About

Secret Treasure Behind Waterfall, also known as Cave Behind the Falls, refers to a pop culture trope in which a secret passage can often be found behind a waterfall, with video game players often intentionally checking the waterfalls in search of secrets. Appearing in films, comics and video games, the trope gained recognition in memes that parody player reactions when nothing special is hidden behind the waterfall.

Origin

In real life, the phenomenon of shallow natural caves, referred to as rock shelters, forming behind a waterfall does commonly occur as the splashing water erodes softer rock under (diagram shown below).^[1] In the terms of geology, these formations do not last long as the more resistant rock forming the ceiling of the cave and the riverbed eventually collapses.

The natural phenomenon found reflection in culture, particularly in adventure literature. The earliest known example of the "cave behind the waterfall" trope in culture is Icelandic Grettis saga Ásmundarsonar, composed approximately in the late 14th century.^[2][3] In the saga, murderous giants live in a cave behind a waterfall. Another early example is the Hawaiian myth of the goddess Hina, who according to the legend, lived in the cave behind Rainbow Falls on the Big Island.^[4] In the 1592 Chinese novel Journey to the West Sun Wukong discovers a cave after jumping through a large waterfall, with him and his monkey clan later moving into that cave.^[5]

In literature, the trope appears in Prisoners of the Sun (1948), The Lord of the Rings (1954) and Jurassic Park (1990) among other books. In Batman comics, one of the entrances to Batman's cave also lies behind a waterfall.

The trope appears in The Road to El Dorado, The Incredibles, Last of the Mohicans, The Mask of Zorro and other films. In the 1995 film Behind the Waterfall, a cave hidden behind a waterfall is a key plot part.

Video Games

The earliest known example of a location hidden behind a waterfall in video games is the action-adventure video game The Legend of Zelda, released in February 1986.

In the following decades, the trope appeared in a multitude of video games of a variety of genres, including The Legend of Zelda series, the Super Mario series, the Final Fantasy series, the Tomb Raider series, the Serious Sam series and many other games.

Use in Memes

The widespread recognition of the trope led to it becoming a subject of jokes and memes. On July 10th, 2018, Twitter^[6] user @evaoddveig posted the earliest known viral joke about the trope, with their post gaining over 1,000 retweets and 7,700 likes in three years (shown below, left). In 2018 and 2019, more viral tweets about the trope were made. For example, an October 10th, 2018, tweet^[7] by @_velociraptom gained over 2,300 retweets and 11,200 likes in three years (shown below, right).

On February 3rd, 2020, Redditor^[8] ClassicDecimus posted the earliest known viral meme about the trope, based on The Great Khali Bathing template. The post gained over 69,900 upvotes in six months (shown below).

In the following years, more memes about the trope were posted by users on Reddit and other social media.

Gimmick Account

On March 5th, 2020, Twitter gimmick account "Is Something Behind the Waterfall?"(@VGWaterfalls) posted its first tweet^[9] (shown below). In the following year, the account posted multiple clips from various video games showcasing hidden locations behind waterfalls.

There is a shrine behind the waterfall in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild pic.twitter.com/WTqFVfrFyC

— Is Something Behind the Waterfall? (@VGWaterfalls) March 5, 2020

Various Examples

Search Interest

Note: the spike in search interest in November 2018 is tied to the release of Red Dead Redemption 2

External References