History Main / WeHaveToGetTheBulletOut

** Averted in the first game: [[spoiler: Manfred von Karma]] had a bullet lodged in their shoulder for 15 years. It's incriminating evidence, but they didn't remove it because doing so safely would require a surgery, leaving a medical record. The injury still seems to occasionally bother them, as whenever they're stressed they clutch at the affected shoulder.

* ''Film/DoctorStrange2016'' has a variation, in that the victim seems to already be dead: a patient with a bullet lodged in his brainstem is declared brain-dead, so he's about to have his organs removed for donation. Doctor Strange realizes that the bullet isn't misshapen, meaning that it's been hardened with antimony, which is poisoning the guy; he has to remove the bullet before the patient dies for real.

* Averted variation on ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' in "Officer Blue." Mac needed a bullet that had lodged inside a horse when a mounted officer was shot to death. He knew it would likely kill the animal in the process, but managed to stall the surgery long enough that the horse did survive.

Depending on the time period, however, this can be a JustifiedTrope; historically, a musket ball was made out of lead and would be toxic if left inside. Moreover, the ball would have been moving much more slowly than a modern bullet, as the bullet was a spherical ball, firearms used black powder (which explodes less energetically than the smokeless powder used in modern ammunition), and the seal between the bullet and the barrel of the gun was looser. Between the round shape and the slow speed, most bullets were liable to drag shreds of the victim's clothing into the wound (unlike modern weapons, whose bullets generally snap right through). The bullet would thus have been extracted as part of recovering the clothing fragments, since cloth in a wound was a good way for the wound to get infected -- especially historically, as since most soldiers (and civilians, for that matter) had just one set of clothes which they wore constantly without washing them.[[note]] A) because you'd wash your under-pants and under-shirt, if you had any, instead of the outer clothes and B) because most dyes would dissolve in water and/or soap, which was bad news if you wanted to look good/were relying on the colour of your clothes to help other soldiers identify which country you were fighting for[[/note]] Plus, people often instinctively want to get rid of foreign metal objects causing pain. Similarly, today, bullets still usually contain lead, and studies released in the mid-2010s show that over the long term, bullets left in people's bodies do cause long-term lead poisoning. Consequently, the new medical advice is to remove bullets if doing so does not create much additional risk. There are also cases, particularly in war zones, where people get rockets and grenades fired into them that fail to detonate on impact, in which case they do need to get the projectile taken out asap.

* In ''Film/TheMatrixReloaded'' this trope at first appears to be [[PlayingWithATrope played straight]] when Trinity is shot. Neo notes that "[[CaptainObvious The bullet is still inside]]" and uses his [[RealityWarper One powers]] to reach into her body and pull it out. It quickly becomes a subversion when this does nothing to improve her condition whatsoever [[spoiler:and she dies]]. [[spoiler:Neo then has to use his powers to restart her heart.]]

* ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDead'':

[[folder:Web Original]]

* ''Film/DoctorStrange2016'' has a subversion: a patient with a bullet lodged in his brainstem is declared brain-dead, so he's about to have his organs removed for donation. Doctor Strange realizes that the bullet isn't misshapen, meaning that it's been hardened with antimony, which is poisoning the guy; he has to remove the bullet before the patient dies for real.

* ''Manga/GunslingerGirl''

** Averted in the anime ''Il Teatrino'' when Franco ends up TakingTheBullet for his fellow terrorist Franca. She does an AfterActionPatchUp, but he tells her to leave the bullet in as there's a doctor coming the next day to remove it and he'll be alright until then.

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}''

* Averted with an arrowhead in ''ComicBook/{{Elfquest}}''. Cutter is shot by some humans, and (the tribe lacking a magical healer at the time) taken to the trolls for medical care. The troll elder who treats him warns that the arrowhead is caught under a rib, and that it will probably kill him to dig it out; she also assures him that "My eldest got on fine forever with a bear tooth stuck in his butt." The arrowhead stays where it is for hundreds of years (causing some chronic pain) until the tribe has a magical healer again.

* In ''Film/DeadMenDontWearPlaid'', the female lead ''sucks'' out a bullet the male lead had taken earlier. Not only would this be likely to cause both tissue damage and risk infection from all the saliva, but she would get blood all over herself in the process. Fortunately the movie's realism tends to not be very consistent.
** It's actually down to RuleOfFunny, spoofing the SuckOutThePoison trope.

* Averted in an unusual fashion in ''Film/IronMan''. Tony Stark ends up with his heart damaged by shrapnel, and instead of having the fragments removed, which would endanger his life, he gets an electromagnetic thingamajig implanted to keep the bits from killing him. However, in ''Film/IronMan3'', it's stated Tony probably ''should'' have it removed, he's just afraid of having the surgery, even if the long-term consequences are worse. [[spoiler:He finally goes and does it at the end of the film.]]

* ''Film/MajorPayne'' presents his LoveInterest Emily Walburn with a gift that comes from his heart--a bullet that he dug out of his left ventricle.

* In ''Film/TheMatrixReloaded'' this trope at first appears to be PlayedStraight when Trinity is shot. Neo notes that "[[CaptainObvious The bullet is still inside]]" and uses his [[RealityWarper One powers]] to reach into her body and pull it out. It quickly becomes a subversion when this does nothing to improve her condition whatsoever [[spoiler:and she dies. Neo then has to use his powers to restart her heart.]]
* Justified in ''Film/MaxManus''. The title character is shot when a pistol accidentally discharges in LaResistance safehouse. At first Max thinks he's dying from all the blood, but it turns out the injuries are superficial because the bullet fragmented. However the doctor informs him that he's not able to find all the fragments, which could cause infection if left in place. Max has to be evacuated to neutral Sweden so he can go to a hospital, [[spoiler:and while he's away his best friend Greger is caught in an ambush and killed.]]

* {{Parodied}} in ''Film/TalladegaNightsTheBalladOfRickyBobby'' when the titular character stabs himself in the leg to prove that he's a paraplegic (even though he's really not; he only ''thinks'' he is)--and raises holy hell when it actually hurts. His idiot buddies then try to dig the knife out--[[EpicFail with another knife]].

* Justified in the second book of the ''Literature/ApprenticeAdept'' series: Red has [[spoiler: shot Stile with a bullet that, in Proton, is a tracer for a bomb robot, and in Phaze is a basilisk amulet that will activate the second it gets to Phaze.]]

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''

* ''Series/{{Firefly}}''

* Played with in ''Series/HeroesReborn'', with Farah Nazan, Carlos, Micah and Jose when [[spoiler: Farah is shot. Carlos, Jose, and Micah take her to the hospital, and try to help her. Jose manages to dig the bullets out of her stomach, except since he phases his hand into her chest, then phases the bullets out, it doesn't have the same medical implications as the other methods of bullet removal.]]

* ''Series/TheListener'': ZigZagged in "Desperate Hours," in which Toby and Oz get kidnapped and forced to help a man who was shot. The kidnapper makes Toby perform surgery to remove the bullet, which he believes is the only way to save the man's life, despite the fact that Toby is a ''paramedic''. Toby gets them to call Olivia, an actual surgeon, who advises that the safest way to handle the bullet wound is just to stitch it up and leave the bullet in. Then Toby finds the bullet lodged against an artery; removing it could either be necessary to save him or make things fatally worse. They end up removing the bullet to find little damage in the artery, meaning he's in the clear. [[spoiler:He then goes into cardiac arrest and dies anyway.]]

** In the episode "Death's Door", Sam and Dean take the fact that the hospital staff was not rushing to remove the bullet as confirmation that said staff had given up hope of saving the victim [[spoiler:Bobby Singer. Also, the Reaper that comes for Bobby tells him that the bullet in his head is killing his brain.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Ubersoldier}} II'' have the cutscene after the T9 facility's destruction, where your partner Maria digs out the bullets in you while listening to a briefing. Being an [[SuperSoldier Ubersoldier]], you [[FeelsNoPain don't even flinch]].

* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers''. When Phantom Limb [[EnemyMine rescues Brock Samson]], he gives the following comment:

* In ''Series/{{Castle}}'', Castle becomes an impromptu bullet-remover [[spoiler:for his own father, because going to the hospital would compromise his mission]].

* ''Manga/GunslingerGirl''. Triela has to remove the bullet from her handler Hilshire after he's wounded carrying out an assassination mission. With a pocket knife, in a hotel room, without anesthetic.

* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}''. Sterling gets shot by border patrol and is taken to an unlicensed Mexican veterinarian. He removes the bullets and sets Archer up on an IV... only to tell him none of what he did helped at all and he needs to see a real doctor as quickly as possible.

* ''Final Justice'' (no, not the Western movie, the early Creator/StephenChow flick - [[https://hkmdb.com/db/movies/view.mhtml?id=7042&display_set=eng this one]]) has a SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome take on the trope. Sergeant Cheung (Creator/DannyLee, who keeps playing policemen) shoots Bull, one of the bad guys in the chest with a pistol, and in a later scene Bull is being treated by his buddies Judge and Chicken, including trying to dig the bullet out his chest. Alas, even with the bullet removed Bull ''still'' dies of blood loss and pre-existing injuries.

* After the first shootout of ''Film/TheKiller'', Ah Jong has some bullets taken out of him by Fung Sei at the church. It is ''painful as hell''. The same thing happens again when Jong gets a bullet in his arm in the beach chalet shootout, this time with Inspector Lee doing the digging out.

** Averted in the first game: [[spoiler: Manfred von Karma]] had a bullet lodged in their shoulder for 15 years. It's incriminating evidence, but they didn't remove it because doing so safely would require a surgery, leaving a medical record. The injury still seems to occasionally bother him, as whenever he's stressed he clutches at the affected shoulder.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'', Marcus the Mutant carries a substantial amount of munitions in his hide. If you bring him to the leading doctor in Vault City (which requires substantial authority, as mutants are usually not allowed inside), the doctor will dig out several dozen rounds (fully reusable) of various ammunition and an undetonated frag grenade. The doctor mentions that Marcus was in a very real risk of suffering fatal lead poisoning.

* When Wild Bill Hickok was murdered, the bullet passed through his head and lodged in the wrist of another man at the table. The man left the bullet there the rest of his life, and apparently reveled in the fact that he had the bullet that killed Wild Bill in his arm.

* ''Film/HowToBlowUpAPipeline'': Rowan digs the bullet out of her boyfriend Logan's arm and bandages the wound, apparently with no lasting negative effects. In their case, they can't go to a hospital since the police would be told and they could be connected to the bomb plot because of it.

** A GoldenAge story had Robin getting a bullet out of Batman's shoulder.

* In ''VideoGame/FarCry2'', when a player's health drops to a critical level they must perform emergency first aid before they bleed out by, of all things, ripping/cutting bullets out of their body with pliers or a knife, accompanied by a blood spurt. Then again, another healing animation involves resetting the ulna bone that is poking out of the elbow socket, so it's not like this game can really double as a trauma surgeon simulation.
** ''VideoGame/FarCry3'' and ''VideoGame/FarCry4'' take it even farther, as Jason and Ajay can be seen prying bullets out of their skin with dirty sticks or their own teeth.