How Accurately Do Movies Depict Quicksand?

[quickman]

Cool video
https://www.iflscience.com/physics/how- ... quicksand/

[kwiksand1]

She's so pretty....

[bogbud]

Only one response in two weeks?
Well, i have missed it so far, too.

From my experience she is pretty much right as long as you are in real quicksand or kind of mud that has the same consistency all the way down. The danger of getting stuck is real, especially in "sandy" stuff that can settle and really locks you in place. Organic stuff (mud, peat) will not lock but cling and suck if it is thick enough .

There are still areas that are really dangerous: Floating mats of plants/peat above a layer of water / areas with different consistency at the top than deeper down. Although you will not "sink" like depicted in those movie-snippets it is quite easy to sink deeper than your head but difficult to get back to the surface. And this can be a serious problem for the inexperienced or someone who really falls into such an area by accident!

[Herzeleid]

Regarding the accuracy ( Or not ) of quicksand in movies, although interesting, I don't see it being relevant to our interest. As it's our fetish it is a fantasy, and as such the quicksand acts in a way we find erotic / stimulating ? I'd be interested to hear other people's thoughts on this.

[dlodoski]

Regarding the accuracy ( Or not ) of quicksand in movies, although interesting, I don't see it being relevant to our interest. As it's our fetish it is a fantasy, and as such the quicksand acts in a way we find erotic / stimulating ? I'd be interested to hear other people's thoughts on this.

In my experience, a 'good' quicksand scene (Movie or Video or whatever) requires both a nice area and a convincing victim.

It's the combination of the two that make it real.

[Fred588]

Regarding the accuracy ( Or not ) of quicksand in movies, although interesting, I don't see it being relevant to our interest. As it's our fetish it is a fantasy, and as such the quicksand acts in a way we find erotic / stimulating ? I'd be interested to hear other people's thoughts on this.

I think this post is right on target, at least for 95 percent of us. One might say that a successful (for us) movie scene is one that portreys things as we'd like to see them irrespective of reality.

[bogbud]

Of course you are right from a producers perspective.
For me the fetish is not so much watching scenes but doing all that by myself. My earlier post is strictly from a doers- but not from a viewers-perspective.

[maria]

Of course you are right from a producers perspective.
For me the fetish is not so much watching scenes but doing all that by myself. My earlier post is strictly from a doers- but not from a viewers-perspective.

Agree - sinking is believing

[quickman]

The quicksand portrayed in movies is usually more of a bog situation. "Real" quicksand would not make for much of a movie scene.

[BogDog]

"Real quicksand" can vary from classic water-saturated sand to sand-saturated clay or mud.

I've only seen 2 films that had what I would call realistic quicksand, and both featured male victims. Nearly all other live action films /tv shows I've seen offer some substance floating on water, if even that, or a dry sand pit with an obvious hidden platform lowered the model down gradually. Even the treasured "Tarzan's Hidden Jungle" scene is a gem only because of Vera Mile's presence and her great "frightened safari girl" acting job. The pit she fell into sucked as far as I'm concerned (no pun intended) with the look and consistency of sawdust floating in a swimming pool.


I've always had a sharp eye for details, and I see the little visual clues of a real (or realistic) event and those of fake scenes. To really enjoy it,the actress must be a very good actress (like Vera), but also the sinking medium has to be just as believable as the victim, as it takes just one bad "actor" to ruin a film. Leaves floating on water in a square-shaped pit, no thanks. I see a lot of the latter in Bollywood films made in India and several Asian-made movie clips.

The worst (for me anyway) are watery clay or peat pits that have multiple hidden levels like stairs on the side that the actress gradually steps down to simulate sinking. I find those painful to watch, so I never do. The actress enters the pit, gets "stuck" somehow in the runny stuff, then gradually (and so obviously) inches herself forward as she pretends to struggle to reach the edge of the next ledge to step down a little deeper. There are many such clay scenes in "Quicksand Terror" that I always bypass for the other more enjoyable scenes in it. Thick and sticky clay like that in many of the "Arch Enemys" videos is a far better and more believable substance.


So, to wrap it up and answer the question....How Accurately Do Movies Depict Quicksand? At least for me, not accurately at all for 99.9 percent of them is my reply.