r/TopCharacterTropes • u/MammothPenguin69 • 16d ago

Hated Tropes Stupid Contrived Survival Stories

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

  1. 12 Feet Deep - Two idiots decide they absolutely positively MUST go swimming in a pool after it's closed. An incredibly contrived sequence of events happens so they get stuck in a pool. So the movie can happen.

  2. Frozen (not that one) - Three idiots decide they absolutely positively MUST get on a ski-lift after it's closed. To the point of bribing the operator who for some stupid reason doesn't say anything. Do the movie can happen. Also, Wolves are not that aggressive. They are typically shy and avoid humans.

  3. 47 Meters Down- Arguably the most believable scenario on this list. It's still really stupid.

  4. Fall- Two idiots decide to climb an abandoned radio tower without proper equipment that would make escaping their predicament trivially easy. Stop me if you've heard this one before

so the movie can happen.

16.0k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

2.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

1.5k

u/Wonderful-Variation 16d ago

This like my favorite trope.   I can't get enough of it.   I don't know why, but movies about people getting stuck in dumb places are my jam.    And yes, I am looking forward to the whale movie.

511

u/MammothPenguin69 16d ago

You're not wrong. Whalefall looks awesome for all the wrong reasons.

205

u/Kratomius 16d ago edited 16d ago

Only reason i'm not going to watch that movie is because of thalassophobia. It's interesting premise although physically impossible. Even blue whales gullet is only a size of a grapefruit.

EDIT: Spermwhales gullet is 20 inches wide, not large enough to swallow an adult whole, especially if said adult is wearing diving gear.

182

u/coldestclock 16d ago

I think ocean is scary but I watch scary ocean movies to go “hm yes I am right to feel this way, esteemed documentary The Meg informs me so”

111

u/MaenHerself 16d ago

Me smugly on shore, knowing that I have thrawrted the unfathomable horror by not being in the ocean.

32

u/TheGreatMightyLeffe 16d ago

On the one hand, people have informed me Cthulhu isn't waiting for me to hop in the sea to eat me.

On the other hand, have they checked?

21

u/MaenHerself 16d ago

Oh no by "unfathomable horror" I just meant like, a mola mola or some large grouper maybe.

It is horrific. It is in the fathoms. I'll have none of it, thanks!

7

u/AtaraxiaGwen 16d ago

Unfathomable! Get it?

2

u/SagaSolejma 15d ago

Whaaaaat but mola molas are so cute

1

u/Muninwing 16d ago

No, the narwhals prevented that

40

u/True-Obligation-9471 16d ago edited 16d ago

It’s actually not impossible.

The whale in the movie is a sperm whale which is a toothed whale that can swallow humans whole.

They just don’t hunt humans

Killer whales(even tho they are dolphins but being honest most dolphins are closely related to whales)

Are also able to shallow humans whole.

Now would the movie actually happen?From the plot given it’s actually possible.The whale isn’t actually hunting the human, the human just got in the way of a hunt and thus got crossed on the crossfire.

10

u/Vio_Van_Helsing 16d ago

All sources I'm seeing are saying that an Orca cannot swallow a human whole because both their mouths and throats are too small.

But yeah, it looks like a sperm whale is the only kind of whale that could theoretically swallow a human, although it's incredibly unlikely.

3

u/Doctor_Kataigida 16d ago

And "unlikely" is what these stories rely on. Like, yeah, there are a dozen different things that would've prevented them. You just don't "see" (term uses loosely here because fiction) them because one of those redundancies worked and the people escaped unharmed.

OP is looking at this wrong. It's not a bunch of things going wrong so the movie could happen. It's supposed to be the story of the person who wasn't saved/caught by one of those dozen solutions.

2

u/Vio_Van_Helsing 16d ago

I think you're right to an extent, the sort of situations where everything goes wrong makes for good horror. But I think where people get frustrated is seeing people make dumb decisions and incredibly unlikely events occuring over and over.

In my opinion, a horror where people make smart decisions but still end up getting screwed is much more effective.

7

u/ADiestlTrain 16d ago

I will go out and give the ticket counter an extra ten bucks if the dude in Whalefall yells out, from inside the whale, "From hell's heart, I stab at thee!"

5

u/wild_west_900 16d ago

all 8 people in the theater would be required to then stand and applaud

4

u/TurbulentCucumber831 16d ago

Dolphins are whales. There are two types of whales: toothed and baleen whales. Dolphins are toothed whales as well as sperm whales. 🙂

But yes I think you are right that sperm whales technically do have a throat large enough to swallow a human. I believe they are the only one though, even orcas are too small

3

u/SagaSolejma 15d ago

This seems like it doesnt hold up to any scrutiny. Comparatively, it'd be like you swallowing an entire loaf of bread at once.

2

u/True-Obligation-9471 15d ago

I was wrong about orcas they can’t swallow you.

How ever sperm whales have a throat that’s one foot wide and it can expand

7

u/thepvbrother 16d ago

I thought it was a sperm whale

6

u/Kratomius 16d ago

20inch wide gullet on spermwhale. Still not quite enough to swallow adult, especially if said adult is wearing diving gear.

5

u/SailboatAB 16d ago

20 inches seems to be more than enough to encourage spelunkers to climb into a cave opening and get stuck, so I think it would work.

5

u/Youutternincompoop 16d ago

EDIT: Spermwhales gullet is 20 inches wide, not large enough to swallow an adult whole, especially if said adult is wearing diving gear.

closest I can find is divers fitting through a 24 inch wide gap... sure it required deadly explosive decompression to achieve but still.

(Byford dolphin incident)

3

u/dotdotditdot 16d ago

Whale fact: 99% of the male whales are gay

/s

2

u/Xy13 16d ago

I thought it was based on a true story?

1

u/Belos147 16d ago

Sperm whales swallow giant squid whole so it's not the worst pick.

1

u/DyingSunSeverian 16d ago

That one seems like a delight cause it’s thalassophobia and claustrophobia having a dance together.

17

u/WinterAd825 16d ago

I dive and actually got certified for rescue diving on the beach he gets eaten at.

It’s ludicrous and I don’t know how to feel about it. Part of me what’s to watch it from a b movie perspective but another part of me just wants to shake my head and sigh

4

u/senseithenahual 16d ago

So go to watch the B-movie while yoy shake your head and sigh, sometime you just need to watch a idiot taking all the wrong decisions is funny.

8

u/SwankiestofPants 16d ago

It's doubly insane knowing that whale throats aren't large enough to swallow an adult human. They eat giant squids whole but squids pretty famously only have one fairly small bone and are quite squishy everywhere else

6

u/Snoo-31263 16d ago

I haven't heard of it before, looked it up, and the CACKLE I had. Creativity is not dead yet

2

u/required-account 16d ago

I still can't believe they decided to give the Size-Progression-Fall trilogy (Skyfall, Moonfall, ?fall) a prequel before actually finishing the trilogy.

2

u/Vendemmian 15d ago

I thought you were joking. After watching the trailer I'm still not convinced this is a real film.

2

u/Skwafles 15d ago

Youre telling me that movie is a survival movie, and has nothing to do with an actual whalefall?? As an ocean floor biology enthusiast, i am disappointed

1

u/Behemothwasagoodshot 16d ago

Honestly I'm rooting for that actor. Euphoria trauma bonded me to him.

1

u/Malacro 15d ago

I’m just curious as to how they’re going to pull it off. The book has a ton of internal monologue and is surprisingly metaphysical. If they lose a lot of that stuff the story will suffer, but it’s going to be difficult to translate into a visual medium.

53

u/mightylordredbeard 16d ago

Yeah same here. I love the “trapped in a small, single location” stories. Especially when you’ve got a strong lead that is capable of carrying the entire story on their own. I think I’ve seen pretty much all of these types of movies because I’ve run out of new ones to find.

That said; for whatever reason I’m not a fan of the many “trapped on water and sharks are circling” tropes. I don’t know why. I love the trapped aspect, I like the being stranded at sea aspect, but add a shark to the mix and it doesn’t interest me.

10

u/empire_strikes_back 16d ago

I love a good handful of strangers trapped in a single location movie. To name a few: The Mist. Night of the Living Dead. Splinter.

8

u/Capital-Meet-6521 16d ago

Personally I find it hard to take the “sharks are circling” trope seriously because I read that sharks hate the taste of humans and most shark attacks have been due to sharks mistaking swimmers/surfers for seals. Plus why are the sharks hanging around waiting for someone to fall in the ocean when there’s almost certainly things they could be hunting already in said ocean?

3

u/MollyRocket 16d ago

You might enjoy It Ends. Group of post grads are stuck in a car on a road that seemingly goes on forever. They dont need water or food or sleep. They're just awake, on this road, forever(?)

20

u/Unluckyb33 16d ago

I thought frozen was good and entertaining. I do agree that the wolves being aggressive was dumb but thats like sharks being agressive, its just movie logic.

12

u/Weekly_Ad_2007 16d ago

Wolves stalked, ambushed, and killed a healthy adult man in Saskatchewan in 2005. Wolf attacks have been a thing throughout history. They are rare now because wolves have been driven into more remote environments and usually don't encounter humans who aren't prepared for them or in groups.

A pack of hungry wolves in winter would absolutely attack a lone human who had two broken legs or was weakened from basically being hypothermic.

5

u/WorryingMars384 16d ago

Yeah but a pack of hungry wolves is unlikely to be hanging around a popular ski resort like that. Middle of the wilderness sure

5

u/Weekly_Ad_2007 16d ago

Some packs will come closer to human settlements in winter in the hopes of scavenging scraps/unattended pets. The wolves really require barely any suspension of disbelief, I don't know why they get criticized so aggressively when people talk about this movie.

2

u/WorryingMars384 16d ago

I mean I agree to an extent but the Ski resort would likely not stay open like that if there was a threat for skiers to be killed by wolves, they would almost certainly have some measure of control I’d think.

2

u/unhappyangelicbeing 16d ago

The ski resort was a poorly run disaster to begin with so I think it’s not that impossible

2

u/WorryingMars384 16d ago

I think it’s just that given the location and the general behavior pattern of wolves it’s unlikely. You’re right that it’s not impossible, but often animals being mischaracterized in films has led to them being culled in real life. There have been less than 500 wolf attacks between 2002 and 2020 and almost 80 percent were due to rabies. Less than 30 were fatal. So given the location and situation it seems out of character unless the wolves were starving which either would have meant the ski resort wouldn’t have been active in the first place or other attacks would have occurred well before and resulted in their extermination

3

u/jake04-20 16d ago

I think people only factor wolves' behavior in populated areas as being afraid of humans. That's because they're in our world. If you go out into their territory, it's an entirely different story.

3

u/TheZipding 16d ago

My point is that they would be dead from hypothermia after the first night pretty much. Ain't no way any of them were surviving that unless they got down fast.

10

u/BanishmentBuddy2 16d ago

You would love a specific genre of pornography.

5

u/Acheloma 16d ago

I saw the trailer for that and had to look up the basic plot summary and it just got weirder and weirder

of course the whale is somehow his abusive dead dad

5

u/AmaterasuWolf21 16d ago

They also make you wonder how you would tackle the situation ao you "play along", it's fun

3

u/ortusdux 16d ago

They are catnip for hollywood because they are cheap to film as they are mostly in one location. The movie equivalent of a bottle episode.

3

u/Special_Salt3467 16d ago

Honestly, this. These and shark movies are so incredibly silly, but I love them

2

u/badgersprite 15d ago

I think they work for me because this is what my dreams are like. This situation doesn’t make any sense when you’re awake and recounting the story but it speaks to a fear that feels very rational while it’s happening to me in my dream

1

u/SelocAvrap 16d ago

I prefer Jonah, A Veggietales Movie, but you do you

1

u/SimpleFile 16d ago

Give Time Trap a go if you want this trope x weird scifi.

1

u/hg0bl1n 16d ago

I call these "people in predicaments" stories and also love them. And Whalefall was a good book, I'm looking forward to the movie

1

u/bing-no 16d ago

I love the Day After Tomorrow for this reason. Makes no sense but it’s entertaining.

1

u/GamingGems 16d ago

Love it too!

Some other good ones: Phone Booth, Buried, Apollo 13, Flight of the Phoenix, the Saw series

1

u/Cosmo_Seinfeld 16d ago edited 15d ago

I want to see the tower one ngl.

1

u/meepmarpalarp 16d ago

Same. This post is a gold mine of stuff to check out.

1

u/CenturyEggsAndRice 16d ago

Oh gosh, tell me how dumb the people in the whale movie are. I haven’t heard of it but it sounds like my kinda movie.

1

u/Wonderful-Variation 16d ago

I mean, it's not out yet, but just look a trailer.   A goddamn masterpiece for the ages.

1

u/Common_Wrongdoer3251 16d ago

I think it's just a guy scuba diving for reasons, and he goes either too deep, or the whale goes higher than normal, because it's chasing a squid it's trying to eat. As the whale chomps down on the squid, the squid tentacles latch onto the nearest thing to try and escape, which happens to be the diver.

So then the next hour or so is him trying to escape the whale before his oxygen tank runs out, I think? It sounds so dumb. I can't wait to watch it.

1

u/marblemorp 16d ago

If you’re interested, it did start off as a book by the same name (Whalefall). Highly recommend!

1

u/NoninflammatoryFun 16d ago

I feel like I’d be one of these people. I’m telling you I’ve been in some weird situations. I’m clumsy and just have that luck too.

That’s why I don’t go into the ocean or climb really high things.

1

u/luckyflavor23 16d ago

There’s a lot of popular stories with women getting stuck in washing machines now…

1

u/ViolettBellerose734 16d ago

Same same, I really enjoyed Frozen (not that one). I can't defend the others, tho, but I watched them nonetheless.

1

u/thedrunkspacepilot 15d ago

I read the book the whale vore movie is based on and it's pretty good

1

u/ToonMasterRace 15d ago

Watch the people where people get trapped in a sauna because a piece of wood jams the door

1

u/AmItheonlySaneperson 15d ago

You’ll be prepared when it’s you 

1

u/Furballprotector 15d ago

Same. Love stuck people.

1

u/writeorelse 15d ago

For Whalefall, at least, the chances of it happening for real are almost zero. I think I'll like it more than the others here for that reason - even a dumb person isn't likely to end up that way, so it's more of a 'what if'.

1

u/FortressOnAHill 15d ago

Woah dude your mom's getting a biopic?

1

u/InternationalDiet631 14d ago

Do you perhaps have a list of recommendations? Like a top 10? Tbh it's a genre that seems fun to watch

1

u/Imtheprofessordammit 14d ago

This is also my favorite trope. The comments here are full of people dragging op for thinking these movies aren't realistic, but where are the recs?? I've seen a lot of movies like this and I'm looking for more. What are your favs, /u/Wonderful-Variation ?

1

u/NettleLily 12d ago

How do you feel about nutty putty cave?

0

u/AndyTheEngr 16d ago

Like stuck under the bed, or in the clothes dryer?

"Stepbrother, I need help!"

0

u/0202_tihssitidder 16d ago

I like them too! There are whole series about being partially stuck in the dryer or under the kitchen sink or in a window. Usually some guy's step-mom.