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Riptide

 Riptide
type
TVTItem
 Riptide
label
Riptide
 Riptide
page
Riptide
 Riptide
comment
Riptide is an 1998 adventure novel by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child inspired by the real-life Oak Island Money Pit; a possible buried treasure horde off the coast of Nova Scotia that has resisted two hundred years of excavation attempts through lethally dangerous floods and cave-ins.Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_1'); })Set off the coast of Stormhaven, Maine and targeting the fictional Ragged Island Water Pit, the novel focuses on Dr. Malin Hatch, whose family has owned the seemingly worthless island for several generations after his grandfather became the latest in a centuries-long line of treasure hunters to bankrupt themselves attempting, and failing, to recover its now-legendary hoard.The novel begins in 1971 when a seven-year-old Hatch is traumatized by an unsupervised trip he and his twelve-year-old brother Johnny take to the island while their parents are away, involving a venture into a freshly exposed secret tunnel and the horrors it leads to. The rest of the book takes place twenty-five years later as the adult Hatch is approached by the weathered "recovery specialist"(professional treasure hunter) Captain Neidelman. With a fleet of ships, cutting-edge technology and twenty million dollars in capital, the captain is invested in recovering the 400-year-old treasure once and for all. Nearly half the profit will be Hatch's.... if he can face the nightmares of his childhood long enough to claim it.Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_2'); })There is more to worry about than tragic memories however, as the expedition unfolds and they discover the dark secrets of the Water Pit's designer(an Renaissance architect with a penchant for genius codes, imprisoned by the gruesome pirate who stole the treasure horde in the first place) and encounter disturbing historical references to "St. Michael's Sword", a mysterious artifact cursed with the power to "kill anyone who looks at it"....Not to be confused with the 1960s Australian TV series or the 1980s American TV series.
 Riptide
fetched
2020-03-09T23:13:20Z
 Riptide
parsed
2020-06-24T07:36:23Z
 Riptide
processingComment
Dropped link to FatalMacGuffin: Not a Feature - UNKNOWN
 Riptide
processingUnknown
Fatal MacGuffin
 Riptide
isPartOf
DBTropes
 Riptide / int_18262b13
type
Break the Badass
 Riptide / int_18262b13
comment
Break the Badass: Happens to Hatch during the entire climax; implied to have happened to Neidelman in the past.
 Riptide / int_18262b13
featureApplicability
1.0
 Riptide / int_18262b13
featureConfidence
1.0
 Riptide
hasFeature
Riptide / int_18262b13
 Riptide / int_22cf536c
type
Chekhov's Gun
 Riptide / int_22cf536c
comment
Chekhov's Gun: the Geiger counter.
 Riptide / int_22cf536c
featureApplicability
1.0
 Riptide / int_22cf536c
featureConfidence
1.0
 Riptide
hasFeature
Riptide / int_22cf536c
 Riptide / int_2d60b137
type
Zillion-Dollar Bill
 Riptide / int_2d60b137
comment
Zillion-Dollar Bill: The treasure itself is estimated at over $2 billion
 Riptide / int_2d60b137
featureApplicability
1.0
 Riptide / int_2d60b137
featureConfidence
1.0
 Riptide
hasFeature
Riptide / int_2d60b137
 Riptide / int_2da1421
type
Booby Trap
 Riptide / int_2da1421
comment
Booby Trap: Oh boy....
 Riptide / int_2da1421
featureApplicability
1.0
 Riptide / int_2da1421
featureConfidence
1.0
 Riptide
hasFeature
Riptide / int_2da1421
 Riptide / int_2fd985e3
type
Pit Trap
 Riptide / int_2fd985e3
comment
Pit Trap: Unintentional ones all over the island.
 Riptide / int_2fd985e3
featureApplicability
1.0
 Riptide / int_2fd985e3
featureConfidence
1.0
 Riptide
hasFeature
Riptide / int_2fd985e3
 Riptide / int_3094ec26
type
Artifact of Death
 Riptide / int_3094ec26
comment
Artifact of Death: St. Michael's Sword. A sword forged from a meteor that's so radioactive it can kill everyone within a few square miles if taken out of its lead casket.
 Riptide / int_3094ec26
featureApplicability
1.0
 Riptide / int_3094ec26
featureConfidence
1.0
 Riptide
hasFeature
Riptide / int_3094ec26
 Riptide / int_45d22aad
type
Sweet and Sour Grapes
 Riptide / int_45d22aad
comment
Sweet and Sour Grapes: Though the majority of the treasure is lost and lethally radioactive, besides, Bonterre still held onto a valuable gold doubloon she found earlier buried on the surface of the island.
 Riptide / int_45d22aad
featureApplicability
1.0
 Riptide / int_45d22aad
featureConfidence
1.0
 Riptide
hasFeature
Riptide / int_45d22aad
 Riptide / int_46f86041
type
Bad Vibrations
 Riptide / int_46f86041
comment
Bad Vibrations
 Riptide / int_46f86041
featureApplicability
1.0
 Riptide / int_46f86041
featureConfidence
1.0
 Riptide
hasFeature
Riptide / int_46f86041
 Riptide / int_489c6f13
type
Door of Doom
 Riptide / int_489c6f13
comment
Door of Doom: Hatch's brother died when he set off a booby trap in a secret tunnel under the Water Pit.
 Riptide / int_489c6f13
featureApplicability
1.0
 Riptide / int_489c6f13
featureConfidence
1.0
 Riptide
hasFeature
Riptide / int_489c6f13
 Riptide / int_55c79f7c
type
Death Trap
 Riptide / int_55c79f7c
comment
Death Trap: All over the Pit's design.
 Riptide / int_55c79f7c
featureApplicability
1.0
 Riptide / int_55c79f7c
featureConfidence
1.0
 Riptide
hasFeature
Riptide / int_55c79f7c
 Riptide / int_59c3b4cd
type
Undead Author
 Riptide / int_59c3b4cd
comment
Undead Author: Averted. Red Ned Ockham's entire crew mysteriously died or disappeared and it's up to the main characters to figure out what happened on their own.
 Riptide / int_59c3b4cd
featureApplicability
-1.0
 Riptide / int_59c3b4cd
featureConfidence
1.0
 Riptide
hasFeature
Riptide / int_59c3b4cd
 Riptide / int_5b9925f7
type
Curiosity Killed the Cast
 Riptide / int_5b9925f7
comment
Curiosity Killed the Cast
 Riptide / int_5b9925f7
featureApplicability
1.0
 Riptide / int_5b9925f7
featureConfidence
1.0
 Riptide
hasFeature
Riptide / int_5b9925f7
 Riptide / int_5fcedca
type
Big Eater
 Riptide / int_5fcedca
comment
Big Eater: Kerry seems to live on ice cream sandwiches.
 Riptide / int_5fcedca
featureApplicability
1.0
 Riptide / int_5fcedca
featureConfidence
1.0
 Riptide
hasFeature
Riptide / int_5fcedca
 Riptide / int_61996785
type
Sacrificial Lamb
 Riptide / int_61996785
comment
Sacrificial Lamb: Kerry Wopner.
 Riptide / int_61996785
featureApplicability
1.0
 Riptide / int_61996785
featureConfidence
1.0
 Riptide
hasFeature
Riptide / int_61996785
 Riptide / int_6439de78
type
Heroic Sacrifice
 Riptide / int_6439de78
comment
Heroic Sacrifice: Reverend Clay exposes himself to a lethal dose of radiation to save Hatch and Bonterre from the same fate.
 Riptide / int_6439de78
featureApplicability
1.0
 Riptide / int_6439de78
featureConfidence
1.0
 Riptide
hasFeature
Riptide / int_6439de78
 Riptide / int_6bd689ca
type
Meaningful Echo
 Riptide / int_6bd689ca
comment
Meaningful Echo: "Ye who luste after the key to the Treasure Pitt shall find instead the key to the next world, and your carcase shall rot close to the Hell where your soule hat gone." Bonterre repeats these lines from the journal (which had seemed like a moral warning when first deciphered) after the treasure and the island collapse into the depths of the piercement dome.
 Riptide / int_6bd689ca
featureApplicability
1.0
 Riptide / int_6bd689ca
featureConfidence
1.0
 Riptide
hasFeature
Riptide / int_6bd689ca
 Riptide / int_7b3352a9
type
Heroic Safe Mode
 Riptide / int_7b3352a9
comment
Heroic Safe Mode: Hatch has little memory of escaping from the shore tunnel as a seven-year-old.
 Riptide / int_7b3352a9
featureApplicability
1.0
 Riptide / int_7b3352a9
featureConfidence
1.0
 Riptide
hasFeature
Riptide / int_7b3352a9
 Riptide / int_7cca3964
type
Matchlight Danger Revelation
 Riptide / int_7cca3964
comment
Matchlight Danger Revelation
 Riptide / int_7cca3964
featureApplicability
1.0
 Riptide / int_7cca3964
featureConfidence
1.0
 Riptide
hasFeature
Riptide / int_7cca3964
 Riptide / int_864009e9
type
Pirate Booty
 Riptide / int_864009e9
comment
Pirate Booty: The largest horde of it in history, so they say.
 Riptide / int_864009e9
featureApplicability
1.0
 Riptide / int_864009e9
featureConfidence
1.0
 Riptide
hasFeature
Riptide / int_864009e9
 Riptide / int_8acbc572
type
Fire and Brimstone Hell
 Riptide / int_8acbc572
comment
Fire and Brimstone Hell: What Clay preaches is waiting for those who lust for the treasure. Macallan's ominous warning about the pit implies this as well.
 Riptide / int_8acbc572
featureApplicability
1.0
 Riptide / int_8acbc572
featureConfidence
1.0
 Riptide
hasFeature
Riptide / int_8acbc572
 Riptide / int_a42af619
type
This Way to Certain Death
 Riptide / int_a42af619
comment
This Way to Certain Death: "First will ye lie; Cursed shall ye cry; Worst must ye die"
 Riptide / int_a42af619
featureApplicability
1.0
 Riptide / int_a42af619
featureConfidence
1.0
 Riptide
hasFeature
Riptide / int_a42af619
 Riptide / int_a964c793
type
Mangst
 Riptide / int_a964c793
comment
Mangst: Hatch throughout the whole book, secretly Neidelman, as Hatch learns.
 Riptide / int_a964c793
featureApplicability
1.0
 Riptide / int_a964c793
featureConfidence
1.0
 Riptide
hasFeature
Riptide / int_a964c793
 Riptide / int_b4d6aa7d
type
Dungeon Bypass
 Riptide / int_b4d6aa7d
comment
Dungeon Bypass: Attempted highly unsuccessfully by previous would-be excavators of the Water Pit.
 Riptide / int_b4d6aa7d
featureApplicability
1.0
 Riptide / int_b4d6aa7d
featureConfidence
1.0
 Riptide
hasFeature
Riptide / int_b4d6aa7d
 Riptide / int_c2e295cd
type
Curse
 Riptide / int_c2e295cd
comment
Curse: The treasure is rumored to carry a horrible curse on it that claims the lives of those who try to retrieve it. Justified in-universe considering that the central treasure is ridiculously radioactive. What else would pre-Marie Curie people attribute radiation poisoning to?
 Riptide / int_c2e295cd
featureApplicability
1.0
 Riptide / int_c2e295cd
featureConfidence
1.0
 Riptide
hasFeature
Riptide / int_c2e295cd
 Riptide / int_c6c86cd
type
Collapsing Lair
 Riptide / int_c6c86cd
comment
Collapsing Lair: Macallan designed the Pit to collapse in on itself and down into the depths of the piercement dome.
 Riptide / int_c6c86cd
featureApplicability
1.0
 Riptide / int_c6c86cd
featureConfidence
1.0
 Riptide
hasFeature
Riptide / int_c6c86cd
 Riptide / int_d155515c
type
Thunderbolt Iron
 Riptide / int_d155515c
comment
Thunderbolt Iron: St. Michael's Sword was forged from iridium from a meteorite.
 Riptide / int_d155515c
featureApplicability
1.0
 Riptide / int_d155515c
featureConfidence
1.0
 Riptide
hasFeature
Riptide / int_d155515c
 Riptide / int_d525f857
type
Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale
 Riptide / int_d525f857
comment
Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: An odd example: When they finally penetrate the treasure chamber, it's described as an iron room "about ten feet square". Nevermind that Ockham's treasure is described as having rendered his fleet of ships sluggish earlier in the novel and containing(among many other things) ninety million gold talents stolen from Spain, but the vast and elaborate contents of the chamber itself are listed in the same paragraph, and they sound like far more than would fit in the average person's living room. It's almost like it was meant to be meters or yards square, at the least.
 Riptide / int_d525f857
featureApplicability
1.0
 Riptide / int_d525f857
featureConfidence
1.0
 Riptide
hasFeature
Riptide / int_d525f857
 Riptide / int_dcbe8a6e
type
Chekhov's Gunman
 Riptide / int_dcbe8a6e
comment
Chekhov's Gunman: Reverend Clay is just a nuisance of a bible thumper until he gets stranded on the island so he can save Hatch and Bonterre.
 Riptide / int_dcbe8a6e
featureApplicability
1.0
 Riptide / int_dcbe8a6e
featureConfidence
1.0
 Riptide
hasFeature
Riptide / int_dcbe8a6e
 Riptide / int_e4b69188
type
Very Loosely Based on a True Story
 Riptide / int_e4b69188
comment
Very Loosely Based on a True Story: Based on the Oak Island Money Pit. The real one still has never been successfully excavated.
 Riptide / int_e4b69188
featureApplicability
1.0
 Riptide / int_e4b69188
featureConfidence
1.0
 Riptide
hasFeature
Riptide / int_e4b69188
 Riptide / int_ef20d7bc
type
A Minor Kidroduction
 Riptide / int_ef20d7bc
comment
A Minor Kidroduction: The story starts with Dr. Hatch as a boy exploring the island with his brother.
 Riptide / int_ef20d7bc
featureApplicability
1.0
 Riptide / int_ef20d7bc
featureConfidence
1.0
 Riptide
hasFeature
Riptide / int_ef20d7bc
 Riptide / int_f516f938
type
Never Found the Body
 Riptide / int_f516f938
comment
Never Found the Body: Johnny Hatch, among others who were claimed by the Water Pit. Not finding his body drove his father nearly mad until he died on the island still searching for his boy. The team finds his body later in the story, forcing Hatch to come to terms with his death.
 Riptide / int_f516f938
featureApplicability
1.0
 Riptide / int_f516f938
featureConfidence
1.0
 Riptide
hasFeature
Riptide / int_f516f938
 Riptide / int_f63e06eb
type
Durable Deathtrap
 Riptide / int_f63e06eb
comment
Durable Deathtrap: Justified.
 Riptide / int_f63e06eb
featureApplicability
1.0
 Riptide / int_f63e06eb
featureConfidence
1.0
 Riptide
hasFeature
Riptide / int_f63e06eb
 Riptide / int_name
type
ItemName
 Riptide / int_name
comment
 Riptide / int_name
featureApplicability
1.0
 Riptide / int_name
featureConfidence
1.0
 Riptide
hasFeature
Riptide / int_name
 Riptide / int_name
itemName
Riptide

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 RipTide
sameAs
Riptide
 Riptide
hasFeature
Artifact of Death / int_2a5287a2
 Riptide
hasFeature
Fatal MacGuffin / int_2a5287a2
 Riptide
seeAlso
Riptide
 Riptide
hasFeature
Shoot the Builder / int_2a5287a2
 Riptide
hasFeature
Thunderbolt Iron / int_2a5287a2
 Riptide
hasFeature
Worthless Treasure Twist / int_2a5287a2
 Riptide
seeAlso
Riptide