Pocket Protector: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

'''Ned Flanders''': I think I'll go inside.|''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'', when the mob is trying to kill Homer and Ned just happens to be next to him.}}

* In ''[[Batman]]: [[Grant Morrisons Batman|The Return of Bruce Wayne]]'', an amnesiac Bruce Wayne wakes up in hospital; his life apparently having been saved by Mordecai Wayne's journal he was carrying in his pocket.

* In a [[Story Within a Story|double-fictional]] version of ''[[Transmetropolitan]]'' called ''From the Mountain to the City'', Spider Jerusalem (here imagined as a grizzled, musclebound pacifist) is saved from a cop's stray fire this way. [[Stylistic Suck|Naturally, it's about as ham-handed as possible.]]

* Happens in one early [[Batman]] story featuring Two-Face. Two-Face tosses his coin to decide if he should reform. The coin lands on its edge; stuck in a gap in the floorboards. Two-Face refuses to flip it again and puts the coin away in his breast pocket, saying it is now up to fate to determine if he should be good or evil. When a policeman shoots at Two-Face, the bullet deflects off the coin. When Two-Face looks at the coin, he sees that the bullet struck the scarred side of the coin. He takes this a sign that he is supposed to be a criminal.

* In the [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mirage|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]] story arc "Body Count" near the end Casey Jones gets shot near the heart Raphael thinks he's dead and carries his body around with him, it is later revealed that he is alive his lucky Wayne Gretsky autographed hockey puck had been strapped to his chest for such an emergency.

* In ''[[Hard Target]]'' it happens twice. The first time is a subversion since the homeless man's dog tags fail ''completely'' to stop an arrow fired at his heart. Later, it happens when Chance's uncle gets shot in the chest with an arrow. It it later revealed that the arrow only pierced the hip flask he kept some moonshine in.

* In ''[[Problem Child]]'', John Ritter survives a bullet to the chest because it hits an old, dried prune he had in his shirt pocket.

** In a slight subversion, {{spoiler|the bullet goes straight through one or two other mementos in the same pocket.}}

** Also, Ritter does it again with a remote control in ''[[Stay Tuned]]''.

* ''[[Hard Boiled]]'': a cigarette lighter blunts the force of a bullet enough that the guy shot only goes into intensive care after managing to relay important information to the cops. {{spoiler|The lighter was sleight-of-handed into his pocket by an undercover cop, shortly before firing the "killing shot" into that area}}

* Subverted in the comedy/western ''[[Support Your Local Sheriff]]'': The newly-hired sheriff of a lawless Western town is given his badge, which has a nasty bullet-dent in it...

'''Mayor:''' Sure would have, if it hadn'ta been for all them other bullets flyin' in from everywhere! }}

** Later played straight: the outlaw patriarch gives his false teeth to his son for safekeeping during the firefight.

'''Danby Sr:''' Always worryin' about YOUR life! What am I going to chew with now?! }}

* In ''[[Octopussy]]'', [[James Bond]] is saved from an assassin's knife by a wad of cash he had earlier won off the [[Big Bad]] Kamal Khan.

* ''[[Blackadder]]'':

** In the second season, there's a scene where Blackadder and Percy are practicing archery with a target held by Baldrick. Blackadder psyches out Percy, who slips and accidentally fires an arrow into Baldrick's groin. Baldrick comments fortunately his "willy" prevented the arrow from going into his body.

'''Blackadder:''' I think children might be out of the question now, Balders. ''(pulls arrow out)'' }}

** ''Blackadder the Third'' has a parody example; Edmund manages to avoid death by ''cannonball'' thanks to a cigarillo case he had in his chest pocket. "I always knew smoking was good for you," he remarks. It was then immediately [[Invoked Trope|invoked]] when Prince George was shot (this time with a flintlock) for his insolence. He then gets up, explaining that he too had a cigarillo case in his breast pocket. While trying to show it off, however, he can't find it and realizes that he left it on his dresser that morning, and [[Puff of Logic|promptly dies]].

* At the end the first part of the [[Sci Fi]] channel miniseries ''[[Tin Man (TV series)|Tin Man]]'', {{spoiler|Wyatt Cain}} and {{spoiler|Zero}} engage in a conversation of great revelation, with a side of epic battle, which ends with {{spoiler|Zero}} trying to put a bullet through {{spoiler|Cain's}} chest which is conveniently stopped {{spoiler|by his long lost son's small toy horse}}.

* Standup comic [[Dead Baby Comedy|Anthony Jeselnik]] tells a story about this:

* Played with in one episode of ''[[Castle]]'': a character has a copy of ''Crime and Punishment'' in his coat pocket that stopped a bullet.

* In the pilot of ''[[The Good Guys]]'' Dan's flask saves his life when it stops a knife that is thrown at him (the bad guy is out of bullets)

== [[New Media]] ==

* In one horoscope from ''[[The Onion]]'':

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

* An assassin shot [[Theodore Roosevelt]] in 1912. Fortunately, the bullet was prevented from penetrating too deeply by Roosevelt's steel eyeglass case and folded speech in his jacket.

** Bull Moose being the name of his political party. Incidentally, the bullet stopped right next to the ''word'' blood in his speech.

** Roosevelt's case is this trope [[Up to Eleven]]. The bullet traveled through his overcoat, his jacket, his vest, the fifty page speech he was on his way to give(Which was double folded) and 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.

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

* Brilliantly spoofed by [[Woody Allen]] in his monologue back in the days when he was a stand-up comic:

* This trope is explored at [http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/bot31.htm the Box o' Truth,] where the site owner empties a lot of bullets into a stack of books.

* Very recently, a woman survived being shot in the head when the bullet got tangled up in her ''hair weave''. Story [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090220/ap_on_fe_st/odd_bullet_hair_weave here], for now.