History Main / PrettyLittleHeadshots

* The corpse in the freezer from ''Film/TheGoonies'' was apparently shot in the head, although the bullet hole is so tiny and clean that it looks more like the Fratellis whacked him by putting a cigarette out on his forehead. No exit wound, either. Granted, ''The Goonies'' is a kid's movie, but ''come on''...

* Partially subverted in ''Film/FullMetalJacket''. You do not see the exit wound on Leonard Lawrence, a.k.a. "Gomer Pyle", but the wall looks pretty gory after...

* In ''Film/{{Watchmen}}'', the assassination of [[spoiler:Moloch]] was clean enough that Rorschach could talk to him at length before realizing his audience was dead, as mentioned above.

*** The Director's Cut version adds a gusher of blood to the Iacocca's head shot.
*** As for Moloch, it's a small caliber bullet (we see the gun), with a silencer (cuts down on velocity), and probably a low velocity round to further dampen the sound of the shot. It's entirely plausible it didn't go all the way through, and we don't see an exit wound. (No explanation for the comic though.)
* Averted in ''Film/{{Predator}}'' when the titular monster [[YourHeadASplode kills]] [[spoiler:Mac]].

* Seemingly both played straight and averted in ''Film/{{Munich}}''. During one of the reenactment scenes depicting the actual Munich hostage crisis, one of the two men killed in the apartment complex is shot in the head at close range with an AK, yet the resulting bullet wound is fairly small. During the scene in the fictional part of the movie in which the Dutch assassin is shot, the finishing blow is also similar to this. (To be fair, neither time do we actually see the back of the victims' heads, and the re-enactment scenes are allegedly extremely faithful to the real-life events they depict, meaning presumably that the manner of the athletes' deaths were based on real-life autopsies, so this may simply be an example of TruthInTelevision. Also, an earlier scene in which the same man is shot through the side of the mouth graphically averted this trope). In other parts of the film - in both a fictional scene in which Avner shoots a young man at close range with a sniper rifle, and during the reenactment scenes at the airport depicting the Black September hostage-takers being shot by German snipers - this trope is averted, as chunks of the victims' skulls and PinkMist are clearly visible.

* In the B-movie ''Guns'', a character played by Allegra Curtis (the daughter of Tony Curtis) is shot in the forehead. No blood is visible as she topples over backward, but her body is seen a couple of minutes later with blood liberally streaking her face.
* In ''Film/{{Shooter}}'', Creator/MarkWahlberg's character is framed for attempting to kill the US President and for killing the Ethiopian Archbishop. In said scene, the shot is taken from a long distance requiring a relatively large bullet, and the movie in fact shows more than just a neat hole, however, in the DVD extras, several comments are made regarding the shot by a weapons coordinator: that at that distance the target wouldn't have even been in the scope's line of sight due to bullet drop and that the actual shot would have been a lot gorier. As in the Archbishop's head being split in half gorier (due to the fact that because of bullet drop the shot wouldn't have been anything resembling a straight line, it would have been more like lobbying a bullet down into his skull).

** Possibly entirely averted: The old soldier was wearing a helmet, which captures the blood. When Peter returns to the scene, the man's face is covered in blood that has seeped down through the rim of his helmet. The ''[[spoiler: Hitlerjugend]]'' is shot in front of a black background, so any blood would have been hard to see, and the audience never sees his wound. Played straight with AdolfHitler himself, but this is apparently truth in television.

* {{Inverted|Trope}} in ''Film/TheRoom'', where [[spoiler: Johnny's bullet-in-the-mouth suicide]] at the end of the film winds up with blood everywhere... including places it couldn't possibly have gotten, [[spoiler: such as the front of his clothes]].

* One of the weirder aversions is ''VideoGame/{{Unreal}}'', where headshots cause the enemy's head to ''shrink'' (watch it in slowmo!). It'd make some sort of sense if you were using a weird tech gun, but no, bullets cause head shrinkage. This is a visual artifact of the rather hacked method used to animate decapitations; since the head is part of the player model, it can't be deleted from the rest of the model on-the-fly, so it's animated to shrink away to nothing in a single frame as the game spawns the actual head gib (which suddenly has blood all over it), but if a modern machine is rendering fast enough, it's visible.
* ''VideoGame/DeusEx'', based on the [[GameEngine Unreal Engine]], was fairly realistic for the time as far as gameplay was concerned. For example, you could shoot someone in their gun arm to make them drop their weapon, and headshots greatly increased the inflicted damage - although some of the tougher enemies could actually survive a headshot if inflicted with a low enough skill level and with a weak gun (and certain important characters, like Alex Jacobson, were immortal). However, graphically, the game was the description of this trope. Point-blank hit to the forehead with an autoshotgun blast? Target falls on the ground in one piece, with the only indication that he's dead being (aside from the obvious stillness) a little pool of blood under his corpse. The game did feature gibbing, but there was no middle level in between "slight bleeding" and "meat chunks all over the place".
** The sequel was downright stupid as far as headshots were concerned. The only way for headshots to be an instant kill was with the sniper rifle, and even then it had to be zoomed in. You could honestly take a pistol and shoot guy in the head, and they'd only lose a little health. And these weren't BadAss bosses either, these were the civilians! Sometimes even a shotgun took two blasts to the head to kill somebody. There wasn't even blood on the ground anymore. Unlike its predecessor, it has no "good for its time" excuse, considering all the great games that were out that year. This was just downright retarded programming. The game was released in 2003, for those keeping score at home.
*** The latest game in the series, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, subverts this. When Adam Jensen goes to the morgue to obtain the interface from the augmented terrorist, part of his skull and brain have been cleanly blown off, [[GameplayAndStorySegregation but no matter how many times you score headshots on your enemies, their skulls are always intact, no matter the weapon used.]]

** ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', during Thane's recruitment mission, an Ecplise mercenary is found shot in the head. Garrus will remark "A perfect headshot, with no collateral damage". As expected, the guy's head is intact, with only some blood-smear on the ground
** {{Justified|Trope}} by the fact that guns in the ''Mass Effect'' series shoot very small and very fast bullets, which would likely be able to penetrate the skull from the inside without blowing a large chunk off; the bullet likely just goes straight through the target's head and trusts to hydrostatic shock to destroy the brain on it's way.
** However, using the Sniper Rifle or high powered pistols in Mass Effect 2 can result in rather nasty headshots. While the corpse does not leave exit wounds, getting headshots with the likes of the [[{{BFG}} Widow Anti Material Rifle]] shows massive amounts of blood and bone flying off.
** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' goes to the other extreme on human victims. Any headshot kill pretty much causes the entire head to explode.
* In the ''VideoGame/SoldierOfFortune'' games, the results of a headshot are actually handled comparatively realistically -- even your 9mm pistol leaves very large and ugly entry and exit wounds, and if you use your shotgun, 44 mag or sniper rifle, you blast their head clean off, leaving only a ragged bit of lower skull. The problem comes in that these results occur even [[LudicrousGibs farther away than these weapons would produce such wounds in real life.]]
* Another Unreal-powered franchise, ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar'' plays this trope straight and messily averts it, depending on the weapon. Smaller caliber guns (like the Gorgon Pistol) and automatic weapons (like the Lancer) deal more damage from headshots but don't noticeably damage the body. Powerful weapons (like the [[HandCannon Boltok Pistol]] and Longshot sniper rifle) will cause the target's head to burst like a melon.

* In ''VideoGame/ConkersBadFurDay'', characters on multiplayer could have their heads blown apart in quarters, either losing 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, or the whole thing, as long as they were Squirrels, Undead or Tediz (Tediz and Undead and could have this happen during "It's War" and "Spooky" single player as well, respectively). Multiplayer characters with smaller heads (weasels or uggas) would always lose their entire head. Squirrels/Undead, in particular, were rather nasty, as the grey matter could be seen from any remnant of the head. All characters would stumble for a few seconds before falling when victims of the headshot. Played straight in ''Live & Reloaded'', however, as part of the game's extensive {{Bowdleri|se}}zation.

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'' is, for the most part, a perfect embodiment of this trope - headshots cause a blood splatter and the enemy falls down, disconcertingly intact. One rather classy exception is during a cutscene, when Niko shoots [[spoiler: Vlad]] in the face. Not only does the wound spew an impression fountain of blood, but Niko knows it is coming and shields his face before firing. Curiously, one of the earlier games from the same developer, ''VideoGame/{{Manhunt}}'', quite strongly averts this trope. And, actually, averted in previous [=GTAs=], where a typical side-quest is to "pop a dozen [random gang] heads with a sniper rifle" and this literally leads to said Mooks heads exploding. It's interesting that ''[=GTA IV=]'', in many ways the most realistic title in the series, went for a less realistic depiction of headshots.

* ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' games play this straight, with headshots resulting in a splat of blood behind the victim, although one level in ''World At War'' has a Marine taking a round to the head in a landing craft and having his head split open. Can also be found in ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps''.

** A .22 with a half powder load fired point blank into the mastoid process behind the ear has on average just enough power to enter the skull but not enough to get out. It ricochets multiple times inside the skull and turns the brain to hash. It was a popular enough method of killing among certain mobsters that it earned the nickname "the Howard beach special". The wound is barely noticeable unless you know what you are looking for.

* Creator/DavidWeber's ''HellsGate'' series includes this when the Arcanians first see a man killed by a firearm. A few characters express surprise that anything leaving such a small, neat hole could kill someone that quickly. Then they turn him over and see the exit wound...

[[caption-width-right:350:Spider-Man[[note]]actually ThePunisher[[/note]] [-and his-] assistant[[note]]some {{mook}}[[/note]] [-demonstrating the new and improved [[StanLee Uncle Lee's]] No Mess Bullets[[TradeSnark ™]]!-] ]]

In Real Life, a headshot virtually ''never'' leaves a neat little exit wound. There is either ''no'' exit wound at all (the result of a low-powered or small round), or a pretty serious chunk of the skull is blown away by the exiting bullet (high-powered or large caliber bullets or a close-in shotgun blast). If the round doesn't exit the skull, the blood will be mostly around the entry wound, with possibly a bit of spatter if the victim jerked or twitched. If there ''is'' an exit wound, there's going to be bits of bone, brains and blood (and maybe teeth) all over. Often it's implied that the neat little hole we're seeing is the entry wound, and YouDoNotWantToKnow what it looks like from the other side -- sometimes this will be {{lampshaded}} in order to keep the gore down while at least paying lip service to the messy reality.

* Happens often in ''CaseClosed'' where the victim, if killed by a gun, will usually have one tiny hole in the front with a trickle of blood coming down, and a huge splatter of blood on the other side, despite no indication of structural damage to the skull itself.
* ''{{Golgo 13}}'''s trademark is killing his targets with a single shot in the forehead, and all of the shots obey this trope. One particularly annoying example had him snipe a target who was in the window seat of an airliner; not only is there no spray of blood, but the other passengers on the small jet don't even notice he's dead -- nobody even notices the hole in the plane beyond a comment about a draft.

* ''{{Gundam 00}}'' does this - When Lockon Stratos snipes three terrorist guards and later (very obviously, thanks to a loving close-up) when [[spoiler: Alejandro Corner shoots Aeolia Schenberg]].

* Justified, but hard to believe, in the first story of ''CityHunter''. Hired to kill a boxer who intimidates other boxers into throwing their matches with him (and hurts or kills those who aren't intimidated), Ryo Saeba shoots him in one ear with a golden bullet. Everything, from uncanny aim to speed and metal ductility is studied to splat the target's brain without leaving the slightest external sign. In fact, he just bled a little before dying. Just to raise the hand, the shot is synched with the target's opponent's punch, so that it seems to be a technical KO.
* In ''ToAruMajutsuNoIndex'', when [[spoiler:Accelerator gets shot in the head, he falls, blood pooling behind his head. Still not subverted when he gets up again, even though he is bleeding a lot. Justified in that he activated his powers at the last minute, preventing the bullet from going any further into his brain than it did, though he's still brain damaged afterward.]]

* In ''Manga/DragonBall Z'', one of Princess Snake's servants [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCMXiTYdHc4 shoots herself in the head]] while playing a game of Russian Roulette.
* Happened OnceAnEpisode during the early days of Manga/KatekyoHitmanReborn. Reborn shoots Tsuna in the forehead, a small spurt of blood, and Tsuna goes all Dying Will on whatever is giving him trouble.
* Anime/{{Monster}} does this surprisingly often, although it's heavily implied to be because most of the characters use small pistols, because it's sometimes averted when bigger guns are used.
* The ''Manga/BattleRoyale'' manga ''strongly'' averts this.

* In the ''FateZero'' anime (but not in the original novel), [[spoiler:Ryuunosuke]] dies in this fashion.

* Used in ''YTheLastMan'' but to beautiful effect with the death of [[spoiler: Agent 355.]] Seems fake though, as earlier headshots (such as Hero headshooting a teenage girl on the orders of cult leader Victoria) didn't stint on the gore.
* ''LayerCake'' uses a straight example when the VillainProtagonist kills [[spoiler: his treacherous boss, Jimmy Price]]. Oddly, the original book is a real aversion, and has the protagonist catch blood lust and go out of his way to splatter his victim's head.

* The WesternAnimation/BatmanGothamKnight story "Deadshot" opens with Deadshot killing a politician with a well-aimed sniper shot. The result is a tiny hole in his head and a little blood.
* There's a comic book adaptation of ''ATaleOfTwoCities,'' where [[spoiler: Madame Defarge]]'s death by a pistol shot, point-black, to the forehead, is a [[PrettyLittleHeadshots Pretty Little Headshot]], which somehow also results in BloodFromTheMouth and the nose.
* Averted in "{{Kick-Ass}}" when [[spoiler: Big Daddy is executed by Johnny G's men. His face is drawn being blown out by the gunshot to the back of his head. An eyeball can be spotted, no longer part of his head.]]
* Averted in ''[[ThePunisher The Punisher MAX]]'' which, due to the absence of content restrictions, allows the artists to show exactly what happens when someone is shot in the head. [[http://i.imgur.com/G90IE.png Its not pretty.]]

* In Baz Luhrmann's modernized version of ''WilliamShakespearesRomeoAndJuliet'' Juliet's suicide by hand gun looks like this.

* Partially subverted in Full Metal Jacket. You do not see the exit wound on Leonard Lawrence, a.k.a. "Gomer Pyle", but the wall looks pretty gory after...

* Mostly played straight in ''InBruges''. The first death we see, [[spoiler:a small boy accidentally shot by Ray]], gets the standard pretty dime-sized headshot. Two other deaths [[YourHeadASplode avert this and then some]] but only because of the use of dum-dum bullets.
* ''PiratesOfTheCaribbean: At World's End'', with one of Sao Feng's girls. With a lead ball, no less, from a smooth-bore weapon.
* In the film adaptation of ''Film/{{Watchmen}}'', the assassination of [[spoiler:Moloch]] was clean enough that Rorschach could talk to him at length before realizing his audience was dead, as mentioned above.

* In ''Baader Meinhof Complex'', one of the female protagonists is shot right under her eye, causing only [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic a small trickle of blood]]. The next shot shows that the back of her head is not even bloody.
* Obvious in the film version of ''AngelsAndDemons'', where at one point the viewer can see a head-shot policeman lying on the ground with a neat hole in his forehead.

* In ''SevenPsychopaths'', Charlie shoots Myra in the back of the head. When Hans finds her body, one wall of her hospital room is covered with blood, but she has only a little exit wound in her forehead.
* In ''[[Film/RoboCop1987 RoboCop]]'', Alex Murphy is finally killed by a [[PrettyLittleHeadshots Pretty Little Headshot]]. However, this is subverted in the [[ReCut Director's Cut]]. In this version, for a brief moment, you can see a piece of his head flying out.
** Basically, destroying the only part of his body [[MegaCorp OCP]] needs.
* Seemingly both played straight and averted in ''{{Munich}}''. During one of the reenactment scenes depicting the actual Munich hostage crisis, one of the two men killed in the apartment complex is shot in the head at close range with an AK, yet the resulting bullet wound is fairly small. During the scene in the fictional part of the movie in which the Dutch assassin is shot, the finishing blow is also similar to this. (To be fair, neither time do we actually see the back of the victims' heads, and the re-enactment scenes are allegedly extremely faithful to the real-life events they depict, meaning presumably that the manner of the athletes' deaths were based on real-life autopsies, so this may simply be an example of TruthInTelevision. Also, an earlier scene in which the same man is shot through the side of the mouth graphically averted this trope). In other parts of the film - in both a fictional scene in which Avner shoots a young man at close range with a sniper rifle, and during the reenactment scenes at the airport depicting the Black September hostage-takers being shot by German snipers - this trope is averted, as chunks of the victims' skulls and PinkMist are clearly visible.
* Occurs in ''Film/{{Octopussy}}'' when Bond shoots a Russian soldier dead, complete with surprised expression on the guard's face.

* Happens in ''{{Inception}}'', when Cobb shoots Arthur in the head so the latter can escape from the dream. The result is a neat round wound with little blood.
** Justified in that they are in a dream world

* ''22 Bullets'' has [[JeanReno Charly Matteï's]] 'signature' being a [[PrettyLittleHeadshots Pretty Little Heashot]], followed by a shot the the body.
* In ''YoungGuns'' Murphy is shot by Billy. This is followed by a 20 second slow-mo of him flailing then falling, with a tiny bullet hole precisely in the center of his forehead with just a trickle of blood coming from it.
* Both played straight and averted in ''Film/TheAssassinationOfJesseJames''. When Wood Hite is shot in the head, there is no blood spatter (likely due to continuity) but there is a massive bloody exit wound. During Jesse's death, there is no exit wound but a large bullet hole is present
* Subverted in ''TheDeparted''. After Billy is shot in the head, there is a very large amount of blood spatter on the wall behind him. While we don't see the blood in other instances, a large amount can be seen upon impact
* Subverted in ''{{Goodfellas}}''. When Tommy is shot in the head, there is massive amount of blood. Henry notes that they shot him there so that his mother could not give him an open casket funeral.
* Taken to the extreme in ''{{Ronin}}'', where Gregor is shot in the head at close range by the Russian mobster with a HollywoodSilencer. The bullet not only punches a perfect, bloodless hole in the center of his forehead, it also appears to have ''stopped'' there, the base only millimeters below the skin. Presumably this was meant to imply a very low-powered round intended to be discreet although the bullet could not have penetrated the skull. Nonetheless, Gregor collapses and is shortly found dead on the floor, having bled a small pool from his wound.
* Averted in ''TheSixthSense'', when a ghost says that he knows where his dad keeps his gun. Then he turns around, and the back of his head is in pieces.

* In ''{{Shooter}}'', Mark Whalberg's character is framed for attempting to kill the US President and for killing the Ethiopian Archbishop. In said scene, the shot is taken from a long distance requiring a relatively large bullet, and the movie in fact shows more than just a neat hole, however, in the DVD extras, several comments are made regarding the shot by a weapons coordinator: that at that distance the target wouldn't have even been in the scope's line of sight due to bullet drop and that the actual shot would have been a lot gorier. As in the Archbishop's head being split in half gorier (due to the fact that because of bullet drop the shot wouldn't have been anything resembling a straight line, it would have been more like lobbying a bullet down into his skull).

** [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] by Hitler, Eva, and the secretaries, when they discuss how to commit suicide. Hitler explains - correctly - that putting the barrel of a pistol in your mouth then pulling the trigger will entirely destroy your brain and head. Eva responds by going "eeeeek" and deciding she is going to take poison, so as to leave a pretty-looking corpse.
* Graphically subverted in ''{{Drive}}''. When Christina Hendricks' character gets shot in the head, it basically explodes in a shower of blood. A very shocking moment, given the car-chase action and lack of significant gore up to that point.
* [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] in ''Film/TheRoom'', where [[spoiler: Johnny's bullet-in-the-mouth suicide]] at the end of the film winds up with blood everywhere... including places it couldn't possibly have gotten, [[spoiler: such as the front of his clothes]].

* Quite horribly averted in ''Stiletto'', where Kelly Hu's Detective Hanover is shot in the back of the head. The exit wound blows away half of her face.
* Used in Del Torro's ''PansLabyrinth.'' When the BigBad is cornered by the good guys he is shot in the head from a pistol that was mere inches from his head. The only effects are a tiny bullet hole in his lower face and the blood slowly draining from an eye. His head does not even move as the bullet slams into his face, he just stands there and dies calmly.
* Averted in ''{{Super}}''. When Frank and Bolty are being shot at, they both fall to the ground. When Frank looks over at Bolty all he can see initially is that she's limply lying there. [[spoiler: Until he crawls over and sees a good chunk of her head is missing.]]

* Justified in SpiderRobinson's "Lady Slings the Booze," the sequel to "Lady Callahan's Place." In it, the villain, having failed to hurt a bound [[spoiler: Arethusa]] with his gun (the characters are all wearing a durable, bullet-proof lotion on their skin), shoots her in the mouth. The lotion prevents an exit wound but, the narration explains, causes the bullet to ricochet around in her skull.
* Creator/AgathaChristie uses this in her novel "Curtain: Poirot's Last Case" which sees Poirot race against time to stop a serial killer after a man called Norton is [[PrettyLittleHeadshots murdered]] where he and Hastings are staying. Unfortunately, Poirot dies before the identity of the serial killer is revealed forcing Hastings to continue the case with only the clues Poirot left behind for him. [[spoiler: The headshot turns out to be the clue to the identity of Norton's killer: ''[[TwistEnding Poirot himself]]'' whose legendary fastidiousness caused him to make an unnecessarily symmetrical headshot. Norton was the serial killer who had been trying to brainwash Hastings into committing murder on his behalf. The only way to save Hastings, given that Poirot didn't have enough hard evidence, was for Poirot to kill Norton before Hastings was completely brainwashed and then take his own life to [[HeWhoFightsMonsters avoid the temptation]] of becoming a serial killer himself.]]

* Episode 405 of ''[[AThousandWaysToDie 1000 Ways to Die]]'' ("Death Certificates"), detailed a head-tap assassination with a silenced pistol that had the power to penetrate the skull once but not twice, ricocheting around the inside to scramble the brains of a [[AwfulWeddedLife very unhappily married couple.]]

* The death of Ryan Chapelle in ''[[Series/TwentyFour 24]]'', again shot in the back of the head.

* It was slightly odd considering their usual aversion of the GoryDiscretionShot but in ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', Dean gets shot in Sam's vision; his eyes are open, the blood spray is on the wall but the creepiness is let down somewhat by the tiny hole in his forehead.
** Creator Eric Kripke was amazed that they even got away with that. The full scene, which can be found on the [=DVDs=], actually shows Dean getting shot, instead of just the gun firing then cutting to Dean, dead on the floor.
*** A fifth season episode manages to avert this trope, as a noticeable chunk of the back of the head can be seen flying off the victim. Probably helps that the victim was a reanimated corpse to begin with...
* In ''CriminalMinds'' episode "Omnivore", a woman gets shot in the forehead with a .44 Magnum, and only has a tiny bullet hole with a little blood tricking from it.
** Pretty much the norm for ''Criminal Minds'', even the episode with the sniper.

* In one episode of ''QuantumLeap'', Sam leaps into a coroner who has to investigate the death of a girl who, at first glance, seems to have been shot in the head. One of the things that makes Sam disbelieve this cause of death is the lack of blood and the lack of damage to the other side of the victim's head. Turns out she was ''stabbed'' through the temple with the heel of a high-heel shoe, making a wound that visibly resembled the classic [[PrettyLittleHeadshots Pretty Little Headshot]].
* Averted throughout ''BoardwalkEmpire''.The fact that it is on HBO undoubtedly helps.

* Averted in ''{{Dexter}}'' in which the title character works in Blood Spatter analysis. A Gunshot Suicide is shown to blow out the head and skull and cause massive bleeding.
* ''{{NCIS}}'' is bad for this.
** It's actually played with and [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] with [[spoiler: Kate's death]]. Tony explains to [=McGee=] that while the hole in the forehead can be easily covered up, the back of the head would be a nasty gaping wound. The actual shot did show a decent-sized splash from the back of the head, although only the entry wound is shown to viewers. Tony, who is standing next to [[spoiler:her]], gets blood splattered over his face.
* Averted in ''{{Bones}}'' with the assassination of the Gravedigger, whose head is OBLITERATED, splattering gore all over Sweets, giving him a mild HeroicBSOD.

* In the pilot of ''TheShield'', after Vic shoots Terry Crowley in the face,there is only a small wound with little blood
* In ''TheWire'', [[spoiler: Jelly]] is shot, point blank, in the side of the head facing away from the camera and nothing is visible but a small blood spurt from the other side.

* Averted in one particular episode of ''LawAndOrderSVU'', where a Businesswoman tells everybody off in a press conference, and then bloodily offs herself, ala Bud Dwyer. I saw the possibility of her suicide coming, but wasn't sure it was going to be as bloody as it was, but suffice it to say that wasn't a neat little hole that bullet left.

* ''StrikeBack'' has an affinity for averting this. The most obvious instances include Porter's death and a sniper mook who gets the left side of his skull blown away THROUGH A BRICK WALL! Besides that, point-blank executions tend to be performed from one side, thus guaranteeing that the bullet passes through both lobes (reducing the chances of survival), and distance shots often hit in places other than the usual "center of forehead" (for example, the terrorist leader from episode two, who got shot [[EyeScream through the eye]].)

* In ''Franchise/MassEffect'' series, you can convince a certain enemy near the end to shoot himself with his ultra-high powered energy pistol. The result? His head doesn't show any signs of damage, and when his skeleton is laid bare by another enemy there is a hole... but in an entirely wrong place. Said shot produces a lot of alien blood, but given the lack of hole it is pretty hard to see from where it is coming from.
** ''Mass Effect 2'', during Thane's recruitment mission, an Ecplise mercenary is found shot in the head. Garrus will remark "A perfect headshot, with no collateral damage". As expected, the guy's head is intact, with only some blood-smear on the ground
** [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] by the fact that guns in the Mass Effect series shoot very small and very fast bullets, which would likely be able to penetrate the skull from the inside without blowing a large chunk off; the bullet likely just goes straight through the target's head and trusts to hydrostatic shock to destroy the brain on it's way.

** In VideoGame/MassEffect3 goes to the other extreme on human victims. Any headshot kill pretty much causes the entire head to explode.
* In the ''SoldierOfFortune'' games, the results of a headshot are actually handled comparatively realistically -- even your 9mm pistol leaves very large and ugly entry and exit wounds, and if you use your shotgun, 44 mag or sniper rifle, you blast their head clean off, leaving only a ragged bit of lower skull. The problem comes in that these results occur even [[LudicrousGibs farther away than these weapons would produce such wounds in real life.]]
* Another Unreal-powered franchise, ''GearsOfWar'' plays this trope straight and messily averts it, depending on the weapon. Smaller caliber guns (like the Gorgon Pistol) and automatic weapons (like the Lancer) deal more damage from headshots but don't noticeably damage the body. Powerful weapons (like the [[HandCannon Boltok Pistol]] and Longshot sniper rifle) will cause the target's head to burst like a melon.

* In ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'', Dante is shot in the head repeatedly throughout the series, but it only ever results in a small trickle of blood down his face which quickly heals later. Possibly {{justified|Trope}} by his [[HealingFactor tremendous healing ability]].
** Considering that after one such headshot he pulls the bullet out of the entry wound, it's possible that the bullets don't get very far.
* In ''VideoGame/ConkersBadFurDay'', characters on multiplayer could have their heads blown apart in quarters, either losing 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, or the whole thing, as long as they were Squirrels, Undead or Tediz (Tediz and Undead and could have this happen during "It's War" and "Spooky" single player as well, respectively). Multiplayer characters with smaller heads (weasels or uggas) would always lose their entire head. Squirrels/Undead, in particular, were rather nasty, as the grey matter could be seen from any remnant of the head. All characters would stumble for a few seconds before falling when victims of the headshot.
** Played straight in ''Live & Reloaded'', however, as part of the game's extensive {{Bowdleri|se}}zation.
* ''PerfectDark''. A good headshot close to a wall will leave a huge splash of blood, though engine limitations only show redness on the skull. Oddly, one can let the blood fly even on corpses already, say, sprawled in a chair.
* VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV is, for the most part, a perfect embodiment of this trope - headshots cause a blood splatter and the enemy falls down, disconcertingly intact. One rather classy exception is during a cutscene, when Niko shoots [[spoiler: Vlad]] in the face. Not only does the wound spew an impression fountain of blood, but Niko knows it is coming and shields his face before firing.
** Curiously, one of the earlier games from the same developer, ''{{Manhunt}}'', quite strongly averts this trope.
** And, actually, averted in previous [=GTAs=], where a typical side-quest is to "pop a dozen [random gang] heads with a sniper rifle" and this literally leads to said Mooks heads exploding. It's interesting that ''[=GTA IV=]'', in many ways the most realistic title in the series, went for a less realistic depiction of headshots.

* Played straight and subverted in ''TheConduit.'' In the single-player campaign, getting a headshot on a human with one of the sniper weapons results in a brief, Teen-friendly red spurt and a collapsing body. Do the same with one of the alien Drudge, however, and their heads ''pop off'' with a [[PinkMist fountain of]] [[AlienBlood yellow fluid.]]

* ''SpaceQuest III'' shows this in the HaveANiceDeath box if Roger gets shot by the KillerRobot guarding the grabber.

* ''RedDeadRedemption'' subverts this trope by making any headshot actually create an in-game "model" of an exit and entry wound appear on the head with very grotesque results. This applies to all [=NPCs=], [[CrossesTheLineTwice even women.]]
* ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' games play this straight, with headshots resulting in a splat of blood behind the victim, although one level in ''World At War'' has a Marine taking a round to the head in a landing craft and having his head split open.
** Can also be found in ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps''.

* Extreme in ''{{Section 8}}: Prejudice''. When [[spoiler: Thorne]] is shot in the head, there's no visible damage. To make things worse, this is from a SniperRifle used to fight PoweredArmor that laughs off suborbital insertion.

* Strongly averted in [[VideoGame/Warhammer40000Spacemarine Space Marine]]. Shooting Orks [[spoiler: or Chaos soldiers]] in the head results in serious carnage.

* ''MaxPayne3'' averts it by showing grisly entry and exit wounds if enemies are shot in the head.

* Usually averted in SurvivalOfTheFittest, which tries to be as realistic as possible, there are only two cases where this is played straight, in the case of Andrew Klock and Alan Shinwrath in v1. When they were shot in the face at relatively close ranges (more or less point blank, for Alan), this happened. There was a neat hole in their forehead/between their eyes, some blood, and they fell over. After this though, it was extremely uncommon, since most people on the board learned about the reality of this trope.
* [[spoiler:Elizabeth Avery]] in ''{{lonelygirl15}}''.

* Whenever someone is shot in the head on ''{{Archer}}'', the trope is averted.
** Thankfully, they tend to use [[GoryDiscretionShot discretion shots]], but there's still a lot of blood and PinkMist visible.

* RealLife tends to avert this trope [[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch like a bitch]]. Anyone who has ever been shot in the head doesn't tend to look "pretty" afterward. A look at descriptions of AbrahamLincoln and images of JohnFKennedy post-shooting can tell you that.

* This trope was averted BIG time when it came to the recent shooting death of Osama Bin Laden. While real photos of his corpse have not been released, the description of his body, namely that his brains were hanging out through his eye socket(s) after being shot in the head is enough to prevent anyone from thinking the headshot that killed him was pretty.

* The shot that finished off John Dillinger entered the back of his neck and exited just under his eye. [[http://www.awesomestories.com/assets/dillinger-body-cook-county-morgue These]] [[http://www.awesomestories.com/assets/dillinger-facial-injury-at-death photos]] from the morgue show a very small wound. The recent film ''PublicEnemies'' also portrays the shot this way.

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* ''{{Castle}}'' averts this with one of their victims-of-the-week, who was shot in the face. Said face was obliterated (not shown on screen, thankfully).

* Played straight in ''BurnNotice'' when Michael shoots [[spoiler:Tom Card]].

* Somewhat averted in ''{{Carnivale}}''. After Samson shoots a man in the face,the wound is relatively small but we do see some blood spatter on the fall

* In ''BreakingBad'', this is both prevalent and averted in two separate instances. In "Grilled", when [[spoiler: Tuco is shot in the head by Hank]], there's barely a noticeable wound, just some blood and a small hole. Reversely, in "One Minute", [[spoiler: when Hank shoots Marco in the head (who, interestingly enough, was trying to exact revenge on Hank for doing the same to Tuco)]], the potency of a hollow point bullet is shown, blasting the back of his skull "clean" out.

** In a later episode a character has a small bloody hole in his head after being shot despite that fact that he was shot in the head by a ''.44 magnum revolver'' which should have obliterated his skull.

* In SevenPsychopaths, Charlie shoots Myra in the back of the head. When Hans finds her body, one wall of her hospital room is covered with blood, but she has only a little exit wound in her forehead.

* In ''BaaderMeinhofComplex'', one of the female protagonists is shot right under her eye, causing only [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic a small trickle of blood]]. The next shot shows that the back of her head is not even bloody.

* In ''Film/RoboCop1987'', Alex Murphy is finally killed by a [[PrettyLittleHeadshots Pretty Little Headshot]]. However, this is subverted in the [[ReCut Director's Cut]]. In this version, for a brief moment, you can see a piece of his head flying out.

* In the 1960's Japanese film ''BrandedToKill'', the antihero realizes that the #1 assassin always kills his targets with these. During their final battle, he wears his late girlfriend's hairband over the exact middle of his forehead, [[PocketProtector which deflects the bullet]].

* Played straight in ''PrizzisHonor''. Irene Walker (Kathleen Turner) shoots a woman in the center of the forehead, leaving a neat round hole but no blood.
* In the B-movie ''Guns'', a character played by Allegra Curtis (the daughter of Creator/TonyCurtis) is shot in the forehead. No blood is visible as she topples over backward, but her body is seen a couple of minutes later with blood liberally streaking her face.

* The death of [[spoiler: Reed]] on GreysAnatomy is a perfect example. The effect is much heightened because the viewer had no idea until that moment that the killer even ''had'' a gun; the shooting effectively starts a temporary GenreShift for the entire two-parter.

* Averted in one particular episode of LawAndOrderSVU, where a Businesswoman tells everybody off in a press conference, and then bloodily offs herself, ala Bud Dwyer. I saw the possibility of her suicide coming, but wasn't sure it was going to be as bloody as it was, but suffice it to say that wasn't a neat little hole that bullet left.

** And, actually, averted in previous GTAs, where a typical side-quest is to "pop a dozen [random gang] heads with a sniper rifle" and this literally leads to said Mooks heads exploding. It's interesting that GTAIV, in many ways the most realistic title in the series, went for a less realistic depiction of headshots.

* Whenever someone is shot in the head on {{Archer}}, the trope is averted.

* In the B-movie ''Guns'', a character played by Allegra Curtis (the daughter of TonyCurtis) is shot in the forehead. No blood is visible as she topples over backward, but her body is seen a couple of minutes later with blood liberally streaking her face.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[hottip:Spider-Man:actually ThePunisher]] [-and his-] [[hottip:assistant:some {{mook}}]] [-demonstrating the new and improved [[StanLee Uncle Lee's]] No Mess Bullets[[TradeSnark ™]]!-] ]]

* In ''{{Robocop}}'', Alex Murphy is finally killed by a [[PrettyLittleHeadshots Pretty Little Headshot]]. However, this is subverted in the [[ReCut Director's Cut]]. In this version, for a brief moment, you can see a piece of his head flying out.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[hottip:Spiderman:actually ThePunisher]] [-and his-] [[hottip:assistant:some {{mook}}]] [-demonstrating the new and improved [[StanLee Uncle Lee's]] No Mess Bullets[[TradeSnark ™]]!-] ]]

* In ''ToAruMajutsuNoIndex'', when [[spoiler:Accelerator gets shot in the head, he falls, blood pooling behind his head. Still not subverted when he gets up again, even though he is bleeding a lot.]]

** One of the weirder aversions is ''VideoGame/{{Unreal}}'', where headshots cause the enemy's head to ''shrink'' (watch it in slowmo!). It'd make some sort of sense if you were using a weird tech gun, but no, bullets cause head shrinkage. This is a visual artifact of the rather hacked method used to animate decapitations; since the head is part of the player model, it can't be deleted from the rest of the model on-the-fly, so it's animated to shrink away to nothing in a single frame as the game spawns the actual head gib (which suddenly has blood all over it), but if a modern machine is rendering fast enough, it's visible.
** ''VideoGame/DeusEx'', based on the [[GameEngine Unreal Engine]], was fairly realistic for the time as far as gameplay was concerned. For example, you could shoot someone in their gun arm to make them drop their weapon, and headshots greatly increased the inflicted damage - although some of the tougher enemies could actually survive a headshot if inflicted with a low enough skill level and with a weak gun (and certain important characters, like Alex Jacobson, were immortal). However, graphically, the game was the description of this trope. Point-blank hit to the forehead with an autoshotgun blast? Target falls on the ground in one piece, with the only indication that he's dead being (aside from the obvious stillness) a little pool of blood under his corpse. The game did feature gibbing, but there was no middle level in between "slight bleeding" and "meat chunks all over the place".
*** The sequel was downright stupid as far as headshots were concerned. The only way for headshots to be an instant kill was with the sniper rifle, and even then it had to be zoomed in. You could honestly take a pistol and shoot guy in the head, and they'd only lose a little health. And these weren't BadAss bosses either, these were the civilians! Sometimes even a shotgun took two blasts to the head to kill somebody. There wasn't even blood on the ground anymore. Unlike its predecessor, it has no "good for its time" excuse, considering all the great games that were out that year. This was just downright retarded programming.
**** The game was released in 2003, for those keeping score at home.
***** The latest game in the series, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, subverts this. When Adam Jensen goes to the morgue to obtain the interface from the augmented terrorist, part of his skull and brain have been cleanly blown off, [[GameplayAndStorySegregation but no matter how many times you score headshots on your enemies, their skulls are always intact, no matter the weapon used.]]
** ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament'', though, had the tendency to take off the enemy's head completely with a single, well-placed round.
*** And quite often with clearly ''ill''-placed rounds.
** In ''MassEffect'' series, you can convince a certain enemy near the end to shoot himself with his ultra-high powered energy pistol. The result? His head doesn't show any signs of damage, and when his skeleton is laid bare by another enemy there is a hole... but in an entirely wrong place. Said shot produces a lot of alien blood, but given the lack of hole it is pretty hard to see from where it is coming from.
*** ''Mass Effect 2'', during Thane's recruitment mission, an Ecplise mercenary is found shot in the head. Garrus will remark "A perfect headshot, with no collateral damage". As expected, the guy's head is intact, with only some blood-smear on the ground
*** [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] by the fact that guns in the Mass Effect series shoot very small and very fast bullets, which would likely be able to penetrate the skull from the inside without blowing a large chunk off; the bullet likely just goes straight through the target's head and trusts to hydrostatic shock to destroy the brain on it's way.

** In the ''SoldierOfFortune'' games, the results of a headshot are actually handled comparatively realistically -- even your 9mm pistol leaves very large and ugly entry and exit wounds, and if you use your shotgun, 44 mag or sniper rifle, you blast their head clean off, leaving only a ragged bit of lower skull. The problem comes in that these results occur even [[LudicrousGibs farther away than these weapons would produce such wounds in real life.]]
** Another Unreal-powered franchise, ''GearsOfWar'' plays this trope straight and messily averts it, depending on the weapon. Smaller caliber guns (like the Gorgon Pistol) and automatic weapons (like the Lancer) deal more damage from headshots but don't noticeably damage the body. Powerful weapons (like the [[HandCannon Boltok Pistol]] and Longshot sniper rifle) will cause the target's head to burst like a melon.

***** The latest game in the series, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, averts this. When Adam Jensen goes to the morgue to obtain the interface from the augmented terrorist, part of his skull and brain have been cleanly blown off.

* In ''BreakingBad'', this is both prevalent and heavily averted in two separate instances. In "Grilled", when [[spoiler: Tuco is shot in the head by Hank]], there's barely a noticeable wound, just some blood and a small hole. Reversely, in "One Minute", [[spoiler: when Hank shoots Marco in the head (who, interestingly enough, was trying to exact revenge on Hank for doing the same to Tuco)]], the potency of a hollow point bullet is shown, blasting the back of his skull "clean" out.

* [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] in ''TheRoom'', where [[spoiler: Johnny's bullet-in-the-mouth suicide]] at the end of the film winds up with blood everywhere... including places it couldn't possibly have gotten, [[spoiler: such as the front of his clothes]].

* ''TheMaidenHeist'' opens with a badass gunfight where Christopher Walken takes a bullet to defend his favorite painting, and then puts a bullet in the bad guy's head (a small clean hole) before dying. [[spoiler: it's just an imagined fantasy]]

* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' games play it straight most of the time: headshots with any weapon might get blood, but because enemy corpses remain intact, their heads appear mostly undamaged. ''Halo 3'' and subsequent games, however, include a skull that makes the heads of the weakest enemy, Grunts, explode on headshots... into confetti, accompanied by the sound of cheering children. (Examining the corpse reveals that the head remains unharmed, except for their mouthpieces.)

* ''Series/TheScarletPimpernel'': When [[spoiler:Lord Tony Dewhurst]] is shot in the head, it results in nothing more than a smear of blood on the wall.

* Episode 405 of ''[[AThousandWaysToDie 1000 Ways to Die]]'' ("Death Certificates"), detailed a head-tap assassination with a silenced pistol that had the power to penetrate the skull once but not twice, ricocheting inside the skull to scramble the brains of a [[AwfulWeddedWife very unhappily married couple.]]

* Happens in ''{{Fringe}}'' when one of the characters gets shot in the head, though this may have to do with it being point blank with a silencer.
* Several times in ''TheXFiles'', most notably with [[spoiler:Krycek]]'s death; he's shot in the forehead point-blank, and has only a neat little hole in his forehead when he drops.

* ''TrueBlood'''s deceased vampires aside, the show plays the trope straight in the deaths of [[spoiler:Benedict "Eggs" Talley]], [[spoiler:Sam's shapeshifter friends]] and [[spoiler:Marnie Stonebrook]] but averts it painfully in the death of [[spoiler:Debbie Pelt, who is shot with a shotgun]] ([[spoiler:Sookie is seen picking up bits of Debbie's head, including her jaw]]).