History Main / NonFatalExplosions

** But played straight with SamuelLJackson 's character in one of the earliest scenes.

* Played straight and averted simultaneously in GhostTrick. Three people are in a room which blows up. One dies instantly. One gets several broken bones and possibly some other injuries. The other just stands there, completely unfazed. [[spoiler:Because he's already dead.]]

** Double subverted in the "Crimes R Us" episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfSuperMarioBros3''. When a giant Bob-omb explodes in Koopa's face, he seemed to have enough piece of mind to pilot his partially wrecked Doomship in a hasty retreat.

* Played infamously in ''OnePiece'', where [[spoiler: A bomb with a 5-kilometer blast radius is carried into the sky by Pell in an apparent heroic sacrifice, but he managed to survive.]]

* In ''CheechAndChong's Next Movie'', while said duo are driving along in a car full of gas fumes (as well as covered in gas), Chong [[TooDumbToLive lights up a joint]] and causes a decent sized explosion to occur inside the car. When the smoke clears, both are fine, though they're covered in ash and have ClothingDamage.

** One Piece is in general a offender. Explosions are rarely played for fun, and characters will usually be injured (sometimes seriously) and often taken out of the battle if they are hit by one at point-blank range, but they will not suffer any of the physically realistic effects. Instead, they will just be covered by dirt, bruises and wounds as if they had been beated up by a human's fists and thrown around in the soil.

In the real world, explosions are lethal. Let's assume, for a start, that the blast doesn't vaporise you or [[LudicrousGibs blow you limb-from-limb]]. If the pressure-wave doesn't kill you (instantly) by turning your organs to mush or dashing you to pieces against something, all the things and bits of things - shrapnel - caught in the blast can kill you all the same. These aren't usually chunks of rubble big enough to punch your guts out through your chest[[hottip:*: those can smart a bit, mind]] but rather little shards of (sharp) stuff travelling fast enough to bury themselves in your brains. Even if you survive the pressure-wave and the shrapnel, there's a real chance you'll just plain bleed to death from the internal and/or external wounds those two gave you. That's assuming the heat-wave isn't enough to (instantly) cook your internal organs either, or sear enough of your flesh from your bones that you'll die of blood loss. [[SteelEardrums Never you mind the effect of all this on your hearing]], i.e. perforating or just plain damaging your eardrums (perforation may well render you [totally] deaf for life). Merely seeing an explosion can be harmful, as some (e.g. [[AtomicHate thermonuclear]]) explosions are so bright they cause blindness - which is, moreover, permanent within certain ranges.

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* Getting caught in an explosion in all three ''MassEffect'' games just usually means you take a bit of damage to your shields, health too if on higher difficulties. Other than a bit of ShellShockSilence when an enemy rocket hits you and ''explodes in your face'', Shepard is perfectly fine a few moments later.

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* In ''StarWars Episode II: AttackOfTheClones'', Jango Fett hits Obi-Wan Kenobi with one of these using his jetpack missile.

* ''HomeAlone''. In the second movie, Kevin lights Harry's head on fire, Harry puts it out in the toilet, not knowing it is filled with kerosene, and blows the entire first floor up. Luckily, Harry only has second-degree burns on his scalp (as well as soot on his face and teeth and a damaged hat) to worry about.

* Happened a lot in ''ThePinkPanther'' movies.

* In ''{{Damnatus}}'', Wodan has an RPG explode pretty much ''at his feet'' and is no more than temporarily stunned. Later in the same film, Corris survives a grenade explosion strong enough to collapse the staircase he was running down.

* In ''WesternAnimation/OverTheHedge'', the De-Pelter Turbo causes what looks like a huge explosion, but the result is merely removing the hair from the animal it has trapped (if that -- Dwayne gets out of it with his comb-over intact).

* In the ''CharliesAngels'' films. The Angels have stood in front of massive explosions the should be enough to rip them to shreds, but they just sent hurling 5 feet in the air without any signs of wounds or bruises.
* In ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe'', after Vector shoots Gru with about hundreds of explosives, Gru come out of a ditch, only to be slightly burned.
* In ''IronMan 3'', when [[spoiler:Tony Stark's house]] gets destroyed from the air, Tony and Pepper suffer numerous close-range explosions with no lasting ill effects.

* The Dutch kids series ''BassieEnAdriaan'' often had the villains plotting to take out the titular heroes with a bomb, which more often than not ended up exploding in their faces instead.

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[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/66360_coyote_correcaminos_6681.jpg]]]]

* In the second episode of ''SevenDays'', Donovan has a grenade explode just inches away from his face. It incapacitates him at the time, but he is later shown completely recovered, claiming that he had his vest on and that the grenade just knocked the wind out of him.

A supertrope of AshFace, where an explosion leaves a character with nothing worse than a blackened face.

Compare ExplosionPropulsion.

* The Sims 2, the rocket and firecracker string objects have a random chance of exploding in your sim's face when they use it. This trope results in AshFace.

* ''TheThreeStooges'' are a rare live-action example used in a slapstick manner.

* In ''Film/OverTheHedge'', the De-Pelter Turbo causes what looks like a huge explosion, but the result is merely removing the hair from the animal it has trapped (if that -- Dwayne gets out of it with his comb-over intact).

* In ''Despicable Me'', after Vector shoots Gru with about hundreds of explosives, Gru come out of a ditch, only to be slightly burned.

* This is pretty much the entire schtick of Bob-ombs in ''SuperMarioBros'', one way or another. While Mario can often survive their explosions when they're his enemies, heroic Bob-omb allies in the ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' series all have the ability to blow up without suffering any harm to themselves at all.

* All of [[Franchise/MetalGear Snake's]] attacks in ''SuperSmashBros Brawl'' are explosive based (assuming he's not just using close-quarters combat skills). Apparently, Nintendo thought guns would be too violent and would seem jarring compared to other characters, so now all of his smash attacks and most of his special moves become variations of grenades, rockets, and missiles. This actually makes him a very unique character with a strong field-control if used right.

* During a cut-scene in NoMoreHeroes Travis falls into a trap laid by the assassin Holy Summers, who proceeds to throw three grenades in after him which EXPLODE IN HIS FACE. Naturally, Travis escapes the pit without so much as a scratch. Not only that but on the way to fight Holy, Travis steps on several landmines and yet, is barely slowed down.

* Not-quite averted in ''[[VideoGame/{{Fallout3}} Fallout 3]]'' and ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas''; hitting an unarmored person dead-on with a missile is probably going to kill them and anyone standing next to them, or at least very nearly so. Somehow, though, if you try it with the V.A.T.S. system and it misses, even if the missile hits the wall a foot to their left, the blast damage is less than if the exact same situation happened without using VATS. Grenades, however, tend to [[LudicrousGibs work as advertised]].

** '''Disney/WinnieThePooh''', of all things?
*** ''I seem to have been impaled by a piece of debris from that explosion. [[CatchPhrase Oh bother.]]''
* Lampshaded in the ''PhineasAndFerb'' episode "Dude, We're Getting the Band Back Together!"

* ''SpongeBobSquarePants'' has tons, to the point where it's almost a RunningGag.

* The ending of ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}''