Not a Scratch on It/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: Vehicles in fiction tend to be portrayed as more resistant to damage than they'd be in Real Life.

  • Straight: Two cars in a chase scene scrape against one another. Next time we get a good look at either car, there's no visible damage whatsoever.
  • Exaggerated: A car plows straight through a truck trailer and emerges without a scratch.
  • Justified: The car is indestructible due to Applied Phlebotinum.
  • Inverted: See Every Car Is a Pinto.
  • Subverted: The car appears to be indestructible, but finally falls apart at a suitably dramatic moment.
  • Double Subverted: The car appears to be indestructible, but finally falls apart at a suitably dramatic moment. All it takes is some frustrated pounding on the steering wheel to get what's left moving again.
  • Parodied: The car survives a drop from orbit and hits the ground running.
  • Deconstructed: The car is indestructible; the driver and passengers are not.
  • Reconstructed: Having noticed the advantages of an indestructible car, and after testing the scope of this characteristic, the Hero decides to take full-advantage of this phenomenon.
  • Zig Zagged: The car actually takes the damage, but beyond all credibility is fully functional.
  • Averted: The car takes damage in realistic fashion.
  • Enforced: The car is Product Placement and the sponsors don't want it showing any damage.
  • Lampshaded: "They sure don't make cars like this anymore!"
  • Invoked: The protagonist stops the car in front of the villain's escaping vehicle, knowing full well that it's the villain's car that won't survive the impact.
  • Defied: The car is equipped with a bomb that will go off if the vehicle takes too much damage.
  • Discussed: "Yeah, like my car would survive all that without a scratch..."
  • Conversed: "I'm surprised that that car is still moving after a hit like that."

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