History Main / PocketProtector

** Also, [[spoiler: once Conan almost gets stabbed in the gut by a suspect. He had an amulet with a piece of metal in his pocket (which he borrowed from Heiji), which stopped the knife]]
** And [[spoiler: Megure's NiceHat softens a blow to the head given to him with a metal pipe.]]

* A variant appears in ''Film/TheAvengers''. Loki needs to touch a person over their heart with his scepter to control them. [[spoiler:He tries this on Iron Man, but the arc reactor in his chest gets in the way]].

* A variant occurs in ''Film/TheAvengers''. Loki attempts to touch his scepter to Tony Stark's chest, which would [[{{Brainwashed}} brainwash]] him (as has already happened to several other characters). But the scepter strikes the arc reactor in Tony's chest, and nothing happens.

* In an episode of ''McMillanAndWife'', Sgt. Enright is saved by the very thick hero sandwich, wrapped in aluminum foil, that he'd stuffed in his jacket pocket.
* In the ''WhiteCollar'' episode "Book of Hours", Neal manages to block a gunshot from the villain of the week by holding up a Renaissance-vintage Bible (that he's spent the entire episode looking for).

* In the third season finale of ''TheBoondocks'', Gin Rummy is protected by his [=iPhone=] after being shot by a [[RogueAgent rogue government agent]]. After he spent the rest of episode the deriding the thing and [[BrickJoke even dismissing Ed's claim that it would stop a bullet]].

* A variant occurs in ''Film/TheAvengers''. Loki attempts to touch his scepter to Tony Stark's chest, which would brainwash him (as has already happened to several other characters). But the scepter strikes the arc reactor in Tony's chest, and nothing happens.

* Subverted in ''Film/KissKissBangBang''. Robert Downey Jr is shot by the bad guy and collapses; the love interest is afraid that he's been killed, but wait! He sits up, and pulls out from his pocket that trashy detective novel from earlier in the movie, with a bullet hole in it! But then she realises that, wait a minute -- the bullet hole goes right through. He's been shot in the chest and is in dire need of an ambulance.
** Though the bullet may have been slowed down by passing through [[spoiler:his partner]] first

* In the first ''Film/{{Batman}}'' movie with Michael Keaton, the Joker shoots Bruce Wayne in the chest at close range with a small pistol. Luckily Bruce had hidden a metal tray under his jacket in the scene before expecting just this (good thing the Joker didn't shoot for the head)
** There's a reason it's called a BatmanGambit.

* 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.

* ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' Parts II & III feature Marty taking a cue from Clint Eastwood (AS Clint Eastwood) using the front plate of a coal oven as an improvised bullet proof vest under his poncho. The actual event happens in Part III but Marty sees Clint do it in a movie in Biff's suite in Part II.

** Roosevelt's case is this trope UpToEleven. The bullet traveled through his overcoat, his jacket, his vest, the fifty page speech he was on his way to give (which was double folded) and THEN the steel lined spectacle case, before hitting him in one of his ribs. [[{{Badass}} And then he gave his speech.]] From memory, since the pages were no longer usable.

** 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 existing 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.

One commonly-used justification is that it's an attempted assassination; suppressors are much less effective on larger caliber ammunition, and completely pointless with supersonic rounds - [[CaptainObvious supersonic rounds are NOT silent as they make loud cracks when they break the sound barrier]]. The kind of bullets that can be considered silent can thus be rendered nonlethal by many everyday objects.

* In ''The Winter Queen'', ErastFandorin's life is saved when an attacker's knife is turned away by his corset.

* ''SinCity'' plays this straight in the yarn ''The Big Fat Kill''. Dwight is apparently killed by a shot to the heart, and we only realize he's alive when his attackers find the badge he'd lifted from a dead cop earlier...with the bullet lodged in it.

* Invoked in one {{Superman}} comic where Clark Kent has to explain why he is unharmed after apparently just being shot. He reaches into his jacket and pulls out a silver dollar, denting it with his superstrength as he does so, and claims that the bullet deflected off the coin.

* In a [[StoryWithinAStory double-fictional]] version of ''{{Transmetropolitan}}'' called ''From the Mountain to the City'', Spider Jerusalem (here imagined as a grizzled, musclebound pacifist) is saved from a cop's stray fire this way. [[StylisticSuck Naturally, it's about as ham-handed as possible.]]

* ''JonSableFreelance'': One of the {{Evil Poacher}}s who killed Jon's family is saved from Jon's RoaringRampageOfRevenge by the AK-47 he was carrying at chest height. Jon's bullet hits the rifle and the impact is enough to knock the poacher out, leading Jon to assume he is dead.

* In ''ProblemChild'', John Ritter survives a bullet to the chest because it hits an old, dried prune he had in his shirt pocket.

* ''HotFuzz'', with Nicholas' trusty police notebook! In this case, the [[spoiler: knife wasn't blocked, but rather Danny faked stabbing Nicholas Angel and used the ketchup to make the deception more convincing.]]
* ''ShanghaiNoon'' also subverts this; the corrupt sheriff dies when a bullet goes right through his sheriff star badge, which dramatically fails to stop it. There has to be AnAesop in there somewhere.

* Referenced in ''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.

* ''PeterPan'': The arrow the Lost Boys shoot at Wendy doesn't kill her because it hits an acorn button Wendy was wearing around her neck after Peter gave it to her as a present.

* ''{{Blackadder}}'':

* In ''FatherTed'', a whistle has sentimental value because it saved a man from a firing squad in this way... except that they simply reloaded and shot again.

* [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] nonsensically in the pilot of ''ABitOfFryAndLaurie'', in which Fry shows the undamaged cigarette case his grandfather carried into battle in World War II. His grandfather was shot in the wrong spot for the case to save him. "Had he been wearing the case on his temple," notes Fry, "it would have a nasty dent in it and I'd be alive today."

* ''{{Psychoville}}'' has one character get saved by a watermelon he was carrying.

* ''Series/KaizokuSentaiGokaiger'': In his final battle with Basco, Marvelous is saved from a fatal shot by [[spoiler: [[HoistByTheirOwnPetard part of the bomb necklace Basco had put on his sidekick Sally in an earlier attempt to kill him]]]].

* In ''The Killer Dame'' (a parody of the StarTrekVoyager episode "The Killing Game") a member of LaResistance has a bullet stopped by his cigarette case, only to drop dead from the blunt-force trauma to his heart.

** 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. 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.
* Tsar Nicholas II and his family was initially protected from the executor's bullets by the gemstones and diamonds they had hidden in their underwear. Unfortunately the executions decided to try again, in close range, with bayonets...

* ''{{NCIS}}'''s Gibbs keeps a silver flask with a bullet still embedded in the side.

-->-- ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', when the mob is trying to kill Homer and Ned just happens to be next to him.

* Inverted in an episode of the original live-action ''Series/TheAdventuresOfSuperman'' series. The bad guys are holding Clark, Lois, and Jimmy hostage, and their boss insists Clark is Superman. The boss shoots Clark, who in turn reacts with surprise, and Lois and Jimmy are both convinced. Clark, however, reaches into his jacket and feels around thoughtfully. After the situation is resolved Clark pulls out a conveniently dented silver dollar and claims that it stopped the bullet.

* Done straight in the Creator/AlfredHitchcock film ''Film/The39Steps'' with a hymn-book (which is inside a coat that the hero has been covertly given, resulting in the giver receiving domestic abuse). Cue gag about some of the hymns being "awfully hard to get through".

* Rudyard Kipling was sent a copy of his book ''Literature/{{Kim}}'', complete with bullethole stopping only at the last 20 pages, together with the Cross awarded the soldier who owned it. He later became said soldier's son's godfather.

* Similarly another US soldier stationed in Iraq was wounded in a fire fight only to find out later that an ammo round had embedded itself in the copy of ''[[Literature/TheWheelOfTime the Eye of the World]]'' he happened to be carrying in his pack, rather than embedding in his side.

* Creator/StephenKing also used this in his early novel ''Rage'': the protagonist survives being shot by a police sniper because he dropped his locker-padlock into his breast pocket. He suffers shrapnel-damage and severe bruising.

* Featured at the climax of a short film at a theme park (Disneyland?) A "please turn off your phone" ad plays, at which point an actor starts walking around talking loudly on his mobile. He's promptly punished by being pulled "into" the film, and cycles through several different genres. He ends up in a medieval battle and is only saved from death by arrow thanks to this trope.