Pocket Protector: Difference between revisions

{{quote|<nowiki>*</nowiki>Gunshot* (Flanders is knocked down)

<nowiki>* </nowiki>Second gunshot* (Flanders is knocked down again)

* In the ''[[Lupin III]]'' movie ''[[Island/OfLupin AssassinsIII/Recap/Island of Assassins|Island of Assassins]]'', Zenigata is shot in the opening segment, and the bullet hits the badge in his pocket. While it keeps the shot from being ''instantly'' fatal, it still injures him severely.

* In ''[[Detective Conan]]'' {{spoiler|A mahjong tile in Takagi's breast pocket (taken as evidence) stops a bullet. Shiratori even [[Lampshade|lampshadeslampshade]]s how cliche it is. OTOH, Takagi ''did'' get injured anyway and had to be hospitalized}}

* In the first episode of ''[[RODR.O.D the TV|ROD TV]]'', the paper sisters are flying alongside Nenene's plane, trying to save the author from an assassin. The youngest pokes her head out to look in windows, and we see the assassin shoot at the girl a few times, breaking windows of the airplane. The girl ducks back into the paper beast, readying her rescue attempt, and, after Nenene is saved, reveals the signed copy of Nenene's book, with a huge bullet hole through the cover, digging down through most of the book. She then says, "You need to write thicker books, my defense isn't so good..." Subverted as the Paper Sisters have control over the elemental powers of paper, and use loose sheets of paper to stop bombs exploding, amongst other things.

* ''[[Jon Sable Freelance]]'': One of the [[Evil Poacher|Evil Poachers]]s who killed Jon's family is saved from Jon's [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] by the AK-47 he was carrying at chest height. Jon's bullet hits the rifle and the impact is enough to knock the poacher out, leading Jon to assume he is dead.

{{quote|'''Ben:''' ''It's alrightall right, officer... he got me in the prune.''}}

* Subverted in ''[[Kiss Kiss Bang Bang]]''. Robert Downey Jr is shot by the bad guy and collapses; the love interest is afraid that he's been killed, but wait! He sits up, and pulls out from his pocket that trashy detective novel from earlier in the movie, with a bullet hole in it! But then she realises that, wait a minute -- theminute—the bullet hole goes right through. He's been shot in the chest and is in dire need of an ambulance.

* ''[[Sleepy Hollow (Film)|Sleepy Hollow]]'': Ichabod is saved from Lady Van Tassel's shot by Katrina's book in his jacket.

* In the first ''[[Batman (film)|Batman]]'' movie (with [[Michael Keaton]]), the Joker shoots Bruce Wayne in the chest at close range with a small pistol. Luckily Bruce had hidden a metal tray under his jacket in the scene before expecting just this (good thing the Joker didn't shoot for the head)

* Featured at the climax of a short film at a theme park (Disneyland?){{verify}} A "please turn off your phone" ad plays, at which point an actor starts walking around talking loudly on his mobile. He's promptly punished by being pulled "into" the film, and cycles through several different genres. He ends up in a medieval battle and is only saved from death by arrow thanks to this trope.

* In ''[[The Fall (film)|The Fall]]'', the Black Bandit tries to shoot his love (because she's engaged to be married to Odious, the [[Best Served Cold|man he's sworn to kill]]), but his bullet is stopped by her heart-shaped locket. It then falls open-- sheopen—she's been unable to open it for years--andyears—and reveals a message left by her father, telling her to marry for no reason other than love. The characters take this as a sign that they should get married.

* Spoofed in the [[Discworld]] novel ''[[Discworld/Jingo|Jingo]]'': Sergeant Colon recalls how a book of prayers kept an arrow from entering his great-grandfather's chest. Unfortunately, said book didn't stop "the other seventeen arrows". In response, Nobby briefly wears the Book of Om, a holy book that is five inches thick and wide enough to cover his entire chest in this manner. He reckoned that "even a longbow could only get an arrow as far as the ''Apocrypha''".

* Subverted in the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' [[Virgin New Adventures|New Adventures]] novel ''Death and Diplomacy'': a character tells the story of his grandfather, who went away to war wearing a crucifix of great sentimental value. One day, a bullet fired at him hit the crucifix -- whichcrucifix—which shattered, aggravating a wound that would otherwise not have been lethal.

* The ''[[Myth BustersMythBusters]]'' pretty much proved this trope was a myth, at least with modern firearms in mind. They tested normal everyday items like a book, a deck of cards, and a Zippo lighter and showed that they were all ineffective at stopping bullets. They also tested police/sheriff badges (outcome depends on how the badge is made -- theymade—they put holes in two test badges, but the third type stopped a handgun round). In another episode, they tried the same with knives. A book, or a thick pile of paper (eg. money) can save you. It takes about 60 or so sheets thick to stop the hardest hit the build team managed.

* ''[[Call of Cthulhu (tabletop game)]]'' campaign ''Masks of Nyarlathotep''. The [[NPC]] Jack "Brass" Brady has a magical metal plate that attracts attacks that can cause impaling, such as bullets.

== Theater[[Theatre]] ==

* The ''Mother''/''[[EarthboundEarthBound]]'' series had the [[Attack Reflector|Franklin Badge]] which would deflect, respectively, a certain instant-kill attack and all lightning attacks just by having it in your inventory. In the [[MOTHER 1|first]] [[EarthboundEarthBound|two]] games, it took up an inventory slot of the character you chose to equip it to, while, in ''[[Mother 3]]'', it's classified as a key item, and is always equipped to Lucas once you acquire it. The badge returned in ''[[Super Smash Bros.]] Brawl''. When worn, it deflects projectiles for a set period of time.

* ''[[Shortpacked]]'' once had Robin [http://www.shortpacked.com/index.php?id=177 saved] from a bullet by chest insignia of her Batman costume. If a bright, thick and almost two hands big [[Highly-Conspicuous_UniformConspicuous Uniform|Bullseye Badge]] counts as unexpected protection.

* In one episode of ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'', a mobster accidentally shoots Ned Flanders in the chest. The bullet hits his Bible. The mobster shoots ''again'', only to hit a piece of the True Cross he wears around his neck. Ned then flees before any more shots are fired, presumably because he realizes he's run out of religious objects.

* London's Imperial War Museum has a pile of dummies showing off different nationalities uniforms during the two wars. The [[World War OneI]] soldier showcase a pocket Bible... with the bottom right quarter blown off and the rest drowned in blood...

*** Although in a pleasing coincidence, one bulled was documented to have stopped at the 91st Psalm ("...You need not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by die...though thousands fall about you and ten thousand fall at your right hand, near you it shall not come....")

* Badges worn by police officers have been proven to be able to stop small arms fire:. [https://web.archive.org/web/20100218034443/http://www.wral.com/news/national_world/national/story/7034990/ Here's a story] of a cop saved by his badge.

** Roosevelt's case is this trope [[Up to Eleven]]. The bullet traveledtravelled through his overcoat, his jacket, his vest, the fifty page speech he was on his way to give (Which was double folded) and THEN''then'' the steel lined spectacle case, before hitting him in one of his ribs. [[Badass|And then he gave his speech.]] From memory, since the pages were no longer usable.

** Was it a [[Finns With Fearsome Forests|Nokia]] then?

* An Iraqi woman apparently recently{{when}} survived what would otherwise have been a potentially fatal gunshot wound when the bullet lodged in her silicone breast implant.

* [[Star Trek: The Original Series|James Doohan]] was hit by a burst of friendly fire during [[World War II]]. One of the bullets took off a finger. Another one struck him in the chest, where it was stopped by his silver cigarette case.

* [[Rudyard Kipling]] was sent a copy of his book ''[[Kim]]'', complete with bulletholebullet hole stopping only at the last 20 pages, together with the Cross awarded the soldier who owned it. He later became said soldier's son's godfather.

* When author [[Joe Haldeman]] was serving in Vietnam, he knew a soldier whose life was saved by a pocket dictionary that stopped a bullet. Later Haldeman saw that the story had been written up in ''Stars and Stripes'' (a newspaper that serves the U.S. Armed Forces). In the story the dictionary had been changed to a Bible, and it was claimed that the word the bullet had stopped on was "peace."

* Mustafa Kemal, the founder of modern Turkey who is now better known as Ataturk, was saved by one of these during [[World War I]]. It was a watch in his chest pocket and while it didn't prevent injury, it reportedly blocked the worst of it. The watch was put in a museum after independence.

* In 1844, the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were killed by an armed mob. There were a few other men with them at the time, including John Taylor (the third Mormon prophet), whose life was saved when a bullet hit his pocket watch. This story is unconfirmed, but [https://web.archive.org/web/20141016202905/http://www.ldsces.org/inst_manuals/pres-sm/images/03-48-4.gif the watch] provides some rather impressive evidence.

* The late Daniel Inoyue, one-time U.S. Senator from Hawaii, served in [[World War II]], in the famous 442nd Infantry Regiment. Once, while leading an attack a shot struck him in the chest directly above his heart, but the bullet was stopped by the two silver dollars he had in his shirt pocket.

** Sure it wasn't an englishEnglish muffin? Or a scone?

* During the Battle of Gettysburg, Colonel Joshua Chamberlain had a bullet that would have hit his leg and likely crippled him ricochet off his saber. He was left with a limp, but was still able to command his famous "swinging door" charge shortly afterwardafterwards.

* Tsar Nicholas II and his family was initially protected from the executor's bullets by the gemstones and diamonds they had hidden in their underwear. Unfortunately the executionsexecutioners decided to try again, in close range, with bayonets...