History Main / BulletCatch

* Possible in [[UsefulNotes/GameEngine Source engine games]], but ''much'' easier to do in ''VideoGame/GarrysMod''. You just need to install a BulletTime addon and a hostile NPC with a non-{{hitscan}} weapon.

* Maxima of ''Webcomic/GrrlPower'' can do this, and in fact its the very first power demonstrated in the comic. She has SuperSpeed and NighInvulnerability, so its justified. [[spoiler:Also the first hint that something was wrong with the robbery: She could have easily taken out the robbers before they finished pulling out their guns]].

Catching a bullet in the teeth, instead of a hand, is a common variant. See CatchAndReturn for this trope ''plus'' a follow up move. Also see this trope's JustForFun/SwordCounterpart, BarehandedBladeBlock. Compare FingerInABarrel.

* In an 1990's Isuzu commercial, Joe Isuzu (actor David Leisure) demonstrated the car's speed (allegedly 952 mph) by firing a gun, getting into the car and driving ahead of the bullet. He then got out, held a target over his face and caught the bullet with his teeth.

* In ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'' Eren uses his titan form to catch a ''cannon shell'' at one point.
* In ''Literature/{{Baccano}}'', Graham Specter catches bullets with an ''adjustable spanner''. That would seem substantially more difficult than catching bullets with your hands.

* Variation in ''Literature/FateZero'': Kotomine, in his confrontation with Kiritsugu, uses his magically-heightened reflexes to block a bullet from Kiritsugu's MageKiller gun. The bullet still enters his hand, travels down his forearm, and explodes out his elbow, rendering his arm useless, but he manages to prevent it from hitting his face. Evidently, having the ''speed'' to catch a bullet doesn't mean your body is tough enough to prevent harm.
* In ''Anime/FinalFantasyVIIAdventChildren'', Cloud Strife deflects bullets with his BFS with little effort. Not quite as cool as a catch, except he stops ''tons'' of them.
* In ''[[Anime/MobileFighterGGundam G Gundam]]'', one of Domon's first scenes has him catching an entire ''volley'' of bullets, from multiple automatic weapons, all between his fingers.

* ''Manga/GunslingerGirl''. When a massive bomb goes off during the Venice belltower siege, Petra and Sandro are in a boat on a nearby canal, and Petra catches a piece of flying shrapnel that would have struck her handler in the back (she then drops it into the water, complaining how hot it is). This ability is foreshadowing earlier in the series when someone tests a cyborg's ability to protect their handler by throwing a coin at Jean Croce's back. Even though his cyborg Rico also has her back to the thrower, she turns and catches the coin in mid-air and has her gun aimed in an instant. Jean warns the thrower that he'd be dead if he wasn't with the Agency.

** In the ''{{Flashback}}'' episode, Alucard uses his arm to take a bullet meant for Integra. Later, he catches a [[DepletedPhlebotinumShells magic bullet]] with his teeth.

* In the manga of ''Manga/SandsOfDestruction'', Taupy introduces himself to Kyrie (and the reader) by jumping in front of him and catching a dozen or so bullets.
* In ''Anime/{{Symphogear}} AXZ's'' eighth episode, BadassNormal [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower Genjuurou]] beats all six main characters by himself during a training session. That includes catching a barrage of missiles from Chris's Megadeth Party with his bare hands and then he throws them back at her all at once. (The strange part is that she fires 24 missiles at him, he catches eight and then throws twelve back at her and they ended up being 17.)
* A chapter of ''Manga/{{Toriko}}'' has the title character do this, when visiting a shady area where the crime rate is high. He catches the bullet with his "Fork" technique. (Which is just his hand, made to look somewhat like a fork)
** He later did the same thing again later, except the bullets were ''[[ItMakesSenseInContext acorns]]''.

* The climax of ''[[Literature/TheGreatMerlini Death from a Top Hat]]'' is a performance of the bullet catch trick. The murderer tried to sabotage the trick to eliminate a potential witness against him (namely, the person performing the trick). Unfortunately for the murderer, the whole trick had been set up as a trap; among the additions was a trick shot specialist firing the gun with orders to miss. Merlini alludes to one of the stories in the RealLife folder at the end of ''The Footprints on the Ceiling''. He'd just been asked by the District Attorney to perform the Bullet Catch trick at the Policeman's Benefit Ball, and was worried about having an armed audience.

* On ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'', Yo-yo (courtesy of her [[BulletTime powers]]) attempts this to save Mack from machine gun fire. Technically, she catches all of the bullets, with two of them ending up hitting her.
* ''Series/{{Arrowverse}}'':

* In ''Film/Terminator3RiseOfTheMachines'' Arnie gets shot in the head, but there's no visible wound. He moves his jaws around a bit, spits out the bullet and tells the shooter "Don't do that." From the looks of it, he was shot in the mouth (although why it didn't tear his lip is a mystery) and the bullet was stopped by the metal of his spine. Presumably it would have ricocheted off his teeth.

* ''Manga/GunslingerGirl''. When a massive bomb goes off during the Venice belltower attack, Petra and Sandro in a boat on a nearby canal and Petra catches a piece of flying shrapnel that would have struck her handler in the back. She then drops it into the water, complaining how hot it is. This ability is foreshadowing earlier in the series when someone tests the cyborg's ability to protect their handlers by throwing a coin at Jean Croce's back. Even though his cyborg Rico also has her back to him, she turns and catches the coin in mid-air and has her gun aimed at the thrower in an instant. Jean warns him that he'd be dead if he wasn't with the Agency.

* ''Manga/GunslingerGirl''. When a massive bomb goes off during the Venice belltower attack, Petra and Sandro in a boat on a nearby canal and Petra catches a piece of flying shrapnel that would have struck her handler in the back. She then drops it into the water, complaining how hot it is. This ability is foreshadowing earlier in the series when someone tests the cyborg's ability to protect their handlers by throwing a coin at Jean Croce's back; his cyborg Rico snatches it in mid-air and has her gun aimed at the thrower in an instant. Jean warns him that he'd be dead if he wasn't with the Agency.

* ''ComicBook/AltHero'': In her first scene, Janelle Jeanneret does this with a tranquiliser dart and taser electrodes, using the latter to [[CatchAndReturn shock the hapless shooter]].
* In ''ComicBook/AstroCity'', Steeljack saves a man from being robbed by placing his steel hand in front of the barrel and catching the bullet as the gun is fired.
* ComicBook/{{Daredevil}}, although easily fast and agile enough, lacks the necessary durability to properly pull this off. He does however use his fighting sticks to knock bullets back at the shooter with surgical precision. Before his radar had developed, he even tracked bullets by feeling the way they displace the air around them.
* [[Franchise/TheFlash Jay Garrick]] is seen doing this on the cover of ''[[http://www.comicvine.com/flash-comics-/37-116418/ Flash Comics #1]]'' (from 1941).
** Snatching bullets out of the air is a standard tactic of pretty much all of [[Franchise/TheFlash the speedsters]] in Franchise/TheDCU.
** Wally had one instance that parodied just how easy this is for speedsters. A psycho with an Uzi opened up on a room and Wally walked around picking a half dozen bullets out of the air, and disarming the man in a very casual manner. He misses one bullet that then kills [[spoiler:an exit sign]] when he returns his perception of time to normal.
* Comicbook/IronFist uses this trope quite casually nowadays.
* Featured (well, {{subverted}}) in the ''ComicBook/LuckyLuke'' book "Fingers". Joe Dalton is about to shoot an unarmed Luke when Fingers (who had been playing cards with that Daltons) holds his hand in front of the gun and says that shooting Luke "wouldn't be nice". Joe fires anyway and Fingers catches the bullet. Joe then shoots Fingers in the face and he catches the bullet with his teeth. Luke then grabs Joe's gun only for Fingers to tell him that he had earlier switched all of the bullets in that gun with blanks so it would be "safer for playing cards": the rest was all due to Fingers' near supernatural sleight-of-hand.
* ComicBook/PowerGirl, being a Kryptonian, can do this. On one occasion she was being repeatedly shot by the Crimson Avenger (magic bullets), who she could not hurt in return as she is just a red mist in human form. So she caught one of the bullets and threw it back at high velocity, and that hurt the supernatural gunwoman.
* ''ComicBook/ShangChi'' is fast enough to catch a bullet aimed at someone else’s head between his fingers. And durable or skilful enough that he doesn’t injure his hand when he does so.
* [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog Big The Cat]]... yes, ''that'' Big The Cat. In ''ComicBook/SonicTheComic'', after appearing to be shot, Big sits back up with the steaming bullet in hand and casually tells the shooter that his gun just went off, and that he should be more careful with it. However, while doing so, Big [[ObfuscatingStupidity gets angry and attacks him]]. Talk about [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass crouching moron...]]
* Parodied in ''Franchise/SpiderMan''. Peter tries to train himself to do this, and is surprised when he succeeds. But then he remembers there were two bullets, and the other one went through his other hand. Upon realizing this, he faints in a very undignified manner.

* Franchise/{{Superman}}:

** Subverted in "Superman and the Legion of Super-heroes". After being sent forward to the 31st Century, Superman is attacked by a bunch of police. He casually puts his hand up to catch the lasers from their guns... and they go straight through his hand, badly injuring him. He then learns that 31st Century Earth's sun is now red, rendering him powerless.

* Marvel's supervillain/anti-hero ComicBook/{{Taskmaster}} has picked up the ability to do this. Being [[AwesomenessByAnalysis Taskmaster]], of course, he copied it off of another bullet-catcher, and promptly killed him immediately afterward.
* The [[Comicbook/TheMightyThor Thor]] villain called "The Demon" who gained superpowers thanks to some mystic {{phlebotinum}} was able to do this to some Communists trying to shoot him. Bonus points for throwing the bullets back at his attackers at superspeed, forcing them to retreat.
* Ozymandias claims his [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower physical fitness]] is ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' such that he could catch a bullet. Shortly thereafter, he ''actually does'', though he admits he wasn't sure he could really do it, and it does injure his hand. [[Film/{{Watchmen}} In the film version]], he has an inch-thick padding on his palm, into which the bullet sinks (but still breaks the skin). The bullet's momentum also causes him to lose his footing and go tumbling down the stairs, leaving him stunned for a few moments at the bottom.
* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'': During the [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Golden Age]] "bullets and bracelets," a "game" where the object is to repel bullets with the bracelets Amazons all wear and then catch them if possible, was a common game for all Amazons, and one of Diana's signature moves.
* In ''ComicBook/Youngblood2017'', [[FlyingBrick Suprema]] catches one of Vogue's bullets to stop her shooting the Crime Condor's condors.

* ''[[Fanfic/StarWarsVsWarhammer40K Star Wars vs. Warhammer 40K]]'': In Episode 41, Mace Windu demonstrates the ability to intercept bullets fired from an Inquisitor's HandCannon using his bare hand.

** In the ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'' episode [[Recap/LegendsOfTomorrowS2E6OutlawCountry "Outlaw Country"]], [[Comicbook/CommanderSteel Nate]], after [[ImmuneToBullets shrugging off a hail of bullets]], catches one in his teeth.

* When Nabeshin has a [[JustForPun Stand off]] against Alien #1, in ''Anime/PuniPuniPoemi''.

* [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog Big The Cat]]... yes, ''that'' Big The Cat. In ''ComicBook/SonicTheComic'', after appearing to be shot, Big sits back up with the steaming bullet in hand and casually tells the shooter that his gun just went off, and that he should be more careful with it. However, while doing so, Big [[ObfuscatingStupidity gets angry and attacks him]]. Talk about [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass crouching moron...]]

* Done in an over-the-top fashion purely for laughs in the [[ShowWithinAShow "Police Cops"]] pilot on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''. Detective Homer Simpson catches a bullet, then ''throws it back hard enough to wound the criminal'' who fired it. [[CatchPhrase And that's the end of that chapter.]]

* In ''Film/TheMatrix'', Neo stops bullets in mid-air simply by holding up his hand. Plucking one of the frozen bullets out of the air afterwards and casually dropping it on the floor only adds to the [[RuleOfCool coolness factor]]. Justified because he does it within the Matrix, which is a VirtualReality, in which he has superpowers due to the programming.

This is a topic which requires no serious debate. Anyone who can actually catch a bullet has to be pretty amazing. We're talking about something which has the ability to cause death to any normal person (well, in RealLife anyway), and here somebody just grabs it mid-air. How unbelievably [[RuleOfCool cool]] is that? Sometimes a superpowered character will take it further, [[CatchAndReturn flicking the bullet BACK to the shooter with the power of the gun (or even more powerful), injuring or killing THEM instead]].

This is a topic which requires no serious debate. Anyone who can actually catch a bullet has to be pretty amazing. We're talking about something which has the ability to cause death to any normal person (well, in RealLife anyway), and here somebody just grabs it mid-air. How unbelievably [[RuleOfCool cool]] is that?

Even more so than its sister trope, ArrowCatch, Bullet Catch is not even ''close'' to something anyone can actually do. Bullets move faster than the speed of sound, and no human has the physical capability of slowing one down with their pathetic meatbag bodies. Even if you could move your hand in time to catch it, your hand is too soft, and it'll simply tear through your flesh. And even if your hand was ''somehow'' tough enough to actually catch the bullet, remember that a bullet is moving FAST, and all that kinetic energy has to go SOMEWHERE...meaning it will turn into a ton of heat, quickly melt the bullet, and scorch your hand.

Even more so than its sister trope, ArrowCatch, Bullet Catch is not even ''close'' to something anyone can actually do. Bullets move faster than the speed of sound, and no human has the physical capability of slowing one down with their pathetic meatbag bodies. Even if you could move your hand in time to catch it, your hand is too soft, and it'll simply tear through your flesh.