History Main / BoomHeadshot

* A non-lethal variation occurs in ''Film/HomeAlone1'', where Kevin [=McCallister=] manages to drive away Marv by shooting him between the eyes with a b.b. gun when he pokes his head through a doggie door.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS12E11BriansABadFather Brian's a Bad Father]]", Quagmire shoots [[{{Jerkass}} Peter]] through the skull (with [[EyeScream his eyeball popping out]]) as payback for getting shot in the arm by him. Peter does survive, though is left in a crippled state.

* ''Film/GoodFellas'': The murder of [[HairTriggerTemper Tommy [=DeVito=]]] is carried out via a bullet to the head; Tommy himself kills a henchman the same way one scene prior.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Cyberpunk}}'', headshots are either the best or worst combat option. There is an attack penalty, but most [=PCs=] are skilled enough at gunplay that missing is rare. On the other hand, helmets tended to be much sturdier than body armour, so the chance of doing damage is reduced. But it's often worth it since headshots give the possibility of an instant kill if your gun is powerful enough.

* In ''TabletopGame/HcSvntDracones'' a headshot deals triple damage if they're not wearing a helmet, but requires three successes on a Single Shot, in which case you don't get any extra dice for your gun's rate of fire and have to rely on your Trait dice (which have an unaugmented max of three dice). But you can still hit them somewhere else unarmored with just two successes, and the [[SniperRifle H-101 Long-arm]] deals 15 damage per hit, more than any other gun short of the [[{{BFG}} V-801 Mag-Lance]].

* A combat technique of the same name in ''TabletopGame/PsionicsTheNextStageInHumanEvolution'' allows you to aim at an opponent's head. You get a penalty to the attack but it does double damage if it hits.
* This is a called shot in TabletopGame/ShadowRun.

* Subverted in ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'', many Titans get their heads blown off by explosive cannon shells, but they survive and regenerate. The only way to kill them is to slice (or punch, if you're the Rogue Titan) off a small area at the base of the neck. Turns out that Titan brains are located in their spines. Then played straight later on in the series, with the arrival of the 1st Central Squad. Their custom CoolGuns are designed for blowing a sizable chunk out of a human target's head, which they quickly display by shooting several unlucky soldiers in the head.

** [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing Lady Une]] is no slouch in crazy headshots either.

* Before the beginning of Thomas Bernhard's grim novel ''The Lime Works'', the main character, who is a typical Bernhard character in that he's a dark and tortured DitzyGenius, has [[WhatTheHellHero shot his paraplegic wife in the head with the carbine he fitted to her wheelchair so she could fend off burglars.]]

* ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} splatters ComicBook/WerewolfByNight's head with a shotgun for sleeping with his wife.
* ''ComicBook/TheF1rstHero'': In Issue #1, [[TheProtagonist Jake Roth]]'s friend Yoshi gets shot in the head, which alerts everyone of a sniper in the area.

* ComicBook/IronMan is forced to do this to Mallen in the ''Extremis'' storyline to take him down for good. Tony's so pissed off having done this that he kicks Mallen's lifeless body in total spite. This is also how Obadiah Stane dies. Confronted by a recently returned Tony Stark armed with the Silver Centurian Armor and unable to fight Tony with his massive armor, he blasts his own head to spite Tony and rob him of a victory.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Justice League 300|0}}1'' Superman spends so much time boasting how he's going to kill a couple of aliens that they shut him up by doing this.

* In issue #10 of ''ComicBook/MegaManArchieComics'', After defeating Heat Man and taking his weapon, Mega Man shoots him point-blank in the face, with an evil smile. This clued Dr. Light and the others that something was very wrong with Mega Man.
* ComicBook/{{Preacher}} is in LOVE with this trope. The results of headshots are always shown in the most graphic detail with skulls being obliterated, along with showing the victim's brains and eyeballs flying everywhere. Including a few darkly humorous scenes in which characters are shown surviving headshots despite having their entire jaw completely blown off.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'' story arc ''ComicBook/DeathAndTheFamily'', an ant-like monster is about to sting Gangbuster when ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'s heat-vision blows its head up.

* Subverted in ''ComicBook/TheTransformersIDW'' Spotlight: Hardhead. Hardhead is shot point-blank in the face by a mind-controlled Nightbeat and shrugs it off completely while pointing out that he has a MeaningfulName.
* ''ComicBook/TheTransformersTillAllAreOne'': Has Ironhide defeat [[CombiningMecha Bruticus]] by launching a rocket into the giant's visor blowing his head apart and forcing him to separate into his individual components.

** ''ComicBook/TheUltimates'':
*** Black Widow managed to escape from the defeat of the Liberators at the end of vol. 2, but Hawkeye hunted her, found her, and killed her with a shot to the head. Still, she was DefiantToTheEnd.
*** Hawkeye killed the man in the lobby of the building (actually an alien) with an arrow to the head.
*** Nick Fury tried to kill Herr Kleiser this way. But, as he's Made of Iron, it was OnlyAFleshWound.
** ''ComicBook/{{Ultimatum}}'': Cyclops was killed with one by the end of the story.

** Wallflower of the Comicbook/NewXMenAcademyX was shot through the head by a sniper as part of Stryker's preparations to attack the Xavier School in the aftermath of Comicbook/HouseOfM.
** Comicbook/{{Wolverine}}'s adamantium-reinforced skull ''prevents'' this. Shooting him in the head is only likely to piss him off. By contrast, his daughter/OppositeSexClone, Comicbook/{{X 23}}'s, skull is not. As a consequence, a headshot is just as messy for her as it would be for any normal person. However because of her HealingFactor she'll get back up again, and ''then'' come gut you. In ''All-New Wolverine'' she even has a WakingNonSequitur while her brain is knitting back together after being sniped. She delivers them, too. In ''Target: X'' she drills a helicopter pilot right between the eyes (Laura was on the ground, the chopper pilot was ''in the air''). She also uses this as an execution method with her claws against a Purifier goon during Second Coming.

** In Episode 23, a group of Misurugi citizens demand that Ange rescues them, even after they turned their back on her after she was outed as a Norma. She replies by blowing the brains out of one of them, sending the others running for their lives.

The {{trope name|r}} comes [[MemeticMutation from a line spoken by]] "pro gamer" FPS_Doug on the ''WebVideo/PurePwnage'' [[WebVideo web TV series]].

!!As a DeathTrope, all spoilers will be unmarked ahead. Beware!

* Both versions of ''Film/DawnOfTheDead'' feature shotgun-blast-to-the-head scenes. [[Film/DawnOfTheDead2004 The remake]] also has a scene where a character unerringly picks off a string of zombies with headshots, but he's a gun-store owner doing it from a safe rooftop, with a high-powered sniper rifle, while the zombies aimlessly mill around below. And it's all just a morbid way of killing time.

--> Your friends might get me in a rush, but not before I turn your head into a canoe, you understand me!?

* In ''Film/UnderworldAwakening'', an escaping Selene is shot in the head by a guard. Being a vampire, [[NoSell this just pisses her off]]. She proceeds to drain said guard, which quickly heals the wound.

-->'''Loveless:''' Shoot him in the head.
-->'''Gordon:''' Damn.

* [[MagicalGirlWarrior Sweetheart]] [[SuperheroPackingHeat inflicts one]] on the [[MonsterOfTheWeek Vent]] in Chapter 1 of ''Webcomic/GlitterAndGuilt'', but since [[MakingASplash its body is a watery mass]] it doesn't do any meaningful damage.

* In “WesternAnimation/MenInBlackTheSeries”, Agent K often does this to Jeebs. Being a slime-based alien, this causes his entire head to explode into green goo. Fortunately for Jeebs, he can regenerate his entire head, so this comes off more as AmusingInjuries.

* How Giorno Giovanna does Polpo in in ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind''. He turns one of the capo's guns into a banana and tricks him into putting it in his mouth. His death is [[NeverSuicide ruled a suicide]] by the coroner.

* In Literature/TheWarThatCameEarly series by Creator/HarryTurtledove, Czech sniper Vaclav Jezek irritated the Germans enough that they sent out a sniper to hunt him. However, Jezek got him on the "vermilion line" blowing off the top half of his head.

* ''Film/NavySeals'' have Hawkins executing a terrorist, in retaliation for a YourMom line his victim throws at him five seconds before his death.
--> "NEVER. Talk. About. Mom."

[[caption-width-right:350:This is why he DoesntLikeGuns.]]

* In ''Hyperemesis Gravidarum'' by Creator/AAPessimal, Julian Smith-Rhodes escapes an assassination attempt simply because the attacker just had to try and make it as emphatic as possible by going for the head-shot: the crossbow bolt misses by a fraction of an inch. Julian was annoyed about this: an Army officer's cap does not come cheap and replacing one with a crossbow bolt-hole through the crown was going to cost him at least twenty dollars.