History Main / RiverOfInsanity

In brief: any river voyage (or other journey into the wilderness) is a doomed expedition in which the characters alternately [[CharactersDroppingLikeFlies die]], [[DrivenToMadness go mad]], [[ShaggyDogStory get lost]], [[GoingNative go native]], or otherwise [[AlmostDeadGuy barely live]] to [[BringNewsBack tell the tale]].

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* Parodied in ''Series/TheGoodies'' episode "The Lost Tribe", where they set out to find the Lost Tribe of the Orinoco.
* The series ''Series/TheRiver''.
* ''I Shouldn't Be Alive'' had "Escape from the Amazon". Only two of the explorers were found.

* ''Film/TheAfricanQueen'' is an amusing example -- the actual film has the characters not going mad, and instead falling in love and defeating the Germans (what, you expected a spoiler for that? It was during UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode, there was literally no legal way to have a DownerEnding, given the premise), but according to Creator/KatharineHepburn's book, the ''making'' of the film took its cast and crew through the sort of arc this trope normally describes.
* ''Film/{{Deliverance}}'' is about four surburbanites who go on a canoe trip in rural Georgia that goes from bad to nightmarish. [[spoiler:One of them is raped by hillbillies; then they end up killing said hillbillies, hiding their bodies, and evading local law enforcement; one of them get his leg broken; and another one is killed or possibly commits suicide.]]
* ''Film/GuyanaCrimeOfTheCentury'': What seems to be a peaceful travel to Guyana to find answers about Johnsontown and the people living in it, ends in tragedy when O'Brien and some of the people who accompany him (reporters and people from the commune wanting to leave with him) are killed in Port Kaituma by Johnson's henchmen.
* ''Film/TheRiverWild'' is about a family whitewater rafting trip that becomes an increasingly desperate fight for survival against a criminal who takes them hostage and becomes more and more unhinged.
* There isn't a river but there is an Amazonian jungle and some really misguided and disturbed people in the film and novel ''Literature/AtPlayInTheFieldsOfTheLord''.
* In ''Film/RamboIV'' (the fourth movie), Christian missionaries hire/convince Rambo to take them up the river into Burma where they can help villagers with medical supplies, dental exams, and religion, [[spoiler: but their journey is doomed from the start, beginning with Rambo killing a gunboat full of soldiers and ending with the village being raided and the missionaries being taken prisoner]].
%%* ''Film/TheRevenant'' has many elements of it, though it's not a straight example.
* ''Film/{{Shackleton}}'' dramatizes Sir Ernest Shackleton's RealLife expedition to the Antarctic. However, everyone survived and Shackleton was forced to travel the last leg by himself, [[ClimbingTheCliffsOfInsanity over sheer cliffs]] because they landed on the wrong side of the island of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Georgia_and_the_South_Sandwich_Islands South]] [[http://www.sgisland.gs/index.php/Main_Page Georgia]], the only source of possible help for 5,000 miles in any direction.
* The 1983 movie ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nankyoku_Monogatari Antarctica]]'' is based on a 1958 Japanese expedition: two dogs [[RealityIsUnrealistic really survived]] by themselves for one full year in Antarctica and recognized their master when he came back: tough dogs.
* Subverted in ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest'', when Capt. Sparrow flees upriver into the jungle in order to escape the Kraken. Sure, he encounters [[WackyWaysideTribe cannibals]] and dangerous voodoo gods, but he seems to be [[WeirdnessMagnet in his element]] nonetheless.
-->'''Gibbs:''' Let's put some distance between us and this island, and head out to open sea.\\
'''Sparrow:''' Yes to the first, yes to the second, but only insofar as we keep to the shallows as much as possible.\\
'''Gibbs:''' That seems a mite... contradictory, Cap'n.

* In ''Film/TheMosquitoCoast'', based on the novel of the same title by Paul Theroux, Harrison Ford is a Yankee inventor who takes his family to live in the jungle on the coast of Honduras. Their misfortunes culminate in a perilous river journey during which the inventor grows increasingly paranoid and finally winds up completely insane.
* In ''Film/ValhallaRising'' the characters arrive in a mysterious land (The Americas apparently) via boat and subsequently fall to each and every one of these tropes ultimately leaving the now orphaned child standing on the edge of said river. Presumably wondering why he decided to get out of bed at all. This film is the purest incarnation of this trope.
* The 1996 documentary ''Film/SevenGoMadInPeru'' is a non-lethal version. No-one actually goes insane; they start off believing that MiseryBuildsCharacter but instead of becoming FireForgedFriends get plagued by insects, divided by TestosteronePoisoning, and disillusioned when the CloserToEarth tribes of the Amazon turn out to be [[RealityIsUnrealistic walking around in jeans and trainers]].
* ''Film/AdAstra'' uses something of an outer space version of this as Brad Pitt's character is aware of his slowly deteriorating sanity while he travels between Mars and Neptune.
* The canoe trip in ''Film/TheBurning'', where Todd and Michelle take the 15 oldest campers downriver to camp out. Not all of them make it back, and those who do are traumatized by the end of it.
* ''Film/{{Jungle}}'': The trip into Bolivia's jungle initially goes well, but cracks quickly begin to show. Eventually the group splits in two: with Marcus and Kurt attempting to hike back to civilization, while Kevin and Yossi plan to raft down river. Neither group fares well. Marcus and Kurt are never heard from again, while the raft is wrecked and Yossi is lost in the jungle for weeks, nearly starving and going insane in the process.
* In ''Film/{{Mohawk}}'', Colonel Holt and his men are trying to get to Fort George through the wilderness of northern New York, but Holt's [[SanitySlippage slipping sanity]] and bloodlust keep diverting them from their path and the DwindlingParty is picked off one by one. Eventually Private Allsopp looks at the setting sun and realises that Holt has been leading them in a completely wrong direction. On hearing this, Holt howls that when the war is over, he is going to have this forest cut down and turned into fields so a man can see where he is going.

* ''Literature/HeartOfDarkness'': The deeper that Marlowe gets into Africa, the closer he comes to the darkness inside of the heart of man.
* ''Film/IntoTheWild'' is a partial example. The river is more of an obstacle than anything, and the kid is a WideEyedIdealist who wants to go as far away from humanity as possible and is [[ForegoneConclusion doomed]] from the outset. Instead of being trapped on a boat, he ends up trapped in a bus.

* ''Literature/MidnightsChildren'': has one down the Brahmaputra in {{UsefulNotes/Bangladesh}}, in which [[spoiler:all the characters go mad, and everyone but the main character die or kill themselves; the main character eventually recovers]].
* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'': The longer the Fellowship travels with the One Ring, the more its seductive evil weighs on them, first turning Boromir temporarily against the party and then slowly draining the will of Frodo.

* In the ''Swan's War'' trilogy the heroes travel down the river and to adventure the whole first book. They actually do much good in the standard epic fantasy way, but a [[GeniusLoci river spirit influences one of them]] and he never really recovers and dies one year later by what is implied to be suicide.

* In the ''SeventhSword'' trilogy, there is only one river and this river connects all the cities of the world. Because the river symbolizes the power of the goddess that controls the planet, the river can flow in either direction and ships that travel on her waters may drop anchor in one location at night and mysteriously re-appear elsewhere by morning. Not only that, but [[spoiler: the river is inhabited by flesh-eating fish that appear within seconds of someone entering the water]].
* In the Shirl Henke novel ''The River Nymph'', the male protagonist grows darker and darker in character as the titular riverboat goes ever farther up the Missouri River and into the wilderness of the American frontier.
* The journey of the City in ''Literature/TheInvertedWorld''. For over two hundred years, the massive [[BaseOnWheels mobile City]] has been pulling itself in pursuit of the optimum. It is a truly Sisyphean effort: even if the City reaches optimum, they cannot rest, because optimum is always moving. The City is doomed to struggle to move 1/10 a mile a day, every day, forever; an unending pursuit of the unattainable.
* The second expedition in the novel ''Water Music'' by T.C. Boyle about real-life Scottish adventurer Mungo Park and his search for the Niger. He found the river on his first expedition, but he came back for another expedition to find out where it ends.
* In Creator/JasperFforde's ''[[Literature/ThursdayNext One of Our Thursdays Is Missing]]'', Thursday gets to go on a GenreSavvy one of these.
* In ''Literature/TheRedTent'', Jacob crosses a fast river ahead of his family and servants, and has his famed vision of angels ascending and descending a ladder or staircase, as well as an alleged fight with one (which results in his thigh being dislocated.) He is shown to have a fever, and the other characters take his visions as delirium. [[spoiler: This is an important point, as it is essentially where Jacob (fearful from his unexpected VisionQuest, and later jealous of his wealthy twin brother Esau) starts to listen to Simon and Levi's influence and [[FaceHeelTurn become corrupt and greedy]]]].
* The Priest's Tale from ''Literature/{{Hyperion}}'' is a lot like this: the [[ApocalypticLog journals]] of a man hiking out into the most deserted wilderness of an alien planet, only for things to get progressively more insane.
* ''Literature/TheMosquitoCoast'' by Paul Theroux is about a Yankee inventor who relocates to the coast of Honduras, taking his wife and children along. Their experience in the jungle is a series of misfortunes and disasters, culminating in a perilous river journey during which the inventor grows increasingly paranoid and finally goes completely insane.

* The seven Telmarine lords whom Caspian and his crew are seeking in ''[[Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader]]'' were sent to explore the seas, losing members to various enemies, traps, and temptations, until the last three fell into an enchanted sleep. An [[InvokedTrope invoked example]], as the usurper Miraz intentionally sent them on a doomed expedition to get rid of his brother's staunchest political supporters.
* ''Literature/AnnaPigeon'': A small scale version happens to the crooks in ''Destroyer Angel''. After they lose their map, their trek through the forest with their hostages to the rendezvous point takes days longer than it should, as none of them have any survival or navigation skills. They start to fall prey to paranoia and infighting, which is exacerbated by Anna who is following them and playing mind games to keep them off-balance.
* ''Literature/MobyDick'': Despite being set on the high seas, the story gradually becomes this as everything seems to conspire against them, which only makes Ahab more determined to push on.
* ''[[https://books.google.com/books/about/Downriver.html?id=MIn8OlA9MzYC Downriver]]'' is a young adult novel by Will Hobbs that follows a group of teens who go whitewater rafting in the Grand Canyon but stray off from the main group. Eventually, tensions within the group leads to all sorts of problems.

* Parodied in ''Series/TheGoodies'' episode "The Lost Tribe".

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* Film/JohnCarter's, Dejah's, and Sola's river journey leads them to an important revelation, [[spoiler:but also gets them ambushed by Warhoons]].
* Creator/WernerHerzog:
** ''Film/AguirreTheWrathOfGod'': the conquistadors ride several rafts expecting to find cities of gold to conquer. Instead, they slowly turn on each other, get picked off by hostile natives, and go insane. It ends with Aguirre giving a delusional diatribe to a colony of monkeys, the only things left to hear him.
** ''Film/{{Fitzcarraldo}}''. Kinski plays Peruvian rubber baron Carlos Fitzcarraldo, who dragged a steamship '''overland''' just so he could build a new rubber plantation (not to mention an ''opera house!'') on a previously unreachable river, regardless of the cost. Oh, and he was one of the founders of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manaus Manaus, Brazil]], where you can still visit [[http://theculturetrip.com/south-america/brazil/articles/the-manaus-opera-house-the-theatre-of-the-amazonian-jungle-/ the opera house]], still used for shows and cultural events today.
** ''Film/WingsOfHope'', about [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juliane_Koepcke Juliane Koepcke]], who was the sole survivor of a plane crash in the Amazon and ''walked'' for ten days out of the jungle - and then 30 years later, Herzog brings her back to retrace her steps. Oh, and
** ''Film/RescueDawn'', after Dieter escapes.

* ''Film/BlackRobe'': It's no spoiler to say the Jesuit priest [[GoingNative goes native]]. Portrayed as a ''[[ValuesDissonance good thing]]''.
* The Conquistador story arc of ''Film/TheFountain'' (probably inspired by ''Aguirre'')

* ''Film/TheRevenant'' has many elements of it, though it's not a straight example.

** {{Lampshaded}} in the case of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_and_Bessie_Hyde a honeymoon couple]] that attempted to go down the canyon in a [[TooDumbTolive two-ton scow]], with much buildup by Ken Burns in ''The National Parks'' documentary. They were [[NeverFoundTheBody never seen again]], but the boat was found sitting with all their belongings (and lunch) intact.

* Quite in the lines of Lope de Aguirre in terms of tough luck (not so much in insanity) is Juan Díaz de Solís. He discovered the "Fresh Sea": Río de la Plata, an estuary so big it looks like a sea. They thought that it may be a good idea to go upriver, set their feet on the land and see if that pesky Eldorado was there. He didn't find it, and what he did find instead were hostile natives who killed him and his escort in full view of all the men aboard. Taking good notice, his second-in-command decided that it was about time to go back to Spain.

* Spoofed in the ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'' episode "Navigation! Invitation to Sairaag". Lina's gang is traveling on a raft by a river to an unfamiliar destination; they suffer from hunger and are relentlessly pursued by bandits and bounty hunters. Finally Lina has had enough and starts blasting around with her Dragon Slave spell, creating a new lake by the way.

%%* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'' has the ''[[BigBoosHaunt River of Sorrow]]'', where the protagonist Naked Snake has to walk up a stream and meets the dead Cobra Unit member The Sorrow, who summons ghosts of the soldiers he has killed throughout the game, [[PacifistRun provided the player]] [[VideoGameCaringPotential actually killed them]].

* ''Literature/HeartOfDarkness'' by Joseph Conrad (of course).

* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'':
** [[WalkIntoMordor Constantly subverted]], as the characters explicitly go out of their way to avoid the rivers, roads, or even straight passages whenever possible, with the strong impression that something bad would happen to them if they followed the normally prescribed route.
** Although they do journey for a considerable distance down the Great River. Which was actually probably the safest non-Elvish part of the trip.
** During which they are tracked the whole way and shot at by arrows, ''Apocalypse Now'' style. We also see Boromir get more and more unstable en route (in the book, it's because of Aragorn's uncertainty about where they are going). Legolas noted that they had to get off the river; at that point they were just trying to outrace the enemy. When Boromir's [[FaceHeelRevolvingDoor madness]] [[LetsSplitUpGang broke up]] the Fellowship, he inadvertently saved the mission. (Ironically[[InMysteriousWays (?)]], Gandalf had planned to break up all along and send the [[KansasCityShuffle decoy hobbits]] to Minas Tirith.)

** And in the novel version, geography eventually renders the goal literally unattainable.

* As in Real Life below, ''Series/TheTerror'' is this from start to finish. An arctic expedition with both ships stuck in the ice. Forced to live on canned food, the crews slowly succumb to a combination of the following. Lead poisoning from both their water pipes and the lead-soldered food tins. Botulism from food tins that were improperly sealed tins. Scurvy, which they were prepared for, but not for the long run, meaning their treatment method degrades. A grueling attempt to walk out, on near-starvation rations. Finally, there is a monster hunting them which can NoSell most of their armaments.

* ''Film/ApocalypseNow'' (which Francis Ford Coppola based on Conrad's ''Literature/HeartOfDarkness''). The characters encounter increasingly primitive conditions the further upriver they go, to some extent becoming more primitive themselves.

%%* The movie ''Franchise/{{Predator}}'' seems to have a similar aspect. - ZCE

* In ''Film/{{Mohawk}}'', Colonel Holt and his men are trying to get to Fort George through the wilderness of northern New York, but Holt's [[SanitySlippage slipping sanity]] and bloodlust keep diverting them from their path and the DwindlingParty is picked off one by one. Eventually Private Allsopp looks at the setting sun and realises that Holt has been leading them in completely direction. On hearing this, Holt howls that when the war is over, he is going to have this forest cut down and turned into fields so a man can see where he is going.

In brief: any river voyage (or other journey into the wilderness) is a doomed expedition in which the characters alternately [[KillEmAll die]], [[DrivenToMadness go mad]], [[ShaggyDogStory get lost]], [[GoingNative go native]], or otherwise [[AlmostDeadGuy barely live]] [[BringNewsBack to tell the tale]].

Often there is AnAesop about the supreme power of [[GreenAesop Mother Nature]] or, more cynically, the fundamental [[NatureIsNotNice indifference of Nature]] to our [[KillEmAll survival]], or merely a metaphor for [[HobbesWasRight the triumph of barbarism]] and the [[HumansAreBastards darkness of the human soul]]. Compare HungryJungle.

* The horror novel ''Film/TheRuins'' by Scott Smith starts out with a group of twenty-somethings on vacation at the beach who decide to explore some old ruins inland. In TheMovie, [[spoiler:all but one of them die thanks to a sadistic, man-eating vine]]. In the book, [[spoiler:[[KillEmAll they all die]]]].

* In ''Film/{{Mohawk}}'', Colonel Holt and his men are trying to get to Fort George through the wilderness of nothern New York, but Holt's [[SanitySlippage slipping sanity]] and bloodlust keep diverting them from their path and the DwindlingParty is picked off one by one. Eventually Private Allsopp looks at the setting sun and realises that Holt has been leading them in completely direction. On hearing this, Holt howls that when the war is over, he is going to have this forest cut down and turned into fields so a man can see where he is going.

* The ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas - Honest Hearts'' {{expansion pack}} involves traveling to Zion National Park with a caravan company. Your party gets slaughtered by raiders immediately after entering the canyon, leading to your character getting caught in a war between native tribals and vicious invaders. At the same time, there's a philosophical struggle between two different missionaries, one an idealist who wants to preserve the peaceful natives' innocence by leading them out of Zion, the other a cold pragmatist preparing for war against the invaders. There's no GoldenEnding, so the player has to decide what compromises they're willing to make as they escape the valley and return to civilization.

* In ''Film/{{Rambo}}'' (the fourth movie), Christian missionaries hire/convince Rambo to take them up the river into Burma where they can help villagers with medical supplies, dental exams, and religion, [[spoiler: but their journey is doomed from the start, beginning with Rambo killing a gunboat full of soldiers and ending with the village being raided and the missionaries being taken prisoner]].

* The ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas - Honest Hearts'' {{expansion pack}} involves traveling to Zion National Park with a caravan company. Your party gets slaughtered by raiders immediately after entering the canyon, leading to your character getting caught in a war between native tribals and vicious invaders. At the same time, there's an philosophical struggle between two different missionaries, one an idealist who wants to preserve the peaceful natives' innocence by leading them out of Zion, the other a cold pragmatist preparing for war against the invaders. There's no GoldenEnding, so the player has to decide what compromises they're willing to make as they escape the valley and return to civilization.