History Main / DeadlyGas

* In 1995 the [[ScamReligion Aum Shinrikyo]] cult released sarin gas into the Tokyo subway, with the hope that they would kill enough people to coerce the government into letting them take over. Fortunately only 13 people died despite the enclosed area and all the perpetrators were caught.

* ''Webcomic/ChampionsOfFaraus'': Sea serpent Serpentus's paralytic venom, when sprayed like mist, falls somewhere between this, TheParalyzer, and KnockoutGas, as [[spoiler:Skye]] losses feeling in [[spoiler:her]] legs and passes out within a few moments of breathing it in, and comments made by Serpentus heavily imply that prolonged exposure is lethal.

* Although Inert gases do not actively attack the respiratory system, they can still be dangerous enough to kill a person through oxygen deprivation. A good example of this is [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bromotrifluoromethane Bromotrifluoromethane]] (Halon) Gas: It is very effective at suppressing fires without damaging valuable materials such as aircraft and mainframe computers but is also very effective at starving a person of oxygen, hence the clear warning signs advising people not to be inside a Halon-protected area in the event of a fire.
* Similarly, nitrogen itself is not toxic, but if it were to be introduced into an enclosed compartment with little to no ventilation at moderate or higher concentrations, it can displace the remaining oxygen in the space and cause death by asphyxiation. One example of this happened in the very first Space Shuttle Mission in 1981, where two technicians walked into an area located in the Shuttle's Mobile Launcher Platform that happened to be pressurized with pure nitrogen as a precaution against a fire accident; the nitrogen lethally asphyxiated the two poor workers. The main problem is that, because you can breathe out the carbon dioxide normally, ''you won't notice you're asphyxiating until you collapse''.

** Joanna Dark infiltrates Area51 to rescue an alien survivor. When she reaches the room where he is located, the scientists flood the room with poison gas. Of course, [[TooDumbToLive the scientists kind of forgot that they're still in the room as well]].

This gas often has [[SicklyGreenGlow a greenish color]], which is more a case of TechnicolorScience and TechnicolorToxin than of TruthInTelevision. Carbon monoxide for example is notoriously colorless, which necessitated the CanaryInACoalMine to prevent workers from dying. While chlorine gas (used extensively in [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI the First World War]]) ''is'' green, nerve gases have been the chemical weapon of choice since UsefulNotes/WorldWarII (although chlorine still works quite well if your enemy isn't well supplied with protective equipment and has been used as recently as the ongoing Syrian Civil War) -- these are colorless and odorless, and can penetrate the body through exposed skin. A common mistake is to depict a gas mask as the full extent of the protective gear needed against nerve gas -- in reality, you would also have to prevent any of the gas coming into contact with your skin. This was made clear in the TV series ''Series/BreakingBad'' -- when Walt and Jesse manufacture crystal meth, they don not just respirators, but full coverage yellow {{hazmat suit}}s because the fumes are not just toxic to inhale, they're toxic if they contact the skin.

* ''VideoGame/TheDeadMines'': The player charaacter is sent into an abandoned mine leaking toxic gas to the surface.

* In the {{Novelisation}} of ''Radio/{{Earthsearch}}'', two crewmembers of the Challenger are captured by Grand Emperor Thorden, who decides they must be [[TheInfiltration alien-created humanoids]] and pushes the BigRedButton to feed poison gas into their cell. [[BigDamnHeroes At that moment, Challenger arrives in orbit]] threatening to carve up the entire planet with the asteroid defense lasers unless the captives are returned. Thorden quickly puts the ventilation fans in reserve and rushes in a medical team to revive them. Fortunately the heavier-than-air gas had not yet risen above floor level.

* In ''Film/CeimeDoctorsManHunt'', Natalie kills the two hoods trying to blackmail her by opening the valves on her gas fire, and them leaving them in the room to asphyxiate.

** When the Beast Pirates attack Zou while looking for Raizo, the [[BeastMan Mink Tribe]] manages to fight them off for 4 days by rotating between Inuarashi and the Musketeers fighting them during the day, and Nekomamushi and the Guardians fighting them during the night. On the fifth day, however, Jack ([[CoDragons one of Kaido's right-hand men]] and the man leading the attack) loses his patience and breaks out a poison gas weapon that takes the Mink warriors out of commission. While he sets about to [[TortureAlwaysWorks torture Inuarashi and Nekomamushi about Raizo's whereabouts]], [[ContrivedCoincidence Doflamingo's defeat in Dressrosa and his subsequent arrest force jack to leave Zou in order to attempt a rescue]]. Not long after his departure, half of the Straw Hats led by Sanji arrive to Zou while bringing Caesar as their prisoner, who quickly recognizes the poison gas as his own creation, dubbed "Koro" (derived from the Japanese word for "kill"). Sanji and Chopper are less than amused at the carnage left behind by yet another of Caesar's weapons, and violently coerce him into fixing the mess. Caesar reluctantly complies, and uses his Devil Fruit ability to synthesize a gas capable of neutralizing Koro, dubbed "[[SdrawkcabName Roko]]".

** When the Beast Pirates attack Zou while looking for Raizo, the [[BeastMan Mink Tribe]] manages to fight them off for 4 days by rotating between Inuarashi and the Musketeers fighting them during the day, and Nekomamushi and the Guardians fighting them during the night. On the fifth day, however, Jack ([[CoDragons one of Kaido's right-hand men]] and the man leading the attack) loses his patience and breaks out a poison gas weapon that takes the Mink warriors out of commission. While he sets about to torture Inuarashi and Nekomamushi about Raizo's whereabouts, Doflamingo's defeat in Dressrosa and his subsequent arrest force jack to leave Zou in order to attempt a rescue. Not long after his departure, half of the Straw Hats led by Sanji arrive to Zou while bringing Caesar as their prisoner, who quickly recognizes the poison gas as his own creation.

* Magellan of ''Manga/OnePiece'', Head Chief of [[TheAlcatraz Impel Down.]] Thanks to his Venom-Venom Fruit, his body is made up of poison, and chlorine gas is his most-used type of deadly gas.

* ''ComicBook/GroupOf7AMostSecretTale'': On April 22nd, 1915, at 1700 hours (5:00 [=PM=]), the Germans unleashed a deadly gas on the battlefield, which smothered the Algerian forces and scattered the French forces.

* The MacGuffin of ''The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril'' (a [[TwoFistedTales pulp-homage novel]] by Paul Malmont) is a US Army experimental poison gas left over from UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. Its effects are not pretty.

This gas often has [[SicklyGreenGlow a greenish color]], which is more a case of TechnicolorScience and TechnicolorToxin than of TruthInTelevision. While chlorine gas (used extensively in [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI the First World War]]) ''is'' green, nerve gases have been the chemical weapon of choice since UsefulNotes/WorldWarII (although chlorine still works quite well if your enemy isn't well supplied with protective equipment and has been used as recently as the ongoing Syrian Civil War) -- these are colorless and odorless, and can penetrate the body through exposed skin. A common mistake is to depict a gas mask as the full extent of the protective gear needed against nerve gas -- in reality, you would also have to prevent any of the gas coming into contact with your skin. This was made clear in the TV series ''Series/BreakingBad'' -- when Walt and Jesse manufacture crystal meth, they don not just respirators, but full coverage yellow {{hazmat suit}}s because the fumes are not just toxic to inhale, they're toxic if they contact the skin.

* One of the best DeathTrap scenarios in the Creator/AdamWest ''Series/Batman1966'' was when the Duo was captured and challenged to avoid drowning in an industrial smokestack for period of time by ComicBook/TheJoker. However, the Joker doublecrosses them by filling the smokestack with a deadly heavier than air gas, noting [[FalseReassurance "Who said anything about water?"]] When Robin protests that you can't float in gas, the Joker responds, "No, but you can ''drown'' in it."
* Giles, Buffy and Willow almost get gassed on ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' in "Out of Sight, Out of Mind", when an invisible girl locks them in the school boiler room and turns on the gas. Angel fortunately arrives in time and shuts it off. They're almost unconscious, but Angel, being a vampire, doesn't have to breathe.

* In a second season episode of ''Series/{{Fringe}}'', we have a [[ThoseWackyNazis creepy Nazi]] who's genetically tailoring a design toxin that will cause fatal asphyxiation to anyone who isn't blond and blue-eyed. In a [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome crowning moment of badassery]], Walter displays his hatred of Nazis by [[TranquilFury coldly re-designing the same toxic gas]] [[HoistByHisOwnPetard to only kill the creepy Nazi guy]]. At a ''crowded peace summit'' no less.

This gas often has [[SicklyGreenGlow a greenish color]], which is more a case of TechnicolorScience than of TruthInTelevision. While chlorine gas (used extensively in [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI the First World War]]) ''is'' green, nerve gases have been the chemical weapon of choice since UsefulNotes/WorldWarII (although chlorine still works quite well if your enemy isn't well supplied with protective equipment and has been used as recently as the ongoing Syrian Civil War) -- these are colorless and odorless, and can penetrate the body through exposed skin. A common mistake is to depict a gas mask as the full extent of the protective gear needed against nerve gas -- in reality, you would also have to prevent any of the gas coming into contact with your skin. This was made clear in the TV series ''Series/BreakingBad'' -- when Walt and Jesse manufacture crystal meth, they don not just respirators, but full coverage yellow {{hazmat suit}}s because the fumes are not just toxic to inhale, they're toxic if they contact the skin.

* In ''Film/Batman1989'', this is the Joker's favorite method of killing people, courtesy of the Smilex toxin. He does it twice, once in the museum where Bruce is supposed to meet Vicki, and once in the big parade scene with big parade-float balloons full of Smilex. Batman takes the balloons away in the Batwing and sends them well away from the city in order to stop him. The "gas masks protect against nerve gas" mistake occurs twice: first with Vicki Vale in the museum and again when Knox uses a filter mask during the balloon attack. This ''might'' be {{justified|Trope}}: Smilex affects the respiratory system and makes victims literally laugh themselves to death, so it might be more like a very potent allergenic agent than an actual neurotoxin.

** In ''Perfect Dark Zero'''s Laboratory Rescue mission, the laboratory gets flooded with green gas that slowly drains your health and prevents it from regenerating until you activate the ventilation.
* Played with in ''VideoGame/{{Pikmin}}''. The planet the game takes place on is extremely heavily hinted to be Earth and is noted to have an oxygen-rich atmosphere. Problem is, the player characters come from a species to whom oxygen is highly toxic, so they must remain in their environment suits at all times. Further toyed with in ''VideoGame/Pikmin3'', which introduces a second alien species who ''can'' tolerate oxygen, but there's too much of it around on the Pikmin world (three times as much as their homeworld), so while they might survive, leaving their environment suits would have bad effects on them regardless.

** ''Film/{{Moonraker}}'' centers around a villain's plan to build himself a space station, then drop satellites filled with enough nerve gas to kill everything on Earth. One scene involves James infiltrating the lab where the nerve gas is being synthesized, taking out a nerve gas canister and looking at it in puzzlement, then sloppily putting it down and hiding in the next room (which conveniently has glass windows and an airlock separating it from where he was) when the scientists come back. The scientists fail to notice the moved canister until one of them knocks it off the table, shattering it-giving Bond a demonstration of the canister's contents and purpose, as the scientists immediately die horribly.

* ''Literature/WatershipDown''. Heeding the apocalyptic visions of Fiver, a small group of rabbits leave Saddleford warren. The other rabbits either don't believe him or figure the majority can survive any disaster by sitting tight underground. Then humans seeking to redevelop the area turn up, fill in the rabbit holes and pump poison gas into the warren. The rabbits get the full horrific story when a mere two survivors turn up at Watership Down halfway through the novel.

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'' has an odd example in the case of SCP-681, a malevolent form of helium (in real life a non-toxic asphyxiant) that intentionally coats the inside of the lungs of living beings in the most efficient possible manner, causing them to suffocate. Luckily, it can be trapped in balloons.

* ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'': The second game, and all the side media like the Ratman comic, firmly establish [[InsistentTerminology Deadly Neurotoxin]] as [=GLaDOS=]' WeaponOfChoice.