History Main / BulletproofVest

* ''ComicBook/{{Hawkeye}}'': Treated fairly realistically in ''ComicBook/Hawkeye2012''. Clint is shot at close range by Madame Masque, and despite wearing a SHIELD-issue vest he's knocked flat and is next seen in a medical ward. He outright says it felt like being hit by a truck.

* Bulletproof vests naturally show up several times in the ''[[Franchise/GIJoe G.I. Joe]]'' comics. Here they avert the "stop everything" aspect, and it is several times discussed how different firearm rounds have different levels of penetration.

* Starting in issue 19 of ''ComicBook/AllNewWolverine'', Laura starts wearing one with her new costume based on a suggestion by [[JuniorCounterpart Gabby]] that [[GoodThingYouCanHeal just because she can heal]] doesn't mean she shouldn't protect herself.
* Franchise/{{Batman}}:

* Treated fairly realistically in Matt Fraction's ''ComicBook/{{Hawkeye}}'' run. Clint is shot at close range by Madame Masque, and despite wearing a SHIELD-issue vest he's knocked flat and is next seen in a medical ward. He outright says it felt like being hit by a truck.

* ComicBook/{{Punisher}}:

** Played with during the MAX arc ''Up is Down and Black is White'', where the Punisher survives being shot at near point blank range by a shotgun with no apparent serious injuries due to his bulletproof vest. Averted in the sense that although it didn't kill him, it ''hurt like hell'', and it leaves him completely unable to move until help arrived.

* In Robert Kirkman's ''ComicBook/TheWalkingDead'', there is a fairly realistic portrayal of a bulletproof vest in action. Glenn is shot with a shotgun at fairly close range while wearing a suit of riot gear (including the vest) and while he does survive, he is injured quite badly with broken ribs and possible internal bleeding.
* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'': Even in continuities where Diana is nearly as bullet-resistant as Superman her red bustier is bulletproof.

** This occurs again in "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS9E19UnsafeSpeed Unsafe Speed]]" when a State Trooper (played by Creator/AdamVernier) agrees to assist the Rangers in their covert operation against [[AllBikersAreHellsAngels an outlaw biker gang known as the Raptors]], whereupon [[IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten Gage and Sydney supposedly kill him in order to pass their initiation]] and gain access to their meth lab in order to bust it up. [[spoiler:The plan works, and when he gets back up, this is {{lampshaded|hanging}}d by him and Trivette:]]

* During the highway chase scene at the end of ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'', Sarah, John, and the T-800 commandeer an armored SWAT truck while the T-1000 pursues in a helicopter. Sarah puts John into the back and piles him under a heap of bullet proof vests, then hangs several more from the back door to use as cover while trading fire with the T-1000. It works pretty well. At least until the T-1000 manages to walk his fire into Sarah's exposed leg.

-->'''Trooper Freels:''' This bulletproof vest worked, but it sure does hurt. (gets back up after being shot)\\
'''Trivette:''' Hurts a lot more without one.\\

** This occurs again in "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS9E19UnsafeSpeed Unsafe Speed]]" when a State Trooper (played by Creator/AdamVernier) agrees to assist the Rangers in their covert operation against [[AllBikersAreHellsAngels an outlaw biker gang known as the Raptors]], whereupon Gage and Sydney supposedly kill him in order to pass their initiation and gain access to their meth lab in order to bust it up. [[spoiler:The plan works, and when he gets back up, this is {{lampshaded|hanging}}d by him and Trivette:]]

** This occurs again in "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS9E19UnsafeSpeed Unsafe Speed]]" when a State Trooper (played by Creator/AdamVernier) agrees to assist the Rangers in their covert operation against [[AllBikersAreHellsAngels an outlaw biker gang known as the Raptors]], whereupon Gage and Sydney supposedly kill him in order to pass their initiation and gain access to their meth lab in order to bust it up. [[spoiler:The plan works.]]
--->'''Trooper Freels:''' [[LampshadeHanging This bulletproof vest worked, but it sure does hurt.]] (gets back up after being shot)\\

* ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'':
** Any main character who wears a bulletproof vest will take the shot, recoil, then continue, while any secondary character or redshirt will either have the round penetrate the vest anyway via "cop killer" armor piercing bullets or just get shot in the head instead.

** This occurs again in "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS9E19UnsafeSpeed Unsafe Speed]]" when a State Trooper (played by Creator/AdamVernier) agrees to assist the Rangers in their covert operation against [[AllBikersAreHellsAngels an outlaw biker gang known as the Raptors]], whereupon Gage and Sydney supposedly kill him in order to pass their initiation. [[spoiler:The plan works.]]

** This also occurs again in "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS9E19UnsafeSpeed Unsafe Speed]]" when a State Trooper agrees to assist the Rangers in their covert operation against [[AllBikersAreHellsAngels an outlaw biker gang known as the Raptors]], whereupon Gage and Sydney supposedly kill him in order to pass their initiation. [[spoiler:The plan works.]]

* The main villain, Wong Hoi from ''Film/TheKiller'', wears a vest, after barely surviving an assassination attempt on his life by the titular hero. He even taunts the hero's bestie while beating the man into a pulp, "Why don't you aim for the head?"... taken to ridiculous extremes in the film's iconic ten-minute-long church shootout, the vest absorbs what appears to be twenty gunshot rounds before finally getting penetrated by an exploding bandoleer of shotgun shells.

** In ''Film/BackToTheFuture'', Doc Brown gets gunned down by some vengeful Libyan terrorists for swindling them of their plutonium at the beginning of the movie. After Marty {{time travel}}s back to the 1955, he keeps trying to warn him, but Doc refuses, citing the integrity of the space-time continuum. Marty travels back to the present (1985)... just in time to see Doc get shot again. Marty runs over, mourning him... but, of course, Doc finally took the warning, and was wearing a bulletproof vest, which he probably modified to stop rifle fire (this type of vest won't do so in real life).

In reality, the kevlar armour issued to police, some close protection details, and [=VIPs=] will only cover then against handgun ammunition. Shotgun rounds are largely ineffective against armor, due to even the stiffer shot loads being only equivalent to 30-something caliber spherical balls -- not good for piercing. Top tier soft armor will stop all but the nastiest handgun rounds, and hard armor is functionally impervious to pistol rounds. To defeat rifle ammunition, you'll need armour plates made of steel or ceramic.

* ''Literature/MikeHammer'': Subverted in the novel "Kiss Her Goodbye" (started by Creator/MickeySpillaine, completed by Creator/MaxAllanCollins). Hammer knows the bullets from his .45 won't penetrate a killer's bullet-proof vest. But he also knows the damage the force of the bullets' impact can cause. So, he shoots the man several times at close range in the stomach and chest. It breaks several bones and causes massive internal bleeding and organ damage. After emptying the pistol into the killer, Hammer leaves him dying in agony on the floor.

** Played straight and slightly averted during the MAX arc ''Up is Down and Black is White'', where the Punisher survives being shot at near point blank range by a shotgun with no apparent serious injuries due to his bulletproof vest. Averted in the sense that although it didn't kill him, it ''hurt like hell'', and it leaves him completely unable to move until help arrived.

* Played straight in ''Film/District9''. Wikus is hit while [[StormingTheCastle infiltrating MNU]]. After he kills the offending shooter, he looks at the bullets left in his vest.

* {{Subverted|Trope}} in ''Film/WildWildWest'' as quoted above; played straight by his partner who is shot in the chest but survives because of the vest sewn into his clothes without his knowledge.

* Brutally subverted in the ''Literature/MikeHammer'' novel "Kiss Her Goodbye" (started by Creator/MickeySpillaine, completed by Creator/MaxAllanCollins). Hammer knows the bullets from his .45 won't penetrate a killer's bullet-proof vest. But he also knows the damage the force of the bullets' impact can cause. So, he shoots the man several times at close range in the stomach and chest. It breaks several bones and causes massive internal bleeding and organ damage. After emptying the pistol into the killer, Hammer leaves him dying in agony on the floor.

* Creator/MatthewReilly usually {{avert|edTrope}}s this trope by having most characters wear body armor that don't provide complete protection (bullets mostly go through it). It still gets played straight with the BlackKnight's utility vests.

* Partly played straight in ''Literature/VWars'' when Luther Swann joins a SWATTeam that storms a building used by vampire terrorists. He mentions that the enemy is using teflon-coated "cop killer" bullets that go right through a bulletproof vest, as demonstrated, when one kills a SWAT team member, before striking Swann. Fortunately for him, the bullet has already lost much of its momentum, and his vest held, although he still had broken bones from the impact.

* Played straight in the episode "Time Bomb" on ''Series/TheCloser''. A domestic terrorist wearing body armor is hit by police gunfire and doesn't even flinch.

** Played straight in another episode where one character is forced to shoot Scorpius, then crouches by the "body" later to apologize:

** Played straight in the same show, in the episode First in Line, Wordy is shot by the subject, and the bullet does little more than make him sit out the rest of the episode. Wordy is hit again in season 2, and is in considerable pain but still participates in the take-down of the subject at the end of the episode. Also seen in the ridiculously fast recovery of Roy Lane after being hit in the vest in "The Other Lane."

** Played straight (and more realistically) in the last episode of the Chairman arc, when Trivette actually goes down from a shot to the chest. After about a minute of appearing to be dead, he manages to recover and get up.

** A SortingAlgorithmOfEvil leads to EliteMooks armoring up to scale in threat in ''Film/JohnWickChapter3Parabellum'' and ''Film/JohnWickChapter4''. The High Table's private army are covered head to two in plating and helmets, while the Marquis de Gramont's enforcers wear the same armor-lined suits John has. This makes them immune to small caliber rounds, leading to a lot of elaborate fights where John has to stun multiple enemies with gunfire until he can get close enough to shoot them point-blank in exposed spots.

[[caption-width-right:350:It's not enough to stop shrapnel[[note]] Shrapnel is usually going at rifle speeds, which makes it hard for what is presumably a lv2 or 3A vest stop it.[[/note]] -- notice the bloodstain -- but it's better than nothing.]]

* In the ''VideoGame/{{XCOM}}'' games unarmoured soldiers will [[RedShirtArmy die with disgusting ease]].
** Personal Armour and even Power Armour is available but by the time it's in use, most aliens are packing weapons which will still inflict lethal damage no matter how heavy the armour, and mobile nightmare objects the [[DemonicSpiders Chryssalids]] ignore armour anyway. Primarily because the RNG is horrible/evil, and your soldiers can take up to ''200%'' of the listed damage shown in the [=UFOpaedia=]. On the other hand, they can also take ''0%'' of the listed damage, depending on what the RNG rolls. So your troopers can literally survive a point blank headshot without taking a single point of damage. Sometimes, the RNG only ever rolls 200s or 0s. This can lead to interesting situations where a soldier survives half a dozen heavy plasma shots only to get pinged to death by a plasma pistol shot the next turn.

** ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'' makes armour noticeably more useful; with the first armour upgrade equipped, your troops are now almost certain to survive ''one'' hit, and later models only get better. ''VideoGame/XCOM2'' actually had to nerf it a bit by making it more likely that wounded soldiers are out of combat for long periods.
* ''VideoGame/{{Xenonauts}}'', a SpiritualSuccessor to the original ''XCOM'' games, also starts off with effectively no armour. Justified by the fact that the aliens are using [[PlasmaCannon plasma weapons as standard]], against which most conventional body armour is nigh-useless. Fortunately, one of the first research projects that becomes available once you capture an intact enemy weapon is some body armour specifically designed to resist it.

* In ''[[VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon F.E.A.R.]]'', the player can pick up protective helmets and vests which not only protect him from pistol rounds, but also from rifled rounds, shotgun blasts, explosives and laser guns! However, melee attacks still do a great deal of damage. All of the standard Replica Soldiers and ATC guards wear armor too, ranging from only soft vests to vests backed with ceramic plating to stop rifle rounds.

* ''VideoGame/PerfectDark'' uses an energy shield that has this effect, except that it does block head shots.

* ''VideoGame/MegaManLegends'' and its sequel has the Flak Jacket, the Kevlar Jacket, and the Kevlar Jacket Ω, which can be bought in succession and provide a 25%, 50%, and 75% reduction in damage respectively.
* A good number of ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' games feature body armor that gives 50% damage reduction, but not invincibility. It started in the ''X'' series, and in some games gave a new weapon, but later spread out into the other series.
* Snake can find a bulletproof vest in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' which cuts all damage taken in half while it's equipped. It is [[PowerupLetdown fairly useless]] as it's far more economic to keep rations equipped which automatically get used if your health reaches zero.
* In ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty Metal Gear Solid 2]]'', Raiden's sword easily damages Solidus Snake through his armored suit, although the sword is, itself, made of [[AppliedPhlebotinum Phlebotinum.]] ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots Metal Gear Solid 4]]'' gives [[spoiler:Raiden some karmic payback;]] the non-metal parts of his armor don't stop Vamp's blades. Minutes before is a subversion, if a thin one; Old Snake, unseen by the enemy, takes the time to line up a perfect shot with his M4 on [[spoiler:Vamp's un-armored]] head. His shot hits dead-center in the forehead, but [[spoiler:Vamp, effectively immortal,]] spins around once as a startled reaction to the momentum, lands on one knee, ''catches his cell phone from falling'' to finish talking, gives his troops an order, and then informs them he'll be "taking a nap" before falling over dead. He re-animates shortly thereafter.

* ''VideoGame/SplinterCell: Chaos Theory'' actually plays this quite realistically; if Sam triggers two or more alarms, guards will don body armor and helmets. While the armor is relatively effective against his rifle and renders his pistol practically useless except for headshots below the helmets' brims, his knife goes straight through their armor, and his nonlethal unarmed attacks, which aim for the base of the skull or nose, still knock enemies unconscious.

* ''VideoGame/{{SWAT 4}}'' has you and your team wear light Kevlar vests and helmets by default. You can take heavy armor in multiplayer, and the expansion pack allows you use no armor if you so please. AI-controlled suspects also get armor in some missions, again just kevlar vests; the bulk of them just go around in their clothes though. Due to the game being big on realism, the vests (not being hard rifle-proof plates) can stop only a few pistol rounds and are as useful as paper against rifles. Notably, the game also lets you pick whether to use FMJ or JHP rounds, with the former being more effective against suspects in bulletproof vests, but slightly less effective at inflicting wounds and prone to overpenetrating walls, which could potentially lead to civilians getting hit accidentally.

** The final boss of the second game is equipped with NighInvulnerable full body armor that is apparently impervious to even grenade blasts and doesn't seem to slow him down (impossible).
* In ''VideoGame/DoorKickers'', body armor has limited coverage direction wise and most bullets are assumed to go into your chest, but the depiction is very realistic, with very effective NIJ Level 4 body armor (essentially) being extremely heavy and cumbersome, making it usually worth more to just not get shot at all, which is typically possible with good planning anyway.