This is a page for the wick check of Improbable Cover. Improbable Cover is basically just a worse, starving version of Concealment Equals Cover, and it only has 31 unique wicks despite being made in 2011. It doesn't seem to have anything unique going for it - it describes how jumping behind flimsy cover will still protect you from a movie explosion, but this is explicitly included in the description of Concealment Equals Cover. I recommend that the page be cut and all wicks moved to Concealment Equals Cover.
Wicks checked: 31/31.
Unique Use (does not fall under Concealment Equals Cover) (3/31, 9.6%)
- Film.Independence Day: Improbable Cover: Every time there's an explosion that the heroes escape, they do so by this trope. The most blatant is the tunnel one: Jasmine, Dylan and Boomer hiding in a maintenance room inside the tunnel could be plausible... if not for the door that remains open with a wall of fire running through and somehow not entering the room. Perhaps not Concealment Equals Cover, as they're not entirely concealed from the explosion.
- Film.The Day After Tomorrow: Improbable Cover: They outrun an oncoming ice storm, and escape it by closing a pair of doors.
- Predictably, the closed doors don't really help much. They don't actually stop the ice from getting in, only managing to delay it for about a minute at the most before the door themselves freeze over. Subverted trope. If Concealment Equals Cover only covers ammo, shootouts, and explosions, then it wouldn't count.
- Improbable Cover: In the first season finale of The Walking Dead, Dale and Andrea survive the explosion of the CDC by flattening themselves against a pile of sandbags. Not Concealment Equals Cover - they are not explicitly concealed from the blast.
Overlaps with Concealment Equals Cover (19/31, 61.2%)
- Castle.Tropes E To L: Improbable Cover: In the two-parter "Tick, Tick, Tick..." and "Boom!", Beckett survives her apartment being blown up by diving into her bathtub just as the bomb went off. More justified in this case since her tub is one of those old cast iron jobs. Concealment Equals Cover. She's concealed, and it creates unrealistic cover.
- Film.Die Hard: Improbable Cover: Mc Clane builds a homemade bomb and tosses it down an elevator shaft. When it goes off, a blast of fire shoots upward toward him. He survives by stepping to the side of the door. Concealment and cover. Concealment Equals Cover
- Film.Double Team: Improbable Cover: The heroes hide behind a coke machine and survive despite roaring walls of flame on either side. Possibly a moment of genre-savvy. Concealment Equals Cover
- Film.Hot Fuzz: Improbable Cover: A massive explosion that takes out a whole building is survived by the people inside it. They do this by hiding behind some Cold War surplus office furniture—and exactly how they did this is 'explained' in the extras. Concealment Equals Cover. It's worth noting that Hot Fuzz also has a separate entry for Concealment Equals Cover.
- Film.Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull: Improbable Cover: Indy survives a nuke by hiding in a refrigerator. Given the fridge is lead, it and the house would have absorbed much of the impact of the blast, so it’s possible Indy could have survived if not for the fridge being flung hundreds of yards in the air. Concealment Equals Cover
- Film.Tremors 2 Aftershocks: Improbable Cover: Subverted when Earl sets Burt's whole truck—packed with explosives—to explode. When the others hide behind a nearby building, Burt shouts at them to "Keep running!". They look at Earl, who replies "Burt knows his bombs". After quite a bit more running, they find a ditch, which, combined with the distance, provides sufficient cover. In the subsequent explosion, the aforementioned building is indeed blasted to bits along with the rest of the base. Subversion of Concealment Equals Cover - the concealment, in this case the building, would not have acted as cover for the explosion.
- Franchise.Predator: Improbable Cover: In the first film, Dutch lives through a small nuclear (?) explosion at close range because he ducked behind some cover. In the second film, Lieutenant Harrigan survives the exhaust blast of a Predator ship taking off by doing the same thing. Concealment Equals Cover
- GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019.Tropes I To P: Improbable Cover:
- Played Straight when Rodan kicks up winds powerful enough to send buses flying into the air like leaves: Barnes, Martinez and a local mother take cover behind the wall of a building which somehow doesn't collapse on them under these, again bus-hurtling, winds. Concealment Equals Cover
- Subverted during the Final Battle when Madison runs to the Russells' Boston home and seeks shelter from the battling Titans: the house she takes refuge in crumbles on top of her. Concealment Equals Cover
- Manga.Barefoot Gen: Improbable Cover: Gen survives the detonation of the nuclear bomb simply because he was near a brick wall which protected him from the heat wave. The people around him were not so lucky. Even more terrifying because it actually happened to the author... Concealment Equals Cover
- Recap.Star Wars Forces Of Destiny S 1 E 6 The Imposter Inside: Improbable Cover: Ahsoka improvises a cover for Padmé out of the table, and it holds up against blaster shots. Concealment Equals Cover
- Series.Tokumei Sentai Gobusters: Improbable Cover: Ryuji uses a table in #1 to block a bullet attack from the Monster of the Week. Said monster has an arm that can cut through a car with no effort. This one was actually put as a bullet point underneath Concealment Equals Cover. Concealment Equals Cover
- Series.Wonder Woman 1975: Improbable Cover: In "Mind Stealers from Outer Space", the aliens demolish the building that Wonder Woman and Andros are inside of. The next scene, they're climbing out of the rubble with bonus points for the dirt forcefield clearly in display. Concealment Equals Cover
- Improbable Cover: In Eraser, John Kruger is trying to protect an important witness from an assassination team. One of the assassin's throws a grenade into the kitchen, and John quickly opens the door to shield them both from the blast. The grenade apparently creates zero shockwave, but does, at least, pin John's hand to the fridge door with shrapnel. Concealment Equals Cover
- Improbable Cover: In the Castle two-parter "Tick, Tick, Tick..." and "Boom!", Beckett survives her apartment being blown up by diving into her bathtub just as the bomb went off. More justified in this case since her tub is one of those old cast iron jobs. Concealment Equals Cover
- Improbable Cover: In Mass Effect 3, one mission involves traversing the maintenance tunnels along side an enormous spaceship-sized railgun. Each time it fires, an intense electric shockwave pulses down the tunnel. Luckily you can avoid all damage kneeling behind anything waist-high, when in reality just touching anything metallic (i.e. everything there) would be enough to kill you. Concealment Equals Cover
- Improbable Cover: In Helldivers 2, as long as there's no direct line between you and an explosive shockwave, you'll be fine. This can border from the "yeah, that makes sense" line (hiding behind a vending machine will protect you from grenade explosions) to "wait, that doesn't make sense" (hiding behind a waist high rock will protect you from massive artillery explosions, but only if you're duckingnote ) to "there's no possible way that makes sense" (hiding behind a waist high wall of metal can protect you from getting knocked down by the blast wave from a nuclear missile). Concealment Equals Cover
- Improbable Cover: The AI of Half-Life 2 takes a page from The Ravenous Blugbatter Beast of Traal; if you can't see it, it can't see you. This means a paint can counts as cover.
Concealment Equals Cover, literally. - Improbable Cover: 1920s bon vivant Harry Crosby was an ambulance driver during WWI. On the way to the front, his ambulance was hit by a German shell and blown to small pieces. Crosby was completely unscratched. It's likely it messed his head up, though. Concealment Equals Cover
- Improbable Cover: Footage of a journalist in the September 11 attacks ducking behind a car to shield himself from the smoke and rubble. Concealment Equals Cover
Misuse (2/31, 6.5%)
- Anime.Kaze No Yojimbo: Improbable Cover: George hides under a viewing platform to avoid shotgun fire in Episode 2 even though the area he's hiding in is in full view of the shooter's vantage point. This is neither of these tropes, which are both about concealment being unusually strong against attacks or explosions. This seems more like Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy to me.
- Improbable Cover: Real bombs shockwaves are tricky things. Running down a side street won't save you if you are still within the danger area - the shockwave spreads out along any route offering least resistance. However when IRA terrorists bombed Manchester City centre, a traditional red telephone box suffered no damage apart from a cracked pane of glass, despite being well inside the cordon, and more extensive damage being wrought around it. No one was inside the telephone box, so I don't think it counts as "cover".
ZCE (7/31, 22.6%)
- Characters.Elden Ring Enemies And Bosses: Improbable Cover: The shields used by the Beastmen are actually just shards taken from a large broken jar. The description of the shield even remarks that the Beastmen seem to make large jars for the sole purpose of using them as shields. Doesn't explain if the jar shards are actually as fragile as actual ceramic or if they actually make good shields.
- Characters.Iron Kingdoms: Improbable Cover: His feat and spell does this. There's nothing here.
- Film.Dantes Peak: Improbable Cover: Harry, Mayor Wando and her kids escape the eruption of the titular volcano by hiding in a mine. Why is this cover improbable? Was the mine on the volcano?
- Film.Predator: Improbable Cover: Dutch lives through a small nuclear explosion at close range because he ducked behind some cover. I think the type of unrealistic cover should still be specified. Maybe it was a nuclear bunker.
- LetsPlay.HAT Films: Improbable Cover: In the second episode of their "Race for the wool" match against Lewis Brindley, Duncan Jones, Sips and Sjin, Ross finds himself pinned by arrow fire and decides to wall himself off with blocks of TNT. Doesn't explain why this is improbable cover for arrow fire - arrows don't usually create sparks.
- MassEffect.Tropes I To L: Improbable Cover: True of most "heavy" weapons, including rocket launchers, anti-materiel rifles, and grenades: all of them are stopped by the flimsiest of cover. However, in Mass Effect 3, enemies have learned to throw grenades behind your cover — and you can return the favor by grabbing a heavy sniper rifle and sniping enemies through cover. Needs to elaborate on why the cover is flimsy
- VideoGame.Half Life 2: Improbable Cover: Against advanced AI, the only thing you can do is hide. Weblinks Are Not Examples
Unsorted (wicks) (0/31)
Unsorted (on-page examples) (0/31)
