Sora 2 is OpenAI's video generation model, and it has a specific superpower: photorealistic physics. Other models can generate visually appealing clips, but Sora 2 excels at making impossible scenarios look plausible — water behaving correctly, fabric moving naturally, objects interacting with each other in physically coherent ways.

That strength directly maps to viral video formats. The clips that stop scrolls are often ones where something implausible looks completely real. This is Sora 2's territory.

What Sora 2 Handles Exceptionally Well

Before the prompt list, a quick model profile:

Strong suits:

Photorealistic impossible scenarios (objects, environments, physics-defying setups)
Environmental detail (weather, water, natural light, fog)
"What if" scenarios that require physical coherence
Complex scenes with clear cause-and-effect motion

Where other models sometimes edge it:

Rapid transformation effects (Kling handles these more sharply)
Fast-cut dynamic motion (Veo 3.1 often produces cleaner fast-motion output)
Ultra-fast generation for iteration (Seedance 2 is faster for rapid testing)

The prompts below are calibrated to Sora 2's strengths.

20 Sora 2 Prompts for Viral Video

Category 1: Impossible Physics (Sora 2's Best Format)

A glass of water sits on a table. The water slowly rises and flows upward, filling the air above the glass in a perfect suspended sphere. The room lighting refracts through it. No narration. Photorealistic.
An autumn forest. Every leaf detaches simultaneously and falls upward — not scattered, but in a perfectly synchronized slow-motion rise. Camera slowly tilts up to follow.
A city street. Rain falls horizontally, parallel to the ground, moving in slow motion. Umbrellas open downward. Photorealistic, golden hour light.
A stone skips across a lake. Instead of sinking, each contact point sends a ring of water upward. The stone keeps going. Long tracking shot.
A campfire burns in reverse — the flame shrinks, embers extinguish from outside inward, smoke descends into the wood. Moody night lighting.

Category 2: Photorealistic "What If" Scenarios

What if glass was as flexible as fabric? A glass building in the wind, its windows billowing gently like curtains. Architectural photography style.
What if sand was magnetic? A desert. Iron-like dunes respond to an invisible magnetic field and ripple in patterns. Aerial shot. Dawn light.
What if shadows were visible objects? A park at midday. Shadows have volume — they're slightly raised from the ground, like dark cushions under everything.
What if stars fell slowly? A field at night. Stars descend at 1 meter per minute, landing softly and dimming in the grass. Long exposure aesthetic.
What if reflections were slightly delayed? A person walks past a mirror. Their reflection follows 2 seconds later. Photorealistic home setting.

Category 3: Environmental Spectacle

A single thunderstorm cell in time-lapse, viewed from above the clouds. Lightning branches in slow motion. Camera rotates slowly around the cell.
An ocean wave, viewed from inside as it curls. The camera is submerged, looking up through the wave at the sky. Crystal-clear water, morning light.
A mountain avalanche in extreme slow motion — individual snow particles visible. Camera is at the base, tracking the mass as it descends.
Fog rolls through a city street at night, visible as separate layered sheets. Street lights refract through each layer differently.
A volcanic eruption in slow motion from 200 meters away. Lava fragments arc through the air. Camera pans from the crater to the sky.

Category 4: Microscale Realism

Extreme macro: a drop of coffee falling into a white cup. The impact crown visible in full detail. 1000fps slow motion aesthetic.
A spider's web in a forest at dawn. Dew drops slide down individual threads. Macro lens. Soft backlight through fog.
Snowflakes forming on a glass surface, viewed from inside — the crystals build from nothing, growing in real time. Macro. Dark background.
A soap bubble in slow motion as it pops. The iridescent film tears and retracts in high detail. Black studio background.
A match igniting in extreme slow motion — the chemical reaction visible as it travels up the match head. Macro. Dark background. Warm glow.

Prompt Structure for Sora 2

Sora 2 responds well to prompts that specify the physical mechanism clearly. Vague prompts produce generic results; physics-specific prompts leverage what the model does best.

Weaker prompt: A dramatic water scene.

Stronger prompt: Water flows upward inside a tall glass cylinder, filling from bottom to top in reverse-gravity slow motion. Camera slowly tracks the rising water surface from below. Clear lighting.

Key structural elements that help Sora 2 produce better output:

State the physical anomaly explicitly ("water flows upward", "leaves fall upward")
Specify the camera movement ("tracking shot", "slowly tilts up", "rotates")
Include lighting specifics ("golden hour", "dawn light", "dark background with warm glow")
Indicate time dimension ("slow motion", "time-lapse", "1000fps")

Getting the Most from Sora 2 on aicut

aicut gives you direct access to Sora 2 alongside other top models. For the prompts above, the recommended workflow:

Start with a prompt from Category 1 or 2 — these leverage Sora 2's core strength
Set clip duration to 8–12 seconds (the physics-based scenarios need time to play out)
Generate 2–3 variations
Compare against a Veo 3.1 generation of the same prompt to see which handles the specific scenario better

For viral short-form posting, the impossible physics category (#1–5) consistently produces the highest re-watch rates — viewers watch again to understand what they just saw.

Key Takeaways

Sora 2 excels at photorealistic impossible scenarios where physics coherence makes the implausible look real.
The four best Sora 2 prompt categories for viral video: impossible physics, "what if" scenarios, environmental spectacle, and microscale realism.
Specify the physical mechanism explicitly — Sora 2 performs better with physics-precise prompts than aesthetic-only ones.
Generate 2–3 variations per prompt before committing — seed variation in Sora 2 is substantial.

Try these prompts on Sora 2 at aicut — no separate OpenAI subscription needed.