History Main / PlotArmor

* In Creator/PeterJackson's ''Film/KingKong'', there is a scene with Jack Driscoll and a few crew members running in between a pack of Brontosauruses legs down a narrow path while also avoiding being eaten by velociraptors in full charge. [[spoiler:Jack is not only fine]], but jump-kicks one of the velociraptors in the face, all while still running UNDER the Brontosauruses.

* One of the many letdowns of the ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' books is Meyer's continuous promises of danger to characters followed by little to no follow through. In the first book, Laurent refuses to fight against James even though it would be an eight to two fight. Which basically means James must be the badass of badasses. Actually Jasper and Emmett take him out alone. And easily. Book Four is the biggest Plot Armor moment when a brutal battle between the Volturi and the Cullen/Cullen allies that has been worked up for ages devolves into a friendly talk and a okay, let's go home situation. The Twilight characters are supposed to be in real you-could-really-die situations but somehow everyone leaves everything unscathed every single time. (With the exception of Jacob breaking some bones that heal in a day or two.)

* Strangely averted in reveal/RetCon to TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime. Link's PlotArmor actually ''wears off'' during the final battle against Ganondorf. Though there's no cutscene for it, canonically if you lose that fight the next game in the series becomes ALinkToThePast rather than TheWindWaker or TwilightPrincess.

* In the endgame of ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', where all characters have the chance to be KilledOffForReal, Miranda Lawson can survive situations that would kill other characters for half of the mission or so. Afterwards, she can die like anyone else. And there's Shepard's temporary death in the beginning, used as an excuse to let you change his class and appearance.

* In ''Manga/ShingekiNoKyojin'' a few of the main characters sport some blatant Plot Armor that stops them from dying no matter what happens, even in a world where people die like flies, and even if they are not particularly skilled. And even if they die. Eren loses AnArmAndALeg and gets eaten by a Titan in his first battle; but, inevitably, he soon returns, completely unharmed [[spoiler:and in a Titan's body, which he uses to massacre numerous other Titans]].

* In "Manga/ShingekiNoKyojin" a lot of characters die, but a few of the main characters sport some balatant Plot Armor that stops then from dying no matter what happenes, even in a world where people die like flies, and even if they are not particularly skilled.

* In the endgame of ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', where all characters have the chance to be KilledOffForReal, Miranda Lawson can survive situations that would kill other characters for half of the mission or so. Afterwards, she can die like anyone else.

->''If you were dice, you'd always roll sixes. And the dice don't roll themselves. If it wasn't against everything he wanted to be true about the world, Vimes might just then have believed in destiny controlling people. And gods help the other people who were around when a big destiny was alive in the world, bending every poor bugger around itself...''

* Strangely averted in reveal/RetCon to TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime. Link's PlotArmor actually wears off in the final battle against Ganondorf. Though there's no cutscene for it, canonically if you lose that fight the next game in the series becomes ALinkToThePast rather than TheWindWaker or TwilightPrincess.

* ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheSandsOfTime'' lampshades this with the Prince telling the story of his adventures. When you die in-game, he comments that it didn't happen that way and that he should start again. Though how you relate a story to someone and mistakenly add a bit in where you died is beyond me.

*** However, if a character important to the main plot was killed, the game was decent enough to inform you that the "thread of prophecy has been severed" and suggest that you might want to re-load.

** The UrExample of the latter may be the original Literature/{{Dragonlance}} D&D modules. NPCs were all fully statted, but the GM was instructed to arrange a last-minute escape and/or a NeverFoundTheBody situation whenever necessary to preserve someone for future plot. The writers called it "obscure death."

* The Games Workshop ''LordOfTheRings'' game gave major characters something like "Fate points" -- allowing them to shrug off wounds just ''because'' they're major characters. The number of fate points a character gets is determined by how good their final fate in the films and books is -- for instance, Aragorn, Sam, Gandalf the White etc. have high fate point counts, whereas Boromir, Denethor, Grima Wormtongue etc have low counts.

* The first edition of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' described Hit Points as a combination of toughness, luck and other factors.
** This is still true as of the game's ''fourth'' edition, which also (a) gives starting characters (though, to be fair, standard monsters as well) rather more hit points than ever before and (b) introduces the concept of 'minions' -- adversaries that [[RedShirt specifically exist]] to be taken out by [[OneHitpointWonder the first hit]] to be scored against them and thus explicitly lack any plot armor whatsoever.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'' is notable for its extensive use of Plot Armor throughout its long run. It is also, oddly enough, notable for the occasional loss of plot armor for the Doctor when he actually does fail to get out of a situation "alive." (Of course, it returns soon enough for his BizarreAlienBiology [[TheNthDoctor to kick in]])
** As with many a series that involves some sort of time travel, one of the problems is that a character will develop PlotArmor if they meet someone who has met them before, but in the time travelers' timeline they haven't met yet. It's difficult to actually feel that the hero's life is in danger if they've yet to meet someone or go somewhere or do something that we already know is supposed to happen. Until that event happens, the character is protected. The Doctor has been in this situation ever since the episode "Silence in the Library", if not several times before that.
*** Time can be rewritten.

* Robert Jordan's ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' series has the three main male characters as ''ta'veren'', or "tied to the pattern". Essentially this serves as a [[{{Magibabble}} catch-all]] for all the [[WeirdnessMagnet weird stuff that happens to them]], very much including their in-universe plot armor. Of course, it also tends to [[BlessedWithSuck attract nasty stuff]] that makes it necessary...
** Not just attracts weird stuff to 'them.' It also attracts weird stuff to 'other' people as well. The effect could blanket an entire city.
** Interestingly, one of the main characters DOES, in fact, die, only to have his death undone by the use of balefire, which [[RetGone erases its victim from existence prior to being struck by the attack]]. The more powerful the attack is, the further back in time they are erased. Notably, this is a ForbiddenTechnique for this very reason - messing with the Pattern of reality could very well destroy the world, and nearly did in the past.

* In the ''ScaryMovie'' sequels - by means of an odd twist in plot armors - Brenda dies in ''[=SM3=]'', her corpse even explodes into pieces. But [[StayingAlive she reappears]] in ''[=SM4=]''. Lead Character Cindy, who remembers her friend dying one movie ago, even says to Brenda "I thought you were dead!" To which Brenda replies "I thought ''you'' were dead!" One look of confusion later and they decide to drop it.
** This is nothing new to the ''Scary Movie'' franchise. In the first movie [[spoiler:Brenda is stabbed to death in a theater for being rude and Cindy is run down by a car at the very end.]] In the second movie, [[spoiler:Brenda says that she only had a "near death experience", and it turns out Cindy is alive because she was never officially declared dead.]]

* ''StarWars'': As noted above, the cause of the Stormtroopers' lack of ability to shoot. Obi-Wan goes as far as to call them "precise" in the movie, and we see them blast their way through the Tantive IV... And then we witness them miss so many easy shots, it's pathetic. But every one of those shots was at someone with plot relevance.
** {{Lampshaded}} in the first book of the extended universe ''NewJediOrder'' series. Han refers to a "bubble" which surrounded the main characters which is destroyed by [[spoiler: the death of Chewie]]. The books then go on to use [[KillEmAll this trope's inverse]] quite liberally.
** In the official ''Star Wars'' role playing campaign, ''Living Force'', for a few years all player characters had PlotArmor as judges were instructed to "worry, but not kill" any character that didn't do something obviously suicidal.
** This is practically a ''game mechanic'' in the ''StarWarsCustomizableCardGame'', where important characters other than mystics and potential Jedi are "force-attuned," with an inherent weapon defense of 3 (as opposed to 1 or 2 for secondary characters and {{Mook}}s). Also, many characters are partially or totally "immune to attrition," a mechanic designed to simulate random battle deaths.
** The novel ''Death Star'' attempted to handwave some of the Imperial Marksmanship chaos seen in the movies, apart from the canon reasons. Imperial enemies were chafing under restrictive command. One stormtrooper commander was actually Force sensitive and was growing morals. And of course Vader's plan was to let them escape so the ''Millennium Falcon'' would lead the Empire to the Rebellion.

* In [[ImageBoards /tg/]]-created HumongousMecha RPG GiantGuardianGeneration, PlotArmor is the name of [[CallAHitPointASmeerp PCs' hit points]]. [[NonPlayerCharacter NPCs]] that aren't the players' rivals or [[BossBattle Bosses]] don't have it.

* In the second episode of McMillan & Wife, during the final climax the villian barely looks at a police officer entering sideways through a sliding door, and instantly kills him. When McMillan walks through the same door a few minutes later, the man gets 2 shots off and misses both times.

* The concept is {{Lampshaded}} in ''ComicBook/AvengersArena'' when Arcade mentions that he was unable to capture the YoungAvengers and the [[Comicbook/XMen students of the Jean Grey School]] because they were too well protected. In real life, those groups have their own popular titles, while the teens in ''Arena'' are all either entirely new characters, or from cancelled books like ''AvengersAcademy'' and ''[[{{Runaways}} The Runaways]]''.

* The concept is {{Lampshaded}} in ''AvengersArena'' when Arcade mentions that he was unable to capture the YoungAvengers and the [[Comicbook/XMen students of the Jean Grey School]] because they were too well protected. In real life, those groups have their own popular titles, while the teens in ''Arena'' are all either entirely new characters, or from cancelled books like ''AvengersAcademy'' and ''[[{{Runaways}} The Runaways]]''.