History Main / ShotToTheHeart

** For a chemical weapon that among other nasty side effects "melts your skin off."

[[folder:Literature]]
* Averted in ''The Sign of Fear'' by Robert Ryan. When an elderly Franchise/SherlockHolmes collapses of a heart attack, Dr. Watson gives him a misting vapour of nitroglycerine, followed a dose of atropine. He's heard of the use of adrenaline but knows you have to be exact with the dosage, and Watson is working on the floor of his house, not in a surgery.
* In ''Literature/MaximumRide'''s ''Fang'' novel, Max, who is AfraidOfNeedles, stabs one into Fang's heart after he dies from a reaction to the sedative. He survives.
* In the ''Literature/CalLeandros'' novel ''Downfall'', Cal needs a large adrenaline injection in order to use his [[TheFairFolk Auphe]] powers and suggests a Shot to the Heart. Robin helpfully explains exactly how much of a bad idea that would be.
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* In an issue of ''Franchise/{{Batman}}: Legends of the Dark Knight'', Joker ends up near death after accidentally getting a dose of his own poison. He has also planted a bomb somewhere, so saving his life is actually warranted to find it. One of the first things done to him in the hospital is an injection of adrenaline straight into the heart. He flatlines, is resuscitated by the help of a MagicalDefibrillator, and then gets a ''second'' shot of adrenaline to the heart, which actually does revive him this time.

* In ''Film/TheRock,'' Creator/NicolasCage does the self-administered version to counter the effects of poison gas. At least he uses the right drug. Rather than epinephrine, he injects atropine, which along with pralidoxime and possibly diazepam is the correct treatment. Just not directly to the heart.

* Variant: In ''[[Literature/{{Twilight}} Breaking Dawn]]'', Edward injects vampire venom directly into [[spoiler:Bella]]'s heart in an attempt to [[spoiler:save her life after a difficult childbirth]].

* Almost done in the comedy ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senseless Senseless]]''. [[CloudCuckooLander Tim]] is a medical student who thinks Darryl might be [=ODing=] on heroin. (He's not.) Still doesn't make sense; if Tim's far enough in his studies, he should know it won't work. If he's not that far, then he shouldn't be trying.
* ''Film/ResidentEvilTheFinalChapter''. Alice is knocked unconscious by a BoobyTrap and wakes up in a dark room where a nasty-looking man is about to stab her with a syringe. Things are understandably tense until the man reveals he was actually trying to revive her with an adrenaline shot.

* In the season 1 finale of ''{{Series/Nikita}},'' [[spoiler:Amanda does this to revive Alex after killing her with the Kill Chip.]] It was the only way to set her free...

* ''Series/PersonOfInterest''. In a WhoDunnitToMe plot, the [[VictimOfTheWeek POI]] has been fatally poisoned, and as they're driving to the VillainOfTheWeek's house, says he just wants to live long enough to look his murderer in the eye. Shortly after, the man in the back with the POI shouts that he just died. Reese pulls over and injects the POI in the heart, keeping him alive long enough to confront his murderer (and witness his KarmicDeath).

* ''VideoGame/BattlefieldBadCompany'' forgoes the usual RegeneratingHealth for an auto-injector that refills Marlowe's health when he stabs himself straight in the chest with it. The auto-injector always refills his health to full and replenishes itself after a relatively short time, making it a wonder why medical technology continues to exist in the Bad Company universe.

* ''Videogame/{{PlayerUnknownsBattlegrounds}}'' has an adrenaline syringe available in airdrops and now very rarely spawned. It is a much more potent boost item than the painkillers or energy drink, and fits this trope because the usage animation appears to be your hands stabbing you in the chest with it.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' episode "Rixty Minutes", we see an alternate universe Jerry who never married Beth and became a super-famous actor (if the movies we see in this universe are any indication, Creator/TomHanks levels of famous actor). At one point, we see this Jerry on copious amounts of several substances, including a hypodermic needle sticking out of his chest (indicating this treatment was done to him off-screen).

-> ''"Zoe flat-lines and gets the Adrenaline-in-the-Heart treatment. Mal follows suit with the self-administered Adrenaline-in-the-Heart. ('''Medical note''' -- Records show this is becoming televised treatment of choice as it was also applied in the second season's première of Series/{{Alias}})."''

The trope was made popular by 1994's ''Film/PulpFiction'' when hitman Vincent Vega does it to save the life of Mia Wallace, who has OD'd on heroin and also happens to be his boss's wife. Today it's right up there with a [[InstantDramaJustAddTracheotomy tracheotomy]] when you need some [[RuleOfDrama drama]], but in reality, this is generally a [[WorstAid very bad idea]] and almost never practiced by medical personnel. The one exception is traumatic cardiac arrest; while cardiac arrest due to a non-traumatic cause is managed with [[CPRCleanPrettyReliable CPR]], traumatic arrest is sometimes managed with thoracotomy. Thoracotomy is a surgery that exposes the heart for direct cardiac massage, and epinephrine can be injected directly into the heart at this time. Intracardiac injection was practiced for nontraumatic cardiac arrest throughout the 1960's, but use declined in the 1970s as better forms of rapid vascular access were developed. In addition, intracardiac injection risks damaging a [[HollywoodHeartAttack coronary artery]] and requires a pause in chest compressions.

* Steven Prince, a friend a Creator/MartinScorsese and former drug addict and roadie, claims that he did exactly this to an overdosing woman and saved her life. He told his story to Scorsese on camera in a series of interviews that Scorsese turned into a documentary in 1978 but never widely released, causing the story to remain obscure until many years after its adaptation in ''Pulp Fiction''.

* Averted in ''The Sign of Fear'' by Robert Ryan. When an elderly Franchise/SherlockHolmes collapses of a heart attack, Dr. Watson gives him a misting vapour of nitroglycerine, followed a dose of atropine. He'd heard of the use of adrenaline but knows you have to be exact with the dosage, and he's working on the floor of his house, not in a surgery.

* ''Series/PersonOfInterest''. In a WhoDunnitToMe plot, the [[VictimOfTheWeek POI]] has been fatally poisoned, and as they're driving to the BigBad's house, says he just wants to live long enough to look his murderer in the eye. Shortly after, the man in the back with the POI shouts that he just died. Reese pulls over and injects the POI in the heart, keeping him alive long enough to confront his murderer (and witness his KarmicDeath).

----

** ''Series/Andor'': At the climax of the Aldhani arc, the heist crew blasts off in a stolen freighter, and the g-forces cause an unsecured trolley of credits to roll into and crush Nemik, the only person who can guide the freighter through the meteor shower they're using to cover their escape. As Nemik starts fading, Vel stabs him in the chest with a brutal-looking 'med-spike', returning him to consciousness and lucidity long enough to do the deed -- which makes Cassian demand to know what she just injected him with, implicitly because given how badly he's injured anything that can revive him like that can only be damaging him even further.

'''Dr. Spaceman:''' I'd love to but we have no way of knowing where the heart is.

* In ''Videogame/Left4Dead2'' the Adrenaline Shot is a powerup that allows the player to do things speedier for a short time as well as giving a modest (but not as high as Pain Pills) temporary health boost. The first person animation for administering Adrenaline seems to play it straight with a downward jab towards the chest, though in third person the Survivors are seen injecting themselves in the leg instead.

* At one point in ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare3'', you need to press X to do this to Soap.

* ''Videogame/KaneAndLynchDeadMen'' has the player or an AI controlled teammate did this if a character is downed. It can be done any time, but down too often and the character overdosed and died, requiring to reload to checkpoint.

* In ''Videogame/Left4Dead2'' the Adrenaline Shot is a powerup that allows the player to do things speedier for a short time as well as giving a modest (but not as high as Pain Pills) temporary health boost.

The trope was made popular by 1994's ''Film/PulpFiction'' when hitman Vincent Vega does it to save the life of Mia Wallace, who has OD'd on heroin and also happens to be his boss's wife. Today it's right up there with a [[InstantDramaJustAddTracheotomy tracheotomy]] when you need some [[RuleOfDrama drama]], but in reality, this is a [[WorstAid very bad idea]] and no longer practiced by actual medical personnel.

* The trope namer is, of course, Music/BonJovi's "You Give Love A Bad Name".

A subtrope of ArtisticLicenseMedicine. Compare HealingShiv. See also InstantDramaJustAddTracheotomy and MagicalDefibrillator for similar use of emergency medical procedures for drama. [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] shooting someone in the heart with a weapon.

* ''American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince'': This unreleased Martin Scorsese documentary from 1978 consists of anecdotes from the eponymous Prince, a former drug addict and roadie. He recounts saving an overdosed woman's life by injecting her in the heart with adrenaline, using a marker to mark the spot to plunge the needle. It's widely believed that the famous depiction in ''Pulp Fiction'' was lifted whole cloth from this film.

* ''American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince'': This unreleased Martin Scorsese documentary consists of anecdotes from the eponymous Prince, a former drug addict and roadie. He recounts restarting an overdosed woman's heart by injecting her in the heart with adrenaline, using a marker to mark the spot to plunge the needle. It's widely believed that the famous depiction in ''Pulp Fiction'' was lifted whole cloth from this film.
* ''Film/WakingLife'' features a scene in which Steven Prince recounts the real-life anecdote he'd previously told in ''American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince'' and which inspired the famous shot to the heart scene in ''Pulp Fiction''.

* People with severe allergies generally keep an emergency kit with an epinephrine autoinjector, but it is administered to the thigh muscle (self-administration for adults and older children) or buttock muscle (parent-administered on a non-cooperative child), ''definitely'' not into the heart.
* Needle thoracostomy, which is a reasonably common emergency field treatment for a collapsed lung, ''looks'' like a Shot To The Heart, in that it involves stabbing a gigantic needle into a patient's chest. However, the needle goes into the upper chest just below the collarbone, ''never'' anywhere near the heart, and doesn't contain anything - it's left open to vent excess air out of the chest cavity.
* A constant reminder to soldiers during NBC (Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical) warfare training: Do NOT inject yourself or anyone else in the heart. Stick the auto-injector into the thigh or buttocks, instead.
* Injecting potassium directly into the heart is one way that veterinarians euthanize small sedated animals, as it swiftly halts heart contractions. Similarly, potassium can be injected into the human heart to stop it during cardiac surgery.
* Despite the glaring flaws in the trope, some documented cases of people being revived by shots of adrenaline to the heart do exist. The most famous example is likely Nikki Sixx of the 1980s hair band Mötley Crüe, who in 1987 overdosed on heroin and was legally dead for two minutes before being revived with two shots to the heart by a paramedic. Granted this is an EXTREMELY lucky and rare instance, but the fact that it exists is worth noting all the same.

The trope was made popular by 1994's ''Film/PulpFiction'' when hitman Vincent Vega does it to save the life of Mia Wallace, who has OD'd on heroin and also happens to be his boss's wife. Today it's right up there with a [[InstantDramaJustAddTracheotomy tracheotomy]] when you need some [[RuleOfDrama drama]], but in reality, this is a '''''[[WorstAid very bad idea]]''''' and a good way to kill your patient. While epinephrine is used to treat several ailments from anaphylactic shock to cardiac arrest, no doctor since about 1990 would ''ever'' treat a patient by stabbing them in the heart with a giant needle, and even if they would, no one in their right mind would ever deliver the drug by punching the patient in the chest to force the needle in, as this risks fracturing bones, bruising or puncturing internal organs, and initiating [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commotio_cordis commotio cordis]], a potentially lethal scenario where the heart is shocked into a form of ventricular fibrillation. In these cases, your odds of dying can be as high as 65% even with CPR and defibrillation, with the odds of dying rising to a massive 80% if these methods aren't available to save the patient.

In the past, an intra-cardiac injection ''was'' used very sparingly, but only by trained medical personnel, only if the heart was ''completely'' stopped and only if every other option was exhausted. In a modern hospital, if you need a drug to get to the heart quickly, it goes into a vein, with chest compressions used to move the blood in the event of cardiac arrest. If there's no venous access, some drugs may be squirted into the endotracheal tube and blown down into the lungs, where the tiny blood vessels that pick up oxygen can also pick up the drug.

* As shown in the page image, in ''Film/PulpFiction,'' Vincent does this to Mia since they don't want a drug lord's wife going to the hospital with an OD. In reality, she almost certainly would have died unless 911 was called. The epinephrine may have restarted her stopped heart, but it would do nothing about the heroin still in her system, and she'd probably be tachycardic from the epi. The primary cause of death in a heroin overdose is ''respiratory'' failure; the heart only stops when the brain dies due to the lack of oxygen. In real life, one of the primary treatments for heroin OD is a large injection of ''naloxone'', which temporarily reverses respiratory failure caused by opioid overdose. But, like epi, you slam naloxone into a vein or a large peripheral muscle and very much not into the heart.

** Epi-Pens and other epinephrine auto-injectors also use spring-loaded wide needles that are large and strong enough to go through clothing.
** As a final aversion to the trope: Epi-Pen needles are only ~15 mm long. By design, this is long enough to punch through cloth and skin to muscle, but too short to reach someone's heart or anything else inside their ribcage.

The trope was made popular by 1994's ''Film/PulpFiction'' when hitman Vincent Vega does it to save the life of Mia Wallace, who has OD'd on heroin and also happens to be his boss's wife. Today it's right up there with a [[InstantDramaJustAddTracheotomy tracheotomy]] when you need some [[RuleOfDrama drama]], but in reality, this is a '''''[[WorstAid very bad idea]]''''' and a good way to kill your patient. While epinephrine is used to treat several ailments from anaphylactic shock to cardiac arrest, no doctor since about 1990 would ''ever'' treat a patient by stabbing them in the heart with a giant needle. In the past, an intra-cardiac injection ''was'' used very sparingly, but only by trained medical personnel, only if the heart was ''completely'' stopped and only if every other option was exhausted. In a modern hospital, if you need a drug to get to the heart quickly, it goes into a vein, with chest compressions used to move the blood in the event of cardiac arrest. If there's no venous access, some drugs may be squirted into the endotracheal tube and blown down into the lungs, where the tiny blood vessels that pick up oxygen can also pick up the drug.

* Reviving another player in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil6'' shows a short sequence of you kneeling by their side, then stabbing them in the chest with... something. Whilst they're still conscious. It's never made clear what's being used - it could even possibly be an empty fist being punched into the chest in a very misguided attempt at CPR. Again, on a conscious patient able to call for help.

* In an issue of ''Franchise/{{Batman}}: Legends of the Dark Knight'' Joker ends up near death after accidentally getting a dose of his own poison. He has also planted a bomb somewhere, so saving his life is actually warranted to find it. One of the first things done to him in the hospital is an injection of adrenaline straight into the heart. He flatlines, is resuscitated by the help of a MagicalDefibrillator, and then gets a ''second'' shot of adrenaline to the heart, which actually does revive him this time.