History Main / RiverOfInsanity

* ''VideoGame/TheOregonTrail'' is the [[VideoGame PC game]] version of this trope. Especially if you're doing a LetsPlay and you leave the decision to popular vote, thanks to SuperDrowningSkills.
--> ''"That's how I learned what it means to be an American. To embrace the pioneer spirit, shoot everything that moves, drown my family in a river, and die of starvation somewhere in the midwest."''
** Then there's the literal raft ride at the end.
** Its tropical twin ''VideoGame/TheAmazonTrail'' also counts. And yes, you travel up the Amazon river. In a canoe.
** Along the way, the encounter with Lope de Aguirre (see below) plays kind of like a brief, kid-friendly version of ''Film/ApocalypseNow''.
* ''VideoGame/LetsGoFindElDorado'', paying homage to ''VideoGame/TheOregonTrail'', combines the crossing of rivers and the catching of dysentery. If your wagon so much as touches water for more than a fraction of a second, your party members will get sick.
* Part two of Creator/JeffVogel's ''VideoGame/{{Exile}}'' series has a section where your party must cross over a series of underground waterfalls, each one taking away some of your food. Eventually, a really big waterfall will make you lose ''all'' your remaining food, forcing you to scavenge (usually fighting off monsters along the way) or face starvation. It's also worth mentioning that there are no shops or training available along the way, and no way to identify the items you find (and you probably won't have enough space to take everything you find). Oh, and the caverns you pass are full of dangerous monsters...
* The second level in the NES game of ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfTomSawyer'' is an UnexpectedGameplayChange consisting of a vertical-scrolling river raft ride.
* Bank of the Wild River in ''VideoGame/WarioLand3''.
* Bridge Zone in the [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog18Bit 8-bit version]] of ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog18Bit Sonic the Hedgehog]]''.
* Zone 3 In ''VideoGame/{{Amagon}}'' is a rare PlatformGame example. The hero must travel down a stream, jump logs and fend off creatures that jump out of the water, and of course, [[SuperDrowningSkills avoid falling into the river]] himself.
* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'''s ''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.
* ''VideoGame/TheFlameInTheFlood'' is a {{roguelike}} survival game where a young girl and her dog travel down a flooded river dodging rapids, vicious wildlife, and other hazards while scrounging up supplies to stay alive.
* ''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]].
* Some levels in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'' have a rapid current that is difficult for Mario to swim in. The idea of these levels is to stay out of the river and use platforms instead. The biggest examples are Yoshi's Island 4 and in particular Vanilla Secret 3, where he has to hop on [[DolphinsDolphinsEverywhere jumping Dolphins]] while a Porcupuffer hunts him down in the river.
* The ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot'' games have quite a few [[{{Pun}} River of N.Sanity]] levels:
** The levels "Upstream" and "Up The Creek" in [[VideoGame/CrashBandicoot1996 Crash 1]], where the titular hero has to traverse up a river, and of course, [[SuperDrowningSkills avoid falling in]].
** [[VideoGame/CrashBandicoot2CortexStrikesBack Crash 2]] expands on the concept with the levels "Hang Eight", "Plant Food", and "Air Crash" which are much more action oriented and dangerous, as Crash has to rely on a jet board to get up the stream, all while avoiding mines and deadly whirlpools.
* At one point in the ''[[VideoGame/TazManiaSega Taz-Mania]]'' LicensedGame for the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis, Taz has to travel across two rivers, one headed to the left, and another headed to the right, with a waterfall in the middle. He has to navigate the river by hopping across boulders and logs that slowly sink, and since the controls aren't always responsive, he sometimes ends up landing in the water. If he stays on a boulder too long, an alligator will pop up and attack him, and if he loses all his health, he sinks into the water. Is it any wonder Taz hates water?

* The 1996 documentary ''Seven Go Mad in Peru'' 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]].

* 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 [[SanitySippage 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.

* Bridge Zone in the 8-bit version of ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1''.

* 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.

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%% Image kept on page with upgrade per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1570410947010141100

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/AguirreTheWrathOfGod https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/river_of_insanity_9.png]]]]

** Averted with the 1913-1914 [[UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt Roosevelt]]-[[ColonelBadass Rondon]] Expedition along the River of Doubt (a then-unknown tributary of the Amazon), but just barely. Out of nineteen expedition members, three died[[note]]one was killed in a stretch of rapids, another was murdered, and the murderer fled into the forest and presumably didn't last long[[/note]], but if the tribes along the river had decided ''not'' to let the expedition pass by quietly, if they hadn't been able to buy supplies from rubber tappers on the lower reaches of the river, or if one of Rondon's colleagues hadn't pushed upriver from Manaus with more supplies and medical aid, it's unlikely that any would have survived.

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]].

** Averted with the 1913-1914 [[UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt Roosevelt]]-[[ColonelBadass Rondon]] Expedition along the River of Doubt (a then-unknown tributary of the Amazon), but just barely. Out of sixteen expedition members, three died[[note]]one was killed in a stretch of rapids, another was murdered, and the murderer fled into the forest and presumably didn't last long[[/note]], but if the tribes along the river had decided ''not'' to let the expedition pass by quietly, if they hadn't been able to buy supplies from rubber tappers on the lower reaches of the river, or if one of Rondon's colleagues hadn't pushed upriver from Manaus with more supplies and medical aid, it's unlikely that any would have survived.

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/AguirreTheWrathOfGod https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Wrath-of-God_782.jpg]]]]
%% No caption, that's a SUBTITLE from the film, and illustrates the concept. Does not count as JFAAC

* Spoofed in the ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'' episode "Navigation! Invitation to Sairaag". Lina's gang is travelling 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.

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

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

* 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 crash 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.

%%* ''Film/{{Deliverance}}''.

[[folder: Anime and Manga]]
* Spoofed in the ''{{LightNovel/Slayers}}'' episode "Navigation! Invitation to Sairaag". Lina's gang is travelling 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.

[[folder:Film]]

* Creator/WernerHerzog

* ''Film/BlackRobe'': it's no spoiler to say the Jesuit priest [[GoingNative goes native]]. Portrayed as a ''[[ValuesDissonance good thing]]''.

* ''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}}''.

* ''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.

[[folder: Live Action TV]]

[[folder:WebOriginal]]
* In ''Roleplay/TheGamersAlliance'', [[TheMagocracy Alent's]] infamous [[TheCityNarrows Threshold]] district is an urban version of this trope. Most people who enter it go gradually insane the longer they spend in there (and the deeper they walk into it), eventually ending up mad or dead. The very air, ground, buildings and narrow, labyrinthine and twisting alleys seem to be alive and hostile to any non-native, and the shadows play with trespassers' minds with sometimes fatal consequences. It later turns out that the people living in Threshold are in fact disguised demons whose chaotic powers have warped the district to suit their needs. The horrible visions which trespassers experience turn out to be manifestations of their own inner darkness and emotions which have been triggered by the demonic auras in the area.
-->'''Javan''': The truth is that the only real darkness in this place is the darkness you bring in it yourself. Every sin, every repressed memory, every stray fear and blind rage. Everything people want to ignore about themselves. What's in here was always there, it's just a bit more... insistent in its existence in Threshold.

* There were many, ''many'' doomed voyages into the interior of Australia, filled with some of the harshest desert known to man and landscape utterly foreign to Europeans. One notable mention was [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Sturt Charles Sturt]], who nearly died multiple times and even took a ''boat'' with him to settle the debate about whether Australia had an inland sea. Many Australian explorers barely came back alive and others died miserable lonely deaths. Surviving comfortably in the outback is perfectly possible, but they were too proud to ask survival tips from the natives (didn't help that Europeans and native Australians were prone to not understanding each other even when they had words in common- their worldviews were impossibly mismatched on many points). Ironically, there ''was'' an inland sea... once. Stuart and his fellows were just about 100 million years too late.

* Part two of Jeff Vogel's ''VideoGame/{{Exile}}'' series has a section where your party must cross over a series of underground waterfalls, each one taking away some of your food. Eventually, a really big waterfall will make you lose ''all'' your remaining food, forcing you to scavenge (usually fighting off monsters along the way) or face starvation. It's also worth mentioning that there are no shops or training available along the way, and no way to identify the items you find (and you probably won't have enough space to take everything you find). Oh, and the caverns you pass are full of dangerous monsters...

* ''Film/TheRiverWild''

* . In November 1978, Congressman Leo Ryan led a delegation of aides, journalists, and concerned relatives to investigate conditions at the Peoples Temple's "Jonestown" settlement in Guyana. It ended with members of the Temple murdering Ryan and about a dozen of his party on an airstrip shortly before the mass poisonings at Jonestown.

* At one point in the ''WesternAnimation/TazMania'' LicensedGame for the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis, Taz has to travel across two rivers, one headed to the left, and another headed to the right, with a waterfall in the middle. He has to navigate the river by hopping across boulders and logs that slowly sink, and since the controls aren't always responsive, he sometimes ends up landing in the water. If he stays on a boulder too long, an alligator will pop up and attack him, and if he loses all his health, he sinks into the water. Is it any wonder Taz hates water?

* [[WalkIntoMordor Constantly subverted]] in ''Literature/LordOfTheRings'', 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.