History Main / HollywoodMirage

* In ''Film/TheFlightOfThePhoenix1965'', one character hallucinates a memory of a stunningly beautiful exotic Arabian BellyDancer performing a MatingDance for him, although he snaps out of it.

* In the "WesternAnimation/SonicUnderground" episode "Dunes Day", a thirsty Manic sees a lemonade stand in the desert and when he sits in the stool, it disappears and he fell down.

* In "WesternAnimation/SonicUndeground" episode "Dunes Day", a thirsty Manic sees a lemonade stand in the desert and when he sits in the stool, it disappears and he fell down.

* In Creator/RobertEHoward's "Literature/TheSlitheringShadow", Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian is at first worried that what he sees, while dying in the desert, is just a mirage.

* Players can run across mirages in ''Tabletopgame/{{Pathfinder}}'' that pose much more danger than simple false hope. Living Mirages are a type of gaseous ooze that can create mirages while remaining invisible, as well as drain all the moisture from the bodies of its victims.

-->'''Bugs:''' Is it a mirage, or just product placement?

* Subverted in ''Film/LooneyTunesBackInAction'' -- Bugs, Daffy, and their human companions see a mirage in the desert. Which turns out to be a conveniently placed Wal-Mart. "Convenient, or product placement?" Bugs wonders aloud.

* The Creator/CarlBarks comic "Mcduck of Arabia" had Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck wandering in the Saudi desert. They see a mirage of a water cooler offering water at 10 cents a cup. Scrooge refuses to buy it--"we can get all the water we want for free back at our hotel!"
%%* Happens to Franchise/{{Tintin}} in "Cigars of the Pharaoh", Captain Haddock in "The Crab with the Golden Claws", and to the Thom(p)sons in "Black Gold".

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfTintin'': Downplayed. Haddock sees the ocean in the desert, but this is partly due to being drunk, and Tintin describes it accurately (as a hallucination, not as a mirage).

* In ''Film/TheFlightOfThePhoenix,'' one character hallucinates a memory of a stunningly beautiful exotic Arabian BellyDancer performing a MatingDance for him, although he snaps out of it.

* Inversion in ''Film/{{The Mummy|1999}}'', Hamunaptra is hidden by a mirage (which makes it look like an empty desert all the way to horizon) until the rising sun reveals it.

* In the second ''Animation/PleasantGoatAndBigBigWolf'' movie, Lord Japper throws Weslie and Wolffy into the desert, where they try to find a pyramid described by Mr. Slowy as having a special totem that can make them invincible. They come across several pyramids that they think is the one they're looking for, only for them to turn out to be mirages.

* In ''Film/TheThreeStooges'' short "We Want Our Mummy", Curly is convinced he sees the ocean in the middle of the desert and even goes "swimming" in it (in reality just flopping around like a beached fish); when he convinces Moe and Larry that the water is real, they dive into it and open a trap door into an underground tunnel.

* Happens in ''VideoGame/MarioParty 3'', somehow. In the desert board map, there's a 'mirage' form of the Millennium Star, which only vanishes when someone tries to buy a star from it (and beforehand, makes it appear like there's two of the character on the map). It's probably more accurate to call it a hallucination.

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', the mirages Nami creates are...interesting to say the least. They properly use the idea of mirages being created by the differences in air density caused by sharp temperature differential, but they have Nami create mirages by standing ''behind'' the anomaly, which logically would reflect her image back at herself, not distort it for the enemy to see. It was used correctly the first time, though.
** Not even going into how she can supposedly control what is seen...
*** A lot of what Nami does in a fight, post Alabasta arc, pretty much can boil down to using her Clima-tact.
* ''Anime/JewelpetMagicalChange'': Episode 33's "Jewelpet: Currently on the Run" segment has a thirsty Ruby in a desert running into mirages of not just an oasis, but of things like a store and a water park too. Then she sees Labra offering her water, at the price of being turned into one of her minions. [[spoiler:When Ruby decides to drink the water despite Labra's mind-control attached to it, she discovers Labra is a mirage... and then ''Ruby herself'' realizes she's a mirage as well.]]

* Happens to Franchise/{{Tintin}} in "Cigars of the Pharaoh", Captain Haddock in "The Crab with the Golden Claws", and to the Thom(p)sons in "Black Gold".

* A live-action version occurs in ''Creator/AbbottAndCostello in the Foreign Legion''.
* In ''Film/TheFlightOfThePhoenix,'' one character hallucinates a memory of a stunningly beautiful exotic Arabian BellyDancer performing a MatingDance for him, although he snaps out of it
* Subverted in ''Film/LooneyTunesBackInAction'' -- Bugs, Daffy, and their human companions see a mirage in the desert. Which turns out to be a conveniently placed Wal-Mart. "Convenient, or product placement?" Bugs wonders aloud.
* ''Film/RoadToMorocco'' has a mirage of a drive-in, followed by a singing mirage of Dorothy Lamour, who disappears when touched.
* In ''Film/TheThreeStooges'' short "We Want Our Mummy", Curly is convinced he sees the ocean in the middle of the desert and even goes "swimming" in it (in reality just flopping around like a beached fish); when he convinces Moe and Larry that the water is real, they dive into it and open a trap door into an underground tunnel.

* Inversion in ''Film/{{The Mummy|1999}}'', Hamunaptra is hidden by a mirage (which makes it look like an empty desert all the way to horizon) until the rising sun reveals it.

* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes''
** One short shows Daffy Duck in the desert, seeing things including an oasis and an old car.
** In "WesternAnimation/SaharaHare", Bugs thinks he spots an old car he can use to get away from Riffraff Sam, but it fades out as he climbs in and tries to start it up. Bugs' line afterwards is the page-top quote.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget'' the titular character travels into a desert and sees a lemonade stand. After realizing that it isn't real he then proceeds to assume EVERYTHING HE SEES from that point forward is "just a mirage." This includes the M.A.D. agents out to kill him, the sacred golden scimitar he is supposed to be protecting, a tree he bodily crashes into, Chief Quimby, a pit full of cobras...

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs1981'' episode "Mummy Dearest", Greedy sees what he thinks is a big muffin in the Egyptian desert, only to find himself biting into a rock.
* During his long march in the desert along with Olive and Popeye, Wimpy in ''WesternAnimation/PopeyeTheSailorMeetsAliBabasFortyThieves'' suddenly spots a table covered with fruits and other delicacies. As he's about to reach it, the mirage suddenly fades out and Wimpy finds himself on the sand beneath.
* ''WesternAnimation/WildWestCowboysOfMooMesa'' used this trope in "Dances with Bulls" when Marshal Moo Montana and Sheriff Terrorbull wandered through the desert while tied together, the latter hallucinating a cactus as a water fountain and a street sign as a giant popsicle.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/DrZitbagsTransylvaniaPetShop'' episode "Dances the Hula", Zitbag and his skeletal canine companion Horrifido get lost in the desert. At one point, Zitbag hallucinates that the Exorsisters are around and dancing while wearing leis.

-->-- '''WesternAnimation/BugsBunny''', ''Sahara Hare''

** In "Sahara Hare", Bugs thinks he spots an old car he can use to get away from Riffraff Sam, but it fades out as he climbs in and tries to start it up. Bugs' line afterwards is the page-top quote.

* A variant occurs in ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTailFievelGoesWest'', where Fievel saw his family while stumbling in the desert, but they turned out to be (apparently very small) cactuses. Tiger is going through the same desert and confuses an owl with his old girlfriend. The two then pass and ignore each other, because each thinks the other is another mirage.

* In the ''Anime/SpeedRacer'' episode "The Desperate Desert Race," Sprittle and Chim-chim become lost in the desert and encounter one of these, jumping into the water and swimming, before they come to their senses and realize they're just rolling in sand.

%%* ''Anime/SpeedRacer'': In one episode, this happens to Spritle and Chim Chim. It was quite a long sequence too.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'' episode "Mummy Dearest", Greedy sees what he thinks is a big muffin in the Egyptian desert, only to find himself biting into a rock.

-->-- '''WesternAnimation/BugsBunny''', ''Sahara Hare''.

[[quoteright:300:[[VideoGame/Uncharted3DrakesDeception https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/uncharted3.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:300: Real mirages do not require groundskeepers.]]

But hark! One of the characters sees an oasis. Glittering [[WaterIsBlue blue water]], cool palm trees, a small carpet of grass growing around it, and in some cases, beckoning {{Bedlah Babe}}s. They sprint to it and fill their mouths with handfuls of refreshing water... and then the scene fades, leaving the characters to spit out their mouthfuls of gritty sand.

A RealLife mirage is simply an optical illusion wherein it appears that there is refracted sky which looks like water a distance ahead of you; this can happen in several climates (including temperate ones where one sometimes sees puddles of water on a warm blacktop road), but seeing water in the desert has a greater appeal. Only the water appears with a real mirage, however - the palm trees and grass that disappear with the water are pure Hollywood. However, the term is also used for when someone has a hallucination, leading to this confusion.

* One Advertising/{{Pepsiman}} commercial features a man stranded in the desert, whom Pepsiman appears to. Only it's a cactus that the man believed was Pepsiman. The Pepsi can at the end of the commercial also disappears.

* In one episode of ''Anime/SpeedRacer'', this happens to Spritle and Chim Chim. It was quite a long sequence too.

* ''Film/RoadToMorocco'' has a mirage of a drive-in, followed by singing mirage of Dorothy Lamour, who disappears when touched.
* In the Film/TheThreeStooges short "We Want Our Mummy", Curly is convinced he sees the ocean in the middle of the desert and even goes "swimming" in it (in reality just flopping around like a beached fish); when he convinces Moe and Larry that the water is real, they dive into it and open a trap door into an underground tunnel.

* In ''Film/KangarooJack'', out in the desert Charlie sees a mirage of a Jeep and sees a rock as a frozen drink.

* In the second ''Animation/PleasantGoatAndBigBigWolf'' movie, Lord Japper throws Weslie and Wolffy into the desert, where they try to find a pyramid described Mr. Slowy as having a special totem that can make them invincible. They come across several pyramids that they think is the one they're looking for, only for them to turn out to be mirages.