Basic Trope: Pursuers cut off the chase when their target crosses a body of water.
- Played Straight: A pack of wolves is chasing Alice through the woods, but stops the chase after she swims across a stream.
- Exaggerated: Whenever a character needs to lose pursuers, they run towards a stream, ford or swim across, and leave their pursuers behind.
- Downplayed: Alice crossing the river simply buys her some time while the wolves look for a ford.
- Justified:
- Alice jumps into the river, swims for a while and flees on the other side before the wolves arrive. Once they reach the river, they don't know where she climbed back ashore and can't pick up the trail again because the water has washed away the scent.
- The animals chasing Alice cannot swim, and the river is too deep to wade across.
- Alice is being chased by vampires, who Cannot Cross Running Water.
- Only the Too Dumb to Live will try to cross these rapids.
- Inverted: A pack of sharks is chasing Alice the mermaid through the water, but stops the chase after she clambers across a neck of land.
- Subverted: The wolves seem to stop and mill about on reaching the river, but then jump in and swim across.
- Averted: Alice doesn't even consider the river as a way to stop her pursuers.
- Implied: Alice is seen being chased by wolves and vanishes into the forest. When she meets back up with Bob, she's sopping wet but says that she managed to shake off the pack.
- Parodied: Alice hops across a small brook. When the wolves reach it, they skid to a halt like cars piling up and stay behind, howling in frustration, despite the creek being small enough to step over.
- Lampshaded: As Alice wrings out her hair, she comments to herself that she sure is lucky that none of the local wolves know how to swim.
- Invoked: When Alice realizes that wolves are on her trail, she heads towards a river in hopes of crossing it and masking her trail.
- Exploited: A pack of mischevious water spirits summon wolves to lure Alice into their river, knowing she'll try to cross.
- Discussed: "If you find yourself being chased by wild animals, you'll want to keep in mind that not all of them can be thrown off in the same manner. For instance, the North Troperian wolves are poor swimmers and won't cross deep water, but greater screaming weasels are excellent swimmers and if anything will catch up to you before you've made it to the other side."
