Hollywood Healing: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

No matter how badly he's injured—be it from gunshot, blade, burning, acid, you name it—an [[Action Hero|action-adventure hero]] ''never'' ends up with [[Scars Are Forever|permanent scars]] anywhere that is normally visible to the audience. (Although he may have [[Good Scars, Evil Scars|one or two hidden]] under a shirt so he can take it off and reveal just how tough he ''really'' is.) You'd expect at least one missing tooth or broken nose in a lifetime of fighting crime. Yet Bruce Wayne's corporate headshots are perfect time and time again, and James Bond never shows up at an embassy dinner with two shiners and a wad of gauze over his nose, even if he's just been hit in the face by an iron bar.

Compare [[Bottled Heroic Resolve]].

 

 

 

* Spike from ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' was constantly suffering gunshot wounds or severe beatings that would have him wrapped up head-to-toe in gauze, but he'd be perfectly fine in the next episode. This might be realistic because there is no actual definition of time between episodes. With the exception of two-parters, Spike may have had more than enough time to heal. Still doesn't explain how his gunfighting or Kung-Fu abilities don't suffer for all the damage beyond his natural status as a [[Badass]].

* Very heavily used in ''[[Hellsing]]'', mainly by Seras Victoria. This is somewhat justified by the fact that she's a lesser vampire, though, and it's only Hollywood Healing for her because the horrible injuries she receives look like paper cuts next to what Alucard and Father Anderson suffer on a regular basis (in their case, they benefit from a natural [[Healing Factor]]). Subverted when she loses her left arm to Zorin; although the shadows that she gained afterward can be shaped into a new arm, the arm itself does not actually regrow.

** Also, Integra doesn't flinch (or miss) when she gets {{spoiler|''shot in the eye.''}}

*** Until Hang Fire, that is, where he ''does'' suffer from repeated punches to the face. He gets better, though.

** Vash's brother suffered severe injuries from being blasted by the Angel Arm cannon from Vash, injuries which he doesn't fully regenerate from until 23 years after the fact. This implies that all of those injuries could be healed if Vash tried.

* It's a subtle [[Running Gag]] in ''[[Ranma ½]]'': no matter how badly beat-up the characters get, all they ever need to recover after regaining consciousness is a small first-aid kit that has some cotton wads, disinfectant, band-aids, and very little else.

** At one point, early in the series, Ranma was sent flying into a wall hard enough to leave a sizable crater; the foes claimed he had broken every bone in his body, and, indeed, his bones and joints kept popping and snapping audibly. However, he recovered from these injuries (even ''after'' being [[Gender Bender|turned into a girl]]) only a few minutes later, and was still in perfect condition to punch through ice boulders, take [[Made of Iron|Ryouga's]] kicks and suplexes, and even have a skating rink's worth of ice collapse on top of him with no ill effects.

* ''[[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure]]'' does this constantly. It's made even worse by the heavy amount of damage characters take to the face during fights. One particularly notable example is Doppio {{spoiler|during his fight with Metallica, had SCISSORS COME OUT OF HIS FACE and COUGHED UP RAZOR BLADES, yet walked away with little more than some blood trailing from his mouth.}}

 

* Particularly noticeable in ''[[The Punisher]]'' arc "Barracuda", in which The Punisher (as ever) doesn't suffer any kind of permanent injury, while Barracuda loses several fingers, some teeth and an eye.

** The Punisher regularly takes massive damage. In the very first story arc of the ''MAX'' title he gets shot in the chest with a shotgun (noting that his rib is not broken, but is actually ''gone'') and afterwards a man jams his fist into the wound and tries to pull his lung out, an injury that is never referenced again. Possibly justified by the fact that each story arc takes place six months after the last one, giving him some time to heal. But this ends up being averted in the Jason Aaron run (set in the same continuity), where after a particular brutal fight he consults with a doctor he knew in 'Nam. While Frank's top priority is getting out of his hands out of their casts, the doctor tells him that he ''has'' to let them heal if he wants to keep his motor control. He also notes that if he doesn't already have arithritis he will now, that he has high blood pressure, cartilidge damaged in his knees and hips, noise induced hearing loss and most likely chronic pain from improperly healed wounds and herniated discs. He flat out tells Frank that the days of him recovering from a broken leg in three weeks are over and that despite him keeping himself in excellent shape hes just too old for doing what he does.

* In ''[[Sin City]]'', people can be grazed by machine gunfire, fall out of buildings, and even get hit by cars and get up once they caught their second wind and slapped a band-aid on the wound.

 

 

* [[Rocky (film)|Rocky Balboa]]. Made even worse by the fact that in nearly every ''Rocky'' film there is some sort of worry about his health, (in ''Rocky 2'' he already has trouble following his trainer's moving finger, in ''3'' it's commented that the beatings he took in the first two movies should have killed him, ''5'' is all about how he has sustained brain damage and might well die if he ever gets in the ring again) and each time these health concerns and the physical toll taken on him mysteriously vanishes by the next movie.

* Parodied in ''[[Last Action Hero]]'' when the titular hero gets shot in the [[Real Life|Real World]]... and rapidly goes into shock from massive blood loss. The [[Genre Savvy]] sidekick manages to save him by bringing him back into the world of movies, where he gets right up and shrugs it off, since it's [[Just a Flesh Wound|only a slight flesh wound]] according to action movie tropes.

* ''[[Miller's Crossing]]'': Tom is beaten repeatedly by almost every other character in the film, even taking a hard kick to the face at one point, but doesn't have so much as a black eye to show for it.

* In ''[[Eraser]]'', Arnold uses a fridge door as a shield to protect against a grenade that apparently fires straight shards of metal. One pierces his right hand between the knuckles of the index and middle finger, which forces him to drag his hand off the spike. This in no way affects his accuracy for the rest of the film.

* In ''[[Taxi Driver]]'', Travis gets shot in the neck and lives, with no scar being visible in the epilogue. Of course, the epilogue may not have really happened....

{{quote|[[Word of God]] says the epilogue really happend, but next time Travis won't be a hero.}}

* In the original ''[[Shaft]]'', the title character gets shot once in the shoulder at rather close range by a machine gun and hits the floor, apparently unconscious. After minimal medical attention, it doesn't seem to take long for him to get back in action.

* The major plot point in ''[[Unbreakable]]'', where [[Bruce Willis]]' character is found by [[Samuel L. Jackson]]'s [[Genre Savvy]] character, precisely because he walks away from a major accident that should have killed him.

* The ''[[Darkman]]'' movies have a particularly blatant example of this. The character Durant appears to have been killed in a ''helicopter explosion'' during the first movie. He returns in the second movie with a limp, but no scarring or disfigurement whatsoever. Durant's survival may have been a [[Retcon]], but it's still very jarring when you consider that the title character got [[Nightmare Face|the way he is]] also because of an explosion.

* ''[[A Knight's Tale]]'': William is stabbed in the shoulder with a lance, and the tip breaks off inside, causing sufficient injury that he can no longer grip his own lance unaided. As soon as he wins the competition, he is able to dismount without difficulty and fiercely hug his love interest. No further mention of the wound is made.

* In ''[[Black Caesar]]'', Tommy {{spoiler|dies from a gunshot wound}}. He magically returns for the sequel, ''Hell Up In Harlem'', which offers a [[Retcon]] that he's able to get patched up via Hollywood Healing and seek revenge.

 

* Played with in ''[[The Dresden Files]]'', particularly with Harry Dresden himself. As a wizard with a potential lifespan of centuries, he has a very slow but effective [[Healing Factor]] on his side. So, while he takes wounds and hurts that leave him with ''very'' evident damage and scarring (such as his left hand being burned to near-uselessness), he will inevitably recover from them almost completely (such as with said burned hand slowly becoming useful again). It's just going to take a few years... or decades... to reach that point.

** Generally averted in the span of a single book, however: when Harry takes a beating (and he takes a ''lot'' of beatings), it hampers his abilities for the rest of the book. While he's generally okay by the next book, they tend to take place a full year apart.

* Handwaved in the ''[[Alex Rider]]'' series, in which being young and very physically fit counts as a [[Healing Factor]]. It's mentioned that an adult would not have survived his injuries. In the later books, there are references to all the scars he has, but they never seem to show up in visible areas or hamper his physically improbable stunts. A lot of the books do end with extended hospital says, however.

* Justified in the ''[[Percy Jackson and The Olympians]]'' books, where the demigods carry around ambrosia, the food of the gods. It kills mortals, but even a small piece (and it has to be a small piece, or it will kill them too) can heal any injury a demigod has, and even stop pain and exhaustion.

 

* Characters on ''[[Lost]]'' get shot, have appendectomies, and have blast doors crush their legs, but are traipsing around the jungle the next episode. This is sometimes addressed in the dialogue and attributed to the island's proven healing powers. At other times, it's [[Scotch Tape]]d with a throwaway "You can't go running off into the jungle! You just had surgery!"

* On ''[[Bones]]'', Booth was shot in the chest; a couple of weeks later he was completely fine with only a tiny bandage to show for it.

** In the season five premiere Bones gets stabbed in the arm by a scalpel and bleeds heavily - two scenes later she wears a dress and doesn't even have a bandage.

** Possibly justified by the power of futuristic medicine. They do have a brilliant medic on board.

* ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' had a particularly ridiculous example in Season Two when {{spoiler|Foreman}} got infected with {{spoiler|Naegleria - the brain-eating amoeba}} - and spent the greater part of a two-part episode progressing through the disease symptoms until he could be diagnosed and treated. They completely overlooked the fact that his symptoms were being caused by {{spoiler|the amoebic infection actually ''eating his brain''}}, which was conveniently all healed up by the next episode. Surprising this same after-effect was ''averted'' in a previous episode regarding {{spoiler|an old lady whose brain had been getting chewed on by syphilis spirochetes and was reassured by House that her brain would stay the way it was.}}

** Similar occurrence when {{spoiler|Thirteen was back to doctoring a couple of days after surgery to remove a brain tumour.}}

* Towards the end of the fifth season of ''[[Gilmore Girls]]'', Rory's boyfriend Logan gets injured base jumping off a cliff and getting a punctured lung, some broken ribs, and bruises over most of his body, but he's able to magically heal within an episode with only a limp by the season finale when he has to go to London.

* In ''[[Misfits]]'' Nikki is able to leave the hospital almost instantly upon receiving a heart transplant, and the scar from the operation disappears after that episode. Given the short time frame the episodes take place in, it also seems very unlikely that the rest of the cast's injuries would have healed completely from episode to episode.

 

** They can also do it once in the middle of a fight, not to mention the Warlord powers that let you ''shout people back to health in the middle of combat''. This absurdity is somewhat justified by the [[Plot Armor|abstract nature of D&D's hit points]].

** And to top it off, they have full [[Trauma Inn]] action going on, except that you don't even need an inn. One night's rest will restore you to full HP and full Healing Surges.

* ''[[Exalted]]'' averts it for mortals, devoting a lot of time in the systems section to describing how long it takes for a wound to truly heal, how fast someone can bleed out, and how prone wounds can be to infection. But then again, these are mainly meant to contrast mortals against the titular Exalted, who heal at a faster rate naturally and get access to Charms that allow upping the out-of-combat healing rate tenfold.

 

* In ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 3'', Snake receives a broken arm in the animated intro sequence and has to be airlifted to hospital, but is back in the field two weeks later. During the game, Snake can set broken bones and sew up injuries without any problems.

** Also lampshaded with game mechanics: during the "prologue" mission, Snake's stamina reduces very slowly; it's possible to finish the whole thing with three-quarters stamina. After he gets his terrible wounds and is reinserted a week later, his stamina drains ''much'' faster. In addition, Para-Medic will remark that because he is not fully healed (or even ''partially'' healed) he really shouldn't be in the field, and his performance (stamina) will suffer for it.

** Not to mention he literally climbs out of Hades through sheer determination and anger.

* ''[[wikipedia:Stunt Island|Stunt Island]]'' was a flight simulator by [[Disney]] Interactive set on a fictional island where movie aircraft stunts are filmed. If you crashed while attempting a stunt, the island's [[Herr Doktor]] would rattle off a random list of injuries: ''"You haf a crushed spleen, a pierced kidney, and three broken ribs. Ve'll haf you patched up and flying again tomorrow."''

** If you help out Moira with her survival guide research and return to her with over 600 rads of builtup radiation, she accidentally [[Cursed with Awesome|gives you a mutation that heals wounded limbs.]]

** Mostly averted in Hardcore mode for ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'': crippled limbs require a doctor bag to repair, stimpacks heal gradually, not all at once, and food's healing effects are sharply diminished. But you can still go from almost dead to completely healthy by [[Hyperactive Metabolism|eating enough gecko meat]] (just don't expect it to heal your crippled body).

 

* Subverted in ''[[Johnny Saturn]]''. When he was shown with no shirt on, he is horribly scarred with cuts, bullet wounds, and burns. He is also addicted to pain killers just so he can fight. In fact, one of his spinal disks is herniated, so he needs morphine just to move.

* In addition to the quote at top, ''[[VG Cats]]'' subverts this big time in [http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=207 this strip.]

 

* The Joker in ''[[Batman: The Animated Series]]'' consistently loses teeth when he's punched. They ''all'' grow back. Then again, those are ''very'' white teeth. They could be fakes.

** Earlier portrayals show diseased yellow teeth. On the other hand, those could also be fakes...

** One of the earlier ''Tom and Jerry'' shorts averted this to a degree. Half way through the short, Tom blows the top of his scalp away with a shotgun and wears a toupee to cover for the rest of the short. He also sports more bandages as the short goes on. That being said, he's still able to go after being sawed in half (his midsection is taped together in the next scene).

** But what the audience didn't see was the unfunny aftermath. Somehow, Homer became addicted to painkillers. It was the only way he could perform the bonecracking physical comedy that had made him a star.

{{quote|'''Homer:''' Attention was like a drug to me. But was even more like drugs was ''the drugs.''}}

* Most of the characters in ''[[South Park]]'' (unless it's Kenny or a minor character) will shrug off major injuries pretty quickly unless it becomes a plot point, one of the most notable examples is in "Poor and Stupid" in which after being in a race car accident Cartman is diagnosed with two fractured ribs, a broken femur, torn ligaments in both knees, and a level 2 concussion, he just gets up and recovers quickly.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Hollywood Style]]

[[Category:Artistic License Biology]]

[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]