History Main / PocketProtector

* Creator/StephenKing used this in his early novel ''Literature/{{Rage}}'': the protagonist survives being shot by a police sniper because he dropped the padlock from his locker into his breast pocket. {{Lampshaded}} as the protagonist has a FlashForward to seeing a commercial where the same brand of padlock survives being shot with a rifle -- and {{Stress Vomit}}s as it reminds him of getting shot. ZigZagged in that he still suffers shrapnel damage and a broken rib.

* During the Hawks arc of ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'', General Julius tries to have Griffith assassinated with a poisoned arrow during the royal hunt, but the arrow is stopped by Griffith's Behelit (or as ''WebVideo/BerserkAbridged'' calls it, the "Portable Deus Ex Machina Generator") before it can reach his heart. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that Behelits are supernatural instruments of fate that ''want'' to keep their owners alive until they can cross the DespairEventHorizon, and are likely MadeOfIndestructium to boot.

* Played glaringly straight in and episode of ''Manga/BlackJack 21'' when a single [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic ace of spades]] and his [[OrphansPlotTrinket mother's pendant]] stopped a bullet from piercing his left lung.

* At the finale of the ''Anime/SwordArtOnline'' Death Gun arc, [[spoiler:Kirito is stabbed by Kyoji with a syringe containing a lethal drug that Kyouji and his brother had used for their other murders as Death Gun. The syringe is stopped by an electrode that had been left on when he ran to Shino's house from the hospital.]]

* At the finale of the ''Anime/SwordArtOnline'' Death Gun arc, [[spoiler: Kirito is stabbed by Kyoji with a syringe containing a lethal drug that Kyouji and his brother had used for their other murders as Death Gun. The syringe is stopped by an electrode that had been left on when he ran to Shino's house from the hospital.]]

Oh no! Our [[Hero]] just got shot! There's a hole in their shirt right over their heart... but what's this? They have something in their pocket? It stopped the bullet! They are saved!

Oh no! Our Hero just got shot! There's a hole in their shirt right over their heart ... but what's this? They have something in their pocket? It stopped the bullet! They are saved!

Oh no! Our Hero just got shot! There's a hole in his shirt right over his heart ... but what's this? He has something in his pocket? It's stopped the bullet! He is saved!

He's got a [[Literature/TheBible Bible]] in there? It'll stop the bullet. Ditto for cellphones, and especially lockets; if it contains photographs of beloved ones, expect a large modifier (positive or negative, depending upon the scene) to the attack.

** Parodied in the manga, when the [[TheFundamentalist fanatically religious]] KnightTemplar Bishop Mozgus is apparently stabbed with Guts' {{BFS}}, but then gets up and pulls out the book of scriptures he always keeps in his robes to show where it caught the thrust. He states that the scriptures are what his faith is based on, and that because of his faith he cannot be harmed by a "tainted blade". A couple characters point out this is complete nonsense, as the book was easily torn through and he was protected from the sword by [[OurDemonsAreDifferent his own incredibly hard scales.]] What's more, once he took his OneWingedAngel form, the Bible was incorporated into his flesh... making it the one part of his body ''not'' protected by scales and thus his AchillesHeel for Guts to exploit.

-->'''Blackadder:''' Excellent, it can be your lucky willy.\\

* Played for laughs in ''Anime/CrossAnge''. After Momoka gets shot by the BigBad(then knocked off a cliff by a bus, which [[EveryCarIsAPinto naturally explodes]]), she shows up alive in the following episode. When a shocked Ange asks how the hell she survived, Momoka [[VictoriasSecretCompartment reaches into her blouse]] and pulls out a cast-iron frying pan with a bullet in it. No that ''doesn't'' explain how she survived everything else(or ''why'' she's carrying a frying pan, or how the hell [[{{Hammerspace}} it fit in there]]), that's the joke.

-->-- ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''

* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20160624#.V23PQKKl-Uk Inverted]].

* [[UsefulNotes/DanielInouye]], Japanese-American U.S. Senator from Hawaii, served in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII in the 442nd Infantry Regiment. Once, while leading an attack, a shot struck him in the chest directly above his heart, but the bullet was stopped by the two silver dollars he had in his shirt pocket.

* Daniel Inoyue, Japanese-American U.S. Senator from Hawaii, served in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII in the 442nd Infantry Regiment. Once, while leading an attack, a shot struck him in the chest directly above his heart, but the bullet was stopped by the two silver dollars he had in his shirt pocket.

* Daniel Inoyue, U.S. Senator from Hawaii, served in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII in the famous 442nd Infantry Regiment. Once, while leading an attack, a shot struck him in the chest directly above his heart, but the bullet was stopped by the two silver dollars he had in his shirt pocket.

* Japanese-American Senator and UsefulNotes/WorldWarII veteran UsefulNotes/DanielInouye was hit in the chest just above the heart by a bullet during combat. He survived thanks to two silver dollar coins he had in his pocket that took the blow.

* In ''Film/KungPowEnterTheFist'', The Chosen One is saved from Master Betty's deadly technique by having... a ''squirrel'' hidden in his clothes. And the squirrel is still alive, accepting peanuts in his hand-shaped imprint of a body!

%%* Indy in ''Series/TheYoungIndianaJonesChronicles'' is saved this way in the episode "German East African 1916".

** In the episode "Insane in the Mainframe", Fry gets stabbed in the chest by Bender's crazy friend Roberto, but the knife hits an oil can [[ChekhovsGun that he picked up earlier]]. As an added bonus, in this episode Fry is convinced that he's a robot, and the sight of him "bleeding" oil makes Roberto FreakOut and jump out the window.

** In one episode, a mobster accidentally shoots Ned Flanders in the chest. The bullet hits his Bible. The mobster shoots ''again'', only to hit a piece of the True Cross he wears around his neck. Ned then flees before any more shots are fired, presumably because he realizes he's run out of religious objects.

** London's Imperial War Museum has a pile of dummies showing off different nationalities' uniforms during the two world wars. The British UsefulNotes/WorldWarI soldier showcases a pocket Bible... with the bottom right quarter blown off and the rest drowned in blood...

* An man named John Schrank shot UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt in 1912, angered by his decision to run for a third term. Fortunately, the bullet was prevented from penetrating too deeply by several layers of clothing, a steel eyeglass case and a massive folded speech in his jacket. The bullet penetrated him anyway and hit a rib, but since he wasn't coughing up any blood, he gave his 90-minute speech from memory anyway (the speech papers were ruined) before seeking treatment. He famously began his speech, "Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose!" He even went as far as to briefly confront Schrank moments after he had shot him.

* ''Manga/The100GirlfriendsWhoReallyReallyReallyReallyReallyLoveYou'': Rentarou fantasizes about the wooden charms of his girlfriends saving him from being shot in Chapter 53. [[spoiler: Subverted when he moves them out of the way beforehand so that the wouldn't be put in danger, and dies anyway.]]

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* In ''Anime/TheWorldEndsWithYou'', after Shiki learns that Neku has two Player Pins, which allow people to participate in the Reapers' Game, she proposes that he keep the second near his heart so it can "stop a bullet like a miniature shield." The second pin actually does come in handy, but not for this reason- [[spoiler:it allows him to continue playing after Kitaniji destroys the other Player Pin.]]

* Ellen Brand's ''Supernatural'' series of ''Manga/CaseClosed'' fics mentions this in [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3992650/1/Gift-of-the-Moon the fifth story]], where it's noted that the professional assassin and sniper Snake, AKA Jackal (who'd murdered the first Kaito Kid by sabotaging his stage equipment), had twice shot the second and current Kaito Kid. Both times, Kid survived - once from a well-hidden BulletproofVest, and once because of this trope, when the bullet struck a gem in the thief's pocket.

* In ''Film/TheFall'', the Black Bandit tries to shoot his love (because she's engaged to be married to Odious, the [[BestServedCold man he's sworn to kill]]), but his bullet is stopped by her heart-shaped locket. It then falls open-- she's been unable to open it for years--and reveals a message left by her father, telling her to marry for no reason other than love. The characters take this as a sign that they should get married. (Amusingly, the tale of the Black Bandit is actually a [[ShowWithinAShow story being told to a young girl]]. At this point, she gets upset because she thinks people in love should get together. Since he has to keep his sole audience happy, the story teller winds up having to invoke this trope and everything afterwards as a blatant AssPull.)

* Creator/StephenKing used this in his early novel ''Literature/{{Rage}}'': the protagonist survives being shot by a police sniper because he dropped the padlock from his locker into his breast pocket. {{Lampshaded}} as the protagonist has a FlashForward to seeing a commercial where the same brand of padlock survives being shot with a rifle - and {{Stress Vomit}}s as it reminds him of getting shot. ZigZagged in that he still suffers shrapnel damage and a broken rib.

* ''Series/NewTricks'': Ted Case's lucky charm is a cigarette case that stopped a bullet and saved his life (or so he claims - Sasha keeps pointing out that the bullet [[AvertedTrope went straight through the case]] and he spent months in hospital, while Ted maintains that if the case hadn't slowed the round down, he'd have died). He goes into a mild panic when he loses it in "Life Expectancy."

* In ''VideoGame/FarCry3'', after Vaas [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim finally quits screwing around and straight-up shoots Jason in the chest]], Jason's life is saved by a lighter in his chest pocket. Even better is that it's the same lighter Vaas had earlier tried to torch Jason with, and that he himself put it in that pocket when it wouldn't light up properly - Vaas even comments at the time [[HilariousInHindsight "so much for poetics"]].

* In the second episode of ''WesternAnimation/ThePiratesOfDarkWater'', Atani archers shoot at the Wraith, and Ioz apparently gets hit in the chest. It turns out that he had a golden goblet—the theft of which was one of the reasons the Atani were chasing them in the first place—hidden under his robe.

* Lt. George E. Dixon of the American Civil War submarine ''H. L. Hunley'' carried a gold coin that his sweetheart gave to him as a good luck charm, which later deflected a bullet at the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862 (not much it could do to save him from going down with the ''Hunley'' two years later, though). There were accusations that this was just a romantic story without basis in reality - but then in the year 2000, 136 years after it sank, the wreck of the ''Hunley'' was pulled out, containing the deteriorated, skeletal remains of her crew. On the remains identified as Dixon, ''they found his bent coin''. Removing any doubt that it was just some other bent coin, Dixon apparently had it engraved after the bullet bent it, and the words were still legible: "Shiloh / April 6, 1862 / My life Preserver / G. E. D."

** Ironically, Chamberlain was later hit in almost the same spot at siege of Petersburg. That time he'd already drawn his sword and the bullet punched through his pelvis, nearly killing him. Later at the Battle of Quaker Road, he was hit by yet another bullet that went through his horse's neck, a bible and a framed picture of his wife in his breast pocket, wounding but not killing him. He appeared to onlookers to have been shot directly through the chest, but instead the bullet after being deflected by the picture frame pierced his skin but skirted around his ribs before exiting his back. His men called him "Bloody Chamberlain," not because he was bloodthirsty but because he kept getting hit - six times in all over the course of the war. All those wounds would eventually catch up with him, but not until much later in life. When he died 1914 at the age of 85, the medical examination revealed that he died not of old age but of complications from the wound he suffered at Petersburg ''fifty years earlier''. As a result, he's considered the very last casualty of the Civil War.

* Imperial German soldier and author Creator/ErnstJunger had his life saved this way (as dramatized in ''Literature/StormOfSteel''). During a battle against a contingent from New Zealand during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, Jünger is almost killed by a sharp piece of shrapnel which hits him in the chest. Instead of penetrating his flesh, however, the shrapnel miraculously hits - and bounces off of - the clasp of one of his suspenders.

* ''Manga/The100GirlfriendsWhoReallyReallyReallyReallyReallyLoveYou'': Rentarou fantasies about the wooden charms of his girlfriends saving him from being shot in Chapter 53. [[spoiler: Subverted when he moves them out of the way beforehand so that nothing happens to them, and dies anyway.]]

* At the finale of the ''Anime/SwordArtOnline'' Death Gun arc, [[spoiler: Kirito is stabbed by Kyoji with a lethal drug. The syringe is stopped by an electrode that had been left on when he ran to Shino's house from the hospital.]]