History Main / OneDoseFitsAll

* ''Film/JurassicWorldFallenKingdom'': The tranquilizer used to sedate the dinosaurs is named as carfentanil, an "extremely" potent narcotic. The lethal dose for humans is measured in micrograms, yet multiple people are hit with darts calibrated for dinosaur-sized creatures and simply wake up later with headaches that don't last that long.

* Averted in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10541324/9/First-Knight First Knight]]''. Xander mentions having a single dose of the antidote to the poison used in the lobster [[ItMakesSenseInContext at a dinner set in the 1930s]] because he didn't expect to take anyone else back with him. However, he explains that the dose is tailored for his weight and metabolism; he could use a smaller amount if Willow or Dawn got poisoned, but has no idea how to account for a Slayer's constitution and metabolism. As a result, he can't do anything to save the poisoned alternate Xander and Faith they meet.

* In ''Film/{{Mindhunters}}'', the killer sneaks a sedative into the pot of coffee the team is drinking from. It takes effect a few minutes later and every team member is out cold within about thirty seconds of each other, and similarly wake up within a minute of each other several hours later. Never mind the disparities in how much coffee each team member drank or that the team includes six team members ranging from a burly ScaryBlackMan to two petite women ([[spoiler:however, one of the team members gets murdered while asleep and another is the killer himself who merely feigned unconsciousness, mitigating this slightly]]). And this is possibly the ''least'' impractical element of the killer's insanely complicated GambitRoulette.

This trope refers to those FridgeLogic-y moments in which a poison (or sedative, tranquillizer, medicine etc.) is administered to several different people and takes effect on all of them after roughly the same period of time and with the same effects, despite differences in body mass, how much of the substance was administered and constitution. Sometimes the people affected are even of different species, such as a poison simultaneously administered to both an adult male and a dog, who nonetheless react identically to any poison administered[[note]]And considering the [[https://www.battersea.org.uk/pet-advice/dog-care-advice/toxic-food-dogs laundry list of substances]] which are perfectly safe for humans to eat but toxic for canines, even banal examples of this type ''do'' strain credibility.[[/note]]. Supposing that, in our example above, Bob is a human whereas Carol is a three-headed Martian whose species evolved under entirely different circumstances to our own; how could we possibly expect Carol to react in the same way as Bob to being poisoned (sedated, etc.)?

But hang on -- Carol gulped her coffee back in a few mouthfuls, whereas Bob sipped his and barely drank half of it. Additionally, Bob is six feet tall and weighs nearly twice as much as the petite Carol. How can the same poison possibly have killed them both at the same time, given the differences in body mass and how much poison each of them consumed?

* Averted in ''Film/{{Black Widow|2021}}. Alexei Shostakov, a heavyset SuperSoldier, is able to shrug off a single TranquilizerDart from [[BigBad Dreykov]]'s {{mooks}}; [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome it turns out that they'd anticipated such a thing]], so they shoot Alexei with about a dozen more darts until he goes down properly.

* Zigzagged in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12286952/25/And-Yet-Again-Still-Even-More-Fragments Scrap Value]]'' when Xander doesn't give any painkillers to injured Skrulls because he has no idea what affect they'd have on them, but is assured that alcohol and marijuana have the same effect as on humans so they drink and smoke to dull their pain.
* {{Averted}} in ''FanFic/TheDragonKingsTemple'':
** Janet explicitly refuses to give Zuko and Toph any medicines (even aspirin) because they are Asyuntians, not humans, and she cannot reliably predict what effects any given medicine might have on them.
** [[spoiler: It turns out that the neurotoxin the System Lords use to kill their ''human'' hosts is actually intended to allow a Gou'ald blended with an ''Unas'' to separate safely without harm to either party.]]

* ''Fanfic/ChrysalisVisitsTheHague'' averts this: One time, everybody thinks that Chrysalis is out cold due to the ridiculously high dose of horse tranquilizer she's been given (which would have outright killed any other animal in her weight class). [[spoiler:''Then'' she jumps up...]]

* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'': Archer's friend Lucas drugs Archer's wine, for which he may well have correctly calculated the dosage required as Archer passes out reasonably quickly, and Lucas knew ahead of time that he might need to drug Archer. However, he ''drastically'' underestimates [[TheAlcoholic Sterling's]] liver's ability to metabolize toxins, meaning Archer wakes up much sooner than anticipated.

This trope refers to those FridgeLogic-y moments in which a poison (or sedative, tranquillizer, medicine etc.) is administered to several different people and takes effect on all of them after roughly the same period of time and with the same effects, despite differences in body mass, how much of the substance was administered and constitution. Sometimes the people affected are even of different species, such as a poison simultaneously administered to both an adult male and a dog, who nonetheless react identically to any poison administered[[note]]And considering the [[laundry list of substances https://www.battersea.org.uk/pet-advice/dog-care-advice/toxic-food-dogs]] which are perfectly safe for humans to eat but toxic for canines, even banal examples of this type ''do'' strain credibility.[[/note]]. Supposing that, in our example above, Bob is a human whereas Carol is a three-headed Martian whose species evolved under entirely different circumstances to our own; how could we possibly expect Carol to react in the same way as Bob to being poisoned (sedated, etc.)?

This trope refers to those FridgeLogic-y moments in which a poison (or sedative, tranquillizer, medicine etc.) is administered to several different people and takes effect on all of them after roughly the same period of time and with the same effects, despite differences in body mass, how much of the substance was administered and constitution. Sometimes the people affected are even of different species, such as a poison simultaneously administered to both an adult male and a dog, who nonetheless react identically to any poison administered. Supposing that, in our example above, Bob is a human whereas Carol is a three-headed Martian whose species evolved under entirely different circumstances to our own; how could we possibly expect Carol to react in the same way as Bob to being poisoned (sedated, etc.)?

* Wrestling/AndreTheGiant infamously averted this because of his enormous size. When he was having back surgery in the late '80s, the surgeons had no way of knowing how to measure how much anesthetics he needed and had to make a guess based on how much alcohol André required to get drunk. FYI, it took a six pack of beer and ''an entire bottle of vodka'' just to get him tipsy!

'''Note:''' The key element of this trope is that it shows the same substance affecting ''more than one entity'' (human, animal, alien etc.) in the same way, even if it logically shouldn't (because of differences in dosage, body mass, constitution, species, etc.). If you have an example of a poison or sedative etc. affecting just ''one'' individual, it's not this trope.

* ''Fanfic/ChrysalisVisitsTheHague'' averts this: One time, everybody thinks that Chrysalis is out cold due to the ridiculously high dose of horse tranquiliser she's been given (which would have outright killed any other animal in her weight class). [[spoiler:''Then'' she jumps up...]]

* Zigzagged in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12286952/25/And-Yet-Again-Still-Even-More-Fragments Scrap Value]]'' when Xander doesn't give any painkillers to injured Skrulls because he has no idea what affect they'd have on them but is assured that alcohol and marijuana have the same effect as on humans so they drink and smoke to dull their pain.

* In the teaser trailer for ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}'', Judy shoots Nick (a fox) with an '''elephant''' tranquilizer and it only knocks him out instantly (instead of realistically killing him), then a wildebeest eats the dart and staggers for a second before passing out. The tranq gun was left out of the final film but [[spoiler:blueberry-sized capsules of Night Howler serum are shown to equally affect animals ranging in size from an otter to a polar bear. And since it's a contact toxin that's absorbed though the skin, the dosage would be even more random due to the targets having fur coats that have varying degrees of waterproofing.]]

* ''Film/JurassicWorldFallenKingdom'': The tranquilizer used to sedate the dinosaurs is named as carfentanil, an 'extremely' potent narcotic. The lethal dose for humans is measured in micrograms, yet multiple people are hit with darts calibrated for dinosaur sized creatures and simply wake up later with headaches that don't last that long.

** Played ridiculously straight now in season 7, ''Dragonstone''. When [[spoiler:Arya, disguised as Walder Frey]], poisons the wine and then instructs several dozen members of [[spoiler:House Frey]] to have a toast, ''all'' of them are largely fine for the time it takes her to finish her speech, at which point they ''all'' die within seconds of each other.

* In an episode of ''Series/TheFlash2014'', The Trickster laces the champagne at a Gala with a poison that takes one hour to take effect. For ''all'' the guests. Like clockwork too -- one guest, who arrived an hour before the rest (and therefore an hour before everyone is told about the poison) starts to keel over precisely sixty minutes after he started drinking.

* [[DefiedTrope Defied]] (or at least attempted to) in the ''Series/{{House}}'' episode "Last Resort." A desperate man takes several patients and employees hostage at gunpoint, demanding a diagnosis and treatment. House manages to get the outside to send them a sedative and a syringe, telling the guy it's to treat the disease House has "diagnosed" him with. Since the guy wasn't born yesterday, he insists House give it to a hostage first. House deliberately picks the biggest guy in the room. He's fine for a few seconds, but still passes out before House can get the second dose in the gunman.
-->'''Jason:''' You think I'm an idiot?!
-->'''House:''' Thought I had a little more time with a guy that size...

[[folder:Music]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* Averted in ''WebComic/TheLastDaysOfFoxhound'' a fan webcomic based on the ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' games. Several times the unit faces superhuman opponents like the Cyber Ninja or Liquid Snake, (when he's possessed by the ghost of his father) and despite FriendlySniper Wolf shooting them with a TranquilizerDart, they manage to stay conscious long enough to either escape capture or cause some other problems before collapsing. When one of her teammates complains about InstantSedation not being in effect, Wolf responds by talking about how difficult it is to get the dose right for a superhuman opponent. [[ShownTheirWork The author having a degree in molecular biology helps with this sort of thing]].

[[folder:WebVideo]]
* Exaggerated in the WebVideo/D20Live game for 2012. The party are offered wine by the lord's daughter they're supposed to be retrieving, which turns out to be drugged. [[WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment Spoony]], Birdman, and Roo's characters all drink it and get knocked out; [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Linkara]] shows more GenreSavvy and simply has his character smell the wine, but he gets drugged all the same. Lewis rightfully points out that if the drug is that strong it probably should have killed the guys who actually drank it, but they end up accepting it as an example of {{Railroading}} as a necessary evil.

[[folder:WesternAnimation]]

* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'': Archer's friend Lucas drugs Archer's wine, for which he may well have correctly calculated the dosage required as Archer passes out reasonably quickly, and Lucas knew ahead of time that he might need to drug Archer. However, he ''drastically'' underestimates [[TheAlcoholic Sterling's]] liver's ability to metabolise toxins, meaning Archer wakes up much sooner than anticipated.
[[/folder]]

* Weirdly enough, this trope can even apply to the same individual. As one builds up tolerance to a particular drug, more of that drug is needed to attain the same effect. In many cases of accidental overdoses, the person gets out of rehab (or some other situation that causes them to stop taking the drugs) and later backslides and starts taking drugs again if not immediately after. Unfortunately they try to take the same dosage as they did before, but because their bodies have had time to lose their previous drug tolerance, the dosage is too high and it kills them. Things get even more complicated when you add in cross-tolerance.
** This is why conspiracy theories regarding Kurt Cobain's suicide often mention the large amount of heroin found in his system; it might have been a lethal dose were he not such a heavy user with a high tolerance.

* Wrestling/AndreTheGiant infamously averted this because of his enormous size. When he was having back surgery in the late 80's, the surgeons had no way of knowing how to measure how much anasthetics he needed and had to make a guess based on how much alcohol Andre required to get drunk. FYI, it took a six pack of beer and ''an entire bottle of vodka'' just to get him tipsy!

* Parodied in the first ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'' series (which once provided the page image), where one [[spoiler:of the seven plotters]] (Sean, the Irish Bastard) doesn't die of the poisoned wine, but decides he liked the "extra sting" of the wine, has another, then dies. Played straight at the end of the episode when the ''entire royal court'' toast with the poisoned wine and drop dead instantly.

* Parodied in the first ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'' series (which provides the page image), where one [[spoiler:of the seven plotters]] (Sean, the Irish Bastard) doesn't die of the poisoned wine, but decides he liked the "extra sting" of the wine, has another, then dies. Played straight at the end of the episode when the ''entire royal court'' toast with the poisoned wine and drop dead instantly.

[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/simpsons_barney_bear_tranquilized_2.png]]]]

[[quoteright:350:[[Series/{{Blackadder}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/blackadder_poison.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Seven men take a sip of poisoned wine, and all die within a few seconds of one another.]]

* In the teaser trailer for ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}'', Judy shoots Nick (a fox) with an '''elephant''' tranquilizer and it only knocks him out instantly (instead of realistically killing him) , then a wildebeest eats the dart and staggers for a second before passing out. The tranq gun was left out of the final film but [[spoiler:blueberry-sized capsules of Night Howler serum are shown to equally affect animals ranging in size from an otter to a polar bear. And since it's a contact toxin that's absorbed though the skin, the dosage would be even more random due to the targets having fur coats that have varying degrees of waterproofing.]]

* This trope was tragically Averted in the 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis. To subdue terrorists who had taken over the theater and who were holding people hostage, authorities pumped an undisclosed KnockoutGas in through the ventilation system. The gas worked, but killed at least 170 people, including both terrorists and hostages. It may have even killed more.

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
* Wrestling/AndreTheGiant infamously averted this because of his enormous size. When he was having back surgery in the late 80's, the surgeons had no way of knowing how to measure how much anasthetics he needed and had to make a guess based on how much alcohol Andre required to get drunk. FYI, it took a six pack of beer and ''an entire bottle of vodka'' just to get him tipsy!
[[/folder]]

* ProfessionalWrestling/AndreTheGiant infamously averted this because of his enormous size. When he was having back surgery in the late 80's, the surgeons had no way of knowing how to measure how much anasthetics he needed and had to make a guess based on how much alcohol Andre required to get drunk. FYI, it took a six pack of beer and ''an entire bottle of vodka'' just to get him tipsy!

* Parodied in the first ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'' series (which provides the page image), where one [[spoiler:of the seven plotters]] doesn't die of poisoned wine, has another, then dies. Played straight at the end of the episode when the ''entire royal court'' toast with the poisoned wine and drop dead instantly.

* Averted in ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad''. Stan drugs Steve and his friends with spiked cheeseburgers so he can put them in the CIA holograph deck and force them to have outdoor adventures like he had as a kid. Steve, Toshi and Snot immediately nod off after a few bites... but not [[FatIdiot Barry.]]