Up next in 10
The threat of quicksand, of slowly sinking into a gritty sludge as it fills your lungs, is inextricably linked with our DNA. Or at least it feels that way. Quicksand has been around since at least the 1950s, when adventure stories took place in mysterious jungles and deserts. As those stories fell out of fashion, quicksand narratives kept chugging right along thanks to Disney.
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
Everyone knows the greatest danger in this world is that at any moment, without warning
0:05
we may be caught up in the fast-attacking vacuum of quicksand. Or at least, that's what it felt like when we were kids
0:12
As it turns out, the dangers of quicksand, and your likelihood of encountering any
0:16
have been greatly exaggerated by movies and television. So why were we all so afraid of it
0:22
And what is it, really? Well, today we're sinking into the details to answer
0:28
Why were we all terrified of quicksand as kids? Okay, let's try not to get in over our heads
0:39
Chances are, when you picture quicksand, you've got an image in your head from a movie or TV show
0:44
Across many years of film and television history, quicksand was a ubiquitous threat to our most beloved action stars, fantasy heroes, and cartoon mascots
0:53
Be it one of the three perils of the Princess Bride's fire swamp
0:57
An unjust punishment in the Smurfs, or the reason you go to therapy in the never-ending story
1:03
quicksand seemed especially prevalent in 80s entertainment. Throughout the decade, one in every 75 theatrically released films boasted a quicksand scene
1:12
And each time it showed up, it looked different than it had the time before
1:16
Sometimes the sinking sand trap was all-consuming and instantaneous. Other times it was a long, drawn-out process
1:24
Our heroes might pull themselves to safety, or the quirky side character might not make it out alive
1:30
The sand could be soft and fine or thick and mucky. Heck, sometimes it wasn't sand at all, but rather mud, tar
1:36
or just about anything gooey enough to keep our character stuck in place. The possibilities for quicksand were endless
1:43
but the effect was always the same. Audiences were horrified. The idea that you could be walking along minding your business
1:49
and suddenly find yourself sinking into the ground wasn't pleasant, to say the least
1:53
It tapped into that animal side of brains that wants us to survive by any means necessary
1:59
And on a deeper level, quicksand represented a deep-seated fear of the unknown
2:03
The changing times can be quite frightening. Going into strange unknown places and facing hidden dangers is as terrifying as it is thrilling
2:11
which may be another reason we saw portrayed so often during this period. But the 1980s were not the quicksand golden age we see them as
2:19
They were neither the inception nor the height of the trend. sure all these movies and TV shows put their own spin on the phenomenon to suit the needs of their
2:27
script but they were just following in the well footsteps of the media that came before them And when there only one set of footprints you know they fell into quicksand
2:42
One of the first known depictions of quicksand comes from a thousand-year-old comic strip
2:46
that details the events that took place before the Norman Conquest of England. One of those events was the rescue of two soldiers by the soon-to-be King Harold
2:55
who hauled them out of deep mud. 500 years after that, English novelists, poets, and playwrights were making frequent mention of quicksand in their literature
3:04
with the likes of Shakespeare describing Duke Clarence and Henry VI as a quicksand of deceit
3:10
By the 19th century, American literature was referring to sinkholes in the Wild West
3:15
And finally, in the 1960s, this not-so-natural disaster was coming to a peak in popularity
3:21
In the real world, the Vietnam War had become inextricably linked to the idea of quicksand
3:26
in reference to dragging Americans into an escalating conflict from which there was no escape
3:32
But it was the movies where quicksand really started to sink into the public consciousness
3:36
The 1962 classic Lawrence of Arabia is known today as a cinematic touchstone
3:41
and won seven Oscars the year it was released, including the coveted Best Picture
3:46
It also happens to feature a scene in which a young boy is consumed by quicksand in a matter of seconds
3:51
Luckily, his camel makes it out alive. which is more than we can say for our tax
3:57
Hey, never-ending story. Maybe if you let the horse out of the sand
4:01
you would have won seven Oscars instead of a single Saturn award
4:05
Just saying. Nevertheless, while Lawrence of Arabia wasn't the first to use quicksand for heart-racing action
4:12
it certainly helped to popularize it. By the end of the 1960s, 3% of all films produced contained quicksand
4:19
That probably doesn't sound like a lot, but that evens out to one out of every 35 movies made during a 10-year period
4:26
Though the trend started to wane after that, there was still plenty of sand to be thrown around
4:31
We lived through three decades of the stuff until it started to feel like we ourselves were stuck in quicksand
4:36
and were sentenced to be completely overtaken by it. Luckily, Hollywood lent us a hand and pulled us from certain doom
4:42
By the 1990s, the prevalence of quicksand in film and television was no more
4:46
It had been swallowed up by the sands of time and usually only resurfaced to be mocked and parodied
4:53
as a goofy throwback to the old style of adventure filmmaking. For example, Lost was one of the most popular shows on television in the mid-aughts
5:01
If you haven seen it it follows a group of survivors stranded on a mysterious island following a plane crash And in addition to pummeling its audience cross with new riddles and clues every episode
5:13
there was also a fair bit of action and adventure. Now, you'd think adventure on a desert island
5:18
would be the ideal place to throw in some perilous quicksand, but none of the characters ever encountered any
5:25
Sure, they found polar bears and time travel, but no quicksand. In 2010, Lost's executive producer, Carlton Hughes, spoke on the show's lack of quicksand
5:36
According to Hughes, We were a little bit concerned that it would just be cheesy
5:40
It felt too cliched. It felt old-fashioned. To reiterate, the makers of Lost felt that adding quicksand to their show about giant smoke monsters and unexplained superhuman powers was too silly
5:53
It's safe to say that quicksand had become a bit of a cultural punching bag in the new millennium
5:57
And even before 2010, it had come under scrutiny for more than just the played-out nature of the trend
6:03
In 2004, the popular show Mythbusters, which followed a team of engineers building over-the-top scientific experiments to test popular theories or scenes from pop culture
6:13
tackled and busted the concept of fast-acting quicksand. Indiana Jones might have climbed his greatest foe to get out of a quicksand pit in 2008's Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
6:23
But by then, the Mythbusters team had already determined that there was no way anybody could realistically lose their life to the stuff
6:30
no matter how hard they tried. So have no fear. Not only is quicksand a stale action set piece from a bygone Hollywood era
6:38
but it isn't actually deadly at all. Um, sort of. There's a big old asterisk next to that statement that we need to unpack
6:46
As it turns out, the myth busters were correct that quicksand itself won't kill you
6:56
While you can find quicksand basically anywhere that has water or sand, that's a pretty important
7:00
ingredient, real-life quicksand pits tend only to be a few feet deep
7:04
And because of the buoyancy of the human body, you wouldn't be able to sink in it anyway
7:09
Luckily, quicksand pits are also fairly easy to spot, taking on an almost gel-like consistency
7:15
when undisturbed. But that does not mean it's completely harmless. In fact
7:19
quicksand has factored into two fairly recent and tragic deaths. The real danger of quicksand
7:24
is that it can trap you in place, which leaves you vulnerable to wildlife
7:28
and to the elements. If you're alone, this can be particularly dangerous
7:33
But it is not a death sentence Many people including a 78 Florida man in 2016 have survived falling into quicksand by simply yelling for help until someone arrived But that man was also lucky
7:45
Because when it comes to surviving quicksand, location is key. If the place you happen to be trapped in is near a body of water with an impending tide
7:55
you could find yourself in deep trouble. That's exactly what happened in 2015
7:58
2015, when 50-year-old Jose Ray Escobedo drowned after getting stuck in quicksand on the San
8:05
Antonio River. Authorities finally discovered his body after three days, still stuck fast in the
8:11
sand. Then in 2023, a 20-year-old college student named Zachary Porter was caught in waist-deep mud
8:17
along the Turnagan Arm in Alaska. Though his friends immediately called 911, rescuers were
8:23
unable to reach him before the tide came in, and Porter drowned. How exactly did tragedies like
8:29
this happen? Well, since quicksand is just a pool of densely packed water and sand, it makes the
8:34
consistency more like clay. The friction between particles is reduced, and the mass can't hold its
8:40
shape when disturbed by the weight of, say, a human foot. Rather than resisting the force
8:45
it absorbs it, literally. There's also a dry version of quicksand, which doesn't occur as
8:50
often out in the real world, but has been safely simulated in lab environments. Dry quicksand forms
8:56
when sand is loosely combined with air particles to create a similarly frictionless effect as its
9:01
densely packed counterpart. In this case, when disturbed by outside pressure, the sand collapses
9:06
in on itself, taking you with it in one classic Lawrence of Arabia-style gulp. Either way, wet or
9:13
dry, once you're in, it's difficult but not impossible to get out
9:20
If you ever find yourself living out an 80s movie-themed nightmare in real life
9:27
remember that all hope is not lost. First of all, try to avoid getting stuck in the first place
9:32
by avoiding those gel-like patches of land along riverbanks and beaches. But if you've already found yourself not so landlocked
9:39
there's still something you can do. If you want to properly free yourself from quicksand
9:43
the first step is to remain calm. Thrashing around and disturbing the sand could lead to further sinking
9:49
The trick is to lean back, spread out your weight as much as possible, and make small, steady, repeated movements with your legs
9:58
This should introduce enough water and friction to the sand between your legs for you to wriggle free
10:03
And once you've contended with pools of sinking sand, all that's left are the R-O-U-S's
10:09
But don't worry, we don't think they exist