In the Incredible Hulk quicksand episode, the Hulk finds himself in waist-deep quicksand and must decide whether he is going to live or die. This is an extremely dramatic moment for any Hulk fan! The hulk is portrayed as a child-like creature who is driven only by survival and the desire to prove that he is the strongest. This film continues a theme that Lee has used in previous Marvel films: The Hulk must choose between his own survival and the lives of others.
Quicksand was originally a scientist of Vietnamese descent who was working at a nuclear facility when an accident changed her into the sand-like substance. However, her rage at being turned into an alien substance led her to attack the nuclear facility in a bid to seek revenge. Thankfully, Thor was there to save the day by transporting the facility to another dimension.
In the 1960s, quicksand became an increasingly common plot device in movies and television shows. In fact, almost one in every 35 films and TV shows featured some type of quicksand plot. Films such as Lawrence of Arabia, The Incredible Hulk, Batman, Lost in Space, and Gilligan’s Island all included quicksand in their episodes.
The Hulk’s storyline is also based on monsters, such as the Frankenstein’s monster, the Jekyll and Hyde, and Wolfman. Despite the similarities, the early Hulk comics depict Bruce Banner as a night-time Hulk, while the daytime version focuses on Bruce Banner as a superhero. The Hulk was not designed to become a super hero, but rather a series that tested the waters to see if monsters were still popular.
Quicksand is a mixture of water and sand, but the particles are much more closely spaced than in typical sand. This makes it a non-Newtonian fluid, which means that its viscosity changes under pressure. When it is subject to high pressure, it moves more like mud than water, and if you step on it, your foot will sink into the quicksand and get trapped in it.