History Main / LavaIsBoilingKoolAid

* In the [[ClimacticVolcanoBackdrop climatic fight scene]] of ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'' [[spoiler: between Obi-Wan and Anakin]] the lava behaves surprisingly like a river, complete with a water...ahem, "lava" fall into a lava lake and lots of what appears to be lava mist all over the place. Admittedly, the whole scene [[RuleOfCool looks awesome.]]

* ''Videogame/{{Minecraft}}'' has lava flow much more slowly than water to simulate its greater density, although still faster than the real-life stuff. Lava's not fatal if the player can escape quickly enough, but you ''will'' catch on fire on contact with it. However, even more pain occurs when one dies in lava: everything you had on your person is [[ContinuingIsPainful irrevocably incinerated]]. If under the effects of Heat Resistance, it is possible to "swim" through it albeit very slowly and vision becomes extremely limited if submerged. It also causes any wood in short distance from it to start burning and ice to melt, but it can (or at least could) be blocked by using snow blocks. It provides natural light as well. Playing this trope straight, you can collect lava in an iron bucket and use it to fuel a stone furnace.

* ''VideoGame/{{Contra}} Rebirth'': Lava will glow, but it's still a viscous dark red liquid.

Real-life lava is molten rock (the subterranean version is called magma). Imagine an entire lake of electric-stove heating elements, all glowing red-hot. Its viscosity, or thickness, ranges from that of ketchup, to caramel, to much thicker than peanut butter; in other words, what you would expect of a liquid ''rock''. It is an opaque emitter of yellow-to-red light. Its temperature is typically between 700 and 1,200 °C (between 1,300 and 2,200 °F). Even the smallest flows will blister the skin before one can get close enough to touch it, while large amounts can set nearby objects on fire without even needing to touch them. It is also often accompanied by volcanic gases that can contain compounds that you do ''not'' want to breathe.

* In ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing'' [[spoiler: Gollum and the Ring tumble into the magma within Mount Doom. Gollum splashes around and sinks -- but we ''don't'' see his flesh burning -- and the ring stays afloat. The rock slowly melts, and the ring melts instantly upon hitting the rock]]. Although interestingly, when the Ring hits the lava it quickly flashes up its fire-writing – which took several minutes to appear when heated in a normal fire – and the lava directly below it turns dark and solid. So it looks like the Ring actually absorbed enough heat out of the lava to activate the lettering while cooling the lava it was touching to rock; it took several minutes for enough heat to conduct to re-liquefy first the cooled lava and then the Ring itself.

* ''Film/TheTimeMachine1960'' does this ''by accident''. The lava was made of red-colored oatmeal, and it started out looking accurate enough. Unfortunately, a very hot day caused the huge batch of "lava" to ferment and liquefy. The horrified effects team carried on, regardless.

* ''VideoGame/QuakeI'' treated both slime and lava exactly like water, except that slime caused slow health loss, and lava caused rapid health loss. At least one secret item required you to swim through lava using the [[InvincibilityPowerUp Pentagram of Protection]]. Oddly, due to the limitations of the graphics engine, ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' averted this as you could only stand directly atop the lava until it burned you to death.

* ''VideoGame/AdventuresOfLolo'' had this in some levels.

* In ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'' the T1000 falls into molten metal[[note]](Okay, not lava but close enough.)[[/note]] that mysteriously splashes just like coloured water. Molten metal does splash if hit by a hard object like a rock, even more so by a man-sized metallic object. It's not so fun for those working near it, like iron foundry workers, who need to (religiously) obey job safety rules.

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'':
** In ''VideoGame/{{Sonic the Hedgehog|1}}'''s Marble Zone, the lava looks somewhat like real lava, but it is able to not only support Sonic on a block of marble, but also flow quickly to transport him across the lava. It also bubbles and erupts.

Real-life lava is molten rock (the subterranean version is called magma). Imagine an entire lake of electric-stove heating elements, all glowing red-hot. Its viscosity, or thickness, ranges from that of ketchup, to caramel, to much thicker than peanut butter; in other words, what you would expect of a liquid ''rock''. It is an opaque emitter of yellow-to-red light. Its temperature is typically between 700–1,200 °C (1,300–2,200 °F). Even the smallest flows will blister the skin before one can get close enough to touch it, while large amounts can light nearby objects on fire without even needing to touch them. It is also often accompanied by volcanic gases that can contain compounds that you do ''not'' want to breathe.

Real-life lava is molten rock (the subterranean version is called magma). Imagine an entire lake of electric-stove heating elements, all glowing red-hot. Its viscosity, or thickness, ranges from that of ketchup, to caramel, to much thicker than peanut butter; in other words, what you would expect of a liquid ''rock''. It is an opaque emitter of yellow-to-red light. Its temperature is typically between 700–1,200 °C (1,300–2,200 °F). Even the smallest flows will blister the skin before one can get close enough to touch it, while large amounts can set fire to nearby objects without even needing to touch them. It is also often accompanied by volcanic gases that can contain compounds that you do ''not'' want to breathe.

Now, of course, liquid rock ''can'' be heated to the point of water-like viscosity... however, lava heated to that degree, in reality, would have local thermodynamics of the sort that a human even a full football field's length away would be seared to ash, even under an open sky.

* ''WesternAnimation/FireAndIce'': The King of Firekeep pulls one lever that releases a river of lava that flows toward Icepeak. The stuff has the color and consistency of tomato soup, though it does calve off chunks of rock as well as melt ice.

** Lava in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' is pretty much just opaque, super-heated red water, judging from the splash that appears when you fall in.

** The ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'' stage, Red Mountain, pretty much plays this straight along with the ConvectionSchmonvection[[BuffySpeak -ness]] of it. The lava is bright red bubbling goo, and is buoyant enough to have gigantic rocks floating on top of it for Sonic to jump on.

* Oddly averted in ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'', where the lava waterfall comprising the moving walls of a hallway has a very high viscosity. 'Oddly', in that this exact same scene puts its arms around ConvectionSchmonvection and ''does not let go.'' The pathway between the opened walls of lava was clean; so, even if it was real lava flowing in the walls, it was encased in some clear material rather than just flowing from the ceiling. Played straight though in Bob's first fight with the Omnidroid, as the robot sinks like a stone in the lava and quickly comes back up elsewhere.

Real-life lava is molten rock (the subterranean version is called magma). Imagine an entire lake of electric-stove heating elements, all glowing red-hot. Its viscosity, or thickness, ranges from that of ketchup to much thicker than peanut butter; in other words, what you would expect of a liquid ''rock''. It is an opaque emitter of yellow-to-red light. Its temperature is typically between 700–1,200 °C (1,300–2,200 °F). Even the smallest flows will blister the skin before one can get close enough to touch it, while large amounts can cause fatal burns from much farther away. It is also often accompanied by volcanic gases that can contain compounds that you do ''not'' want to breathe.

Real-life lava is molten rock (the subterranean version is called magma). Imagine an entire lake of electric-stove heating elements, all glowing red-hot. Its viscosity, or thickness, ranges from that of ketchup to much thicker than peanut butter – what you would expect of a liquid ''rock''. It is an opaque emitter of yellow-to-red light. Its temperature is typically 700–1,200 °C (1,300–2,200 °F). Even the smallest flows will blister the skin before one can get close enough to touch it, while large amounts can cause fatal burns from much farther away. It is often accompanied by volcanic gas that can contain compounds that you do ''not'' want to breathe.

* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'': The episode "Lava's a Many Splendored Thing." The title alone is fairly telling.

* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' has an example where Asuka needs to dive into a volcano. While the story makes a point to show how both she and her Eva need special equipment to even ''enter'' the caldera (though [[SuperPrototype Eva-01]] doesn't, [[HandWave Hand Waved]] as it using its [=AT Field=]) she still shouldn't have had anywhere NEAR the amount of mobility, speed, or ''sight'' she enjoys while submerged in molten ''ROCK''.
** To "see" in the lava, she switches to something called "imaging mode." The scene still works only due to RuleOfCool, though.
** She has to wear a plugsuit specially modified to beat the heat of the volcano, suffering great embarrassment over how it inflates and makes her look morbidly obese -- but the suit doesn't cover her head. And Shinji -who jumped into the volcano to save her- wore no special suit.
** Then again, neither should the 8th Angel that just happens to look like a Lava Fish. When in doubt, an AT Field did it. Weirder things have been done by AT Fields anyway...it seems to actually alter reality around the Angel when used.
** ''FanFic/ShinjiAndWarhammer40k'' handwaves the vision as some kind of EverythingSensor, which might have been lifted from [[AllThereInTheManual the manual]].

* Averted in ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' of all places, during the Frieza fight where it was shown lava isn't just red water. It's heavier and more viscous, and both Goku and Frieza need to stay powered up to survive the intense heat. This was even used as part of Gohan's strategy against Broly in Movie 10, where they flew through a lake of lava and Gohan shot an energy blast ahead to create a wave that pulled Broly down, instead of him flying right through it like water. Humorously-enough, played entirely straight in ''Manga/DragonBall''.

* Played with in ''ComicStrip/KnightsOfTheDinnerTable''. When the GM tells Bob, "You've been skewered by a spear, you've fallen off a cliff, and you're swimming in lava," Bob asks, "Do I get a saving throw? I've got +1 with swimming."
* In a rather unusual example, one strip of the ''ComicStrip/PrinceValiant'' comics waxed narrative on the lava flow of a [[ConvectionSchmonvection snowy peak]], with a breathtaking image of a '''river of Cadillac-pink water'''.