History Main / HollyWoodAcid

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[[quoteright:350:[[Film/{{Alien}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/acid2.png]]]]

* ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry2DiddysKongQuest'': The acid from Toxic Tower is bright lime green, acts exactly like rising water and instantly kills anything it touches.
* In ''VideoGame/FindTheCure!'' the player character uses acid to burn a lock off a door.
* ''VideoGame/MarbleMadness'' features Oozies, living puddles of acid that ooze around the floor, ready to dissolve any marble immediately on contact.
* ''VideoGame/HotlineMiami2WrongNumber'' has a particular nightmarish level taking place in a sewer where the player finds dozens of bodies being dissolved in acid tubs. [[NothingIsScarier They're never brought up afterwards]].
* ''VideoGame/MegaMan11'' introduces Acid Man. Although most of the acid in his stage is quite harmless, it will damage Mega Man once it takes on a sickly green glow.
* ''VideoGame/{{Pikmin}}'': In the animated shorts, White Pikmin -- which are generally only depicted as poisonous in the games -- are shown to be able to spit small jets of acid capable of swiftly dissolving metal.

* The WesternAnimation/{{Batman|TheAnimatedSeries}}[=/=]WesternAnimation/{{Superman|TheAnimatedSeries}} episode [[Recap/SupermanTheAnimatedSeriesS2E16To18WorldsFinest "World's Finest"]] both subverts this and plays it straight, kinda. When the Joker leaves Superman and Batman trapped in one of Luthor's laboratories (with a chunk of kryptonite slowly killing Superman), Batman begins looking for ways to escape. He finds a container of hydrochloric acid. Batman notes that while it will take a week for the acid to eat through the wall of the room they're in, it will [[ArtisticLicenseChemistry destroy the kryptonite]] almost immediately. Similarly, Superman's Anti-Kryptonite suit is supposed to be designed to resist corrosion by acid, yet is destroyed by it anyway.

* ''WesternAnimation/GodzillaTheSeries'' has several of the giant monsters spit out acid that melt various materials, usually metal and plastic. How fast the acid eats away whatever it's spat on varies.
* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'' episode "Let's Play Prince Charming" had [[JerkAss Mr. Cat]] dunk Quack Quack in a tub of this, dissolving half of his body. Fortunately, [[TheyKilledKennyAgain Quack Quack can't die]].
* ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail'': TheAlcoholic mouse politician Honest John is seen sloshing around a trail of alcohol from his glass as he gesticulates drunkenly. This alcohol is so strong that it ''burns holes in the floor'' where it lands, yet seems to have no lasting effect on Honest John other than ''moderate'' drunkenness.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{MASK}}'', each of the characters wears a mask that grants them a superpower. [[BigBad Miles Mayhem's]] Viper mask allows him to shoot highly corrosive acid from an emblem on its forehead. It is even able to dissolve the metal of an alien spaceship.
* ''WesternAnimation/DragonsRidersOfBerk'': The changewing's [[SuperSpit acid spit]] takes the form of globs of shockingly green liquid capable of melting its way through a tree trunk in seconds.

* Justified in ''Literature/TheZombieKnight'': Moss and Stoker can both use their powers to create super-concentrated, soul-strengthened acid which will eat through almost anything. Without soul power, it would still take minutes or hours, but with it it takes mere seconds.
* ''Literature/TheRiftwarCycle'': An inversion occurs in ''A Darkness at Sethanon'' -- the Tsurani Empire's homeworld has very little metal, so they have had to find other means of torture, which consist of using caustic ''bases'' to blister the skin, not acid.

* ''Literature/{{Ghoul}}'': One of the murder victims is disposed of in a bathtub full of sulphuric acid, leaving only the victim's gallstones behind (for some reason). This is possibly a reference to John Haigh. A real life killer that used acid to dispose of bodies and who was only tied to the murder of one suspect because of the few bodily parts not even the strongest acid can dissolve: teeth and gallstones.
* In Creator/KurdLasswitz' ''Auf zwei Planeten'', the Martian airships are protected by being encased in Nihilite, a substance that simply dissolves anything shot at them. This can also be used offensively, e. g. when a Martian ship rams the biggest British battleship. A chemical process is involved, as during the Battle of Portsmouth the Martian airships take breaks to replenish their stocks of Nihilite from supply vessels.

* In ''Literature/TheStainlessSteelRat'', a character stages a [[GreatEscape prison break]] with an acid that dissolves precise lines through the metal ceiling of the cell like a cutting torch. He does warn the inmate not to touch the edges of the hole on the way up, though.
* ''Literature/{{Temeraire}}'': The Longwing dragons' acidic BreathWeapon is so potent that even a single stray drop needs to be carefully neutralized, as the liquid can eat through a ship from top to bottom. The ability was created by [[SuperBreedingProgram selectively breeding]] venomous dragons for [[PoisonIsCorrosive extra potency]].
* In ''Literature/{{Middlegame}}'' by Creator/SeananMcGuire, the {{alchem|yIsMagic}}ical "universal solvent" alkahest quickly dissolves effectively anything it touches, other than a specially prepared receptacle, including even ''abstract concepts''. [[spoiler:It melts a {{Super Tough|ness}} {{Golem}} in seconds.]]

* ''Series/TheLucyShow'': Averted. Creator/LucilleBall and Vivian Vance attend a night-school chemistry class, and Lucy panics when she gets splashed with a very weak acid... until the instructor tells her that the stuff she got covered in was effectively harmless.
* ''Series/TheMandalorian'': Krayt dragons can spit gouts of greenish acid that dissolve living flesh on contact.
* ''Series/TheXFiles'' gets the bit about acid vapors right. The aliens have acid blood similar to the Xenomorphs, but most of their victims die from inhaling the stuff. This may have something to do with the fact it's cheaper to film than acid eating through people's bodies. The blood emits toxic vapors which cause swelling and reddening around the eyes and death by coagulation. It may be acidic, but that is incidental to its effectiveness. This effect was based on the real-life, and as yet unexplained case of Gloria Ramirez -- whose blood wasn't corrosive, but fumes which apparently came off her did cause similar and acute symptoms in the hospital staff which was treating her.
* In the ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt'' episode "99 & 44/100% Pure Horror" a woman murders her soap magnate husband and disposes the body by putting it through the machine at his factory and turning it into soap. She takes the soap home with her and uses it when she takes a shower, but to her horror the acid from his stomach starts eating away at her skin... never mind that the manufacture of soap involves adding enough lye to give the mixture a neutral to slightly ''alkaline'' pH, so the soap-making process itself should've rendered the acid harmless. (The fact that one of her husband's eyeballs was in the soap and still moving and looking at her as she died suggests that the effect is more supernatural than chemical).
* The live action ''Series/Batman1966'' has an inspired variant in a Riddler story where the villain gets a special wax. It is the perfect safe-cracking tool: a powerful corrosive potent enough that a pocketful of the stuff will quickly and silently penetrate thick steel doors or concrete walls in minutes and yet is perfectly safe to handle until you expose it to direct flame. In fact, you'd almost wonder why Riddler didn't [[CutLexLuthorACheck make a bundle simply auctioning the stuff to other criminals]].
* In the ''Series/FridayThe13thTheSeries'' episode "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPTDP1LHqg4 Crippled Inside]]" a teenaged attempted rapist backs away from his apparently cured victim into a rack of various chemicals. BodyHorror ensues, and one must assume that his surviving family will be getting a wrongful death settlement.
* ''Series/TheAdventuresOfSuperman'': In "[[Recap/TheAdventuresOfSupermanS6E12ThePerilsOfSuperman The Perils of Superman]]", Clark Kent is lowered into an enormous vat of acid by chortling villains, who then walk out to arrange their next evil deed. Naturally, Superman then emerges, his costume soaked, but unharmed. Presumably, Kent’s glasses and clothes were dissolved.

* ''Series/OneThousandWaysToDie'': Several episodes play this trope straight with various degrees of accuracy, particularly "Deep Fried", "Fools Russian", and "Caught In A Lye".
* Played with in ''Series/TheAdventuresOfBriscoCountyJr'': A skeleton is found in a bathtub full of acid. [[spoiler:The skeleton was a fake, left by the supposed victim to fake his own death.]] But despite only sitting about waist deep in the acid tub, the entire body is bones, [[spoiler:which is retrospect is an early clue that it was staged]].

* A ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' villain gets rid of his victims this way.
* In ''Series/MooneBoy'', Martin's vagabond uncle warns him to "never take Hungarian acid" (as in LSD). Martin replies he wouldn't want to, since acid burns through everything.

* Subverted in the 2002 TV movie ''A Is For Acid'', based on the life of serial killer John George Haigh (played by Martin Clunes) who dissolved his victims' bodies in acid. The process of destroying the bodies is shown to take a long period of time with Haigh checking back on the acid's progress until the bodies are completely destroyed. A number of miscellaneous body parts are later discovered to have not been completely destroyed, leading to Haigh's arrest. Also, as the movie progresses and Haigh becomes more confident in what he is doing, he is shown to take further precautions such as wearing a gas mask.
* ''Series/{{NCIS}}'': In "Detour", having been kidnapped by the bad guys of the week, Jimmy and Ducky free themselves from their bonds by using the victim's stomach acid to dissolve the chains holding them.
* On ''Series/GoodEats'', Alton subverts a variant: namely, the idea that cooking anything acidic in an aluminum vessel (unless it's been specially treated) is harmful, both to the vessel and to anyone who might eat the food. While acid from, say, tomato ''will'' react with aluminum, it would take ''way'' longer than most normal home cooking before that took place.
* ''Series/{{Eureka}}'': One episode has the town plagued by bats that shit Super Acid -- see RealLife section below, they got this right that it protonates matter. Over the course of the episode a cow is reduced to black and white goo, a jeep is rendered into a puddle, and a bunch of wires in a wall start dripping like water.

* ''TabletopGame/TheAwfulGreenThingsFromOuterSpace'': One of the weapons available to the crew of the spaceship Znutar as they battle the titular awful green things.

* ''Franchise/MortalKombat'': Reptile. His fatality in ''Ultimate VideoGame/MortalKombat3'' has him vomit a gallon of "acid" on his opponent, melting their flesh clear off their skeleton. He also has acid fatalities in ''VideoGame/MortalKombat4'', ''VideoGame/MortalKombatDeadlyAlliance'', and ''VideoGame/MortalKombatX''. There's also the recurring stage the Dead Pool, which you can knock your opponent into to melt them down to the bone. By ''VideoGame/Mortalkombat11'', [[TheGunslinger Erron Black]] also carries around bottles of acid as part of his moveset. One of his fatalities in the game, aptly named "Melted", has him send his opponent face first into a puddle of it, before stomping on the softened head and breaking it into pieces.

* The Mac game ''VideoGame/SpinDoctor'' had droplets of bright green acid that activate when you passed over them and chase you.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Uninvited}}'', the servant ghost kills you by engulfing you into his "misty form", which covers you in a thick, sticky goo that turns out to be acid that not only hurts, but turns you into a "lifeless lump of flesh".
* In ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'' and ''VideoGame/StarcraftII'', several zerg units (most notably Mutalisks) use "acid" attacks which, as shown in some cutscenes, are corrosive enough to go through depleted uranium starship armor. For some reason, it also causes protoss [[DeflectorShields plasma shields]] to short out.
* In the Flash game ''Crush the Castle 2'', acid projectiles play the trope 100% straight. They are green and hissing, will completely dissolve almost any substance the acid touches, and will leak down, dissolving any objects beneath that the target point directly contacts. This can create a chain reaction which can bring down entire structures by itself. Oddly, although it can disintegrate solid iron, it will not eat through the much softer earth once it reaches down that far, and a few kinds of rock walls are impervious to it. Human targets are naturally dissolved.
* ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'': Kog'Maw attacks all involve spewing digestive fluids at his enemies which have variety of effects. Due to him originating from the void, they might not obey the laws of physics.
* Several ''VideoGame/{{Gauntlet}}'' games have puddles of green acid as enemies.

* ''VideoGame/AmnesiaTheDarkDescent'' has you combining aqua regia, orpiment, cuprite, and calamine to make a mysterious unnamed "acid". Note that aqua regia is a mixture of nitric acid and sulfuric acid ''in the first place'', yet inexplicably can't be used on its own in the game.

* In ''VideoGame/GhostbustersTheVideoGame'', you must contend with black slime. The end result of Ivo Shandor's rituals, this nasty concoction is both TheCorruption and Hollywood Acid (it's labeled "Caustic Seep" in your Paragoggles). Stepping in ''any'' amount deals damage, and falling into it on Shandor Island is instant death. Oh, and...apparently it's the body fluids of a Juvenile Giant Sloar.

* The bonus chapter of ''Hidden Expedition 8: Smithsonian Castle'' has you make your own sulfuric acid. It's bright lime green and takes only a few seconds to eat through the top of a wooden box it accidentally spills on.

* ''Videogame/{{Evolve}}'': Gorgon has an acid spray attack. This is one of its most damaging attacks, rapidly melting through the health of anything caught by it.

* In ''VideoGame/SpaceQuestI'', the acid in Kerona's underground caves is so powerful that one drop of it falling on you is enough to dissolve your body.
* ''VideoGame/BricksOfEgypt2'': The Acid Eye is colored green and sheds acid tears that can destroy every block that can be found (except for the Key blocks).

* Three WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck stories by Creator/DonRosa involved a liquid called "The Universal Solvent" that compresses the atoms of anything it comes in contact with, turning all matter into a superdense powder, with one important exception: diamond. This of course means that the solvent has to be kept in a jar carved from diamond and can only be handled with tools coated in diamond dust. In real life, [[PhilosophersStone unless you're an alchemist]], the term "Universal Solvent" usually refers to ''water''...

* ComicBook/ManThing is scary enough for the unwary as a shambling plant monster, but the fact that he secretes a deadly corrosive when he encounters fear scares the hell out of people who know about him too.
* In the Star Trek[=/DS9=] comic, after the tribbles are reintroduced to the future; the cast finds that the creatures produce a "universal solvent" which somehow eats through ''force fields''. It takes about a panel for a character to ask what they could store it in.

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]
* The Literature/HarryPotter TrollFic ''Fanfic/BecomingFemale'' manages to use water as this. At one point, various heroes are trapped in [[RonTheDeathEater Ron Raper's]] lair, and are rescued by a reformed Barty Crouch Junior, who melts the bars on a window by using what is referred to as "the dangerous chemical dihydrogen monoxide".

* ''Fanfic/TheNextFrontier'' briefly talks about chlorine trifluoride, which [[VideoGame/KerbalSpaceProgram the Kerbals]] briefly investigated as a potential oxidiser in their rockets before giving up on it as just too damn dangerous. The description of their experiences with it was taken directly from the source of the quote in the RealLife section below.
* ''Fanfic/ForTheGloryOfIrk'': Gniders, the [[BigCreepyCrawlies giant spiders]] that live in Irk's wilderness, have ''drool'' that's a potent enough acid that it can eat through Irken body armor in seconds.

[[folder:Film]]
* In ''Film/TomieReplay'', Tomie pushes Yumi, the protagonist, out of the wheelchair she was in onto a floor covered in acid.
* ''Film/SupermanIII'' featured "beltric acid," which became super-corrosive if it heated up far enough. It ends up as a ChekhovsGun in the final fight against the rogue computer. There's also a completely unguarded pit filled with some kind of roiling acid present at the junkyard battle, seemingly [[RuleOfCool just because]].

* ''Film/RichieRich'': The technobabble version is used when Richie and his estate's GadgeteerGenius use a thick, foamy white experimental corrosive, "hydrochloric dioxic nucleic carbodium", disguised as a tube of toothpaste to help break Cadbury, his {{b|attleButler}}utler, out of jail.

* ''Film/Batman1989'': The goop that Jack Napier falls into is astroturf-green and has the consistency of a milkshake. It's later casually described as "acid". Later in the same film, the Joker's trick flower squirts acid strong enough to eat through thick metal in seconds (when he sprays it on the bolts holding up the church bell).
* ''Film/SuicideSquad2016'': Harley Quinn jumps onto a vat of goop labeled "acid". In a subversion, it only causes minor damage (most notably the skin bleach that also happened to the Joker).

* The DIP in ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'' acts like Hollywood Acid, though it only works on Toons. It's essentially made of the solution used to clean cels (which is to say, it's a blend of powerful paint thinners), but it still is colored green and is constantly steaming.
* Averted in ''Film/{{Runaway}}'', in which the acid sprayed by Gene Simmons' insectoid robots causes ugly black burns on the hero's skin rather than dissolving his tissues.

* ''Film/TheFly1986'': Jeff Goldblum's character Seth Brundle uses his stomach acid in the Cronenberg remake, both to externally digest food and, in one stomach-turning scene, as a weapon. It's actually specified as containing digestive enzymes.

* ''Film/PhantasmII'': The Tall Man is killed when the fluid he uses to reanimate corpses is tainted with hydrochloric acid and then injected into him, melting him from the inside-out. If that wasn't improbable enough to bother all of you chemists, this somehow causes his [[EyeScream eyeballs to explode]]. This may be justified as the Tall Man's physiology is alien.
* In ''Film/TheRock'', VX nerve gas is shown to be a corrosive acid. Crosses over with PoisonIsCorrosive.
* In the first ''Film/RoboCop1987'' movie, Boddicker's henchman Emil attempts to crush Murphy with his car, only to miss Murphy and drive straight into a tank full of corrosive toxic waste. He survives... [[BodyHorror kind of]].
* ''Film/{{Innerspace}}'': ''Stomach acid'' serves as this trope in the final battle, [[spoiler: when Tuck Pendleton drops his pod into Jack Putter's stomach with [[TheDragon Mr. Igoe]] clinging to the side. The pod survives; [[StrippedToTheBone Mr. Igoe doesn't]].]]
* ''Film/HouseOnHauntedHill1959'' in 1959 had a tank full of acid in the basement as big as a swimming pool, still caustic enough to reduce human bodies to skeletons.
* ''Film/HospitalMassacre'': A janitor is killed by having his head dunked in a sink that was randomly full of acid (or some kind of corrosive chemical).
* In ''Film/{{Mindhunters}}'', a quantity of acid small enough to be concealed undetectably in a cigarette is sufficient to kill the FBI trainee who smokes it. While her death might be reasonable under the circumstances, her entire body emitting vapor from, at most, a few mL of acid isn't, nor is the dropped cigarette melting its way into the ground beneath it.
* ''Film/DeepRising'' features giant worms with stomach acids so strong that they get their nutrition by merely engulfing and digesting their prey alive. The acting effects of this are shown in one particularly gory sequence appropriately known as [[CruelAndUnusualDeath "half-digested Billy"]].
* The 1985 B-grade horror flick ''Film/AttackOfTheBeastCreatures'' features a whole ''river'' made of acid, which coincidentally looks exactly like normal water. When one person tries to cross it, his body gets dissolved until only the skeleton remains. It's never made clear how such a large body of highly corrosive acid came to exist, nor how the tropical rainforest on the river bank manages to prosper.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformersTheMovie'' features an AcidPool that is ''so'' powerful that it dissolves a transformer in a few seconds.
* ''Film/PacificRim'': [[{{Kaiju}} Otachi]] can spit a corrosive blue acid that makes short work of any type of metal, which it uses to [[spoiler:help kill the Russian jaeger]].
* ''Film/DantesPeak'': Subverted. A lake of volcanic sulfuric acid takes several minutes to cause a metal boat to start leaking and eat away the prop. Played straight when the grandmother jumps in the water and is severely burned with a relatively short exposure to it.
* The 1957 film ''Film/TheAstoundingSheMonster'' has the protagonists (such as they are) use acid to burn away the alien's spacesuit, killing it instantly.

* The film of ''Film/TheDayOfTheTriffids'' treats sea water as this. Although it's only used to dissolve the triffids and win the day, the big warning sign next to a hose saying "Sea water -- highly corrosive" suggests the writers really believed sea water acts this way on everything.

* In ''Film/EscapeRoom2017'', [[spoiler:Conrad and Tabby]] are killed by an acidic gas that causes their flesh to dissolve. Amazingly, they do not even notice till their flesh starts to slough off.
* In ''Film/HorrorsOfTheBlackMuseum'', Bancroft disposes of Dr. Ballan's body by lowering it into a vat of acid that strips the flesh from the bones in a matter of seconds.

* In ''Film/ScreamAndScreamAgain'', Dr. Browning keeps a vat of extraordinarily powerful acid in a barn on his property that he uses to dispose of samples from his experiments. Keith commits suicide by jumping into it. Later, [[spoiler:Dr. Browning kills Konratz by pushing him into it. Fremont then kills Browning the same way]].
* In ''Film/TheEroticRitesOfFrankenstein'', Inspector Tanner throws a carboy of suphuric acid over the reanimated Dr. Frankenstein. It is so powerful that it dissolves his hands off at the wrists.

* {{Subverted}} in ''ComicBook/{{Diabolik}}'': while the title character makes strong use of some unspecified acid it simply acts like a ''real'' acid, if a powerful one. The closest thing it gets is when Diabolik breaks out the more powerful acids, but even those acts realistically-and, like the usual ones, have encountered metal safes that are unaffected ([[RealityEnsues a natural consequence of the presence of a thief that makes heavy use of acids]].

[[folder:Videogames]]

[[folder/Real Life]]

[[folder/Real Life

This stuff will usually be referred to as either "acid," "toxic waste," "poison," or simply "chemicals," unless it's given some [[TechnoBabble highly scientific]] name at its introduction, after which it will simply be called one of the names above. Don't expect to ever see bases used in the same role, despite being equally dangerous in reality (perhaps they just don't [[RuleOfCool sound as cool]]). If it's ''glowing'' rather than giving off fumes, you're probably looking at [[ILoveNuclearPower Hollywood Radioactive Goo,]] which will otherwise behave exactly the same. Expect it to show up at least once in any work involving a MadScientist. If this stuff is ever spilled on a person or other living creature, say hello to the NightmareFuel.

* In ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'', the metal-dissolving aspects of this trope are applied to [[GargleBlaster scumble]], as well as (justifiably) to the caustic beverages favored by trolls.

** Either mocked or taken to its literal extreme [[http://nonadventures.com/2014/01/25/acid-splashback/ here]], where Naziella dangles the titular heroine over a cauldron of so-called "galactic" acid that will swiftly dissolve even the [[FlyingBrick invulnerable]] Wonderella. [[spoiler:Before anything can happen, the acid melts through the cauldron it's stored in and the floor beneath it.]]

* In ''Tomie: Replay'', Tomie pushes Yumi, the protagonist, out of the wheelchair she was in onto a floor covered in acid.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Many real acids do ''some'' of the things commonly attributed to Hollywood acids. Common acids do dissolve ordinary metals, producing flammable hydrogen gas in the process (though plastic, glass, concrete, and most other common materials are unaffected). The stronger ones can also burn flesh, and produce some very nasty fumes, like smelling vinegar but far stronger. Most acids won't dissolve flesh, though; bases are actually better at this.[[note]]The flesh is made of proteins, which are, in turn, made of thousands of amino acids connected together by a structure known as a peptide bond (-CO-NH-). Due to its structure, this bond is susceptible to be broken up by a strong base, like a sodium hydroxide, for example. An acid does such a job, too, but it requires much more time and much higher temperatures to accomplish.[[/note]] However, most of the common acids are clear liquids that look just like water, and they certainly don't bubble continuously for the sake of it.
* Nitric acid looks like plain water until you drop in a piece of material to dissolve, at which point it eagerly plays the trope straight by boiling and bubbling as well as emitting toxic fumes. There's a reason why labs always keep beakers of the stuff under venting hoods and clearly labeled. This, however, refers only to the ''pure'' nitric acid, which, for the reason explained below, is rather rare and expensive. Most ''real'' nitric acid that you can encounter has a significant admixture of nitrogen dioxide (NO[[subscript:2]]), a reddish-brown toxic and caustic gas. In fact, even if your sample is pure nitric acid readily decomposes into nitrogen dioxide and water with time, and the higher concentration it is, the faster this process becomes. 95% nitric acid is even called "red fuming nitric acid", because it is deeply orange in color and gives constant brownish-orange fumes of NO[[subscript:2]] -- the so-called "fox tail".
* The electronics industry uses a mixture of concentrated sulfuric acid [[note]]already extremely corrosive[[/note]] and highly concentrated hydrogen peroxide [[note]]much, much more dangerous than the low concentrations used on cuts[[/note]] for cleaning critical equipment. The material will melt plastic and corrode metal. As for its effect on flesh, well, there's a reason it is known as [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Piranha Solution]].
* Hydrofluoric acid is probably the most dangerous acid someone not working in a lab could get a hold of and reasonably store. It rapidly penetrates the skin and proceeds to destroy the human body from the inside out by reacting readily with calcium. To make matters worse, because calcium is used in the propagation of action potentials (those thingamajigs that let you feel pain), many people don’t realize they’re dying until it’s too late. Standard handling procedures usually require full Hazmat suits or at least a face mask and tear-resistant Teflon gloves. Also, it's poisonous when it reaches the blood stream, and it doesn't become less corrosive nearly as fast as other acids when diluted. Hydrofluoric acid is also unique in that it corrodes glass and metal oxides, making it notoriously hard to store. It can be stored in certain metal containers, and it is actually used as a corrosion ''inhibitor'' for red fuming nitric acid, mentioned above. The result, called IRFNA, is one of the more commonly used liquid oxidizers in rockets.
** Oddly, hydrofluoric acid is ''not'' considered a strong acid by chemists. Its pH is not nearly as low as hydrochloric acid or sulfuric acid. Hydrofluoric isn't dangerous because of its acidity (i.e. how much of the acid forms hydrogen ions, which is how pH is measured), but because it contains ionic fluorine, the single-most reactive element in the entire periodic table, which will happily (and extremely aggressively) target and react with anything sufficiently electropositive in its vicinity (it is the fluorine, not the hydrogen, that reacts with calcium and causes the health issues associated with hydrofluoric acid exposure). Fluorine will even react with [[UpToEleven some of the (normally inert) noble gases]]!
** At one point, serious consideration was given to the possibility of building space rockets propelled by burning hydrogen with fluorine. They would be significantly more efficient than rockets that burned hydrogen with oxygen. The only problem was that this fuel-oxidizer combination produces hydrofluoric acid as its [[AccidentalNightmareFuel exhaust]]. And also the fact that storing pure fluorine in large quantities is ''incredibly'' dangerous by itself.
* The term [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin super acid]] is used for any material that is more acidic than 100% pure sulfuric acid. For example, some particularly corrosive chemicals can protonate and dissolve hydrocarbons, something that does not occur in a normal acid environment.
* The strongest known superacid is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluoroantimonic_acid fluoroantimonic acid]], which is ''ten quadrillion'' (10[[superscript:16]]) times stronger than pure sulfuric acid. Formed from reacting a 2:1 ratio of hydrogen fluoride and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimony_pentafluoride antimony pentafluoride]] (both already quite toxic and corrosive by themselves), fluoroantimonic acid can protonate hydrocarbons and like chlorine trifluoride below, reacts violently with water. The reaction to form the acid also produces unstable [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluoronium fluoronium]] (Itself a strong acid) as a byproduct, and is also responsible for fluoroantimonic acid's extreme acidity.
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorine_trifluoride Chlorine trifluoride]] -- not technically an acid, but it burns through flesh, glass, rock and concrete like nobody's business. When mixed with water it explodes and forms hydrochloric and hydrofluoric acids as ''byproducts''. And for bonus points, in its liquid state it actually is a greenish-yellow color. While [[ThoseWackyNazis the Nazis]] considered the acid [[EvenEvilHasStandards too nasty to use in actual combat]] even by their standards, they did produce the stuff throughout [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII the war]] at a partially underground bunker near the town of Falkenhagen. By the time the [[RedsWithRockets Red Army]] captured the facility in 1944, already ''30 to 50 tonnes'' of the compound had been made at the cost of 100 German Reichsmark (equal to 4.2 USD) per kilogram.
-->"It is, of course, extremely toxic, but that's the least of the problem. It is hypergolic[[note]]meaning: igniting spontaneously on mixing with another substance[[/note]] with every known fuel, and so rapidly hypergolic that no ignition delay has ever been measured. It is also [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypergolic_propellant hypergolic]] with such things as cloth, wood, and [[BreadEggsMilkSquick test engineers]], not to mention asbestos, sand, and water — with which it reacts explosively. It can be kept in some of the ordinary structural metals — steel, copper, aluminum, etc. — because of the formation of a thin film of insoluble metal fluoride which protects the bulk of the metal, just as the invisible coat of oxide on aluminum keeps it from burning up in the atmosphere. If, however, this coat is melted or scrubbed off, and has no chance to reform, the operator is confronted with the problem of coping with a metal-fluorine fire. For dealing with this situation, I have always recommended [[DontAskJustRun a good pair of running shoes.]]"--[[http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2008/02/26/sand_wont_save_you_this_time John D. Clark, Rocket Scientist, quoted in Derek Lowe's "Things I Won't Work With"]].
* Ironically, some of the chemicals that best simulate Hollywood Acid are ''bases'' (or "alkalines"), which are the opposite of acids in chemical terms. Lye (sodium hydroxide), which is actually an alkaline base, can cause this. One of Southern Railway's repair shops, now the North Carolina Transportation Museum, had such an incident:
-->"Accidents at Spencer Shops harmed workers as well as equipment. Spencer did have its human tragedies, although they were rare enough to achieve near legendary status. Perhaps the worst occurred in 1911, when a young apprentice fell into a pit filled with caustic lye used for cleaning locomotive parts. He left behind much of his skin when he was fished out but remained alive for several hours in extreme agony before dying. The tale passed from generation to generation as a warning that one should be constantly aware of safety at the shops."
** One base, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcium_oxide calcium oxide]] or "quicklime", was once popular among those seeking to dispose of a body discreetly as it was believed to accelerate decomposition. This turned out to be a myth, if anything it was a preservative.
* Aqua regia, a mixture of hydrochloric acid and nitric acid, is a yellow to reddish acid that can completely dissolve gold and platinum.
* One of the targets of medieval alchemists was the "alkahest", a mystic "universal solvent" that could dissolve '''anything'''. Even then, there were jokes about "what do you keep it in?".
* Drain cleaner is usually made with sulfuric acid and is dyed green. In some countries, however, it is made from the aforementioned lye instead.
* Triflic acid is definitely not an acid to be trifled with. It is derived from both sulfuric and hydrofluoric, is stronger than them both and has the toxicity of hydrofluoric acid, too.
* How about a even stronger acid than hydroiodic, let alone hydrochloric? Try the next step down column 17: hydroastatic acid. It has the added bonuses of having a positive enthalpy of formation, and being radioactive. Since it doesn't do anything that can't be done more safely and cheaply with other substances, though, none of it exists[[note]]and astatine is so radioactively unstable that there's only about a gram of it on the whole planet at any one time[[/note]]. Thank God.
* Plain ordinary water, as noted above, is an ''excellent'' solvent. If we (along with most life on Earth) weren't already mostly made out of it, and other stuff dissolved in it, it'd be terrifying stuff.
* Between 1943 and 1949, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_George_Haigh John Haigh]] murdered at least six and possibly up to ten people in and around London. His method of disposing of the corpses was to stuff them in large oildrums and add gallons of concentrated acid. This is part of the reason why there is no definite tally of his victims. A human body largely goes to sludge after two days' immersion in acid; when tipped into the sewer system it flushes neatly away. He was only tied to the murder of one suspect because of the few bodily parts not even the strongest acid can dissolve: teeth and gallstones. Haigh, known as The Acid Bath Killer, was executed by hanging in late 1949.
** About twenty years before Haigh, the story of "Master Sarret's bathtub" made French headlines. In Marseilles, during the 1920's, Georges-Alexandre Sarrejani, known as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges-Alexandre_Sarret Sarret]], was a famous attorney and politician. He was also an extravagant reveller and a conman who committed many life insurance frauds, subscribing policies on terminally ill people, with perfectly healthy partners undergoing medical examinations while pretending to be the insuree... If needed, the sick people were "discreetly helped" to die by the nice lawyer. In August 1925, Chambon, one of his partners - a former priest - greedily asked for more money ; he was soon invited for a vacation in "L'Hermitage", a small country house rented by Sarret around Aix-en-Provence, thirty miles away from Marseilles. There, Sarret killed Chambon and his girlfriend with a shotgun, and dissolved their bodies inside a bathtub with about 25 gallons of sulfuric acid for three whole days, dispatching the gooey remains with buckets in a nearby meadow afterwards. The crime was to remain unknown for about six years, when one of Sarret's girlfriends was arrested and involuntarily revealed both the insurance scam she was part of, then the double murder, denouncing her lover. Even after successfully delaying trial for two years, Sarret couldn't escape his fate. Found guilty, he was sentenced to death in October 1933, and guillotined on April 10th, 1934, in front of the prison of Aix-en-Provence.
** In a similar vein, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larissa_Schuster Larissa Schuster]] murdered her estranged husband by incapacitating him with a stun gun, placing him in a barrel, then filling it with acid.
* Carborane superacid is a subversion. While it is classed as a superacid and is one of the strongest known acids, being one million times stronger than even pure sulfuric acid, it is also one of the least corrosive of all acids.
* Probably the least thought about frequent subversion of this are nucleic acids. In other words, the DNA ('''d'''eoxyribo'''n'''ucleic '''a'''cid) and RNA ('''r'''ibo'''n'''ucleic '''a'''cid) that exist in every lifeform and pseudo-lifeform, as well as artificially created [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nucleic_acid_analogue nucleic acid analogues]], a.k.a. xeno nucleic acids. [=XNAs=] such as peptide nucleic acid, glycol nucleic acid, and threose nucleic acid, have been found to have various uses in genetic research, meaning that the biggest threat ''these'' acids pose is the unlikely scenario of [[TheCorruption XNA-corrupted]] lifeforms escaping from a laboratory [[ZombieApocalypse and infecting or contaminating all life on Earth]]. [[Film/JurassicPark After all]], [[GenreBlind the scientists only seem to be thinking that they can]] and not [[GoneHorriblyWrong if they should]], and even [[StayingAlive alien life finds a way]]...[[note]]It's extremely unlikely for XNA to be incorporated into the DNA of existing organisms as no organism has proteins that would allow them to transcribe (read) or replicate XNA. The idea of synthetic life with a fundamentally different genome being able to "corrupt" Earth life is as plausible as [[NoBiochemicalBarriers aliens being able to eat and breed with Earth life]] -- i.e. the softest of soft science.[[/note]]
[[/folder]]

* In ''[[FanFic/SovereignGFCOrigins Origins]]'', a ''VideoGame/MassEffect''[=/=]''Franchise/StarWars''[=/=]''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}''[[spoiler:/''Halo'']] MassiveMultiplayerCrossover, "corrosive" elemental guns carry the trope as per the game. Furthermore, an army of clones is constructed that utilize this to avoid being used by {{Parasite Zombie}}s -- if infected, the clone simply dissolves while [[ImMelting leaving nothing behind]].

* In the ''Series/BreakingBad'' episode "[[Recap/BreakingBadS1E2TheCatsInTheBag The Cat's in the Bag]]". [[TheSmartGuy Walter White]] and his partner Jesse Pinkman need to get rid of a body. Walt tells Jesse -- who at this point has not yet learned to follow Walt's instructions regarding chemistry to the letter at all times -- to pick up a specific type of plastic tub, because the hydrofluoric acid they're using will dissolve any other container. So what does Jesse do? [[WhatAnIdiot Takes a shortcut and dumps it in a ceramic bathtub]]. The result is a very... messy hole in the ceiling (the tub being on the second floor). Since the body, at this point, is no longer recognizable as human, the result, for those who are not [[{{Squick}} completely disgusted]], is BloodyHilarious.

* Averted in an episode of ''Series/TheLucyShow'' of all places. Creator/LucilleBall and Vivian Vance attend a night-school chemistry class, and Lucy panics when she gets splashed with a very weak acid... until the instructor tells her that the stuff she got covered in was effectively harmless.
* ''Series/BetterOffTed'': One episode features a biocomputer that leaks an "acid-like goo", or "ass-goo" for short, that burns through several floors and desks.

[[quoteright:225:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_ws379_8194.png]]
[[caption-width-right:225:''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaCDiGames It burns!]]'']]

* ''Franchise/MortalKombat'': Reptile. His fatality in ''Ultimate VideoGame/MortalKombat3'' has him vomit a gallon of "acid" on his opponent, melting their flesh clear off their skeleton. He also has acid fatalities in ''VideoGame/MortalKombat4'', ''VideoGame/MortalKombatDeadlyAlliance'', and ''VideoGame/MortalKombatX''.
%%* ''VideoGame/MortalKombat2'': The "Dead Pool".

%%* In ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'' and ''VideoGame/StarcraftII'', several zerg units use "acid" attacks.%%Unrealistic how?

-->"It is, of course, extremely toxic, but that's the least of the problem. It is hypergolic[[note]]meaning: igniting spontaneously on mixing with another substance[[/note]] with every known fuel, and so rapidly hypergolic that no ignition delay has ever been measured. It is also [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypergolic_propellant hypergolic]] with such things as cloth, wood, and [[BreadEggsMilkSquick test engineers]], not to mention asbestos, sand, and water — with which it reacts explosively. It can be kept in some of the ordinary structural metals — steel, copper, aluminum, etc. — because of the formation of a thin film of insoluble metal fluoride which protects the bulk of the metal, just as the invisible coat of oxide on aluminum keeps it from burning up in the atmosphere. If, however, this coat is melted or scrubbed off, and has no chance to reform, the operator is confronted with the problem of coping with a metal-fluorine fire. For dealing with this situation, I have always recommended [[DontAskJustRun a good pair of running shoes.]]"--[[http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2008/02/26/sand_wont_save_you_this_time John D. Clark, Rocket Scientist]].

* How about a even stronger acid than hydroiodic, let alone hydrochloric? Try the next step down column 17: hydroastatic acid. It has the added bonuses of having a positive enthalpy of formation, and being radioactive. Since it doesn't do anything that can't be done more safely and cheaply with other substances, though, none of it exists[[note]]and astatine is so radioactively unstable there's only about a gram of it on the whole planet at any one time[[/note]]. Thank God.

* How about a even stronger acid than hydroiodic, let alone hydrochloric? Try the next step down column 17: hydroastatic acid. It has the added bonuses of having a positive enthalpy of formation, and being radioactive. Since it doesn't do anything that can't be done more safely and cheaply with other substances, though, none of it exists. Thank God.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorine_trifluoride Chlorine trifluoride]] -- not technically an acid, but it burns through flesh, glass, rock and concrete like nobody's business. When mixed with water it explodes and forms hydrochloric and hydrofluoric acids as ''byproducts''. And for bonus points, in its liquid state it actually is a greenish-yellow color. While [[ThoseWackyNazis the Nazis]] considered the acid [[EvenEvilHasStandards too nasty to use in actual combat]] even by their standards, they did produce the stuff throughout [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII the war]] at a partially underground bunker near the town of Falkenhagen. By the time the [[RedsWithRockets Red Army]] captured the facility in 1944, already ''30 to 50 tonnes'' of the acid had been made at the cost of 100 German Reichsmark (equal to 4.2 USD) per kilogram.

* ''Literature/{{Temeraire}}'': The Longwing dragons' acidic BreathWeapon is so potent that even a single stray drop needs to be carefully neutralized; it's mentioned that the liquid can eat through a ship from top to bottom.

* In ''Film/ScreamAndScreamAgain'', Dr. Browning keeps a vat of extraordinarily powerful acid in a barn on his property that he uses to dispose of samples from his experiments. Keith commits suicide by jumping into it. Later, [[spoiler:Dr. Browning kills Konartz by pushing him into it. Fremont then kills Browning the same way]].

* In ''VideoGame/{{Metroid}}'', Brinstar is full of some kind of acid that depletes your energy by roughly twenty points per second of contact. Considering the sort of damage the power suit can endure, that makes it about as strong as 10-12M [=HCl=]. The acid is also ''boiling'', looking at its animation, which means that, if it ''is'' [=HCl=], [[FridgeLogic the air in Brinstar must be largely chlorine gas.]] The stuff is also a serious threat in the Metroid stages featured in the first two ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' games; the lava fills the pit at the bottom of the stage and constantly rises, often to the point where the only available fighting space is a tiny platform. Any character who touches it is launched skyward.