History Main / ImMelting

* In the ''Series/{{Goosebumps}}'' episode based on ''Attack of the Mutant'', said mutant's supervillain power was his ability to turn into anything, with one exception: If he turns into a liquid, he can't turn back. The KidHero defeats him by telling him he should try turning into acid. This is depicted as the villain evaporating away while his costume (and mask) crumple up flat, into a steamy pile of clothes.

* ''Advertizing/MAndMs'': One commercial features an anthropomorphic chocolate bar who joins Red and Yellow at the pool on a hot summer day with a woman. While Red and Yellow remain unharmed by the heat thanks to their shells, Chocolate Bar melts into a puddle of chocolate goo.

* Supplemental material for the ''VideoGame/ArTonelico'' series indicates that this happens to Pureblooded Reyvateils when they die--their bodies are created from biofluid, and only retain that shape for as long as the Reyvateil lives. (This doesn't happen to Halfblooded Reyvateils because they're functionally humans with Reyvateil powers.)
* The death screen for the Scions in ''[[Videogame/BattleZone1998 Battlezone II: Combat Commander]]'' has a hand desperately trying to reach out from a pool of biometal as it melts. The ISDF on the other hand features LudicrousGibs as a soldier is ripped apart from weapons fire whilst simultaneously melting from said weapons fire. Presumably, the ESRB [[FamilyUnfriendlyDeath saw neither judging]] by the [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids game's rating]].

* In the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' games, plasma weapons have a special effects death where the victim dissolves into a puddle of green slime. In ''VideoGame/Fallout3'', this is accompanied by a wet, slurpy sort of sound -- lasers, which burn the target to ashes, have a crisp, crackling, burning sort of noise. The ''Fallout 3'' versions are considerably different from ''VideoGame/{{Fallout|1}}'' and ''VideoGame/Fallout2'', though plasma still reduces its victim to goo. Or rather, it melts the flesh off the bones, which promptly collapse into the resultant puddle for a stereotypical 'Bones' version. Lasers just cut victims in half (or thirds depending). Fallout 3's lasers actually act more like Fallout 2's pulse rifles in that regard, incidentally. This also happens to the player character upon activating Project Purity at the end of the game, unless the ''Broken Steel'' {{expansion pack}} is installed. Since there are too many of them to leave intact corpses without excessive performance drag, the Marked Men in the final battle of ''Lonesome Road'' all undergo plasma melting after death.

** In Sierra's ''Space Quest'' being hit by a drop of acid has it "sear its way to your feet" (through your head), but the VGA remake dissolves Roger the protagonist top-down, into a puddle of goo and a really stupid-looking head in a protective helmet. The VGA remake also features the trope name spoken in a sound clip when this happens.
** In ''Space Quest II'', Roger can fall into a death trap of green acid. [[HollywoodAcid Contrary to type]], it kills him gradually, complete with descriptive text!
** In ''Space Quest III'' (and an easter egg in ''Space Quest IV''), going unprotected on a volcanic world causes Roger to melt into a puddle. Roger can also (rather easily) fall into the lava, and the HaveANiceDeath picture was accompanied with a half-melted, mostly skeletal Roger trying to get out of the goo.
** In ''Space Quest IV'', being caught by a slime monster causes Roger to fall straight into it, with a suitable shot of his half-skeletal form trying to claw his way back out.
** Nobody melts in ''Space Quest V''. We thought we'd mention that for the novelty value. The Pukoids seem half-melted, though.
** In ''Space Quest VI'', Roger can fall into a pool of acid, with a suitable scene of flailing around and bobbing to the surface with his flesh melted off before a ground-up sizzling into oblivion.

* In ''WebOriginal/{{Mortasheen}}'', the creature [[http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/waxwork.htm Waxwork]] can do this [[BodyHorror to your skin]] and then absorb the melted flesh into itself.

* '''Soda pop'''. This one was quite popular with Disney cartoons in the early to mid-'90s. In short, this one is very similar to ''From the ground up'', except with the added effect of being very, VERY fizzy. Bubbles tend to actually rise off of the subject and pop in mid-air. Imagine an alka-seltzer sitting in a puddle of water, and you've got the idea here. Sometimes this will leave a nice clean puddle as if the resultant soda went flat, but other times, the subject may completely dissolve into a shrinking pile of fizz.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': Not shown, but it's mentioned in ''Literature/UnseenAcademicals'' that Unseen University's sports instructor, Evans the Striped, died by spontaneous evaporation. Ridcully's a bit put out that one of UU's wizards would die in such an unimpressive fashion.
* In Creator/HPLovecraft's ''Literature/TheDunwichHorror'', [[spoiler:Wilbur Whateley's non-human heritage is revealed when his furry, scaly, tentacled, nine-foot corpse dissolves into paste, leaving nothing behind but some discoloration to the floor.]]

* In the ''Franchise/{{Goosebumps}}'' book ''Attack of the Mutant'', [[spoiler:the protagonist defeats the titular supervillain by getting him to melt ''himself''. (The Masked Mutant is a shapeshifter who can turn into any solid at will and change back again. The protagonist tricks the Mutant into turning into a wave of sulfuric acid -- [[ExactWords which is a liquid, meaning he can't change back.]])]]
* In ''Literature/HallowMass'' [[spoiler:Chester Sawyer's]] body dissolves into slime upon his death.

* A messy version happens to [[spoiler:Messalla]] when he is [[spoiler:caught in a pod with a laser of golden light]] in ''Mockingjay'', the final book of ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' trilogy.

* Happens to one of a villain's underlings in ''[[Literature/HumanxCommonwealth Mid-Flinx]]'', when he falls prey to some jungle animals' drug-laced and flesh-liquefying stingers. Thanks to the former, he doesn't even realize it's happening until too late.

* ''Literature/RedDwarf'': [[spoiler:This is how Rimmer dies in ''Backwards'', being melted from the inside out until he's just a pile of human flesh containing his eyeballs, thanks to the Armageddon virus making it into his light bee. [[AndIMustScream He's aware of the whole process too]]]].

* In Creator/DavidEddings' ''Literature/TheTamuli'', people are terrified of the Shining Ones for their ability to inflict an extremely nasty fate with a touch: their victims' flesh sloughs off their bones as they ''rot alive''. The Shining Ones are [[BlessedWithSuck equally horrified]] by it.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode "Quagmire's Baby", Stewie creates less-than-intelligent clones of himself and Brian to act as assistants, only for them to become unstable when their bodies literally fall apart and collapse into fleshy gooey puddles.

** In "Headhunters", the wax figure of Abraham Lincoln is found melted under a sunny window. Grunkle Stan immediately suspects Wax John Wilkes Booth. [[spoiler: The living wax figures are later defeated in the same way, with Wax Sherlock Holmes melting onscreen.]]
** In "Double Dipper", the copier clones can be destroyed by liquids. Dipper triggers the fire sprinklers to kill most of them, while Tyrone accidentally kills himself by drinking soda.

** ''Film/ThorRagnarok'': The Grandmaster uses a weapon looking like a rod topped by a sphere to execute people who displeased him, as he demonstrates with his "cousin" next to Thor. This results in the victim melting into a blue goo, to Thor's horror. Then the Grandmaster complains that he got some on his shoes.

* The ''Film/SuperMarioBros1993'' has Koopa mention early in the film that all life started out as primeval slime, foreshadowing the film's climax, where Mario and Luigi turn the De-evolutionizing De-vo guns on him until he turns back into primeval slime himself. Interestingly, there was a deleted clip from early in the film in which the De-vo chamber operator himself was De-evolved into slime. If you watch the film closely, you'll notice a green puddle during the De-vo chamber fight.

* In the [[GrandFinale Grand Finale]] of ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'', [[spoiler: [[BigBad Big Bad]] Emperor Belos dies by having his skin melted off by boiling rain, this reduces him to a rotten pile of bones that quickly melts off into just a skull that gets violently stomped and crushed by Eda, King and Raine.]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/MenInBlack: The Animated Series'', quick clones tend to melt after a while.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Brother from the Same Planet" has Bart's infamous ImagineSpot of Homer's face graphically melting, arguably one of the most frightening moments of the series.
-->'''Homer:''' Now how 'bout a hug?

* Happens occasionally in ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'':

As a DeathTrope, there may be some unmarked spoilers here. Be careful!

* Happens to one of a villain's underlings in ''[[Literature/HumanxCommonwealth Mid-Flinx]]'', when he falls prey to some jungle animals' drug-laced and flesh-liquefying stingers. Thanks to the former, he doesn't even realize it's happening until too late.

* ''WebAnimation:GenericPurpleProtogen'': In "A Protogen Goes Outside (during summer)", the purple protogen melts into a puddle of purple liquid as a consequence of going outside in Texas during the summer.

** "[[Operation: I.-S.C.R.E.A.M.]]" had Sector V at the mercy of a giant ice cream monster. Fortunately, Numbah 3 had cranked the heater to maximum, making the monster melt. ("[[InventionalWisdom Who puts a heater in an ice cream factory?!]]")

* ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'': One early episode had Sector V at the mercy of a giant ice cream monster. Fortunately, Numbah 3 had cranked the heater to maximum, making the monster melt. ("[[InventionalWisdom Who puts a heater in an ice cream factory?!]]")

* ComicBook/TheJoker subverts this trope (what else?) in ''Film/{{Batman|1989}}'', when Vicki Vale throws a pitcher of water at him in order to distract him. After impersonating [[Film/TheWizardOfOz The Wicked Witch]] [[OhCrapFakeout and crying "I'm melting!" for a few seconds]], he then shouts "Boo!" at Vicki, just before Batman [[SuperWindowJump smashes through the skylight]] in probably the iconic BigDamnHeroes moment of the film.

* In ''Film/{{Flash Gordon|1980}}'', General Kala is shot on a staircase and falls prone, after which a pool of black liquid flows down the steps from her collapsing costume.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': In "The Dark Age", an old friend of Giles has been killed by a demon they used to summon up, who then inhabits his body. When things get rough for the demon he leaves the body, which promptly dissolves into a puddle of greenish goo.

* In the ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "Course: Oblivion", the crew of ''Voyager'' discover that they are biomimetic copies of themselves when The Doctor injects B'Elanna Torres's dead body with a dichromate catalyst, which instantly causes it to revert into a blob of "silver blood" from the earlier "Demon" episode. Later on, the biomimetic ''Voyager'' itself disintegrates into formless particles when force fields holding the dissolving ship together fail.

** [[WesternAnimation/TheProudFamilyMovie The movie]] has the family facing off with an evil clone of Dr. Carver. The real Dr. Carver invented a powerful Peanut Liquefication Gas to turn any bad experiments into peanut butter. When the Dr. Carver clone creates an army of Super Genomes to take over the world, plus, evil clones of the titular family, Penny takes the gas and risks her life to defeat the clone and stop the army. She succeeds, and the clone picks up the smell of the gas and destabilizes into a little peanut when he is mere moments away from hitting the water after falling off the blimp.

** In "[[Recap/TheProudFamilyS2E10TweenTown Tween Town]]", Creator/AlRoker grants Penny's wish of making the adults disappear after she and her friends get caught sneaking out to his nightclub at the mall and get [[YouAreGrounded grounded]]. After all that fun, the kids soon decide they miss their parents and want them to come home and need Roker to reverse the wish. The only way to do that is with a game of Double Dutch, but Roker defeats Penny by one jump, and could likely have [[WouldHurtAChild Bebe and Cece]] [[MadeAsASlave working for him along with the other adults making his one-size-fits-all Roker wear]]. However, [[CoolUncle Uncle Bobby]] managed to avoid becoming a victim of the wish, being that he's [[ManChild a kid at heart]], and because he's the only adult who never fell victim to the wish, Penny's contract is declared null and void. The outcome for Roker: he melts!