History Main / NormallyIWouldBeDeadNow

* ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' has the Meta. Just watch Chapters 19 and 20 and you'll see just how much he can take.

* ''Manga/InuYasha'': Even {{youkai}} will die if they're stabbed through the heart. After spending most of the manga being almost unstoppable in battle, eventually [[HandicappedBadass Sesshoumaru]] comes up against [[UltimateEvil an opponent so powerful]] that he winds up a BadassInDistress and is eventually ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice through the heart. Not only does it [[NoOneCouldSurviveThat not kill]] Sesshoumaru, but Sesshoumaru's {{determinat|or}}ion to keep fighting results in a [[CameBackStrong power upgrade]].

* Franchise/{{Batman}}. Seriously, the man just WILL NOT DIE. He's been shot, stabbed, blown up and hammered with enough physical trauma to kill any normal man. In ''ComicBook/NightOfTheOwls'', he was stabbed about eight or nine times by a member of the Court of Owls, pitched off a building, and trapped in an isolated maze for god knows how long. He was a little squirrelly afterwards, but He Got Better. Not really a comic reference, but watch the two promo videos for DC Universe Online that shows him take a missile to the face, and return in the second one as one of the three remaining superheroes on earth. Ironically, it lends Lex Luthor's cockroach analogy slightly wrong...

* In the ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' novel ''Grave Covenant'', during a fight with a trio of ninja, protagonist Prince Victor Steiner-Davion ends up ''nailed to the floor'' by a katana through the chest. HeroicWillpower, [[ThePowerOfLove fear for the woman he loves]], and arguably a lot of dumb luck let him pull the thing back out inch by bloody inch and kill his attacker with it instead. He passes out shortly afterwards and very nearly does die -- thankfully, he's right in the capital city of the Draconis Combine as a guest of state and gets rushed to the hospital just in time.\\
\\
Played with in that for a little while he really does believe that he died then and there. While in the hospital he hallucinates his dead father appearing to him, telling him that he's dead, and offering to take Victor with him to the afterlife. His love's dead grandfather also appears and says that because he died heroically defending her, he's there to offer to take Victor to their afterlife (a different one, as the two families [[FeudingFamilies were traditional enemies]] until the Clans forced an EnemyMine between them). The two of them ask him to choose who to go with. As both options involve dying for good, he decides to [[TakeAThirdOption take a third.]]
* Edgar Freemantle and Jerome Wireman in Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/DumaKey'' both fit the example, and this condition is what opens them up to the key's... let's say environmental hazards.
* In ''Literature/TheGirlWhoPlayedWithFire'', [[ActionGirl Lisbeth Salander]] [[spoiler:is shot in the hip, in the back and in the head (the last bullet getting lodged in her brain), then [[BuriedAlive buried (barely) alive]],]] yet she still manages to not only [[spoiler:dig her way out and take axe revenge, but also survive all the way into and through the sequel]].

* In ''Literature/{{Inkspell}}'' [[spoiler:Mo]] survives having been [[spoiler:shot in the chest by The Magpie]] after he was transported to [[spoiler:the Inkworld]].

* ''{{Literature/Redwall}}'':

* In ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes'', quoted above, several characters survive impalement and massive blood loss before deciding its time to die. Sometimes even by ''decapitation.'' One boss in the first game refuses to die until Travis admits defeat, even though his sword is currently sticking through her chest. She finally collapses and bleeds out over him the second he says she has won. Travis himself survives [[spoiler: getting impaled through the heart with Jeane's fist, immediately after she killed a man by impaling him through the crotch with that same fist]].

* ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'' has [[spoiler:Raven/Schwann]], whose heart was speared through ten years ago during the Great War. [[spoiler:Alexei]] replaced it with a special blastia that kept him alive. Of course, you only discover this after beating the snot out of him [[spoiler:during his ten-minute FaceHeelTurn]].

* Notorious Depression-era bank robber George "[[BerserkButton Baby Face]]" Nelson, who was cornered by a couple of FBI agents wielding a shotgun and a Tommy gun. Instead of retreating, Nelson advanced on them across an open field, emptying his bolt-action rifle into them as he went, and being hit nine times. The G-men died at the scene. Nelson got back into his car and drove off, dying several hours later.

** In all 3D Zelda games, Link only receives a maximum of one-half of a heart of damage, even if he falls from a height of upwards of ''600 feet'' (the tall tower in ''The Wind Waker'''s first DummiedOut test room contains a 200-meter tall tower, and falling off of it only gives one-half heart of damage).

** UpToEleven in Season 9. several sniper rounds to the chest? No problem. Eight pistol bullets to the face and neck at extremely close range? Not an issue. Thrown off a moving truck into a HUGE semi truck going 50 miles per hour the opposite direction and falling off the freeway which shown later on is about 200 to 300 feet up? Who cares. Out of all of these wounds, only a single pistol shot to the neck does damage by [[spoiler: hitting his vocal cords, rendering him TheVoiceless.]]

** The Path of the Zealot barbarian with the Rage beyond Death abilitystraight up does not die as long as they are raging. Yes, they are, in fact, ''too angry to die''. They'll still feel the consequences as soon as they stop raging, however, so it's a temporary solution.

* Sonny Barger's (of Hell's Angels fame) autobiography tells of a biker nicknamed "Zorro" who was shot several times with a .45 during what is described as a "friendly altercation" Not only did he survive, but went on to have rings tattooed around the bullet holes, one of which notably inscribed with the words ".45 don't mean shit."

* The main character of ''Film/{{Hero}}'' is revealed to be able to strike with surgical precision with a sword from a few steps away. This means that he's able to stab people apparently [[spoiler:fatally so they can fake their deaths]] with many, many witnesses, and he can invoke this trope at will.

* ''VideoGame/FallingFred'' and ''Super Falling Fred'' has the titular Fred endlessly falling down from the building. The game ends when Fred suffers fatal injuries from the deadly obstacles thrown at him, which often include decapitation of his body parts. No matter what the final outcome was, the newspaper article shown afterwards reveals that he survived all of the injuries in the end, and is taken to the hospital. This might be the case of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, since the later games justify Fred's countless deaths via ResurrectiveImmortality.

* ''[[Fanfic/{{Eleutherophobia}} The Day the Earth Stood Still]]'' begins with Rachel in grizzly bear morph slamming into Tom so hard that his skull shatters and his ribs puncture his lungs. He narrates that the pain alone would've killed him if he'd been in control of his body at the time. Fortunately, he has a previous few seconds to use his HealingFactor and [[SparedByTheAdaptation save himself]].

%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1296217177085902900
%% Please do not change or remove without starting a new thread.

* Vita of ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'' was stabbed back to front, but still continued to fight in the final battle despite a gaping chest wound. Nanoha also gets badly injured. In both cases, they continue in large part because of their {{Determinator}} natures.
** Though Vita is an ArtificialHuman, and consequently much tougher than a human, but that was a very serious injury even for her.
* Kamina of ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' [[spoiler:takes a laser up his chest, visibly tearing his body, and his mech, nearly in two, then gets stabbed in the back with a laser spear, and then gets hit with his own swords/sunglasses. However, he manages to pull himself up, throws his own mech's arm at Simon, delivers a hotblooded speech from hell out, kills ''an entire RedshirtArmy'', catches the same laser that injured him earlier, then proceeds to string the guy up on his mech's [[CoolShades freakin' sunglasses]] and then shoves a drill through him that'd make any dentist cringe. All while bleeding out on the floor. ''[[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome Wow.]]'']]
** The manga adaptation takes this scene and [[spoiler:makes what's only implied in the above scene explicit, and therefore a subversion. He ''was actually dead'', but used Spiral Power to sustain himself and continue the fight. Even more wow.]]
** [[BigBad Lordgenome]] survives after getting a massive hole blown in his chest long enough to give a FinalSpeech. This is normally not enough to qualify, as he does not keep fighting afterward, but you have to wonder how he managed to talk for so long with no lungs left. [[spoiler:The Anti-Spiral does pretty much the same, but shorter and it's a sort of EnergyBeing anyway.]]
*** After his death, Roshiu took his head and stuffed it in a jar, and somehow connect him to a supercomputer. Somehow, he's flawlessly connected, despite nobody else knowing about it, and Roshiu being about as smart with technology as the average member of Team Dai-Gurren.
*** It's implied that he had Leeron helping out.
** And in a much lower-key (for Gurren-Lagann) example, Nia [[spoiler:hung on for a ''week'' after every other Anti-Spiral construct's CriticalExistenceFailure, on sheer willpower.]]
* Nuriko of ''Manga/FushigiYuugi'' was also stabbed through the chest. This didn't slow him down too much, as he proceeded to snap the neck of his opponent and lift the boulder blocking the cave containing the Shinzaho of Genbu. [[spoiler:Then he died.]]
* Neji Hyuga from ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' was shot through the chest ''twice'' in the Sasuke retrieval arc, but still managed to kill his opponent with his ultimate technique before he collapsed. This was because he was able to deflect the first arrow away from his vital organs at the last moment, and thwarted the second by turning around. Even so, the resulting wounds would have been fatal if TheCavalry hadn't arrived in time.
** Other examples were Zabuza (who is the page picture here), [[spoiler:Tsunade, and Jiraiya]]. All were fatally stabbed but, through sheer willpower, managed to stay alive long enough to finish what they were doing. [[spoiler:Tsunade]] even managed to put her HealingFactor into action and regenerate, while [[spoiler:Jiraiya]] was stabbed deeply and ''multiple times'' by a weapon that's able to paralyze people and his opponent thought he already heard his heart stop before he [[HeroicWillpower spontaneously]] regained consciousness. [[spoiler:Danzou]] stays alive enough time to pull a TakingYouWithMe attempt against [[spoiler:Tobi and Sasuke. It doesn't work]].
** Tsunade managed to one-up herself at the conclusion of her fight with [[spoiler:Madara]] when she was literally ''torn in half''. Despite that, she still managed to summon up slugs to keep her and the other Kages alive until she could be put back together.
* [[spoiler:Mustang]] has one of these moments in ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist''. After having been [[spoiler:''impaled'' by Lust]], he gets back up, performs first aid on himself and [[spoiler:Havoc]] via alchemy, then tracks [[spoiler:Lust]] down and [[spoiler:''burns her to death over and over'']] before finally collapsing, but retaining consciousness. His earlier comment to an unconscious [[spoiler:Havoc]] while they are both lying on the floor bleeding out - "[[spoiler:Havoc]], I won't let you die before me!" - indicates that he basically hauled himself back from the brink by sheer force of will because he refused to allow any of the people he was with to die if he could help it.

* Negi of the ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'' manga puts up an admirable fight despite being ''impaled in the chest'' by a thick piece of stone, pulling out and gripping the stone in one hand and sucker-punching his opponent with it. He collapses again soon afterward because it ''is'' a fatal injury, but it's enough of a distraction that a team effort from the others manages to turn things around enough to recover their gear and heal him.
** Later, during his match with Rakan, he's turned into pulp by a point-blank physical attack that could kill a dragon and mostly ignored his barriers. In the process of struggling to his feet, he begins puking more blood than his body should probably be able to hold. Rakan tells him to stay down or he might die, but then subtly taunts him so that he ''won't'' and they can finish their match.

* Kazuki of ''Manga/BusoRenkin'' uses this to his advantage to defend against his opponent, a kendo genius whose signature (and vaguely illegal) move involves a devastating wide strike to the ribs. When Kazuki fights him, he's using a katana, and to avoid being [[spoiler:sliced in half, Kazuki returns his weapon to its passive state where it functions as his heart, actually blocking]] the strike.

* In the third fight in ''Manga/{{Claymore}}'', a youma holds Raki hostage in order to force Clare to throw away her sword. She throws it some ways downhill, and the youma proceeds to impale her with its claws. Except then Clare grabs its arm, dives down the hill dragging it with her, retrieves her sword, and promptly kills it. It would not be fatal to a Claymore, who can self-regenerate. Also, Ophelia had her neck twisted and didn't die.
* The wolves in ''Anime/WolfsRain'' are pretty tenacious, often fighting like crazy despite severe wounds. The (posthumous) prize must go to [[spoiler:Toboe]], who keeps on fighting even after being shot in the chest at point-blank range. [[TearJerker And then dies.]]
** Kiba is even more dramatic. He has been practically torn to pieces and ''still'' got up and continued fighting. You [[{{Determinator}} just can't stop him]]!

* In ''Manga/GreatTeacherOnizuka'', Onizuka is about to take a national test in which he needs to have the highest score in the nation so he doesn't lose his job. One of his students is kidnapped, and he goes in pursuit. [[spoiler:While saving the female student from a very dark situation, he is shot three times.]] He manages to [[spoiler:[[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome make it back to the testing station, finish the test, and get a passing grade while bleeding profusely]]]].
* ''Anime/SailorMoon'' loves this trope, the fact that any of the girls survive 'til the end is an absolute miracle (In fairness, more than a few times they do actually die and get revived with the show's MacGuffin). However, there are some times they should die but don't. Doesn't even slow them down really. Most notable in the climax of Season Three when the title character jumps into the equivalent of an atomic bomb, and still comes out alive)
* In ''LightNovel/ReZero'', having already been badly wounded by Witch cultists, Rem is seemingly finished off by a single spell from [[AxCrazy Betelgeuse]], who then [[BodyHorror twists and contorts her limbs]] [[ForTheEvulz just for the sheer hell of it]]. Betelgeuse is in no doubt that she's dead, but after he and the other cultists have left, Rem somehow manages to crawl over to Subaru on her shattered limbs and break his shackles with her magic before finally dying in Subaru's arms. Luckily for Rem, her death is undone when Subaru himself is killed a few minutes later, causing time to rewind.

* Hiro Mashima ''loves'' this trope. Honestly, after reading a few volumes of ''Manga/RaveMaster'' you'll realize that you can never be sure--no matter how much pounding, shooting, blasting, or ExplosiveOverclocking a character gets--whether they're seriously dead/about to die or OnlyMostlyDead. Plue can stop bleeding and pain. But it does not explain Shuda surviving the loss of a limb and a 1000 foot fall, or Lucia being up and murderous after his beating from Haru, or the numerous times Sieg is kicking ass again after having a vital organ severely damaged.
* Hiro Mashima's ''Manga/FairyTail'' - There's also no explanation for how Gray took ''[[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice being impaled]]'' '''through his stomach''' without even slowing down while fighting Lyon. In fact, all he apparently did to treat the wound was ''sealing it with ice'' (a seal which broke before the end of the fight), leaving no explanation for why he did not lose two or three vital organs. Just to makes this even more ridiculous, he then fights better against his opponent than he ever did uninjured and starts by beating the hell out of him with just his fists.
* ''Manga/RosarioPlusVampire'' - Poor Tsukune suffers from this pretty badly, especially after he gets [[spoiler:his vampire powers]]. At one point he's hit in the head so hard it ''bounces off the pavement'', yet he's none the worse for wear. He does have a keepsake of his abuse; two big scars that reach across his chest, forming an X.

* Sven from ''Manga/BlackCat'' survives being stabbed through the chest by Eve's mutated knife-arm, because it "Eve intentionally avoided his vital organs", although it is unclear how a knife a little over half the size of his entire chest could avoid anything.
* Itou Komataro from ''Manga/{{Gintama}}'' was shot repeatedly, lost an arm, got a lot of sword wounds but hey, he died... eventually... after three episodes to which he was given an honorable death of being given the chance to defend himself from the Shinsengumi.
* Shi woon has even lampshaded this several times in ''Manhwa/TheBreaker''. But his {{Determinator}} drive keeps him going long after he should have been knocked out cold.
** In New Wave, he can now [[spoiler:heal from practically any wound in about half a day]].
* ''Manga/InuYasha'': Even {{youkai}} will die if they're stabbed through the heart. After spending most of the manga being almost unstoppable in battle, eventually [[HandicappedBadass Sesshoumaru]] comes up against [[UltimateEvil an opponent so powerful]] that he winds up a BadassInDistress and is eventually ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice through the heart. Not only does it [[NoOneCouldSurviveThat not kill]] Sesshoumaru, but Sesshoumaru's {{determinat|or}}ion to keep fighting results in a [[CameBackStrong power upgrade]].

* ''Anime/SamuraiChamploo'': Mugen manages to survive things that would be fatal to anyone else in the series, such as being shot and then blown up after being in two fights which left him tired and seriously injured.
* ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDXD'': Seriously, Issei has been subjected with this trope so many times in his entire life. If he didn't accept that flier from one of Rias' familiars, he'd be dead already before the novels even started. And that's just ''the first case of this trope happening.''

* ComicBook/IronMan's origin story involved a deadly shrapnel wound that would eventually penetrate his heart; to quote [[Film/IronMan the movie]], "I should be dead already." Instead of resigning himself to fate, he put his inventive genius to work -- rigging up an electromagnetic pacemaker to keep his heart beating and keep the shrapnel out. And since the power source was putting out so much juice, he figured he [[SuperPoweredRobotMeterMaids might as well hook up some armor and guns to it.]]

* In ''ComicBook/ScudTheDisposableAssassin'', the title robot is shot with a laser beam through the torso. He then keeps talking about how much it hurt in spite of his being a robot, implying that the wound was rather severe, then drove a semi truck off of a ''twelve-mile-high cliff'' -- and he and the truck ''survived''. In fact, he drove the truck ''several miles'' through the desert after hitting the ground. Given that the main premise of the comics is that he's avoiding self-destruction (his model self-destructs after killing its intended target, so he instead incapacitates it and puts it in stasis, becoming a hit man to pay its hospital bills), it's strange such a thing would even be possible.

* 'ComicBook/GIJoe' comics. Scarlett is pretending to be a double-agent, so in order to maintain her cover, Snake-Eyes the ninja is forced to give her a survivable stab in the chest. Nobody counted on the Cobra ninja Slice, who realized if Snake-Eyes really wanted to kill, Scarlett would be dead instantly. So the whole thing is a load of B.S. Then [[TransformersGenerationTwo Megatron]] shows up. No, really.

* One of the taglines used to promote ''Film/CrankHighVoltage'', in praise of its too-tough-to-die antihero, was: "Anyone else would be ''so'' dead by now."

* The narrator of ''Film/FightClub'' [[spoiler: shoots himself in the mouth]], but insists he's fine.
* In ''Film/TheLastJedi'' an unusually bloodless version of this happens during the climactic battle. [[spoiler: Luke Skywalker projects a simulacrum (a physical illusion, good enough to fool Leia) onto the battlefield and faces Kylo Ren, allowing the Resistance to escape. When the battle is over, Luke is dead.]]

* In ''Literature/MercyThompson'', a ten year old girl is attacked by a werewolf... and survives to become a werewolf herself. Since normally only perfectly healthy and fit adults are allowed to even attempt the Change (and even then have about a 50% survival rate), ''everyone'' who hears about this is shocked at how much willpower she must possess to have pulled through.

* During Creator/StephenColbert's appearance on ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'', his statements about Rosa Parks enrage Conan so much that he pulls a pistol and shoots him in the chest. Colbert falls back, apparently dead - then slowly sits up after a few seconds and continues his argument, completely unfazed. Conan complains, exasperated, "I shot you very near the heart!"
* The ''Series/{{Lost}}'' season 3 finale, "Through the Looking Glass", appears to do this with [[spoiler:Mikhail]]. As well as with [[spoiler:Locke]], who survives his shooting two episodes prior due to having [[spoiler:donated the kidney]] that the bullet would otherwise have hit.

* ''Franchise/MortalKombat'', particularly the later games where you could have a sword lodged in your chest or forehead [[ICanStillFight yet still be able to fight!]]
* ''VideoGame/MaxPayne'' absolutely loves this trope, taking the HollywoodHealing approach to {{Action Hero}}es. By the end of the second game, he has been shot through the chest and head, fallen twenty feet onto hard concrete and had the building he was in blown up, none of which slow him down much. Lampshaded in ''Max Payne 2''. When he is brought into the hospital after [[spoiler:Winters shoots him in the back]]. The doctors and nurses reference 'multiple gunshot wounds' 'severe head trauma' and use the phrase 'this guy is a trainwreck.'

* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' begins with the player character getting shot in the head. ''[[DoubleTap Twice!]]'' However, after a few days (with help from a friendly robot that thinks he's a cowboy and a local doctor) you're back on your feet and good to go. Naturally, the people who shot you are [[OhCrap extremely freaked out when you catch up to them.]]
-->'''Mr. New Vegas:''' A package courier found shot in the head near Goodsprings has reportedly regained consciousness and has made a full recovery. Now ''that'' is a delivery service you can count on.
** GameplayAndStoryIntegration: If you kill the guy who shot you and take his gun, you'll find that it can't kill anyone ''else'' in two shots to the head either, being a weak 9mm handgun.
* This happens an incredible amount of times in the ''VideoGame/TraumaCenter'' series. Rifle wound to the heart in the middle of a snowstorm when the hospital is ten minutes away? No problem, and that's just in the first chapter. Never mind the parasites that ''slash your internal organs apart.'' I'm not even going to touch the guy who has multiple brain aneurysms burst before you even open him up.
** In ''Trauma Team'', there's a girl who [[spoiler:is holding a bomb when it explodes, yet survives.]] Did we mention that the same kind of [[spoiler:bomb]] has killed ''grown men'' in two different incidents?
* ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'' has [[spoiler:Raven/Schwann]], whose heart was speared through ten years ago during the Great War. [[spoiler:Alexei]] replaced it with a special blastia that kept him alive. Of course, you only discover this after beating the snot out of him [[spoiler:during his ten-minute FaceHeelTurn]].
** [[spoiler: Yeager]] received a similar heart replacement, which he reveals halfway through the fight against him. The secret mission for the fight is to destroy it by having Raven shoot him with a particular arte after you break his guard, but he's able to keep fighting even after you do this.

* Some [[BulletHell Danmaku]] shooters (read as: ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' ) ''thrive'' on this trope, granting extra points for having enemy shots intersect the character's sprite without actually killing you. I suppose that as long as the bullet doesn't hit you in the heart...
** Taking that one step further, even if your actual hitbox gets hit, in some games (read as: ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' again) there's a split-second window where if you use a bomb you'll survive.
* ''VideoGame/AdventRising''. In a cut-scene hero falls out of a walkway, hits the side of a building hard, slides down it for about thirty stories and slams into an observation platform. He just shakes it off. And this is ''before'' getting any superpowers.

* Zaeed Massani from ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', when talking about his former colleague Vido Santiago, mentions that, twenty years ago, Vido paid six of Zaeed's men to restrain him while Vido held a gun to his head and pulled the trigger (which explains how Zaeed got the badass [[GoodScarsEvilScars scar]]). When Commander Shepard acts surprised that he survived, Zaeed casually responds, "Yeah. And you survived [[spoiler:your ship getting disintegrated.[[note]]Not technically true, because Shepard did, in fact, die. [[BackFromTheDead They just recovered.]][[/note]]]] A stubborn enough person can survive just about anything. Rage is a hell of an anesthetic."
* In ''VideoGame/{{Mabinogi}}'' the deadly status is this as a gameplay element. The player character has 0 hp or less (in theory there is no lower limit, just try getting hit by a dragon) and somehow they're still standing. Should they get hit one more time in this state they die no matter how much damage it was. This mainly happens when you get hit for something that should kill you when you have more than half health, and for bonus points, the chance of this actually happening is governed partially by [[HeroicWillpower the character's will stat.]]
* In ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes'', quoted above, several characters survive impalement and massive blood loss before deciding its time to die. Sometimes even by ''decapitation.'' One boss in the first game refuses to die until Travis admits defeat, even though his sword is currently sticking through her chest. She finally collapses and bleeds out over him the second he says she has won. Travis himself survives [[spoiler: getting impaled through the heart with Jeane's fist, immediately after she killed a man by impaling him through the crotch with that same fist]].
* In ''VideoGame/TalesOfMajEyal'', Berserkers can unlock the Unstoppable talent that prevents any effect at all from reducing them to less than 1 HP for a time, while Necromancers have the Blurred Mortality talent that changes their threshold for death from 0 HP to -50, or even less - at maximum talent level you have to get to -250 HP to die. There are also Heroism infusions equippable by any class that can let users survive with negative HP in the hundreds.
* Link in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'' has it quite hard. He has to face off Darknuts with swords ''twice his size'' and Moblins strong enough to punch him clear across a room and slamming into a wall. Ganondorf is no less forgiving - he uses moves that would normally ''slice one's head off''. Yet he never receives damage above one-and-a-half hearts per hit (Ganondorf only does one heart of damage). And this is despite the fact that Link is only a child.
** In all 3D Zelda games, Link only receives a maximum of one-half of a heart of damage, even if he falls from a height of upwards of ''600 feet'' (the tall tower in ''The Wind Waker'''s first DummiedOut test room contains a 200-meter tall tower, and falling off of it only gives one-half heart of damage).
* [[spoiler:Marx]] in ''VideoGame/KirbySuperStar [[UpdatedRerelease Ultra]]'' [[spoiler:[[NoOneCouldSurviveThat survives crashing into Nova]], gets [[StuffBlowingUp blown up proceeding the crash]] and is sent floating in space. He then goes OneWingedAngel(again), hellbent on destroying Franchise/{{Kirby}}.]]
* [[spoiler:Queen Sectonia]] from ''VideoGame/KirbyTripleDeluxe'' gets [[spoiler: [[HoistByHisOwnPetard fried by her own redirected laser]]]] but manages to return in the true arena [[spoiler: powered by four miracle fruits, and when you kill her there, she ''rips her head'' off of the dreamstalk for one last, frenzied attempt to kill Kirby.]]
* ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'', hands down. Sure, you die a lot, but the advantage to being "Chosen" is that bleeding out is a LOT harder (though possible) to kill an undead with. Thief in the Undead Burg slit your throat? Not strong enough. Walk on LAVA? It normally does massive damage but your whole body isn't on fire after walking out of the lava bed. You accidentally pissed off a mimic/giant magical clam? Again, have enough HP and it'll eventually stop trying to MUNCH ON YOUR HEAD. The fact that the darksign is supposed to turn the player character into a pure hollow after dying multiple times in a row without using a humanity puts him/her into the Determinator category (thanks to the inherited eponymous Dark Soul).
* In ''VideoGame/YuGiOhReshefOfDestruction'', after you defeat [[spoiler:Bandit Keith]] in a duel, Yami Yugi fries him with lightning. Reshef immediately possesses him and makes him get back up, though after he's ''done'' using him he passes out.
* In ''VideoGame/MarvelContestOfChampions'' ComicBook/ThePunisher has an ability called Defy Pain that allows him to endure what would otherwise be a lethal hit for several seconds, with the exact length of this and chances of it succeeding depending on his level.

* ''VisualNovel/SayaNoUta'': When [[spoiler:Dr. Tambo survives long enough to kill Saya after having her shoulder smashed and her left lung popped like a balloon by AN AXE.]] Sure, all she had to do was pull the trigger, but still. This is a game where humans are just human.

* ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' has the Meta. Just watch Chapter 19 and 20 and you'll see just how much he can take.
** UpToEleven in season 9. several sniper rounds to the chest? No problem. Eight pistol bullets to the face and neck at extremely close range? Not an issue. Thrown off a moving truck into a HUGE semi truck going 50 miles per hour the opposite direction and falling off the freeway which shown later on is about 200 to 300 feet up? Who cares. Out of all of these wounds, only a single pistol shot to the neck does damage by [[spoiler: hitting his vocal cords, rendering him TheVoiceless.]]

* Pretty much everyone on [[http://www.cracked.com/article_16497_7-people-who-cheated-death-then-kicked-it-in-balls.html this list]] but especially Alexis Goggins, who took six bullets (apparently including a couple to the head) and survived, which would be pretty impressive for a trained Marine, but crosses into borderline unbelievable territory when you find out she was a ''six-year-old girl''.

* On January 8th, 2011; Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona was shot in the head by a deranged attempted assassin. Unfortunately, six other people, including a nine-year-old child and a federal judge, were killed in the attempt, but Congresswoman Giffords survived. She returned to office on August 1st, 2011, to be met with a standing ovation, though she retired shortly thereafter due to complications from her injuries, including difficulty forming sentences because part of the brain responsible was damaged by the bullet along with partial vision loss and paralysis.
* Malala Yousafzai was a young education activist living in Taliban-controlled Pakistan. On her way home from an exam on the morning of October 9th, 2012, her bus was stopped and boarded by Taliban gunmen. Malala was shot in the head. It passed through her head and into her neck, before stopping in her shoulder. She survived with little permanent damage, and continues to be an education advocate to this day - she even won the Nobel Peace Prize for her advocacy, the youngest person in history to win.

* Some [[BulletHell Danmaku]] shooters (read as: ''Franchise/TouhouProjecdt'' ) ''thrive'' on this trope, granting extra points for having enemy shots intersect the character's sprite without actually killing you. I suppose that as long as the bullet doesn't hit you in the heart...

* Used frequently in ''Webcomic/GirlGenius''. For instance, Higgs [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20101027]] manages to keep fighting despite what are realistically deadly wounds to the torso, and manages to (apparently) suffer no real ill effects only a few minutes later [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20110126]]

* ''[[Fanfic/{{Eleutherophobia}} The Day the Earth Stood Still]]'' begins with Rachel in grizzly bear morph slamming into Tom so hard that his skull shatters and his ribs puncture his lungs. He narrates that the pain alone would've killed him if he'd been in control of his body at the time, but then his Yeerk exits his brain, giving him a precious few seconds to morph and [[SparedByTheAdaptation save himself]] before he dies from a lack of oxygen.

* ''[[Fanfic/{{Eleutherophobia}} The Day the Earth Stood Still]]'' begins with Rachel in grizzly bear morph slamming into Tom so hard that his skull shatters and his ribs puncture his lungs. He narrates that the pain alone would've killed him if he'd been in control of his body at the time, but instead he has a precious few seconds to morph and [[SparedByTheAdaptation save himself]] before he dies from a lack of oxygen.

* ''Manga/RosarioToVampire'' - Poor Tsukune suffers from this pretty badly, especially after he gets [[spoiler:his vampire powers]]. At one point he's hit in the head so hard it ''bounces off the pavement'', yet he's none the worse for wear. He does have a keepsake of his abuse; two big scars that reach across his chest, forming an X.

** Your own units have an uncanny ability to not only survive but immediately jump back from in only two turns, any fatal injury as long as a medic can reach them in the three turns before they [[FinalDeath die permanently]]. It doesn't matter if they took a sniper bullet to the face, got perforated by a dozen machine gun rounds, or took a direct hit from a tank shell, they'll be back as if nothing happened.

[[folder:Films -- Live Action]]

* Negi of the ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'' manga puts up an admirable fight despite being ''impaled in the chest'' by a thick piece of stone, pulling out and gripping the stone in one hand and sucker-punching his opponent with it. He collapses again soon afterward because it ''is'' a fatal injury, but it's enough of a distraction that a team effort from the others manages to turn things around enough to recover their gear and heal him.

* Occurred on a number of occasions throughout the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise. If you count reaching 0 Life Points as dead...

** In Anime/YuGiOh5Ds Kalin pulls a similar move in the Crash Town finale. After goading his opponent into hitting him with enough effect damage to wipe him out on the first turn, he reveals the effect of his ''Infernity Zero'' monster; namely, it is unaffected by all other effects except itself and cannot be destroyed in battle. Also, while it is face-up on the field, its controller cannot lose the duel, even if their Life Points are depleted. However, for each multiple of 500 damage he would take, ''Zero'' gains a Doom Counter; when the count reaches 3, ''Zero'' self destructs.

* ''Comicbook/ThePunisher'' is a good example of this.
** Particularly in [[Comicbook/ThePunisherMAX the Max series]], Frank Castle takes an insane amount of damage over the course of the series. In ''ComicBook/ThePunisherBorn'' miniseries, Captain Frank Castle survives the obliteration of Firebase Valley Forge by attacking Viet Cong, surviving being shot ''seven times.'' It freaked the hell out of the reinforcements that came to see who survived. At one point, he gets shot in the side of his chest, point-blank, with a shotgun. After acknowledging that one of his ribs is "...gone. Not broken, gone.", he gets into an extended fistfight with the man who shot him, tosses him out of a window, and carries on. It seems like you can't finish a story arc without Castle experiencing some near-fatal damage.

* In ''FanFic/ConstantTemptation'' Thanks to the S&M games he used to play Light has a very high pain tolerance [[spoiler: and while he's not TooKinkyToTorture it does allows him to get through [[ColdBloodedTorture his ordeal]] with Beyond.]]
* In episode 19 of ''FanFic/FutariWaPrettyCureDragon'', Ryan Lee manages to get back on his feet and recover swiftly despite taking a laser bullet to the chest during a martial rhythmic gymnastics match.

* On the first episode of ''{{Series/Deadwood}}'', a prostitute named Trixie shoots a customer in the head. The Doctor is summoned and observes in fascination as the customer continues to babble half-coherently despite the bullet going straight through his head (demonstrated after he dies by sticking a metal probe straight through the wound channel.) The customer does die after some minutes, but even the Doctor seemed to think he should be dead, or at least not babbling.

* ''{{Series/Firefly}}'': [[spoiler:After being shot in the stomach on a ship with diminishing heat and oxygen, Mal not only staggers up and forces his attackers to leave, but then manages to get to the medical bay, inject himself with adrenaline, get to the ship's engine, repair the ship's engine by putting in the one busted crucial part, and get all the way up to the cockpit before he collapses. He wakes up to see his crew have returned and are treating him, though he barely survives the ordeal and has to get significant medical care]]. That's just how tough Mal is.

* Some [[BulletHell Danmaku]] shooters (read as: ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' ) ''thrive'' on this trope, granting extra points for having enemy shots intersect the character's sprite without actually killing you. I suppose that as long as the bullet doesn't hit you in the heart...
** Taking that one step further, even if your actual hitbox gets hit, in some games (read as: ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' again) there's a split-second window where if you use a bomb you'll survive.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'', [[spoiler:the main character managed to live for a couple of months after using all of his life energy to seal Nyx away from the world in order to fulfill a promise he made with the rest of SEES. Too bad he couldn't hold out for a couple more minutes...]]

* Any enemy unit in VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles who's not one of the four Imperial Commanders [[spoiler: (except for Berthold Gregor)]] is killed when they're shot down during a mission. Even named [[EliteMooks enemy aces]] never return after they're gunned down...except the aptly named Ty the Immortal, who appears in 3 different missions regardless of whether or not you "killed" him in any of the previous ones.

* In ''VisualNovel/{{Ever17}}'' Takeshi has a good number of bad things happen to him (see {{Determinator}} page for details) and the game even states [[spoiler:that he'd probably drowned by this point. He's lying at the bottom of the ocean, in pitch blackness in cold water.]] Yet he's up and moving and lives through the whole episode.

* [[spoiler:Mustang]] has one of these moments in Manga/FullmetalAlchemist. After having been [[spoiler:''impaled'' by Lust]], he gets back up, performs first aid on himself and [[spoiler:Havoc]] via alchemy, then tracks [[spoiler:Lust]] down and [[spoiler:''burns her to death over and over'']] before finally collapsing, but retaining consciousness. His earlier comment to an unconscious [[spoiler:Havoc]] while they are both lying on the floor bleeding out - "[[spoiler:Havoc]], I won't let you die before me!" - indicates that he basically hauled himself back from the brink by sheer force of will because he refused to allow any of the people he was with to die if he could help it.

* ''VideoGame/MortalKombat'', particularly the later games where you could have a sword lodged in your chest or forehead [[ICanStillFight yet still be able to fight!]]

* Any enemy unit who's not one of the four Imperial Commanders [[spoiler: (except for Berthold Gregor)]] is killed when they're shot down during a mission. Even named [[EliteMooks enemy aces]] never return after they're gunned down...except the aptly named Ty the Immortal, who appears in 3 different missions regardless of whether or not you "killed" him in any of the previous ones.
** Your own units have an uncanny ability to not only survive, but immediately jump back from in only two turns, any fatal injury as long as a medic can reach them in the three turns before they [[FinalDeath die permanently]]. It doesn't matter if they took a sniper bullet to the face, got perforated by a dozen machine gun rounds, or took a direct hit from a tank shell, they'll be back as if nothing happened.

** Even Luffy falls into this trope. His match duel with TheChessmaster / BigBad Crocodile who is fond of giving [[ThePlan plans]] and more so of {{Gambit Roulette}}s, ended with the former being impaled by the latter's pirate hook. And even then, he didn't die and had enough strength to grab his arm, so Crocodile threw him in quicksand to [[LeftForDead leave him for dead]]. Luffy ''still'' had enough strength to pop his head out of the sand. With help from [[ReverseMole Nico Robin]], who helped him out of the sand, and Pell who fed him, Luffy returned to fight Crocodile who sucked the water out of him. And in their next confrontation ([[{{Determinator}} Luffy just doesn't give up, does he?]]), even Crocodile gave some LampshadeHanging on what he went through. And even after being poisoned, he still managed to [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome knock Crocodile through pure bedrock in the underground chamber, launching him above Alubarna flying in the air until he landed in the town centre.]]

* Fazal Din, an Indian soldier in WWII, managed to get himself run through in a bunker with Japanese officer's sword. The weapon penetrated all the way through his back. Rather than dying like most mere men, Fazal proceeded to rip the sword out of his chest and went on to slaughter pretty much every soldier in the bunker holding the very same sword. He continued to give order to his men until he died hours later.

'''Skelter Helter:''' Such blind arrogance! Like the [[Literature/TheEmperorsNewClothes naked emperor...]]\\

-->-- ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes2DesperateStruggle''[[note]]The decapitated head spun in the air for a couple of seconds, spilling blood everywhere, and landed back on his shoulders. [[SerialEscalation A cleaning crew had come to get rid of the mess and Travis was mid-conversation before Skelter started moving and talking again.]][[/note]]