23rd episode titled "Surf Monkeys Must Dive!", the crew are shot down by a militaristic society on a planet in danger of core destabilization and crash land in it's pink oceans, leading to their ship filling up with it's contents. Thankfully, the oceans are made up of an "oxygenated fluorocarbon", allowing them to breathe [[WaterIsAir and even talk, albeit partially garbled]].

* ''WesternAnimation/CaptianSimianandtheSpaceMonkeys'': In the 23rd episode titled "Surf Monkeys Must Dive!", the crew are shot down by a militaristic society on a planet in danger of core destabilization and crash land in it's pink oceans, leading to their ship filling up with it's contents. Thankfully, the oceans are made up of an "oxygenated fluorocarbon", allowing them to breathe [[WaterIsAir and even talk, albeit partially garbled]].

[[quoteright:150:[[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lclsogross1.png]]]]

* ''Manga/{{Dandadan}}'': One alien species are like human-sized mantis shrimp that have lungs instead of gills because they evolved in some sort of oxygen-rich liquid[[note]]The name for the liquid was in untranslated StarfishLanguage, but Okarun theorizes it's some kind of perfluorocarbon.[[/note]]. This makes visits to Earth awkward, as they're adapted for underwater movement but can't ''breathe'' underwater or hold their breathe long. And when they bring [[AliensStealCattle a cow]] to their planet to milk it, it's very difficult because the milk dissolves in its surroundings.
* ''Anime/DoraemonNobitasDriftsInTheUniverse'' have the gang being accidentally caught in the Space Knights' vessel and taken away from earth, before the Space Knights decide to bring them back in a journey that will last for ''days''. When the team's BathingBeauty, Shizuka, asks if the Knights have a bathroom on their ship, Freya from the Knights reveals they do - a literal sphere of liquid that they can breath ''inside'' while washing themselves.
* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'': The cockpits of the titular mecha are filled with an oxygenated liquid called LCL which is required for the pilot to mentally sync with an Evangelion, as well as providing direct oxygenation of their blood, and dampening the impacts from battle. Once the cockpit is flooded the LCL is ionized, [[WaterIsAir bringing its density, opacity, and viscosity close to that of air]].

* ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk'': How useful it is (or whether or not [[ForgotAboutHisPowers he has it at all]]) is DependingOnTheWriter, but ever since the early 2000s the Hulk officially has the capacity to breathe underwater because he "[[HollywoodEvolution evolved]]" an organ that fills his lungs with a breathable fluorocarbon liquid.

[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]

* ''Film/{{Oblivion 2013}}'' mentions this in passing. When Julia wakes up from her cryosleep, she starts puking to which Victory comments "It's breathing fluid. Just let her get it out."

* ''In The Dark Forest'', one of the books in the ''[[Literature/TheThreeBodyProblem Remembrance of Earth's Past]]'' series, ships fill their cabins with breathable "Deep Sea Fluid" to protect their insides from the effects of hypergravity.

* ''Literature/KnownSpace'': ''In The Hall Of The Mountain King'', one of the stories in the ''Man-Kzin Wars'' series features a Tnuctipun pilot encased in a capsule of breathable fluid to protect him (and his normally air-filled lungs) from high-G maneuvers.
* In ''Literature/TheLostSymbol'' by Dan Brown, Robert Langdon (the protagonist) is completely submerged in breathable liquid mixed with hallucinogenic chemicals and sedatives as a torture and interrogation technique by Mal'akh (the antagonist). He goes through a near-death experience when he inhales the liquid and blacks out, losing control over his body, but is soon revived.
* Hal Clement's 1973 novel ''Ocean on Top'' portrays a small underwater civilization living in a 'bubble' of oxygenated fluid denser than seawater.
* In Mary Lowd's ''Otters in Space'' series the ''Jolly Barracuda'' fills with liquid "oxo-agua" when underway, allowing the crew to handle greater g-forces than most other spaceships, too bad nobody told the feline passenger.
* In the young adult novel ''Space Winners'' by Creator/GordonRDickson, Peep is an alien from a high-gravity planet. When he falls off a boat in the middle of the ocean he is too dense to float or swim, but his lungs are so powerful he has no trouble breathing the water like air and just walks along the ocean floor to the nearest land.
* ''Franchise/StarTrek'': The ExpandedUniverse novel series ''Federation'' explains that before the invention of the [[InertialDampening inertial dampener]], the stresses of high-G acceleration required starship pilots to be immersed in liquid-filled capsules, breathing an oxygen-rich saline solution to prevent their lungs from being crushed.

* In Creator/DavidBrin's ''Literature/{{Uplift}}'' series the ''Streaker'', a starship crewed primarily by uplifted dolphins, is largely flooded with "oxywater" that the neo-fin crew can breathe without periodically leaving their stations to come up for air. They strongly prefer air though.

* ''Series/SevenDays'':
** In season 1, episode 13, chrononaut Frank Parker is seen breathing a hyper-oxygenated perfluorocarbon liquid that is pumped through a sealed full body suit that he is wearing. This suit and liquid combination allow him to board a Russian submarine through open ocean at a depth of almost 1000 feet. Upon boarding the submarine he removes his helmet, expels the liquid from his lungs and is able to breathe air again.
** The three aliens that crashed at Roswell in 1947 are kept in [[PeopleJars alien jars]] at Neverland. One is still alive, and it can apparently breathe the liquid since it's not hooked up to any tubes.
* In an episode of ''Series/{{Eureka}}'', Sheriff Jack Carter is submerged in a tank of "oxygen rich plasma" to be cured of the effects of a scientific accident.

** PlayedWith in the episode "Ordeal". Aliens kidnap Paul Foster and force him to breathe the liquid so he can survive being transported to the alien home world, but it turns out to be AllJustADream.

* ''TabletopGame/HollowEarthExpedition'' supplement ''Mysteries of the Hollow Earth''. In the seas around the Sunken City can be found crystal orbs that, when broken, oxygenate the surrounding water enough for land creatures to breathe it.

* ''VideoGame/{{Brigador}}'' lore states [[SpacePirates Spacer]] vehicles are piloted by having the pilots submerged in "gel", a breathable [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin gel]]-like substance which allows them to link themselves to the vehicle's systems, a much more advanced - and also to them, less savage - method of implementing a BrainComputerInterface than attaching neural jacks to their heads.
* In the ''VideoGame/EVEOnline'' Universe, pilots in capsules (escape pods that function as the control center for the spacecraft) breathe an oxygen rich, nano-saturated, breathable glucose-based suspension solution
* In ''VideoGame/SwordOfTheStars'' the Liir use a hyper-oxygenated liquid on their ships. The ceremony for joining the Black Swimmers includes a ritual "drowning" in the substance.
* ''VideoGame/XCom: Terror from the Deep''. "Aquanauts" fighting deep ocean conditions breathe a dense oxygen-carrying fluid.

* In ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'', Rick created a pocket dimension called [[SugarBowl Froopy Land]] to entertain his daughter. When she realizes she didn't imagine it in adulthood, she accuses him of being careless. To prove her wrong, he throws himself off a cliff, revealing that everything is like a trampoline. Then he tries to drown himself, revealing that the water is breathable.
* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': In a clear homage to Evangelion, Peridot's EscapePod fills up with some sort of liquid that humans can breathe through--which is quite strange when you consider that gems [[TheNeedless don't need to breathe]].

[[quoteright:500:[[Film/TheAbyss https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/breathable_liquid.jpg]]]]

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[[quoteright:500:[[Film/TheAbyss https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/breathable_liquid.jpg]]]]

* One alien species in ''Manga/{{Dandadan}}'' are like human-sized mantis shrimp that have lungs instead of gills because they evolved in some sort of oxygen-rich liquid[[labelnote:*]]The name for the liquid was in untranslated StarfishLanguage, but Okarun theorizes it's some kind perfluorocarbon.[[/labelnote]]. This makes visits to Earth awkward, as they're adapted for underwater movement but can't ''breathe'' underwater or hold their breathe long. And when they bring [[AliensStealCattle a cow]] to their planet to milk it, it's very difficult because the milk dissolves in its surroundings.

* In ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' the cockpits of the titular Mecha are filled with an oxygenated liquid called LCL which is required for the pilot to mentally sync with an Evangelion, as well as providing direct oxygenation of their blood, and dampening the impacts from battle. Once the cockpit is flooded the LCL is ionized, [[WaterIsAir bringing its density, opacity, and viscosity close to that of air]].

* {{Invoked|Trope}} in ''Webcomic/{{Outsider}}''. As Beryl, Tempo and Jardin are boarding a shuttle to take Jardin to a Loroi outpost, Tempo mentions that the shuttle is big enough to support inertial dampers, meaning that they won't have to use a liquid breathing medium to compensate for its acceleration.