History Main / OnlyFleshIsSafe

* The time travel technology in ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' destroys inorganic matter, which prevents the traveler from bringing any future tech and is also why they happen to be NakedOnArrival. There is some leeway in covering inorganic matter with living organic tissue, which is how the titular Terminators get around this rule (a robotic endoskeleton, wrapped in an outer layer of living flesh).
** Various spinoffs in the overall ''Terminator'' franchise have played around with this, from comics to books, and most notably in the ''Sarah Connor Chronicles'' TV show. In some instances, the human resistance sends people back in time who have future plasma-weapons surgically implanted in them for later retrieval. A better tactic in later installments was to simply send humans back in time with ''knowledge'' of how to build futuristic weapons from contemporary components (either by swallowing a microfilm briefly, or just sending back a trained engineer who ''memorized'' how to do it).
*** A little bit of the latter was seen even in the original 1984 movie: resistance member Kyle Reese couldn't bring any plasma weapons with him from the future, but he's an experienced guerrilla soldier who ''already knows'' how to make pipe-bombs from household chemicals in the right combinations.

* ''Film/TheFly1958'': Inverted: The teleportation device only worked on ''non-living'' things -- until the protagonist [[GoneHorriblyRight made a breakthrough]].
** [[Film/TheFly1986 The 1986 remake]] with Creator/JeffGoldblum had him phrase it as that the teleporter (at first) could only safely transport "inanimate objects". When he tried to dematerialize and then rematerialize live test animals, they literally turned ''inside out''. He subsequently attempted a simpler test, just teleporting a cooked steak - ''dead'' flesh - but even that came out the other end tasting awful. The reason for this was pretty simple, though: transmitting a pound of chemically simple objects like iron or water is easy, but a biological organism is ''drastically'' more complex than that. He later fixed this by refining the teleporter computer's programming.
* ''Film/TheMatrix'': As it is set during a Robot War, EMP generators are one of the few effective large-scale weapons that the human resistance has against the Machines. A complication is that Neo is still jacked in to the Matrix via remote broadcast, and simply pulling the plug will lead to fatal shock, so they have to wait until Neo gets to an exit point and unplugs on his own before they can use the EMP on the robot Sentinels bursting into the ship.

* In SSI's ''Galactic Adventures'', one of the weapons was a Heat Ray Gun that could destroy solid objects (like walls) but had no effect on opponents.

* Catian weaponry in ''LightNovel/CatPlanetCuties'' focuses specifically on destroying material matter. In the 2nd episode, anti-matter hammers are used to destroy a battalion of tanks, and the clothes of the pilots inside. Later on in the series, anti-matter bullets are used to defuse a hostage situation by shooting the gun pointed at someone's head.

* PlayedForLaughs in Anime/InazmaDelivery. Bytheway's DisintegratorRay wipes non-living matter out of existence but doesn't harm living flesh ... [[ComedicUnderwearExposure nor underwear]] ... at least not on regular power levels. When charged to max, [[NakedPeopleAreFunny not even underwear is safe]].

* PlayedForLaughs in Anime/InazmaDelivery. Bytheway's DisintegratorRay wipes non-living matter out of existence but doesn't harm living flesh ... [[ComedicUndervearExposure nor underwear]] ... at least not on regular power levels. When charged to max, [[NakedPeopleAreFunny not even underwear is safe]].

* Franchise/DCUniverse
** ComicBook/{{Firestorm|DCComics}}'s matter-altering power has no effect on living organisms.

* ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'': Ryouga's Breaking Point attack can [[ShatterpointTap shatter rigid material like rocks]] with a FingerpokeOfDoom, but does nothing to people. The real benefit of training the technique was to [[TrainingFromHell build endurance]] by subjecting himself to the shrapnel created by pulverizing rocks in such a way.

* Catian weaponry in ''LightNovel/CatPlanetCuties'' focuses specifically on destroying material matter. In the 2nd episode, anti-matter hammers are used to destroy a battalion of tanks, and the clothes of the pilots inside. Later on in the series, anti-matter bullets are used to defuse a hostage situation by shooting the gun pointed at someone's head.

* ''Anime/DogDays'': Within the world of Flonyard, there are areas where people cannot be injured and are instead temporarily turned into fluffy little balls or receive ClothingDamage. Kingdoms mainly use these to engage in {{Harmless|War}} WarForFunAndProfit.
* Allen's sword from ''Manga/DGrayMan'' is capable of cutting [[TheHeartless akuma]] to pieces with ease, but is not meant to harm humans. Unfortunately for Allen, him [[spoiler:being the vessel of the 14th Noah means he reacts in pain to being impaled on it with an akuma after he recalled his sword]].

* ''Fanfic/EquestriaGirlsFriendshipSouls'': Nocturn\'s Yakkai Koto (Burden) can make any non-animal object it strikes, from plants, pieces of paper, clothing, even water, to be as heavy and stiff as steel.

* In ''VideoGame/RedAlert3'', the Japanese basic AntiVehicle infantry weapon is not completely harmless to humans, but does very little damage to them. According to the fluff they're explicitly calibrated to do so, for safety reasons.