Basic Trope: A character is rendered immune to a fall from any height simply by landing in a large body of water.
- Straight: John jumps out of a burning building from the 30th story, but lands in a large swimming pool, and suffers no harm.
- Exaggerated:
- John skydives from a plane, falls to the ground and is saved by landing in
the Atlantic Oceansomeone's pond. - John jumps out of the International Space Station, falls to the ground and is saved by landing in a puddle in the middle of a road.
- John skydives from a plane, falls to the ground and is saved by landing in
- Downplayed: John jumps off the roof of a 5-story house, but lands in a large swimming pool, and suffers some bruises.
- Justified:
- Conditions on John's planet are just right so that, at terminal velocity, water will actually help him to avoid injury.
- It isn't water, it's an unknown liquid with less surface tension.
- Something landed in the water before him, breaking up the surface tension.
- The character has water-related magic that actively prevents them from getting harmed in water.
- John is a trained high-diver.
- Inverted:
- Given the circumstances of John's fall, he would have drowned if he had fallen into the water. But—through a great stroke of luck or resourcefulness—he manages to land on a "Far Side" Island, and thus he survives.
- John accidentally slips on the lip of a pool, falls in and dies on impact.
- Subverted: John jumps off the building, watching the water below him while he falls, and then activates his parachute.
- Double Subverted: The parachute gives away and John is saved by the water after all.
- Parodied:
- The water reaches up and plucks John out of the sky, gently lowering him down to safety.
- John activates what looks like a parachute. It instead detaches, falls faster than he does, and reveals on the way down that it is actually a self-deploying kiddie pool complete with water already inside.
- Zig Zagged: John, having a basic grasp on the laws of physics, activates his parachute while falling towards a body of water, knowing that the water will not break his fall. However, the parachute gives way, and John falls into the water anyway...and dies on impact. He comes back to life a minute or so later, having fallen into the Fountain of Life.
- Averted:
- John does not attempt to survive a high fall by falling into water; he knows that it would be dangerous, if not fatal.
- John does attempt to break his fall by jumping into water, and is seriously injured.
- Enforced: John was thrown into the water by somebody.
- Lampshaded: "You'd think that you'd have been smashed to bits on impact with the water due to the laws of physics, John! It's like they don't actually exist or something!"
- Invoked: John falls into a body of water in order to survive.
- Exploited: Realizing this trope being in effect on his planet, John starts jumping into bodies of water from heights whenever he gets the chance as a quick way of getting down, or simply for kicks.
- Defied: As John looks down on the water from above, he decides to find another way down, knowing the fall would kill him.
- Discussed: "Despite what movies may have led you to think, falling into water at this height will still kill you!"
- Conversed: "How did John survive falling into water at terminal velocity? That should have broken all the bones in his body!"
- Deconstructed: Water having a soft surface tension makes people less buoyant and makes it easier to drown.
- Reconstructed: A liquid is designed to allow people to float on the surface, but sink when they hit the surface at high velocity.
- Implied: John does not jump off the cliff out of concern for being unable to swim. The idea that he would die on impact is never brought up.
Just jump off this cliff and you'll be back to Soft Water. Make sure you hit the bucket!
