History Main / NoOneCouldSurviveThat

*** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTQBVDV1E7s This crash]] from Canada 2007 only caused a concussion and a sprained ankle. The driver passed medical with no ill effects but still had to miss the next race so as not to risk two concussions in two weeks.
*** Similarly: Felipe Massa got [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_RyFhH4eAo hit in the head]] by a 1kg piece of metal spring, at a relative speed of about 100mph, and recovered to return to F1 the following season, and seven more seasons after that.
*** Romain Grosjean at the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix. After contact with Daniil Kvyat, he hit a barrier at just the wrong angle; the front of his car went through the barrier and stopped dead, the back half kept going and was torn away, the fuel tank ruptured, and the car exploded into flames. Without the Halo device on the car to protect him, Grosjean would have been decapitated. Instead, he just scrambled OutOfTheInferno and ''walked away''.
*** During a qualifier race in the 1977 British Grand Prix, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Purley David Purley]] survived a massive crash that resulted in one of the biggest decelerations ever documented (from 179 G to 0 G).

* ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesIITheSecretOfTheOoze'': Raphael mocks the idea of Shredder having survived his "half gainer right into the back of a garbage truck" at the climax of [[Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles the first movie]]; Shredder not only survived the fall, but also being compacted. Subverted at the end: [[spoiler: Super Shredder wrecks a pier, bringing the whole structure down on himself and the Turtles. The Turtles see his hand emerge from the wreckage, and Raphael exclaims, "Nobody coulda survived that!" The hand then falls, indicating that Shredder has, in fact, died this time]].

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phineas_Gage#Gage.27s_accident Phineas Gage]]. While working on a railway tunnel, an accident with explosives resulted in a 1.25-inch diameter metal rod getting shot ''through his skull'', entering below his chin and exiting out his forehead. He survived - even managing to remain conscious and talkative in the minutes following the accident - and lived a long life (albeit with some behavioral alterations, like misogyny, though just how much his personality changed is now disputed). The brain injury eventually finished him off but still! Even more miraculous? This happened during the 1800s, prior to the discovery of antibiotics, vaccinations, or any other modern medical treatment.

** Cooler surpasses his brother Frieza and other villains when it comes to this trope as he came back from being Kamehameha'd into the sun (something not even Broly could do). This was thanks to the [[MechanicalAbomination Big Gete Star]] absorbing a chunk of Cooler's face (that's was ''[[FridgeHorror still alive]]'') and gave him new life.
*** Note that in ''Super'' this is how Frieza was resurrected the first time: ''in the exact same chunks Future Trunks had cut him down to''. And each and every one of these chunks were ''pretty alive''. That sort of survivability ''definitely runs with his race''.

* In ''LightNovel/FateZero'', even MageKiller Kiritsugu falls for saying this when he [[spoiler:[[DungeonBypass completely blows up the hotel that one of his enemies has turned into a fortress]]]] and confidently declares over a phone call that no magical defense could have saved him from ''that''. Sure enough, the first sign that the enemy Master survived was that his Servant's curse on Saber did not eventually disappear, as it should have.

* The villain Gauron from the anime ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'' also takes this trope and runs with it... about 4 or 5 times. This includes being shot in the head before the series starts, two Arm Slaves exploding around him [[spoiler: and a self-detonation sequence of a third. However, he comes out of that last one as a quadruple amputee with a missing eye]]. [[TooKinkyToTorture It doesn't seem to dampen his spirits much.]]

* VideoGame/MaxPayne is extraordinarily resistant; in ''Max Payne 2'' he survives being shot in the head with a Desert Eagle and being thrown hundreds of feet off the side of a building.

** C.C. may be the grand champion of "being able to survive anything". In the first episode, she was shot in the head and returned in episode five as though nothing happened. Later, shrapnel ended up embedded in her chest but she was just fine a few hours later. [[spoiler: Not only that, but she was stabbed in the chest by the nun who gave her the Immortality Code which is the reason she survives all these things. This isn't even mentioning the stuff V.V. and later Charles pulls off.]] Then we have [[spoiler: Jeremiah Gottwald]] who returned in R2 [[spoiler:after seemingly sinking into the bottom of the ocean]]. What's more, back during the first season, he was supposed to be KilledOffForReal in a radiation attack by Kallen's hand but because he was already [[Main/EnsembleDarkhorse so popular]] the writers changed that, making him visibly eject and show up several episodes later [[spoiler: as a Cyborg]].
*** A meta-example occurred in Episode 18 of ''R2'', where [[spoiler:a [[NuclearWeaponsTaboo FLEIJA tactical warhead]] obliterated a good section of Tokyo, including (apparently) Asahina, Miss Rohmeyer, Guilford, Sayoko, and most importantly Nunnally; in truth, only the first two actually died]]. When the supposedly dead characters returned, the fandom was divided between those who felt it was an AssPull, and those who argued that the elements of their survival were in the episode and required good observation skills to notice.
*** Made hilarious when you start to see the screencaps of the episode which shows such things as [[spoiler: Nunnally getting on to a different transport shuttle from Rohmeyer]]'s.

* In ''Anime/CodeGeass'', protagonist Lelouch lures [[spoiler:PsychopathicManchild Mao]] into a trap where a squad of [[MindControl Mind Controlled]] police officers gun him down. When the villain returns in the next episode, he remarks that Lelouch really should have told them to "shoot to kill" not just "shoot", and also compliments the Britannian health care system. Which is pretty egregious given that said police were armed with machine guns and included a [[HumungousMecha Knightpolice Frame]].

*** [[spoiler:''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny'' has an even bigger -- [[NoOneShouldSurviveThat actually rather nonsensical]] -- case of this for Kira [[spoiler:when [[AntiVillain Shinn Asuka]] drives his Impulse's sword right through what appears to be the Freedom's cockpit, at the same time the ''Minerva'' fires its [[WaveMotionGun Tannhauser Positron Cannon]], which causes a ''huge'' explosion underneath both Gundams. The Impulse is heavily damaged, but intact while the Freedom seems to have been annihilated... except ''somehow'' the cockpit that Shinn ''stabbed through'' was still intact, and Kira was virtually unharmed. Not like last time with the Aegis, where at least then he was seen bedridden and covered in bandages afterwards. [[BrokenBase This did not sit well with a lot of people]]]].

** In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED''. [[TheHero Kira Yamato]], in the ''Strike'', had his cockpit slashed open, then was grappled by [[TheRival Athrun's]] mobile suit, before Athrun initiated the self-destruct sequence of his machine, escaping while Kira was trapped in the explosion. Kira survives, though [[Manga/MobileSuitGundamSEEDAstray side stories]] confirm this was due to a combination of the emergency shutter activating and rescue by a passing Lowe Guele. In the final episode, [[spoiler: Kira manages to overcome another TakingYouWithMe attempt (one intended towards the [[KillAllHumans entire human race]] at that), this time from the BigBad Rau Le Creuset. He ends up floating alone in space with his wrecked mobile suit, but his nearly immortal robot bird [[TimmyInAWell leads his friends to him]]]].
*** From the same series, [[spoiler: Mu La Flaga]]. [[spoiler: His mobile suit takes a direct hit from an capital class Antimatter cannon IN SPACE as part of an incredible HeroicSacrifice. Everyone mourns his very obvious and unsurivable death. Yet, the sequel ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny'' brings him back with only minor scars and a case of IdentityAmnesia and [[UnexplainedRecovery never gives an explanation.]]]] This gets worse because the ending of the original SEED had [[spoiler: Mu's]] ''broken'' helmet floating through space to show that, yes, he was really dead. They had to ''edit out the helmet footage'' from the Special Edition and Remaster to keep up the veneer of continuity for the obvious {{Retcon}}. [[BrokenBase This didn't go down well with everyone, obviously.]] Even aside from the fact that it was such wonderfully executed HeroicSacrifice that got retconned away, the retcon does nothing to explain how he survived a direct hit by an ''{{antimatter}} beam''. If anything, editing out the broken helmet scene would imply that he was ''completely vaporized'', which is the more plausible outcome to being hit with such a weapon. [[spoiler:Not to mention that cloning is a well-established technology in ''SEED'' (Mu's arch-nemesis Rau Le Creuset is a clone of his own father), and one of the other major characters in ''SEED Destiny'' is a second-generation clone of Rau. As such, Neo Roanoke could've easily and more plausibly been explained as a clone of Mu rather than Mu's UnexplainedRecovery.]]

** This is all the assurance [[MagnificentBastard Azula]] needs that he ''did'' survive. Good thing TheChessmaster has a contingency plan for this...

* In an issue of Creator/MarvelComics' ''Comicbook/NewWarriors'', the eponymous teen heroes have a moment like this after the villain is defeated. [[Characters/SpiderManPeterParker Spider-Man]], who happens to be teaming up with them at the time, isn't so sure and begins to tell the story of how [[Characters/MarvelComicsOttoOctavius Doctor Octopus]] survived a ground-zero nuclear bomb explosion...

** Ronan the Accuser from ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'' pulls this off twice, first the Guardians hit him with a {{BFG}} and it [[TheWorfBarrage doesn't work]] then Rocket [[RammingAlwaysWorks rams]] him with a spaceship and everything explodes. Ronan however emerges from wreckage without a scratch, it takes using the [[PurpleIsPowerful Power Stone]] to kill him for real.

* Magic isn't ''supposed'' to be able to save you from vacuum if you're ThrownOutTheAirlock, but Damien from Literature/StarshipsMage is no ordinary mage. When [[spoiler: he and Grace are cast into deep space by an explosion, he manages to create an impermeable shield to hold their breathable air, while Grace (also a mage) cycles carbon dioxide into oxygen]].

*** Averted for her voice module, that thing never goes unscathed without at least a little FunetikAksent due to the dangers she's constantly exposed. The most recent one even got her to occasionally talk in a [[{{Keet}} high-pitched, energetic]] voice, a stark contrast to her own personality! [[note]]Which also happens to be a ShoutOut to her older "sister", Aschen Brodel, from the spinoff series VideoGame/EndlessFrontier.[[/note]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'':

* [[http://www.megatokyo.com/strip/1124 This]] Webcomic/MegaTokyo ''two-page spread''. Especially with the "disturbance in the force" next page.

** In the comic book ''[[Comicbook/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheSearch The Search]]'', Ozai strongly disagrees with his hired hitman's conclusion that their target must be dead by now after disappearing into the local forbidden, haunted forest. Like father, like daughter.

*** From the same series, [[spoiler: Mu La Flaga]]. [[spoiler: His mobile suit takes a direct hit from an capital class Antimatter cannon IN SPACE as part of an incredible HeroicSacrifice. Everyone mourns his very obvious and unsurivable death. Yet, the sequel ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny'' brings him back with only minor scars and a case of IdentityAmnesia and [[UnexplainedRecovery never gives an explanation.]]]] This gets worse because the ending of the original SEED had [[spoiler: Mu's]] ''broken'' helmet floating through space to show that, yes, he was really dead. They had to ''edit out the helmet footage'' from the Special Edition and Remaster to keep up the veneer of continuity for the obvious {{Retcon}}. [[BrokenBase This didn't go down well with everyone, obviously.]]

* In ''Anime/CodeGeass'', protagonist Lelouch lures [[spoiler:PsychopathicManchild Mao]] into a trap where a squad of [[MindControl Mind Controlled]] police officers gun him down. When the villain returns in the next episode, he remarks that Lelouch really should have told them to "shoot to kill" not just "shoot", and also compliments the Britannian health care system.

* In ''[[Literature/AscendanceTrilogy The Shadow Throne]]'', [[spoiler: Imogen takes an arrow through the chest that was intended for Sage/Jaron. She turns up roughly 5 chapters before the end of the book, having recovered in full. Even she seemed confused at her survival]].

** Also played with in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', in which the bad guys blow up the Normandy and drop Shepard from orbit, actually killing him/her. Harbinger is smart enough to ''not'' assume this trope and go on a long race with [[HotScientist Liara]] to recover Shepard's body, just in case. And then Shepard ''recovers''.

** [[Characters/MarvelComicsThanos Thanos]], GreaterScopeVillain plus HeroKiller of ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'', is virtually impossible to kill and only becomes [[InvincibleVillain more so]] as the movie goes on. Iron Man dropping a building sized massive pillar on him? Shrugs it off, Starlord's bombs and Dr Strange's magic? Barely fazes him. [[spoiler: Not even Thor's super "Stormbreaker" axe could kill him and he pulled it out of his chest like it was a rose thorn.]]

* Creator/JohnCarpenter's original ''Film/{{Halloween 1978}}'' ends with Michael Myers taking multiple gunshots to the chest from Dr. Loomis, then falling from a second-story balcony. When Loomis makes it to the window and looks out, Michael's body has [[NeverFoundTheBody vanished]].
** Throughout the rest of the franchise, Michael repeatedly survives being shot, stabbed, set on fire, blown up, electrocuted... it's not for nothing that Loomis and later Laurie insist that Michael [[HumanoidAbomination isn't actually human]].

** Shallan lampshade this late in the''Literature/WordsOfRadiance'' when a side character worries about her walking too close to an unguarded ledge. [[spoiler:Shallan reminds him that, due to being a Radiant, she would likely survive without a scratch, considering she had already survived a fall into the chasms that certainly should have killed her.]]

* ''Series/{{Chernobyl}}'' has Valery Legasov ask Gorbachev to authorize sending three power plant technicians to drain the flooded basement before the lava-like corium can generate a steam explosion by saying "We're asking your permission to kill three men." The three volunteers--Alexi Annanenko, Valeri Bezpalov, and Boris Baranov--don't expect to survive their mission into the irradiated water. However, the WhereAreTheyNow epilogue confirms that in spite of widespread reporting that they had died, all three of them survived into the 20th century. (Baranov died in 2005, but the other two have made it into the 2020s.)

** This was actually based off of a real-life event that happened to the person Omar Little was based on, Donnie Andrews. Andrews actually jumped from the ''sixth'' floor.

* ''VideoGame/BattleTech'': In the JustifiedTutorial, Lady Kamea Arano is overthrown in a MilitaryCoup on the day of her coronation as monarch of the Aurigan Coalition. Despite the PlayerCharacter's best efforts, her loyal bodyguard Raju "Mastiff" Montgomery is killed in a LastStand to cover her escape, and Arano's [=DropShip=] is shown on news broadcasts being shot down on takeoff. [[ForegoneConclusion Except, she's narrating the FramingDevice.]] [[spoiler:She got offworld just fine; her uncle's propagandists faked the video. Mastiff survived too but dies in a HellholePrison shortly before you and Kamea liberate it.]]

** [[Characters/MarvelComicsThanos Thanos]], GreaterScopeVillain plus HeroKiller of ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'', is virtually impossible to kill and only becomes [[InvincibleVillain more so]] as the movie goes on. Iron Man dropping a building sized massive pillar on him? Shrugs it off, Starlord's bombs and Dr Strange's magic? Barely fazes him. [[spoiler: Not even Thor's [[AnAxetoGrind super "Stormbreaker" axe]] could kill him and he pulled it out of his chest like it was a rose thorn.]]

** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'' features one of the most brilliant examples of this trope ever done in their treatment of the infamous "Immortal Colasour" in the final episodes. Showing how smart they can be the writers played a half dozen tricks that had the audience saying this. To sum it up, in episode 23 of the second season, [[spoiler: [[RedemptionEqualsDeath he and his beloved Colonel switch sides in order to help Celestial Being Fight Against the Innovators.]] In the heat of battle, [[HeroicSacrifice he then throws himself in front of three kamikaze mobile suits to protect her]] [[FinalSpeech while confessing his love for her at the top of his lungs.]] As this happens, Kati [[SayMyName shouts his full name for the first time in the series.]] With all of these strikes against him, it seems that our beloved Patrick was down for the count and not coming back, especially since around this time in the series [[KillEmAll important characters had been dying by the bucketload.]] And yet, in the final episode, who should show up but Patrick, not only having survived without a scratch, but [[HappilyEverAfter revealing that he was about to be married to Kati]]]].

* This applies to [[spoiler:[[{{Pyromaniac}} Sharkface]]]] of ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'', who was knocked out by [[CompetitionFreak Carolina]] by throwing a Covenant [[DropTheHammer Gravity Hammer]] '''right''' at his face, shortly followed by the remains of a '''[[DroppedABridgeOnHim entire skyscraper]]''' on top of him after the [[CoolStarship Mother of Invention]] fired a freakin' '''[[MagneticWeapons MAC round]]''' dead center into said building from space, '''damn'''...!

** American and British heavy bombers were famous for taking debilitating damage and still making it home, sometimes with one engine working out of four and a gunner flying the plane because the pilots were dead. In one case, a B-17 collided with a fighter over Germany -- and did not break in half until ''after'' it had landed safely back in England.

** Music/KeithRichards of Music/TheRollingStones is probably the ultimate example, having survived more things (and more drug and alcohol abuse) than many ever people have and ever will.

** Also Sephiroth getting run through by Cloud and thrown into the Mako reactor only to come back [[PhysicalGod stronger]].

* ''Film/{{Nope}}'': When Angel watches the TMZ reporter fly off his motorcycle at sixty miles at hour, he says there's no way he survived, right before the reporter starts screaming in pain.

*** Vegeta is the ultimate example of this trope. As a villain survived getting blown into the sky by Goku's Kamehameha combined with a 4x Kaioken boost, and then tanked the Spirit Bomb not long after (both times he was thought to be dead and wasn’t). When he's an AntiHero, Vegeta gets as many beatings from villains as Goku. ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' takes this to such an extreme that he's shown surviving ''his own SuicideAttack, the exact same one that cost him his second life in the Buu Saga''.

** The Yonkos live and breath this trope, Whitebeard kept going after getting his face blasted off (and lava punched through the torso) and only died after getting shot a billion-something times. Big Mom is a freak in even terms of One Piece standards since bullets, cannon and missiles just bounce off her and [[spoiler: Pedro's HeroicSacrifice with a stockpile of dynamite just staggered her slightly]]. Nami even used Big Mom’s own WeatherManipulation against her and hits [=BM=] with an Enel-like blast that puts a crater in the forest and Big Mom ''just keeps right on going like it's nothing''. Kaido's EstablishingCharacterMoment was this, as he fell 10,000 meters from the sky onto the ground creating a massive shockwave and emerged only with a headache... all while the narrator tells of the other times Kaido survived the unsurvivable. To the point that suicide attempts are actually one of Kaido's ''hobbies'', because he's supremely confident that he'll always survive no matter what.

** [[Characters/MarvelComicsSteveRogers Captain America]] was thought to be “Missing in Action” after [[HeroicSacrifice crashing]] the HYDRA plane in the ice in ''[[Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger The First Avenger]]''. So it was a shock for the S.H.I.E.L.D agents to discover Steve was still kicking after 70+ years as the human popsicle.

** In ''Film/SpiderManFarFromHome'' Spidey survives getting cleaned up by a high-speed rather rail something that would’ve killed most other Avengers yet the worst Peter gets from it is a few scars and a limp. Spider-Man does have SuperToughness but it [[FridgeLogic makes you wonder why]] his [[Film/SpiderManHomecoming previous movie]] had falling off the Washington Monument as a potential danger when it’s comparatively tame compared to getting run over at 124 mph.

*** Bond himself often incite this from the villains as not even all the bullet, bombs, falling planes, death traps, and [[CollapsingLair exploding bases]] in world can put 007 down. ''Film/{{Skyfall}}'' is probably the most egregious example as Bond is shot in the chest and falls off a speeding train [[SoftWater into water]]... Bond is labeled as dead by [=MI6=] despite actually being alive and recovering in Turkey. Bond himself lampshades this trope when asked what his hobby is: “Resurrection”.

* While Franchise/IndianaJones is MadeOfIron and survived a few borderline impossible situations (hitching a ride on a Nazi submarine without drowning, escaping a crashing plane in an inflatable raft, jumping out of an out of control tank heading towards a cliff) our page image comes from one that borders in RefugeInAudacity: in ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull'', Indy is in a location near a ground zero nuclear test facility, so he dumps the contents of a refrigerator on the floor, and [[BombProofAppliance gets inside it just in time to prevent being incinerated by the blast.]] Supposedly, it was because the refrigerator was lead lined.

* Liquid Snake, chief antagonist of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'', is the most prominent example in the series. He goes down with his flaming Mi-24 Hind-D after it eats several Stinger missiles and Solid Snake watches it go down. Snake gets slightly suspicious later on when he finds a parachute caught in a tree ("No way, he'd be sliced up faster than an onion in an infomercial..." since the Mi-24 doesn't have an ejection system), and sure enough, he comes back for more. He pilots the Metal Gear REX against Snake at the climax of the game and eats several MORE Stingers, this time into the open cockpit. He then fistfights his brother on the back of REX and gets thrown off. He gets into a Jeep and pursues Snake during his escape, taking heavy machine gun fire all the while. When both Jeeps crash, Liquid hauls himself toward Snake, FAMAS in hand and covered in blood. He finally keels over from a FOXDIE-induced heart attack. And ''then'' he comes back by possessing Revolver Ocelot through his transplanted forearm in ''VideoGame/{{Metal Gear Solid 2|SonsOfLiberty}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Metal Gear Solid 4|GunsOfThePatriots}}''. [[spoiler: Actually scratch that last one, Liquid wasn’t actually possessing Ocelot, he just made himself and Snake believe was even though Liquid was long dead.]]

* After the Russian Royal family were murdered in 1918, several imposters claiming to be the surviving children popped up trying to get into their grandmother’s good books. A major reason that rumors or claims regarding royal son Alexei's survival never gained the traction that [[DidAnastasiaSurvive similar claims regarding his sisters]] did is because Alexei had hemophilia, so the idea that he could have survived being shot was pretty much impossible; even if by some miracle no shots hit his vital organs, he would have bled to death.

If the trope is overused with one character, it's a case of WhyWontYouDie

* ''Film/TheLie'': Jay does not think Britney could have survived Kayla pushing her off the bridge. Even if she survived falling from such a height, she would ve drowned or died of hypothermia. That's how he rationalized not calling for help.[[spoiler: Of course, he doesn't know Britney was not pushed at all and is very much alive]].
**

See also LeftForDead, NeverFoundTheBody, SoftWater, NotQuiteDead, MillionToOneChance.