History Main / ToxicWasteCanDoAnything

* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': [[spoiler:Ford's portal in "[[Recap/GravityFallsS2E11NotWhatHeSeems Not What He Seems]]" is partly powered by toxic waste, which results in Stan stealing some from federal facilities and getting arrested.]]

* Played with in the segment "Super Griffins" from the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS3E21FamilyGuyViewerMailOne Family Guy Viewer Mail #1]]". When a truck carrying ''nuclear'' waste crashes in front of the Griffin household, each family member is imbued with a different superpower, which they use to cause mayhem. To combat them, mayor Adam West rolls in ''toxic'' waste... causing him to [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome contract lymphoma]].

* ''Film/EightLeggedFreaks'': Spiders consume toxic waste. Spiders get taste for human and ability to grow far beyond their maximum size. The very end of the movie shows that the stuff also makes Deputy William's bald patch grow some new hair. The film gets a little slack as it has a strong comedic bent and doesn't take itself too seriously.

* ''Film/TheHost2006'': The movie uses this twice. First, a specific chemical, formaldehyde (known to being a ''carcinogen''), creates a rhino sized fish/running monster that can move incredibly fast and shrugs off bullets. Secondly, the U.S. government tries to kill it with ''another'' toxic chemical, Agent Yellow. [[spoiler:It ''works''... a little. It doesn't mutate the creature into a stronger form, and it clearly doesn't like it, but it doesn't kill it or render it much less dangerous, forcing the main characters to KillItWithFire and add some [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice impaling on top of that]].]]

* ''Film/{{Prophecy}}'': There is actually a specific chemical instead of a generic 'waste': mercury, and unlike most films, it actually gives a little explanation for its effects: if ingested, it confuses the body into thinking it's another, beneficial chemical, and exposure to it scrambles the genes of developing fetuses. While in the film this produces the expected birth defects among humans and animals, it also manages to produce a [[BearsAreBadNews grizzly bear]] that's twice the size of a normal one, smarter than a normal one (it's quite willing to sit and wait outside a hole for people to emerge from), fully functioning beyond severe skin deformities, and viciously, demonically hostile.
* The Film/SyfyChannelOriginalMovie ''Shark Swarm'' has the villain dump toxic poisons into the water to ''specifically'' kill marine life (instead of just dumping random waste to get rid of it) to bankrupt someone. It kills fish and marine life... and instead of killing sharks, makes them [[ThreateningShark hyper-aggressive]] and gives them a semi-HiveMind, despite being both a fish and marine life.
* ''Film/{{Skeeter}}'', a 1993 horror film, does this with [[MosquitoMiscreants mosquitoes]], turning them into basketball sized versions of themselves. This is extra strange as per their body design, the toxic waste should doubly kill them, by poison or by getting too big for their bodies to successfully breathe. Instead, they become the usual killing machines.
* ''Film/SkyHigh2005'': It's established that being dipped into a pool of toxic waste will either grant the person superpowers, if they're lucky, or kill them, if unlucky. [[spoiler:In the epilogue, Will reveals that Ron Wilson, Bus Driver, was dipped into toxic waste, and is now a giant.]]

* The Italian {{superhero}} film ''Film/TheyCallMeJeeg'' has the petty thief and crook Enzo gain extra strength after jumping into the river Tiber to escape from police and accidentally breaking a barrel of radioactive waste that was thrown in there.
* ''Film/TheToxicAvenger'', of course. While it does make the titular character very ugly and the [[PainfulTransformation transformation is painful]], it also grants him "[[SuperStrength superhuman size and strength]]" and once he has fully transformed, he seems quite capable of living a normal life with no side effects.
* ''Film/ToxicShark'' has a similar premise, except the toxic waste turns the shark into a [[PoisonousPerson Poisonous Animal]]. It's not enough for it to be [[SuperPersistentPredator obsessively hunting humans]] anymore, it has to be lethal to the touch as well.

* The first ''Literature/FrannyKStein'' book, ''Lunch Walks Among Us'', had a Pumpkin-Crab Monster created when a boy unwittingly dumped unstable industrial waste into the same trash can where Franny had discarded her lunch of crab ravioli with pumpkin sauce and two other kids had disposed of chewing gum and old gym shoes.

* In the ''TabletopGame/{{Champions}}'' supplement ''Enemies'', one day a truck carrying a load of toxic waste drove by Barney O'Tumey. One of the containers fell out of the truck, broke open and spilled toxic waste all over him. Barney gained the superpowers of SuperStrength and ImmuneToBullets and became the supervillain Shamrock.

* WebAnimation/{{Cyriak}}'s animation "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNwCojCJ3-Q MEOW]]" suggests in the beginning that the ZombieApocalypse involving cute animesque cats was caused by a leak of toxic chemicals.
* ''WebAnimation/TheGrosseryGang'' reveals that a toxic leak in the poorly maintained Yucky Mart convenience store is the reason that the Grosseries have come to life.

* ''Webcomic/LongExposure'': While investigating a fenced off area of a nearby forest, Mitch and Jonas slip into some weird puddle. Next day, they develop powers and discover people in {{Hazmat Suit}}s trying to clean the mess up.

* Toxic waste from the Mushroom War is the cause for much of everything in ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'', as all life on Earth has been mutated by it. Specific demonstrations include Shoko's sudden mutation into a huge monster immediately upon plunging herself into a river of the stuff and Farmworld Jake being turned into the Lich. As magic returned openly to the world post-war, it's also implied that nuclear waste somehow enhances it.

* {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d to Hell and back in ''WesternAnimation/BackAtTheBarnyard''. In order to scare off potential buyers for the farm, the gang tries to scare off a family by pretending there's a toxic waste spill on the farm, and to demonstrate, they put Freddy and Peck in a costume to look like a mutated deer with laser eyes. They scare them off, but when Otis asks how they were able to get the effect of shooting lasers out of his eyes, Freddy reveals that he drank actual toxic waste. It then cuts to an "Ask Dr. Pig" segment where Pig explains that toxic waste can't actually give you laser eyes, which he decides to demonstrate by drinking toxic waste himself. It then turns him into a HulkingOut Pig monster that begins to attack the military, and then it cuts to an announcer once again saying that toxic waste will do neither of those things, by once again, drinking toxic waste, which eventually leads to him [[IncredibleShrinkingMan shrinking]].

* ''WesternAnimation/MutantLeague'' was produced as a tie-in to the video game by Electronic Arts. The premise of the show is that an earthquake ruptures the turf of a sports stadium, venting toxic gases from long-buried industrial waste. The athletes get dosed with this gas, which mutates them into ugly but superhuman creatures that [[DeathIsCheap can suffer horrific damage without dying or being convalescent more than a few hours]].
* ''WesternAnimation/TheOblongs'' live beneath the toxic waste produced from a bunch of factories and are mutated in odd ways, but still act more or less like everything was normal.

* Being a SaturdayMorningCartoon version of the aforementioned ''Film/TheToxicAvenger'', ''WesternAnimation/ToxicCrusaders'' {{exaggerate|dTrope}}s this with toxic waste not only providing Toxie with his powers, but perfectly fusing a man and a dog into a [[HybridMonster hybrid were-creature-like being]] (that being Junkyard; the rest of Toxie's companions were changed by exposure to radioactive materials), and then going even further by empowering a buried junked car(!) and a mop (!!).

* ''WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers'': In "[[Recap/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteersS2E13TroubleOnTheHalfShell Trouble on the Half-Shell]]", the captain notes that on TV, toxic waste tends to make you super-powerful, but [[ThisIsReality unfortunately, it's different in real life.]]

-> ''"A mop boy named Melvin Fyrd fell into a case full of toxic waste and became a hideously deformed creature of superhuman size and strength, he became... The Toxic Avenger, the first superhero from New Jersey! "''

* In the ''ComicBook/{{Madballs}}'' comic book published by Star Comics (a now defunct subsidiary of Creator/MarvelComics), the Madballs came to be when eight ordinary rubber balls fell into and were mutated by a pond of toxic chemicals near the lab of their arch-enemy Dr. Viktor Frankenbeans. The toxic pond would also serve in creating their enemies the Badballs, Madbelle, the Vegeterribles, and Colonel Corn as well as the second series Madballs and the Super Madballs.
* ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'': Being accidentally tossed in a vat of chemicals is famously one of [[Characters/BatmanTheJoker the Joker]]'s most popular origins (though [[MultipleChoicePast not the only one]]). One story lampshades that the vat in question was filled with an absurdly deadly concoction, and Mr. J still came out with bleached skin, green hair, a damaged psyche, and absolutely no proper ''health'' problems -- he is even [[MusclesAreMeaningless a bit more athletic than his light frame would let you suppose]], though ''that'', at least, doesn't seem to have anything to do with the chemicals.[[note]]Do note that the Joker's insanity itself may not have been caused by the chemicals so much as by the psychological ''[[FreakOut trauma]]'' of being disfigured by them.[[/note]]

* Rage from ''ComicBook/TheAvengers'' and ''ComicBook/NewWarriors''. At age 13, Elvin Daryl Haliday was exposed to toxic waste after coming home from basketball practice. Returning to his grandmother's home, Elvin was nursed back to health. The chemicals caused Elvin's teenage body to grow into adulthood in a matter of weeks, but also endowed him with superhuman strength, speed, and stamina. Encouraged by his grandmother to use his newfound abilities for good, Elvin adopted a costume and name: Rage.

* Referenced in a ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' comic where Calvin's dad gets him to eat his Mom's cooking by telling him that it is "toxic waste that will turn [him] into a mutant".

* ''Film/TheToxicAvenger'', of course. While it does make the titular character very ugly and the [[PainfulTransformation transformation is painful]], it also grants him "[[SuperStrength superhuman size and strength]]" and once he has fully transformed, he seems quite capable of living a normal life with no side effects.

* ''Film/{{Skeeter}}'', a 1993 horror film, does this with [[MosquitoMiscreants mosquitoes]], turning them into basketball sized versions of themselves. This is extra strange as per their body design, the toxic waste should doubly kill them, by poison or by getting too big for their bodies to successfully breathe. Instead, they become the usual killing machines.
* The Film/SyfyChannelOriginalMovie ''Shark Swarm'' has the villain dump toxic poisons into the water to ''specifically'' kill marine life (instead of just dumping random waste to get rid of it) to bankrupt someone. It kills fish and marine life... and instead of killing sharks, makes them [[ThreateningShark hyper-aggressive]] and gives them a semi-HiveMind, despite being both a fish and marine life.
* ''Film/ToxicShark'' has a similar premise, except the toxic waste turns the shark into a [[PoisonousPerson Poisonous Animal]]. It's not enough for it to be [[SuperPersistentPredator obsessively hunting humans]] anymore, it has to be lethal to the touch as well.
* ''Film/{{Prophecy}}'': There is actually a specific chemical instead of a generic 'waste': mercury, and unlike most films, it actually gives a little explanation for its effects: if ingested, it confuses the body into thinking it's another, beneficial chemical, and exposure to it scrambles the genes of developing fetuses. While in the film this produces the expected birth defects among humans and animals, it also manages to produce a [[BearsAreBadNews grizzly bear]] that's twice the size of a normal one, smarter than a normal one (it's quite willing to sit and wait outside a hole for people to emerge from), fully functioning beyond severe skin deformities, and viciously, demonically hostile.
* ''Film/TheHost2006'': The movie uses this twice. First, a specific chemical, formaldehyde (known to being a ''carcinogen''), creates a rhino sized fish/running monster that can move incredibly fast and shrugs off bullets. Secondly, the U.S. government tries to kill it with ''another'' toxic chemical, Agent Yellow. [[spoiler:It ''works''... a little. It doesn't mutate the creature into a stronger form, and it clearly doesn't like it, but it doesn't kill it or render it much less dangerous, forcing the main characters to KillItWithFire and add some [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice impaling on top of that]].]]

* ''La Morte Vivante'' (i.e. ''Film/TheLivingDeadGirl'') takes this to even further extremes: it revives a human corpse that has been ''DEAD FOR TWO YEARS'' into a vampire-like ghoul.
* ''Film/SkyHigh2005'': It's established that being dipped into a pool of toxic waste will either grant the person superpowers, if they're lucky, or kill them, if unlucky. [[spoiler:In the epilogue, Will reveals that Ron Wilson, Bus Driver, was dipped into toxic waste, and is now a giant.]]
* ''Film/ModernProblems'': Max is given superpowers (specifically, [[MindOverMatter telekinesis]]) when a toxic waste truck leaks all over his car while he was stuck in traffic behind it. To add to this, it crosses with LightningCanDoAnything when a lightning bolt transfers his powers to someone else at film's end.
* ''Film/{{Slugs}}'' might have the most triumphant example: while all the other [[AttackOfTheKillerWhatever animal-into-monsters films]] listed here have animals that can be dangerous in and of themselves, ''Slugs'' has toxic waste turn slugs, slow tiny gastropods who at worst eat carrion or other small gastropods, into creatures that can kill and eat humans, and do so despite gaining no extra physical abilities.

* The Italian {{superhero}} film ''They Call Me Jeeg'' has the petty thief and crook Enzo gain extra strength after jumping into the river Tiber to escape from police and accidentally breaking a barrel of radioactive waste that was thrown in there.
* ''Film/GrizzlyRage'' possibly; it's about a bear relentlessly stalking the four teens who accidentally killed her cub, and there's a scene tossed in featuring rusted toxic-waste barrels dumped in a lake, but the bear doesn't seem particularly mutated.
* In ''Film/UndercoverKitty'', a female cat drinks toxic waste and turns into a human.

* In ''Literature/Slime1988'', the title BlobMonster is literally a batch of rejected PCB come to life.

* In ''Series/TheSecretWorldOfAlexMack'', Alex gains her powers after being splashed with toxic waste. Played with in that the waste was specifically from creating a top secret chemical, rather than generic factory waste.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Champions}}'' supplement ''Enemies''. One day a truck carrying a load of toxic waste drove by Barney O'Tumey. One of the containers fell out of the truck, broke open and spilled toxic waste all over him. Barney gained the super powers of SuperStrength and ImmuneToBullets and became the supervillain Shamrock.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'': When Jack Ryder is making a report about the Joker's origin at a chemical plant, the Joker shows up and throws him into the chemical vat to "re-enact" the scene of that fateful night -- only he didn't count on the chemicals mixed with the Joker Gas [[CreateYourOwnHero to turn him into the Creeper]].

* Neptunia from ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'' was mutated from a regular fish into a humanoid half-fish by a barrel of radioactive waste.

* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': [[spoiler:Ford's portal is partly powered by toxic waste, which results in Stan stealing some from federal facilities and getting arrested.]]

* Being a SaturdayMorningCartoon version of the aforementioned ''Film/TheToxicAvenger'', ''WesternAnimation/ToxicCrusaders'' {{exaggerate|dTrope}}s this with toxic waste not only providing Toxie with his powers, but perfectly fusing a man and a dog into a [[HybridMonster hybrid were-creature-like being]] (that being Junkyard; the rest of Toxie's companions were changed by exposure to radioactive materials), and then going even further by empowering a buried junked car(!) and a mop (!!).

* ''WesternAnimation/MutantLeague'' was produced as a tie-in to the video game by Electronic Arts. The premise of the show is that an earthquake ruptures the turf of a sports stadium, venting toxic gases from long-buried industrial waste. The athletes get dosed with this gas, which mutates them into ugly but superhuman creatures that [[DeathIsCheap can suffer horrific damage without dying or being convalescent more than a few hours]].
* Neptunia from ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'' was mutated from a regular fish into a humanoid half-fish by a barrel of radioactive waste.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'': In "[[Recap/TheAmazingWorldOfGumballS4E3TheCrew The Crew]]", Gumball and Darwin try to artificially age themselves in a polluted lake but only succeed in Gumball developing telepathy and Darwin becoming magnetic.
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'': When Jack Ryder is making a report about the Joker's origin at a chemical plant, the Joker shows up and throws him into the chemical vat to "re-enact" the scene of that fateful night -- only he didn't count on the chemicals mixed with the Joker Gas [[CreateYourOwnHero to turn him into the Creeper]].
* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': [[spoiler:Ford's portal is partly powered by toxic waste, which results in Stan stealing some from federal facilities and getting arrested.]]

* Played with in a "WhatIf" episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''. When a truck carrying ''nuclear'' waste crashes in front of the Griffin household, each family member is imbued with a different superpower, which they use to cause mayhem. To combat them, mayor Adam West rolls in ''toxic'' waste... causing him to [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome contract lymphoma]].

* ''Toxic Shark'' has a similar premise, except the toxic waste turns the shark into a [[PoisonousPerson Poisonous Animal]]. It's not enough for it to be [[SuperPersistentPredator obsessively hunting humans]] anymore, it has to be lethal to the touch as well.

* ''La Morte Vivante'' (i.e. ''The Living Dead Girl'') takes this to even further extremes: it revives a human corpse that has been ''DEAD FOR TWO YEARS'' into a vampire-like ghoul.

* The 1984 movie ''Impulse'' has toxic waste leak into a local town's dairy supply. Unlike most examples, it (eventually) outright kills the townspeople who drink said tainted milk... but not before it drives everyone into fits of psychotic and sexual violence.

* ''WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers'': In "Trouble on the Half-Shell", the captain notes that on TV, toxic waste tends to make you super-powerful, but [[ThisIsReality unfortunately, it's different in real life.]]