History Main / ConcealmentEqualsCover

* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerSeries'': GarrisonableStructures provide cover regardless of whether it's a civilian house or a large hotel. They don't provide concealment, however (garrisoned buildings tend to have flags identifying the troops inside them), and every faction has a unit or ability that clears out the building of hostiles with minimal damage to the buiding.

* Done for laughs in ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' when Caboose's idea of hiding is essentially "I can't see them. They can't see me." The Reds could quite see him where he was standing, thus Tucker and Church are able to drag him over to them.

* Averted in ''Film/{{Red}}''. The hit squad that goes to Frank's house tears it apart with [[MoreDakka a massive hale of gunfire]]. If Frank had been anywhere but his basement, he'd have been killed.

* In ''Film/SonicTheHedgehog2020'', Tom and Sonic avoid the bullets from Robotnik's drone by... hiding behind the table. Even better, Robotnik (who had just been knocked out by Tom) is in the same room as them when Sonic causes the drone to go haywire, [[UpToEleven yet he's still completely untouched]].

* Averted on ''Webcomic/{{Goblins}}'' during the introduction of [[http://www.goblinscomic.org/09172005/ Kore]]. Tavern tables don't protect you from crossbow bolts.

* Averted in ''Film/{{Destroyer}}''. During the bank robbery, a cop gets shot through the couch he was hiding behind.

* Subverted in one ''Manga/OnePiece'' movie, where new hero Shuraiya takes cover behind a table during a bar fight, and the bullets punch right through the table beside his head. He then uses the table more as concealment and keeps moving it so they can't tell where he is behind it. Interestingly, since they were firing flintlocks, the heavy oak table probably would have stopped the bullet in real life.

* Justified in one issue of ''Manga/AngelHeart'', where the villains tried to shoot inside the Cat's Eye cafe through the windows to no effect: the owners being Umibozu and Miki, the windows were in bulletproof glass.
* {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in ''LightNovel/AriaTheScarletAmmo'', where Aria and Kinji take shelter from a storm of bullets inside a wooden vaulting box… which Aria quickly reveals to be bulletproof.
* ''Anime/LupinIIIPilotFilm'' zig-zags the effectiveness of this trope, with Lupin's knife cutting through a tapestry to strike at Fujiko, only to be stopped by a playing card, and later, the policemen avoid Jigen's shots by hiding behind a table.
* ''Manga/TriGun'' often averts this, with everything that people try hiding behind getting torn to pieces by [[MoreDakka massive hails of bullets]] whether said object is a wooden table or a stone wall.

* Averted in the ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'' episode "RE-VIEW", when Togusa finds himself under attack by a corrupt narcotics suppression squad during his Laughing Man investigation. When a reinforced cyborg starts hunting him down, Togusa hides behind a desk. The cyborg starts shooting all over the room, and a bullet hits Togusa in the gut when it passes through the desk.

* Justified in one instance in ''Manga/CaseClosed''. To prevent a politician from being assassinated by a sniper, a sprinkler is used to simulate rain so that the politician and those around him will open their umbrellas. The sniper is prepared to shoot through the umbrella, but her superior decides against it as the odds of a successful kill would be lower.

* ''Comicbook/{{Hitman|1993}}''. Diving behind the bar in a dive would usually help as your opponent wouldn't quite know where to blast. However if he has X-Ray vision...

* Averted in [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/90939/shell-shock Shell Shock.]] A fleeing enemy soldier tries to take cover behind some bushes, only to be shot through them.
* {{Averted|Trope}} and {{lampshade|Hanging}}d in ''FanFic/CodeGeassLelouchOfBritannia''. When an enemy ducks behind a couch, the [[GatlingGood minigun-wielding]] Darlton (disguised as "Zero") shoots him through the couch and remarks, "Lesson 2: Never confuse concealment with cover."

* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' of Creator/AAPessimal, the tale ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11536013/16/Hyperemesis-gravidarum Hyperemesis Gravidarum]]'' sees a group of people defending a suburban house which is under attack from raiders. They overturn the big, sturdy, dining room table to provide some sort of protection against projectile weapons. Two of the defenders are student Assassins; both realise the biggest immediate danger is not from a gang of murder-minded thugs who are battering the door down, but from the normally mild-mannered Ponder Stibbons, a wizard who is nominally on their side. Ponder is boiling with fury that his home is under attack and behaves like an old-time wizard besieged in his high tower. As he goes into a beserker rage and begins throwing indiscriminate fireballs, both students duck down low behind the table, as this is far and away the safest place.

* Averted in a nifty little scene in ''Film/MinistryOfFear''. Willi the bad guy, who is trying to get away, leaves a darkened room and slams the door behind him. An instant later, Carla pulls the trigger, and a little hole appears in the door. The heroes find Willi on the other side of the door, dead.
* Averted in ''Film/RealGenius''. The finished prototype laser goes through the blast shield, three walls, a statue, a billboard, a tree, and continues all the way to town.
* Averted in ''Film/TheTerminator''. When the Terminator attacks the police station, he shoots a cop right through the wall, as a cop realizes standing in the doorway is not a good idea and ducks behind the wall, to no avail.
* Averted in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyaAuRYNuS0 the shootout]] from ''Film/TheInternational''. One of the guys gets shot through a dresser he was using for cover.
* ''Franchise/DieHard'':
** Averted in [[Film/DieHard the first film]], including one scene where [=McClane=] shoots a mook through a table.
** Also averted twice in ''Film/LiveFreeOrDieHard''. First when the two main characters are shot at not only through the window, but through the building's exterior walls, and when [=McClane=] shoots the BigBad ''through himself'' (specifically, through a previously-existing gunshot wound).

* Averted in ''Film/{{Snatch}}'', Tony shouts through the wall for his boss to duck, then empties the magazine at body height through the wall. He successfully hits two of the four guys in the hallway besides his boss, and the other two [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere decide to scram]].
* Averted in an almost identical way in ''Film/TheMatrix'', where Agent Smith fires through a wall to hit the leg of an escaping Morpheus.
* Averted in ''Film/TheProfessional''. Matilda's little brother runs from the corrupt DEA agents, one of them starts spraying through the wall with a Kimmel AP-9 and manages to hit him. Later, when the police try to storm Leon's and Matilda's hideout, the bullets go through the wall, which makes the situation rather sticky for those inside.
* In ''Film/MrAndMrsSmith2005'', Brad Pitt takes shelter from Angelina Jolie's [=UMP45=] by hiding behind a fridge door (though it was definitely a very expensive stainless steel fridge; the stopping effect on .45 ACP bullets on a particular fridge of this type can only be tested). Later, when he tries to peek around a corner, she shoots through the wall and almost hits him.
* ''Film/LethalWeapon'':
** First played straight in a reasonable fashion than Averted in ''Film/LethalWeapon3'': Murtaugh was about to be crushed by one of the main villains driving a bulldozer. He shoots at the bulldozer with his standard 9mm handgun, but none of the bullets go through. Murtaugh then gives one of the villain a KarmicDeath by shooting through a bulldozer using the same armour-piercing bullets he'd sold to Murtaugh's son's friend who he was forced to kill.
*** From the same: Murtaugh killed the friend of his son by shooting through his cover; and the villains killed a young cop by shooting him through both the oil drums he was hiding behind ''and'' his bullet proof vest.
** Averted in ''Film/LethalWeapon4''. Riggs kills a man who was hiding behind some pipes, [[ImprobableAimingSkills by using another pipe to deflect the bullet]] so the hiding guy stands up from the pain of getting shot.
* Averted in ''Film/RoadToPerdition''. Rance runs away and disappears behind a wall when the gunfight between Sullivan and Maguire breaks out, but the pellets from Maguire's shotgun easily penetrated the plaster wall and killed him anyway. However they fail to penetrate the [[[JustifiedTrope heavy, steel]]] strongbox that Sullivan is hiding behind.
* Averted in ''Film/MillersCrossing'', when The Dane shoots a thug through the wall.

* ''Film/AlienNation'' had bullets piercing all the way through a car (and the guy hiding behind it), but the bullets were revealed to be special, industrial-strength [[MoreDakka Dakka]].
* ''Film/PrincessMadam'' has one of the two titular Madams taking cover behind a trashcan during a shootout... and managed to use it as cover from more than 80 bullets.
* Averted in ''Film/SavingPrivateRyan'', when a German soldier is killed through the interior wall of a building. The other Germans then shoot back through the wall and hit one of the Americans.
* Averted in ''Film/LordOfWar''. The mobster who hides behind a restaurant table only has his luck to thank for escaping the assassination attempt. When we're shown the scene from behind him, it's clear the table has been shot clearly through--he's only alive because the gunmen are woefully incompetent and have sprayed and prayed instead of shooting the table in the center.
* ''Film/Tremors2Aftershocks'': Burt trains his [[{{BFG}} anti-tank rifle]], which he intended to use on the extremely-tough Graboids, on a significantly less tough Shrieker. The shot obliterates the Shrieker - and puts a hole in the wall behind it, the shed behind the wall, the barrels behind the shed, and eventually hitting the engine of the escape vehicle. Oops.

* Averted in ''Film/{{Bullshot}}'' (1983). The hero blasts away at a huge tarantula crawling across the floor, nearly killing several people in the dining room below. He then spends several minutes running about searching for the 'mad gunman' who's just shot up the place.
* In the climactic gunfight scene at the end of ''Film/TheShootist'', J.B. Books (Creator/JohnWayne) kills one of the bad guys (Richard Boone) by shooting through the barroom table top which the bad guy is holding in front of himself.
* ''Film/TheGreenHornet''. One of the reasons the heroes even consider being vigilantes is because the HypercompetentSidekick is very efficient at bullet-proofing cars. Then they invent offensive weaponry that requires them to open the car doors.
* Averted twice in ''Film/MagnumForce'' when Harry shoots a hijacker who is hiding behind a thin partition in a airliner; and again when a cop is shot through a door.
* Averted in ''Film/NoCountryForOldMen'', when the assassin blasts the hell out of a mook hiding behind in a closet behind a thin plywood wall. The assassin previously rented a room in the same motel and [[CrazyPrepared specifically inspected]] an identical closet wall in order to insure he could do this.
* Subverted in ''Film/{{Sahara 2005}}''. [[spoiler:When the heroes take shelter from the villains inside a beached ironclad, the hero is confident the Civil War-era armor is thick enough to hold up to even against a modern gunship. Unfortunately, the villain is using armor-piercing rounds.]]
* ''Film/TrueLies'':
** Played for laughs when Creator/TomArnold's character takes cover behind a lamp post against automatic fire; every bullet hits the post. Even he can't believe it (though it's perfectly plausible: an iron light post is more than enough to stop an AKS74U bullet, and the deduction of silhouette it provided against automatic fire is pretty substantial; moreover, the only parts that COULD be hit would be the agent's belly fat and butt fat).
** Played straight in the opening chase sequence, where the bad guys' 5.56 rounds are stopped by a rather skinny softwood tree.
* Invoked/averted in ''Film/MajorPayne''. A kid complains about the monster in his closet, to which Payne responds by firing several pistol rounds into the closet. "If he's still in there, he ain't happy".
* Averted in ''Film/{{Taken 2}}'' where some mooks try to shoot Bryan through a wall.

* ''Film/{{Dredd}}'':
** Subverted when Ma-Ma uses M61 Vulcan cannons to kill ComicBook/JudgeDredd and Anderson, the civilians on that floor of the Peach Trees are seen taking cover in their concrete-enclosed apartments and behind tables but still get torn to shreds. Even when the two heroes and their detainee are taking cover on the complete opposite side of the floor, the rounds still penetrate through the walls, missing the three only because the path of firing is ''just'' too high to hit them. The rounds even open a hole in the reinforced metal blast doors at the very back.
** Averted when Dredd takes cover behind a concrete wall, only for Lex to switch to armor-piercing rounds and shoot right through it. He didn't know exactly where Dredd was, though, so he just shot a line down the wall and got Dredd with the last round.
* Defied in ''Film/VeronicaMars'': Veronica knows the her-sized plastic trash bins won't stop the BigBad from shooting her, [[spoiler:so she dupes him into ''thinking'' she's in the bins when she's actually hiding on the other side of the room, giving herself the drop on him]].
* ''Film/{{Assassins}}'': Averted. Walls and other minor obstructions provide no innate cover throughout the film, and both assassins frequently try to kill each other by shooting right through them.
* In ''Film/{{Regeneration}}'', Marie is killed by a bullet fired through a closet door.
* Subverted in ''Film/{{Spectre}}''. Film/JamesBond fires through a suitcase to hit a mook who's hiding behind it. Unfortunately the suitcase is being used to conceal a terrorist bomb and the entire building blows up. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Oops!]]
* Creator/DannyGlover's character in ''Film/Predator2'' gets it. Knowing perfectly well his car door doesn't provide cover, he hangs ballistic vests over it before [[ItMakesSenseInContext driving his car into the mass of bad guys shooting at him while leaning out of the driver's seat to avail himself of the vests' cover.]]
* Played straight in the Spanish spy spoof ''Spy Time'' (a.k.a. ''Anacleto: Agente Secreto''). That overturned kitchen table protects Anacleto and his son from pistols, machine guns--even a ''bomb'' exploding two feet away!
* Averted in ''Film/{{Red}}''. The hit squad that goes to Frank's house tears it apart with [[MoreDakka a massive hale of gunfire]]. If Frank had been anywhere but his basement, he'd have been killed.
* Averted early in ''Film/IngloriousBasterds'' when Nazis machine-gun Jews through the floorboards of the farmhouse they've been hiding under.
* Averted in ''Film/DenOfThieves''. Merriman jumps over a thin metal fence and then gets shot through it. Of course, Merriman wasn't trying to use the fence as cover. He just jumped it because it was in his way.
* Averted in ''Film/{{Lucy}}'': Lucy shoots mooks straight through the door several times. (She can apparently see through walls, solving the problem of aiming).
* Averted in ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2'' where Rocket uses security cameras to shoot several Ravagers through the walls of the room he's in.
* ''Film/MysteryRoad'': During the shootout on Mystery Road, several bullets strike Jay's car door without seeming to pass through. This is strange as the rest of the film is extremely accurate in its portrayal of firearms.

* Averted in ''Film/{{Destroyer}}''. During the bank robbery, a cop gets shot through the couch he was hiding behind.

* Averted in ''Film/DickTracysDilemma''. Tracy shoots at the Claw through the thin wooden paneling he is hiding behind; forcing him to dive for cover.

* Averted in the ''Literature/DresdenFiles'' where Harry is often careful when either firing his revolver or using his shield to deflect bullets fired at him due to the risk of an overpenetrating bullet hitting a civilian. It does actually happen in ''Literature/GhostStory'' where an unfortunate neighbour of Murphy is mentioned as having been killed from automatic weapons over-penetrating after an attack on her home.
* In ''Red Square'', a novel by Martin Cruz Smith (one of the sequels to ''Literature/GorkyPark''), a German police officer opens fire on a group of suspected assassins (working for TheMafiya) without ever seeing them. He simply unloads a submachine gun through the wall. And then proceeds to do so again, aiming lower in case any of them decided to go prone. He doesn't report this, as his superiors might object to him just gunning down someone without warning or even seeing them.

* Justified at least once in the Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse--cantina owners are known for using reinforced chairs, tables, and such so that they won't have to replace it all after the [[BarBrawl Inevitable Bar Fight]].

* Averted in the SpyFiction novel "Running Blind" by Desmond Bagley, where the protagonist gets his hands on a high-powered sniper rifle and uses it to shoot through the walls of the house his KGB opponents are in, killing or wounding everyone inside.
* Justified in many of David Drake's novels. Plasma weapons lose containment if they hit anything but air, so even a twig will stop a plasma cannon shot. Once. This only works if you're ''way'' behind concealment. Hitting light cover doesn't "stop" the shot, it detonates it at that spot.
* Subverted in Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding. An enemy mook hides behind a large but empty wooden crate and is promptly shot dead.
* Blood Makes the Grass Grow Green, Johnny Rico's (real name) autobiographical account of a self-described hippie liberal serving as a US Infantryman in Afghanistan, subverts this trope. Johnny takes cover from incoming small arms fire to see his comrades staring him in shock. He's taken cover behind some hay and the enemy are shooting through it to try to hit him. Fortunately for Johnny, ATeamFiring is often TruthInTelevision.
* Called out and railed against for doing in one of the ''Franchise/BattleTechExpandedUniverse'' novels, ''Hearts of Chaos'', where "Cowboy" Payson dives into a car for cover in a firefight. After the shooting stops, his buddy Buck Evans chews him out for doing that, noting that any decent military-issued weapon would go easily through a car front-to-back, stopping only for the engine block, which he was on the wrong side of to be of any good. Cowboy claims that it seemed like a good idea at the time, but has the good grace to be sheepish, since, as a mercenary and general ne'er-do-well from a rough part of space, he should know better.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' has a variation--while fortifications made to absorb attacks provide an excellent 'cover save' protection from ranged attacks, things like really high grass can still provide a lesser one. The rules explicitly say the reason for that is how it would make the victim of a ranged attack harder to target. It gets stranger with other units--[[HumanShield units in front of other units]] provide a small 'cover save' for the units behind them, since they are in the way which makes it harder to hit the ones behind, even if the ranged weapons in question should be capable of annihilating the units in the way and then strike the ones behind them (there are no other rules for it, so a successful cover save in this manner would have no chance of harming the units in front of the others. An unsuccessful one would just have the units behind be hit.)
** This (4+) cover save isn't small; it's as good as the save granted for holing up inside a building or hiding inside a treeline. HumanShield indeed! It's ''{{Handwave}}d'' with a "fouled aim" justification, and rarely {{justified|Trope}} why the enemy [[FridgeLogic simply didn't shoot anyway]].
*** And due to the fact that the narrative tabletop game ''Inquisitor'' might have only a handful of models in a given game, it can go into minute details. A character can take cover behind a wall, crate, fortified bunker or whatever they're near--it simply absorbs part of the damage from the shot like an additional layer of armour, so a person hiding behind a wooden crate and being shot at will almost certainly still be hit, but the crate will absorb some of the power and do marginally less damage (or, if they're really lucky, deplete enough of the energy and cause the shot to then deflect off their personal armour)
** TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy makes cover more difficult to hit a given unit with missiles (in the case of solid walls because they can duck, and in the case of "soft" cover such as fences or bushes because it's harder to hit something you can't see clearly), not to damage, and sometimes is ignored totally in some cases. So a unit behind a wall might be hit less often by the average guy with a handgun, but a superbly trained assassin will most likely not be bothered that much, and a gout of flaming chemicals will just roil over the cover. Units interposed between the shooter and victim unit have the same penalty as a brick wall because the firing unit either is put off by the nearer enemy, or has to stop themselves from accidentally firing into their own soldiers wandering into their sights.

* ''VideoGame/MetalGear'':
** In a particularly ridiculous example, in ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid The Twin Snakes]]'', you are attacked by a boss piloting an M1 Abrams tank firing high explosive rounds. You can avoid damage by hiding ''behind a snowbank''.
** Also averted to a certain extent in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots''' online mode. You can hide behind wooden boxes and the like, but if somebody has a high powered weapon you can still get shot if they know where you are. With the right combination of feat and weapon, you can get [[OneHitKill shot in the head]] before you peek out of cover.
** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'': Averting this trope is basically the countermeasure to TheGuardsMustBeCrazy; enemy mooks have a hard time seeing a crouching gunman ''twenty meters away with flashlights'', and even less when you're behind a wire mesh. Then they bring out the machine guns during red alert, and suddenly that wire mesh doesn't do shit. You'll want something that's a foot solid-thick if you want cover, especially against grenades.
* Avoided in ''John Woo Presents VideoGame/{{Stranglehold}}'', powerful weapons can--with repeat fire--tear through many walls and columns, including reinforced concrete in some cases. Means you can't hide behind that flimsy pillar forever… Tequila takes advantage of this in one scene, using his Beretta to [[KnifeOutline carve out an outline of a mook hiding behind a table]], before finishing him off with a bullet right in the middle of it.
* ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty: World at War'' and the ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'' series allows you to shoot through certain objects (such as wood) with some reduced damage from the bullets; there's no system for actually destroying anything, though, and any form of divide between the player and the explosion will stop grenade shrapnel dead. In the singleplayer, this only benefits you however. The enemy [=NPCs=] simply can't damage you with cover in between you and them.
** The trope is both played straight and averted in the original Nuketown map. Want to shoot someone through the ceiling with a pistol? Sure! Want to snipe someone through a curtain? Nope.
** What is and is not bulletproof however seems to be completely random at best. In some places, thick, metal and concrete walls can be shot through for massive damage, but nowhere is there a melon leaf that can be penetrated by an anti-tank rifle in the first two thirds of the Modern Warfare trilogy. Also, [[EveryCarIsAPinto vehicles will explode]] under heavy fire, killing you if you're too close.
** Same with the ''VideoGame/GhostRecon'' series, where enemies can easily be sniped through walls and other thin barriers, but not so much through thicker cover such as crates.

* ''VideoGame/CompanyOfHeroes'' has the same cover system as ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar 2'', but letting wooden things provide cover bonuses is probably less justifiable to most people. Try to by assume the same potential explanation from ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar 2''.
** Averted in the sense that ordering your men into flimsy cover is generally a very bad idea; it's relatively poor protection and will fall apart pretty damn fast under heavy fire. Applies to everything once the enemy starts getting [[OhCrap tanks]].
** Units in the game have different levels of cover. Red being exposed, yellow being partially covered (reduced damage from small arms), green means fully covered (small arms can't do a damn thing, but explosions will hurt)
** The game actually handles it somewhat realistically. To expound on the above: Light cover (e.g. wooden fences, hedgerows) and smoke cover will make infantry harder to hit with small arms, whereas heavy cover (e.g. sandbags, stone walls) will reduce both accuracy and damage done against them. There is also building, halftrack, trench, water, bunker and emplacement cover, all with varying effect on accuracy and damage depending on the weapon used.
* Averted in ''VideoGame/TimeShift'' of all things. Some cover will disintegrate under heavy fire, other times enemies will simply lob grenades or run to a better spot to shoot you. Boxes can also be knocked over, collapsing your cover.
* In the ''VideoGame/XCom'' series, most objects or buildings on the battlefield will stop at least one bullet, usually getting blown to bits in the process. Shame the aliens tend to fire on full auto.
** Cover will not make you immune from explosives, so a standard tactic is to just blast any building with high explosive rounds, rockets and grenades. In the early game, even high explosive packs: an agent opens the door in UFO, an alien faces the door and you know it will shoot before your puny bullets and bad aim may kill it. So this soldier runs away and another sets a charge right next to the enemy behind the wall--it can't breach UFO, but it can damage wall, floor behind it and kill the alien.
** In ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'' , plasma and laser weapons will destroy cover. The same cannot be said for your puny starting kinetics. Explosives will also destroy cover. Like the former games in the series, stuff that's cover is liable to stop at least one shooting attack at least before breaking... even if that stuff being used for cover is a mailbox or garbage can. Cars will also explode from being shot up, though after they explode the wreckage they leave behind is by all means unbreakable.
*** Actually enforced by the game's mechanics. Standing in a smoke-grenade cloud and hunkering down behind a waste-high chunk of concrete both give equivalent bonuses to defense.
* Averted in ''VideoGame/{{STALKER}}'', where each ammunition type has a value for how far it can penetrate through scenery. This is most noticeable in the second level of the second game, where you have to run from a mounted machinegun capable of killing you in less than a second. Annoyingly because even through an entire tree, while the bullet trajectory and speed are reduced by a great deal, so much so that you can see them dropping to the ground, the bullets still do the same damage as when they were full speed. Made the area into ThatOneLevel.
* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'' has those white blocks. If you duck on them for a few seconds, you can go behind bushes and the like and enemies won't be able to hurt you as long as you're totally concealed. [[DepthPerplexion Yet if part of Mario is poking out, he can get hurt]].
* Averted to the benefit of the player in ''VideoGame/Left4Dead''. You can damage zombies through walls, furniture, and even [[OneHitPolykill other zombies]].
* ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar'' has destructible cover (like wood) and completely indestructible cover (pretty much everything else). Even a wardrobe will stop bullets until it's destroyed though.
* Taken to an extreme in the Jet Li game ''Rise to Honor''. During the gunplay segments you can hide behind anything (even garbage cans) while mooks shoot at you with their [[BottomlessMagazines infinite ammo guns.]] You could literally hide behind a garbage can forever without ever taking damage.
* In the very first level of ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'', you come up against a machine-gun bunker that can shred you to bits in seconds. Although you can activate a series of walls to serve as cover, nearly all of them save one are made of wood, which is destructible, and lasts only a second or two under the intense gunfire. However, this level is in one of the characters' dreams, where concealment = cover makes much more sense.
* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', you can't even attempt to shoot or cast spells at anything that's out of your line of sight, which includes walls and such. What's odd about this is that some terrain features that you'd ordinarily expect to block line of sight, like trees and hills, ''don't'', so you can shoot through them as easily as through air. Similarly, if a unit moves behind an obstacle after a projectile is launched, said projectile will happily curve to follow them even if it means passing through solid obstacles.

* Averted in games using the VideoGame/SilentStorm engine, developed by [[Creator/{{Nival}} Nival Interactive]], such as ''VideoGame/SilentStorm'', ''Silent Storm Sentinels'', ''Hammer and Sickle'', ''Night Watch'', and ''Day Watch''. Any object is destructible with sufficient firepower. While a wall may stop a bullet, it will be destroyed with several more, making cover irrelevant against heavy-cal guns. In fact, continuous fire from such a weapon can easily collapse an entire building, especially when wearing a [[PoweredArmor Panzerklein]].
** Never mind the explosives, which will also level buildings when used.
* Averted in ''VideoGame/{{Crysis}}'', in the same manner as the VideoGame/SilentStorm examples above.
* Averted in ''VideoGame/{{Killer 7}}'', when [[spoiler:Kaede]] hides in a dresser to escape [[spoiler:Emir]]. It does her no good.
* Averted in ''VideoGame/{{Black}}''. Anything that can be hidden behind can be destroyed by gunfire. The game's main marketing point (apart from GunPorn).
* ''VideoGame/ScarfaceTheWorldIsYours''. Shooting out the window of a well-armored car is a great tactic...oddly, your lackey in the passenger seat will (quite possibly) get ventilated and die while Tony remains untouched.
* ''VideoGame/RainbowSix'':
** In ''VideoGame/RainbowSix3: Raven Shield'' your bullets will pass through glass and chain-link fences, unless you load them with hollow point ammunition, in which case said chain-link fence suddenly becomes impervious to bullets, but only to your weapons and not those of any terrorists. Glass will similarly block a hollow point round, although it will break and allow subsequent shots to pass through.
** In ''VideoGame/RainbowSixSiege'' certain wooden walls and cover can be both shot and broken through with explosions or gunfire. However, other thicker walls or reinforced walls will stand strong no matter how much ordinance you fire at it.
* In ''VideoGame/TimeCrisis'', being behind cover protects against grenades and rockets. The enemy {{mooks}} fire/throw them directly at your ''face'', not at the crate you are hiding behind.
* Averted in ''VideoGame/WorldOfTanks''--if an enemy tank spots you behind a bush or fallen tree they can fire straight through at the thoughtfully provided outline the game shows them of your tank. And then played straight when AP and APCR shells are stopped dead by flimsy wooden structures like windmills and light houses scattered throughout some of the older maps when in real life those shells wouldn't even notice the obstacles. This offered a very unpleasant surprise when many of those obstacles were reworked, and AP and APCR rounds could go right through them.
* ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' averts this with ArmorPiercingAttack that can penetrate some cover. In fact, with enough penetration enhancements it is possible to shoot clean through the floor or walls (though only the geth multiplayer characters really benefit from this: in Hunter Mode they can see enemies through solid objects). Oh, and penetration enhancements stack, so if you've got a gun with innate penetration ability equipped with a gun mod that improves penetration, you can shoot further through cover. In multiplayer mode, it's possible to, with the right combination of gun, gun mods, and ammunition, to have a sniper rifle that can send a bulleth through more than ''six meters'' worth of cover and still have enough power to kill a human. And if a gun can shoot through cover, [[OneHitPolykill it can shoot through enemies]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series.
** In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', it is perfectly permissible to take cover behind lamp posts or thin trees in order to block gunfire as long as you're standing directly opposite the opponent, even though you should be broader than the cover. Many enemies may even lose track of you if they can't make direct eye contact. It's far from uncommon for a supermutant with a minigun to run up and look for you behind a lamp post. (Although supermutants aren't known to be very bright, so it fits.) Also, due to the general lack of destroyable landscape objects, everything is bulletproof and only takes a few cosmetic bullet holes [[EveryCarIsAPinto (though hiding behind any kind of vehicle is usually a really bad idea.)]]
** All of the above persists in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'', but now some objects (shrubs, chain link fences, floor grates) can be shot through. The game also adds the Penetrator perk as an option for characters with a high perception allowing them to shoot limbs through what would otherwise be hard cover, though there still must be enough of the foe visible to pick them up in VATS.

* Subverted in ''VideoGame/GoldenEye1997'', where [[CrateExpectations crates]] [[DieChairDie and other scenery objects]] will ''[[MadeOfExplodium explode]]'' if shot.
* Averted in ''VideoGame/{{ArmA}}'', as finding what provides cover and what just provides concealment from specific weapons [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cix07R1vlhI is tremendously variable.]] [[GameMod ACE]] takes this even further, as a projectile doesn't even need to penetrate all the way through a wall to damage someone on the other side; the shrapnel alone can kill someone.
* Averted--in a way--in ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}''. Although the bullets fired by the turrets can most likely penetrate many surfaces (with some exceptions, like bulletproof glass, [[spoiler:and heavy props! The various cubes can provide some protection, but Chell still gets hit]]), the Turrets can only fire at you when you are in direct line of sight. If they don't see you, they won't shoot at you. So, in this case, concealment does equal cover!
* Averted in the rebooted ''VideoGame/{{Tomb Raider|2013}}'' as some of the cover Lara can hide behind can be destroyed or worn down by explosions and bullets, and thrown incendiary weapons can splash their contents over the cover onto her.
* Partially subverted in ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'', where enemies can usually shoot you right through whatever you're standing behind. Imperial Agents, though, have a Cover ability that allows them to crouch behind certain objects to avoid harm from most fire.
* More or less Averted in ''VideoGame/FullSpectrumWarrior''. In those games, while wooden boxes and tables or couches can be used for cover, thinner materials deteriorate much faster than thicker ones. Also, due to [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy how shooting works in the game]], it's also entirely possible for a stray bullet to [[OneHitPointWonder kill one of your teammates]] regardless of cover. Also, cover and concealment can be completely ignored by flanking. This is a central mechanic in the game.

* In the later ''VideoGame/SyphonFilter'' games, you can shoot enemies through false ceilings and other thin barriers.
* Zigzagged in ''VideoGame/{{Vanquish}}'', where some pieces of cover are indestructible, while others are quickly destroyed by explosives and other heavy weapons, and some weapons, such as the Romanovs's [[ChestBlaster Chest]] DeathRay, can penetrate cover.
* While most enemies in ''VideoGame/FarCry4'' play the trope straight, the snipers, who can take about half your life meter per shot through almost any object in the game, are a rather jarring subversion. The .50 caliber sniper rifles CAN shoot through some forms of hard cover, but the 'conventional' rifles like the bolt-action, and the Dragunov can't.
* This trope applies in the first ''VideoGame/DeltaForce'' game to the extent that even building-sized camouflage nets with fist-sized holes are perfectly bulletproof. Averted in the sequels, where it was even a selling point.

* Played straight throughout all of ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'', but particularly notable in regards to [[BonusBoss Terramorphous The Invincible]], who is fought in a wide open arena with various outcroppings of rocks that will be destroyed over the course of the fight. There's literally nowhere you can hide for cover, except for one tiny little rock located near the exit of the arena. A player can duck behind this and Terramorphous can't shoot you, even though it clearly knows you're there and literally sees you behind it because it towers over you. If you play as Axton or Gaige, you can deploy your sentry turret or Deathtrap robot to whittle down the boss for you. Time consuming, but doable.

* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerSeries'': GarrisonableStructures provide cover regardless of whether it's a civilian house or a large hotel. They don't provide concealment, however (garrisoned buildings tend to have flags identifying the troops inside them), and every faction has a unit or ability that clears out the building of hostiles with minimal damage to the buiding.

* About to be averted in this comic on badspot.us in [[http://badspot.us/img/Comic-Silencer.html 3, 2, 1...]].
* Averted on ''Webcomic/{{Goblins}}'' during the introduction of [[http://www.goblinscomic.org/09172005/ Kore]]. Tavern tables don't protect you from crossbow bolts.

* Played pretty straight near the end of Act Two of ''Webcomic/ExploitationNow''. Jordan goes through an extended monologue about her backstory while in a firefight with Bush against two government agents, all while protected from multiple gunshots with nothing but a wooden table. Near-misses and some external damage aside, the two are perfectly fine.

* Averted in ''VideoGame/CounterStrike'', where guns of sufficient power will penetrate some materials, albeit at reduced damage. This leads to some players spamming bullets through cover that is penetrable but still has a lot of traffic behind it, [[FanNickname often called]] "wall banging".

* Sadly averted by an aspiring You Tube star. He was convinced that a thick book could stop a pistol round, and persuaded his reluctant girlfriend to participate in a stunt where she'd shoot said book while he held it in front of himself. The pistol he chose? [[WhatAnIdiot A .50 Desert Eagle.]] They tried one "test" before filming and he was killed, leaving the poor girlfriend to be charged with manslaughter.

Flipped-over furniture, particularly large tables, is another object that Hollywood tends to treat as a bulletproof shield for protagonists, villains, and mooks alike, despite that being among some of the worst cover you could possibly choose from. More egregiously, when the overturned table ''does'' get hit with a barrage of bullets from a handgun, or a light machine gun, the only damage said gun does to the table is ''splintering the table at places where the shots would land'', and leaving the table ruined forever because of it, yet the person hiding behind the table is no worse for wear. In real life, even relatively low calibre bullets will pierce a table because...[[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome well, it's a wooden table. Wood is well known for its sturdiness, which is why most furniture is made out of it, but it isn't all that strong of a material, especially when it comes to stopping a bullet.]] Basically, if a work is set before the 1900's, then tables will actually provide some decent cover, otherwise all bets are off.

Flipped-over furniture, particularly large tables, is another object that Hollywood tends to treat as a bulletproof shield for protagonists, villains, and mooks alike, despite that being among some of the worst cover you could possibly choose from. More egregiously, when the overturned table ''does'' get hit with a barrage of bullets from a handgun, or a light machine gun, the only damage said gun does to the table is ''splintering the table at places where the shots would land'', and leaving the table ruined forever because of it, yet the person hiding behind the table is no worse for wear. In real life, even relatively low calibre bullets will pierce a table because...[[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome well, it's a wooden table. Wood is well known for its sturdiness, which is why most furniture is made out of it, but it isn't all that strong of a material, especially when it comes to stopping a bullet.]]

** Similar to the above, airsoft bbs will be stopped by almost anything including leaves or pieces of paper, so doing anything besides firing directly at another player is a futile gesture.

* Justified in one instance in ''Manga/DetectiveConan''. To prevent a politician from being assassinated by a sniper, a sprinkler is used to simulate rain so that the politician and those around him will open their umbrellas. The sniper is prepared to shoot through the umbrella, but her superior decides against it as the odds of a successful kill would be lower.

-->-- '''Jigen''', ''Anime/LupinIIIRedJacket'' (Creator/{{Geneon}} dub)

Flipped-over furniture, particularly large tables, is another object that Hollywood tends to treat as a bulletproof shield for protagonists, villains, and mooks alike, despite that being among some of the worst cover you could possibly choose from. More egregiously, when the overturned table ''does'' get hit with a barrage of bullets from a handgun, or a light machine gun, the only damage said gun does to the table is ''splintering the table at places where the shots would land'', and leaving the table ruined forever because of it, yet the person hiding behind the table is no worse for wear. In real life, even relatively low calibre bullets will pierce a table because...[[RealityEnsues well, it's a wooden table. Wood is well known for its sturdiness, which is why most furniture is made out of it, but it isn't all that strong of a material, especially when it comes to stopping a bullet.]]

* Averted in D&D's (and its many spinoffs): Cover and Concealment differ.

* ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar 2'' has pretty much everything short of the ground providing cover bonuses--some stuff could justifiably be so, like plants that may be really tough due to being fictional. On the other hand, the barrels seem to be rather unlikely. Presumably, it uses the same justification as [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} the original tabletop]] mentioned above.

* Called out and railed against for doing in one of the ''Literature/BattleTechExpandedUniverse'' novels, ''Hearts of Chaos'', where "Cowboy" Payson dives into a car for cover in a firefight. After the shooting stops, his buddy Buck Evans chews him out for doing that, noting that any decent military-issued weapon would go easily through a car front-to-back, stopping only for the engine block, which he was on the wrong side of to be of any good. Cowboy claims that it seemed like a good idea at the time, but has the good grace to be sheepish, since, as a mercenary and general ne'er-do-well from a rough part of space, he should know better.

** Averted in "[[Recap/BreakinBadS5E16Felina Felina]]" when Walter White plans for bullets to successively pass through the side of a car trunk, the side of the car itself, and the walls of a building.

* {{Parodied}} in ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}''. George has been napping under his desk, and his boss George Steinbrenner, unable to find him, decides to hang out in his office until he comes back, even letting his grandchildren in when they drop by to visit him rather than leave the room. Desperate, George calls Jerry and convinces him to phone in a bomb threat. It doesn't quite go as planned:
-->'''Secretary:''' Mr. Steinbrenner? We've just received a call. There's a bomb in the building.
-->'''Steinbrenner:''' A bomb in the building! Oh my god! Quick, everybody under the desk!

* While most enemies in ''VideoGame/FarCry4'' play the trope straight, the snipers, who can take about half your life meter per shot through almost any object in the game, are a rather jarring subversion. [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard Naturally, the player's sniper rifles do not have the same ability.]]
** Actually, yes, the .50 caliber sniper rifles CAN shoot through some forms of hard cover, but the 'conventional' rifles like the bolt-action, and the Dragunov can't.

* lampshaded and explained by youtuber and firearm instructor [[https://youtu.be/JlFfbSFeDuw Paul Harrell]]

* Played straight in the classic ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E6TheTalonsOfWengChiang The Talons of Weng-Chiang]]". A flimsy wooden table is enough to shield the protagonists from FrickinLaserBeams. The laser beams at least start punching holes through the table, though.

* {{Parodied}} in ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}''. George has been napping under his desk, and his boss [[UsefulNotes/TheNewYorkYankees George Steinbrenner]], unable to find him, decides to hang out in his office until he comes back, even letting his grandchildren in when they drop by to visit him rather than leave the room. Desperate, George calls Jerry and convinces him to phone in a bomb threat. It doesn't quite go as planned:

* {{Parodied}} in ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}''. George has been napping under his desk, and his boss George Steinbrenner, unable to find him, decides to hang out in his office until he comes back, even letting his grandkids in when they come for a visit rather than leave the room. Desperate, George calls Jerry and convinces him to phone in a bomb threat. It doesn't quite go as planned:

-->'''Secretary:''' Mr. Steinbrenner? We've just received a call, there's a bomb in the building.
-->'''Steinbrenner:''' A bomb in the building? Oh my god! Quick, everyone under the desk!