Instant Death Bullet: Difference between revisions
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In fiction, almost all gunshot wounds fall into one of two categories: instantly fatal, or [[Only a Flesh Wound|merely inconvenient]]. This is the former.
In real life, being fatally shot almost always leaves the victim the option of
In fiction, of course, one to two minutes of fairly normal activity followed by death is almost never an outcome of being shot. Consider the [[Showdown At High Noon]], or any other pistol duel; screen renderings of these "quick draw" gun battles would be rendered relatively silly if a common outcome was that one combatant was fatally shot, and then took careful aim and fired back, fatally wounding the opponent. There's a reason there were never many experienced gunfighters. The '''Instant Death Bullet''' makes for a better story, though.
This trope is largely responsible for the tendency for mooks to come from the [[Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy]]. After all, if any bullets that hit the hero are going to instantly kill or incapacitate him, then the story must ensure that the bullets don't hit him.
{{examples}}
▲This trope is largely responsible for the tendency for mooks to come from the [[Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy]]. After all, if any bullets that hit the hero are going to instantly kill or incapacitate him, then the story must ensure that the bullets don't hit him.
▲=== It's probably easier to list exceptions than examples: ===
== Anime and Manga ==
* Played straight in the manga of ''[[Ginga Densetsu Weed]]'' when the humans start exterminating the dogs of Futago Pass: most of the canines fall to a single bullet. And then it proceeds to make an absolute U-turn an ''averts it to ridiculous extends'' when Weed ends up as the receiving end of literally ''dozens'' of bullets. Not only does he get better through some veterinary treatment, he goes the chapters ''preceding said treatment'' as if nothing had happened. Keep in mind, this is a ''months old puppy'' we are talking about here.
* Averted in ''[[Death Note]]'', specifically in the last scene: {{spoiler|Light gets shot in the wrist and starts yelling at Matsuda. He then proceeds to try to write down Near's name with his own blood...and gets shot multiple times until he falls to the ground. He then, in the anime, gets up and runs away while everyone is distracted, holding his wounds, only to finally be killed from having his own name written in Ryuk's Death Note. In the manga, he is too weak to stand, and Ryuk writes his name in the Death Note because he is bored watching Light bleed to death.}}
* ''[[Darker
* Pretty much completely averted in ''[[Code Geass]]''. Anyone who did die instantly of a gunshot wound was either shot in the head/neck or riddled with ''lots'' of (sometimes high-caliber) bullets (and even that didn't stop one person from coming back the very next episode). While {{spoiler|Shirley and Euphemia}} each died from a single bullet to the chest, their deaths were slow and presumably agonizing.
** The closest the show ever gets to the Instant Death Bullet is {{spoiler|C.C. shooting Mao}}, but this can be [[Hand Wave|handwaved]] by the fact that it was a point-blank shot (pressed against the victim's flesh, even) to the neck.
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* In the ''[[Wolf's Rain]]'' [[OVA]], {{spoiler|the wolf Toboe}} manages to keep fighting for several minutes after being shot in the chest. He even bites {{spoiler|Darcia}} in the arm and then spends a few moments hanging vertically by his jaws, which would be really funny if it weren't for the fact that the poor bastard's dying.
* Averted in the ''[[Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex]]'' episode "Vanished Medication," when Togusa is shot. Though badly injured enough that he ultimately requires a stay in an intensive care unit, he still manages to return fire, killing two of his assailants, then leap from a window and make his way to the street before passing out.
** In one rather [[
* In all editions of ''[[Battle Royale]]'', Shogo takes at least one gunshot wound towards the end that only kills him a few hours later. The manga has numerous other aversions of this trope, at the very least the famous [[Made of Plasticine]] artwork ensures that people only die from wounds that would actually kill them in real life.
* Averted in ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion|End of Evangelion]]'': when {{spoiler|Misato is shot by the military, she still manages to limp away, give Shinji an encouraging pep talk complete with a two-minute passionate [[Last Kiss]], then stuff him into an elevator before collapsing}}.
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** [[Mobile Suit Gundam 00|Kinue Crossroad]] on the other hand, gets shot and left to bleed out in an alley somewhere.
* Played straight and averted at different times in ''[[Katanagatari]]''. When {{spoiler|[[Highly-Visible Ninja|Maniwa Oshidori]]}} is shot, {{spoiler|she}} dies almost immediately. Averted when {{spoiler|Togame}} is shot, as the killer purposefully missed her vitals and {{spoiler|she}} is alive for almost fifteen minutes, having enough time for a [[Final Speech]].
== Comic Books ==
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* Averted in the beginning of ''[[Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom]]'': it takes several seconds for the victim to realize what happened. Even more so in the ''Last Crusade'', where Indy's dad is shot in the stomach and Indy has more or less 20 minutes to fool around solving the grail puzzles to rescue him.
** Oddly enough, the trope is very prominent at other moments. Perhaps the most famous of these is Indy's confrontation with the scary 7-foot swordsman. That guy falls over dead fast enough for Indy to run right by him. Since the guy didn't even try to dodge, though, it's possible that Indy just shot him in the head. Fatal hit or no, getting shot in the head is going to drop you like you've been kicked by a mule.
*** A direct shot to the heart could also drop blood pressure rapidly enough to cause near-instantaneous unconsciousness, followed by extremely quick death.
*** As shown, however, the sequence is one of the few instances in film history of an object lesson in Keith's First Law (named for gunwriter and Idaho "cowpuncher" Elmer Keith {1899-1984}); ''Never bring a knife to a gunfight''. (Keith's Second Law, by the way, is ''Never bring a pistol to a rifle fight''.)
* Averted in ''Urban Legends: Final Cut'', where two characters get shot in the chest(-ish area) and still manage to stumble around for a bit.
* Averted (surprisingly) in ''[[The Rundown]]''. [[Christopher Walken]] as Hatcher goes for his gun...and gets shot by an angry villager. He stands there looking surprised and pained, then tries again...and gets shot again. He finally gives up and says, "Mr. Beck, I think I'll take Option B." He then proceeds to slowly walk out of
* Another aversion in ''[[Silent Night, Deadly Night|Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2]]''; Ricky gets shot by a cop several times at the end. Just knocked back and stunned a bit he quickly tries attacking again, only to be knocked through a glass door by a few more shots and a shotgun (thanks to [[Mad Scientist|mad science]] [[Our Zombies Are Different|he gets better]] for the sequel).
* In the [[Film Noir]] classic ''[[Double Indemnity]]'', the narrator gets shot prior to the movie's start, and retells everything before dying. In other words, he slowly bleeds to death for ''the whole movie'', not kicking it until the end. The movie's what? An hour? Ninety minutes? That's some perseverance!
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** Also kind of averted in the beginning, in which one of the gunmen shot by the [[Man With No Name|Harmonica man]] manages to squeeze off one last shot before dying.
* Averted in ''DARRYL'', a Disney live-action movie about a robot who looks like a boy. A man driving a car is shot in the stomach, but manages to get the car and the boy to safety before succumbing to his wounds.
* More of an Instant Death Knife in ''[[Pay It Forward]]''. {{spoiler|The main character gets stabbed at the end of the story. Once. With a knife that was ''at most'' two inches long. The wound was on his left side near the bottom of his rib cage. Cue [[Slow Motion Fall]] and then cut to the ER doc telling the family he's dead. He definitely wasn't stabbed in the heart. He didn't have time to bleed to death, so how did he die?}}
** Blame it on the [[Rule of Drama]]; Mimi Leder had to wring more tears out of the audience ''some''how.
*** Even more unforgivable in that you ''can'' rapidly kill a person with a two-inch knife... if you jab it into his neck (severing one of the large blood vessels in the neck would produce near-instant blood pressure drop in the brain and unconsciousness), or at the base of his skull (you get spiked in the medulla oblongata, you just lost your entire autonomic nervous system, so no breathing). So they could have written the scene and had it work just by having him be stabbed in a different place. But apparently, a basic anatomy textbook was too expensive a purchase for the production crew.
* Averted in ''[http://www.imdb.com/find?s=all&q=dead+man&x=0&y=0 Dead Man]''. This is, in fact, the core of the film's plot: [[Johnny Depp]]'s character is shot early on and spends the rest of the movie dying.
* In ''[[The Godfather]] Part III'', Mary Corleone (infamously "played" by Sofia Coppola) is shot through the stomach and doesn't realize it. When she does, she just drops on her knees, says "Dad?" in a perfectly normal way, then dies.
* Averted in ''[[The World Is Not Enough]]''. Renard spends the entirety of the film with a bullet lodged in his brain that is slowly killing him. But the [[Big Bad]] dies immediately when shot.
* Averted in agonizing detail in the film ''[[Taxi Driver]]''.
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** Also averted by {{spoiler|Vincent himself. He has a hit on Annie, and he chases her and Max onto a train at five in the morning. After the resulting shootout in the dark, he starts to reload, only to notice the bullet-hole in his chest. He sits down, briefly talks to Max, then dies}}.
* Most of ''[[Reservoir Dogs]]'' is spent watching Mr. Orange slowly bleed to death from a gunshot wound to the gut. {{spoiler|He's finally finished off by Mr. White after he confesses that he's a cop, and that after Mr. White took a bullet in a [[Mexican Standoff]]. Mr. Blonde, Joe and Nice Guy Eddie play it straight.}}. Earlier, Mr. Brown manages to drive the crew away from the scene while being fatally headshot.
* Averted in ''[[The Brothers Bloom]]''. At the end, after Stephen {{spoiler|gets shot in the run down theater, he manages to get up and convincingly trick Bloom into thinking that it was all a big con and that he was just fine. He even pulls off the 'Greatest card trick in the world'. After Bloom leaves, Stephen (in obvious pain) has just enough strength to pull a chair onto the stage and sit down in it before passing on.}}
* The movie ''Waking Life'' had a scene of a guy being fatally shot and still managing to pick up a gun and shoot his attacker before he died. It was in a dream sequence, but still.
* One memorable subversion of this trope is in ''[[Blood Diamond]]'', when {{spoiler|after Vandy and Archer rescue Vandy's son and recover the titular rock, they are confronted by Archer's employer, Coetzee, an Colonel in the South African military, who is only interested in the rock. In the ensuing firefight, Archer fells the Colonel and his men with headshots, and suffers a fatal wound in his armpit. But he takes it like a trouper, escorting Vandy and his son to the drop point so they can rendezvous with their helicopter out of there, and hopefully tell the world about blood diamonds. In a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]], he covers them with a sniper rifle, and finally dies at peace, staring at the beautiful plains of his homeland, and blowing advancing mercenaries' heads off with a high powered sniper rifle.}}
* Averted in ''[[The Da Vinci Code]]'', of all places, in which Sauniere is shot in the stomach and survives long enough to set up an elaborate string of clues meant to bring Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveau together so they can find the secret he gave his life to protect.
* Averted in ''[[The Running Man (novel)|The Running Man]]'' novel. Just about every character Richards sees die does so very painfully and not at all quickly, though this often gives them a few last moments to do something important. {{spoiler|Such as Richards himself slamming a jumbo jet into the Games HQ after being gutshot, while his intestines hang out. [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|And grinning. And giving Killian the finger. As the jet tears right into his office]].}}
* Both used and averted in the film of ''[[Angels
* Heavily averted in the ''[[Hornblower]]: Retribution'' movie. {{spoiler|Archie is shot in the chest, manages to keep on fighting and doesn't really seem totally aware that he's been shot until Hornblower asks if that's his blood. He lives long enough to take [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|sole blame for their captain's demise]], [[Heroic Sacrifice|saving Horatio's life in the process]], [[Tear Jerker|then dies from his wounds before he could be hanged for mutiny]].}}
** Also averted in ''[[Hornblower]]: The Even Chance''. Two "[[Quick Draw]]" pistol duels are fought, both times both men are able to fire their shot. {{spoiler|In the last duel, Simpson fires prematurely, wounding but not killing Hornblower, who's allowed to return fire at Simpson, but chooses to spare him.}}
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* Averted in ''The Evil That Men Do''. The hitman played by Charles Bronson hurls a knife into his target's throat. He pulls it out and staggers across the room after Bronson, backing him into the toilet before passing out from blood loss.
* ''[[Children of Men]]'': Both used and averted; quite a lot of people get shot and fall over dead in the course of the film, but in the building near the end, {{spoiler|Theo is shot and carries on, just about managing to get Kee to the boat. The audience would be forgiven for not noticing his injury until he reveals it}}. There's also a very nasty aversion towards the beginning. {{spoiler|Julianne Moore's character gets shot in the throat during a car chase, and we get to spend the next minute watching her die.}}
* ''[[Avatar (film)|Avatar]]'' uses instant death bullets, arrows, missiles, fangs, clubs, grenades, flamethrowers, and just about any other imaginable way to kill
* ''[[Pineapple Express]]'': Parodied and averted. Red gets shot repeatedly, in two separate encounters, and still manages to (sort of) function normally. Matheson gets shot in the chest, temporarily stunning him, but he later joins the fight outside the drug factory. Also a humorous subversion in Red's case. The first time he's shot, he actually appears to die... Only to wake back up seemingly fine. They shoot him ''again'', and he appears to die again. It's only later in the movie that it's revealed he was still alive.
* Brutally averted in ''The Baader Meinhof Complex'' (or Der Baader Meinhof Komplex, depending). A young conservative shoots Rudi Dutschke three times at close range for his communist ideals. The first shot hits Rudi in the temple, knocking him against a wall. He gets up, and is shot a second time, now in the chest. After he falls down, the gunman tries to shoot him in the head, but hits him in the cheek. After the gunman runs away, Rudi spits up blood and then lurches unsteadily down the street muttering nonsensical phrases until he collapses.
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* Averted in ''[[The American]]'' when {{spoiler|Jack ([[George Clooney]]) does not realize he was wounded in the abdomen by the sniper he had just killed until he has already driven quite a ways away. He manages to keep driving to the spot where his girlfriend is waiting for him before he collapses over the steering wheel, presumably dead.}}
* In ''[[Serenity]]'', Mal [[Mercy Kill|shoots a man]] taken by the Reavers. In this case it's a good thing that the bullet killed him instantly, because [[Fate Worse Than Death|he wouldn't want to be alive for what the Reavers would have done to him.]]
== Literature ==
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* Seen in the ''[[Robotech]]'' novels by Jack McKinney; {{spoiler|Roy Fokker}} meets his tragic end {{spoiler|after having his cockpit riddled with bullets from Zentradi aircraft.}} Granted, he's taken to the medical ward once he lands, but he {{spoiler|decides not to stick around for further tests, and goes to see Claudia instead. He ends up bleeding to death on her couch, just as she's finishing her pineapple salad.}}
* In the non-fiction book ''Gommorah'' about the [[The Mafia|Camorra clan wars]] the journalist author comes across the aftermath of a shooting where a woman was shot in the face as she opened the door. A [[Wise Beyond Their Years|child talks to him in great detail]] on why being shot in the face is better than being shot in the chest, as it takes longer to die and is vastly more painful.
* ''The Gun Seller'':
* Justified in ''[[Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea]]''. Captain Nemo's crew use crazy [[Steampunk]] guns that fire pellets containing supercapacitors that discharge on contact, instantly electrocuting the target.
* Averted in the [[Dale Brown]] book ''Warrior Class'', where {{spoiler|Fursenko}} survives a bullet in the lung to be retrieved by the Turkish and give vital information for taking down the [[Big Bad]].
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== Live Action TV ==
* Averted in ''[[The West Wing]]'': it's about six or seven minutes before Bartlet realizes he's been shot. Similarly, when Josh is shot in the same episode, he apparently has enough time to drag himself from the
* In ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'' {{spoiler|Derek dies instantly. Of course, he did a get a bullet in the brain.}}
* ''[[Burn Notice]]''
** Michael shoots his would-be assassin in the torso, and the man manages to flee out of Michael's apartment and into an alley before bleeding to death.
** In the Season One finale, Mike shoots the [[Villain of the Week]] in the gut-with his own gun-and then tells him how long he probably has to live. If they're regular bullets, he might have a chance. If they're hollow points..."I wouldn't make any plans." For personal protection hollow points are the norm so thats probably what he was carrying.
** In the season two finale, this trope is in full force. Fiona shoots {{spoiler|Carla}} in the guts with a rifle and {{spoiler|she}} immediately drops to the ground. It is a .300 caliber rifle, which hits with a lot of force.
** In another season finale, Michael shoots {{spoiler|Strickler}} in the chest. {{spoiler|He}} drops instantly. Of course, he was shot multiple times in quick succession. Same with Paul Anderson and a Spetsnaz operative.
* ''[[Firefly]]''
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** {{spoiler|Libby}}, takes a whole episode to die after being shot at the end of the previous episode. It's also played straight quite often, too.
** Right after the initial crash, the marshal is slowly dying. Sawyer intends to put him out of his misery with a gunshot, but shoots him in the chest, missing the heart. And it was the last bullet, so as the marshal is dying even more miserably, Jack must find another way to finish him off.
* ''[[Battlestar Galactica
** Averted in "The Farm." The Caprica Resistance is fired on unexpectedly, and everyone scatters. Starbuck starts to flee too, until she looks down and realizes that she's belly-shot. Of course, it's not like they were going to have her [[Contractual Immortality|fall down dead]], either.
** In "Sacrifice", {{spoiler|Lee gets shot in the torso and manages to lay there almost dying for a good while while being rescued - during the process of which Billy gets shot, and even though he lasts a lot shorter than Lee, he still lingers for a while, too.}}
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** Played straight in [[The Nth Doctor|Eleventh Doctor]] episode "The Pandorica Opens"; {{spoiler|after being shot by Rory, Amy spends a couple of seconds gasping for breath before dramatically falling backwards, dead.}} However, {{spoiler|the following episode, "The Big Bang", reveals she is [[Only Mostly Dead]] and she is restored to life by the Pandorica.}}
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''. Tara gets shot by Warren, and dies within seconds. She barely got "Your shirt" out before she kicked the bucket.
** Ironically, despite the other multiple vast implausibilities that scene contained the ''most'' realistic thing in it is how short a time it took Tara to die -- the impact site and exit wound strongly suggested that the bullet went directly through either her heart or her aorta, either one of which would produce unconsciousness in seconds and death not long after that.
* Happens often in ''[[24]]'', but one significant aversion was done during one of Kimberly's subplots in Season 2. She is [[Alone with the Psycho|stuck in the house with the man who has been trying to kill her all day]], she calls her dad for help and uses one of his guns to shoot him. To her horror, her dad tells her to shoot the guy again to make sure he dies.
* Lampshaded in ''[[Babylon 5]]'' (though they're talking about a poison, which the seller promised was "almost instantaneous".)
{{quote|'''Londo''': "Almost? How long is almost? Long enough for him to stagger back into the court room and shout 'Londo killed me!'?... or maybe just long enough to say Londo killed...urgh!"}}
* ''[[Deadwood]]'': Thoroughly
* ''[[Flash Forward]]'': Played straight and averted. [[Mooks]] tend to die immediately, whereas D. Gibbons lived long enough to get out some important last words. When Janis was shot, instead of collapsing immediately, she aimed and shot at the man who had just shot her. (He dies immediately, she survives.)
* Averted in ''[[Roswell]]'', when in the final episode of Season One, Kyle is shot by mistake on his chest. Several minutes pass before his dad finds him, and then a few more for Max to take the decision to heal him.
* The shapeshifters in ''[[Fringe]]'' die instantly when shot in the middle of the forehead, but [[Immune to Bullets|shooting them anywhere else has no effect.]]
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* On [[Farscape]]'s first season, {{spoiler|Gillina}} is fatally shot, but manages to hang on long enough to be brought up to Moya, where {{spoiler|she dies}}.
** In the Peacekeeper Wars miniseries, {{spoiler|Ahkna}} is fatally shot by Aeryn, and has long enough to be told off by Aeryn before collapsing. In the same scene, {{spoiler|D'Argo}} is fatally wounded as well, but lasts long enough to [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|cover their retreat]].
== Tabletop Games ==
* Averted in ''[[GURPS]]'' under most circumstances. Only hits to vital organs or the brain are liable to kill someone instantly unless they're extremely fragile for some reason.
* Though ''[[Dungeons
* Similarly, in ''[[Shadowrun]]'' players are given points of overflow damage in between unconsciousness and death, but literal [[One Hit KO|instant death is impossible]] at least through third edition: while a [[Improbable Aiming Skills|sufficiently skilled marksman]] can cause a Deadly wound (unconscious and bleeding out) with any [[Little Useless Gun|arbitrarily weak weapon]], not even a nuke can kill a character outright. Particularly careful players can invoke the "Dead Man's Trigger" rule, expending luck (in the form of Edge or Karma Pool dice, depending on version) to pull off one last action before succumbing to their wounds.
** A long time ago, someone worked out the game rules behind an unskilled shooter killing themselves with a pistol shot to the head in ''Shadowrun'' (second edition at the time). In real life, the idea behind this is usually to do it with one round, but in the game this turned out to require in the order of fifteen to twenty rounds, which with most of the game's pistols would necessitate reloading in the middle of a suicide attempt … and this was just to get to or beyond Deadly wound level, not to go far enough to die just yet.
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** At less than Critical damage levels, any damage also forces a save; failure causes the character to go into shock and stop being able to take actions.
* ''[[Deadlands]]'': An "average" shot from a typical pistol to the torso of an average person will do a non-lethal amount of damage (though a good roll could still [[One-Hit Kill|kill the target outright]] or cause it to bleed to death). However, this mythical average target will be temporarily stunned about half the time, and will be [[Non-Lethal KO|knocked unconscious from shock]] about a quarter of the time, give or take. All in all, a fair assessment of handgun lethality in the [[The Western|Western]] setting. (Once [[Mad Scientist|Mad Science]] or other advanced tech gets involved, all bets are off.)
* ''[[Feng Shui]]'' for the most part averts this
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* Averted in ''[[Grand Theft Auto IV]]''. While enemies will generally drop when their health is depleted, after a short time they may begin to writhe and moan (call for help in the case of police), and sometimes will get to their feet and limp away. And the player can [[No Kill Like Overkill|shoot them then, too]]. [[Department of Redundancy Department|To death.]]
* Averted in ''[[Call of Juarez]]''. Near the end, {{spoiler|Reverend Ray is shot by Juarez. Other playable character, Billy Candle, beats the hell out of the villain. Seconds later, Juarez manages to get up and make an attempt at backstabbing Billy, while the latter hugs his girl, Molly. Then it turns out Ray wasn't killed with the shot and manages (via the player) to shoot Juarez before the fatal stab. Then he dies and manages to rest in peace.}}
* Averted realistically (not dropping you to the floor so a friend can "revive" you like other games) in the game ''S.T.A.L.K.E.R.'' Characters shot take direct damage, and can start bleeding and losing health slowly. A character can get hit, start bleeding, and still kill their opponent. The character requires bandages to heal, meaning you can get shot once by a pistol, have 2% damage taken, kill the enemy but die up to 5 minutes later from a slow bleed because you didn't have any bandages left, can't get back to a base, and none of your frantic corpse looting managed to find any either. [[NPC
* Averted in ''[[Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney]]'', in which Romein Letouse manages to live a while after being shot with a high caliber pistol, and manages to give some information to Apollo and write something on the floor with his blood. Often times a carefully-reasoned argument as to why a piece of incriminating evidence at a murder scene had to have been forged relies on the presumption that the victim was killed instantly, only for the prosecutor to reveal that the victim's death wasn't quite as instantaneous as assumed.
* Everyone who dies of a bullet wound in ''[[Ghost Trick]]'' goes out this way, sometimes [[Death Is Cheap|multiple times]]. Of course, [[Acceptable Break From Reality|it makes sense from a gameplay perspective]], as Sissel's ability to go back in time to four minutes before a person's death would be sort of useless if they died after lingering for an hour in a hospital.
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** ''Call Of Duty'' averted when the Last Stand/Second Chance perk is equipped. Mortally wounded players can stay alive for about thirty seconds, lying on the floor and wielding a pistol, though the next hit will kill them. Adhered to though in that some attacks do ignore this perk. ''Modern Warfare 2'' combines a similar feature with regenerating health. Playing Hardcore multiplayer makes every bullet a potential Instant Death Bullet.
** ''Call Of Duty 2'': AI enemies will sit up on their shoulder and fire their pistol at you and your allies before dying. This behavior continues into later games. They are also seen crawling and writhing until someone shoots them again and they drop.
** ''Call Of Duty 4''. The [[Big Bad]], Zakhaev,
*** Zakhaev was hit in the arm and spends the rest of his life as Lefty the One-Armed Wonder, so, he didn't exactly shrug it off.
** ''[[Modern Warfare 2]]''. Averted and possibly played straight in "Loose Ends". Roach is wounded by a mortar near the end of the level, and is then {{spoiler|shot in the stomach by Shepherd. Roach goes down, but is still conscious, and then Shepherd shoots Ghost in the chest/neck area. Because of his balaclava and sunglasses, it's not really apparent if he's limp but aware like Roach, unconscious from shock, or just outright dead.}}
** ''[[Modern Warfare 3]]'': Averted by Yuri and Harkov, who both survive being shot by Makarov. {{spoiler|Harkov immediately gets shot again, though, and in the last level Yuri goes down after being shot about four times.}}
* Averted very thoroughly in ''[[Hitman]]: Contracts''
** Averted with the sequel, ''Blood Money'': when enemies suffer a pistol shot to the torso, they react with pain, but generally keep shooting or running. However, a second or third direct hit will result in the enemy clutching their stomach and keeling over in convulsions. And sometimes, in isolated circumstances, the newspaper report that follows every mission will mention that one or two of your victims survived a supposedly fatal injury, and is in intensive care, likely to die.
** The newspaper statistic regarding hospitalized victims seems to just be based on anyone that was injured at all, even by say, a single bullet to the foot. Maybe still an aversion in the sense that, even though they were still on their feet after being shot, the newspaper acknowledges that they certainly would have died later (after 47 has left the area) without medical attention.
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* Averted in ''[[Far Cry]] 2'' with just about every enemy. It's not unlikely, quite common, in fact, for an enemy downed with a shot to the torso or limbs to fall to the ground, moaning and writhing, and sometimes get back up and attempt to escape while clutching at their wound before expiring, or even take a knee and fire back with their pistol.
* In ''[[Gears of War]]'' if one of your squadmates takes too many hits they collapse and linger for a while before dying, and you must revive them in time or the mission is failed. Also applies to locust baddies (sometimes) and in multiplayer... unless they get turned into bloody chunks first.
* ''[[Army of Two]]'': Averted in a sense. A mortally wounded character can heal if they are dragged to cover by their partner.
* ''[[Liberal Crime Squad]]'': Horribly averted in this [[Freeware]] RPG: mortally wounded characters stay in the party, dying slowly in agony and decreasingly coherent terror.
* In ''[[Infamous (video game series)|In Famous]]'', if a civilian is shot by a criminal they drop instantly. Cole takes a while to die, though since he's the only case of this it might just be a result of his powers. Averted when Cole shoots civilians: unless it's a head or chest (read: heart) shot, they'll fall instantly, but writhe on the ground. Cole can then heal them, or, if he's a [[Complete Monster]], absorb their energy to replenish his battery cores. Which kills them.
* Averted in the games ''[[
** Played straight in the original ''[[MOTHER 1|Mother]]''.
* ''[[Metal Gear]]'':
** While most standard guards drop dead instantly after taking a few hits, none of the bosses die immediately after being fataly hit. In one case the sub boss even took a single fatal hit, but stays conscious for about 5 more minutes.
** Almost played straight with Vamp in who immediately falls down when he's hit by in single bullet right between the eyes. However being Vamp, he simply regenerates the injury like any other and gets back up in just a minute.
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* Averted in ''[[Assassin's Creed]]'', after you finished going to town on a guard or civilian with either your long sword or short blade, the poor bugger will convulse on the ground moaning and pleading for help. You can even choose to use your hidden blade after that to silence them for good. Played straight when you use your hidden blade or throwing knives though, and also played straight with the gun and the crossbow in the later games. Played straight with Combo Kills and especially Counter Kills.
* ''[[Uncharted|Uncharted 2: Among Thieves]]'': Averted ''and'' played straight in one mission. Jeff, Elena's cameraman, has been shot in the stomach, and Nate decides to carry him to safety despite Chloe's protests. He survives until the end of the mission, at which point {{spoiler|Lazarevic shoots him in the head, finishing him off.}}
* In ''[[GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)|GoldenEye]]'' for the N64, a multiplayer mode called "[[Licence to Kill]]" made any hit with any weapon instantly fatal, from [[Finger-Poke of Doom|slappers]] to [[Made of Explodium|standing just barely in range of an explosion]]. Also, the infamous [[The Man with the Golden Gun|Golden Gun]] always scored One-Hit kills, as did the [[Infinity+1 Sword|unlockable]] [[Game Breaker|Gold PP7]]. Regular play for Goldeneye could end with a gut-shot enemy miserably crawling along the floor, taking way too long to die.
* In the early ''[[Rainbow Six]]'' games, any hit can be instant death for you or an enemy.
* Exaggerated in ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]'' EP6 where {{spoiler|Shannon and Kanon}} have a duel using duel pistols with one magical bullet which is to kill instantly the opponent regardless of where the bullet hits (as long as it does hit).
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* Partially averted in ''[[Mafia]]'': The player can tell when an enemy is out of health by them dropping their weapons and giving a particularly lengthy cry of agony before collapsing. Occasionally, some of the enemies will not stop moving completely, but crawl around helplessly for a little while before laying down for good. [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|If the player so wishes,]] a couple of shots can speed this up.
* Averted in ''[[Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors]]'' in the "Safe" ending {{spoiler|Snake takes 6 revolver bullets from Ace and its still capable of holding him down to the point they both die...INSIDE A FUCKING INCINERATOR}}
* Averted in ''[[7.62 High Calibre]]''. It's actually incredibly common to have enemies drop and fall unconscious before bleeding out and sometimes just KOing and stabilizing. Unfortunately you can't actually ''do'' anything with KOed enemies except killing them (for allies it allows them to fight again another day), even when there are plenty of objectives that could reasonably be solved by basic interrogation.
== Webcomics ==
* In ''[[Adventurers!]]'', this is most often not the case; however, the divine weapon Warmaker [https://web.archive.org/web/20141029223412/http://adventurers.keenspot.com/d/20020403.html has these].
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== Western Animation ==
* Averted for laughs in the ''[[South Park]]'' episode "Night of the Living Homeless", when South Park's Homeless Expert tries to commit suicide. After shooting himself in the head (specifically the cheek), he remains alive and is in incredible pain. He tries to shoot himself [[Crosses the Line Twice|several more times before he finally dies]].
== Real Life ==
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[[Category:Guns Do Not Work That Way]]
[[Category:Sniper Index]]
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