How to Survive Quicksand, Falling Elevators, and 10 Other Movie ‘Dangers’

Movies have to make things interesting for us, so of course they’re going to show their characters surviving the scariest dangers they can imagine. Sometimes these are obviously not real-word perils (ghosts, evil dolls) but other times they are things we know exist (quicksand, sharks). Let’s take a tour of the movie dangers that do exist in real life—and figure out how we’re going to survive them when we, inevitably, end up in the exact same situation.

In the movies, piranhas are ravenous fish that will quickly maul a living human body down to the bones. In real life, piranha attacks usually take the form of swimmers getting a single nasty bite, usually on the feet, and being at least mildly annoyed about it. There is a documented case of a child losing a finger to a piranha, and a few cases of people who seem to have drowned and then been extensively snacked on. There are no known fatalities from actual piranha attacks, though.

Real-life danger rating: Medium.

How to survive: Simply swim or walk out of the water. Clean the wound, apply a bandage, and seek medical care if needed.

If a hole ever opens in an airplane’s fuselage, the movies have taught us that any nearby passengers will be sucked out of the plane, no matter the size of the hole. The air in the cabin is pressurized, and the air outside is not; the difference creates suction.

This is a real phenomenon, but most holes are “not enough to go full vacuum cleaner,” according to a pilot writing for Royal Dutch Airlines. Instead, you can expect to see papers rustle before the pressure equalizes. It will be cold and noisy, and the oxygen masks will drop.

Unless the hole is a big one, that is. A woman died after being “partially sucked out” of a Southwest flight when shrapnel from an exploding engine broke a window. And a pilot on a British flight in 1990 was sucked partway out of the cockpit after the windshield broke. The co-pilot held onto his legs for 20 minutes, until the plane could land. The pilot suffered broken bones and frostbite, but survived.

Real-life danger rating: Medium.

How to survive: If the hole is small, buckle your seatbelt and put on your oxygen mask. If it is large and you are actually being sucked out of the plane, have a friend grab you and not let go.

Quicksand looks like sand, but will trap you once you step in and not let you go. This is how I understand it from cartoons, anyway. In real life, the idea is the same, but it’s not a force field sucking you down; it’s just a mixture of sand and water that can’t support your weight. You can, however, swim through it. In serious cases, a rescue team may need to pump extra water into the quicksand to prevent the suction that can occur when somebody tries to pull you out.

Real-life danger rating: medium

How to survive: Fortunately, we have a guide here. Shed any extra weight like a backpack, spread yourself out horizontally, and use swimming motions to try to reach solid ground. If that doesn’t work, have a friend pull you with a rope. And if that doesn’t work, call for a rescue crew.

In the movies, sharks are hungry for human blood. In the actual ocean, they mostly ignore us. There are 50 to 70 shark “attacks” per year, according to shark scientist David Shiffman, most requiring only minor first aid. Not bad odds, considering hundreds of millions of people go for a swim every year. Sharks don’t have some kind of vendetta against humans; they honestly seem pretty uninterested in us.

Real-life danger rating: Low.

How to survive: Once again, we have a guide. There’s no surefire way to fend off a shark, but experts recommend putting an object between yourself and the shark, and fighting back if necessary by punching it in the eyes or gills.

What do you do if an elevator plummets from the top floor of a skyscraper? Scream, mostly. In the movies, any people in a falling elevator are sitting ducks, with the action focused on who made the elevator fall and who might be around to perform an unlikely rescue.

When it comes to real-life falling elevators, the statistics are not good. When elevators plunge dozens of floors, there tend not to be survivors. Fortunately, such accidents are rare. Modern elevators have multiple steel cables, so that if one breaks, the others will still hold. They also have several types of brakes, and safety systems that will automatically cut power to the motor and apply the brakes if something goes wrong.

Real-life danger rating: Low, unless the elevator is already falling, in which case you’re pretty screwed.

How to survive: The consensus among science experts is that lying on your back is probably the best way to survive the impact. To my knowledge, nobody has tested this empirically, but at least now you have something to do while you hurtle to your doom.

If you’re lost at sea, typically you drown. But if you manage to wash up on the coast of some island—as you will if you are a main character in a movie—you need to find ways to survive. How possible this is depends on the island: Is it a small patch of sand, or does it have a bustling ecosystem and sources of fresh water? There are real-life examples of people who survived on their own on small islands for days or years.

Real-life danger rating: Depends where you end up, really.

How to survive: The same way you’d survive anywhere else: Protect yourself from the elements, find fresh water, harvest food, and make your location visible to search parties. Easier said than done, of course.

Look, it’s hard to get killed by a swarm of bees. In fact, when bees are swarming, they don’t really want to kill anything. They’re just on their way to a new hive. Even if somebody pours a bunch of bees into a cage that your head has been locked into, there’s not much to fear. (Unless you’re allergic, that is.) Apparently, the woman who had 80,000 bees on her semi-nude body in The Wicker Man only suffered a total of four stings. The beekeeper said he was “pulling bees out of her ears,” though.

Real-life danger rating: Low.

How to survive: According to our guide on surviving bee attacks, the real hack is just to leave the bees alone. If you do get attacked, run for shelter, and use your shirt to protect your face.

I’ll never forget watching Arachnophobia as a kid and seeing all those spiders come out of the walls. Spiders are real, and some have venoms that are dangerous to humans, but if they could laugh they would definitely laugh at the idea that any spider would care enough about people to bother hunting you down.

Spiders can make nests, but they don’t really do “infestations.” The smaller spiders in the movie were a mild-mannered crab spider that lives in colonies and “shows little inclination to bite anything other than suitably sized prey.” (The bigger one that got thrown into the fire was a robot.)

Real-life danger rating: Low.

How to survive: Surviving a spider “infestation” is easy. You just do nothing. Congratulations, you have survived! (Do not burn down your house with a flamethrower.)

Surviving a spider bite is different. You still usually need to do nothing, since most spider bites are not life-threatening, but it will help if you can catch the spider or get a clear photograph for identification to be sure. Then, seek medical care if you develop symptoms that are serious, such as if a child was bitten and has trouble breathing. Seattle Children’s Hospital has advice here on how to know if your child needs medical care after a spider bite.

Lava is a source of danger and thrills in movies, and it’s exciting to see in real life (or so I hear). You can hike near active lava in places like Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park, as long as you observe appropriate precautions.

In contrast to some of the other movie dangers, most of what you know about lava is probably true. It’s molten rock, it’s unbelievably hot, and it will absolutely kill you if you accidentally take a dip.

Real-life danger rating: High.

How to survive: If you’re in the lava, it’s too late. If you are not yet in the lava, do anything you can to avoid getting in the lava.

Afraid of being thrown into a pit of snakes? If it’s anything like the movies, you don’t have much to worry about. The snake pit from the History Channel’s Vikings is full of ball pythons and boas, species that are non-venomous and cuddly enough that they are popular pets. In the clip above, Indiana Jones finds himself face-to-face with a monocled cobra, which is a potentially deadly species. But the other snakes in the pits include garter snakes (the friendly ones you might find in your garden), baby reticulated pythons and burmese pythons, and—I’m sorry, but this is just not acceptable—a crap ton of legless lizards. Please, folks, let’s keep our snake pits full of snakes.

Real-life danger rating: Low.

How to survive: Move away from venomous snakes. Do not try to catch them or set them on fire. If you find yourself face-to-face with a cobra that is standing up in a threat display, they are asking you to please give them some space, so do that. It’s OK if doing so means you need to move closer to the baby pythons (they don’t eat people) or the legless lizards (ditto). If you are bitten by a venomous snake, call 911 and remove any rings and watches before swelling sets in. Do not try to suck out the venom, cut the wound, or apply a tourniquet. Just get to the hospital.

There’s an area of the ocean where ships and planes mysteriously go missing: the dreaded Bermuda Triangle. Makes for a good story, especially when you start listing ships and planes that supposedly never returned.

But there’s no such triangle. The area of the Bermuda Triangle doesn’t even make the list of most dangerous waters. And anytime you meet somebody who has vacationed in the Bahamas, that person has been to the Bermuda Triangle and lived to tell the tale. The legend that this area of the ocean is particularly cursed only dates from 1950.

Real-life danger rating: Low to medium. Oceans can be dangerous, and the Caribbean does get plenty of hurricanes.

How to survive: Don’t pick up any creepy dolls while vacationing. Observe hurricane precautions and practice good boating safety.

In the movies, toxic waste can melt your flesh and/or give you superpowers. In real life, it’s more likely to leach into the ground and drinking water, raising your risk of cancer later in life.

“Toxic waste” isn’t a particular substance, of course. Plenty of industrial accidents have happened with vats of nasty chemicals that aren’t even waste, but just part of the normal business of, say, producing metal coatings.

Radioactive waste is perhaps more famous, but tends to be pretty well guarded because it is so dangerous. Radiation poisoning, caused by exposure to a large amount of radiation in a short time, can cause burns and death. Exposure to lower levels of radiation increases your risk of conditions like cancer later in life.

Real-life danger rating: The likelihood of getting toxic waste dumped on you is low, but the outcome is potentially very bad.

How to survive: It depends on the type of toxic waste. The EPA’s safety advice on radioactive waste is to stay the hell away from it. Good luck.