History Main / PocketProtector

* The Music/ElvisPresley film ''Film/FrankieAndJohnny'' has Elvis' Johnny survive being shot onstage by a NotSoFakePropWeapon when the bullet is lodged in the lucky cricket pendant Frankie had given him earlier.

* In addition to killing UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln, John Wilkes Booth and his co-conspirators were going to kill the bedridden Secretary of State, William Seward. Secretary Seward's jaw had a large splint on it at the time from an accident, and it allegedly saved his life by keeping his knife-wielding assassin from being able to hit him in the jugular, though he did suffer very serious wounds.

* 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."

* A man out mowing his lawn in backwoods Missouri was saved from a stray hunting bullet by his cellphone. The phone still works.

* ''Franchise/TheThreeMusketeers'':
** In the [[Film/TheThreeMusketeers1993 1993 version]], Aramis is shot, but his crucifix stops the bullet. He quips, "I told you there's a God!"
** In the first part of the [[Film/TheThreeMusketeers2023 2023]] version, D'Artagnan gets shot point-blank with a musket during his first skirmish against Milady's men. Luckily, he had a Bible in his coat's pocket that stopped the bullet.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* Referenced in ''Film/LoveAtFirstBite'', where Dracula is revealed to have survived his 1931 staking by Van Helsing because of a cigarette case Renfield gave him for his birthday.

* In ''Film/TheThreeMusketeers1993'', Aramis is shot, but his crucifix stops the bullet. He quips, "I told you there's a God!"

* ''Webvideo/CriticalRole'': Exploited in the second campaign. Caleb and Nott have the plot "modern literature" that they use to great effect in a battle against goblins. Nott poses as one of the assailants (not to hard, as she is a goblin herself) , fires at a book Caleb has hidden under his cloak and he (albeit unhurt due to the book taking the crossbow bolt) pretends to die so the real attackers don't target him anymore.

* The film Marty saw in the ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' example above is ''Film/AFistfulOfDollars'', where Clint Eastwood as the Man with No Name hides a metal plate under his poncho before the final showdown. In that fight, Blondie deliberately goads his opponent to aim at his chest, which is the only part of his body that is armored.

%%* Indy in ''Series/TheYoungIndianaJonesChronicles'' is saved this way in the episode "German East African 1916", by a locket over his chest. Partially subverted when several Belgian Askaris say he must have divine protection; Indy says there is a mundane explanation for his survival, but his African Sergeant points out that there is indeed something miraculous about such a small target (made of a non-ferrous metal like silver or pewter) deflecting a rifle bullet.

** In the finale of the 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.]]
** [[spoiler:[[ChekhovsGun That same electrode]] ends up saving Sinon during ''War of Underworld'', stopping Subtilizer's last' bullet and giving the an opening to recharge her weapon and fire to finish him off]].

* One victim of SerialKiller Richard Ramirez (a.k.a."the Night Stalker") was saved when she instictively held her hands up in front of her face and his .22 calibre bullet deflected off the car keys she was holding.

** In another episode, "The Ten-Per-Cent Solution", Bart accidentally fires a gun and the bullet fails to wound Homer because it is stopped by another gun Homer happens to have in his back pocket.

* Danish Prime Minister and [[AwesomeMcCoolname Jacob Brønning Scavenius Estrup]] infamously had an assassin try to shoot him dead [[https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.B.S._Estrup#/media/Fil:Attentatet_mod_Estrup_1885.jpg October 25th of 1885]], where one of his coat buttons deflected a revolver shot and then [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome the gun jammed on the third shot after the second missed and hit the door behind Estrup]]. Estrup was infamously quoted asking the gunman "What, are you shooting at me?"[[note]]"Hvad, skyder De paa mig?" in Danish[[/note]], went on ahead to the party he was going to, told the story to the other partygoers and was celebrated when he went home intoxicated three hours later.

** 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.

* The NES version of ''VideoGame/BionicCommando'' has an entire item ''dedicated'' to this trope. It's a tiny pendant which, by a certain chance, may or may not deflect an enemy shot. There's a helmet in the game too, which increases your odds, but the pendant is modeled after the trope.

* ''LightNovel/TheAmbitionOfOdaNobuna'': Yoshiharu gives Nobuna his cellphone. It ends up blocking a bullet and then a sword strike, and doesn't even get damaged.

* ''Anime/SwordArtOnline'':

* In the ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex''/''LightNovel/TheFamiliarOfZero'' crossover ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9894086/1/HOPES-and-FEARS HOPES and FEARS]]'', a cross necklace Saito gives Prince Wales saves him from the sword stab that killed him in canon.

* The ''VideoGame/{{MOTHER}}'' series had the [[AttackReflector Franklin Badge]] which would deflect, respectively, a certain instant-kill attack and all lightning attacks just by having it in your inventory. In the [[VideoGame/{{MOTHER1}} first]] [[VideoGame/EarthBound1994 two]] games, it took up an inventory slot of the character you chose to equip it to, while, in ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}'', it's classified as a key item, and is always equipped to Lucas once you acquire it. The badge returned in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl''. When worn, it deflects projectiles for a set period of time.

* In ''VideoGame/Yakuza4'', in the finale, [[spoiler:the defeated Munakata, in an angry fit after understanding Date's newspaper will ruin him, picks up Arai's weapon from the ground and shoots Akiyama in the chest. Akiyama falls down with all the drama necessary to the scene, and after a few seconds, pats his chest pocket, finding the bullet completely lodged inside a stack of dozens of yen bills. Money saves lives indeed.]]

* When author Creator/JoeHaldeman was serving in Vietnam he knew a soldier whose life was saved by a pocket dictionary that stopped a bullet. Later Haldeman saw that the story had been written up in ''Stars and Stripes'' (a newspaper that serves the U.S. Armed Forces). In the story,, the dictionary had been changed to a Bible, and it was claimed that the word the bullet had stopped on was "peace."

* Composer Music/GeorgeFredericHandel was once challenged to a sword duel. His opponent thrust, but the tip of the blade hit a large brass button on Handel's coat and snapped off.

* ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist'':

* In ''Film/{{Gettysburg}}'', Jeff Daniels' character (a Union colonel) is hit and knocked down by a musket ball, but when he gets up he discovers that it merely dented his (''very'' skinny) officers' scabbard (after which he merely comments, "I'll be damned."). This was loosely based on an actual incident which happened to the real Colonel Chamberlain.